Ramblings on Cinematic Matters
Next in my Zhang Yimou retrospective, I look at Raise the Red Lantern. During his early career, Zhang Yimou was like a musician playing variations on a theme. Over a few years, he made three movies with a common premise and setting: a young woman in early 20th-century China is unhappily married to a wealthy …
Continue reading “Within the Labyrinth: Raise the Red Lantern Review”
Next in my Ghibli retrospective comes The Secret World of Arrietty. In reviewing a movie about diminutive—as in, only a few inches tall—people, the temptation is to use a lot of adjectives that are variants on the theme of small size. I must admit I cannot resist this temptation, if only because those adjectives are …
Continue reading “Small Pleasures: The Secret World of Arrietty Review”
In the next installment of my Zhang Yimou retrospective, I look at Ju Dou. After his directorial debut of Red Sorghum, Zhang Yimou made a thriller, Codename Cougar (1989), which he co-directed with Yang Fengliang. Codename Cougar is not, as far as I can tell, available with English subtitles, so I have had to skip …
I review a Marvel movie for the first time, with a look at Black Widow! Michael Caine’s first starring role was in a spy thriller called The Ipcress File. According to Caine, the movie’s director was so dissatisfied with the screenplay that he made a point of publicly burning it on set. To compensate for …
I continue my Studio Ghibli retrospective with a look at Ponyo. Studio Ghibli, as a globally preeminent maker of animated features, inevitably invites comparisons with Disney. Perhaps no Ghibli movie invites such comparisons more than Ponyo (2008), or Ponyo on the Cliff, as its original Japanese title goes. Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, Ponyo …
I kick off my next retrospective with a review of Red Sorghum. As promised, I am starting a new movie retrospective series. This series looks at the films of Zhang Yimou. Zhang is one of China’s most distinguished filmmakers. He is perhaps the most famous member of the first filmmaking cohort to attend the Beijing …
Since launching The Cameraman almost two years ago, I have generally been pleased with how this blog has turned out. I thoroughly enjoy writing the reviews featured here and appreciate the nice responses I have received from readers. My main regret is simply that I have not written that much. I typically post about one …
Continue reading “UPDATE: Future Plans for The Cameraman (Plus New Facebook Page)”
Next in my Studio Ghibli retrospective, I turn to the not-quite-beloved Tales from Earthsea. Back in the 1980s, Peter Hyams wrote and directed a sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s classic 2001: A Space Odyssey. Titled 2010: The Year We Make Contact, the sequel provided a follow-up to the basic events of the original movie but was …
Continue reading “The Anti-Hero’s Journey: Tales from Earthsea Review”
Having been recommended the movie by a friend, I recently watched The King of Masks. Here’s the review! The King of Masks (1996), directed by Wu Tianming from a screenplay by Chen Wengui, introduces us to Wang, an older man who makes a living as a wandering street performer in China’s Sichuan province in the …
Next in my Studio Ghibli retrospective comes Howl’s Moving Castle. Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, boasts perhaps the most memorable opening shot of any Ghibli movie. We open with a near-blank screen, as the frame is filled with fog that shrouds the landscape. Through the mist, the silhouette of some …
Continue reading “A Beautiful Contraption: Howl’s Moving Castle Review”
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