Battle Royale

There was a time where the term "foreign film" would send me screaming from the room...I'd always picture some long boring pretentious piece of existentialist crap that I would be forced to talk about over coffee afterward (God I'm glad that I'm not in the dating world anymore...Feigning interest in boring conversations for the hope of potential physical contact at the end of the night is so tiring...)

I think the Family Guy writers must've been tortured the same way by Foreign and Independant Cinema when they did the film "Lint" as a parody in one of their episodes - BTW I found a live action version here - ahhh, student cinema...

Well I've changed my tune in the last few years: There's no way in hell Battle Royale would ever be made here in North America...especially after Columbine. But I'd heard of this movie on several websites and decided to rent it. I wasn't disappointed.

Holy crap what a ride. And I love Chiaki Kuriyama



See that look in her eyes? She's about to neuter a guy who attempted to rape her because he made the mistake of scarring her face...Leg crossing time!

It was from this film that Quentin Tarantino decided to cast her as Go Go Yubari in Kill Bill Vol 1, where she played the only character that I thought was a good match for Uma Thurman's Bride (in the first movie - Darryl Hannah was totally convincing in Vol 2.)

I think that my attitude toward foreign films changed when I first saw Akira Kurosawa's Ran at the ripe ol' age of 22 - old enough to know something good when I saw it and young enough to be open to something new - coincidentally on IFC right now as I write this.

Think of a better King Lear than Shakespeare's King Lear and you'll get the idea.

I had more to say about the advantage of looking beyond Hollywood and even the English language for good quality films, but I have to go watch Ran again.

Great.

Another night of staying up 'til 2am watching samurai movies.

I'm going to have to go out and learn Japanese.