“If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with! Is that right?”
There is the learning of Dorothy Gale, one of cinema’s most enduring heroines, as she, with her friends, receives her gift from the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Continue reading
Let’s face it. We live in an era where the mainstream is something to be feared, and to like the blockbuster is to admit to being the very same “non-person” we all fear becoming. It’s important to look smart and cultured, and so we can’t admit to anything that makes us look too sheltered or nationalistic. We embrace uniqueness or obscurity because it makes us feel like modern day Columbuses…no, strike that. Columbus is too politically incorrect. Continue reading
In an unprecedented move, I am going to review three films at once. So, while I will technically only write four reviews on samurai film to accompany my recent essay on that genre, I will actually be reviewing six movies. The three movies that I will be reviewing today make up the masterful trilogy from director Hiroshi Inagaki and actor Toshiro Mifune called, simply, The Samurai Trilogy. This trilogy is made up of three films, Musashi Miyamoto (1954), The Duel at Ichijoji Temple (1955), and The Duel at Ganryu Island (1956). The release of these films marks an important moment in the development of the samurai film and its role as not only the predominant genre of Japan, but as Japan’s most exported film-type in world cinema. Continue reading
A Slice of Cake 