fandoreth

The Hidden Fortress may well be the best Kurosawa movie around (I've just read another guy's comment that it was Mr. K's own favorite). If nothing else, it has the best character interaction I've seen, maybe in ANY movie. From the princess and Rokurota patronizing each other in a very thrilling wordplay duel, to the shifting relationship between the two lowlifes, to the princess getting to know firsthand what real life and sacrifice mean. It brought tears to my eyes (as every movie I've commented on) as often as it made me laugh. Kudos to K, as always.

seriously, I thought "Gay Pur-ree" is up there on par with Disney's greatest productions, even surpassing some of them. Sure it's no blockbuster, nor is it planned to be one. But it does manage a certain kind of epic magic, more akin to the impressionist style it emulates than to the "MTV video feel" behind most of today's standard animation works.

Gay Pur-ree (which aired in my country as "La Fair Mewsette", to my mind a MUCH better title) is a throwback to an age of innocence (corny as this may sound) in more than one sense; in those days, a simple, humane story was all the charm a story needed (my, that DID sound corny indeed). The movie had that special feel, in spades. And to me (a very impressionable 8-year old at the time), it was a true saga. I was taken to another world, cried for the characters, memorized their names and the song. And I dreamed of it for a month after watching it. I felt the magic. I felt as they said you should feel after watching an animated movie.

*sigh*

Maybe not a must see, but certainly a must remember. Watch it, and cherish the memory.

What I really enjoy about "Down by Law" is not the fact that it is a road movie, nor that the characters suffer a rite of passage through their imprisonment and subsequent flight, nor any of the other characteristics mentioned by other users; it is in how the film presents human life and human relationships as a series of misunderstandings, coincidences, accidents and miracles.

The three protagonists are tramps. Two of them think they are cool and smart, and yet they are so stupid and naive that at the same time they become delightful and memorable characters. Roberto lights up the screen in a Chaplin-like manner.

As a whole, the picture leaves the viewer with a feeling of intelligent delight in a completely non-hollywood-esque style --with no closed ending, a rhythm of its own, tender but never kitsch, sordid and intimate, yet inspiring and deliriously funny. "Down by Law" is the filmed proof that silly characters plus comedy (in the classic sense of the word) do not necessarily result in vulgar humor. I believe it's one of a kind.