thsieh_83

"The Only Son" is Ozu's first "talkie" - and utilizes sounds in an efficient, restrained manner to help tell the story with calm grace. The beautiful simplicity that pervades the piece is classical Ozu, and amplifies the poignant tale of a mother coming back to visit her son, after sacrificing her livelihood to ensure he achieves higher education. When she realizes that he is unsatisfied with his life as a night-school teacher, a general melancholic tone begins to unfold through the progression of the narrative. The ending is nicely done, and overall, the film is crafted in that spare, simple perfection that is the stylistic hallmark of Ozu's cinema.

"I Flunked, But..." (Rakudai wa shita keredo) is an Ozu piece made in the 1930's, and a great example of what a Silent Film can do. A college satire set in Depression-era Japan, "I Flunked But.." is an excellent movie, a comic masterpiece, and perhaps one of the stronger examples of Ozu's silent film ouevre.

It concerns the humorous attempts made by Takahashi and his gang in trying to pass the rigourous "Exam Hell" mandated by the College of Economics they attend. We are introduced to a variety of very funny cheating techniques and the gang's dedication to perfecting odd gaits and struts. Takahasi and his cohorts fail the one important exam that enables them to graduate, when one of their valuable cheating tricks (a shirt cribbed with diagrams and notes) is taken out by the laundryman. This movie is filled with a bunch of comic miniutae as well, from Ozu's play with shadows (a noose shows up as a lamp's string after Takahasi fails the exam), superb dialogue (even though its a silent film - many lines are very good), some fairly memorable characters (one of Takahasi's dorm-mates, a bespectacled klutz, constantly thinks it absurd that he was able to graduate while Takahasi, his smart "teacher", fails), and some nice indoor cinematography in Ozu's classic style.

The film's ironic punchline comes in the harsh truth that during tough times, there are rarely any jobs, so the student who flunks is actually better off than the student who graduates. All of Takahashi's dorm-mates get rejected one job after the other and reminisce of the "good college days" - one of the most memorable lines is when one of the characters say: "I want to go back to college - we graduated too hastily". The film may be a hard find, being that its silent and B&W, (and it was made in 1930!) but if you can catch it, it's definitely worth it. I was able to watch it at Berkeley's Pacific Film Archive - while a musician, Joel Adlen, played the score in the background on piano. Definitely a small fraction of the overall aesthetic greatness of Ozu as a director and an artist.

First off: do ignore all the vain, petty narrow-mindedness of the critics, those many idiots who think they know how to judge what constitutes a true work of art. With all the inanity and foolishness aside, Matrix Revolutions is a masterpiece, pure and simple. It is a brilliant tour-de-force, a masterfully crafted ending to a masterfully crafted modern-epic. In many ways, I believe it to be the perfect finish to the entire series, an ultimate apotheosis and summation that brings justice and completion to the entire trilogy as a whole. From the very beginning, there are a variety of interesting narrative tricks the Wachowskis have in store for us. Neo is trapped in a limbo between the real-world and the machine-world: metaphorically a train-station, ruled by a train master, which is brilliantly done. We are introduced to an Indian family with a 'human' child, who are programs that elicit various interesting philosophical reflections. Not to get into the intricacies of the story too much, but it's good, believe me, and the cinematography, imagery, and direction are consistently inspired. The picture-quality is rendered crisp and clear, and everything has a very sharp feel and style.

The action is also excellently done: from the Hell-Club shoot-out that involves gravity reversing ceiling walkers, to a breath-taking, all-out battle between the humans of Zion (APU Units) and masses of swarming sentinels, there is an impression left, an original stamping of the Wachowski's style (an aesthetic that has inspired - and still will - countless film-makers and artists). Although the majority of the movie takes place in the gritty, dismal darkness of the real world - constituting many furious chases on ships - there are some nice scenes that take place in The Matrix, especially the climatic battle between Neo and Agent Smith. This truly was perhaps the best part of the film: an epic, superhuman fight between the two characters, who, endowed with supreme powers, fight like gods admist a plethora of brilliant special effects (The fights almost remind one of Anime battles, say in the style of Akira Toriyama).

Although some of the acting and dialogue could have been improved, I found the lines to be better than that of Reloaded. Also, although the performance Keanu Reeves puts out might receive the anethma of film critics, he does a fairly solid and nice job (The drama, and play on themes of love were better then I thought they'd be). And what's more, the genius of the story perhaps overwhelms any of these minor histrionic faults. There are echoes everywhere in the film to the first one, and the spiritual, metaphysical and philosophical symbolism (especially the ending) are brilliantly pulled off by the Wachowskis. I am not a Christian myself, but I was particularly impressed by the way in which the Wachowskis used the religious mythology in their tale, how they shaped the story into a modern-myth, commenting on many profound levels.

In summary, Revolutions does an excellent job of concluding the entire trilogy, and brings the entire Matrix story to an interesting close. It is definitely recommended, and even if you don't think you'll agree that it's an absolute masterpiece, you'll at least have paid for an excellent action-movie with many powerful scenes. The Wachowskis have truly demonstrated their artistic prowess by creating this completely original epic-trilogy, a defining landmark for cinema if you will, and I look forward to their future work which will undoubtedly have this distinct and independent vision.