Review of Last Life in the Universe (2003) by A L — 09 Oct 2005

I would argue that Bowling for Columbine was a far superior documentary to [b]March of the Penguins[/b], and they are comparable in that both filmmakers chose a bent on their movie and pushed it as far as they could. The whole "love" angle was nice and all, but the amount of information conveyed in March of the Penguins about the subject animal was just so sparse. You can fill the entire running time with waddling penguins and I'd still be entertained, but I went in hoping to learn more about those mysterious midgets in tuxedos and felt that I didn't.

[b] Howl's Moving Castle[/b] was a mess, and if you read what Hayao Miyazaki said in interviews about it, that's the way he likes it. I watched the subtitled version with a large group of people, and at the end we were all looking at each other and going, "uhh, yeah... so what happened?" I could overlook this if it didn't seem like the animation was a step or three back from Spirited Away.

[b] Last Life in the Universe[/b] is one awesome movie, but it is best seen by oneself, I would think. I watched it on a weekend night with a small group of bored people, and it was slightly uncomfortable, since some just wanted brainless entertainment and felt that it just dragged on (understandable, since most weekends, that's the type of movie I want to watch). Anyway, I was entralled the entire time. It's just a terrific movie about an obsessive compulsive fish out of water expatriate librarian (with a yakuza past) meeting a forward, no-nonsense call girl with a kind heart and an inner loneliness. If I had to say one thing about it, it would be that it kicks the crap out of Lost in Translation.

Speaking of [b]Lost in Translation[/b]: the whole damn movie was grating. I absolutely could not stand Scarlett Johannson's character. Bill Murray had his moments, but most of the time I felt like Johannson's character deserved a good deal of slapping around. Most of us mere mortals don't know what we're doing, or what we want to do, or why we're where we are, but we don't have someone footing the bill so we can live in a nice Japanese hotel and lounge around like a lazy cat (or whatever the hell else we want to do). As the Offspring song goes, "why don't you get a job?" Compounded with Bill Murray making a million here or there just by sitting around looking pretty, and we're supposed to feel sorry for them? That's what it seems like Sophia Coppola is trying to force down my throat, and I'm just not buying it. I'm just tired of the whole "it's so harrrrd being a movie star, oh woe" type of stories. It's not any easier for us actually working for our living.

To end on a high note, after watching [b]Kung Fu Hustle[/b], I was just plain excited. Why? Because Kung Fu Hustle showed how Stephen Chow improved his filmmaking by leaps and bounds, mixing different styles effortlessly and just plain entertaining the audience. Sure, the story itself wasn't as good as Shaolin Soccer, but if you ever watch both that and God of Cookery, you'll notice how the former is nearly the same movie as the latter, just with a bit more polish and nifty CG. Not so between those or Kung Fu Hustle, and THAT makes me look very, very forward to his next project.