Metropolis-1002

EIGA: ©JIYU KOBO CO., LTD. TO ROME WITH LOVE: ©GRAVIER PRODUCTIONS,INC.PHOTO BY PHILIPPE
ANTONELLO; OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN: ©OLYMPUS PRODUCTIONS,INC; THE TREE: © PHOTO : BARUCH
RAFIC – LES FILMS DU POISSON/TAYLOR MEDIA – TOUS DROITS RÉSERVÉS – 2010; G.I. JOE RETALIATION: ©
2013 PARAMOUNT PICTURES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. HASBRO AND ITS LOGO, G.I. JOE AND ALL RELATED
CHARACTERS ARE TRADEMARKS OF HASBRO AND USED WITH PERMISSION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.;
STOKER: © 2012 TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.;BULLET TO THE HEAD:© 2012 THE
ESTATE OF REDMOND BARRY LLC.ALL RIGHT RESERVED.; ROMAN POLANSKI: A FILM MEMOIR: ©2011
MOVIESMore ANAGRAM FILMS LIMITED. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.; OBLIVION: © 2013 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS. ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED.
BY DON MORTON Metpod
reviews and theater details: metropolis.co.jp/movies
but the increasingly tiresome
Gerard Butler is the kind of
actor that makes you miss
Bruce Willis’s (never thought
I’d say this) charisma. The
Bulgarian-made CG of several
D.C. landmarks getting
demolished are cheesy
but effective. The body
count is high, the violence is
NEW
brutal and frequent, and the TO ROME WITH LOVE
THE TREE
dialogue is moronic. This In his wonderfully scenic postcard When a young Australian husband
is a sporadically entertain- from Rome, Woody Allen blends and father dies, his willful, brooding,
completely forgettable the plausible with the surreal, ing young daughter (a good
sledgehammer that won’t lightly intercutting four uncon- Morgana Davies) declares that
disappoint its target audience nected stories about today’s the enormous Moreton Bay fig
of hard-core action fans. celebrity culture and the need we tree in their yard now houses his
But normal humans may all feel to be perceived, in some spirit, and it becomes the symbol
share my disappointment way and maybe just a little bit, as of the family’s struggle to move
with director Antoine extraordinary. Too many actors to on. It looms and protects, but also
Fuqua, who made his name list, but the bittersweet storyline attracts bats and frogs and ruins
with 2001’s memorable involving Alec Baldwin is some the plumbing. The lived-in perfor-
OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN
Training Day. Korean male
model Rick Yune channels
John Lone (not advised) to
of the best writing Allen has done
in years, and it holds up the sillier
bits. Not among Allen’s greats, but
mance by the always-compelling
Charlotte Gainsbourg elevates
this metaphor-flogging treacle to a
North Korean “terrorists” orchestrate withdrawn from South Korea. Ah, but create a suitably smarmy villain. molto bene. Bad news for foreign watchable level, but she can’t stop it
a meticulously coordinated air and unbeknownst to them, a disgraced Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart, moviegoers: Half of it’s in Italian, from then descending into pseudo-
ground assault on the White House former chief of the Prez’s security Angela Bassett and Melissa Leo but the subs are only in Japanese. mysticism. I’d love to pun that it
(as IF), take the president hostage detail (and a pal of the boss’s son, and pick up paychecks. Japanese title: Maybe wait to rent. Japanese grew on me. But it didn’t. Japanese
in the underground bunker and ex-Special Forces) is somewhere in the End of White House. (118 min) title: Roma de Amore. (112 min) title: Papa no Ki. (100 min)
demand that American forces be House. So it’s Die Hard in Washington, SHOWING FROM JUN 8.
SHOWING FROM JUN 8.
G.I. JOE: RETALIATION
Though about an Army unit
based on a plastic toy mythos, this
aggressively stupid (we’re talking
Transformers here), tension-free fare
for 10-year-olds plays more like a
superhero movie. A very bad one.
Soulless, boring, sloppily edited,
overly populated, exposition heavy,
and a “plot” that fairly screams out for
quotation marks. Names: Channing
Tatum, Dwayne Johnson, and a
near-comatose Bruce Willis, though
don’t blink or you’ll miss the latter.
I gotta say though, that the rockclimbing
ninja battle is kind of cool
if you imagine it as, say, a demented,
murderous Cirque du Soleil knife
fight. Japanese title: G.I. Joe Back 2
Revenge. (110 min)
SHOWING FROM JUN 8.
eiga ©
D
ROMAN POLANSKI: A LIFE
MEMOIR
Roman Polanski’s 278-title filmography
includes Rosemary’s Baby,
Chinatown, Tess and The Pianist.
Fairly straightforward documentary
made by a close friend while the
actor/director was under house
arrest in Switzerland. He bares it all,
personal as well as professional. We
learn of his experiences in Poland
during the holocaust, his early
acting, and his move to film. Frank
discussions include the losing of his
pregnant wife Sharon Tate in the
Manson murders. His 1977 statutory
rape charge is not shied away from,
though Polanski is cast in a favorable
light. Illuminating and inspiring. (90
min)
ocumentary
filmmaker
Sumiko Haneda
is one of the pioneers of
the genre in Japan and a
groundbreaking visual
artist for women in the
country. Her films have
been showcased around
the world, including
the prestigious Berlin
International Film
Festival. After releasing
her first documentary in 1957, she has continually addressed
social issues and injustices in Japan through her work. She
produced her 1977 piece Usuzumi no Sakura (The Cherry Tree
with Gray Blossoms) independently and won much acclaim with
it—cementing her as one of Japan’s top documentarians. Soshite
Akiko Wa, released in 1985, showed at the Kanebo International
Women’s Film Week at the very first Tokyo International Film
Festival and is well worthy of its current re-release. It follows
Akiko Kaneda, who became obsessed with dance and the
American choreographer, Martha Graham, at a young age. She
moved to the US, dedicated herself to the art form and joined
Graham’s ensemble. Every pore of Akiko’s being breathes a
desire to express herself in dance and to leave words behind.
Akiko becomes her own creative force and this powerful essay
captures her development and a life dedicated to art. A wonderful
film. (107 min) Rob Schwartz
STOKER
Korean director Chan-wook Park’s
English-language debut is a disturbingly
good, delightfully demented
coming-of-age gothic romance. A
grieving widow and her 18-year-old
daughter take in, post-funeral, the
deceased’s younger brother. As the
three interact, the family dynamic,
already pretty dysfunctional, goes
through some macabre changes.
Park applies his trademark visual
mastery with operatic finesse, underlying
every scene with repressed
brutality and a state of dread. This
wickedly weird creepiness may
not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s
compellingly watchable. An impressive
debut. (98 min)
movie news
H
IMAGE.NET
ollywood actors will
sometimes bring
their kids to work to
give them a fun day watching
mommy and daddy
play make believe on the
other side of the camera.
For Jaden Smith, the visit to
the set placed him in front
of the cameras. At the age of
7, he won critical praise for
his turn as the son of a struggling
businessman played
by his father Will Smith in
2006’s The Pursuit of Happyness.
Then he starred in the 2010 remake of The Karate Kid, this
time without dad. “I felt jealous when I saw Jaden working with
Jackie Chan,” Will recalled during a recent trip to Tokyo. “I said,
‘That’s my boy!’” Wanting to work together as a family again, the
duo called M. Night Shyamalan to wish him a happy birthday
and brought up an idea for a story set 100 years in the future. The
result of that call is After Earth, a sci-fi epic that reunites the father
and son on screen. “Jaden is 14 now, so he has learned to control
his emotions,” the proud father says. “He has grown as an actor.”
The new movie also allowed the younger Smith to see his father
in a new light. “When I was little, I didn’t really understand what
my dad’s work is,” Jaden said. “Now I see how serious and passionate
he is. Movies last forever, so he wants to get the scene perfect.”
After Earth opens in Japan June 21. Kevin Mcgue
BULLET TO THE HEAD
Sylvester Stallone, who at 66 is not
getting any prettier, here plays an
aging assassin out for revenge on
those responsible for the death of
a loved one. Those he goes after,
unsmiling and conscienceless,
include a crooked lawyer, an
African war criminal and a psycho
man-mountain ex-mercenary.
Ho hum. Forced, chemistry-free
mismatched buddy-flick subplot
involving Sung Kang sags. This
two-fister from action legend Walter
Hill (48 Hrs) is a surprise-free and
familiar 90 minutes of shooting and
killing and ax fights and bare-knuckle
brawling. Zilch suspense. It’s a little
sad. (91 min)
T
OBLIVION
This pretty, forgettable exercise in
competence will remind you of the
many better movies to which it is
glaringly indebted: Total Recall, The
Matrix, I Am Legend, Star Wars and
even WALL-E (though the star in that
last one arguably had more range).
Tom Cruise and Andrea Riseborough
are some of the last humans on a
post-apocalyptic Earth, monitoring
maintenance and defense drones
(aliens). Tom has a revelation, etc.,
etc. Slick looking until the cliches
start piling up. This is an empty,
self-serious Tom Cruise vehicle that
never really achieves lift-off. Bombastic
soundtrack. Go rent 2010’s Moon.
(124 min)
cinematic underground
2011 ALBZ PRODUCTIONS INC.
he undead
i n v a s i o n
o f c i n e m a
continues as Human
Trust Cinema
Shibuya (Cocoti
Bldg.7,8F 1-23-16,
Shibuya-ku; (www.
ht-cinema.com)
unleashes the
latest installment
of the Zombie Film
Olympics starting
June 8. A Little Bit
Zombie (pictured)
represents Canada
and other walking dead flicks carrying the flags of the UK,
Holland and Japan feature in this round…Late actor Shintaro
Katsu is today best remembered for the Zatoichi jidaigeki series
in which he starred as a blind, but highly-skilled, swordsman.
But he also appeared in a variety of contemporary dramas and
detective TV series, which feature in a retrospective at Cinema
Vera (1-5 Maruyamacho, Shibuya-ku ; www.cinemavera.com),
June 8-28… The great stars of early Showa-era cinema are
feted in a program running June 8-July 5 at Jimbocho Theater
(1-23 Kanda Jimbocho, Chiyoda-ku; http://jinbocho-theater.
jp). Shin Saburi, Ken Uehara and Shuji Sano all got their start in
the 1930s and their popularity allowed them to continue their
careers will into the ‘50s. KM
#1002 • WWW.METROPOLIS.CO.JP • 15