The Anti-Criterion Challenge 2024, #5: 1950s

Japanuary 2024: J-Horror

A tight little ghost story running at just over an hour. The ending feels rushed, but everything before that was excellent so I dont mind here. Switching from balck and white to technicolor for the flashback was a neat touch. And instead of the typical black cat doing the haunting, we get a cute Japanese Bobtail, who then becomes a white cat lady with bug fluffly ears. All the cats here are so cute it's a little distracting, but that's a personal flaw of mine and in no way the movie's fault.

Japanuary 2024: Hayao Miyazaki

I kinda feel let down, this was good but didn't live up to my expectations. As a standalone heist movie, this was fun. As a part of the Lupin the Third franchise, it felt off. Lupin is much more noble, Fujiko is a paramiltary girl? The characters don't feel the same. I don't know if it was the actual script, or the English dub that I watched though, so I think I might rewatch this sometime. It was the only version that I could get ahold of for free (legally). They kept calling Lupin 'Wolf', where did that come from?

The Anti-Criterion Challenge 2024, #52: Any film from your watchlist

Japanuary 2024: J-Horror

So far the best of the three that I've seen so far. The intro with the American was goofy, was he say something different from the subtitles and the Japanese dub over it? I like that there was a clear plot and motivation for the mutilation, and the special effects were great. The end was kind of anticlimactic, though I loved the woman's reaction to the bloody room. It almost felt more like the actors were just sitting around at the end.

The Criterion Challenge #40: Guillermo del Toro’s closet picks

Japanuary 2024: J-Horror

I love these retellings of folklore. The first 30 minutes really build up the setting, the horror of what the women went through and the methodical revenge that repeats itself over and over (cause these samurai can't keep it in their pants). I felt bad for the son, but it shows that the trauma and desire for retribution isn't easily healed for everyone. His wife was happy just to be with him again, his mother can't forgive so readily.

The Criterion Challenge #6: Longest runtime in your watchlist

Japanuary 2024: Akira Kurosawa

It's wild how familiar this is to me, despite having never seen it until now. It's super influential to countless movies after it, so I've seen variations of each of its parts, even specific scenes. Seven Samurai does it so well. The whole cast did a great job, with Toshiro Mifune standing out as the fake-samurai that served partly as comic relief. I really enjoyed it, though I probably won't watch something this long for a bit. 3+ hours is insane, I don't care how good your movie is.

Japanuary 2024: Teruo Ishii

Just a super goofy superhero sci-fi movie. The fight scenes are very long and repetitive, with Starman doing flips and laughing while he guns down the evil aliens. I wish their weapons were anything but regular guns, it's so underwhelming in a sci-fi movie.

Japanuary 2024: Shinya Tsukamoto

More horny body horror, this time we are horny for guns!

This explores alot of the same themes as the first movie, and I think I prefer that one. This is still good though, the special effects and sound design make the gore especially disgusting.

Japanuary 2024: Takashi Miike

I love how it drip feeds you the horror for 2/3rds of the movie. In between the awkward fake audition and the dates, we see parts of her past and previous victims. We get why she's fucked up, we see the aftermath and know it's no good for the current man in her life. Then it hits you with Asami methodically torturing him. She has a look to her like a quiet joy, very calm, almost childlike. The climax really hits hard, I get why it's such an influential movie.

Japanuary 2024: Seijun Suzuki

Most of the character design is good and fits the Lupin series overall except for the women. Why do their lips look like that, I'm uncomfortable. Story felt all over the place. At times it was an intense heist movie, at other times it was Tom and Jerry for adults, complete with cartoon physics. Both are good in a Lupin the Third movie, but the way it's handled here just doesn't come together as a cohesive movie.

The Criterion Challenge #10: New York Film Festival Favorites

Japanuary 2024: Masaki Kobayashi

I always wonder whether the good reviews for a movie like this are genuine, or just filmbro shit, but fuck this was incredible. I usually struggle with 2+ hour long movies but this held my attention, every detail, every time Hanshiro stops the proceedings to tell more of his story, it's so necessary to the theme. And it looks gorgeous, the sound design is great, I can't find a single flaw in this movie.