Important Ryuichi Hiroki - Japan's Hidden Gem

[sitenoise]

Crying 100 Times - Every raindrop falls - the best one in this new bunch of films seen. Hiroki deals with a sensitive subject (cancer) without ever forcing emotions from viewers. It's never a melodramatic film. And story is also interesting. 7/10

This is one of three Hiroki films I punted on. I will give it another try, in your honor. Sometimes it's just the wrong night, wrong mood for any particular film.

(fyi - the other two I punted were The Egoists, and The Lightning Tree. Again probably just picked the wrong time to try. People have said good things about Yû Aoi in The Lightning Tree).

Kabukicho Love Hotel is AWESOME!

It's at the top of my Hiroki list.

 

[Daniel Larusso]

Slowly losing my interest in this director after 20 movies seen...

Policeman and Me - A romantic comedy for teenage girls who have fantasies with policemen...? anyway, this was so cringey.
3/10

Locomotive Teacher - This movie shows some pretty japanese islands... but I had no interest in anything else. Story is very slow and not interesting.
2/10

The Miracles of the Namiya Store - Too emotional for my taste. Concept is nothing new either (comunicating through letters with people from different time-periods). Had no interest in it.
2/10

 

[sitenoise]

Slowly losing my interest in this director after 20 movies seen...

We've seen about the same number of films now. Man, you move fast. I'd say we have both enjoyed about 75% (assuming a 3/5 is an enjoy). That's not a bad batting average. I don't think there's anything outstanding left for you to see. You might enjoy one of the other two I punted on (The Egoists or The Lightning Tree).

 

[plsletitrain]

I watched Policeman and Me first but I’ve had enough of the cutie love lately mainly because of that wifi movie that when I was just 15 minutes into the film I felt like I wanted to pull my hair so I just shifted to Tokyo Trash Baby.

I'm now quite divided on the lead character. I re-read your review here and I gather you find her as an engaging character. Now that I think about it, because I kind of thought of her as a crazy alien, then she must really be engaging.

Here's what I wrote while watching:

Is she sick? I think so. I mean, who collects trash of your crush? Hell knows what sort of dirt might I find there. Case in point: condom. And girl even meddled with the guy's ex lover? To that extent? Sick. And then now that she’s finally got what she want, she runs away from him. Wut? Are we on the same page? And then she cries like a kid. Maybe she realized she was just like them other girls and she hoped for more? Maybe, I don’t know. All I know is she’s a case.
=============

For me to come up with those observations, she must not be a plain jane, is she? I don't know.

As for Hiroki, I think its really settled that he likes shooting running people. I’ve seen that in the previous films I saw from him, in this one, and in the first few minutes of Policeman and Me.

I didn’t get the point of bringing the trash to the tugboat but I took it to mean that she was letting go him and her feelings for him or whatever. I wonder what’s the one thing in the trash she can’t throw.
The ending was a bit too long I was just counting the minutes til the end.

My verdict: I think this is one of those sitenoise movies that I just can't sit back and watch again. :(((((

 

[plsletitrain]

Both characters serve as juxtaposition to Miyuki and highlight my favorite theme of the film: loneliness. Kyoko has a very active social life but seems unfulfilled and lost. Miyuki (contrary to most observations on the film) isn't lonely. She is content and happy with her life. That's what makes her interesting. She controls her life, not her outside observers.​

Well-said. I like this.

 

[plsletitrain]

I like how its been an hour yet I can't get over what's that one item she never gave away. Ugh.

Is it:

The concert tape
The picture (probably this)
The cigarettes
The old shirt
The used condom

...or its one of those instances the director uses that technique (I'll let the viewers break their head figuring out)

Or the film spelled in black and white what's the item and I just missed it.

 

[clayton-12]

I like how its been an hour yet I can't get over what's that one item she never gave away. Ugh.

Is it:

The concert tape
The picture (probably this)
The cigarettes
The old shirt
The used condom

...or its one of those instances the director uses that technique (I'll let the viewers break their head figuring out)

Or the film spelled in black and white what's the item and I just missed it.

I looked back at my review but (as becomes more frequent in my advancing years), for the life of me I can't quite remember what the hell I was referring to when I mentioned it. I'll check it out tonight and let you know.

 

[clayton-12]

what's that one item she never gave away

It wasn't something physical, but ...

Spoiler: ...the thing she had on the barge, that wasn't in the trash bag...

... was his song

 

[sitenoise]

My verdict: I think this is one of those sitenoise movies that I just can't sit back and watch again. :(((((

I couldn't quite figure out your final verdict until then. lol

Is she a nut case, or sick, or what? I'm glad it wasn't one of those movies that shows someone acting weird or violent or whatever and then gives some explanation for why they act that way--as if it would really explain it so we don't have to wonder about it. That's not a (sitenoise) movie, it's an essay that should be published in an academic psychological journal. Or a Wikipedia article.

kiri kiri kiri

 

[plsletitrain]

for the life of me I can't quite remember what the hell I was referring to when I mentioned it.

Haha! Happens to me all the time.

It wasn't something physical, but ...

Spoiler: ...the thing she had on the barge, that wasn't in the trash bag...

... was his song

Thank you! Oh gosh, whyamidumb I took it to mean a literal trash!!!! Now that I think about it, yes you're right! I must have overlooked that because I thought of him more as a jerk rather than as an artist.

I'm glad it wasn't one of those movies that shows someone acting weird or violent or whatever and then gives some explanation for why they act that way--as if it would really explain it so we don't have to wonder about it. That's not a (sitenoise) movie, it's an essay that should be published in an academic psychological journal. Or a Wikipedia article.

kiri kiri kiri

I know! That's why I labelled this as a sitenoise movie, you can just enjoy women basking under the sun doing nothing while for the life of me I keep wondering whenwillthisfinallyend?????

kiri kiri kiri

 

[plsletitrain]

Okay so I know @sitenoise warned me to run far far away from this but I stumbled across this while looking for Suicide Club(which I will really really watch next—I said the same thing last month) and like a magazine headline that says “Don’t read this part” which we really read, I was curious what was in this. And you know, we’ve been talking about how movies are an acquired taste, how our tastes evolve over time as we become jaded watchers so I thought maybe I will contradict myself with this movie.

After watching this: no, I haven’t evolved yet. lol

15 minutes into the film I knew I was in for mundane things of walking, cooking, fixing the bed, etc. again and woah why should there always be scenes of women staring pensively from a window of a moving vehicle??????

I gave up on the 20 minute mark because I really can’t see myself sitting there patiently in vain for the next 1:30 hours. There’s a degree of silence I can identify with sitenoise movies that I still can’t acquire. I like silence to some extent, I also don’t like too much loud noises and too much gunfights or punching here and there but there’s a degree of silence in films I can tolerate. This one just didn’t do it for me.

 

[plsletitrain]

^Okay, I never indicated what movie I was talking about lol. I was talking about Side Job.

 

[sitenoise]

LO-freaking-L

I know why that happened

 

[ebossert]

Natsumi’s Firefly (2016) (Japanese Drama) – When Natsumi's father dies she return to the forest which she had visited with him with his motorcycle. She meets and decides to stay with a family who also own a store nearby. This has nicely shot natural environments, and the lead actress is hot. Pretty good stuff, but it runs out of gas and becomes more tedious during the second half (especially during the scenes at the hospital). A watchable film by Ryuichi Hiroki.