kei さんの口コミ一覧

1. ホフマン物語

Another pick from the lengthy list of on going MoMA series, Scorsese Screens.

There shouldn't be not many people who had chances to watch this 1951 classic masterpiece title in two different theaters with in a single 21st century year. The beauty of this city is that it allows me to do that. I feel honored to be the one who can rejoice such a moment.

My favorite scene is still the Olympia story, a.k.a. The Doll Song. Although it is obvious that song part is dubbed by an separate opera singer, I tried to get rid of that idea because the ballet part had equally high quality. I could officially put this "I didn't know well yet" ballet dancer above Natalie Dessay's performance through her another superb performance in The Red Shoes (1948). Of course, I am talking about dance part of this sequence. My "song part" favorite still remains as Rachele Gilmore's live performance back in 2009, though.

This is another great selection to experience the happiness of enjoying beautifully restored version of classical masterpieces.

[映画館(字幕なし「原語」)] 7点（2015-08-31 02:44:31）

2. 赤い靴(1948)

Through a movie series at MoMA, titled as "Scorsese Screens".

The main reason I picked this up from the series's long list was a picture I saw at another movie theater, Film Forum. Their intro movie, which is shown every time before the featured title shown, has many flashy scenes from master pieces they have been screening there. These include Metropolis, Wendy and Lucy, Ran, and …. this was one them. My feeling was "this must be one of the bests, too" and that assumption was completely right, it was a master peace.

At least for me, this is not a simple ballet movie. It contains more than that and whole piece would be close to a live performed opera. It was a wonderful week because I could enjoy Michael Powell's titles back to back, "The Tales of Hoffmann" (1951) and this one. In the mentioned title, Moira Shearer's performance was limited but, in this title, she was everywhere. I could enjoy her performance all the way to the finale.

Yes, I do want to watch this again, whenever I find the next chance.

[映画館(字幕なし「原語」)] 7点（2015-08-16 06:43:34）

3. アバター(2009)

Somehow, I was patient enough and have waited five years but it was worth waiting for. I finally had a chance to watch it on the big screen and as a 3D version, in a theater not so crowded and free to choose whatever the best seat.

The storyline keeps telling about the idiocy of human race but also keeps asking if you are brave enough to quit being a human being. This would sound like this one is somewhat crossed line version of "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind", here I am referring to the comic version of it, not the movie version. I don't want to easily quit being a man but it can be interpreted as cases when you have been tested how deep you can understand other tribe's values or when you have been treated as a disabled for long enough both mentally and physically. There must be big enough reasons he had to cross the border. If I stay here longer, I would be feeling closer to him in a way.

By the time finish watching this title, I have started recognizing James Cameron as a director who can also write.

[映画館(字幕なし「原語」)] 8点（2014-06-17 16:14:36）

4. トゥームレイダー

It's been sitting on my mental shelf for long enough period and finally had a chance to be picked. Now this has become AJ's oldest title for me.

The best part of this title is being able to watch the daughter and her father at the same time! Neither the story nor the action scenes didn't beat this part, at least for me.

Oh! there was another thing I liked about. This shows somewhat sentimental Vaio and Memory Stick era… They were cool back then.

[DVD(字幕なし「原語」)] 4点（2014-06-05 11:54:22）

5. 007/ユア・アイズ・オンリー

The opening act is Sheena Easton!

There was a scene that Moore Bond starts panting while he climbs up long stretch of stone stairs. My impression was like "Oh, this is the portion they gave up when they switched from George Lazenby to Roger Moore!" Since I already checked Timothy's young, athletic version of Bond, now I understand well why people like Princess Di liked newer version of Bond.

Aside from those negative portions, this "three-year-older than Sean" Bond was doing great in this title. I thought "Thunderball" would be the only "water intensive Bond film" but now I know it was wrong.

I personally liked Carole Bouquet's mysterious eyes. She was like elder sister of Liv Tyler, at least in my imagination. : )

[映画館(字幕なし「原語」)] 6点（2014-04-30 14:19:43）

6. 007は二度死ぬ

Every time I was asked about opinions on this title, I felt like that I am a Japanese who is not patriotic enough. Finally I checked it out on a big screen thanks to MoMA's effort, and have opinions on this.

This is a sort of masculine fairy tale, like other Connery titles as they are in similar ways. Being surprised, giving applause, and then smiling or laughing out loud. That's all. Japan in 60's was perfect place to shoot such a tale because they had everything, from industrious brand new subway system to traditional medieval castle. With a hint of practical nonsense, like ninja sequences, the tale can be concluded beautifully.

Originally I was astonished by Tetsuro Tanba's clear British English but that reputation has been brown away once I leaned that it was dubbed one due to his "hard to hear" accent. On the other hand, I would like to give hands to the only "real" English speaker, Akiko Wakabayashi, and I am going to check her other, not many, appearances.

Now I can laugh at "unidentified object" portion of Austin Powers really out loud! : )

[映画館(字幕なし「原語」)] 6点（2014-04-30 14:06:34）

7. 007/ゴールデンアイ

Welcome Pearce Bond! Welcome Judi M!!

I believe this is the first Bond title I watched in a movie theatre, yes not in a theater but in a theatre. With the clear image of a stone horse mounted tank running around a Russian city, I couldn't forget the line, "I am invincible!". This should be a proof of me watching this one in real tme, not a subtitled or dubbed one. Having said that, he must be my very first Bond who has been speaking in English all the way from the beginning. Sad things would be I lost much of my listening comprehension skill on British accent and I started talking like an American. : (

One mistake was I believed Judi Dench had been M forever. Sorry, she was a mature lady from the beginning!! : )

[映画館(字幕なし「原語」)] 6点（2014-04-30 13:58:53）

8. 007/消されたライセンス

The second and, sadly enough, the last title by Timothy Dalton. Although the record says the lowest earned title, I personally believe many people's comment as "the closest ever Bond, to the original novel", even including Princess Di!

The opening is shocking enough as usual and it also contains sad and emotional moments, which had been avoided for the last two predecessors, Connery and Moore. I would say they were not good at these kind of things and those who are "matured" audiences had to wait until Dalton shows up. I was somewhat surprised to see my side of preference to watch Pam like Bond Girl, played by Carey Lowell. Another surprise was she is "the better half" of Richard Gere!

A personal trivia was the Hemingway House. : ) Since I just watched recently "Hemingway & Gellhorn" (2012), played by Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman, it was fun to watch the past in the past movie, both of them are pretty new to my current daily life.

[映画館(字幕なし「原語」)] 7点（2014-04-30 13:54:00）

9. 007/リビング・デイライツ

Due to schedule conflict, I ended up landing on this title by skipping whole Roger Moore collections except the very first one. I'm not sure how this order changed reception of Timothy Dalton's image because I'd be one of the person who would have been fed up with Moore's too comedic too old Bond around that time. Dalton declined an offer for Bond role when he was 24 years because he felt he was too young for Bond, then declined again at the age of 34 because he didn't want be Bond like the ones in "Spy Who Loved Me" or "Moonraker" with the fact that their script wasn't ready by that time. I believe he made right decisions as a serious Shakespeare trained actor and that didn't lower his reputation and raised Bond's reputation at the same time. If 34-years-old Timothy would be competing against Daniel Craig, they would be serious contenders for each other.

I definitely watch this again after completing series!

[映画館(字幕なし「原語」)] 7点（2014-04-27 22:32:23）

10. 007/死ぬのは奴らだ

This title begins with McCartney's voice!

The opening scenes shot in NYC were exciting to watch. James Bond in a white suite wondering Harlem and stroll into a soulful bar is just a joke, very huge joke, especially during 70's. Now I can sense that kind of humor. : )

Not only NYC, watching another shooting location, New Orleans, was another joy for me as I finally could be there in 2011. Next time I go there, I am not going to be a spectator of a funeral marching band, though. : )

[映画館(字幕なし「原語」)] 7点（2014-04-27 22:28:15）

11. 007/ダイヤモンドは永遠に

Going over all kinds of gossips regarding how Sean Connery was in and out for the role of 007 around this time was very interesting. This was the "official" last Connery title but I also have to check "unofficial" last Connery in "Never Say Never Again", which was not listed under MoMA's 50 year anniversary event in 2012.

Many articles say this was the beginning of comedic Bond series, which leads to Roger Moor titles. I totally understand after watching "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". It was that serious.

The scenes in Amsterdam were fun to watch because I was reading Dutch related book at the same time. "Plenty" Lana Wood reminded me Courteney Cox right away but the answer towards "Tiffany" Jill St. John wasn't easy one. After spending a couple of days, I came up with a Japanese actress's name, Kumiko Okae, but I am still not sure if that was the right choice or not... I know, nobody cares about such a thing. : )

Wow, she did appear in Seinfeld's "The Yada Yada". I've gotta check it!

[映画館(字幕なし「原語」)] 7点（2014-04-27 22:20:39）

12. 女王陛下の007

"He's never been equally valued among other Bonds, somehow, but he was also good."

That was my Bond advisor's comment against this "one-time limited time only" version of James Bond, acted by an Aussie-born actor George Lazenby. I didn't know his name and also couldn't come up with his face, totally had no idea before actually watching it. But now I understand why his remark was just like that. He is a cooler type of Bond compared to other JBs, somewhat closer to Daniel version, but yet still it stands out.

It was kind of fun to read all the gossipy articles about how this replacement happened, the role went back to Sean, it moved on to another guy, then it came back to Sean again. That kind of stories reminded me that a rumor how Hugh Jackman turned down the Bond role. It was also glad to see the young and "very active" Telly Savalas, as I didn't watch that many his Kojak back then. Now I really want to watch him without Moriyama's voice, who is the famous guy did Kojak's voice over.

By the way, this title's the "Bond Girl", Diana Rigg, reminds me younger days of Machiko Kyo. Don't know why... Go out and check the one of Mizoguchi's fine work, "Street of Shame (1956)", if you want to understand what I'm talking about here. Other than that by looking through her titles, I do want check out her Bond version in The Avengers!

[映画館(字幕なし「原語」)] 5点（2014-04-27 22:14:29）

13. 007/サンダーボール作戦

Re-visited through 50 years anniversary event at MoMA.

This was another friend's best and I still remember when two of them were debating each other over another contender, Goldfinger. An unexpected thing was that the only part I remembered was the meaning of slanted lines on the both side of the big ship. Don't know why... Maybe that would be the most meaningful part of Bond Movies...

"You don't need to try to remember every details. They really don't matter. Just enjoy the Bond moments!"

That's the main spirit of this series! And then, it is highly likely that I am writing similar review five years later. : )

[映画館(字幕なし「原語」)] 7点（2014-04-26 23:52:21）

14. 007/ゴールドフィンガー

Through "50 Years of James Bond" Film Festival at Museum of Modern Art in 2012.

While MoMA was showing 22 of them in chronological order, I've missed first two of them in a row. The life is not easy...

One of my "Bond Otaku" friend named this title as the best but I didn't have further opinions against that simply because I am still at 3 year old level knowledge regarding on Bond collections. At that table, I was rather keeping smiling due to the my only related memory related to this title, which was the one comes from the famous parody version of Austin Powers series : )

[映画館(字幕なし「原語」)] 5点（2014-04-25 20:34:18）

15. The Lady アウンサンスーチー ひき裂かれた愛

It passed me by as one of an in-flight selections.

The last time I saw Michelle Yeoh was that through the 007 film festival at MoMA, "Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997) was that title. I thought that was her "at the best" in her mid-thirty carrier even though there were so many her aspects I didn't know at that time, such as...
- She was an ex-Miss Malaysia
- A ballet dancer since age 4
- Never a trained martial artist, just using her dance disciplines

Then, now I know she still continues to evolve. She must have gone through tough diet to form Aung San Suu Kyi-like body line. Now, I sincerely want to know more about Aung San Suu Kyi, about Myanmar, and about people of Myanmar. From these points of view, Michelle Yeoh did a pretty damn good job. I can say that for sure.

[DVD(字幕なし「原語」)] 7点（2014-04-19 13:30:00）

16. エイリアン２

Talk about the moment of happiness!! Being able to watch perfectly restored "the original" and "the plural" two weeks in a row is what I am taking about.

It must have been tough to choose the right director for "the sequel" but James Cameron was right there with his initial hike at that time, especially when his two year earlier title, "The Terminator", promised his future success.

The storyline itself has shifted towards female side and the final round starts with the famous gong: "Get away from her, you bxxxx!" I can guarantee that you will be wide awake until the point 137 minutes later from the beginning!

[映画館(字幕なし「原語」)] 7点（2014-04-16 08:17:53）

17. エイリアン

From the line up of Film Forum's "SUMMER FESTIVAL OF FANTASY, HORROR & SCIENCE FICTION" in 2013.

It was brought to us as a DCP version and the level of restoration was so high! I felt honored to be able to watch the work in "may be better than the original" condition. The length was almost two hours but I cannot think of that many other "long" movies, which make me forget the sense of time. The high tense of the last half of story lasts until the very end.

Sigourney Weaver was at 30 years old when this was released and that was the best timing to shoot this role "Ripley", a young, beautiful, intelligent and yet athletic lady. That also reminds me that the next timing I was impressed by her beauty in 1995 released "Copycat", which is 16 years later from this one!

It looks like this was director Ridley Scott's first commercial big success title. By skimming through his list of works, I feel so powerless. There are still too many titles I have to conquer with!

[映画館(字幕なし「原語」)] 8点（2014-04-16 08:12:38）

18. ヒューゴの不思議な発明

Another spectacular piece through MoMA's exhibition: Dante Ferretti: Design and Construction for the Cinema.

My only regret was that I went out there with my glasses without knowing the fact that it was being held as 3D screening. It could be a bit more comfortable if I was wearing contact lenses. Aside from that uncomfortableness, the experience was magical. I cannot watch this title again without 3D effect.

Watching these Scorsese titles through artistic perspective gave me different insights. I believe that many of ideas come from the director but there must be somebody who can bring them to the real world with details. Now I know that Dante Ferretti was the parson who did that part for these titles. I felt quite lucky to be able to enjoy his actual drawings right outside of the theater right after watching these titles.

Above all these thoughts, the best part is.... we could share the moments of the passion towards film works!!

[映画館(字幕なし「原語」)] 7点（2014-04-07 01:25:27）