Hana-bi, Battle Royale, and a Theory of Transgressive Transcendence

This essay was recently written and submitted for a course on Cinema and the Poetics of Transcendence at the University of Colorado Boulder. It is one of my favorite pieces of my own writing, and I am excited to share it here. 

Is it possible to attain transcendence through hardship? Can trauma force us towards moments of profound realization that alter the courses of our lives, or raise our minds to higher levels of consciousness? Can an encounter with the darkness and evil of our world lend us a greater understanding of love and friendship? Do acts of moral transgression lead us to deeper truths about the nature of humanity, or of our own personal identities?

These are the questions directors Takeshi Kitano and Kinji Fukasaku ask in their respective films Hana-bi and Battle Royale¹, each work presenting a path to transcendence wherein one may only truly transcend – understanding the world both for what it is and for what it can be – after a severe trauma opens one’s eyes to the worst human life has to offer. The characters of these films take very different courses to achieve transcendence, but transgression is a key element of everyone’s arcs.

In Hana-bi, Takeshi Kitano argues, through a dual-protagonist structure, that those seeking transcendence must perform moral transgressions, in order that they might understand, synthesize, and ultimately surpass both the violent and gentle qualities of the human spirit to find a higher, more spiritually fulfilling state of being. In Battle Royale, Kinji Fukasaku illustrates one of the most horrific circumstances imaginable to explore whether or not innocence can survive in an inherently violent world, and ponders, through a richly developed ensemble and the employment of dream sequences, how humans – both young and old – may find transcendence if this is not the case. In each film, an acceptance of both the world and the human condition for what they truly are – violent, sad, and utterly flawed, though not without room for beauty and redemption – is essential in charting a course towards transcendence. The films themselves may be called ‘transcendent,’ for in their unflinching dramatizations of such dark and disturbing material, Kitano and Fukasaku create not an impression of hopelessness, but a miraculous and inspirational image of the grace that lies beyond human suffering.

Continue reading after the jump...

The Illusion of Life: From Eleanora Derenkowskaia to Maya Deren to Cinematic Visions from the Beyond

This essay on influential American avant-garde filmmaker Maya Deren and her two most significant films, Meshes of the Afternoon and At Land, was recently written and submitted for an Advanced Research Seminar on the Historical Avant-Garde at the University of Colorado Boulder. For those unfamiliar with the films, YouTube files of each are embedded at the end of this text. 

Poet. Author. Reporter. Dancer. Critic. Actress. Ethnographer. Choreographer. Photographer. Filmmaker. Self-made legend. Attempting to get a firm grasp on the literal or artistic identity of Maya Deren is like attempting to carry water with one’s bare hands. One may hold it all together for a couple of seconds, but it will inevitably slip away through the cracks.

In just 44 years of life, Maya Deren achieved a nearly incomprehensible set of accomplishments, and continually reinvented herself, expanded her artistic interests, and pushed at every boundary she encountered along the way. “...She lived her life from early on as if it were a continual series of “real pulsating urgencies” – always racing against the clock to get the greatest amount accomplished in the shortest amount of time (Jackson 2).” Living less urgently, as most of us do, it is difficult to connect with the enormity of Deren’s interests, undertakings, and influences; indeed, the best way into her work, so many years after the fact, is to find a personal starting point, a piece of the legend that holds individual fascination, and to follow Deren’s art wherever it may lead.

I, personally, am attracted to the notion that Deren’s cinematic career was born from death. It was the small inheritance she gained from her father’s passing that allowed Deren to purchase her first 16mm film camera, and with this in mind, I cannot help but view the works that followed – Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) and At Land (1944) in particular – as equally rooted in concepts of mortality (Zeitgeist Films 3). Visually, tonally, thematically, and even narratively, these two masterpiece shorts may be viewed as a nearly seamless double-feature journey into the realm of death. Though only Meshes deals with it overtly, death connects these films, and analyzing them in tandem reveals a larger exploration into the point at which basic human challenges of mortality and identity converge – and how running from an encounter with one invariably leads us to confront the other, at which point we may glean a measure of transcendence.

Continue reading after the jump...

Film Review: Studio Ghibli crafts a reflexive gem with "From Up On Poppy Hill"

Note: This film was not screened in advance for critics in Denver, so I had to see the film on my own, and it unfortunately took me a little while to get around to it. As such, this review is posted here, rather than at my current home of We Got This Covered. The Landmark Esquire, where the film is being shown, is screening both the new English dub and the original Japanese version, and the text of this review refers to the latter. 

Gorō Miyazaki’s From Up On Poppy Hill strikes me as a very important film for Studio Ghibli. The famed Japanese animation house is not yet a crossroads, but it will be one day, for founding filmmakers Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata are both over 70 years old, and will not live forever. It is a sad notion to consider, but one the film itself invites us to ponder, for in his second directorial feature, Gorō Miyazaki works alongside his father, the elder Miyazaki performing script duty, to deliver a story about the passage of time, the importance of the past, and the possibilities of the future.

Continue reading after the jump...

My book, "Fade to Lack," is now available for Kindle E-Readers!

As has been frequently requested over the last month, my book, Fade To Lack: A Critic's Journey Through the World of Modern Film, is now available as an e-book for Amazon's Kindle! The price is $7.99, and you can buy it here!

The book has been published as part of the Kindle Owner's Lending Library, so if you own a Kindle device and are an Amazon Prime member, you can borrow the book free of charge.

And if you do not own a Kindle, the book is of course compatible with all Kindle reader apps for Mac, PC, iPhone, iPad, Android devices, and more. I personally do not own an actual Kindle device, but I use the apps all the time, as it allows me to access book from any web browser and all of my electronic devices, which I why have chosen Kindle as the platform for the Fade to Lack e-book.

It will be exclusive to Kindle for the foreseeable future, but if there is interest in other e-book version, for Nook or iBooks, please let me know, and I may be able to release an edition for those readers sometime in the future. But for now, the book is a Kindle exclusive - although I have elected to make it DRM-free, both because DRM on e-books is silly and immoral, and because it may allow users of other platforms to put the file on their devices (wink, wink). All I ask is that you refrain from pirating the book.

If you would like to learn more about Fade to Lack, visit the book's website at www.fadetolack.com, or read this blog post I made about the book last month. For now, here is the description from the book's back cover:

Superheroes. 3D. Digital projection. The world of modern film is in a constant state of flux, and in a career that began at the age of ten in the pages of The Denver Post, critic Jonathan R. Lack has spent his adolescence and beyond writing about it all. Featuring over 50 full reviews, numerous in-depth analytical essays, and major, multi-chapter explorations of recent pop culture phenomena like Harry Potter, Twilight, and The Hunger Games, Fade to Lack – named for the author’s weekly print column in The Denver Post’s ‘YourHub’ section – offers an entertaining and insightful survey of contemporary American film, filtered through the journey of a critic who grew up studying this fascinating, evolving medium. 

Remember, you can also purchase Fade to Lack in paperback from Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and throughout Amazon Europe, all of which are offering the book for at least 10% off! And you can now visit my newly created Amazon Author page for further details and updates!

Read my tribute to the late Roger Ebert at We Got This Covered

It is a devastating day for film fans everywhere, as Roger Ebert has passed away at 70 from his long battle with cancer. He was a hero to me - just look at the title of this blog - and I had much to say about him.

For legal reasons, I cannot publish my piece on Ebert on two websites at once, so my tribute is now live at We Got This Covered, and you can read it by following this link:

A Tribute To Roger Ebert From a Lifelong Disciple  

Enjoy, and please share any thoughts you have on Ebert's passing here or at We Got This Covered in the comments. 

Announcing Book Signing for "Fade to Lack" on April 6th!

As you have hopefully heard by now, I recently published a book!  Fade to Lack: A Critic's Journey Through the World of Modern Film, a survey of contemporary American film related through my personal path as a young movie critic, is now available on Amazon.Com, and today, I have a very cool announcement to share with readers!

I will be hosting a book signing for Fade to Lack on Saturday, April 6th at 4:00 PM at Bean Fosters, a lovely, independently owned coffee and used book shop in Golden, Colorado (visit their official website here!).

Books will be available at the event for purchase (cash or check only, please), but you can of course buy your own copy first - from Amazon or directly from the publisher - just in case there are not enough copies on hand to go around. The event will last two hours, and I will be there the entire time to sign books, chat, and answer questions. Refreshments will be available from Bean Fosters.

If you can make it, I would love to see you there, and if you have any questions about the event beforehand, please feel free to shoot me an e-mail or leave a comment here at the blog.

Time: April 6th, 4:00 - 6:00 PM

Place: Bean Fosters (720 Golden Ridge Rd, Golden, CO, 80401)

Blu-Ray Review: A belated look at Japan’s exquisite “My Neighbor Totoro” release

Starting late last year, I began posting exhaustive, in-depth reviews of three Studio Ghibli Blu-Ray discs I received over Christmas, imported direct from Japan! Hayao Miyazaki is, of course, my very favorite filmmaker, and these official high-definition Ghibli releases are the absolute best ways to own his films on home video. These are special, high-quality releases, featuring dynamic, silhouette-based covers and a wide variety of extras, audio, and subtitle tracks. Each release is meant to be a definitive international home video archive for the film in question, but for English-speakers interested in importing the discs, it is a bit difficult to find extensive, quality information about them online.

Knowledge on Japanese releases can obviously be crucial when making purchasing decisions, and I have therefore been providing full reviews of the releases I own to offer as much information as possible to interested readers. Back in December I covered Kiki’s Delivery Service, and in January moved on to Howl’s Moving Castle. This last review from the first round of discs I received covers My Neighbor Totoro, and I hope to eventually cover other releases as time (and money) permit.

Begin reading the review after the jump…