Memories Of Matsuko

[Azyiu]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

Hey, the Lakers fans are in the house

You are welcome

Pro-B

Right on!

Hey, slightly off topic, do you know if any studio would release this 2003 film Collage of Our Lives (恋愛寫眞) on BD? I absolutely love this movie!

[toddly6666]

It's a bit better than Kamikaze Girls, but Matsuko is still a pretty awful film. Before I had seen Kamikaze Girls or Matsuko, they both looked like fun visual-eye candy films. But without a well-written story in both of them, they just come across as boring, shallow, and empty. The director has excellent skills as a director of commercials, but not for movies. Tetsuya Nakashima ain't no Japanese David Fincher or Jean Pierre Jeunet, that's for sure!

[pro-bassoonist]

Originally Posted by toddly6666

It's a bit better than Kamikaze Girls, but Matsuko is still a pretty awful film. Before I had seen Kamikaze Girls or Matsuko, they both looked like fun visual-eye candy films. But without a well-written story in both of them, they just come across as boring, shallow, and empty. The director has excellent skills as a director of commercials, but not for movies. Tetsuya Nakashima ain't no Japanese David Fincher or Jean Pierre Jeunet, that's for sure!

I am going to have to strongly disagree with you. I thought that the film was very well made, and certainly a lot more inventive than anything Fincher and Jeunet have made (Amelie included, because you knew well what motivated the heroine, as well as the type of emotions the main protagonists dealt with). Memories of Matsuko is next to impossible to predict as far as emotions are concerned; it really is a strictly Japanese affair, which makes it so fascinating to behold.

Pro-B

[PGW]

I also think Toddly6666 is about as far off the mark as you can get... but, then again, I can only imagine what MoM would do to someone going into it for "fun."

Personally, it's one of my favorite films - and after a half dozen viewings I'm STILL picking up things I missed. Far from "lacking a story," it's a film whose story (and emotions) can be followed at a variety of different levels. I would imagine there are people out there who might consider it a musical. In reading people's reviews, it's clear that some find it the most depressing film they've ever seen. Some, however, find it uplifting. Almost everyone agrees it's a visually spectacular, brazen, highly original and incredibly emotional piece of film-making.

[Azyiu]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

Unfortunately I have not seen any preliminary info for a possible Blu-ray release.

Pro-B

Darn it! It is one of my all-time fav Japanese films...

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

I am going to have to strongly disagree with you. I thought that the film was very well made, and certainly a lot more inventive than anything Fincher and Jeunet have made (Amelie included, because you knew well what motivated the heroine, as well as the type of emotions the main protagonists dealt with). Memories of Matsuko is next to impossible to predict as far as emotions are concerned; it really is a strictly Japanese affair, which makes it so fascinating to behold.

Pro-B

I will still definitely blind buy it. If I don't see it in store here in HK, I will order it from Amazon UK.

[PGW]

I watched the blu-ray last night.

It's difficult to evaluate the picture quality because so much post-processing and saturation has been done, but I A/B'd it to the HK DVD and there's a big improvement in sharpness and detail.

I was a little let down by the subtitles, to tell you the truth. It appears they simply used the same subs as the HK release. It's not that big a deal because those were generally pretty good, but there are spots where song lyrics aren't translated, and there are many instances during the songs where there are superimposed Japanese and English lyrics on the screen, and the blu-ray subtitles are plopped right on top of them, making them hard to read (it would have been nice if they could have moved the new subs to a different spot).

[xradman]

Originally Posted by PGW

I watched the blu-ray last night.

It's difficult to evaluate the picture quality because so much post-processing and saturation has been done, but I A/B'd it to the HK DVD and there's a big improvement in sharpness and detail.

I was a little let down by the subtitles, to tell you the truth. It appears they simply used the same subs as the HK release. It's not that big a deal because those were generally pretty good, but there are spots where song lyrics aren't translated, and there are many instances during the songs where there are superimposed Japanese and English lyrics on the screen, and the blu-ray subtitles are plopped right on top of them, making them hard to read (it would have been nice if they could have moved the new subs to a different spot).

I thought the sharpness and detail were pretty good. As far as subtitles are concerned, superimposing English subtitles for English lyrics seem pretty redundant, especially since the singer's pronunciation wasn't too bad.

[pro-bassoonist]

Originally Posted by Azyiu

Hey, slightly off topic, do you know if any studio would release this 2003 film Collage of Our Lives (恋愛寫眞) on BD? I absolutely love this movie!

Unfortunately I have not seen any preliminary info for a possible Blu-ray release.

Pro-B