Thursday, May 11, 2006

Just call me Random Vegetation Sanjuro

Yeah, so I'm currently obsessed with Kurosawa samurai movies. STOP JUDGING ME!

Today I watched both Yojimbo (the bodyguard) and Sanjuro, movies linked only by Mifune's character whose name is *random vegetation name* Sanjuro. "Going on 40". Sorry, you gotta watch both to get it. I think I enjoyed Yojimbo more for the plot and intrigue and "lone wolf" feel, and Sanjuro for the combat and dynamic between Mifune's character and the 9 sword-bungling youngsters whose asses he constantly pulls out of the fire. In Yojimbo, Sanjuro enters a random town and swaps his tentative services between two rival gang leaders, turning the town against itself to punish the evils that have taken root there. Sanjuro sees the same character coming to the aid (very randomly) of 9 fumbling but well-meaning swordsmen who are trying to free a chancellor who was framed by a colleague. Think Han Solo helping NINE dopey Luke Skywalkers... :-)

I'll shut up now. But before I do, I'm going to change my name to Oaktree Twenty-Seven, Going On Thirty. (I'm still chuckling)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

But I like judging you. It makes me feel complete...

P.S. You're very cute when you get excited about something!

Wayward Mind said...

I just can't get over what Kurosawa does. Freakin' amazing. For instance, in a shot in Seven Samurai, one of the samurai is drawing a bow. As he draws in the foreground, villagers are retreating in the background. The moment of release, and the villagers are suddenly back on the offensive, perfectly sync'd to the movements of the bowstring. Perfectly choreographed, perfectly timed, and while they're all standing in 5" of mud in a downpour.

If a movie could be a person, Seven Samurai would have a huge ass restraining order on me. :D

Anonymous said...

Woah - I was thinking today, has it been 7-9 weeks yet? I thought I might have missed you before you left!

Any specific date yet?

Wayward Mind said...

Looking at one opportunity right now in Tatsukawa, Kagawa prefecture, Shikoku. It's August, but negotiable.

The process is a tad more intensive than I had thought. :)

Anonymous said...

Phew - I thought I was gonna miss you. I've been crazy busy since the start of May, but it's all good. Let me know when you'll have a night to hook up.