Hara Kiri (original title: Seppuku) | Masaki Kobayshi | 1962 | Japan | Format: 35mm | 133 min
After re-watching it again, I'm ready to declare this film classic as one of my top 5 films of all time and the best samurai film I've ever seen (Sword of Doom, also starring Tatsuya Nakadai, comes at a close second). This one has it all though: a great plot, hypnotic acting, poetic cinematography, poignant use of sound and editing, thrilling fight scenes... Kobayashi brought his A+ game on this one.
Seriously, this film left me in a state of awe...
Oh, the still long shots,
the compositions,
the use of angles and zooms,
the ironic revelation of samurai honor and political facade,
the sentimentality and humanity,
the tension -- Wow!
By the way, I love the self-reflexive meta moment around 2:34 of this trailer. And I am convinced Tatsuya Nakadai would have played the ultimate Itto Ogami.
And here's Roger Ebert with more thoughts on Hara Kiri.
After writing an earlier post about panantukan, I had to revisit this amazing and effective martial art because panantukan was the art that made me fall in love with boxing [again*]. It was also the bridge that helped me connect all the other elements of jeet kune do (primarily, trapping, muay thai and grappling) into one fluid fighting whole. With panantukan as my bridge and my base, I could flow with more confidence in my trapping when I started inserting panantukan elements into it, overwhelm my opponents with panantukan combos, destructions and grabs when I boxed them and confound my opponents by inserting panantukan techniques in surprising ways when I kick-boxed or grappled them.
I'm always amused at the fact that I only took panantukan classes in my early days of training (when I was training 5-6 days a week) after avoiding the class for months because it sounded weird and unnecessary to me. I would do nothing during the hour that the class took place except walk around Herald Square or go to Barnes and Noble until I figured more training is better than no training. So, I started taking it to do something (plus, I liked hanging out with the guys in the school... oh the good ol' days). The rest is history and I aborbed panantukan like a sponge. It formed the basis for many of the techniques I use in my book, MMA Fighting Techniques.
*I grew up watching boxing with my dad but stopped watching them after I saw Rocky 2 and 3. After Rocky, the fights we enjoyed together just couldn't live up to the epic melodrama I had seen unfold on the silver screen. Brainwashed by "professional" wrestling, kung fu and action movies, I was disappointed to find that real boxers did not have the physique, choreography and brute force displayed by the likes of Rocky. All of a sudden all that jabbing and dancing around the ring seemed boring and the combo flurries moved too quickly to register in my mind as anything but a blur-- I wanted comebacks-from-the-brink-of-death-knockouts or, somehow, a ninja front flip straight cross KO, dammit!
Academy of Jeet Kune Do Fighting Technology has a great article on the historical intersection of western boxing and panantukan and a great primer on a panantukan curriculum. Click below for the Guro Dan Inosanto-inspired curriculum they posted.
Reposted in full from my other blog:
lol...But seriously...
What filmmaker doesn't want to see themselves before a room of studio executives or company producers pitching a hot new movie idea? The unprepared, boring, nervous one doesn't.
But you won't be that filmmaker, right?! Say what you will about the mailroom kid in the skit above but, at least, he was prepared, passionate and enthusiastic.
Pitching is part of the job for beginners and veterans alike so it's important to hone and maintain your skills. There are some producers and screenwriters out there whose main (and only) skill is in pitching ideas and they get paid whether or not the movie gets made. Of course, you want to do more than just collect a check for an idea or a spec script, you want to make the movie. But it still starts with the pitch and you have to sell it.
Start practicing now:
- Concise and informative information on the TEASER PITCH and the STORY PITCH
- What sets a film or TV pilot PITCH apart from a SYNOPSIS (according to Ken Levine)? [Aside: Although I understand, pitching as a form of job interview where execs and producers will decide if they want to work with you on a project as much as it is about selling the project, I do love Troy's point in the comments section; "Why do writers have to pitch (orally) at all? ...Writers write. Most aren't concurrently great at pitching - though yes, you can get better at it with practice and Ken's tips. So what's wrong with that? What's wrong is that we (Hollywood, the audience) reap what we sow: Movies and TV shows originated by great pitchers... but not necessarily great writers. Which explains alot about movies and TV. -- there's food for thought]
- 5 Tips on pitching a movie
- 5 MORE Tips on pitching a movie (especially a comedy movie) [I know one of the tips here contradicts one of Ken's points about not laughing at your jokes during your pitch but I think it's a matter of how you laugh and appearing genuine as opposed to coming off like a silly and obnoxious monkey trying too hard to make 'em laugh.]
- Transcripts of story pitches developed by Christopher and Kathleen Riley [please note, I am only posting their transcripts as reference not as an endorsement of their consultation. Like any good producer would, please do your due diligence when seeking script consultation]:
Plus for all you visual and auditory learners out there, here's a cross-section of some additional advice videos on how to pitch a movie and who to pitch it to.
