TV/Movies Megathread

[Admiral Yi]

I watched Downton Abbey twice through.  The upstairs romances are maudlin, the downstairs romances are touching.  The man and lady of the house are a little too perfect for you class warriors, but there are plenty of dickhead nobles to even things out.

[Savonarola]

Lady Snowblood (1973)

I don't care what anybody says, any films in which they shove an eight year old girl into a barrel and roll her down a hill just to toughen her up is okay with me.

At the beginning of the Meiji era a group of fraudsters murders the new teacher in their village; accusing him of being a conscription officer.  Then they murder his child and gang-rape his wife.  She kills one of her assailants and gets sent to prison.  There she seduces one prison guard after another until one of them knocks her up.  She dies in childbirth but gives instructions to the women in prison that her child is to be an Asura Demon and exact vengeance on three surviving murderers.  The child is sent to a Shinto priest who trains her by rolling her down a hill in the aforementioned barrel, or sword fighting her with live steel.  She survives her training and then hunts down the remaining assailants and kills them in a series of increasingly exciting sword fight.

This was one of the main inspirations for Kill Bill; Tarantino even uses one of the songs from the film in Kill Bill and one of the lines in translation is "You and I have unfinished business".  I also see how he got the idea for combining Samurai films with Spaghetti Westerns; as the setup is very similar to the Lee Van Cleef Death Rides a Horse^1. even the number of assailants is the same (Kill Bill upgrades the number of targets to revenge to five from four). 

The film is a little more sophisticated than most chambara pictures.  The setting of a country in transition and how it's modernizing (and militarizing) in large part drives of the plot.

1.) And, yes, I've seen an awful lot of B movies (though nowhere near as many as Quentin Tarantino.)  Writing that I was reminded of a conversation that I had with my brother, where I described the plot to Six String Samurai and asked him if he remembered watching it.  He replied, "No, but that does sound like something we would have watched."

[Josquius]

I remember Lady Snowblood. I think it was in a "Cool foreign films that influenced Kill Bill" box set, in Game of Death tracksuit colours, that I got cheap back when DVDs were a thing.

[Eddie Teach]

The Samurai + western formula had already been perfected by Kurosawa.

[celedhring]

The Samurai + western formula had already been perfected by Kurosawa.

I made a samurai film marathon this summer. And while I agree, there are other films from less known directors that are absolute gems. The stuff from Gosha, for example (Three Outlaw Samurai, Sword of the Beast, Goyokin).

[mongers]

The Samurai + western formula had already been perfected by Kurosawa.

He also did Samurai + Shakespeare, well at least that's my take having watched 'Kagemusha' last night?

[mongers]

Also is the 'Handmaiden's Tale' with Duvall, Dunaway and Richardson a good substitute for the TV series?

[crazy canuck]

The movie is more faithful to the book, the TV series riffs off the book.

You could watch both and see different stories.

[mongers]

The movie is more faithful to the book, the TV series riffs off the book.

You could watch both and see different stories.

Thanks CC I'll consider the CV series, just need to find some more viewing time. 

[celedhring]

Also, only the first season adapts the book (and it's by far the best season). The rest is new material.

[mongers]

Also, only the first season adapts the book (and it's by far the best season). The rest is new material.

Thanks, I'll watch it over the hols. 

[mongers]

Watched 'The Nice Guys' last night, thoroughly good entertainment and the teenage kid was especially well acted.

[Syt]

German Tank Museum does an analysis of the tank war story from Battlefield 1. Been a while since I played it, but watching it, I was like, "Wait, that tank driver main character looks like the guy who played Picard's son in Picard S3 ..."

Turns out - same guy, Ed Speleers.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1968873/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t19

Speaks for the graphical quality of the game, I guess (it's from 2016).

[Oexmelin]

I have watched Dryer's The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) for the first time. It was presented by our medieval historian at our historical cine-club.

I have been deeply moved and shaken by that movie. A masterpiece. You forget at times most of these actors - stage-trained, or starring in silent movies - had never been filmed so close. The guy playing Bishop Cauchon was born during the Second Republic, and served during the Franco-Prussian war...   

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Watched 'the wild robot' with the kid yesterday.
That was an unexpected enjoyable experience. Quite wholesome, and visually stunning.
A nice dreamworks product.