the japanese are weird
"Tenrankai no E": if anyone just happens to have a copy of this, please let me know. I've been looking everywhere for a place that sells it, but it's kinda obscure and from the 60's (don't know if that has anything to do with me not finding it). I have the movie on VHS, but it's starting to age and play static at inappropriate times.The movie is like, my childhood. It's a cartoon sequence of a Japanese studio's take on Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition," and it's soooooooo trippy. Seriously, some of the sequences involve a plastic surgeous putting a woman's thighs in a pencil sharpener to make them thinner; a "beatnik" version of the "Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks" with a chick smoking a cigarette; and zen priest who does nothing but sit still the entire song, then breaks out into a yawn.
Actually, I can think of one more movie that I've watched more times than "Tenrankai no E," and that was "Allegro non troppo." It's like a European version of "Fantasia" but far more sexual and weird. For instance, Ravel's "Bolero" is portrayed as the beginning of existence, starting with a slimy worm thing evolving into the species we see and know now. One of my favorite sequences is a really kooky interpretation of Adam and Eve in which the snake eats the apple and learns about sex and how to dress appropriately. He gets eaten by this weird monster figure and comes out in a suit and tie and actually kinda cute.
When I watched these two films for the first time, I was still in elementary school. Even though I was probably still taping "Power Rangers" and "Ninja Turtles," I was somehow aware that the two movies were important in some way or another. So I watched them--over and over and over and over such that if I think hard enough, I'm pretty sure I can replay the entire movie in my head.
I'm also pretty sure "Allegro non troppo" is the reason why I never understood why kids cried over Bambi's mom or Mufasa's death. For the Sibelius piece, we see a particularly heartwrenching sequence of a starving cat who wistfully haunts an abandoned building in search of company and food. I think that was the first time I became aware of the concept of "loneliness," which is so hard to describe when you're a kid. And for some reason, the ups and downs in the piece--paired with the cat's ghostly fantasies of family and acceptance--made me realize that compared to loneliness, maybe death really isn't so bad.
So again, if anyone happens to have the DVD of either movie (or knows where to buy it), please let me know, and I'll be eternally grateful.
posted by Tiffany @ 11:39 PM
1 Comments:
M. Knight Shamalan (sp) also thinks that loneliness is worst than death. That's why his movies have a theme about loneliness and isolation. I read that in Glamour today at the gym.
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