late b'day gifts

[waider]

I was going to make a list of the various things I got for my birthday, but neglected to do so, and now I can't be bothered. I will mention the late but welcome arrival of stuff from my Amazon wishlist courtesy of Donal and Shar; the two videos of The Singing Detective, and a DVD copy of Seven Samurai. Being nothing if not a slacker, I've watched the lot already. The Singing Detective had an entire subplot I'd forgotten about when I was watching it as a mini-series, and I don't quite understand the ending, but that's cos I'm THICK. Seven Samurai, well, it's long - 190 minutes - it's gritty, and it's surprisingly funny. Toshiro Mifune spends a lot of time with his ass quite literally hanging out, scratching himself and being the clown character who inevitably does something heroic before the end of the movie. The grittiness lends an extraordinary realism to the movie that no amount of special effects could have provided - you really get the sense that this was filmed not in the 1950s but in mediæval Japan.

Comments

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

Seven Samurai is one of my favorite movies.

[waider.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I'd go that far, but on the other hand, I have no idea what my favourite movie is. It'd be sort of like trying to pick a favourite book or a favourite song, and that just ain't happenin' for me.

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't have a single favorite of anything, and my lists of favorite things change yearly at least. For instance, right now Hedningarna is one of my favorite bands, but I'd never heard of them a year ago.

Since I first saw Seven Samurai many years ago and still love it (though I don't watch it often cause it's so long), I feel pretty comfortable ranking it among favorites, tho.