#japanese short film

[wanderlust-in-my-soul]

Old Narcissus

Category: Short Film Country: Japan Where to watch?: GagaOOLala Year: 2017 Finished: 30.05.2023

Every now and then I search through Gaga’s leaving soon section and watch random stuff. And once in a while I am sitting in front of my PC and thinking what the fuck have I just watched? This is one of those days! Biggest spoiler alert!

Bag moth Monta. Monta is alone again today. Blown by the wind since birth. Where are your mom and dad? Blown softly by the spring wind. Baby Monta flew away. Goodbye to his brothers. Bag moth Monta alone in is home of small branches he picked up. The tree leaves go red and then his friends just left. Beetle said winter’s coming and flew to the east. He was all alone after all. He picked up fallen leaves, his home of crimson maple.

Old Narcissus tells us the story about an old picture book writer and his obsession with his own beauty and his need of pain to feel sexual fulfilled. When he was a young man he liked to be tortured by older and not so, well, beautiful men. Then the pain became pleasure. Now that he himself is old, he wants to feel this pleasure again, but robbed of his own beauty, he can’t really enjoy the gift which young Leo is giving him, whipping his ass as if there is no tomorrow. That’s when our old picture book writer faints. Afterwards they share a nice moment and a good conversation about the picture book about a moth. Leo doesn’t want to charge him any money and they change Line-IDs.

When our old picture book writer is on his way back home, he meets a homeless man, aesthetically not very pleasing and the kind of man, our writer would have loved as a young man. And with that he gives the homeless guy money and is willing to be bound with handcuffs on a rooftop, by a total stranger, to be beaten with the paddle. But the homeless dude doesn’t give a fuck about what our writer wants and just beats him up and robs him in the end. Luckily, he had exchanged the Line-ID before and now he can text Leo for help…with his tongue…A picture I won’t forget that soon (I don’t like other people’s salvia, it grosses me out).

Leo comes to the rescue, exact at the moment when our writer tries to jump from the roof. They scream and fight and Leo claps the writer’s ass till he gives up and both are exhausted.

It sounds like a wild ride, and to be fair, it is. It shows how transient beauty is. And how hard it can be for people to get old. Especially people whose biggest joy was their own beauty. Not just the biggest joy, but their biggest pleasure giver. And now everyone is more beautiful than you and you are just one of those hideous old men to whom you have always felt superior.

And for Leo, our writer is kind of a father figure. His own father ended his own life and the writer’s book was something that helped him through dark times.

Both are kind of lost in this world and could give each other some support while struggling.   

In the end it is not a bad short film. It had some issues and flaws, but it was not bad.

[iloveabortions]

‘Katatsumori’ (1994) dir. Naomi Kawase

[53v3nfrn5]

1001 Nights (1998) Yoshitaka Amano

[tangledinourstrings]

ベルトかいじゅう王子 (Belle to Kaijuu Ouji, 1976) directed by 渡辺和彦 (Kazuhiko Watanabe)

[gebo4482]

I really like FAKE DOCUMENTARY “Q”

[disease]

JAPAN, ANSWER IN THE ORI*NT [1965]

[cinesoleil]

april story (1998)

[days-of-storm]

Masterpost of the “Your Necktie is Crooked” PerthLay shorts by Ayano Ikeda

Original short film: "Your Necktie is Crooked" (ネクタイ曲がって , put together from the three clips: 1, 2 and 3)

Sequel “1 Month Anniversary”

Final Short “What Did You Just Say?”

[lostinmac]

A Summer Solstice Story (2023)

Dir. Shunji Iwai

[matyas-ss]

Puparia (2020)

Directed by Shingo Tamagawa

[ahjong]

IN HEAVEN (1988) dir. Jun Kurosawa

[takashimatsuyama]

Shortfilm Ki Re Tsu

[antinousamongthereeds]

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

Okay, hear me out on this: “Short Round - An Indiana Jones Story”.

Ke Huy Quan is obviously the lead. At this point in the timeline, Short Round is an adventurer in his own right, although he still wears his signature baseball cap.

Michelle Yeoh is the co-lead/love interest. For their dynamic, think Indy and Marion Ravenwood. Or Nathan Drake and Elena.

Chloe Bennet is the tritagonist. She plays an orphan who joins Short Round on his journey and later learns that she is his long-lost daughter.

Kento Yamazaki is the main antagonist. He plays a ruthless Yakuza boss who wants to destroy his rivals with the mythical item that Short Round is looking for.

Destin Daniel Cretton is the director.

Show is mostly set in 1960s Japan. The mythical item being sought is the “Cursed Sword of Muramasa”, a katana with magical properties, but curses the user with madness and a thirst for blood.

[gebo4482]

I really like FAKE DOCUMENTARY "Q"

[phantomladyoverparis]

Town Workers (2014), dir. Shunji Iwai