King Kong, The Trials of Henry Kissinger, The Pornographers, American Dreamz, & Memoirs of a Geisha

King Kong is three hours of boring action scene after boring action scene, with a strong hint of extreme colonialism liberally sprinkled throughout. Maybe Peter Jackson loves the film and has been wanting to make the film for years, but that only comes out at all in that the film is indulgently long. Not a bad film by any means, just utterly unnecessary.

The Trials of Henry Kissinger makes me sort of like Christopher Hitchens. Which is saying something, considering what a drunk-ass former commie war apologist he is now. But Eugene Jarecki, director of Why We Fight does a very good job with an extremely biased film, pointing out just how evil Kissinger is. Because he's really, really freaking evil. It's a well-put together film, plus frequently funny, as well as frustrating. That anyone can think of Kissinger as anything other than a war criminal who cost thousands of American lives, let alone the Vietnamese and Chileans killed due to his manipulations, is one of the worst aspects of the right. Trying to rehabilitate all those criminals from Watergate, Vietnam, and Iran-Contra is offensive.

The Pornographers is based on a novel by Akiyuki Nosaka, who also wrote the novel Grave of the Fireflies (made into one of the best non-Miyazaki animated films ever made). It's directed by Shohei Imamura (Dr. Akagi, 11/09/01, and Warm Water under a Red Bridge), and consequently it's all about sex in Japanese society. The book is episodic, but extremely hilarious, and I don't entirely agree with some of the changes to the story (I liked the pornographic novel writer who only knew if what he was writing was good if he got himself off, the sex doll section was far more important, and the intimations of father-daughter incest are far more restrained, and I'm not sure why there needed to be a son in the family as well). Much was excised for length reasons, but adding the son seemed to be more about social satire. Given the changes, the film still skewers the hypocrisy inherent within Japanese society effectively. I do wish that there were actual extras on the disc, as just a trailer was disappointing. Just because I've read the book doesn't mean I don't want to listen to anyone talking about the film. Unfortunately, the film just doesn't work as well as the novel. The extra characterization possible allows for the episodic nature to gain added resonance because of the extra emotional connection available. We're just a little too detached from Ogata in movie form.

American Dreamz is a little satire that should have been better. Yeah, making fun of Bush and American Idol is funny, but the film dragged quite a bit. I wish that everything had been better, and that Adam Busch had gotten more scenes. I am all for more Jews getting play from lots of women on screen. Good cast, though.

Memoirs of a Geisha is one of those films that, were I really an Asian fetishist, I would have loved. With Zhang Ziyi, Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh, and Youki Kudoh, four of my personal favorite Asian actresses, I should have liked it. But the whole "We can't find any Japanese actresses (besides Kudoh), so we'll put a bunch of Chinese (and a Malaysian) actresses in the main roles, and no one will ever know the difference" is just so offensive to so many people. Plus, the film is absolutely gorgeous, clearly very expensive, and deserved the Oscars it got. If only the film itself were better. I imagine the book is quite good, based on reputation, but I just kept thinking about how this was all a lot of money spent on a film that was never going to do well. Hire a bunch of people who can't speak English to speak English and you'll get some stilted performances. Also, far too long.