no problem. Like I said, man, it's a HUGE inspiration on my films (just watch currently untitled and me, myself, and my third eye, it influenced those big time). THANK YOU for the o'rourke essay -- I had NO IDEA he was into that film! He likes good stuff; Eureka (2000, not the Roeg one, even though he named his album after the Roeg one.. weird), Blow Out (another top 10 film of mine; he sampled it for an experimental film he did. Yeah he sampled the movie Blow out)... he loves Antonioni too... but yeah, back to FUNERAL PARADE/PROCESSION/whatever... it, along with PIERROT LE FOU, is why I made movies. I would have never even thought of making films until I saw it. DAISIES is probably up there too (and LOVE IS COLDER THAN DEATH... and Evangelion/Paranoia Agent) as the films that made me go, "Holy shit. I want to do this."

Anyway, to see another film that influenced me greatly, one that's even better, see PASTORAL TO DIE IN THE COUNTRY, and see THROW AWAY YOUR BOOKS AND RALLY IN THE STREETS, both by Shuji Terayama who I know I just go on and on about. He's a contemporary to Toshio Matsumoto. The Japanese new wave was AMAZING, definitely my favorite films ever.

You might have seen some of these but here are my 3 favorite Japanese new wave shorts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNshDaTJ2BI = toshio matsumoto's "Phantom", my favorite short ever and was a huge infleunce on my film NOTHING IS MOREW BEAUTIFUL THAN NOTHING.

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFIPKV__LMw = twilight by tengei amano. SO beautiful... okay, just clicked and it looks like it got deleted for copyright infringement (in some countries; it's viewable elsewhere still,t hough. Okay?!).. Okay, I'm sure it's on surrealmoviez.. it's def. on karagarga... I will up it to CINEMAGEDDON soon definitely.

3. http://www.viddler.com/explore/ManooN/videos/1/ = Nobukiko Oboyashi's "Emotion". .. director of HAUSU

here's a few more fun vids for y'all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ8Zh6AHNVg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWvOVnCoz48
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y5AxLiUqC8

Haha, that's exactly what I thought after watching Dead Alive for the first time!




*******

But no, Ghostchase, you absolutely need to see Daisies next (or soon...whatever) if you haven't already watched it. I haven't watched Funeral Processions of Roses (or whatever :o ) yet, but Daisies (aka Sedmikrasky) will blow your mind. That's a fact.

yeah, DAISIES is unbelievable, obviously the colors and editing are a huge influence on me.

and like I've said before, DEAD ALIVE is (next to evil dead 2 and maniac) my favorite horror film of all time. I can't imagine horror films getting any better. I like how they don't really make many gore films anymore. THey've given up. How could they ever top DEAD ALIVE?

Ditto me after watching Return of the Living Dead.

Dr. Eugene... I love Pieces. Have you seen Slugs? Same director. Equally awesome.

what a great fucking movie! loved the shit out of it. very french. 9/10 maybe.

Sedmikrasky eh? Whoa.. looks right up my alley. Will watch it asap!

A Single Man

Oh god, I havent bawled my eyes out like that in a while. Mostly because I cant. So this was good !

Yeah Pieces is great! Haha I've seen it like 4 times now. I haven't watched Slugs yet... I'm assuming I'd love it.

atsonicpark, how Beat's film "Brother" saw that up on Netflix? Gonna watch it

I'm not atsonicpark but it's as good as an Americanised Kitano movie can get.

Meh, Brother and Zatoichi are my least favorites, by far.

I actually love PIECES. I sampled it for MAN OF THE GRAVEYARD MAN, the same shot that used to be my avatar, kinda looks like a silhouette of Jandek.

I can understand 'Zatoichi'... but you'd take 'Getting Any?' over Brother? I mean, 'Brother' isn't too great but I found it a lot more engrossing than 'Getting Any?'.

Yeah, Getting Any? is hilarious and brilliant. Probably one of the ultimate Kitano films. Love the pacing and style. Watch it again. I used to think Boiling Point was his worse but it's now one of my favorites.

Brother is one I just hated, despite it having some of the best music in any movie, ever. Besides that, the scene with the paper airplane was my favorite scene in any Kitano film, besides the scene where the girl walks by the masks and those multi-colored paper fans that were all spinning in DOLLS (which I contend is one of the most beautiful films ever).

However, 2 things:THere's apparently a DRASTICALLY different Japanese version I haven't seen, that's supposedly a billion times better, according to the few people who have seen both. I have never found a .torrent of it, so I'm thinking of buying it.

Second, it works really well if you realize that art was imitating reality. I didn't realize it at first, until after seeing TAKESHIS' and GLORY.. that whole meta/self-referential/self-reflective REFLEXIVE style and all is not uncommon to Kitano, who not only references his old films, he even puts clips from his old films in his new films (see that short he made with the guy watching KIDS RETURN, which was recently voted in some Japanese magazine as the 12th greatest film in the history of Japan -- weird, considering I would consider that at the lower end of Kitano's filmography). He certainly puts scenes from old films in new films; Takeshis' is almost a greatest his of his scenes (gotta love the scene on the beach where he shoots everyone in the world with a machine gun for 10 minutes... the references to past works is numerous.. okay, it's on a BEACH.. the machine gun shooting is exactly like BOILING POINT, BROTHER, and SONATINE.. he shoots SAMURAIS -- Zatoichi -- and YAKUZA men -- most of his films .. and cops... plus, obviously, it's on the BEACH. I already said that. But... isn't it funny that the only movie without "a scene at a sea" is Achilles an the Tortoise? Yet, if you look REALLY close, in ONE scene, you can see a sea in a painting.. brilliant).

Anyway, it acts as 1) a parody of his previous work, 2) a remake of his previous work (mainly Sonatine), and 3) Kitano trying to understand America. In real life and in film. This goes with the parody thing (it isn't a coincedence that it's his most violent film -- also, who can forget that hilariously WRONG ending, easily the worst/stupidest/most hilariously bad thing Kitano has ever filmed). I think it was Kitano saying, "I don't get America. I'm gong to start filming the film my way." and then halfway through, plagued with production fuck-ups (keep in mind, Kitano never films with a completed script), he said, "Okay, America, here, I'm going to make an 'American film' and just get it over with." I could be completely wrong, but ... a Japanese dude who can't speak English, leading a bunch of basketball playing black dudes who he meets in a ghetto? And then, there's the scenes ripped straght out of Sonatine which are just bizarre, and you know that dude who's in EVERY Kitano film (aside from OUTRAGE...)? Ken whatever.. or Ren... Ren Oyishi or some shit? You know the guy. Anyway, he's in this for a few minutes, and he kills himself almost immediately. He says some nonsense about honor and death and strangely/gruesomely blows his brains out in front of everyone and gets blood and brain matter on the rival mafia boss.

...So, if viewing BROTHER as some kind of weird experiment, it's kinda cool, and is the only way I can appreciate what amounts to 2 hours of tedium.

As for ZATOICHI, it isn't a Kitano film, imo, it is nothing like one for starters, and it's just.. boring.

saw black swan which was very good, really enjoyed it then recently watched amadeus. again very good.