RIFLE RANGE BOY

Le Samourai (The Samurai; 1967) Director: Jean-Pierre Melville The film title card starts with a fabricated quote from Bushido, the moral code of the samurai. It says,  "There is no greater solitude than that of the samurai, unless it is that of the tiger in the jungle… perhaps". Miyamoto Musashi, probably Japan's foremost samurai swordsman of the late 16th century, is said to have said this, among other things. He describes the solitary path to success as being filled with loneliness. Solitude accompanies the path to success. He further goes on to say, in one of the books that he had written, that solitude shapes, moulds, and builds character all along our journey to success. Does this go against the grain of what we have been taught? We had been told that we are social animals and that a man is not an island. Social interaction is essential for mental health, and a child turns out to be developmentally stunted without the tactile stimulation of his loved ones. On the ot...

Kuroneko (@ Black Cat, Japanese; 1968) Director:  Kaneto Shindō Thinking about it, primitive societies of yesteryears were run mainly by female tribe members. The male members were mostly out of the scene most of the time. Some may have been out hunting for food during their caveman days. In more civil societies, when aristocracy ruled the day, the male members needed to do their national services. Many left for months or even years together to fight wars. Children mostly grow up with absent fathers.  Wives led the pack in their day-to-day running of the family unit. Men were left to make many life-changing decisions like defence, security, foreign relations and food security. Guarding the household is no small feat. Nature is very unwelcoming and hostile. Torrential rains, storms, extreme temperatures and wild beasts frequently harass their abode. So, the female species was not as fragile as modern man had made them out to be. They are actually more robust than the world cred...

Onibaba (Japanese, 1964) Director: Kaneto Shindō Many stories tell us to be wary of the company we keep with. Like how Amma frequently reminds us, a calf, if it moves around with piglets, will eventually join the piglets and source its daily meals from the rubbish dump. An animal, placed high in Hindu society, will ultimately do unholy things depending on the company it keeps.  There is something special about black-and-white movies and the horror genre. It reminds me of my childhood, when my sisters and I would flock around our home 16" TV, squinting to watch RTM's Friday offering of  Cerita Pontianak . Even the poor makeup of Pontianak would scare the living daylights out of my sister. She would even be scared to enter the kitchen. To make it worse, I would hide around the corner and jump suddenly in front of her, making her scream! Onibaba is a classic Japanese movie set in the Samurai era. Times are bad. All the territories are at loggerheads; all men are out to fight, and...

Ugetsu Monogatari (Japanese,   雨月物語 ,  Rain-Moon Tales; 1953) Director : Kenji Mizoguchi Geopolitical strategists will want us to believe that war is a necessary evil the human race must endure to advance. For a nation, a race or whatever name we give to a group of people with the same thinking to survive, they must engage in combat to stay relevant. Failing which, their ideology will have to change to suit the aspirations of the victors. Again and again, we see wars are started by great powers to create business. The whole military-industrial complex thrives on it. Citizens sleep well, knowing their neighbours will not overpower them anytime soon. Leaders think they are serving the nation excellently by marching into wars. They purposely overlook the pain, destruction, sorrow and inner demons that it brings out to devastate humanity. Families are torn apart. Food production is disrupted. Peace of mind is broken into pieces. Social mores are shredded. Human values take a backs...

Sansho the Bailiff ( 山椒大夫, Japanese; 1954) Director: Kenji Mizoguchi At the outset, we are told the story occurred in "an era when mankind had not yet awakened as human beings." I pictured that time can any time in Man's history. We just have yet to awaken. We can scream all we want that all Men are created equal in the image of God and whatnot, but the fact is that people always try to dominate each other. Humans always try to be one up against their neighbour and, if possible, push him down an imaginary hierarchy. Even before the mass transatlantic migration of slaves from Africa to the New World, slavery was already very much alive in every civilisation. There was a penchant for white slaves as brown people (read Arabic) prospered. The Vikings and Barbers were famous for the trade of white slaves. Some were captured crew members of small ship-jacked vessels. Others were bundled up when pirates landed on shores to snap up unassuming bystanders. There are stories of pira...

Throne of Blood ( 蜘蛛巣城   Kumonosu-jô,  Spider's Web Castle, 1957; Japanese) Written and Direction by: Akira Kurusawa Since I have not been lucky enough to endowed in an environment splashed with culture and art, nevertheless, I try to educate and enrich the right side of the brain through the back door. Instead of reading and digesting the moth filled papyrus scrolls, I choose to watch movies instead. Through my latest escapade, I managed to venture into Shakespeare's darkest tragedy, Macbeth. This, I discovered about watching Kurosawa's 1957 offering of 'Kumonosu-jo', which is quite closely based on the former. The story is set in the 16th century feudal Japan, a tumultuous and violent times indeed. Washizu and Miki are victorious generals returning to meet their Lord in Spider's Web Castle through a fog filled forests only to be lost and to come face to face with a spirit. Unprovoked, the spirit foretold their futures, that Washiku would be a Commander...

Sanjûrô (椿三十郎, Japanese; 1962) Director: Akira Kurosawa This film is actually a sequel to Kurosawa's 1961 release of  Yojimbo . In fact, this one is more entertaining than the former. It is not as violent, and the samurais here use wits and trickery to outbid their opponents rather than brute force. It also showcases many meaningful dialogues like the one stated above - that the best swords are the ones kept in their sheaths. After watching this offering do you understand why samurai movies were so popular back in the days? The story is basically about 9 young hot-blooded samurais who are disgruntled with their chief (lord chamberlain) who did not entertain their petition on organised crimes. They think that he may be corrupt. Whilst discussing their predicament, one of them informed that their Superintendent will look into it. Out of nowhere, a rōnin appears at their rendezvous suggesting that it may be the Superintendent who is the corrupt one after all. The rōnin (a samur...