Arts The Michigan Daily - Monday, September 20, 2004 - 9A Japanese By Marshall W. Lee MFor the Daily Yoji Yamada's "Twilight Samurai," a rich and lyrical exercise in cinematic restraint well deserving of its record 12 Japanese Academy Awards, is a rare gem of a samurai film. Yamada's 77th feature and Japan's foreign-language Oscar nominee for 2003,"Twilight Samurai" is set in rural Japan during the era of the Meiji Res- toration, circa 1868 - the same peri- od as iconic Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's mag- nificent "Seven Samurai" and Twilight Edward Zwick's Samurai vastly overrated At the Tom Cruise vehi- Michigan Theater cle, "The Last Empire Films Samurai." The three films exam- ine a time of great social change in Japan when political upheaval and technological advancement left many samurai - disciplined warriors still living by the ancient Code of Bushido - facing poverty and unemployment. But unlike Kurosawa's violent, philo- sophical powerhouse and Zwick's sweeping historical epic, "Twilight Samurai" is a relatively gentle domes- tic drama filled up with melancholy and subtle beauty. The hero of the film is Seibei (Hiroyuki Sanada), a timid, low-level samurai living under the rule of his clan in northeast Japan, where he spends his days not in battle, but as an accountant, balancing books and keeping track of dried fish and veg- etable stores. Declining invitations film looks from his colleagues to go out drinking and carousing, Seibei hurries home each evening at dusk because he has a senile mother and two young daugh- ters to support and is in debt after the death of his wife from consumption. Seibei's story is told by Yomada and cinematographer Mutsuo Naganuma in muted tones and colors, elegantly recreating a feudal village that seems, in contrast to Katsumoto's highly styl- ized home in "The Last Samurai," less like an extravagant set piece and more like a living, breathing entity. Seibei's community retains it's archi- tecture, values and customs even as the changing world is making its way of life obsolete. A scene in which Sei- bei and his old friend Linuma discuss the chaotic streets of Kyoto while a nearby group of guards practice rifle fire under a blossoming lotus tree is a smart illustration of this. Since the death of his wife, Seibei's life has been anything but easy, and after long days in his office, the weary samurai rushes home to grow crops and build insect cages, anything to earn a little extra cash for his family. Seibei's co-workers mock his unkempt appearance and torn clothing and one afternoon when the lord of clan visits the warehouse and notices his "strange aroma," the samurai is reprimanded and beaten. News of Seibei's humiliation spreads quickly and, in a scene that is alternately hilarious and moving, Seibei is paid a visit by his indignant uncle who urges him to remarry and bring a woman into the house to cook, clean and mother the two young girls. As it happens, Seibei's childhood sweetheart, Tomoe (Rie Miyazaki), has become single after divorcing her s at power of family Frankly darling, this giant robotic hand doesn't give a damn. Despite thinly veile plot 'Captai*n' a visul .treat By Amanda McAllister For the Daily Courtesy or mptre Fims Only 4 and a half stars? Get my pen. I'm writing to this "publication." violent husband and she soon begins to help around the house. Although romance seems a natural step, Seibei is too timid and weary to propose marriage. A decision to help Linuma in a fight soon gets Seibei in over his head as the clan leaders approach him with a dubious assignment: He is to kill the defiant master swordsman Yogo (Min Tanaka) who has barricaded himself in his home after refusing to kill himself at the order of the clan. The film's third act is wonderful in the way it simultaneously defies expectations and asserts everything the audience believe about Seibei, bringing tension, depth and elegance to a climac- tic fight scene that could easily have been another routine action sequence. The fight between Yogo and Seibei, as well as the protracted conversation that precedes it, are just too good to spoil, but the extraordinary exchange of dia- logue and the low, lingering camera shots inside Yogo's house make for an exemplary film sequence. In the lead role, Sanada achieves a minor miracle, allowing Seibei to be wholly good without ever seeming shal- low or foolish, and he is especially fun to watch in those moments when the hero's hopes and fears boil just below his placid surface. Yamada is a master of character study, creating in each frame a world so delicate and compelling that even the smallest of Sanada's gestures - a deep and weary breath, the slightest smile of contentment - grabs the viewer's atten- tion and fills the screen with life. "Sky Captain and the World of Tomor- row" has everything that can make a film horrible. It's an action movie with a love story woven in, it's set in the retro-future, and, besides the actors, every aspect of the movie was constructed with CGI. Oh, and there are robots. Lots ofrobots. A recipe for disaster, sure, but "Sky Cap- tain" emerges an entertaining story and a reminder of why people still pay good money to see movies on the big screen. Reporter Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) is investigat- ing the disappearanc- es of several scientists when an attack Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow At Quality 16 and Showcase Paramount Ironic street performers rally against president By Steve Cotner Daily Arts Writer As the street theater performers Billionaires for Bush celebrate "Edu- cation is Not for Everyone Day" on campus - indulging in croquet on the Diag grass and tossing off slo- gans like "A mind is a terrible thing!" - Michigan students will either get the joke, get mad or be had. The Michigan Daily's Steve Cotner sat down with the group's national co-chairman Andrew Boyd, a.k.a. Phil T. Rich, to discover where this group is coming from. Boyd is a Uni- versity alum who made headlines in the '80s creating ironic spectacles like the "Nuclear Saints of America," a group that exalted the University's' Cold War military research to god- like status and invaded the military lab to do communion with atomic fireball candies. While on campus to recruit last week for his group, he answered a range of questions about the history and future of political protest. The full interview can be found online at www.michigandaily.com. The Michigan Daily: In the '60s, Martin Luther King Jr. was effective because he planned out the events so thoroughly, and he made sure the symbolism of the situations was very clear. Andrew Boyd: Yeah, that's why he did it at the Lincoln memorial, etc. TMD: And having food thrown on you, or having a firehose turned on you, was a kind of street theater, but one in which right and wrong was very clear. So if you were drawing influence from those kinds of things early on, what did it mean to you to start using irony instead of that bare morality? AB: That's a good question. Abbie Hoffman said that "All protest is theater," it's just traditional protest is bad theater. Partly because the people aren't aware that it's theater, and they're not treating it like theater. And by being theater, it doesn't mean that it's not authentic, right, it doesn't mean it's not real, or passionate, or a true act of power or empowerment or a spiritual moment for people. But you just want to understand it like King did, about the symbol and deploying it. Why did we end up using irony? I think we just sort of went by our gut, that we were creatures of our times and our times were becoming very ironic. It's almost the dominant trope of our age, maybe not by '83, maybe we were just ahead of our times. But certainly the '90s, you've got The tify as environmentalists. You go down the issues, and Americans are quite lib- eral, a majority of them are progressive on the issues, it's just that both parties are failing them. So there's a lot of rea- sons to have hope. And in any case, it's the good fight. If you know that there's a real prob- lem in this country and you do noth- ing about it, it's gonna eat away at you, and you're gonna feel bad. There was actually a scientific study done recently that being civically engaged, and being a dissenter and involved in protest, is better for your individual health. You're not avoiding it, you're not letting this stuff eat away at you. If you're repressing it, it's going to come back and bite you two-fold. So you engage it. You're locating your- self in the world, in reality, and you're dealing with it. And then you find a way to have fun, and you find a way to become a better person through it. begins; giant robots (bearing a striking resemblance to "Futurama's" Bender on steroids) march into New York City, crush- ing buildings and wreaking havoc. Thank- fully, Joe "Sky Captain" Sullivan (Jude Law) swoops in and thwarts the attack, and, with ex-flame Perkins and sidekick Dex (Giovanni Ribisi, "Lost in Translation"), sets out to find Dr. Totenkopf (stock foot- age of Laurence Olivier), a mysterious man who appears to be behind the event. They encounter a variety of robots and a myste- rious, ninja-like woman; as their journey takes them to Totenkopf'sisland, with a little help from Sky Captain's old friend Franky (Angelina Jolie). The plot is cliche: charismatic good guy hunts down bad guy, fighting robots along the way. But, the pulp look and feel of the movie help pull the story through the realm of tackiness, and make it amusing instead of annoying. Joe and Polly get locked in a room full of dynamite at one point, and the viewers watch as the flame travels slowly along the unnec- essarily long wick. Points like this could make the audience cringe, but the movie's goal of recreating the thrill and excitement of its ancestors allows for cliches like these to be met with a grin instead of a groan. The story suffers a bit for the sake of action; important points, like the possibil- ity of Earth's incineration are somewhat glossed over and either mentioned either as an afterthought, or summed up by Polly as she narrates her news article. While this method is useful for getting through some supplementary plot points that are interest- ing but not necessarily important, it is over- extended to cover things that deserved more screen time. Considering the entire film was shot against blue screens, the actors turn in sur- prisingly good performances; the men fare better than the women, though. Law is charming and tough, the quintessential good guy, and banters quite well no matter who else is onscreen. Ribisi gives another solid performance, reminding the viewer why he's in what seems like every movie lately. Paltrow and Jolie, however, struggle; Paltrow's delivery ranges from dry to downright awkward and disjointed, while Jolie seems to be racing through her lines. Despite Paltrow's somewhat lackluster verbal performance, she outdoes Jolie in physical action - her reaction shots and overall look are dead on. Paltrow is every bit the starlet, fitting into her 1939 charac- ter extraordinarily well, with facial expres- sions that speak volumes, while Jolie, despite claiming to be space pirate Cap- tain Franky, is very obviously Jolie in an eye patch. They may not be Oscar-worthy roles, but the actors keep audiences enter- tained and drawn into the film. Setting aside any plot and performance weaknesses for a second, "Sky Captain" greatly excels in one area: its visually stun- ning. Neutral colors, soft focus shots and dramatic lighting pay tribute to the old serials of the '30s. The visuals supplement the action as well; the robots are all distinct and interesting, and watching Sky Captain fight them as he flies through the streets of New York is quite an experience. Despite any shortcomings in the plot and somewhat underdeveloped charac- ters, "Sky Captain" is a solid movie. This movie could've been bad ... really, really bad. However, it avoids the land of disas- trous science fiction robot movies (cough... I, Robot) and manages to overcome some basic problems with style. Billionaires for Bush march In Boston during the Democratic National Convention. Daily Show. You've got Dave Eggers. Where would that be without irony? I think it is partly in the wake of the failure, if you will, of the '60s, or people's sense of disheartenment. "We did all the marching, and look where we are." So irony is a way to protect yourself from that failure, and yet comment on it and still sort of salvage some hope. TMD: Given that sense of failure, and the present state of corporate control that you protest, how do you manage to get past a tragic mentality, and be active and even have a sense of humor about it? AB: Well, there's a lot of things. One is you look to the past for inspiration, that there've been equally dire moments in our history and people have organized themselves and created fundamental movements for social change that have transformed the face of American poli- tics. Look at the Civil Rights movement, the abolitionist movement, the progres- sive reforms of the teens and '20s, the anti-Vietnam war protest. In '64 the war's unfolding but nothing's happening and suddenly five years later, the whole country's in revolt. 100 years of Jim Crow and then starting in '54 this explosion of grassroots movements transforms the face of the South. You look at the fact that 70 percent of Americans think that corporations have too much power. Seventy percent iden- :