Wakamatsu Koji's "United Red Army"

[Mark D. Roberts]

A few more comments...

On Oct 22, 2007, at 10:01 PM, <rwdavisjr at ca.rr.com> wrote:

> This feeling, however, was dispelled in the final hour when the  
> film launched into sappily elegiac music and cheesy dissolves to  
> (unjustly) executed comrades as some of the more sympathetic  
> characters escaped the group's mountain camp.

Yes, agreed. I forgot to mention in the last message that the music  
became rather dissatisfying in the second half of the film. The score  
is credited to Jim O'Rourke of Sonic Youth, and many times during the  
last hour I was (1) baffled by the seemingly arbitrary or  
inappropriate choices to key certain bits of music to particular  
scenes, and (2) surprised to hear music of, shall we say, pedestrian  
sentiment, from a former member of Sonic Youth. To be fair, he likely  
just composed the music without seeing the film, and somebody else  
scored it, or else the intention was to create some sort of emotional  
dissonance. Given that it's Wakamatsu at the helm, I suppose neither  
possibility can be ruled out. Finally, I just tuned out the score and  
tried to focus on the treatment of the violence.

>> how is the acting in these reenactments?

Personally, I thought it was a bit over the top, but I assumed this  
was intended to establish a certain sense of distance on the part of  
the audience. I don't think we are expected to really feel any deep  
sense of emotional sympathy for the protagonists of this film.

M

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