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Title: Kurosawa Wept
Review: Technically, the film is "kinetic" (what any film should be), psychologically it is cartoon, intellectually it is deplorable. It is as if Kurosawa had recovered from a terrible head injury and began making films from his spleen. Flashy and uncompelling, Kitano's work is more sophisticated than Woo's, which should get him a lucrative Hollywood contract. What it gets me is a headache. To any of the people who praised this film to the skies, I ask "Are you acquainted with the name Ozu? Mizoguchi? Naruse? Teshigahara? Kobayashi, even?" If the answer is "yes," then you cannot condone the continued irritation of someone like Kitano. And one more question, the one perennially asked of so-called modern art: can the term 'beauty' be redefined by its opposite?
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