new movie: "accuracy of death"

[kewpie-chan]

Love tk I'll do the magazine article you posted tomorrow if not by end of this week.

[redplastic]

This would actually be one project of Takeshi's I'm looking forward to in the near future. The synopsis reminds me of "Death Takes a Holiday" or even "Meet Joe Black"... I find it strange to not see it listed on IMDB though.

[kewpie-chan]

I said the same thing too that it reminded of "Meet Joe Black"

[helena]

except meet joe black sucked and brad pitt is incredibly over-rated. which could never apply to tk or one of his films. ;D

[Samanosuke]

When I die I want Grim Reaper Takeshi to come get me.

[MissCarlos]

Oh, how that would be awesome!! Of course, he may do as he wi-

Yeah umm..!!

[wowtk]

samanosuke said:

When I die I want Grim Reaper Takeshi to come get me.

;D ;D Samanosuke, I will be with you if Takeshi is coming as Grim Reaper! . He can take us both.

[Samanosuke]

lol yea join me. Takeshi makes everything wonderful, even the inevitable end. Of course, I would like to live a long life first so that I can watch all his movies. =)

[canelanyc]

Very interesting....

[lisab]

Thanks so much for the translations.

[ocilef2000]

The official website of "Accuracy of Death" now is open.

www.shinigaminoseido.jp/

This film will be released on March 22.

[tkisthebest]

Can't wait to see him in this either. I think he's Japanese movies have a tendency to be more interesting than his Hong Kong movies. From playing a stockbroker who bowls, playing a singer who falls in love with someone infected with HIV, playing a guy who helps someone from the future, playing a drug dealer in sleepless town, playing death in this movie to playing the 20 faces movie. The topics of his Japanese films seem better to me and they show his acting ability more. His 2 best hong kong movies were with War-Kai.

[ognyana]

I wonder whether it is really so or whether it only seems to me, but the way I see TK’s Chiba prompts me the following interpretation:

On the one hand, shinigamis are immortal themselves (at least there was nothing in the film to suggest the opposite), but this is a doubtful blessing – just remember the limbo where TK’s character and his dog have to spend their time in between ‘missions’. It’s a dreary grey space where nothing happens, where nothing diverts the eye, where the time stands still. I wonder whether shinigamis find this space restful, or boring, or maybe just treat it with no emotion – but (once again, it is very subjective) it seems to me that TK’s character finds it a lonely place, or at least grows to find it a lonely place, and not a very ‘justified’ place for him to be in, to that. What I mean is he played a shinigami that evolves, changes, becomes more and more human (just look at his mimics, listen to his intonation when he’s speaking). What I see is his silent revolt against this limbo, and a sad reconciliation to the facts – to each his own, a human being gets a shortish earthly life full of emotion, mistakes, discoveries, and a shinigami gets his sad uneventful immortality. It looks as if somebody has robbed the shinigamis of something very important that Chiba begins to feel and to look for. At the same time he knows he’ll never be able to break through this fabric of his destiny.

Actually I see the film not as a chain of interconnected episodes, and not as the life story of the girl who rises from an ordinary girl of the crowd to a celebrity and then sinks into oblivion again, gaining maturity and understanding of things. I see the film as two major stories (the girl’s and the shinigami’s) that, though they develop along different lines, lead the viewer to the same conclusion. What really matters is the ability to understand, to love, to forgive, to look at the world with one’s eyes and mind open, to care, to be thankful to life for all the challenges it presented, to hope. Just remember the scene where she and Chiba are standing and looking at the peaceful sunlit landscape – it needs no words, it’s like an awakening (satori?). I think it is not by chance that at this particular moment Chiba finally sees the sun he longed for, for him it’s like a short but a very meaningful breakthrough, moment of freedom.

There’s one thing more I’d like to mention. I wonder, why the dog? What I mean is Chiba gets his orders through a dog, the dog is like an intercom channel connecting Chiba and some other higher being (beings?). Does the dog symbolize the fact that gods are beyond all things human? Or does it symbolize the fact that THERE ARE NO GODS but just a blind law of life, blind to its purpose as all the world of nature (what a sad mockery!)? Or is the dog a symbol of loneliness?

What also prompts itself to me is an unexpected and maybe far-fetched analogy between Chiba and Faust (Chiba is more or less like Faust who’s through to his goals – immortality, power, knowledge that would make him godlike; though Faust was craving for these gifts, and Chiba is shown as already possessing them, and not of his own free will). If you remember, when Faust first asks for all these, a black dog comes to his side. In the Christian tradition a black dog stands for the devil. It’s very unlikely that the scriptwriter did it on purpose, but for me the allusion is there, and very striking. By the way, the final episode that I’ve already mentioned, their standing together and looking at the world, brings to mind the words of Faust when he asks the time to stop at that most perfect moment, recovering the living soul with these words (and no dog by his side any more!). By the way, it’s not by chance that it’s a woman who makes Chiba see through to all this, like Faust’s Margaret. It seems to me that Chiba is a kind of Faust ideal reversed, working to getting back to being human.

By the way, in the European folk archtypes rain stands for death. If one dreams of those who passed away, they are often seen wet through in the dreams; so the dead in our psyche come from the rain. Remember that when Chiba comes to earth it’s always raining? And mind that it finally stops raining. A coincidence? Hardly ever.

I certainly won’t claim that the makers of this film use these ideas consciously. The film is also very Japanese at that (the categories of wabi, sabi, shibumi, karumi and fueki ryuko are there all right). But in my opinion a good film touches some strings of heart and draws analogies visible for people with different backgrounds, of different cultures, be it done consciously or not. A good film is rich in meanings, tints and hues. I believe “Shinigami-no Seido” has it and is one of such films.

[mikomi]

the movie is very good. awesome. I have seen it recently and can say I am all about this film.
I was wondering of things too so I want to talk about them))))

Jan 19, 2009 7:16:41 GMT -5 ognyana said:

just remember the limbo where TK’s character and his dog have to spend their time in between ‘missions’. It’s a dreary grey space where nothing happens, where nothing diverts the eye, where the time stands still. I wonder whether shinigamis find this space restful, or boring, or maybe just treat it with no emotion – but (once again, it is very subjective) it seems to me that TK’s character finds it a lonely place, or at least grows to find it a lonely place, and not a very ‘justified’ place for him to be in, to that. What I mean is he played a shinigami that evolves, changes, becomes more and more human (just look at his mimics, listen to his intonation when he’s speaking). What I see is his silent revolt against this limbo, and a sad reconciliation to the facts – to each his own, a human being gets a shortish earthly life full of emotion, mistakes, discoveries, and a shinigami gets his sad uneventful immortality.

I think that even though he thinks limbo is a dull place he nonetheless follows the rules and makes his job done. He will not stop being a Shinigami. He will always do what should be done. Even if it takes a lifetime to do that. Once he decided to let a girl go having confidence in the fact that she received aim in life. And in the end he turns out to be linked to her .....why? She was not about to die of natural course? She was old and Chiba said that is was unusual for him to come to the old ladies - means he used to visit those who were suppose to die unnaturally. That is ....I think the difference between the vision of death in our traditions. 'Cause death comes to everyone. and the death angels too. But Shinigami takes the unnaturally dead.....maybe I am wrong here.
Non the less - I think Chiba really wanted to be human. He likes life. He likes people. He learns.

Jan 19, 2009 7:16:41 GMT -5 ognyana said:

What really matters is the ability to understand, to love, to forgive, to look at the world with one’s eyes and mind open, to care, to be thankful to life for all the challenges it presented, to hope. Just remember the scene where she and Chiba are standing and looking at the peaceful sunlit landscape – it needs no words, it’s like an awakening (satori?). I think it is not by chance that at this particular moment Chiba finally sees the sun he longed for, for him it’s like a short but a very meaningful breakthrough, moment of freedom.

actually I love that moment most of all. Chiba is so confused and in no time he seems to be very happy. He had never seen anything like that before. I guess the life he had linked himself to gave him more and that was a part of his destiny; to watch the life he had saved. "We are responsible for the lives we save". He decided to keep the girl who was supposed to be dead in 7 days alive for his own reasons and he was responsible for her in the aftermath. And her life had given him so much of the interesting experiences))))) 'cause everything is happening for the reason )))))

Jan 19, 2009 7:16:41 GMT -5 ognyana said:

There’s one thing more I’d like to mention. I wonder, why the dog? What I mean is Chiba gets his orders through a dog, the dog is like an intercom channel connecting Chiba and some other higher being (beings?). Does the dog symbolize the fact that gods are beyond all things human? Or does it symbolize the fact that THERE ARE NO GODS but just a blind law of life, blind to its purpose as all the world of nature (what a sad mockery!)? Or is the dog a symbol of loneliness?

I think that is not because of the fact that the dog is receiving orders from higher beings ...though I believe it could be the idea of the author too. But what I think ..... that is my opinion - the dog is just the same as the human. I mean there is no meaning of Shinigami to be human-like or dog-like. Guess the Dog is just his companion and he records the files. Something like that - sort of shinigami assistant. It could have been human just the same, but the author chose the image of the dog to make it more believable when Chiba and the dog argued. dog is silent for everyone but Chiba and no one knows what is true and seems natural that Chiba is a human. Otherwise there would have been lot more of the dialogs in the film...non necessary dialogs.

Jan 19, 2009 7:16:41 GMT -5 ognyana said:

By the way, in the European folk archtypes rain stands for death. If one dreams of those who passed away, they are often seen wet through in the dreams; so the dead in our psyche come from the rain. Remember that when Chiba comes to earth it’s always raining? And mind that it finally stops raining. A coincidence? Hardly ever.

as the matter of fact when my grandmother died it was raining

[ognyana]

mikomi, I agree. Thank you, it's a discussion at last!

"Here is a test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished: If you're alive, it isn't. "

"Nothing by Chance"

Richard Bach