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Samurai/Ninja film galore

You will notice that in 2009/2010 the Hollywood studio system will put out a number of Samurai/Ninja films... Including Frank Millers "Ronin"... "Ninja Assassins" by the Matrix Brothers/Sisters...that "Bunraku" film I wrote about before... there's also a ton of Anime remakes coming out...

So I guess its a new fad for the studios... I will tell you.... in late 2007 I was in talks with the head of production of a major Hollywood studio... they were interested in having me direct a live action Ninja film produced in the same way 300 was... ya know live action actors/green screen/cg fx.... I said.... well I am doing a samurai film next... he said that they were interested in "ninja" films... "Hard R with asian appeal" those were close to his exact words... Short story shorter...I wasn't interested as I knew no studio backed film would be intense, insane or honest enough to hold my attention... yeh there would have been a lot of money involved but when's the last time money made anyone truly happy?

So your going to see all these "Samurai" films before you see "Heart String Marionette"... so your going to see all these films try to capture the Samurai spirit... but it will just be a bunch of actors swinging shiny swords with blood spraying with talk of concepts that none of the filmmakers will ever understand let alone be able to bring it unto the screen.... Long story short... your going to see a bunch of Poser's... your going to see a bunch of "Samurai" films made because the genre has been deemed marketable by some lame ass with a bunch of money... They will impress themselves because they have a cool looking guy on screen swinging a sword and posing...POSING.

Then Hollywood will move on and rape and pillage something else..... BUT as they are moving on to something else I will release my film... and I will get my chance to Betch-Slap the film industry... The BetcH-Slap heard round the world! ^ ^

I must be crazy right? One guy talking about competing with huge film studios with millions of dollars?! NO I am not crazy.... as technology moves forward the individual gains more power... the technology will become almost transparent and then ideas will be the determining factor... ideas, originality, honesty, passion, and innovation.. this is what the audience of the future will demand... they are tired of the cliches, the glitz, the glamour... the vapid interchangeable personalities both in front of and behind the cameras... as technology helps push people further apart from one another emotionally while moving them closer to one another socially they will be hungry for personal expression....hungry for raw emotion on screen.... hungry for sincerity in an insincere world that pretends to know your name and smiles at you hoping for a transfer of funds... Hollywood strives for external perfection with its bigger better faster mantras... to be perfect is to be dead... only static things remain "perfect"...dead things...

So what am I saying? I'm saying that the system is starting its throes of death... its written its own death sentence... its on a high speed train to nowhere... and when my next film stands next to Hollywood "Samurai" films the world will be able to make up they're own minds as to where the future is heading... Is it with the system or is it with the individual? The system is crumbling all around us right now... So were going to be able to see the truth and after the swath of mass media propaganda fades people will start to wake up to the truth... Obviously I'm talking about things much "bigger" than the world of film... I will just be happy to do my part and break the FACE of the of the Hollywood system ^ ^

For every M dot Strange in all facets of life that succeeds... it will cause a thousand more individuals to awaken...and this process will continue.... and then we will all meet, shake hands and make a world for the people by the people.

Remember...Money talks... but it doesn't mean you have to listen.... If I would have taken that film deal... I would be another rich fuck helping the world sink further into SHIT... change is required for change... you can't do the same as the ones that came before and expect the world to change.... If I would have taken that money would I be typing this now? Maybe but no one would take me seriously because I like many in Hollywood would also be full of shit... I would have only been thinking of my self and my material needs...

Believe it or not I don't do what I do for me... I do it for you... so if you have a chance to change your world don't make the same choices as the ones who fell before you... Ha.... I'm writing this shit like I'm going to die today... well you know if I did...I wouldn't have any regrets.

Comments

  1. Well...you changed my world...>.>

    THAT sounded gay...

    Anyway, I completely agree with you on the whole raping and pillaging thing, its just like the whoring out of bullet time after the Matrix came out...

    But I completely disagree with the way that you so callously disregarded some of those films (Bunraku, as we are all aware is a WATS rip)...

    I mean, just because they are backed by a studio doesn't, at leats in my mind some how prevent them from making a bold and powerful film (The Dark Knight anyone?). Its a interesting conept that I've been reading about, in a book??? (omG), where the dude (who worte it) suggested that "independent" simply referred to sensibility or vision rather than actual backing (although most of the dreks in Hollywood have abou as much vision as a mole), he also said taht maybe with Hollywood being so "anti-artist" it works for some filmmakers like George Lynch, Tarantino and Gilliam to work in an environment that completely opposes their ideals...


    Just something to chew on...

    Oh, and what you said about the independent finally toppling the studio...I have my few "cents" (pennies actually...) to thow in...

    I think we are getting NEARER to "winning", but not everything is in place yet (well...at least not in my mind...)I think that there are some key links missing that FHTA is only the beginning of...

    (Back to the book again) In ther early days Hollywood was just a set of loose straggler filmmakers, who then consolidated their prowesses together to form a business, thus all the films were under one roof...

    I think that THIS is what is missing, as online independents we are all (how ever close some of us may be) still operating as "stragglers", I think some form of unifying umbrella, of which FHTA I see as just the beginning, is the answer - like a guild or a record label that when clicked on provided viewers a list of all the joined independents (in the sense of vision, rather than sitting scribbling in an attic...>.>) and their viewable films...

    People don't want to search around for individual filmmakers...like how google/youtube/whatever defeated searching arduously for things... I mean you can go on like say... teh Warner website and see all of their directors and the films that they have coming up...

    If we were all unified in vision, people might actually see it as a real alternative...all of us offering something different to "What Happens in Vegas"...

    >.>

    Again...just more to chew on..

    Oh, and who's to say that if we "topple the system" the power wont go to our heads and turn us in corporate bastards??????? Hmmmm?


    Oh, and I hope you don't die tomorrow...

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  2. I'm so glad that you walked away from that BS :) - Does the world really need anymore souless pieces of crap like '300'?

    You're spot on about the 'POSING'.
    I've never understood people who want to become part of the film industry because of the percieved 'glamour' & 'status' - it's fuckin' sick!

    Hollywood rip off's of eastern films are doomed to failure because western filmmakers seem to do everything they can to avoid REAL horror, pain and sadness.
    What we are left with are stupid 'rollercoster rides' that have zero substance and treat life as a joke.

    Adam

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  3. Sheimii

    I think you meant David Lynch and not George right? The reason a studio film can not be as powerful as a "one man show" is that in the studio system the directors vision is diluted, it is not pure expression of his/her ideals... If its someone else's money behind it, that money has an opinion and it effects the film... The difference is I'm making art in the form of "film" and the studio system makes products in the form of "film"

    Stanley Kubrick is dead... He was one studio director that imposed HIS will...and he was the greatest ever because of that...

    I liked the Dark Knight more than most all studio films I've seen... BUT as I was sitting in the theater before it came on I thought it was sad....It was sad that the best film the American studio system can put out is from a franchise we've seen what 6 of already? Its as far from originality as you can get... We've sunk so low that the biggest cheers in theater came from Batman riding a motorcycle up a wall? This isn't Sportscenter?!! Or is it? Why should we get so excited about something we've seen SO many times before? That doesn't excite me...I want to see new things... In 50 years from now will history remember another Batman film that was made?

    David Lynch is an artist yes BUT he does not work in the studio system anymore...I released my DVD through the same retail distributor that did his last film.....

    Tarantino is a cultural sampler hack... Thought Kill Bill was original and innovative? Go watch "Lady Snowblood" or the Lone wolf and cub series... After "Pulp Fiction" he's had nothing to say unless you like long scenes of people talking about other movies.... Its also sad that these people are looked at as innovators simply because the public is ignorant to anything that hasn't happened in the last 10 years and if it isn't magnified by the mass media...

    But if you cannot tell the difference between the effect that "The Dark Knight" has vs. a film like "Tetsuo: The iron man" I have nothing more to say... One is a product that tens of hundreds of people worked on as a board room argued about the details...and one is the work of a madman working on nothing but passion... One is a product the other is art... products are replaced and forgotten...true art lives forever... Lets let history be the ultimate judge... thats who I perform for ^ ^

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh, don't get me wrong, I was just giving examples...

    I know well enough the difference between art and products (and definately agree with what you said about Tarantino - though don't you think you too are guilty of culturally sampling a little on WATS?), and there is definately a redux in new and innovative ideas (just look at how many Asian remakes and rehashes of rom-coms there are)

    But I still disagree that Kubrick was the only artist to ever work in Hollywood, whilst it is repulsive that all Hollywood does is mine the same idea grave for the same rehashes, we should still hold optimism that even one piece of film artistry gets through...

    To write off everything mainstream as bullshit and praise the work of anything independent is ridiculous...each should be judged individually, yes The Dark Knight was one of the only good mainstream films for a looong time, but I have seen enough independent crap too to know that it comes down to the individual and the film at the end of the day...

    But maybe then we shouldn't judge Hollywood next to art - or even expect them to produce good films...considering that all they really are is a factory...

    In truth, nothing beats seeing a film and knowing that it is a labour of love...

    (oh, and yeh - I have no idea where George Lynch came from... >.>)

    ReplyDelete
  5. 'The Dark Knight' is only 'bold and powerful' when you judge it alongside other studio pictures that are much dumber!. I thought it was good (as far as it goes) but I couldn't believe how many people blabed on about how 'deep' it was.

    This goes back to what I was saying about eastern films, not only do they have a different attitude regarding how they handle violence and horror (a way of seeing that Tarantino will NEVER EVER UNDERSTAND)but they also have a different understanding of 'Time'.

    In 'The Dark Knight' I felt the accute sense (that i get in nearly all mainstream movies) that each scene existed solely to lead on to another scene. What is wrong with this? - it gives you no chance to actually engage with what you are seeing because you are going to fast. It's like you're viewing life at 'scan-speed'.

    Compare this to eastern film. They fill their stories with loads of what Hollywood filmmakers would consider 'dead-moments'. These do nothing to further the plot and everthing to deepen the world of the film. We are too used to seeing everything the other way (linear, sequential) that we get dazed and confused by anything that doesn't comform to restrictive plotting.

    ReplyDelete
  6. You know in my opinion I think Nolan is a great director but he is being handcuffed by the system... the system says that yes... each scene must set up the next and they have to have exposition for everything because they are making films to be consumed by the masses and the masses are well... lets just say they watch a lot of TV ^ ^

    I BET that if Nolan had total control "The dark knight" would have been 40 minutes shorter... He added in all these cool subplots BUT they were killed for me because they had to do all this exposition for them... and by the time they are "properly setup" by the exposition a viewer like myself says yeh come on I'm not a fucking idiot...and they lost me...

    And Randomfactor I think you hit the nail on the head on Eastern vs Western films... thats kinda what I was trying to say... in the west the films are all flash with no depth... Western films just focus on the surface...exterior... and its the system that helps make them that way.

    Look at a man like Yukio Mishima... I want to see a Samurai film made by a man like that... not some shallow Hollywood poser... Oh but Mishima is dead... he took his life by his own hand... He committed Hari-Kiri in 1970... Read his writings... He was a true artist...he was hardcore...

    We've forgotten what true passion is... what it means to stand for something and not just be driven by the dollar... The system is driven by the dollar there is no denying that ...it is a fact...and anything that is made within that system is tainted by the system. NO art is made within the Hollywood system... they could give a fuck about art anyway...

    About cultural sampling... lets say a film is a human body... I may sample like I did in WATS to put some fingernails or a different hair color on the body that is a film... but Tarantino rips the heart, lungs and liver from older films and puts them in his own....Well like I said history is the ultimate judge... Only time will tell what works are washed away by the sands of time and which ones are not.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Mishima was a true artist. Did you know that Kurosawa tried to commit suicide because he was screwed over by producers? - He only survived because he was found by his housemaid.

    The film industry does not breed happy people. That's why i'm in no rush to buy into it anymore.

    There's a great story about when Kubrick was having dinner with a friend and they were both joined by two ostentatious producers who insisted on acting like arseholes.

    When they left, Kubrick turned to his friend and said 'Their problem, is that they don't know how to be 'Monks'.

    What he was getting at was the notion that these producers, like so many others, get into film for all the wrong reasons and no nothing about rigour.

    You are 100% right about Nolan. 'Following' was amazing.

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  8. dude... yes you are definetely the greatest artist of this decade 100%..
    i mean, its not like you PLANNED to make a samurai movie in the samurai timez.. you just did what you wanted, and the right pieces fell in place. i give you SO much props for turning down that movie deal. i mean i just recently turned down a major record deal for one of my bands, and it was a really hard descision, and my brother (who is also in the band) wasd a little angry.. but i didnt want to become another rockstar asshole. ill bet that if you had taken that movie gig, i would not have any interest in your films because they wouldnt seem as honest. and you would seem a little soul-less. thanks alot for being someone to look up to.. so i can be the greatest artist of the NEXT decade..lulz

    thanks for being awesome.

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  9. okay.. i just read the entire conversdation... i agree completely that NO art can come out of the hollywood system,

    i have been to over eighteen film classes at community colleges, highschool events, etc. and i always ask the teachers, about my movie and they ALL have told me that i cant do much with where im heading, and that my script is too "vauge" they say that people wont get it, and that i should try a new vein..

    i really like robert rodruigez (never mind spelling) as a director.. he likes to work with a unexperienced crew etc. when i tell these big film guys about how i look up to him, and how he made el mariachi for $7,000 they laugh and say that he MUST be lying..


    all i see in hollywood directors are thes people that are a PART of a larger thing, they are not even a major part, they just sit around telling people what to do mostly, and they cant get it all done the way they really want even because of the dga.. the dga puts limits on even HOW the director can direct. the director cant even talk to extras! (thats the ASSISTANT directors job) not to mention the producers who know NOTHING but money, polluting the directors vision..

    sheimii.... stfu
    mdot does NOT rip from culture as much as you say he does....
    "oh yeah man, str8nime has been seen so many times"
    using videogame references is something that he is familliar with, making it close to home for him.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Come on. all artists rip ideas from each other. Even Shakespeare did some real obvious copying....totally ripping off ancient plays. He got better though.

    I have to agree with Sheimii, though a little too late - it's extremist black and white thinking to say that Hollywood can produce no art, and only indie filmakers can. Back in the days when the studios controlled everything, before they were forced out of their total vertical integration and control of the whole chain right down to the movie theaters, there actually were some great films. Many of them were made by real genuises who got swallowed and then mistreated by the system, and then the system adulates them later. Look at how they treated Hitchcock and Orsone Welles.

    But it's like anything, 90% of everything that is made is garbage.
    When you take an art history course, you are looking at the art that was good enough to survive.
    You never find out about all the art that was thankfully forgotten.

    I will agree that Hollywood is totally inbred and rotten and is feeding on itself. Maybe the real lesson is to not let them swallow you if you do become successful, because they will try...

    But even those great Samurai films from Japan were made by studios, and in a culture that is far more rigid and stifling than ours. I agree that films should be taken on an individual basis and not by categories.

    ReplyDelete

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