{"id":7246,"date":"2010-02-14T11:25:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-14T19:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=7246"},"modified":"2010-02-15T00:44:14","modified_gmt":"2010-02-15T08:44:14","slug":"ballad-na-mo-naki-koi-no-uta-takachis-yamazaki-2009-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=7246","title":{"rendered":"Ballad: Na Mo Naki Koi No Uta (Takachis Yamazaki, 2009): Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Nitsa Pomerleau<\/a>. Viewed at the Santa Barbara Film Festival.<\/p>\n

\"\"Director Takashi Yamazaki\u2019s live-action Japanese blockbuster, Ballad<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>is decidedly child friendly. Following a recommendation from a talkative neighbor in line (you know the type), I made my way to the Arlington with high hopes of being swept up in some high-budget samurai fantasy\u2014but within the first fifteen minutes the only fantasy I experienced was how to escape the relentless tungsten-brown colors on the screen.<\/p>\n

The premise for Ballad <\/em>centers on a cowardly young boy (the actor\u2019s elfin face being the single worthwhile aspect of the feature) who is transported back to a feudal Japan where his cell phone still works. He befriends some G-rated samurai, a princess and\u2014spoiler alert\u2014 learns to be courageous!<\/p>\n

This film\u00a0was<\/em> inspired by the Crayon Shin-chan anime and manga series (which has a history of awkward western translation) and stays true in that respect.\u00a0The dialogue and character development recall \u00a0junior high. The narrative is so cloyingly linear and utopian that the one twist in the plot makes you really angry because it is so out of place…Which reminds me of this list:<\/p>\n

Ten Foreign Films I Wished I was Watching For the First Time While Watching Ballad:<\/em><\/p>\n

(In random order)<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Caf\u00e9 Lumiere<\/em>\u2014 Hou Hsiao-Hsien<\/li>\n
  2. Pierrot le fou<\/em> \u2013Jean-Luc Godard<\/li>\n
  3. Still Walking<\/em>\u2014Hirokazu Koreeda<\/li>\n
  4. Wild Strawberries \u2013 <\/em>Ingmar Bergman<\/li>\n
  5. Last Year at Marienbad\u2014<\/em>Alain Resnais<\/li>\n
  6. Let the Right One in \u2013<\/em> Tomas Alfredson<\/li>\n
  7. Tokyo! \u2013 <\/em>Michel Gondry, Leos Carax, Joon-ho Bong<\/li>\n
  8. Sans Soleil \u2013 <\/em>Chris Marker<\/li>\n
  9. In the Mood for Love \u2013 <\/em>Wong kar-Wai<\/li>\n
  10. Blow Up\u2014<\/em>Antonioni<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    <\/em><\/p>\n

    In other words, my obsession with Japanese culture is a little sad today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Reviewed by Nitsa Pomerleau. Viewed at the Santa Barbara Film Festival. Director Takashi Yamazaki\u2019s live-action Japanese blockbuster, Ballad, is decidedly child friendly. Following a recommendation from a talkative neighbor in line (you know the type), I made my way to the Arlington with high hopes of being swept up in some high-budget samurai fantasy\u2014but within […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":796,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,131],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films","category-santa-barbara-film-festival-2010"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/796"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}