Snowpiercer

Started by MacGuffin, July 08, 2013, 10:47:53 AM

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MacGuffin






Release date: 2013

Starring: Chris Evans, Alison Pill, Jamie Bell, John Hurt

Directed by: Joon-ho Bong

Premise: In a future where a failed global-warming experiment kills off most life on the planet, a class system evolves aboard the Snowpiercer, a train that travels around the globe via a perpetual-motion engine.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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Pubrick

looks like they stumbled into an oldboy level at the end there.

this is a variation on the stuff pete has been pointing out, but i think beyond the "young dude who suddenly says hey wait a minute" the real phenomenon that is starting to emerge is a class war thing. can we identify when it started? more specifically what i'm talking about is a sort of architecturally-defined class distinction which has obviously been around since Metropolis or even earlier, certainly its derivatives like Blade Runner, but when it occurs in such tight clusters and all over the world i think it's worth analysing.

i will think on what kubrick has to say about it, and come back to the discussion, probably split the thread if it's interesting.. it's making me think of Barry Lyndon and to an extent the shining (even though spartacus seems relevant i'm ignoring it as it's not canon). an interesting non sci-fi example that just popped into my head is 8 Mile, where the road literally marks the limit between the haves and the have nots and it takes an exceptional young quick-thinker to try to cross that barrier armed only with talent, ambition and balls of steel.

is this emerging trope more than just an escape from the ghetto? it's the blatantly obvious physical metaphor that strikes me as odd.
under the paving stones.

jenkins

i'd read that thread

you're talking movies, and you've given good examples of them. i can't think of anything before metropolis that did it, either because i like so much to think about metropolis, or because earlier examples are lesser known to me

right now as an adult in america i'm reading botchan, a novel from 1906 by nastume sōseki. the book portrays a cultural transition in japan, from older codes to modernity. i mentioned that i'm an adult because my internet understanding is that the book is read by middle-school students in japan, and sōseki is a landmark of their literature

sometimes -- most of the time, i just don't know if it's true -- i feel like i'm reading the mark twain of japan. twain is a landmark of american literature. he was well known for his own socioeconomic stands, including his depictions of a spectrum of lives, and also a person could read much about his personal opinions, in as easy a place as wikipedia.

ok. in botchan, a 22 year old moves from tokyo to the country, in order to become a teacher. and a lot of the book is about him and the people he meets, and the way he perceives them through their status, and the way they perceive him that way as well. it's all based on what everyone is doing -- how you interact with them, what you think of them, how someone works, how they don't work, etc -- and any personal feeling that wins the situation wins it by going beyond those kinds of opinions. it's not a class war, but everywhere and all the time there are class battles. that's the first reason why botchan went to his own school in order to become a teacher

a sad part of the book is a childhood family servant, named kiyo. (kiyo calls the boy botchan, what the reader knows him by and the name of the book.) i bring her up because she's older. she's from an earlier cultural point and perspective, and a long section of the book shows how it's kind of fucked up that in modern times she has to deal with being a servant to a family that isn't distinguished during a feudal part of japan, or anything like that. she's a servant. that's what she's got. from his early life kiyo is nicer to botchan than to his brother, who becomes more successful but kiyo never saw him as a very good person, and then as their lives continue, botchan and kiyo have to figure out how to try their best

try their best -- at being a teacher, who he didn't want to be and no one really appreciates, and being retired as a servant, and living with your nephew and having few accomplishments. that's hard

i'd for sure read about the barry lyndon perspective. during your post i thought about the industrial age, until barry lyndon was mentioned. its movie's time period is far back

as for my post, if anyone knows any children in japan, please have them come here and talk about the book with me

pete

I don't mind class difference, but the movies that I cite - most recently in the very atrocious "In Time", and earlier with the Christian Bale movie where he did gun karate - are these lazy post-Matrix type movies where the supposed allegory is spelled out but they're the same story of one guy having an arbitrary realization so he can run away a lot.

I just saw a comedy called Gimme the Loot, kinda like a 2010s version of Raising Victor Vargas, and there are a couple of scenes in which a young Lower East Side kid goes into a pretty Manhattan girl's apartment to deal pot, and it handles that race and class different so beautifully and comically. but the ones from Hollywood (and elsewhere) that we cited just seemed to be written by out of touch people who have no interest in the real world even though they're supposed to be warning us about what happens. I don't know, they're just dumb.

Quote from: Pubrick on July 08, 2013, 01:36:25 PM
looks like they stumbled into an oldboy level at the end there.

this is a variation on the stuff pete has been pointing out, but i think beyond the "young dude who suddenly says hey wait a minute" the real phenomenon that is starting to emerge is a class war thing. can we identify when it started? more specifically what i'm talking about is a sort of architecturally-defined class distinction which has obviously been around since Metropolis or even earlier, certainly its derivatives like Blade Runner, but when it occurs in such tight clusters and all over the world i think it's worth analysing.

i will think on what kubrick has to say about it, and come back to the discussion, probably split the thread if it's interesting.. it's making me think of Barry Lyndon and to an extent the shining (even though spartacus seems relevant i'm ignoring it as it's not canon). an interesting non sci-fi example that just popped into my head is 8 Mile, where the road literally marks the limit between the haves and the have nots and it takes an exceptional young quick-thinker to try to cross that barrier armed only with talent, ambition and balls of steel.

is this emerging trope more than just an escape from the ghetto? it's the blatantly obvious physical metaphor that strikes me as odd.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

jenkins

Quote from: pete on July 10, 2013, 06:52:20 PM
written by out of touch people who have no interest in the real world even though they're supposed to be warning us about what happens. I don't know, they're just dumb.
pete is so <3333able

socketlevel

Quote from: trashculturemutantjunkie on July 10, 2013, 07:36:07 PM
Quote from: pete on July 10, 2013, 06:52:20 PM
written by out of touch people who have no interest in the real world even though they're supposed to be warning us about what happens. I don't know, they're just dumb.
pete is so <3333able

ya this director is arguably one of the best film makers alive today. i really don't care what the trailer looks like or to read any reviews, i'll go like i'd go to a PTA film, simply because he's made another. just imagine watching the trailer or reading something about the host before it came out, you'd think it sounded shitty.

I'll be there opening night, with bells on.
the one last hit that spent you...

MacGuffin

"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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Lottery

Yeah, that's awful. I guess I'll have to dig up a director's cut. Or maybe Australian distribution won't be as ridiculous?

Drenk

I've seen it. It was great. The class war thing is not that important. It's more about the world in the train: weird stuff. That's why Weinstein doesn't want America to see it.

http://thedissolve.com/news/624-bong-joon-ho-privately-furious-about-the-american-/
Ascension.

socketlevel

which cut did you see? i can't wait to watch this.
the one last hit that spent you...

Drenk

I saw the director's cut which is also the french cut which is the cut Weinstein shouldn't touch because it is perfect. It's very straightforward. I see what he would want to cut, but I don't understand how he could cut it without killing the movie...
Ascension.

Ghostboy

I saw that cut too and it's fine. It's about as clear as clear can get. The issue they're going to face is that it's just so incredibly high-concept. It's not a realistic vision of the future-  it's a fable with action sequences. No amount of editing is going to change that.

MacGuffin

Bong Joon-Ho Says Director's Cut Of 'Snowpiercer' May Get A U.S. Release After All
Source: Playlist

Is Harvey Weinstein finally getting the message? Over the past few months, mostly internet based fury has centered around Bong Joon-ho's apocalyptic thriller "Snowpiercer," and Harvey Weinstein's wishes to take his cinematic switchblade to it. The director himself was said to be privately "furious" about having to cut his film, while Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton and screenwriter Kelly Masterson have all expressed their varying degrees of dismay at the movie being potentially chopped up. But it seems this whole saga may have a happy ending.

Speaking at the Mar del Plata Film Festival this week (where he's unveiling a black-and-white version of "Mother"), Bong Joon-ho addressed the controversy around "Snowpiercer" by peppering it with hints that stateside fans won't have anything to worry about. "I stayed in New York for two weeks before coming here to Mar del Plata, mostly because of this matter," the helmer explained. "And the good news is that after all the speculation and comments about that 20-minute cut, and considering the original version that was released in Korea and France also will be released in Japan and Hong Kong, we have been talking a lot about keeping the original cut for the U.S. release, so what I can say is...have faith."

Indeed, one would have to imagine that Harvey can't ignore a few factors, starting with the fact that Bong Joon-ho's original cut tested higher than the Weinstein snipped version. The movie has been a massive theatrical success in France, the most successful Korean movie ever released in the country, coming only second in box office receipts to "Thor: The Dark World" when it hit theaters. And oh yeah, it also recently nabbed Best Film, Best Director and Best Cinematography at the 33rd Korean Association of Film Critics Awards. So whatever reasons Harvey might have about wanting to snip the movie are becoming a lot harder to justify.

So, let's hope this is all closer to getting resolved and we get a release date already. Because from what our man in London tells us, this one matches the hype.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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pete

wait what A BLACK AND WHITE MOTHER?! I HAVE TO SEE
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton