Directed by: Cary Joji Fukunaga Screenplay by: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Cary Joji Fukunaga and Phoebe Waller-Bridge Story by: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Cary Joji Fukunaga On general release
James Bond has left active service. His peace is short-lived when Felix Leiter, an old friend from the CIA, turns up asking for help, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology.
Nat says: ‘The best-looking Bond so far’
James Bond movies are weird, aren’t they? For as long as I can remember, they’ve been struggling to prove there’s still a point to them, in a post-feminist, post-Soviet, post-Islamist, post-Bourne digital age.
James Bond? A lone secret agent everyone knows and who never really goes undercover any more? Who has no technological skills so always has to rely on someone back at home base to help him? Who never speaks any foreign languages except English and who just goes around blowing things up? A man women find amazingly attractive, even though he has the conversational skills and charm of a speak-your-weight machine crossed with a book of cheesy chat-up lines that wouldn’t have worked on you when you were clubbing in your teens? A global jet-setter who visits exotic locales that most of us have either been to or could book a flight to with EasyJet on our phones right now?
That may have worked in the 60s. But now it takes some effort on the part of the movies to convince you it’s even slightly possible or interesting.
There aren’t many franchises that have that need to persuade you that they’re still relevant. They just stick dinosaurs on the screen or give their heroes new costumes and let the story persuade you.
Nevertheless, despite this constant soul-searching, such is the power of the Bond brand, the franchise carries on. Even I watch them! I’ve seen them all. Maybe there is something to them. Certainly, Daniel Craig can persuade you of most things, I suspect. That certainly helps.
But I think I watch Bond movies (when I do watch them) more because they are important and usually exciting, rather than because they’re good, because I like the character or set-up, or for social relevance. Even this year, Black Widow (2020) had more social relevance in its title sequence than the entire Daniel Craig series of Bond movies has had. I would say that, though, wouldn’t I?
No Time To Die is possibly the first Bond movie to really fix some of these problems with the character, almost by ignoring them, sometimes by using them to its advantage.
Here’s some good news from the BFI about its rescheduled season of Japanese movies, which you can watch in cinemas or at home on the BFI Player. There are events all over the UK as well – I’m hoping I’ll be able to see or attend at least some of them.
There’s a trailer, too!
The BFI today announces highlights of the UK-wide programme for BFI JAPAN 2021:100 YEARS OF JAPANESE CINEMA, coming to cinemas from October – December 2021. Highlights of the celebration will include a BFI re-release of Akira Kurosawa’s SEVEN SAMURAI (1954), a BFI JAPAN TOUR, featuring classics from Yasujirō Ozuand Akira Kurosawa,alongside cult titles from Kon Ichikawa and Toshio Matsumoto, which will feature many new 4K restorations and visit cinemas across the UK. For audiences who cannot attend a screening in their local cinema, there is a vast BFI JAPAN programme online on BFI Player Subscription. The BFI is also working closely with the National Lottery funded BFI Film Audience Network (FAN) to enable cinemas across the UK to host special screenings and events as part of BFIJAPAN.
Seasons and events will include Day For Night’s Urban, Natural, Human – exploring Japan on screen programme, showing at HOME, Manchester, Close-Up Cinema in London and more and a tour of highlights from Queer East Film Festival at Midlands Arts Centre in Birmingham, Showroom Cinema in Sheffield, HOME, Manchester and Edinburgh Filmhouse. Belfast Film Festival (4 – 13 November) will present a selection of surrealist Japanese films and Cambridge Film Festival will present a curated strand of films for its 40th edition (18 – 25 November). In Scotland, Screen Argyll is bringing Japan: Family, Community and the Sea to the islands in the Hebrides. Over the Halloween weekend (30 – 31 October), Chapterin Cardiff will celebrate the films of Nobuhiko Ōbayashi including his cult comedy horror HAUSU (1977).
Originally scheduled to run in venues across the UK from May – September 2020, the season was moved online due to the pandemic. An unprecedented number of Japanese films were programmed on BFI Player while cinemas across the country remained closed, resulting in films in the BFI JAPAN collection being streamed on BFI Player in excess of 400,000 times since then. After the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo come to a close this summer, the BFI picks up the torch to shine a light on 100 years of Japanese cinema this autumn.
BFI JAPAN will spotlight one of the world’s greatest cinematic traditions, one that has long inspired admiration and fascination among audiences and creatives the world over. Classic films by AkiraKurosawa, Yasujirō Ozuand Kenji Mizoguchi regularly rank at the very top of critics’ all-time lists; Studio Ghibli leads the animated world in visionary imagination; while waves of innovators from the cinematic rebels of the 60s to today’s audio-visual live artists and video game auteurs take the moving image to thrilling new places. The influence of Japanese cinema cannot be overstated – Kurosawa in particular influenced Sergio Leone’s A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS – an often shot-for-shot remake of YOJIMBO (1961) – and John Sturges’ THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, adapted from SEVEN SAMURAI (1954); George Lucas has long acknowledged Kurosawa’s influence on STAR WARS, from the narrative and thematic elements to costumes and names. More recently, George Miller’s MAD MAX: FURY ROAD and video game GHOST OF TSUSHIMA, in which players can adopt ‘Kurosawa mode’, have paid loving homage to the master filmmaker.
PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS BY REGION:
UK-WIDE
A BFI UK-wide re-release of Akira Kurosawa’s seminal masterpiece SEVEN SAMURAI (1954), back in cinemas UK-wide from 29 October. Genuinely epic in scale and tone, Kurosawa’s hugely influential samurai movie is a towering achievement which has to be experienced on the big screen. Confirmed venues so far include HOME, Manchester, IFI Dublin and Bristol Watershed.
The BFI has also curated a BFI JAPAN TOUR, featuring classics from Yasujirō Ozu and Akira Kurosawa,alongside titles like Kon Ichikawa’s breathtakingly stylised AN ACTOR’S REVENGE (1963) and Toshio Matsumoto’skaleidoscopic masterpiece FUNERAL PARADE OF ROSES (1969). The tour will visit cinemas across the UK and will feature many new 4K restorations. Picturehouse cinemas across the UK (with venues in Edinburgh, Cambridge, Southampton, Exeter, York, Liverpool and many more) will present select titles from the tour in their ongoing reDiscover series, with key titles from Akira Kurosawa and Yasujirō Ozu screening at cinemas weekly from 17 October – 2 December.
Day for Night is a UK-based independent film organisation working across the film exhibition, specialist distribution, access and screen translation sectors. Urban, Natural, Human – exploring Japan on screen is their curatorial project exploring representation of the built and natural environments framed within Japan’s historical, current and future contexts. The project, incorporating archive material, documentaries, artists’ moving image and contemporary films, will consist of seven in venue film screenings, including HOME in Manchester on 4 and 5 December, and Close-Up Cinema in London, 12 – 14 November. A programme of 10 features and 20 short films will also be made available online. Titles include BOOK, PAPER, SCISSORS (2019) by Nanako Hirose, ASCENT (2016) by Fiona Tan, MEMENTO STELLA (2018) by Takashi Makino, TENZO (2019) by Katsuya Tomita, THE INLAND SEA (1991) by Lucille Carra, 3.11 A SENSE OF HOME (2011) (various directors) and shorts by Kaori Oda. More titles are to be announced.
Following its second edition, which took place 15 – 26 September across eight venues in London, and showcased 37 films from 15 countries across East and Southeast Asia, Queer East Film Festival will be touring four highlights from its Focus Japan programme across four venues:
DAUGHTERS (2020) by Hajime Tsuda will be showing at the Midlands Arts Centre (MAC) in Birmingham on 28 October and at HOME, Manchester on 1 November. MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR LAWRENCE (1983) by NagisaŌshima will be showing at the MAC on 30 October. GOHATTO (1999) by Nagisa Ōshima will be showing on 35mm at the Edinburgh Filmhouse on 21 November. And for the 20th anniversary of its release, HUSH! (2001) by Ryosuke Hashiguchi, will be showing on 35mm at the Showroom Cinema, Sheffield on 3 December.
MIDLANDS
Phizzical Productions, a company specialising in film curation, exhibition and production, led by artistic director Samir Bhamra (UK Asian Film Festival) will be presenting a unique season exploring the connections and influences between Indian and Japanese cinema. The season will take place in November and December at Belgrade Theatre in Coventry. LOVE IN TOKYO (1966) by Pramod Chakravorty, KONTORA (2019) by Anshul Chauhan and 8 THOTTAKAL (2017) by Sri Ganesh, will be among the films presented, alongside Akira Kurosawa’s SEVEN SAMURAI (1954) and STRAY DOG (1949).
NORTH
At the Yorkshire Silent Film Festival (12 – 17 October), A PAGE OF MADNESS (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1926) will be presented at Abbeydale Picture House in Sheffield (17 October) with a live score by Sheffield duo In The Nursery. DRAGNET GIRL (YasujirōOzu, 1933) will be presented at The Leeds Library in Leeds (30 October) with an improvised live musical accompaniment by Irine Røsnes (violin) and Jonny Best (piano).
From 19 – 21 November, the Showroom Cinema (Sheffield)will run its first Anime festival – Sheffield Loves Anime, celebrating the genre in all its breadth, from cult classics to contemporary works, and with a unique focus on women writers. The programme, co-curated with Anime LTD and the Scotland Loves Anime film festival, will see A SILENT VOICE (2016) by Naoko Yamada, LOOKINGFOR MAGICAL DOREMI (2020) by Yu Kamatani and Jun’ichi Satō and CYBER CITY OEDO 808 (1990) by Yoshiaki Kawajiri screened alongside introductions, Q&As and other activities including a Japanese board game afternoon by Treehouse Board Game Café.
NORTHERN IRELAND
As part of its 21st edition, Belfast Film Festival at the Beanbag Cinema (4 – 13 November) will present a selection of surrealist Japanese films including: WIFE! BE LIKE A ROSE! (Mikio Naruse, 1935) THE MANWITHOUT A MAP (1968) by Hiroshi Teshigahara and EXTREME PRIVATE EROS LOVE SONG 1974 (1974) directed by Kazuo Hara and produced by Sachiko Kobayashi. The project is developed and curated in collaboration with three young programmers: Ruairi McCann, James Hall and Meicheng Zhou who are taking part in the Belfast Film Festival intern programmers initiative.
SCOTLAND
Screen Argyll is bringing Japan: Family, Community and the Sea to the islands in the Hebrides. STILLTHE WATER (Naomi Kawase, 2014), GIOVANNI’S ISLAND (Mizuho Nishikubo, 2014) and PONYO (Hayao Miyazaki, 2008)will be among the titles presented. Lecturer and writer Roy Stafford will produce film notes and an illustrated talk on Japanese island communities and their representation on screen, as well as facilitate post screening discussions. Whalley Range All Stars’s show, GODZILLA v the FATBERG, a 20-minute action-packed story told in the kamishibai style, will be recorded and presented to audiences, and followed by a kamishibai workshop. The screenings and events will take place mid-November to December.
SOUTH EAST AND LONDON
The 40thCambridge Film Festival (18 – 25 November) will present a curated strand of five Japanese films at the Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge:
POUPELLE OF CHIMNEY TOWN (2020) by Yusuke Hirota (UK Premiere)
DRIVE MY CAR (2021) by Ryusuke Hamaguchi
WHEEL OF FORTUNE AND FANTASY (2021) by Ryusuke Hamaguchi
JUST THE TWO OF US (2020) by Keita Fujimoto
SALARY MAN (2021) by Allegra Pacheco (UK Premiere)
WHEEL OF FORTUNE AND FANTASY, JUST THE TWO OF US and SALARY MAN will also be available online UK-wide (21 November – 5 December) as part of the festival’s online programme.
Reading Biscuit Factory is a brand new, three-screen independent cinema located in the town centre. For BFI JAPAN, the venue is celebrating the breadth and variety of Japanese filmmaking, from Kurosawa to Koreeda, from J-Horror to eroticism, and from samurai to cyberpunk, tracing the evolution of Japanese cinema over the past 75 years. Featuring newly-remastered classics such as SEVEN SAMURAI (1954) and GHOST IN THE SHELL(1995) by Mamoru Oshii and the very latest releases including DRIVE MY CAR (2021) by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, it will also include special events in partnership with academic staff from the University of Reading, director Q&As, and presentations of FUNERAL PARADE OF ROSES (1969) by Toshio Matsumoto and the documentary QUEER JAPAN (2019) by Graham Kolbeins as part of a special LGBTQIA+ strand in association with Queer East Film Festival. The programme will run from the end of October and throughout November and will also feature displays and demonstrations of Japanese arts and crafts.
As previously announced, there will be a major two-part season at BFI Southbank from 18 October – 30 December, featuring screenings, contextual introductions and events. Part one of the season (18 October – 30 November) surveys the great Japanese studio era from the 1930s to the early 1960s and part two (1 – 30 December) features 20th century Japanese films made after 1964, including the New Wave and genre classics of the 1990s. Full details can be found in the BFI JAPAN press release:
SOUTH WEST
In celebration of the BFI’s Japan season, expanded cinema practitioners Compass Presents are programming a day-long celebration of Japanese cinema and celebration on Saturday 9 October with events taking place in Millennium Square and a special ticketed screening and food pairing taking place at Watershed in Bristol. The day-long celebration will feature live cooking demonstrations, Taiko Drumming, cultural workshops and games, as well as full length feature screenings of acclaimed Japanese films including OUR LITTLE SISTER (2016) by Hirokazu Koreeda and YOUR NAME (2016) by Makoto Shinkai.
Ahead of a restored screening of SEVEN SAMURAI (1954) at Bristol Watershed, The Bristol Bad Film Club, renamed The Bristol Bushido Film Club for the occasion, will present a one-off screening of SHOGUN ASSASSIN(1980) by Robert Houston on Wednesday 3 November, complete with a live DJ set by DJ Cheeba and an introduction by Juice Aleem of AfroFlux.
WALES
Over the Halloween weekend (30 – 31 October), international centre for contemporary arts and culture Chapter, in Cardiff, will celebrate the films of director Nobuhiko Ōbayashi. His cult film HAUSU (1977), drawing on ideas furnished by his young daughter, will be presented alongside a selection of Ōbayashi’s short films, and followed by a discussion on the power of young women on screen, led by a group of young programmers. The weekend will also include conversations on women and folklore in Japanese culture, as well as zine-making and craft workshops.
In which Nat talks briefly about the movies she’s been watching this week for no particular reason and that probably don’t warrant proper reviews, but hey? Wouldn’t it be nice if we all chatted about them anyway?
The TMINE multiplex is open again – and no one has to wear masks, I promise, unless you really want to show off that stylish one you bought from Mint Velvet the other day. That’s fine. I’d really like to see it, too!
I’ve been flitting about this week and I’ve already talked about my TMINE theatre trip elsewhere. Unfortunately, that meant I didn’t watch anything at the cinema on Sunday, so I had nothing to review for you on Monday. Don’t worry, I’ve already booked my tickets for No Time To Die (2021), so I’ll definitely be reviewing that on Monday or Tuesday next week.
But! Even though I am really crying on the inside that I’ve not been the cinema this week, I have been watching what I can, when I can, so let’s go to the movies now! Yay!
This week’s viewing I’m not especially proud of. But (deep breath), I went and saw David Lynch’s Dune (1984) on the big screen with my best friend.
I’ve been tormenting her with it since we were at school together, since I love the books and she humours me in this, but this was the first time we’ve ever seen the movie on the big screen.
And this was basically me all the way through – imagine her joy, as well as the amount of popcorn she threw at me:
Don’t worry. I told her that she was bad for doing that.
For reasons that now escape me, my husband and I also chose to watch Fantastic Four (2005), possibly because we’ve never watched it together and we both do like superhero movies. But OMG, it was not a good choice on our part.
The last movie in the TMINE Multiplex was my Wednesday Movie Night viewing. Continuing with last week’s Heath Ledger theme, our choice was A Knight’s Tale (2001). Thankfully, it was very, very good.
In which Nat talks briefly about the movies she’s been watching this week for no particular reason and that probably don’t warrant proper reviews, but hey? Wouldn’t it be nice if we all chatted about them anyway?
Being TMINE’s Official Movie Reviewer in Residence is obviously new to me, so I’m not yet sure exactly what shape my contributions are going to settle into yet. At the moment, I’m planning for my full reviews to be of new releases and for them to feature on Mondays or Tuesdays, after I’ve watched them at the weekend.
Unfortunately, I don’t have as much access as I did before Covid to press screenings, screeners et al, thanks to changes in both my job and the whole world (😭). That means that although I’ll be able to preview some movies at least, I’ll usually be watching films at the local cinema when they come on general release, just like everyone else. Sorry, guys.
This weekend, however, I was up in London to see Rhod Gilbert at London Wonderground, so didn’t get to watch anything. If I had gone to see anything, it would have been Gunpowder Milkshake, so maybe you could all just imagine the beautiful, artfully constructed, witty review I would have put together.
I think it’s likely then that I’m going to be watching most films at home on streaming services, TV, DVDs or Blu-Rays – and then showing them here at The TMINE Multiplex every Wednesday or Thursday.
My life before Covid. Honest. Totes me. Photo Credit: Frank Ockenfels 3/AMC
One really strange aspect of lockdown for me was I was no longer the Queen of Watching Movies on Entertainment Systems or My iPad While Travelling to Some Glamorous Exotic Locale. Okay, that may not seem strange to you, but that was a big change for me (and my self-image #FirstWorldProblems).
A consequence of this was my film consumption really dropped and, weirder still, I started playing a superhero game on my phone (Marvel Strike Force). The weird thing was that actually I met some really lovely people that way! I even met someone who is now one of my best friends and now, every Wednesday, we have ‘Movie Night’ where we watch a movie one of us has chosen.
Being children of the 90s/00s, we typically end up watching a movie from that era – 90s/00s movies are just better anyway. Naturally, I will report on those in The TMINE Multiplex. But please don’t hold me to a strict 90s/00s policy, as we might occasionally watch a newer or older movie. Those who came to the Multiplex last week will know why I won’t be reviewing many 80s movies, though.
That ‘Movie Night’ pick will be showing at The TMINE Multiplex, together with whatever else I’ve been watching. At the moment, I’m working my through an extensive MUBI watchlist, as well as a few entries on BFI Player, but there undoubtedly will be some really, really bad things showing, too, since I really can’t be worthy all the time. Sometimes, you just want to watch something dreadful.
However, this week, be prepared to learn about (or revisit) no fewer than three 90s movies at the Multiplex: The Unbelievable Truth (1990), Un 32 août sur terre (1998) and 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
In which Nat talks briefly about the movies she’s been watching this week for no particular reason and that probably don’t warrant proper reviews, but hey? Wouldn’t it be nice if we all chatted about them anyway?
I’m really hoping this feature will take off. What do you think? Is it catchy enough?
This week, we have three screens playing The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard (2021), Tango & Cash (1989) and Road House (1989)
Screen 1: The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard (2021)
The bodyguard Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds) continues his friendship with assassin Darius Kincaid (Samuel L Jackson) as they try to save Darius’ wife Sonia (Salma Hayek)
Nat says: ‘Oh dear. Oh wait! Oh, never mind’
This is a sequel to The Hitman’s Bodyguard (2017). I’m not sure anyone really wanted a sequel, since it was quite a bad movie, the sort of film that feels like an investment opportunity put together by asset management funds in Benelux and the Bahamas to give terrorists a chance to avoid paying taxes. But here it is, reuniting the cast and the director.
The first half is dreadful. It tries hard to recreate the same scenario as the first movie, with Reynolds and Jackson now hating one another again, without really understanding the characters. There are fewer jokes, the action is poor and even the usually reliable cast struggle to give the movie life. It has Antonio Banderas playing a Greek man who’s upset with the EU’s treatment of his country so kidnaps its ‘leader’. Every so often, it cuts to a picture of ‘Athens’ that usually isn’t (but sometimes is) Athens. It’s just poor.
I also really dislike it, since most of the jokes are about Hayek being both a sexual women and one who swears a lot. Look at here run! Look at her breasts wobble! Isn’t that funny? Women running? Women with big breasts running?
Did the world just stop turning on its axis, beholding such innovation in writing? I don’t think so.
About halfway through, though, just as I was about to give up on it, the movie decides it wants to be something different: a flat-out comedy. Suddenly, it’s just Reynolds being Deadpool again. There are jokes about what sort of movie they’re homaging. Reynolds’ much-alluded-to father is revealed to be (spoiler alert) Morgan Freeman and Samuel L Jackson’s reaction to that piece of hubris is priceless. It actually all starts to work and to entertain.
But should you watch it, just so you can watch that second half? No.
The wonderful Rebecca Front appears in it a bit. She’s funny. But her scenes are all in the trailer, too.
