Yasujiro Ozu's first color film is a delight. I appreciate it even more now having seen Daniel Raim's documentary on Ozu's later work, where his qualities come out even more than in his previous work. His use of color is quite exquisite; turns out Ozu designed the whole of the set design himself in marvellous detail, the title cards are his an so on. Thematically we are in the same bracket with the breakdown of the traditional Japanese family, a…
The mafia backstory and the whole James Bond thing is just a total turnoff. It even ruins the good work already done on the raw, stylish first film. That would make this the first kind of sequel.
Please, please, pretty please.. don't ruin what has (had?) a potential to be a great franchise and get back to doing the basics right in the next one.
The film the Bond franchise has been trying to remake for decades, unsuccessfully. For me, Hitchcock's funniest film and above all extremely entertaining. The script is air-tight, we get some fancy camerawork and that most famous of scenes. The cast is perfect. This is pure enjoyment.
As directorial debuts go, this one has to be up there with the best. At no point does this work feel amateurish, but mature by Rúnar Rúnarsson, who also writes the script. The camerawork is very good, sometimes voyeuristic, cold; sometimes warm and engaging. Angles are thought through and some nice framing brings out the superb art direction in the film. As an Icelander, I know and have been in Hannes' and Anna's home. You can just smell the faint…
