Feb. 8 movie: Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. I had a really hard time getting involved in this movie. The concept was so rarefied (or to be less charitable, ridiculous) that I found myself with no empathy for the main character. So we've got this hit man, see, and he's obsessed with the code of bushido, right? Imagines himself a samurai! Oh and also, he only communicates with his employer via carrier pigeon.
What in the what now?
There was supposed to be pathos in his final self-sacrifice, I think, but since I was so disengaged it came across as pointless and stupid. And his giving the book to the little girl -- sucking her into his futile world -- just seemed perverse.
But the movie wasn't all bad. There was a cool scene where Ghost Dog (Forrest Whitaker) shoots some guy through the drainpipe of his bathroom sink (which turns out to have been cribbed from Seijun Suzuki's Branded to Kill, which we watched the next day). And I really liked the relationship between Ghost Dog and the Haitian (?) ice cream man (Isaach De Bankolé, the Parisian taxi driver in Night on Earth). I think I would have had a more satisfying viewing experience if I had fast-forwarded through the whole movie, only watching the scenes at the ice cream truck.
The other good thing about the movie was a very brief appearance by RZA, which prompted Georg to explain to me that his name is actually pronounced "rizza," not "are zee aae." Next time I have to say his name on the air, I'll sound a little bit more like I know what I'm talking about.
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As long as you also include the scene in which the old Asian dude opens up a can of whupass on some young punk who thinks he's going to mug him.
Speaking of streetcode Forest Whitaker, did you see his small role in Jason's Lyric? It includes another scene in which the presumably-less-able "victim" (in this case, Whitaker with a cane) easily disposes of a would-be bad guy.