Coluna Claquete - September 12, 2016 - Movie of the week: "Dirty Hearts"

 

 

Newton Ramalho

 

colunaclaquete@gmail.com - www.colunaclaquete.blogspot.com - @colunaclaquete

 

Movie of the Week: "Dirty Hearts"

In war, truth is the first victim. This quote, attributed to the Greek playwright Aeschylus, seems never lose their validity. In all wars advertising will always be one of the most important weapons, and linked to it, the manipulation of ideas and facts. It was like that with a barely known event in the history of Brazil, that happened after the Second World War, and that only came to light through the beautiful book of Fernando Morais, and Vicente Amorim's film "Dirty Hearts".

Few people know that, although Brazil had never been at war with Japan, immigrants from that country, which here formed the largest colony in the world, were very harassed, prevented from traveling freely, to own radios, to have publications in their language, to transmit their culture to children, and even to show their flag.

It is not surprising that after the official end of the war, most of the Japanese community in Brazil doubted that Japan had lost. In their logic, Japan had never been defeated in two thousand years, and if it were the case, all the Japanese would have to commit suicide. Alie is it the fact that, in the 1940s, the communications are sufferable, especially during wartime.

After an incident where an arrogant policeman raided a party and profaned the Japanese flag, using it to clean his boots, it started an underground movement in the colony, which would culminate with dozens of deaths and thousands of arrests.

Nationalists or tokkotai, who did not believe in Japan's defeat, have created organizations that aimed to punish the Japanese who "had surrendered to the enemy", who lied about Japan's defeat, who spoke Portuguese, and adapted to local customs.These were named "dirty hearts".

What seemed to many simply be a "fight between Japanese" actually became a case of sophisticated propaganda machine, with falsifying reports of international magazines, reversing the victory for Japan.

This movement quite damaged the Brazilian economy, because all that was considered "important to the enemy" was boycotted or sabotaged. The tokkotai brought to Brazil, especially São Paulo and Paraná, war actions that had never happened during the actual war.

Over the years 1946 and 1947, 23 migrants were killed by tokkotai, and 147 were injured. The case has taken such proportions that more than 31,000 migrants were arrested for years, of which 381 actually tried, and 80 sentenced to prison and expulsion from the country. In 1956, all ended up being amnestied by President Kubitschek.

Unlike the book of Fernando Morais, who as always strives for extensive documentation and testimony, the film brings events in fictional form, showing them from the perspective of photographer Takahashi (Tsuyoshi Ihara), his wife iyuki (Takako Tokiwa) and the small girl Akemi (Celine Fukumoto).

Takahashi is co-opted by Watanabe (Eiji Okuda), a retired official of the Japanese Imperial Army to participate in the movement of punishment for traitors of the fatherland. Takahashi feels doubts about whether it is right what they do, especially when he has to fake photos to create the illusion of Japan's victory.

The film recreates competently the rural post-war Brazil, and Japanese colony.The cinematographer used a yellow filter that refers to the universe around which the facts happen. Moreover, the use of a filter that blurred the edges bothered for the excess that was applied.

Another detail that drew attention - and that bothers any lover of Japanese martial arts - was the proposal of the film to use the long sword, katana, for suicides. In real life, it was offered to the victims of tokkotai a tanto, a Japanese military knife. In ancient Japan, the samurais used, for the ritual suicide, the wakizashi, the shortest sword from the pair they customarily used.It would be impossible to do this with the greatest one.

Forgetting these technical details, the film is important to show these facts apparently forgotten in Brazilian history, and in reality reveals how intolerance and fanaticism do harm to humanity. It would be so good people see these movies and take this message of communion of life. Well, if the truth is the first casualty of war, hope is always the last to die.

Coluna Claquete - August 29, 2016 - Movie of the Week: "Gernika"

 

 

Newton Ramalho

 

colunaclaquete@gmail.com - www.colunaclaquete.blogspot.com - @colunaclaquete

 

Movie of the Week: "Gernika"

The history of humanity is full of conflicts, so many that most people are aware only of the most important ones. But one of these conflicts, the Spanish Civil War, was marked by a brutal and cowardly event that was immortalized by Pablo Picasso in a special painting. The table, the city and the film inspired by this tragic story has the same name: "Gernika" (2016).

In order to help the reader, I will make a very brief contextualization. After the end of the monarchy in the early 1930s, it was installed the republican system in Spain. Over the decade, the clashes between the left and right culminated in a military coup led by General Franco, unleashing a bloody war that would drag on until 1939.

The nationalists, led by general Francisco Franco, had the support of Hitler and Mussolini, while Republicans were supported by the Soviet Union and international volunteers. The world situation was very tense, because everyone knew that soon would happen a new world war.

The world at that time was very different from today. Germany and Italy, under the rule of Hitler and Mussolini, had risen from the rubble of World War I, and were new military powers increasingly aggressive.

England still had many colonies, including India and Pakistan, having the nickname "the empire where the sun never sets." Africa, with few exceptions, was formed by European colonies.

In much of the world, including Brazil, governments were right-wing dictatorships. Japan had emerged from a millennial isolation to a bellicose expansionism, and at that time had already invaded Manchuria and much of China.

At this tension level, it was natural that the United States, Britain and France avoided getting involved in the Spanish conflict, as they were aware that a much larger war was very near.

It is at this point that we find in Bilbao, in northern Spain, a group of journalists trying to cover the war. Among them is the American Henry Howell (James D'Arcy), a veteran war correspondent. Cynical and disillusioned, Howell chafes at censorship of the communication department of the Republicans, which prohibited any news that appeared being negative.

The censors were Spanish Teresa (Maria Valverde) and Russian Vasyl (Jack Davenport), the latter serving instructions received directly from Moscow.

Howell is bounded to confront their own demons when understands that he must let the world knows what is really happening there.The time to break is the cowardly bombing of the small town of Guernica, made by German and Italian aircraft, successfully testing a new tactic of war, the blitzkrieg.

It's odd the way Hollywood appropriates historical facts to retell them with its own version. Howell's character is inspired by George Steer, a British journalist born in South Africa. Although he was not in town at the time of the bombing, he arrived there shortly after and was able to build the story based on what he saw and the reporting of survivors. The telegram sent to his newspaper, the Times of London, is considered a milestone in the history of journalism. Oddly, he would lose his job because the editor sympathized with General Franco.

Although the film has made a good reconstitution time, some poetic liberties were dissonant, like the use of intercontinental phone call with great ease.I remember that in the 1960s, getting a link to another state was already a complication, imagine in the 30s and in the midst of a war...

The famous Spanish painter Pablo Picasso was inspired by the tragic story of the bombing in Guernica to create what would be his most famous painting. However, he imposed one condition: the picture could only come to Spain when democracy was restored. This desire took too long to be realized, as General Franco still ruled Spain with an iron fist until his death in 1975.

For those interested in this subject, I recommend, in addition to "Gernika", the movies "Land and Freedom", "Libertarias" and "Hemingway & Gellhorn".And in books, "Homage to Catalonia" by George Orwell, "For Whom the Bell Tolls?", by Ernest Hemingway, and "Saga", from Brazilian writer Érico Veríssimo.

Coluna Claquete - July 12th, 2016 - Series of the week: "Happy Valley"

 

 

Newton Ramalho

 

colunaclaquete@gmail.com - www.colunaclaquete.blogspot.com - @colunaclaquete

 

Series of the week: "Happy Valley"

Those who follow my column for more time must be wondering why I'm commenting - and recommending - a series. To be true, I'm not very adept of series, considering them repetitive and uncreative, usually having problems solved for a hero with an endless supply of bullets. But occasionally I find some hidden treasures, that was the case of the British miniseries "Happy Valley".

What I complain in American series is the sameness of scripts without freshness, the ambiance in the big cities, the banalization of violence, and even the casting, usually beautiful young people, more suitable for commercial of margarine or toothpaste.

Well, when it comes to "Happy Valley", forget all that. The plot is set in a small town in northern England. Although been light years away from the problems of a city in the Brazilian country, Happy Valley is increasingly beset by the problem of drugs.

It is here that the small detachment of police is headed by Sergeant Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire).In addition to the normal problems of the city, Catherine still has to deal with her own ghosts.

She is divorced and she lives with her sister Clare (Siobhan Finneran), an ex-drug addict, and her grandson Ryan (Rhys Connah). Ryan is the son of Becky, Catherine's daughter who had committed suicide after the boy was born.Catherine's decision to create Ryan caused the divorce with Richard (Dereck Riddell) and the detachment of her son Daniel (Karl Davies).

In addition to family problems, Catherine is extremely upset to learn that Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton) has came out of prison.Tommy, who had been arrested for drug dealing, had been indirectly responsible for the death of Becky since she became pregnant after being raped by him.

Out of jail, Tommy did not delay to get involved in more problems. His new boss, Ashley Cowgill (Joe Armstrong), receives a strange proposal from Kevin Weatherill (Steve Pemberton). He proposes to Ashley abduct the daughter of his boss, Nevison Gallagher (George Costigan), for having refused to give him a raise of sallary.

Asley charges Tommy and his colleague Lewis Whipey (Adam Long) to kidnap Ann Gallagher (Charlie Murphy), but everything complicates as time goes by, and the nature of each one influences their actions.

The miniseries has an interesting development, because the main crime happens without most of the characters being aware of it. On the other hand, we see a different detective story, where agents do not use firearms, even though they have to deal with criminals of all sorts.

More interesting are the actors chosen for the protagonists, most of them above fifty, out of Hollywood beauty standard, but extremely convincing in their roles.The point outside of the curve is exactly James Norton, who embodies the villain, and creates an interesting contrast between his physical attractiveness and the heinousness of his character. Maybe this is the reason for rumors that he will be the next James Bond.

"Happy Valley" is an interesting mini-series, which brings a view of England very different of London multicultural standard, and much closer to what we imagine to be the real life of a small town.

The best is to escape from the traditional dichotomy of Hollywood, where everyone is either angel or demon. The characters of the series are human, with strengths and weaknesses, and there is no one totally good or bad. Just like real life.

Original title: "Happy Valley"

 

Coluna Claquete - July 4th, 2016 - Movie of the Week: "Equals"

 

Coluna Claquete - July 4^th, 2016

 

Newton Ramalho

 

colunaclaquete@gmail.com - www.colunaclaquete.blogspot.com - @colunaclaquete

 

Movie of the Week: "Equals"

One of my favorite genres is the science-fiction, preference inherited from my parents. I believe that this attraction is due to the fact that we are talking about things that may happen in a near or distant future. Although the genre is usually associated with technology, the theme can be how humanity will behave, such as the intriguing movie "Equals" (2015).

The world shown in "Equals" is in an unspecified future, when humanity survived a major conflict that destroyed 99.6% of the fertile area, and sought a new way of living.This new world is aseptic, organized, and above all, egalitarian.If we think of "1984", "Brave New World" or "Logan's Run" will see some resemblance.

There is no social differentiation, everyone has access to the same benefits of housing, transportation and health, every apartment is equipped with technology dedicated to comfort and practicality. The difference in clothing indicates only the type of work, operative or office worker, or a discrete police force, weaponless, with the suggestive name of "Health and Safety".

In this universe that appears to be a communism without ideology, there is only one restriction: feelings and desires were banned, as well as the intimate relationships of any kind.Anything that refers to it must be communicated to the medical staff, because it is considered a disease with several levels deep.

It is in this world that lives Silas (Nicholas Hoult), a young illustrator who fulfills his every day routine, until he realizes that he feels an attraction to a co-worker, Nia (Kristen Stewart).

Baffled, Silas search official aid, consisting of drugs and a Levell 1 classification of the disease.Gradually, however, he discovers that there are a lot of people like him who secretly gather a kind of self-help group, led by Jonas (Guy Pearce).

Silas also discovers that his attraction to Nia is matched, but at the same time they begin to live a love affair, they feel the siege of society smother them increasingly. The only solution is to escape for a rest of wild world, out of the oppressive paradise in which they live.

Although I have read or watched movies with intriguing proposals on future societies, it is hard not to wonder whether we have reached something shown in "Equals". Of course, this society without rich and poor will never exist - the rich will never allow it! However, we can have already arrived this levell of emotionless existence.

It may seem paradoxical this statement because we are living in a time of tremendous intolerance and absolute disregard to other's opinion. However, it is easier for someone being wroth with an event across the planet than with something very close.

We are becoming insensitive to the suffering and needs of people who are on our side, whom we pretend do not see. No matter if the subject is a victim of daily violence, a homeless, an unassisted student, and or even people from our family to which we do not give attention. We turned emotionless automatons, as our emotion is totally channeled to conflict with those who think differently from us.

Lucubrations aside, "Equals" is a very well made film, with great locations in Japan and Singapore. The main couple has a good chemistry, even Kristen Stewart still remembering his character in "Twilight".Nicholas Hoult shows more versatility, having already made Hank in the new generation of X-Men movies, and even a zombie in "Warm Bodies". Guy Pearce, though in a secondary role, always steals the show when he appears.

"Equals" is an interesting film that deserves to be seen and analyzed calmly, even to awaken a good discussion about the future of humanity - and what role we want to play in it.

Original title: "Equals"