Ocean Salt and Desert Sand
A Colt Is My Passport (1967)
directed by Takashi Nomura
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
Jô Shishido's cheek augmentation surgery and subsequent career reinvention is one of the great movie star stories. I happen to think he looks like a chipmunk, but it makes his characters' identities as loners more appealing, since he isn't a secretly handsome leading man like Bogart or Belmondo. A Colt Is My Passport is like wanting to drink a beer and finding that the beer is exactly what you expected. "I'm looking forward to a cold can of beer when I get home this evening," you say to yourself. True to your expectations, you are refreshed and satisfied. A can of suds.
If what you want is a stylish Japanese gangster movie shot in black and white, this is your number. Its derivative but winning score convinced me that Ennio Morricone composed my all-time favorite movie soundtracks. There is nothing else like them, and nothing that encapsulates the entertainment value of a great movie better.
There is no obligation in Morricone's music, nothing owed to the past except an appreciation and respect for stories. It is lusty stuff, like Vikings would sing, but tempered with the craft of that traveling instrument, the guitar. Any man can whistle, and does so often on a road or a job alone. These elements converge - a secret history of hard luck and true hearts - and feel as solid as the earth beneath your feet. As permanent and frivolous as the wind.
directed by Takashi Nomura
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
Jô Shishido's cheek augmentation surgery and subsequent career reinvention is one of the great movie star stories. I happen to think he looks like a chipmunk, but it makes his characters' identities as loners more appealing, since he isn't a secretly handsome leading man like Bogart or Belmondo. A Colt Is My Passport is like wanting to drink a beer and finding that the beer is exactly what you expected. "I'm looking forward to a cold can of beer when I get home this evening," you say to yourself. True to your expectations, you are refreshed and satisfied. A can of suds.
If what you want is a stylish Japanese gangster movie shot in black and white, this is your number. Its derivative but winning score convinced me that Ennio Morricone composed my all-time favorite movie soundtracks. There is nothing else like them, and nothing that encapsulates the entertainment value of a great movie better.
There is no obligation in Morricone's music, nothing owed to the past except an appreciation and respect for stories. It is lusty stuff, like Vikings would sing, but tempered with the craft of that traveling instrument, the guitar. Any man can whistle, and does so often on a road or a job alone. These elements converge - a secret history of hard luck and true hearts - and feel as solid as the earth beneath your feet. As permanent and frivolous as the wind.
posted by NPK at 8:49 AM
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