Princess Raccoon (Seijun Suzuki, 2005)

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lord_clyde · #1 Post by **lord_clyde** » Wed Jan 12, 2005 9:26 am

HELL YEAH MORE SUZUKI!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry, fanboy outburst. Anyway, I also am glad Ziyi has decided to stick to non-american films. Just saw House of Flying Daggers and was blown away, but this isn't the place to talk about that. . .

SEIJUN SUZUKI IS GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Once again, apologies. Does anybody know the release date? I can't really make it out amidst all the oriental characters. Is it Feb. 5, 2005?

Lino · #2 Post by **Lino** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 1:21 pm

Photos from the press conference:

http://ent.sina.com.cn/m/f/2005-03-29/1755689264.html

Opens May, 28th in Japan.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0441674/releaseinfo

Also, check the official site again - lots of new goodies!

feihong · #3 Post by **feihong** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 7:15 pm

On the asiandvdguide discussion board one of the moderators posted that Geneon will re-release the Taisho trilogy boxset on sale a while ago in Japan (now out of print). Not sure if anything will be changed about it (English subtitles would be friggin' nice!), but it is worth it even for the images alone.

Lino · #4 Post by **Lino** » Mon May 16, 2005 11:17 am

New poster:

Don't forget - May, 28th.

lord_clyde · #5 Post by **lord_clyde** » Mon May 16, 2005 7:47 pm

Is it getting a US limited release?

Brian Oblivious · #6 Post by **Brian Oblivious** » Tue May 17, 2005 10:07 am

I read on Mobius that it will be at Subway Cinema's film festival in New York in June.

Lino · #7 Post by **Lino** » Sat May 28, 2005 10:23 am

Review and interview with the director here:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/get ... 0525a1.htm
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/get ... 0525a4.htm

feihong · #8 Post by **feihong** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 12:51 pm

The interview is fine, mildly interesting and all, but the review is pure bunk. Schilling clearly doesn't understand Suzuki's motivations, sides with the Nikkatsu boss who felt the Suzuki films made no sense, and in general has a very conservative view of cinema that requires it to be abjectly commercial in its bent. Couldn't they get some reviewer with some aesthetic interests on the case? Someone who could perhaps look at Suzuki's work on this film and judge it in the context of other Suzuki work?

Jun-Dai · #9 Post by **Jun-Dai** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 1:00 pm

They resurrected Misora Hibari for this? I gotta see this.

DrewReiber wrote:Well, I'm glad she has since stuck to making non-American films.

Don't forget Rush Hour 2, and that she's doing Memoirs of a Geisha and pretending to be Japanese.

Zhang Ziyi is no Maggie Cheung. Nevertheless I'd like to see her try to do a more serious role some day. She may be the hottest new item from China, and she may be sharing major screen time with some of the greatest, but I haven't seen her do anything terribly impressive yet except look pretty and be given ass-kicking roles. Memoirs of a Geisha is not what I have in mind.

the dancing kid · #10 Post by **the dancing kid** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 1:06 pm

Brian Oblivious wrote:I read on Mobius that it will be at Subway Cinema's film festival in New York in June.

The Subway website has it listed now.

http://www.subwaycinema.com/frames/nyaff05-princess.htm

DrewReiber · #11 Post by **DrewReiber** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 3:01 pm

Jun-Dai wrote:Don't forget Rush Hour 2, and that she's doing Memoirs of a Geisha and pretending to be Japanese.

Rush Hour 2 was what I was referencing. I had forgotten about Memoirs, which is depressing.

kieslowski_67 · #12 Post by **kieslowski_67** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 5:56 pm

Jun-Dai wrote:Zhang Ziyi is no Maggie Cheung. Nevertheless I'd like to see her try to do a more serious role some day. She may be the hottest new item from China, and she may be sharing major screen time with some of the greatest, but I haven't seen her do anything terribly impressive yet except look pretty and be given ass-kicking roles. Memoirs of a Geisha is not what I have in mind.

She might never develop into a decent actress, but obviously she is Hollywood's 'it girl' from Asian right now. Suzuki used her even if she only speaks Chinese in his new movie while all other actors speak Japanese.

Lino · #13 Post by **Lino** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 12:58 pm

The official japanese DVD will be out this week:

http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/p ... on-videos/

No english subs of course (seeing that it hasn't properly opened internationally) but Suzuki fans know that they aren't really important on his films, right?

ben d banana · #14 Post by **ben d banana** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 12:38 am

This film might make more sense without subs, but it would be less funny.

Lino · #15 Post by **Lino** » Sun Nov 27, 2005 4:30 pm

While we're still waiting for an english subbed DVD version of this very peculiar film, go here and click on the 7 minute preview clip hosted on this page just to get a taste of what you'll be getting if you watch this film or are planning to buy the eventual DVD:

http://www.helloziyi.us/Movies/Operetta ... _Goten.htm

A thought just crossed my mind: is Suzuki planning an Opera Trilogy? His last one was called Pistol Opera and this new one is originally called Operetta Tanuki Goten. Makes sense to me if he is.

feihong · #16 Post by **feihong** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 11:08 pm

If Suzuki is planning an opera trilogy, which would be a very good idea, I'm sure it would only be to get funding for the next movie. I think I read that his producer was picking titles for most of this stuff anyway. His previous Taisho Trilogy wasn't really a thematic or plot-based trilogy, but he chose to say that Yumeji was part of a Taisho Trilogy so that the producer would more likely spring for it. The films aren't related in any way, just as Pistol Opera doesn't relate to Princess Raccoon in any way. The only real trilogy Suzuki has done that I can think of would be the Flesh Trilogy, because they all starred the same actress and they were all about prostitutes. That's as close as he's come. Detective Bureau 23 and Youth of the Beast seem related, but that's because they're the work of the same novelist and Jo Shishido's the main guy in each. He plays completely different characters, though, and the themes and the tone of each movie is significantly different.

Hopefully he goes through with this approach and does another movie because of it. Every new Suzuki movie feels like a gift at this point.

brunosh · #17 Post by **brunosh** » Sat May 27, 2006 7:44 am

At the opening of Princess Raccoon at the ICA in London on 29 June, Suzuki is making a personal appearance in conversation with the hugely opinionated Tony Rayns. There were very few tickets left for non-members when I bagged mine yesterday.

brunosh · #18 Post by **brunosh** » Wed Nov 15, 2006 8:28 am

Just a few snippets (very late, very abridged and not claiming to be verbatim) from Seijun Suzuki's discussion with Tony Rayns at the ICA in June 2006. SS staggered onto stage leaning on a sort of zimmer frame and tubed up to an oxygen inhaler but, once he sat down and was fed a few lines by TR, he proved to be mentally in very good form. The chat was very tongue in cheek:

TR: After a few years you moved from Shochiku to Nikkatsu. Why was that?

SS (wide-eyed): Nikkatsu offered three times the salary, and by the time I started working there it was four times.

TR: And very soon you directed your first feature film. Now at about the same time Imamura Shohei also moved to Nikkatsu, but he had to wait four years before directing his first film. How come you were allowed to direct so much earlier than he was?

SS: I was better than him!

TR: We saw just now a clip of Tokyo Drifter containing a scene of violence and then in the middle of it there is a song. Why?

SS: All Japanese films at that time had a song in them.

TR: But right in the middle of a fight scene?

SS: When you are directing a film, you have to try to make sure that the audience doesn't get bored.

TR: And then after making Branded to Kill, you were sacked by Nikkatsu. Why was that?

SS: They couldn't afford my salary anymore.

TR: Princess Raccoon contains a huge variety of types of music, including reggae at one point. Did you choose that music, and do you like it?

SS: I'm tone deaf.

TR: The film also makes extensive use of CGI.

SS: Yes, it's very clever, isn't it. Someone did it for me.

audience question: What do you think is the future for cinema?

SS: God knows!

audience question (paraphrase of a long involved question asked in Japanese and then, to the obvious relief of the onstage translator, repeated by the questioner in English): once you were able to make a trilogy of independent films, why did you choose to set them in the Taisho era?

SS: I was born in that period and so wanted to suggest that not everything that came out of that era was stupid.

Suzuki did say that he has no intention of making another film.

feihong · #19 Post by **feihong** » Wed Nov 15, 2006 12:42 pm

Suzuki did say that he has no intention of making another film.

But he says that all the time.

Suzuki is very dependent on motivated producers to hand him the opportunity to direct another picture. Pistol Opera and Princess Raccoon have basically been commissioned by producers who have urged Suzuki to make those films. So until that happens again, we probably won't see another picture from him.

Doctor Sunshine · #20 Post by **Doctor Sunshine** » Wed Nov 15, 2006 4:04 pm

Except that he's 83 years old now and on oxygen. And he's not really one of those filmmaking-or-die personalities.

colinr0380 · #21 Post by **colinr0380** » Wed Nov 15, 2006 6:41 pm

brunosh wrote:TR: And then after making Branded to Kill, you were sacked by Nikkatsu. Why was that?

SS: They couldn't afford my salary anymore.

I keep thinking how incredibly ironic it was that they got rid of Seijun Suzuki and then four years later ended up making only Roman Porno - a move that perhaps was begun by Suzuki's pushing the boundaries of sex in Nikkatsu films. This new system would have been perfect for him to direct idionsyncratic and bizarre films while keeping the level of sexual shenanigans up to the level demanded.