Big Epic Small Epic

This week I woke up the earliest of all time during my stay in Japan. I woke up before seven and got ready to catch a bus, catch a train, and catch another bus to get to the movie theater. Some sacrifice huh? The first film I watched today was Alfonso Cuaron's single shot-porn Gravity in 3D! This is the first time I watched a 3D film in Japan! The second is 47 Ronin, which makes this review quite special because this might be the very first few reviews of the film because it's released two weeks early in Japan (and it bombed in Japan).

Gravity
Gravity might be the most thrilling film this year, and possibly ever made. It is also might arguably be the most technically advanced film ever, beyond Avatar. Alfonso Cuaron has made a superb film that made you, almost literally, hold your breath. The film's decision to be super-realistic by using no sound in space is another point in awesome and an advantage too. The heroes in this film are Sandra Bullock who could carry the film almost all by herself, music composer Steven Price with his intense score, DoP Emmanuel Lubezki for his incredible shots from outer space, visual effects guys, and of course Alfonso Cuaron as the director. The 3D is also effective and might be the best 3D film I've ever watched. It's so great that the only thing I can comment is that if you haven't watched this, why haven't you? Gravity is intense, smart, thrilling, superb, and one of the best films of the year. Gravity: rated 5/4 TOO GOOD TO BE RATED.

47 Ronin
47 Ronin is a hyper ambitious film, with swollen budget and multiple delayed release dates. It stars Keanu Reeves and a flock of Japanese Hollywood graduates such as Hiroyuki Sanada (Sunshine, The Wolverine), Tadanobu Asano (Thor, Battleship) and Rinko Kikuchi (Babel, Pacific Rim). It also stars famous J-TV actress Ko Shibaseki and boyband member Jin Akanishi. Its decision to cast Japanese actors is commendable and deserves a standing ovation. It's a brave decision yet still they still feel the need to add Keanu's unimportant character. The film shows great deal of Japanese culture and honors them too. The bushido code of the samurais scenes are just perfect. It also improved the legend at some parts but it is plagued with cheesy lines, not a surprise coming from the writer who wrote Fast and Furious series and the writer who wrote the super minimum dialogue for Drive. The CGI is surprisingly not bad and the direction for a first-timer is quite okay. However, the other decision to add witchcraft and fantasy elements is also questionable. The film wanted to be an adventure epic but didn't explore the story too well that it actually came out like Clash of the Titans. We didn't get to invest much on the character, and they could omit some parts in favor of more important things but didn't do so. I'm not a fan of Keanu Reeves in this film, but the Japanese actors are great, particularly Hiroyuki Sanada, Rinko Kikuchi, and Min Tanaka. You could skip this film, but if you didn't it's not a bad thing either. Especially if you like Japanese stuff. 47 Ronin: rated 2.5/4

About the title, it refers to both Gravity and 47 Ronin. Gravity managed to be a great epic with a very little setting and story yet 47 Ronin just managed to be a small epic while it aimed to be a big one.

Next two weeks: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.