Life Tastes Good (Cinema Epoch)
Picture: C Sound: C+ Extras: C Film: B-
Sab
Shimono is one of the best character actors around. With his great voice and distinctive manner
and look, he has been one of the most consistent and enduring such performers
since the 1970s. Philip Kan Gotanda’s Life Tastes Good (1999) gives us
Shimono in the lead role of dying Harry Sado, who plans on leaving a fortune to
his family and self-destructing.
Unfortunately, the cash is stolen and things do not go as planned.
Gotanda’s
screenplay is too talky and directing too enclosed throughout, yet I found the
performances and interaction interesting enough with an opening that is never
followed through of two Asian detectives that could have really made this film
take off if it had chosen that direction.
For what is here, the nearly 90 minutes has more hits than misses and
makes for some consistently interesting interplay with a satisfactory result. The mostly unknown supporting cast is plus.
The
letterboxed 1.85 X 1 image is a bit soft and weak in transfer, but Michael Chin’s
cinematography is nicely lit with a certain clarity that defies this transfer
and tries to tell the story in a self-reflective way with more cinematic space
that you usually get in independent productions. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is not bad form
a nicely recorded film with interesting music by Dan Kuramoto that does not try
to show off or interfere with the narrative.
Extras include a director interview and his previous and also-interesting
short black and white film The Kiss.
- Nicholas Sheffo
