Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai

[Ninjavenom]

Goddammit, this movie rules so hard it's not even funny. I must see more of this Jarmusch guy's movies! :O

[Drev]

I love this movie, and I'll probably get it on DVD.
My best death is the guy who gets shot through the sink.

[Ninjavenom]

Fuck yeah. I loved how the cartoon that the guy was watching in the other room involved the very same thing. Pretty clever. Apparently, the boatbuilder on the roof had no real meaning, Jim put it in there just because he liked the idea. It's awesome that he can come right out and say that some of the stuff like that and the dog that GD keeps meeting really had no meaning at all. He can admit that he put it in because he liked it, unlike two rock bands i can immediately think of that won't admit they do/did the same thing. *cough pinkfloydandtool cough*

[Drev]

I am a litle hazy on this part, but why are all the gang members watching cartoons all the time? Was it symbolic, or was it, like you said, put there for no reason, just for fun?

[Ninjavenom]

Each cartoon parodied an event in the movie.

Woody Woodpecker was referring to when he goes to murder the mob boss and the woodpecker lands on his rifle.

Felix had a bag of tricks, the same way Ghost Dog did.

Betty Boop was flagging down birds the same way Ghost Dog was.

Itchy and Scratchy whipping out the progressively larger guns was like the shootout at the end of the movie.

I forgot what the other I & S one was, so i couldn't tell ya what it represented.

Someone on IMDB asked if when he had his hood up, he was invisible, like how no one pays attention to him in the beginning. I'll have to watch it again to see, but that sounds like a neat theory. :O

I also liked how they used Rashomon as an interpretation point for the movie. I have the book, now i gotta read it. But it was cool because you could tell that there was a collision of stories, (Pulp Fiction style) but we only get to know about two out of the possible six involved in the movie. That rules so hard.

edit: I think the gangsters always watching cartoons could also have just been a bit of humorous irony. The toughest men in the state spend their time watching old cartoons O .o.

[Drev]

I was thinking in the line of a lost childhood, but your answer's the best.

[Royal Tenenbaum]

I love this film! I used to watch it a lot more a couple years ago, but it's still really fucking good. The best part for me is when the Italian guys are trying to figure out how Ghost Dog is. "You know, like the rappers..." Hysterical.


"I must see more of this Jarmusch guy's movies!"

Yeah, I have every Jarmusch film myself, so I'm a huge fan, but none of his other films are like Ghost Dog. Check out Dead Man, and if you don't like that you might as well stop. I think all his films are excellent though. There's a good chance you'll like Dead Man if you enjoy more existential comedy or bizarro-westerns.

[pjalne]

I think Dead Man is his best film. In fact, it's one of my favourite films. The mood is incredible, and during the last twenty minutes I'm completely hypnotized by the way it oozes forward. In fact, I'm not sure it's the last twenty minutes, it could just as well be ten or thirty, I lose track of the time. I guess it's not for everybody, though.

[Royal Tenenbaum]

Yeah, Dead Man is probably his best, although I'm partial to Down By Law and Stranger Than Paradise. John Lurie is hilarious.

[A.S.H.]

Wait a second, you're telling me this movie was good?
I have never seen it, the whole concept seemed to rub me the wrong way. Not because the star was black or a gangster, but because of the whole samurai thing.
The thing is, just about every time most American film makers try to portray Japanese culture, they seem to screw it up, especially when they have American's who are trying to imitate it within the film.
But I respect the opinions of some of the people on these forums, most of them within this thread, so I might as well give it a shot.

[Les Waste]

Wu-Tang Clan :rolleyes

RZA does the score, which is why it's so good.

[Ninjavenom]

The idea was not that he would follow Bushido or anything, just that he was generally interested in the samurai, and would follow with what he knew. Paying respect to the dead, not killing an unarmed woman, respecting everything unrelated to the enemies of his master, etc.

And yeah, i like RZA's soundtrack. Too bad the fucker who has it won't let me finish downloading it. >:

[Royal Tenenbaum]

"Wait a second, you're telling me this movie was good? "

Yes, the movie is fuckin awesome. If you actually knew great directors, instead of judging films on their trailers alone, you would know this already.

[Bennett]

Wrong.

There was only one good thing about this movie: the soundtrack.

I take that back, there were two good things: the soundtrack, and the fact that this movie made me laugh, a lot.
I thought it was way too over the top cheesy, especially the samurai-ing for dummies/Tao of Pooh book that acts as some agent of plot structure all the way down to when Ghost Dog has to go to the convalescent home to kill the 80 year old gangsters.

The best part is when Ghost Dog and the Rza pass each other on the street and give each other the wussup head nod. I pissed myself I was laughing so hard here.

I could be wrong, I guess, I've only seen the movie once but I had absolutely no inclination to rent it again... maybe I will, if nothing else but for some laughs.

[Les Waste]

Even though I liked the movie, I agree that the scene at the end with him and RZA was fucking retarded. He was probably just saying "I wanna be in the movie! Put me in the movie! Make me be in the movie."