This weekend, filmgoers have a pair of wildly different films to choose from at Digital Gym Cinema. You can savor an elegant period drama about feudal Japan or a documentary about upstart Americans trying to prove their worth as cheesemongers among their European counterparts.
'The Samurai and the Prisoner'
Kiyoshi Kurosawa is one of my favorite filmmakers. He won me over with a quartet of uniquely disquieting films that often found horror in the most mundane settings — “Cure,” “Charisma,” “Seance” and “Pulse,” all featuring the great actor Kōji Yakusho.
In the U.S., Kurosawa is mostly known for those horror films, but he is a prolific filmmaker whose body of work reveals an exquisite sense of craft as well as a burning desire to try new things.
For his latest film, "The Samurai and the Prisoner,” he ventures into period drama for the first time to explore feudal Japan and samurai culture.
Set across four seasons during the Warring States Era of 1579 Japan, this historical fiction centers on Murashige Araki (Masahiro Motoki), a samurai warlord who decides to rebel against a rival clan led by Oda Nobunaga (Shingo Bandô). Murashige’s reasons for rebelling have been lost to history, so the film, like the novel it is based on, can only speculate. But Murashige steadfastly opposes Oda. His rebellion also seems to be against bushidō, or the way of the samurai, as he rejects aspects of the code that demand he kill prisoners or refrain from mercy.
This leads to Murashige barricading himself inside Arioka Castle, where Oda lays siege. Holed up in his castle and awaiting attack, Murashige imprisons Kanbei Kuroda (Masaki Suda), a rival emissary seeking his surrender.
But as deceits and betrayals play out, and bodies pile up not on the battlefield but within the castle walls, Murashige comes to realize that the only person he may be able to trust is his enemy and prisoner.
Kurosawa constructs an elegant puzzle box that relies as much on Agatha Christie as it does on bushidō. It’s a riveting murder mystery as well as a provocative exploration of a man who defies societal expectations to follow his own path and beliefs. Kurosawa’s exploration of both new and familiar genre terrain yields another masterful film well worth seeking out in a cinema where you can give it your full attention. This is a film that demands you watch with care and attention to detail.
'The Big Cheese'
And now for something completely different. OK, it’s not Monty Python, but it is about cheese and cheese mongers, and how Americans face an uphill battle trying to prove that they have a refined enough palate to compete with Europeans in the realm of cheesemongering.
The film explains, "A cheesemonger has an encyclopedic knowledge of all cheeses on their counter. They're sort of like a sommelier, but a little more punk rock. This is a film about what it takes to be the greatest cheesemonger in the world."
Or to be "The Big Cheese," as the title suggests. The resulting documentary then proceeds to delightfully and passionately explore the journey to becoming the Big Cheese. And it is a journey that turns out to be more tense and engrossing than you might expect.
At the center of the film is Adam Moskowitz, who appears on stage at The Cheesemonger Invitational (CMI) wearing a cow jammy costume and entertaining audiences with cheese raps. He is also on a mission to see Team USA compete in the Olympics of cheese: The Mondial du Fromage in France.
To achieve this, Moskowitz puts his team through intense training in which they have to learn how to plate cheese, make cheese sculptures, identify cheeses, know a cheese's history and describe it.
Courtney Johnson, one of the two Americans competing in the Mondial, explains in the film: "Probably the strangest cheese aromas are things like fecal, manure and baby vomit. Those are all valid tasting notes. You'll get that doesn't necessarily mean it's a good thing."
And only the most dedicated cheesemongers will make the cut, like Sam Rollins, who says in the film: "I have a hard time separating my personal life from my work life, and I don't necessarily see that as a goal. At Mondial, I want to show that there is a lot of knowledge and know-how in savoir-faire in the U.S."
Sara Joe Wolansky directs the film with energy, humor and a love for the subject matter. "The Big Cheese" does for fromage what "Bottle Shock" did for California wines: It proves that Americans can compete with their European counterparts. "The Big Cheese" is a delicious, slightly punky, always passionate documentary about people who take what they do very seriously. I highly recommend checking it out, but make sure you smuggle some cheese in with you.
Please note that some screenings have already sold out for both films.
