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Tube of delight!

#1 2009-07-15 08:44:38

mrwuwu
Member
From: Chicago, Illinois
Registered: 2007-11-23
Posts: 160

Komuso and flutemaking sightings!

For the movie buffs,   a very nicely filmed scene of a komuso walking on temple grounds?  with bell in left hand and playing shakuhachi in the right.  In beautiful white full dress regalia.    Also in  a second scene as background .   This is one of my all time favorite films, The Yakuza, by Sydney Pollack starring Robert Mitchum and Takakura Ken.  Very dated now,   but my tenth viewing.    Also , in the Japanese cop and gang film, Dead or Alive, 1999,   surprisingly there is a scene where the detective wants a private talk with his superior, and the commander, just off the crime scene, pulls out a briefcase with many two piece shakuhachi,  and starts undercutting the holes!   Bravo! to the screenwriter!!!!


" You know, it's been three years now, maybe a new teacher can help you? ...... " Sensei

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#2 2009-07-15 10:16:09

Yungflutes
Flutemaker/Performer
From: New York City
Registered: 2005-10-08
Posts: 1061
Website

Re: Komuso and flutemaking sightings!

Can you rip the scenes and upload them to Youtube? No, just kidding. I believe the Hollywood Guild Polizei may be registered Forum members... smile


"A hot dog is not an animal." - Jet Yung

My Blog/Website on the art of shakuhachi...and parenting.
How to make an Urban Shakuhachi (PVC)

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#3 2009-07-15 11:42:48

ABRAXAS
Member
Registered: 2009-01-17
Posts: 353

Re: Komuso and flutemaking sightings!

Before ed scolds you, there is another thread on this somewhere on the forum that can be found using the search engine.


"Shakuhachi music stirs up both gods and demons." -- Ikkyu.

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#4 2009-07-15 12:32:26

edosan
Edomologist
From: Salt Lake City
Registered: 2005-10-09
Posts: 2185

Re: Komuso and flutemaking sightings!

Ed? Scold?


Zen is not easy.
It takes effort to attain nothingness.
And then what do you have?
Bupkes.

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#5 2009-07-15 12:40:29

nyokai
shihan
From: Portland, ME
Registered: 2005-10-09
Posts: 613
Website

Re: Komuso and flutemaking sightings!

Yungflutes wrote:

Can you rip the scenes and upload them to Youtube? No, just kidding. I believe the Hollywood Guild Polizei may be registered Forum members... smile

The Hollywood Guild Polizei have taken the Dokyoku Polizei to court over use of Christopher Plummer's image in their warning messages.

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#6 2009-07-15 18:53:31

Jim Thompson
Moderator
From: Santa Monica, California
Registered: 2007-11-28
Posts: 421

Re: Komuso and flutemaking sightings!

We may have to appoint a Special Persecutor.


" Who do you trust , me or your own eyes?" - Groucho Marx

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#7 2009-07-15 19:46:25

BrianP
Member
From: Ocala, FL
Registered: 2006-11-03
Posts: 289
Website

Re: Komuso and flutemaking sightings!

I just ordered "The Yakuza" it better be all that and a bag of wasabi peas or I am coming to Chicago to visit you.  I loved all the goodies and the notes that accompanied them.  I ate one of the minnows or whatever they were and it was NASTY!!!!  It was labelled unsafe so that was on me.  The peas were excellent.  I missed you there!

Brian


The Florida Shakuhachi Camp
http://www.floridashakuhachi.com
Brian's Shakuhachi Blog
http://gaijinkomuso.blogspot.com

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#8 2009-07-15 20:32:21

Priapus Le Zen M☮nk
Historical Zen Mod
From: St-Jerome, Quebec, Canada
Registered: 2006-04-25
Posts: 612
Website

Re: Komuso and flutemaking sightings!

BrianP wrote:

I just ordered "The Yakuza" it better be all that and a bag of wasabi peas or I am coming to Chicago to visit you.  I loved all the goodies and the notes that accompanied them.  I ate one of the minnows or whatever they were and it was NASTY!!!!  It was labelled unsafe so that was on me.  The peas were excellent.  I missed you there!

Brian

For good Komuso action better get the Daibosatsu Toge/ The great Buddha pass trilogy with Ichikawa Raizo. In this you have some real komuso action and even the komuso getting pissed and beating the shit out of some samurai that wanted to screw with his flute.


Sebastien 義真 Cyr
春風館道場 Shunpukan Dojo
St-Jerome, Quebec, Canada
http://www.myspace.com/shunpukandojo

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#9 2009-07-15 22:53:33

ABRAXAS
Member
Registered: 2009-01-17
Posts: 353

Re: Komuso and flutemaking sightings!

BrianP wrote:

I just ordered "The Yakuza" it better be all that and a bag of wasabi peas or I am coming to Chicago to visit you.  I loved all the goodies and the notes that accompanied them.  I ate one of the minnows or whatever they were and it was NASTY!!!!  It was labelled unsafe so that was on me.  The peas were excellent.  I missed you there!

Brian

At the very least it is a good Robert Mitchum film written by Peter Schaffer, who wrote TAXI DRIVER and a host of other notable stuff, and who wrote and directed MISHIMA. A Komuso appears for all of about 30 seconds in the film.


"Shakuhachi music stirs up both gods and demons." -- Ikkyu.

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#10 2009-07-15 23:19:04

mrwuwu
Member
From: Chicago, Illinois
Registered: 2007-11-23
Posts: 160

Re: Komuso and flutemaking sightings!

Wow!  Gishin!     Daibosatsu Toge sounds like a great UFC midget porn fighting flick!      " For good komuso on komuso action and real komuso getting pissed on and beating the shit out of a samurai who wants to screw with his flute...."   til his face looks like hamburger!


" You know, it's been three years now, maybe a new teacher can help you? ...... " Sensei

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#11 2009-07-15 23:43:30

mrwuwu
Member
From: Chicago, Illinois
Registered: 2007-11-23
Posts: 160

Re: Komuso and flutemaking sightings!

Yeah, Brian P,    " The Yakuza"  is all that, a bag of wasabi peas and much more,  so please do not come to Chicago,  I am too busy practicing for shakuhachi lessons.                              It's a unrequited love story, a tale of an unrepayable obligation, betrayal,  and passion.     Please realize this movie is very good for it's time , but very dated,  it's even older than your mother.    I first saw it in my late forties,  back in 1975,  so I can relate to it completely.                  The film is based upon " giri"  an unrepayable burden,  similiar to what I owe you for helping me out in Chikuzen's first summer flute camp when I could never keep track of where we were on the music notation.      In  future camps all Japanese snack bags will be pre-opened, and all minnow-type items " deemed B.P. nasties from here on " will be removed and eaten prior to camp.                  The Yakuza excels with great footage of sleeve and body tattoos,   so I know your breaths will quicken when you see exquisite body art similar to yours.                    Missed you at summer camp too, buddy!                       To refresh a thread for the rest of the forum members,  Florida Flute Camp is coming in October this Year!    Max capacity is seven,  so how many openings are left?      I will try to make it.   I must keep making payments upon my  " giri ".


" You know, it's been three years now, maybe a new teacher can help you? ...... " Sensei

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#12 2009-07-15 23:52:30

mrwuwu
Member
From: Chicago, Illinois
Registered: 2007-11-23
Posts: 160

Re: Komuso and flutemaking sightings!

Thanks for the extra info, Abraxas.   Just in case other members look it up,  the co-writer on  " The Yakuza " is the famous Paul Schrader,   not Peter Schaffer.      Mishima,   the film,  I own and love and have seen it over  five times.   I have also read many of Mishima Yukio's  short stories and novels.    Another unique Watazumi-like dude!          30 seconds of a realistically portrayed komuso is better than none................


" You know, it's been three years now, maybe a new teacher can help you? ...... " Sensei

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#13 2009-07-15 23:59:05

Priapus Le Zen M☮nk
Historical Zen Mod
From: St-Jerome, Quebec, Canada
Registered: 2006-04-25
Posts: 612
Website

Re: Komuso and flutemaking sightings!

mrwuwu wrote:

Wow!  Gishin!     Daibosatsu Toge sounds like a great UFC midget porn fighting flick!      " For good komuso on komuso action and real komuso getting pissed on and beating the shit out of a samurai who wants to screw with his flute...."   til his face looks like hamburger!

Indeed Daibosatsu Toge is a great trilogy based on the long novel by Nakazato Kaizan, It relates the story of a ronin obsessed with death in the last days of the bakufu before the Meiji restoration. The trilogy movie adaptation with Ichikawa Raizo is the one closest to the book. There is another version called sword of doom with Tatsuya Nakadai and Toshiro Mifune but it only shows the first part of the whole story sadly.


Sebastien 義真 Cyr
春風館道場 Shunpukan Dojo
St-Jerome, Quebec, Canada
http://www.myspace.com/shunpukandojo

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#14 2009-07-16 00:46:22

ABRAXAS
Member
Registered: 2009-01-17
Posts: 353

Re: Komuso and flutemaking sightings!

mrwuwu wrote:

Thanks for the extra info, Abraxas.   Just in case other members look it up,  the co-writer on  " The Yakuza " is the famous Paul Schrader,   not Peter Schaffer.      Mishima,   the film,  I own and love and have seen it over  five times.   I have also read many of Mishima Yukio's  short stories and novels.    Another unique Watazumi-like dude!          30 seconds of a realistically portrayed komuso is better than none................

Thank You for the correction!!! Jeez, I flunk movie geek 101 if I get the names of my favorite people wrong!


"Shakuhachi music stirs up both gods and demons." -- Ikkyu.

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#15 2009-07-16 00:47:06

BrianP
Member
From: Ocala, FL
Registered: 2006-11-03
Posts: 289
Website

Re: Komuso and flutemaking sightings!

Clinton, there will always be room for you.  You can share my room.  I have 2 beds and I will make it work if you can get there.  That is 100% for sure.  So make plans and bring minnow free snacks!


The Florida Shakuhachi Camp
http://www.floridashakuhachi.com
Brian's Shakuhachi Blog
http://gaijinkomuso.blogspot.com

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#16 2009-07-16 04:20:42

Zakarius
Member
From: Taichung, TAIWAN
Registered: 2006-04-12
Posts: 361

Re: Komuso and flutemaking sightings!

Gishin wrote:

There is another version called sword of doom with Tatsuya Nakadai and Toshiro Mifune but it only shows the first part of the whole story sadly.

Sword of Doom is a great flick.

Zak


塵も積もれば山となる -- "Chiri mo tsumoreba yama to naru." -- Piled-up specks of dust become a mountain.

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#17 2009-07-16 12:44:24

Priapus Le Zen M☮nk
Historical Zen Mod
From: St-Jerome, Quebec, Canada
Registered: 2006-04-25
Posts: 612
Website

Re: Komuso and flutemaking sightings!

Zakarius wrote:

Gishin wrote:

There is another version called sword of doom with Tatsuya Nakadai and Toshiro Mifune but it only shows the first part of the whole story sadly.

Sword of Doom is a great flick.

Zak

Indeed a great film but it only shows the first part of the whole story which leads most foreigners to think that this is the end of it when actually it is only the beginning. It took me years to realize this when I saw the other version that this was a quite long saga. I suspect the Nakadai/Mifune film was planned as a full version but was dropped along the way which would explain the abrupt ending. When you watch the other full version you can fully appreciate the Shakuhachi relation to his own being etc.


Sebastien 義真 Cyr
春風館道場 Shunpukan Dojo
St-Jerome, Quebec, Canada
http://www.myspace.com/shunpukandojo

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#18 2009-07-17 16:51:57

mrwuwu
Member
From: Chicago, Illinois
Registered: 2007-11-23
Posts: 160

Re: Komuso and flutemaking sightings!

For those of you, as I,  whom " Sword of Doom " is a favorite flick,  after an half hour of searching google, found a source for the 3 films that make up Daibosatsu Toge,  with English subtitles.    As Gishin mentioned, Sword of Doom basically represents only Part One of the story.     These 3 separate films are easy to find in Japanese only,  but this one source,     http://stores.vendio.com/STUFFYOUWANTED     has it with the subtitles.    I will review the quality of the dvds after I see them.   It was approx. 33 bucks for the 3 films.      Thanks,   Gishin,  for the recommendation.    Remember,  these are not with the actors Nakadai or with Mifune.


" You know, it's been three years now, maybe a new teacher can help you? ...... " Sensei

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#19 2009-07-18 00:55:40

Priapus Le Zen M☮nk
Historical Zen Mod
From: St-Jerome, Quebec, Canada
Registered: 2006-04-25
Posts: 612
Website

Re: Komuso and flutemaking sightings!

mrwuwu wrote:

For those of you, as I,  whom " Sword of Doom " is a favorite flick,  after an half hour of searching google, found a source for the 3 films that make up Daibosatsu Toge,  with English subtitles.    As Gishin mentioned, Sword of Doom basically represents only Part One of the story.     These 3 separate films are easy to find in Japanese only,  but this one source,     http://stores.vendio.com/STUFFYOUWANTED     has it with the subtitles.    I will review the quality of the dvds after I see them.   It was approx. 33 bucks for the 3 films.      Thanks,   Gishin,  for the recommendation.    Remember,  these are not with the actors Nakadai or with Mifune.

I looked at the website in question and there seems to be a lot of nice stuff. Sadly it smells like bootleg stuff and I strongly feel that if this is what I think of the subtitles will not be that great. I hope this is a different version. It seems Japanese companies have no idea that there is a market for this stuff and 90% of all old Japanese jidai geki/samurai cinema is sold and subtitled by dedicated fans.

On another note this novel is quite interesting since the main guy Tsukue Ryunosuke is fictional but mostly all the other characters are real and the situation in which he is placed all happened so in a way Nakazato Kaizan used history and patched him in it in the same way Yoshikawa Eiji wrote the Musashi novels.

The main actor in the trilogy version being Ichikawa Raizo came out of a famous Kabuki actor family and his way of acting shows some of his kabuki training. He is quite good and I love his style being a theatrical one in comparison to Mifune and Nakadai.

Here is the wiki page for Ichikawa Raizo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raizo_Ichikawa

Last edited by Gishin (2009-07-18 01:13:40)


Sebastien 義真 Cyr
春風館道場 Shunpukan Dojo
St-Jerome, Quebec, Canada
http://www.myspace.com/shunpukandojo

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#20 2009-07-20 08:32:34

mrwuwu
Member
From: Chicago, Illinois
Registered: 2007-11-23
Posts: 160

Re: Komuso and flutemaking sightings!

During my search for this trilogy, I stumbled upon a website for " submitted subtitles "  and a notice for members to remember to notate and date their latest submissions.   I didn't think much of it then,  now it all makes sense that there are fans so dedicated that they would subtitle their favorite chambara films  and maybe bootleg them just  to share them with like minded fans of the genre.


" You know, it's been three years now, maybe a new teacher can help you? ...... " Sensei

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#21 2009-07-27 09:32:57

lowonthetotem
Member
From: Cape Coral, FL
Registered: 2008-04-05
Posts: 529
Website

Re: Komuso and flutemaking sightings!

Has anyone else seen any of the Hanzo - The Razor movies?  No shakuhachi sightings, but at least one of them has some decent background riffs.  It is called "The Snare."  I watched that one and another this weekend.  I highly recommend them.  Sword fighting, rice bale screwing, Buddha statue beating, sluething, and even some boobies (Hey, I am a simply guy) with a little shakuhachi thrown in to give you a plausible reason to watch.    They are not quite "insistent," to use a term from Peter Griffin, and serious as Sword of Doom.  They cut a jagged line between humorous and brutal.  Hanzo is the classic iconoclastic Zen Master/Samurai.  I enjoyed his character.  If anyone has IFC on satellite in the US, they have played samurai movies (Sword of Doom last week) late on Fridays or Saturday the past two weekends.  I just discovered the channel, so I don't know if it is a consistent thing or just a coincidence.  The Snare also has a great scene where Hanzo feigns suicide by cutting into a sack of watermelon rinds strapped to his stomach and throwing the fake guts on his Police Cheif-like superior.  Great stuff.

Last edited by lowonthetotem (2009-07-27 09:36:37)


"Turn like a wheel inside a wheel."

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#22 2009-07-27 10:00:38

edosan
Edomologist
From: Salt Lake City
Registered: 2005-10-09
Posts: 2185

Re: Komuso and flutemaking sightings!

lowonthetotem wrote:

The Snare also has a great scene where Hanzo feigns suicide by cutting into a sack of watermelon rinds strapped to his stomach and throwing the fake guts on his Police Cheif-like superior.  Great stuff.

Hell, that's the oldest trick in the book!  [any other titles?]

Edit: SHAME on me....should've Googled first.

Last edited by edosan (2009-07-27 10:02:19)


Zen is not easy.
It takes effort to attain nothingness.
And then what do you have?
Bupkes.

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#23 2009-08-03 09:40:36

lowonthetotem
Member
From: Cape Coral, FL
Registered: 2008-04-05
Posts: 529
Website

Re: Komuso and flutemaking sightings!

I didn't see any komuso but "Scooby Doo and the Samurai Sword" (AKA in the cartoon as the Sword of Doom) had some canned shakuhachi sounds to give atmosphere. ;P


"Turn like a wheel inside a wheel."

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#24 2009-08-03 10:02:31

mrwuwu
Member
From: Chicago, Illinois
Registered: 2007-11-23
Posts: 160

Re: Komuso and flutemaking sightings!

As I mentioned in my previous postings,  I purchased the three films that make up the full version of the film "Sword of Doom",   called "Daibosatsu Toge"   and I liked it very much,  more so for the character development and decline of Ryunosuke into the depths of self-hell.    It's very dated and sometimes corny,  but for fans of the genre,  an excellent six hour escape!     The quality of the dvd's are excellent, in old school Technicolor,  and for the real picky people,  the black levels are a bit gray,   but , hey,  for the price,  it's a bargain!     The subtitles are excellent , very clear, and easy to read.     The reason for this posting is to mention as Gishin mentioned,  the almost never seened scene of a komuso actually fighting multiple sword wielding samurai with his shakuhachi,  held root end in hand,  using it bokken style,  ( as a wooden practice sword ) , effectively.


" You know, it's been three years now, maybe a new teacher can help you? ...... " Sensei

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#25 2009-08-03 11:23:44

lowonthetotem
Member
From: Cape Coral, FL
Registered: 2008-04-05
Posts: 529
Website

Re: Komuso and flutemaking sightings!

I've just seen the one film but enjoyed it.  It seems very much like "naturalist" novel to me, you know man being controlled by forces out of his sphere of influence.  I like that stuff.  I enjoyed the scene where the main character talks about how he and his father both enjoyed the bamboo flute.  To me it seemed as though the duel was the one instance in his life that seemed to shape everything after it.  I would enjoy seeing the entire story.  There is a similar movie about a Judo fighter.  He goes to a teacher, but the teacher will not take him because he "lacks humanity."  They both seem to present interesting discussions on nature vs. nurture.

However, watching a guy pound his wiener on a stone and then screw a rice bale (Hanzo the Razor) is really entertaining.  I know ... I was surprised too.


"Turn like a wheel inside a wheel."

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