THE CRUCIFIED LOVERS (1954)

Set in 1700's Japan. Osan is the wife of a wealthy businessman. Her "weak-willed" brother desperately needs some money within three days or he's going to be thrown in prison. Osan knows that her ruthless husband will never give her the money so instead she asks his trusted employee Mohei to steal it for her. Mohei agrees, but when he's caught things quickly go from bad to worse when Osan and Mohei are falsely accused of being lovers, which is punishable by public crucifixion!!! To complicate matters, the husband's business rivals want the story of the lovers to be true (or at least believed to be true) so that he'll be exiled.

I enjoyed THE CRUCIFIED LOVERS...the direction by Kenji Mizoguchi was good and the cinematography by Kazuo (RASHOMON, YOJIMBO) Miyagawa was very nice...but the story was too slow and the ending disappointing. I really wanted there to be a bigger sense of desperation in the two lovers on the run.  Also, it seemed to me, that neither Mohei or Osan really tried to escape.  Everything they did was self-defeating and they seemed resigned to their fate right from the moment they took off.  The best part of the film was the first 20 minutes when it was showing the hectic running of the business and the secret household dramas, then the lovers go on the run and the story runs out of steam.  Still, it's worth a watch for fans of classic Japanese Cinema.

BULLITT (1968)

San Francisco police lieutenant Steve McQueen is brought in to protect (for 40 hours) a key witness for a upcoming Senate Subcommittee hearing on organized crime.  The witness is holed up in a cheap hotel, so McQueen goes over there and does some of the worst witness protecting in movie history.  The witness is killed and then McQueen decides to get serious.  Any by "serious" I mean: doing average movie detective investigative work, buying a lot of disgusting looking TV dinners, stealing a newspaper, causing a shoot-out in a crowded airport terminal and going on a highly dangerous car chase without using any sirens/lights or calling for back-up.

I'm sure back in 1968 BULLITT was fresh and exciting (it was the 5th highest box office draw that year), but I'm also sure that in 1968, 1968 porno was exciting.  But ain't nobody watching that shit nowadays!  That said, BULLITT is not a bad film.  I enjoyed it alright and can see how it was influential on countless other police movies, but it's just too slow for me.  Also, the entire story was moved forward by McQueen's bad decisions.  Nice editing, great-looking San Francisco scenery, laid-back acting, a hip jazz score, ancient technology (including some bizarre and extremely unsafe looking coffee heating device), cool old muscle cars, very minor roles by Jacqueline Bisset and Robert Duvall.

Worth watching for the historical importance, but if you're looking for an exciting action movie that'll knock your socks off, this ain't it.