In a moment of out-of-character weakness I contemplated applying some minor fake photoshop-esque cross-processing to this picture but I just couldn't do it. I have a rule about only using the picture as it was shot. It was purposefully shot to be muted and so that is how it has to stay. My other reservation is that it will be out of sync with the images I am trying to build on.
Okay I double-checked and it is definitely better as-is. No more second-guessing.
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So your advice helped and I am now three quarters of the way through The Last Samurai. There are times when my eyes glaze over and I just sort-a skim past sections of complicated translations but on the whole it did improve.
Been itching to watch The Seven Samurai again as a result. I took a Japanese Film course over a summer while in university. I really enjoyed settling into mini screening rooms with take-away sushi to watch films by Ozu, Mizoguchi, Itami, Kurosawa, etc. I discovered a lot of great movies that summer and developed an unexpected fondness for the Sergio Leone films. I wrote a paper about The Fistful of Dollars trilogy which was a remake of Kurosawa's Yojimbo. I love everything about that trilogy from Ennio Morricone's music, to the amazing landscapes and Leone's crazy close-up shots and commentary on hyper-masculinity. I also highly recommend Once Upon a Time in America.
Cinematheque here in Toronto is featuring a number of films by Shohei Imamura starting in late January. We've had a copy of Vengence is Mine sitting on our shelf for about a year but I haven't had the desire or mental fortitude to watch it. They are also playing one of my faves, Tokyo Story by Ozu on Feb. 5.