THE SAMURAI AND THE PRISONER – ★★★

Japanese film telling a story of a samurai leader who has rebelled against is former lord, protecting a castle and attempting to both keep the castle safe as well as hoping to strategically stop the man he rebelled against. He chooses mostly pacifist actions, including keeping a prisoner rather than taking the “honourable” route of killing them, and then incredibly discussing with them the various murders and desire to stop his former lord from continuing his quest to take over the land. I feel like having had a much better understanding of Japanese history of that period would have helped me – it felt a little bit like watching a film based on the adaptation of a book which covers points but is less cohesive without having read the story first. 

COYOTE VS. ACME – ★★★★

The final (in-person) film of MIFF this year. Total tally of films hit 35, which is a lot of watching. I’m looking forward to a decompress. This was a very enjoyable end of MIFF film – easy, funny, and good entertainment. To think that the studio that made this film almost never released it for tax benefits is astounding. It’s a mixed live action/animated film in the Looney Tunes universe, where Wile E. Coyote engages with a small-time lawyer to take on ACME Corporation (which makes all of the various gadgets he uses to try and catch the Road Runner) claiming that they are purposefully inadequate and cause harm to the user. It is nowhere near the highest art seen at MIFF, but it was great fun.