Friday 7 March 2014

"Office Ugetsu"

Here is a short film from the UK.
Sometimes office fantasies are the only way to get through the day...
"Ugetsu" is the name used in the West for a 1953 Japanese film, Ugetsu Monogatari. It is summarised in IMDb as "a fantastic tale of war, love, family and ambition set in the midst of the Japanese Civil Wars of the sixteenth century." That film involves a lot of fantasy, so does this short film.

Office Ugetsu was directed by Peter Owen Brook and Luke Doolin, who also played a part in the writing. The 1st AD was the incredibly hard-working Patricia Hetherington.


I think we're meant to recognise an homage to the grapefruit scene in Public Enemy (1931), starring James Cagney and Mae Clarke. [Cagney and Clarke were close friends in real life. They appeared in three films together.]


1 comment:

Unknown said...

The first thing I like about Office Ugetsu is the way I didn't have to sit through a 30 second title page before anything happened.

This came across as a real movie with quality actors and a strong message. The accent of the main character spoiled it for me, I couldn't place it and it seemed to be a mockery of all foreign people.

A wonderful warning about charity organisations.