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Giri/Haji (2019)
Good show with some unanswered questions
Overall the story was really exciting. It kept me on toes with twists-turns and cliffhangers of every episode. The acting was good. But the story has many plotholes along the way. I think the emphasis was given mostly on the main characters' internal struggles and ethical dilemmas, whereas the whole mob plot behind was left behind. Place to place it seemed that they wrote a character or an event in an episode and then they changed their minds and left it there, literally forgot those parts entirely.
-SPOILERS FROM HERE, INCLUDING THE VERY END
What was the deal with the Japanese police chief? Was he under Yakuza control? What happened with his wife and the Fukuhara boss? What was the deal with the Endo clan and Abbott? What was the point of killing the Saburo guy in the first place? Why did Abbott let Yuto go and then take the blame for killing the Yakuza guys? And what was the deal with this Roy guy coming out of the blue? Whose man was he? And this American dude's Pittsburg mobster father. I was even expecting a 3-way showdown with Yakuza, British gangsters and the Americans.
I was really wondering the backstories of the mob connections but little was given there. Least favorite part of me was the dance scene on the roof. In the end, I liked the series, but think could be better.
Kiraci (1987)
A take on the housing problems in Turkey
This movie is from the more serious era of Kemal Sunal, the archetype of the "Funny naive guy" in Turkish cinema. The title can be translated as "The tenant" and the movie is kind of a social commentary on the housing problem of Turkey of the 1980's with its overbearing greedy landlords and never-ending Cooperative housing projects (eventually turning out to be frauds) etc.
The main character played by Sunal, is a middle-aged office worker living (inconsistently in different apartments) with his wife, two kids and mother-in-law; trying to cope with making ends meet with his cheap payment, the demands of his overbearing annoying landlords and what is more....to keep an affair with a young attractive co-worker a secret.
Shôten (1966)
A very long-time classic TV show of Japan
This long-time comedy show of Japanese TV has been long been a staple of Sunday afternoons. It's going strong since 1966, when first aired. Seven traditional Japanese "Rakugo" comedians, one being the host delivering jokes and gags. The host gives the topics and the patterns of the jokes and the participating 6 improvises on them. They are awarded by one (sometimes two) "Zabuton" cushions to sit on if delivered a neat joke, and punished by one (or two, or all) of their cushions being taken by the long time-serving zabuton-carrier Takao Yamada (Yamada-kun) if they are to make a lame joke...sometimes jokes aimed at Yamada-kun is forcibly punished by himself.
Mavi Boncuk (1974)
Plot and Comments
The movie is about an unusual band of friends and their involvement of a kidnapping. The friends consist of six guys with no-good jobs, or odd jobs that comes their way living together in an old, old house with a nosey neighbour. They go to an expensive venue to eat, drink and listen to one of their favourite stars, Emel Sayin (her real name, she's really a renowned performer) but the place was way off their income, they could not pay the check, so they are beaten by the staff and hurled outside. Feeling humiliated the gang decide to kidnap Emel Sayin and hold for ransom...and they do. They try to obtain the ransom money for many times and things go wrong and they cannot release Emel Sayin for a long time...not to mention the trouble they have to hide her away from the nosey neighbour. Eventually Emel Sayin also likes her kidnappers (not to mention some deeper feelings for the 'pretty-boy-of-the-crew') whom are kind of well-meaning naive guys and she even starts helping them in the house chores, knitting clothes for them, even teaching one how to read and write. They finally have the money afterwards and they really have to release her, but she does not want to leave them....what will be? This is one of the big crew romantic comedies of 1970's in Turkey. The protagonists of the cast has got many personality tokens, e.g. "The old wise guy" (Münir Özkul), "The pretty boy" (Tarik Akan), "The doofus" (Kemal Sunal), "The Little Guy" (Halit Akçatepe) etc. Their ransom rendezvous scenes are remarkably funny and some emotional moments and Turkish music as well....since the lead actress is a famous singer whom plays as herself you might expect a lot of music. The jokes might be a little too Turkish audience oriented at times, but still amusing.
Salak Milyoner (1974)
Plot and comments
This movie has also a sequel named "Köyden indim Sehire" (I went to the city from the country) Salak milyoner (Stupid Millionaire) is about four brothers from the countryside inheriting a treasure map from their fathers, going to Istanbul to search for the treasure. They go to an used books shop owner, whom is their father's friend from the army and also his partner in the treasure digging days, for help. This guy also has a mentally challenged wife who thinks that there's a vast treasure just underneath their house. Anyway,they search the treasure all over the urban Istanbul area, which causes trouble to them and makes them wind up in the police station (the same old officer) Suddenly their reach based on the assumptions make them end up in the very house they are staying at. They search under the house, causing the whole house to collapse...and they finally find the treasure.....in the most unexpected place.
Overall the movie mostly can be understood by a Turkish audience with one liner gags, and local accent/naive country hick type of comedy. However bizarre situations our protagonists encounter might have been fun. If you like this movie, you'll love the sequel.
Köyden Indim Sehire (1974)
Plot and comments
This movie is the sequel to the 1973 movie titled "Salak Milyoner" (The Stupid Millionaire) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0253622/ but known more.
In this movie, the four brothers, finding the treasure in the above mentioned movie want to cash the gold they've found, but the legal matters (the gold coins from historical past being governmental property) and the fear of losing the gold to others who cheat and take their gold makes them search for a reliable person...whom is a jeweller/gold dealer from their hometown, Kayseri (a city that its inhabitants are stereotyped as misers/good-at-business/money-lovers) living in the capital City, Ankara. They search and find him in Ankara, although they don't trust him so much either (they even did not trust each other for that and even tried to cheat one another to take the bulk of the gold...but finally came upon an agreement) and the movie story is on the brothers trying to hide the gold from the cunning jeweller, and the jeweller having all sort of scams to search the gold and take from them.
The movie has some wise one-liners and has some classical type Turkish comedy of local accent usage and the dumb country hick routines. but overall it's funny and show what people can do for money...and what can happen afterwards.
Arkadasim Seytan (1988)
Plot and Comments
Faith (Alanson) is a struggling musician whose efforts did not pay. One night disappointed, he talks to his "Plastic Sweetheart" a realistic-looking mannequin in a shop window (Ozdemiroglu) that, "he could even sell his soul to the Devil for fame"...and then he sees the Devil himself (Poyrazoglu). They make a deal that Faith, will sell his soul to the Devil and the Devil will strike him to fame, using the record executives, venue owners and commercial executives whom he had their souls. However the times had changed, and the human had proved to be more evil and smarter than the Devil himself.
Overall it's a fine comedy with a touch of drama. Some special effects might be seen as poorly done, however the Turkish cinema in 1980's was still not at a good financial and technical level...still those were an improvement. Aspects of the changing Turkish society, moral values and music industry...and the struggles of the ones (even the Devil) whom cannot keep up with this progress are visible. One of the well-done movies of the decade.
This is also a musical movie which has good adult oriented pop tunes done by Mazhar Alanson's band M.F.Ö. for this movie. The band's bassist-vocalist Özkan Ugur also acts as a band member. Other original member of the band, guitarist-vocalist Fuat Güner could not participate that time due to health problems (altough might have been credited, not sure about that)
Seibu keisatsu (1979)
Plot and comments
This TV series had started off in 1979 and continued until 1984. It's about a police unit and their solving of cases. Each day a different story. I watched its reruns on Asahi TV of Japan when I was there in 1999, I did not watch its first episode, so I don't know who exactly the characters are, what's their past etc. What's weird about this series is, nearly in all episodes one of the cops in the unit or a person among his (no policewomen in whole series, 70's Japan wasn't all that equal opportunity) family or friends are involved in a case (most often kidnapped, taken hostage or wounded), the cops search, then surround and catch the bad guys and the personally involved cop attacks the bad guy, they have a brief fight, and the villain is put into the car. And the enka music in the ending credits. Still reruns are shown I suppose. All that 70's and early 80's attire and fashion makes it some nostalgic thing to watch.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)
Fine but not great. Stereotyping kinda applies to us Turks too, this was an interesting point.
This movie did not hit so big here in Turkey at the theatres, but I've seen this movie in my uncle's house and he says that nowadays among rental DVDs, this movie was going like hotcakes, and each watcher watched at least twice. Maybe it's because of "Yabanci Damat" (Foreigner son-in-law) craze in Turkey and Greece. It is a TV series http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0434735/ about an international marriage between a Turkish girl and a Greek boy. This swept both countries and people at both sides are observing their so close but so far away neighbours. This can be a reason.
Obviously the differences between Turkish and Greek people are more political than social. In the movie, the attitudes of the Greek family members can be completely fitted to a Turkish family. They say that this is applicable to many ethnicities (Spanish, Italian, Arab etc.) but particularly to the Turks. In each scene we went "oh, just like in here", "familiar to me", "isn't that guy like cousin x" and so on.
The family looks too stuck in the past, some comments say. Some immigrant people tend to be stuck in the past, obsessed with their own culture and country and not attempting to get closer to the mainstream society of the country they live in. This family is too, just like many immigrant Turkish families living in Germany and other parts of Europe. Many people have negative feelings about people they fought battles with, just like the elderly grandmother in this movie yelling "Ugly Turk" and her elderly Turkish counterparts in Turkey shouting out "Greek seed" to the people they're angry with. Obvious similarities does not end here...General attitude, kissing and hugging type greeting, girls marrying early, guys teaching bad/funny words to unsuspecting foreigners as greetings, large families, getting too intimate with people that are just met (aunt telling about the lump on the neck) Food (Mousakka/musakka, lamb on a skit, ouzo/raki), dancing in the wedding (we have a similar-looking folk dance), husband being the head and wife being a neck (a common item in Turkish movies/TV), even the spitting habit to avoid the devil (we pull our ears and knock on wood while spitting, a little difference here). are easily applied to Turkey and the Turkish, and this gives a pleasure of watching and makes you sympathized with the Greek family. And also note the music from the soundtrack that have familiar tunes to Turkish ears (especially the one in the banquet that parents meet for the first time.
About the father saying that every word came from Greek origins, actually there was a theory in Turkish linguistic circles that all languages deriving from Turkish language. Some people even now believe that and make explanations as is. And the obvious fact that people want sons/daughters-in-laws from their own background...this applies especially to the daughters and unfortunately it's still a father's worst nightmare that his daughter marries a foreigner in Turkey, apparently in Greece too. A research of Greek-Turkish love relationship portrayed on literature of both countries, it says that in both countries' novels etc. the man is from own country and the woman is from the other. This was an interesting point. In both Yabanci Damat and MBFGW, the gender roles are changing and the family gives in and let their daughter marry a foreigner, still a taboo in both nations.
Movie itself....well I must say that fine but not too great. Story was kinda slow and tension too less for a movie setting like this. Too much emphasize on cultural differences makes this a bit dull. the colorful (white and blue mostly) characters of the father and the mother save the day and the groom's family could be made a little more...how to say....talkative, they hardly even speak. There's also a little historical mistake when the mother tells Toula about "We had war with Germans, Turks" since that German-Greek wars happened on Greece, whereas Greek-Turkey war took place in Turkey, and I don't recall any Turkish-German alliance against Greece from any history lesson I had.
Bizimkiler: Hüdaverdi Pirtik (1971)
Plot and comments
This movie is adapted from a comic strip drawn by Sezgin Burak (after his death,by his brother Ersin Burak) and published on Hurriyet daily from 1970's to 2001.Characters include Hudaverdi,the funny problem child,(like Dennis the Menace) Ali,an average white-collar worker who has to deal with Hudaverdi (like Mr. Wilson of Dennis the Menace) Pirtik,the street beggar and Zurna the drunk.The Movie is given in short gags in a comic strip manner. Overall,the movie is nice but if you want to fully enjoy this movie you should know about Turkish humor style and possibly read the comic.