SCFZ

Polling the films of director Kihachi Okamoto

The rules:

- your list can include no more than half of the Okamoto films you've seen, up to a maximum of 5. So if you've seen seven of his films, for example, you can list only a top 3. It's only if you've seen ten or more of his films than you can list the maximum of five.

- i'll assume ballots are ranked unless you tell me otherwise. unranked ballots are fine.

- deadline for ballots: next Friday, in seven days, whatever day that is

- if anyone is watching films for these polls, then i'll extend the deadline up to three days, if someone requests an extension

- next poll: whoever posts the first ballot in this thread is free to nominate the director we poll next, unless you've nominated in this round already (everyone should get a chance). Already nominated this round: oscarwerner, greennui, mesnalty, bure, ofrene, arkheia, brian d, rischka, twodeadmagpies, john ryan, karl, umbugbene, greg x, wba, st gloede

umbugbene created an index on letterboxd of all of our previous polls here: letterboxd.com/umbugbene/list/index-of-all-scfz-director-polls/

one rule for nominees: at least 3 scfzers need to have seen 10+ of a nominee's films, or at least 4 scfzers need to have seen at least 8 of the nom's films, so if it isn't clear if that will be the case, we'll confirm that's true before moving forward

if 24 hours pass after a poll opens, and no one eligible to nominate has posted a ballot, then i'll nominate someone, and then we'll start over, and everyone will be able to nominate again

starting this early in case people want to post ballots now, deadline will be friday next week, in nine days. and because okamoto has borderline viewership for a poll, we'll follow the rules we used for a few similar previous polls:

New Rules

Because Okamoto has fewer views than most directors we've polled, I'm changing some of the rules for this poll:

- if you have seen an odd number of Okamoto films, you can round up, when dividing by two, instead of down, to determine the length of your ballot. So if you have seen 7 Okamoto films, you can vote for 4 films (instead of 3). But please only vote for the additional film if you think it's deserving of a vote.

- if you have seen 11 or more Okamoto films, your ballot can extend beyond 5 films -- if you have seen 13, say, you can vote for up to 7 films. I'll award 0.5, 0.3 and 0.1 points to 6th, 7th and 8th ranked films (and nothing to 9th or later ranked films). Those additional votes will help to get a complete top ten.

only seen one but thought it was great:

Sword of Doom

Seen 2

1. Kill!

seen 3

kill!
japan's longest day

I have 4 films by Okamoto which I loved or really enjoyed, so that's fine.

01. The Sword of Doom (1965)
02. The Elegant Life of Mr. Everyman (1963)
03. Desperado Outpost (1959)
04. Kill! (1968)

Okamoto seen: 7

seen two, liked them both

The Elegant Life of Mr. Everyman

Seen 5

THE SWORD OF DOOM
samurai assassin
Kill

the elegant life of mr everyman
oh, bomb!
fort graveyard
sword of doom

Human Bullet
Red Lion
Fort Graveyard
Samurai Assassin

I'm hoping to watch one more to post a fifth choice before the poll closes. It was a tough choice for the top slot since Red Lion has long been a personal favorite of mine, but Human Bullet is just too much to ignore. I hope it gets more support since Okamoto really pulls out all the stops for that one. I also hate to leave off Kill! and Sword of Doom, but they seem to be getting the early love, so I went with Samurai Assassin instead, also because now that I've seen some of his other movies Samurai Assassin starts to seem like there was more to it than I might have noticed at the time, in a body of work kinda way, which I'll have to check out more thoroughly at some later date.

Hell yes, it is happening!

Seen 25 (does that mean I can literally vote for 13?) Anyways, here's my full ranking:

1. The Elegant Life Of Mr. Everyman (1963) 10/10
2. Aa bakudan / Oh, Bomb! (1964)
3. Dai-bosatsu tôge / The Sword of Doom (1966) 9.5/10
4. Nikudan / The Human Bullet (1968)
5. Akage / Red Lion (1969) 9/10
6. Satsujin kyo jidai / The Age of Assassins / Epoch of Murder Madness (1967)
7. Nihon no ichiban nagai hi / Japan's Longest Day (1967)
8. Chikagoro naze ka Charusuton / At This Late Date, the Charleston (1981) 8.5/10
9. Samurai / Samurai Assassin (1965)
10. Dokuritsu gurentai / Desperado Outpost (1959)
11. Chi to suna / Fort Graveyard (1965) 8/10
12. Ankokugai no taiketsu / The Last Gunfight (1960)
13. Dokuritsu gurentai nishi-e / Westward Desperado (1960)
-
14. Ankokugai no kaoyaku / Boss of the Underworld (1959)
15. Kiru / Kill! (1968)
16. Tokkan / Battle Cry (1975) 7.5/10
17. Sukedachi-ya Sukeroku / Vengeance for Sale (2001)
18. Sengoku yaro / Warring Clans (1963)
19. Daiyukai / Rainbow Kids (1991) 7/10
20. Ankokugai no dankon / Blueprint of Murder (1961)
21. Gekido no showashi: Okinawa kessen / Battle of Okinawa (1971) 6.5/10
22. Zatôichi to Yôjinbô / Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo (1970) 6/10
23. Kaoyaku akatsukini shisu / Big Shots Die at Dawn (1961)
24. East Meets West (1995)
25. Burû Kurisumasu / Blood Type: Blue (1978) 4.5/10

St. Gloede wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2020 5:54 pm Seen 25 (does that mean I can literally vote for 13?)

not quite, i'll count votes for the top 8 though, and use #9 and #10 if we need the votes to make a complete top ten

Ah yes, missed the parenthesis. Hoping others will catch up on Okamoto - he is one of the most versatile directors to ever have lived, doing everything from suffocating bleakness, to action comedies to surrealism, he even went through a noir period.

Oh Bomb is literally a surrealist yakuza action musical ...

There is just so many uniquely different experiences packed into his filmography, especially up until 1969.

seen 7
1-The Sword of Doom (1966),
2-Kill! (1968),
3-Japan's Longest Day (1967),
4-Battle of Okinawa (1971).

Seen 5

1. Kill!
2. Sword of Doom
3. Samurai Assassin

i'm kind of burned out from polling after the 2010s epic, and i have to catch up on real life, so i think i'm going to slow down or pause these polls for a short while, not too long, but at least til friday and maybe a week or two.

crypt trotsky wrote: ↑Wed Jan 15, 2020 5:04 am i'm kind of burned out from polling after the 2010s epic

Any plans for ‘best of 2019’ poll, Flip?

oh yeah, good point! yes we'll do that, deadline will be just before oscars day, so around feb 7, i'll get a post up soon

i'm gonna watch the human bullet tonight i think. need some okamoto insanity today

Can we extend a poll bit more? gonna watch some Okamoto this weekend..

Brilliant guys!

ofrene wrote: ↑Thu Jan 16, 2020 12:32 am Can we extend a poll bit more? gonna watch some Okamoto this weekend..

yes absolutely, i'm pausing the polls for a week or so, i might tabulate the oshii on friday, but i definitely won't do this one before tuesday next week

seen 6.

1. Oh, Bomb! (1964)
2. Blueprint of Murder (1961)
3. The Big Boss (1959)

the human bullet is bizarre even by okamoto standards

favorite scene: helping the armless chishu ryu pee

https://twitter.com/rbgscfz/status/1218 ... 51840?s=20

8 okamoto now but i'm sticking with my original ballot. i'll still check out some of his early samurai/yakuza films in future

seen 4

Oh, Bomb!
Sword of Doom

Have we done Tourneur yet?

We've done Jacques but not Maurice.

results

1. The Sword of Doom (1966) -- 19 pts
2. The Elegant Life of Mr Everyman (1963) -- 13 pts
3. Oh, Bomb! (1964) -- 12 pts
4. Kill! (1968) -- 11 pts
5. The Human Bullet (1968) -- 6 pts
6. Fort Graveyard (1965) -- 4 pts
6. Samurai Assassin (1965) -- 4 pts
6. Red Lion (1969) -- 4 pts
9. Japan's Longest Day (1967) -- 3.3 pts
10. Blueprint of Murder (1961) -- 2 pts
10. Desperado Outpost (1959) -- 2 pts
12. The Big Boss (1959) -- 1 pt
12. Battle of Okinawa (1971) -- 1 pt
14. Epoch of Murder Madness (1967) -- 0.5 pts
15. At This Late Date, the Charleston (1981) -- 0.1 pts

i had set a sort of amorphous deadline for this poll, so if anyone still intended to vote (or edit a ballot) and didn't get a chance, i'll still count votes posted in the next couple of days

Evelyn Library P.I. wrote: ↑Fri Jan 17, 2020 5:28 pm seen

evelyn, you can pick our next director if you like! i'll start the poll when we have a selection, and then get back on the normal friday/tuesday poll schedule