Movieblob

[Complicity]

In a way, I agree with Blob. I wouldn't think anything of a fat Jedi if I was watching a Star Wars thing. I mean, the hook with Yoda way back in 1980 is that he looks nothing like what Luke expects. Along with that is the implication that Jedi come in all shapes and sizes.

The point was that not all Jedi are lightsaber-swinging fighters. Then Jorge fucked it all up and made Yoda bounce around like pointy-eared Flubber.

I thought it was canon that the most powerful Jedi were autistic hamplanets:

Meanwhile OG Trilogy Palpatine was able to kick Luke's ass without even moving.
A real duel between these grand masters from both ends of the Force spectrum should've been a wizard duel.

[Kugelfisch]

It's so fucking blatant as well. Star Wars is well known to be a Lucy's re-write of a Kurosawa samurai movie.
Yoda is clearly that old pretend-fool master that teaches the samurai a lesson more valuable than how to swing a katana.

In Star Wars specifically it works as a reveal so well because it's both foreshadowed as well as subverted.
The only Jedi you or Luke know is Obi Wan. While he has a light saber, he has more valuable skills. He is clearly not going to be a formidable swordsman anymore at his age and isn't portrayed as such.
Instead, he is the quintessential mentor. He has control over the force to a degree where he can avoid fights and attention and has knowledge about the world.

Yoda is just a much more extreme version of that and hammers the point home.
Being a Jedi isn't about being a fantastic swordsman. It's about knowing yourself, being at peace and harnessing that mysterious force for good.

None of that is deep. But it's a good, tried and true story structure.
Making him some CGI bouncy ball with a tiny light saber is just undignified.

[rabidtictac]

It's so fucking blatant as well. Star Wars is well known to be a Lucy's re-write of a Kurosawa samurai movie.
Yoda is clearly that old pretend-fool master that teaches the samurai a lesson more valuable than how to swing a katana.

In Star Wars specifically it works as a reveal so well because it's both foreshadowed as well as subverted.
The only Jedi you or Luke know is Obi Wan. While he has a light saber, he has more valuable skills. He is clearly not going to be a formidable swordsman anymore at his age and isn't portrayed as such.
Instead, he is the quintessential mentor. He has control over the force to a degree where he can avoid fights and attention and has knowledge about the world.

Yoda is just a much more extreme version of that and hammers the point home.
Being a Jedi isn't about being a fantastic swordsman. It's about knowing yourself, being at peace and harnessing that mysterious force for good.

None of that is deep. But it's a good, tried and true story structure.
Making him some CGI bouncy ball with a tiny light saber is just undignified.

SpoilerShow

You see the same thing (master who plays the fool) in kung fu movies which, again, predate star wars. The wuxia stuff in particular was popular in china during the 60s-70s prior to the "real martial arts" boom of late-70s into 80s.

The film language of the wuxia film/kung fu film is based largely on ideas an framing taken from the West and Japan and adapted to the domestic Chinese audience. So the story will be about Fong Sai-Yuk or the Yang Family (well-known chinese stories) but the way that story will be told on film incorporates concepts from Hollywood westerns, such as certain tracking film camera techniques, horse chases, speed up/slow motion, a mysterious stranger protagonist, lack of proper law enforcement, etc.

The Shaws hired japanese cameramen to work on their chinese movies, so the pedigree really moves west -> japan -> china. But ALL of this predates Star Wars.

The fool master concept is seen in Chinese novels from the '50s too, such as the Legend of the Condor Heroes. The old beggar who becomes the protagonist's master is a quintessential example of an eccentric person of great power who pretends to be nobody.

Spoilered for sperge. Bottom line is this: Star Wars is an homage and hodge-podge of a bunch of older storytelling structures worked into a classic fantasy tale of a young hero who goes on an adventure to save the kingdom. Along the way, George stole ideas from The Hidden Fortress, from Hollywood westerns, Flash Gordon serials, eastern buddhist philosophy and anything else he thought was cool.

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

Too bad he didn't rip off the kung fu / wuxia trope of any sufficiently badass kung fu master being able to turn just about anything into a weapon.
Instead everyone just uses a sword.

[rabidtictac]

Too bad he didn't rip off the kung fu / wuxia trope of any sufficiently badass kung fu master being able to turn just about anything into a weapon.
Instead everyone just uses a sword.

That's the part George stole from samurai movies, specifically the "chop em up" chanbara films.

The best war films are antiwar films and the best samurai films are criticisms of feudalism. George instead plays it straight and idealizes the samurai sword. The original three movies had more of the spirit of Buddhism in them (where the goal is to surpass the wheel of dharma) but prequels and on... That shit is RIP.

The lightsaber as the "soul of the samurai," "this weapon is your life," etc bullshit is laughable. If we compare to samurai films, this very concept was mocked heartily in one of the best samurai films ever made: Hara-Kiri. And also in Samurai Rebellion. Kurosawa himself criticized the arbitrary class separations between groups of people in Seven Samurai. And described the fatalistic cycle of violence surrounding the warrior class during sengoku jidai in Throne of Blood.

George saw all of these movies but chose to abstract and idealize the eastern philosophies he plundered without accepting the criticisms. He abstracted "light side" and "dark side" of the force so the good guys could be Super Good and bad guys Definitely Evil. In keeping with his desire to make an adventure serial.

Star Wars was basically the goyslop of its day.

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

I keep forgetting that he borrowed more surface level shit from Kurosawa than the opening scene from Hidden Fortress.

[Kugelfisch]

It's the movie he originally wanted to make, so that's hardly surprising.
None of that really is a bad thing. It's fine that it's simplistic in nature. The good effects make up for a lot of that and it remains accessible for children.

What's bad is making the prequels about some political tax dispute and the worst romance story anyone has seen up to that point.

[ebin namefag]

The big takeaway is that Jorge is a weeaboo and weebs and Japan ruined the west through mass infantilism.

[TheManWithNoPlan]

When an american director copies the Japanese films he love you get Star Wars or Kill Bill they should do it more often.

[ebin namefag]

When an american director copies the Japanese films he love you get Star Wars or Kill Bill they should do it more often.

When a hackfraud is allowed to be hack we get shit we don't need.