It's a Scorsese Movie Marathon in Tokyo!

Signage for a Martin Scorsese triple feature at the Shin Bungeiza theater in Tokyo. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Today, I spent a fun time at the movies at the Shin Bungeiza theater in Ikebukuro. However, all three movies I watched were American, not Japanese. They were the Martin Scorsese classics Raging Bull (1980), GoodFellas (1990), and Taxi Driver (1976), which were screened in that order. Raging Bull and GoodFellas were digital projections, but I was surprised to find that Taxi Driver was actually a 35mm print. Overall, the print was in good shape, but the Japanese subtitles seemed to be a bit worse for wear. 

I'd seen all three films multiple times, so there were no surprises. Well, there was one surprise, I guess. I'd never noticed before just how much dialogue was dubbed into both Raging Bull and GoodFellas when the actors who were supposedly speaking were obviously out of sync with their mouth movements or weren't even moving their lips at all. And folks complain about the dubbing in Godzilla movies!

I'd say Raging Bull is the best (and most emotionally impactful) of the three, GoodFellas is the most entertaining, and, as for Taxi Driver, well, I still don't see the greatness there that others do. I've always felt I should like the movie a lot more than I do, but I just never have, which has always been the case (going back to when I first saw it in 1997). Don't get me wrong -- I like the film and all, but I don't regard it as an all-time classic or one of Scorsese's best. 

In any case, I really enjoyed revisiting these Scorsese films, and it was a blast seeing all three on the big screen for the first time.