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Reviews
Purinsesu Toyotomi (2011)
Builds to a disappointing cliché after a great start
Quite a disappointing film because it starts out brilliantly, for the first 45-60 minutes, you are led into the most intriguing beautiful world of Osaka which left me spellbound and expecting a huge pay off. All the lead characters are intriguing in their own way, particularly Torii who's innocence, cuteness and zest for Osakan food makes her a Japanese Amelie Poulain of sorts. A stunningly beautiful city, sympathetic protagonists and loads of delicious Japanese food - can this movie go wrong? Yes, it does.
The plot doesn't pay off in the end, it all builds to a rather unconvincing, downright cliché climax which felt terribly dated. Maybe some 1980s Japanese TV movie might have gotten away with something like that, but I had hoped for something a lot more intriguing than this. Perhaps it's because I am not Japanese, that I don't really get the whole concept of having regional identities within Japan - but surely that's the job of the film to draw me in and make that clear to me. There is also a gay/transgender subplot that seemed important in the first half of the film but is strangely abandoned in the second half of the film.
This film will make you wanna visit Osaka and have some okonomnyaki andtaoyaki, but would I recommend you watch it? Not really, I was left very disappointed.
Patagonia (2010)
Excellent, Bendigedig, Maravillosa!
If you are sick and tired of contrived Hollywood productions with cliché plots and badly written lines, then Patagonia is the perfect antidote which will restore your faith in the power and beauty of cinema.
The fact that this film was produced by S4C in collaboration with smaller independent production companies means that it has the freedom to explore the themes without using a stale Hollywood formula. We follow two different couples on their journey from Wales to Argentina and vice versa: the Welsh Gwen and Rhys who go to Patagonia and the odd couple Cerys and Alejandro who go in search of Cerys' mother's farm 'Nant Briallu' in Wales. I'm not sure if it is fair to classify this as a 'road trip' movie - but it is certainly the best road trip movie ever made.
The theme about displacement and dislocation is beautifully executed in this film – the characters in Argentina speak only in Welsh and the characters in Wales speak mostly in Spanish. Even singer Duffy makes a valiant and commendable effort to speak Spanish as Sissy – the Spanish- speaking local love interest of Alejandro. This all relates to the fact that Cerys' mother sent in exile to Argentina to hide the face that she was an unwed mother. For those of you who are sick and tired of American films which are so afraid of any subtitles because the American audience doesn't like to read subtitles (which often results in the most unlikely characters speaking English with a ridiculous foreign accent) – you can breathe a sigh of relief when you come to see Patagonia. The Welsh people tend to speak Welsh and very little English and the English are forced to read the subtitles.
The two couples never meet, their paths never cross - the way you'd expect things to be conveniently tied up at the end of a Hollywood movie; and the movie is better off for that. One is treated to amazing cinematography which benefits from Patagonia's amazing desolate landscape and Wales' green rolling hills.
There is great humour in the movie - but most of all, the magic of the movie as carried by the odd couple Cerys and Alejandro who grow closer together as they journey through Wales and there is a genuine warmth to their relationship. Argentinian actress Marta Lubos stole the show as the somewhat batty but still utterly lovable Cerys - tough, resilient, stubborn yet charming all at the same time, she is the grandmother everyone would love to have.
The film takes you on an emotional journey – but having said that, I think I ended up caring more about Cerys and Alejandro on their quest to find Nant Briallu; after all, it seemed pretty clear what was going to happen to Rhys and Gwen from the moment they landed in Patagonia. Nonetheless, what the Argentinian plot lacked in substance, it more than made up in sheer beauty.
If you watch this film, you will leave the cinema wanting to improve your Spanish, learn Welsh (if you do not already speak Welsh) and most of all, you will desire to travel to Wales and Patagonia. Few films will leave you with such a strong yearning – and both the Welsh and Patagonian tourist boards own the makers of this film a big cheque for the amount of visitors as a direct result of this film.
In short, go see this film – it'll probably be the best film you would see in 2011. No 3D glasses, no special effects, no Hollywood big stars – just an incredibly compelling and touching story of human emotion. This is what the magic of cinema is all about. Who needs 3D glasses?