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Unicorn_Blade
Reviews
Shuiyin jie (2013)
Kafka's Trial and Orwell' 1984 in contemporary China
I have been very lucky not only to see this at the festival this week, but also to have an opportunity to participate in the Q&A session with the director who shed some, but unfortunately, not enough light on some of the film's mysteries.
The story starts off interesting. A young man falls for the accidentally met woman. The woman appears and disappears, cannot be contacted for days only to pop out of nowhere for a date. She clearly hides things away, but the main character does not seem to notice how uneasy she becomes in certain situations. There are some charming scenes, like when the man and his friend give the woman a lift, and Joan Baez's Donna Donna plays in the background, simple but beautiful.
I would say that the film as a whole is great, a combination of Kafka's Trial and Orwell' 1984 set in contemporary China, but with a universal message, as the director said, it is not an anti-Chinese government film, but a social commentary on how reliant we are on new technologies, and relationships between people in the era dominate by computers, Internet, where privacy is almost non-existent. What I found a bit disappointing is the very ending- you would need to judge for yourself whether it offers an explanation that would satisfy you. I think it could do with more exploration of the relationship between the characters, and more answers would be welcome.
Si le vent soulève les sables (2006)
Minor flaws that do not matter
Well, spoilers ahead! A few people pointed out elements that did not really look very likely to happen: like the fact that everyone seems to be speaking excellent French, or that the characters obviously wear fresh, ironed underwear at all times.
I would only like to stress one thing in this review: none of this really matters. Of course it would be great to see this film with all the mixture of dialects the region can offer, etc. Which does not change the fact that Sound of Sands is not 'Africa for tourists' kind of film, but a touching and poignant story about an odyssey through a desert. Its main point is not the ultimate realism, but portrayal of the way family bonds are shaped, of feeling and emotions that are suppressed during the struggle to survive.
Sound of Sands includes two/three scenes that I think are one of the most beautiful or poignant ever made: the last goodbye between the husband and his wife was heartbreaking. He knows they will never see each other again, she is on the verge of dying, unconscious, most likely will never open her eyes again. The other one is when the family gives water to the dying man on the desert, but is also forced to leave him out there. The man follows them like a ghost for a few meter and collapses without a sound.
Sound of Sands is for me not a film about Africa only, but about human feeling, choices a lot of us do not have to take thanks to a good economical situation in out countries. The film might have been polished to suit the taste of Western audience, but it does not matter, unless you really want to make a big deal out of it.
Kame wa igai to hayaku oyogu (2005)
Great fun!
I am kind of surprised to see such low rating and bad reviews.
To be quite fair, I found the movie a fantastic entertainment. I hardly ever laugh so much during the film as I did yesterday.
First of all, I would not say that plot is nonexistent here. It is pretty chaotic, but that was the point here, and this is where the charm of Turtles lays.
I see it in a way as a parody of the detective movies with a simple plot (a crime happened, police is chasing them, the criminal is caught). Here we have no crime, the whole spying looks a bit surreal until the very end, the detectives talk nonsense most of the time, the clumsiness of the investigation is hilarious.
Many scenes look just random, but again this is why they are funny. Dancing hairdresser or the lottery with 'fabulous' prices might not add much to the development of the spy plot, but they help to create a great impression of a crazy life the main character is leading. It is the accumulation of the surprising elements and the unexpected that put the smile on my face.
You can also find bits parodying teen movies (Suzume crush on Katou, and their rendez-vous years later), and once again, I could not stop laughing how awkward, but how close to real life that was.
All in all, I think it is really worth giving it a chance, just sit back and relax, and if you don't expect a highly intellectual film, you might love it as I did.
Onegai Teacher (2002)
A waste of time
After Reading so many enthusiastic reviews I expected something really good. Unfortunately, Onegai teacher happened to be one of the worst series I have ever seen. First of all, the plot is very infantile and sadly unfunny. It gets boring after two or three episodes, as the characters repeat the same sentences all over again. Nothing moves, they just sit and think. Besides, the whole relationship with an alien teacher seems so weird and untrue. There were just a couple of moments when I laughed, as for the rest, I wish I could just forget about it. To compare, Love Hina has much more comedy moments in it, and the synopsis is much better. Onegai teacher could be as well summarized into three episodes, the action is so slow and it leads to nowhere. If you wanna something better, go for "Now and there, here and there", Cowboy Bebop or Witch Hunter Robin. Or even "I, me my, strawberry eggs"...