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When They See Us (2019)
A Must-Watch
"See, that's the law, not the truth."
When They See Us manages to be appropriately dramatic while sidestepping heavy-handed didacticism. It is, by far, one of the most compelling and emotionally challenging mini-series I've sat through.
A landmark production in its own right.
Alpeis (2011)
A Predecessor to Black Mirror's Be Right Back
You know that it is unmistakably a Yorgos Lanthimos film when at one point, it sounds as if a male and a female Siri were arguing and having sex.
Alps explores similar themes as the Black Mirror episode Be Right Back, but because the characters possess a higher degree of agency (the substitutes here are other human beings rather than programmed AI encased in a human-like body), it covers territory left unexplored by that BM episode. Infused with Lanthimos' classic dark, absurdist humour, Alps dives into the predatory and manipulative nature of such an enterprise, both within the group of service providers as well as between them and their clients. Seen particularly in the character arc of Monte Rosa are the repercussions of this enterprise on the identities of service providers too. As they ease the bereaved into the grieving process by substituting the deceased, these service providers, each tethered to their own personal baggage, are not entirely immune to the mental and emotional repercussions of this job.
Probing at the supposed boundaries that exist between clients and their service providers, Alps urges us to inquire more deeply into the nature of grief and the grieving process: When do we stop grieving? Do we ever stop grieving? Does such a service aid the healing process? At what point does it devolve into an emotional crutch or an instrument of abuse?
Kôhî jikô (2003)
A film that is at once restless and stagnant.
A languid meditation on the transitory and the transitional. Yoko - a young woman who's just beginning to stand on her own two feet yet not completely weaned from the support of her parents - is frequently on the move, shuttling between different places and different people, and, because of her research into the life of a late musician, she sometimes traverses between different timelines as well. Yoko is more often seen outside of her own home, lounging in third-spaces: cafes, bookstores, outside train stations, within her own bubble of contemplation and privacy in train carriages.
Hou delicately treads the fine line between the restless, pulsating movement of the city and the apparent stagnancy of Yoko's life in this thinly plotted film. While Yoko is seen to be doing many things, connecting with various people and travelling to many places, nothing of much significance actually transpires. Nonetheless, it doesn't take much to sink into the lull of Café Lumière and simply allow it to whisk you away to the dreamy world of early-2000s Tokyo.
Dare mo shiranai (2004)
The quiet violence of abandonment
Nobody Knows is a film about abandoned children living on the hem of life, eking out a living for themselves with a kind of quietude and stoicism. Refreshingly, Kore-eda eschews melodrama and instead paints an invariably tragic subject with some lightheartedness and innocence, producing an intimate portrait of abandonment through the eyes of these children who still regard the world around them with wild-eyed wonder, blissful ignorance and curiosity.
As the film progresses, the children sink into a state of despair and destitution, slowly but surely coming to terms with the implications of their abandonment. Their descent is gradual, and not without moments of laughter, however evanescent they may be. Violence in Nobody Knows isn't composed of exceptional, explosive events, but of the everyday, the mundane, quietly chipping away at the lives of the children left to fend for themselves. It is in the decay of a home once neat, clean and well-serviced into nothing but a heap of grime and clutter; their confinement to a claustrophobic apartment for the better part of a year; the children's inability to spell their own names; the cruel realisation that the Christmas gift wasn't from mum after all.
The film can feel extremely drawn out and in a sense, it succeeds in conveying the sense of ennui, the tyranny of having too much time but little to do with it. It was a creative decision that I could get behind until it felt overdone and started to lose me a little.
It is overall, a great film and an unconventional take on such a heavy subject matter.