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Koto (1963)
Class and essential 'Japaneseness' are clear themes here
An abandoned baby of twins girls adopted into a higher class merchant family in first half 20th century Japan. Shima Iwashita playing both sisters, Chieko and Naeko, is stunning of course, but their characters are very understated, as you might expect. Her adoptive father is an artistic designer of fabrics, and rather unsuccessful merchant and there is a question as to whether Chieko will take on the shop. A young male obi designer and weaver is drawn to Chieko but is clearly aware of social boundaries.
Chieko meets Naeko by accident, and their relationship is revealed, but again the social difference between the two sisters is evident. The obi designer accidentally meets Naeko and assuming wrongly it is Chieko promises to design an obi for her - enough of the plot details; in time given the class considerations he pursues Naeko, and the idea of a spirit person emerges, all quite understandable.
Kyoto scenery is prominent, together with the festivals, and the tree-lined pathway in the royal gardens evokes memories for me.
This is a gentle story without conflict or drama, all in all a very pleasant film presenting something distinctly Japanese. Not everyone's taste, but it is mine!
Keeping Secrets (2023)
Fairly highly rated but on watching unbelievably mediocre
Stiff acting, poor script and silly story. I cannot find a single redeeming feature about this movie. I rated it 3 when I progressively rated it less and less. And it took great stamina to persevere to the end. So the lead roles are pretty stereotype characters, cops and overtones of sexism and intra-male conflicts ok, par for the course, newish female and discrimination in the air. Gentleman's sex club, bare tits and flesh aplenty nothing promising of thoughtful cinema, and unsurprisingly that's what we got. Tripe really. I really cannot get over how wooden the acting was, but then with uninspired story, script and direction that's what you might expect. I won't bother mentioning the actors because no one, nothing, stood out, and 3-stars is generous.
Otsomae Bolkeun Kkeutdong (2021)
Groaning ever louder I persisted to the end - 17 hours
Dreadfully slow and laboured. Over 17 hours of closeups of eyes nose lips perfect skin, flashing to guess what? Eyes nose mouth and perfect skin, from male to female, female to male. I cannot guess what percentage of camerawork focussed on closeup faces of the two lead characters, and earlier on the malevolent princess with the calculating hostile eyes (I'm sure I have seen her in an identical role earlier, also with hostile gleaming eyes). It took 14 hours for the first kiss, how did I endure so long?
Now it does have redeeming features, the sets and costumes and portrayal of cultural situation, a dominant theme of lowly court maids, of slaves and disdain for life by the privileged. Camerawork and production also of high quality, as was the acting, but surely it could have been done in at most 8 hours.
Music must have paid bonuses to the string section of the orchestra, violins aplenty, and cellos for the serious and ominous stuff.
Two episodes were missing English subtitles in the version I watched, by the way, 11 and 12 I think, but I waded through with some Portuguese, and it resumed with English in 13.
Some events remained unresolved, unexplained - the imprisonment of the maids for example, but there were others.
One particular scene made me particularly agitated and impatient, it just dragged on and on and on. The questioning of Hong and his pardoning for what was unquestionably a crime meriting severance of the head. Feeble.
Christmas at the Royal Hotel (2018)
Well, both ones and nines but it is really just soso
Honest and earnest, but light on fact and substance. The two female leads are easy on the eye but heavy going in the acting compartment. As others mention, the absence of insignia of rank, both British and Canadian, is glaringly and surprisingly careless and obvious. Scenes are largely confined to a telephone or switchboard, so nothing dynamic here. Very few outside scenes and most of those are night-time. The Chinese accents were all British I believe, and not a single hint of Hong Kong or Cantonese was to be seen or heard, nor did I hear any Canadian accent except in the Winnipeg scene - as I say, received British predominated. Well I stuck it out and in the end give it a generous 6, failing to understand how it has achieved almost.
Breaking Bad (2008)
Heavily Overrated
Look, it's ok, but there are so many perfect 10's and it is by no means that perfect, nor challenging. The Handmaid's Tale (different genre) scores 8.4, but so many of you guys score this one 10! Come off it! Production values, script and acting are all good enough, but you know it is not exactly thought provoking. Can you relate to anyone in this? Nah, not likely. Five seasons of this show, that's rather daunting and discouraging, so I cannot see myself staying for the long haul. There is indeed some humour but there are also long-winded long drawn-out scenes which border on tedious. 10's are incomprehensible, and I'll give it a reluctant 8, in fact assessing it more like a 7.5.
The Hand (2004)
A piece of art? I suppose you can call it that
A short piece about a tailor, a prostitute declining from high class to penniless, two hand-jobs, and an undeclared impossible love or infatuation, call it what you like. It certainly has Wang KarWai's distinctive mood and camerawork, as you would expect in his movies - the dark corridors for example. It does evoke some of the mood of 'In the mood for love/Hua yang nian hua' but is not a patch on that wonderful masterpiece.
The music I cannot recall but it was there yet forgettable, unlike that of 'In the mood for love'. Short snippets of 20s-30s Shanghai cabaret, silences and the sound of Hong Kong rain. Set in Hong Kong I assume, but with the lead characters speaking Putonghua.
If I am not mistaken the entire movie passes without a single smile - lots of neck chin and face shots of GongLi, many taken over the shoulder of and from behind the male lead, Chang Chen, the smitten tailor. Nothing maudlin or mawkish is said or done, yet it leaves me with that feeling, and it seems to skirt very close.
No great work of art here, be assured!
Vikram (2022)
I saw the rating at 8.3 and so gave it a visit
Big mistake and that this garbage should be rated so high speaks of loading and bias. I was conned, and I suspect a horde of supporters has been unleashed on this movie. 10 out of 10? Give me a break! An absurd plot with a large element of cute kitsch in the form of the sound averse baby, a pudgy hero with incredible martial arts skills, guns gangs drugs zillions of killings, a beheading or two. There are some production values in here, but just short of 3 hours of unending violence - way way overlength. It is hard to believe that the script writers could concoct such a long-winded stupid story. I watched it, all of it, getting increasingly angry as it dribbled on. Giving it 2/10 is generous.
Yin mi de jiao luo (2020)
Preposterous plot which grew progressively worse
Nevertheless as a student of Chinese I persevered to the end, 12 sessions. Lots of technical flaws, and an unbelievable plot. Acting of the three central characters, teenagers/children pretty convincing in frankly silly situations.
Cinematography and settings are pretty good, but the succession of deaths and murders and lack of involvement of the police were too much of a stretch of the imagination. Yet I enjoyed some of the family relationship portrayals, and the grey mean streets and quarters and dockyards.
The series was notably lacking in smiles and humour and similarly grey in setting and tone, but a special commendation goes to the actor who portrayed Pupu, a professional performance for one so young.
Definitely not recommended unless you are a Chinese language study freak (as I am)
Wu ji (2005)
An absolute shocker
I stuck through it to the end with increasing distaste. Weird discontinuities and leaps of plot abound. Totally without merit, from the director of Farewell my Concubine. Some may be impressed by the martial arts but I was overwhelmed with incredulity at the plot and the sudden inexplicable leaps of situation. Just awful and 3 stars is generous to my way of thinking.
Yin he bu xi ban (2019)
Mostly Entertaining but with serious flawed patchy areas.
Some stereotypical characterisations - the stepfather and the headmaster being obvious ones. One dreadful scene with the headmaster breaking down and seemingly undergoing a transformation subsequently, that was truly laughable. The bridge collapse likewise.
A major theme of the movie is the education system and the pressure and joyless rote learning of subjects - learning of facts without understanding or creativity - and promoting learning by challenge and discovery. It was heavy handed in the psychology, and pretty naive overall.
6 stars is tops for this - I enjoyed it overall, basically because I study China and Mandarin, but occasionally cringed.