zelena33 Reviews

Seoul Vibe (2022)

Bad vibes

[1/10 · 13 September 2022]

It's a crime, the way that CERTAIN US-BASED STREAMING PLATFORMS are all rushing to buy their way into Korean and Japanese markets by just green-lighting every lousy script in the local language they can get their hands on, and then producing what is basically just American television in Korean (also, Japanese). It's a crime because they are buying out the great creative powerhouse of our generation and gentrifying it -- within ten years they are going to destroy the local creative industry and replace it with Disneyland. It's like the Mission District and Williamsburg all over again. Netflix is basically the stinking sulfuric acid that dissolves culture.

This lousy turd of a Netflix production in no way resembles the flavor and genius of Korean cinema and tv drama that we know and love. Okay, we got that out of the way. But while we're at it ,it also doesn't resemble 1988 in any way shape or form - not America in 1988 never mind Seoul in 1988. I didn't bother to look at the credits, but it's 100% certain that this thing was made by first-generation Korean Americans from LA who weren't even born in 1988. So there is no nostalgia to like about it. Beyond that, it just feels surreal, how lazy you have to be to not even research the period right. In the 90s, people were making 70s period pieces that could pass... maybe it has to do with the collapse of culture from the internet, but it's just weird how far this is from portraying the "vibe" of a generation ago. Nothing like Korean cinema, nothing like 1988.

Mayonaka otome sensô (2022)

Eye-popping, intelligent, and twisty

[10/10 · 7 September 2022]

This superb Japanese coming-of-age-in-dystopia drama is absurdly low-balled in the IMDB ratings because... it's maybe not for everyone. It is challenging and not really aiming to please wide audiences, but it will become a cult classic for sure.

With strong echoes of at least two other films from the past 25 years (to the point of blatant homage - to mention them would be a spoiler) this film makes some pretty abrupt twists in tone that didn't come off quite as well on screen as they did in the director's head.

Still, it's visually rich (hat tip, Chris Doyle) and with strong creativity in sound design, it plops you right into the sharp pain of survival in the 2022 economy for 19 year olds, but also the pain of trying to have friends, love, and meaning in your life with the ****show world we live in now.

Any film this unusual is a rare treat and makes this a must see for fans of Asian cinema, although "movie" fans might as well pass.

Do You Trust This Computer? (2018)

Artificially counterintelligent

[1/10 · 13 September 2018]

This video annoyed and frustrated me.

There is little point in inviting billionaires and MIT professors to say things that we all already know. There is so little point, that it is immensely annoying and frustrating. The point, in the end, is to sit here and "be told." There's not a single line of comment in this hour and twelve minutes that the whole audience doesn't already know, and hasn't already heard and talked about and thought about.

And yet it's a tremendously important subject. See where this is going? It reflects the situation in reality: We sit around and helplessly comment on things that we ourselves are causing (by buying and selling this technology). There is absolutely no intelligent, critical thought reflected or presented in this film. Instead, we get BS ted-talky comments like "nobody can stop it!"

The truth is that everybody can stop it. But it has to be everybody, not somebody else.

It's just unspeakably stultifying, how much of the film consists of the dumbest, most obvious statements a person could possible make: "We've never had this data before!" "We've created tech that allows us to capture vast quantities of data!" "Google knows more about you than your mother!" "Data itself is not good or evil, it's how it's used!" etc etc etc. These are researchers at the leading universities.

The film is also full of people saying patently untrue statements ("Uber is making transportation cheaper...") that go unchallenged. It was not made by a journalist. So not made by a journalist. Why is that important? Because that's where the critical thinking would have come in. It's not about losing jobs to AI. People don't make money from jobs, they make money from .... owning capital and many other things that are exemplified by how the tech industry is making money, which points to how the AI problem is so much bigger than the principals here even recognize.

It's, again, symptomatic of where things stand, when you don't see any intelligence coming out of human beings, and certainly not out of their toys. Rather, we have been reduced to the "fanboys" of vacuous and senseless "intelligent" operations like AI. But you won't find that explored in the film.

It's a parade of evil people, stupid people, and immensely cynical, mentally lazy people. If you want to drastically reduce your faith in humanity -- from the public, to the experts, to the filmmakers -- this one is for you. If you value intelligence, you probably know where to go back and find it when you've closed the lid on your laptop.

Have a Nice Day (2017)

Downpour of poor quality Chinese cinema continues.

[2/10 · 12 February 2018]

In retrospect, I probably thought this might have some merit because it was banned in China. But it just goes to show how much further the Chinese authorities are going when it comes to banning incorrect cinema these days; this film's only sin as far as the authorities are concerned, is that it displays bad people doing bad things, which of course do not exist in the Chinese Dream.

I found this dreadfully bad and one-dimensional, so I walked out after an hour. I am really rooting for China to produce good cinema art, but I'm increasingly convinced that it is completely impossible for as long as the current regime is in power. It's all Tiny Times, anti-Japanese WWII propaganda, and vapid animation. I'd rather watch literally anything from South Korea.

Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World (2016)

Herzog's worst documentary, just when we need him most

[4/10 · 12 October 2016]

There are very important, tough questions that need to be asked about where technology is leading us. "Does the internet dream of itself?" is not one of them. This effort from Herzog is a major disappointment but not a surprise, partly because it started out as a corporate promotional video. Also because most of his docs are ostensibly on subjects that aren't that interesting or important on the surface, but he makes them riveting. Here, he's tackling a subject about which everything that can be said, has already been said, except for the hard questions. Is the internet even a net positive thing? Why bother going to Mars? It's getting harder and harder "to make a contribution" (to science, or to society), so what does that mean for us? Soon enough robots will beat Messi at football -- will anyone want to watch that? These questions don't get asked. And these are easy ones that came up anyway.

Herzog, who is a known non-tech guy, just seems ignorant and uninterested in technology, both the good and the bad of it. And we need him to pry forcefully into the moral morass that it's dragging us into. But he can't. He's just a baby boomer who is completely immersed in his real- world occupation that doesn't involve surfing the internet. He doesn't know, doesn't care. So unfortunately, he has gathered the most maddeningly thick-headed "scientific experts" to make bland, vapid observations about how amazing it all is. This is a huge disappointment. Werner is just not the man for this job -- so he's moved on to something more up his alley; volcanoes...

The Act of Killing (2012)

Absolutely astounding

[10/10 · 25 May 2013]

Watching this film should be mandatory for every man, woman, and child in the world.

I would leave it at that but IMDb has a minimum of 10 lines of text to prove you "mean business" with your review.

This film was utterly astounding in every sense, most importantly in the way it just lets a strange, inexplicable, simple truth emerge on its own. It is not a film that makes you feel better about the world or yourself, but rather one that makes you remember, oh yes, all this is real, and it really matters.

Without providing a spoiler, the final scene also underscores why documentaries are made, and the very real, very important things that utterly cannot be faked with all the acting, special effects, and make up in the world. That life is real.

--

I wanted to make one other note to my initial impression, since this film remains my favorite film of the year and possible of a several- year. It is worth highlighting the fact that Mr Oppenheimer spent a good eight or ten years of his life making this film, spending his life in Indonesia with a camcorder and progressively greater levels of logistical and technical help (from what has been made public about the film). Films like this don't get made in a year. Not at all.

It is worth reflecting on the connection between the time you invest in something, and what you get out of it. You get the same impression when you read, for example, one of the major novels of a couple centuries ago, but it is rare to see artistic works this big made anymore. War and Peace wasn't made in a year either. I somewhat feel for Mr Oppenheimer and the expectations that will precede his next work, whatever it is. Nothing like this will get made in the next two or three years, and that makes me the more grateful for this work.