Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) ☆☆☆(3/4): This plucky delivery girl 

Posted on April 18, 2026 by kaist455

Hayao Miyazaki’s 1989 animation film “Kiki’s Delivery Service”, which is being shown at selected theaters in South Korea, flies on a substantial amount of charm and beauty to be savored. Although it is relatively less engaging compared to Miyazaki’s more compelling films such as “My Neighbor Totoro” (1988), it is still a fairly entertaining work decorated with enjoyable moments, and we gladly go along with its simple but bright story and characters. 

 At the beginning, the story, which is based on the children’s fantasy novel of the same name by Eiko Kadono, quickly establishes its plucky adolescent heroine and her family background. Her name is Kiki (voiced by Minami Takayama), and she is about to leave her family home due to her magical lineage. Just like her mother, she is a witch, and now there comes the time when she must go through her training period at somewhere else outside her hometown. 

 After not only her parents but also many of their neighbors give her a hearty sendoff, Kiki instantly flies away on a broomstick given by her mother, though she is not so certain about where she can begin her training period. At least, she is accompanied by her little black cat, which can be rather sarcastic during its conversation with her.

In the end, Kiki comes upon a port city on some seaside area, and it does not take much time for her to decide that this city is the one where she is going to stay. Although she unintentionally causes some trouble during her first several hours in the city, she fortunately comes across a number of nice people including a generous lady who incidentally runs a local bakery with her taciturn husband. Because this lady happens to need someone to assist her, she gladly hires Kiki, and she even rents Kiki a little staying place in her residence.

After trying to be as useful as possible during next several days, Kiki finally comes upon a job quite suitable for her magical ability. Thanks to her flying ability, she begins to work as sort of an express delivery girl around the city, and she is pleased to earn her living for herself as diligently giving helpful service to several clients of hers including a wealthy old lady.  

Leisurely rolling the story and characters from one narrative point to another, the film sometimes becomes quite humorous. I was tickled again by an episode where Kiki’s cat must disguise itself as a doll for a while, and this hilarious situation culminates to a quietly amusing moment of payoff thanks to a certain old dog which turns out to be more considerate and intelligent than expected. In addition, there is also a subplot involved with a local boy clearly smitten with Kiki, and their developing relationship along the story is balanced well between humor and sincerity.

In addition, just like any other work from Miyazaki, the film is simply lovely in terms of mood and detail. Its cell animation style is often quite vivid and striking with big and small touches to be admired and appreciated, and the port city in the film looks as crisp and gorgeous as those beautiful Mediterranean cities in South Europe. Although the period background of the story is not so specific, it is fun to watch how Miyazaki and his animators mix several different period elements into the main background of their film, and you will not be surprised at all when a huge zeppelin enters the picture later in the story.

Needless to say, there are a number of flight sequences in the film as required, and they remind us again that Miyazaki is absolutely peerless in case of the depiction of the joy and excitement of flying across the sky. Yes, it sometimes looks quite perilous for our young heroine whenever she rides on her broomstick without any particular safety measure, but we can put aside this realistic concern for a while as being entertained by those epic moments of flying across the screen. Fortunately, I happened to watch the film at the big IMAX screening room in a local movie theater of my hometown, and this experience easily surpasses when I watched the film for the time in the early 2010s.

Nevertheless, I also observed some weak aspects of the film during my viewing. Many of the main characters in the story besides Kiki and her cat remain to be more or less broad archetype, and there is not much conflict in the story except what unexpectedly happens to Kiki during its final act. This is not much of a problem in “My Neighbor Totoro” because it is so effortlessly driven by much more charm and spirit in comparison, but “Kiki’s Delivery Service” unfortunately struggles to stay afloat at times because it feels rather flat and plain in terms of story and characters.       

 Maybe this is because Miyazaki initially participated in the production of the film as a producer before eventually taking over the project later, but the result is still a quintessential Miyazaki animation film. While you can sometimes spot the foreshadowings of his very next work “Porco Rosso” (1992), you can also notice how much it influences recent Pixar film “Luca” (2021), which clearly emulates several works of Miyazaki here and there. 

In conclusion, “Kiki’s Delivery Service” does not reach the level of “My Neighbor Totoro” or “Spirited Away” (2002), but I must point out that even those middle-level Ghibli animation films have much more style and personality compared to many passable products such as, say, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” (2023) and its recent sequel. It is not exactly great, but it is still wonderful to watch it from a big movie screen anyway.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Dear Juhee (2025) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Uneven but sincere anyway

Posted on April 18, 2026 by kaist455

South Korean independent documentary film “Dear Juhee” sincerely attempts to juggle a number of different subjects together, and I appreciate that to some degree. Although its result is a bit too uneven and unfocused at times, it has several genuinely moving moments to remember, and I was touched by them even though being distracted by its flawed aspects from time to time.

The documentary mainly revolves around the personal journey of Jang Ju-hee, who directed it along with Kim Sung-hwan and Bu Seong-pil. When she was a high school girl in the early 2010s, Jang aspired to become a filmmaker someday, but then there came a big setback to her life. She happened to have a serious case of leukemia, and then she also struggled a lot with the domestic violence involved with her abusive father.

While she was having a medical treatment on April 16th, 2014, a shocking incident shook up the whole nation, and she vividly remembers watching the news reports in her hospital room. On that day, the ferry MV Sewol sank while en route from Incheon towards Jeju City in South Korea, and many of the high school students who happened to be there for their field trip to Jeju Island at that time died, mainly due to the infuriatingly late response from the authorities to this devastating accident. 

As young documentary filmmakers, Jang and Bu were willing to approach closer to this incident and the families of those dead high school students. We see Jang and Bu looking around here and there in the sunken ship which was eventually salvaged a few years later. We also observe them following the efforts of the families of the dead high school students, who are still quite frustrated about not being able to receive any public apology from the South Korean government as well as those authorities responsible for the catastrophically slow response to the incident.

Bu understands well the personal pain of these people because of the tragic history of his family in Jeju Island. His grandfather and uncle were killed during the Jeju Uprising in 1948, and his father is still not so willing to talk more about the circumstance surrounding their death. Even at this point, there are numerous personal tragedies buried here and there in Jeju Island, and the South Korean society belatedly became more aware of the enormous human tragedies behind the Jeju Uprising as the South Korean government issued a public apology in 2003.

The documentary also focuses on a disabled man named Sun Cheol-gyu. He was born with a serious case of cerebral palsy, but we soon observe his fierce struggle for his independence and civil rights. While he still needs some help from others around him, Sun can freely move for himself by his electric wheelchair, and he is certainly determined to live his life as fully as possible.

Nevertheless, there are always challenges for him in one way or another. At one point, Sun becomes quite willing to do a bungee jump for himself, but, not so surprisingly, he is only told later that there is not any possible option for him. He cannot help but express his anger and frustration in front of others including Jang and Bu, and that is followed by a painful personal moment between them and Sun.

The documentary later tries to couple Sun’s story with the story of the story of Jeon In-sook, whose adolescent son was one of those many victims of the sinking of MV Sewol. Sun sincerely showed some solidarity to her, and he even suggested that she and her husband should take a trip to Jeju Island along with him for remembering not only her son but also all other victims of the incident. Although it was naturally quite difficult for Sun to travel to Jeju Island due to his disability, he eventually joined Jeon and her husband, and we see them visiting the memorial site for the victims of the Jeju Uprising.

As closely observing her human subjects more and more, Jang came to find her own strength to deal with her personal issues. Besides trying more for processing her old memories of domestic abuse, she also became a passionate activist for female rights and feminist, and she also involved in a number of different social/political activities including a big public demonstration against President Yoon Seok-yeol and his vile attempt to destroy democracy in late 2024. 

All these and many other things are presented with enough respect and sensitivity by Jang and her two co-directors, but the documentary often loses its direction and focus as trying to show and tell a lot within its rather short running time (104 minutes). Its several human subjects are certainly interesting to observe from the beginning, but the documentary somehow fails to balance itself well as moving back and forth among them, and we never get to know any of them enough.

On the whole, “Dear Junee” is hampered by its occasionally deficient narrative, but its strong individual moments will probably linger on your mind for a while after it is over. It is a shame that these good moments do not gel together well for engaging me more during my viewing, but, considering the considerable competence shown from their efforts, I sincerely hope that its directors will impress me more in the future.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron (2024) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Miyazaki’s long return

Posted on April 16, 2026 by kaist455

Documentary film “Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron” closely follows Miyazaki’s rather long process behind his recent Oscar-winning animation film “The Boy and the Heron” (2023). While I came to admire more of all those painstaking efforts behind that acclaimed comeback work of his, I also felt rather dissatisfied as duly observing how often the documentary only ends up scratching the surface.

Around the time when his previous film “The Wind Rises” (2013) came, Miyazaki announced that it would be his last work, but many of us were not that serious about this announcement of his. After all, it was not his first announcement of retirement, and then it seemed that he was willing to make another comeback just like he did not long after making his first Oscar-winning film “Spirited Away” (2002).

The documentary shows how he gradually considered being back in business. As he admits at one point, he could not help but become drawn to the possibility of another project, and, above all, he was often reminded of his impending mortality as many of his close colleagues including Isao Takahata, who was another prominent animation filmmaker in Ghibli Studios besides Miyazaki, passed away during next several years. In the end, he decided to get back from his brief retirement period, and his longtime producer Toshio Suzuki, who is another key figure of Ghibli Studio besides Miyazaki and Takahata, was certainly delighted about that.

What follows next is a very long production period during which Miyazaki and a bunch of animators worked really hard on every frame of their film. Their work actually began in 2017, and the documentary gives us some glimpses into Miyazaki and his animators’ arduous work process. After he finally finished what can be regarded as the backbone of their film, he and his animators subsequently worked much more for enhancing or enriching Miyazaki’s original vision, and we are reminded again of why cell animation can be much more personal and expressive than digital animation. After all, every frame was drawn by them from the very start, though they did use computers when they checked whether their result could work as well as envisioned by Miyazaki on the whole.

Due to his old age, Miyazaki sometimes had to be helped by his assistant director, and it is rather amusing to see how they push and pull each other at times. While certainly admiring Miyazaki a lot, the assistant director sticks to his opinion on a certain frame filled with a lot of pelicans, and Miyazaki humbly agrees to that after watching how a little but important detail added by his assistant director makes that frame look more realistic.

Meanwhile, we get to know a bit about how personal the film is for Miyazaki in many aspects. While its young hero is clearly the fictional reflection of his younger self during the late 1940s, several supporting characters in the story are partially inspired by some of his close colleagues. For example, that weird heron character is based a bit on Suzuki (and his pot belly), and the appearance of that old man appearing later in the story is derived from Takahata, whom Miyazaki has surely missed a lot since Takahata’s death in 2018.

After Takahata and then his longtime personal assistant passed away, Miyazaki became more aware of how short the remaining time could be for him. Although he found himself quite frustrated and exhausted at times, he was not deterred at all as managing to keep going with his animators. Their production had a setback due to the COVID-19 Pandemic during the early 2020s, but it was continued as usual, and there eventually came the point where he could move onto the following post-production process.

Sadly, the documentary does not delve that deep into the post-production process of the film. We simply get a brief sequence beginning with Miyazaki and Suzuki listening to the theme song for the film, and you may be disappointed that the documentary does not show much of Miyazaki’s collaboration with composer Joe Hisaishi, who has steadily worked with Miyazaki since “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind” (1984).

And I was distracted more than once by those clumsy jump cuts throughout the documentary. Instead of simply listening to Miyazaki or others in the documentary, the documentary frequently inserts the archival footage clips or the excerpts from Miyazaki’s or Takahata’s previous works, and the result is quite jumpy and heavy-handed to say the least. In addition, it blatantly uses the excerpts from Hisaishi’s scores for Miyazaki’s previous works, and I could not help but notice the jarring disparity between the music and what is shown on the screen.

In conclusion, “Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron”, directed by Kaku Arakawa, is less engaging compared to two other recent documentaries involved with Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. If you want something more personal and intimate, there is “The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness” (2023). If you want to get the overall view on Miyazaki’s career in Studio Ghibli, there is “Miyazaki: Spirit of Nature” (2024). Although I cannot recommend “Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron”, you may already be willing to watch anyway if you admire and enjoy “The Boy and the Heron” more than me, and I will not stop you at all.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Noah Kahan: Out of Body (2026) ☆☆☆(3/4): What’s next for him?

Posted on April 16, 2026 by kaist455

Netflix documentary film “Noah Kahan: Out of Body”, which was released on this Monday, is the earnest presentation of one famous musician trying to find whatever may be next for him after his sudden big breakthrough. As he sincerely and frankly reveals a number of his personal issues, we also come to appreciate more of his considerable artistic talent, and it is touching to see how he becomes more prepared to take the next step for his life and career.

Around the late 2010s, Noah Kahan was just a young emerging musician from Vermont. Although he signed with Republic Records in 2017 and then made his first debut album in 2019, his career seemed to be going nowhere even after that, and then there came the pandemic early in 2020. As staying along with his several family members in their family home in Vermont, he focused more on his music, and then there came an unexpected moment. He uploaded his performance of one of his songs on TikTok as usual on the one day of 2022, and then, what do you know, this became much more popular than he ever imagined.

And that is just the beginning of a huge breakthrough for Kahan’s career. After the eventual release of his new album “Stick Season”, he and his music became all the more popular than before during next several years, and he started to perform at various concerts and notable TV shows including Saturday Night Live. Around the time when he was about to have his own concert in Boston, a lot of his fans were eagerly waiting for him, and he certainly felt quite pressured as shown from the opening scene of the documentary. 

Meanwhile, the documentary pays attention to Kahan’s personal life and some longtime issues of his. He grew up with several other siblings in their hometown in Vermont, and he had often observed how dysfunctional his family could be, which was incidentally the main source of inspiration for many of those songs in “Sick Album”. As his mother, who recently divorced her husband, points out at one point, those songs are strewn with numerous personal elements to be recognized by Kahan’s family, but she is not embarrassed at all because she is simply proud of her son making a big success in his field.

 In case of Kahan’s father, he is not so enthusiastic about his son’s music career in contrast to his ex-wife. After a serious car accident, his mind became less stable and more distant than before, and this aspect of his is quite evident when Kahan visits his father’s residence, which is full of many different stuffs collected by his father for no apparent reason. While we are amused a bit by his silly handmade bag, it is apparent that Kahan’s father has some mental issues, and Kahan later tells us about how much his father was changed after that car accident – and how long it took for him to accept that irreversible change in his father.

Kahan also does not hide much of what he has struggled with for many years. Although he looks better and healthier than me at least, Kahan has actually coped a lot with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), and he honestly talks about how he often feels not so good about his appearance. He certainly tries for more improvement via medication and routine exercise, but he still cannot help but become depressed at times, and his sudden fame makes him all the more conscious of his appearance.

As staying in Nashville just like many other musicians like him, Tennessee along with his supportive fiancée, Kahan kept trying to make the next step for his career, though he came to feel more pressure and stress instead. We see him and his colleagues trying to record the songs for his upcoming new albums in a local studio, but he becomes frustrated again and again because he is not satisfied with his performance at all, and we can clearly sense his growing exasperation.

Nevertheless, Kahan eventually found a way to the next chapter for his life and career. After he did not disappoint his audiences at all at his concert held in Boston, he moved back to his hometown, which gave him some peace of mind in addition to reminding him of what has always inspired him for many years. Once he found what really worked for him and his talent, he went all the way for that without hesitation, and, as some of you know, his new album will be released on next Friday.

Now I must say that I did not know anything about Kahan before reading a review on the documentary, but, as far as I can observe from the documentary, his songs are good and interesting on the whole. As expectedly presenting a number of notable songs from him, the documentary accentuates the poetic sides of some of them as presenting their lyrics on the screen, and you will get more understanding on how his songs have appealed to millions of fans and admirers out there.

In conclusion, “Noah Kahan: Out of Body”, directed by Nick Sweeney, is a bit too good and sincere to be dismissed as another typical promotional musician documentary, and I came to appreciate Kahan’s personal and artistic integrity after watching it. As briefly shown to us at the end of the documentary, he still has many issues to deal with, but he will probably keep going on, because, in my humble opinion, he has considerable talent as well as enough personality. In fact, I may check on that new upcoming album of his for confirming that again.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Salmokji: Whispering Water (2026) ☆☆☆: A reservoir of horror

Posted on April 14, 2026 by kaist455

South Korean horror film “Salmokji: Whispering Water” is ready to unnerve and then scare you from the very beginning, and it did its job as well as intended. While this is a very typical horror movie about your average haunted spot, there is enough sense of dread and suspense to hold your attention to the end, and you will gladly go along with that despite occasionally being not entirely sure about what is exactly going on the screen.

After the opening scene effectively setting the overall tone of the movie, we meet Su-in (Kim Hye-yoon) and several colleagues of hers who happen to work together during one weekend. They work for an online road-view service company, and there suddenly came a rather odd problem involved with some remote reservoir outside Seoul. The footage shot along the road around that reservoir shows something weird on the reservoir, and, assuming that this is just a technical glitch, Su-in’s boss demands that they should go there right now for shooting the replacement footage to be uploaded as quickly as possible.

Needless to say, we soon sense some aura of spookiness not long after Su-in and her colleagues arrive at the reservoir, whose name is incidentally “Salmokji”. In Chinese letters, this name literally means “Dead Tree Pond” (殺木池), and, according to one of Su-in’s colleagues, this spot was originally a cemetery before the reservoir was built upon it.

And then there come several bad signs for our main characters. They find a mysterious stone tower near the lake, and they also encounter a strange old lady who seems to be hiding something from them. While she does not scare them a lot, we cannot help but feel uneasier when this old lady suggests that they should add a stone to the tower as making each own wish.

The mood becomes more unsettling when a certain figure unexpectedly appears later. Because he is also one of Su-in’s colleagues, Su-in is initially glad to have another person to help get her job done as soon as possible, but, of course, she somehow finds herself gradually unnerved about him. After all, he was inexplicably absent for a while before appearing in front of Su-in and her colleagues, and, above all, he actually went to the reservoir not long before his sudden absence.

As adding one little disturbing moment after another, the movie steadily dials up the level of uneasiness, and there are several effective scenes which utilize well those video cameras of the main characters. At one point in the story, one of them casually walks along the road alone by himself for shooting the road-view footage with his camera, and we come to brace ourselves as Su-in checks on this raw footage via her remote-control panel in the meantime.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that 1) Su-in and her colleagues eventually find themselves stuck around the reservoir and 2) there comes much more tension and fear as the night inevitably begins. Yes, there is indeed something insidious in the reservoir, and it becomes quite possible that they may not survive this increasingly spooky night no matter how hard they try to fight against whatever is holding them in one way or another.

If you are a seasoned moviegoer quite familiar with many recent horror flicks such as “The Conjuring” (2013) and its several following sequels, you will not be that surprised by all those shocks and awes to pop up along the story, but the movie skillfully doles them out at least. As a result, we get more engaged even though we often find ourselves as disoriented as its main characters, and we also get some dark fun from how they are relentlessly thrown into more panic and confusion before the eventual finale.

I must point out that many of its main characters are as thin as the cardboard characters to be eliminated in those Friday the 13th movies. In fact, you can easily guess who will be the first victim right from when the main characters are introduced to us at the beginning of the story, though the movie provides a bit of surprise from that. It goes without saying that Su-in will be assigned to that typical genre role in the end, but the movie does not bring much depth to her except her rather vague anxiety about water.

Fortunately, the main cast members diligently fill their respective parts on the whole. Kim Hye-yoon, who was unforgettable as the strong-willed heroine of “The Girl on a Bulldozer” (2022), has enough presence to support her archetype character, and we come to care about what may happen next – even when her character’ viewpoint becomes quite tricky during the finale. In case of several supporting performers around her, Lee Jong-won, Kim Jun-han, Kim Young-sung, Oh Dong-min, and Yoon Jae-chan are convincing in their characters’ growing dread and panic along the story, and the special mention goes to Jang Da-ah, who provides a bit of humorous levity early in the story.

In conclusion, “Salmokji: Whispering Water” has enough amount of good spooky moments for recommendation, and director/writer Lee Sang-min made a competent feature film debut here. Although it did not terrify me a lot as I frequently observed how it works from the distance, I appreciate its mood and skill nonetheless, and it is one of the interesting genre works from South Korean cinema during this year.

Sidenote: The reservoir in the film is actually a real location, and, what do you know, it has already drawn a lot of curious visitors since the movie was released in South Korea. Of course, nothing particularly spooky has happened yet – so far.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

We Live in Time (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): Scenes from their romance

Posted on April 13, 2026 by kaist455

“We Live in Time”, which belatedly arrived in South Korean theaters in last week, looks around the ups and downs in the relationship between its two main characters. While we get the overall picture of their relationship in advance via its nonlinear narrative, the movie gradually adds one moment after another to the story, and we come to have more understanding on how they try their best before the eventual end of their relationship.

At the beginning, we are introduced to Tobias (Andrew Garfield) and Almut (Florence Pugh). While the opening scene shows how they cheerfully begin another day of their life, the movie soon moves forward to when they receive a very bad news some time later. Her cancer is unfortunately back, and they are also told that she does not have much time to live even under the best condition.

Hopping from one point to another in Tobias and Almut’s relationship, the screenplay by Nick Payne builds up its two main characters and their relationship bit by bit. While Tobias is an employee of some prominent cereal company, Almut is a promising young chef working in a well-known restaurant, and they happened to come across each other via a rather morbid Meet Cute moment. Although the mood is quite awkward between them to say the least, it does not take much time for them to get closer to each other, and then they move onto the next logical step to our little amusement.

Because both of them had a previous romantic relationship and then failed, Tobias and Almut naturally hesitates as getting to know more about each other. For example, Tobias wants a kid if they become more serious about their relationship, but Almut is not so willing to do have a kid in contrast. Nevertheless, they still cannot help but become more attracted to each other, and then Almut comes to step back a bit when she is notified later that she has a serious case of ovarian cancer.

As already shown from an earlier scene, Almut eventually becomes pregnant not long after going through her first cancer treatment, and Tobias is certainly ready to support her from the beginning to the end. While there comes some conflict between them, they manage to overcome that via their growing affection toward each other, and there is a little humorous moment when it seems that Almut must be taken to a hospital as soon as possible.

Several years later, they continue to enjoy their life with their dear little daughter, and that is when that bad news comes. While she is concerned a lot about how her partner and daughter will be after her death, Almut also becomes quite conflicted about whether she should grab a big opportunity for her career. There soon comes a big international cuisine competition, and she really wants to participate in the competition despite her worsening health.

Needless to say, things get quite melodramatic as the movie shows more of the best and worst times of its two main characters. There is an expected dramatic scene where Almut must go through an emergency delivery with some help from Tobias and a few others who happen to be around them. There is a painful moment when Almut and Tobias conflict with each other over what should come first under their increasingly grim circumstance. And, of course, there eventually comes a tear-jerking moment when Almut tries really hard for giving something to remember for her daughter.

All these and many other moments in the story are pretty predictable to say the least, but the story is steadily driven by the good chemistry between Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh. While Garfield, who previously collaborated with director John Crowley in “Boy A” (2007), fills his part with his youthful charm, Pugh brings enough heart and pluck to her role, and they constantly click well with each other throughout the film. Besides some changes in their respective appearances, the interactions between them on the screen are also crucial in never getting us lost in the nonlinear narrative of the movie, and Pugh and Garfield ably convey to us the small and big changes in their characters’ relationship along the story.

The main weak aspect of the film is the under-development of several supporting characters around Almut and Tobias. While their little daughter simply remains as a cute little girl, we never get to know that much about Tobias and Almut outside their relationship. For instance, we come to learn that Almut was once a fairly good figure skater, but that is simply put aside before it eventually functions as a little crucial element for the aforementioned tear-jerking scene. While we never get to know more about Tobia’s job, the movie pays some attention to Almut’s cuisine career as required, but many of her colleagues are more or less than background figures except a young non-binary chef who comes to help and support Almut a lot more than expected.

Overall, “We Live in Time” does not exceed my expectation much, but it is mostly solid mainly thanks to the engaging efforts from Pugh and Garfield. Although it is one or two steps down from Crowley’s Oscar-nominated film “Brooklyn” (2015), its strong moments are good enough to compensate for its several flaws including the aforementioned one, so I recommend it despite some reservation.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Orlando (1992) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): As a man and then a woman…

Posted on April 12, 2026 by kaist455

Sally Porter’s 1992 film “Orlando”, whose 4k remastered version recently came to South Korean theaters, is a distinctively poetic work on gender identity and individuality. Based on the 1928 novel of the same name by Virginia Woolf, the movie freely and boldly flows across a long passage of time along with its timeless titular figure, and the result is quite intriguing and mesmerizing to say the least.

The movie has no problem with wholeheartedly embracing its utterly preposterous story setting right from the very beginning. In England at the beginning of the 17th century, Orlando (Tilda Swinton) is a strikingly beautiful young man who is incidentally the sole heir of his nobleman family, and the movie quickly and succinctly establishes how odd and distinctive he is in his androgynous appearance. While he is expected to inherit the title and estate of his old father someday, this idiosyncratic lad is more interested in following his happiness and artistic passion as shown from the opening scene, and we get a bit of amusement when he hurriedly prepares for the arrival of Queen Elizabeth I along with his parents.

The queen, who is memorably played by Quentin Crisp with gusto, becomes quite fascinated with Orlando right from when she sets her eyes on him, and Orlando soon finds himself becoming one of her favourite subjects. The queen later commands that he shall not grow old forever, and, what do you do, this odd command of hers turns out to be quite effective on him during the next several centuries.

The following middle act focuses on how Orlando tries on one male role after another while remaining quite youthful during next several decades. When his father dies not long after the queen’s death, he is expected to be the lord of his family title and estate, and he is also expected to marry some young noblewoman even though there is not much love between them.

And then he comes upon a chance for passionate romance. During one particularly freezing winter day, he attends a meeting with the Russian ambassador and his beautiful young daughter on a frozen lake. While their first encounter was rather awkward, it does not take much time for both Orlando and that Russian lady to sense something mutual between them, and Orlando is quite willing to go all the way for her, but then he eventually comes to have the first real heartbreak in his life.

Along the following passage of time, Orlando continues the quest for becoming truer to himself, and the movie has a lot of stylish fun as he bounces from one chapter of his ongoing life to another. Thanks to the costume design by Sally Potter and the production design by Ben Van Os and Jan Roelfs (They were all deservedly Oscar-nominated for this movie, by the way), the film is sumptuously decorated with a number of different period atmospheres, and the timeless quality of its titular figure is often accentuated by the deliberately anachronistic score by Potter and her co-composer David Motion.

When he subsequently reaches the top of his political career outside England, Orland feels like going nowhere at all as a man, and this somehow leads to a sudden sexual transformation. After several days of continuous sleep, he finds himself becoming a woman, and this does not trouble Orlando at all. I am sure that this line will come close to many transgender folks out there: “Same person. No difference at all… just a different sex.”

Now Orlando feels more comfortable with her changed sexual identity, but, of course, there come several catches. She has to deal with a lot of sexism and misogyny from those men around her, and, above all, she finds herself having far less freedom and privilege as being legally regarded as a woman now. She consequently loses her title and estate, but she still does not give up her continuing pursuit of happiness and individuality at all – even when she later gets a nice opportunity for romance via someone willing to not only accept her as who she has always been for many years but also recognize her independent individuality.     

The movie is surely the showcase of the undeniably versatile talent of Tilda Swinton, whose own uncanny presence is one of the main reasons why the movie works so well from the start. Besides fluidly flowing along with her fantastically flexible character without any misstep, Swinton effortlessly brings both humor and sensitivity to her character’s complicated personal journey across several centuries, and she is especially moving when her character finally becomes happier than ever around the end of the film. Although this is not actually in Woolf’s novel, she would probably approve of it in my humble opinion.

On the whole, “Orlando” is one of the high points in Porter’s interesting filmmaking career, and I am really glad to watch it at last. When I came across its promotional poster in 1994, I was just a little cinephile kid who still needed to learn more about movies, but I was quite mesmerized by the striking presence of Swinton in one of those beautiful costumes in the movie. Sadly, it somehow remained elusive for me for more than 30 years, and now I am much older compared to that time, but the movie feels quite fresh and ageless nonetheless. As long as movies are alive and well for us, the movie shall always remain in that way, and it will surely leave you something to reflect on those ever-persistent matters of gender identity and individuality.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Crime 101 (2026) ☆☆☆(3/4): Heist 101

Posted on April 12, 2026 by kaist455

“Crime 101” attempts to bring some personality and substance to its familiar crime thriller plot. Although the overall result does not surpass its countless seniors such as, yes, Michael Mann’s “Heat” (1995), the movie has a number of solid individual moments to justify its rather long running time (140 minutes), and I came to care about its story and characters a bit more than expected.

The story, which is mainly set in LA, begins with the latest jewel robbery of a professional criminal played by Chris Hemsworth. As the movie gradually reveals his plan, we observe how methodical and discreet this criminal is, and we are not so surprised to learn later that he has evaded the attention of the LA Police Department for some time despite having already committed several other jewel robberies.

However, there is actually someone in LAPD who has paid attention to those criminal activities of Hemsworth’s criminal character. He is Detective Lou Lubesnick (Mark Ruffalo), and this veteran cop is smart and perceptive enough to see the patten of his mysterious suspect. He notices that 1) the suspect has always committed the robberies around US Highway 101 and 2) the suspect also does not want any unnecessary harm or violence at all. Sure, the suspect often used some intimidation for getting the jobs done as quickly as possible, but, so far, nobody has ever got seriously hurt.

Unfortunately, Lubesnick’s theory on this elusive criminal in question has not been received well by his colleagues. While he tries to stand by Lubesnick as much as possible, Lubesnick’s partner seriously begins to consider distancing himself more from Lubesnick. In case of Lubesnick’s direct superior, he does not want any annoyance from Lubesnick at all, mainly because he cares more about the number of arrests per year and Lubesnick has been showing the lowest arrest rate among the detectives under his command.

Meanwhile, the story also focuses on Sharon Combs (Halle Berry), an insurance broker who has worked in some prominent insurance company for many years but has not received much reward or appreciation. Despite her diligent efforts, it seems that Combs will never become a senior partner of the company, and we come to gather how much she struggles everyday. No matter how much she tries to calm and soothe herself, she is always reminded that she is not that well under her growing stress and anxiety, and she gets all the more frustrated when it becomes more apparent that she will be pushed aside for some younger woman who recently began to work in the company.

Steadily rolling its three main characters toward the expected finale, the screenplay by director/writer/co-producer Bart Layton, which is based on the novella of the same name by Don Winslow, adds more mood and details to the story. We see more of how messy Lubesnick’s life is just like Combs’, and there is a bitter conversation scene between him and his estranged wife. We also come to learn that Hemsworth’s criminal character, whose real name is incidentally revealed later in the story, hopes that he can quit once he reaches the goal set by himself in advance, but that seems not that possible considering a sinister old man for whom he has worked. 

Things get a little more tense when some other criminal enters the picture. In contrast to Hemsworth’s criminal character, this dude, played by Barry Keoghan, is quite impulsive and reckless to say the least, and we can instantly sense troubles right from his very first appearance in the film. As being subsequently cornered by not only this competitor of his but also Lubesnick’s ongoing pursuit, Hemsworth’s criminal character becomes all the more desperate, and he naturally goes all the way for, yes, his one last job.

 Again, the movie takes time as before for more development in terms of story and character. While we are not so surprised as its three main characters come to converge upon a certain narrative point, we are touched by some genuine emotional moments from each of them. There is some real poignancy from the accidental romance between Hemsworth’s criminal character and a woman he comes across by sheer coincidence, and then we get a quiet but sincere moment when Lubesnick comes to show more common sense and compassion during his meeting with Combs, who becomes more conflicted as she gets herself involved with both Lubesnick and his suspect.

The finale feels a bit contrived in my humble opinion, but the four main performers of the movie carry the story to the end. Hemsworth, who seems to be moving onto the next phase of his acting career after spending a lot of time in Marvel Cinematic Universe flicks, holds the center as well as required, and his stoic appearance makes an effective contrast with the volatile attitude of Keoghan, whose distinctive offbeat quality brings some extra fun to the film. Mark Ruffalo and Halle Berry dutifully fill their respective spots with each own presence, and several other cast members including Monica Barbaro, Corey Hawkins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nick Nolte, Tate Donovan, and Payman Maadi are well-cast in their respective supporting parts.

In conclusion, “Crime 101” does not bring anything new to its familiar genre territory, but it still works well as an engaging mix between genre exercise and character study, and Layton, who previously drew our attention for his compelling documentary film “The Imposter” (2012), did a competent job on the whole. The movie did not surprise me, but I observed it with enough interest nonetheless, so I will not grumble for now.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Paris, Texas (1984) ☆☆☆☆(4/4): A haunting road movie by Wenders

Posted on April 8, 2026 by kaist455

Wim Wenders’ 1984 film “Paris, Texas”, which was shown along with his several other works at selected South Korean theaters during last two weeks, initially drew my attention with all those haunting shots distinctively American in my humble opinion. We often see cars, roads, and motels in the wide landscape shots throughout the film, and these elements come to accentuate its plain solitary hero’s personal journey along the story as we come to care more about him.

Harry Dean Stanton, who was one of most dependable American character actors before passing away in 2017, plays the hero of the story, and the early part of the film gradually establishes this rather taciturn character. His name is Travis Henderson, and the calm opening scene of the movie shows him aimlessly wandering in the middle of some remote desert area of Texas before eventually arriving and then collapsing at some shabby convenient store.

Fortunately, Travis happens to have a calling card from his brother Walt (Dean Stockwell), who immediately comes from California right after getting the call from a doctor who examined Travis. However, Travis remains quite unresponsive even when he meets his brother, who understandably becomes frustrated but still tries to help Travis as much as possible.

As time goes by, Travis becomes a bit more responsive, and we get to know a bit more about what happened to him around four years ago. He was married, and he and his wife Jane (Nastassja Kinski) had a son between them, but she left him under a rather unspecified circumstance. As a result, he became quite remorseful as wandering here and there for simply looking for her during last four years, and his young son Hunter (Hunter Carson) grew up under Walt and his French wife Anne (Aurore Clément) in the meantime.

Just because Travis does not feel so right about getting on an airplane, he and Walt end up going together to Walt’s home in California by a car (I wonder whether this inspired the story setting of Barry Levinson’s Oscar-winning film “Rain Man” (1988), by the way). As Walt or Travis drives the car, Wenders’ frequent cinematographer Robby Müller gives us a series of lovely landscape shots to admire, and we become all the more immersed in the slow but steady mood of the film.

When Travis eventually arrives at Walt’s house along with Walt, the mood is certainly awkward between Travis and Hunter, who has regarded Walt and Anne as his parents and does not remember that much about his early years with Travis and Jane. Nevertheless, it does not take much time for Hunter to befriend Travis, and this helps Travis come out of his shell a bit more than before.

While there naturally comes a little conflict as Anne and Walt becomes concerned about how to handle the complicated situation among them, Travis, and Hutner, but the screenplay by Sam Shepard and L.M. Kit Carton thankfully does not resort to contrived melodrama. When Anne eventually makes a certain choice at one point later in the film, that may look a bit selfish, but we also sense that she does that because she sincerely wants to help Travis to some degree.

I will not go into detail on what follows next, except telling you that there comes another journey for Travis and he comes to open himself much more than before. While the story reaches to a poignant emotional climax as Travis finally arrives at the end of his journey, what happens to Travis before that point is also important in terms of story and character development, and we come to have more empathy toward him when the movie is over.

Stanton’s humble but unforgettable low-key performance steadily anchors the film from the beginning to the end. Even when his character does not seem to signify much on the surface, Stanton subtly conveys to us the immense sadness behind his phlegmatically weary appearance, and he is absolutely terrific when his character gradually lets out his feelings and thoughts during that climactic moment. Although he simply talks and talks without raising his voice at all, the sense of guilt and regret becomes more palpable to us, and we are all the more touched by that.

Around Stanton, several main cast members in the movie hold each own place well. Dean Stockwell, who was almost retired at that time, brings some human warmth to the story along with Aurore Clément, and he subsequently became more active in addition to being Oscar-nominated for his funny supporting turn in Jonathan Demme’s “Married to the Mob” (1988). While Hunter Carson, who is the incidentally Carson’s son, is solid in his unadorned natural acting, Nastassja Kinski, who is virtually the Colonel Kurtz of the story, brings enough presence and sensitivity to her supporting role, and her expressive face is one of the crucial elements in that climactic moment.

On the whole, “Paris, Texas”, whose title comes from a real Texan city with which its hero has some personal connections, is one of the best films from Wenders. After I encountered it for the first time around 2005, I did not watch it again for more than 20 years, but I soon got engaged during the first 30 minutes, and its many timeless moments awaken my remaining old memories of the movie. That is what a great movie can do, isn’t it?

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (2004) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): The wholesale fun from Tarantino

Posted on April 7, 2026 by kaist455

Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair” gives us the complete version of what he envisioned from the very beginning. While both “Kill Bill: Volume 1” (2003) and “Kill Bill: Volume 2” (2004) are quite fun to watch individually, they are seamlessly connected and then resonate together here in this version as he wanted, and it shows us more of how fun and ambitious this magnum opus of Tarantino really is. 

The story is more or less than a simple and superficial clothesline for a series of sequences just like many of Tarantino’s works such as “Inglourious Basterds” (2009). The heroine of the film, “the Bride” (Uma Thurman), was a former member of some infamous assassination squad, but, for a personal reason to be revealed later in the story, she subsequently decided to have a simple normal life as marrying some plain dude in El Paso, Texas. However, her boss/lover, who is incidentally named Bill (David Carradine), does not approve of that, and he and several other assassins brutally shoot not only the Bride but also several other innocent people who unfortunately happens to be on the spot.  

Fortunately, the Bride manages to survive unlike the others around her. Although she remains unconscious during next 4 years, she immediately becomes quite vengeful once she eventually wakes up at a local hospital, and the movie follows her bloody and violent journey toward the total violence upon Bill and those several assassins under his command. 

And that is nearly the whole story of the film, but Tarantino’s screenplay plays us like piano in one way or another. While its non-linear narrative often takes its time for delving a bit into the personality of the Bride and several other main characters in the story, each of the sequences in the film are peppered with dialogues as fun and engaging as you can expect from Tarantino. Most of them are quite talky to say the least, but they bring more spirit and personality to the story and characters, and that is one of the main reasons why we remain constantly interested for more than 4 hours.  

In addition, it is often fun to observe the references to all those countless old B movies cherished by Tarantino with all his heart For example, he immortalizes the whistling theme for “Twisted Nerves” (1968) by Bernard Herrmann during the dexterous sequence where one of Bill’s assassins is approaching to the unconscious body of the Bride with a lethal purpose, and that is just the beginning of many things for us to notice one by one.  

Above all, the movie entertains us with several striking action sequences packed with brutal violence. The climactic part of the first half of the film is particularly gory and bloody as our heroine, whose bright yellow attire will surely remind you of that final film of Bruce Lee, relentlessly slashes and stabs a bunch of goons with her very, very, very, sharp Japanese sword provided by the master swordsmith played by Sony Chiba, but, thanks to Tarantino’s skillful direction, we get a lot of fun and excitement even though we wince more than once for good reasons. Sure, lots of people get killed or maimed in the film, but, just like those John Wick flicks, the movie handles its many brutal moments of violence with enough wit, style, and detail. As a matter of fact, we do not mind when it tries a bit of Japanese animation film for a more striking depiction of blood and violence early in the story.         

Instead of trying to surpass the sheer violence and excitement of the first half of his film, Tarantino deliberately dials down himself a bit during the second half of the movie, which brings some substance to the bold style of the first half. While it is pulpy and violent as before, but the movie comes to show a bit of gravitas as our heroine approaches closer to her final target, and there is some surprise in what is eventually exchanged between them (No, it is not her real name or what she tragically lost at that time).  

Everything in the film depends a lot on the presence and talent of Uma Thurman, who gives one of the best performances in her acting career. While looking totally serious as required, she is absolutely fearless as throwing herself into many moments of action in the film, and she also does a commendable job of balancing her broad but striking character well between humor and drama. Yes, the Bride is basically as ridiculous and outrageous as John Wick, but she has more life and personality compared to him thanks to Thurman and her director, and we come to care more about her eventual confrontation with Bill in the end.

The movie is also filled with vivid supporting characters to enjoy, and all of them are embodied well by its wonderful supporting performers. Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, Michael Madson, and Darryl Hannah are all memorable as those several assassins associated with Bill, and David Carradine does not disappoint us when his character finally reveals himself more during the second half of the film. Julie Dreyfus, Gordon Liu, and Michael Parks are also effective in their substantial roles, and Samuel L. Jackson briefly appears at one point in the middle of the story.    

On the whole, “Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair” is a bit too long besides being excessive at times, but its bold style and abundant spirit compensate for that a lot, I was constantly entertained from the beginning to the end. In my inconsequential opinion, Tarantino has often been pretty disagreeable as a person or a cinephile especially during last several years, but he gave us “Pulp Fiction” (1994) and several other unforgettable masterworks including this one, and I respect that at least despite my growing reservation on him.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , | Leave a comment