Author Archives: kaist455

White Bird (2023) ☆☆(2/4): A Holocaust tale to reform him

Posted on March 16, 2025 by kaist455

Marc Forster’s new film “White Bird” presents its well-intentioned tale in a way so rote and manipulative that I felt like shaking my head more than once during my viewing. As another typical Holocaust drama flick, it does not bring … Continue reading →

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I’m Still Here (2024) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): A family under the dictatorship in Brazil

Posted on March 13, 2025 by kaist455

Walter Salles’ latest film “I’m Still Here”, which recently won a Best International Film Oscar, calmly but powerfully observes a real-life personal struggle under the dictatorship period in Brazil during the early 1970s. While never overlooking the grim and horrific … Continue reading →

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Exorcism Chronicles: The Beginning (2024) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): The passable first chapter

Posted on March 11, 2025 by kaist455

South Korean animation film “Exorcism Chronicle: The Beginning” is a modest genre piece simply doing some warm-up exercise for whatever may follow next. Probably because I remember too well the first entry of the short story series it is based … Continue reading →

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No Other Land (2024) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): “We have no other land”

Posted on March 10, 2025 by kaist455

Documentary film “No Other Land”, which won the two awards including the one for Best Documentary at the Berlin International Film Festival early in last year and then won a Best Documentary Oscar in last week, calmly and thoughtfully follows … Continue reading →

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Porcelain War (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): Artists in the middle of the ongoing war in Ukraine

Posted on March 10, 2025 by kaist455

Documentary film “Porcelain War”, which won the U.S. Documentary Competition Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival early in last year and then was recently nominated for Best Documentary Oscar, looks at the activities of several Ukrainian artists in … Continue reading →

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It’s Okay! (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): You will like this girl in the end

Posted on March 8, 2025 by kaist455

South Korean film “It’s Okay!” amused and then touched me with its plucky young heroine. You may wince from time to time as watching how irrepressibly spirited and optimistic she really is, but you will come to root for her … Continue reading →

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Starlet (2012) ☆☆☆(3/4): Between two very different people

Posted on March 5, 2025 by kaist455

Sean Baker’s 2012 film “Starlet”, which happens to be available in South Korea via a local streaming service, is about the unlikely relationship between two very different people. Although their first encounters are rather awkward to say the least, they … Continue reading →

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The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Anderson’s early dollhouse play

Posted on March 4, 2025 by kaist455

Revisiting Wes Anderson’s 2001 film “The Royal Tenenbaums”, I was reminded again of how consistent Anderson has been during last several decades. While this movie and many subsequent works of his are basically his own little dollhouse plays, they are … Continue reading →

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Take Out (2004) ☆☆☆(3/4): One day of a Chinese delivery guy

Posted on March 4, 2025 by kaist455

Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou’s 2004 film “Take Out”, which was released on DVD and Blu-ray by Criterion in US a few years ago, is a modest but engaging immigrant drama which gradually draws you into its plain hero’s one … Continue reading →

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My Prediction on the 97th Academy Awards

Posted on February 27, 2025 by kaist455

I have often grumbled a bit about how the Oscar season has been predictable during the last two decades. Especially after the season got shorter and tighter around 20 years ago, it has been much easier to detect whether there … Continue reading →

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