At the Bench (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): Five episodes at one bench

Posted on August 17, 2025 by kaist455

Japanese anthology film “At the Bench” presents five different episodes unfolded at one particular spot. While some of them are connected with each other to some degree, each of these five episodes are fairly engaging in each own way, and we gladly go along with how each of them deftly balances itself between humor and drama from the beginning to the end.

The shared background of all these five different episodes is an old bench which was once a part of some public park located in some neighborhood area of Tokyo. Now almost all of this public park is demolished for building a daycare center someday, and the bench will also be gone once the construction of that daycare center is officially started.

As we notice more of how empty and remote it feels around this bench at the beginning of the first episode, the bench is soon occupied by two young people: Riko (Suzu Hirose) and Nori (Taiga Nakano). As they begin their little private conversation on the bench, we gradually gather that they were once quite close to each other in the past, and we also get to know a bit about how they have been frustrated with the status of their respective lives. The more they talk and interact with each other, the more we sense of something being rekindled between them, and the mood soon becomes a bit romantic with the approaching sunset in the background.

In contrast, the second episode shows another young couple who are not so happy with the current status of their relationship. As they are sitting on the same bench, the girl talks about how much she has been discontented with many human flaws of her boyfriend, and there soon comes an amusing moment when she tries to explain to him her growing discontent via several pieces of sushi to be eaten by him. While he struggles to understand her more, we become more conscious of someone who happens to be right behind the bench, and their situation eventually becomes quite absurd to our little amusement.

The third episode is also about one very problematic relationship. At the beginning, we are introduced to two sisters clashing with each other around the bench, and their heated conversation lets us know more about the ongoing issues between them. One of these two sisters suddenly left for Tokyo and then became a homeless person just because she is quite obsessed with a guy who will not possibly love her back, and her concerned sister certainly wants to take her back to their home as soon as possible, but she remains quite adamant about remaining in Tokyo.

Nevertheless, these two sisters try to understand and persuade each other as much as possible, and that is the main source of amusement for us. Yes, they only come to clash more with each other, but they are also reminded again that they still do care about each other despite all those clashes between them, and you may smile a bit while observing how their circumstance is resolved in the end.

Compared to the raw qualities of the third episode, the fourth episode on the bench is more stylish with some self-conscious touches. At the beginning, we just watch a pair of plain civil servants examining the bench, but then their interactions become increasingly odd and absurd to our little bafflement, and then there comes a series of plot turns which will certainly catch you off guard. I will not go into detail here for avoiding any possible spoiler, but I can tell you at least that you will enjoy the resulting playful mood to the very last shot, and this is certainly the most entertaining part of the film.

In case of the fifth episode at the bench, we meet Nori and Riko again. Although they are still not sure about their relationship, it is evident that they care about each other more than before, and their casual conversation becomes quite philosophical as they get more serious about their life and existence. Although both of them are well aware of many uncertainties in their life, they decide to take a chance with their love, and we come to smile a bit along with them while also observing some poignancy in their reflection on life and existence.

This is the first feature film of director/co-editor Yoshiyuki Okayama, who also participated in writing the screenplay along with Sho Hasumi, Shûko Nemoto, and Miku Ubukata. Under his competent direction, each of the five episodes in the film are imbued with each own distinctive mood and style to be appreciated, and he also drew good performances from his small cast. While Suzu Hirose and Taiga Nakano effortlessly generate enough romantic vibe between them in the first and fifth episode, Amane Okayama, Yukino Kishii, and Yoshiyoshi Arakawa ably handle the absurd situation of their characters in the second episode, and Mio Imada and Nana Mori are fairly effective in the third episode. In case of Riho Yoshioka and Tsuyoshi Kusanagi in the fourth episode, they play their characters as straight as possible for more laughs, and the same thing can be said about Ryunosuke Kamiki, who plays a substantial character later in the fourth episode.

Overall, “At the Bench” is packed with enough wit, mood, style throughout its rather short running time (86 minutes), and Okayama demonstrates here that he is another promising Japanese filmmaker to watch. Although this is still more or less than a test run, it is solid enough for recommendation at least, and I think I can have expectation on whatever may come next from him.

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Waterdrop (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): They don’t want to be left alone…

Posted on August 17, 2025 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “Waterdrop” is a somber but sad story about two different kids who simply do not want to be left alone. As closely and sensitively observing their respective emotional struggles along the story, the movie often becomes a bit tense with their pain and desperation, and we come to care more about them with some empathy and understanding.

At first, the movie begins with how things suddenly became quite serious for a 13-year-old girl named Soo-yeon (Kim Bo-min). Due to her parents’ absence (the movie never explains to us why they left her, by the way), her maternal grandmother had to raise up Soo-yeon alone by herself in her little shabby apartment, and she was pretty much like a mother to Soo-yeon, but, alas, she recently died as shown from the opening scene of the film.

Needless to say, Soo-yeon needs any close adult family member who can be a legal guardian for her, but the situation is pretty hopeless to say the least. Besides her parents, the only other candidate is her grandmother’s husband, but he has also been gone for years, so it is quite possible that Soo-yeon will be sent to a facility for orphans or a foster family to take care of her.

This is definitely the last thing Soo-yeon wants, but there is no one around her who is willing to take care of her. In case of the family of a girl who is supposed to be her best friend, she soon sees how she is not welcomed much by them. In case of the Christian family of a neighborhood boy who seems interested in getting closer to her, she soon feels suffocated by their hypocrisy, while we observe more of the boy’s very unpleasant sides.

And then one particularly family comes to draw Soo-yeon’s attention on one day. There is a couple doing a YouTube channel showing a bit of their family life with a little adopted girl named Seon-yool (Choi Lee-rang), and it seems that the couple is going to adopt another kid. Watching how happy they look with Seon-yool, Soo-yeon comes to have an idea of getting herself adopted by this couple, and she soon approaches to Seon-yool, who has no problem with befriending her even though Soo-yeon is a total stranger to her from the very beginning.

Anyway, Soo-yeon later encounters Seon-yool’s adoptive mother, who seems delighted to see that Seon-yool found a friend to play with. She even invites Soo-yeon to her apartment, and Soo-yeon grabs this opportunity without any hesitation. As she gets herself more involved with Seon-yool and her adoptive parents, she naturally comes to open herself more to Seon-yool’s adoptive parents for making them like her more, and it looks like her sneaky plan will succeed before she is sent away to somewhere.

However, of course, we can clearly see that there is no chance for Soo-yeon to get adopted by Seon-yool’s adoptive parents, as noticing more of the pretension behind their supposedly pleasant appearance. For example, you may notice how clean and untouched the kitchen inside their apartment is, when Soo-yeon demonstrates a bit of her cooking skill to them at one point. Above all, there is something really odd about Seon-yool, and this often bothers Soo-yeon a lot. While she looks mostly fine whenever she plays with Soo-yeon, Seon-yool looks curiously detached whenever she is with her adoptive parents, and she also often shows some strange behavior at night.

Not so surprisingly, it gradually turns out that Seon-yool’s adoptive parents are not exactly who they seem to be on the surface, but the screenplay by director/writer Choi Jong-yong, who incidentally makes a feature film debut here, takes its time as steadily sticking to the viewpoint of its two young main characters. As time is running out for her, Soo-yeon desperately sticks to her plan, but it only becomes more evident that she gets herself involved in a bigger trouble, and Seon-yool turns out to have rather complicated feelings about her relationship with Soo-yeon.

Although its narrative flow becomes a bit too jumpy as Soo-yeon and Seon-yool are driven into more anxiety and desperation, the movie remains supported well by the two wonderful performances from its two remarkable young performers. Kim Bo-min ably holds the center as required, and she is quite convincing especially when her character uses honesty for more ingratiation toward Seon-yool’s adoptive parents. On the opposite, Choi Lee-rang effortlessly embodies her tricky role without any misstep at all, and she has an achingly poignant moment when her character directly points out Soo-yeon’s dishonest intention later in the story. In case of several adult performers in the film, they dutifully fill their respective spots around the story without overshadowing Kim and Choi at all, and Kim Hyun-jung and Jin Dae-yeon did a commendable job of imbuing their characters with a banal undertone of insincerity.

On the whole, “Waterdrop”, whose English title incidentally comes from Seon-yool’s little drawing (The original Korean title is “Soo-yeon’s Seon-yool”, by the way), is often uneasy to watch for good reasons, but it still holds our attention thanks to its good storytelling and performance, and you may be relieved by a little glimpse of hope at the end of the story. Yes, there is still a lot of uncertainty in front of them, but they will probably move on despite growing up too early, and we can only hope the best for them.

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Stop Making Sense (1984) ☆☆☆☆(4/4): It still rocks

Posted on August 16, 2025 by kaist455

Jonathan Demme’s 1984 concert film “Stop Making Sense”, whose recent 4K restoration version was released in South Korean theaters a few days ago, is quite an electrifying experience to say the least. While more than 40 years have passed since it came out, it still rocks in addition to being on the top of the field as before, and you will soon find yourself enthralled by its numerous superb musical moments to behold and then appreciate.

As many of you know, the film was shot over the four nights of December 1983 at Pantages Theater in Hollywood. During that time, Talking Heads performed there as a part of their ongoing promotional tour associated with their latest album, and the film closely and vividly shows us this famous band performing a number of popular songs of theirs such as “Burning Down the House” on the stage.

The early part of the film is interesting for how the members of Talking Heads build up the mood and momentum on the stage step by step. At the beginning, we see David Byrne, who was the lead singer of Talking Heads, appearing alone on the stage, and then he performs “Psycho Killer” alone by himself. With the vast empty space surrounding Byrne, this may look and feel modest at first, but his performance generates some excitement around the stage, and the mood gets more elevated as several other members of the band appear on the stage one by one. After Byrne and his fellow band members perform several following songs such as “Slippery People”, there eventually comes “Burning Down the House”, and the stage surely feels all the more galvanized than before.  

And we cannot help but observe the considerable physical efforts shown from Byrne and his fellow band members. Besides singing or performing their instruments well in front of their audiences (We seldom see the audiences except around the end of the film, by the way), they also express a lot of their musical joy and excitement via their dynamic physical movements, and Byrne looks particularly sweaty on his face and body around the point when he and others are performing “Life During Wartime”. In fact, as noticing the sweaty back of his shirts, I wondered how many extra clean shirts were ready for him during every performance.       

 While Bryne often takes the center as expected, the cameras of cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth and his many assistant cinematographers wonderfully capture the styles and personalities of the members of Talking Heads. While Byrne’s fellow lead singer Tina Weymouth has her own moment to shine later as performing “Genius of Love” as a part of her and drummer Chris Frantz’s side project Tom Tom Club, Jerry Harrison and Alex Weir are also memorable for their enthusiastic guitar performance, and Lynn Mabry and Ednah Holt are always ready to provide some extra electricity beside performing as backup singers. In case of Bernie Worrell and Steven Scales, the film sometimes shows a lot of how confidently they perform behind Bryne and several other band members, and this will surely make you appreciate more of their considerable contribution.

Around the middle part of the concert, the mood becomes all the more heated with the two famous songs of Talking Heads: “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)” and “Once in a Lifetime”. Now I must confess that these two songs mean a lot to me even though I did not know much about Talking Heads before reviewing Spike’s Lee’s concert film “David Byrne’s American Utopia” (2020). When I came across the former via Oliver Stone’s Oscar-winning film “Wall Street” (1987), the song has lingered on my mind for a long time, and I came to like it all the more when it was memorably used in Paolo Sorrentino’s “This Must Be the Place” (2011). In case of the latter, I still remember how it was brilliantly (and hilariously) used in the trailer of Stone’s subsequent film “W.” (2008), and I was quite delighted to see it being humorously used in recent Pixar Animation Studios film “Elio” (2025). 

Byrne and his fellow band members do not disappoint us at all as vigorously performing these two well-known songs, and I felt more of the lively spirit of the songs during my viewing. Like many of the songs performed in the film, they delve into our feelings and thoughts about life, and “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)” actually made me reflect more on my rather solitary status of life. Yes, as a nerdy single gay dude on autistic spectrum, I may never find a man who can both tolerate and love my quirky sides, but this song somehow made me feel comfortable and optimistic to some degree.

 If the film ended after the exuberant performance of “Once in a Lifetime”, which will come close to anyone feeling quite disoriented about the current status of life, I would not complain at all. However, the members of Talking Heads keep throwing more enthusiasm and excitement across the screen, and you may be quite stupefied by a lot of spirit and energy when they perform “Take Me to the River” and then “Crosseyed and Painless”. Again, you may notice how they look all the sweatier, and you will absolutely agree with what my late mentor Roger Ebert observed in his 1984 review: “Starting with Mick Jagger, rock concerts have become, for the performers, as much sporting events as musical and theatrical performances.”      

In conclusion, “Stop Making Sense” is a definite high point in the early filmmaking years of Demme, who would soon move onto several acclaimed mainstream films including Oscar-winning film “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991). I am glad to report to you that the film remains to be a spirited piece of timeless entertainment, and you may also be a bit amused to observe that it happened to come out not long after Rob Reiner’s great mockumentary comedy film “This Is Spinal Tap” (1984). As “This Is Spinal Tap” went all the way for mocking and parodying every conventional aspect of those run-of-the-mill rock concert films during the 1970s, “Stop Making Sense” came as something quite refreshing while simply focusing on the joy and exuberance of musical performance, and this still can excite and then elevate us even at present. That is what a good concert film can do, isn’t it?

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MadS (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): An apocalyptic one-shot horror film

Posted on August 15, 2025 by kaist455

French horror film “MadS” presents a familiar type of horror story via an interesting visual approach. While this is basically another typical zombie horror film, the movie steadily and fluidly follows the story and characters without any interruption, and its intense sense of doom and panic becomes more palpable to us along its relentless narrative.

At the beginning, we meet a lad named Romain (Milton Riche), who is buying some drug from a local dealer shortly before attending an evening party along with his friends. While he subsequently drives his father’s car to his home (His father happens to be conveniently absent for his business, by the way), he suddenly encounters a mysterious woman who seems to need some help right now, but, of course, the situation becomes quite disturbing as she shows alarming behaviors. Although the movie does not explain much about what exactly is going on, we come to gather that she probably escaped from a facility involved with some dangerous medical experiment, because of her patient attire and a piece of recording in her possession.

Even though she drives him into more panic and confusion, Romain tries to get things under control at least for a while, even though he does not have any idea on what is happening to her – and him. After he is exposed to the blood from that woman, he quickly washes himself, but then, of course, he begins to feel not so well. When his friends including his girlfriend eventually come to pick him up, he still does not feel all right, but, not so surprisingly, he decides to go to their evening party anyway.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that Romain soon comes to realize the situation is much worse than he thought. As he gets himself swept into the chaotic mood of the evening party, he feels all the sicker than before, and then there is also a serious matter involved with his current girlfriend and some other girl who is incidentally her best friend. In the end, there comes an eventual point where he cannot control his mind and body well, but he still struggles to handle his increasingly frantic circumstance, though it is more apparent to us that not only he but also his world is already doomed.

As you will notice, the movie was actually shot in one continuous take by director/writer David Moreau, and he and his crew members including cinematographer Philip Lozano did an impressive job on the whole. As Lozano’s camera smoothly and relentlessly follows what is happening around Romain and a few other main characters, we become more immersed in their nightmarish situation, and their panic and dread are often accentuated by the harsh electronic score by Nathaniel Méchaly.

According to the IMDB trivia, Moreau and his crew and cast members had to shoot the whole film at least five times (The movie is actually the 5th shot, by the way), and you will admire how the movie effortlessly moves from one spot to another. When Romain hurriedly rides a bike for taking care of an urgent problem in his house later in the story, the camera naturally follows him as he desperately tries to pretend to someone on the other end of the phone line that everything is fine, and we are gripped more by the accumulating tension on the screen.

At the middle point of the story, the movie shifts its focus to the two other main characters in the story, and that is where it becomes a bit more interesting. While we surely see a fair share of body horror not so far from what we have seen from countless other similar horror films, we also observe that the ongoing situation around the main characters is much bigger than expected – especially when a bunch of armed (and masked) figures appear.

I must point out that the movie is rather thin in terms of story and characters, but it compensates for that weak aspect via its considerable verisimilitude. What is happening to its main characters along the plot looks real and convincing to us, and its three principal performers are believable as embodying their characters’ growing fear and panic. While Miton Riche carries well the first half of the film, Laurie Pavy and Lucille Guillaume are equally good during several scenes of theirs later in the movie, and Guillaume is particularly terrific as her character is terrified and then swallowed by whatever is happening to her (She did a wonderful job of evoking that infamous scene of Isabelle Adjani in “Possession” (1981), by the way).

To be frank with you, I have not been that scared by zombie movies for many years, but I am still capable of appreciating any zombie movie good and interesting enough to hold my attention, and now I am reminded of two recent examples. South Korean comedy horror film “My Daughter Is a Zombie” (2025) is rather disappointing for being too sappy, but it has some nice comic moments which amused me and many audiences around me, and I am not surprised to see that it is making a considerable success at the South Korean box office at this point. In case of “28 Years Later” (2025), it shows that there are still more interesting stuffs to explore after “28 Days Later” (2002) and “28 Weeks Later” (2007), and it actually touched me in unexpected ways. Although it is another case of “all style but no substance” in my inconsequential opinion, “MadS” succeeded in engaging and then impressing me enough via its distinctive style, mood, and technique, so I will not grumble at least for now.

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An Officer and a Spy (2019) ☆☆☆(3/4): A solid historical drama by a problematic filmmaker

Posted on August 13, 2025 by kaist455

I must confess that it has been more than 10 years since the last time I watched and then reviewed a Roman Polanski film. At that time, I watched “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968) for writing an essay to be posted on the website of my late mentor Roger Ebert, and I willingly gave that great horror film 4 stars without any hesitation, though I was certainly well aware of why he came to run away to France not long after “Chinatown” (1974).

Around that point, I thought we could overlook Polanski’s serious sex crime at least for a while as admiring his best works including the two aforementioned movies, which are undeniably great and important in each own genre field. After all, can we possibly discuss about the neo-noir film era without mentioning “Chinatown”? And how can we possibly talk about occult horror or female body horror films without mentioning “Rosemary’s Baby”, which ironically becomes all the more relevant after the #MeToo movement?

As many of you remember, the #MeToo movement exposed many sexual predators in the global movie industry ranging from Harvey Weinstein to Woody Allen, and it also made us a lot more aware of what Polanski’s sex crime than ever. Yes, there was a time when we became a bit more forgiving and Polanski even won a surprise Best Director Oscar for “The Pianist” (2002), but he came to lose his Academy membership not long after the #MeToo movement began, and he has been a persona non grata just like Allen since that point (Come to think of it, it has also been several years since I watched a Woody Allen film for the last time).

When Polanski came to the Venice International Film Festival with “An Officer and a Spy” in late 2019, I and many others regard this news with understandable reservation. The main subject of the film is none other than the Dreyfuss Affair in France at the end of the 19th century, and I wondered whether this was Polanski’s blatant artistic response to #MeToo movement. Well, the film subsequently received the Grand Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI Prize at the Venice International Film Festival, and the following public controversy surrounding the film became all the more intense when it received the three awards including Best Director at the César Awards in early 2020.

After finally watching the film now (It has been available on a number of local streaming services in South Korean during last several years without getting any theatrical release, by the way), now I can tell you my opinion about it. Yes, this is a solid historical drama to be admired for many things including Polanski’s confident direction, but, folks, I still have some doubt on his intentions behind it.

Objectively, the movie can be regarded as the tale of a defiant pursuit of integrity as well as justice, because the center of the story is actually not Captain Alfred Dreyfuss (Louis Garrel, who looks rather dry and distant throughout the film) but Colonel Georges Picquart (Jean Dujardin, who looks much more subdued compared to his Oscar-winning performance in Michel Hazanavicius’ “The Artist” (2011)), who gets appointed as the new head of the secret service section of the French Army not long after Dreyfuss was found guilty of passing military secrets to the German government and then condemned to the imprisonment in the Devil’s Island. At first, Picquart is simply interested in handling the aftermath of the Dreyfuss affair as neatly as possible, but, what do you know, he eventually realizes that the French army actually caught the wrong guy and the real culprit remains free without any particular suspicion on him.

The movie makes some sharp points on how those high-ranking French military officers and generals were willing to frame Dreyfuss from the very beginning. They all cared only about protecting the reputation of their system as much as possible, and Dreyfuss, who is incidentally a man of Jewish heritage, was promptly targeted by them just because of their antisemitic prejudice. When Picquart begins to delve more into how thoroughly they messed up the case, they are certainly willing to stop him by any means necessary, and Picquart soon finds himself facing a lot of infuriating injustice just like Dreyfuss.

Fortunately, there are also a number of prominent public figures willingly showing considerable public support to not only Dreyfuss but also Picquart, and one of them is none other than Émile Zola, who, as dramatically depicted in second half of William Dieterle’s Oscar-winning film “The Life of Émile Zola” (1937), stirred a lot of people in France via his famous newspaper opinion headlined “J’Accuse…!” (This is incidentally the original French title of “An Officer and A Spy”, by the way). Even around this narrative point, the movie does not lose its calm and restrained attitude at all as steadily following Picquart’s increasingly daunting plight to the end, and we come to admire his bravery and integrity more around the end of the story.

However, can I praise Polanski for his competent handling of mood, storytelling, and performance here in this film? Despite being your average amateur reviewer, I do always value integrity and principle, and I can only say that I recommend it for being a good movie even though I must also be honest about my personal thoughts and feelings on Polanski as a human being. In my trivial opinion, he is both a great filmmaker and a deplorable person, and that is why we really should keep dealing with him as well as his works to the end.

So, will “An Officer and a Spy” be eventually remembered as something important but thematically problematic just like, say, Elia Kazan’s Oscar-winning film “On the Waterfront” (1954)? I cannot possibly answer for now, but maybe you should watch it for more talk and discussion among us, and that will probably help us arrive at the eventual verdict in the end.

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Eyes Without a Face (1960) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): As she waits for another surgery

Posted on August 13, 2025 by kaist455

French filmmaker George Franju’s 1960 horror movie “Eyes Without a Face” is quite striking for its eerie qualities. While it initially feels merely bizarre and disturbing on the surface, the movie gradually draws us into the evil and madness at the center of the story, and it is interesting to observe how it goes further with its morbid story and characters before pulling out an oddly poetic moment to touch and mesmerize us in the end.

The movie is mainly about the private medical project of Dr. Génessier (Pierre Brasseur), a prominent doctor who has studied a lot on “heterograft” for years. After his daughter Christiane (Édith Scob) was severely disfigured in her face due to a recent car accident, the doctor becomes more obsessed about succeeding in his skin transplant experiment, and we come to gather later that he has already experimented on many dogs inside his private residence right next to a hospital located somewhere outside Paris.

However, Dr. Génessier has not made much, shall we say, progress in case of the final stage of the project. He and his loyal assistant Louise (Alida Valli, who was also quite memorable in Carol Reed’s “The Third Man” (1949)), who are very devoted to him and the project because he did a very successful facial restoration surgery on her some time ago, have kidnapped several young women for taking away their face skin and then grafting it onto Christiane, but they have failed during last several attempts. The opening part of the film chillingly shows Louise taking care of the aftermath of their latest failure, and its horrific aspects are further accentuated by the jaunty score of Maurice Jarre (It was one of his early works before he became a lot more prominent thanks to winning his first Oscar for David Lean’s “Lawrence of Arabia” (1962), by the way).

Still not being suspected at all due to his respectable social status, Dr. Génessier is already determined to try again along with his assistant, but Christiane is not so pleased to say the least. Usually wearing a fecklessly white mask covering her face, she is certainly afraid of how she looks at present, but she cannot help but feel quite suffocated as being constantly isolated inside the house, and we come to sense more of her growing guilt on what her father has been doing for her. Sure, the doctor does care a lot about his daughter, but Christiane becomes more and more horrified about his insane project, even though she has yearned to have a face to present in front of others out there someday.

When Dr. Génessier and Louise later kidnap and then work on another unfortunate young woman, the movie does not hesitate to go into those gruesome details of their work process. This unforgettable scene is thankfully shot in black and white film, so the result is relatively tame compared to the horror movie standards of our time, but it still looks and feels quite disturbing even at present. In fact, it is not surprising at all that the movie shocked or repulsed many audiences at the time of its initial theatrical release.

Franju was no stranger to inducing shock and repulsion from his audiences even before making this movie. His short documentary film “Blood of the Beasts” (1949), which is incidentally included in the Criterion DVD and Blu-ray edition, is still capable of shocking us quite hard with all those horrifyingly vivid moments captured from the slaughterhouses in Paris. Strikingly juxtaposed with the rather lyrical depiction of how the city keeps going outside those slaughterhouses, these dreadfully visceral moments are all the more disturbing and powerful, and the resulting impression will linger on your mind forever along with that undeniably brutal and inconvenient truth inside our life and civilization, even if you never want to watch this exceptional short documentary again.

While it is relatively less disturbing in comparison, “Eyes Without a Face” slowly creeps into our mind via its clinically nightmarish atmosphere coupled with a lot of noirish visual touches to be observed here and there throughout the film. The cinematography by Eugen Schüfftan often feels unnerving in its stark contrast of light and shadow; the interior spaces of the doctor’s house are increasingly creepy and insidious along the story, and Christiane’s mask sometimes looks like a sort of second skin as becoming a part of her miserable existence.

I must point out that a subplot involved with the doctor’s young male protégé, who is incidentally Christiane’s boyfriend, is more or less than a mere plot device to maneuver the story toward the eventual finale. Nevertheless, the screenplay by Jean Redon, Claude Sautet, Pierre Gascar, and Boileau-Narcejac (This is the pen name of the French crime-writing duo of Pierre Boileau and Pierre Ayraud, who is also known as Thomas Narcejac. They are mainly known for writing several novels adapted into notable films including Henri-Georges Clouzot’s “Les Diaboliques” (1955) and, yes, Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” (1958)), which is based on the novel of the same name written by Redon, keeps focusing on the main characters as usual, and there is surrealistic poignancy in what happens after Christiane makes a sudden but understandable choice around the end of the film.

In conclusion, “Eyes Without a Face” is a modest but undeniably influential genre piece which will leave some indelible impression on you. I must confess that I felt rather distant to its story and characters at first, but then I was impressed more about its striking cinematic aspects, and I am certainly willing to revisit it for more appreciation and admiration.

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High and Low (1963) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): A top-notch police procedural from Kurosawa

Posted on August 12, 2025 by kaist455

On the surface, Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 film “High and Low” simply follows one kidnapping case from the beginning to the end. While the overall result works as a dry but undeniably compelling police procedural, the movie also gives us some revealing glimpses into the social class issues in the Japanese society during the 1960s, and it is certainly one of many high points in Kurosawa’s legendary filmmaking career.

The movie opens with a little private business meeting between a wealthy businessman named Kingo Gondo (Toshiro Mifune) and his several business associates. They want to persuade Gondo to help them taking over their big shoe company, but it later turns out that Gondo has the other idea behind his back. As a matter of fact, he virtually bets all of his assets on this for not only getting richer but also taking over the company for himself.

However, there soon comes an unexpected emergency. Gondo receives a call from someone saying that he has just kidnapped Gondo’s only son. Fortunately, Gondo’s son is actually all right, but it turns out that the only son of Gondo’s chauffeur was kidnapped instead. Gondo immediately calls the police, and several detectives quickly come to his residence, but things become more difficult for Gondo. The kidnapper still demands a big amount of ransom as before, and Gondo naturally becomes quite morally conflicted: Can he really sacrifice all of his wealth for saving his employee’s son?

The first act of the movie is mostly unfolded inside the big living room of Gondo’s posh and expensive residence, but this never feels stuffy at all as Kurosawa and his cinematographers Asakazu Nakai and Takao Saitō effectively use the widescreen ratio of 2.35:1 for generating more drama and suspense across the screen. While the camera usually observes Gondo and the main characters from the distance, the movie subtly conveys to us Gondo’s increasingly impossible circumstance via some effective blocking strategies, and you may be amused a bit by how the movie often shows Gondo on the one or the other side of the widescreen – for accentuating how he feels more cornered as the clock is ticking for him and several others around him.

Around its middle act, the screenplay by Kurosawa and his co-writers Hideo Oguni, Ryūzō Kikushima, and Eijirō Hisaita, which is based on Evan Hunters’ 1958 novel “King’s Ransom” (It is one of those 87th Precinct novels written under his pen name Ed McBain, by the way), begins to shift its focus more on a bunch of plain cops working on the investigation of the kindnapping case. Although there are not many clues which may eventually lead them to the kidnapper, they become more determined to do their job as feeling a bit more sympathetic to Gondo’s ongoing plight, and the movie closely follows their steady and diligent joint efforts step by step. Trying to get additional clues as much as possible, they systemically search for any breakthrough, and we become more engaged as they begin to get closer to their target along the story. I especially like the sequence where the two cops and Gondo’s chauffeur respectively try to locate a certain spot associated with the kidnapper, and there is also a particularly wonderful moment when the movie adds a bit of color for an impactful dramatic effect.

In the meantime, the movie reveals a bit on the identity of the kidnapper, and we become more aware of the class gap between Gondo and many others living around his residence. Placed on a high hill, his house looks like a castle flaunting its power and wealth, and this certainly makes a big contrast with the relatively poor neighborhood around the bottom of the hill, where Gondo’s residence is quite visible from here and there. In fact, you will not be surprised much to learn that this striking class gap shown in the film influenced Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar-winning film “Parasite” (2019) a bit, which also makes a big point on the similar class gap throughout its story.

The final act expectedly culminates to the eventual finale of the cops’ investigation, but the film does not lose its coolly detached attitude at all as patiently following the cops’ pursuit of their target in one particular area of the city filled with drug addicts and homeless people. Around this narrative point, the movie becomes a bit noirish with some disturbing sights shrouded in light and shadow, and this resonates more with the original Japanese title: “Heaven and Hell” (天国と地獄).

While Toshiro Mifune is surely the most prominent figure in the cast, he often steps aside for the well-rounded ensemble performance from the various cast members including Tatsuya Nakadai and Takashi Shimura, who are also Kurosawa’s regular collaborators like Mifune. While Kenjiro Ishiyama often steals the show the colorful partner of the detective assigned to the case, Tsutomu Yamazaki is suitably unpleasant as required by his crucial supporting role, and he and Mifune deftly handle the starkly powerful closing scene of the film.

Overall, “High and Low” may not be on par with Kurosawa’s several great films such as “Ikiru” (1952), “Seven Samurai” (1954), “Red Beard” (1965), and “Ran” (1985), but it is still a superlative genre piece to be appreciated and admired for its dexterous handling of story and character coupled of a lot of realism and verisimilitude. From the beginning, I surely knew what it is about, but I got soon engaged and then enthralled by how it is about, and that is what a good film can do in my trivial opinion.

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Ballerina (2025) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Brutally Redundant to say the least

Posted on August 10, 2025 by kaist455

“Ballerina”, a spin-off installment within the John Wick franchise, is brutally redundant to say the least. While surely serving us a heap of extremely brutal and violent action scenes as expected, this slick and competent genre piece does not bring that much to its franchise on the whole without generating enough fun and excitement to hold our attention, and you may not have much expectation when its end credits eventually roll on the screen.

The story, which is mostly set at a time point somewhere between “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum” (2019) and “John Wick: Chapter 4” (2023), mainly revolves around Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas), a female assassin who has been trained in the traditions of an old assassin organization named the Ruska Roma in New York City since she was a young little girl. At that time, she was being protected for a while by her dear father who escaped along with her from some other equally dangerous assassin organization, but then that assassin organization eventually attacked upon them, and Eve managed to survive alone in the end. Thanks to Winston Scott (Ian MacShane), the enigmatic owner of the New York Continental Hotel who also happened to be an old friend of her father, she was later sent to the Ruska Roma for her safety, and we soon see her going through a number of intense training sessions around 12 years later. 

When the Director (Anjelica Huston), an old but strong-willed lady who has been the leader of the Ruska Roma, decides that the time for the first mission comes to Eve at last, Eve is certainly ready to prove her professional worth, and that leads to a stylish action sequence unfolded inside a big nightclub literally frosty to say the least. If you remember how she held her own small place well beside Daniel Craig during a big action scene in “No Time to Die” (2021), you will not be surprised much by how physically committed Ana de Armas looks as throwing herself into a lot of intense actions here and there, but you will still admire her considerable efforts shown from the screen nonetheless. In addition, I must tell you that, like me, some South Korean moviegoers will be amused a bit by the appearance of Jung Doo-hong, a renowned South Korean stunt coordinator who worked in a bunch of notable South Korean action films such as “The Berlin File” (2013).

Within a short period, Eve becomes one of the most dependable (and lethal) members in the Ruska Roma, but then there comes an unexpected discovery for her not long after she finished her latest job. She encounters a member of that assassin organization responsible for her father’s death, and she soon becomes quite determined to track down that assassin organization even though both the Director and Winston firmly warn her of how risky that can be for not only her but also her organization.

Nevertheless, Eve remains adamant about avenging her father’s death, and Winston cannot possibly say no as a man of honor who promised to her in the past that he will not deny a request from her. Thanks to a little piece of information from Winston, Eve comes to Prague, Czech for approaching to a certain figure who may lead her to her target, and that naturally leads to another action sequence filled with a lot of crashes and bangs.

As Eve gets closer to her target, we get to know a bit more about not only the organization responsible for her father’s death but also its fanatic leader. It turns out later that there is some young girl the organization and its leader are ready to take away by any means necessary, and this young girl surely comes to remind Eve a lot of who she once was a long time ago. Around the narrative point where she is eventually going to confront her main opponent, the situation turns out to be much more perilous than expected, but she is not daunted at all – even when someone is sent by the Director to stop her at the last minute.

Considering how prominent Keanu Reeves has been in the promotion of the film besides serving as one of its executive producers, I guess I do not spoil anything for you as discussing a bit about his brief appearance in the movie. Reeves dutifully does whatever is required here, but his several scenes feel rather perfunctory, and it is disappointing to see that his character only comes to function as a convenient plot device for the expected climactic part.

Around de Armas and Reeves, a number of notable performers fill their respective spots as much as possible. While Ian MacShane, who is surely the most entertaining performer in the franchise, has some juicy moments as having a small fun with his character’s wily aspects as before, Anjelica Huston brings a little but precious touch of class as she previous did, and Gabriel Byrne broodingly chews every moment of his as the main villain of the story. In case of Catalina Sandino Moreno and Sharon Duncan-Brewster, they are unfortunately under-utilized due to their thin supporting roles, and Lance Reddick, who sadly passed away in 2023, leaves some impression even though he briefly appears in a couple of short scenes shot not long before his death.

Overall, “Ballerina”, directed Len Wiseman, is mostly fine as a passable opener for whatever may follow next, but it is one or two steps below what was achieved by those four John Wick movies. While these John Wick movies are quite amusing as a sort of violent but stylish deadpan joke besides being well-made action films, “Ballerina” is relatively deficient in terms of wit and style, and I only found myself becoming more distant during my viewing. I did not feel like wasting my two hours at least, but I still wonder whether this is necessary, and I will simply let you decide whether you will watch it or not.

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Materialists (2025) ☆☆☆(3/4): A matchmaker between two choices

Posted on August 10, 2025 by kaist455

Celine Song’s second feature film “Materialists” is a calm romance film about one matchmaker who both calculates and cares a lot. While her practical mind seems interested in someone supposedly quite ideal for any woman out there, her heart cannot help but get drawn to a person she still loves despite some issues between them, and the movie illustrates her confusion and conflict with a lot of care and sensitivity.

The opening part of the movie quickly establishes how its heroine works as a fairly good matchmaker in New York City. Lucy (Dakota Johnson) has worked in a local matchmaking service agency for a while, and the movie observes her caring professionalism at one point early in the story. When one of her recent female clients comes to have a sudden serious doubt right before marrying some suitable guy introduced by Lucy, Lucy has a little private conversation with this lady, and she really listens to her client with enough empathy and understanding while respecting whatever her client is going to do right now.

Anyway, her client eventually marries that dude, and that is how Lucy encounters Harry (Pedro Pascal), a handsome bachelor who happens to be the brother of the groom. As they talk more and more with each other during a little party after the wedding, something seems to click between them, and Lucy comes to see more of what an ideal guy Harry is in many aspects. Besides being quite good-looking to say the least, he is also a wealthy financial businessman with a very nice family background. As Lucy points out later, he is virtually what is called a “Unicorn” in her business field, and that certainly makes her all the more interested in him.

However, there comes another unexpected moment for her while she is talking with Harry. One of the employees of the catering service for the wedding turns out to be her ex-boyfriend John (Chris Evans), and both Lucy and John are pleased to meet each other, even though they had a painful breakup some time ago. John is one of those struggling NYC actors who are often quite poor, and that was actually what caused their painful breakup as shown from a brief flashback scene.

Now you will have a pretty good idea about where the story is heading, but Song’s screenplay takes its time for fleshing out its main characters more as deftly maintaining its leisurely narrative pacing. As Lucy comes to spend more time with Harry, Harry turns out to be a lot more decent and thoughtful than expected, and Lucy naturally comes to consider going further with him. Although she does not mind being a single woman at all, she cannot help but yearn for someone to love and lean on, and Harry looks quite ready for being that person as they become more aware of how they seem ideal for each other according to their respective standards.

Nevertheless, Lucy’s heart feels conflicted as she also lets herself get involved with John again. They act as if they were just old friends now, but we gradually notice that the chemistry between them still exists, and we are not so surprised when Lucy subsequently calls John first after having a very unfortunate day at her workplace due to some really bad male client. He patiently listens to her on the phone, and she surely appreciates his generous thoughtfulness.

However, as your average materialist, Lucy is also often reminded of how economically unstable John has been compared to Harry, and the movie makes a sharp point on that from time to time. While it looks like his acting career is finally about to have a little breakthrough, John is still stuck in his old and shabby apartment along with a couple of roommates who are no better than him, and this surely makes a glaring contrast with Harry’s big and expensive apartment.

Needless to say, there eventually comes a moment when Lucy must make a big decision during the last act, but the movie sticks to its calmly restrained attitude as usual. Although it stumbles a bit due to a rather contrived dramatic moment, the story stays true to its three main characters nonetheless, and we come to understand and care more about them than before.

The three principal performers of the film are well-cast in their respective roles, and they all give believable performances filled with enough nuances and details to engage us. Dakota Johnson, who has shown more of her presence and talent since “Fifty Shades of Grey” (2015), exudes somber grace and charm from the beginning to the end, and this surely shows that she is quite ready to move on from that disastrous Marvel Cinematic Universe film which unfortunately garnered her a Razzie award early in this year. While Chris Evans, who seems to be aging well enough to become a more interesting actor, is likable in his earnest acting, Pedro Pascal, a naturally charismatic actor who has become very prominent during last several years, has several good scenes where his character comes to show more of himself to Lucy, and we can easily see why Lucy becomes so conflicted between these two guys.

In conclusion, “Materialists” is relatively lightweight compared to Song’s sublime first feature film “Past Lives” (2023), but it confirms to us more of Song’s considerable storytelling talent. The result is rather typical on the whole, but I found myself amused and touched enough during my viewing, and I will certainly look forward to observing how Song will advance more from her first two feature films.

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The Friends (1994) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Three kids and an old man

Posted on August 7, 2025 by kaist455

Shinji Sômai’s 1994 film “The Friends”, whose 4K restoration version was released in South Korean theaters yesterday, is gentle, humorous, and poignant in its unadorned coming-of-tale to remember. Calmly and sensitively following its three little young heroes’ eventful summertime, the movie goes much deeper into its main subjects along with them than expected, and we are eventually quite touched as reflecting more on how much they come to learn and then grow up around the end of the story.

At the beginning, we are introduced to three elementary school kids: Kiyama (Naoki Sakata), Kawabe (Yasutaka Oh), and Yamasita (Ken’ichi Makio). Because Yamasita, who is incidentally your average chubby boy, recently went to his grandmother’s funeral, Kawabe and Yamasita have been quite curious about death, and there is a morbidly amusing moment when Kawabe shows more of his curiosity about death while being quite reckless on the railing of an overpass (I sincerely hope that the three child performers of the film were protected enough during the shooting).

These three boys’ shared curiosity leads them to one particular old shabby house in their neighborhood. This house belongs to one reclusive old man who may die sooner or later, and Kawabe, who is often quite imaginative for a harrowing personal reason, suggests that they should monitor this old guy just for getting a chance to watch death someday. At first, they simply watch his house from a gap in the fence surrounding the house, and then, what do you know, they soon get themselves into his reclusive daily life more as becoming more curious about him.

Of course, it does not take much time for the old man to notice the attention from these three boys. At first, he is just surprised and annoyed, and that makes the boys all the more focused on watching on the old man. At one point, they follow after him when he goes to somewhere in the neighborhood, and their silly act of following merely amuses us for a while, and then the movie surprises us as suddenly entering the realm of surrealism along with one of the boys. This may feel jarring at first, but it is so skillfully handled that we have no problem with accepting whatever is experienced by the boy’s very imaginative mind.  

Anyway, as you have already guessed, the old man gradually comes to accept the boys into his residence, and the movie observes how things get changed in his little solitary environment thanks to the boys. First, he has them help him a bit on drying his laundry, and that is just the beginning of how the boys get themselves involved much more with the old man than before. They gladly clean up the foreground of his residence full of tall weeds for planting flower seeds there later, and they also assist him in a bit of renovation inside and outside his house.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that our little heroes come to learn a little more about their unlikely friend as caring a lot more about him than expected, but the screenplay by Yôzô Tanaka, which is based on the novel of the same name written by Kazumi Yumoto, takes its time as subtly developing its story and characters via mood and details. As the camera of cinematographer Noboru Shinoda patiently follows or focuses on the boys and the old man, we get to know more about them as well as their developing relationship, and there is an absolutely compelling scene where the old man phlegmatically reveals his longtime personal guilt in front of the boys in the middle of one dark and stormy night.

The following third act of the story depends on a little Dickensian coincidence, but what follows next is presented with a considerable amount of emotional power to engage us more than before. I will not go into details here, but I can tell you at least that the movie handles its expected melodramatic finale with a lot of sensitivity and thoughtfulness to admire, and I assure you that the poetically bittersweet quality of the last scene will linger on your mind for a while. Now I am reminded of that unforgettable quote from Errol Morris’ great documentary “Gates of Heaven” (1978): “Death is for the living and not for the dead.”  

Sômai also draws the wonderful natural performances from his three young actors. They are often quite effortless in their interactions on the screen (You may smile a little when one of them cheerfully sings a song from Hayao Miyazaki’s great animation film “My Neighbor Totoro” (1988), by the way), and it is quite clear to see why Sômai has been admired so much by Hirokazu Kore-eda, who surely knows a lot about how to get good performances from child performers. While never overshadowing his much younger co-stars, Rentarô Mikuni is believable as a man slowly coming out of his shell at last thanks to his unexpected little friends, and Naho Toda and Ritsuko Nemoto are also effective as the two small but crucial supporting characters in the story.

 In conclusion, “The Friends”, whose Japanese title is incidentally “Summer Garden (夏の庭)”, is another hidden gem in Sômai’s fascinating filmmaker career. Although it has been more than 20 years since he passed away in 2001, “Typhoon Club” (1985) and “Moving” (1993), which were already introduced to South Korean audiences before “The Friends”, do not look old at all, and these two films and “The Friends” surely deserve to be introduced to more audiences out there for more recognition on its rather overlooked maker. After watching these three interesting films from him, you will understand why Sômai has been respected a lot by Hirokazu and many other current Japanese filmmakers, and you may want to check out more of his filmography just like me.

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