Pierrot le Fou (1965) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Two abstract figures on the run

Posted on June 15, 2025 by kaist455

In my inconsequential opinion, any serious young movie enthusiast is bound to be fascinated with the works of Jean-Luc Godard at first. After all, he is one of the greatest filmmakers in the cinema history besides being one of the most prominent members of the French New Wave during the 1950-60s, and some of his notable works including “Breathless” (1959) and “Vivre sa vie” (1962) have been quite influential for many years.

However, as getting older and more experienced besides having each own taste, some of those young movie enthusiasts may eventually feel more distant to many of Godard’s works just like I often did during last 20 years. Oh, yes, I once did enjoy some of his stylish experiments including “Contempt” (1963) and “Weekend” (1967), but then my reliable bullsh*t detector was turned on as I was subsequently quite baffled and frustrated with his several later works including “Goodbye to Language” (2014), and I came to observe many of his films with more skepticism and reservation while still admiring his undeniable contribution to the art of cinema.

In case of his 1965 film “Pierrot le Fou”, whose recently remastered edition happened to be released in South Korean theaters early in this month, it is an admirable exercise in style which unfortunately did not engage me as much as it did when I watched it for the first around 20 years ago. While it is certainly as distinctive as you can expect from your average Godard film, you can clearly sense that there is not enough substance to support its stylish genre game, and it also sadly reflects more of how Godard began to regard himself too seriously around that time in contrast to many of his fellow French New Wave filmmakers including François Truffaut (Full Disclosure: I like him much more than Godard).  

The movie, which is based on Lionel White’s rather obscure novel “Obsession”, is about two contrasting figures who somehow get involved with each other despite having nothing common between them. At first, we are introduced to a middle-class writer named Ferdinand Griffon (Jean-Paul Belmondo, who feels less cocky compared to his breakout turn in “Breathless”), and the early part of the film quickly establishes how much he has been discontented and frustrated with his current status. While he has lived quite comfortably thanks to his rich wife, he was recently fired from his job at some broadcasting company without much prospect at present, and he has been wondering whether he should seriously try on a writing career someday.

Ferdinand’s hollow state of existence is mainly reflected by one evening party which he reluctantly attends along with his wife. A lot of talks and discussions are exchanged among him and many others at the party, but our eyes are drawn more to how Godard presents this sequence with a lot of visual touches, which, at least to me, do not seem to serve any particular purpose on the whole just like the rather gratuitous exposure of female breasts or the brief appearance of a certain legendary American filmmaker.

Anyway, Ferdinand eventually decides to commit a bit of transgression along with his ex-lover Marianne (Anna Karina), who happens to be associated with some unspecified criminal scheme when Ferdinand returns to her. When he enters her apartment, there is the body of a murdered man, but he does not seem that alarmed at all by that or several guns in her apartment, and he eventually runs away along with Marianne even though there is not much love or attraction between them from the start. 

When they are not running away, he and Marianne often talk about whether they really love each other or not, but their rather disjointed conversations make them look more like puppets to be manipulated by Godard in one way or another. For instance, they frequently mention a lot of American culture stuffs ranging from Laurel and Hardy movies to William Faulkner and Raymond Chandler, and there are even several supposedly comic scenes where they attempt to embody some of these stuffs for no apparent reason.

In addition, Marianne often calls Ferdinand “Pierrot” without explaining anything to him or us. As far as I can see, she simply enjoys his annoyance and bafflement from that, and Anna Karina, who incidentally divorced Godard around the time when the movie came out, did a good job of imbuing her character with some mischievous spirit.   

As the movie aimlessly bounces from one point to another along with its two main characters without much narrative momentum to hold our attention, Godard peppers the story here and there with a series of superficial political statements which do not stick that much to us on the whole. At one point later in the story, he has his two lead performers do a silly comic sketch supposedly satirizing the geopolitical situation in Vietnam during the 1960s, but I think this can be a bit too crude and insensitive for Asian audiences now. In short, this is probably another example showing the increasingly glaring artistic limits of a European white male filmmaker during that period.

In conclusion, “Pierrot le Fou” is fascinating to some degree at times, but I do not think it is as great as “Breathless” or “Vivre sa vie”. Nevertheless, you need to check it out if you are a serious movie enthusiast willing to watch and learn more, and, regardless of whether you will like it or not, it will show you more of Godard’s filmmaking style in addition to helping you shape your own opinion on his works. Like there are dog persons and cat persons, there are also Godard persons and Truffaut persons, and please let me know which kind of person you are.

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How to Train Your Dragon (2025) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Is this really necessary?

Posted on June 15, 2025 by kaist455

“How to Train Your Dragon”, the live action movie version of the 2010 animation film of the same name, is fairly enjoyable but also quite unnecessary in my humble opinion. Although this is a competent product which will probably satisfy most of its target audiences, it sadly does not bring anything particularly new or fresh to the story and characters, while only reminding us again of how live action film cannot usually surpass animation films in terms of mood, style, and detail.

Above all, my mind remembers too much of how much I was entertained and electrified when I watched the 2010 animation film for the first time. Shortly after returning from my little trip to Chicago and the 2010 Ebertfest in April, I was quite exhausted and depressed after the inevitable end of all those fun and excitement during that glorious time (I met and talked a lot with Roger Ebert and my fellow Far-flung foreign correspondents, for example), but then there came two special films which rejuvenated me to a considerable degree. First, I watched the restored version of Fritz Lang’s great silent film “Metropolis” (1927) at the 2010 Jeonju International Film Festival, and then I watched the 2010 animation film, which was incidentally released in South Korean theaters not long after that.

I must confess that I gave the 2010 animation film only three stars out of four as regarding it as another usual Hollywood blockbuster animation film, but, what do you know, it has grown on me along with its two subsequent sequels which are equally entertaining. Besides its colorful characters to remember, it is also packed with a lot of style and personality to be savored, and its dragon flying sequences are as spirited and exciting as the ones in James Cameron’s ambitious SF blockbuster film “Avatar” (2009). Not so surprisingly, I watched it no less than three times during its first several weeks in South Korean theaters, and I always enjoyed every minute of it without getting bored at all.

However, the live action film version does not engage or amaze me that much even though having all the same elements to be mixed in the pretty much same way. While there are some additions and variations here and there in the film, its overall result still does not distinguish itself a lot from its animation film version, and that made me want to revisit the 2010 animation film version more than before.        

In addition, there are a number of main elements in the live action film version which are unfortunately deficient in comparison. For instant, its meek but resourceful young hero Hiccup (Mason Thames) feels plainer and more colorless, and this will probably make you appreciate more of how Jay Baruchel’s nerdy but likable voice performance imbues a considerable amount of spirit and personality to Hiccup in the 2010 animation film version.

And look at all those broad supporting characters surrounding Hiccup in the live action film version, who often just look like a group of performers doing their job in front of the camera instead of feeling like real characters to observe. Yes, their counterparts in the 2010 animation film look quite cartoonish at times, they are much more memorable as bringing some extra humor and personality to the story.

As a matter of fact, only Gerard Butler, who reprises his role from the 2010 animation film, seems to understand the task given to him and his fellow cast members in the live action film version. As Hiccup’s macho father who is also the chieftain of their Viking clan living in one remote island, he gleefully chews every scene of his in the film with Scottish accent (Don’t ask me whether this is ethnically or culturally accurate or not), and he also brings some inner sensitivity to his character as he did wonderfully in the 2010 animation film.

In case of all those dragon characters in the film, they certainly look as realistic as possible thanks to good special effects, but, not so surprisingly, they do not have enough sense of awe and wonder compared to their animation counterparts. Director/writer Dean DeBlois, who co-directed and co-wrote the 2010 animation film, and his crew members including cinematographer Bill Pope try their best here, but I must point out that Hiccup’s accidental pet dragon Toothless and many other dragon figures look a lot more colorful and interesting in the 2010 animation film. In the live action film version, they are just a bunch of well-made CGI figures, and Toothless somehow looks a bit less charming here to my little disappointment.

The live action film version will not probably let you down in case of its several dragon flying sequences, but they are almost exactly identical to what we already experienced from the 2010 animation film version, and the score by John Powell, who was deservedly Oscar-nominated for the 2010 animation film (His score should have won instead of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ tacky hipster electronic linoleum score for David Fincher’s “The Social Network” (2010), by the way), is pretty much same except some necessary orchestral modification. Even though he is simply demanded to repeat one of his greatest career achievements here, Powell admirably sticks to what made his 2010 score so special, and his another solid effort ironically drew me back more to the 2010 animation film.    

In conclusion, “How to Train Your Dragon” may entertain you as much as you pay for your ticket, but I am still asking myself whether this is really necessary from the start. At this point, it is quite possible that those two sequels of the 2010 animation film will also be adapted into live action film, and, folks, that prospect makes me depressed more instead of being actually excited or interested.

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Bring Her Back (2025) ☆☆☆(3/4): Their insidious foster mother

Posted on June 14, 2025 by kaist455

Danny and Michael Philippou’s latest horror film “Bring Her Back” is an intense and compelling experience which actually made me cringe more than once during my viewing. Just like their previous film “Talk to Me” (2023), the movie is quite willing to explore that dark territory of personal trauma and grief, and it admirably held my attention to the end even though it disturbed and horrified me more and more along the story.

The story mainly revolves around Andy (Billy Barratt) and Piper (Sora Wong), two underage half-siblings who suddenly become orphaned after the unexpected death of their widower father. Because there is not any close family member around them, Andy and Piper soon find themselves under the supervision of a local social worker, and their social worker promptly decides that Andy and Piper should be under foster care before Andy becomes old enough to apply for the guardianship on his younger half-sister.

The selected foster mother for Andy and Piper is a single woman named Laura (Sally Hawkins), who looks ideal for both Andy and Piper on the surface. When Andy and Piper arrive at her house incidentally located in the middle of some remote forest area, Laura cheerfully welcomes Andy and Piper, but Andy cannot help but feel awkward for good reasons. Laura seems to care a lot about Piper because Piper is visually impaired just like Laura’s dead daughter, but she pays relatively less attention to Andy, and Andy is also often disturbed by the presence of Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips), another foster kid in Laura’ house who, according to Laura, has been mute due to some unspecified trauma.

Because he knows well that he can be separated from his younger half-sister at any chance, Andy chooses to try to adjust himself to the new environment of theirs as much as possible, even while becoming more aware of their foster mother’s insidious sides. At one point, Andy and Piper attend their father’s funeral along with Laura, and Laura pushes Andy into showing a bit more respect and affection to his dead father’s body, even though that turns out to be the last thing he wants to do right now.

 And we observe a number of suspicious signs from Laura and her house. There is a shabby warehouse not so far from an empty swimming pool in front of the house, and it is apparent that she does not want Andy or Piper to go inside that small building. There is a mysterious white line circling around the house and its little surrounding space, and we come to see later that this is not a mere perimeter at all. Above all, there is also a certain disturbing video tape clip shown to us a bit at the beginning of the movie.

Along with their cinematographer Aaron McLisky, the Philippou brothers steadily dial up the level of creepy tension on the screen. Laura and her house are frequently shrouded in gloomy ambience, and this often makes a chillingly ironic contrast to how Laura makes everything sound fine and good in front of Piper, who is often oblivious to what is happening around her and her older half-brother.

Needless to say, Andy becomes more desperate as coming to sense more of how Laura manipulates both him and Piper for putting more distance between them. Besides touching more on Andy’s traumatic relationship with his dead father, Laura does not hesitate to commit some truly nasty things to him, and Andy consequently finds himself pushed toward more anxiety, dread, and desperation.

 Around the narrative point where we get to know more about what Laura has been planning behind her back, the movie doles out a series of grim moments of shock and horror. It will definitely jolt you a lot with a considerable amount of extreme violence and gore during these moments, but these moments are also fueled by recognizable human motives and emotions, and that is the main reason why we remain engaged in what is being at stake for the main characters around the end of the story.

The main cast members of the film are all effective in their respective parts. While Billy Barratt holds the center with his earnest performance, young newcomer Sora Wong is solid even though she did not have any previous movie acting experience, and they are also believable in the relationship dynamics between their characters along the story. On the opposite, young performer Jonah Wren Phillips looks so convincing in several key scenes of his that you may need to be assured that he was not physically or mentally harmed at all during the shooting, and Sally Hawkins totally surprises us as demonstrating another side of her immense talent via her against-the-type casing. At first, Hawkins looks as cheery and comforting as she did in “Paddington” (2014) and its 2017 sequel, but she soon effortlessly dives into the darker sides of her character without any hesitation, and the result is another stellar performance to added to her impressive career.

On the whole, “Bring Her Back” is another good genre piece from the Philippou brothers, and I appreciate how they skillfully handle the story, mood, and characters to generate enough intrigue and horror for us. With “Talk to Me” and “Bring Her Back”, they show us that they are another interesting filmmaker to watch, and I will certainly look forward to watching whatever may come next from them.

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Miyazaki: Spirit of Nature (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): The spirit and philosophy behind his works

Posted on June 3, 2025 by kaist455

Documentary film “Miyazaki: Spirit of Nature”, which happens to be released in South Korea in last week, focuses on the art and philosophy behind the works of Hayao Miyazaki, who has been regarded as one of the greatest animation filmmakers of our time. Broadly looking over many of his notable works, the documentary presents to us his caring ecological view on nature and humanity inside these remarkable animation films, and we are reminded again of the deeply humanistic aspect of Miyazaki and his works.

At the beginning, the documentary opens with how things were pretty intense when Miyazaki and his Ghibli employees were working on “Princess Mononoke” (1997). Despite their full-throttle efforts, there were still lots of things to do for them, and, above all, Miyazaki struggled a lot on the finale. As many of you know, “Princess Mononoke” is the most ambitious work in his whole career, and he was not so sure about how to end his story even while the rest of the film was completed day by day.

The documentary subsequently moves back to Miyazaki’s early years, which were the main source of inspiration for his two last animations film “The Wind Rises” (2013) and “The Boy and the Heron” (2023). While the former reflects his longtime fascination with airplanes, the latter is partially inspired by his old childhood memories of World War II, and its autobiographic aspect is particularly reflected well by that strikingly horrific air raid scene early in the story. Even though he was only 4 years old at that time, he vividly remembered one air raid which happened around the end of the war, and that was certainly the origin of his lifelong pacifism.

Anyway, Miyazaki’s artistic talent and sensibility were suppressed during next several years as he was pushed into that demanding education process just like many other Japanese boys around his age, but there came a moment which changed his life forever. In 1958, he encountered a popular local animation feature film at a local movie theater, and, after being so impressed by this animation film, he eventually decided to make an animation film for himself someday.

Of course, the road to becoming an animation filmmaker was not so easy for Miyazaki, but then he gradually showed his potential as befriending the two people who became quite important for his career. One of them was none other than Isao Takahata, who would be regarded as another great Japanese animation filmmaker besides Miyazaki. He and Miyazaki instantly clicked well with each other as working together at Toei Animation, and they also shared a lot of progressive left-wing social/political beliefs between them via the labor union activities at their workplace.

The other one is Toshio Suzuki, a producer who was another crucial figure in the foundation of Studio Ghibli besides Miyazaki and Takahata. When his first animation feature film “Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro” (1979) miserably failed at the local box office, Miyazaki was quite disappointed to say the least, but then Suzuki suggested that he should try a bit on ‘manga’, a Japanese term for graphic novel. This led to Miyazaki creating what would be the basis for his next animation feature film “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind” (1984), whose considerable box office success brought Miyazaki back in business.

In not only “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind” (1984) but also his several subsequent films including “My Neighbor Totoro” (1988), Miyazaki steadily emphasizes that important relationship between humanity and nature, and this aspect became all the more prominent in “Princess Mononoke”, which is occasionally quite dark and horrifying as willingly exploring more into the conflicts between nature and humanity. Although more than 20 years have passed since I belatedly watched it on one summer day of 2003, I still remember many of its bold and striking visual style, and I am also quite touched by its surprisingly complex drama which is not afraid to recognize both the better and worse sides of its several conflicting main characters.

Because it seemed that he pushed himself and his employees to the limit during the production of “Princess Mononoke”, Miyazaki soon announced his retirement, but, what do you know, this just turned out to be the first of his several retirement announcements to be rebuked sooner or later. As peacefully working alone by himself as he always wanted, he soon got an idea for “Spirited Away” (2001), which incidentally brought him his first Oscar besides being another commercially successful work in his career.

Around the point when he gave us “Ponyo” (2008), Miyazaki became more concerned about how things have become more alarming for the next generations, and that was probably why he came out of his retirement again via “The Boy and the Heron”, which garnered him the second Oscar. I am still not so sure about whether this film is one of his best works, but its finale has haunted me more as his sincere statement to the next generations, and its original Japanese title certainly emphasizes that: “How Do You Live?”.

Overall, “Miyazaki: Spirit of Nature”, directed by Léo Favier, could show and tell more in my humble opinion, but it did a competent job of giving us the overview on Miyazaki’s artistic career and life philosophy within in its rather short running time (86 minutes). If you want to know more about Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, I will recommend documentary film “The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness” (2013) instead, but this is also enjoyable enough on the whole, and you will certainly come to hope that Miyazaki still can amaze and surprise us again despite going through the final chapter of his life and career at present.

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Hi-Five (2025) ☆☆☆(3/4): A lively South Korean superhero film

Posted on June 2, 2025 by kaist455

South Korean film “Hi-Five” have some silly but cheerful fun with its colorful genre elements, and I enjoyed that more than expected. While this is another familiar superhero origin tale, the movie is funny and spirited with a lot of wit and personality to be savored, and you may hope for a possible sequel to follow after watching its finale.

At the beginning, the movie quickly establishes how its several different main characters happen to acquire each own superpower via one certain coincidence among them. Each of them received an organ transplant, and all of their respective transplanted organs came from one unidentified person who seems very special considering what occurred right after the organ donation process.

Anyway, one of these organ receivers is a girl named Wan-seo (Lee Jae-in), who had a serious heart problem before her heart transplant. While her overprotective father Jong-min (Oh Jung-se), who has run a little Taekwondo academy, is still quite concerned about his daughter’s physical condition, Wan-seo wants more fun and freedom besides being eager to play Taekwondo again, and then she is delighted to discover that she somehow becomes quite strong and fast after her surgery.

As she willingly tests more of this unexpected superpower of hers, Wan-seo is approached by a young struggling writer named Ji-sung (Ahn Jae-hong), who also came to have his own superpower after receiving a lung transplant. Thanks to his new lungs, he is now equipped with enormous lung power, and we see how easily he can blow away things with his mere breath. 

Ji-sung and Wan-seo subsequently look for the other people who also acquire each own superpower via that mysterious donor, and they soon come across two such people. Sun-nyeo (Ra Mi-ran) is just a meek yogurt seller, and she still does not know anything about what kind of superpower she acquired via her kidney transplant, though she is clearly marked on her body just like Ji-sung and Wan-seo. In case of a cocky lad named Ki-dong (Yoo Ah-in), he can see and manipulate electromagnetic waves thanks to his recent corneal transplant, and this superpower of his certainly helps him a lot when he tries a bit on those electronic gambling machines.

In the meantime, we are also introduced to the two other remaining cases, Yak-sun (Kim Hee-won) comes to acquire a healing power thanks to his recent liver transplant, and this superpower of his becomes quite useful when one of his co-workers gets seriously injured at their workplace, which belongs to some rich and prominent religious cult group. The old leader of this religious cult group also recently received an organ transplant (It was a pancreas, by the way), and he soon turns out to be capable of sucking life force from others and then becoming younger in his body. 

Needless to say, once he becomes more aware of his superpower and then comes to learn about Wan-seo and her new friends, the cult leader becomes quite determined to absorb all the superpowers from them by any means necessary, and the movie provides several action sequences as Wan-seo and her new friends are accordingly threatened by the cult leader and his cronies. Around the midpoint of the story, we get a thrilling vehicle sequence amusingly accompanied with a certain famous song performed by David Bowie, and then there is a humorous physical action scene where Wan-seo must help her father a bit when he is supposed to fight against a bunch of thugs sent by the cult leader.

Above all, the screenplay by director/writer Kang Hyeong-cheol, who has steadily advanced his breakthrough hit film “Scandal Makers” (2008), did a solid job of juggling the different superpowers and personalities of its several main characters. While it takes some time as going through its warm-up process along with them, the movie eventually becomes more energetic and spirited once they are ready to function in one way or another along the story, and that is the main reason why we come to care about what is being at stake for them during the expected climactic part filled with lots of bangs and crashes as expected. 

It helps that the five main cast members click well with each other throughout the movie. While Lee Jae-in is the most prominent one in the bunch as her plucky performance functions as the center of the story, Ahn Jae-hong, Ra Mi-ran, Kim Hee-won, and Yoo Ah-in have each own moment to shine around Lee, and the effortless comic chemistry among these five different performers firmly carries the film to the end. In case of several other cast members in the film, Oh Jung-se, Park Jin-young, Shin Goo, and Jin Hee-kyung are well-cast in their respective supporting parts, and Oh steals every minute of his in the film in addition to balancing his role well between comedy and drama.

Unfortunately, the theatrical release of “Hi-Five” in South Korea was delayed for more than two years due to Yoo’s recent big drug abuse scandal, which may also prevent Kang from making two following sequels for completing his planned trilogy. At least, Kang demonstrates here again that he is a filmmaker who really knows how to generate a lot of laughs for us via witty storytelling and engaging characters, and I am sure that he will soon move onto the next step of his commendable filmmaking career.

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Bono: Stories of Surrender (2025) ☆☆☆(3/4): Bono on Bono

Posted on June 2, 2025 by kaist455

Documentary film “Bono: Stories of Surrender”, which was released on Apple TV+ on last Friday not long after it was premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, presents a series of personal stories from Paul David Hewton, an Irish musician who is mainly known as, yes, Bono. As a part of the promotion for his memoir “Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story”, Bono did a one-man stage show “Stories of Surrender: An Evening of Words, Music and Some Mischief…” at the Beacon Theatre in New York City during 2023, and the documentary did a commendable job of presenting his personal performance with style and sincerity to hold our attention.

As a talented and well-experienced musician who has been prolific along with his fellow members of U2 during last several decades, Bono surely has a lot of personal stuff to tell and reflect on. He remembers well how unhappy he was as he and his father silently coped with each own emotional struggle after the early death of his mother – and how estranged he and his father became to each other during many following years. He also remembers how humble those early years of the band were, and he jokes a bit about how he and his fellow members did not click that well with each other at the very beginning.

The main reason why Bono became more reflective on his life and career than before is pretty simple. Several years ago, he happened to have a serious medical problem due to his inherently faulty heart condition, and he muses on how much that affected his perception of life. While occasionally showing some self-deprecating humor for our little amusement, he is quite frank about his feelings and thoughts in front of the audiences, and that makes me admire him more even though I do not know a lot about his musical career except a handful songs of U2 including those two Oscar-nominated songs (One of them was for Martin Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York” (2002), by the way).

As getting older and then becoming a father later, Bono sincerely tried to get closer to his father, who seldom recognized his son’s talent and success that much even though he was also a fairly good singer. Yes, this is surely something we have seen from those countless musician biography films out there, but Bono presents his personal story about his father with that typical Irish sense of humor and a lot of heart. There is a little amusing episode about how his father remained unimpressed even after being told that his son might collaborate with a certain legendary Italian opera singer, and then we are all the more tickled as Bono flatly tells us about how his two fellow band members refused to meet that famous opera singer just because, well, they are your average hardcore punk rock dudes who do not give much damn about classic music.

All these and other personal stories are often mixed with a lot of music on the stage, and, of course, Bono performs a bunch of songs from U2 as expected. Although he is only assisted modestly by three musicians, he surely knows how to excite and galvanize his audiences, and all those lighting effects around him on the stage make the show look and feel like another big music concert of his at times.

In case of his long musician career, Bono certainly has several funny anecdotes to tell. Besides showing a lot of sincere appreciation toward his three members who have stuck together along with him for many years, he wryly reminisces about when their band could have got disbanded not long after their first world tour just because of their little personal matter involved with religious faith, and that is certainly one of the most humorous moments in the documentary. 

As U2 subsequently became a lot more famous and prominent than before, Bono and his colleagues were requested to participate in a Live Aid concert, and that was when he became interested in philanthropic activities. He talks a bit about what he and his wife witnessed when they visited one poor village in Ethiopia, and that experience inspired an important song from him while also making him all the more passionate about helping millions of people in poverty and hunger. 

Around the later part of the show, Bono becomes more self-reflective while recognizing his many flaws and regrets. As throwing himself more and more into his demanding profession, he often became distant to his wife, and he recognizes how much she had to cope with that while remaining as the light of his life as usual. In case of his father, he still did not open himself that much to his son even when he was going to die sooner or later, and Bono evidently feels bitter about that, even though he came to understand and accept his father to some degree as trying to spend more time with him at his favorite pub.

Nevertheless, Bono keeps the mood lightened up with more music, and director Andrew Dominik and his crew members including cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt competently handle those individual moments in the show. Shot in black and white film, the documentary is often visually fluid and striking, and you may come to want more even when it is about to be over.

Overall, “Bono: Stories of Surrender” is worthwhile to watch for not only its content but also its style and mood. Although it is rather short in my trivial opinion (86 minutes), it accomplishes as much as intended while never overstaying its welcome at all, and it will entertain you enough even if you are not so familiar with its main human subject.

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Big Deal (2025) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): A conflict over one big soju company

Posted on June 1, 2025 by kaist455

South Korean film “Big Deal” presents a fictional story loosely based on the real-life business deal involved with one of the biggest South Korean alcoholic beverage companies in the late 1990s. While the story itself is fairly interesting, the movie sometimes falters due to several weak aspects including superficial characterization and blatant plot contrivance, and the overall result is rather disappointing despite some good efforts inside it.

The early part of the story is set in early 1998, when the South Korean economy was turned upside down due to an immense financial crisis which swept up East and Southeast Asia in late 1997. Many of those big corporations in South Korea come to face bankruptcy, and Gukbo Group, which is clearly the fictional version of Jinro Group, is one of such desperate cases. While its CEO, who has simply occupied his position just because of his father who founded the company, is pretty useless to say the least, Pyo Jong-rok (Yoo Hae-jin), a diligent executive who has worked for the company for more than 20 years, has tried really hard for finding any possible way to save the company, and then there comes a chance via a prominent global investment firm named Solqueen. Mainly represented by an ambitious South Korean employee Choi In-beom (Lee Je-hoon), Solqueen has an offer which Jong-rok and his boss cannot possibly refuse, and it seems that the company will be safe at least for a while.

Under his boss’ order, Jong-rok is surely ready to be friendly and cooperative to In-beom as much as possible, and that leads to a series of lightweight moments involved with a lot of drinking between them. While they have one drinking night after another with many bottles of soju manufactured by Gukbo Group, Jong-rok willingly lets In-beom and Solqueen look more into the current financial status of Gukbo Group, and it looks like the promising beginning of the productive partnership between the company and Solqueen.

However, as already implied to us from the beginning of the story, Solqueen actually has a sneaky plan behind its back. Using all the inside information about Gukbo Group, In-beom and his colleagues in Solqueen embark on the hostile takeover of Gukbo Group in 2003, and they are certainly willing to attain their goal by any means necessary. For example, they persuade a powerful local law firm to work along with them even though this law firm also represents Gukbo Group, and the head of this law firm does not have any problem with this serious legal violation at all because, well, he knows how to pull some strings for getting away with it.

After belatedly coming to learn of what In-beom and Solqueen have been planning behind their back, Jong-rok certainly feels quite exasperated and disillusioned, and, to make matters worse, he is reminded again and again that there is no one to help or support him. His boss, who turns out to be more selfish and untrustworthy, cares more about his power and money than what may happen to Jong-rok or many other employees of his company in the end, and this certainly makes Jong-rok have more bitter doubt about his lifelong devotion to the company.

Meanwhile, In-beom comes to have a fair share of disillusionment and frustration as observing more of how mean and ruthless his investment company can be, but he also finds himself driven a lot by his growing hunger for more success and recognition. After all, he is the one who proposed the takeover of Gukbo Group from the very beginning, and his boss already starts to dangle a tempting big reward in front of him.

The second half of the film becomes tense as the business conflict between Gukbo Group and Solqueen eventually leads to the following court battle between them, but the movie does not take side with either of them. While flatly recognizing how greedy and opportunistic Solqueen is, it clearly points out how corrupt and problematic Gukbo Group has been due to its lousy CEO, and it does not overlook at all how the outcome of this conflict will affect those thousands of employees in Gukbo Group.

However, the movie also becomes more deficient around that narrative point. Considering its inevitable ending, several plot turns later in the story are rather unnecessary, and the finale is delivered a bit too abruptly in my inconsequential opinion. The movie soon tries to compensate for this flaw via the following epilogue scene, but this is not mixed that well with the rest of the film due to learning a little too much toward sentimentalism.

At least, the two lead actors of the movie did an admirable job of carrying the story together. Yoo Hae-jin, who has been one of the most dependable character actors in South Korean cinema during last two decades, is believable with the accumulating anger and frustration behind his character’s mild appearance, and his good performance eventually functions as the moral center of the story. On the opposite, Lee Je-hoon is less distinctive compared to his co-star due to his relatively blander character, but he manages to acquit himself well at least, and several other main cast members including Son Hyun-joo, Choi Young-joon, Byron Mann, and Kim Ki-hae are well-cast in their respective supporting parts.

In conclusion, “Big Deal” is enjoyable to some degree, but it could delve more into the story and characters more as giving us more insight on its main subject, and I become more aware of its several flaws including the glaring lack of substantial female character. Although I am not a big fan of soju, I got interested in what the movie is about, and I was ready to be entertained, but, folks, I ended up being rather dissatisfied with how it is about.

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Sinners (2025) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): A bluesy Southern horror from Ryan Coogler

Posted on May 31, 2025 by kaist455

Ryan Coogler’s new film “Sinners” is an enthralling genre piece packed with style, atmosphere, and personality to be cherished. While it sometimes feels a bit too overstuffed with story ideas and elements which do not get totally mixed that well in my humble opinion, it is still quite entertaining genre fusion on the whole, and I enjoyed and embraced those numerous bold and ambitious moments throughout the film.

The story, which is set in some rural town of Mississippi in 1932, mainly revolves around two African American twin gangster brothers: Elijah “Smoke” Moore and Elias “Stack” Moore, who are both played by Coogler’s regular collaborator Michael B. Jordan. They once left their hometown for their criminal jobs in Chicago several years ago, but they come back with a lot of money and booze, and they are about to open a juke joint at an abandoned mill factory somewhere outside their hometown.

Needless to say, they need some good musicians to draw those potential customers out there, and one of them is Sammie “Preacher Boy” Moore (Miles Caton), a young cousin of theirs. Despite a firm advice from his preacher father, Sammie cannot resist a chance to perform in front of lots of people, and there is a little musical moment early in the story when he demonstrates a bit of his considerable musical talent to one of the twin brothers.

Meanwhile, the movie takes its time in establishing the ground more, and we get to know more about not only the twin brothers but also several other main characters and their town. When Elias comes across his ex-girlfriend Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), the mood is quite awkward between them as things change a lot since he left her at that time (She is now married to some rich white dude thanks to the passing via her light skin, by the way), but it is evident that they are still drawn to each other despite their respective current status. In case of Elijah, he visits the little tomb of a baby born between him and a local Hoodoo practitioner named Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), and he convinces her to join his and his brother’s juke joint practice as they come to sense more of their remaining affection between them.

Around that narrative point, the movie immerses us more into the vivid and realistic world inhabited by its main characters. As a matter of fact, it did the job so well that it made me wonder a bit about how I would look and feel in the town as an Asian dude, and, what do you know, the movie soon introduced an Asian immigrant family running a couple of stores facing each other across the main street of the town (The main reason behind the existence of these two almost identical stores is one of many signs of the Southern racism during that time in the film, by the way).

Coogler and his crew did a splendid job on the whole. Cinematographer Autumn Duran Arkapaw, who previously collaborated with Coogler in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”, deftly builds up that distinctive Southern atmosphere across the screen, which is vividly conveyed to us via the frequent shots of wide cotton fields around the town. The production design by Hannah Beachler and the costumes by Ruth E. Carter are also crucial in bringing more style and detail to the movie, and the score by Ludwig Göransson, who won an Oscar for Coogler’s most commercially successful film “Black Panther” (2018) as Beachler and Carter did, injects the movie with a lot of bluesy mood as required while smoothly mixed along well with a number of big musical performance scenes in the film.

One of these big musical performance scenes, which is incidentally unfolded inside the twin brothers’ juke joint during its opening evening, is particularly striking for good reasons. As Sammie fully demonstrates his unadorned talent in front of a bunch of dancing and drinking people, the mood becomes quite excited to say the least, and then the movie suddenly throws anachronistic elements into the screen to our surprise and amusement. Yes, this could look pretty ridiculous under a lesser director, but it works better than expected under Coogler’s skillful direction, and you may gladly go along with that as appreciating more of its style and ideas.

And then, as announced to us from the very beginning, there comes an unspeakable force of evil, and the situation surely becomes quite intense and bloody to say the least. Although this part feels rather hurried and jumbled compared to the rest of the film, the movie continues to provide more surprise and entertainment for us, and I doubt I will ever forget that wacky juxtaposition between a certain 19th century Irish song and its Southern background, even though I am still wondering whether this is thematically coherent or not.

The main cast of the film are engaging in each own way. While Jordan certainly has the most fun in the bunch as ably going back and forth between his two main characters, Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O’Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, Li Jun Li, Omar Miller, and Delroy Lindo bring a lot of personality to their respective supporting parts, and the special mention goes to newcomer Miles Caton, who holds his own place well among the more notable cast members besides handling well his several musical performance scenes in the movie.

In conclusion, “Sinners” is another excellent work from Coogler, who has steadily advanced since his first feature film “Fruitvale Station” (2013). While “Creed” (2015) and “Black Panther” demonstrated more of his considerable talent and potential besides boosting his career a lot, “Sinners” confirms again that he is indeed one of the most interesting African American filmmakers at present, and it will be fascinating to watch how he will leap further from this point during next several years.

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Cuckoo (2024) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): At one weird German Alps hotel  

Posted on May 31, 2025 by kaist455

“Cuckoo” alternatively baffled and unnerved me with its deliberate oddness. Although I am not sure about whether it is as effective as intended, I admire how it gradually dials up the level of its sinister suspense beneath the screen before eventually revealing more of its wacky aspects, and that compensates for its rather weak narrative and thin characterization to some degree.

The story mainly revolves around an adolescent girl named Gretchen (Hunter Schafer). She has been grieving a lot over her mother’s death, but her father Luis (Marton Csokas) married his second wife Beth (Jessica Henwick) not long after his first wife’s death, and he and Beth already have a young daughter, who is incidentally mute for some unspecific reason.

Anyway, Gretchen and her family are moving to somewhere in the German Alps just because Luis’s old German friend, Mr. König (Dan Stevens), offers him not only a job but also a nice house to stay. Needless to say, Gretchen does not like this change that much, and we observe more of the distance between her and the family as they start the first day at their new house. Feeling more isolated and alienated than before, she misses her dead mother more, but there is no comfort or consolation from the others around her, and that makes her all the more frustrated.

Meanwhile, Mr. König suggests that Gretchen should work at his nearby hotel. She accepts his suggestion because, well, that is a bit better than being stuck with her father and his new family in their new house, and then she is quite baffled by how the hotel is managed. While it looks mostly neat and clean, there are only a very few guests and staff members, and that makes the hotel looks as empty and unnerving as that spooky hotel in “The Shining” (1980). 

Moreover, Mr. König emphasizes that Gretchen must go back to the house before nighttime without explaining anything at all, and she becomes more baffled as gradually sensing more of how weird his hotel and its surrounding area are. For example, she notices a guest looking not so well at one point, but her co-worker is not concerned that much, even though there is actually a big hospital not so far from the hotel.

 Above all, it seems that there is something sinister about the area surrounding the hotel – especially after Gretchen has a particularly frightening incident at one late night. When Gretchen later happens to be with her stepsister during one afternoon, she suddenly experiences something quite strange and disturbing, and then her stepsister has sort of seizure. She is immediately taken to that local hospital, but her doctor does not tell much about what is exactly happening to her, and that certainly makes her parents quite worried to say the least.

Becoming more confused and unnerved, Gretchen wants to go away more than before, but, not so surprisingly, she only finds herself menaced and entrapped more by whatever is Mr. König is hiding behind his back. Thanks to a certain stranger who turns out to be more helpful than expected, she subsequently delves deeper into whatever is happening around her, and what she eventually discovers is not so pleasant to say the least.

During the last act, the movie becomes much weirder as going further with more surprise and horror, but that is where it stumbles more than once. Besides Gretchen and Mr. König, most of the other main characters in the story are under-developed, and the movie could bring more depth to Gretchen’s strained relationship with her new family. In addition, once the origin of its horror, which is incidentally associated with its very title, is fully revealed at last, the movie does not seem to know what to do next, and that is why the finale feels deficient without much dramatic impact.

Nevertheless, the movie keeps us engaged to some degree thanks to the committed efforts from its two good performers. Hunter Schafer, who has been mainly known for her supporting performance in HBO drama series “Euphoria”, is compelling as palpably illustrating her character’s inner struggles along the story, and her convincing performance steadily holds the ground to the end. On the opposite, Dan Stevens, who already demonstrated that he can speak German fairy well in “I’m Your Man” (2021), is fun to watch as deftly balancing his character between charm and insidiousness, and his offbeat performance, which is often coupled with a certain little musical instrument, keeps us on the edge right from the start.

In contrast, the movie does not utilize much of its several other main cast members, and that is the main weakness of the film. While Jan Bluthardt, Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey, Marton Csokas, and Jessica Henwick are mostly stuck in their thankless supporting roles, young performer Mila Lieu manages to hold her own place well around her adult co-performers, and I wish the movie paid a bit more attention to her character.

Overall, “Cuckoo” is not entirely satisfying, but it is not boring at all mainly thanks to the enjoyable performances from Schafer and Stevens as well as the competent direction of director/writer Tilman Singer, who previously made a feature film debut with “Luz” (2018). As far as I can see, he is a good filmmaker who does know how to intrigue us with mood and detail, and he may impress me more with whatever he will make next after this flawed but curious second feature film of his.

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The Phoenician Scheme (2025) ☆☆☆(3/4): Wes Anderson on autopilot mode

Posted on May 30, 2025 by kaist455

Wes Anderson’s latest film “The Phoenician Scheme” has everything you can expect from his film. While it has a heap of notable performers who will function as variously colorful dolls to be utilized by Anderson, the movie is certainly full of his own distinctive style and touches to notice, and you may enjoy it even though Anderson seems to be autopilot mode at times.

Benecio Del Toro, who previously appeared in “The French Dispatch” (2021), plays Zsa-zsa Korda, a rich businessman who has been rather notorious for his wealth as well as his shady business tactics. Not so surprisingly, Korda has a lot of enemies eager to destroy him, and the opening scene shows how he survives another disastrous airplane crash.

Anyway, after this incident, Korda becomes more serious about who will inherit his fortune and business. Although he already adopted no less than nine boys, none of the boys has impressed him much on the whole, and he comes to pay attention to his only daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton), who has been in a Catholic convent as preparing for becoming a nun. Although she is not so much interested in getting to know her father and business, Liesl comes to make a deal with his father, and they are accompanied by Bjørn Lund (Michael Cera), who is recently hired by Korda as a tutor but then becomes an “administrative secretary”.

These three characters go to some foreign country for taking care of Korda’s latest business problem, which is incidentally caused by another plot against him. He has financed an ambitious infrastructure project all over that country, but a certain global organization deliberately sabotages his ongoing project via a rather absurd tactic, and now he must convince his several partners to stick together along with him to the end.

As bouncing from one narrative point to another along with its three main characters, the movie provides a series of idiosyncratically humorous moments filled with Anderson’s own style and details. At one point, we have a silly but amusing scene involved with a little basketball match between Korda and his two American business partners, and you may get amused a bit by the sheer incompetence of Korda’s fellow team player. As he continues his business trip all over that foreign country, Korda keeps getting threatened by one assassination attempt after another, and we are not so surprised to learn later that there is even a secret agent reporting on Korda’s ongoing business trip to a bunch of figures in the organization.

Anderson and his crew members surely have some fun with decorating his film here and there. While cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel faithfully sticks to the visual approach established by Anderson and his usual cinematographer Robert Yeoman, the production designer by Adam Stockhausen and the costume design by Milena Canonero are constantly delightful to watch, and the score by Alexandre Desplat is utilized well along with the several classic pieces of Igor Stravinsky on the soundtrack.

However, the screenplay by Anderson and his co-writer Roman Coppola feels rather thin and superficial in terms of story and characters. Yes, many of the characters in Anderson’s films are more or less than broad caricatures, but they sometimes reveal surprising emotional depth even while maintaining their usual deadpan attitude. In case of “The Phoenician Scheme”, Anderson seems to be simply content with merely doing his usual dollhouse playing here without bringing anything particularly new or different to his artistic territory, and that is a bit disappointing compared to his previous film “Asteroid City” (2023). Although I was a little less enthusiastic about the film compared to many other reviewers, I admired how he tried something a little different, and I may revisit it someday just for appreciating it more.

Anyway, the movie is anchored well by the good comic performance by del Toro, who demonstrates more of his comic talent as he did in “The French Dispatch”. While mostly looking quite detached and phlegmatic throughout the film, del Toro effortlessly balances his character between humor and melancholy, and Korda somehow becomes endearing to us than expected despite his many flaws.

Around del Toro, many different performers come and then go as bringing extra amusement to the film, though it is a shame that the movie does not allow enough space for them to shine more. While Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Jeffrey Wright, Mathieu Amalric, Scarlett Johansson, and Benedict Cumberbatch are Korda’s several business partners, Richard Ayoade, Rupert Friend, Hope Davis, Bill Murray, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Willem Dafoe, and Murray Abraham willingly play the minor supporting characters in the film during their respective brief appearances, Michael Cera and Mia Threapleton are solid as holding each own place well around del Toro.

In conclusion, “The Phoenician Scheme” is fairly enjoyable, but Anderson seems more repetitive than before. He has steadily honed his own style during last three decades, but it looks like there is not much to be honed or refined for him now, and I can only hope that this will be a brief respite before he reaches for something fresh later.

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