The Voices of the Silenced (2023) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): The chronicles of Zainichi Koreans

Posted on November 18, 2024 by kaist455

Documentary film “The Voices of the Silences”, which won the Mecenat Award for Best Documentary when it was shown at the Busan International Film Festival in last year, is about one defiant old Korean Japanese woman and her old but valuable chronicles of her fellow Korean people in Japan. As her several old documentary films on Korean Japanese get restored, we get to know more about her and many other Korean people’s struggles against discrimination and injustice, and it is really moving to observe how persistently she has gone her way during last several decades.

Her name is Park Soo-nam, and the documentary begins with a series of old footage clips shot for her independent documentaries which were recently restored for their considerable archival value. Her daughter Park Ma-eui, who made the documentary along with her mother, surely had a lot of things to ask her mother, but their first trial did not go that well because they only came to argue a lot with each other while the camera was between them, and then Park was sent to a hospital due to a sudden illness not long after that.

After being reminded again that her mother does not have much time to live, Park’s daughter resumes their little personal project, and we get to know more about Park’s life and career as the documentary looks over many archival photographs and footage clips. Just like many Korean Japanese people, who are also called Zainichi Koreans, Park had to endure a lot of prejudice and discrimination even when she was young, but that did not deter her at all, and she eventually pursued a writing career after her college graduation.

Her first big career break came from one horrible incident where a young Japanese woman was brutally murdered by a Zainichi Korean lad. While many members of the Zainichi Korean communities in Japan were naturally quite sensitive about this incident, Park willingly went forward for reaching out to not only that lad but also the parents of his victim, and her humane efforts for more understanding and compassion led to the publication of the conversation records of her and that lad, who was sadly executed only four years after his arrest.

Since that point, Park became more determined to record and remember the long history of the hardships of her fellow Koreans in Japan. After Korea was colonized by Japan in 1910, many Koreans came to Japan during next 35 years, but they were often treated like second-rated citizens, and I must tell you that they and their descendants are still being ignored and discriminated by the Japanese society and government even at this point.

After coming to realize how camera can be a more effective tool for recording not only facts but also emotions, Park eventually moved on making documentaries, and her first feature documentary film was the one about the Korean Japanese victims of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. Yes, there were lots of Korean Japanese people in Hiroshima on that horrible day, but most of the surviving victims were not recognized at all by the Japanese government, and Park and many other activists in Japan have tried a lot for bringing more public awareness of this serious social injustice.

Park also focused on Nagasaki later, and that was how she came to make the documentary about another case of social injustice during the World War II. There were two small islands outside the city where hundreds of Korean and Chinese peopled were forced into labor exploitation, and both the Chinese government and the Korean government were not so amused when the Japanese government later got these two islands registered as the parts of a UNESCO heritage site. While her little documentary did not bring much attention when it was made in the early 1990s, her subsequent efforts during next several years brought more attention, and there is a poignant moment when a middle-aged Zainichi Korean is quite touched to see his father in the restored documentary.

And she is also the one who brought a lot of attention to those unfortunate “comfort women”. After she frankly talked about them on a South Korean TV program around 30 years ago, many of surviving comfort women eventually came forward for demanding the justice for them in addition to bringing more public awareness in both South Korea and Japan, and Park has certainly supported them as much as possible as one of their main allies. 

While looking over all those archival footage clips shot by Park, Park and her daughter come to bond more with each other, but they are also reminded more of Park’s impending mortality. Although she remains mostly healthy after recovering from that sudden illness, she subsequently begins to lose her sight, and there is a touching moment as she and her daughter talk about how her mind still remembers everything she diligently recorded for many years. While she cannot record anymore now, her documentaries manage to survive mainly thanks to her persistence, and they will certainly be more valuable in the future as another important chronicle of the Zainichi Korean diaspora in Japan.

In conclusion, “The Voices of the Silenced” is a powerful documentary as encompassing not only Park’s life story but also those life stories of many other Zainichi Koreans, and it is definitely one of the better documentaries of this year. I am not sure about whether it will get more audiences outside South Korea and Japan, but I assure you that it will certainly give you some more enlightenment on its main subject, and you will not easily forget Park and her admirable efforts for a while at least.

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Times Still Turns the Pages (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): A young boy’s diary

Posted on November 18, 2024 by kaist455

Hong Kong film “Time Still Turns the Page” is a sad, harrowing character drama which mainly follows the story of a young boy under lots of emotional pressure and torment. He simply wanted to be loved and recognized, but there was no one to support or stand by him even in his family, and it is really devastating to see how he was driven to more despair and sadness just because of being rather incompetent in his school study.

After the opening scene which may make you gasp briefly for a good reason, we are introduced to Mr. Cheng (Siuyea Lo), a secondary school teacher who happens to have one tricky matter in his classroom on one day. A school janitor recently found a piece of writing which seems to be written by someone quite depressed and pressured, and Mr. Cheng becomes naturally quite concerned as trying to get any clue on whoever wrote that, though not many of his students are willing to tell anything to him.

Mr. Cheng’s search for that very unhappy (and possibly suicidal) student in question is intercut with the story of a young boy named Yau-kit (Sean Wong). He and his younger brother Yau-chun (Curtis Ho) have grown up in a strict and harsh household dominated by their abusive lawyer father who has constantly pressured them in one way or another, and Yau-kit is frequently abused by his father mainly because, unlike his younger brother, he is not particularly good at many things including his school study despite his efforts. While his younger brother does not provide much emotional support as being busy with his own school study, their mother, who is also often abused by her husband, does not give him much consolation or comfort either, and this makes Yau-kit feel all the more miserable.

As struggling to get improved in his school study, Yau-kit begins to write a little private diary for himself, and we are not so surprised when that little diary of his appears later in Mr. Cheng’s story. Reading that aching chronicle of childhood pain and trauma, Mr. Cheng becomes more determined to help whoever wrote that troubling piece of writing at his school, though he also has his own personal problems to deal with. While he has been quite estranged from his dying father for years, he recently got divorced due to his serious failure to connect emotionally with his ex-wife, and he is not so sure about whether he can actually make his ex-wife change her mind about their deteriorated relationship.       

Many of you may easily guess how these two main narratives come to overlap and resonate more with each other, but the screenplay by director/writer/co-editor Nick Cheuk takes time for more story and character development. There is a subplot involved with one of Mr. Cheng’s students who may tell him something important, and it is quietly touching to observe how tactfully and generously he and a fellow teacher of his handle this student’s emotional issues later. When Yau-kit and his younger brother come to have a little moment of fun together, the mood is brightened up a bit, and that moment becomes more poignant later in the story.

The movie also does not overlook at all how many of the children of the Asian family are constantly pressured a lot for their academic excellence, and I must confess that some of the most painful moments in the film came a little too close to me during my viewing. Although I was mostly good at getting high grades during my childhood days, I was still often pressured by my parents for better results, and that was the main reason why I became quite obsessed with getting better scores even during my young adult period without having many chances to think for myself. Even at present, I am very nervous and fastidious about giving the right answer to every question or task thrown at me, and I still find myself getting frozen and then feel quite humiliated if I cannot think of any answer good enough to me or others.  

The last act of the story becomes very melodramatic as we come to see more of how much Mr. Cheng is haunted by the memories of the past, but the movie sticks to its phlegmatic attitude as going deeper into the human pain and sorrow at the center of its story. As a matter of fact, it even shows a bit of compassion to Yau-kit’s father, who is now mired in a lot of guilt and regret over how thoroughly he ruined his family during that time.   

The main cast members are solid in their respective parts. While Siuyea Lo dutifully holds the ground, two young performers Sean Wong and Curtis Ho are believable in their unadorned natural performance, and Wong is utterly heartbreaking when Yau-kit receives another cruel emotional abuse from his father later in the story. In case of several other cast members, Ronald Cheng and Rosa Maria Velasco are well-cast as Yau-kit’s problematic parents, and Hanna Chan and Sabirna Ng hold each own small place well as the two substantial supporting characters in the story. 

Overall, “Time Still Turns the Page”, which is incidentally Cheuk’s first feature film, handles its painful human drama with enough care and sensitivity, and it will remind you again of how important it is for anyone to have someone to provide emotional support and consolation. Due to my own personal experiences, I know well the value of reaching out and then saying that “You are not alone”, and I hope that the movie will do the same thing to many troubled kids out there.

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Pedro Páramo (2024) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Walking into a ghost town

Posted on November 17, 2024 by kaist455

Netflix film “Pedro Páramo”, which was released a few weeks ago, is often terrific to watch for its undeniably haunting visual moments, but it is also frequently frustrating in terms of story and character. While its period background looks impeccable with mood and details to be cherished, the movie also sometimes feels quite confusing in its non-linear narrative structure without a strong emotional center to hold our attention, and we only come to observe its story and characters from the distance without much care.

The story begins with a man who is about to arrive at the destination of his long journey across some barren rural area of Mexico during the early 20th century. He is Juan Preciado (Tenoch Huerta, whom you may remember for his substantial supporting part in Ryan Coogler’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (2022)), and he is going to some local village for seeing his father. While he does not remember much of his father, he goes there just because of his mother requested that right before her recent death, and he is only told later that his father already died some years ago.

Anyway, Juan finds that the village is pretty empty and barren now without much sign of life. Not long after his arrival, he is welcomed by someone closely associated with his and his mother’s past in the village, and the mood gets lightened up a bit as they have some casual conversation between them during the following evening, but we slowly come to gather that this supposedly welcoming figure may be one of those ghosts still wandering around inside the village. 

While Juan naturally becomes more and more unsure about what is real or not, the story frequently doles out a series of flashback moments from the past involved with Juan’s father, who is named, yes, Pedro Páramo (Manuel García Rulfo). Páramo was born to a wealthy family who owned a big ranch near the village, but then his family found themselves on the verge of bankruptcy when Páramo took over the family business shortly after his father’s death, and that is how he became quite ruthless for maintaining his and his family’s social status. For example, he seduced a young wealthy lady mainly for her money, and then he cruelly ignored her once he succeeded in getting what he wanted from her.

And we get to know about how much others around him suffered his cruelty and heartlessness in one way or another. In case of the Catholic priest of the village, he surely despised Páramo more as learning more about how Páramo mistreated one woman after another without much hesitation, but there was nothing he could do except showing a sign of protest in front of Páramo and others from time to time. In case of one maid who somehow came to stand by her master to the end, she surely saw and heard a lot during all those years, and she is willing to tell much to Juan when they come across each other later in the story.

It also turns out that Páramo had a rather soft spot behind all those heartless behaviors of his. There was a certain young girl who happened to leave the village not long after she and young Páramo became more aware of their mutual feeling, and he seems to get softened a bit when she unexpected returned and then get married to him. However, she had already been sick in her body and mind, and there is a bitter irony in how that came to break her husband’s heart and spirit in the end.  

The screenplay by Mateo Gil, which is based on the famous novel of the same named by Juan Rulfo, attempts to give us an epic picture of human suffering and sadness surrounding the titular hero, but it unfortunately fails to bring enough life and personality to many of its main characters. While Juan remains a rather blank counterpoint to many other characters who come and go along the narrative, we never get to know that much about what makes Páramo tick, and many of the other main characters in the story are more or less than broad archetypes on the whole, though the main cast members of the movie try as much as possible for filling their respective parts. 

At least, the movie does not feel deficient at all in case of its technical aspects thanks to director Rodrigo Prieto, who has been known well for his considerable contribution to numerous acclaimed films ranging from Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain” (2005) to Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” (2023). With his co-cinematographer Nico Aguilar, Prieto serves us a bunch of visually impressive moments which often evoke magic realism on the screen (It is no wonder that Rulfo’s novel influenced many works of Gabriel García Márquez a lot, by the way), and I particularly like a phantasmagoric scene where Juan happens to behold a lot of ghostly figures swirling up together up in the sky in the middle of one night.

In conclusion, “Pedro Páramo” is fairly interesting to watch for its first-rate technical qualities including the sparse but effective score by Gustavo Santaolalla, and Prieto made a mostly admirable directorial debut here in this movie. However, it sadly failed to engage me on the emotional level, and my mind kept going somewhere more than once despite trying to have more patience during my viewing. At least, I became quite interested in checking out Rulfo’s novel sooner or later, and that is surely something positive about watching this rather dissatisfying work.

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Emilia Pérez (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): A mixed musical film by Jacques Audiard

Posted on November 17, 2024 by kaist455

Jacques Audiard’s new film “Emilia Pérez”, which was recently selected as the French submission to Best International Film Oscar, is a mixed musical which sometimes works with striking emotional intensity. Although it does not wholly work as well as intended, there are also a lot of good elements to be admired and appreciated, and that may be enough for you to overlook a number of glaring flaws here and there in the film.

The story, which is mainly set in Mexico City, begins with the bold introduction of one of its several main characters. Although she is quite a competent and resourceful lawyer, Rita Mora Castro (Zoe Saldaña) does not get much appreciation from many others in her law firm, and the opening musical scene dramatically expresses her growing frustration with not only her job but also the increasing social injustice around her.

And then there comes a very unexpected offer to Rita on one day. After suddenly being taken to somewhere by several members of a very powerful local criminal organization, Rita comes to have a private meeting with its boss, who wants her to do some extremely clandestine job on his behalf. After many years of personal conflict on his sexual identity, this dude decides to begin a new life as a woman, and he requests Rita to handle the whole transformation process of his without any problem for him or his wife and their two kids.

Because this offer of his is surely the one she cannot possibly refuse, Rita agrees to do the job for him, though she soon comes to see how ruthless and demanding her secret client can be. In the end, she finds a doctor who will perform a gender transition surgery on her client without asking too much about him, and then her client subsequently takes the final step for becoming a woman and then having a new life far away from his criminal life.

Four years after he “died”, Rita comes across her client again, who looks quite different compared to when they met each other for the first time. Now he becomes a wealthy Mexican lady named Emilia Pérez (Karla Sofía Gascón), and she wants Rita to handle the matter involved with the wife and the kids in Emilia’s former life. Although Jessi (Selena Gomez) and her two kids have been living happily and comfortably in Europe, Emilia wants to bring them back to Mexico City, and Rita reluctantly agrees to work again for her client.

What follows next is a morbid melodramatic circumstance reminiscent of many works of Pedro Almodóvar. Presenting herself as some distant cousin of Jessi’s husband, Emilia gets herself more involved with Jessi and their two kids, and there is a little amusing musical moment between Emilia and one of their two kids, who instinctively senses something common between “Aunt Emilia” and her former male self.

Meanwhile, Emilia also embarks on a sort of quest for repentance and redemption. After seeing how many good people have suffered due to many heinous crimes committed by many local criminal organizations including the one formerly belonging to her, she requests more help from Rita, and they come to form a non-governmental organization for locating the bodies of those numerous missing persons out there.

Around that point, Audiard’s screenplay, which is based on Audiard’s opera libretto of the same name which was in turn loosely adapted from Boris Razon’s 2018 novel “Écoute”. throws some questions on whether Emilia can actually redeem herself in the end, but then it stumbles more than once as busily juggling too many different story elements together. For example, a romantic subplot between Emilia and a widow named Epifanía Flores (Adriana Paz) is seriously under-developed without much dramatic impact, and another subplot involved with Jessi’s increasing conflict with Emilia is resolved too hurriedly in my inconsequential opinion.

At least, the musical scenes in the film are often quite impressive on the whole under Audiard’s good direction, and his crew members including cinematographer Paul Guilhaumel and editor Juliette Welfling did a commendable job of keeping things rolling to the end. In case of the songs written by Camille, most of them work splendidly in the context of story and characters, and the score by Clément Ducol, who won the Soundtrack Award along with Camille when the movie was premiered at the Cannes Film Festival early in this year, is also quite effective as mixed well along with the musical numbers in the film.

Above all, the movie is held together well by the superlative efforts from its several female cast members, who deservedly won the Best Actress Award together at the Cannes Film Festival (The movie also garnered the Jury Prize for Audiard, by the way). While transgender actress Karla Sofía Gascón is terrific enough for a possible Best Actress Oscar nomination, Zoe Saldaña, who may also get Oscar-nominated in the next year, finally gets a chance to fully present the range of her considerable talent on the screen, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz are also solid despite their rather under-written supporting roles.

In conclusion, “Emilia Pérez” a flawed but interesting genre piece which deserves some praise for its mood, style, and performance. Although I have some reservation in terms of story and characters (I am still wondering how it will be received by transgender or Latino and Mexican audiences, to be frank with you), it is definitely something you cannot easily forget, so I recommend you to take some chance with it.

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Look Back (2024) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Two young collaborators

Posted on November 16, 2024 by kaist455

Japanese animation film “Look Back”, which has been enjoying a considerable success in South Korean theaters since it was released two months ago, is a small but poignant coming-of-age drama about the friendship between two young and talented collaborators. Although they are different from each other in many aspects, they get connected with each other via the deep passion toward an art form of their choice, and it is touching to observe how much their brief but precious relationship really means to each other.

The film opens with a wild and humorous scene based on a little comic strip drawn by Fujino (voiced by Yumi Kawai), an elementary school girl who has been quite confident about her drawing skill. This comic strip is her latest work to be included in the school paper, and she surely gets her artistic ego boosted a lot as her teachers and schoolmates give some praise to her latest work.

On one day, Fujino is told that some other female student, who is also quite interested in drawing although being frequently absent in the school due to her extreme shyness, will also contribute a bit as the background illustrator for her next comic strip to be featured on the school paper. What do you know, this student’s illustration work comes to draw more attention because, well, her meticulous drawing skill comes to overshadow Fujino’s relatively simple drawing style, so Fujino tries as much as she can for improving her drawing skill during next two years. Alas, her rival’s illustration still looks like being one or two steps ahead of whatever Fujino draws, and this eventually makes Fujino almost give up drawing around the time of their graduation.

However, something quite unexpected happens to her shortly after their graduation. Fujino is instructed to deliver a diploma to her rival’s residence, and that is how she finally faces her competitor at last. Their first encounter is pretty awkward to say the least, but, to her big surprise, her rival, who is incidentally named Kyomoto (voiced by Mizuki Yoshida), turns out to have been quite enthusiastic about Fujino’s comic strips during last several years, and it does not take much for them to get close to each other via their common passion toward drawing and comic books.

What follows next is a series of heartwarming moments showing how Fujino and Kyomoto support and boost each other during next several years. While Kyomoto diligently provides the illustrations for Fujino, Fujino comes to excel herself more as an aspiring comic book writer, and she also helps Kyomoto come out of her house much more often than before. As they happily work together whenever they are free, their passionate artistic collaboration comes to draw more attention, and it seems that they can go further together in their promising future career in the “manga” industry of Japan.

Around that narrative point, the screenplay by director/writer Kiotaka Oshiyama, which is based on the acclaimed manga of the same name by Tatsuki Fujimoto, brings some conflict to be inevitably followed by the bittersweet moments of regret and nostalgia later in the story. While they get matured more and more as artists, both Fujino and Kyomoto come to have different ideas about their respective careers in the future, and this consequently leads to Fujino belatedly reflecting on how important she and Kyomoto were to each other during those good days of theirs.

The mood naturally becomes quite melodramatic to say the least, but the film keeps flying with a considerable amount of style and spirit. Like many of recent cell animation films from Japan, the film is constantly filled with small and big details to be noticed, and these details are lovingly presented on the screen via the painstaking cell animation style from Oshiyama and his crew members. As a result, the film feels lean but very compact on the whole, and its rather short running time (58 minutes) does not feel too short at all as it does almost everything necessary for its story and characters without wasting any second of the running time.

The good voice performances from the two principal cast members of the film are also crucial for bringing more heart and soul to the story. While Yumi Kawai, who recently appeared in “Plan 75” (2022), ably fills her role with lots of plucky energy, Mizuki Yoshida effectively complements her co-star with her low-key voice acting, and the effortless chemistry between their voice performances provides a solid ground for several spirited moments of collaboration between their characters. As closely observing how hard their characters work on their little manga project, you will come to appreciate more of the passion and efforts behind not only manga books but also many kinds of graphic novel books out there, and I must confess that the film made me shed more of my remaining little snobbism toward comic books.

In conclusion, “Look Back” is an earnest but undeniably moving piece of work about artistic passion and friendship, and it is definitely one of the best animation films of this year in my humble opinion. Although this is his first directorial work, Oshiyama, who has worked as an animator in a number of acclaimed animation films such as “The First Slam Dunk” (2022) and “The Boy and the Heron” (2023), leaves quite an impression here in this film, and it will be interesting to see whether he will rise further as another promising Japanese animation director to watch during next several years.

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Gladiator II (2024) ☆☆(2/4): A ponderous sequel without much fun

Posted on November 14, 2024 by kaist455

Ridley Scott’s latest film “Gladiator II”, a sequel to his Oscar-winning film “Gladiator” (2000), is a ponderous sequel which does not provide anything fun and new to enjoy. Sure, “Gladiator” is not exactly a great film, so it seems easy to follow the footsteps of that rather overrated movie (In my humble opinion, it is the worst Best Picture Oscar winner during last 25 years except “Green Book” (2018) – yes, I am much more generous to “Crash” (2004) or “American Beauty” (1999) than many of you), but the sequel keeps stumbling and plodding mainly due to its weak story and character, and I could only observe its few inspired elements from the distance without much care during my viewing.

Because, as many of you surely know, the titular character played by Russell Crowe in “Gladiator” dies in the end, “Gladiator II” begins with a new character destined to end up being in the middle of the Colosseum of Rome. He is played by Paul Mescal, and the opening part depicts how his fairly good life with his wife in a big free city in Northern Africa is suddenly disrupted by the invasion of the Roman Army led by Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal), a brave and respectful general who also does not like much what he and his soldiers will have to do for another vain glory for the twin emperors he is supposed to serve.

Anyway, after the city eventually falls despite the courageous resistance of our hero and many others in the city, he and many other men are sent to Rome as slaves. When he shows some potential during a rather outrageous action scene featuring a lot of angry CGI monkeys (I am not kidding), he is noticed by a rich dude named Macrinus (Denzel Washington), and he is soon taken to Macrinus’ training place for gladiators.

What follows next is pretty predictable to say the least. Still quite angry for the death of his loving wife, Mescal’s character is willing to go through anything for getting his revenge on General Acacius, and Macrinus is ready to exploit his new gladiator’s furious anger for a certain purpose to be revealed along the story. Right from when he enters the Colosseum for the first time, our hero quickly distinguishes himself in front of many audiences including the twin emperors, and he certainly notices his target sitting near the twin emperors.

Meanwhile, the movie also gradually reveals some background information of its hero. Around its middle act, it turns out that there is actually the hidden connection between its hero and a couple of the main characters in “Gladiator”, but I doubt whether this will surprise you a lot, mainly because the movie already implies a bit too much to us from the very beginning. Again, Connie Nielsen, who is incidentally still graceful as she was 24 years ago, is merely stuck in her rather thankless role, and she unfortunately has an unenviable job of handling several contrived melodramatic scenes handed to her.

In case of a number of duel scenes unfolded in the Colosseum, they are mostly well under Scott’s competent direction in addition to being as brutal and violent as required, but they often lose their way between seriousness and campiness. The movie surely wants to be as serious as its hero, but it also cannot help but go for some craziness just like the twin emperors in the story, and you may roll your eyes when the arena of the Colosseum is filled with water and a pack of big white sharks at one point later in the story (Again, I am not kidding at all).

Mescal valiantly tries to hold the center as much as possible, but, like many of his fellow cast members, he is frequently limited by glaring plot contrivance and bad dialogues. Sure, this young Irish actor can be quite interesting as shown from his recent Oscar-nominated performance in “Aftersun” (2022), and he can also be quite hot and charismatic in “All of Us Strangers” (2023). However, his character in “Gladiator II” is a rather bland figure from the very beginning, and we can only observe how much Mescal struggles to fill this blank spot as much as he can.

In case of the other cast members in the film besides Mescal and Nielsen, most of them do not have much fun with their respective parts either. While Pedro Pascal, who can also be very compelling just like Mescal, seems constantly depressed about not getting any juicy moment to chew, Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger, who play the twin emperors, frequently go over the top without much control or impact at all, and you may come to miss more of Joaquin Phoenix’s Oscar-nominated villain performance in the previous film. In contrast, Denzel Washington, who previously collaborated with Scott in “American Gangster” (2007), often elevates his materials with not only his own star presence but also some sense of humor and intelligence which the movie desperately needs, and we are reminded that he can still be as cunning and ruthless as he was in his gritty Oscar-winning performance in “Training Day” (2001).

In conclusion, “Gladiator II” is disappointing for not having enough fun and interest to hold our interest during its 148-minute running time, and its failure only reminds me more of how much things have changed since its predecessor came out. During last 24 years, we have had a fair share of brutally violent and realistic period drama films including Scott’s previous film “The Last Duel” (2021), and I must tell you that “Gladiator II” looks pretty inconsequential compared to them as well as its predecessor. Although he gave only 2 stars at that time, my late mentor/friend Roger Ebert later said that he should have been more generous to “Gladiator”, and now I also feel pretty much same now.

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Work to Do (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): What he has to do

Posted on November 12, 2024 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “Work to Do” is about the moral dilemma of a young man tasked with one unenviable job to do. Phlegmatically observing how he and his colleagues do their rather unpleasant job step by step, the movie vividly and realistically depicts a certain very complicated circumstance for them and many others in their company, and its emerging big picture is certainly not pretty at all.

The movie, which is incidentally set around late 2016, opens with a little night drinking party to celebrate the recent employment of a lad named Kang Joon-hee (Jang Sung-bum). He has just got employed at some big shipbuilding company, and we soon see him hurriedly beginning his first day at the human resource department of that company. Although he understandably looks a bit awkward as being introduced to others at the department, he is certainly eager to do his best, and he soon gets more accustomed to his new work environment as showing more efficiency as required.

However, things have recently been not so good for the company and its numerous employees. Due to some serious financial problem, the company is demanded to lay off at least 150 employees, and Joon-hee and others at the human resource department are soon instructed to work on the upcoming process for sorting out a bunch of possible employees to be laid off. Once Joon-hee quickly sets a seemingly fair standard for this process, he and the other department members promptly make the list based on that, and all they will have to do next is making the following process as smoothly and painlessly as possible.

Needless to say, the representatives of the labor union of the company are not so pleased about this impending layoff. While Joon-hee’s direct supervisor manages to convince them that the layoff is the only survival option for the company as well as the employees, many employees in the company are naturally quite nervous about getting laid off at any point, and this inevitably leads to some serious conflicts inside the company.

Meanwhile, Joon-hee gradually finds himself getting more conflicted as watching how his and his colleagues’ ongoing task affects many others in the company in one way or another – especially after coming to realize that how willing the company is to fire many employees as swiftly and conveniently as possible. At one point later in the story, he must make a hard choice between the two employees particularly close to him, and he feels guiltier as painfully reminded again and again that there is really nothing he can do about the ongoing layoff process except doing whatever he is instructed to do. Although he does not say anything about this to his girlfriend yet, it does not take much time for her to notice that something is bothering him day by day, and their relationship becomes more strained as he still does not talk at all to her frustration.

Without particularly vilifying anyone in the story, the movie adds more realism and human complexity to the story. In case of Joon-hee’s direct supervisor, he remains mostly unflappable as ruthlessly handling the ongoing layoff process, but then there eventually comes a point where he runs out of his patience with the company. While they all are certainly quite disillusioned just like Joon-hee, most of Joon-hee’s colleagues are also concerned a lot about whether they will be included in the layoff list in the end, and they have no choice but to lay themselves as low as possible.

In case of several figures at the top of the company, they are not entirely bad people, and they simply follow whatever is necessary for the survival of the company in their viewpoint. Nevertheless, the movie also reminds us that these people are not exactly as desperate as their employees. For many of the employees in the company, strike and protest look more like a possible alternative as they get cornered more and more, and that certainly brings another headache to the company.

It helps that the main cast members of the film are believable human figures in their mundane appearances. As the center of the film, Jang Sung-bum is solid as subtly conveying to us his character’s growing inner conflict along the story, and he is especially terrific as Joon-hee silently conforms to his direct supervisor’s certain decision on the layoff process even though both of them know too well how wrong that is.

Jang is also supported well by a bunch of good performers, who all give well-rounded performances to be appreciated. Seo Suk-kyu, Kim Do-young, and Kim Young-woong are effectively cast in their respective supporting parts, and they bring each own human nuance to be observed. In case of Jang Liu, who incidentally plays the sole female employee in the human resource department, she has a brief but impressive moment when her character shows some little optimism despite her uncertain situation.

In conclusion, “Work to Do” is a modest but undeniably compelling piece of work to admire, and director/writer Park Hong-jun makes a commendable feature film debut here in this film. The overall result shows that he is a talented filmmaker who knows how to engage us via good story and character, and it will be interesting to see what may come next from him after this considerable achievement of his.

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Heavy Snow (2023) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Between Two Girls

Posted on November 12, 2024 by kaist455

South Korean film “Heavy Snow” depends a lot on the presence of its two lead actresses. Whenever they are together on the screen, they click well with each other all the time in addition to ably filling their rather under-developed parts with each own star quality, and it is a shame that the movie does not provide enough ground for their fairly good performance.

The movie begins with a little performance act by Soo-an (Han Hae-in), a performing arts high school student living in some rural city on the east coast of South Korea. The early part of the story focuses on Soo-an’s accidental friendship with a newly transferred student named Yoon-seol (Han So-hee), and we come to gather that Yoon-seol is a young celebrity actress currently taking some break from her busy acting career.

When Yoon-seol later suggests that they should go to Seoul together on one evening, Soo-an initially hesitates, but she and Yoon-seol eventually go to Seoul by Soo-an’s car. Although it is after midnight when they arrive in Seoul and the streets are already quite empty, Yoon-seol and Soo-an are happy and excited to spend time with each other, and that is when they come to sense a certain mutual feeling between them.

However, Soo-an is not so willing to go further with Yoon-seol after they impulsively kiss, and then something unexpected occurs not long after that. With no particular reason, Yoon-seol leaves the school, and this certainly upsets Soo-an, who belatedly comes to realize that she was really attracted to Yoon-seol from the beginning.

The middle part of the story moves forward to several years later, and we see how Soo-an looks different now. She now becomes celebrity actress just like Yoon-seol once was, and she seems to be enjoying her advancing acting career, but it is soon apparent that she is not so happy behind her confident appearance. In the middle of one night, she spends some time at the residence of a male friend of hers, and she does not say no at all when he offers drugs to her, but then she gets a bit too high due to some very strong drug she instantly takes without any hesitation.

Anyway, Soo-an soon finds herself suddenly overwhelmed by the memory of a local beach visited by her and Yoon-seol. That prompts her to return to her hometown, and, what do you know, she discovers that Yoon-seol has actually lived there since she quit acting some time ago. Now mostly occupied with surfing on the beach, Yoon-seol does not show much attention to Soo-an when they come across each other at a local bar, and the mood between them becomes pretty awkward to say the least.

Nevertheless, Yoon-seol does not reject her friend at all, and Soo-an tries to get closer to Yoon-seol despite the estrangement between them. Just like her friend, she tries to get interested in surfing, and we later see her going to the beach along with Yoon-seol when lots of waves are coming upon the beach on one foggy day.

And then the screenplay by director/writer Yun Su-ik starts to baffle us in one way or another. Not long after Soo-an and Yoon-seol attempt a bit of surfing together, they suddenly find themselves stranded in the middle of the sea, and then they are swept to some remote spot on the coast. Having no idea on where the hell they actually are, they only find themselves getting lost in a nearby forest area covered with a lot of snow, though they eventually manage to find a small cabin where they can stay at least for a while.

As they are hopelessly stuck in that cabin, Soo-an and Yoon-seol gradually come to face the old feelings between them as opening themselves more to each other, and the movie becomes more like a stream of feelings in their unconsciousness. Sometimes they simply feel happy to be with each other despite their current isolated status, and we even get a little intimate private moment between them later in the story, though we are not so sure about whether they actually go further than that.

Unfortunately, the movie does not provide enough detail and substance to the story and characters. We never feel like getting to know them more even at the end of the story, and the finale is rather hollow without much emotional resonance. In the end, all we get is a random series of lovely scenes filled with dreamy qualities, and they sadly lack a coherent emotional line we can hold to the end.

Anyway, the movie is thankfully short in running time (87 minutes), and Han Hae-in and Han So-hee do their best for carrying the film together. Considering this is basically a two-hander, the movie could bring more flesh and personality to their characters in my inconsequential opinion, but these two beautiful young actresses are still engaging to watch nonetheless, and several young female audiences who happened to be around me during my viewing will probably agree to that.

On the whole, I am not so satisfied enough for recommendation, but “Heavy Snow” shows the considerable potential from both its two lead actresses and their director at least. Although observing their efforts from the distance, I appreciated their efforts to some degree, and I can only hope that they will soon do something more interesting than this trial.

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Lucky, Apartment (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): That smell of fear and anxiety in their apartment

Posted on November 11, 2024 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “Lucky, Apartment” is a quiet but tense drama about one lesbian couple who happen to be under a lot of pressure and conflict. All they simply want is a stable living environment where they can happily live together, but then they come to face their harsh reality in one way or another as their supposedly cozy apartment gets saddled with one big problem, and the movie is sometimes realistically frightening for good reasons.

At the beginning, the movie quickly and succinctly establishes how things have been not that good for Seon-woo (Son Soo-hyun) and Hee-seo (Park Ga-young). Mainly thanks to some loan Hee-seo recently got, they could buy a little apartment for living together, but then they only find themselves struggling to pay the mortgage and interest. To make matters worse, their financial status becomes less stable as Seon-woo loses her job after getting seriously injured in her right leg, and Hee-seo, who works as a saleswoman for some big pharmaceutical company, certainly feels pressured a lot as she must earn more than before.

While trying to adjust herself to this changed circumstance, Seon-woo begins to notice something strange on one day. There is a very unpleasant smell somewhere inside the apartment, and it does not take much time for her to discern that this nasty smell in question is actually coming from the apartment right below theirs, which incidentally belongs to some old lady living alone by herself. Seon-woo immediately goes to the maintenance office, but the maintenance office is not so particularly willing to take care of this problem, and the smell in the apartment only gets worse and worse during next several days.

In the end, the local police eventually come, and it soon turns out that the old lady actually died in her apartment several days ago at least. While many of the neighbors in the apartment building are quite shocked to say the least, they are also quite concerned about whether this unfortunate incident may affect the current value of their apartments, and they all hope that everything will be handled as quietly as possible without drawing any attention from the outside.

However, though the local police quickly close the case after concluding that the old lady really died of a natural cause, her apartment has not been cleaned yet due to some complicated legal problem, and it also seems that the old lady does not have any close family or relative to take care of this legal matter. Naturally getting quite frustrated with this maddening situation, Seon-woo decides to take care of this matter for herself, but Hee-seo is understandably not pleased about how much her partner draws the attention from many others in the apartment building.

It gradually turns out that Heo-seo has a fair share of problems to deal with outside their apartment. Because she has presented herself as a single woman simply not so interested in marriage, she often faces the prejudices from others including her male boss and colleagues, and she is also often pressured a lot by her Christian parents, who still do not know anything at all about her private life with Seon-woo. She tries to assure herself and Seon-woo that everything is and will be okay as long as they stay as low as possible, but her anxiety and frustration are already quite evident to Seon-woo, and this puts another strain on their relationship besides the smell in their apartment and more prejudice from some of their neighbors.

Slowly dialing up the level of tension between its two main characters along the story, the screenplay by director/writer Kangyu Ga-ram adds more details to the story and characters. When she later enters the old lady’s apartment by a good chance, Seon-woo instinctively senses something common between her and the old lady, and that becomes more evident when she finally meets someone in the old lady’s past. Nothing much is said between them on the surface, but it is quite clear that the old lady was quite close to that figure in question, and Seon-woo cannot possibly say no when that figure asks her a little but important favor.

Around the last act, the movie expectedly becomes more melodramatic as Seon-woo and Heo-seo come to conflict more with each other while also experiencing more of their harsh reality out there, but it is still held well together by the strong performance from Son Soo-hyun and Park Ga-young. Right from the beginning, they look believable as effortlessly embodying the long history between their characters, and that is why it is devastating to watch their characters’ supposedly reliable relationship being driven almost up to the breaking point later in the story. Around these two good performers, several supporting performers including Lee Joo-young, Jung Ah-hwa, and Jeon So-hyeon are also solid in their respective parts, and Jung is particularly touching during her brief but crucial scene.

Overall, “Lucky, Apartment” is engaging for painfully and powerfully presenting the prejudices against many social issues in South Korea including aging and LGBTQ+ people, and it also makes some sharp point on how South Korean people can be quite selfish and superficial in case of their apartment. Although nothing much is certain for the two main characters of the film even in the end, there is also some glimmer of optimism via a little sign of solidarity and compassion shown from them, and that will probably make you reflect more on the main subjects of the film after it is over.

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Close Your Eyes (2023) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Victor Erice returns

Posted on November 11, 2024 by kaist455

Victor Erice’s “Close Your Eyes”, which is incidentally his comeback work after “Dream of the Light” (1992), takes quite a time as slowly revealing what and how it is about. This surely requires some patience from you, but the movie is an undeniably rewarding experience on the whole. Looking back at its long journey as well as the final destination, you will appreciate how subtly it handles its story and characters to make a point on the power of cinema in the end, and you may also agree that the movie is one of the notable highlights of this year.

The movie opens with the prologue part which turns out to be one of the two completed scenes from an unfinished film in the story. The scene is set in somewhere outside Paris in 1947, and the hero of the movie comes to a big country manor, which is called Triste Del Rey (It means “the sadness of the king” in Spanish, by the way). He meets an old man in the manor, and then they come to have a long conversation as the old man requests the hero to find the old man’s lost daughter who ran away to Shanghai, China some time ago.

The hero of the movie was played by an actor named Julio Arenas (José Coronado), who was quite popular when he participated in the shooting of that unfinished film, which is incidentally called “The Farewell Gaze”. Not long after the two scenes of “The Farewell Gaze” were shot, Arenas was suddenly disappeared for no particular reason, and this certainly ruined not only the movie itself but also the filmmaking career of his novelist friend Miguel Garay (Manolo Solo).

After 22 years have passed since that disaster, Garay is approached by the female host of a popular TV program named “Unsolved Cases”, which is, as you can easily guess from its very title, one of those sensationalist TV programs focusing on many cold cases mired in mystery. Around that time of Arenas’ disappearance, everyone including Garay was quite baffled to say the least without having any idea on what exactly happened to Arenas, and Garay hopes that his collaboration with that TV program will bring some closure to the memories of his friend and their unfinished film at least.

The movie patiently follows Garay as he tries to gather a bit more possible clues from several people in the past before having an interview for that TV program. First, he goes to Max (Mario Pardo), an old friend of his who once worked as his editor and is currently running a little place where numerous films including Garay’s unfinished movie are stored under his care. As he and Garay talk a bit about how people are less interested in preserving movies in physical form as movies become more and more digitalized, you may sense some bitter feelings about the current trend of cinema from Erice himself, and that will probably remind you more of the importance of film preservation.

In case of Arenas’ daughter Ana (Ana Torrent), she does not have any hard feeling on her father’s disappearance, because, well, she hardly knew her father even before his disappearance. Although she believes that her father was dead at that time, there is some bitter wistfulness behind her phlegmatic façade while she talks with Garay about her father’s disappearance, and the movie lets us gather that she has been haunted by Arenas’ disappearance as much as Garay.

By sheer coincidence, Garay later comes to have a little private meeting with Lola (Soledad Villamil), a woman who was romantically involved with him and Arenas, respectively. As they talk more and more with each other, they come to reflect more on how many things in their lives have gone away into the past, and that makes Garay more obsessed with what really happened to Arenas at that time.

However, the screenplay by Erice and his co-writer Michel Gaztambide, which is developed from the story written by Erice, does not hurry itself at all before taking an unexpected plot turn during its second half. I will not go into details here, but I can tell you instead that I admire how the movie steadily and thoughtfully builds up its narrative momentum for its sublime finale, which incidentally reminded me of what Ingmar Bergman once said: “For me, the human face is the most important subject of the cinema.”

And the movie does depend a lot on the faces of its main cast members, which speak volumes even when they do not seem to signify much to us on the surface. While Manolo Solo diligently holds the center with his somber sincerity, José Coronado is equally terrific as often hovering around the screen just like his character does around the story, and I will let you behold for yourself how much his indelible presence in the first half of the film resonates during the finale. Soledad Villamil, Mario Pardo, Helena Miquel, and María León, and Ana Torrent are also effective in their respective supporting roles, and Torrent’s supporting performance willl feel quite poignant to you if you have seen Erice’s first feature film “The Spirit of the Beehive” (1973), where she gave one of the greatest child performances in the history of cinema.

In conclusion, “Close Your Eyes” may feel a bit ponderous to you considering its slow narrative pacing and rather long running time (169 minutes), but it is definitely worthwhile to watch if you have appreciated how cinema has entertained and touched us for many years. Maybe the end of cinema is near as many people have said these days, but the movie movingly reminds us that it is still a powerful tool for human emotions, and we surely need to remember that more, no matter what will happen to cinema in the future.

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