Thanksgiving (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): A gory Thanksgiving season

Posted on November 24, 2024 by kaist455

Eli Roth’s latest film “Thanksgiving”, which is currently available on Netflix in South Korea, is cheerfully gory and violent to our horror and amusement. While this is basically another typical slasher horror movie featuring a bunch of cardboard figures to be dispatched in one way or another, it is at least handled well with enough skill and some sense of truly twisted humor, and you may gladly go along with that even though you definitely wince more than once for good reasons.

The movie actually has a rather long history because it is based on Roth’s fictitious trailer of the same name in Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s “Grindhouse” (2007). While the two other fictitious trailers in “Grindhouse” were already developed into Rodriguez’s “Machete” (2010) and Jason Eisener’s “Hobo with a Shotgun” (2021), respectively, “Thanksgiving” somehow took some more time for its development, and it turns out to be the best one in the bunch in my inconsequential opinion.

The movie opens with one disastrous Thanksgiving Day evening in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The wealthy owner of a big local superstore decides to start the Black Friday sale a little earlier than expected, so hundreds of local people already gather in front of the superstore even before the planned opening time, and, not so surprisingly, things start to go out of control as the only two security guards are hired to handle this increasingly chaotic circumstance. In the end, mainly thanks to the rather thoughtless behavior of several local high school students including the adolescent daughter of the owner, all hell breaks loose, and the movie surely has some nasty fun with how several people get maimed or killed during the following pandemonium unleashed into the superstore.

The story soon moves forward to one year later. Although many people in the town still remember that horrible day, the owner of the superstore, who has cleaned and then covered up the infamy resulted from his unwise business decision as much as possible during last several months, prepares for the upcoming Black Friday sale as before, and this naturally causes some anger and controversy in the town. 

In case of his daughter and her several friends who were responsible for that horrible day to some degree, this controversy does not interest them that much, but then something strange is sent to them via an online application. It seems that someone is very, very, very angry about what they inadvertently caused on that day, and it soon becomes quite apparent to all of them that they are in a serious danger as this mysterious figure in question kills several other figures associated with the incident.

As the town are swept into panic and terror as a consequence, the local police quickly embark on investigation, but the killer keeps remaining one or two steps ahead of them while often shocking us a lot with a number of very unpleasant killing methods you can expect from your average Eli Roth flick. In case of one victim, the killer sadistically dispatches the target while the target happens to be hopping on a trampoline, and you will probably cringe enough to overlook the implausible aspects of this act of killing.

Needless to say, the killer’s remaining targets are terrified more and more as wondering who is actually the killer, and there are naturally two obvious suspects around the daughter of the owner of the superstore. Is her ex-boyfriend still angry about that serious physical injury of his which happened on that day and consequently ruined his promising athletic career? Is it possible that her current boyfriend is hiding something behind his supposedly (and blandly) likable appearance?

You may have already noticed that I did not mention the names of the main characters at all. To be frank with you, they are pretty forgettable without much life or personality to observe, and they only come to function as possible suspects or targets to be killed or tormented. Although there are several notable performers such as Patrick Dempsey and Gina Gershon, they simply fill their respective roles as required, and Gershon is particularly under-utilized during her very brief appearance.

Nevertheless, if you can go along with what Roth intends to do here, you will be alternatively amused and horrified by how willingly the movie goes way over the top along with the killer. Usually wearing the mask of a certain historical figure associated with Thanksgiving Day, the killer continues to go for more gruesome killings to behold, I must confess that I could not help but get tickled when the killer later prepares for the grand finale with something not so far from that shocking finale of Peter Greenaway’s “The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, & Her Lover” (1989).

In conclusion, “Thanksgiving” is a fairly effective genre piece which will certainly delight its target audiences. Yes, it is rather flat and predictable in terms of story and characters (I could easily guess the identity of the killer in advance, for example), but the movie is still a competent product to be enjoyed during the last weeks of cold November, and you may appreciate that even if you are not a fan of Roth’s previous works including “Hostel” (2005). To be frank with you, I considered giving it 2.5 stars at first, but I eventually decided to be a bit more generous this time, so I mildly recommend it with some caution.

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Mimang (2023) ☆☆1/2 (2.5/4): Three different meanings via three acts

Posted on November 22, 2024 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “Mimang” presents the three different meanings of its title via the three acts loosely connected together. Although I am not sure about whether it works as well as intended by its filmmaker, it is engaging to some degree whenever it subtly illustrates the emotional undercurrents between its main characters, and I wish the movie went further with that for bringing more dept and substance to the story and characters.

The first act, which explains the first meaning of the title (迷妄: “Being unable to make sense from ignorance”), begins with the accidental encounter between two unnamed figures in a neighborhood area located in the middle of Seoul. When “Man” (Ha Seong-guk) is searching for a location where he is going to meet his girlfriend, he is approached by “Woman” (Lee Myung-ha), who is incidentally an old friend of his. Both of them are glad to meet each other again after some time, and they decide to take a walk together for a while as he helps her a bit on going to a local arthouse movie theater.

While they continue to talk with each other, we get to know a bit about both of them. He has recently studied drawing for his civil engineering job, and she is going to attend the screening of a partially lost old South Korean film as the main organizer of the event. Both of them have been fairly fine with how their respective lives have been going during last several months, but it gradually becomes apparent to us that there are still some old feelings between them, though they do not admit that directly to each other.

After they eventually part ways, the movie enters its second act as explaining the second meaning of its title (未忘: “Being unable to forget what one wants to forget”). “Woman” successfully handles the following screening in the evening, and then she is approached by one of the male employees working in that arthouse theater shortly after she has an after-screening drinking party along with others. Again, she gets lost on her way, and the guy is willing to accompany and help her finding her way to where she can get on bus or subway.

While they walk and talk together, the movie slowly suggests the possibility of romance between them. It is apparent that the guy feels attracted to her, but she sticks to her reserved attitude even while they lightly push and pull each other during their ongoing conversation. At one point in the middle of the conversation, she says that she actually has a kid from some previous relationship of hers, but, mainly because of the rather playful mood between her and the guy, we cannot be totally sure about whether she is lying or not.

The second act of the movie moves along with these two characters in the same neighborhood area shown in its first act, and several recurring elements make the second act a bit amusing for us from time to time. For example, they talk a bit about a certain nearby big stature of one famous historical figure just like “Woman” and “Man” did in the first act, and the movie even does some visual repetition during several key shots.

During the third act which gives us the third meaning of the title (彌望: “Searching for far and Wide”), the mood becomes more serious as it begins with the funeral of a friend of “Man” and “Woman”, who subsequently spend some time with another friend of theirs who gladly drives them back to the same neighborhood area of Seoul by his taxi. As “Man” gets rather sleepy on the passenger’s seat, his friend comes to have a long conversation with “Woman”, and the camera steadily focuses on these three characters as the conversation becomes a bit more tense than expected.

In the end, these three characters arrive in that neighborhood area of Seoul, and “Man” and “Woman” go to a small local bar where they wait for their friend to join them later. As they talk with the bar owner, the mood becomes a bit more relaxed, and then there comes a little impromptu musical moment as “Man” performs a song in front of the others.

The melancholic mood of the third act does not fit that well with the lightweight atmosphere of the first two acts, and that is where my attention dwindled to some degree, though I still appreciate the effortlessly natural performances from several performers in the film, who did a good job of filling their rather thin characters with enough life and presence. As the elusive emotional center of the film, Lee Myung-ha carries well the film to the end, and she is particularly wonderful when her character shows more feelings during the last scene of the second act. In case of her co-stars, Ha Seong-guk, who has frequently appeared in Hong Sang-soo’s several recent works including “A Traveler’s Needs” (2024), Baek Seung-jin, Park Bong-joon are effective as the counterparts to Lee’s acting, and they all steadily support Lee during their demanding extended scenes in the film.

Frequently reminiscent of many other films ranging from Richard Linklater’s Before Trilogy to Celine Song’s “Past Lives” (2023), “Mimang” does not distinguish enough in terms of story and characters, but it has some vivid urban mood and solid performances thanks to the competent direction of director/writer Kim Tae-yang, who incidentally made a feature film debut here this film. I am still not satisfied enough for recommendation, but the movie shows some potential of its director, and I sincerely hope that he will soon move onto better things to come in the future.

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Wicked (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): When they were friends…

Posted on November 21, 2024 by kaist455

“Wicked”, which is actually based on the first half of the popular Broadway musical of the same name, is as colorful and spirited as expected. While this is your average bloated musical film, it is thankfully buoyed by the good efforts shown and felt from the screen, and you may not mind waiting for a year to see how the story eventually ends.

The aforementioned Broadway musical is based on the novel of the same named by Gregory Maquire, which is a revisionist take on the 1900 fantasy novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum. Maquire’s book presents the Wicked Witch of the West as a sympathetic protagonist who was actually not evil at all in the beginning, and that is certainly interesting for anyone who enjoyed Baum’s book or the 1939 classic movie “The Wizard of Oz”, which immortalizes the Wicked Witch of the West as one of the greatest (and scariest) movie villains of all time.

After the opening part showing what happens not along after the news on the death of the Wicked Witch of the West is spread all around Oz, the story begins at a prestigious school where many different students including Galinda Upland (Ariana Grande), a young popular girl who sometimes looks like sort of a cross between Reese Witherspoon in “Legally Blonde” (2001) and Rachel McAdams in “Mean Girls” (2004), are about to begin their first day at the school. As you can easily guess, she is the one who will be subsequently known as Glinda the Good Witch of the North, and it goes without saying that she is quite eager to study magic under Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), who is incidentally the Headmistress of the school.

However, Madame Morrible does not regard Galinda that highly, and she actually pays more attention to a green-skinned girl named Elphaba Thropp (Cynthia Erivo), who will be later known as, yes, the Wicked Witch of the West. Although Elphaba is not officially a student as simply accompanying her disabled younger sister as demanded by her father, she happens to show her very special ability in front of others in the school, and Madame Morrible willingly takes her under her tutelage for a purpose to be revealed later in the story.

Anyway, Galinda is instructed to share her big and pinky dormitory room with Elphaba, and she is surely not amused at all, but, what do you know, she and Elphaba become closer to each other as getting to know each other during next several months. While she is still your average popular schoolgirl usually more occupied with having all the fun and excitement, Galinda comes to care more about her lonely and unhappy roommate, and Elphaba appreciates more of Galinda’s friendship especially after Galinda willingly comes forward to take care of what is going to be another humiliating moment for her roommate.

As these two different young ladies befriend each other more along the story, the movie throws a series of the original songs from the Broadway musical, and most of them are presented well on the screen. Director Jon M. Chu, who is no stranger to musical film considering his previous movie “In the Heights” (2021), and his crew members including cinematographer Alice Brooks and editor Myron Kerstein did a good job of handling a number of big musical scenes with enough spirit and skill, and production designer Nathan Crowley and costume designer Paul Tazewell, both of whom may get Oscar-nominated early in next year, surely have a field day here as filling the screen with many lively colorful details to be appreciated.

Meanwhile, the movie also tries to generate more gravitas via the increasing discrimination against talking animal characters including the one voiced by Peter Dinklage. Although this more serious subplot is not totally mixed well with the cheery overall mood of the movie, it is still a crucial part resonating with Elphaba’s longtime experience of discrimination, and we are not so surprised when she becomes quite furious after learning of what has actually been perpetrated behind all the deceptions of that great wizard of Oz.

Around the last act, the movie feels a bit overlong with a lot of CGI spectacles, but it is still held together well thanks to not only Chu’s competent direction but also the two good musical performances by Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. Because both of them are well-experienced singers, they deftly and effortlessly convey to us every emotional detail of their songs without any misstep, and they always click well with each other whenever they share the screen together. While Erivo surely pulls all the stops when she confidently sings “The Wizard and I” early in the film, Grande is equally terrific when she performs “Popular”, and they ably support the film together even when it feels rather lagging during the middle part.

In case of the supporting performers in the film, they dutifully fill the spot around Erivo and Grande. Michelle Yeoh and Jeff Goldblum are dependable as usual while demonstrating a bit of their respective singing skills, and Jonathan Bailey does more than being your typical Prince Charming in the story. In addition, there is also a witty cameo appearance by someone I will not reveal here for not spoiling any of your surprise fun.

On the whole, “Wicked” inherently feels incomplete as the first half of the story to be continued besides being rather overstuffed, but it is still a solid piece of entertainment to be enjoyed by many musical fans out there. Yes, it is not as great as “The Wizard of Oz” in my trivial opinion, but it has a fair share of charm and energy, so I will not grumble for now.

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Occupied City (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): The past and present of one European city

Posted on November 20, 2024 by kaist455

Steve McQueen’s documentary film “Occupied City” is an ambitious piece of work alternatively interesting and demanding. For more than 4 hours, the documentary simply shows and tells the old past of a heap of different spots in Amsterdam of the Netherlands, and this will surely demand some patience from you, but its big historical picture slowly emerges as the past of the city sometimes makes some contrast and resonance with its present.

The documentary is based on “Atlas of an Occupied City, Amsterdam 1940-1945” by McQueen’s wife Bianca Stigter, who incidentally participated in the production of the documentary along with McQueen. According to McQueen, he and his crew shot more than 30 hours of footage here and there in Amsterdam during the early 2020s, and they actually covered every spot mentioned in Stigter’s book during their shooting.

Without any archival footage clip or photograph, McQueen and his cinematographer Lennert Hillege just observe these numerous spots from their mostly static viewpoint. At the beginning, the documentary shows the inside of a building which once belonged to a Jewish publisher before World War II, and the narrator phlegmatically informs us on his and his family’s tragic story associated with the Holocaust – and how one of his Dutch associates helped several Jewish people hide from those Nazi German soldiers and police officers.

This will surely remind you of Anne Frank and her family members, and the documentary shows us that there were many other desperate Jewish people in the city when Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands in 1940. Because the Dutch government stayed neutral just like it did during World War I, many German Jewish people moved to the Netherlands for safety, and they were certainly shocked and terrified when their biggest fear came true. As a matter of fact, many incidents of suicide happened shortly after the invasion and the subsequent surrender of the Dutch Army, and there is a particularly heartbreaking case where one big Jewish family killed themselves via gas asphyxiation, which was incidentally a common method in many other similar suicide cases during that dark time. 

After taking over Amsterdam, the Nazi German Army and police quickly embarked on isolating and then cornering thousands of Jewish people in the city by any means necessary. Besides forcing them to wear that infamous yellow star on their clothes, the Nazi German Army and police put many different social limits on them, and that included prohibiting Jewish people from entering numerous public spaces including theaters and restaurants except the ones in several Jewish neighborhood areas in the city.

The Nazi German Army and police also put a considerable amount of limits upon others in the city, and the documentary sometimes juxtaposes this historical fact with how things got bad in the city during the COVID-19 Pandemic during the early 2020s. For stopping more infections, the Dutch government came to consider several hard measures including night curfew, and many people in Amsterdam were not so pleased as shown from several signs of protests on the streets and alleys of the city. At one point in the middle of the documentary, a drone camera smoothly moves around the empty streets and places of the city, and the narrator tells us a bit about how harshly the curfew was imposed on the city and its people during World War II.   

Sticking to its calmly objective attitude, the documentary continues to present and explain one spot after another, and we get more informed about how the situation was quite bad for the city and its people especially around the end of World War II. As the defeat of Nazi Germany became more apparent day by day, the oppression on the city and its people became more severe, and many local people hiding from Nazi Germany surely became more desperate than ever. While there were brave good people willingly risking their lives for saving and helping others, and there were opportunistic bad people gladly betraying others for their benefit and safety, and the documentary often shows where they once lived during the war – and what happened to them during or after the war.       

Now Amsterdam surely looks quite different from how it was during the 1940s, and the past does not seem to hover over those numerous spots shown in the documentary, but we also see how the city and its people keep trying for not forgetting that dark past. The documentary looks at several monuments associated with the Holocaust, and there is a quiet but undeniably haunting moment when the camera slowly looks over the names of thousands of Jewish people who went through one of the main deportation centers in the city before eventually being sent to a number of different concentration camps and killing centers in Germany and Poland. Needless to say, most of these people were not lucky at all, and we get chilled when the documentary tells us how many Jewish people in Amsterdam actually died during the war.   

On the whole, “Occupied City” is a little too dry and glacial for holding your attention for more than 4 hours, but you may come to admire the respectable efforts of McQueen and his crew members, while observing how it eventually arrives at the finale where it shows a little sign of optimism and progress. Sure, it frequently feels like going through a very, very, very long tour around Amsterdam with the constant presence of a docent to explain one thing after another, but I assure you that you will come to learn of many other interesting things about Amsterdam during World War II besides Anne Frank.

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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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