Venom: The Last Dance (2024) ☆☆(2/4): Until death does them apart

Posted on October 24, 2024 by kaist455

“Venom: The Last Dance”, what is supposed to be the last chapter of the trilogy started with “Venom” (2018), is a schizophrenic mess which fails to mix well its goofy parts with more serious plot elements. While it is occasionally amusing to watch the comic interactions between the mismatched duo at the center of the movie, the story is also too thin and scattershot to hold our attention, and the overall result is another disappointing comic book movie during last several years.

The movie begins at the point not long after the ending of “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” (2021). Eddie Brook / Venom (Tom Hardy) has been a fugitive hiding somewhere in Mexico, and then he and his alien symbiote which imbues him with super-human abilities come to have a very big trouble on their way. The evil creator of symbiotes, who has been imprisoned somewhere in the universe, is looking for something Brook and his alien symbiote have, and one of those hideous alien creatures under this evil dude’s control comes down to the Earth for looking for Brook and his alien symbiote.

Meanwhile, Brook and his alien symbiote are also being pursued by the people associated with a certain top-secret US military project hidden at a site not so far from that famous military zone in Nevada. Once they find Brock’s current location, a bunch of soldiers led by General Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor) immediately begin their pursuit, and it goes without saying that they soon encounter that hideous alien creature, which has a rather nasty way of killing whoever tries to interfere with its relentless pursuit.

Anyway, as trying to evade both General Strickland’s soldiers and that hideous alien creature, Brock eventually finds himself in the middle of Nevada, and that is where he gets some help from a goofy family guy and his wife and children, who happen to be traveling around Nevada just for getting any chance to see an alien around that famous military zone of Nevada. The movie has some fun with how Brock tries to hide his little secret from his unexpected helpers as much as possible, and we get a little amusing moment when they attempt to cheer up Brock with a brief musical performance while his alien symbiote is eager to sing along with them.

After more comic moments along the story, the movie becomes much more serious as Brock and his alien symbiote must confront their main opponent, and that is where the movie becomes a lot shakier than before. Hurriedly throwing its hero and several other characters into lots of busy action, the action scenes in the film feel merely frantic and jumbled, and you may get all the more confused when a bunch of additional alien figures appear later. While we surely get a big explosive finale in the end, we already saw that coming from the beginning due to something which can be regarded as an equivalent to Chekhov’s gun, and I must say that this is one of many occasions of ineffectual writing in the film.

Above all, it is often difficult for us to care about the story and characters of the film. Eddie and his alien symbiote are still an amusing mismatched duo, but their dysfunctional relationship is not developed that much from what was shown in “Venom” and its 2021 sequel movie. In case of several substantial supporting characters in the movie, they are mostly flat and bland without much human quality to engage us, and that is the main reason why we do not care much about whatever is being at stake for them along the story.

Tom Hardy, who also provides the voice for Brock’s alien symbiote in addition to serving as the co-writer and co-producer of the film, looks as committed as he did in the previous two films while also having a ball whenever Brock bickers with his alien symbiote. However, his fairly enjoyable efforts here in this film are often limited by the numerous half-baked aspects of the story written by him and director/co-writer Kelly Marcel, who also served as a co-writer in the previous two films, and I can only hope that he will soon move onto something much better for his career.

A number of notable cast members of the film are regrettably under-utilized, though a few of them fortunately acquit themselves well at least. Chiwetel Ejiofor, who is no stranger to comic book movie considering his supporting turn in “Doctor Strange” (2016), is thoroughly wasted without much to do, and the same thing can be said about Juno Temple and Stephen Graham, who often seems merely waiting for getting the paycheck. While Rhys Ifans generates some amusement as that goofy family guy, Peggy Lu, who delightfully stole the show as a Chinese convenient store owner who befriended both Eddie and his alien symbiote in the previous two movies, has another scene-stealing time during her brief but funny appearance around the middle of the film.

In conclusion, “Venom: The Last Dance” manages to reach to the end of its trilogy, but it is disappointing due to its deficient narrative and superficial characterization. After getting quite dissatisfied with “Venom”, I was a bit glad to see some sign of improvement in “Venom: Let There Be Carnage”, but “Venom: The Last Dance” sadly goes down back to the gross level of underachievement shown in “Venom”, and this surely lets me down a lot. To be frank with you, it is already being faded in my mind as I am about to move onto Pedro Almodóvar’s latest film which happens to be released in the same week in South Korea, and I am sure that my memory of “Venom: The Last Dance” will be almost wiped out after watching that Almodóvar movie.

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Smile 2 (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): It’s going to smile again

Posted on October 23, 2024 by kaist455

“Smile 2” goes for more terror and fear in the same playground, and I enjoyed it more than expected. While it is not so different from its predecessor in terms of story setting, the movie gives us a wilder and flashier version packed with enough mood and a darkly vicious sense of humor, and it is also supported well by the strong performance at its center.

The movie begins at the point not long after what happened at the end of “Smile” (2022). As many of you remember, the heroine of “Smile” sadly failed to free herself from some horribly powerful supernatural entity, and she only ended up getting possessed and then committed “suicide” right in front of her cop boyfriend. Six days later, he is also driven to the edge as that evil entity is now stalking him, and he devises his own desperate plan for freeing himself and stopping that evil entity. Unfortunately, his plan does not go well at all just like his girlfriend’s case, and he only comes to get that evil entity transferred to some young drug addict before he also gets killed in the end.

This young drug addict happens to be a friend of Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), a very famous pop star singer who has been trying to be sober and clean after having a devastating car accident due to her addiction problem around one year ago. When she comes to her addict friend’s apartment for getting some painkiller to dull her frequent pain in the back, he has been already quite unhinged due to that evil entity, and, of course, Riley soon becomes the very next target after he eventually gets possessed and then killed.

While trying to recover from this shocking incident, Riley soon comes to realize that something is going very, very, very wrong around her. She begins to have quite frightening nightmares, and then she frequently sees that disturbing smile from others around her. As these happenings get worse and worse to her horror, she becomes more confused about what is real or not, and she even receives the warning texts from a mysterious figure who seems to know well about what is really happening to her right now.

However, Riley does not have anyone who can really help her. Her mother, who has worked as her manager for years, is more occupied with pushing her daughter more for more success along with an executive from some influential recording company. In case of a young woman who was once Riley’s best friend, they have been estranged from each other since the time around when that accident happened, though Riley comes to consider calling her friend for reconciliation and some help as being terrorized more and more by that evil entity.

As that evil entity frequently throws Riley into a series of unnerving mind-bending moments, director/writer Parker Finn, who is also the director/writer of “Smile”, and his crew members including cinematographer Charlie Sarroff have some naughty fun with vividly and strikingly presenting the heroine’s worsening plight. The movie sometimes emphasizes its heroine’s increasingly unstable state of mind with odd camera angles, and the accumulating sense of dread across the screen is further amplified by the score by Cristobal Tapia de Veer.

In terms of story and character, the movie generates interesting resonance between the story setting and its heroine’s profession. Even before she is cornered to the extreme by that evil entity, Skye has already been driven to the edge due to not only her mother and several others around her but also thousands of fans out there, and the movie makes some sharp points on that while also giving us several big moments of music and dance as required.

Good horror films usually have someone for whom we can fear at least, and Naomi Scott, who has been mainly known for her lead performance in “Aladdin”, willingly hurls herself into her high-strung lead character. In addition to handling well the musical scenes in the movie, Scott deftly goes up and down along with her character as palpably conveying to us her character’s terror and confusion, and she surely demonstrates more of her considerable talent and presence here in this film. It goes without saying that Riley is doomed from the very beginning, but Scott is still compelling enough to hold our attention to the end, and the result is another memorable horror movie performance to remember.

In case of several main cast members surrounding Scott, they are more or less than the background figures revolving around her grand performance, but some of them leave some impression nonetheless. While Rosemarie DeWitt is sometimes terrifying as Riley’s demanding mother, Peter Jacobson and Dylan Gelula are also well-cast as two different supporting characters who may actually help Riley, and Ray Nicholson, who is incidentally the son of Jack Nicholson, briefly appears as Riley’s dead boyfriend who got killed during that accident. I need to see more of Nicholson for confirming whether he is a good actor just like his legendary father (He recently played a minor supporting role in “Promising Young Woman” (2020) and “Licorice Pizza” (2021), by the way), but he inherits that killer smile from his daddy, and the movie and that evil entity effectively utilize it.

In conclusion, “Smile 2” is a solid sequel to be appreciated for its several strong points including Scott’s terrific performance, which compensate enough for is familiar story setting and rather overlong running time (127 minutes). Finn shows here that he is indeed a talented filmmaker as observed from his previous film, and it will be interesting to see what he will do next after the considerable achievement in his first two feature films.

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Woman of the Hour (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): Appearing with a serial killer on TV

Posted on October 22, 2024 by kaist455

Anna Kendrick’s first feature film “Woman of the Hour”, which was released on Netflix on last Friday, chillingly examines sexism via an unbelievable story associated with one real-life serial killer in US during the late 1970s. Yes, as shown from the film, this horrible dude did appear in a TV game show, and it is often disturbing to observe how he managed to get away with his numerous killings during that time (Some estimated that he killed around 130 people at most, though he was convicted for total seven murders on the record).

That serial killer in question is Rodney Alcala (Daniel Zovatto), who incidentally died in prison a few years ago. The opening scene shows how Alcala is preying on a woman who will be his latest victim with his camera, and this dry but undeniably chilling moment comes to us a cross between “Zodiac” (2007) and “Peeping Tom” (1960). As Alcala keeps watching her and throwing a few personal questions to her, the woman gradually uneasier, and then, to our horror, she belatedly comes to realize what is going to happen to her.

The movie soon shifts its focus to Cheryl Bradshaw (Anna Kendrick), a plucky young actress looking for any possible big break for her career in Hollywood. After having another disappointment from her latest audition, Bradshaw gets consoled a bit by a male friend/neighbor who is also an actor, but their following drinking night only reminds her that he is no better than those two guys who callously disregarded her at that audition.

At least, her agent gets her a little job which may lead her to more auditions in the future. She is going to appear as a contestant in the latest episode a popular local TV game show called “The Dating Game”, and all Bradshaw will have to do on that show is just simply following whatever she is instructed to do in front of the camera and the audiences. When she subsequently comes to the set, everyone on the set including the host is already ready to do the show, and she is told that everything will be okay as long as she goes along well with others on the set.

Of course, as a young pretty woman who is simply regarded on the set as an object to be won by three hidden male participants, Bradshaw soon faces another moment of misogyny. For example, she is instructed to ask banal questions which demean her in one way or another, and the host, who is your average egoistic male prick, frequently ridicules and insults her just for drawing more laughs from his audiences. In case of the hidden male participants, the first two guys are pretty pathetic in each own way, while the third dude seems a bit better than these two other guys.

However, this third dude is Alcala, so the mood naturally becomes suspenseful for us step by step. On the surface, everything looks bright and cheery around Bradshaw, but the score by Dan Romer and Mike Tuccillo subtly dials the level of uneasiness around the screen, and we come to fear more for Bradshaw as it is more apparent to us that Alcala considers her as another victim to lure and then kill.

Meanwhile, the movie occasionally flashes back or forward for showing more of Alcala’s atrocious crimes – and how he often managed to avoid police investigation mainly due to sexism. While he seems fairly likable in his plain appearance, women always sense some creepy vibe around him, and he even gladly shows the photographs of his victims to his co-workers. Many of his colleagues, who are incidentally male, are not so serious about that at all, and neither does a detective who comes to his workplace for interviewing him a bit. As a matter of fact, Alcala happens to be recognized by one woman in the audience at one point, but, not so surprisingly, nobody listens to her words at all – not even her boyfriend.

The screenplay by Ian McDonald, who participated in the production along with Kendrick as a co-executive producer, gets a bit more tense as Alcala approaches closer to Bradshaw later in the story. While getting to know him a bit more, Bradshaw becomes more unnerved, but she cannot easily say no to him, even when she comes to sense more that something is not so right about him.

Never hurrying the story and characters at all, the movie skillfully accumulates tension below the surface under Kendrick’s competent direction. While the movie is influenced by “Zodiac” to some degree, it is clear that she did her homework well before making the film, and her result distinguishes itself as bringing substantial female perspective to the story materials besides wisely avoiding gratuitous sensationalism.

While Kendrick holds the center well with another strong performance to watch, she also draws fine performances from her several main cast members. While Daniel Zovatto is subtly creepy as required, Nicolette Robinson and Autumn Best are well-cast in their respective supporting parts, and the special mention goes to Tony Hale, who ably embodies the smug sexism of his smarmy host character.

On the whole, “The Woman of the Hour” is one of more satisfying movies from Netflix during this year, and Kendrick did a commendable job of showing another side of her considerable talent here in this film. It is surely a solid beginning for her directing career, and I think I can have some expectation on whatever she will make next.

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The Last of the Sea Woman (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): The Women and the Sea

Posted on October 22, 2024 by kaist455

Documentary film “The Last of the Sea Woman”, which is currently available on Apple TV+, is about a group of South Korean women who have worked as “haenyeo”, which means “Sea Woman” in Korean. For earning their living via collecting seafood, they frequently dive deep into the ocean without oxygen tank, and they are actually recognized as an important part of the local culture even though their communities have been sadly declining during last several decades.

At first, the documentary introduces us to a bunch of old ladies still working as haenyeo in Jeju Island. Despite their aging status, they all are ready to do their demanding job nonetheless, and the documentary closely shows how these women work in the ocean. Sure, as an expert points out later in the documentary, every dive is pretty risky and difficult for them to say the least, but they do more than 100 dives during several hours everyday, and we see how they collect seafood as much as possible within the few minutes of each dive.  

Many of these ladies have worked as haenyeo for many years since they were very young. While some of them chose this vocation mainly because of economic reasons, others just like being in the ocean, but they are all proud of how they have been the living parts of their local culture. Although their vocation was often disregarded by many others in the past, it was recently recognized by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), and they are now regarded as respectable elders in their island.

However, the communities of haenyeo in Jeju Island have been considerably decreased due to several causes. As the island goes through more social modernization during last several decades, less young people are willing to do work as haenyeo, and there are only a few thousands of haenyeos in the island at present. While There is actually a little training academy for haenyeo in the island where several old haenyeo willingly impart their skills and experiences to their students, the number of haenyeo in the island still continues to decrease, and they have accepted that they will probably be the last generation of their old profession. No matter how they try to keep going, they become more vulnerable mainly because of aging, and one of them gets a little depressed when she has to stop working in the ocean due to a serious physical injury.

Nevertheless, there is still some hope and possibility for the tradition of haenyeo. Around its middle part, the documentary shifts its focus to Geoje Island, which is located around the southern end of the Korean Peninsula. Although haenyeo has been mainly represented by Jeju Island, many of seaside towns and islands in South Korea actually had a fair number of haenyeos in the past, and we observe how two young haenyeos work together in Geoje Island while often promoting themselves via their YouTube channel.   

One of these young haenyeos gladly talk about how she came to choose her vocation by accident. When her husband’s little private business was shut down, she moved to Geoje Island along with her family, and, what do you know, she became quite passionate about becoming a haenyeo even though she did not have any previous experience before. It was surely quite hard and difficult for her at first, but she soon became an expert, and she is proud of her job as much as those old hanyeos in Jeju Island.

Instead of delving more into this part, the documentary moves back to Jeju Island for showing more about what has recently been threatening not only the haenyeo communities but also the ocean environment surrounding the island. As the island suffers a number of environment problems including the ongoing global climate disruption, the business has been going down for many of haenyeos in the island, and they certainly become quite worried when the Japanese government decides to release a huge amount of radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear accident into the ocean. When they later have a group meeting with several activists and experts, they show more concern and anger, and it eventually becomes evident to everyone that they should stick and protest together for protecting their sea.

The documentary subsequently shows the haenyeos doing a group demonstration against the South Korean government, which unwisely lets the Japanese government dump the radioactive water into the ocean without much caution. One of them later goes to Geneva, Switzerland for making a speech in English in front of many representatives from a number of various countries around the world, and that is one of the most poignant moments in the documentary. Although they sadly failed to stop the Japanese government in the end, they did as much as possible at least, and that was a small consolation for them.

I must point out that “The Last of the Sea Woman” does not show anything particularly new to me and South Koreans, mainly because we have been quite familiar to its main subject due to a number of recent local documentaries including “Breathing Underwater” (2016). Nevertheless, it is still a fairly engaging and informative documentary on the whole, and director/co-producer Sue Kim, who incidentally produced the documentary with Malala Yousafzai, presents her human subjects with enough care and respect. I wish it showed and told more, but the overall result is mostly solid at least, and I gladly recommend it if you never heard about haenyeo.

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The Shadow Strays (2024) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Extremely violent and incredibly excessive

Posted on October 21, 2024 by kaist455

Indonesian action thriller film “The Shadow Strays”, which was released on Netflix on last Thursday, is extremely violent and incredibly excessive. While it continues the trend of those bloody and violent Indonesian action flicks mainly represented by “The Raid: Redemption” (2011) and its 2014 sequel, the movie also often feels blatantly overlong with its relentlessly overpowering presentation of big physical actions, and that made me more aware of its glaring deficiency in terms of story and characters.

The opening sequence of the film is clearly influenced a lot by “Kill Bill: Volume 1” (2003) and “John Wick” (2014) and its sequels. During one very snowy night, the headquarters of some big Japanese criminal organization is ambushed, and we see a bunch of gang members being brutally eliminated by two ruthless assassins sent from some mysterious assassin group called “Shadow”. Needless to say, this barbaric massacre eventually culminates to the final fight on a snowy ground, and we soon get a dramatic shot showing the snowy ground strewn with blood.

These two assassins are a young woman, who is simply called 13 (Aurora Ribero), and her longtime mentor Umbra (Hanna Malasan). Although their mission was accomplished on the whole, Umbra later chides 13 for making a serious mistake in the middle of the mission, and 13 is subsequently sent to a slum neighborhood of Jakarta, Indonesia for staying quiet during her following suspension period.

All she will have to do is living anonymously for some time in a shabby apartment building, but 13 soon comes to notice the ongoing problem of one of her nearby neighbors. There is a female prostitute living with her 11-year-old son, and it is apparent that she gets herself involved with a bunch of very dangerous criminal figures. Not long after 13 witnesses something serious happening between the prostitute and those criminals, the prostitute dies under a rather questionable circumstance, and then 13 approaches to the prostitute’s son because, well, she comes to feel sorry for the boy as her mind is haunted again by some old memory from her childhood.

It looks like 13 can be a sort of protective big sister to the boy, but, unfortunately, things soon become quite complicated when the boy decides to confront those criminals clearly responsible for his mother’s death. Shortly after he is disappeared, some small-time criminal comes into the boy and his mother’s residence for looking for something important, and, of course, 13 becomes quite determined to take care of this matter for herself.

As our heroine embarks on going after whoever is holding the boy, we get to know a bit more about those criminal figures associated with the boy’s mother. There is a loony but vicious pimp who has controlled over many other prostitutes just like the boy’s mother, and he and a certain local cop are closely associated with a powerful local crime lord, who turns out to be the son of a certain influential political figure in the city.

Even after learning more about how powerful her opponents are, 13 is not daunted at all as willingly throwing herself into the criminal world inside the city, and we are accordingly served with a series of well-made physical action scenes which are striking for not only their remorselessly extreme violence but also their slick style. Director/writer/co-producer Timo Tjahjanto, who previously made “The Big 4” (2020), is apparently eager to demonstrate more of himself as a filmmaker with a particular set of skills, and you will not be disappointed at all if you are a fan of “The Raid: Redemption” (I am not, by the way).

However, as shown from the unevenly distracting mix of comedy, action, and melodrama in “The Big 4”, Tjahjanto is not a very good writer, and his screenplay struggles to provide a narrative engaging enough to hold our attention. While its heroine is a merely effective killing machine without much personality to observe, many of the supporting characters in the story are too broad to generate any interest, though I must confess that it is sometimes amusing to watch how several main cast members playing the villains of the story often try to chew their scenes as much as Al Pacino did in “Scarface” (1983). The movie later tries to humanize its heroine a bit via the subplot between her and mentor, but this part is mostly redundant while only functioning as an excuse for more action (and running time) later in the story.

Anyway, the movie sets the ground for a possible sequel around the end credits with the surprise appearance of a certain recognizable Indonesian actor from “The Raid: Redemption”, and Aurora Ribero shows here that she deserves a sequel where she can show more of her potential as a new action movie star to watch. She and Hanna Malasan are convincing during several demanding physical action scenes of theirs, and it is a shame that the movie does not bring more human substance to their characters’ supposedly complicated relationship.

Despite its several competent action scenes to be appreciated, “The Shadow Strays” does not engage me enough for recommendation mainly due to its narrative deficiencies. I know well that good action movies do not always require good story and characters, but the movie goes a bit too far in my humble opinion, and I hope that its flaws will be rectified in its possible sequel.

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Tokyo Twilight (1957) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): A bleak family melodrama from Ozu

Posted on October 20, 2024 by kaist455

Yasujirō Ozu’s final black and white film “Tokyo Twilight” is quite bleak compared to many of his gentler movies. Yes, as I observed in my recent review on “Tokyo Story” (1953), there is always a subtle sense of sadness and melancholy under the surface in Ozu’s films, but “Tokyo Twilight” is willing to go much further with darker family drama materials, and it even approaches to the grimly harrowing territory of the works of Ozu’s fellow Japanese filmmaker Kenji Mizoguchi at times.

At the beginning, the movie slowly establishes several family characters at the center of the story. We meet a middle-aged senior bank employee named Shukichi Sugiyama (Chishū Ryū), and then we are introduced to his two adult daughters Takako (Setsuko Hara) and Akiko (Ineko Arima). Although she married a professor some time ago, Takako recently moved back to her family house along with her infant daughter, and it seems that she is not going back to her husband at least for now. In case of Akiko, both her father and his sister have wanted her to marry some nice lad someday, but she does not look so interested in marriage, and we later see her looking for someone here and there in a nearby area filled with bars and gambling sites.

We gradually gather that Akiko has been looking for her boyfriend due to a very serious matter, and we are not so surprised by how callously he responds to her when she finally meets him and then reveals to him that, yes, she is pregnant. With no one to discuss with on this serious matter of hers, Akiko becomes quite desperate, and the only consolation for her is that she can quickly take care of her problem with some money behind her back, though this does not make her feel any better about her current plight.

Of course, both Takako and Shukichi begin to sense that there is something odd about Akiko, but they only get more baffled as Akiko keeps quiet about her problem, and then there comes another big family matter to deal with. When Akiko drops by a local mahjong parlor, she comes across a middle-aged woman who works there, and, what do you know, this woman turns out to be her mother, who left the family with some other guy a long time ago. Although both Akiko and Akiko’s mother do not realize at first, Takako later comes to learn about her mother’s current status, and that naturally leads to a melodramatic moment between her and her mother.

As usual, Ozu slowly rolls the story and characters under his calm and reflective direction, but the mood feels much starker here compared to many of his other films such as “Tokyo Story” (1953). Again, every shot in the movie is carefully composed in the screen ratio of 1.33:1 ratio, but Ozu and his cinematographer Yuuharu Atsuta deliberately fill the screen with barren darkness in most of the nocturnal scenes in the film, and this visual strategy further accentuates the despair and loneliness felt by the main characters. As a matter of fact, there are even a number of striking visual moments instantly evoking the moody and pessimistic qualities of noir films, and you can clearly discern that Ozu is really trying to do something much darker here in this film.

Meanwhile, the story gets gloomier as its main characters become more distant to each other with more failure to communicate. At one point in the middle of the film, Shukichi attempts to make his younger daughter talk more about whatever she is struggling with, but he only ends up being too stern and angry to Akiko. Takako also tries to talk more with Akiko as her younger sister, but they only become more distant to each other, and the situation between them gets worse when Akiko comes to learn about what her older sister tries to hide from her.

Even when the story eventually reaches to the finale, Ozu does not soften anything in the movie, and the following ending is quite bitter to say the least. In “Tokyo Story”, we are often saddened by how an aging couple become more distant to their children, but there are also some poignant moments of family love which console not only us but also the aging couple. In case of “Tokyo Twilight”, we are devastated by how Shukichi and his family members are shattered up to the point of no return in the end, and we cannot help but observe how his house feels much barren than before – and how his life may be filled with more loneliness and emptiness during the rest of his life.

Like “Tokyo Story”, “Tokyo Twilight” is packed with Ozu’s frequent performers, and it is interesting to watch how several performers from the former feel quite different in the latter. While Chishū Ryū did a flawless job of embodying his patriarch character as he did many times for Ozu, Ineko Arima and Sestuko Hara are heartbreaking in their characters’ respective dramatic arcs along the story, and several other familiar cast members including Isuzu Yamada, Haruko Sugimura, and Nobuo Nakamura are also excellent in their substantial supporting roles.

Overall, “Tokyo Twilight” is a relatively tough stuff which surely stands out as being sandwiched between “Early Spring” (1956) and “Equinox Flower” (1958) in Ozu’s remarkably consistent filmmaking career. I may not love it as much as “Tokyo Story” or “Floating Weeds” (1959), but I admire it as another Ozu film which needs more attention in my inconsequential opinion, and you should certainly check it out as soon as possible if you have admired Ozu’s films as much I and many others have.

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Saving a Dragonfly (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): Painfully personal

Posted on October 20, 2024 by kaist455

South Korean documentary film “Saving a Dragonfly” is painfully personal at times. It initially looks like as an innocuous personal project recording what was the most important period in the director and her classmates’ last high school year, but it comes to focus more on how things were often hard and difficult for many of them even after that period, and you will probably reflect more on how many of young South Korean students are pressured and then ground by their demanding education system even at this point.

In 2014, director Hong Da-ye was a 17-year-old high school girl, and the first half of the documentary mainly consists of a series of raw footage clips shot by her video camera around November 2014. As some of you know, thousands of senior high school students in South Korea take the national college entrance examination in the middle of every November, and we see how Hong and her classmates were both excited and nervous while the examination was approaching day by day. Nevertheless, quite hopeful about her future, Hong decided to record her classmates for her little project, and her classmates willingly let her do that even though they were not exactly pleased about that as revealed later in the documentary.

After the examination, Hong and her close friends surely felt less pressured than before, but Hong and some of her friends subsequently experienced lots of disappointment due to their dissatisfying examination results. In case of Hong, she had to take another chance in the next year, and there is a brief moment showing how the situation was quite stressful for her as she prepared for the examination of the next year.

Anyway, Hong eventually succeeded in getting a good examination score for attending some prestigious art college where she could study on filmmaking, but she still felt a lot of anxiety and frustration as struggling to adjust herself to her new environment. Like many young people around her age, she believed that everything would go well for her once she went to a college (Full Disclosure: I also did as beginning my first undergraduate year at the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), but she soon came to face one big difficulty after another as a young adult, and that only made her more insecure and depressed than before.

Needless to say, many of Hong’s classmates also struggled a lot in one way or another. There is a particular friend of hers who is not named here in the documentary in contrast to many of her classmates, and this friend often called for some help and support to Hong. Although she was usually willing to help and support this friend at first, Hong eventually got tired and frustrated with this friend mainly because of struggling with her own mental instability, and this eventually led to the breakup between them.

The documentary presents Hong’s serious personal problems during that time without any hesitation. Often mired in self-hate and depression, she sometimes committed a serious act of harming herself just for feeling like being alive and in control, and she also actually considered suicide more than once. At one point, she reminisces about when she failed to jump from one of those big river bridges in Seoul due to a rather absurd reason, and that incidentally took me back to when I miserably failed in my first suicidal attempt during my high school year (I attempted to kill myself just because I felt quite depressed by my utterly disastrous mathematics test score, by the way).

Nevertheless, Hong kept recording small personal moments from her and others around her during next several years, and you will be often impressed by the honesty and sincerity observed from her earnest filmmaking process. At one point later in the documentary, she and her camera simply observe her parents from the backseat of her father’s car, and the conversation between her and her parents gradually becomes emotionally intense as they frankly talk about her mental struggles during last several years. While they might not have been always there for Hong, Hong’s parents tried their best for their dear daughter, and there is a little touching moment showing a number of sincere personal notes from Hong’s mother.

As looking back at all those raw footage clips shot by her around the last year of her high school period, Hong naturally becomes more reflective more about how she tried to capture what turns out to be a lot more fleeting than expected as time keeps going by. While she is quite different from her younger self at present, she has also grown up with some emotional maturation in addition to being ready to go forward with her life, and so have many of her close friends. Around the end of the documentary, her two friends gladly provide some reflective comments on what Hong shot during last several years, and you will see how much they have changed just like their friend.

In conclusion, “Saving a Dragonfly”, which incidentally comes from the one symbolic recurring moment in the documentary, is worthwhile to watch for its thoughtfully intimate presentation of personal memories and experiences, and, as a guy who has had a lot of problems involved with self-help and depression, I think the documentary will help many high school students out there in the South Korean society, who will come to see that they are not alone at all after watching this good documentary. That may not look like a big help, but it will mean a lot to them, I assure you.

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Paper Man (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): A life on cardboard

Posted on October 19, 2024 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “Paper Man” works best when it humorously focuses on its pathetically desperate hero’s efforts for restarting his life. While we are sometimes amused by his comic struggles along the story, we come to care about this rather unlikable dude and a few people around him, and it is sad and harrowing to watch when they get another harsh dose of their grim reality later in the story.

The opening part of the movie quickly establishes how things get much worse for In-mok (Kwak Jin). There was a time when he was a promising young wrestling player who won a gold medal at some major international competition as shown from an old photograph of his, but his life has been going down and down since that brief moment of glory, and now he finds himself evicted from his current residence for failing to pay the rent for some time. Because he is almost penniless without anyone to help him, he considers becoming a Buddhist monk, but that turns out to require a lot of things besides enough qualification, and that makes his situation all the more desperate than before.

In the end, In-mok has no choice but to stay under a shabby bridge at least for a while, and there comes one seemingly nice idea via an unexpected encounter. It turns out that an old man has already been living under the bridge, and this old man has a pretty simple lifestyle. He just lives on a portable mat made from cardboard boxes, and he has earned his meager living day by day as collecting used cardboard boxes here and there in a nearby neighborhood.

This looks pretty easy to a younger man like In-mok, but, of course, it turns out to be more challenging than expected. First, he has to spot used cardboard boxes as quickly as possible, and he also has to compete with several other old collectors in the neighborhood besides the old man. Fortunately, things get a bit easier for him once he happens to acquire a handcart, and he also recruits a mentally disabled man in the neighborhood as his helper, who gladly helps In-mok in exchange for the steady supply of his favorite snack.

As In-mok gets more accustomed to his new job and lifestyle, we see how things get better for him bit by bit. He constructs his own little private space with several used cardboard boxes, and he also finds some clever ways to improve his little business more. In addition, he also gets a little friendly with a woman who runs a local junk shop alone by for herself, and it seems that he may get closer to this lady if they continue their mutually beneficial business relationship.

However, In-mok is eventually reminded again of the harsh reality surrounding him after this brief period of hope and happiness for him. Just like those old competitors pushed away by him, he also gets pushed away by a bunch of younger people ready to earn money by any means necessary. In addition, selling used cardboard boxes soon becomes less profitable than before, and that certainly frustrates him a lot.

Furthermore, there is a young adolescent girl who comes to stay around him longer than expected. She is one of those many young boys and girls who have been cruelly exploited in one way or another, and her boss, who was incidentally one of In-mok’s junior athletes, is quite determined to make her pay for her temporary absence.

Around the point where In-mok belatedly comes to learn about the girl’s secret, the movie naturally becomes much darker with more despair and frustration, but the screenplay by director/writer Ki Mo-tae, who makes a feature film debut here, stumbles more than once during its contrived last act. For example, the scene between In-mok and a certain figure from his past feels too artificial to be as cathartic as intended, and the movie also resolves In-mok’s anger and despair too conveniently without much dramatic impact.

Nevertheless, the movie is supported well by the commendable lead performance from Kwak Jin. Although we do not get to know a lot about how much In-mok has struggled for years, Kwak embodies well what has been accumulated behind his character’s gruff appearance, and he also did a good job of balancing his character between humor and pathos without making any cheap excuse on his character’s more abrasive sides.

Several other main cast members of the movie also leave some impression as dutifully filling their respective spots around Kwak. While Kang Han-na brings enough sense of life and spirit to her supporting role, Jang Hyun-jun is gradually endearing as revealing more heart and soul behind his mentally disabled character, and Kang Dae-wook steals the show even when his character simply occupies his own place as usual.

Overall, “Paper Man” is alternatively bitter and humorous as realistically looking into the economic hardships of its hero and several main characters, and I enjoyed its story and characters enough to overlook its several weak aspects including its dissatisfying finale. Although his overall result is not totally successful, Ki shows considerable potential at least as another new talent to watch, and it will be interesting to see whatever may come next after this promising beginning for his filmmaking career.

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No Heaven, But Love (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): A modest high school queer romance film

Posted on October 19, 2024 by kaist455

I could not help but get distracted more than once as watching South Korean independent film “No Heaven, But Love”. While it mostly works as a modest but intimate high school queer romance film, the movie is rather uneven on the whole as trying to unfold two different strong narratives together, and I am not so sure about whether its second half works as well as intended, though I still recommend it to you for its strong points.

At the beginning, the story, which is incidentally set in 1999, establishes how things have been hard and difficult for Joo-yeong (Park Soo-yeon), a female high school student who is also a member of her high school taekwondo team. Not long after she and other team members finish their latest training session, they get checked on their weight for the upcoming competition, and it is painful to see how Joo-yeong gets harassed by not only her abusive coach but also several other team members just because she fails to gain a few more kilograms for her qualification.

We observe how she often feels quite alone as there is no one she can really talk with about her serious issue of bullying. While Joo-yeong’s mother, who works as a counselor for juvenile delinquents, is often too busy to pay more attention to her daughter, Joo-yeong’s best friend Seong-hee (Shin Gi-hwan), who happens to be the most prominent member in her taekwondo team, is always ready to support Joo-yeong along with a certain mutual male friend of theirs, but Joo-yeong cannot possibly tell anything about her ongoing predicament to Seong-hee for now, mainly because Seong-hee prepares for an important match for her athletic career.

On one day, someone else comes into Joo-yeong’s life. As a part of her program for juvenile delinquents, Joo-yeong’s mother lets a girl around Joo-yeong’s age stay at their house, and, what do you know, Joo-yeong actually encountered that girl more than once before. Her name is Ye-ji (Lee Yoo-mi), and she and Joo-yeong met each other for the first time at a local fast-food restaurant where Ye-ji works as a part-time employee. In addition, Ye-ji later happened to save Joo-yeong from her latest trouble, and Joo-yeong certainly appreciated Ye-ji’s kindness, but she feels a bit awkward about sharing her bedroom with Ye-ji during next several weeks.

Nevertheless, Joo-yeong soon finds herself sexually attracted to Ye-ji. While she is at a loss with what to do with her romantic feelings toward Ye-ji, she and Ye-ji subsequently spend a little country vacation along with her two friends thanks to Ye-ji’s aunt, and that is when she comes to discover that the feelings between them are quite mutual. Although they still do not know what to do with their mutual feelings except simply going along with that, Joo-yeong feels much happier than before, and she and Ye-ji come to spend more time together.

Meanwhile, we get to know more about how the situation gets worse for Joo-yeong’s taekwondo team members including Seong-hee because of their abusive coach. When Joo-yeong and Ye-ji unexpectedly discover what has actually been happening to Seong-hee, Joo-yeong takes a decisive action for her friend, but, alas, the situation only gets worse for them because nobody believes what Joo-yeong and Ye-ji witnessed during that time.

And Joo-yeong and Ye-ji’s romance soon gets interrupted as expected. When she belatedly comes to learn about her daughter’s romantic relationship with Ye-ji at one one night, Joo-yeong’s mother, who is your average hardcore Christian, does not approve of that at all, and that inevitably leads to a moment of heartbreak for both Joo-yeong and Ye-ji.

During its second half, the story becomes a lot more melodramatic with more cruelty against Joo-yeong and Ye-ji, and this feels a bit too jarring compared to the sensitive depiction of the development of their romantic relationship during the first half. In addition, their story is sometimes eclipsed by the other main narrative involved with Seong-hee’s serious plight, though her narrative is equally important considering how things were often pretty bad and unjust for many young girls like her before the #MeToo era.

At least, director/co-writer Han Jay, who will give us her second feature film “Favorite Restaurant” (2024) in the next year, handles her main characters with enough care and respect, and her two lead actresses generate enough chemistry between them whenever they share the screen together. While Park Soo-yeon is convincing in Joo-yeong’s gradual awareness of her sexuality along the story, Lee Yoo-mi effectively complements her co-star with her more confident appearance, and they are also supported well by several good main cast members including Kim Hyun-mok and Shin Gi-hwan.

In conclusion, “No Heaven, But Love”, which is released as “We Can’t Go to Heaven but Can Love” in South Korean theaters, is not wholly without flaws, but it is fairly engaging thanks to its good direction as well as the good chemistry between its two lead performers. Compared to several other recent South Korean queer films such as “The Handmaiden” (2016) or “Love in the Big City” (2024), it does not go that far with its queer story elements, but it is surely nice to see another well-made queer drama film available to many South Korean audiences out there, and I sincerely hope that it will put another dent on the prejudice against the LGBTQ+ people in the South Korean society just like many of its senior South Korean queer films have done during last several years.

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Debt (2023) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): A little comedy about debt

Posted on October 19, 2024 by kaist455

When I saw South Korean independent comedy film “Debt” early in this morning, two audiences sitting behind me, who were incidentally the only other audiences in the screening besides me, frequently chuckled from the beginning to the end. I wish I could join in their frequent amusement, because I do not think the movie is as funny as they felt during that time. Sure, I am not a totally humorless dude at all, but, in my humble opinion, the movie is more or less than an extended one-joke comedy which keeps spinning its wheels without much development for bigger laughs.

First, we are introduced to a lad named Hong-min (Mun Yong-il) and several members of an odd survivalist group he recently joined. The opening scene shows them making bows and arrows together for hunting some wildlife animals, but, to our little amusement, they turn out to be quite ineffectual from the very beginning, and their clumsy animal trap only catches Hong’s father Dae-bok (Go Sung-wan), who happens to drop by for bringing some food for his son.

While he worries a lot about whatever will happen in his son’s life, Dae-bok has a much bigger matter to deal with. His little store, which located in some rural town, has been riddled with a serious finance problem, and he needs some cash right now for paying his rent as well as giving a monthly alimony to his divorced wife. Although his older daughter visits later, she is not particularly willing to help her father because she is busy with earning living for herself, and, just like two old busybody ladies in the neighborhood, she also does not have anything good to say to her father or her younger brother.

Actually, Dae-bok has someone who must pay him a lot as soon as possible. He is a local thug named Won-chang (Seung Hyung-bae), and it turns out that he has the cigarette debt of at least 3 million won to be paid to Dae-bok. When Won-chang’s underling drops by Dae-bok’s store for getting another carton of cigarette, Dae-bok eventually decides that enough is enough, so he refuses to hand out any cigarette to Won-chang.

Won-chang is naturally pissed off about this, but, what do you know, he turns out to be much softer and gentler than his beefy body suggests. When Won-chang’s underling complains about his impossible situation between Dae-bok and Won-chang, Won-chang immediately throws some harsh words at his underling, but he soon regrets because, well, he has the only one underling working for him at present. He comes to mull on how to apologize to his underling, and that is presented shown in black and white film just for emphasizing that imaginary aspect of this moment (This happens more than once during the rest of the film, by the way).

However, Won-chang eventually comes to clash with Dae-bok as they adamantly stick to their respective positions, and that leads to the most amusing moment in the film. As they have a big argument between them, the camera simply observes their growing conflict, and you may get a little more amused as those two old ladies phlegmatically regard Won-chang and Dae-bok’s argument from the distance.

When he comes to learn that his father was threatened by Won-chang, Hong-min naturally becomes quite furious, so he later takes an immediate action on Won-chang. However, not so surprisingly, he only comes to make a fool of himself in front of Won-chang, and that leads to another clash between his father and Won-chang.

Now this feels like a solid comic setting for more laughs to come, but the screenplay by director/writer Ko Bong-soo, who previously made several small independent films including “Humidity Alert” (2021), somehow never flies off from that. Instead, it simply goes on and on with its one-joke story premise without much development in terms of narrative momentum or characterization, and you may feel rather impatient with its thin comic plot, which is not enough even for its relatively short running time (76 minutes).

Around its last act, the movie eventually tries a bit of gravitas, but it does not work as well as intended mainly because it does not bring much depth to its main characters. While we come to like Dae-bok and Won-chang a bit more than expected, we still never get to know them that much even in the end, and that is why the sudden sentimental finale feels rather superficial to us.

At least, Ko knows one or two things about how to direct his performers, who manage to fill their respective spots fairly well on the whole. Go Sung-wan shows considerable comic potential as your average grumpy old South Korean guy, and he and Seung Hyung-bae, who is also effective in his supporting role, click well with each other during several key scenes in the film. To be frank with you, I wish the movie utilized more of these good actors’ comic talent, and the same thing can be said about Mun Yong-il, who is mostly demanded to look dim and clumsy throughout the film.

Overall, “Debt” is not totally without enjoyable elements, but it could be improved via adding more substance and personality to the story and characters. It is occasionally funny and amusing to some degree, but I still think the reactions from those two audiences behind me is more amusing, and that is all I can say for now.

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