A Normal Family (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): They need to talk about their kids

Posted on October 19, 2024 by kaist455

South Korean film “A Normal Family” is a darkly tense drama about the two different couples facing a serious moral issue involved with their respective kids. As they become conflicted more over their shared matter, the movie coldly exposes more of how superficial and hypocritical its four main characters can be in each own way, and we are alternatively chilled and repulsed while observing some morbid irony in their ethical struggles along the narrative.

At the beginning, we get to know about how these two couples have led a fairly affluent middle-class life. Jae-wan (Sol Kyung-gu) is a very successful lawyer, and he and his young second wife Ji-su (Claudia Kim) live comfortably in a big and cozy house along with their infant kid and an adolescent daughter from his first marriage. Jae-wan’s younger brother Jae-gyu (Jang Dong-gun) is an equally successful pediatrician, and he and his wife Yeong-kyung (Kim Hee-ae) live in their nice apartment with their adolescent son and his aging mother, who may soon have to be sent to the facility for old people considering her worsening dementia.

Jae-wan and Jae-gyu have routinely had a dinner at some high-end restaurant along with their wives, but both Jae-gyu and his wife do not like much spending time with Jae-wan and his wife. While Jae-gyu is annoyed with how his older brother often shows off his more affluent status, his wife still finds it difficult to accept Jae-wan’s second wife as a family member, and we sense more strain among these four people as they are seemingly courteous to each other at their dinner table.

And then there comes an unexpected trouble. When these two couples are having another dinner time together as usual, Jae-gyu’s son and Jae-wan’s daughter go outside for having some fun and drink together at the night party held at one of her friends. When they are later going back to their respective houses, they are quite drunk to say the least, and that is when they commit something quite serious which is reported on TV on the very next day.

After subsequently coming to learn of what these two kids did, their parents are certainly horrified, and they are also quite concerned as the police are already looking for the culprits. Although their criminal deed happened to be recorded by a nearby surveillance camera, the kids are not totally identified yet, so Jae-wan begins to consider covering up everything as much as possible. After all, there has not been any incriminating evidence yet, and Jae-wan believes that he and his younger brother really should focus on protecting their kids from any possible legal trouble.

In contrast to his older brother, Jae-kyu cannot help but feel more conflict about what he should really do about their difficult circumstance. His wife insists that they should worry about protecting their son’s supposedly promising future, and he is painfully reminded again that he has not paid much attention to his son as often caring more about his young patients.

After taking some time in establishing and then developing its four main characters during its first act, the screenplay by director Hur Jin-ho and his co-writers Park Eun-kyo and Park Jun-seok, which is based on Dutch novelist Herman Koch’s “The Dinner” (It was already adapted into three films including Oren Moverman’s “The Dinner” (2017), by the way), delve more into their respective inner conflicts. As Jae-kyu becomes more troubled about his son, his wife comes to show more of her hypocrisy, and this certainly strains their supposedly stable and amiable relationship. Although he seems unflappable at first, Jae-wan comes to feel more doubt and uncertainty later in the story, and the same thing can be said about his second wife, who becomes more watchful for her stepdaughter for an understandable reason.

These four people’s troubling personal circumstance is sometimes mirrored by another situation involved with both Jae-gyu and Jae-wan. Jae-wan defends the son of some wealthy man who recently caused a serious car accident, and Jae-gyu happens to be assigned to a young girl severely injured by this horrible accident. After watching his client’s sheer amorality, Jae-wan is more disturbed to see the same attitude from his daughter. As watching how much that injured young girl and her mother suffer, Jae-kyu feels more guilt about covering up his son’s crime, but he only ends up wondering more about whether his son deserves the second chance, and that eventually leads to an ironic moment between him and his older brother later in the story.

Although the finale is too heavy-handed in my inconsequential opinion, the four principal cast members did a solid job of carrying the film together under Huh’s good direction. While Sol Kyung-gu is dependable as usual, Jang Dong-gun’s more expressive acting complements well Sol’s restrained performance, and Kim Hee-ae and Claudia Kim hold each own spot well around Sol and Jang. Their characters are not particularly likable to say the least, but the four main members give us credible human figures to observe, and that is the main reason why we keep paying attention to the end of the story.

Overall, “A Normal Family” is not definitely something you can casually watch on Sunday afternoon, but it is recommendable for its engaging storytelling and competent direction. Although his recent films such as “Forbidden Dream” (2019) were less impressive compared to his early films such as “Christmas in August” (1998), Huh shows here that he has not lost his touch yet, and the movie will probably make you reflect on its main subjects for a while after it is over.

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Dirty Money (2024) ☆☆(2/4): A clumsy genre product

Posted on October 19, 2024 by kaist455

I do not mind watching movies about unlikable characters, but South Korean thriller film “Dirty Money” did not engage me at all. The movie is not only utterly contrived but also quite mediocre in terms of story and characters, and I did not care much about whatever is going to happen, while only observing that they had it coming from the beginning. 

The guy at the center of the story is Myung-Deuk (Jung Woo), a corrupt detective who happens to come across a chance to change his life once for all. Via a bit of information from one of those criminals associated with them, he and his partner Dong-hyeok (Kim Dae-myung) come to learn that there has been the secret transaction of a huge amount of dirty money from some big local Chinatown gang to their big boss in China, and they become more tempted when they later get more information about when and where this criminal activity has been done. Because both of them are in each own desperate need for cash right now, Myung-Deuk suggests to his partner that they should rob those Chinatown gangs, and Dae-myung agrees to that despite his initial reluctance.

At first, all they will have to do looks pretty simple. First, they need an accomplice who can supply a pair of firearms to be used for robbery, and they easily recruit a young policeman who has been eager to get some extra money behind his back. Besides stealing the firearms from his police station, this lad also provides an abandoned place for hiding the money they are going to steal, and then we see he and his two accomplices prepare a bit together for their big criminal plan.

Of course, their plan soon goes pretty wrong once they attempt an ambush on those Chinatown gangs. As the consequence of their criminal action leads to a full police investigation led by their team, Myung-deuk and Dong-hyeok naturally become a lot more nervous than before, and then there comes an old colleague of Myung-deuk, who knows a lot about how much Myung-deuk has been corrupted after one wrong decision which ruined his career.  

What naturally follows next is a cat and mouse game between Myung-deuk and that detective, but the movie seriously lacks personality and competence in many aspects. Both Myung-deuk and Dong-hyeok are not particularly developed well as main characters, and a melodramatic subplot involved with Myung-deuk’s very ill daughter is shamelessly manipulative for trying to make us feel some pity and sympathy for him. Sure, he does have an understandable human reason behind his corruption, but the movie often overplays that too much in my humble opinion, and that makes the last act look all the more predictable.

In addition, most of the other substantial characters in the story are more or less than cardboard figures to be moved here and there just for plot necessity. For example, that detective character who suspects Myung-deuk more along the story seems to have some complicated feelings about his opponent, but, the movie eventually discards that later in the story without much thought. In case of a bunch of ruthless Chinatown gangs who also come to suspect Myung-Deuk more, they are bland and unpleasant stereotype figures who look like the leftovers from “The Yellow Sea” (2010) and “The Outlaws” (2017), and their several moments of extreme violence do not add much to the story and characters while only leaving a bad taste on us.

Above all, the movie failed to surprise me as I could easily guess its every move in advance. Yes, Myung-deuk and his partner eventually find themselves in a very tricky situation as they desperately try to find a way out for them in one way or another, but they only keep doing unwise things to cause more mess around them. In my humble opinion, the movie could be a bit more entertaining if it depicts their pitiful struggles with a sense of ironic humor, but the movie is solemnly serious about that from the beginning to the end, and it even fails to generate enough suspense to hold our attention. As a result, we only become more distant to the story and characters, while being more aware of its half-baked plot machination.

The main cast members do try a lot for filling their respective parts, but many of them are not particularly charismatic enough for that. While Jung-woo is often limited by his flat and uninteresting hero character, Kim Dae-myung provides some levity as Myung-deuk’s pathetic partner, and Park Byung-eun does not have much to do as merely looking tense and menacing as required. In case of several other cast members including Cho Hyun-chul, Teo Yoo, and Han Hye-ji, they are regrettably wasted due to their superficial supporting roles, and I can only hope that the movie will just be a minor blip in Yoo’s promising acting career, which has been recently boosted by his stellar leading performance in Oscar-nominated film “Past Lives” (2023).       

On the whole, “Dirty Money”, directed by Kim Min-soo, is thoroughly disappointing for its uninspiring handling of genre elements, and I must confess that my mind often searches for better South Korean genre flicks such as “A Hard Day” (2014), which is also about a corrupt cop hero’s desperate struggle for any possible way out from his increasingly problematic situation. Although I observed its rotten hero’s increasingly messy plight from the distance, I had a fair amount of fun and thrill from “A Hard Day”, and I still fondly remember that entertaining experience even at this point. As a matter of fact, you should check this out instead, and you will definitely thank me for that.

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Worlds Apart (2024) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): As life goes on for her and her aunt

Posted on October 17, 2024 by kaist455

Japanese film “Worlds Apart” simply strolls along with its two very different main characters who somehow find a way to get along with each other as respecting each own boundary. While the movie itself is mostly mild and gentle on the whole, its two main characters and their story do not feel particularly realistic to me, and I must confess that my mind often went somewhere during my viewing instead of getting really engaged in how life goes on for them.

The movie opens with a very devastating incident for a young adolescent girl named Asa Takumi (Ikoi Hayase). Her parents get killed due to a sudden car accident which happens right in front of her eyes, and we soon see her going through the identification of her dead parents and then the following funeral for them. Amid those attending relatives gossiping about their parents, she continues to grieve over her immense personal loss, and, as shown from a brief imaginary moment of hers, she feels totally alone by herself.

And that is when Makio Kodai (Yui Aragaki), the estranged younger sister of Asa’s mother, comes forward. Although, as she frankly tells Asa later, she has always hated Asa’s mother, Makio decides to take care of Asa as her temporary guardian after sensing that Asa really needs someone around her, and Asa does not have any problem with her aunt’s decision even though she does not know her aunt that well.

While their initial interactions are awkward to say the least, Asa gets accustomed to her new environment more easily than expected, and Makio turns out to be more caring than she seems on the surface. Although she honestly admits that she is not exactly a responsible adult, she becomes more serious about taking care of her young niece as consulting with her ex-boyfriend who is incidentally a lawyer, and her best friend Nana Daigo (Kaho) is delighted to see how things become a little different in Maiko’s little apartment thanks to Asa. Once she sees that her aunt’s apartment needs some cleaning, Asa willingly does the job without hesitation, and her aunt surely appreciates that while focusing more on her writing (She wrote a popular book whose following success was big enough for buying her apartment, by the way).

Of course, Asa sometimes misses her parents, and the movie observes how she still struggles with her ongoing grief. Due to her best friend Emiri Nara (Rina Komiyama), everyone in her school comes to learn about her tragic incident right after their graduation day, and Asa becomes quite furious about that as clashing a lot with Emiri.

Nevertheless, like many other people in grief, Asa gradually recovers as her aunt wisely stands apart from her without any unnecessary interference. Because she still hates her older sister even after her older sister’s death, Makio understands Asa’s emotional status to some degree, and she just patiently waits for her niece to process her lingering sadness and then have a moment of reconciliation with her best friend.

Around that point, the screenplay by director/writer Natsuki Seta, which is based on the popular manga book of the same named by Tomoko Yamashita, becomes more episodic. While Makio keeps focusing on her writing, Asa begins her first year at high school along with her best friend, and she comes to join a school rock band even though she is not so sure about her musical talent. Nevertheless, she becomes more passionate about writing some lyrics, and she surely gets some advice from her aunt.

It goes without saying that Makio and Asa’s issues involved with Asa’s dead mother will eventually come back during its last chapter, but the movie is sometimes too unfocused to bring enough human depth to its story and characters. While we get to know a bit more of several schoolmates around Asa, they simply come and go without much impression, and I wish the movie delved deeper into her friendship with Emiri, which gets seriously tested when Emiri reveals her little personal secret to Asa later in the story.

Above all, both Asa and Makio are rather flat archetypes without much realistic human quality even though Ikoi Hayase and Yui Aragaki try their best in filling their respective roles with some sense of life. We often see Makio trying to write a few words at least, but we never get to know much about her writing process, and her relationship with her older sister turns out to be less complicated than expected. In case of Asa, she swings back and forth between innocence and maturation so frequently that she is more like a product of creative writing than a real human figure to observe, and you may feel some urge to take her to a psychiatrist whenever she feels harshly judged by her dead mother inside her young mind.

Several supporting characters around Makio and Asa are also superficial in my inconsequential opinion, but the supporting performers acquit themselves fairly well. Kôji Seto, Kaho, Rina Komiyama, and Guin Poon Chaw manage to compensate for their cardboard roles, and Guin Poon Chaw, who plays Makio’s concerned mother, has a sincere moment when her character comes to have a little private conversation with Makio around the end of the movie.

Overall, “Worlds Apart” did not engage me enough, but it has some good elements including its gentle and sensitive mood at least. I must point out that Shô Miyake’s recent movie “All the Long Nights” (2024) is a better and more realistic example of your average Japanese healing drama, but you may enjoy “Worlds Apart” more than I did, especially if you have read that popular manga book it is based on.

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Single8 (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): One little summer filmmaking

Posted on October 13, 2024 by kaist455

Japanese film “Single8” will bring a smile to anyone who has ever been fascinated with filmmaking. Like many similar films such as other recent Japanese film “It’s a Summer Film” (2020), the movie is brimming with the joy and excitement of filmmaking, and we gladly go along with that while often being tickled a lot by many silly aspects of the micro-budget filmmaking process of several main characters in the movie.

The story is set during the summer of 1978, when millions of Japanese audiences belatedly joined the enormous global enthusiasm toward George Lucas’ monumental SF film “Star Wars” (1977). After watching that great movie, our high school student hero Hiroshi (Yû Uemura) has been quite eager to recreate its magnificent opening shot, but, alas, he still does not know how to do that with his old 8mm movie camera.

However, he eventually finds a rather brilliant idea on how to make his model spaceship look bigger and wider for the camera, and this eventually reignites his passion for filmmaking. Along with one of his friends and a college student who is the part-time employee of a local camera/photograph shop, Hiroshi comes to hone his filmmaking skill more as learning about how to operate a movie camera more skillfully, and, what do you know, his final result shows considerable improvement compared to several initial trials.

And then there comes an unexpected opportunity for Hiroshi. When his classmates discuss what they should do for the upcoming school festival to be held not long after the summer vacation, he impulsively suggests that they should make a little movie even though he does not have any idea on what kind of movie he is going to make. Mainly thanks to Natsumi (Akari Takaishi), a pretty female student he has liked a lot since their middle school period, their classmates eventually agree to Hiroshi’s suggestion, and he soon embarks on his first official movie project along with his two friends.

What follows next is a series of amusing scenes where Hiroshi and his two friends struggle through something equivalent to pre-production process. First, they must get the approval of their classroom teacher, and, fortunately, their classroom teacher turns out to be quite more supportive than expected. For example, the teacher emphasizes the importance of a narrative to engage their audience, and we soon see Hiroshi and others doing some brainstorming on the story and characters for their movie.

As it was already decided from the beginning, Hiroshi and his friends are going to make a SF movie, and they manage to complete their screenplay before their due date, but there is one big problem. While one of his friends is willing to be the lead actor of their film, they also need a girl who will be their lead actress, and Hiroshi is determined to persuade Natsumi, but she is not so willing to do more for them than showing some support along with many other classmates.

However, Natsumi eventually changes her mind at the last minute to the delight of Hiroshi and his friends, and they all try their best during the following shooting period. There naturally come a number of small and big technical challenges, but Hiroshi and his friends always find a solution in one inventive way or another to our little amusement, and they become all the more spirited as getting assisted by several classmates of theirs, who are also quite excited about being behind and in front of the camera.

Meanwhile, Hiroshi comes to feel more attraction to Natsumi, but he still cannot reveal his old feelings toward her even when he gets a chance to act a bit along with her during the following post-production step. While she sometimes seems to be aware of this, Natsumi does not cross the line between them at all, and that certainly frustrates Hiroshi a lot, though he continues to throw himself into filmmaking along with his friends as usual.

As reflected by what is shown to us in the middle of the end credits, the movie has some autobiographical elements derived from the early filmmaking years of director/writer Kazuya Konaka (He has been mainly known for making Ultraman movies and TV series episodes, by the way), and his personal affection toward the story and characters is evident especially when Hiroshi’s movie is finally completed and then shown to many of his schoolmates at the school festival. What Hiroshi and his friends made is quite amateurish to say the least, but their creativity and enthusiasm are palpable between frames nonetheless, and you will not be surprised much by the following responses from their audiences.

The young main cast members of the movie carry well the film together with their earnest acting. While Yû Uemura diligently holds the center, Noa Fukuzawa and Ryuta Kuwayama provide extra humor as Hiroshi’s two different friends, and Akari Takaishi brings charm and presence to her rather under-developed supporting character.

On the whole, “Single8” is an amiable mix of filmmaking and coming-of-age drama, and I must confess that I often found myself silently chuckling while also touched at times by the unadorned enthusiasm of Hiroshi and his friends. While he may never reach to the ultimate goal of his burgeoning filmmaking career, he is still ready to step forward for making something better and greater, and you will surely root for him in the end.

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The Notebook (2004) ☆☆☆(3/4): Sappy but still effective

Posted on October 13, 2024 by kaist455

“The Notebook”, which happened to be re-released in South Korean theaters in this week probably because of its 20th anniversary, is inherently sappy but undeniably effective as before. Yes, this is basically your average romance story, but it is still a well-made product which can actually engage us via its solid storytelling and several fine performances, and that is more than enough for me to put aside my cranky sides at least during its running time.

The opening part of the film is so transparent that some of you can easily see through its plot machination from the very beginning. First, we meet two aging figures residing at some nice facility for old people, and the main narrative of the movie is slowly unfolded as one of these two old people tells a little but precious romance story to the other person, who is revealed to be not so well later in the story.

That romance story, which is set in a little Southern country town during the early 1940s, is about two young people who were very, very, very different from each other in many aspects but fell in passionate love with each other right from when they came across each other for the first time. Although Allie (Rachel McAdams) is dating some other guy at that moment, Noah (Ryan Garner) boldly approaches her without any hesitation just because he felt something special about her, and that leads to a big amusing moment to remember between them.

As they subsequently get to know each other more, Noah and Allie are reminded again and again of how different they really are besides their apparent personality difference. Noah’s family is rather poor, and he works in a local lumber mill for earning the living for him and his father. In contrast, Allie is the only daughter of one of the wealthiest families in the area, and the path of her life is almost determined by her parents, who do not object to Allie dating Noah but still expect her to marry a lad suitable for their social class someday.

Nevertheless, Noah and Allie become drawn more to each other as time goes by. When Noah later shows her a big but abandoned house he has hoped to purchase and then renovate for her, Allie cannot help but get more touched by his sincerity and passion, but then there comes a cold dose of reality from her mother, who sternly disapproves of them going further in their relationship.

Eventually, Allie comes to leave the town along with her parents, and then the World War II is started as she and Noah get separated more and more from each other. When the war is over several years later, both of them seem to be changed a lot on the surface, but, of course, they still yearn for each other, even when they respectively get romantically involved with someone who looks more suitable for each of them.

During its second half where our two lead characters fatefully come across each other again, the screenplay by Jeremy Leven and Jan Sardi, which is based on the novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks, becomes quite melodramatic as expected, but its sappy sides are compensated well by what has been built up so well along the story. Although they are more or less than archetype figures, Allie and Noah’s relationship development is handled with enough care and sensitivity under the competent direction of director Nick Cassavetes (Yes, he is the son of John Cassavetes), and the same thing can be said about the subplot between the two aforementioned old persons, who, this is not much of a spoiler at all, gradually turn out to be a lot more crucial for the story than they seemed at the beginning.

Above all, the movie depends a lot on the chemistry between its two charismatic lead performers. Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling are simply effortless as their characters pull or push each other in their romantic struggles, and their youthful appearances in the film will make you feel a bit nostalgic at times in addition to reminding you of how much they have advanced during the last two decades since this film came out. With this film and “Mean Girls” (2004), McAdams quickly established herself as a new talented actress to watch, and that led to a series of other stellar works including her Oscar-nominated turn in “Spotlight” (2015). Right after his darkly electrifying performance in “The Believer” (2001), the movie demonstrated another side of Gosling’ undeniably versatile talent, and he has kept impressing us since then as recently shown from his hilarious Oscar-nominated supporting turn in “Barbie” (2023).

The supporting performers in the film including James Marsden, David Thornton, Sam Shephard, and Joan Allen are also well-cast in their respective parts, and the special mention must go to James Garner and Gena Rowlands, who, like Shephard, are no longer with us at present. Both Garner and Rowlands, who is incidentally Cassavetes’ mother and has been mainly known for her legendary collaborations with her husband, bring some class and dignity to their roles, and that is the main reason why the rather contrived finale works on the emotional level.

In conclusion, “The Notebook” is an enjoyable genre piece which turns out to be more enduring than many other movie adaptations of Sparks’ novels such as “Message in a Bottle” (1999) or “Dear John” (2010). No, I have not touched any of Sparks’ novels yet, and I doubt whether I will ever do that during the rest of my life, because, as many of you know too well, there are hundreds of books much more worthwhile to read out there. Nonetheless, I understand and accept the appeal of “The Notebook”, and I will not deny that I was moved a bit again as before.

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Suzhou River (2000) ☆☆☆(3/4): A gritty and bitter urban tale of romantic obsession

Posted on October 13, 2024 by kaist455

Chinese film “Suzhou River”, whose 4k restoration version was somehow released in South Korean theaters a few days ago, is a gritty and bitter urban tale of romantic obsession. Like many of other contemporary Chinese arthouse films, the movie requires some patience due to its slow narrative pacing, but this rather modest work is impressive for the raw juxtaposition between shabby realism and dreamy style, and I observe it with enough interest even when feeling impatient from time to time.

The story is mainly told via the viewpoint of a young aspiring filmmaker who is simply named “The Videographer” in the end credits while not being shown much on the screen throughout the running time, and the opening part of the movie serves us a series of random moments captured from here and there in a shabbier area around the Suzhou reiver of Shanghai, China. Although the city is going through a big social/economical change around 2000, this area often looks like being totally left behind from the ongoing national development, and the Videographer naturally adds some melancholy comments on these gloomy sights.

On one day, the Videographer is asked to shoot the mermaid show at a local bar, and that is how he meets Meimei (Zhou Xun), a pretty young woman who is going to wear a mermaid costume for that show. Right from their first encounter, the Videographer becomes quite attracted to Meimei, and Meimei willingly lets him a bit into her life as they get closer to each other for a while.

However, their relationship is actually not the center of the story. Meimei later asks the Videographer about whether he will look for her if she is ever vanished, and that is how she comes to tell the story about Mardar (Jia Hongsheng), a delivery man who got quite obsessed with one young beautiful girl he happened to be associated with. Even though it was quite possible that that young girl was already dead, this dude kept looking for her nonetheless, and then he found himself fixated on Meimei just because she looks a lot like that young girl.

Via a number of flashback scenes, we get to know more about Mardar’s relationship with that young girl, who was incidentally the daugther of some affluent local businessman. Whenever her father is having a little private time with any of his mistresses, Moudan, who is also played by Zhou Xun, has to be taken to her aunt’s apartment for convenience, and Mardar is the one who does that job for her father. At first, he does not care that much about Moudan, but he cannot help but get attracted to her as they spend more time together, and Moudan seems to enjoy getting his attention even though she remains rather elusive behind her plucky façade.

However, it later turns out that Mardar is involved in a little kidnapping scheme along with his two criminal associates. Everything seems to go well for their plan once Mardar keeps Moudan somewhere for a while, but, of course, things eventually go quite wrong for everyone including Mardar, who is consequently arrested and then sentenced to several years of incarceration.

When he is subsequently released from prison, Mardar searches for any clue to find Moudan, who has been presumed to be dead after she impulsively threw herself into the river at that time. When he comes across Meimei later, he is surprised by how much she resembles Moudan, and, what do you know, he soon goes after her just like James Stewart did to Kim Novak in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” (1958).

Regardless of whether Meimei is actually Moudan, the movie toys with the growing ambiguity along the story as Meimei occasionally has some fun with Mardar’s intense attention. She sometimes asks him more about Moudan, but she never admits anything to him at all while keeping the distance between them as usual, and this strained relationship of theirs remains unresolved even after the Videographer enters the picture later.

As both the videographer and Moudan struggle to deal with their tricky situation with Meimei, the movie frequently soaks itself into a dreamy atmosphere, which makes a striking visual contrast with its grim mundane background. Director/writer Lou Ye and his cinematographer Wang Yu willingly show the far less pleasant sides of the city on the screen, and, not so surprisingly, Ye was banned from filmmaking for two years when the movie was shown outside China without getting the permission from the Chinese government. The movie was eventually authorized later, but this was followed by more conflicts between him and the Chinese government during next several years, though he recently got his latest work premiered at the Cannes Film Festival early in this year.

Because of the constantly distant attitude of the movie, it is often hard for us to care that much about the story and characters, but Ye’s raw but stylish filmmaking holds our attention, and he also draws good performances from his two lead performers. While Jia Hongsheng holds the ground as required, Zhou Xun has several juicy moments as deftly handling her two different roles, and she is especially good when the line between her two characters is blurred a little later in the story.

In conclusion, “Suzhou River” is a dry but interesting exercise in style and mood, and I admired it even though I observed its good moments from the distance instead of fully engaged in them. In short, this is one of the notable works from the sixth generation of the Chinese Cinema during the early 2000s, and I think you should check it out if you want to know and learn more about the Chinese Cinema.

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Tokyo Story (1953) ☆☆☆☆(4/4): A great family drama

Posted on October 13, 2024 by kaist455

As revisiting Yasujirō Ozu’s “Tokyo Story”, whose 4K restoration version is being shown in South Korean theaters now, I was reminded again how it is sublimely gentle and bittersweet in the intimate depiction of the human sadness and melancholy observed from its family characters. While many of them just softly and quietly interact with each other throughout the film, the emotional undercurrents below the surface are more palpable to us as we look more into their feelings and thoughts, and that is the main reason why this movie is one of the most universal human dramas of all time.

The story premise is pretty simple to say the least. At the beginning, we are introduced to Shūkichi (Chishū Ryū) and Tomi (Chieko Higashiyama), an old couple living in some seaside village quite far from Tokyo. Except their second daughter who works as a local elementary school teacher, all of their children left their home for each own life some time ago, and Shūkichi and Tomi are now going to visit two of their children currently living with their respective families in Tokyo. Although it will take quite a long time to go to Tokyo by train, both of them are very excited about seeing their two children again, and we later see them welcomed at the house of their eldest son, who works as a doctor in a little suburban area around Tokyo.

However, we gradually come to discern that they are actually not welcomed that much by their children. While they are pretty much like old strangers to the two sons of their eldest son, their eldest son is frequently busy with taking care of local patients day by day, and we do not sense much affection between them and the wife of their eldest son, though they and she interact with each other as courteously as possible. Their eldest daughter, who has run a beauty parlor, is also always occupied with her own business, and we are not so surprised when she suggests to her older brother later that they should make their parents stay at a local spa outside the city for a while at least.

Ironically, the only person who really cares a lot about Shūkichi and Tomi besides their second daughter is Noriko (Setsuko Hara), the widow of their second son who died during the World War II. Although 8 years have passed since her young husband’s unfortunate death, Noriko remains devoted to her parents-in-law as before, and she is willing to spend some time with them when no one else in the family happens to be available for them.

As leisurely rolling the story and characters under that distinctive tranquil mood observed from many of Ozu’s films, the movie effortlessly moves back and forth between humor and pathos. While we are saddened by the growing melancholy surrounding Shūkichi and Tomi’s circumstance, we are also amused by a series of small comic moments observed among the main characters, which add more human qualities to them along the story. Yes, most of Shūkichi and Tomi’s children are pretty selfish at times just for being busy with each own daily matters, but they care about their parents to some degree, and we come to accept and understand their human flaws just like their parents.

Ozu and his cinematographer Yūharu Atsuta usually observe the characters from the distance, but it is really remarkable how they subtly engage us without drawing much attention at all to their storytelling approach. Shot in black and white film of 1.33:1 ratio, the movie mostly feels static on the surface as the camera does not move that much during many of the conversation scenes, but then we come to pay more attention to whatever is being exchanged among the main characters mainly thanks to Ozu’s precise and thoughtful scene composition, which is often distinguished by how the characters and objects in the film are carefully arranged on the screen. Just look at how Shūkichi, Tomi, and a family member of theirs sit together during one certain brief moment in the middle of the film, and you will see what I mean.

In addition, the camera closely sticks to the level of the viewpoints of the main characters sitting together, which is crucial in those distinctive “Tatami shots” in Ozu’s works. The conversation scenes in the movie are sometimes accentuated by the camera directly looking right into a talking character, and, though this feels too plain and obvious at first, we gradually pay more attention to the understated nuances beneath the conversation scenes.

The performers in the film, many of whom were Ozu’s frequent collaborators, dutifully fill their respective role as adding more human elements to the story and characters. While Chishū Ryū and Chieko Higashiyama are often heartbreaking even though their characters do not signify much to us during their gradual realization on how they have become more distant to most of their children, Setsuko Hara always brings a warm sense of empathy and compassion to the story, and several other cast members in the movie including Haruko Sugimura, So Yamamura, Kuniko Miyake, and Kyōko Kagawa are also effective in their substantial supporting parts.

Overall, “Tokyo Story” is simply unforgettable for its haunting human qualities to be observed and appreciated. While this film and “Floating Weeds” (1959) are definitely the first ones to recommend, Ozu also made many other excellent films which deserve more attention in my humble opinion, and I assure you that you will not be disappointed all with any of these hidden gems. As a matter of fact, “Tokyo Twilight” (1957) is released along with “Tokyo Story” in South Korea, and I am already ready to watch this rather obscure film at last.

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How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies (2024) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Being with his grandma for money

Posted on October 13, 2024 by kaist455

Thai film “How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies”, which was recently selected as the official submission of Thailand to Best International Film Oscar, is alternatively humorous and poignant in its gentle mix of human comedy and drama. While you can clearly see through where it is heading from the beginning, the story turns out to be more sincere and thoughtful along with a droll sense of humor to amuse us, and it surely earns all the emotions of its expectedly sentimental finale.

At first, we get to know about the rather distant relationship between an old lady named Mengju (Usha “Taew” Seamkhum) and many of her family members including her grandson M (Putthipong “Billkin” Assaratanakul). Although they gather together for a little family meeting at the beginning of the film, none of Mengju’s three children is not particularly close to their mother, and neither is M, your average young slacker who is simply bored while not much paying attention to his grandmother.

However, M later gets quite interested in being with his grandmother for a very selfish reason. One of young female cousins in his dead father’s family comes to receive a considerable amount of asset after taking care of her ailing grandfather for a while, so M decides to try something similar on his grandmother, who subsequently turns out to have a little time to live due to her terminal illness. Although she is much less affluent in comparison, her old residence happens to have some value as a piece of real estate, and he certainly wants to inherit that from her in exchange of taking care of her before her death. 

Of course, living with his grandmother turns out to be a bit more challenging than M expected. Even after she comes to learn of her terminal illness, Mengju is not daunted by this bad news at all while keeping going as usual, and M has no choice but to get accustomed to her daily routines including waking up and then preparing for her little porridge business early in the morning. In addition, he has also to hide more of his selfish intention as his mother and two uncles come to pay a lot more attention to Mengju than before for each own reason. 

Needless to say, our selfish hero slowly comes to care much more about his grandmother later in the story, but the screenplay by director Pat Boonnitipat and his co-writer Thodsapon Thiptinnakorn takes its time in building up the story and characters with more details to observe. While the Chinese heritage of the family characters in the story brings some specific cultural elements to the story, its supposedly broad main characters are illustrated with enough sense of life and personality, and it even shows a bit of compassion and understanding to one of Mengju’s two sons, a pathetic bum who has always brought nothing but money troubles to the family.

Above all, we get to know Mengju more bit by bit along with her grandson. As reflected by a brief but crucial scene between her and her estranged family member who heartlessly disregards her simple request, her life has been frequently ridden with one difficulty after another, but she does not lose her feisty spirit at all while also still capable of loving and caring about her family members around her. Although the movie is actually her debut film, Usha “Taew” Seamkhum’s gently soulful performance effortlessly swings back and forth between humor and pathos while ably embodying her character’s life history, and we come to like and care more about her character as Mengju is eventually approaching to the inevitable closing time later in the story.

 On the opposite, Putthipong “Billkin” Assaratanakul, who also made a debut here in this film, complements Seamkhum well, and he did a convincing job on his character’s gradual transformation along the story. While becoming much less selfish than he was at the beginning, M surprises even himself as sincerely wanting to be loved and appreciated by his grandmother, and he also comes to grow up a bit more as helping his grandmother reconnect with his mother, who has always loved Mengju despite having usually felt like being put behind her two brothers for many years.

 In the end, everything in the story culminates to the melodramatic finale as expected, but the movie wisely does not overplay at all while calmly but sensitively delivering the swelling emotions surrounding the finale. The result is certainly weepy enough to make many of you shed some tears, but it is genuinely touching nonetheless as we observe how the story comes to make a sort of full narrative circle with the very last scene.   

In conclusion, “How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies”, whose original Thai title is just “Grandma’s Grandson”, is a familiar but undeniably moving family drama to be cherished for several good reasons including Boonnitipat’s skillful handling of story and characters and his two lead performers’ memorable performances. To be frank with you, the movie actually made me reflect more on how I have been quite distant to my aging grandmother since my childhood years, and, considering that she is over 90 at present, now I feel the need to show a bit more affection and respect to her than before, even though she was the least likable figure in her village or her family. I guess that says a lot about how good the movie is, right?

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Rez Ball (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): The story of a Navajo basketball team

Posted on October 7, 2024 by kaist455

Netflix film “Rez Ball”, which was released on Netflix a few weeks ago, is a typical basketball movie with some specific elements to observe and appreciate. Needless to say, this is basically your average underdog sports film which will remind you of many other seniors such as, yes, “Hoosiers” (1986), but it is equipped with an interesting story background which brings some local personality to its earnest narrative, and the result is a fairly solid genre product on the whole.

The story, which is mainly set in the Navajo Nation in New Mexico, US, begins with how a local high school basketball team and their coach try to begin another reason. Their star player, Nataanii Jackson (Kusem Goodwind), has just returned not long after losing his two family members due to a very unfortunate accident, but their coach, a former female basketball player named Heather Hobbs (Jessica Matten), is ready to try her best, and so do many of her team players including Jimmy Holiday (Kauchani Bratt).

However, of course, things do not look that promising right from their first game of the season. Although they win in the end, Hobbs are not so satisfied with how her team players played, and we also come to see that Jackson has not fully recovered from the grief and depression caused by the death of his two family members. This eventually leads to a devastating incident which struck hard many others around him, and many people come to have more doubt on whether the team can actually go on during the rest of the season.

Nevertheless, Hobbs does not give up at all as a good coach who cares a lot about her team players. Although it seems that her coaching career has no future despite her several job applications here and there in the country, she is not daunted by this at all, and she soon embarks on how to boost the ability of her team more than before. At one point in the film, she takes the team to a sheep ranch belonging to her grandmother, and her team players come to have some lesson on strategy and comradeship as they try to find and then lead a group of sheep back to the ranch.

As the team players become more focused under Hobbs’ guidance, they come to find their new center from Holiday, who comes to show more leadership around his colleagues despite his initial reluctance. While still struggling with what happened to his close friend, Holiday also has to deal with his alcoholic single mother as usual, and we see how Hobbs is more like a parent to him at times.

While going through one expected moment to another, the screenplay by director Sydney Freeland, who previously directed Netflix film “Deidra & Laney Rob a Train” (2017), and her co-writer Sterlin Harjo, which is based on the nonfiction sports novel “Canyon Dreams: A Basketball Season on the Navajo Nation” written by The New York Times journalist Michael Powell, sometimes pays attention to how things are usually gloomy for many people in the Navajo Nation. Young people like Holiday are certainly eager to get out of their area for a better life and future, but there are not many options for them from the beginning. Not so surprisingly, as mentioned in the film, the Navajo Nation has had a serious problem of depression, alcoholism, and suicide just like many other Native American reservation areas in US.

Holiday’s mother is one of such a sad, pathetic case. She was once a promising female basketball player when she played along with Hobbs a long time ago, but she has been going down and down with her alcoholism to her son’s frustration. In addition, she does not think her son will succeed as much as she could have during that time, and that surely puts more distance between them before she eventually comes to the point where most of alcoholics feel the need to turn around from their destructive lifestyle.

It goes without saying that the mood becomes more uplifting as Holiday and his team members excel themselves during a series of successful games. While pretty predictable at times, the basketball game scenes are as competent as they can be at least, and Kauchani Bratt and a bunch of other actors including Kusem Goodwind are convincing during these scenes in addition to bringing some extra spirit and personality to the story.

Without overshadowing Bratt and other actors at all, Jessica Matten steadily holds the ground for them, and I like how she earnestly handles her several locker room scenes. Hobbs does not make any rousing speech at all, but she shows common sense and dedication for her team players, and that is what any good coach is required to do. As Holiday’s struggling alcoholic mother, Julia Jones is rather under-utilized, but she manages to fill her role with enough sense of life, and she is poignant when her character finally makes some real connection with Holiday around the end of the story.

In conclusion, “Rez Ball” may not bring anything particularly new to its genre territory, but it is engaging enough to hold our attention thanks to its good direction and sincere storytelling, and you may want to learn more about its main subject after watching it. Yes, I saw through its playbook from the beginning, but it still plays the ball mostly well on the whole, so I will not grumble for now.

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It’s What’s Inside (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): A risky body-swapping game

Posted on October 7, 2024 by kaist455

Netflix film “It’s What’s Inside”, which was released on last Friday, is a cheerfully funny and confusing mix of comedy, horror, and thriller. I must confess that it was a bit too hard at times for me to follow whatever is happening among a bunch of main characters I did not care that much about, but I was entertained nonetheless by how the movie pushes its comically dark story premise to the end with enough style and mood.

The setup part of the story is pretty familiar to say the least. At first, we are introduced to Shelby (Brittany O’Grady) and her boyfriend Cyrus (James Morosini), and we subsequently see them going to a little evening part to be held at a big family house belonging one of their mutual friends of theirs, who invited them and their several friends for having some fun evening together before his upcoming wedding day on the next day. Due to the growing distance between them, Shelby and Cyrus are actually not so willing to go there, but they cannot say no just for keeping their appearance in front of others.

Not long after Shelby and Cyrus arrive at the house, there comes the last person to join the group. Although he has been quite estranged from others due to a serious incident which occurred during their college years, Forbes (David W. Thompson) got invited anyway, and, as a professional technician working in some IT company, he presents a very special device for their little game night. His friends are not so serious about that at first when he suggests doing a game via this special device, but, what do you know, they get their minds swapped among their respective bodies once he turns on that device for a test.

It goes without saying that everyone around Forbes is both surprised and disturbed by this very strange experience, but they eventually agree to do a game which is not so far from what most of you sometimes played with your friends for some evening fun. After getting their bodies swapped by Forbes again, they should guess the correct identity of whoever is actually inside their respective bodies, and this surely sounds like a lot of fun to them.

Of course, the mood gradually gets tense and unnerving as the main characters later come to find more of how much they can be free as hiding inside some other body. Although we cannot be entirely about who is who at times, the movie sometimes reveals the true identities behind those swapped bodies via a nice visual touch, and that certainly gives us some amusement especially when two certain swapped characters show more of their feelings to each other as enjoying being someone else.

During its second half, the movie eventually becomes a sort of cross between “Talk to Me” (2022) and “Bodies Bodies Bodies” (2022), and director/writer/editor Greg Jardin and his cinematographer Kevin Fletcher frequently emphasize the nightmarish circumstance of the main characters. While quite isolated from the outside, the house is decorated with various odd and weird stuffs thanks to the artist mother of the groom, and they look all the stranger with the striking utilization of light and shadow. For example, we instantly sense a trouble when a certain big sharp artwork is shown early in the film, and the movie exactly delivers what is expected at some point later in the film.

Because most of the main characters are quite superficial or unlikable, we often observe their plights from the distance without much care, but the movie has some nasty fun with how selfish and opportunistic its main characters can be. As coming to face more of the estrangement between them, Shelby and Cyrus have more doubts on their relationship, and, not so surprisingly, they come to focus more on their respective self-interest just like others around them. In case of their friends, they are no better than them at all, and some of the biggest laughs in the film come from one of them who is incidentally a popular (and very banal) online influencer.

Jardin’s screenplay stumbles a bit as arriving at the finale where everything in the story is hurriedly wrapped up along with a little unexpected plot turn, but it does not lose its sense of fun entirely. While you may feel a bit sorry for what eventually happen to some of its main characters, we all can agree that they richly deserve that for their folly and selfishness, and we surely get some another dark laugh from that.

The main cast members of the film certainly have a blast with playing several different roles along the story. While Britanny O’Grady and James Morosini have the most fun as we come to see more of their characters’ serious relationship problems, several other main cast members including Gavin Leatherwood, Nina Bloomgarden, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Reina Hardesty, and Devon Terrell are also well-cast in their respective roles, and David W. Thompson brings enough creepiness to the screen during the first act despite his rather thankless part.

On the whole, “It’s What’s Inside” could be improved more by more substance in terms of story and character, but its weak aspects are compensated enough by its wit and style at least, and it surely reminded again me that I should never, never, never play with something I do not understand at all. While this may not be the scariest stuff for the upcoming Halloween season, it is fairly dark and nasty enough in my humble opinion, and you may try it later along with your friends at any chilly autumn night.

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