Iron Mask (2023) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): A kendo player under challenge

Posted on November 17, 2023 by kaist455

In my trivial opinion, there are not many things as intense, spectacular, and compelling to watch as a human mind under challenge, and little South Korean independent film “Iron Mask” is a terrific example of that. On the surface, it is basically your average sports drama, but it powerfully drives its story and characters via sheer intensity and focus, and the result is another highlight of South Korean cinema of this year.

The movie quickly and succinctly establishes its young male hero and story premise within its first few minutes. Jae-woo (Joo Jong-hyuk, who is completely different from his hilariously odious supporting turn in popular South Korean TV drama series “Extraordinary Lawyer Woo”) is a promising kendo player who will soon go through the strict and arduous process of the national team selection process to be held at some remote rural place, and the movie holds our attention further as the camera is calmly and steadily watching over him going to that place.

If you are not familiar with kendo, let me quote a bit from Wikipeida: “Kendo (剣道, Kendō, lit. ‘sword way’, ‘sword path’ or ‘way of the sword’) is a modern Japanese martial art, descended from kenjutsu (one of the old Japanese martial arts, swordsmanship), that uses bamboo swords (shinai) as well as protective armor (bōgu).” It has been taught and practiced not only in Japan but also a number of other countries including South Korea, and, as far as I can see as a non-experienced outsider, this is surely far less dangerous than practicing with swords.

Anyway, each of many other candidate players besides Jae-woo is eager to be selected as one of the top five players to be sent to the upcoming international tournament to be held in South Korea, but we gradually come to gather that there is a hidden personal motive behind Jae-woo’s quietly intense appearance. He wants to confront and then beat a certain lad who has incidentally been regarded as the unbeatable top-ranked player, and he surely impresses others around him when he later plays against this figure in question on the very first day of their selection process.

Via a series of flashback scenes, the movie slowly reveals Jae-woo’s dark past associated with his main opponent. Several years ago, there was a devastating family tragedy caused by his main opponent due to some accident, and Jae-woo’s mind is still shaking and seething with the pain and anger from that unfortunate incident. In contrast, Jae-woo’s main opponent looks quite calm, serene, and confident without having any idea on who Jae-woo actually is, and that certainly makes Jae-woo all the more furious inside his increasingly trembling state of mind.

Not so surprisingly, Jae-woo’s emotional vulnerability becomes quite evident to those supervising coaches. One of the coaches, who is incidentally one of a few substantial female characters in the story, shrewdly points that out during her personal session with him where she thoroughly analyzes his movements, and that frustrates him more because 1) he knows she is indeed right and 2) he still does not know how to deal with this personal issue of his.

While taking an expected narrative route step by step along with its very conflicted hero, the movie captivates us with several tense scenes palpitating with a lot of tension and suspense as well as some realistic details to observe. We often see how strenuously Jae-woo and other players prepare for another day of their demanding selection process. We see how much they try to push themselves harder for eventually being included in the final selection. Director/writer/co-editor Kim Seong-hwan, who made a feature film debut here after making a few short films, and his crew members including cinematographer Lee Gwang-min did a tremendous job of immersing us into the utterly competitive mood among the kendo players in the film, and you may brace yourself a lot during some of the most intense moments in the movie.

Meanwhile, the screenplay adds a surprising amount of human complexity to its seemingly simple drama. While Jae-woo’s opponent, who is played well by Moon Jin-seung, turns out to be a lot more than a mere opponent to beat, Jae-woo’s personal motive is revealed to be much more complex than it seems on the surface, and the movie also shows some care and attention to several supporting characters in the story. In case of one certain older player, he probably should have quit from the beginning considering his age, but he tries as much as possible at least before his time to leave comes later in the story.

When it eventually arrives at the expected climactic part along with its hero, the movie is surely as intense and focused as its hero becomes after going through a number of ups and downs along his bumpy emotional journey. I will not go into details here, but I can tell you instead that the climactic part of the film reminded me of what my late mentor/friend Roger Ebert wrote in his review on Ang Lee’s great martial arts film “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000): “The best martial arts movies have nothing to do with fighting and everything to do with personal excellence. Their heroes transcend space, gravity, the limitations of the body and the fears of the mind.”

In conclusion, “Iron Mask” is a seemingly modest but undeniably impressive genre piece to be admired for its effective handling of story, mood, and character. To be frank with you, I felt quite electrified and stupefied when I came out of the screening room at last night, and that is surely not something which happens to me that often. In short, this is one hell of experience to remember, and you should check it out if you ever come across it.

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Juhee from 5 to 7 (2022) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Her and some others from 5 to 7

Posted on November 12, 2023 by kaist455

I was disappointed to see that South Korean independent film “Juhee from 5 to 7” does not focus on its titular heroine as much as I expected from its very title. Here is a potentially interesting female figure to illustrate throughout its rather short running time (76 minutes), but the movie does not seem to trust its heroine and lead actress that much as often looking around some other characters more than necessary.

At first, the movie seems to be all about Juhee (Kim Joo-ryoung), a middle-aged college professor of theater who receives a bad news about her current medical condition during the opening scene. Her doctor explains to her that she needs to do a biopsy because of a possible malignant breast tumor, and she cannot help but become quite concerned as she returns to the college around 5 PM.

Yes, as many of you may have already guessed, this is not so different from the beginning of Agnès Varda’s classic film “Cléo from 5 to 7” (1962). In that great movie, its young artist heroine also becomes very nervous as waiting for her result of some important medical test to confirm whether she actually has a cancer or not, and her nervous desperation becomes more palpable to us along the story as the time for the confirmation on her medical test result is approaching minute by minute.

While “Cléo from 5 to 7” steadily sticks to its heroine from the beginning to the end, “Juhee from 5 to 7” is not fully committed to its heroine to my big dissatisfaction. Sure, the movie shows a bit more of its heroine as she interacts with one minor supporting character after another along the story, but its focus is also frequently shifted to several substantial supporting characters in the story, and the movie sometimes feels like being more about them instead of her.

One of these substantial supporting characters in the film is Juhee’s ex-husband Ho-jin (Moon Ho-jin), an actor who has been the leader of a small independent troupe for years. When the movie introduces him to us, he is preparing for the performance of a new play written by him, and we gradually come to gather that his play is inspired a lot by his problematic relationship with his ex-wife. Probably because of how much the play feels personal to him, Ho-jin often becomes quite demanding to a group of young performers working and studying under him, and he is particularly harsh to one of them just because he is not satisfied enough with the strenuous efforts from that young performer in question.

It is certainly interesting for us to muse on how much Ho-jun’s fiction is actually overlapped with his past with Juhee, but this feels rather distracting in my trivial opinion. We are supposed to get to know more about its titular heroine, but Ho-jin’s narrative often interrupts her narrative instead of complementing hers, and the movie eventually comes to distance itself more from its heroine as deliberately blurring the line between fiction and reality around the end of the story. While there are some nice surreal touches to be appreciated around that narrative point, they feel rather superficial instead of bringing more depth to the story and its titular character, and that is the main reason why the epilogue scene is not as dramatically effective as intended.

Anyway, the movie works whenever it fully pays attention to its titular heroine, and those several episodic moments of hers in the film are engaging in each own way. While we are touched when a female student drops by Juhee’s office for showing some sincere gratitude, we are amused when Juhee happens to have a brief talk with her fellow female professor, and we are saddened when Juhee is later visited by her mother and young daughter. While she does not say anything about her possibly grim medical condition to either of them, Juhee is clearly worried about these two family members of hers, and there is a poignant moment as she and her mother come to have a brief but honest conversation between them.

It is a shame that the movie does not utilize more of her considerable talent and presence, but Kim Joo-ryoung, who previously collaborated with director/writer/cinematographer/co-editor Jang Kun-jae in “Sleepless Night” (2012) and recently drew more attention for her substantial supporting turn in South Korean Netflix drama series “Squid Game”, leaves enough impression with her gracefully restrained performance at least. Unlike the film itself, she is quite focused on her character’s life and personality to the end, and I would not complain at all if the movie were absolutely committed to her character without showing anything else. In case of several other main cast members in the film, Moon Ho-jin is well-cast as Juhee’s ex-husband although the movie could be less about his character, and Park Hye-jin has her own small moment as Juhee’s mother later in the film.

In conclusion, “Juhee from 5 to 7” is a fairly competent work which has some good elements including its lead actress’ admirable efforts, but I don’t think it is as satisfying as Jang’s previous films “Sleepless Night” (2012) and “A Midsummer’s Fantasia” (2014), which I happened to choose as the best South Korean film of 2015. Because it was not a total waste of time at all, I will let you decide whether you should check it out or not, but I still have doubts on whether the movie really tries to delve into its titular heroine’s life and personality, and I would rather recommend you to watch Jang’s two aforementioned movies or “Cléo from 5 to 7” instead.

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A Wild Roomer (2022) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Things somehow happen to him…

Posted on November 12, 2023 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “A Wild Roomer” surprised me in one unexpected way or another. While it mostly feels dry and detached in terms of mood, character, and storytelling, the movie often catches us off guard with a series of offbeat moments, and you may be a bit amazed due to how it organically arrives at its last very scene even though it seems to be aimlessly wandering here and there along with its earnestly ordinary hero.

At first, we get to know how a young male bachelor named Gi-hong (Park Gi-hong) has earned his modest living in and around Seoul. He is a plain carpenter who has been doing one small interior work after another, and the early part of the movie quickly establishes his current status. He and several other workers including a close friend of his have worked on a little place inside one building which will be used by a young piano teacher, and the opening scene shows him and his friend entering the space at one night and then sleeping there because they are quite drunk and do not want to be late for the last day of their work.

Gi-hong has resided in a little neighborhood outside Seoul, and the movie gradually depicts how he lives right next to his landlord couple. He lives in an additional house which is incidentally connected with the main house on the second floor, and his landlord, who has been unemployed for some unspecified reason, is often eager to have some drinking time with Gi-hong. While he does not seem to be really enjoying spending time with his landlord, Gi-hong is not particularly annoyed at least, and the landlord’s wife has no problem with that because her husband has someone to hang around with during her frequent absence.

In fact, her husband later confides to Gi-hong that she married him not because of loving him, and we naturally cannot help but wonder more about their rather ambiguous marital relationship – and how Gi-hong has been allowed into their daily life. Do they need Gi-hong merely for some extra income for them? Or do they actually need someone like him, who can easily fill some void between them without much disruption?

Anyway, Gi-hong’s rather uneventful daily life is suddenly disrupted when he belatedly discovers what happened to his van. There is a big dent on the roof of his vehicle, and it soon turns out that somebody jumped upon the van at that night when Gi-hong and his friend went into the building for sleeping there. As a matter of fact, there was a little strange thing noticed by his friend around that time, and this strongly suggests that there was someone else in the building besides them.

After checking the surveillance camera of his van, Gi-hong becomes quite convinced that this mysterious person caused the damage to his van as getting out the building via a bathroom window, but he does not have any idea on who the hell this mysterious figure is. Although this mysterious figure happened to be detected by the surveillance camera of the van around that time, the rather faint video image only shows that this mysterious figure is a young woman who may be one of those homeless delinquents out there, and that is the only clue for him for now.

Instead of letting itself driven by this little mystery, the screenplay by writer/director/co-producer/editor Lee Jeong-hong, who makes a feature film debut here after making several acclaimed short films, simply strolls along with its hero as he continues his daily life as usual, and it occasionally throws oddly interesting moments as deftly balancing itself between low-key comedy and unadorned realistic drama. In case of a part involved with Gi-hong’s family, it seems rather redundant at first, but we get to know more about his distant relationship with his family, and there are also several interesting visual moments including the one showing two figures riding bicycles in the middle of one dark night.

Around the point where its third act begins, the movie makes a little unexpected left turn via the accidental encounter between Gi-hong and a certain supporting character. As this character gets more involved with not only Gi-hong but also a few other characters around him, we come to wonder more about what is exactly going on among them, but the movie wisely does not clarify their situation much even when it eventually comes to its very last shot. Regardless of how you can interpret the circumstance surrounding Gi-hong, we can sense at least that now Gi-hong has several matters to handle in his life besides his work while another usual day of his is beginning.

I was not so surprised to learn later that most of the performers in the film are actually non-professional ones without any previous acting experience. Park Gi-hong, who is incidentally a close friend of the director, and several main cast members around him are quite natural in their unpretentious acting, and their characters are imbued with enough life and personality to interest us. While Park is subtly engaging as the humble center of the film, Ahn Joo-kin, Choi Kyung-joon, Lee Gi-bbeum, Lee So-jung, and Chun Gil are also solid in their respective supporting roles, and Ahn is particularly amusing whenever his landlord character tries to spend more time with Gi-hong in any possible way.

Overall, “A Wild Roomer”, which won several awards when it was shown at the Busan International Film Festival in last year, is one of more interesting South Korean films of this year, and I guess I can have some expectation on whatever will come next from its director, who clearly demonstrates here that he is a talented filmmaker who really knows how to interest and engage us. Sure, it will require some patience at first due to its slow narrative pacing and elusive tone, but it will draw you more into the story and characters once you accept what and how it is about, so I sincerely recommend you to give it a chance someday.

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The Marvels (2023) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): A little too late for the ladies

Posted on November 10, 2023 by kaist455

Probably around “Avengers: Endgame” (2019), Marvel Comics Universe (MCU) passed its peak period mainly due to giving us so many similar products for more than 10 years. After the immense success of “Black Panther” (2018), the franchise belatedly started to try different things as shown from “Black Widow” (2021), “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” (2021), and “Eternals” (2021), but, alas, we have become too tired and bored to cheer about that while also having to deal with heaps of TV drama stuffs from MCU.

Nevertheless, I came into the Dolby Cinema screening room of a local movie theater with some good will when I and a friend of mine were about to watch “The Marvels”. After all, this is another big female MCU film after “Black Widow”, and having no less than three female superheroes as its main characters is certainly not something I and others can see everyday.

However, unfortunately, I am rather depressed to report that I did not enjoy the movie as much as I hoped. While there is nothing wrong at all with the three lead actresses at its center, the movie often feels too hurried and clunky in terms of narrative and character development, and I frequently felt like being thrown into an expensive special episode in the middle of an unfamiliar TV drama series without much background knowledge.

Of course, I know a bit about Kamala Khan / Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) and her recent TV drama series even though I have never touched any of TV stuffs from MCU (Life is too short for me to check all of them, folks), but I wish the movie spent some more time on giving us more background information on not only her but also her new superhero colleagues: Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), who is incidentally the daughter of Danvers’ best female friend. I remember that I enjoyed “Captain Marvel” (2019) when it came out, but, boy, it feels like a long distant memory now probably due to the following COVID-19 pandemic period, and now I wonder whether I should have revisited “Captain Marvel” in advance for understanding more of Danvers’ rather complicated relationship with Rambeau.

Anyway, let’s go back to the movie itself. The villain of the movie, who is as forgettable as most of recent MCU movie villains (That is why we should be more grateful to how awesomely Tony Leung brought a touch of class to “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”, by the way), is attempting something potentially catastrophic in terms of space and time, and the opening scene of the film shows this villain figure finally finding one half of a powerful object called the Quantum Bands. Needless to say, getting the other half of the Quantum Bands is absolutely necessary for this villain figure, who certainly will stop at nothing for accomplishing the final goal.

If you are familiar with Khan’s TV adventure, you surely know that she happens to have the other half of the Quantum Bands, which is the main source of her superpower. While she has been enjoying her own superhero life, this plucky girl of one American middle-class Muslim family in Jersey City, New Jersey, is dreaming of becoming a friend/colleague of Captain Marvel someday, and, what do you know, she happens to get wish as she gets herself entangled with Danvers and Rambeau’s urgent situation due to that other half of the Quantum bands. For a reason I still do not wholly understand, they and Khan get their positions switched whenever they use each own superpower, and you may get quite confused when they try to be accustomed to this unexpected circumstance while going through the first big action sequence of the film.

Once they discern that they really need to stick together for saving not only the Earth but also the whole universe, they thankfully band together much faster than many male members of the Avengers. I wish the screenplay by director Nia DaCosta, who recently impressed us with her first two features films “Little Woods” (2018) and “Candyman” (2021), and her co-writers Megan McDonnell and Elissa Karasik takes its time more for the relationship development among its three main characters, but it is clear to us that Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, and Iman Vellani are having a fun together at least, and I would not complain at all if the movie, which is rather short compared to many of MCU flicks, became longer to accommodate these three wonderful actresses more.

In contrast, many of the other main cast members are more or less than background elements. Zawe Ashton zealously chews her scenes like Faye Dunaway in “Mommie Dearest” (1981), but her effort is already limited by her thankless villain role from the beginning. In case of Samuel L. Jackson, he merely seems to be on an autopilot mode after playing his character so much during last 15 years, and he and many other supporting performers are far less impressive compared to a certain cute cat, which steals the show again as it did in “Captain Marvel”. To be frank with you, I will not deny that I chuckled a lot as watching how this cat provides an utterly outrageous moment accompanied with one of the most hideously catchy musical numbers from Andrew Lloyd Webber (I am not kidding at all, folks).

While it is not entirely without entertaining elements, “The Marvels” does not satisfy me enough for recommendation, and I become more convinced that it is already too late for the MCU franchise to embrace more diversity. After all those white male superheroes got all the fun and juice for more than 10 years, the franchise is now throwing leftovers to other superheroes without much consideration, and that is probably a very familiar situation to many of you. I do not know whether this is the beginning of the end of the era, but I still hope that we will at least get a bit more fun and excitement from whatever will come next after “The Marvels”.

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Quiz Lady (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): Two different sisters

Posted on November 7, 2023 by kaist455

“Quiz Lady”, which came to Disney+ in South Korea in last week, is a predictable but delightful comedy often buoyed by the undeniable comic talent of its two wonderful lead actresses. Although we can clearly see where its story and characters are heading right from the beginning, the movie is still worthwhile to watch for a number of funny moments generated from their good comic timing, and that is mostly enough for compensating for several weak aspects of the film including its rather conventional plot.

Awkwafina, who has been steadily rising since her notable supporting turn in “Ocean’s 8” (2018) and “Crazy Rish Asians” (2018), plays Anne Yum, a young Korean-Chinese American woman whose daily life outside her plain workplace mainly revolves around a popular TV quiz show. Since she was very young, this TV quiz show has been a sort of shelter for her, and she is also pretty good at giving the right answers for all those various quizzes thrown at its contestants, though she is a bit too shy to try to appear on the TV quiz show someday.

On one day, Anne’s usual daily life is disrupted by a call from the local facility for old people where her mother has been staying for a while. Her mother ran away with someone to Macao, and now Anne should take care of the consequence of her mother’s reckless action. To make matters worse, her estranged older sister Jenny (Sandra Oh) also comes after receiving the call from the facility, and Anne is all the more annoyed to see that Jenny is going to stay in Anne’s residence during next several days.

The main source of comedy in the film is how much Anne and Jenny are different from each other in many aspects. While Anne is often socially awkward while thinking and worrying too much, Jenny is quite outgoing with much consideration on her frequently impulsive actions, and she is not so trustworthy to say the least. Later in the story, she tells her younger sister that she will get a considerable amount of compensation money from a certain restaurant franchise due to a little accident of hers, but Anne understandably does not believe her older sister at all.

Anyway, Anne and Jenny soon find themselves in a big trouble thanks to their mother. It turns out that their mother owed lots of money to a local gang organization due to her gambling, and those gangs even kidnap Anne’s pet dog. Although both Anne and Jenny do not have much money right now, Jenny comes to have a little good idea for getting enough money for paying off their mother’s debt. After Jenny posted a video clip of Anne correctly answering every quiz while watching that TV quiz show as usual, Anne suddenly becomes an online celebrity, and this actually draws the attention of the production team of the TV quiz show. Jenny suggests to her younger sister that they really should go to the audition to be held a few days later, but, not so surprisingly, Anne hesitates due to the lack of confidence.

Of course, Anne subsequently finds herself forcefully taken to the audition by her older sister, and there is an uproarious scene where Anne eventually attends the audition as quite intoxicated due to a couple of drugs belonging to her older sister. While she usually has to play a straight figure in contrast to her co-star’s more colorful character, Awkwafina loses herself a bit into several goofy moments during this scene, and Sandra Oh, who has been one of the most dependable actresses working in Hollywood since her breakout role in Alexander Payne’s Oscar-winning film “Sideways” (2004), effectively supports her co-star step by step as demonstrating another side of her immense talent.

During its last act, the screenplay by Jen D’Angelo stumbles more than once as having its two lead characters separated for a while, but it later bounces back once Awkwafina and Oh stick together again as required by its plot mechanism. Yes, their characters surely come to have a dramatic moment of support and reconciliation as expected, but we care about their relationship at least because Oh and Awkwafina did a commendable job of bringing enough life and personality to their characters.

Around Awkwafina and Oh, director Jessica Yu places several notable performers who have each own moment to shine. While Holland Taylor is dryly humorous as Annie’s cranky neighbor who turns out to have a little soft spot for a certain well-known figure later in the story, Jason Schwartzman, who is always effective at playing petty comic characters, is well-cast as the current champion of the quiz show, and Jon “Dumbfoundead” Park, a Korean American rapper who previously appeared in Joseph Khan’s interesting rap battle drama film “Bodied” (2017), has a couple of silly scenes as the gang boss menacing Anne and Jenny. In case of Will Ferrell, who also participated in the production of the film along with Oh and Awkwafina, he wisely dials down his usual comic persona in contrast to his recent over-the-top supporting turn in Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” (2023), and the result is both funny and sincere while never going too far.

Overall, “Quiz Lady” does not surprise us much in terms of story and characters, but it has enough laughs besides being another film to be added to the growing list of notable Asian American films ranging from “The Farewell” (2019) and “Minari” (2020) to “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (2022) and “Joy Ride” (2023). It could be more improved here and there for more depth and hilarity in my inconsequential opinion, but I was amused enough during my viewing, so I will not grumble for now.

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Fingernails (2023) ☆☆(2/4): Can true love be measured?

Posted on November 7, 2023 by kaist455

“Fingernails”, which was released on Apple TV+ on last Friday, starts with an intriguing story promise. What if being truly in love can be actually measured? What if the result of such a measurement is different form what one is feeling right now? Although exploring these and other story potentials for a while, the movie unfortunately straddles on without any clear direction before arriving at its fizzling anti-climactic ending, and that is a shame considering the solid efforts from its main cast members.

At first, the movie gradually establishes its supposedly futuristic setting, though nothing looks so fancy or cool in its mundane background. In this world, a machine which can actually test true love was developed a few years ago, and this has certainly affected numerous relationships out there. If the result is zero negative instead of being somewhere between 50 and 100%, that means the couple in question is not really in love with each other at all, and it is mentioned later in the story that more than 80% of the test results during the first several years showed negative (Imagine how many hearts were broken as a consequence).

Of course, there has also been the need for “strengthening” the test result, so there are a number of institutes for helping the couples in need. As shown in the film, the couples in need will go through a series of sessions for increasing the intimacy and affection in their relationship, and it seems this mostly works although it does not always guarantee the positive test result.

Anyway, Anna (Jessie Buckley) gets interested in being hired in one of such institutes mainly because she has not exactly been sure about whether she is really in love with her boyfriend Ryan (Jeremy Allen White). They already tested themselves before, and the result was pretty positive to say the least, but Anna cannot help but feel like being less in love with him than before. Sure, they have lived together as being comfortable with each other’s presence, but it seems to her that something has been gone missing between them, and that is why she wants to know more about how true love can be measured.

After meeting the supervisor of the institute, Anna is assigned with Amir (Riz Ahmed), a more experienced employee who actually devised several sessions for those couples coming to the institute. In case of one of those sessions, they will be placed in a movie theater, and then their love will be tested via a sudden emergency. After all, one is surely ready to sacrifice oneself for the other if one is truly in love with the other, right?

And we get to know about how true love is confirmed by that machine in the end. All a couple to be tested has to do is getting one of their respective fingernails to be pulled out as a sample to be tested, and that will surely make you wince even though the movie thankfully does not show much of this unpleasant process. Now I wonder whether anesthesia can be an option, but I guess that probably interferes with the measurement.

Stoically sticking to its dry and detached tone, the screenplay by director/co-producer Christos Nikou and his co-writers Sam Steiner and Stavros Raptis doles out one small absurd moment to another as Anna and Amir work on a bunch of new couples to be tested. At one point, the relationship strength of a couple is tested via one trying to locate the other only via the sense of smell, and it looks like this actually strengthen the trust and affection in their relationship, though they eventually become quite nervous just like any other couple when the time for their test comes.

Meanwhile, Anna finds herself gradually attracted to Amir. Although Amir seems to be happy and confident with some other woman, Anna’s eyes still cannot help but drawn more to him, and she begins to have more doubt on her current relationship with Ryan. After all, she did not tell him much about her new job from the beginning, and she becomes more aware of the emotional gap between them. As a matter of fact, they look more like roommates instead of lovers, no matter how much they are nice and affectionate to each other.

Of course, things become more complicated when it seems that Amir also has some feelings toward Anna, but the movie merely hangs on their romantic potential without much interest, and we become more aware of its rather thin narrative and shallow characterization. Jessie Buckley and Riz Ahmed are engaging as their characters tentatively revolve around each other with more mutual feelings, but the movie often hesitates to move them forward for more emotion and drama, and Buckley and Ahmed’s good performances are mostly under-utilized despite their solid low-key chemistry. In case of Jeremy Allen White and Luke Wilson, they are unfortunately limited by their thankless supporting roles, and White, who has been more prominent thanks to the acclaimed TV comedy series “The Bear”, is particularly wasted without having many things to do.

On the whole, “Fingernails” is often disappointing for not pushing its compelling story ideas enough, and we can only appreciate how much its talented main cast members try to make it work as much as possible. Compared to Nikou’s promising debut feature film “Apples” (2020), this is a major letdown, and I can only hope that he will soon move onto better things.

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Wingwomen (2023) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Ladies are simply having a fun…

Posted on November 6, 2023 by kaist455

French Netflix film “Wingwomen”, which came out a few days ago, is a flawed but enjoyable crime comedy simply having a fun with its three female main characters. Whenever they gather on the screen, the movie cheerfully coasts along the leisurely chemistry among them, and you may forgive a number of weak aspects in the film as occasionally amused by their comic interactions throughout the story.

At first, we are introduced to Carole (Mélanie Laurent) and Alex (Adèle Exarchopoulos), a female criminal duo who have been worked and lived together since they came across each other a long time ago. During the opening scene, they are finishing their latest heist job despite several setbacks including the deadly drones chasing after them, and the movie generates some wry laugh from how they smoothly handle their work while also casually bickering with each other to the end.

Nevertheless, Carole and Alex love and care a lot about each other as longtime friends/colleagues. When she is notified that she is pregnant, Carole begins to consider retirement more seriously than before, and Alex is also willing to retire along with her for having a less eventful life together, but, needless to say, that is the last thing wanted by their boss/mentor Marraine (Isabelle Adjani). When Marraine gives another heist job to handle, Carole naturally refuses at first, but then Marraine shows her old protégé how ruthless she can be for getting what she wants, and Carole has no choice but to accept that heist job while promised that it will be the last one to be done by her and Alex.

The target of that heist job in question is a certain valuable artwork currently being exhibited at a building located in Corsica, and what Alex and Carole will have to do looks pretty simple. First, they must steal the blueprint of that building, and then, after some preparation assisted by two local criminal figures, they will infiltrate into that building later. In addition, they will also be allowed to have a sort of private vacation there in the meantime thanks to the courtesy of their boss.

Because they happen to need one more person for their heist job, Carole and Alex approach to Sam (Manon Bresch), who will work as their getaway driver due to her considerable driving skill shown during her first scene in the film. As these three ladies spend some time together in Corsica, Alex and Carole gladly accept Sam as the new member of their team, and Sam is happy and excited to be around her two new friends/colleagues while becoming less guarded than before.

Even when these three ladies embark on their heist job later in the story, the movie maintains its loose narrative pacing as before, and the overall result leans more toward comedy and personality instead of thriller and suspense. Our three criminal ladies surely must be careful as much as possible during their risky work, but they are clearly having a ball with working together, and the movie subsequently adds extra absurdity when they are about to enter the final stage of their heist plan.

Although its main characters are mostly broad archetypes, the screenplay by Cédric Anger and Christophe Deslandes, which is based on the comic book of the same name by Jérôme Mulot, Florent Ruppert, and Bastien Vies, colorfully depicts their plucky personalities while throwing a few unexpected plot turns into the story. In case of one particular sex scene between Alex and one of the two aforementioned criminal figures, it tickles us when they come to try something kinky, and then it catches us off guard when the situation abruptly becomes quite risky with lots of shattered glass on the floor.

The movie comes to lose some of its narrative momentum during its last act, and the following ending is a blatant cop out to say the least, but it still works to some degree while its three main performers effortlessly click together as before. Mélanie Laurent, who also directed the film, and Adèle Exarchopoulos, who has steadily advanced since her breakout turn in “Blue is the Warmest Color” (2013), are certainly enjoying every juicy moment between them in the film, and Manon Bresch also holds her own place well between Laurent and Exarchopoulos as the third member of the group. In case of several supporting performers in the film, Philippe Katerine and Félix Moati have each own little fun as the two criminal associates of our three criminal ladies, and Isabelle Adjani, who somehow does not seem to be aged much even though it has been more than 45 years since her haunting Oscar-nominated performance in François Truffaut’s “The Story of Adele H.” (1975), is certainly another entertaining element in the film as playing her evil character with gusto.

Overall, “Wingwomen” is not good enough for recommendation in my trivial opinion, but it is not a total waste of time at all mainly because Laurent and her fellow cast members are apparently having a fun time together as reflected by a series of video clips shown during its end credits. Although it may look rather frivolous compared to her previous film “The Mad Women’s Ball” (2021), Laurent demonstrates here that she can be fairly good at lightweight stuffs just like she could competently handle the serious period drama of “The Mad Women’s Ball”, and I think she will continue to impress us as a good director just like she has done as a talented actress.

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Nyad (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): As she tries again and again

Posted on November 6, 2023 by kaist455

Netflix film “Nyad”, which was released on last Friday, is a standard biopic based on one extraordinary real-life story. While it is often fascinating to observe how persistently its real-life heroine tries again and again, the movie later becomes rather repetitive to my little disappointment, and it is fortunate that it remains anchored well by the charismatic presence of its two ever-reliable lead actresses.

Annette Bening, who has been one of the most gracefully aged actresses in Hollywood during last two decades, plays Diana Nyad, an American long-distance swimmer who was once quite famous for her several notable swimming records during the 1970-80s as shown from a series of archival footage clips. Shortly after her disastrous attempt to swim from Havana, Cuba to Key West, Florida in 1978, Nyad retired from her professional swimming career, and we see how she has comfortably spent her retirement period along with her best friend Bonnie Stoll (Jodie Foster) in 2010, but then she cannot help but feel dissatisfied as reflecting more on whether she will just live like this for the rest of her life.

Eventually, Nyad decides to do swimming again. At first, it is simply a rather long exercise at a local swimming pool, but she became more confident as finding that she is still a fairly good swimmer with enough stamina despite being over 60, and that leads her to one very risky idea. She is going to try again on swimming from Havana to Key West just like she did many years ago, and Stoll agrees to help and support her as much as she can even though she has some skepticism about her best friend’s ambitious goal.

After checking out her current skill and ability as a long-distance swimmer in Mexico, Nyad becomes more determined to accomplish her goal, and Stoll recruits several good experts who will assist them. One of these people is a well-experienced navigator named John Bartlett (Rhys Ifans), and his first meeting with Nyad does not go that well to say the least, but he is eventually persuade to join the team by Stoll as discerning more of Nyad’s strong determination.

When Nyad and others subsequently come to Havana in 2011, things look promising at first, but, as Bartlett and Stoll already worried, there are many obstacles besides that long distance between Havana and Key West, which is more than 100 miles (160 km). The swimming route is often riddled with strong currents which will definitely test Nyad’s physical strength in one way or another, and there are also many other dangers including sharks and jellyfishes. In addition, she needs to be constantly monitored and supported by her crew members, who certainly should focus on her condition minute by minute just in case.

The screenplay by Julia Cox, which is based on Nyad’s autobiography “Find a Way”, has some fun with how Nyad and her crew members prepare for Nyad’s ambitious long-distance swimming step by step. For avoiding those sharks, she hires a couple of divers who have a special electronic equipment to repel sharks, and she also approaches to a jellyfish expert later in the story. At one point early in the film, she explains to a bunch of curious kids a bit about how arduous her long-distance swimming can be, and I must say that I was a little disappointed that the movie does not delve that much into a little but important matter involved with excrement.

When the story subsequently moves onto Nyad’s first attempt, directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, who previously won an Oscar for their documentary film “Free Solo” (2018), and their crew members including cinematographer Claudio Miranda do not disappoint us at all as filling the screen with a considerable amount of realism and verisimilitude as required. You can really feel how daring and exhausting Nyad’s attempt really is, and Benning is utterly convincing in her committed acting as her character strenuously copes with one obstacle after another before eventually failing to everyone’s disappointment.

Nevertheless, Nyad is not daunted at all as subsequently trying again and again, and that is where the movie becomes less interesting than before. As zealously trying more to achieve her goal, Nyad becomes rather distant to not only others around her but also us, so we come to observe her subsequent attempts from the distance. In case of a series of flashback scenes from her past, these scenes feel mostly perfunctory without much depth, and the movie only scratches the surface of Nyad’s adolescent sexual trauma associated with her swimming coach.

At least, the movie works whenever it focuses on the long and complex relationship between Nyad and Stoll, and Bening and her co-star Jodie Foster, whose wrinkled face is as natural as Bening’s, shine as their characters often push and pull each other throughout the film. While the other main cast members of the film are mostly stuck with their thin supporting roles, Rhys Ifans sometimes steals the show from Benning and Foster as their no-nonsense navigator, and he has a little touching scene when his character confides to Stoll on why he stands by Nyad as much as Stoll.

On the whole, “Nyad” could be more improved in several aspects, and you also may be bothered by its several historical inaccuracies, but it is mostly watchable thanks to not only its directors’ competent direction but also Bening and Foster’s solid performances. Despite being over 60 at present, these two great actresses do not lose any of their talent or presence yet, and I can only hope that they keep going for whatever may come next in their respective acting careers.

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Green Night (2023) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Her manic pixie girl

Posted on November 5, 2023 by kaist455

“Green Night” is a little murky noir film which works best whenever it focuses on the wild and compelling relationship between its two very different main characters. Although I found myself quite frustrated with several vague aspects of its plot, I observed their relationship development with curiosity at least, and it is a bit shame that the movie does not push its story and characters more instead of throwing more disorientation and confusion onto the screen.

The movie, which is set in Seoul and its surrounding metropolitan area begins with a little naughty variation of Meet Cute moment between its two main characters. Jin Xia (Fan Bingbing) is a Chinese woman who has worked as an inspector in the port custom of Inchon not long after marrying some South Korean guy, and the opening scene shows her accidental encounter with a mysterious young green-haired South Korean woman. As Jin Xia scans her body, the young woman seems to be interested in drawing Jin Xia’s attention for no apparent reason as your average manic pixie girl, and Jin Xia subsequently finds herself followed by the young woman not long after the young woman makes a little fuss in front of Jin Xia due to a petty issue with her shoes.

Although she could simply say no to the young woman from the beginning, Jin Xia eventually lets the young woman into her little shabby apartment, where she has stayed away from her husband. He is apparently quite abusive to her as reflected by a few wounds on her face, and Jin Xia certainly wants to get away from her husband as soon as possible. However, she needs a considerable amount of money for being allowed to stay in South Korea after her divorce, and her husband keeps calling her to her annoyance.

While still not knowing what to do with the young woman, Jin Xia belatedly comes to realize that she gets herself into a big trouble because of the young woman, who, not so surprisingly, turns out to be a drug mule. Jin Xia promptly reports this to her direct supervisor, but, what do you know, it is subsequently revealed that her direct supervisor is also involved with a certain drug organization the young woman works for. When Jin Xia is quite at a loss, the young woman quickly offers a chance to earn lots of money right now, and Jin Xia agrees to accompany her even though being well aware of how risky that will be for both her and the young woman.

As they try to sell what the young woman has been carrying, the movie goes deep into the underworld hidden inside a local fishery market area. At one point, they approach to a certain drug dealer who looks like one of many fishmongers in the market, and the mood becomes tense as it turns out that this drug dealer is not someone they cannot mess with at any chance.

When the young woman later causes a big problem for both her and Jin Xia, Jin Xia has no choice but to call for some help from her husband, and we get to know a bit more about their abusive relationship as he lets his wife and the young woman into his residence. At first, he looks overly courteous to Jin Xia, but it does not take much time for him to reveal his monstrous side, and that leads to a big shocking moment of violence.

As a result, Jin Xia becomes more panic and desperate before while getting more stuck with the young woman. Maybe she could simply just go away from this problematic figure, but Jin Xia somehow finds herself gradually attracted to her. At one point, They happen to get a little place where they can be safe and alone for a while, and it soon turns out that the feeling is quite mutual between them, so they instantly let themselves driven by their burgeoning romantic passion. Fan Bingbing and her co-star Lee Joo Young are convincing as their good performances generate enough erotic heat on the screen, and then we get a little tender scene where their characters open themselves a bit more to each other.

However, the movie does not support its two lead performers’ solid efforts enough in my inconsequential opinion. The screenplay by Chinese filmmaker Han Shuai and her co-writer Lei Sheng does not clarify many things in the story as simply having its two main characters bounce from one narrative point to another, and that frequently distracted me during my viewing. As a crime noir drama, the story can surely be as confusing as allowed by its genre, but I think a bit of clarification or explanation could help us get engaged more in the story. In fact, you may find yourself scratching your head a bit on a number of ambiguous story elements just like I did after the movie was over.

Nevertheless, the movie is still interesting to some degree as a genre film made in South Korea by a Chinese filmmaker, and Han Shuai and her crew members including cinematographers Matthias Delvaux and Kim Hyun Seok did a competent job in case of technical aspects. The mood and details of the film are fairly authentic with considerable realism, and I could clearly discern that they did enough study and research before the shooting.

In conclusion, “Green Night” is not entirely satisfying, but it was not a waste of time at all for attempting to mix Chinese and Korean elements together. It does not reach to the level of Park Chan-wook’s recent film “Decision to Leave” (2022) in that aspect, but I will not deny that I was entertained to some degree. After all, Fan Bingbing driving a motorcycle on South Korean alleys and streets isn’t something I and South Korean audiences see everyday, is it?

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Promise (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): A boy missing his departed mother

Posted on November 5, 2023 by kaist455

South Korean documentary film “Promise” is a seemingly simple but undeniably poignant personal diary from a filmmaker father and his sensitive 9-year-old boy still missing his departed mother a lot. While wisely avoiding any cheap sentimentalism via its calm and restrained attitude, the documentary gradually reveals their quiet sadness and longing along its narrative, and the result often shines with sublime poetic beauty to be appreciated.

Since he lost his wife a few years ago, director/writer Min Byeong-hoon, who has been known for several acclaimed works such as “Pruning the Grapevine” (2006) and “Touch” (2012), has taken care of his little son Si-woo alone in their little residence located in Jeju Island, and the early part of the documentary shows us his mundane daily life with his son. As his father’s camera steadily follows after him, Si-woo looks as spirited as any kid around his age can, and you may smile as watching him cheerfully walking along the road to his elementary school.

However, as reflected by the opening part of the documentary, both Min and his little son have been haunted by the memories of his departed wife since her death. Si-woo sometimes cannot help but miss his departed mother at night, and his father tries his best for consoling his son, with the camera calmly and respectfully observing them from the distance. Although Min also surely misses his departed wife a lot, he knows too well that he must be someone to lean on for his son, so he usually keeps his feelings to himself as much as possible.

As the documentary often watches Min from the behind, we can only guess how much he has grieved. He sometimes works alone with his digital video camera in the middle of those wide landscapes of Jeju Island, and the somberly detached mood of these impressive shots convey to us a lot about whatever he has felt inside his grieving mind, even though neither he nor the documentary does not reveal much on the surface.

Meanwhile, Si-woo happened to write a little poem to express the longing for his departed mother, and that gives Min a little helpful idea for his son. As telling his son that his mother promised to meet her son in the heaven someday, Min suggests that Si-woo should write more poems as a sort of prayer to his mother and God, and Si-woo soon begins to write a number of poems one by one for expressing and processing more of his current feelings.

As Si-woo doles out one poem after another, we come to know and understand more of his emotional state – and how he gets more emotionally matured day by day. He is still sad whenever he thinks of his departed mother, but he also gets more accustomed to her absence, and he and his father become closer to each other as he gladly shares his poems with his father.

Min humbly allows his son’s poems to take the emotional center of the documentary, and many of these poems are accompanied with a number of stunning landscape shots to remember. Instead of merely functioning as visual backgrounds, these wonderful shots actually elevate Si-woo’s plain but sincere poems with more poignancy, and I particularly like one brief but impressive moment showing a vast field suddenly becoming quite snowy via a smooth transition of time.

Above all, we can also sense how Min and his son go through each own healing process via the passage of time. As they go through one season after another, their daily life becomes less melancholic, and there is a touchingly humorous moment from when they play a little card game together in one evening. When his birthday comes, we cannot help but notice that Si-woo looks more matured than before, and we all can agree that his departed mother would be proud of him if she were really watching from somewhere above our world.

Later in the documentary, Min takes his son to where his departed wife was buried. Their little but moving private moment is followed by a montage sequence mainly consisting of several different video clips played in backward, and this sequence beautifully summarizes Min and his son’s deep feelings toward his departed mother. Both Min and his son are well aware that they should move on no matter what, but they cannot help but miss their loved one nonetheless, and that is further emphasized by a certain little recorded moment from their past.

Overall, “Promise” is a solid personal piece of work which often shines with lots of thoughtful sensitivity, and many of its fabulous moments have grown up on me after I watched it in this afternoon. I must confess that my condition was not so good during the screening, but I did feel something special from the documentary despite that, and I guess I should revisit it sooner or later for more appreciation.

By the way, as shown from the documentary, Si-woo wrote more than 20 poems, and I came to learn later that Min actually published a collection of his son’s poems before the documentary was released in South Korean theaters a few days ago. To be frank with you, I am rather obtuse to poetry as an utterly straightforward guy who usually prefers prose more, but I guess I should check out that poem collection for feeling and understanding more of the emotional undercurrents of the documentary.

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