The Boy and the Heron (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): Miyazaki returns…

Posted on October 27, 2023 by kaist455

Hayao Miyazaki’s much-anticipated comeback animation film “The Boy and the Heron” feels more like an exercise than an entertainment. It is surely filled with lots of Miyazaki’s personal style and touches to admire, and there are certainly a number of powerful visual moments to linger on your mind. However, is it actually as awesome and glorious as we have wished since the announcement of his comeback? Folks, I must confess that my mind was not exactly enthralled during my viewing even while my eyes observed its visual beauty with lots of respect and admiration.

Like his previous animation film “The Wind Rises” (2013), which was incidentally supposed to be his final work at that time, “The Boy and the Heron” is connected with the World War II, and, in contrast to the rather mushy attitude of “The Wind Rises”, it really seems to try to face the reality of the wartime during the opening part. Not long after we are introduced to its young hero Mahito (voiced by Soma Santoki), the film strikes us hard with an air raid scene which may remind you of the similar scenes in Isao Takahata’s great animation film “Graves of the Fireflies” (1988), and we can really sense here how much Mahito is devastated as facing his mother’s unfortunate death.

One year later, Mahito and his father move to a rural area which is also his mother’s hometown. His father is going to manage an arms factory there, and he also recently married his dead wife’s sister Natsuko (voiced by Yoshino Kimura). Natsuko’s close physical resemblance to Mahito’s mother understandably makes Mahito rather uncomfortable right from when she greets Mahito and his father at a local train station, and Mahito is not so pleased to learn that Natsuko is soon going to give birth to another child of his father.

Anyway, Natsuko tries to do as much as she can as Mahito’s aunt/stepmother. She takes him to a big family manor mainly consisting of an older traditional house and a western house built right behind it, and Mahito gets a room in the latter which once belonged to his mother. In addition, the employees of the manor including seven old (and very wrinkled) maids of the manor, who are somehow reminiscent of those seven dwarfs in “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (1937), are mostly welcoming to Mahito, and it looks like he will eventually get accustomed to this new environment of his.

However, Mahito is still haunted by the memories of his mother’s death, and then he begins to hear and see strange things around the manor. There is a mysterious abandoned spot involved with one prominent ancestor in the family, and the old maids are willing to tell Mahito more about how strange and weird this spot really is. In addition, there is also a big heron which can somehow speak to Mahito, and this heron often taunts him with the possibility of meeting his dead mother somewhere beyond the world.

When Natsuko is suddenly gone missing later, things get more interesting for us. Along with one of the old maids, who can be called “Grumpy” in my humble opinion, Mahito looks for Natsuko, and then they come upon that mysterious spot which turns out to be the portal toward a hidden fantasy world. Shortly after confronting that heron, Mahito and the old maid are suddenly sucked into this fantasy world, and then Mahito finds himself alone and lost without anyone to help him.

Fortunately, there soon comes a young feisty woman for his rescue, and Mahito gets to know this strange fantasy world a bit while getting some help from this young lady. At one point, you may wince a lot as watching them trying to gut a big grotesque fish they caught from the sea, and then you will be delighted as a bunch of small white globular entities floating one by one to the sky, which may remind you of that little enchanting moment of numerous tiny forest creatures in “Princess Mononoke” (1997).

Because of its leisurely narrative pacing and rather thin characterization, you may wish the film developed and pushed the story and characters more, but Miyazaki seems to be simply enjoying himself without much concern or pressure, and he demonstrates here that he has not lost any of his skill and talent yet. As before, I often marvel at all the painstaking details accompanying his distinctive cell animation style, and I was also quite tickled by his wry black humor associated with those big talking parrots appearing later in the story.

However, the film somehow did not click with me well in terms of story and characters. While Mahito merely functions as a blank canvass for more colorful figures in the story, many of the main characters in the story are no more than archetypes without much human personality or depth, and that is the main reason why its eventual climactic party is not as emotionally resonating as Miyazaki intends. In addition, the historical background of the story is regrettably pushed aside as Miyazaki focuses more on fantasy and other metaphysical stuffs in the story, and now I begin to wonder whether Miyazaki is an artist too mild and gentle to handle the grim reality of the World War II in contrast to Takahata, who did not pull any punch at all in “Grave of the Fireflies”.

To my little dissatisfaction, “The Boy and the Heron”, which is released as “How Do You Live?” in Japan and South Korea, is another minor footnote after “The Wind Rises”, but I still recommend it for the undeniable artistry in its top-notch visual qualities. As many of you know, Miyazaki is already working on his next project, and I sincerely hope that he will entertain me more in the next time.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Past Lives (2023) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Scenes from an “In-yun”

Posted on October 25, 2023 by kaist455

Good human drama films can not only interest but also energize me sometimes, and Celine Song’s remarkable debut feature film “Past Lives” is one of such fantastic examples. When I watched it, I was not so sure about whether I could watch one more film due to some physical exhaustion at that time, but, what do you know, I soon found myself thoroughly captivated by its exquisite handling of story, mood, and characters, and I was quite touched as observing how effortlessly and powerfully it pulls out a sublime finale to remember in the end.

After the opening part which introduces its three main characters, the movie goes back to 24 years ago. Na Young (Seung Ah Moon) and Hae Sung (Seung Min Yim) were two elementary school kids living in Seoul, South Korea, and their first scene succinctly establishes how much they have been close to each other. Although they often fiercely compete with each other in school examinations, Hae Sung wants to be more than a classmate to Na Young, and it looks like the feelings are mutual between him and Na Young as they are returning together after another day at their school.

However, as subtly reflected by the last shot of this little sweet moment, they are soon going to be separated from each other. Na Young’s parents decides to immigrate to Canada probably for making a new start for them as well as their kids, and Na Young does not like this change much as her feelings toward Hae Sugn gradually grow. At least, her mother understands this well, so she lets her daughter spend some time with Hae Sung before eventually leaving South Korea with her family.

That seems to be the end of a little romance between Na Young and Hae Sung, but they have an accidental encounter between them 12 years later thanks to Facebook. Now Na Young becomes Nora (Greta Lee), and she has been aspiring to become a playwright in New York City. In case of Hae Sung, now played by Teo Yoo from this point, he has been studying at a college in Seoul for becoming an engineer someday, and he is certainly delighted when his online search for his old childhood sweetheart is unexpectedly succeeded.

For a while, Nora and Hae Sung frequently talk with each other via online communication services, but, not so surprisingly, their rekindled feelings are gradually burdened by the distance between them. While Nora is more occupied with her future playwriting career, Hae Sung also has to pay more attention to his study and future professional career, and there eventually comes a point where they agree to have some period of separation.

That seems to be the end of their second romance, but we see how much Nora and Hae Sung are connected with each other even 12 years later. Now Nora is happily married with a writer dude she met a rural retreat for writers, and it is clear that she and her husband have lots of genuine love and understanding between them, but she cannot help but excited when Hae Sung is going to come to New York City for meeting her again.

As Nora and Hae Sung meet and then speak with each other, Song’s screenplay makes a delicate balancing act between romance and nostalgia. Nora and Hae Sung become more aware of their old feelings as they enjoy more of each other’s company, but they also clearly recognize how things have changed between them during last 24 years. As Hae Sung phlegmatically points out later in the story, Nora is now quite different from a girl he used to know, though, as Nora points out in response, that girl remains as a shared memory between them.

Nevertheless, they still feel attracted to each other as sensing more of their emotional connection, which may be associated with what Koreans often call “In-yun”. “In-yun” means a fateful connection in the past lives of two different people, and, as Nora casually explains to her soon-to-be husband at one point, it is just a common term often used by Korean guys trying to seduce girls, but she and Hae Sung cannot help but wonder about whether they are actually soulmates bound together via “In-yun” – and how things could have turned out differently if Nora and her family had not left South Korea.

Without making any attempt to push its two main characters into conventional romantic plot, the movie confidently saunters from one point to another along with them, and Song and her crew members including cinematographer Shabier Kirchner often tinge the screen with subdued but lasting visual beauty. I like how they vividly presents Seoul during the late 1990s with authentic mood and details to be noticed by South Korean audiences like me, and the result is good enough to be mistaken for being made by a South Korean filmmaker. In case of the New York City part of the film, it looks plain and unadorned on the surface, there are a number of wonderful poetic moments to be appreciated, and it surely demonstrates Song’s considerable filmmaking skill and talent.

Above all, Song’s two lead performers are absolutely terrific in their low-key natural performance. Greta Lee gracefully embodies her character’s complicated emotional journey without signifying too much on whatever is going behind her gentle appearance, and Teo Yoo, who recently made a brief appearance in Park Chan-wook’s “Decision to Leave” (2022), is believable as her equal match, though, as many of my South Korean acquaintances pointed out, Hae-sung is too good to be true at times considering thousands of deplorably misogynistic free-range male rudes out there in the South Korean society. As Nora’s decent husband, John Magaro dutifully hangs around the fringe of the story without drawing too much attention, and there is a brief but poignant moment when he silently conveys to us how his character is rather frustrated for a good reason even while sincerely respecting his wife’s longtime relationship with Hae Sung.

In conclusion, “Past Lives” is a superlative piece of work which turns out to be more emotionally complex behind its seemingly simple tale, and Song delivers a considerable breakthrough which may led to more good works to come from her during next several years. Folks, here is a truly exceptional human drama you should not miss at any chance, and it is certainly one of the best films of this year.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

You Hurt My Feelings (2023) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): A pretty good NYC comedy drama from Holofcenter

Posted on October 25, 2023 by kaist455

Nicole Holofcenter’s new film “You Hurt My Feelings” is basically another typical urban comedy drama set in New York City, but it is a pretty good one nonetheless. Mainly revolving around human relationship issues surrounding truth and lie, the movie often makes a funny and shrewd point on its main subjects without any condescension on its main characters, and we come to laugh more as seeing more of ourselves from them.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who has been like a more sardonic sister of Tina Fey to me since I watched her hilarious Emmy-winning performance in HBO comedy series “Veep”, plays Beth, a New York City writer who has been working on her latest work since making a modest success from the memoir based on her childhood verbal abuse. Although there has been not much progress for her yet despite a series of drafts, Beth’s life is mostly fine and comfortable as you can expect from your average affluent middle-class New Yorker, and we later see her happily celebrating their wedding anniversary with her husband Don (Tobias Menzies, who looks much more down-to-earth compared to his sternly regal Emmy-winning supporting turn in the third and fourth season of Netflix TV drama series “The Crown”).

However, there soon comes a crack in her small private world. While Beth is spending some free time with her sister Sarah (Michaela Watkins) outside, they happen to spot Don talking with Sarah’s husband Mark (Arian Moayed) and then come to eavesdrop on the conversation without noticed by Don or Mark. Don happens to be talking about Beth’s work in progress, and Beth is shocked and devastated to realize that Don has been lying about his actual feelings and thoughts on her novel. He does not like her novel at all in fact, but he has lied to her for, yes, not hurting her feelings.

Of course, Beth feels hurt a lot as a result, and that makes her reflect more on not only her relationship with Don but also her current status as a writer. While her supposedly acclaimed memoir seems fairly good despite its rather rote title, she has not published anything notable since the memoir, which is now almost forgotten as reflected by an amusing moment between her and her writing class students. Maybe she really needs some honesty and truth from her husband for any resolution to the current dead end in her work in progress, but she also finds herself quite reluctant about openly discussing that with Don, as still wincing from that hurtful moment of revelation.

Meanwhile, the movie also focuses on several people around Beth – and how their life and relationships are often maintained by small and big white lies. As a psychiatrist, Don wants to help his patients as much as possible, but most of them do not seem to appreciate his help and support much, and he even later finds himself cornered by one very problematic couple. While he prefers to pull punches in case of giving some hard counsel, there eventually comes a point where he begins to doubt his professional ability, and we get some amusement when his wife casually assures that he is still good as before. Regardless of what she thinks of his professional ability, she simply gives him some perfunctory support as his spouse, and, as arguing more on their respective white lies later in the story, both she and Don come to discern that a good relationship sometimes needs a bit more than mere honesty and trust. Truth is always important indeed, but it surely hurts a lot sometimes, and any good couple knows well that consensual lie can be a better option at times, even though they may have to face truth someday.

Their relationship is often compared with Sarah and her husband’s relationship, which is often shaken up by the matters involved with his longtime professional insecurity. As Sarah admits, Mark is not always good in his acting, but she does not tell anything bad to him as understanding well his insecure ego, and she is certainly ready to support him more when he gets suddenly fired from his latest play and then seriously considers quitting his acting career.

Without judging its main characters at all, Holofcenter’s screenplay illustrates them with loving care and sharp attention. Although they are flawed in one way or another, they come to us as engaging characters with recognizable human details, and we come to care about them more even while having some good laughs on the absurdities generated from their human flaws.

Holofcenter also draws solid comic performances from her main cast members. While bringing lots of life and personality to her character, Louis-Dreyfus is deft and precise in her natural comic timing in her several key scenes, and Tobias Menzies complements her performance well with his low-key acting in addition to having his own moments from a series of psychiatric session scenes in the movie (Amber Tamblyn and David Cross are particularly hilarious as the aforementioned troubled couple in therapy). On the opposite, Michaela Watkins and Arian Moayed are effective as a counterpoint to Louis-Dreyfus and Menzies, and Owen Teague and Jeannie Berlin are also fun to watch as Beth’s son and mother, respectively.

Overall, “You Hurt My Feeling” is another delightful work from Holofcenter, who previously made “Please Give” (2010) and “Enough Said” (2013) and then received an adapted screenplay Oscar nomination for “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” (2018). Although it stumbles a bit around its rather abrupt epilogue part, the movie is still quite funny and insightful as a human comedy, and it is surely one of more enjoyable films of this year.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): An enjoyable adaptation of Judy Blume’s classic middle-grade novel

Posted on October 24, 2023 by kaist455

“Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”, the adaptation of the iconic middle-grade novel of the same name by Judy Blume, has enough sincerity and sensitivity besides being a witty coming-of-age dramedy film to enjoy. While it may look relatively tame and modest compared to many of recent coming-of-age dramedy movies out there, the movie is still engaging for its deft and thoughtful handling of story and characters, and you may find yourself rooting more for its plucky young heroine more as she is more prepared to take her first step into adolescence around the end of the story.

Mainly set in a suburban area of New Jersey during 1970, the movie tells the story of Margaret Simon (Abby Ryder Fortson), an 11-year-old girl who suddenly finds herself moving from New York City to New Jersey along with her parents Barbara (Rachel McAdams) and Herb (Benny Safdie) not long after coming back from a summer camp. Because she has been totally fine with living in New York City, Margaret is not so happy about this abrupt change, but she still can sometimes visit her jolly Jewish grandmother Sylvia (Kathy Bates, who has had no problem at all with becoming Shelley Winters of our time) in New York City at least.

Anyway, right from her first day in New Jersey, Margaret comes to befriend Nancy (Elle Graham), a popular neighborhood girl who is going to be in the same classroom in their local elementary school. Nancy gladly introduces Margaret to several members of her little circle, and the movie gives us a series of humorous moments as Margaret and her new friends talk about a number of stuffs including boys and the signs of adolescence to come. As talking more about menstruation and breast growth, they are all eager to experience these typical adolescent physical changes, and we surely get some good laugh when they innocently try something which somehow reminds me of Sharon Tate’s certain infamous moment in “Valley of the Dolls” (1967).

In the meantime, we get to know a bit about several other new classmates of Margaret. There is a rather unpopular chubby kid who often looks like a little underage version of my late mentor Roger Ebert, but he often seems to be oblivious to his current circumstance at least, while also being less miserable than a girl who has been ridiculed by others for growing up a bit faster than others. With her early signs of early adolescence, this girl surely stands out among others, and Nancy and her girls often make a fun of this girl behind back even though they cannot help but envy this girl’s faster physical maturation.

While she is trying to find out what she wants to do next for her own life, Margaret’s mother also sincerely pays attention to her daughter like any good mother would, and that leads to another funny moment in the film. So eager to wear a certain piece of female underwear, Margaret asks her mother to take her to a female underwear shop in the local shopping mall, but, alas, she only comes to learn more about why some women do not want to wear it at all, besides being reminded that her body has not grown much yet.

As empathically handling its young heroine’s bumpy emotional/physical journey toward adolescence with a wholesome sense of humor tinged with poignancy and honesty, the screenplay by director/writer Kelly Fremon Craig, who previously made “The Edge of Seventeen” (2016), also focuses on Margaret’s growing conflict on faith and religion. As reflected by the very title of the film, she often tells a lot to God as if God actually existed, but she is not so sure about her choice of religion as the child of an interfaith couple. While Margaret’s grandmother is willing to draw her more to Judaism, it does not seem to fit with her, and the same thing can be said about Christianity, which is mainly represented by the estranged parents of Margaret’s mother.

We naturally see a trouble right from when Barbara’s parents eventually come from Ohio and then meet not only Margaret but also Sylvia, but the movie is too smart to resort to any simple resolution for Margaret’s ongoing conflict on her choice of religion. Later in the story, she comes to have an unexpected moment of comfort at a certain religious place, but that does not make anything definite for her, and we come to see that she will make an active choice someday although nothing is certain for her yet.

I think the movie is a bit too loose in its episodic narrative structure, but it still holds our attention thanks to its solid storytelling and the good performances from its main cast members. While young actress Abby Ryder Fortson earnestly holds the center as required, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates, and Benny Safdie dutifully support her while having each own moment from time to time, and several young main cast members including Elle Graham and Isol Young are also effective in their respective supporting part.

In conclusion, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.” may not feel as fresh or groundbreaking as Blume’s middle grade novel was at the time of its first publication in 1970, but it is fairly recommendable to young female audiences around Margaret’s age and their parents. Incidentally, the movie happened to be released in US not long after documentary film “Judy Blume Forever”, and I am sure that the movie will make a nice double feature show along with that excellent documentary.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

The Pigeon Tunnel (2023) ☆☆☆1/2 (3.5/4): The last words from John le Carré

Posted on October 23, 2023 by kaist455

Errol Morris’ latest documentary “The Pigeon Tunnel”, which is currently available on Apple TV+, focuses on the life and the works of John le Carré via le Carré himself, who incidentally passed away in 2020 not long after interviewed by Morris. While he remains mostly discreet and elusive throughout the documentary, le Carré is still a fascinating figure nonetheless, and it is often engaging to observe how he and Morris subtly push and pull each other as Morris attempts to draw more from him.

At first, the documentary mainly revolves around how the early years of le Carré’s life made him ready for writing as well as that cold world of espionage. He was born as David John Moore Cornwell, and he frankly recollects on how his early years were often rocky thanks to his criminal father, whose big financial schemes frequently threw his family into one trouble after another. As a matter of fact, le Carré’s mother left her husband and her son without never looking back because of not only this but also his frequent womanizing, and le Carré reunited with his mother only after he came to know her whereabouts many years later.

At least, le Carré’s father made sure that his two sons got good education at prestigious private schools, but le Carré always felt like an outsider even though he mostly went along well with his schoolmates. Constantly aware of his rather shameful family background, he usually felt like an imposter in the bunch, and it goes without saying that this was how he was shaped up to become ideal for espionage later.

Not long after he began to study in Oxford University, le Carré was secretly recruited by a member of the British intelligence agency. At first, he worked for MI5, but then he moved to M16, which handles international matters in contrast to MI5 handling the domestic ones. While he officially worked as a diplomat in Berlin on the surface, he often did some espionage works behind his back as watching the construction of the Berlin Wall in the early 1960s, and that was the main inspiration for his third novel “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold”, which put him right on the top of espionage fiction thanks to its huge commercial/critical success.

As reminiscing about how he worked for MI6 during that time, le Carré dryly observes on the qualities necessary for being a spy. Besides being able to become a liar and con man, a good spy is also required to have enough loyalty for serving his/her master all the way, and le Carré happened to have the right stuffs for that. While he had much more integrity than his father, he was also not so different from his father in some aspects, and he indirectly recognizes his less wholesome aspects as reflecting on how he was pretty good at deception just like his father.

During the same time, le Carré also went through more development as a storyteller, and his direct experience with the Cold War espionage was certainly a rich source for his considerable storytelling talent. Even when he was young, he was quite interested in creating narratives out of his life, and he frankly admits how he sometime deceived even himself in that way. For example, one of his writings describes a rather Dickensian moment involved with his father’s imprisonment, but that moment never happened actually. As le Carré sharply points out, this surely exemplifies well how much we easily deceive ourselves for making any sense out of our usually messy life.

While still not liking his father that much even at present, le Carré let himself often take care of his father’s small and big problems, though there eventually came a point where he decided that enough is enough. His longtime desire for a better father figure led to the creation of his famous spy character George Smiley, but you can see bits of le Carré himself from Smiley when he occasionally reveals his strong sense of morality – especially in case of one moment when he sharply talks about a certain infamous British double agent who is clearly the main model for the mole character in his acclaimed novel “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”.

Although seemingly telling a lot about his life and career, le Carré remains as a deeply private person not so willing to tell everything in front of the camera, and we come to sense more of the underlying tension between him and Morris as Morris occasionally asks some questions to le Carré. While admitting that what he has told to Morris may not be entirely true, le Carré does not go further even when nudged a bit by Morris, and the remaining ambiguity surrounding him is further accentuated by the coldly rhythmic score by Philip Glass and Paul Leonard-Morgan.

On the whole, “The Pigeon Tunnel”, which is derived from le Carré’s usual temporary title for his work in progress, may disappoint you to some degree because it does not reveal everything about le Carré’s life and career, but it is still worthwhile to watch mainly thanks to le Carré’s fascinatingly reserved presence, and Morris did a skillful job of mixing le Carré’s insightful words with a number of various archival records and clips, while often peppering the resulting mix with the recurring images associated with the origin of that temporary title of le Carré. Morris may not wholly succeed in his approach to le Carré, but le Carré is indeed one of the most interesting human figures interviewed by Morris, and that is more than enough for me for now.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

In Our Day (2023) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): The 30th film by Hong Sang-soo

Posted on October 23, 2023 by kaist455

The most memorable thing in Hong Sang-soo’s 30th feature film “In Our Day” is one fluffy (and plumpy) cat, which always steals the show whenever it appears on the screen. Probably because the movie is relatively less interesting than Hong’s better works such as “HaHaHa” (2010) or “Right Now, Wrong Then” (2015), my mind often got disinterested in whatever was going on the screen during my viewing, and I could not help but want to see more of that cat instead of really engaged in the story and characters.

That cat belongs to a woman named Jeong-soo (Song Seon-mi), and the first scene establishes her relationship with her friend Sang-won (Kim Min-hee), who has stayed in Jeong-soo’s little residence for a while. As they casually talk with each other, Jeong-soo’s cat enters the screen, and the mood becomes a bit more playful as Sang-woo briefly plays with Jeong-soo’s cat, which does not mind her attention at all as exuding its natural cuteness on the screen.

Meanwhile, the movie also focuses on an aging male poet named Eui-joo (Ki Joo-bong), who is visited by a young female documentary filmmaker named Ji-soo (Park Mi-so). Eui-joo is willing to tell anything in front of Ji-soo’s digital video camera, but her project does not seem to be going that well despite her plucky enthusiasm, and he does not have much to say probably because he is advised to stop drinking and smoking due to his health problem. Considering how often the male characters of Hong’s films drink or smoke, Eui-joo’s ongoing abstinence is a bit amusing to us at first, but Eui-joo seems mostly fine with his abstinence, and that is sadly less fun for us.

Anyway, Eui-joo is later visited by Jae-won (Ha Seong-guk), a guy who has seriously considers trying on acting. I do not know why this guy wants to seek some advice on acting from Eui-joo even though Eui-joo has not acted before, but Eui-joo does have several things to tell in front of Eui-joo and Ji-soo, and the mood becomes a little more humorous as Eui-joo frequently emphasizes on honesty and integrity.

The two different parts of the film are later connected via Ji-soo, who visits Jeong-soo’s residence at some point in the middle of the film. As she talks with Jeong-soo and Sang-won, we observe Sang-won showing a certain odd way of ramen, which is also demonstrated by Eui-joo in front of Ji-soo during one earlier scene in the film. Does Sang-won actually know Eui-joo, even though she does not tell anything about him to Eui-joo? I have no idea in fact, but now I wonder whether these two characters have some personal elements from Hong Sang-soo and Kim Min-hee, who has been personally involved with Hong not long before “On the Beach at Night Alone” (2017) came out.

However, the movie curiously does not attempt to connect its two different parts more without generating much synergy between them. When Jeong-soo’s cat is suddenly gone missing for no apparent reason, the mood becomes a bit suspenseful, but this urgent situation is quickly resolved in an anti-climactic fashion. In case of Eui-joo’s part, the atmosphere becomes a little silly when he eventually decides to try a bit of smoking and drinking along with Ji-soo and Jae-won, but this moment does not lead to any good laugh for us, even when Eui-joo and the other two characters subsequently attempt an absurd drinking game together.

As observing this curiously lackadaisical moment, I found myself wondering whether the movie is actually Hong’s admission on being less artistically motivated than before. After all, he has kept going in his small artistic territory for more than 25 years since his first feature film “The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well” (1996), and he has recently tried to do something different as shown from “The Woman Who Ran” (2020) and “In Front of Your Face” (2021), but then he previously gave “In Water” (2023) early in this year, a literally blurry piece of sh*t which is his worst film in my inconsequential opinion. I might have been too harsh and mean as writing in my review on “In Water” that my anoscopy looks sharper and more detailed besides being in focus as required, but, boy, I definitely do not want to re-evaluate “In Water” at any chance as still wincing from one of the most boring and exasperating movie theater experiences during last several years.

Regardless of whether his artistic energy is actually declining these days, Hong is still capable of drawing good performances from his performers, and the small cast of “In Our Day” is as natural and spontaneous as you can expect from his performers. While Kim Min-hee, Song Seon-mi, and Park Mi-so are particularly effective when their characters happen to occupy the screen together during one long conversation scene, and I wish the movie could utilize more of their effortless interactions on the screen. In case of Ki Joo-bong, who is also one of Hong’s frequent performers, he brings some sense of humor to his weary character, and Ha Seong-guk is also solid as a dude who does not even know well what to ask in front of Ki’s character.

On the whole, “In Our Day” is rather dissatisfying mainly due to its weak narrative, but it has some bright spots including that cute cat, and, above all, Hong will move onto his next film to direct sooner or later. As I told you before, I am not a big fan of his works, but I admire how he has been steady and productive for many years, and I sincerely hope that I will be soon more entertained in the next time.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): When Halloween meets Christmas

Posted on October 22, 2023 by kaist455

Animation film “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, which was somehow released in South Korean theaters a few days ago probably because of its 30th anniversary, is still a joy to behold. When I watched it for the first time via a video tape copy in late 1995, I zealously savored its every wonderfully enchanting moment as a young nascent cinephile, and this lovely memory of mine came back to me again as I found myself drawn back quickly into its memorably creative fantasy world at a local movie theater during last evening.

As many of you know, the story idea of the film came from none other than Tim Burton, who also served as one of its producers. He needed someone good enough to realize his imaginative story and characters on the screen via stop-motion animation, and that was Henry Selick, who would be more prominent as making several other notable stop-motion animation feature films such as “James and the Giant Peach” (1996) and “Coraline” (2009). Just like Burton, Selick has his own dark and twisted artistic sensibility, and that surely made him quite an ideal partner for Burton.

After the brief prologue scene introducing the fantasy world consisting of several different towns representing traditional holidays such as Easter or Thanksgiving Day, the film immediately establishes Halloween Town and its various grotesque denizens including Jack Skellington (voiced by Chirs Sarandon). Under Jack’s confident leadership, everyone in the town has a ball as going through another Halloween as shown from the opening musical sequence of the film, but it subsequently turns out that Jack has been rather tired of doing same things again and again for years. As a result, he cannot help but yearn more for something different enough to excite him out there, so he soon walks out of Halloween Town as dolefully singing his lament.

What do you know, he soon finds what really intrigues and excites him. Jack comes across a mysterious portal spot already introduced to us at the beginning of the film, and then he is sucked into one of several portals, which takes him to Christmas Town. As so agitated and impressed by how much Christmas looks different from Halloween in many aspects, Jack decides to show Christmas to his fellow Halloween denizens, and he even comes to attempt to replace a certain important figure of Christmas Town, whom he incidentally calls “Sandy Claws” to our little amusement.

As Jack and the denizens of Halloween try on Christmas, we surely get a deliciously morbid variation of many stuffs associated with Christmas. We get lots of naughty laughs as observing how Christmas is twisted here and there by your average Halloween fashion, and I particularly like a literally electric moment involved with the creation of the equivalents to those Christmas reindeers by a local mad scientist.

Meanwhile, the film also shows some sincerity and poignancy via a living rag doll named Sally (voiced by Catherine O’Hara), who comes to care more about Jack after witnessing his personal frustration with old Halloween routines early in the story. She is willing to help Jack at first, but then she becomes quite concerned after having a rather disturbing premonition, and, unfortunately, Jack does not listen to her much while mostly occupied with replacing “Sandy Claws” as much as he can.

All these and other things in the story are presented via the meticulous stop-making animation of the film, and the efforts by Selick and his crew members including cinematographer Pete Kozachik do not feel dated at all even at present. Sure, the stop-motion animation techniques have advanced a lot since the film came out, but Selick and his crew members’ painstaking attention to mood, style, and detail is still a marvel to behold, and the film deservedly garnered an Oscar nomination for its special effects (Unfortunately, it had to compete against that big dinosaur movie from Steven Spielberg in that year).

In addition, Tim Burton’s artistic contribution is often evident throughout the film, and that aspect is particularly evident from the score and songs composed by his usual collaborator Danny Elfman, who also sang several songs by Jack instead of Chirs Sarandon. Just like many of Burton’s early works such as “Beetlejuice” (1988) and “Batman” (1989), the film brought out the best from Elfman’s immense talent, and I must say many of his songs in the film such as the opening song “This Is Halloween” are quite catchy to say the least. As a matter of fact, the soundtrack album of the film is one of the earliest ones I purchased as a young enthusiastic fan of film music, and my personal favorite is “Kidnap the Sandy Claws”, which still tickles a diabolical sense of humor I have privately nurtured for more than 30 years since I was a little precocious smart-ass.

In conclusion, “The Nightmare Before Christmas” is an excellent classic animation film which has distinguished itself a lot as a wry crossover between the Halloween and Christmas season, and it will satisfy you regardless of whether you are drawn more to one or the other. Sure, it may look rather modest in terms of scale and technique compared to many notable stop-motion animation films during last 30 years, but the film does not lose any of its awe and wonder at all in my trivial opinion, and I sincerely hope that more local audiences will see it at movie theater during next several days even though it is also currently available on Disney+.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Free Chol Soo Lee (2022) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): The injustice upon one Korean immigrant

Posted on October 22, 2023 by kaist455

Documentary film “Free Chol Soo Lee” presents the harrowing real-life story of Chol Soo Lee, a Korean American immigrant who was wrongfully accused of the murder he did not commit and then was unjustly incarcerated for that. It is touching to see how he was eventually vindicated thanks to lots of civilian efforts from the Asian American immigrant communities, but it is also saddening to observe how he and his life were irrevocably damaged by the sheer injustice of the American legal system.

Everything began with a shocking murder case which happened in the middle of the Chinatown area in San Francisco, 1973. It was clearly another Chinatown gang murder during that time, but the San Francisco Police promptly swooped on Lee just because of a recent little gunshot incident involved with him, even though he did not have any connection with those Chinatown gangs. Once he was identified by a couple of rather unreliable witnesses, the San Francisco Police labeled him as the culprit without any hesitation, and he soon found himself at the court as being charged for the murder in the first degree.

As the documentary gradually shows us along its narrative, that was just another very unfortunate thing in Lee’s rocky life story. He was born as the illegitimate child of his unmarried South Korean mother in the middle of the Korean War, and his mother simply left to him to his aunt and uncle when she went to US after marrying a US soldier. Although he lived fairly well under his uncle and aunt, he was taken to San Francisco by his mother shortly after her divorce several years later, and he certainly had lots of trouble as struggling to adjust to his new society which did not treat him that well from the beginning. Besides, he also did not get much love from his mother, and the documentary later reveals more about her complicated emotional relationship with her son, which was originated right from when he was conceived.

Eventually, Lee came to live on the streets of Chinatown day by day instead of living with his mother, and that was when he got wrongfully arrested for that murder. No matter how much he protested, nobody in the legal system did not pay much attention, and he only came to receive a life sentence at the end of his trial. To make matters worse, he was sent to one of most notorious maximum-security state prisons in California, and his following struggle to survive everyday as the only Asian inmate in his block unfortunately later led to an incident of manslaughter, which subsequently sent him to the death row of the San Quentin State Prison.

Meanwhile, Lee’s close friend Ranko Yamada and several other local activists in the local Asian American community embarked on their little civilian project for Lee’s acquittal and discharge, and their efforts subsequently reached to a prominent Sacramento journalist K.W. Lee, who was also a Korean immigrant and naturally took a personal interest in the case. As looking more into the case, the journalist became more determined to help Lee as much as possible, and his several articles on Lee’s case surely boosted more public interest on Lee’s case in the Asian American communities.

Although the following trial on Lee’s manslaughter in the prison ended with the jury members finding Lee guilty, Yamada and many other local activists and Asian community members did not give up at all. They continued to do more protest and fund-raising, and their efforts were certainly appreciated a lot by Lee. While still facing the serious possibility of getting executed or imprisoned for the rest of his life, he had some hope and support at least, and that was certainly something he never had before.

In the end, there came a cathartic moment for Lee and his friends and supporters after his lawyers including Tony Serra made a successful argument on why he was not guilty of that murder case, and Lee was subsequently released in 1983 to everyone’s joy. At that time, it looked like things would only get better for him from the point, and he was certainly willing to try a lot for that.

Now this sounds like your average feel-good real-life story, but, besides his struggle for adjusting himself to his changed circumstance, Lee also had to struggle a lot with the personal demons associated with those dark years of imprisonment of his, which consequently led him to the painful downward spiral for him to the dismay of many others who really cared about him. Not long after his release, he came to let them down a lot, and he surely came to have lots of regret around the time when he came to hit another bottom of his life.

Mainly driven by the words from Lee himself, the documentary gradually fills out here and there in its unadorned portrayal of its human subject, and that is the main reason why its final part associated with Lee’s later years is quite moving. I will not go into details here, but I can tell you instead that directors/co-producers Julie Ha and Eugene Yi present this part with considerable compassion and understanding, and Lee’s later years may remind you of what Wiliam Faulkner once said: “I believe that man will not merely endure, he will prevail.”

Overall, “Free Chol Soo Lee”, which was incidentally released in South Korean theaters a few days ago, is a modest but powerful documentary about one specific case of social justice and racism which sadly feels quite relevant in the American society even at this point. In short, this is one of better documentaries of last year, and I am glad to see it introduced to South Korean audiences at last.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

A Tour Guide (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): The loneliness of one North Korean defector

Posted on October 22, 2023 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “A Tour Guide”, which was released as “A Person to Trust” in South Korea, follows the struggles of one North Korean female defector in the middle of the South Korean society. No matter how much she tries, she comes to face one obstacle or another as the world constantly change around her, and the sense of isolation around her feels more palpable to us as we become more aware of her accumulating loneliness.

At first, things look a little hopeful for Han-yeong (Lee Seol), who has just succeeded in obtaining a tour guide license for working at a small tour agency in Seoul, 2015. Because she stayed in China for a while not long after escaping from North Korea, she could speak both Korean and Chinese, so she looks ideal for handling those numerous Chinese tourists visiting South Korea.

However, the situation turns out to be less rosy than Han-yeong. Due to the local outbreak of a dangerous virus strain in South Korean at that time, not many Chinese tourists are willing to come to South Korea, and then there comes a serious diplomatic conflict between the Korean and Chinese government, which leads to the more decrease in the number of Chinese tourists. As learning a bit from some other employees of her tour agency, Han-yeong tries to be a better tour guide as much as possible, but she is still around the bottom of the rank compared to many employees in the tour agency, and that makes her more frustrated than before.

In addition, Han-yeong has a serious private matter to deal with. She has a brother who came to South Korea earlier than she did, but her brother has been gone missing for some reason, and Han-yeong does not know where to find him. At least, she has a fellow North Korean female defector who has been a close friend of hers for a while, and she also has a sympathetic supervisor who does not ask too much while trying to help her as much as possible, but she still finds herself feeling more isolated with more loneliness.

Some time later, a Chinese friend of hers, who provided a staying place for Han-yeong and her brother during that time, comes to South Korea, and the mood becomes lightened up a bit, but it soon turns out that her friend does not come to South Korean just for meeting Han-yeong. Just like Han-yeong, she wants to work here for earning enough money for realizing a better life for herself, and Han-yeong is surely concerned as much as we are – especially when she comes to see how her friend is going to work in South Korea without getting any labor visa. At least because she is officially a South Korean citizen with an occupational license, Han-yeong could get a decent job, but her friend does not have any advantage from the beginning, and we already sense troubles even before her friend eventually leaves for working somewhere without telling much to Han-yeong.

Around the point where the story moves to 2018, things remain hard and difficult for Han-yeong as before. For trying to earn more money to stabilize her economic situation, she comes to break some laws, and, not so surprisingly, this leads to losing her job. As a result, she subsequently finds herself doing a part-time job which pays her less than her previous job, and that makes her resort to more illegal activities. Besides supporting herself day by day, she also needs to save enough money for taking her mother out of North Korea, and, alas, that still looks impossible to her no matter how much she tries.

Furthermore, Han-yeong becomes lonelier as she does not have anyone to lean on. Her aforementioned fellow North Korean defector later decides to leave the country for immigrating to some other country along with her husband, and there is a bittersweet moment as they enjoy what may be the last private moment between them. In case of her supervisor, he still cares about her a lot as before, but then there eventually comes a point where he courteously notifies to her that he is not soon going to be around her anymore.

As a result, we are not so surprised when Han-yeong is tempted to do something she could not possibly imagine when she came into South Korea. Sure, going back to North Korea sounds quite irrational to many of you, but there have been actually the reports about North Korean defectors attempting to go back to North Korea after miserably failing in their adjustment in the South Korean society, which has often regarded them as second-rated citizens like it did to those numerous Korean Chinese people working in South Korea.

Despite its dry and restrained tone, the movie continues to engage us thanks to not only director/writer Kwak Eun-Mi’s thoughtful direction but also another solid performance by Lee Seol, who was also impressive as the lead actress of another recent South Korean independent film “On the Sand House” (2021). Behind her seemingly phlegmatic attitude, we come to feel more of Han-yeon’s frustration and desperation along the story, and Lee presents her character with enough integrity and dignity without resorting to any cheap pity or sympathy.

Overall, I appreciate how Kwak, who previously made a feature film debut in “Today, Together” (2019), handles the story and its heroine with enough care and respect. It has been more than 10 years since I watched Park Jung-bum’s harrowing North Korean defector drama “The Journals of Musan” (2010), but “A Tour Guide” reminds me that things have not changed that much for those North Korean defectors out there in South Korea even at present, and the movie certainly makes me reflect on its relevant social issue after I watched it yesterday. In short, this is another notable South Korean independent film of this year, and I sincerely recommend you to check it out if you can.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) ☆☆☆1/2 (3.5/4): An epic crime drama from Martin Scorsese

Posted on October 20, 2023 by kaist455

Martin Scorsese’s new film “Killers of the Flower Moon”, which was released in South Korean theaters on this Thursday, is a stunningly epic piece of work vividly looking into one massive injustice against a Native American tribe during the early 1920s. While often touching on the recurring personal themes of many of Scorsese films, the movie also firmly stays focused on the devastatingly tragic aspects of its real-life story, and the underlying pain and sadness of its ambitious tale will linger on your mind for a while after it is over.

The opening part of the movie succinctly establishes its historical background. In the late 19th century, a midwestern Native American tribe called Osage was forced to leave their territory and then settle in a barren region of Oklahoma by the US government, but this later turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Once oil was found there in the early 20th century, many of Osage members became quite wealthy, and their area naturally attracted lots of White people willing to profit from them by any means necessary.

Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) was one of such people, and the movie steadily follows how he gets involved into an insidious conspiracy against the Osage tribe because of his uncle William King Hale (Robert De Niro), who is incidentally one of the most powerful and influential local figures in the area. While he is pretty close to many prominent figures in the Osage tribe, Hale is also connected with not only numerous local businessmen but also many rotten crooks to do any dirty work for him, and you will be more chilled and disgusted as the story gradually reveals how he pulls strings here and there for his own benefit behind his seemingly benevolent façade.

To Hale, Burkhart is someone who can be easily persuaded and manipulated under his influence, and Burkhart just goes along with that without much thinking. While Burkhart works as a taxi driver, Hale slyly suggests that Burkhart should get closer to a pretty young Osage woman named Mollie (Lily Gladstone), and Burkhart soon finds himself romantically involved with her not long after he actively tries to befriend her. They eventually get married after more courtship from Burkhart, and this seems to help and benefit Mollie and her wealthy family more as they become closer to Hale via her marital relationship with Burkhart.

However, we also see how things have been getting worse for Mollie and her family and tribe. Their people keep dying or getting killed under suspicious situations, but nothing much has been investigated yet, and Mollie becomes alarmed all the more than before as her close family members die one by one. She and many other members of her tribe surely try as much as possible for getting any help, but, of course, they only find themselves becoming more desperate and frustrated as facing the racism and prejudice against them in one way or another – until a bunch of federal agents from Bureau of Investigation (BOI), which was the precursor of FBI, finally come to the region later in the story.

As the screenplay by Scorsese and his co-writer Eric Ross, which is based on the nonfiction book of the same name by David Grann, patiently builds its narrative momentum with a lot of details and insights to muse on, the movie constantly engages us via its top-notch technical aspects. While the cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto, who previously worked in Scorsese’s several recent works including “The Irishman” (2019), often provides striking visual moments including the one reminiscent of the fire sequence in Terrence Malick’s “Days of Heaven” (1978), the production design by Jack Fisk and the costume design by Jacqueline West are superlative as the crucial parts of the authentic period atmosphere of the film, and the smooth and precise editing by Scorsese’s longtime collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker keeps things rolling along with late Robbie Robertson’s quietly throbbing score. Although its running time is more than 3 hours, the movie seldom lags as diligently advancing the story and characters, and its overall result surely shows Scorsese at the top of his craftmanship as usual.

It goes without saying that Burkhart’s growing sin and guilt in the story is certainly your average typical Scorsese element, but the movie takes a rather detached position to that while slowly focusing more on what Mollie and many other Osage members had to suffer and endure during that time. Thankfully free from any kind of cheap sentimentality, the movie remains calm and sobering till the epilogue part, which is unexpectedly witty at first but then ultimately shows more of where Scorsese’s heart lies.

The main cast members of the film are impressive to say the least. While Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, who once appeared together in “This Boy’s Life” (1993) 30 years ago, are stellar as effortlessly embodying their characters’ toxic relationship, a bunch of various supporting performers including Jesse Plemons, John Lithgow, and Brendan Fraser have each own moment to shine, and Jason Isbell, who plays Mollie’s brother-in-law, is particularly good during his one brief key scene with DiCaprio. In case of Lily Gladstone, who was achingly unforgettable in Kelly Reichardt’s “Certain Women” (2016), this wonderful Native American actress’ unadorned but powerful performance becomes as the moral center of the story, and many other Native American cast members in the film are also solid in their respective supporting parts.

In conclusion, “Killers of the Flower Moon” is another fascinating masterwork from Scorsese, who has always kept advancing for more than 55 years since he made a feature film debut in “Who’s That Knocking at My Door?” (1967). While cinema may be really declining to its eventual demise, Scorsese, who is soon going to have his 81st birthday, is fortunately still around us to remind us of how artistically powerful cinema can be, and the sheer cinematic qualities of “Killers of the Flower Moon” certainly remind me again of why I still go to movie theaters. In short, this is one of the best films of this year, and I really think you should take a chance with it at any nearby movie theater around you.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments