Reviews

Awful

That's not to say the film-making is awful. But this story will devastate you.

**CW: domestic violence, rape**

If you're not one yourself, you would likely be well aware of the intensity that comes with being a true fangirl. In this case, Jane is a typical pop fangirl, willing to go to extreme lengths to be in the presence of her idol, Paulo. She attends a fan event and semi-accidentally ends up in the back of Paulo's ute. He starts driving home, unaware of his passenger.

Paulo's public-facing mask slips quickly but it takes more than a couple of uncouth moments for Jane's fantasy to falter. With Jane trying to play adult, even after Paulo reveals his true character at home, events spiral into darkness. The contrast between the idol she revered and the mundane man before her is shattering.

Now, it's at this point where I feel iffy about this film. Paulo rapes Jane. And while it may not look like it on the surface, this is the point of rupture for Jane.

If you've ever had even passing knowledge of pop idol stans, you would know that sexual fantasies play an important (even if not always outrightly acknowledged) role in a lot of fan culture. The online proliferation of fan-created smut is testimony.

Consequently, we fully expect that Jane has had similar fantasies around sleeping with her idolised image of Paulo. The rupture occurs because when the encounter does happen in real life, it's literally and metaphorically a painful departure from the daydreams.

The rape scene also marks a turning point in Jane's own character development for the final part of the film. It's after this stage that she starts identifying Paulo's abusive behaviour with that of her mother's abusive partner.

I'm iffy about the rape scene because I'm not sure the full gratuity was necessary. However, I don't think censoring it would've really helped so perhaps it does have a place.

In light of the ambivalent ending of the film – (which I liked, with it's cynicism or hope, depending on how you read it) – the story would've likely have packed a bit less of a punch.

I was absolutely wrecked when I first finished this film and originally tried to forget it. But now that a bit of time has passed and I've rewatched the ending, I think it's brutality is its selling point.

It's a reminder as to why we use idol fandom as a form of escapism in the first place. The sweet manufactured nature of pop culture appeals because it's so remote from real life. Who wouldn't jump in the back of their idol's car when given the chance?

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It makes sense that a pen solves anxiety

After all, what Nervous Translation depicts so well is the eclectic reasoning of childhood. Following the character of Yael, I'm reminded of the way I made sense of the world at a similar age. Snippets of TV, bits of adult conversation, the intensity of school mathematics.

Yael's mum, Val, juggles exhaustion due to work, keeping her own private boundaries, and looking after family. She is real. We all know a Val or we are a Val.

Nervous Translation is a slice of life. I found the pacing to be a little too slow but, then again, the emotion did creep up on me near the end. At times, it verges on surrealism, sometimes with effect, sometimes less so.

A good film with a gentle touch on life's anxieties.

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A meta blend of fiction and documentary

Or as Peter Bradshaw, writing for The Guardian, put it: "Buddhist supernatural realism".

By the Time It Gets Dark has a clear point of departure: The 1976 Thammasat University massacre. The film draws its initial reflections from the few photographs available from the time, before spending the rest of the film shifting between gaps, silences and layers around and beyond the historical event.

The majority of By the Time It Gets Dark follows the journey of the film-making itself. Not in a behind-the-scenes way, but the struggle of the craft in attempt to convey meaning. It's self-reflexive while, at the same time, not shunning the audience. Don't worry, this isn't one of those arthouse films that experiments for the sake of self-indulgence. You can sense the creators' desire to grapple with the 1976 massacre while struggling to develop and articulate its meanings on multiple levels.

It's not trying too hard, nor is it a chore to watch. When you take this film for what it is, you're able to appreciate it more.

When Ben Kenigsberg from the New York Times said if there couldn't be explanations, then at least there should be "footnotes" and that it'll go over the heads of those not "in sync", I think it's important to note that being "in sync" is besides the point. The visual glitches and play with colour saturation near the end of the film show that that even the creators themselves aren't "in sync" with what is being (or not being) represented.

I don't have this film figured out and you're not meant to. By the Time It Gets Dark is one of those artworks, like poetry, where, if you're trying to figure out what it's 'saying', then you're misunderstanding its existence. If it lingers, then that is sufficient.

Peter Bradshaw's Guardian Review: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/jun/16/by-time-gets-dark-review-bangkok-protests-massacre-anocha-suwichakornpong
Ben Kenigsberg's NYT review: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/13/movies/by-the-time-it-gets-dark-review.html
Mark Kermode's Guardian Review (I find his reading to be more generous): https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/jun/18/by-the-time-it-gets-dark-film-review-dazzling-reflections-thai-history

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♥️

Eu assistir esperando nada em troca, mas me vieram com essa obra de arte. Puta merda que atuação impecável. colocaram um elenco maravilhoso em um só filme.

Ressaltando que o filme sim tem suas falhas, mas isso é super normal.

Vão ter pessoas que não iram gostar por causa do tema e do conteúdo que para alguns pode ser sensível.

Tem bastante sangue, mortes sangrentas, mas quando você é dorameira a muito tempo, isso se torna abanal ksksksksk

Então concluindo, eu amei o filme. relembrando que o filme não é perfeito mas é bom.

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A melancholic road trip about abandonment.

In his first Korean-language film, Shoplifters director Hirokazu Kore Eda takes us on a rewarding road trip with an odd group of abandoned people. Think Little Miss Sunshine but instead of a beauty pageant, the group tries to sell a baby on the black market... Literally.

At one point, Sang Hyun and Dong Soo are described as child brokers, and considering the kind of business they run, that's probably an apt description.

In some countries, such as South Korea, there are so-called baby hatches where mothers can anonymously leave their babies behind (there are arguments for and against the system that will not be elaborated here). Dong Soo, a baby hatch worker, together with Sang Hyun, a laundry owner, decide to steal a baby to sell to rich and desperate couples who cannot cope with South Korea's complicated adoption laws.

So Young, the young mother who abandoned the baby, discovers them and decides to join them on a road trip to find the best candidates to adopt her child. Broker is about responsibility and forgiveness. It reflects on the family we find in the course of life, and the family we have to let go of along the way.

What Sang Hyun and Dong Soo do isn't very moral, it's a form of human trafficking after all, but the movie doesn't show them as bad people. At the same time, So Young is not a bad person either, even though she tried to abandon her child. The central characters in the story have all been abandoned in some way, be it a divorce or in an orphanage. They all want to give this child a good home with a financially secure family, and they know that won't happen through the legal system of their country.

It is a tragic but poetic coincidence that Broker was released at the same time as the news about abortion rights in the US. The film may feel a little different now because of that, but the focus here is on children who, due to circumstances beyond their control, feel they shouldn't have been born. In Broker there are no decisions that feel right. How can one even choose when it comes to possibly abandoning their child? The magic is how well Kore Eda maps that conflict.

With such broken characters, heavy themes, and dark thoughts about parenting and abandoning children, Broker could have resulted in a much more depressing film. It is thanks to how well Kore Eda is able to balance these ideas along with hope and humor that makes the result more uplifting. The deeper questions are there for anyone who wants to read into what the film has to say, but it's not a barrier to entry to a meaningful experience.

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Quirky fun

Ridiculous idea which could have turned out really badly...but it was funny, silly and sad. A homophobic cop (Greg Hsu) messes up again and again until he finds himself in the biggest mess he's made: somehow he ends up marrying a man (Austin Lin)...who happens to be dead!

It was inevitable that the cop would have an epiphany and become less (and eventually not) homophobic but the journey there was fun (and sometimes I just rolled my eyes).

What I liked: good looking male leads! There were some laugh out loud (and I did), verging on slapstick, scenes throughout the film and especially towards the end. I admit that the ambulance scene made me sad and then almost cheer.

What I didn't like: the reason the female character was looking for vengeance was too obvious for my liking, but I could see that it brought a major part of the story to its conclusion.

Overall, a fun film which is worth watching if you fancy trying something different.

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Well…

Okay I have to admit, I did watch this movie solely because people on tiktok always called it ‘the best korean movie’. I wanted to see for myself what the hype was all about..but honestly, I don’t really see what makes it so special?

The plot is completely incestuous and once that was revealed everything became uncomfortable. You can spare the whole ‘deep meaning’ behind it. I still think it’s a nasty movie lol…

Other than the plot, the acting was truly amazing though! You can tell these are veteran actors. I’m always in awe at how great actors could play such a terrible character.

Though Daesu didn’t know it was his daughter, I still think it was wrong of him to just continue the relationship blissfully.

I don’t know…i’ve got mixed feelings about this movie. I’m just left with a nasty feeling honestly.

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Una joya del cine coreano, así debo describir a esta película que ha hecho historia y es parte de la historia coreana.
Ya he dicho en varias ocasiones que el director Bong Joon Ho es mi director coreano favorito y considero que Parasite es uno de sus mejores trabajos. El director suele hacer producciones con crítica social pero sin que sea muy obvio, y eso es lo que ha traído una vez más con Parasite.
La historia ya de por sí nos muestra dos mundos totalmente diferentes y que se mantienen en cohesión porque se necesitan unos a otros y ya con eso podemos ver la crítica a las clases sociales que presenta la historia. Sin embargo, hay otros detalles de crítica social que son más sutiles. Un ejemplo, y mi favorito, es el agua, un elemento que aparece mucho en la historia. El agua, si vemos atentamente la película, significa cosas diferentes para ambas familias de clases tan diferentes. Por un lado, para la familia rica, el agua es una bendición y algo bueno, ya que como ellos dicen “ha limpiado el ambiente”. Sin embargo, para la familia pobre, el agua es un elemento de desgracia ya que ocasiona la inundación de todo su barrio. También, si nos fijamos podemos ver que siempre que aparece el agua, esta corre de arriba hacia abajo, como indicando que lo bueno que lleva a la familia rica se va cayendo y se va convirtiendo en la desgracia de la pobre.

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Different story

Quite interesting when read the summary of this movie. Really different with other cinderella or red riding hood story. In this movie they combine it with mystery.... Let's watch....

The biggest difference:
* They have 2 FL, but this is not story about GL. Of course I'm talk about cinderella & red riding hood together at 1 movie. Me of course never encounter this in any movie / drama. Except maybe that Hollywood drama, once upon the time, where they kinda combine every character in the story book....
* This is the story about mystery, where the red riding hood as the detective. & that's mean this is definitely not story about cinderella find her prince charming....
* We have 2 fairy godmother... 2 FL so that mean 2 fairy godmother.... Hohoho....
* They tell us over and over how important beauty in this world... Hoho... Usually it just common knowledge among the people not something people talk about so bluntly....
* Prince charming already had love interest before meet cinderella... Haha... This definitely the first I think, where prince charming not fall in love with cinderella...

Then the biggest surprise come in the end. You'll never ever guess who is the perpetrator in this mystery drama.... That's something so refreshing to see they so dare to make the unusual perpetrator....

Overall this really one good & refreshing take for the story we common with & make a twist with it.... I really hope we can get another story from detective red riding hood....

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BWH&H 9: Unexpected Redemption

You don't hear much about this one, which is both surprising and not. For one, it's the only movie in the series (not including the 2000s duology) that wasn't officially brought over for English audiences, so it's not like a lot of people have seen it. However, it's a lot better than what I've read.

We only have 2 old cast members this time (and for the first time, no Bunta either), and all new characters. It follows 3 friends with different loyalties, and spins out of control as it gets going. At over 2 hrs, this is the longest one yet, and the first 40 mins are pretty slow. It gets pretty good from there though, if a tad predictable at times. It has a very different feel from the previous 8 films, having different crews and music for the tone, so don't expect it to feel like the same series. That said, I feel that's exactly what it needed that the New Battles trilogy was lacking.

It's kind of sad that this hasn't been given the love it deserves, and I hope Arrow eventually brings it over to us. I'd love to have it in my collection, especially as it washes away the bad taste left in my mouth from the previous film. All in all, not a bad way to finish off the series, even if it is almost entirely unrelated.

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A Beautiful & Tragic Gem

as someone who watched wuliang first, this made my heart ache. this short film revolving around Xiao Wei, Pei Rong and Wang Sheng makes you question, 'where does love come from?' 'how does love come to be?' or 'who loves who?'

with a stunning production and amazing cast, this short film definitely HITS you in the right spots. you will feel the pain the characters felt, the love they felt and the confusion xiao wei felt. i haven't watched the original but this remake really nailed it. there was something absolutely ethereal and haunting about the story.

xiao wei was a very interesting character because he is morally grey. he couldn't understand what he was truly feeling so for him to have 'emotional' connection to the husband and wife took a wild turn for all the characters.

overall, this was yet another amazing short film. i can find myself watching this again because there was so much that happened in just 31 minutes that i need time to process. my one advice would be to watch this before you watch wuliang to avoid feeling an empty void in your heart.

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Older sapphic women deserves their stories to be shown on screen

I have been excited about Gagaoolala as a platform since I discovered it in 2020 when it wasn't even really available internationally and you needed a local number. Since then, they have opened internationally and I keep saying I should get a VIP account, but I am a PhD student and time not something I have in enough quantity to justify the cost. Which is why I was very happy when I got reminded about the fact that Gaga is making part of his catalogue free to watch every week. Encore Martha was part of the free release for this week and I could sit down for the less than 30 min it takes to watch it.
I have been trying to watch more queer Taiwanese productions recently and I am always on the lookout for good sapphic short films so it truly felt like the stars had aligned when I heard about it.

Starting with the story itself and as stated in the summary, this story is about two older women which is rare enough to be mentioned. I do love stories about teenagers and young adults as much as the next person, as someone in their late 20s, I do like seeing myself represented on screen. But representation, especially when it comes to queer representation needs to show everyone, including older people, both so that everyone can see themselves represented on screen, but also so that younger people can see a potential for their future (I'd say that it is also important for straight people to see it, but let's be real, this is an original production from Gagaoolala, the vast vast vast majority of the viewers are going to be queer). By only having young queer adults on screen, it can be difficult to project yourself in the future. But having characters of a different generation can also enable different themes to be explored. The path to acceptance in our societies is still long, even here in Sweden where it is very normalised. It was even more so 30 years ago when the main characters in this short film left each other as 20-somethings young women because society and families were not as accepting.

This story is about reconnecting after what feels like a lifetime ago and asking yourself once more "What is it that I want? Am I allowed to want this?" The same questions and the same fear that plagued this relationship 30 years ago are back, but society has changed, the adult children of today are not the grandparents of yesterday. Also special mention to the fact that one of the two main characters is a butch lesbian, we stan.
In a way because it is so short (it is after all the format) and while it does answer enough question to feel satisfying, it still feels like something is missing, like something more is needed (when can we get a drama with older sapphic women with flashbacks and enough episodes to fully develop their story??). Still it manages to ask a lot of good questions on self-acceptance, what we want out of life, our relationship to our families.

On the production side, the cinematography, the editing, and the general directing is very good (as expected from that kind of productions from Taiwan) and the theme song is both nice to listen to and meaningful for the story. The actresses are furthermore very good and really sell the story, which is good as the format means their acting is essential to developing what cannot be developed in the script and story itself.

All in all, I am very glad I took that half an hour to watch Encore Martha and I would encourage you to do the same.

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