Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Strange Circus

The story is about how the dark secrets of a Japanese family came back to haunt each of their members many years later.

Liked the flowery lines spoken in the narration and was deeply affected by the psychological impact on both mother and daughter as a result of the father's tyranny over them! A good mix of dreams and reality also provided several interesting twists to the film!

Internet Movie Database Link

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Mary and Max

The story is about the friendship of two pen pals: one was a little girl from Melbourne named Mary, the other was a middle aged Jewish man from New York named Max who suffered from Asperger’s Syndrome.

Liked the interesting storyline and the narration! Nice soundtrack too!

Internet Movie Database Link

Waltz with Bashir

This is an animated war documentary about how Israeli forces played a part in the Sabra-Shatila massacre following the assassination of the Lebanon President, Bashir Gameyel, in 1982.

Liked the dream sequences and the soundtrack! Learnt a little bit about the Lebanon war from this film!

Internet Movie Database Link

Usavitch Seasons 1-3

Each season of "Usavitch" consists of 13 episodes and they are shown on MTV Asia. The story is about the adventures of two rabbits trapped in a Russian prison.

Liked the fast paced action that fits the exciting MTV style image! The plot is innovative and funny! Learnt from the Q&A that the director liked "Tom and Jerry" when he was young. Think he might have got some of his inspiration from there!

Official Site

Friday, October 16, 2009

Ornamental Hairpin

This film is part of the "Travels with Hiroshi Shimizu" Eclipse boxset that consisted of "Japanese Girls at the Harbor", "Mr. Thank You", "The Masseurs and a Woman" and "Ornamental Hairpin".

The story is similar to "The Masseurs and a Woman" but with a slight twist. A soldier is injured by a hairpin dropped by a mysterious woman from Tokyo who traveled back to apologize and spent many days at the small inn in the mountains where she made many new friends.

Liked the interesting characters like the professor and the two enthusiastic grandsons! A little doubtful that the recovery of the soldier's foot was due to his daily self-designed physiotherapy routine though. The final scene reminded me of "When a Woman Ascends the Stairs" by Mikio Naruse!

Internet Movie Database Link

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

The Masseurs and a Woman

This film is part of the "Travels with Hiroshi Shimizu" Eclipse boxset that consisted of "Japanese Girls at the Harbor", "Mr. Thank You", "The Masseurs and a Woman" and "Ornamental Hairpin".

The story is about a blind masseur's encounter with a mysterious woman from Tokyo at a small inn in the mountains.

Liked the beautiful mountain scenery and the interesting relationship among the masseur, the woman and another young man! The dialogues were very nicely scripted and revealed what each character was thinking about!

Internet Movie Database Link

Sunday, October 04, 2009

Mr. Thank You

This film is part of the "Travels with Hiroshi Shimizu" Eclipse boxset that consisted of "Japanese Girls at the Harbor", "Mr. Thank You", "The Masseurs and a Woman" and "Ornamental Hairpin".

The story is about a bus driver who travels from the rural village to Tokyo. He is nicknamed Mr. Thank You as he is very polite and says "Thank You" to people or cars who block his way so that he can overtake them.

Liked the nice countryside scenery and the different kinds of people who sat on the bus! Quite amazed that he knew some of the passengers by name and even helped them with small errands like passing messages or buying the latest music records in town! I would give him full marks for his service attitude! He was not so conscientious about safety though as there were a few scenes where he used the rear-view mirror to check on his passengers rather than on incoming traffic.

Internet Movie Database Link

Saturday, October 03, 2009

For all mankind

The documentary is about the experiences of astronauts from the US travelling to the moon on the Apollo series rockets.

Liked how the director pieced together one coherent story with audio commentaries inserted at the right places! I could see what they went through and hear what they felt about it twenty years later all at the same time! My favorite scenes would be the majestic lift-off sequence, the earth rising on the moon and the astronauts happily jumping around on the moon!

Internet Movie Database Link

Friday, October 02, 2009

Japanese Girls at the Harbor

This film is part of the "Travels with Hiroshi Shimizu" Eclipse boxset that consisted of "Japanese Girls at the Harbor", "Mr. Thank You", "The Masseurs and a Woman" and "Ornamental Hairpin".

The story is about the life of two Yokohama girls who were very good friends in school. Sunako was exiled and returned years later as a fallen woman while Dora married Sunako's ex-boyfriend, Henry. The title of the film came about because Yokohoma is a port city with a big harbor.

Was fiddling with the audio option for the DVD and found that there was a soundtrack option for this silent film but decided that the experience was much better without any soundtrack! Liked the nice scenery and the complex relationship among the three leads: Sunako, Dora and Henry!

Internet Movie Database Link