Tokyo Sonata

The story is about a Japanese family that is gradually falling apart after the father was retrenched.

Liked how the film captured the tension among the family members and the plight of the unemployed! The dream sequence and the scenes where the couple each expressed the desire to start all over again were pretty well done!

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Up

The story is about how an old man flew his house to a far away land using lots of balloons where he had an adventure with a little kid, a bad guy and a few other animals.

Liked the montage sequence as it was touching and very effective in telling the old man's story prior to flying his house! The film reminds me a little bit of Gran Torino that is also about the relationships among an old man, his dog and a little kid.

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Partly Cloudy

This short film shows how difficult the task of the stork delivering babies can be. One particular stork gets especially difficult assignments!

Nice story! Liked the determination of the stork to do a good job!

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The story is about the life of a mental patient in a hospital that has very innovative ways of treating the patients.

I wondered how a documentary about real mental patients would differ from this film? Did they also go trekking, fold plastic bags and have nurses personally check if they had taken their prescriptions like in the film? Felt that the director might have been influenced by the Japanese film "After Life". I also thought that the protagonist had pretty good handwriting!

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Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

The story is about how two groups of robots fought against each other on earth. One group wanted to take over earth while the other group were friends with the humans.

Preferred the first episode as it described the background story better. It also showed how Sam and Bumblebee developed their friendship. The humor in this episode didn't work very well and I found it hard to differentiate the two groups of robots. Thought the part where Sam and his girlfriend had to run a very long distance to Optimus Prime was a little bit too long winded.

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Haikara Girl

The story is about how a rich man's daughter fell in love with her driver whom they knew each other since young. The setting is in the Taisho era (early 18th century) when Japanese society is rapidly modernizing.

Liked how the film explained how the daughter and the driver bonded with each other! They spent time chatting under a giant tree and experimented with her father's latest gadgets together. Felt quite sad for the driver when he had to drive the daughter and her rich snobbish suitor around. Thought the scene where the three people confronted each other in the forbidden room was very nicely executed!

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Kabei: Our Mother

The story is about the life of a Japanese mother narrated by her daughter. Her husband was thrown into jail for his left wing ideas during the early 1940s and she had to fend for her two daughters by herself.

The eldest daughter was quite cute with her two pony tails and the uncle was a lovable character in his own way! Great acting by the two daughters! Thought the director could have shortened the ending. A reasonably good film but I was a little disappointed as it didn't move me as much as "Twenty Four Eyes" and "Burmese Harp", both were Japanese anti-war films made in the 1950s.

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Sell Out!

The story is about the lives of the employees of "FONY", a fictitious Malaysian company whose focus is on making money at all costs. The main characters are an Arts show host intent on climbing the social ladder and an idealistic product manager.

Liked the songs and the black humor! I also liked the scenes where they showed the ordinary people in the streets!

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Love Your Neighbor

The story is about how a married couple learned how to get along with their next door neighbor after they moved to a new place.

Liked how the two couples tried to see things through the other's perspective and learned more about themselves in the process! The ending is nicely executed too!

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Gran Torino

The story is about how an old Korean War veteran got to know his Vietnamese neighbors better after the son tried to steal his car, a 1972 Gran Torino.

Liked the nice storyline and how Clint Eastwood's relationship with his neighbors evolved! He was initially prejudiced against them but became their friends after gaining a better understanding of their culture!

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Nipples

The story is about how a beer commercial model ended up marrying her fan who still supported her after her topless photos leaked out in a magazine. Her husband had viewed her as his idol and had a fear of seeing her nipples as it contradicted his idea of a perfect woman.

Interesting look at the problems that a fan-idol couple could face! The film also gave an insight into how the model agency worked. Liked the cute motorcycle ridden by the protagonist as it was made more personable with a voice control speed limit warning system!

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Dragonball Evolution

The story is adapted from a Japanese comic of the same title. Goku, a kungfu expert, is on a quest for a set of dragon balls that will enable a dragon to grant him a wish to stop a powerful alien from destroying the earth. He met several colorful characters along the way.

Thought the actress who played Chi Chi looked quite cute! The alien's female personal assistant looked scary! A little disappointed that they toned down Master Roshi's character by quite a bit!

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Watchmen

The story is about how a group of retired masked superheroes got in touch with each other again after one of them, the Comedian, died mysteriously. Dr Manhattan, Ozymandias and Silk Spectre II worked for the US military to create a new energy source. They were informed of the Comedian's death by Rorschach who also contacted Moloch and Nite Owl II.

Liked the series of flashbacks that introduced both the Comedian and Dr Manhattan! The special effects and fight sequences were well choreographed too! Felt that the story could have been condensed further though. The ending caught me by surprise and I was a little bit confused as to who exactly was the bad guy.

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He's Just Not That Into You

The story is about the misconceptions about dating and the subtle differences between men and women in terms of attitude and behavior.

Pretty interesting although I wished I haven't seen the trailer prior to this! Some scenes were not as funny the second time round. Liked the semi-documentary style where they interviewed people on the streets about their opinions on dating and marriage in general.

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The Wrestler

The story is about the life of a well regarded middle aged wrestler, Randy the Ram, who was famous twenty years ago. As his physical condition deteriorates, he tried to find fulfillment in other aspects of his life like doing a regular job, finding a partner and mending ties with his daughter.

Went to see the film as I loved "PI" and "Requiem for a Dream" by the same director! Great performance by Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei! Liked the unlikely friendship between them and the peek behind-the-scenes on how the wrestling community worked! Felt quite sad for Randy who tried hard to gain acceptance but somehow seemed to bang his head against the wall.

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Loto Sex

The story is about how a wife helped her husband cure his compulsion to gambling on lotto tickets through very unorthodox ways. She invented a domestic version of the game where the husband can only get intimate with her only when he won a prize!

Liked the interesting idea and the depiction of the couple's relationship! They grew from ignorant newly weds to become a more matured and understanding couple in the end! Realised that there is a whole series of similarly themed films by FullMotion label similar to what Balzac did in "La Comedie humaine". Would love to catch other films in the series if I have the chance!

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The Reader

The story is about how an encounter with a German woman, Hanna, affected a young man's life. He read to her story books and had an affair with her for one summer. They lost contact after that and the young man discovered Hanna's dark secret years later.

Great acting by Kate Winslet who acted as Hanna and I thought young Julia looked very cute in her two ponytails!

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Rachel Getting Married

The story is about how a woman called Rachel organized her own wedding day with the help of her family members. Her sister, Kym, took a few days off from the rehabilitation center to attend her wedding.

Liked the simple storyline and the dynamics of the family relationships! Loved the exciting dishwasher competition and the explosive face off between mother and daughter towards the end! Have only seen the lead actress, Anne Hathaway, in "Brokeback Mountain" as well as this film and I thought she is a pretty good actress!

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Milk

This is a biography of Harvey Milk, a businessman-turned-politician who started the gay movement in the 70s.

Liked the old news clips that were informative! Thought it would be interesting if Milk had a one-to-one battle with his nemesis, Anita Bryant, instead of the other guy! Didn't really understand the politics portion of the show especially the character of Dan White.

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Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea

This is a kids adaptation of the mermaid fairytale about how a small fish with magical powers fell in love with a five year old boy and wanted to become human after he scooped her up from the sea.

Liked the nice storyline, the cute fish/girl and the catchy soundtrack at the end of the film!

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