The Marriage of Maria Braun

The story is about how a German woman, Maria, survive post World War II Germany through her wits and charm!

Liked how the strong minded Maria manage to survive the tumultous times! She figures out other people's mind easily but has people guessing what she'll do. Very nicely written dialogue that cuts straight to the point! Liked the explosive start and finish too!

Internet Movie Database Link

Simon the Stylite

I thought the story would be about an actual filming of a guy named Simon who had great balancing skills on top of a few tall columns but realised that I was mistaken shortly after the film started. The balancing act happened many years ago and all that was left was building ruins and incomplete columns.

Learnt a bit about history from the film even though it was not quite what I expected!

Match Made

This is a documentary about how one Singaporean marries a Vietnamese bride through a marriage agency. There are interviews with the bride, the groom as well as the agents from both countries.

Interesting to see the entire work process from the arrival at Saigon to the interviewing process, and then to the actual marriage cermony. The interviews gave a peek to the thoughts and feelings of various parties. Also liked the filming of the bride's peaceful village home town! The ending really caught me by surprise though!

More insights into Vietnamese brides in here

Best Foods

The film is about life in the slum area of the Philippines. The people have not much to eat and drink but they live their life as best as they can.

Liked the nice black and white documentary and the close up shots on the characters!

Be Quiet, Exam is in Progress!

A light hearted look at the earthquake that occured in Indonesia on May 27, 2006. A student who was learning about World War II history for his elementary school exams, runs after a few Japanese volunteers who are trying to help the victims!

Pretty fun movie to watch on such a serious topic! I also liked the documentary shots interspersed in the film!

KAFA Animation

This is a collection of nine animation works from the graduating students of the Korean Academy of Fine Arts (KAFA).

Didn't catch the titles for most of the works but they are pretty nicely drawn! There is a plant that turns into an umbrella, a realistic doll house, a visit to the zoo, a visit to a sister's place, two big eyed children who rears fish, role reversal between dog and master, a cool detective type of story involving mermaids and the fight for survival between the rabbit clan and the wolves. There is one more shorts but I have forgotten what is it about. My favorite would be the detective story!

Effi Briest

The story is about how a young girl got married to a high ranking civil servant and how her marriage life changed as time went by.

Liked the black and white cinematography, the third person narration and the intertitles shown on the screen. These contribute to a theatrical feel to the film. The storyline reminded me very much of "Anna Karenina" that I read recently! Both stories had a cold rational high ranking civil servant as the husband, a wife who had an affair and a heartbreaking mother and child reunion.

Internet Movie Database Link

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

The story is about how a 60 year old German cleaner, Emmi, fell in love with a Moroccan garage mechanic, Ali, who is 20 years her junior. It also describes their friends', neighbors' and relatives' reaction to it.

The director gave a very in-depth character study with a simple storyline! I especially liked how Ali summed up his situation in just a few Haiku-like German phrases! There is not much dialogue but the looks on Emmi and Ali's faces said everything! I also enjoyed how the director was able to highlight social issues very clearly and concisely!

Internet Movie Database Link

An Inconvenient Truth

This is a documentary about the effects of global warming presented by Al Gore who is the former vice president of the United States. It also describes what motivates Al Gore to become an environmental activist.

Al Gore is a very good presenter! He explains complex scientific concepts very simply through all sorts of graphs, charts, photographs and video clips so that even a layman like me can understand them. I also liked how he begins the lecture with various photographs of the earth to appeal to the audience's heart and how he ends it by breaking the top three misconceptions on global warming to convince the audience's mind!

Ten things to do to stop global warming
Internet Movie Database Link

I Don't Want to Sleep Alone

The story is about how a few Malaysians found company in each other when they happened to meet in the streets. They include a poor unemployed guy, a foreign worker and a coffee shop owner's family.

The director's style of having very long takes and little dialogue gives a relaxing feeling as one watches some scenes run real time. Some other scenes are pretty abstract though and I didn't like those. Liked how songs sung in different languages are interspersed throughout the film!

Internet Movie Database Link

Peacock

The story is about the life of a Chinese family consisting of three siblings from the late 70s to the early 80s. The eldest son is fat and mentally challenged, the sister works in a factory washing glass bottles and the youngest son is a shy student.

Liked how the film goes through the life of each sibling in turn with voice narration in the background! The storyline is interesting and the slow pace of the film gives it a poetic mood!

Internet Movie Database Link

Freedom Writers

The story is based on a true story and it is about how a new teacher's innovative teaching methods helped her class get good grades. She asked her students to keep a daily journal and this helped her to better understand them.

Very impressed by the teacher's dedication to her work and how she managed to help the students work together as a team! I also liked how the film presented each student's journal with voice narration in the background! They sounded very sincere and personal!

Internet Movie Database Link

Nine Lives

The story is about the lives of nine women described separately in different short segments. Each segment is filmed in a single shot and some women appear in more than one segment as their lives intersect.

Liked the natural dialogue and how the different roles played by women are presented! Each segment provides a sample on a typical mother, wife, lover or daughter through basic daily activities.

Internet Movie Database Link

McDull, prince de la bun

This is a sequel to "My Life as McDull" which is an animation about the life of a family in Hong Kong. In the first movie, McDull, who is a little pig, studies in a kindergarten and trains hard to be an athlete. The sequel presents the life of McDull's parents as a bedtime story told by the mum to McDull.

Liked the film's distinctive Hong Kong flavor that came out through the social issues discussed and the realistic 3D cityscape! The bedtime story is also very interesting and meaningful!

Internet Movie Database Link

Hula Girls

The story is about how a small town in Japan transformed from a coal mine place to a Hawaiian tourist attraction in the 60s. Part of the plan was to train the miner daughters to be Hula dancers.

Liked the interesting dance moves and the pretty costumes! Was caught a little off guard by the melodramatic moments but they were pretty well executed and not too over-the-top.

Internet Movie Database Link

The Old Man and the Sea

The story is adapted from a novel by Ernest Hemingway and it is about how an old fisherman battled a big fish out at sea.

Liked the narration that describes the old fisherman in great detail! Great action at sea too!

Internet Movie Database Link

Osen of the Paper Cranes

The story is about how a servant girl, Osen, befriended a penniless young man and how they escaped from their household headed by an unscrupulous antiques dealer to lead a new life.

Was really impressed by the scene where Osen whipped out a crane from nowhere and blew it towards the sky! Didn't really understand the first part where they described how the bad guys cheated other people and felt quite puzzled. Liked the special effects and the exciting finish though!

Internet Movie Database Link

Nightly Dreams

The story is about how a waitress worked very hard to provide for her son and how she reconciled with her out-of-job husband but things didn't turn out as well as expected.

The husband looked like the landlady's husband in "Kungfu Hustle"! The director would suddenly zoom very close to a character's face for several scenes and I didn't really like the effect as it made me dizzy. The storyline is quite good though!

Internet Movie Database Link

Woman of Tokyo

Saw three silent films at one go at the NUS Arts Festival organised by NUS. The first film is a family drama about what happens when a brother learns about another side of his sister from his girlfriend.

The story telling is very well done and everything falls in place nicely! Liked the tense "face-off" among the chracters towards the end! The girlfriend, played by a young Tanaka Kinuyo, looked quite pretty! Only seen her in later films like "Life Of Oharu", "Flowing" and "Equinox Flower" and she looked a little bit older in those films. Hmm, those films happened to be one Mizoguchi, one Naruse and one Ozu too, similarly to what is featured in this film festival!

Internet Movie Database Link

The Pursuit of Happyness

The story is about how the life of a young father, Chris Gardner, changes after he started attending a stockbroker course.

Really impressed by how Chris Gardner manages his time and his skills as a salesman! Would have liked the film even more if it was more compressed it is quite longwinded with multiple chase scenes of a similar nature.

Internet Movie Database Link