Excited Death

The story is about a girl who secretly admired her handsome neighbor next door. She then bumped into a man who is a secret admirer of the neighbor's girlfriend and formed plans together to break them up.

Liked the voice over narration of the protagonist and the ridiculous plans which were doomed to fail! Recognized the park near Ghibli Museum for their first plan from my recent Japan trip!

Japanese Film Festival Link

Girl's Encounter

The story is about a shy girl coming out of her shell after she made a new friend in school. There was something strange about the friend though.

Liked the friendship of the two girls! Great suspense in keeping the audience guessing what might happen next but didn't really like the fantasy sequences as they were a little bit weird for my taste! A thought provoking film as it made me wonder if it is really a good idea to not feel pain in life!

Japanese Film Festival Link

Infinite Foundation

The story is about how a girl learned to follow her dreams after she met a mysterious girl who plays the ukulele in an abandoned factory and joined the school's drama club.

Liked the nice songs played by the mysterious girl! Thought the drama club should have backup plans for the lead role. The disagreements among the classmates were pretty intense in my opinion!

Japanese Film Festival Link

Please Don't Go Anywhere

The story is about a girl's obsession with her boyfriend's ex-girlfriend. She imagines what she is like even though they have never met.

The pace was a bit slow initially and I even switched to another movie around the 8 minute mark. But things got much more interesting after she opened her cupboard and got a surprise! Liked the interaction between the two girls! Ending was a little bit abrupt though.

Japanese Film Festival Link

Wander Life

The story is about a girl being bullied in school.

Liked the friendship between the girl and the nurse! Amazing how the band came up with a song in one night! Searched for the music video and thought it served as a nice ending to the movie.

Japanese Film Festival Link

Rent A Friend

The story is about a woman who writes about her experience of renting a friend in an online magazine. He accompanies her to places of interest and chit chats with her while remaining professional by being not emotionally involved.

Liked how the woman, her roommate and her rental friend all made music together towards the end! Thought the woman was confused herself on what she was trying to achieve though.

Japanese Film Festival Link

Inner Loop Couple

The story is about two people walking around Tokyo and chatting with each other throughout the night after they reached the terminal station.

An online Japanese film festival, what a great idea! The film reminds me a bit of "Before Sunset" which has lots of dialogue and walking scenes around Paris. The song is nice and catchy too!

Japanese Film Festival Link

The Platform

The story is about a prison where food is delivered to the inmates on a platform moving downwards. People on the higher levels have a lot of food to eat while those on the lower levels often starved.

Liked the interesting idea and how the director tried to pair up the protagonist with different personalities as room mates! The ending was not very well done in my opinion though.

Internet Movie Database Link

Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood

The story is loosely based on a real life event in Hollywood on 8 to 9 Aug 1969. The characters consist of real people like American actress Sharon Tate, actor Bruce Lee and a hippie cult as well as fictional characters such as a famous cowboy actor and his stunt double.

Liked the cowboy acting scenes and the lovely interaction between DiCaprio and the young child actress! Was quite worried about what might happen towards the end but was relieved when the good guys survived!

Internet Movie Database Link

Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories

The story revolves around the people visiting a dining place in Tokyo that only opens at midnight.

For season one, I liked "Tonteki" about a girl who knit sweaters for people she fancied and "Omelette Rice" about the love between a Korean girl and a Japanese scientist. For season two, I liked "Salmon and Mushroom" about a barber couple and "Kitsune Udon" about two voice actresses who struggled to keep their friendship. All the other episodes are interesting in their own ways!

Internet Movie Database Link

Cheer

This is a documentary about an award winning cheerleading team in Texas.

Liked the interesting stories of the members of the team! Had a better idea of what it means to be fair, strict and empathetic from the coach, something that I should learn as a parent.

Internet Movie Database Link

Arietty

The story is about how a family of small people stayed in a house of normal people but had to move as they were discovered.

Liked the friendship between the daughter Arietty and the young boy! The action sequences of climbing around the big house looked exciting too!

Internet Movie Database Link

Mad World

The story is about the effect of bipolar disorder on a family.

Liked the flashbacks that gradually explained what happened in the past! The friendship between the little boy and the protagonist was quite cute too. Guess sometimes we have a pre-conceived notion what someone might be like but it may not be true once we get to know the person better.

Internet Movie Database Link

Certain Women

The story is about how four women in a small town deal with loneliness in their own ways.

Liked the last story of the rancher the best! Great acting by all the female leads! I learned that talking a lot doesn't necessarily lead to good communication.

Internet Movie Database Link

American Factory

This is a documentary about the people working in an American Factory owned by a Chinese billionaire.

Liked how the film presented both the Chinese and the American points of view! There was no real bad guy here but I thought it was a bit ridiculous for the chairman to have a self portrait of himself hanging in his office.

Internet Movie Database Link

37 Seconds

This is a coming of age story of Yuma, a manga artist who suffers from cerebral palsy.

Liked how independent Yuma was despite her disability! The animation effects were great for both the father holding a baby girl high in the sky drawing as well as Yuma's portfolio sketches for the new company!

Internet Movie Database Link

Ocean Waves

The story is about how two countryside boys fell in love with a girl who came from the city.

Liked the depiction of school life but didn't really like the city girl who didn't show much teamwork at all!

Internet Movie Database Link

A Sun

The story is about how a family mended their broken ties across a few years.

Thought the father looked like Ma Yun from Alibaba! Liked the parts where they showed different pairs of people walking around together. Was surprised by the twist at the end!

Internet Movie Database Link

I Lost My Body

The story is about the life of a young man who became disabled and how his hand travelled around the city to search for him.

Liked the interesting point of view from a hand! Bad idea to try to catch a fly while operating on the workbench!

Internet Movie Database Link

Boogie Nights

The story is about the life of a group of pornography actors and actresses from the late 70s to the and early 80s.

Liked how the film portrayed the community as ordinary people with dreams! Quite sad that some of them were looked down by others because of their occupation! Good to see Roller Girl back to school!

Internet Movie Database Link