Sunday, April 05, 2015

Morning for the Osone Family

This is the last film of the Kinoshita and World War II collection. The story is about what happened to the Osone family towards the end of World War II.

Liked how the director helped us understand the hardships that the ordinary Japanese people faced through one family! I could tell he was very unhappy with the Army from his portrayal of the uncle!

Internet Movie Database Link

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Army

This is the fourth film of the Kinoshita and World War II collection. The story is about how a Japanese family with military background raised their eldest child to join the Army and fight in the front line during the second World War.

Liked how the director encouraged patriotism through his characters! Great acting by Tanaka Kinuyo, the actress who acted as the son's mother! I was surprised by how stern she could be when her son accidentally stepped on his textbook!

Internet Movie Database Link

Saturday, March 21, 2015

No Woman, No Cry

This is a documentary on the healthcare services for pregnant women in four different countries: Tanzania, Bangladesh, Guatemala and the United States.

Liked how the director weaved the statistics with the personal stories of these women and her commentary at the end of the film!

Internet Movie Database Link

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Jubilation Street

This is the third film of the Kinoshita and World War II collection. The story is about how a group of people living in Tokyo gradually moved out from the city to live in the countryside in preparation for American airstrike during the second world war.

Liked the interesting people who lived in the neighborhood! A pity we didn't get to see more of the pretty mail lady!

Internet Movie Database Link

Sunday, March 15, 2015

The Living Magoroku

This is the second film of the Kinoshita and World War II collection. The story is about how a group of villagers decided to break old traditions to plow a piece of sacred land passed down from their ancestors.

Liked the two pretty actresses in the film!

Internet Movie Database Link

Saturday, March 07, 2015

Port of Flowers

This is the first film of the Kinoshita and World War II collection. The story is about two con artists trying to cheat a group of people staying in an island of their money by getting them to build a ship but gave themselves up in the end.

Liked the interesting plot and how the film portrayed that con artists could also be patriotic!

Internet Movie Database Link

Sunday, March 01, 2015

Little People Big Dreams

This is a documentary about dwarves in China who are either current or past employees of a theme park called Dwarves Empire.

Liked how the director helped us to peek into the lives of these little people! I was quite impressed by one of them who even knew how to drive despite being so small!

Internet Movie Database Link

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Shaun the Sheep Movie

The story is about how a dog and a group of sheep saved the day when their shepherd ended up in a big city with memory loss.

Liked the nice animation and the funny moments! Reminded me a bit of the Wallace and Gromit films!

Internet Movie Database Link

Friday, February 20, 2015

I love Hong Kong 2013

The story is about a restaurant owner who is being forced to sell his restaurant when his ex-employee ran away without paying his debt.

Liked the inspiring story about a hardworking man who was willing to help his friends at his own expense!

Internet Movie Database Link

The Iron Lady

The story is about the life of Margaret Thatcher who is a former Prime Minister of Britain.

Liked how the film showed the ordinary citizen side of Margaret Thacher through her interactions with her dead husband and the hardworking career woman side of her through a series of flashbacks! Great acting by Meryl Streep!

Internet Movie Database Link

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Midnight in Paris

The story is about a writer travelling back in time to meet famous writers in Paris during midnight on his vacation trip with his rich fiancee.

Liked the interesting idea but I wished that the director could give some brief introduction to the famous writers as I was not familiar with most of them.

Internet Movie Database Link

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Life Is Beautiful

The story is about how a Jew fell in love with a pretty Italian woman during World War II and how the whole family was sent to a concentration camp till the end of the war.

Liked how the father was able to look at the bright side of things in difficult situations and the nice soundtrack!

Internet Movie Database Link

Big Hero 6

The story is about a group of nerds and a big huggable robot became superheros by accident when they were trying to solve a mystery.

Liked the nice friendship between Hiro and the big huggable robot! The gadgets were pretty cool too!

Internet Movie Database Link

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Revivre

The story is about how a middle aged executive coped with the stresses at work and taking care of his wife at the hospital at the same time.

Liked how the protagonist quietly went about his work but was quite puzzled why he would want to avoid meeting his pretty ex-employee in the end!

Internet Movie Database Link

Sunday, December 07, 2014

Leave it for tomorrow for night has fallen

The film consists of four short stories in Philippines when Marcos was a dictator there.

The stories were pretty abstract and hard to understand but I liked the antique sound effects of firing guns!

Internet Movie Database Link

Saturday, December 06, 2014

Leviathan

The story is about the consequence of one man trying to battle against the authorities for his rights to stay in his own home.

Liked the nice cinematography of the small Russian town and the depiction of human psychology!

Internet Movie Database Link

Stage Sisters

The story is about how two stage actresses remained good friends despite some misunderstandings over the years.

Liked the interesting plot and the pretty stage costumes! I thought the political propaganda message was quite well conveyed through this film!

Internet Movie Database Link

Saturday, November 29, 2014

The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga

This is a documentary about how people lived near a forest in Russia that inspired a children's story with a witch called Baba Yaga.

Liked the interesting animated children's story! I was quite surprised to see such gigantic mushrooms in the forest!

Internet Movie Database Link

Saturday, September 13, 2014

The Two Escobars

This is a documentary about two famous people named Escobars in Columbia during the 1990s: Pablo Escobar who was a powerful drug dealer and Andre Escobar who was the captain of the Columbian National team.

Learnt quite a bit of Columbian history from this film! Didn't realize how soccer can literally change the fate of a nation!

Internet Movie Database Link

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

The story is about a young wizard, Harry Potter's battle against a powerful evil wizard called Voldermort who killed his parents.

Liked the interesting plot about the dark magic used by Voldermort and how Harry Potter tried to fight against it together with his teacher Dumbledore! Think Ginny and Hermione have both grown much prettier since the first Harry Potter movie!

Internet Movie Database Link