A tale of love, death, kung-fu, and monsters. This short film is really on a knife's edge of whether or not it will work for you. The tone is relentlessly whimsical, but at the same time frequently heads off into silliness and excess; many other short films will show you how hard this is to get right (a lot of people want to be Wes Anderson) so at least Dead Hearts deserves the credit for getting a lot of this right. The style is really lifted from other influences – Anderson being the most obvious, but the dark romance is very much a Tim Burton product.
Together these two elements do limit the film somewhat, and make it feel like it is trying to hit too many buttons or reference points, but yet if you are in the mood then it does work mostly. I found it quite charming for the most part and the whimsy elements were the most successful. The kung-fu and horror elements did not mix particularly well, although by this point the whimsy had charmed me more or less enough. I could very much understand why some people would hate it and others would love it. I mostly really liked it, but it is always right on the line.
Together these two elements do limit the film somewhat, and make it feel like it is trying to hit too many buttons or reference points, but yet if you are in the mood then it does work mostly. I found it quite charming for the most part and the whimsy elements were the most successful. The kung-fu and horror elements did not mix particularly well, although by this point the whimsy had charmed me more or less enough. I could very much understand why some people would hate it and others would love it. I mostly really liked it, but it is always right on the line.
