dfs-2 Reviews

Umbrella Flower (2000)

Japanese version of "Leaving Las Vegas"

[28 October 2004]

...but with a happy ending.

About a drunk loser engages the services of a pink bar girl (sort of an escort). Then go on a road trip to the countryside of Hokaiddo. Sounds familiar? ....sounds like Leaving Las Vegas to me.

Except the ending is not quite as dark.

The film is peppered with flashbacks. Flashbacks of the drunk loser are on how they met, but the pink bar girl's flashbacks go further back on her previous life when she was happily married up to the point of tragedy.

Brief Crossing (2001)

Catherine Breillat's best work I've seen.

[10/10 · 30 July 2002]

I saw this at the Auckland International Film Festival this year and with so little spare time I had to really be picky and selected what I thought was the 10 best films including `Y tu mama tambien' (which received critical acclaim). Personally I thought this was the best.

This film is set on an overnight ferry trip across the English channel, it begins with a chance encounter between two lone travellers, namely a 16 year old boy Thomas and a middle aged woman Alice. Seasoned lone travellers will know that keeping company with other lone travellers is a good way to pass time. This is how their relationship develops. Thomas wants what most young men his age want, a sexual encounter. Alice on the other hand portrays herself as a sophisticated yet vulnerable woman surviving a mid life crisis. Sounds like a volatile combination right? Well you will have to see this film to the end, which has one of the best endings I can remember.

Now some notes about the cast and crew. This film introduces Gilles Grippon (Thomas) and he plays his role well, a teenager trying to be cool yet unsure of himself and impressionable. Sarah Pratt was absolutely gorgeous and stunning as Alice. She really held together those scenes sans the dialog when the couple were just exchanging glances. This film is not wholly a French language film as English is almost equally spoken throughout. Sarah has an excellent command in both. I am surprised so little is known about this beautiful and talented actress. I hope to see her in more films to come.

This is the fourth Catherine Breillat film I have seen and the best so far. Like all her other films she deals with the character's sexual intricacies but it does not have the pornographic taint of `Romance', the violence found in `A Ma Soeur!' or any of the disturbing scenes found `A Real Young Girl' (one of her early films but only recently released because it had been banned). Also well translated on screen especially with the use of lighting is the feel of being on the channel ferry. Having been on one myself it brought back memories.

I would love to own this on DVD if it ever comes out. 10/10

Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)

Betrays the spirit A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back

[1/10 · 11 February 2000]

Don't get me wrong. This film had good imaginative special effects. My favourite visuals were the R2 units being dispatched to fix the sleek silver copy of an SR71 Blackbird.

I can't wait for the director's cut.

Not with more footage but with all Jar Binx character removed. Otherwise I might buy the video anyway and re-edit it myself to remove that idiot. Hmmm.. actually that gives me an idea to get a pair of scissors and cut out all ewok scenes from my Return of the Jedi video.