kristenal17 Reviews

Japanese Story (2003)

Conventional

[18 July 2004]

This is an odd film, it begins with two strangers falling in love due to physical adversities in the Outback Australia, thus they begin feel sympathetic for each other and have mutual feelings towards each other.

One thing i found hard to understand was some of the sex scenes and the long camera shots on their faces. They are probably made to make the audience to feel what the characters feel. However, at some point i found it too long and instead of empathising with them, i was eager to know what is going to happen next. Maybe its because i am not sentimental or whatever. However, cinematography was very well composed.

I read some of the critics on this website and a lot of them compared this film to Lost In Translation. I kind of agree with this. Both of the stories are strangers becoming lovers in a strange place and the ending is they part forever. However, Japanese Story is more tragic than that and contains a lot of emotions.

July Rhapsody (2002)

Odd

[8 July 2004]

This is an odd little film that has depicted ordinary life empathetically. The plot is very weird, it like a story within a story and these stories are parallel.

I like how the movie is presented, it is on a realistic basis, in a realistic city like Hong Kong but the storyline is almost surreal. Applause for the actors and the portrayal of their roles. Everyone has acted their role so strongly and their acting is harmonically woven into a movie.

I was captured by the movie and the title. I thought they are odd which makes the ordinary lives of its characters to be abstract. Thus making reality abstract.

Hero (2002)

commercialised

[8 July 2004]

It is an interesting concept to depict a story from different perspectives. Although it is an interesting idea, but the rest of the movie does not live up to it, such as characterisation, music and cinematography.

The story changes constantly with the plot and the characters such as the same the characters are presented differently in each segment (okay u have to watch the movie to understand what i am on about) and the audience does not have anything to chew on that is to interpret thus explore the characterisation of each characters.

The cinematography is half between an action pack movie and an abstract movie. It like making a commericalised action movie (everything is digitally enhanced to be more dramatic) more tasteful or arty or whatever. So i thought that was crap.

The music with the Japanese drum reminds me of Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon which is the last thing you want, because the music of Crouching is so great and beautifully woven into its story. However, the music of Hero stood out rather than completing the movie.

I like some of the sceneries. some of them are really pretty and the cinematography captures that atmosphere where everything looks surreal like it is in a fictional story. Also i like the scene where the two red chicks were fighting on an autumn day with yellow leaves flying around them. I thought that was pretty but i didn't understand the symbolism of it.

Last thing, the dude who plays sword or something was not very good. He had the same look throughout the entire movie.

Suzhou River (2000)

i love it

[15 April 2004]

i really really like this film, its so surreal yet it is set in the realistic city of shanghai..... i fell in love of it the first time i saw it. the story is so romantic yet so bleak about the idealisms of love...... i seriously couldn't go to sleep after watching that film...it makes me want to find a guy like Ma Da to fall in love with yet i dont want my love story to end up like theirs. so yeh if i was the camera dude, i would close my eyes and wait for the next when love arrives.

the girl who plays peony is great, because she can differentiate her characters so well.