Slay's Reviews

Ok, yeah. Some of this did seem a little exaggerated.

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More great reviews Bri.

Now that I have a little bit of time I wanted to contribute...

I loved both Elizabeth and Kate & Leopold. I wasn't sure if I should just copy and paste my original posts from your other review threads to here or not. I didn't want to over do it for you.

Monsoon Wedding
I loved this one also. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen it, but I do remember getting really drawn into the characters. So much so I was very irritated with the engaged daughter when she had the triste in the car with her ex married lover. I really liked her and thought of her doing something so completely stupid a few days before her wedding...welll...I wanted to slap her. Hehe...I guess that’s the sign of a well written and acted movie, when you get wrapped up in the characters.

I also was caught up in Ria. The underlying story of what happened to her as a young girl, her feeling protective over her cousin, not feeling like a ‘real’ daughter when the secret is out and the father still wants her to attend the wedding despite how uneasy she would feel. This movie ended perfectly too. I loved it.

Italian for Beginners
I just saw this and wanted to thank you for reviewing it. You’re right, the way it’s shot and the fact there’s no music threw me a little too at first. It's almost like taking a video camera into these peoples lives...but the actors and actresses were so wonderful...they made these tortured souls so believeable. You quickly get caught up in their lives. It didn’t take long to get used to the way it was shot.

This was a really fresh and engaging movie. Thanks for the tip and recommending it Bri.

YI YI ***½



Yi Yi follows a Taiwanese family as each one tries to make sense out of life. Each one has their own story but we are shown just how similar all of their lives are. The Story begins with a wedding where the brother of Min-Min (Elaine Jin) is getting married. After the ceremony, their mother, who lives with Min-Min and her family, is found lying near a dumpster outside their condominium. Nobody is sure what really happed to the mother. They assume she was taking out the trash and had a stroke doing it. Regardless of what she was doing, she is now in a coma, and that causes the family to stop and think.

Ting-Ting (Kelly Lee), the teen-age daughter, takes the fault on her own shoulders and starts to lose sleep. One evening, after everyone goes to sleep, she sneaks into her grandmother’s room and asks the comatose woman if she had forgotten to take out the trash. We see early in the film that Ting-Ting did indeed take out all the trash herself, and want to weep for this poor girl who can’t remember and blames herself.

NJ Jian (Wu Nienjen), the husband, is a manager of a software company. He is morose and laconic and wanders through the picture wondering all about the what-ifs in his life. When he was young, he was to be married to Shelly (Elaine Jin), but he runs away shortly before the wedding. During Min-Min’s brothers wedding, NJ happens to run into Shelly in the lobby of the hotel where the ceremony is taking place. The first thing she asks him, after thirty years, is where did he go? Why did he leave? NJ has no answer to give her, but he desperately wants to find out the answer for himself, and to understand whether running may have lowered his chances for happiness. His company is also in financial trouble. He is recruited to get Japanese software giant to sign on board with his company to produce and market some video games that might save the company. NJ meets up with Mr. Ota (Issey Ogata). Who resembles a Japanese Bill Gates, and finds that Ota might have some answers that he’s looking for, just by being the man he is.

Yang-Yang (Jonathan Chang), the youngest child, is a boy who is constantly teased and harassed by the girls at school. He is also a deep thinker for a child his age and begins to question his father how anyone can know truth, when each person can only see half of the picture. “Daddy, I can't see what you see and you can't see what I see. How can we know more than half the truth?" NJ has no answer for that, so instead, gives his son a camera. Yang-Yang uses the camera to help people who cannot see the whole picture actually see it. They cannot see the backs of their heads, so he takes pictures of them to prove that they do exist. Chang is perhaps one of the sweetest young boys to ever star in a motion picture. At the end of the film (I’m not giving anything away here) Yang-Yang reads a letter to his grandmother. It is a very sincere, powerful, and heart wrenching, scene and sums up all of the family beautifully.

Yi Yi is a movie about introspection and regret. It is also a story about quiet acceptance and courage. But above all, it is a story about life. Through the four family members, we are able to see that each generation has always had to suffer the same questions. Each generation has always had regrets and had to deal with loss. All of us search for the truth in our own way, and often we don’t find the answer, but if we’re lucky, we can accept the truth we are able to find out.

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"Today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids."

KAATERSKILL FALLS **



Ren and Mitchell (Hilary Howard & Anthony Leslie) are taking a short vacation at a cabin in the Catskills. On the way to their destination they decide to pick up a hitchhiker named Lyle (Mitchell Riggs) who apparently is unable to gain lodgings for himself. In a moment of kindness, they offer a meal and a bed to the quite and rugged Lyle. It is obvious in short order that tension starts to build between the two men whose differences are worlds apart. Mitchell, Ren’s husband, is an anal-retentive man who lives his life by schedules. He is also a pure city boy who enjoys nature as a weekend warrior. Lyle however, is a true nature buff, who is highly adaptable to harsh environments, and shows contempt for Mitchell and his type.

Kaaterskill Falls is touted as being a thriller, though it really isn’t. It centers on Ren, who obviously loves her husband, but cannot help herself from having an attraction to Lyle. She shares to Lyle that before she met Mitchell, she was a modern hippie girl that was about to start a commune with a girlfriend, but instead was “saved” by Mitchell, and given a normal and productive life.

While watching the film, I naturally assumed that I would be on the husband’s side, but he turns out to be the prickish type, but he is just threatened by Lyle, and with good reason. Lyle obviously has designs with Ren, and I slowly began to build an expectation of violence. The movie is slow paced and never really delivers in the way I was expecting. Most of the movie is dialogue with no action at all, not that a movie needs action, but this movie by its own admission, is supposed to have it. At the end of the film, it tries to deliver with a real twist ending, but instead of my being shocked and pleased, I was confused and let down. I didn’t hate the film, and can recommend it slightly, but there are many better Indies to spend your hard earned dough on.

TO LIVE ****



To Live is an astonishing tale of a family living in China during the communist revolution and beyond. It really isn’t centered on what these changes of politics does to a family, but rather what strengths people who love each other have, and what they can endure.

The time is the late 1940s and Fugui (Ge You) is a gambling addict. At home he has a wife, Jiazhen (Gong Li), a young daughter, and his parents. They all see his gambling as the ruin of their family, who are landowners slowly losing what fortune that remains to Fugui’s gambling problem. Then, in one night, he loses their property, his wife and child, and all of his dignity. All of a sudden, instead of being called Master, he is selling trinkets he was able to rescue from his home before it was taken over, on the snowy streets. After time, his wife and child come back with his newborn son, who the wife teasingly names “Don’t Gamble”. Fugui has learned his lesson and has no desire to gamble again and promises his wife that he will give her the life she desires; A quiet life together.

Through the next four decades we watch all of the hardships of their lives together through some of the most tumultuous times in China’s history. I read up on this film and found out that the director (Zhang Yimou) and Gong Li were both banned from working in film for the next two years, because the Chinese government was upset at the portrayal of the brutal truth of those times in this film. They were even banned from speaking about this film. There hasn’t been very many movies made in China by Chinese about Chinese. It is only beneficial to the world at large that it is happening now and that we are allowed to see what things were really like for these people with our own eyes, through theirs.

As far as I’m concerned, this is a must-see film. It is an epic from beginning to end with exceptional direction, beautiful cinematography, and wonderful performances. I found it easy to love all the characters and when they suffer crushing setbacks, I felt like my own life was torn asunder. I could also see why people under a communist regime become so loyal to the cause. To Live, I expect, pulled no punches when showing us Mao’s totalitarian control over the way of life for millions of people, who begin to think as one. It was amazing to me when wedding ceremonies are performed; the families sing Mao’s communist theme with tears in their eyes. They worship Mao, then their God, in that order.

Fugui and Jiazhen show that life is the same regardless of what type of world you live in. One only hopes to live happily and with love. Even when there is loss there is hope. I love this movie.

Ah wow, cheers your lordship. I've wanted to see an "honest" chinese-made film for ages. The only other one i've seen that wasn't HongKong-made/controlled (i don't think) was about the transition from rural to industrialised/capitalisty living (but unfortunately i can't remember the name). All i can remember is that the central figure is a wife who starts taking her produce to town in a truck, and we see the growing competitive city life through her eyes. And she called her neighbour, or possibly her drive-less husband, "the pig". (and i don't think i made it to the end, coz it started at around two in the morning). And now i've lost my teaching job (mainly coz of doing things like that ) - i've lost my chance to get inside Chinese people's heads (which i was failing at anyway ). Nice one man. That's a must-see. (and Yiyi is one i've heard about and wanted to see. Classy. There goes my list growing again )

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Virtual Reality chatter on a movie site? Got endless amounts of it here. Reviews over here

THE SCENT OF GREEN PAPAYA ***½



A ten-year-old orphan walks miles from her small village in Vietnam to go to work for her new Mistress (Truong Thi Loc ). She quickly adapts to her new life and learns everything that she needs to know from the old servant (Nguyen Anh Hoa) that helps her to keep her family running smoothly. She watches everything quietly and absorbs everything she needs to understand them. Her name is Mui (Lu Man San) and she is the most genuinely sweet girl I have ever seen on film. She finds beauty in just about everything. She can sit and watch a stem of a papaya bleed after being picked, watch a tree frog sit on a leaf, and watch an ant work, and find beauty in all of it. Her eyes are always wide open, soaking in everything around her, and there is almost always a soft smile on her lips. Even when the youngest child in the home teases and terrorizes her, she is still able to smile and not succumb to resentment. The Mistress falls in love with this beatific child and sees her as the daughter she had lost.

The Scent of Green Papaya is a quiet film that uses beautiful scenery and the lull of the sounds of wildlife to speak for Mui. She is a girl of few words and is often shown to be in the background. She does her job well in that sense. As the family suffers, Mui suffers, but nobody notices. This isn’t a standard servant movie where there is someone that mistreats, or a servant who fights for their own individuality, but rather, an honest look at a life of servitude. For that reason alone, this movie stands above its contemporaries.

Before we know it, Mui (Tran Nu Yen-Khe) is twenty, and the family can no longer afford her. She is sent to work for a family friend who Mui falls in love with. I won’t give away what happens, but I can tell you that the film follows the earlier segments lead, and doesn’t follow standard formula. It has a very satisfying conclusion that is not only sweet, but real. This movie is a gem that is beautiful to watch, quiet in its portrayal, and has a central character that is easy to love. If you’re tired of explosions, sex, and murder, give this movie a look.

Great reviews, Slay.

Glad to see you loved Monsoon Wedding. Along with The Pianist, and The Fast Runner it was one of Kong's three favorites of 2002.

Kong is also on the same page as you concerning Yi Yi, but, shamefully enough, Kong hasn't seen the other films you've reviewed.

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Kong's Reviews:
Stuck On You
Bad Santa

Man, you have to see To Live. It's one of the finest films I've ever seen. I picked up a copy of The Pianist, expect a review this week.

Kong will check it out soon. Kong's seen two of Yimou's film (Hero, and Ju Dou) and liked them both a whole lot. The next to of his that Kong plans on watching are To Live, and Raise the Red Lantern. Kong'll let you know his thoughts when he sees them.

Damn, I made an error here. I saw The Pianist in the theaters. I thought you were talking about The Piano Teacher by Michael Haneke. I liked The Pianist quite a bit as well.

I just finished watching,

Igby Goes Down:

It is the kind of quirky movie I like, I thought that Kiren Culkin was really good and much better looking than his older brother, Ryan Phillippe I thought was so good, that I was really getting to dislike his character.

I also liked the soundtrack.

Hey LordyLord what a great new avatar

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Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.
Buddha

Great Thread!

Well done Slay! There are a few now that I'd like to see based upon your reviews.

Sorry, I hadnt gotten around to commenting on this thread yet because I've been trying not to read reviews for movies that I havent seen already and thought I might like to see [reading the scenario before hand can ruin what little surprise there is in a lot of movies, unfortunately], but it's interesting reading the variety of movies you've been seeing lately, Slayton. The only two I've seen on the list so far have been To Live, and Scent of Green Papaya. To Live is great, and one of my very favorites of Zhang Yimou's movies. Right up there with Shanghai Triad and Red Sohrgum. What I liked about Scent of Green Papaya was how we get the feeling of being a fly on the wall in that family's household. Keep em coming.

Yeah, let's see if you can fit any of them into your tight porn schedule.

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The novelist does not long to see the lion eat grass. He realizes that one and the same God created the wolf and the lamb, then smiled, "seeing that his work was good".

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They had temporarily escaped the factories, the warehouses, the slaughterhouses, the car washes - they'd be back in captivity the next day but now they were out - they were wild with freedom. They weren't thinking about the slavery of poverty. Or the slavery of welfare and food stamps. The rest of us would be all right until the poor learned how to make atom bombs in their basements.

I don't have a schedule. I have a porn reel constantly running in my head.

What I want to know LordyLord, do you sleep, eat, work, go out of the house? You seem to devour movies and books a phenomenal rate, I am lucky to get in one movie per day, and read that happens 10mins before sleep, what is your trick.

CINEMA PARADISO ****



There are two different versions of Giuseppe Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso available today. There is the original 1988 release that Harvey Weinstein, CEO of Miramax, trimmed nearly an hour of, then there is the more recently released Director’s cut. The DVD has both versions on it and I watched both of them last night. Many critics agree that the edited version is the better of the two, but I think it all depends on what mood you are in when you sit down to watch it. The shorter version is a more uplifting film about a boy and his surrogate father who creates a love of movies in the boy. In that version the boy has two loves: film and his surrogate father. The longer version is also a love story. As the boy grows, he meets the only girl he will ever love, and that changes the entire dynamic of the film. Now the boy has three loves: film, surrogate father, and the girl. The longer version is a sweeter and sadder tale, because it focuses a lot more on the love affair. I really enjoyed both.

The first act of Cinema Paradiso is set in Sicily at the end of WWII. Alfredo (Philippe Noiret) works at the local Cinema Paradiso as a projectionist. When he’s not splicing the films on loan to the theater to edit out all the scenes the local priest deems unworthy (kissing scenes mainly), he is fighting with young Salvatore (Salvatore Cascio) who routinely bothers him in the booth. In time Alfredo comes to accept Salvatore and takes him under his wing. Salvatore is completely obsessed with movies, as is the entire township, and wants Alfredo to teach him how to run the projector. I’m reluctant to give away too much of the first act, because to know too much would rob you of its charm.

The second act consists of a teen-age Salvatore (Marco Leonardi) and his growing relationship with Alfredo. He also meets Elena (Agnese Nano), and quickly falls in love with her. Here is one of the glaring differences between the two versions. The shorter version treats this segment as an unimportant tidbit in comparison to the longer version, and doesn’t put too much emphasis on the importance of this love affair in relation to how Salvatore turns out later in life.

The third act is the bulk of the difference between the two versions. In the shorter version, 90% of this act is gone. It consists of the grown Salvatore (Jacques Perrin) and his visit home after an absence of 30 years. I don’t want to give away any of this segment, because it is one powerful part of the movie, and having unasked questions answered are what makes this act so powerful. If you stick with the edited version, you’ll miss pretty much all of this part.

Either version you choose, you cannot miss. This is truly a beautiful tale, regardless of which you choose too watch. My advice would be to watch the original 1988 theater release first, then watch the Director’s cut. There is a certain magical appeal to the original version that may be impossible to ever regain if you watch the longer cut first. There will be answers that you will want answered after watching it and that’s where the Director’s cut comes to the rescue. Either way, you will be enchanted by this beautiful story.

ELLING ***



Elling (Per Christian Ellefsen) tells us that he’s always had two enemies, dizziness and anxiety, they follow him wherever he goes. He is found hiding in a cupboard at the beginning of the movie after his mother dies. Elling is 40 years old and has never had to leave the house, and with good reason: he can’t handle it. The welfare office takes him to live in an asylum where he meets Kjell Bjarne (Sven Nordin), a huge, 40-something, lumbering man who has been institutionalized his whole life and dreams of the day he can lose his virginity. Kjell and Elling become friends after time and when the welfare office thinks they are ready, they are moved into an apartment together and told to try to be productive. Together they try to make it on their own and not to have fits when the phone rings.

Many other movies that have mentally handicapped people as their central figures find it necessary to have them either teach “normal” people a thing or two about humanity or have them so deeply rooted in sentimentality that there is a saccharine coating on the roof of the mouths of the audience. What is so wonderful about Elling, is that it doesn’t pander to those standard conventions. Elling is crazy, and he knows it. He wants to function, but he has nothing to teach anyone, and doesn’t try to. Kjell is the same way, though he is the lesser insane of the two. The situations the two find themselves in are realistic to a fashion, it is a comedy after all, and it doesn’t get sentimental in any way. I found that I had a slaphappy silly grin from beginning to end of this quaint film, and was thoroughly satisfied by its conclusion. I readily recommend this film.