Some Reviews
Love Letter (1995) 8/10
19th Japanese Academy Awards
• Winner - Newcomer of the Year (Takashi Kashiwabara)
• Winner - Newcomer of the Year (Miki Sakai)
• Winner - Most Popular Performer (Etsushi Toyokawa
1996 Blue Ribbon Awards
• Winner - Best Actress (Miho Nakayama)
1996 Kinema Junpo Awards
• Winner - Reader’s Choice Award for Best Film
17th Yokohama Film Festival
• Winner - Best Film
• Winner - Best Director [tie] (Shunji Iwai)
• Winner - Best Actress (Miho Nakayama)
• Winner - Best Actor (Etsushi Toyokawa)
• Winner - Best Cinematography (Noboru Shinoda)
• Winner - Best New Talent (Miki Sakai)
1995 Hochi Film Awards
• Winner - Best Actress (Miho Nakayama)
• Winner - Best Supporting Actor (Etsushi Tokoyawa)
One of those transcendant romantic films that will charm even the stone hearted. Mihi Nakayama has a dual role acting as 2 seperate characters, and it is a remarkable performance that is worthy of all the accolades she has won. Love Letter feels like Il Mare without the metaphysical time travelling stuff but just a really solid script and near flawless acting. Director Shunji Iwai has crafted a beautiful modern masterpiece.
The Wind That Shakes The Barley(2006) 7/10
2006 Cannes Film Festival: Palm D’Or
A powerful and wrenching historical drama that presents the british as sadistic and tyrranic occupiers of Ireland. This film boasts of some truly brilliant moments, but also sags at times with slow pacing and hard to understand dialogue. Even if you are a fluent English speaker, you may want to watch it with subtitles because the thick Irish accent makes it hard to understand what the characters are saying. The beginning of the film is also hampered by slow pace and and painfully superficial caricature of the british as evil aggressors. But what lifts it is the last one third of the film, when Irish fight Irish as the people are split between accepting a less than satisfactory truce or fighting for true liberty.
Cillian Murphy gives a solid performance as Damien, a doctor turned freedom fighter. Even as in its based in the 1920s, the stories of the past nevertheless hold true today. A sobering film that almosts feels like Braveheart set in 1920.
The Untold Story(1993) 6/10
1993 Hong Kong Film Award: Best Actor (Anthony Wong)
This is the film that will make you swear off pork buns forever. HK thespian Anthony Wong in the role that showed that he can act, does a Hannibal Lector in easily the most intense performance of his life. Based on a true story, which gives what would otherwise be B-grade exploitation fodder a true sense of dread, watching The Untold Story is a depressing and utterly unsettling experience. While i accept the artistic merits of the film, as well as Wong’s superb performance, this is not the film that you want to watch to unwind. Strictly not for kids. Heck, this is a film where kids get killed. Whilst not the most gruesome and hard to stomach film i’ve seen (that honor goes to the japanese film Audition), its still fairly grisly by HK standards, especially a 1993 film. Ultimately, while it is worth watching for Wong’s performance, lets just say that you should never watch it after dinner.
Family Man(2000) 6/10
Nicholas Cage is one of my favourite actors, and he certainly puts commendable effort here, but it is Tea Leoni who clearly steals the show. The entire premise is totally predictable and generally unremarkable. You can see the ending a mile away and it is only through sheer charisma of Cage and especially the radiant Tea Leoni that the film fares better than its cliched premise. Watch it for the performances.
Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy(2005) 6/10
DON’T PANIC! While alot of the humor and snarkiness of the book is lost in translation, Hitchhiker’s Guide is still a decent, albeit unremarkable adaptation of a most awesome book. The opening sequence is most excellent, but the film sags alot in the middle and the end will just leave you scratching your head. You probably need to be a fan of the novel to enjoy it and fully understand it, but even a non-fan like me can find it reasonably enjoyable though not fantastic.
Tristram Shandy(2005) 5/10
A snarky and irrelevant comedy. Parts of it are funny, other parts are just draggy.
Tony Takitani(2005) 4/10
Watching this is like watching paint dry. I’ll give it credit for directing and camera angle, but that still doesn’t change the fact that this is boring like hell.
