movie review

All About Lily Chou-Chou

(2001), Shunji Iwai

Personal Rating: 10/10 Audience Rating: 8.6/10

My take on this movie is that it is very personal and easy to connect to, even when the events that take place may be different from what we experience, we can relate with how music can heal. The vivid colors and camera work reminiscent of Wong Kar-Wai's Fallen Angels, this film comes to us in its harsh realism in portraying its character's emotions in their raw states with its amateur-like filming style. This movie brings a feeling of never-experienced nostalgia in a part of the world that feels so far away, and yet it is so close. With its cuts between different periods of time, we experience a feeling of seeing another's memories. As we follow the story of Yuichi, we can hear the music of a fictional artist named Lily Chou-Chou in the background--if only she were real.

Blue Forest

(2018) Soh Ieduchi, Takuya Uchiyama

Personal Rating: 6.5/10 Audience Rating: 6.8/10

This movie was very gory to say the least. Its filmography was very well-shot and I liked the scenery and the ending, even when it wasn't the most satisfying one. It is a thriller that is meant for those who can stomach gruesome content like this. Its story is not very compelling I was also a little spooked when I found that there was a lot of graphic violence that seemed very unnecessary to the story. For those who enjoy these movies, I don't judge you for that, but personally, this one feels like it was meant for the sole purpose of filming a lot of gore. The characters in this were very simple-minded and one-sided, 2-dimensional and not very distinct. About half of them were written to be insane, while the others were simple in their basic personalities. I don't want to spoil it if you want to watch it, so I won't say anymore.

Linda Linda Linda

(2005) Nobuhiro Yamashita

Personal Rating: 9.5/10 Audience Rating: 8/10

I love this movie for its happiness and its overall atmosphere ! I also love the music too so that's my bias. I've noticed that basically all of the movies I've written on my checklist are Asian, and predominantly Japanese (probably bc all of these recs are from pinterest), so I'm probably gonna try watching more other stuff. This story is of a Korean exchange student named Son in Japan who doesn't know anyone except a teacher that is helping her. She joins a band called Paranmaum and sings in the school's rock concert. Though there is no true and profound message in this film, it can still reflect its feelings on its viewer; those feelings being different from person to person. It's just a really cute film that I recommend for its qualities, though it doesn't cut as deep as Shunji Iwai's All About Lily Chou-Chou.

Chungking Express

(1994) Wong Kar-Wai

Personal Rating: 9.8/10 Audience Rating: 9/10

I would rate this movie lower than Fallen Angels only because of its camera work. I rated it pretty high because one of the characters (the character on the image on the right) looks like my mom when she was younger. In this film, there are four characters we follow, a woman with a blonde wig and a man who is suffering through a breakup as well as a woman who works at a snack bar and a police man who is a regular there. The blaring neon lights of night and the dark shadows of day provide consistent contrast between the demeanors of the characters. I especially enjoyed the woman in the blonde wig with her red glasses and interesting situation. In general, I would consider both the happiness and the heartbreak in its many contrasting features

Better Days

(2019) Kwok Cheung Tsang

Personal Rating: 10/10 Audience Rating: 9.8/10

This was such a gut-wrenching, spine-tingling, tear-jerking, soul-crushing movie ever. It was so tragic, but so beautiful. It gets you to root for the characters in their story together. It raises awareness of how bullying is a very serious and prominent topic in China and how classism affects justice. This film was actually recognized by the government and some laws were passed to prevent what happens in the movie. It was so sad, but in a good way and I also liked the ending (I won't spoil any of it). In this story, there is a girl who is in school and a boy who is out on the streets doing something (i don't remember). All in all, the director gets you to feel how he wanted you to feel and manipulate your emotions in this amazing film.

Fallen Angels

(1995) Wong Kar-Wai

Personal Rating: 10/10 Audience Rating: 9.2/10

I love this movie for its visuals primarily, but I also like the line delivery and how the characters are written. I guess that means I like everything about this film. There is a lot of contrast in certain characters. For example, there is a mute man who beats people up and then there is a loud woman who's always angry. Then there's the similar characters, like the woman who smokes and cleans the apartment of the man who smokes, shoots people and gets with another woman. The scene with the masturbating was a little surprising for some reason but it made sense to the story. I'm warning you that there is sexual topics in this movie I guess. Overall, the different colors of the whole film ties the stories of these characters together.

Blue Spring

(2002) Toshiaki Toyoda

Personal Rating: 8.5/10 Audience Rating: 6.6/10

This movie was really angsty. I think it's based off of a manga because while I was going around Internet Archive, I searched "Blue Spring" and there was a whole book that came up. Because I had already watched the movie, I could see as I read through the comic that it was the same storyline. I guess you can't really call it a story because not much happens that pushes the plot forwards, but the visuals show a lot of the messages they are trying to send to the viewer. I think these messages contain topics of educational motivation, because the school is worn out and the students don't do any work. I don't know if this is what this story is about, but this is what I get from it.