movie review

movie reccomendations (link) - recommended movie:♮

*all of these are my opinion, they are not intended to hurt anybody. (I've tried to link the way I watched the movies in the images but I'm still working on it)

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Movie List (scroll)

1. All About Lily Chou-Chou
2. Blue Forest
3. Linda Linda Linda
4. Chungking Express
5. Better Days
6. Fallen Angels
7. Blue Spring
8. Bring It On
9. the Hand
10. Ashes of Time
11. the Fall
12. Joint Security Area
13. Tank Girl
14. Mystery Train
15. In the Mood for Love
16. Himizu♮
17. My Blueberry Nights
18. Love&Pop
19. Go♮
20. Léon: The Professional♮

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 the most 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.

Bring It On

(2000) Peyton Reed

Personal Rating: 8.6/10 Audience Rating: 6.2/10

This movie was a very normal and typical movie, but still I enjoyed it a little for some reason despite its cliches and stuff. There was a very set storyline you've seen a million times before, and yet it was charming for not deviating from it. There was the montage of the big revelation, the dance routine, and then the final result. I liked the ending and the credits bc it was funny I guess? I'm not a cheerleader or anything, so I don't know how accurate this movie is to how cheer competitions work. It made fun of the whole cheerleading thing slightly and had a few things I laughed at. This movie in general was very comforting in its being basic.

the Hand

(2004) Wong Kar-Wai

Personal Rating: 9.0/10 Audience Rating: 7.4/10

I was a little shocked in the beginning scenes in the movie, but probably because I always forget to look at the maturity level of these movies. Otherwise, this movie was beautifully shot and as always, it truly feels like a Wong Kar-Wai film in its camerawork and its film quality. Even thought this is technically a short film, I still count it because I'm trying to watch all of the Wong Kar-Wai films. I like how the story starts with a scene from the end and the whole film explains that scene to the viewer. The story is about a female prostitute that has a tailor who begins working with her. He builds affection towards her and the ending, though sad, makes you finish the story for yourself. I think the Hand is good in its intention and tells its story very well.

Ashes of Time

(1994) Wong Kar-Wai

Personal Rating: 9.5/10 Audience Rating: 7.0/10

I loved the camerawork in this film and the vivid landscape of the desert. The only thing is that there was thing extremely long scene with a few bits of dialogue that threw me off a bit with the same shot at the same angle. Even so, I can understand what this movie illustrates for the viewer. I just loved how artistic this movie was in its shots, which were so beautiful and made me think of how long it took to perfect each clip. I love the story of the swordsman whose wife married his brother and how he meets many people and is part of other people's stories. The dialogue in this movie is important and yet simple. I don't want to spoil anything by including a quote, but there isn't much story.

the Fall

(2006) Tarsem Singh

Personal Rating: 10/10 Audience Rating: 7.8/10

This movie seemed like it would be another one of those purely artsy films. Instead, I was struck with a BOLT OF LIGHNING in my chest when I saw the 1920s setting. This was a movie that my mom wanted to see because it was artsy-looking film and it was her birthday. I liked how the story the man was telling bled through reality and vice-versa. This movie brought me ON MY KNEES CRYING but my mom didn't care bc she fell asleep and I just watched the rest of it. I like talking to my parents <3 I was so sad when this certain spoiler happened, and then it tricked me so bad. I feel like I can't describe this film too much because it would spoil the whole thing. I think you should go watch it right now even if you don't want to. 10/10, 100% A+, 5.0 GPA, yes, go and watch this.

Joint Security Area

(2000) Park Chan-Wook

Personal Rating: 8.5/10 Audience Rating: 7.7/10

I like how this movie showed the different solutions to the mystery as scenes in the movie. It helped the audience visualize the potential answers to their question. I feel, though, that there was a lot of moments that were not very important to the movie as much and I also didn't like how they tried to make an Asian person look like she was white by dyeing her hair (I hated her character sm). I remember in the first scenes of the movie, there was this actor that I recognized from watching hella kdramas who is the main character of the film. Later on, I recognized other side characters. All of these people are older now, and it's weird seeing them all young and silly. I've written 6 reviews back-to-back so I should know what to say. I guess the camerawork was not very unique, but that's probably because I watch a lot of artsy films instead of more story-based movies. I guess the story was creative, but when compared to a film that I like to refer to like Fallen Angels, It isn't that great in that facet. In general, I enjoyed it besides the scene with the girl because I feel like they just wanted a girl in there to mix-up the overly male cast.

Tank Girl

(1995) Rachel Talalay

Personal Rating: 9.0/10 Audience Rating: 5.4/10

I give this movie a 9.0 because of the kangaroo people in it that scared me, but otherwise this would be a 10/10 for the story. Again, it's a simple one, but I like how the characters aren't as typical. I like the main character's ability to comment on everything in a certain way and that's the main reason why I gave a high rating. Another thing is the shots of the comic, which seem lower-effort compared to the rest of the film, which is a lot of stunts and stuff. The ending, which I won't describe for spoilers I liked, but at the same time didn't because they overlayed the live-action with a cartoon which I honestly wanted to see in live-action. This movie got me thinking about it constantly, though. I think the reason it drew me back was the wardrobe of the main character and her oppositon to the evil guy that was a total cliche.

Mystery Train

(1989) Jim Jarmusch

Personal Rating: 9.0/10 Audience Rating: 7.5/10

At first, I thought this movie was going to follow this one couple as they journeyed around Memphis, Tennessee, but I was flabbergasted when there was another story of a woman from Rome. And then I was even more shell-shocked when there was yet another story from another perspective. The thing I liked about this movie was how its stories were interwoven. An example of this is when in the first story, there is the view of the couple making out. Then in the next, the two women in the room next door could hear the sounds and commented on them. I also liked how there were some things that each story had (ex: gunshot, or train). I also was waiting for all of the stories to combine at the end, which I won't spoil if they did or not, but I was a little unsatisfied with the ending. The reason why I gave this a 9.0 was the Japanese girl who had to talk so loudly in the train station compared to the other shots. I guess she thought everyone in the United States is loud, so she figured it'd be fine but I honestly don't know.

in the Mood for Love

(2000) Wong Kar-Wai

Personal Rating: 9.2/10 Audience Rating: 8.1/10

My main reason I lowered my rating for this movie was that I was working on something else while watching it, so I though the dialogue scenes were repetitive. But I want to watch it again to see if my rating goes up. i feel like this movie is a cult classic for some reason, maybe because I looked at the high rotten tomatoes rating, which is the same as mine here. It's a pretty high rating, for for a movie that is deserving of it. I loved the camerawork and the signature Wong Kar-Wai moments as always, but I also liked th story. I was waiting with the characters for their partners to come back. I guess I couldn't appreciate the repetitive scenes as much, even if they were repetitive for a reason. How I interpret it is that the two people were meeting so many times in the same places to make it seem like coincidence. Their partners were always shot without their faces showing. I loved the scene where the woman rehearses with the man on getting a confession, and how the man, while he acts as her partner, has his face hidden, and when he isn't, his face is shown. I feel like I've just been yapping, but this is what I think of this movie I guess.

Himizu♮

(2011) Sion Sono

Personal Rating: 9.8/10 Audience Rating: 7.0/10

For this movie which was reccommended by someone (idk who you are im sorry), I feel like I should've had a more emotional reaction, but I didn't. but maybe because I've been watching so many movies lately that I've lost all of my emotions and now I'm an AI chatbot. This movie was very powerful in its messaging. A lot of Japanese movies have dramatic acting (I can say this) that I don't usually like, but for this one, I think the acting was perfect. I should've cried more maybe, because this film was a masterpiece. There was a lot of notes I took for some reason while I was watching, and one of them was "too many crazy ppl". I feel like this fits into the category that All About Lily Chou-Chou falls into: a Japanese film meant to describe an issue that teenagers experience. This film touched on an important topic that would otherwise be brushed over in a society like Japan's (I can say this). The tsunami of 2011, which happened back then was so recent and devastated the people. I think this film is very much a reflection of the mentality people had after such a disaster. I understand that this film is important in its messages, but I feel like there were parts like something I wrote in my notes: "4 against 1 and nothing happened?" that seemed to try and push the plot forward which is understandable. I feel bad for not giving this a higher rating, but this is how I feel abt this movie, and 98% is still very high. I've noticed I've been rambling and yapping. I'll stop that now, but all in all, I think this movie was amazing. mb ill watch it again idk

My Blueberry Nights

(2007) Wong Kar-Wai

Personal Rating: 7.5/10 Audience Rating: 6.6/10

I wasn't paying attention that much to this movie because I was with my girlfriend, but in general the visuals were better than the actual story. It feels out of place that Wong Kar-Wai had people narrate in English in the place of the usual melodic Cantonese. When she narrates, it's weird and I feel like his style of filming with narration doesn't fit with the English language, and rather is meant for Cantonese. The story of the film feels dry and soulless because the actors seem to have little to no emotion or are confusing in their goals and dialogue. The main love interest keeps making this weird onion-shaped pastry that my girlfriend and I were so confused about. What is it and why do they keep making and eating it? Is it the blueberry pie they keep talking about? I guess this film is more artistic that plot-driven, but my perception of American films is that they have a clearer plot and are less artistic in nature.

Love&Pop

(1998) Hideaki Ano

Personal Rating: 9.7/10 Audience Rating: 7.4/10

I gave this movie a high rating because of its camerawork and its main characters who resemble my friend group. I also watched this movie with my girlfriend, but we screencasted it from my phone so it was tiny and if I put it on full screen in the movie-pirating website, there would be no subtitles. My girlfriend doesn't know Japanese. The camerawork, though it was filmed a few years before All About Lily Chou-Chou, resembles it. The story was also interesting because these girls are paid to go on dates with lonely men so they can afford different things. (They're in highschool by the way) There's this one scene where they go to a video store that haunts me for life :(. I like the characters and their stories and the creative storytelling, but I don't like their strange male counterparts.

Go♮

(2001) Isao Yukisada

Personal Rating: 9.7/10 Audience Rating: 7.4/10

I haven't watched movies like this in a few weeks, so this is refreshing. I feel like this movie obviously highlighted the experience of a specific man who is considered Zainichi. As someone who is Japanese, I think this is an important movie mentioning an important topic, as it shows how Japanese distance themselves from foreigners, and how humans in general are territorial in this way. This style of storytelling, through a more action-packed film helps us digest this film adaptation. I don't want to spoil anything, but I think that Sugihara's approach to his Zainichi status brings us this sympathy as well as an understanding of how it matters more to others than to him. I liked how this film was both slightly artistic-seeming and with a rich story. The reason why I don't give this a 10 is that the love interest--I can't spoil it but it took 6 months for her. Also, why didn't they cast the role for Sugihara for someone who is actually Zainichi??

Léon: The Professional♮

(1994) Luc Besson

Personal Rating: 9.0/10 Audience Rating: 8.5/10

I liked this movie for its action and story--I also liked it because it played Bjork at some point. I think Matilda is a character who understands how things work around her. There was not much artistic stuff to this film which is undersandable because of the type of story it is trying to tell. I think this movie was very purposeful and got to the point. I feel like I could be saying more about it, but I don't want to spoil any of it at all. The reason why I didn't give this movie a 10 is that the relationship between Leon and Matilda was a little wierd to say the least. Also, I was confused abut the guy in the DEA cuz why could he do that?? That guy was also wierd with the sniffing, but maybe that's just how he is. When that white guy with the dreads said bombaclat it was so funny. I feel still feel like I should be saying more, but still not much to say. I think these people were smarter, unlike a lot of these types of movies. The ending was good for its drama but not for the everyone I guess. That's all I have to say.