Almost Buddhist - 戲‧論

  ★★☆☆☆ First off, it's my bad that I mistook 'Run' for 'The Act', a TV series telling a true story of a daughter teaming up with her boyfriend to kill her mother who had been overprotective of her and even fabricating her illness and disabilities so as to keep and control her! 'Run' is NOT based on a single true event but a made up story of several real-life tragedies. Director Aneesh Chaganty has done something like this before in ' Searching ', which appears to be closer to real-life, less dramatic and thus more engrossing throughout than 'Run'! 'Run' only runs about 90 minutes so I expected it to be not a slow burn but its pace turns out much faster than I imagined as a matter of fact. It wastes no time taking you from the suspicion that the daughter has about her mother deliberately cutting her off from the outside world by lying to her about her illnesses, to the confrontations between the two! Things escalate dramatically, an...

★★★☆☆   I can't say that I'm satisfied with 'Last Letter'. It doesn't get to move me so much like I expected it should after all, but I can't say that I'm let down either, because under Shunji Iwai's direction, things have always appeared to be bright and benign, humorous a bit, warm to heart and hopeful. His films seem to have some sort of charm and beauty that you just can't turn down. There's often beams of sunlight cascading down or spilling from behind the characters that are somehow able to grin and bear their own mishaps and sorrows. There're streets and dwellings rather clean and cosy; soft breezes caressing tall grass, flowers, trees and pretty faces; beautiful, postcard shots of landscape on sunny or rainy days; mostly good-hearted, well-behaved people conversing gracefully... all those signature characteristics usually imbedded in Iwai's films manage to instill a sense of positivity and optimism into those, like me, gradually...

  ★★☆☆☆ I checked out 'The Eight Hundred' not because it's the highest grossing film of the year worldwide, or considered the most anticipated war film yet from China. I did just because of 'Mr. Six', the most impressive, outstanding work by director Guan Hu in my opinion. 'Mr. Six' simply stuns me as it's able to keep boosting my adrenaline and stirring my emotions without having to present one single bloody physical fight as it should've been expected in a gangster film like that. That's indeed pure magic of cinema. Plus, it inspires me to ruminate a lot on certain stuff that's supposed to make up a dignified and meaningful life! So instead of 'The Eight Hundred', 'Mr. Six' is easily a better choice if you expect to be thrilled, healed and encouraged in a sense! I'm not saying however, that 'The Eight Hundred' is a total failure. It should be praised in a way that it chooses to be historically correct in some p...