Log: week 50 / 2019

A doc on Mount Fuji could have been fun, but this collection of photographs and poetic(-sounding) monologues is a little meagre for an 80-minutes long documentary. There are some nice impressions of the mountain and some mildly interesting folklore, but I feel actual moving footage would've been preferable.

Another disappointing Yang. It's fun to see Hsiao-hsien Hou act I guess, apart from that Yang's characters, his somewhat plain style of direction and the tepid drama simply don't do it for me. The film just hobbles along, and while never truly horrible or irritating it completely fails to capture my attention.

Wacky, absurd and zany comedy that is so thoroughly Japanese that it may be a hard sell on those not used to their particular kind of comedy. If, on the other hand, you appreciate their peculiar style of drawing laughs, then there is a lot to like here. Somewhat of a lost gem, this one, so make sure you don't let it slip by.

Somewhat tepid and dire school club drama from Japan. The music as well as the direction is terribly mediocre, the acting is okay but not quite noteworthy. There are a few half-decent moments, but not enough to fill almost two hours of film. I'm usually a big fan of Japanese dramas, but this was pretty disappointing.

A decent but extremely expected and predictable Asian horror film. There are some decent scares and the film looks appropriately bleak and moody, but there simply isn't enough here to set it apart from a pile of similar films. It's solid horror filler, but don't expect it to make a big or lasting impression, or you'll come out disappointed.

No doubt one of the strangest and most unlikely love stories ever told. The animation is minimal and the art style betrays the film's limited budget, but the details are so loving and delicate that it hardly matters. A very charming and heart-warming short that is an easy recommend for fans of stop-motion animation.

The stop-motion animation is extremely limited and the designs are simplistic, but it would be unfair to deny the charm and glee of this sweet little film. The story is familiar and the film is very much aimed at younger children, but people with a soft spot for stop-motion animation would do well to give this Christmas classic a fair chance.

Fun anthology that holds 4 shorts inspired by a trip through South-America. The interesting part is that you see the Disney crew enjoying their little vacation and making some sketches based on their impressions, accompanied by the shorts that evolved from them. It's short, charming and amusing, definitely one of Disney's better efforts.

Cookie cutter Allen film. Another love letter to New York, another romance between some neurotic young ones, another bombardment of cultural reference. Only the cast is slightly different. Chalamet is decent but not remarkable, Fanning is a complete fluke, Gomez is surprisingly decent. One of Allen's less relevant films.

A pretty decent Christmas film, that suffers from a cast of insufferable characters, but somehow finds a way to sneak in a hefty portion of digestible Christmas spirit. Maybe because it isn't as sugary or fake-wholesome as so many other films in the genre, the rather poor TV-level presentation doesn't do it much good though.

Pretty solid HK action/thriller, with good performances by Cheung and Fong, some fine action scenes and a couple of cool stand-offs. It's definitely not the most original film ever, it's also not the most memorable one either, but it's more than decent filler that doesn't overstay its welcome. A good start of Law's directing career.

A solid update of the original, with some decent CG work and a cosy, moody setting. Some changes have been made compared to the original, but none that matter all that much. It's just a slightly longer retelling for a younger/modern audience. If you really loved the old film it's probably safer to just skip this one though.

Dr. Seuss' worlds make for nice animation material, but skill-wise the Illumination studio wasn't quite ready to tackle it. There are glimpses of creativity and a few interesting moments, but overall it felt too much like some generic US animation feature, with some subpar musical bits and rather poor voice acting.