Log: week 1 / 2021

The setting is majestic, but Lu doesn't always make the best use of it. While there are some pretty shots to be admired, they're actually quite sparse and the film looks a little too gray and unattractive. The plot is pretty basic too and the performances are nothing special. Not bad, but overall I was a little disappointed.

Sener Sen is a nice lead and the finale stands out, but the rest of the film is quite poor. The cast is disappointing, the cinematography is dim, the soundtrack atrocious. The story is also quite predictable and the pacing is too slow, dragging everything out unnecessarily. Not worthy of its reputation.

The CG is competent, the plot simple but sufficient, the robots looks quite nifty and the action is solid. Performances are a bit middling and there's really nothing you haven't seen before. Just a bunch of AI robots battling it out with some unsuspecting humans (one of which just happens to be a former SEAL agent). 90 minutes, that's all this needed to be, sadly there's a bout 40 minutes of cruft, making this much tougher to sit through than needed.

Cheap Hollywood morality, stern but laughable performances, cheesy music and a cheery ending you could predict 5 minutes in. It's the worst kind of Hollywood movie, lacking any kind of quality, any discernible input from the director and any form of genuine drama. Back to obscurity with this one.

Matsumoto doesn't seem bound by genres, styles or conventions. He includes interviews with the cast, switches to segments with hyper editing, there's some slapstick, a little hippie partying and a rather horrific ending. The overwhelmingly white cinematography feels fresh too and there's plenty of imagery that lingers longs after the end credits have faded. Good stuff, just a tad long and a bit too uneven.

The parallel universes sound like they could provide a nice twist on the good old time travel stories, but in reality it doesn't change a lot. I also wasn't that impressed with the heist-like structure of the story, which adds to the predictability of the film. Performances are decent and there's still some fun to be had here, but I was hoping Ezban would be taking some steps forward, not backward.

The cinematography is crisp and surprisingly beautiful. It certainly adds to the atmosphere, but can't prevent the first hour from being a bit too slow. It takes just a little too long before the Majin peeps around the corner, luckily the finale makes up for that lost time. Mixed sentiments, but overall it's a pretty fun flick, I'm already looking forward to the sequels.

The intro is a bit long and the CG can get a little flaky, but the basic idea is quite cool, I'm rather partial to the found footage niche and the ending is pretty damn awesome. Once the chaos starts (about halfway through), the strict pacing and solid build-up of tension really make this into a fun ride. A neat little surprise.

Performances are somewhat decent, but the lack of subtlety really didn't work for me. The digs at religion were also pretty uncomfortable (even though I'm not religious myself), the film lacks focus and the solid pacing found in the first hour is set aside for a barrage of random drama. Not that great.

Performances are rather weak, even though the film is short the pacing feels sluggish and the plot isn't much to look at. The film just lacks that juicy, self-aware fun of the better noirs, but at least the cinematography was pretty decent. It's not the worst film ever made, I just didn't find much to enjoy here.

There's a bit of everything here. Comedy and horror are the main genres, but a film like this wouldn't be complete without some martial arts and fantasy elements. Performances are well over-the-top and the comedy's a little lame, but the lore and designs are cool enough and there's a spectacular finale that is more than satisfactory. Good stuff.

Hunnam and O'Dowd are great (though it's a shame the latter had to drop his accent), Perlman and Caplan are also pretty memorable. There are some solid jokes, the comedy is quite dry and the romance never feels cheesy. The film isn't that long either and the pacing is on point. Very agreeable filler.

And that's about it really. When we're not watching the boat quiz, we see other (seemingly random) fragments. No doubt there's a point to it all, but I honestly couldn't be bothered to find out what it is. A big waste of time, though there is some minor enjoyment to be found in the interaction between the two men.

Japanese mythology is quite rich and Fukasaku is happy to exploit it for this film. Quite a few famous figures are combined in this narrative, with the showdown between Musashi Miyamoto and Yubei Yagyu as the absolute highlight. Awesome sets, a creepy atmosphere and some very cool action scenes make this quite the spectacle. A very pleasant discovery.

The animation looks pretty dated and the plot is a complete mess. It really feels like a bunch of shorts strung together, whizzing by at a pace that hopefully detracts from the lack of direction. Luckily the comedy is pretty decent, with a fun Mr Peabody (thanks to the voice work of Burrell) and some daft puns. Not great, but somewhat entertaining.

The cinematography is beautiful and both Karena Lam and Anthony Wong put in tremendous performances. Carlos Chan can't really convince as the lead though and the direction feels a bit too rushed. Though the film is quite long, it could've done with a little less fluff and a tighter focus on the parts that mattered. An interesting film, but a bit too flawed to be a true masterpiece.

The performances are rather poor and the setting isn't really put to good use, but the pacing is decent and I do prefer this limited location noirs. There's not much time to get bored and once the little twist has been revealed, the film races towards its finale. It's all a bit plain, but there's some entertainment value here.

Stolen Identity isn't a bad film, Nakata's direction is competent and a couple of minor twists keep things interesting. On the other hand, it's not a very notable film. Performances are decent, so is the cinematography and score, there's just little here that makes a big impression. Entertaining filler though.

The music is a bit overbearing, the flow between the different segments feels a little janky and the black and white cinematography doesn't always appear to be the best choice. These are minor issues considering the visual strengths of the film, but for a film that aspires to be an audiovisual masterpiece it makes that Elementa never reaches its full potential. Would love to see more by Sidey though, as he clearly has a knack for these types of docs.

The cinematography (including the scenes shot on location) look better than Chang's later work (as is typical for the Shaw Bros productions), the fights on the other hand can still feel a little flaky. Still, Trail of the Broken Blade is an entertaining film and no doubt part of the blueprint that would lead the Shaw Bros to big success in the following decade, so well worth a watch.

The first scene shows Ping on the bus to Kuala Lumpur. She needs to switch seats with an old man who has an headache, which takes her about 5 minutes. Tan observes. That's pretty much what you're getting, 90 minutes long. The DV cinematography is voyeuristic, putting the audience very close to its protagonists, but the film itself is quite low on actual drama. Love Conquers all offers solid slice of life entertainment, but be prepared for a sluggish film.

No doubt it's meant as a reflection on the nature of cinema, an illustration of the power of the human brain and a quest to find the limitations of the medium, but I have little respect for a single, simple idea drawn out to a 30 minute short film. Might be fun for people who buy into it, others will wonder why they didn't just read a book. That'd be much faster too.

Dalton is a rather grim Bond, d'Abo is a dire Bond girl, the action is plain (apart from one scene on the ice) and the bad guys are incredibly dull. There's just not much joy here, which for me is the main draw of the better entries in the franchise. Let's hope the next one is better.

Miyuki Matsuda and Susumu Terajima are both great, dealing with the somewhat ludicrous plot in a very gentle and down-to-earth manner. The soundtrack is quite soothing, the pacing is pleasantly laid back and the conversations between the characters are nice to follow. A great little discovery.

The film is not without charm, but the mediocre performance, the crummy effects and the familiarity of the story kept me from thoroughly enjoying the film. It's not that Peter Pan isn't an interesting story, but you'd think that the umpteenth adaptation would at least try and do things a little differently.

On paper this is a fun mix of fantasy, martial arts and comedy, but the execution is quite poor and the performances aren't any better. It's a throwback to 90s Hong Kong cinema, but with some shoddy CG and none of the flashy direction that made these films so much fun. At least the pacing is decent and it's light entertainment from start to finish, but it's a shame they can't do better with this material.