Log: week 51 / 2021

Esther is a girl with a golden voice, but looks that don't really stand out. Norman Maine, an actor on his way back and struggling with an alcohol addiction, discovers Esther and does everything in his power to get her a job at the film studio. While her star is rising, Norman is going through some rough times.

The musical numbers aren't too great, the performances are a bit overdone (especially with the amount of drama present) and there are way too many "film in film" scenes to drive up the runtime. I think I might've enjoyed a 90-minute cut a lot better, this was just excruciating.

A young workaholic reporter is sent to a small town to write an exposé about their annual Christmas competition. When she arrives there she gets a room in a dirty inn. She doesn't really feel at home, but once she starts bonding with the people there, she starts to question some of the choices she made in life.

The comedy is very niche (lots of puns, parodies and visual comedy), the performances are greatly overstated, and the plot is really just an excuse for some drag kitsch. Then again, that's exactly why people are going to watch a film like this. Not as bad as I'd feared, but hardly a future classic.

We follow a day in the life of Soad, a young woman who lives on the edge of Cairo and has taken it upon herself to care for her mom and bedridden father. Her actions are noble, but the price she has to pay is considerable, as Soad has put her own life on hold to take care of her family.

The sepia glow is nice, and the camera work is decent enough, but visually it didn't feel quite as refined as it needed to be. The soundtrack is mostly absent as the ambient sounds of the city take preference, the performances are decent, though the characters never came to life. The mood just wasn't really there for me, neither did I care too much about the themes of the film.

On a faraway planet, people live under an oppressive totalitarian regime. Rather than kill its prisoners right away, they get exiled into the barren swamps surrounding the prison. The swamps are teeming with alien monsters and survival rates are slim, but the promise of a distant refuge for these prisoners keeps them going.

The performances aren't great (neither is a Russian-dubbed Vinnie Jones) and the plot is little more than an excuse for the characters to explore the swamp, but the aliens and their planet looks pretty nice and there's enough genre fun to fly through the film's short runtime. Sci-fi on a budget is never easy, but The Calculator gave it a commendable shot.

When the Makai Knights armors are stolen, Ryuga Dogai returns to help solve the mystery. Together with some old friends he begins his investigation, which leads him to an enemy who was though to be defeated before. Dogai and his team will have to give it their 100% to retrieve the armors.

The demons, creatures and characters are brazen anime-like creations, the plot is pretty out there and the action is nothing less than stellar. The CG just isn't there though, giving the film is a fake and glossy look. Either you forgive Amemiya this poor presentation, and you enjoy the film for its wild fantasy elements, or you'll hate this one with a vengeance. I quite liked it.

Kate is trying to make it as a singer, but her career is in a slump and her personal life isn't faring any better. Her luck changes when she meets Tom, a positive young man who sees the good in everything. He helps Kate to get her life back on track again, but when she starts to fall in love, Tom suddenly disappears.

The film has a fun cast, with Golding and Clarke having plenty of onscreen chemistry. It's a bit weird to see Yeoh as a Christmas-loving aunt instead of an ass-kicking heroine, but quirky casting choices like that add to the fun. The film can get pretty cheesy (though what did you expect, look at the genre/title), but the cast is solid, the comedy is nice enough and the pacing is pleasant. Fine filler.

Shuji is a young kid who lives in the shadow of his more successful brother. He doesn't really mind, until he starts hanging out with a girl and a priest from a less favorable part of town. While Shuji finds comfort in their presence, his brother looks down on them and tries to break up their relationship.

The performances are solid, and the drama is gripping, though it does take a while for the film to find its footing. Visually the film hangs between more traditional dramas and their darker counterparts, but doesn't really dare to pick sides. The somewhat grim and washed out look just doesn't do Dead Run that many favors. The result is a fine Tanaka, but not one of his better films.

William Canfield owns an old boat, his biggest competitor just bought a state of the art one. William is waiting to see his son after graduating, hoping he might help him out on the boat. He is sorely disappointed when his son turns out to be a scrawny little fella. Even so, he takes him on board as part of his crew.

I like Keaton for his spectacular action sequences, and the finale delivers in that regard. Not quite up there with his most impressive work, but there are some inspired moments that come off pretty nifty. The comedy is very stale though and the pacing is pretty uneven too. I expected more from this one.

Yi misses her father and fails to connect with her mom and grandma. When she finds an escaped Yeti on her roof, it doesn't take her long to decide she will join him in finding his home. Together with her two nephews she begins a perilous journey, as a rare animal collector is hoping to capture the Yeti and add him to his collection.

The characters are pretty irritating, the dub is poor and the classic CG art style is not all that attractive. The plot is also completely nonsensical, the fantastical elements in particular are only there to quickly get out of dire situations it seems. There are some interesting moments and the Yeti is pretty cute, but he can't save the film all by himself. Forgettable.

Eric Kot plays himself, a young director looking for a breakthrough. He made two films about love and introduces them to the audience as if this was a documentary. The first film is about a garbageman who falls in love with a sleepwalking girl, the second film is about a store owner who bumps into an old girlfriend.

There's quite a bit of name-dropping and if you love Doyle's mid-90s vibe the raw cinematography is notable, though Kot makes sure to keep things light and breezy at all times. The short films themselves are nice (which is no surprise considering the talent involved), but they fail to really stand out. A fun film, but it's clear why Kot never made it to the big leagues.

China is tearing at the seams and Western nations are readying themselves to increase their power in Chinese territories. Five martial artists join forces, thinking themselves untouchable by Western weapons. They inspire a group of young fighters to help them, but their first encounter with real guns is not what they'd hoped.

There are some truly impressive action scenes, it's just that there's way too much padding in between. The film is overflowing with familiar Shaw Bros faces and the quality of the production is pretty solid, but it's not good enough that it should be stretched beyond the 2-hour mark. Still, for fans of Chang's oeuvre this is a must-see.

Larry Gaye is a skilled and respected flight attendant, but his life-long dream was to become a pilot. As he suffers from narcolepsy that dream never realized and Larry retreated into the glitzy but unfulfilling life of shallow relationships and fleeting passion. Until he accidentally bumps into the only girl he ever loved.

Exaggerated situational comedy, the most awful puns, a happy-go-lucky lead and a penchant to kill every dramatic moment, so that comedy reigns supreme. The formula is there, the execution is solid enough, but the jokes are pretty hit-and-miss. Still, with the lack of 100% comedies nowadays, this was pretty welcome comedy filler.

Hong Xiguan is the new Wong Fei-Hung it seems. This historical figure is portrayed as a righteous monk with insane martial arts skills, impeccable morals, but less than stellar social skills (especially when it involves ladies). Hong is carrying a treasure map, which makes him an ideal target for wealth-craving bad guys.

The sets and costumes look lush, the cinematography is colorful, and the action scenes are captured with flair. The performances aren't quite there though, the comedy in particular doesn't really translate very well. These films are great filler for fans of the genre. Short, well-paced and beautiful to look at. If only they could make that final step, we'd have a new era of martial arts classics on our hands.

Marianne and Juliane are two sisters with very different personalities. Both fight for improved women's rights, but Juliane does so as a reporter, while Marianne joins a terrorist organization. She ends up in jail, where she is heavily mistreated by the police. Juliane doesn't agree with Marianne's methods, but she won't let her sister down.

The performances are terrible, the cinematography atrocious and the soundtrack feels tacked on. The social critique may hit home harder for those with a better understanding of the material, but the film makes little effort to get its audience interested. As far removed from my preferred type of film as can be.

The life of a young family gets messed up when they are involved in a car crash. The man wakes up with his memory gone, his wife takes care of him. During his recovery he begins to remember a young girl, but there's no daughter to be seen. He starts to suspect his wife isn't telling him everything.

Amnesiac is a true slow burn, relying on stylish cinematography and a stone-cold performance of Bosworth to keep people engaged. It makes for a moody, tense and ultimately amusing film. The plot is basic and the twist a little underwhelming, but those aren't things that are high on my list of priorities anyway. Stylish fun.

A young Takeshi starts working in a strip joint, where he operates the elevator. When he finally gets a break from Fukami (his boss), he confesses that he hasn't any real performance skills. And so Fukami learns Takeshi the basics of comedy and tap dance, two skills he can use to fill in the spots in between the strip acts.

Kitano is a unique artist, but Asakusa Kid is primarily focused on telling a story, which just isn't all that interesting. It's a pretty basic rise to fame vehicle that tells you very little about the man behind the artist. The presentation is decent, so are the performances, but it's not exactly riveting cinema, let alone a film that comes close to Kitano's own oeuvre.

Ji Mo sees monsters, but nobody believes her. She considers it a curse and tries to fit in with the rest, but she keeps getting into trouble because of the monsters who trail her. When she bumps into Meng, a monster hunter, she hopes he can make her life better, but what he has to tell her isn't very reassuring.

The CG is on point, the cinematography is flashy, the performances are solid, and the fantasy elements feel fresh and different. The monster designs are a bit too childish and the balance between action and drama isn't quite perfect, but there's lots to like here, especially for people who don't want to watch the same recycled nonsense over and over again.