Log: week 17 / 2024

While Jin is out at sea, he gets a call from his ex-wife. Their daughter has gone missing in Japan. Jin leaves immediately, but once in Japan, he learns that he's already too late. His daughter Nana was found dead, the prime suspect is her boyfriend. Jin takes it upon himself to seek justice for his daughter.

Huang Bo plays the raging father of the victim, Xun Zhou the icy mother of the suspect. It's an interesting contrast, but the story takes a few too many twists and turns and on top of that, there are typhoons, cosplay cons, and fish showers to make things even more manic. Maybe they should've split it into two, or they could've simplified the story a little. A slightly slower film would've been better, but there's still plenty to love here. Quite the experience.

When Willie Parker rats out his criminal colleagues, he moves to Spain and starts to plan for the inevitable. Ten years later he is visited by two hitmen, who are tasked to bring him back home. They're surprised to find Parker prepared and willing to join them. But that's only the beginning of their baffling trip back home.

Stamp is truly great here, the setup is funny and Frears uses it to pepper The Hit with some dark comedy. The film's a bit fragmented, but that's normal for a road movie, and the runtime could've been a tad shorter maybe, but other than that I had a good time watching this. A cute little surprise.

After Iguchi is released from a juvenile detention center, he is forced to work in a restaurant, far away from his own gang. It doesn't take long before he meets some of the local gang members. He befriends them but he also doesn't want to betray the trust of his guardians. A tough task when a rival gang starts making trouble.

The styling is proper, the performances are fun and energetic and the comedy is on point. The film is a bit too long maybe and the action scenes aren't all that impressive, which is where the film loses out compared to its competitors. Still, if you like a fun brawler, Out won't disappoint. Good fun.

A duo of cops is trying to catch a car thief gang. One of the two cops dies during the chase and the gang escapes. The other cop is assigned a rookie to replace his partner. He is hellbent on getting his revenge, but the young cop isn't on board with his methods and the two don't get along at all.

Two hours is long for a simple setup and the film does drag a little in places. The performances are passable though and the pacing is OK. The action scenes aren't the worst, but there's very little here that stands out and unless you're a hardcore fan of 80s cop films, this is a tough recommend.

Kokka is a young girl who is slowly starting to discover the world for herself. She's part of a big family and has some good school friends, but the world is a strange place and Kokka tries the make sense of it. And while she has a good life, she also learns that there's more to life than simple joy and laughter. It's all part of growing up.

The cinematography is warm and colorful, making the best of a summery Japanese countryside. The plot is a bit disjointed but fun, the performances aren't exactly subtle, but the lead character is a real treasure. It's a relatively basic film, even though the second half does contain some more poignant scenes. Not quite strong enough to be a personal favorite, but it came very close. A lovely little gem this one.

Ella grew up with an overbearing mother, who treated her more like an employee than a daughter. Ella was forced to work on her mother's stop-motion project, but she wasn't allowed any creative input. When her mother suddenly falls ill, Ella is left to herself, which sets her inner demons free.

The stop-motion scenes are nice, but not as creepy or moody as I'd hoped. The plot is also a bit meager and stylistically there was room for improvement. But that's just me being critical because I was low-key expecting a new personal favorite. It's a perfectly fine horror film, better than most in the genre, so if you're a horror fan you should definitely give it a go.

Andre Bertier is a Parisian doctor who is married to Colette. They are a very happy couple, but Bertier is a charming man. Many women hope to be treated by the good doctor, but he is faithful and respectful to his wife. Things get a bit trickier when Colette sends her friend Mitzi to visit her husband.

There's a lot of talking, some doubty performances, and a few musical moments. The romance is anything but romantic, the comedy is little more than a lighthearted mood and the rhymes are pretty basic. It's a short film though, so it doesn't go on endlessly, but that's not much of a positive when nothing else stands out.

The problem with Swift is that the songs are shallow, but her performances try to be deep and emotional, and she's just not a good enough actor. The production is flawless, but none of it ever looks effortless. On top of that, Swift's meager attempts to engage with the audience feel fake and forced, only underlining that this is nothing more than a huge commercial undertaking.

On the technical side, it's a rather dull registration of the concert. You can do so much with editing and camera work, but my guess is that Swift and her army of fans aren't interested in that type of cinema. Based on this film, her enormous success remains a pretty big enigma for me.

Hanabi is a respected musician who is enjoying some time away from his fame. One day a mysterious young girl stands in front of his door, introducing herself as Hibana. Hanabi isn't too taken with her presence at first, but she's an insistent girl, and the two form a strong bond over the course of the summer.

The setting is lovely, the music is nice, the characters are intriguing and the pacing is the right kind of slow. Add a little dance/ballet scene at the end and it's obvious why this references Iwai. This is one of Shinohara's better films and an easy recommend for fans of Japanese romance.

Edna Spalding sees her life falling to pieces when her husband is shot dead by accident and she has to pay off the loan for their farm all by herself. She has two kids to take care of, luckily a wandering man decides to help her farm some cotton, in return for a roof over his head. Not all is lost for this family.

The cinematography is dreary, the performances are stern and lacking emotion, whereas the plot is just gushing with sentiment. None of the emotions feel earned, the film is way too long and the ending is horrid. No doubt there's an audience for these types of films, I would rather stay away as far as possible.

BroZone is no more, after a pretty terrible performance. The brothers each go their own way. The youngest gets kidnapped by two aspiring artists, the only way he could ever hope to escape is when all the brothers come back together to sing in perfect harmony, breaking the diamond case that's keeping him locked up.

Sure enough, it's not just endless references to bad boybands, there's also some cheap Hollywood morality to make things even worse. The film looks pretty cheap for a Dreamworks production, I hated all of the songs and the dub is horrendous. Do I have anything positive to say about this film? Nope.

When boarding a train, an older man is called upon by a younger woman. To everyone's surprise, he throws a bucket of water over her head. Once settled on the train, his fellow passengers are eager to hear what the story is behind this little scene, and so the man explains what happened before.

The age difference between the main characters is quite big, and the "romance" isn't very romantic. Once you get by the borderline creepy relationship, what remains is some back-and-forth between two genuinely irritating characters. At least the story remains somewhat unpredictable and the pacing isn't too bad, so it's not all bad.

A small rural community is going about its business when it hears that a glamping site is opening very close by. They go to a meeting where two representatives unveil the plans to them. The meeting doesn't go quite as planned and the representatives return soon after to present a new proposition.

The pacing is very slow but deliberate. Hamaguchi takes his time, with many scenes playing out in real-time, aptly setting the mood. I'm a bit surprised about the setup (quite a few contemporary Japanese dramas deal with withering local communities, Hamaguchi's take appears to be the opposite), it's also a bit too generic for my taste. The ending does add some intrigue, but not enough to make this a great film. A perfectly serviceable movie though, just a bit overhyped because of the name attached to it.

Two young lesbians go on a trip to Florida. They rent a car, inadvertently making them accomplices to a criminal scheme. The car holds an important briefcase, the girls are wholly unaware but they have two henchmen on their backs, who are trying to track them down as quickly as possible.

Make no mistake, the comedy is pretty crude and blunt. If you want subtlety, you're not going to find it here. Not like most comedies that are made these days. The performances are good too (very self-aware), the plot is fun, the runtime is nice and short and the pacing is slick. It's nothing too special, just some prime entertainment. A welcome surprise.

Po is supposed to become the new spiritual leader, but that means he has to say goodbye to his life of adventuring and kicking ass. He's not too keen on doing that, so when the opportunity presents itself, he decides to save his valley for one last time. For that, he has to counter the plans of The Chameleon.

It's the same kind of humor, in the same type of setting, mixing purely US sensibilities with Chinese culture. The comedy is horrid, the voice acting is bad, and the plot is utterly boring. If I want Chinese fantasy cinema, iQiyi and similar are releasing these films on a daily basis, and still, they're better than this junk.