Log: week 7 / 2024

Out of the blue, strange creatures are appearing in people's homes. They look like the tentacle porn monsters from hentai films, but they come in peace and want to befriend humans. After the initial shock, they quickly become part of everyday life, which presents new problems for them.

So yeah, you get a shlocky setup, presented as a certified arthouse project (including a squarish aspect ratio, quirky score, and stylish, black-and-white cinematography), illustrating a valid life lesson that is revealed at the end of the film. It kind of makes sense, but only if you care to embrace how nonsensical it truly is. Cool film!

Alfons is part of the Guard of the Spanish king. When he finds a book relating to his grandfather, Alfons finds himself in the middle of all kinds of fantastical stories. He meets up with a broad variety of characters, who all have their own story to tell, intertwining with Alfons' own legacy.

The premise is promising, but the film itself is a bit drying than I'd hoped. The performances and the story are quirky, the visuals and the score on the other hand are more mundane. It would've been nicer to get a more condensed version, but the film needs to cover a lot of ground and 180 minutes was just too long to hold my attention.

After his wife passed away, Yukio turns paranoid. He believes he is being watched, and the feeling gets stronger and more intense with every passing day. Before her death, Yukio found out that his wife was having an affair, and he used to watch her being unfaithful. His shrink believes this is related to Yukio's paranoia.

So the unfaithful wife part covers the pinku part of the story, but the meat of the film is Yukio's paranoia and the mystery surrounding his wife's death. That part is pretty competently made and it would've been nice if they could've expanded it into a separate feature, but alas. At only an hour long, this wasn't too bad though.

Kinley and his team are ambushed by the Taliban. He manages to escape with his local interpreter Ahmed, but they are alone in hostile territory and the way back to the base is treacherous. Things get worse when the Taliban manage to wound Kinley, but Ahmed is determined to bring home his commander.

The film is split into two clear narrative halves, and while the first part is better, there's a stylistic coherence that made it easy to transition between the two. Decent performances, a worthy score, and a tense plot made this prime entertainment. As long as you manage to look past the cheesy US military propaganda that is.

Five kids are on the verge of adulthood. Some are already married, the others are still goofing around and enjoying the last moments of their youth. They still hang out together from time to time, but priorities start to shift and life starts to change for all of them. Even so, their bond is for life.

A pretty familiar setup, the film itself doesn't have anything truly interesting to say either. It's about revisiting that 50s vibe, getting together in oldskool American diners and talking about galls and records, while starting to take on adult responsibilities. There are some familiar faces here, but it was too long and too pedestrian for me to truly care about any of it.

A small marketing team travels to a remote location to shoot a new film. Andrejs, the brother of an actress involved, and rafting instructor on the side, decides to join the crew so he can keep an eye on them. The place they're going to is full of danger, but even Andrejs can't imagine what's in store for them.

Unrelenting nature, a bit of pagan folklore, and quirky local folk combine to create a mysterious film. The music and editing are above par, the rest is more basic and expected. Still, it's a short film with plenty of genre appeal, so this was fun filler for anyone hoping to pass the time with a good horror flick.

Nickie is a real charmer, who does well with the ladies. On a cruise from Europe to the US, he bumps into Terry, a former singer. There's a real spark between the two, but Terry is on her way to New York to meet up with her boyfriend. Even so, they can't seem to forget about each other.

Grant and Kerr are incredibly stiff, the cinematography is boring as hell, the colors are dull and muted and the soundtrack is an absolute eye-sore (even without the choir). It's a very dialogue-heavy film, which sucks when you don't care about any of the characters or their troubled romance. Very bad.

The setting is Onomichi, a little rural town close to the sea. Some young boys grow up there and decide to make the most of it. Through several stories, we see how they face life with determination and get themselves ready to begin their adult life. But not all their games are innocent.

Like Emotion, Confession is a pretty experimental film, with Obayashi trying out different styles and concepts within the same film. He would revisit some of these themes in his later work, but never with quite the same vitality and energy. I like these old Obayashi films, a clear sign of what was to come.

Hajime is always a bit faster than life dictates. It gets him into all kinds of trouble, but one day he wakes up and can't remember what happened to him the day before. He goes on a haphazard quest to regain his memory. This puts him on the tail of Reika, a girl who's always a beat too slow.

The performances are decent, the mood is light and the setup is pretty funny, even though the rest of the film is rather predictable. Two hours is a bit much, then again, that seems to be some kind of standard for Japanese cinema. Nice filler, with some pleasant moments, but not Yamashita's best.

When a Uruguayan rugby team goes on a vacation, their flight crashes over the Andes mountains. A good many of them survive the crash, but they are lost and starving in a vast, unhospitable area. When no help is coming, they have to figure out how they are going to survive this ordeal.

The performances are decent and the setting is majestic, but that's about all this film has to offer. The story was familiar territory, the drama is a little too cinematic at times and 140 minutes is a bit much for what is mostly a single-location film. It's not a terrible upgrade, but it is a pointless one.

Augusto's family are all epileptics, Augusto is the only healthy one of the bunch. He is dating Giulia and wants to marry her, but he doesn't want to put the burden of his family upon her. Augusto's brother Alessandro understands the problem and decides to help his brother out by killing the other family members.

The camera work is pretty dynamic and the performances felt way more realistic than the film's age would suggest. The premise is also pretty interesting, but Fists in the Pocket is a tad too long and the film does have some pacing issues. Still, it's a memorable one, and a lot better than many of its contemporaries.

Nanjing, 1940. The city has been occupied by the Japanese army and is run by a Chinese faction that is collaborating with the Japanese. Not everybody is on board with the way things are going, and so the city becomes a hotbed of betrayal and rebellion. Danger lurks around every corner.

Many Chinese films have been harking back to the wars fought almost 90 years ago, to the point where the setting is getting a little tiresome. It's a shame, because the performances are strong, the cinematography is lush and there's quite a bit intrigue present in the plot. A good film, but it's lacks that little something to make it truly special.

Hu handles the Ming Dynasty entry, a martial arts tale about a rebel trying to outwit the secret police. Hsing follows up with a story about an art troupe struggling to make ends meet, while Pai tells the tale of a shaman trying to secure the wealth and fortune of a fisherman's village.

Hu's entry is by far the most accomplished of the three. The other two are decent too, but they're clearly handled by less talented- directors. I'm not quite sure if the setup made a lot of sense or added something of value, but it's fun to see the three leads returning in very different stories. A solid film.