Movie reviews

NOWE KINO CHINSKIE (NEW CHINESE CINEMA)

XIE YAOHUAN

Watchable. The plot's rubbish - some key elements are never concluded. But characteristic singing, opera acting and, most of all, fabulous costumes are an attraction enough.

‎我的战争 (MY WAR)

Watchable. Love for Chinese Democratic Republic must surpass the love for a man with sexy eyes. As a romantic story it's disappointing since in ends sad but the Chinese communist girl with pigtails finds consolation in return to the homeland. 刘烨 (Liu Ye) as the male lead is quite attractive. The story's moralistic.


VYKRADENA PRYNTSESA: RUSLAN I LUDMILA (THE STOLEN PRINCESS)

Watchable. A postmodern fairy-tale where a girl on a magazine cover has "make-up like from Renaissance" and a scythe is a "tuned-up version". Chaotic. With a story within a story and plenty of different elements thrown in: talking animals: cats and a hamster, a stone monster breathing fire, kung fu. The characters have big eyes, Ukrainian aesthetics is present in their costumes and the look of the town. Lots of adventures, plenty of magic and fantastical creatures. Standard music, doesn't disturb but nothing to remember either. The songs are in English even with the whole film dubbed in Polish.


NOWE KINO CHINSKIE (NEW CHINESE CINEMA)

蕭紅 (FALLING FLOWERS)

Watchable. The biography of famous Chinese writer Xiao Hong is a touching story of a woman loved by every man she met but let down by each of them. It let me understand certain relationship choices, e.g. the man who was the most responsible in terms of work and finance betrayed her with several women. Others were either romantic but unreliable and one was a calculative egoist. With 11 years of history of China (1931-1942) in the background. Fascinating but feels lengthy and doesn't explain why she evoked such infatuations in the men. It's also difficult to make out who is who in the story.

FULL CIRCLE

Watchable. A warm tale about very old people regaining independence. Likeable characters. A touching moment when a woman counts hours spent with her parents which over 20 years amount to 10 days. At the same time very old people aren't exactly pleasing to look at and there's a lot about diseases and a bit about dying.


OVERBOARD

Watchable. Few moments made me laugh out loud, mainly people falling over and one of parental overprotection: 'We've just given your sister space." and seeing her talking to a boy: "We've given her too much space." Becomes moving towards the end but the whole thing is just very cheerful, nothing sad. 


NOWE KINO CHINSKIE (NEW CHINESE CINEMA)

玄奘 (XUAN ZANG)

Recommended. Breathtaking visuals owing to top-notch cinematography, stunning locations, splendid costumes and dancing as the road movie takes you from China to India. A beautiful song over the final credits. No wonder the Chinese nominated it for an Oscar in 2017. Makes impression even if your knowledge of Chinese history, culture and Buddhism is next to none. 

狼图腾 / LE DERNIER LOUP (WOLF TOTEM)

Recommended. Amazing cinematography. Deeply moving. Impossible to stay indifferent. Plenty of cruelty to wolves: murdering puppies, burning adult ones, bomb traps. I certainly wouldn't want to see it again but I'm happy I saw it once. Based on a true story. 


UNSANE

Recommended. A thriller chilling more than all those supernatural horrors. Imagine yourself involuntarily getting committed to a mental institution. Everything's legal and set up with a meticulous plan (of financial gain). You, being perfectly sane, find yourself locked up with aggressive harassers and perverts who are truly mentally disturbed. There are further, more standard twists to the plot but keeping you on the edge of your seat as well. On a deeper level, you see how perceptions of the perpetrator differ between the victim and the guy's superiors at work, a cautionary tale. I felt relieved reading the usual "all similarities are coincidental" note at the end.


NOWE KINO CHINSKIE (NEW CHINESE CINEMA)

美人鱼 (THE MERMAID)

Watchable. I was astonished by the brutality in the romantic comedy about love of a mermaid and a wealthy entrepreneur. Of all mermaid films I've seen in my life this one is by far the most bloody and violent. 

青春派 (YOUNG STYLE)

Watchable. Characteristic protagonists, though such exaggerated acting by children looks weird. Yet, it's easy to distinguish between them. About unrequited love in high school. There are mid-credits of a class and of students showing their Gao Kao results.


LA PROMESSE DE L'AUBE

Watchable. Max Richter's slow music makes it feel even longer than it is. It's Romain Gary's biography with too much time, nearly half, devoted to his childhood and next to none to his adult post-war years. Impressive how his initially poor mother provided for him and how well she prepared him to become a gentleman to fulfill her dream of her son becoming a consul and wearing suits tailored in London and how she and he achieved that against all odds. The bond between the two built him and destroyed him leading him to a suicide in the 1960s. The cinematography puts stress on poverty using gloomy dark colours excessively.

Watching it at Warsaw's Amondo Cinema I couldn't help the feeling spending the 2 hours 11 minutes on a Ryanair flight would give me more leg room.


NEW CHINESE CINEMA

尋找成龍 (LOOKING FOR JACKIE)

Watchable. Usual fun with Jackie Chan. The main young actor, 张一山 (Yishan Zhang), is so good he could replace Jackie Chan one day. Of course it's just a moral tale for teenagers but pleasant and light with good, light music.

The movie put me into a fighting mode for an altogether different reason. 3 (!) small children were brought in by their parents to the movie. 2 were taken out after causing disturbance - I wonder why those people came in at all. 1 woman, however, persistently refused to get her kid out for a bigger part of the screening and the cinema staff were nowhere to be found when needed the most. 

YI A SUO MI MA (THE SECRET OF IMMORTAL CODE)

Watchable. Very western in style standard SF plot with a monster but black and white which gives the ship a more isolated feel.


JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM 3D

Watchable. Little point in 3D, it's almost flat. The plot and even some shots resemble "Jurassic Park" more than "Jurassic World". But the dinosaurs are still looking good and the action kept me on the edge of my seat. And the ending - partly before and partly after the credits - is fantastic. The co-existence of us and other contemporary species with dinosaurs looks adorable. I'm looking forward to part 3. 

BAO 

Recommended. A short film preceding "Incredibles 2". It's spot on with teenager behaviours. Stresses love of family and love of food. Now I have an appetite for steamed dumplings.

INCREDIBLES 2

Watchable. Memory erasure like in "Men in Black", lines from "The Outer Limits" opening sequence hypnotise citizens, the motel the family stays in is in pastel colours like in "The Florida Project". Not very funny but when the father discovers the baby's superpowers it is amusing. The storyline is predictable. Continuity has been preserved mostly due to jokes based on references to Mr. Incredible's previous insurance job. No mid- or post-credits.

Update: I've compared it with the 3D version. The 3D has depth but ends at the screen surface, doesn't come out to the viewers.

ADRIFT

Recommended. A perfect date movie. A story of love on a holiday/life/voyage in Tahiti runs parallel to a sea disaster aftermath. Sam Claflin in the role of Richard makes it all even more romantic.Two consecutive stories merge into one. You learn step by step what, how and why. And, once the tales have merged, there comes a shock. Based on facts. One day after the movie I still felt like crying whenever I remembered the film. Powerful stuff.

Some info from a meeting with director Baltasar Kormákur: He was a competitive sailor himself but he felt frustrated with the fact that in movies survival used to be about men, e.g. fishermen. The "Adrift" real life protagonist had just lost her daughter to a gas leak when they started the work. So he decided to make a film about that strong woman and shot it all in the actual ocean. He's aware people treat movies as truth. The actors on the first, sunny day were like: "I can't believe people are paying us to do this" and would snap selfies. On the next day they started vomiting and that was when he started shooting. He's used to shooting in bad weather. When he was making "Everest" in the Dolomites it was -30 degrees Celsius and wet every day. He's Icelandic so he feels the connection with nature and doesn't get upset by it. He lives in Reykjavik and has a farm up north. Currently he's working on "Independent people" based on the book of the same title - the only Icelandic Nobel so he feels lots of pressure. He loves acting too but directing is his job so acting would be like a vacation. He also mentioned how it was to work with Denzel Washington. The actor gets 20 million for a movie so "he's like Coca Cola, he's a brand" which also means he's incredibly well prepared.