I left this film feeling a strong sense of dread. The filmmakers succeeded. This movie is essentially about a major war as seen through the eyes of twin 13 year old boys in all its terrible, psychologically impactive ways. The main characters are literally turned into sociopaths, but that transformation makes sense when considering the time and place in which the story occurs. It's not a contrived story.
Now to the part that made me rate it a 7 instead of a 9. There are several areas in which I felt this movie could have excelled yet didn't. The concept was great, for example, and the tone was clear and consistent throughout (hence my feeling of dread at the end), but the actual plot had several holes that seemed unnecessary. It could have been tighter in concept. Along with that, the characters always seemed to be slightly distant, as if I were viewing them from the outside looking in. Again, not a major criticism (I gave the film a 7 after all), but certainly a reason why it's not rated higher. The color palette was also a concern as flat images took center stage in this production. I'm not saying that every film needs to have a 3D-like high contrast, ultra- saturated image, but it seemed like this film was sacrificing picture quality convenience in many scenes. I thought that many of the scenes could have been filmed in a more strong visual way that would have led to a better overall feeling and score on my part.
In any case, a 7 is a high score for me and this score reflects the fact that I left the theater feeling a specific way, which way was clearly manipulated by the movie director/writer. That's always a positive in my book. extra points to creativity in tone and subject matter (I don't think that I've ever seen, in my life, a toe molestation scene involving such a great looking molester. That whole thing was incredibly surprising. Now you know why I gave the spoiler check on top). Overall, this movie was great in comparison, and would rate in the top five of all movies that I have seen at the Shanghai International Film Festival 2014 (out of around 20). Highly recommended.
Now to the part that made me rate it a 7 instead of a 9. There are several areas in which I felt this movie could have excelled yet didn't. The concept was great, for example, and the tone was clear and consistent throughout (hence my feeling of dread at the end), but the actual plot had several holes that seemed unnecessary. It could have been tighter in concept. Along with that, the characters always seemed to be slightly distant, as if I were viewing them from the outside looking in. Again, not a major criticism (I gave the film a 7 after all), but certainly a reason why it's not rated higher. The color palette was also a concern as flat images took center stage in this production. I'm not saying that every film needs to have a 3D-like high contrast, ultra- saturated image, but it seemed like this film was sacrificing picture quality convenience in many scenes. I thought that many of the scenes could have been filmed in a more strong visual way that would have led to a better overall feeling and score on my part.
In any case, a 7 is a high score for me and this score reflects the fact that I left the theater feeling a specific way, which way was clearly manipulated by the movie director/writer. That's always a positive in my book. extra points to creativity in tone and subject matter (I don't think that I've ever seen, in my life, a toe molestation scene involving such a great looking molester. That whole thing was incredibly surprising. Now you know why I gave the spoiler check on top). Overall, this movie was great in comparison, and would rate in the top five of all movies that I have seen at the Shanghai International Film Festival 2014 (out of around 20). Highly recommended.