GERG-2 Reviews

The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House (2023– )

A screenful of kindness and art

[10/10 · 8 July 2023]

Hard to articulate how much I love this; brilliantly directed, perfectly staged, actors are absolutely on it. An extraordinary narrative in which very little overtky happens (though lots of changes are made) but is more gripping and emotionally engaging than most of what I have seen in decades of film and tv watching.

Other positive reviews have already pointed out exactly why THE MAKANAI is a wonderful thing, a piece of true art in every sense. And the sense of genuine kindness, from the characters towards each other and by extension to the viewer, is extraordinary.

Arguably the best television I have ever seen, and I have watched a lot since the 1950s.

Gangnam Zombie (2023)

Horrifyingly bad

[1/10 · 11 February 2023]

I've become quite a fan of Korean television dramas (often excellent, great production and acting even if sometimes the script fails a bit in the last act) and films (sometimes brilliant) so I gave this one a try. This is a joke, right? I'm inclined to say it might be the worst film I have seen in sixty years - no redeeming features of any kind - but I find myself thinking its some sort of parody that eludes my Western eye and brain. I'm no fan of the 'so bad its good' idea at the best of times, so this was a tedious and actually embarrassing watch. (OK, I admit, I did not watch it all the way through as soon as I realised it was so poor, but I did watch the ending and thats the flattest, least drmatic thing I have ever seen, and it went on and on and on.)

The Long Day's Dying (1968)

Watched it many times

[9/10 · 24 November 2022]

I first saw this decades ago, so long I cannot remember whether it was on tv or in a cinema. It struck me as a powerful, well written, well acted and entirely plausible film about men in war, the sort of people who take no especial joy in killing but are in a situation where learned skills have value and they are proud of them. I especially like the inner voice commentary, the understanding between them when in action even when they have been bickering ill-temperedly moments before. It is a BIG film in many ways, even though the action is on a small scale and tightly controlled. It all feels real. (I speak as a military history enthusiast who has no actual experience at all).

I've watched this on a regular basis - when I have been able to find it (most recently on Amazon Prime) many times since. It's one of those films that I can just watch a random ten-fifteen minutes of and still feel I am getting a full experience.

The critics who dismissed it back in the late 60s totally missed the point of this film - it is not "stale, self-important and tough...No characterization...One for the English antiwar cheapshot satire brigadestale" at all - thing of the complete opposite of those criticisms by a now-forgotten US commentator and you have some of the flavour of the film.

I would poay good money for a dvd copy but as far as I know it has never had a release. Incredible.

Glitch (2022– )

Top class Korean television!

[9/10 · 27 October 2022]

As is usual for Korean material we see in the West the production values of GLITCH are really high, its a joy to see such well-made television, much better in so many ways than British (I'm British) or US (which is often just a collection of production cliches that add up to nothing, aimed at a teenage audience). And again, as usual, the two female leads are brilliant, completely believable and again, a joy to watch. The plot/storyline is gripping, particularly over the first five episodes we genuinely did not see what might happen next (and we are longtime sf fans with for me over five decades of reading and films). It was easy to become completely immersed in the world of Jihyo and Bo Ra, fascinating characters with so much implied backstory, and really care about what happened to them.

OK, there are some weaknesses - Asian television always seems to have some problems with continuity and once you know you can't help noticing it, And like so many Asian serials it tends to lose a but of heat on the last lap - which brought it down from 10 to 9 star rating for me. (But then - how many Western series end completely satisfactorily - why can;t I think of one right now?) We watched this in two episode blocks over five evenings, and I have to say it was the best tv time of 2022 so far. NB - this is as much character driven as plot driven, which might not be what some 'sci-fi' viewers want.

Around the World in 80 Days (2021– )

Slow start but hot ending

[9/10 · 18 February 2022]

It took me a while to warm to this but by three eps in I was on board for the trip. The absolutely excellent performance of Leonie Benesch was a great incentive, but I soon found more depth in Tennant's characterisation of Fogg, and with the development of Ibrahim Koma's Passepartout from chancer to excellent companion and good man. Obviously I knew - more or less, given it is an adaptation rather than a slavish copy - what was going to happen but not exactly how within the universe this was set in, so I was genuinely quite excited to see how it all turned out. And the ending, with the possibility of a series 2 with Captain Nemo and the 'Nautilus' - well, I'd pay money to see that!

Yes, there are a lot of negative reviews, some of them fretting about too much 'political correctness' or departures from the original text - well, for the former, just get lost, I'm not interested in your narrow white middle class opinion, and for the latter, really, I know Verne well, and I Just Don't Care, this was truly in the spirit of if not the letter of the adventure. Excellent television.

NCS: Manhunt (2001 TV Movie)

Would really like to see this again.

[8/10 · 5 August 2007]

It baffles me that people think this is 'rubbish'. I throughly enjoyed this too-short series and would certainly like to see it again (a lost gem, like MURDER CITY or MAYO, really.). Nicely written, well-performed, well produced and directed and in its basic premise somewhat different from the routine policier.

OK, so it could be justifiably criticised as 'unrealistic' but good grief NONE of the TV police dramas is in any sense realistic, they're all sort of what-if alternate-world (sometimes wish-fulfilment) versions of law enforcement. NCS had a bizarre and quirky charm, almost like the whole team were working on the barely-legal fringes of government. And, for me anyway, it had the great advantage of being British. I think I have seen enough American television shows.

Sister Said (1998– )

Brilliant - should be repeated!

[7/10 · 26 March 2006]

The Norwegian comment comes from someone who is probably very young. My wife and I - probably much older than the target audience for the show - remember this show with great affection - it was funny, inventive, interestingly directed, and genuinely charming. My wife in particular enjoyed it - "That's what girls are REALLY like!" she would say at some point every time we watched an episode.

All the leads were good - its surprising perhaps none of them has ever 'made-it' elsewhere - but then their performances were so naturalistic (even within the context of a wildly fantastic plot) that maybe they were playing themselves!

Anyone who liked this would have enjoyed CAVEGIRL as well, another unrecognised classic of British television. Danny Peacock is a genuine innovator - its always worth watching his material.

Stuff like this is presented as being for a young audience - but is actually much MUCH better than a lot of the comedy that is made for and presented as 'adult' material. It was always surprising, always amusing. Qualities that are distinctly lacking in the typical British - or American - sitcom.

Performance (1970)

Really a Donald Cammell film!

[10/10 · 17 January 2006]

This brilliant movie - possibly my absolute favourite of all time (first seen in 1971, and it changed my whole life, really)- is more accurately a DONALD CAMMELL film rather than a Nic Roeg movie. Cammell was the mainspring behind the script, direction, and so on, Roeg being very much the secondary.

Discovering this a few years back suddenly made it clear to me why I had always been disappointed with every Roeg movie I'd ever seen after PERFORMANCE.

See the other - too few - Cammell films and the difference is obvious. And read up on it a little too - there's s small but valuable resource of books about the film.

Has Roeg made his reputation unfairly on the back of Cammell? Only he can say, but I have my suspicions.

A Mind to Kill (1994–2002)

Genuinely brilliant television drama

[10/10 · 17 February 2000]

A MIND TO KILL is a simultaneously-made English language version of HELIWR, originally aired in Welsh on S4C. In common with a great deal of Welsh-language drama series (PRIS Y FARCHNAD is another shining example) it is brilliantly filmed and excellently directed, with fine casting and characterisation, all built around extraordinary and sometimes genuinely frightening plotlines.

AMTK - even in the English version, the original Welsh is much more atmospheric - is by far the best of the detective-procedurals of the last decade or so; it's genuinely gritty and down-to-earth without a trace of the cosy comfort of such as MORSE or FROST, and infinitely better in every sense than almost all much-trumpeted BBC product like SILENT WITNESS.

It is of course unfortunate it shows on C5 - but this is more a reflection on the sheeplike viewing habits of the British audience, as incapable now of changing channels to C5 as they were when Channel Four began, or BBC2 before it.