littlefaith Reviews

Mia and the Migoo (2008)

We need more great animation for children

[9/10 · 5 April 2021]

Dear Adults,

Please stop trying to review children's movies as if they were made for you. Let's ask a child. My son who is seven years old, says he gives it a TEN. Since I have more experience of movies, I have to reserve one star for perfection. But let me tell you how much he loved this movie. He usually hates to be forced to learn Chinese Mandarin, and we watched this in Chinese Mandarin except for a few moments when we tried to see what it was like in French. We had no English option, since I purchased the movie in Taiwan a long time ago. He was riveted and was completely engaged and did not complain once about it being in Chinese, even with all the different accents that they lovingly tried to give all the different characters, just like you would hear in French.

He says, "I loved how the movie was about what if the entire world was destroyed. I liked seeing the little girl and what it would be like to have to travel somewhere without cars or planes."

That's what it's about, folks. A beautiful movie, where the villains are the parents. They are humans. And all it takes to fix the problem is to realize that you can change and say you're sorry. A movie filled with hope and with a focus on the most precious things on the planet, our children.

Point Break (2015)

What does it feel like to be fearless?

[10/10 · 19 August 2018]

I watched this movie as an inmate at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles. I am in love with this movie. A lot of people don't appreciate it, but it is one of the few movies in the world that tries to capture the feeling of being fearless. It succeeds on multiple fronts for me, and the cinematography and timing is superb. You get to go places that you probably will never go in your life time. I think people who are used to sitting on their couches and critiquing movies are making the reviews. You should not listen to them. This movie is a must-see, an experience of things few people will ever do in their lifetime, and yet... there are people doing them.

What does it feel like to be truly free? It requires not only the external circumstance of being able to do "what you want" to do. It requires physical fitness, stamina, and your own inner choice to be free, regardless of the constraints of society. Doing what you believe and choose against all odds, taking the consequences for your actions, and then to know what it is to live without fear. FEARLESS.

How many fearless people are reviewing this movie? There are few in the world, my friend, and I am one of them. This movie resonates with me for that reason.

Cinema Paradiso (1988)

Memorable Parable

[10/10 · 26 June 2000]

My favorite part of the movie is the story that the projectionist tells the boy about a soldier who waits outside a princess's window for 99 days, then leaves. The princess had promised to marry the soldier if he could prove his love for her by staying for a full 100 days. The projectionist ends the story by asking the question, "Why does the soldier finally give up when he is so close to his goal?" No answer is explicitly given in the movie, but I felt that the search for that answer was central to understanding the deep emotions that the movie stirred up in so many viewers.

Another question is why the boy did not return to his home town sooner, despite requests from his aging mother. The movie engaged me with these questions that wouldn't leave and kept me searching for the gold, insights into life and love. It's a movie that gives back as much as you put in.