ksandness Reviews

The Days (2023)

The scariest part of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami

[9/10 · 24 December 2023]

While 20,000 lives lost in the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in 2011, a problem with an even greater catastrophic potential was brewing at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex. Thanks to lessons learned after accidents at another plant in the late 1990s, the Fukushima plant survived the initial earthquake with all the backup systems working. But then came the tsunami, which flooded all the backup systems and disabled the cooling systems of the reactors. No one knew what to do next.

The predicted worst case scenario was that all the nuclear cores would explode, sending lethal radiation over about 1/3 of the country, including Tokyo, and making that area uninhabitable for decades.

This miniseries portrays the desperate efforts of the onsite workers, led by plant manager Yoshida Masao, to try this and that as real life outpaces the situations provided for in volumes and volumes of manuals. They work for days on end with little sleep and no real meals, and the actors do a great job of portraying men who gradually arrive at the brink of physical and emotional collapse. Workers risk their lives by working in highly radioactive areas, while the power company officials and the prime minister keep yelling at them to "Do something."

There are a lot of obvious Japanese cultural elements, both in major ways, such as the strong sense of duty that the workers exhibit, even in the most trying circumstances, or the minor way in which power plant officials, even the plant manager, wear vests inscribed with their job titles. The one reason this isn't a 10 is another cultural element, the sentimentality of scenes associated with the fate of one of the missing men.

It's not really a spoiler to say that the situation was brought under control, but even though I knew that to be the case, I was still in suspense through much of this series.

Doctor Who: The Tsuranga Conundrum (2018) Season 11, Episode 5

OK, I've seen enough

[6/10 · 13 January 2022]

Although I saw a few episodes of the original Doctor Who when they played on PBS in the 1970s, my involvement with the series dates from the 2005 revival.

However, because of getting rid of cable, I have been slow to catch up with the current cycle of episodes with a female Doctor played by Jodie Whittaker.

I know that there were a lot of angry fans when it was announced that the next Doctor would be a woman, but I kept an open mind.

Now that I have seen five episodes of Season 11, I'm done, at least with this particular Doctor and writing team.

Each newly regenerated Doctor starts off babbling and confused, as if not quite sure of the new identity and body. Then they settle in and assume distinct personalities, but all are brave and resourceful, although not without moments of self-doubt, with a wisecracking sense of humor and slight undercurrent of darkness. Jodie Whittaker starts out as an incoherent ditz, like her predecessors, but she never moves much beyond that. Here portrayal is monotone, the fast-talking airhead who seems to solve problems only by accident. It's a combination of poor writing and Ms. Whittaker not really "getting" the Doctor.

I am not categorically opposed to having a woman portray Doctor Who. If Michelle Gomez hadn't already been cast as Missy, she would have been able to pull off the combination of cleverness, assertiveness, sarcasm, and darkness, and I'm sure there are other actresses who would have made this role more interesting.

I'm not crazy about the companions this time, either. They seem quite one-dimensional in comparison to Nardole, Clara, Amy and Rory, Rose, even Bill.

Proof of the Man (1977)

So bad that it's good

[2/10 · 11 December 2021]

Living in Japan in the late 1970s, I saw Ningen no Shomei heavily advertised on TV and saw people carrying the souvenir booklet around. The tag line, which translates as "Mother, whatever happened to my straw hat?" became a running joke. Well, I had to see this pop culture phenomenon myself.

It begins with the murder of a half-Black, half-Japanese man in the Hotel New Otani (not an inn). Seeing this movie in a theater full of Japanese people was an interesting experience, because I found myself laughing at the plot and the production values.

In particular, there's a flashback in which a Japanese man is being beaten up by some American GIs during the Occupation. Not funny in itself, but what made me laugh, sink down in my seat and cover my mouth to avoid being heard was the fact that these supposedly 1940s GIs all had 1970s beards and hair.

Or shall I mention the time when a character makes a confession, which is immediately followed by a thunderclap out of nowhere?

What about the murder victim walking toward the Hotel New Otani, which has a round penthouse-like structure on its roof mumbling "Sutoroo hatto, sutoroo hatto" or "Straw hat, straw hat"? This is from a character who is supposed to have grown up in the U. S.

Poor George Kennedy and Broderick Crawford must have been desperate for money to appear in this convoluted mishmash, especially the final scene in which George Kennedy's character is walking through the ruins of the South Bronx and is stabbed to death by a Black man who calls him "Japanese lover!"

This plot must have some sort of basic appeal to the Japanese, because it has been made into three movies and a TV miniseries.

America's War on Poverty (1995– )

A Documentary That Has Gone Down the Memory Hole

[9/10 · 27 January 2021]

While both series from Blackside Productions' "Eyes on the Prize" are still easily available, Blackside's five-part documentary series "America's War on Poverty" (1995) has never been issued on DVD, nor are VHS copies available anywhere except a few dozen college libraries.

Yet it is an important corrective to the prevailing conventional wisdom about poverty, the one epitomized by Ronald Reagan's inane statement, "We declared war on poverty, and poverty won." The War on Poverty has been blamed for welfare dependence, poor schools, the breakdown of the family, and a number of other evils, despite the fact that the U.S. has one of the world's stingiest social safety nets.

Yet as this documentary shows, the truth is that poverty didn't win; America surrendered. The first hour explains the conditions that led to the War on Poverty, such as destitution in places such as the Appalachian coal mining communities and the Mississippi Delta. Subsequent hours tell about the successes (yes, there were successes!) and failures of the programs, and most notably (and perhaps the reason that the documentary has been hidden away for over 25 years), the ways in which the War on Poverty aroused opposition from companies and individuals who profited from keeping people poor.

The powers-that-be began raging against the War on Poverty, and by the time Ronald Reagan made his statement, most of its programs had been dismantled.

Now that inequality has reaches record heights, we need to revisit this product of the 1960s, when Americans believed that positive change was possible.

Midsomer Murders: The Made-to-Measure Murders (2010) Season 13, Episode 2

Inaccuracies

[3/10 · 22 April 2018]

I agree with some of the other reviewers in that this is one of the worst Midsomer Murders episodes ever. The motivations are weak and unbelievable.

But I'm going to pick out the inaccurate portrayals of church affairs. In an early part of the episode, the vicar is portrayed as declaiming what sounds like a hellfire and brimstone passage about sin. Actually, this is the confession of sins from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, and it is to be said by the whole congregation, not harangued at the congregation by the vicar. The congregation recites the confession of sins, and the vicar pronounces absolution.

The vicar is portrayed as being high church, which is why he hears confession, but a high church clergyman (or any Church of England clergyman) would be referred to as a "priest" and would be addressed as "Father" if high church, as "Father Moreland," not "Reverend Moreland."

If scriptwriters are going to include the Church of England or any other institution in their plots, they should learn about it first.

Without Evidence (1995)

About the same quality as a true crime TV show

[3/10 · 22 March 2018]

I put this film in my Amazon Prime queue because I was living in Oregon at the time of Michael Francke's murder.

It starts with a clip from "Unsolved Mysteries," and the rest of the movie has about the same production values, including the cheesy preview scenes. It was fun seeing scenes of Oregon and recognizing a couple of Portland stage actors, but otherwise, I lost interest, despite having seen the story play out in nightly news reports for months.

Under the Sun (2015)

What Were the North Koreans Thinking?

[9/10 · 10 January 2017]

The European and Russian filmmakers were invited by the North Korean government to make a documentary that glorified their country, but the filmmakers managed to subvert the intent of the film by keeping the cameras running while the government handlers were giving instructions to the participants. Other reviewers have discussed the ways in which the government handlers coached the participants and created fake backgrounds for the family.

But it is the unstaged scenes that really give an indication of the totalitarian nature of the country. I have ridden subways in New York, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, London, Stockholm, Tokyo, and Seoul, and I have never seen, nor could I have imagined, a scene like the one after Zin-mi's initiation into the Children's Union. (That's a surreal event in itself, especially the unison applause that all stops at the same time.) That is, literally hundreds of parents and children are at the subway station, returning from what is supposed to be a momentous occasion, and none of the parents or children say a word. They wait silently for the train, and they ride it silently, looking rather depressed.

Or take the arrival at work. Everyone silently stands in line, and they are expected to bow to a billboard of the Kim family before turning at a right angle and entering the building. After dancers in colorful costumes rehearse outside, they silently board buses. Nobody seems to talk in public or show anything but a blank facial expression. Even in more intimate scenes, even among the children, people seem to be looking for cues as to what is permitted or appropriate.

This is not "Communism." I was in China in 1990 and in Cuba in 2011, and in both countries, people talk and show emotions in public.

It is telling that the North Koreans saw all the footage (except what the filmmakers held back) and still approved it. Are they so into their own mindset that they don't know that foreigners would be creeped out by a society in which people act like robots in public?

The Long Day Closes (1992)

Let go and let the film flow over you

[8/10 · 7 November 2009]

I saw this film with a group of friends, and people either loved it or hated it. As we discussed our reactions, it became clear that the people who hated it were looking for a plot and tuned out when they realized that there wasn't one.

I felt somewhat the same way at first until I realized what Terence Davies was doing: He was filming childhood memories and fantasies exactly as he recalled them, with an emphasis on the differences between 1990s Britain and the Britain of his childhood: his sisters washing their hair in the sink and then going out on bicycles on a Saturday evening, homemade musical entertainments, and so on. Some memories were fragmentary, while others were more extensive.

Once I realized what he was doing, I just sat back and let the beautifully shot images and evocative music flow over me. It was like peeking into someone else's mind and living bits of his everyday life. The movie stayed with me for a long time, and I began delving into my own childhood memories, wondering what they would look like on film.

Sønner (2006)

A thoughtful examination of a disturbing topic

[8/10 · 24 September 2009]

Our first glimpse of the main character, Lars, who works at a public swimming pool during the day and robs the departing customers of his prostitute neighbor (with her consent) by night, gives us the impression that he is just an amoral slacker.

But we soon learn a possible reason for his cynicism and usually flat affect when he spots a man at the swimming pool and is certain that the man is the one who sexually abused him when he was a child. He notes that the pedophile appears to be in the process of luring another boy into sexual abuse. Lars tried to warn the potential victim, but the boy is lonely and neglected and actually welcomes the man's attentions, which have not yet gone beyond friendliness.

When the authorities can't or won't do anything about the lurking pedophile, Lars and his friends decide to take vigilante action against him and any other pedophiles they hear about. Things quickly get out of hand...

What gives this film its depth is the complex characterizations. One sometimes wonders how pedophiles can not only attract children but keep them in their clutches over long periods of time. This film tries to answer that question. The pedophile here is no cartoon monster, but a slight, soft-spoken, well-groomed man who looks perfectly respectable and acts perfectly respectable in public. He rationalizes his actions by telling himself and others that he's the only one who "loves" the boys, and the victims, in turn, are so desperate for attention and approval that they put up with his molestation. You end up both feeling repulsed by the pedophile and understanding a bit more about his mindset.

I won't give away the ending, which includes a extremely clever example of letting the audience know what is happening without showing it directly, and a sadly unforgettable last line.

The Holy Innocents (1984)

A timeless look at a thankfully bygone period

[9/10 · 9 April 2009]

In the opening scenes of this movie, I couldn't tell what century it was. The peasant family living in their hovel with no electricity or running water and their subservient attitude toward the master made me wonder if this movie was taking place in the 19th century. But no, a car appeared, a model from the 1960s, so I knew that it took place in relatively recent times.

Filmed in muted, grayish tones reminiscent of a Goya painting, this film gives one an idea of what life must have been like, not only for Spanish peasants in the Franco era but also for medieval serfs and slaves in the pre-Civil War South. The master and mistress treat their own whims as more important than the peasants' needs, require them to act and speak in a subservient manner, act as if small favors are huge concessions (The family gets to move into a house with electricity!), and literally treat the men of the family as if they were hunting dogs, forcing them to fetch the game that the master spends an inordinate amount of time shooting. In one case, a man is forced to fetch while trying to recover from a broken leg. When foreign visitors criticize the master and mistress for their treatment of the peasants, they make a big show of demonstrating that the peasants are happy and can write their own names (but only because they have just been taught).

But the world is changing, and even the meekest peasant may reach his limit...

Unfortunately, this film has never been released on DVD for Region 1, and the Region 2 version is out of print, so few people will be able to see this brutal but fascinating glimpse of the twilight of an era when Spanish society was composed of countless little dictatorships.

Tôkyô yakyoku (1997)

Don't bother unless you speak Japanese

[13 March 2009]

This is a slow-paced but pleasant story of a family living on the east side of Tokyo in the old canal district. Nothing much happens; it's just a pleasant drama about a multi-generational family and their neighbors.

However, I cannot recommend this film--at least not the print I saw-- for anyone who does not speak Japanese. The reason is the worst job of subtitling I have ever seen. The subtitles are written in a telegraphic style, as if the writer was afraid to use more than four or five words in a line. (Subtitlers operate under space limits, but this person has taken it to ridiculous lengths.) As an example, in one scene, a friend from the country has sent the family a box of peaches. The grandmother says that she will take some of them to her husband, who is in the hospital. The other family members advise her that peaches bruise easily. In Japanese, her response is, "Don't worry, I'll be careful with them." The English subtitle is a single word: "Gingerly." The subtitles are so sparse that important plot elements are lost. Why is the main character going to see a glamorous woman who has a corner office? The Japanese dialogue tells us that she's his sister, who married into money. The subtitles contain none of this information, so his visit seems mysterious.

When I saw this film at a film festival years ago, people started walking out after 10 or 15 minutes. Only about 1/4 of the audience remained by the end of the film. I assume that they're the people who understood Japanese and could therefore follow the plot.

Dalziel and Pascoe (1996–2007)

Needs a Region 1 release

[8/10 · 9 December 2008]

It's impossible to recreate the blithely crude humor of Reginald Hill's Dalziel on television, but Warren Clarke (who played one of the "droogs" in A Clockwork Orange nearly 40 years ago) comes as close as possible, and the contrast with the educated, more by-the-book Pascoe is well played.

I remembered this series from when it was broadcast on A&E ca. 2000-2001, and a year or two ago, I found an old VHS tape where I had recorded one of the programs for later viewing. It held up extremely well, and I was reminded what a fine series it was, featuring intriguing plots, witty dialogue, and interesting characters.

I became interested in finding it among the dozens of BBC series that are sold in the U.S., but to no avail. It simply wasn't available, and even more surprisingly, it wasn't even out on DVD in the UK.

By now, the first two series have been released on DVD in the UK and the third in continental Europe. In either case, you need a region-free DVD player, after which you can order from anywhere in the world.

I'm not sure what's holding things up, seeing that practically every other TV series ever made has been released on DVD, but at least those of us who have region-free players and can order from Amazon UK are in good shape.

Victorian Values (1987– )

A fascinating documentary series that is highly relevant today

[20 August 2008]

I caught one episode of this series when it was shown on the Discovery Channel in the U.S., back when the Discovery Channel was still devoted to intelligent documentaries in science and the social sciences.

The episodes were arranged thematically, with each one covering a specific aspect of Victorian society and how the values that people held played out in everyday life. I happened to see the one on Poverty.

The Victorians believed that poverty was caused by laziness and lack of virtue (sound familiar?), so they were quite upfront about treating poverty as if it were a crime. The program described the harsh (and, to our minds, unhelpful!) fate that befell the long-term unemployed who didn't want to turn to actual crime.

That one episode, illustrated with period drawings and photographs, like a Ken Burns documentary, was so fascinating that I wish I could have seen the rest. However, it's not out on either VHS or DVD. I hope Granada Television releases it on DVD.

Sharasôju (2003)

Exquisitely photographed but emotionally detached

[7/10 · 29 March 2008]

This film starts like a mystery or possibly a J-horror flick. Twin boys, Shun and Kei, are washing up after getting ink spilled on them, when suddenly Kei takes off like a rabbit without explanation. He leads Shun on a chase through the narrow, winding streets of their neighborhood in the ancient city of Nara, and vanishes literally within the few seconds that he is out of Shun's sight. Shun wanders around bewildered, and when he finds his parents, he seems unable to articulate what has happened.

Fast forward ten years. Shun is now in high school, a quiet young man who has a platonic friendship with a girl named Yu. Life at home is quiet and subdued to the point of isolation. In fact, the movie contains surprisingly little dialogue. Shun's father is a blue collar craftsmen of some sort (he has a workshop inside the family's sprawling old house), and his mother is in an advanced state of pregnancy. Each member of the family moves around the house as if not aware of the others, and meals are silent affairs.

The only vitality in the film comes from scenes in which Shun's father is involved with the neighborhood's Basara festival. The discussions with the neighbors are spirited and believable.

In a subplot, Yu learns that the woman who has raised her is not her mother but her aunt. This earthshaking news is revealed matter-of-factly as Yu and her putative mother are walking down the street.

At one point in the film, Shun overhears his father talking to a policeman. Kei has been found, and the father is supposed to come and identify him. He is dead, not abducted and kept prisoner, as has happened in a couple of cases that were in the news recently in Japan, but the viewer knows that only because he never comes home. We are never given any details, not even at the very end, when the soundtrack of the disappearance scene is replayed while the camera moves ever farther away, culminating in an aerial view of Nara, which is exceedingly frustrating, since we saw his disappearance from Shun's point of view.

Learning that Kei is dead does nothing to raise the emotional temperature inside the house. Everyone is locked into themselves, and despite occasional outbursts, everyone seems to be hurting silently and alone. Even the birth of another son seems to excite the neighbors and the midwife more than it does the members of the family.

As another reviewer said, the festival scenes are truly wonderful, as is the cinematography in general. You see the life of a typical traditional Japanese neighborhood, sense its small-town atmosphere, with everyone knowing everyone else's business, and even feel the muggy heat of summer. I've lived in Japan, and those scenes made me "homesick." However, because I've lived in Japan, I know that the emotional detachment portrayed in the film is extreme even by the standards of that culture. The emotional flatness and the unresolved plot detract from what could have been a moving study of a family adjusting to the certainty of grief after years of uncertainty.

In & Out (1997)

Yes, it's very funny, but it sends the wrong message

[6/10 · 14 February 2008]

As about 109 other reviewers have mentioned, this is an extremely funny film about a high school teacher whose former student mentions him as being gay on national television.

His current students immediately start looking for signs that he's gay. Oh, he likes musicals and other performing arts and literature, he's a good dresser, all the stereotypical stuff.

His fiancée starts to doubt him. The townspeople start to look askance at him.

Here's the part that annoyed me. He turns out to really be gay.

Now why did that annoy me? Not for the reason you might think.

It reaffirms stereotypical American ideas about masculinity, the American conventional wisdom that says that "real men" don't like the arts or literature. It reinforces the masculine straitjacket that limits men's interests to work, sports, and television.

A trivial concern? Not for me. I know straight men were been beaten up by high school gay-bashers and called names because they had interests that "real men" aren't supposed to have. Interestingly, this stereotype of masculinity seems to be less common in other countries.

I wish the movie would have broken through the stereotype by having Kevin Kline's character be straight and marry his fiancée, with an epilogue of her gloating about how she has the only husband in town who will attend the ballet with her.

I wonder how many teenage boy musicians or artists got beaten up by gay bashers as a result of this movie.

The Other Side of Sunday (1996)

A Coming of Age Story about a Girl, for a Change

[8/10 · 6 January 2008]

Maria is the teenage daughter of a rigid, authoritarian pastor in a conservative branch of Norway's state church in the early 1960s, and the time is approaching when she is supposed to be confirmed. However, she dreads her upcoming confirmation, because she doesn't want to live the drab, glum life that women in her church seem to lead. She wants to enjoy her youth, but her father even objects to her going to a café for a Coke with her friends.Her mother's serious illness and academic pressures only add to her stress.

Maria befriends a woman who is a member of her church; the two of them are obviously kindred spirits who feel constrained by the strict rules of their community.

What will she decide when the time comes to take her confirmation vows, especially after her life is shaken by bereavement? Almost all the coming of age stories I have seen or read have been about boys or young men. This film is unusual in that it's about a young girl trying to figure out who she is and her place in the world.

Punch-Drunk Love (2002)

A Silly Adolescent Fantasy

[2/10 · 27 November 2007]

I am mystified at the rave reviews for this movie. I think the reviewers must either be die-hard Adam Sandler fans or harbor fantasies of winning the affections of an unobtainable woman.

I saw this movie with a group of middle-aged film fans, and at the end, our consensus was, "What were the reviewers ON when they saw this movie, if they thought it was so wonderful?" Despite being clueless, obsessive, and under-achieving and exhibiting stalker-like behavior (following his love object to Hawaii when he hardly knows her?), Adam Sandler's character somehow manages to win the heart of Emily Watson's pretty, sweet, emotionally stable character.

She sticks with him despite his making blunders that would doom the chances of any man who tried them in real life. The last stunt he pulls--running off to act on a trivial, self-absorbed impulse and leaving her injured in the emergency room--would have definitely ended the relationship for any woman who had any self-respect. Yet she takes him back.

This film comes off as an adolescent male fantasy: "I can be a clueless, inconsiderate jerk, but I will find a wonderful woman who will be endlessly forgiving of every stupid thing I do."

The Piano (1993)

A Plot with Holes You Could Shove a Piano Through

[1/10 · 27 November 2007]

Okay, so let me get this straight.

Sam Neill sends all the way to America for a mail-order bride, even though there's a gaggle of missionary ladies who are crazy about him. Holly Hunter arrives with her illegitimate daughter, but she and Sam Neill pretty much ignore each other, while her daughter goes out and plays with the Maori children, who teach her to hump trees.

Meanwhile, Holly Hunter meets up with Harvey Keitel, who has custody of her piano. Even though Harvey looks as if he hasn't had a bath since he emigrated from England and most speaks in inarticulate grunts, Holly prefers him to Sam Neill, who sits around having tea with his missionary ladies. She has sex with him in order to get her piano back, one key at a time. She writes notes to him, even though he's illiterate.

When Sam Neill chops her finger off, she doesn't scream, which is odd, since real physical muteness, as opposed to psychological muteness, is so rare that it's not even worth considering. So in real life, she'd scream when her finger is chopped. The artificial metal finger she wears afterwards looks so silly that it made me giggle.

I think a lot of people were taken in by the atmospheric photography the anachronistic, repetitive New Age music, but I like only films that have plausible plots and characters, and between the holes in the plot and the unrealistic motivations of the characters, I had a problem sitting through this bit of pretentious Harlequin Romance material.

Once Were Warriors (1994)

One of the Most Emotionally Involving Films I've Ever Seen

[8/10 · 11 October 2007]

Other reviewers have stated everything one needs to know about the plot and characters in this unpleasant but gripping film. The acting is excellent, the Maori background adds an extra dimension of interest, and you will feel as if you've been wrung out and hung up to dry at the end.

The portrayal of a family wracked by alcoholism and domestic abuse is in line with what family therapists say about such families. Jake appears to be "the problem," but Beth is codependent, the sons are acting out, and Grace tries to be "the hero" but suppresses her own inner turmoil. The two youngest children mostly huddle in corners looking scared.

Let me just say that when I saw "Once Were Warriors" at the Portland Film Festival several years ago, the entire audience gasped in horror and dismay as they realized what was about to happen in a particular scene. That's how much they had been drawn into the lives of the characters.

The Fringe Dwellers (1986)

Racism in a different culture

[11 October 2007]

Accustomed to seeing portrayals of racism against African-Americans or Native Americans, I was intrigued to see some of the same phenomena in an Australian context.

The central character, Trilby Comeaway, part of extended family of Aborigines living in a shanty settlement outside a rural town, is one angry young lady. Her anger is directed not only at the local whites, who are abusively racist at worst and patronizing at best, but against her own family, many of whom seem to have internalized the stereotypes and are living in an irresponsible manner, even after being given a house in a public housing tract.

Looked at one way, the film could be seen as a condemnation of Aboriginal culture, but what it is actually portraying is the vacuum created when people lose or are deprived of their ancestral culture but are unable, for whatever reason, to participate fully in the dominant culture.

The members of the Comeaway family have some admirable qualities, such as their generosity to their extended family, one of the few Aboriginal cultural traits that they have retained. However, having internalized the stereotype of the irresponsible, child-like Aborigine, they have trouble functioning effectively in white society.

The story takes a different turn when a young man engaged in the Aboriginal land rights movement shows up and, among other things, becomes Trilby's lover.

Trilby is not always a likable person. She has a huge chip on her shoulder, and she does one thing that is quite shocking. However, the film seems to be saying that it's the "uppity" people in a minority group who will escape the trap of sinking into the stereotypes.

Heidi (1968 TV Movie)

Not quite Johanna Spyri's novel

[31 August 2007]

Heidi was one of my favorite books as a child, and I have been disappointed in all the filmed versions.

This one annoyed me in particular because it changed a key part of the plot. In the book, Heidi is miserable in Frankfurt not only because she misses Switzerland but because Fräulein Rottenmeier is so mean to her. One gets the impression from the book that this character is a bitter, uptight older woman who takes out her frustrations on the energetic and non-conforming Swiss child.

So who plays Fräulein Rottenmeier in this version? Jean Simmons, who was still in her thirties and quite glamorous looking. She was so not only portrayed as being really sweet and understanding, but also as being in love with Klara's widowed father.

In other respects, the TV movie follows the book quite faithfully and was well acted, especially by the girl who played Klara, so the addition of a love interest seems quite unnecessary.

Musulmanin (1995)

Something to Believe In

[7/10 · 29 August 2007]

A Russian soldier returns to his dreary rural village after several years in captivity in Afghanistan. During this time, he has converted to Islam, but he finds his home village full of people who long ago lost their original Russian Orthodox faith, except for a few relics such as kissing the icons, and have also lost whatever belief in Marxism they may once have had. At the same time, they are left out of the economic changes that are occurring in the cities. They are stuck in an impoverished, depressing environment, and with no established guidelines, they adopt the principle of "Get it while you can." The local Orthodox priest is young and cheerful, but ultimately ineffectual against the deep-seated disillusionment and cynicism of the villagers, who drink, steal, sleep around, and look out for number one.

Into this environment comes a young man who actually believes in something. The usual problems of reverse culture shock (coming back home after a long time in a foreign environment) are exacerbated by his dismay at the behavior of his family and friends. They, in turn, find him insufferable. He won't drink, kiss the icons, or help steal from the local factory.

While the film drags in spots, it's a fine portrayal of a dysfunctional society in which no one believes in anything anymore. (Most non-religious people in more affluent societies have some set of philosophical principles that they follow, but that kind of disillusionment in an impoverished, uneducated society can lead to nihilism.) The villagers clearly need "something to believe in," even if it's just a way to improve the economic and social standing of their village.

In the meantime, what will they do when faced with someone who has a strong inner core of beliefs?

Tenko (1981–1984)

One that deserves to be repeated

[10/10 · 21 July 2007]

I can only agree with the praise from other reviewers.

As movie reviewers Siskel and Ebert used to say, you come to care about these people.

The situations are absorbing, full of suspense and moral dilemmas, and the actresses are uniformly excellent. In subsequent years, whenever I've seen one of them again in another context (Ann Bell, Rosemary Martin, Jean Anderson, and Elizabeth Chambers have shown up in other British dramas that have played in the States), it's been like meeting an old friend.

I discovered this series when it played on A&E (back when A&E was actually "artistic" and "entertaining"), but unfortunately, I never saw the first half of the first season. I was sorry when the series ended and even more sorry that it was never repeated.

I wish that someone would rebroadcast it or that the DVDs would be made available in the States. However, people who own region-free DVD players can order the series from retailers such as Amazon UK, as I have done with this and several other series that have never been released in the U.S.

The Edelweiss Pirates (2004)

A serious film, despite its title

[8/10 · 30 March 2007]

While the title makes it sound like a combination of The Sound of Music and a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, this is actually a serious film about the real-life Edelweiss Piraten, a loosely organized gang of German anti-Hitler youth who harassed the Nazis and hid Jews and others who were in trouble.

It's the last days of World War II, bombing raids are nearly a daily threat, but the Nazis are still very much in charge. The youths use the bombing raids as cover for their guerrilla activities, and not all of them survive. Both they and the people they are protecting are constantly in danger, especially when, like the main character, they have gung ho Nazi sympathizers in the family.

The characters are half-starved and living in rubble, but they still manage to keep their integrity and fighting spirit, all the more remarkable, since they would have spent most of their lives under Hitler.

Emil und die Detektive (2001)

A children's classic updated

[7/10 · 29 March 2007]

This engaging film takes a German children's classic of the 1920s and updates it to today's multicultural Berlin. The main characters appear to be between 8 and 12 years old, old enough to understand a lot about the world..but not everything, which adds some humor to the plot about a gang of children trying to track down a thief who has stolen money from the title character, young Emil. Some of the children are immigrants, some are homeless, and one is the son of a woman pastor. They travel through the streets of Berlin on skateboards, they rap about their adventures, and they are definitely not dutiful or respectful.

I saw this movie at a film festival, and I think it would make a good family movie. Unfortunately, young Americans don't have much patience with subtitles, and it has never been released in the U.S., nor, apparently, is it on DVD.