Jayowend Reviews

War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)

Apes together... strong... this... movie.... not so... strong...

[2/10 · 9 December 2017]

Alright the movie production, sfx, choreo weren't bad but a number of things in combination eventually just ticks you off. The weakest part was by far the script. Slow, bland, and uninspiring. What parts of the film featuring human dialogue felt insulting to watch, like they tried to push the concept of 'primitive' way too far. In an alternate universe this movie could have been a 10/10. Here's all the reasons why it's not by the end of the film. Let's go in order.

-1 for misleading trailer. They crammed every second of action footage into the trailer, but in the actual film it was nowhere close to what people expected coming from the rest of the trilogy.

-1 convenient plot device #1 - donkey from the opening forest raid escapes by simply assuring Winter he'll be spared by the colonel. by the way, what ever happened to that escaped donkey?

-1 soundtrack - for the love of BANANAS how many times are you going to inundate us with that same melodramatic piano tune?!

-1 coca-cola truck ad breaking immersion

-1 artificial character development - Nova (the girl) doesn't bat an eye for her dead father/caretaker but one flower later she's crying for the ape. Didn't you meet him only 20 minutes ago?

-1 sign language logic - apes communicate through sign language and grunts. OK. But Caesar looking through binoculars and somehow understanding the chimp next to him is just silly. Also.. how does the girl manage to learn the language of the apes in a single day?! (maybe it's the mutated virus)

-1 convenient plot device #2 - single guard that holds the master key gets baited into opening the cage. I'll admit I chuckled at the poop flinging.. but THE LOGIC. COME. ON. You had ONE JOB.

-1 every scene feels like it's being played in slow motion, like they were purposely trying to match the apes' style of speaking or something. Speed it up by 1.25x, trust me. You'll thank me later for saving you half an hour of your life.

-1 convenient plot device #3 - victorious soldiers rush into a demolished base for no good reason. Avalanche proceeds to wipe away the rest of the humanity.

+1 the only silver lining was the technical: flawless CGI, landscapes, cinematography, and motion capturing.

The Wind Rises (2013)

Mellow and sweet with stunning animation & funny sounds

[8/10 · 21 June 2014]

8.5 / 10

A pretty mellow film. Kind of slice-of-life. First five minutes were silent with no talking. Music was nice. Scenery animation was superb. Always makes you wanna go live in a little cottage house by the country side, surrounded by fields of grass rippling in the wind, clouds and sunshine all day round, etc.

I liked the different languages introduced in the film, and sometimes you couldn't even understand it, but it didn't really feel like that mattered anyway. The Italian guy, Caproni, the German.. adds foreignness and artistry to the film.

The plot is quite metaphorical and is about hardship, and you can see the title revolves around this. There was one line near the beginning, I think, in French, "Le vent se lève, il faut tenter de vivre" (The wind rises, one must try to live).

I really enjoyed seeing the main character, Jiro, and Naoko together, but straight away the film tells you it's going to be bittersweet. If you asked a year or two ago, I'd have probably not cared as much. Maybe I'm just getting older haha.

I watched the subbed version, although the dub didn't sound too bad actually. I found it kind of weird at the start when the film jumped a few years ahead in continuity and Jiro got older because his voice suddenly sounded very mature. I've heard the dub by Joseph Gordon Levitt was done much better though in that regard.

There's a bit of silly and stubborn humour that plays well with some of the characters. I grinned during a few scenes.

Good job Miyazaki, you have still managed to make me feel like I was off in another world for a little while.

FUN FACT: All the of the sound effects in film were made using human sounds. So if you're planning on watching this, see if you can notice the distinct sound of airplane propellers spinning and revving, or the hissing of steam engines, earthquake noises.. all voiced by some person doing silly things with their mouth to produce those effects! I thought it was pretty funny while watching haha.

Spring Breakers (2012)

You either like it or you don't

[6/10 · 2 July 2013]

An …interesting film.

Straight off the bat you can tell it has a huge appeal to the male demographic lol, but if you just want to see this for the partying, boobs, bikinis, and women.. well that stuff is definitely there but you'll probably be bored by the 30-minute mark and want to stop watching (unless you're into watching all that alcohol-drenched grinding chugfest). I have to say it started off pretty slow and boring, and the story only really starts to pick up after you've watched halfway through. Spring Breakers is labeled as a comedy/drama, and even though I kinda smiled at a few parts, it really wasn't a comedy. It was more of a dark/artistic drama. So if you're thinking of watching it for the laughs, I'd reconsider if I were you!

For those of you who haven't seen it, all I have to say is that it's a bizarre movie which, if you can make yourself look past the 'shallow' part of the film and accept that yes, it does seem to glorify a bunch of skin-clad women, drugs, guns, gangsters, the 'American Dream' (which is essentially what its whole premise is built around), then you'll be able to see a lot more in the story in terms of a message or even a subtle 'reality check' of the kind of mentality some teenagers face in a generation like this. Now if you're watching the trailer and you're thinking this is just another one of those films that sells sex appeal, well, you are partly right. But nevertheless there are still a few surprisingly beautiful moments/scenes in between all the hardcore partying (that pretty much only happens in the first half of the film): like the majestic, almost bonfire-like dance done by the spring breakers wearing pink balaclavas and holding semi-automatic rifles to the tune of James Franco playing Britney Spears' "Everytime" on a white piano in his sea-side estate backyard. It was definitely bizarre, and it was beautiful. I also want to point out that there is a lot of music in this, and I can see why many people think this movie is just an over-lengthy music video haha. I really liked the 'dark' parts of the film though, when the party-vibe dies down, when the music becomes a little gloomier, the characters; a little more confused.. it brings out that contrast between the oh-so-lively, crazy, fun, wild party scenes and that back-to-reality/'what-do-we-do-now' feeling.

I feel like I can understand why a lot of people absolutely hated watching this. I mean yeah, if you look at it from the start and from all angles in an objective way, this film is a real mess. It really has no strong plot, tries to be realistic (documenting the exposures of teens today) and at the same time surrealistic (bikini's in court rooms?), touches on some of the most dangerous and controversial topics to bring into a film (some people automatically flip the 'no' switch when they see an insane amount of taboos in a film), and is in general a turn off to a lot of people who like to see strong, clever plots in a film. But if you can see past all that and accept it like those things were used as an art-form (even if you know they were not), then Spring Breakers becomes an experience into the lives of four young girls and their 'trip' of a lifetime. I do believe that things like what is depicted in the film (although not as extreme, but maybe?) happen in our world today so I think that it's definitely a good idea to gain some insight into the way some of today's generation think and act. I mean if you watch it and hate it, that's okay too. But I don't think it's a waste of anyone's time to find out more about where they're currently standing and how comfortable they are with regards to the topics in this film.

7/10

+1 for James Franco's convincing transformation. (I didn't even know it was him until after the movie.. haha)

so.. 8/10

Cloud Atlas (2012)

Soylent Green is people!

[10/10 · 9 March 2013]

Very.. opening, for lack of words. Let me first start off by saying I have not read the novel or had any insight to the story whatsoever prior to watching this film adaptation, and it was neither confusing nor a pain to watch even though it is complex in nature and it has a long running time of a little under 3 hours. I would say that if you were to watch this, wait until it hits DVD/Blu-ray and see it in the comforts of your own home, on a relaxing Friday night or weekend evening, with noise cancelling headphones or something to mute the world outside. This type of narrative, I feel, requires solitude and some time alone to become completely immersed in. I imagine if anyone had done so for their very first viewing, it would have had a stronger or more lasting impression on them.

I love movies like this, despite what some professional film critics may say. I just love them. Why? A lot of elements in the film and the film itself is open to interpretation. I feel like movies these days should be like this, and they should impose upon the viewer a sense of mystery, an air of brilliance, and a feeling of opportunity. To leave with a greater understanding of anything, of everything, and a willingness to understand—that is what great films allow.

As far as the story is concerned, the several interconnected story lines which the film seamlessly transitions between succeeds in piquing your intelligence, not by serving the plot to you on a silver platter, as most films do these days, but by making you work for and think about it. Technicalities aside, I can only describe Cloud Atlas as a new type of film which bridges many issues in our world in present day and brings together the entire spectrum of cultural, geographical, and social differences, from sexuality to corporate corruption to discrimination to religion to segregation and more, all throughout multiple eras and periods of time in history and showcased as individual and separate, and yet at the same time, as one totally interconnected universe. It may be cliché but it is a necessary reminder and encouragement for all which has progressed and changed up to this day in our society. There is comedy, there is suspense, there is action, there is mystery, there is romance; there is a little bit of something in every genre that's been funneled into this one act and shaken up for someone to experience the combination of it all. The dialogue, especially the accents and dialects, can sometimes be hard to follow along, but it was done so to create the atmosphere of the story by giving off that feeling of foreignness. The landscapes, whether digitalized or filmed in real life, were plentiful and pleasant to admire. The actors are incredible in the way they manage to pull off several entirely different characters with distinct personalities. And oh, the piano, the music. The story wound itself around the centre piece "Cloud Atlas Sextet", which ended off as a nice touch as a tribute to the whole movie. And while all this is perfect talk, this movie was just an adaptation of a novel I assume to be equally as impressive. But the medium in question is film, and films succeed in conveying stories and enticing audiences. And to that, I say, "Cloud Atlas" does one hell of a fine job.

A film which is a must-see, whether you end up liking it or not.

Il Mare (2000)

A heartwarming, cleverly perplexing, and out of the ordinary concept made into a very well executed film

[10/10 · 12 August 2011]

This review might be a little unorganized, simply because I didn't type all of it at once. However, I think you will get the general idea. I don't really enjoy going into detail about the entire plot since there's a synopsis for that, but I like addressing finer pieces of information which people may find confusing or miss by accident. Either way, I hope you'll understand my thousand word rambling.

Nowadays, we rarely see time travel films that retain logicality and full consistency throughout, but Il Mare does it all by avoiding (or correctly abiding by) the confusing laws of time paradoxes. Those who love movies involving shifting elements of time will love this one too, although it doesn't transport people, but instead, items placed inside a mailbox. The magical mailbox of Il Mare, the house built by the lake, serves as a portal connecting two very special individuals who carry close resemblance to each other — in the way that they are both living in solitude — yet are dimensions apart; literally, Eun-joo and Sung-hyun exist in different time periods setting them two years apart.

In simple terms (or maybe not? :p), "You can't change your present, but you can change your past's present" is the alternate-time-line concept portrayed by the director. The plot line is thought-provoking and requires a considerable amount of understanding, either by watching Il Mare again, or by utilizing careful attentiveness the first time around. This is a positive feature of the film, as it becomes worthy of repeated watchings and also leaves the viewer to contemplate about future events, but some may find it frustrating. The principle of alternate time lines branching off is shown in the ending where the two correspondents meet up in Sung-hyun's reality, while Sung-hyun is forever inexistent in Eun-joo's time-line. For those who have trouble understanding this, it means that Eun-joo, in the 21st century, could not alter the past to change her current state (by preventing Sung-hyun's accident), as the tragedy had already been witnessed.

She COULD, however, alter the past to change HIS present (completely unattached to her time-line). This meant that in Sung-hyun's life, he could and did meet up with Eun-joo. I think this idea of alternate time lines is the director's way of introducing a happy ending. Il Mare is still sad with it, if you think about Eun-joo being eternally heartbroken in her "era", but the story ends up with one-half of its original bitterness. Future events are definitely debatable, as well as the question of whether Eun-joo meeting the alive Sung-hyun would impact Eun-joo's time-line, but that is in itself an entirely different topic and can be saved for another day.

The only minor inconsistency, well actually, disturbing detail, would be that if I were Eun-joo, I would at least be a little spooked by a random guy making several appearances in my life. Without knowing him, Eun-joo meets Sung-hyun not once, but multiple times in 1998: the first encounter with the earmuffs, the second while meeting her boyfriend Joon-hi, and the final scene after Sung-hyun receives her letter to prevent his death.

Everything was visually astounding, from the spot-on camera work (loved the "Cola-cam") to the beautiful Korean scenery. I must say, I would very much wish to visit the shooting location of Il Mare one day to see if the house is actually there.

There is also an underlying theme (my personal thoughts) describing the fact that something which has gone should not be changed. Fate meddles with whoever tries to sabotage the events that were meant to happen, as portrayed when Eun-joo knows about the Sung-hyun's father dieing from the book, but getting hit by a car "by accident". The mittens given to Eun-joo float away into the sea by chance (which also acts as a symbol for the disappointment in Syung-hyun not appearing and him drifting away), while the recovered tape recorder smashed onto the ground. What was or wasn't meant to belong was deliberately corrected. In the same way, Eun-joo brought more destruction to others and herself, alienating the ones she cared about even more when she selfishly tried to change her past. When she finally accepts her present situation as unavoidable, a happy ending follows. This theme is an encouragement to hold onto those who are currently beside instead of those who have gone.

Some may ask about the dog, and why Cola appears in both time lines. This is, again, open to imagination. My take on it is that when Sung-hyun died, he left Cola in the house, and the authorities or the local landowner probably gave it to the next tenant — Eun-joo. (However, this leaves a discrepancy where Cola is seen running out of Il Mare which belonged to Eun-joo at the end of the film, when it really should have been Sung-hyun's if he was alive. Or maybe he simply gave Cola away?) Some notable scenes that were intriguing included the funny spaghetti scene, where the two throw strands of pasta at the wall, and the one where he puts a letter into a wine bottle... "Wine is supposed to get better with age" — so does a broken heart.

I love films where the directors don't simply just feed the story to the audience, but allow it to require some thinking to make the overall movie experience a tad more interesting. In the end, I can't help but hope for the best of both their futures because it really is a fascinating story. While this will disappoint some by not showing too many tear dropping scenes, it will satisfy those who are looking for a refreshing story. I think that this film was executed in a good fashion, and finished quite well, as it could have easily gone awry with the plot. Il Mare is an enjoyable movie and probably will stay as one of my favourites for a long time.

Windstruck (2004)

Funny and clever, but doesn't quite strike a lasting impression towards the end

[5/10 · 11 August 2011]

First review on IMDb, and I'm afraid it's not a very positive one. I have seen and loved many titles from the same director (Kwak Jae-yong), but Windstruck just doesn't quite do it for me. I thought of creating an account to share my two cents. (Hopefully I'm doing this right!)

Even without degrading or negatively comparing this film based on its smash-hit predecessors (as other reviewers have unjustly done — is this a trend here?!), this movie viewed in its lone and unbiased perspective still does not leave me with full satisfaction. I'm left discontented as the credits roll, unlike the other more well-developed films by Director Kwak, which had received my personal rounds of applause.

I agree with some other reviewers that Windstruck seemed like two films thrown into one; the transitioning could have been made better to accommodate the jump from "light comedy" to "serious melodrama". Given the runtime at slightly under two hours, I could have expected more scenes that actually contributed to the plot line, instead of some extra light-hearted parts unrelated to the main story. An example would be the part where the two teenagers save Kyung-jin at the top of the building and prevent her from suicide. I would have preferred something along the lines of "the wind saving her", or something that could further reinforce the supernatural idea of Myung-woo's spirit in the wind. Additionally, this scene tried to reintroduce the comical aspect of the film, directly after the sad sequences, which confuses the viewer even more. Event pacing and logicality is fairly consistent (note that this is partially a comedy) and not too rushed, at least until the final few scenes. I could tolerate the sudden switch to foreshadowed tragedy in the landslide scene where male lead Myung-woo almost died and even the actual death scene, but the appearance of Myung-woo and him stepping into "heaven" just had me in disbelief. Some scenes could have been cut down in terms of length. Kyung-jin desperately holding onto the wounded Myung-woo and screaming at the top of her lungs, and her shooting scene against the criminal Chang-soo Shin are prime examples, as well as the part where Kyung-jin repetitively calls Myung-woo's name while the wind blows into her room. Something that didn't really make sense was when she envisioned Myung-woo alive as she's lying in the hospital, and he says he is alive with one lung. I'm baffled by the significance of that sequence, but maybe it has something to do with Korean tradition. As for plot holes at the end, one thing I didn't enjoy was the fact that Kyung-jin was never shown to realize she had not shot her own boyfriend, and that it was really her new partner who had done so. He didn't confess this fact to her, and Myun-woo never told her either when he came back, so I find it hard to believe that she didn't bring up this subject when talking to him. Another silly thing was the cameo appearance of Cha Tae-hyun as an apparent "homage" to My Sassy Girl. It wasn't really necessary to "connect" the two films, and is partially why people claim Windstruck to be the prequel. The ending was abrupt. It felt like Myung-woo just said "okay, believe in me, you'll find another person who shares my passion" and Kyung-jin simply forgets about her previous sorrows. It was too fast of an ending, in my opinion.

As always, there is the bad, and then, there is the good. Several prominent features are found in Mr. Kwak's many films, including this one: among them, the brilliant soundtrack which sets the mood in nicely, and, of course, the talented female lead Gianna Jun (Jun Ji-hyun). I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that many people watch these Korean films only because of her amazing presence, for reasons which I won't disclose here because you can already find many detailed comments about her in other reviews. Jang Hyuk does an ideal job playing Myung-woo, and I love his hilarious expressions at the beginning of the movie. We get a lot of time focused on the two main protagonists spending quality time together, so we are able to see some of their personalities and how close they've gotten to each other. Other subtle devices, both funny and romantic, really added to the overall picture. The act of replacing black piano keys with white ones as a romantic sign of affection was amazing, and it really showed Myung-woo's concern for Kyung-jin's family loss. I also liked the introduction of the "page flipping animations", which I thought was cute, and the paper air plane symbol. Someone previously noted that it was a continuity issue because the paper air plane was seen being unfolded in Kyung-jin's first encounter, and then the same one seen floating around in the next instance. However, I would like to think of it as being a totally different air plane folded by some stranger somewhere around the world, who happened to use the same magazine paper, and Myung-woo using his influence in the wind to make it fly to Kyung-jin (I realize it sounds absurd, it's just me being delusional :p). The theme is interesting with the wind "protecting" her from gunshots, albeit a little too unbelievable. But really, expecting absolute realism in a comedy/melodrama is pointless.

Overall, it isn't a HORRIBLE movie, but it certainly could do with improvement. If you're looking for a sweet story and a little side serving of comedy, this is the one to watch. Family-environment friendly. The beginning will make you laugh some, and then depending on your manline—I mean, tolerance to tear-jerking scenes, you could either end up half disappointed like me, or drowning in a mountain of tissues. It's a good watch if you want something to pass time.