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Reviews
Ai no korîda (1976)
Superbly not porn
An incredible movie, one of an exceptional kind and going deep into an almost impossible and very difficult topic: lust, in-love passion.
For some people this movie is porn but it isn't though its imagery borders close. It is much more about what is going on between two people who are lustfully in love, but also in love.
It's direct and blunt in its portrayal but also very tender. It's very daring but also respectful. And it's also about two beautiful people, although they are beautiful in different ways.
The most challenging feat here is the portrayal of how it 'feels' when you want to identify completely with the person you feel so much for. She for that matter loses sight, whereas he does always keep an aura of consideration and reflection upon his girlfriend. She on the other hand jumps right in her own deep and puzzling pool of emotions.
The ending was a shock for me, I hadn't read any spoilers and right till the end I thought the suffocating relationship of lust and passion would take a turn for a more realistic view on life and love.
Neither did I know that this story was based on a real event in Japan.
Nude (2010)
I found this a beautiful movie
A beautiful movie in the way it is shot. Often I couldn' t but wonder at some of the settings, the lighting and the angles. The story line is predictable in its casting doubt on the AV-industry, but in this movie it intertwines very nicely with the real friendship the model keeps with her school time friend. In the soul destruction during the process pursuing 'her career' there is some catharsis that is happy to see at the end of the movie. After living 15 years in Asia I can also confirm that this movie is very well attuned with its culture of origin. The words in the conversations are very spare but altogether with music and characters, it makes for a beautiful movie. Did I hear some distant tune by Ryuichi Sakamoto? I'sure I did. Thank you for this unusual and minimal movie.
Fractured (2019)
Exceptionally good movie,
In that the line between reality and traumatized reality is so thin that any person with this divide would go nuts, yet in the case of Ray, he clings to his distorted world more than he can remember the trauma-accident.
Of course, he will finally wake up.
Gripping, tremendous performamces of all cast. This movie is worth more than the poor IMDb-score.
The story-line itself, in my opinion, has no weak or empty chain-links, it's quiet a long watch and it succeeds very well in taking the viewer exactly on that ride between real and distortion.
I'm not sure how Brad Anderson pulled his character off, but he did, in an very very convincing way.
Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets: Live at the Roundhouse (2020)
New Dimension
This live at the Roundhouse performance has something VERY uniquely fresh to the beginnings of Pink Floyd. In particular the execution is mindboggingly accurate and musically perfect. These men together are just amazing musicians. And when you add the best of modern technology to it to record and film it, then you get something so perfect it's a pleasure to watch and follow. And yet, it's also not clinically cold, on the contrary, it's very alive too, the voices are not the PF-voices but they are so good. There is pure enjoyment in their performance. I have been enjoying this SOS deeply and intensely.
Erosion (2005)
beautiful melancholy
I enjoyed both characters Gabe and Irene, one tormented one less. The universal always is set in the local, and probably viceversa. Of course this is not the typical American movie, and yet, it also is, in the language of course, in setting and in its loneliness. It blends very well with the oriental scenes. Just as sad.
Joker (2019)
Is it possible to give a thing 10 out of ten?
Well, yes, this movie is a ten out of ten. The struggle to handle disappointment, deceit, metal illness and the will to be and still somehow to live is so well shown here visually, in its narrative and musically, I can't but give it but all marks, it's the summit of melancholy, of our human loneliness, of the clownesk world where bad is often the winning side and the honest side mostly the losing side. Luckily, in this movie, the real is still on the winning side.
Birth (2004)
Superbly strange
And fascinating, testing the viewer's patience. Hauntingly beautiful. The narrative gets its understanding towards the ending with very few words. There is an atmospheric perfection to this movie that does justice to the sometimes inexplicable psychology of us humans.
Enter the Void (2009)
Amazing Mix of Description and Narrative
I must write something, just 'must', I'm an almost 60 year old Belgian living in Vietnam, first 8 years in Saigon, and now finally and luckily out in the countryside again. Last year, I was in Tokyo for two weeks and loved it to bits, so I understand the attraction of Tokyo for young people. Enter The Void depicts Tokyo not only from a western eye but from an Asian eye too, I cannot explain why but it does. As an artist myself I understand the desolateness one may experience in any foreign culture, in this case, Asian.
I assume that most of my colleague-workers as teachers, both in Tokyo or HCMC can relate to this movie well, not only because of the setting of ourselves in such an other culture but - and here I need to be careful - most expats in Asia have mostly 'a reason' to be in Asia. My reason to be here has to do with the death of my brother. And I have found a motive and reason to continue living here because of it.
Alienation is part of my life, yet 'connection' too. Let's put it like this, one may be alienated from alienation, which is bad of course and yet again connect with life in another dimension, not always understanding why but yet doing so. A relief.
Art is coming to terms with an alienation based in a memory that hasn't died. This movie does that greatly, and I don't think viewers may easily understand the producer of this movie, but this movie - as art usually does and should be doing - transports the viewer to its own familial trauma's and alienations. How we cope with them is the stuff for psychiatrist and yes, you name it, artists. This movie is a work of art. THANK YOU PRODUCER.