Change Your Image
m28l17d
Reviews
Spielzeugland (2007)
Sad but beautiful
This short film is about discrimination and the massacre of Jewish people. The main character is a young boy who is learning how to play the piano. There is his friend, and they are the best friend and learn how to play the piano together.
One day, the boy's mother finds that her son is gone. She gets panic and asks people around her about her son. Around that time, the people who are caught by the government are only Jewish. She goes to police and being asked that she is also Jewish, but she proves she is not a Jewish. They go to the train that carries Jewish people. In the bunch of Jewish people, the mother finds a boy. She thinks that is her son, but the boy was the son's best friend. His parents are also there. They are a Jewish family and about to be sent to the Holocaust. The mother notices that he is not her son, but keeps pretending that is her son, and save the boy from going there.
This movie gives a surprising ending, and I like it. It is about one of the biggest and the most shocking events in human history so that the ending may be too light. While the plot is well planned, so I like the film overall.
J'attendrai le suivant... (2002)
Sad ending
In this short movie, there is a lady, who is not in romantic relationships for a while and looking for the one for her. The story is happening on a train in France. After she passes by the couple in the station, she gets on the train. Her face is not bright and seems hopeless. A man gets on the train at the last minute, and he starts talking about "love." He is looking for a woman to date, and talking about his life, his salary, what he values and so on. Another man on the train makes fun of the man, but he did not stop. The woman's face gets brighter as she listens to his story. The man says that "if you would like to date me, please get off at the next station." The woman gets off the train with a happy feeling, but the man tells her that it is a performance, maybe to get money.
This movie gives a shocking ending, and I liked it. I can see how the woman's emotion changes even though she does not say any words. The plot is straightforward but unpredictable, so it is interesting.
The Mass of Men (2012)
Surprise and making the audience think
This short film starts with the record of the surveillance camera. It is a bit hard to catch what is going on there, but I can guess that some accident is there. People run from the building, and there is a man who looks like the main character.
Then, the time is back before the accident, and the man is looking for his new job. In the UK, getting a job is so strict, and people have to prove how many hours they spend in a week to get a job. In addition to that, they cannot be late for the meeting. If they are late, the situation that they get the job will be harder. At that day, the man is late, but a woman who is working at the company doesn't notice that the man is late. The man is joking and says he is a bit late. They start a conversation about the man's new job, but the woman is harsh about the fact that the man is late. Their conversation is getting tense because the man is asked to sign on the document that the man is late for the meeting, which makes the man hard to work again. Suddenly, a man with a nail shot appears and shoots the woman with nails. The woman finds a nail on her chest with her blood. The man keeps shooting, and the company is in panic. Everyone runs away, but the man who is looking for a new job tries to delete the document and data that the man is late for the meeting. He is in the situation to make a big decision, save the woman or save his life, and he chooses to save himself by deleting the proof. However, the surveillance camera records all sequences.
The short film gives some surprises, and it is a bit dark, but it is thrilling and tells the audience about the real situation for the job seeking in the UK.
A Moment (2012)
Beautiful
This is the film that makes the viewers think about a lot of things. It is a non-dialog film, and there are four main characters. One is a white male who is being apart or lost his loved one. There is an Asian female who is an actor but struggle with her life. Another Asian male is a chef, but he cannot forget his father who passed away. A Japanese male has a colleague who works under him, and they are not getting along with. Each of them has concerns in their life, and the situations they struggle were well described even without the dialog. Since there are no dialogs, the viewers imagine what happened in the characters' life and imagine their emotions.
There is a depiction that the clock showed 14:46. There were no dialogs so I cannot know the exact reason why there was that depiction, but I thought it is related to the earthquake that happened in Japan on March 11th, 2011. Many people passed away due to the earthquake, so I thought that there are some connections to the characters' situation and the whole short film implies the connections between people. It was visually beautiful and touching film for me.
Gasman (1997)
Nice complication
This short film is about a girl, who is nine years old in Glasgow, with her parents and younger brother. It is Christmas day, and the girl, her brother and their father go out for the Christmas party. As they walk to the party, they meet two children, who are the same age as them and a woman who seems like their mother. The father of the main character touches the hair of the woman seems like they have some relation. The main character girl, the brother, the two children and the father go to the Christmas party together. The main girl and a child get along and spend time together at the party, but a child sits on the father's lap and the main girl jealous because the child says that he is her father. There is a small fight, but after that, they leave the party. A woman is waiting at the same spot that they meet first, and two children go back to their mother. The fact is, the father of the main character has another family, and the main girl learns her complicated family structure on Christmas day.
The movie does not mention clear fact through dialog, but it implies a complicated situation, so I enjoy watching the film.
Father and Daughter (2000)
Ending is great
This is a beautiful short film about the bond of a father and his daughter. The father leaves the daughter after they hugged so tight and he left by using a boat. The daughter keeps going to the shore where her father left, but he never returns. The time she had spent by waiting her father was beautifully described in the short film.
After many years, the daughter checked the shore as usual. The water of the river is gone, and she starts walking towards the river. She walked for a while, and she found her father's boat. She could see her father finally, the depiction could be fantasy, but it was so touching and beautiful.
By watching the depiction that the daughter kept visiting the place where she saw her father last time by bike, I thought she really liked her father and she wanted to see him so bad. I could see the affection and bond of family and it was beautifully described in the film.
There is no dialogue, but thanks to that, the viewers can imagine from the pictures and think about the film individually.
Three Days in Kamakura (2012)
New type of family movie
This movie is about a couple, a man from England and a woman from Japan, and the life about them. They are living together, but they cannot get their child. One day, the man, David, who is working at an English school takes a kid because his mother does not show up to pick him up. David and his wife came up with the idea to adopt him because his father is from America and his mother is from Japan. They finally reach the point to call the police and let the kid back his home with his father.
The outline is well written, and all the contexts are related complicatedly. I still cannot get the reason why Ms. Yamada acts in that way in the movie. I cannot get the reason to put her in the movie and how she gives meaning to the movie.
However, over all, this movie shows the bond of family, and it implies that the definition of "family" varies among people and it is also a good thing. People give meaning to the concept of family, and it is the beauty of that.
Born with It (2015)
Blurred ending
This short movie is about discrimination based on people's background and appearance. The main character is a boy who is half Japanese and half black. He is moved to the rural area from Tokyo, and since local people there are not familiar with foreigners and black people, the boy is discriminated because of his looking. His classmates keep saying such as "why can you speak Japanese?" "You must have AIDS. Don't come here." The boy starts shutting his mind to other people and losing his confidence. Others bully him, and he runs away from the school. He talks about his mother that he is bullied by saying he is AIDS because he is black, and they go to a hospital together. The doctor tells them that the boy is healthy. With the proof, he goes to the school to tell his classmates that he is healthy, and opening the door with hesitation was the last clip of the movie.
It shows the discrimination issue in Japan, especially in rural areas, so about this point, I think it is a good movie. However, it is doubtful that elementally school students know about the disease and discriminate others based on their knowledge. In addition to that, the ending is not the way that I expect. I assume that he tells his classmates and overcome his problems, but the ending was a little bit blurred.
The Crush (2010)
Exciting
This movie is about a boy in elementary school with his teacher. The teacher is a beautiful young lady, and the boy likes her so much. He gives her a ring, and she puts it to her left ring finger. Seems like that she does not take it seriously, but she responds to him very kindly. One day, the boy sees her on the street with her fiancé. The boy is shocked and is very sad. At night, the boy sees his dad hides a gun in the shelf. The boy asks the teacher's fiancé to fight, while the guy does not take the offer seriously. The boy asked the guy to come to a place to fight, and the boy pulls out the gun. At first, the guy does not think that it is real, but as time goes, the guy and also the teacher who is watching the fight start thinking that the gun is real. The boy keeps saying to the guy that you do not deserve the teacher, and since the guy thinks the gun is real and starts to frighten, he starts saying his true feeling about the teacher. It is about that the guy is not serious about the engagement with the teacher. The teacher gets so angry but the situation is in tense, and the boy is about to shoot the guy. The guy shoots, but it was a toy gun. The depiction is very real, and I cannot recognize that the gun is real or not until the guy is not dead. The teacher finds out that the guy is not the best man and walks away with the boy.
This starts with the very pure feeling of the boy to the teacher, and since he is a kid, he takes everything seriously and the things get bigger and bigger. It is a very good short movie that makes the audiences' heart beating and finishes with the happy end.
The Lunch Date (1989)
Fun surprise
This short film is about a white lady, who is selfish, looks rich, and racist. She tries to get on a train and is at a station. In the station, there are a lot of black men who are begging for money. She is in a hurry, and she drops her bag, and her stuff spreads to the ground. A black man helps her to pick her stuff up, but she is so intimidating and harsh to him. She runs to the train, but she misses it. With the feeling of disappointment, she goes into a café and orders a salad. She gets her seat but realizes that she needs a fork then she goes back to the counter to get one. Once she gets back to her seat, there is a black man eating a salad. She gets so mad and tells him "That's my salad!" But the man does not stop eating. She stares at him and starts eating the salad from his plate. After the awkward time, the black man leaves his seat suddenly and comes back to the seats with two cups of coffee. They do not talk a lot, but the atmosphere is much better than the very first one. The black man leaves the seat, and after a while, the lady realizes that she cannot find her belongings. She walks around the café, and she finally finds that she is at the wrong table. She cannot help laughing about what she has done.
This film implies that the lady's mind is changed thanks to the event at the café, but there is a depiction that she ignores another black people even after she leaves the café. So it means that it is a bit hard to change people mind that quick. It is like a comedy, and I like it.