Our cinephile friend cautiously recommended this to us, noting that while it’s not a great film overall, it has its moments as an action movie. It’s certainly a high profile release, being directed by Tsui Hark and more importantly, I believe it’s culturally significant to the Chinese. It’s an update to a classic 1970s film that was itself based on a novelized account of a real event in 1946. According to Wikipedia, it might well be one of the most well known stories in China.
So I think I got this from Marginal Revolution but I only realized that it’s a remake until after watching it. It might have been a better idea to watch the original Malayalam-language film from 2013 that won a whole slew of awards even if this Hindi-language version had a wider audience and earned more money.
My wife added this to our list, probably because it’s been a while since we’ve watched an animated film. I was inclined to dislike it however as it was by Cartoon Saloon, the same studio which made The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea. I didn’t like both of them as I felt that they were first and foremost children’s films with no real punch in them. I am pleased to report that the same cannot be said for The Breadwinner which is so hard hitting that it isn’t suitable viewing for children at all.
So I don’t recall seeing lead actress Blythe Danner in anything even though she has had quite a storied career. It turns out that she is the mother of Gwyneth Paltrow and her performance in this film is great. Brett Haley’s direction here is solid as well and does an admirable job of expounding on its theme of relationships as one grows older.
So this is an unusual documentary made by two persons: Agnès Varda and JR. Varda is a director of some reknown with a body of work that mostly predates the French New Wave though I’ve never watched any of it. JR is a photographer and artist who refuses to reveal his real name and apparently wears his hat and dark sunglasses combo non-stop. This film is a sort of travelogue as they make their way through rural France in a specially designed van.
As my list of films has been running down, I’ve been lowering standards and adding less significant works. No Way Out is frequently cited as one of Sean Young’s most memorable performances and was very well reviewed in its time. It turns out that I must have watched this long ago as I have a very clear memory of the scene with computer processing the image but it was good to rewatch it anyway as I certainly did not understand the twist at the end at that time.
Leaving aside the rarity and hence novelty value of a film about Burmese emigrants, I don’t think I could resist checking out something named after the famous poem by Rudyard Kipling. It was made by Midi Z who was born in Myanmar but is now Taiwanese. Its most notable star is Kai Ko who shot to fame due to You Are the Apple of My Eye but subsequently fell into disgrace after being caught in a drugs bust.