Based on how much both of us liked Right Now, Wrong Then, I had high hopes for this latest film by its director Hong Sang-soo. It also features the same actress Kim Min-hee as the lead as well as many other familiar faces from the earlier film. Unfortunately neither of us liked this one, finding it self-indulgent and almost incomprehensible.
This is an American independent film that was a recommendation from our cinephile friend, an unusual one for him as it falls square into the romantic comedy genre. What sets it apart is its interracial pairing, a Pakistani man and a white American girl, which even in our enlightened times is probably still worth a raised eyebrow.
So I read about this in The Economist and thought that it might be a good idea of watch one of these as it’s considered a classic of Chinese cinema even though of course it’s explicitly Communist Party propaganda. Unlike most other films of its genre and period this one is very highly regarded outside of China and was made by Xie Jin, a member of the so-called Third Generation of Chinese filmmakers.
It’s purely by coincidence that we watched two films with such similar titles in the same week. I don’t really read serious literature and even less poetry but if I can be said to like any poet, it should be Emily Dickinson. Since my wife usually likes biographies of writers, especially female ones, I thought this would be a good bet for both of us. Unfortunately even the prose of the ordinary dialogue in here might as well be the English equivalent of Classical Chinese and I’m afraid my wife got very little out of this film.
This was directed by the same person who made Our Little Sister, Hirokazu Kore-eda, apparently at the same time as well during breaks in the production of the better known film. Unlike it however this was not adapted from a manga but was written by the director himself based on his own mother. I would consider it a more mature, more serious work.
We went to the cinema for this on the strength of recommendations on Broken Forum and its high Rotten Tomatoes rating. Also, I suppose it’s amusing that it was made by the husband and wife team of John Krasinski and Emily Blunt. I expected it to be a horror film, but it’s also something of a science-fiction post-apocalyptic film. While it’s competently made and has a well developed atmosphere, it’s many flaws prevent me from being truly a fan.
I added this to the list after being blown away by Paul Newman’s performance in Cool Hand Luke. It made me realize that I’ve never really watched any of the work by the legendary actor. This pick has the added benefit that it’s quite a famous film and even stars Robert Redford in his prime as well. I thought that having these actors side by side would make for a fantastic combination and I wasn’t disappointed.