This was another recommendation from our cinephile friend, a Chinese film so obscure that it’s almost impossible to get any information on it from the English-speaking net. The two directors Zhou Shen and Liu Lu seem to be unknowns, along with the entire cast. As it is billed as a comedy, I initially despaired at being able to get anything out of its sense of humor, but frivolous poster aside, this is actually a film that gets very dark.
I really loved the character’s debut in Captain America: Civil War but my initial impression of his solo debut from its trailer wasn’t that great. Like everyone else however, I was shocked by its success. The critical reception it received is perhaps understandable given its status as a black superhero film but its box office returns are amazing as well. This meant that I did have to watch and having done so I am sad to report that I found it to be overrated.
The adorable animal that is threatened by big business only to be saved by its loving family is a genre in itself and not one that is particularly appealing to me. They are basically children’s films. Still, Boon Joon-ho has a track record that is good enough to give him the benefit of the doubt and I rather like the idea of watching more Hollywood stars working under his direction.
We’ve previously watched director Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan and loved it so getting recommendations for this one from friends and The Economist wasn’t really necessary. Though internationally successful, Leviathan made the director unpopular with the Russian government especially since he had accepted government money to make it. Loveless seems to have been mostly made with foreign funds but at least its production wasn’t banned.
This marks the third film we’ve watched by Seijun Suzuki, surely one of the most unusual directors Japan has ever produced. Unlike Branded to Kill and Tokyo Drifter however this one is not about gangsters even if it does star Joe Shishido with his famous, artificially-enhanced cheekbones. Instead it’s about a group of prostitutes in Tokyo immediately following Japan’s defeat in the Second World War.
This is another unlooked for small budget independent film that I knew about only due to being recommended by our cinephile friend. Director Trey Edward Shults is still so new at it that he has to boast about working for Terrence Malick on his Wikipedia page. No big names among the cast either though a couple of faces may be familiar.
So we’ve watched Indian versions of popular genres like comedies and action movies, but I do believe that this is the first time we’ve seen an Indian thriller. This one even distinguishes itself by having a female protagonist and takes itself so seriously that there are no song and dance routines.