Only Yesterday is one of Studio Ghibli’s earliest films but it received an official U.S. release only last year on the occasion of its 25th anniversary, giving it a new burst of attention. Since I’d never watched I added to our list and I guess I’ll probably eventually work my way through the rest of the studio’s early works someday. This one was directed by Isao Takahata and loosely based on a manga.
This is a documentary with an insanely high Rotten Tomatoes rating and was cited by multiple critics last year as one of the year’s best films, so naturally it was added to our watch list. It was made by Kirsten Johnson, who seems to be more of a cinematographer than a director. She asks that this film, compiled from footage of other documentaries that she has worked on plus personal videos of her and her family, be considered as her memoir.
So our regular cinephile friend had nothing but high praise for this little known Chinese film, making it a must watch. Unfortunately finding a copy of it anywhere proved almost impossible and I had to eventually get it from that same friend. When I finally sat down to watch it, I found it abstruse with its highly abbreviated Chinese speech almost indecipherable. Even my wife ended up giving up on understanding it. I eventually had to look up the plot on Wikipedia to work everything out.
I’ve gotten so used to flying Air Asia in recent years that I’d almost forgotten that one can actually watch films during flights. I picked this to watch during a recent flight but was not quite able to finish it plus of course watching this on such a small screen isn’t the best experience. Still I’d watched until the end of the climactic fight and it’s hardly a great film to begin with, so I think I have enough to write something about it.
This British drama made the rounds at film festivals and rated mentions from a number of critics, but it didn’t exactly blow people away. It was directed by Terence Davies, a director unknown to me, and is an adaptation of famous Scottish novel of the same name by Lewis Grassic Gibbon.
So here’s yet another South Korean horror film. This was a commercial and a critical success both within its country of origin and internationally. It was made by a director who is unknown to us, Na Hong-jin, but he has earned some plaudits. Unfortunately while there’s no doubt that it is very well made, both my wife and myself were frustrated by how little sense the story seems to make.
I probably got this as a pick from some critic’s list or other but I remember where exactly. It’s a low budget film that stars some of the regulars in such independent productions and is made by a director, John Carchietta, that I’ve never heard of before. Unfortunately I found nothing particularly noteworthy about this film that elevates it above its humble origins and was overall disappointed.