Here we go back to Tsai Ming-liang second feature film which my wife has watched before but I haven’t. It’s shocking to see how young Lee Kang-sheng looks here and I even noted how rough his acting is. He must have picked up the craft over the course of performing for Tsai’s films. This film also has more of a plot than the director’s later films and isn’t as artfully crafted. The themes of alienation and the strong sense of homoeroticism are plain to see, making it one of Tsai’s more lucid films. I can see why it caused a stir upon its release but it doesn’t touch the heights of sublimity he achieves in other films.
A film that includes ‘invisible hand’ in the title is sure to at least aspire to be economically literate and that’s so rare that it’s a must watch for me. The premise is one that I’ve never seen before either. Earth has effectively been conquered by an alien civilization, but through economic, not military means. I have quibbles over exactly how well the aliens are meant to understand human psychology and culture but on the whole I’m very pleased by how this turned out. It has only middling reviews however, leading me to suspect that critics aren’t happy with its very depressing outlook for humanity or don’t understand the economic thinking it is trying to distil.
This should be the last film we have to watch by Andrei Tarkovsky and good thing too because my wife isn’t eager for any more of his work. It’s probably the most autobiographical of his films and even features his wife Larisa Tarkovskaya and his mother Maria Vishnyakova in supporting roles. One can tell how much of himself he put into it and how intense his feelings are. Yet there’s effectively no plot, no biographic details of his real life and hence nothing solid to hang the emotions on. To us, most of it is just incomprehensible and that goes even for dedicated fans and critics.
Like everyone else I loved Breaking Bad but the quick development of this prequel series rather turned me off so I never intended to watch it. When it finally ended after six seasons however, the consensus seemed to be that it’s actually a worthy show in its own right. I thought I’d give the first season at least a shot and so far we’re down for more of it. It’s a lot funnier than we thought it would be and though it lacks the wow factor of drug dealing, the firm focus on legal work keeps it intelligent and interesting.
This is officially the very first Studio Ghibli so it makes for a nice circle to complete our tour of their filmography with it. Unfortunately this is also one of their weakest ones. The early part of the film is downright boring, with violence that carries no weight and no clear theme apart from Hayao Miyazaki’s characteristic love of all flying things. Things improve once the characters actually reach Laputa and the film falls in the more familiar pattern that later Ghibli films would solidify. Still it’s never great and I hate how Sheeta is a passive princess character who keeps needing rescue.
Chantal Akerman’s reputation made a huge leap a couple of years ago when her Jeanne Dielman shot to the top of the polls of the greatest films of all time. As I’ve never seen any of her work, I thought I’d opt for a gentler introduction to her style with what is ostensibly a documentary about New York from the perspective of a Frenchwoman. It still isn’t an easy watch at all as there is no structure and the only dialogue is the reading of letters from the director’s home in France. I kind of just let both the images and the words of the letters wash over as there is nothing concrete to hold on to. It was fascinating see the New York of the era and emotions of the director’s mother comes through strongly, but I still had a hard time being fully engaged with it.
Cinephiles sometimes say that they don’t make love stories any more and that’s somewhat true. The issue is that no one really believes in the idealistic romances of the past and so many of the classic romantic films are now judged to be problematic. So along comes this Korean-American film which on the face of it seems to be about two star-crossed lovers who are destined to be together since they were children. Thankfully, this film is wiser and more mature than that as it recognizes how the decisions that we make in our lives change who we are. I dislike how it makes the world feel so small with its laser focus on the two main characters but I have to admit that it’s a great update on the traditional love story that fits with our times.
