Here’s a South Korean film from a director, Lee Su-jin, whose work we’ve never seen before and is in fact his directorial debut. This one is somewhat difficult to judge as it plays up the mystery of what it’s actually about and keeps it up right until the end. Yet since it was based on real events in South Korea, the public could not have not known what it’s about. How this affects domestic audiences and international ones would therefore be very different as the former would instantly recognize what is being referenced while the latter would be genuinely mystified just as we were.
I’m taking a little easier for this month’s set of Blender project as I make the full transition to version 2.8. This is actually quite a chore as so much has changed. I regularly have to Google for how to do common tasks that I’m already very familiar with in 2.79, such as how to add reference images, or check normals or set the origin point of meshes etc. It’s especially annoying when I’m checking out YouTube tutorials and the old ones refer to settings that have now changed places. I’ll get it eventually but it takes time and practice.
This is one of those films that really need its year of release appended to its title because it’s been made and remade so many times. I suppose the original 1868 novel by Louisa May Alcott is just that beloved. In fact yet another adaptation is due to be released later this year, directed by Greta Gerwig. Still, for now at least this 1994 version featuring multiple performers who would later become very well known, should be the standard bearer.
I suppose it must be documentary week as here is another back to back. I don’t really know of Yayoi Kusama but like everyone else I’ve seen her distinctive polka dot art before without realizing who made them. This is a biography of her life and career by first-time director Heather Lenz and quite clearly was made in cooperation with Kusama herself. It’s a well-made and comprehensive account but considering how flamboyant a personality Kusama herself is, this documentary feels oddly straightforward and conventional.
We watch a pretty healthy mix of documentaries amidst feature films in our cinematic diet but it occurs to me that almost all of them are English language ones. This one is a Taiwanese documentary by first time director Hsieh Chin-lin and its subject is the New Taiwan cinema of the 1980s itself. We’re a long way from watching everything from that era but I think we’ve watched enough that we’re not hopelessly ignorant and can recognize enough of the clips included here to make going through this overview a worthwhile experience.
This fantasy novel was a recommendation that I saw on Broken Forum and is a very new release. It’s also the debut novel of its author Breanna Teintze. As usual it’s billed as the first book of a series but I happily found it to be very self-contained. The main plot is completely resolved in this book with no real loose ends so subsequent books will likely be about the further adventures of its main character. That’s a good thing as while this book is not bad, it’s nowhere good enough to interest me in reading any sequels.
Daniel Day-Lewis is one of those actors who have a reputation for being so completely committed to their roles that anecdotes of their intensity border on being obsessive-compulsive. This is apparently his final performance as he has announced his retirement, but he’s not dead yet so who knows. It’s also his second collaboration with director Paul Thomas Anderson. Considering that the first one resulted in the immensely good There Will Be Blood, it adds up to many good reasons to watch this one.
