Genre: Drama/Biography
Director: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Shannon, Nicholas Hoult, Tom Holland, Matthew Macfadyen, Katherine Waterston, Tuppence Middleton
Runtime: 1 hr 47 mins
Rating: PG (Some Disturbing Scenes)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures
Official Website:
Opening Day: 17 October 2019
Synopsis: America, the late 19th century. Two brilliant men, Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse, conduct a fierce rivalry that will light up the country. Edison, famous, iconoclastic and unwaveringly wed to his direct current system of electricity, begins a battle with publicity-shy industrialist Westinghouse, and his system of alternating current. The rivalry begins in his lab at Menlo Park, New Jersey, and spills onto the country’s front pages into a bitter court case. The two struggle via fair means and foul to win the War of the Currents. Hostilities boil and lives are lost as the rivalry plays out on a thrilling, world-changing scale. As the two vie for the right to power the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, the arrival of an otherworldly Serb inventor called Nikola Tesla may finally tip the balance…
Movie Review:
If you’ve read up a little bit about this project, then you’ll know that this was one of Weinstein’s last work before his entire film career and company collapsed from the sexual allegations. The Current War, with its polished production and high-profile casting premiered to a small (and unimpressed) crowd at Toronto International Film Festival in 2017 and received lacklustre reviews.
Two years later, after several change of hands and a re-edit by director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, the film is finally out for a commercial release, but it would seem the spark (if it at all existed) has all but died.
Benedict Cumberbatch is Thomas Edison, and on the cusp of changing the world as everyone knows it with his latest invention - the electric lightbulb. Hot on his heels is the enterprising George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon), a dignified businessman who is as determined as he is shrewd. He buys up patents for dynamos and machinery and leapfrogs Edison with his own system, in order to claim first-movers advantage.
The big difference between the two is not only in personality, but also in their systems. Thomas, a territorial inventor ho wants his name on all that he creates, is a harsh boss and absent husband and father. Cumberbatch plays this with contained nerves and a zeal that frays his demeanor as the competition heats up. He leads the campaign with his Direct Current (DC) system.
George on the other hand, is charismatic and likeable, but establishes his business acumen with the doggedness of a bloodhound and the ferocity of a bulldog. Using his reputation as a legendary oil and gas merchant, he challenges Thomas with his Alternating Current (AC) build.
As the two fight to win bids from cities who adopt their systems, Nikola Tesla enters the picture and forms a triangular relationship that merges at one point or another. Arguably the most interesting of the three, Nicholas Hoult plays the suffering genius who gets crushed under the other two industry heavyweights.
The Current War gains a lot of gravity from the stellar cast. Tom Holland, Katherine Waterston, Tuppence Middleton, Matthew Macfadyen and Stanley Townsend all play significant roles in the script, from spirited wives to loyal assistants, but the script never gives them credence to their roles, and they become moral compasses (like the ‘ol angel and devil routine) to guide our visionary trio to their goals.
Because the film has gone through so much filters, it’s hard to define who’s fault it might be, but the end product clearly fails to be identifiable as a distinctive piece of work.
It feels frenetically put together, and edited to keep us breathless through the film - almost like you would, distracting a baby with a shiny, fast-moving toy. So the end result is almost an exceptional long film trailer, delivered with spinning camera work and an overworked soundtrack.
No doubt there’s an attempt at some sort of an emotional appeal at parts (spoiler alert: someone’s wife dies midway) but these feel hurried along like inconvenient plot devices and thus end up empty on all fronts.
There’s plenty of visual representation of the competition between Thomas and George, but the scale of the investment and risk is reduced mainly to the red and yellow lightbulbs as they take over states. It’s an odd product - like an instagramable prop used ad nauseum, and soon loses all meaning.
The Current War may have struck as an exciting premise between innovative giants, but this docu-fiction project is nowhere nearly as great. And even if the main quarrel is between the two AC and DC systems, the film barely touches on any technical aspect here, which sadly places the audience in limbo on either’s goodness. After all of that, I STILL have no idea what’s the difference between AC and DC. Someone help me out here please.
Movie Rating:
(Electrifying this is not. The pacing is consciously excitable to the point of being annoying, and all sense of story is lost in a blur of dramatic camera work and desperate editing)
Review by Morgan Awyong
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'BIRDS OF PREY' GETS A FIRST TRAILERPosted on 02 Oct 2019 |
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JACKIE CHAN'S LATEST FILM VANGUARD RELEASING 30 SEP 2020!Posted on 02 Sep 2020 |
Genre: War/Thriller
Director: Sam Mendes
Cast: George MacKay, Dean-Charles Chapman, Mark Strong, Andrew Scott, Richard Madden, Claire Duburcq, Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch
Runtime: 1 hr 59 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Violence and Coarse Language)
Released By: UIP
Official Website:
Opening Day: 9 January 2020
Synopsis: At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers, Schofield (Captain Fantastic's George MacKay) and Blake (Game of Thrones' Dean-Charles Chapman) are given a seemingly impossible mission. In a race against time, they must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers-Blake's own brother among them.
Movie Review:
‘1917’ is built on a simple premise: two young British soldiers dispatched on foot across no man’s land in France during World War I, to hand-deliver a message that could save the lives of 1,600 fellow comrades of the Second Battalion. These men have been on the tail of their German enemies, whom they think have retreated, but have really set up an ambush, cutting all lines of communication so that their prey would have no means of hearing back from British intelligence.
The war against which it is based may be real, but the story isn’t, conceived by director Sam Mendes from the stories he had heard from his grandfather and co-written with Krysty Wilson-Cairns. That it is designed as a time-sensitive mission is wholly intentional – just as both these soldiers, lance corporals Schofield (George MacKay) and Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman), must race against time to ensure that the letter from British HQ reaches Colonel Mackenzie (Benedict Cumberbatch) before the break of dawn, so too must the plotting be consistent with the audacious technique which Mendes has chosen to film the movie.
Together with legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins, Mendes has structured ‘1917’ as two hour-long single takes, one that takes place during the day and one after the sun has gone down. To be sure, it could not and was not shot that way, but it would require that Mendes film in extremely long takes and make as few editing cuts as possible in order to achieve that cinematic effect. The intent, ostensibly, is to illustrate the chaos and horror of war in visceral fashion, while ensuring that we remain connected to these two heroes as they go about their perilous mission not knowing what lies ahead.
Is it a gimmick? That perhaps is the most fundamental question; indeed, how much you love the movie depends on whether you embrace Mendes’ strategy behind the camera. It is no doubt a terrific accomplishment, following our leading duo as they trek through craggy terrain littered with deserted fortifications, sun-bleached human skeletons and dead horses ringed by haloes of flies. Much thought and effort has gone into the very basics of blocking and camerawork, and the visual choreography casts an undeniable spell as it weaves seamlessly between close-ups and wide shots, the latter to let the stark backdrop of war come into sombre focus.
But there is a paradoxical effect: what is intended to immerse you in the story also pulls you out of it by being a character of the film itself, not only because you’d inevitably be looking out for its ‘hidden edits’, but also because it compels you to admire its triumphant undertaking. That said, to simply dismiss it as a gimmick does not do justice to the fact that it truly does bring a palpable sense of intimacy to the storytelling, letting us feel keenly the fear and tension our heroes would have felt every single step on the battlefield. The method also lends immediacy, especially during the various set pieces where our heroes confront real and present danger.
Like a burnished action thriller, the mission comprises a series of carefully composed set pieces – including one where Blake and Schofield encounter a German biplane which has plummeted from the sky; another where Schofield has to cross a downed bridge while being shot at by a sniper; and another where Schofield is chased on all directions by German soldiers through the ruins of a bombed-out town and flings himself into a fast-moving river. There is no mistaking how harrowing it must be for these two soldiers, not with the camera constantly trained on them and their view of what goes on around them.
Of course, those knowing either Mendes and/or Deakins will know that both are prone to poeticism, and true enough, ‘1917’ contains deliberately crafted moments of respite and reflection. It is no coincidence that the movie opens with Blake and Schofield lounging around a tree killing time, or that both of them make their way through a field of chopped-down cherry trees at one point, or that Mark Strong’s wise captain advises Schofield to beware of Colonel Mackenzie because “some men just want the fight”. And in his most obvious contemplation on the cost of war, Mendes choreographs a tender encounter between Schofield and a frightened young woman (Claire Duburcq) in hiding who is looking after a baby she had found in the rubble.
That the film succeeds in conveying the terror of war is also credit to MacKay, in what is probably the breakout performance of the year. Compared to Chapman, McKay’s character has the greater trajectory in the movie, and the little-known British actor impresses thoroughly by moving persuasively from disillusionment, to grief, and finally to grit over the course of the movie. Chapman too conveys keenly the shattering of innocence, and together, these actors own the film, despite the brief appearances of such stars in the British film industry as Colin Firth, Andrew Scott, Richard Madden, Strong and Cumberbatch.
‘1917’ is undeniably a towering cinematic achievement for Mendes, Deakins, editor Lee Smith, production designer Dennis Gassner and composer Thomas Newman, whose combined talent turn this unique single-take war movie into one of the quintessential films of the genre. Yet it is not an unqualified achievement, because the showy complexity of the method creates artifice that pulls you away from the authenticity of the proceedings. Nonetheless, it is a powerful portrait of sacrifice and heroism amidst the nightmarish reality of trench warfare, as well as a compelling anti-war fable. Because of, and in spite of its technique, ‘1917’ is one of the must-see motion pictures of the year on the big screen.
Movie Rating:
(Intimate, immediate and immersive, '1917' is an impresssive visual fear, a compelling anti-war fable and a thrilling war movie all at once)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Drama
Director: Chen Kaige, Zhang Yibai, Guan Hu, Xue Xiaolu, Xu Zheng, Ning Hao, Wen Muye
Cast: Huang Bo, Zhang Yi, Wu Jing, Ma Yili, Du Jiang, Ge You Ge, Liu Haoran, Chen Feiyu, Song Jia
Runtime: 2 hrs 38 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: mm2 Entertainment
Official Website:
Opening Day: 3 October 2019
Synopsis: An anthology film consists of 7 short stories directed by several different directors, which are based on 7 moments since the foundation of the People's Republic of China.
Movie Review:
China deserves nothing less for its 70th birthday. In what some may feel is a gimmicky approach, this film uses historical events throughout the People's Republic of China(PRC) in its founding in October 1949. But it works so well that this reviewer can feel the patriotism from the film’s first frame to the last moments of the end credits.
This gift for the nation is competently made, featuring seven short films helmed by notable Chinese directors, and headed by the award winning veteran Chen Kaige. Some of the momentous events covered include the 1949 ceremony presided by Mao Zedong to mark the founding of the People’s Republic, the detonation of China’s first atomic bomb, the opening of the Beijing Olympics, and the landing of the Shenzhou 11 spacecraft.
Naturally, you can’t expect all seven segments to fare equally. The appeal factor is higher in some shorts than the others. In particular, Xu Zheng’s work about how a young boy must secure a TV satellite properly so that his townsfolk can watch the Chinese women’s volleyball team play in the 1984 Olympics is especially memorable. The casting is perfect, the lighthearted approach is engaging, and the message of sacrificing oneself for the good of others stands out adorably. Another segment which made an impression is Ning Hao’s humorous contribution about how a taxi driver (the ever reliable Ge You) scores a ticket to the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, and his encounter with a scruffy boy from Sichuan.
Then there are the ones that cast a serious tone that some viewers may appreciate. Guan Hu’s opening segment features Huang Bo as an engineer who must ensure that the automatic flag raising mechanism works before Chairman Mao takes the stage. Zhang Yibai’s film about a scientist working on China’s first atomic bomb is heavy hearted, and the protagonist’s bittersweet relationship with his lover is solemnly depicted. With the recent political unrest in Hong Kong, Xue Xiaolu’s contribution about the preparations for the return of city from British rule to Chinain 1997 is poignant, especially with the involvement of actors like Simon Yam and Kara Wai.
Chen directs a film himself, and gets the crew to film in the vast deserts of Mongolia, where the Shenzhou 11 landed. The story about a pair of brothers witnessing the event is quietly heartbreaking, and the appearance of Tian Zhuang Zhuang as a father figure to the two boys is a nice touch. The film ends with Wen Muye’s film about a female fighter pilot who takes a backseat to ensure that the 2015 military parade to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War is run smoothly.
Besides some of the abovementioned actors, the film features a star studded cast. It is a project that you want to be involved in if you are planning for a long term career in Chinese showbiz. And everyone delivers a credible performance. Some of the faces you’d recognise include Jiang Wu, Hu Jun, Tong Dawei, Zhang Yi, Zhou Dongyu, Wu Jing and Liu Haoran.
It is nice to see a film from ordinary people's perspectives, and see how their dedication are part of the country’s historical moments. This is a film that will stir your emotions, and probably have you embracing the Chinese culture and history.
Movie Rating:
(A well produced film that features a star studded Chinese cast, and more importantly, stirs patriotic emotions)
Review by John Li
Genre: Romance/Comedy
Director: Park Yong-jip
Cast: Kwon Sang-woo, Lee Jung-hyeon, Lee Jong-hyuk, Sung Dong-il, Jung Sang- hoon
Runtime: 1 hr 52 mins
Rating: PG (Some Sexual References)
Released By: mm2 Entertainment
Official Website:
Opening Day: 21 November 2019
Synopsis: After the embarrassing divorce ceremony, Hyun-woo returns to the single life that he dreamed of and hopes to enjoy his freedom forever. Just six months later, Sun- young comes back into his life as the love interest of Sang-chul, an old friend from high school. The funny reality of Hyun-woo, who struggles to escape from Sun-young’s sudden return and being unable to ignore her when she is in need, evokes empathy in real-life situations.
Movie Review:
Singaporeans first got to know Kwon Sang-woo via his hit drama series, Stairway to Heaven and movies liked Running Wild, Almost Love and 71 Into the Fire. He was indeed a huge star back in 2003 to 2009 until his self-imposed hiatus and other younger Korean stars liked Lee Min-ho and Rain overshadowed him. But Kwon looks like he is back in the limelight in this romantic comedy Love, Again and miraculously, he doesn’t seem to age a bit and still as fit as ever.
In the opening scene, we see Hyeon-woo (Sang-woo) and Seon-yeong (Lee Jung-hyun from The Battleship Island), a supposedly married couple having a minor argument. Shortly in the next scene, we see the two in the midst of a divorce ceremony. And fast forward six months later, Seon-yeong is still craving for Hyeon-woo’s attention and care even though the latter prefers to move on and have a clean break with his ex-wife until a drunk incident causes Seon-yeong to fall in love with an old classmate of Hyeon-woo, veterinarian Sang-choel (Lee Jong-hyuk).
Love, Again is first and foremost a romance comedy but also a zany study on two similar-minded individuals who practically can’t live without the presence of each other came to a divorce only to realize it might be a bad thing after all. This sounds like a predictable Korean drama or a feeble attempt at a weepfest. In some situations however, cliched or foreseeable might not a be a bad thing after all.
Director and writer Park Yong-jib (Miss Gold Digger) generally keeps the entire pacing light and breezy. The humor and exchanges between the squabbling Hyeon-woo and Seon-yeong for sure is contagious as they argue over the smallest thing. Who is the victim in their relationship? Is it Hyeon-woo who is great at marketing underwear but neglects the wife he married? Or Seon-yeong who works as a movie translator, dreams of a loving life but has a terrible temper? Is Sang-choel going to be the one for Seon-yeong in the end?
Suffice to say, there are formulaic tropes that simply can’t be shaken off and Love, Again gets a bit wobbly and draggy in the last quarter as the movie starts to flashback to the couple’s happier times before the ending. Fortunately, Kwang Sang-woo is matched beautifully with Lee Jung-hyun. Their screen presence and chemistry is so appealing that you are going to have a ball of time with them despite the so-so proceedings. Lee Jung-hyun who actually worked with Sang-woo way back in 2004 in Once Upon in Highschool makes audiences root for his kind, honest veterinarian character. Then there is veteran Sung Dong-il (Metamorphosis) portraying Hyeon-woo’s no-nonsense superior and Park Kyung-hye as the overzealous Nurse Kim who provides a few moments of comic-relief.
Love, Again is a rom-com that never really take any chances yet manages to pack in a sizeable amount of fun and tears throughout. Those who missed Kwang Sang-woo on the big screen will find that he is back in form and his comic-timing (a genre which he hardly touches) is near perfect. Though the flick doesn’t reach its full potential, choosing to remain as fluffy as possible, those desiring an easy time in theatres won’t mind the company of this quarrelsome couple.
MOVIE RATING:
(For a guy who normally shy away from rom-com and paint-by-number dramas, Love, Again comes recommended if you are not expecting too much)
Review by Linus Tee
Genre: War/Action
Director: Xiao Feng
Cast: Bruce Willis, Liu Ye, Song Seung-Heon, William Chan, Nicholas Tse, Fan Bing Bing, Ma Su, Fan Wei, Adrien Brody
Runtime: 2 hrs 7 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Violence and Coarse Language)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website:
Opening Day: 31 October 2019
Synopsis: During World War II, under terrible conditions, lack of resources, weapons, knowledge and experience - the Chinese Air Force fought bravely against the powerful Japanese Imperial Army. Commander Jack Johnson (Bruce Willis) from the United States Air Force not only teaches the Chinese how to battle against the Japanese, he also leads his own Chinese aviation squadron against the trained Japanese air force. Meanwhile, a Japanese spy sneaks into Chongqing posing as a refugee and tries to steal Chinese military plans, causing a great deal of damage. Two Chongqing families with a hundred-year feud resolve their differences as the enemy invades, reflecting how the Chinese have always prevailed through constant struggle and mayhem.
Movie Review:
Now that the dust of Fan Bingbing’s tax evasion scandal has settled, those who are curious to find out just what her big-budget wartime blockbuster whose release in 2018 was scrapped can finally see it on the big screen. Chances are if you do though that you’d wished you had simply avoided it altogether, for director Xiao Feng’s clumsy portrayal of the Japanese bombing of the provisional capital of Chongqing in the late 1930s and the heroic Chinese response to that is so appallingly bad you’d wonder why he was trusted with the film in the first place.
Even without her real-life woes, Fan plays but just one of the many characters relegated to supporting parts here. As a schoolteacher trying to protect her pupils, Fan struggles nobly to emote against a rinse-repeat stream of explosions, and the same can be said of every other star who made the ill-advised decision of signing up for this bomb (pun intended). Among the others recruited to demonstrate how the civilians had tried to go about their everyday life is Fan Wei as the owner of a teahouse who had just lost the property in a mah-jong competition and hopes to win it back, as well as Adrien Brody and Rumer Willis as volunteers at a hospital taking care of the wounded and helpless.
The more substantive subplots among the hodgepodge are that of a mission led by ex-pilot Xue Gangtou (Liu Ye) to transport some top-secret cargo to a military base, and the gung-ho Chinese air force pilots led by US commander Jack Johnson (Bruce Willis) to counter the Japanese attacks. The former unfolds as a sometimes tense, sometimes quirky, road trip which sees Gangtou pick up along the way a teacher (Ma Su), a government scientist (Wu Gang) and a shady stranger (Geng Le); while the latter has Jack doing plenty of Wills-style macho posturing to a group of hot-blooded pilots including that played by William Chan and Song Seung-heon.
Despite being worked on by six writers (whose names we shall not subject to further ignominy), the script looks like the work of an amateur film student, demonstrating neither an effort to build any of the subplots into anything compelling or any sort of deftness to link these stories into a coherent whole. The fault belongs too to director Xiao, who seems equally content to cut from one scene to another with little regard for continuity, pace or simple basic logic. Indeed, the result is not just jarring, but also utterly frustrating, as you quickly find yourself giving up trying to string together the chain of events.
What Xiao seems most seized by is showing the aerial dogfights between the Chinese and the Japanese, for which he had apparently recruited Mel Gibson as consultant. Unfortunately, Gibson is no help to Xiao’s sheer ineptness, such that there is little thrill to watching the pilots take to the skies against one another; in fact, the green screen work is too painfully obvious and Xiao’s tendency to turn each death into some melodramatic event undercuts what excitement you may have of watching the pilots play cat-and-mouse in the air.
As much as Willis gets top billing, he is quite clearly here just for the paycheck, slumming it in a couple of scenes that are even worse than the direct-to-video stuff he’s been doing in recent years back in the US. At least Brody seems to be trying to make the best out of what little material he has been given, although he may simply be relishing the opportunity to relive his similar much-touted role in Roman Polanski’s ‘The Pianist’. Liu fares mostly ok until close to the end, when his character is made to endure an utterly ridiculous turn trying to stop a bomb stuck on the roof from going off while topless on his wedding night. And as two pilots fighting over who gets to fly a shiny new plane, Chan and Song are understandably puzzled what to do with their respective roles.
So really if there is any pleasure to get out of sitting through ‘Unbreakable Spirit’, it is to marvel at how such a significant endeavour could have gone so wrong, one that managed to attract the likes of Simon Yam, Ray Lui, Kenny Bee and Nicholas Tse to appear in utterly inconsequential roles. No matter whether it had fallen apart due to Fan’s scandal, the movie itself was always already in tatters, and not having it released probably saved the cast and filmmakers the embarrassment which everyone could have done without. Unless you’re prepared for curiosity to kill two hours of your time, you’d best stay away from this awful mess of a movie.
Movie Rating:
(Fan Bingbing's tax evasion scandal turned out to be a blessing after all to save everyone involved - including unsuspecting audiences - from this woefully inept, shamelessly melodramatic and patriotic, and almost unwatchable mess)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Drama
Director: Yim Soon-rye
Cast: Kim Tae-ri, Ryu Jun-yeol, Moon So-ri, Jin Ki-joo, Jeon Guk-hyang, Jang Jae-hee
Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: Clover Films & Golden Village Pictures
Official Website:
Opening Day: 25 October 2019 (Opening Film of Korean Film Festival 2019)
Synopsis: No job, bad romance, and terrible grades… Nothing goes smooth in young Hye-won's life in a big city. She puts her unsolved matters behind and impulsively returns her hometown. There she reunions her childhood friends Jae-ha and Eun-sook who carry their unusual rural life on their own way. From that winter Hye-won's days are filled with simple but peaceful moments; having meal with her organic ingredients. All through 4 seasons Hye-won slowly finds the real pleasure of living a simple life, and realizes the genuine reason to return homeland. New spring is approaching, and she puts the first step in her brand new life.
Movie Review:
Little Forest is a South Korean film adapted from a Japanese manga series of the same name. It follows the main character, Hye-won, who returns to her hometown after experiencing disillusionments and disappointments in the big city. She reunites with her childhood friends Jae-ha and Eun-sook, and she slowly rediscovers the pleasures of leading a simple life.
The film is directed by Yim Soon-rye, who is known to make films that deviate from the mainstream, big budget kind of Korean movies. Instead, for this work in particular, she wanted to present something that was different to what is already in the market; a film that avoids any violence, bloodshed, but one that is true to what the Korean society is facing. For that, she has chosen to put focus on what young people experience - in overcoming disappointments and rehabilitating from urban life.
While the manga series was actually first published in 2002, Yim’s take on the film still remained relevant to its audience. Since the setting of the story is at a small town in Korea, some deviation from the original story is expected. The four seasons and food preparation also made up a big part of the storytelling in this movie. Interestingly, the director was told to still retain some Japanese dishes. Also, as Yim is known as an animal activist, she has made it a point to not have any meat based dishes featured in the film. The food preparation was elegantly captured, seeing how the seasons impact the dishes prepared (the ingredients used, how the food is prepared etc.) and vice versa.
The character development of Hye-won also corresponds with the changing of seasons. She slowly gains back her own pace of life, and come into acceptance with her circumstances, learning to face them head-on. This comes not only with her own self-discovery, but also with the time shared with Jae-ha and Eun-sook, which takes her to view her life with a different lens. There was quite a nice and heartwarming atmosphere that was maintained throughout the movie.
Evidently, Little Forest not your big on drama, conventional kind of movie. In fact, the pacing is a bit too slow moving and may start to bore some people mid-way. Nonetheless, it's a great change in palate as the movie dishes out the everyday, normal aspect on the culture of the Korean society.
MOVIE RATING:
(A deviation from the usually boisterous and action packed Korean films, Little Forest is a feel-good, peaceful and mellow film, putting focus on non-dramatic personal stories and simple living)
Review by Tho Shu Ling
Genre: Animation
Director: Tomohiko Ito
Cast: Minami Hamabe, Takehito Koyasu, Takumi Kitamura, Tôri Matsuzaka, Minako Kotobuki, Haruka Fukuhara, Rie Kugimiya
Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Violence)
Released By: Clover Films & Golden Village Pictures
Official Website:
Opening Day: 24 October 2019
Synopsis: The film is set in Kyoto in the year 2027, and will feature famous landmarks such as Fushimi Inari Taisha and Kamo Shrine. The main character is Naomi Katagaki, a male high school student. One day, a person who calls himself Naomi 10 years from now appears in front of the young Naomi. Together, they must change the future and save a classmate, Ruri, whom the younger Naomi starts to date in three months.
Movie Review:
Hello World is an animated sci-fi movie set in the year 2027 in Kyoto, Japan. The story revolves around Naomi, a male high school student who encounters a grown-up man who claimed to be him from the future. He calls him ‘sensei’, as he guides him on a journey to change the future and save a classmate, Ruri, who is someone he will grow to like in just a couple of months. In a world imagined to be saved in data spheres, could he really rewrite the future and have everything go as planned?
Being set in the somewhat near future of 2027, it was interesting to see how famous landmarks like Fushimi Inari and Kamo Shrine in Kyoto were reimagined to give a more futuristic touch. The fictional world of having maps, history, and even memories stored in data spheres was rather believable. Viewing the trailer might make you think that it gives off vibes similar to “Your Name”, but the story was quite dissimilar.
The narrative was quite interesting, as it wasn’t just a linear time traveling kind of story, but having 2 present selves who will impact each other’s present and future. While there was much unexplained and could be confusing sometimes, the overall story kept the interest high. However, towards the ending, it felt a little rushed and baffling as more truths are revealed about the data spheres and other universes. In that regard, the pacing of the story was a little lacklustre, but it gave ample room for character development.
Apart from the story and setting, there are two other interesting aspects of the film. One, the main cast for the voice acting are actually real-life actors/actresses not voice actor/actresses. That actually gave a very different touch and style in terms of the voice acting, and the way they interpreted the scenes. Second, while conventionally many films work with one key artiste for the soundtrack of the movie, the producer and director of the film intentionally chose 7 artistes (groups, and solo artiste) to form Sound2027. It was considered a dream team, as it consists of up and rising groups like Official HIGE DANdism and Nulbarich. The motivation behind engaging this group of artistes is to have them interpret and express in their way for specific scenes as well. In particular, the climax scene which used Nulbarich’s song felt a little disjointed, but it fitted the scene well and left an impression.
In terms of technicalities and art, this film may not match up with the top tier animated films. But the intentional production choices made for the film makes it interesting and enjoyable.
MOVIE RATING:
(A visual journey of a new Kyoto, sprinkled with pop elements and challenging your notion of ‘creating memories’)
Review by Tho Shu Ling
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GET READY TO BOARD THE 'JUNGLE CRUISE'Posted on 14 Oct 2019 |
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