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La Gomera (2019)
Not a comedy
The promotion of this movie as a comedy really does it a disservice. In reality, it's very twisty, complex neo-noir, which is fine. I was attracted to the film partly because I had heard it was funny, but it isn't (although there is a little bit of wry/cynical humor). Misrepresenting a movie's genre sets it up to fail with viewers, who go in expecting something different.
If you do like neo-noir crime dramas with a lot of references to past classic films (both Romanian and American), this is definitely one to check out. It has a great soundtrack as well.
Myung ryoung-027 ho (1986)
Strange, disjointed North Korean film
I saw a Chinese-language dub of this a few years ago, and the deepest impression it gave me was of several films that were started by different directors, not finished, but then edited together. It starts out as a really interesting-looking military film, and then it suddenly becomes sort of a spy film, then sort of a kung-fu film, and so on. In each of these parts, the look is totally different, and I'm not even sure if all the characters appeared consistently throughout the film.
Mostly, it's interesting as an oddity, if you've never seen a North Korean movie before. I don't know if this is a spoiler or not, but for me, the most memorable part was when the North Korean spies snuck over the border to the South. According to this film, the only vehicles in South Korea are jeeps that have "US army" spray-painted on the front, and South Koreans are all incredibly hairy and wear foot-long crucifixes around their necks.
Yi ma de hou xian dai sheng huo (2006)
Postmodern disappointment
The Postmodern Life of My Aunt is not a comedy, as the ads, and the poster, would suggest. Instead it's a depressing story of how a woman's life slides downhill.
I had other problems with the film as well. As someone who has lived in China for seven years, I can definitely say Siqin Gaowa seemed too dowdy to be a Shanghai woman, and Chow Yun-Fat looked too suave and sophisticated to be a middle-aged Mainland man. I also didn't see the point of the young boy's character, although I guess it is an Ann Hui trope (if that's the right word) to have a character's story told through the eyes of a kid. He was a real cypher, and was barely in the film at all. How could he even know that stuff about his aunt? Using the child's perspective in Song of the Exile worked well, but not here at all. I also couldn't buy Vicki Zhao Wei in her role, and her appearance and back story came so out of the blue that it almost seemed like a joke.
All in all, a big disappointment, but I wouldn't have been so upset about it if the film's advertisements didn't make it look like a comedy. I really dislike when advertisers pull people into a film under false pretenses. If it is a tragedy, fine, advertise it as a tragedy. Just don't mislead audiences.
La bête (1975)
Weirdly sex-negative, for a supposed erotic filmmaker.
This, and Immoral Tales, both left a bad taste in my mouth. It seems to me that Borowczyk is disgusted by sex, and these two films are cautionary tales about what will happen if you do have sex. As a film, it's not very well done -- some of the acting is truly epically bad (such as the "American" woman with the French accent). The young woman's sudden flip-flop from being anxious about the marriage to being interested (when it seems like it should have been the other way around), and the aunt's sudden realization of the young man's secret don't make sense -- they're not explained at all. I also didn't like how the daughter's relationship with a black man was presented as a sign of her family's perversion or predilection for bestiality. The central idea, the idea that there's this "sexy beast," if you will, that lives in the woods, could have been a foundation for a perverse but fun story, but instead is just used as a basis for a nasty, sex-negative, morality play.
Liu san jie (1960)
Ideological but fun!
Liu San Jie is a rare example of a movie that mixes ideology with just plain fun. The Communist ideals present (idealistic, pure poor vs. predatory rich) are well integrated into the story and don't make the film turgid or boring, like a lot Chinese, Russian, etc. films with ideological content. Liu San Jie is a charming, sassy heroine, the film is set amongst the beautiful karst formations and clear waters of Guangxi Province, and the plot is simple enough to understand even if you can't understand Chinese. Plus everybody in China knows the songs -- once you see the film you'll be surprised how often they pop up in other films or on TV. It's now available on DVD, in China anyway, which will hopefully give people a chance to see a nice print of the film, with (I hope) multi-language subtitle options.
It's Alive (1974)
All early 70's anxieties wrapped up in one film!
I was astonished to find that this is a very good movie, and really reflects the anxieties Americans had when the film was made. Anxiety about women's bodies/sexuality, the Pill, pollution, etc. -- it's all in there. Significantly, Cohen made this movie about an unloved mutant baby going on a rampage in 1973 -- the year of the Roe vs. Wade decision.
The actors do a great job, particularly Ryan. Okay, I admit it: I cried during the scene in the storm sewer!