zorn907

Suffers a bit from the minor players having zero personality. And the plot being too convoluted to not feel random. The only relatable stakes come from their relationship. Everything else is just "Well...that happened then...I guess?".

But Owen and Roberts' performances plus the ending really elevate this movie from a mildly entertaining to a genuinely pretty cool one.

Also the whole look is really cool. Happens when you have Robert Elswit shoot on 35mm Kodak film I reckon.

Wow. What a nothingburger. Has little to no story to tell and even less to say.

Qi Shu is obviously fantastic in it, and the acting in general is great.

The cinematography is effective, but lazy. It looks good and has its style, but becomes dull very, very fast. It's also way too fourth wall breaking. It draws attention to the camera being a physical object at a fixed point in space that just pans back and forth boringly, instead of immersing you in the scene. I mean, it almost has this claustrophobic feel to it, for being so static, slow and forced to a singular perspective, but effectively it's way too bland to be anything else.

Lazy applies to the storytelling in general as well. It would still be a nothingburger without the voiceover. But with it it's also a very pretentious one.

I also don't get why this is supposedly a romance, at least according to imdb. The only romantic relationship this movie portrays is hers (or its) to cigarettes being lit.

I sort of recognzied Hou's style without ever having seen a movie of his. It pretty quickly reminded me of The Assassin, which I had contemplated seeing in theaters when it came out. Mainly because it was advertised as the work of well-regarded director. But I watched either a trailer or a clip, whichever one was the promo for it, and it looked like exactly the kind of nothingburger this is. So when I watched this one I immedaitely recognized that particular handwriting. :D

I also thought considering the sort of semi-junkie lifestyle the movie was trying to convince us they were living, they were looking waaaaaaay to healthy, put together and well-off. Their place was way too tidy and had way too much nice stuff.

Had the movie had a less naturalistic style and been instead more stylized, like a Kar-Wai Wong picture for example, this may have suspended my disbelief in those regards. But this movie just made too little effort to be anything but self-important.

The first shot sets it up so well to be a real, intimate and honest character study of a certain type of young woman, who has trouble shaking her attraction to toxic men. But it didn't even do that. Not even a soft or light version of what you'd expect after that setup. Maybe not technically nothing, but effectively it is.

What a waste of Qi Shu.

Very honest to its characters. Uniquely, competently, beautifully and confidently shot, acted and told in general. "hides" its exposition very cleverly/very well. :D

You just feel in very good hands, storytelling-wise, so it's not like I really expected it to maybe lose me at the end, but I was still positively surprised.

Very strong artistic voice present here.

I do, for the record, like Na Young much better than Nora. :D And I'm not talking about a 12-year-old girl here. I'm talking about the side of her she, in all her exterior confidence, does not dare to be as her US self.

The movie is, in fact, so skilfully directed you kinda sorta forget how up its own bass it is considering Nora is obviously a stand-in for Celine Song.

Again, honest, but also really self-congratulatory. Which, by the way, in art is only ever not a good thing if the piece of art in question sucks. This doesn't. Very much so.