I really don’t know what to say about this film. I know that it is special and unique but I find it hard to put my finger on it. Okay, first, this is not a movie for everyone. It is a very slow burn for almost 3 hours. It is emotionally cool with radiant bursts of emotion as it builds. It is in Japanese with occasional Korean, Mandarin, Korean Sign Language English and it is subtitled. It is not an emotional rollercoaster although it will put you in touch with a lot of your deepest emotions: grief, loss, betrayal, hate, love, beauty, joy, redemption, and hope, to name a few (did I mention it is about 3 hours long?). It is all about articulating life and it uses text as the magic that unlocks the hidden places of the human experience. The most obvious text is from Anton Chekhov‘s UNCLE VANYA which cleverly inserts selective dialogue throughout the film that informs the characters in their struggle to make life make sense. The power of storytelling, in many forms and languages, is definitely a theme, no better illustrated by the fact that the opening credits roll at 40:19 into the movie making everything that just happened, prologue to the film. This is a film for thinkers, creatives and those who get great reward from mining the depths of words and experiences to enrich their mind and inform their lives. This film is gathering awards like a tumbleweed and is a critical success, most giving it instant 10s out of 10. I give this film an 8 (thought provoking with beautiful moments) out of 10. [Drama]
Review by Nancy L DraperVIP 8BlockedParent2022-03-26T21:41:46Z
I really don’t know what to say about this film. I know that it is special and unique but I find it hard to put my finger on it. Okay, first, this is not a movie for everyone. It is a very slow burn for almost 3 hours. It is emotionally cool with radiant bursts of emotion as it builds. It is in Japanese with occasional Korean, Mandarin, Korean Sign Language English and it is subtitled. It is not an emotional rollercoaster although it will put you in touch with a lot of your deepest emotions: grief, loss, betrayal, hate, love, beauty, joy, redemption, and hope, to name a few (did I mention it is about 3 hours long?). It is all about articulating life and it uses text as the magic that unlocks the hidden places of the human experience. The most obvious text is from Anton Chekhov‘s UNCLE VANYA which cleverly inserts selective dialogue throughout the film that informs the characters in their struggle to make life make sense. The power of storytelling, in many forms and languages, is definitely a theme, no better illustrated by the fact that the opening credits roll at 40:19 into the movie making everything that just happened, prologue to the film. This is a film for thinkers, creatives and those who get great reward from mining the depths of words and experiences to enrich their mind and inform their lives. This film is gathering awards like a tumbleweed and is a critical success, most giving it instant 10s out of 10. I give this film an 8 (thought provoking with beautiful moments) out of 10. [Drama]