A Handful of Films
I’ve seen some more films at the Vancouver International Film Festival: (I give my own reviews out of 5 stars).
Daughters of Wisdom (USA) A documentary about the first Buddhist Monastary for women in Tibet. Excellent story; but poor cinematography and editing. 3 stars. ***
4 Elements (Netherlands) An environmental documentary covering each element: Fire=Siberian Forest Firefighters, Water=American Alaskan King Crab Fishermen, Earth=German Coal Miners, Air=The Russian Space Exploration Training Program. Beautiful and detailed to watch, but with a overly foreboding, haunting, and dark atmosphere. 3 stars. ***
I Just Didn’t Do It (Japan) After 10 years absence, the director of the hit “Shall We Dance?” (the original version without Jennifer Lopez and Richard Gere that was actually GOOD), has returned to cinema. With this film, he goes in a different direction, focusing on the legal and judicial system in Japan. Using a fictional story of a young man falsely accused of groping a teenage girl on a train, the director delivers his critiques and opinions directly through words and actions of the characters, drawing from 3 years of research on the subject. It’s powerful and direct, yet I think could have functioned better as a play or novel. But did you know that 99.9% of people tried in Japan are found guilty? Crazy… 4 stars. ****
Cochochi (Mexico) A fictional tale of 2 brothers who are given a task of delivering medicine, and decide to travel by horse. This decision makes their journey more complicated, and they learn and grow along the way, not realizing the truth however, until the very end. Slow at times, yet both main actors are interesting to watch, and you find yourself pulled back into the story by their performances even in the most mundane scenes. Wait for the ending, which makes it all worth seeing. 3 stars. ***
Autism: The Musical (USA) A documentary which pulls on the heartstrings (and naturally should), dealing with the lives of 5 children with Autism and their families, who partake in music/theatre program designed by one of the parents. Sponsored by HBO, the filming quality is naturally quite good. But the kids are what really sell this film, always suprising both the audience and the adults in the film. If you know nothing about Autism, then see this movie. Awareness matters. 4 stars. ****
Out of all 6 of the films I’ve seen at VIFF so far, “Up the Yangtze” is still my favorite. Only one more to go, which I shall see on Thursday. I’m quite excited about that one as well, however. You’ll just have to wait to see my final favorite choice.
Tomorrow is Canadian Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!
October 8th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
Sounds like a good experience to see all these. How long do most of them run?
Surprisingly, I am aware of the disturbingly high conviction rate in Japan. The SF Chronicle had an article about it that I read in my free time working at the Grove over the summer. It was about how Japan may adopt a Judge-and-Jury style court system like we have in the US (and Canada?). Early tests of the system, however, showed that older citizens (30+) on the jury were very uncomfortable with voicing their opinions when asked by the judge, stemming from the country’s culture of being submissive to authority. I forget some of the other points but it was clear that confrontation and personal opinion were issues.