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More recent movies
May. 14th, 2023 10:30 pmI think I've seen enough movies to justify paying for Netflix this month. (And now I can also take a break from watching movies lol.)
流浪地球 | The Wandering Earth (2019)
STREAMING ON: Netflix
A post-apocalyptic movie about individual and human survival, based on a novella by Liu Cixin. The premise for this was very fascinating—the underground cities and the wandering earth—but it didn't feel like it went beyond its concepts or its science, and so it felt quite static and paint-by-numbers. I'm a total sucker for familial love and sacrifice, so I definitely cried at all the right places lol, but the characters and relationships themselves were very two-dimensional and sometimes annoying. The interpersonal conflicts felt manufactured for the sake of drama, which made the emotional parts hollow. I also resented that the Filipino characters were shown to be grimly walking away from conflict!? (It was only a two-second moment but I took it so personally hahaha.)
There were elements of space horror and AI rebellion that were reminiscent of older space movies, but these parts were even less interesting because they felt so far removed from anything else, and were mostly there for practical reasons.
Bonus: Zhao Jinmai (Reset) and Lei Jiayin (The Heart of Genius) are in this!
(Hoping to catch the 2023 prequel too but I definitely need a break.)
* * * * *
Ang Pagbalik ng Kwago | Leonor Will Never Die (2022)
STREAMING ON: Netflix PH, Amazon US, Vudu US, Google Play US
I’ve been restlessly cycling through media, trying to find something that lands in the sweet spot of artistic but still personally interesting to me, and this is the one that finally did it!
Leonor Will Never Die is a story about personal grief and trauma, told through a metanarrative that blurs the boundary between reality and fiction. Leonor Reyes was once a heavyweight in the film industry with a portfolio of action films to her name. Now she spends her days buying bootleg DVDs, being (literally) haunted by the ghost of her dead son, and being berated by her living son. One day a falling television knocks her into a coma, which then causes her to fall into the world of her own unfinished script—a movie where the main character fights social injustices but is ultimately doomed to die. As the movie progresses, the fantastical elements escalate while still retaining a sense of internal logic. The storytelling was extremely immersive in terms of both plot and emotional development, and across all planes of reality. The details felt poignant, lived, human. It also does really well in characterizing Leonor's psychological space as she processes her grief, and showing the repercussions borne by her anxious and estranged adult son Rudy.
The story format is movie-within-a-movie where the walls are permeable, and there's even a visual payoff to the aspect ratio changes as they switch between the modern day and the 80s movie that Leonor's consciousness is stranded in. Additionally, there is a satisfyingly jarring change from mostly-Tagalog to Taglish at the end which starkly differentiated fiction for reality (this probably doesn't get across in the English translation, though).
It sounds so intense when I describe it but it's actually very energetic and joyous, and not even very heavy! And definitely a fully textured experience, from the visual language to the sound production.
CONTENT NOTES: snails (if this bothers you the way it bothers me XD); violence—it's mostly TV violence but with a scene I had to look away from; a background mpreg subplot
* * * * *
回廊亭 | Revival (2023)
Film adaptation of Keigo Higashino’s The Murder in Kairoutei where it’s a bit too coy about the revenge bits to be emotionally effective. I don't know if a lot of parts had to be cut/reshot, but somehow this movie lacked both external and internal logic. It felt uneven and incomplete, with some scenes going on for too long than warranted while other important scenes went too fast. By the time you get to the final "twist", the momentum has fizzled out and any hint of mystique has been subsumed by ham-fisted plot reveals. The resolution for Ren Suxi's storyline didn't make sense either and the triteness of the dialogue made it even more annoying. It's really frustrating because I like both actresses!
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OKAY I'M DONE o<-<
流浪地球 | The Wandering Earth (2019)STREAMING ON: Netflix
A post-apocalyptic movie about individual and human survival, based on a novella by Liu Cixin. The premise for this was very fascinating—the underground cities and the wandering earth—but it didn't feel like it went beyond its concepts or its science, and so it felt quite static and paint-by-numbers. I'm a total sucker for familial love and sacrifice, so I definitely cried at all the right places lol, but the characters and relationships themselves were very two-dimensional and sometimes annoying. The interpersonal conflicts felt manufactured for the sake of drama, which made the emotional parts hollow. I also resented that the Filipino characters were shown to be grimly walking away from conflict!? (It was only a two-second moment but I took it so personally hahaha.)
There were elements of space horror and AI rebellion that were reminiscent of older space movies, but these parts were even less interesting because they felt so far removed from anything else, and were mostly there for practical reasons.
Bonus: Zhao Jinmai (Reset) and Lei Jiayin (The Heart of Genius) are in this!
(Hoping to catch the 2023 prequel too but I definitely need a break.)
* * * * *
Ang Pagbalik ng Kwago | Leonor Will Never Die (2022)STREAMING ON: Netflix PH, Amazon US, Vudu US, Google Play US
I’ve been restlessly cycling through media, trying to find something that lands in the sweet spot of artistic but still personally interesting to me, and this is the one that finally did it!
Leonor Will Never Die is a story about personal grief and trauma, told through a metanarrative that blurs the boundary between reality and fiction. Leonor Reyes was once a heavyweight in the film industry with a portfolio of action films to her name. Now she spends her days buying bootleg DVDs, being (literally) haunted by the ghost of her dead son, and being berated by her living son. One day a falling television knocks her into a coma, which then causes her to fall into the world of her own unfinished script—a movie where the main character fights social injustices but is ultimately doomed to die. As the movie progresses, the fantastical elements escalate while still retaining a sense of internal logic. The storytelling was extremely immersive in terms of both plot and emotional development, and across all planes of reality. The details felt poignant, lived, human. It also does really well in characterizing Leonor's psychological space as she processes her grief, and showing the repercussions borne by her anxious and estranged adult son Rudy.
The story format is movie-within-a-movie where the walls are permeable, and there's even a visual payoff to the aspect ratio changes as they switch between the modern day and the 80s movie that Leonor's consciousness is stranded in. Additionally, there is a satisfyingly jarring change from mostly-Tagalog to Taglish at the end which starkly differentiated fiction for reality (this probably doesn't get across in the English translation, though).
It sounds so intense when I describe it but it's actually very energetic and joyous, and not even very heavy! And definitely a fully textured experience, from the visual language to the sound production.
CONTENT NOTES: snails (if this bothers you the way it bothers me XD); violence—it's mostly TV violence but with a scene I had to look away from; a background mpreg subplot
* * * * *
回廊亭 | Revival (2023)Film adaptation of Keigo Higashino’s The Murder in Kairoutei where it’s a bit too coy about the revenge bits to be emotionally effective. I don't know if a lot of parts had to be cut/reshot, but somehow this movie lacked both external and internal logic. It felt uneven and incomplete, with some scenes going on for too long than warranted while other important scenes went too fast. By the time you get to the final "twist", the momentum has fizzled out and any hint of mystique has been subsumed by ham-fisted plot reveals. The resolution for Ren Suxi's storyline didn't make sense either and the triteness of the dialogue made it even more annoying. It's really frustrating because I like both actresses!
------
OKAY I'M DONE o<-<
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