Set in a rural area in Mexico, this film addresses the fears, desperation and cruelty faced by the residents.

 

With an 8-year-old girl, Huck, as the protagonist, the story revolves around Huck and her father living in a trailer, trying to survive living in the presence of a mercenary group who are the reason behind the frequent yet mysterious disappearance of women in their town.

 

The film reveals the constant danger and fear characters faced through Huck’s perspective, touching the hearts of the audience as the story unravels.

 

The severity of their circumstances were highly emphasised to the audience where Huck was portrayed as brave, loving, and mature while painfully showing her familiarity with drugs and violence. For example, she knew it was wrong of her dad to consume drugs and was attempting to hide them away from him. Also, she shot the boss of the cartel without hesitation, even when he took care of her after the bomb attack at his birthday party. These two significant moments does not only show how Huck’s circumstances stripped her innocence away from her, but also showed women empowerment. The use of hair length as a motif also stood out as the film explores themes of gender, suggesting that women can be in power, as the Boss had long hair, and was "half man, half woman".

 

The cinematography was great, with every camera movement showing something that the main characters face.

Mike de Leon’s Citizen Jake follows the protagonist, Jacobo ‘Jake’ Herrera Jr.’s (Atom Araullo) story as he unravels his family’s dark past and tries to combat the ever-present corruption that is linked to his family’s name.

 

The main storyline of the movie follows Jake investigating the murder of his close mentee and friend to his girlfriend, Mandy (Max Collins). As a journalist, Jake is driven to unravel the mystery behind this murder. Along his painful journey, Jake discovers the immense amount of bribery within government bureaucracies, exploitation of young girls to cater to the personal desires of the wealthy and powerful and the stain of a dictator whose methods of abuse and fear have deeply divided a nation.

 

While the plot can be seen as highly exaggerated, bribery, murder and prostitution are daily occurrences in the Philippines. This film provides a refreshing look from Mike de Leon’s perspective about these heavy issues. Filled with many inside jokes aimed at various administrations, the movie connects both the past and present and is a reminder of both the victories and failures of the individuals who have donned leadership roles to govern the nation.

 

“Truth is stranger than fiction” is a persistent idea and quote that is presented in the film. With the film taking a much more negative look on the corruption behind various leaders, maybe the truth of all things has been seen as a strange concept.

 

I had the chance to see the main actress of the film, Max Collins after the film. I asked her, “What is one thing you would want to tell the next generation of leaders in the Philippines?” She promptly replied, “To not be selfish.”

 

She goes on to explain that the next generation of leaders should be able to look out for the fellow men and not abandon them for their own cause. Just like in the film, people have been shown to be intertwined, but for the very wrong reasons. In the end, the film poses one question: What do we do when we see evil within our reach?

Jinpa is a Tibetan movie about a driver named Jinpa, and is the sixth feature from Tibetan director Pema Tseden. The movie starts with a long scene of Jinpa driving, and suddenly his truck knocks into a lamb, resulting in its death. Not long after, he picked up a hitch-hiker and what he learns next changes the plot.

 

The movie is based on the novel The Slayer by Tsering Norbu and the story I Ran Over A Sheep by the director himself, Pema. The movie was shown in 1:1 ratio, different from regular movies. This intrigued me at the start as I had expected the screen to expand but it didn’t. The starting of the movie also showed different shots of the changes in the environment of the desert that Jinpa was driving in. Jinpa also sang “O Sole Mio” in Tibet while driving. The story was told in an intriguing manner, with the use of imagery and colours.

 

As there were shots to showcase flashbacks, they separated such scenes with the use of colours. The first half of the story felt like a realistic narrative, which showed Jinpa’s character development. However, as the movie goes to the second half, it goes into an interesting way of story-telling, with twists and flashbacks which confused us and got us thinking about what the director wants to portray. The movie’s ending is up to our own interpretation, unlike usual films, thus making it a memorable one.

When a movie is 2 hours and 53 minutes long, you’d think every second worth of footage included in the final cut would be absolutely necessary and vital to propel the plot. But that wasn’t the case with Our Time, the long-awaited work of Mexican filmmaker Carlos Reygadas.

 

Essentially a story about the failing marriage between a poet, Juan, who runs a fighting bull ranch with his wife, Esther, the film centers around themes of monogamy and fidelity – more specifically, the challenges that come with the two. Interspersed with many artistic scenes amongst other, more people-centric ones, the film is very much nuanced and unfortunately difficult for non-art film aficionados to appreciate.

 

Regarding the length of the film – I just found several scenes unnecessarily drawn out; some were just plain redundant. Case in point (spoiler alert!), when one of the bulls went on a rampage out of the blue and eviscerated a mule, and the shot just stays on that scene, depicting the bull just ambling around for a while.

 

The only lingering scene I could appreciate and felt necessary was when Juan was writing a heartfelt letter to his wife’s lover (narrated via voiceover) and he actually steps out of a door somewhere on his estate, at this line: “You opened the door, Phil ­– now you’ll have to come in.” The shot stays on that door for a while, after which Juan steps back inside. I felt like that was quite a good visual representation of his way of dealing with his wife’s mid-marriage crisis and infidelity, what with him literally leaving or stepping out of a someplace that symbolizes his marriage.  

 

On a similar tangent, I also feel the film did not do a very good job of defining the setting right from the beginning. Although centered around the aforementioned family and their troubles, the film started with a rather lengthy introduction of many characters – most of which were irrelevant except for like four (out of more than ten!). So yes, that made it quite hard for me – someone who was uninitiated to the works of this director who’s known for making rather long films – to follow.

 

Though I could not appreciate the film due to it dealing with themes unfamiliar and irrelevant to me at this point in my life, I think it was, overall, a rather thought-provoking film – if only a little unbearably long – with its commentary on modern relationships as well as difficulties of monogamy and controversy of open relationships.

Lee Joon-ik, director of one of the highest grossing Korean films of all time, brings a heartwarming and fun film to the big screen — Sunset in my Hometown.

 

The movie stars Hak-Soo, an aspiring rapper who lives in a cheap one bedroom apartment in Seoul. Despite having his own fan base, he decides to participate in Show Me The Money in hopes of achieving fame. One day, after messing up at yet another audition, he receives an unexpected call from his hometown, Byeonsan, informing him that his estranged father has suffered from a stroke and is hospitalised.

 

Reluctantly, Hak-Soo returns home and encounters people from his past that he would rather forget. This includes his father, who seems to be in a decent condition, Seon-Mi, his high school classmate that had a crush on him, and Mi-Kyung, his first love. He also meets Yong-Dae, a kid he used to bully in the past, who has now become a gangster in their hometown.

 

An unexpected series of events causes Hak-Soo to be stranded in his hometown, the last place on earth that he would want to be in.

 

I had no expectations before watching the movie and had not watched the trailer beforehand. However, I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed the movie a lot. At the end of the movie, I felt that the message that the director was trying to bring across was that we should always face our fears instead of avoiding them.

 

Hak-Soo had a lot of pent up hatred and frustrations towards his father and his hometown, which hindered the progress of his rapping career. Watching Hak-Soo overcome his emotions and mature as a person with the help of Seon-Mi was heartwarming and engaging, as I empathised with Hak-Soo.

I was impressed by the director’s decision to insert Hak-Soo’s self-written raps into appropriate moments in the movie, allowing the viewers to understand Hak-Soo’s emotions and thoughts as he went through the events in the movie.

 

I particularly enjoyed the characters in the movie as they felt realistic and raw, rather than simply being stereotyped characters thrown in to make the main character look better. I was also able to understand the motivations behind each character. For example, Seon-Mi wanted Hak-Soo to mature into a better person, into someone with a ‘clear soul’ as she knew he was capable of that. On the other hand, Yong-Dae wanted to forgive Hak-Soo for his bullying at the start, but found that he was unable to and instead, took to retaliating for his past suffering. The motivations of the different characters made the movie for me as they felt like actual people who had their own thoughts, mindsets and beliefs.

 

Watching this movie gave me the realisation that different people express their feelings in different ways, and there is no right or wrong in doing so. It also reminded me to try to face my fears and my past instead of running away from them, just like what Hak-Soo did.

Yvonne is a police detective in a town on the french riviera and a young widow of police chief and local hero, Santi. One day, she finds out that her husband was actually a crooked cop the entire time. She was determined to right his wrongs and so she follows Antoine who was a victim unjustly imprisoned by Santi.

 

A good balance of comedy, action, romance and mystery made this film stand out amongst the rest. It was a refreshing movie with great actors, an amazing script with plot twists that made it so unpredictable. Although the movie was enjoyable on the outside, the underlying tone remains cynical. It showed that 8 years in prison could turn an innocent man into a monster who had no sense of right and wrong.

 

However, with such a plot and tone, this issue was taken with a pinch of salt. The widow often told stories of her late husband to her son during bedtime. This was done in such a unique way as the stories changed according to her feelings toward her late husband every night.

From a technical point of view, the cinematography was nothing special with regular jump cuts. The film ended in a heartwarming manner with the son finally letting go of his father’s death after 2 long years. Overall, the film was unique and refreshing and is highly recommended for all.