Leglessbird Movie Guide

Dis-moi oui (buy from Amazon)
French 1995
Director: Alexandre Arcady

My rating: 4
Key actors/actresses:
Jean-Hugues Anglade ... St?phane
Julia Maraval ... Eva

Nadia Far?s ... Florence
Claude Rich ... Professeur Villiers
Val?rie Kaprisky ... Nathalie

Story:
A young 12-year old patient is in love with her pediatric doctor, she expresses her affection and he cannot accept because she is too young and she is his patient. The young girl is in need of a critical neuro-operation, would she survive? Would she win over her doctor?

My review:
I watched this movie in 1997 and I happened to be working on a business consulting project for a medical company that sells the apparatus for the neuro-operation described in the film, what a coincidence.

Interesting plot and funny story. Quite enjoyable.

Japanese 2004
Director: Isao Yukisada

My rating: 5
Key actors/actresses:
Takao Osawa ... Sakutaro Matsumoto
Kou Shibasaki ... Ritsuko Fujimura
Masami Nagasawa ... Aki Hirose
Mirai Moriyama ... Sakutaro Matsumoto (High School)
Tsutomu Yamazaki ... Shigezou Matsumoto
Kankur? Kud? ... Ryunosuke Ooki
Kanji Tsuda ... Johnny
Issei Takahashi ... Ryunosuke (high school student)
Rio Kanno ... Ritsuko (girl)
Tetta Sugimoto ... Aki's Father
Katsutaka Furuhata ... Johnny (high school)

Story:
"I thought I might be using a lifetime's happiness in a moment. I was that happy and she was that beautiful."

In 1987, a beautiful story about two 17-year old classmates, Aki and Saku who fell in love during one summer and how they soon realized Aki has leukemia and died during Autumn of the same year.

17 years later, Saku has not forgotten Aki for a single moment, he still carries her ashes with him, he re-tell their story to a woman that he loves today on how he and Aki met and spent time together until Aki's final moment and her dying wish was to see the blue sky of a place in Central Australia where the aboriginals believe to be the centre of the world and people who rest there after they die, their spirit will flow from there into another world and be reborn.

My review:
Simply a beautiful story, I love this TV-drama and the adapted version of the movie both based on the same best-selling book of the same name "Sekai no Chuushin de, Ai wo Sakebu". A pure romantic love that happens during teenage years with a sad ending of death of incurable diseases, though the idea is not new, this story will still touch your heart.

Le Papillon (Original French Version) (buy from Amazon)

French 2002
Director: Philippe Muyl

My rating: 4
Key actors/actresses:
Michel Serrault .... Julien
Claire Bouanich .... Elsa
Nade Dieu .... Elsa's Mother

Story:
Julien is a retired old man whose hobby is butterfly (Le Papillon) with his own butterfly room and plenty of samples. Elsa is a 9 year old girl with her single mother who has to work all the time and cannot spend much time with her daughter. They just moved to the same building where Julien lives. When Elsa overheard about Jilien's trip to search for the beautiful and rare butterfly called "Isabella", she secretly hides in his car and wants to follow him. Julien initially wants to turn her in to the police, but later decides to let her goes along to this butterfly journey...

My review:
A very nice touching story, the old man and little girl have a lot to learn from each other. Through the journey of searching for the butterfly, they are enlightened...

Type: Drama, South Korea 2001

Director: Dae-seung Kim

My rating: 3
Key actors/actresses:
Byung-hun Lee 李秉憲 .... Seo, In-woo
Eun-ju Lee 李恩宙 .... In, Tae-hee
Hyeon-Soo Yeo .... Lim, Hyeon-bin
Su-hyeon Hong .... Yeo, Hye-su

Story:
In 1983, a young man called In-woo was a college freshman, one day a girl who's also a fresher at the same college called Tae-hee walked and stood next to In-woo under his umbrella on a heavy rainy day and he fell in love with her on the first sight and still pursuing her and soon she fell in love with him too. And they had a wish to try bungee jumping in New Zealand. On another rainy day, they felt close to each other and in love with each other than ever and went to a lover's hotel, but out of nervousness, he couldn't do it. Soon In-woo needed to serve in the military, they promised to each other to wait for each other. She was supposed to show up at the station to say farewell before he went off to military service but she never showed. 17 years later, In-woo is married with a young baby and he is now a high school teacher, one of the boys in his class Hyeon-bin catches his attention, because Hyeon-bin seems to remind him of Tae-hee in many ways and he will say things that Tae-hee used to say to In-woo. In-woo is really confused and feels he is hopelessly drawn towards Hyeon-bin. Did Tae-hee reincarnate as the boy Hyeon-bin?

My review:
Also known as 'Beonjijeompeureul hada', this is an interesting movie and caused a lot controversy in Korea when it was released. Does love last forever and across different lifes? Is love a pure thought and doesn't matter whether it is between man/woman but now turns into man/man love? If it really is a pure thought that counts why do they need to committ sucide and hope for the best to become man/woman in their next life? In-woo and Hyeon-bin could have just continued their love as a couple (man/man).

Type: Drama, Comedy, Japan 2005

Director: Kenji Uchida

My rating: 4
Key actors/actresses:
Yasuhi Nakamura .... Takeshi Miyata
Reika Kirishima .... Maki Kuwata
S? Yamanaka .... Yusuke Kanda
Yuka Itaya .... Ayumi Kurata
Kisuke Yamashita .... Asai

Posted by Dominic
Story:
Faith has brought a self-pity woman who just decided to leave her fiance, a salary-man who still misses the woman that dumped him 6 months ago, a private detective, a con woman and the gangster leader together, though they don't know it themselves. Their story intertwine and it all happens in one strange evening. As the story unfolds, you will know things are never as simple as they look.

My review:
Very clever plot and the story is being told backward, as we go back in time, the dots are connected. This reminds me so much of "Momento", though completely different story. Highly entertaining!

Tae Guk Gi - The Brotherhood of War (buy from Amazon)
Type: Drama, South Korea 2004

Director: Je-gyu Kang

My rating: 4
Key actors/actresses:
Dong-Kun Jang .... Jin-tae
Bin Won .... Jin-seok
Eun-ju Lee .... Young-shin

Posted by Dominic
Story:
Two brothers happily living in a small city with their mother. The elder brother, Jin-Tae repairs shoes for a living to support the family and the younger brother Jin-seok to study. Jin-tae has planned to married Young-shin soon. The Korean civil war broke out on 25 June 1950, the two brothers have been unwillingly drafted to fight in the army. Jin-tae sworn to protect his younger brother, he intended to fight hard and obtain the Medal of honour in order to secure Jin-seok's early return to home. But Jin-tae did not have the understanding of Jin-seok and the war has turned Jin-tae's world upside down...

My review:
This is Korean's answer to USA's saving private ryan. The war scenes are intense and well filmed.

The brotherly love during war time creates very strong bonding and can change people's value and perception. It shows how the war can make people crazy. The Korean war is a very sad tragedy in Korean history where people of the same race are fighting and killing each other. It has been used as countless storyline in Korean movies.

Overall, Taegukgi is well filmed and well acted. Very entertaining. Though I think the mis-understanding between the brothers was a bit far-stretched.

Marquise (buy from Amazon)
Type: Drama, France 1997

Director: V?ra Belmont

My rating: 3
Key actors/actresses:
Sophie Marceau .... Marquise
Bernard Giraudeau .... Moli?re
Lambert Wilson .... Racine

Posted by Dominic
Story:
A tragedy of the actress La Marquise who raised from a small town dancer to the leading actress of the play group that performed for King Louis xiv.

My review:
Very good performance by Sophie Marceau to play the role of Marquise, a French actress of the 17th century.

A Very Long Engagement (buy from Amazon)
Type: Drama Romantic, France 2004

Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet

My rating: 4

Key actors/actresses:
Audrey Tautou .... Mathilde
Gaspard Ulliel .... Manech
Jean-Pierre Becker .... Lieutenant Esperanza
Dominique Bettenfeld .... Ange Bassignano
Clovis Cornillac .... Beno?t Notre-Dame
Marion Cotillard .... Tina Lombardi

Posted by Dominic
Story:
During War war I, 5 French soliders were sentenced to death for self-inflicting wounds in the hope of early release from the army. Instead, they got caught and were sent to the front line, a no-man land between the German and French battlefield, unarmed and constantly in the cross-fire, they were going to die for sure. One of the 5 soliders was a young man by the name Manech who had a fianc?¦called Mathilde. After the war ended, Mathilde was determined that Manech survived and she embarked on a journey to find out what really happened and to search for Manech.

My review:
I am a big fan of Am?lie and this film was made by the same team that brought us Am?lie. The story is fairly complicated and it can be hard to follow, you really need to pay attention in order to understand it. The film has done a great job in bring back the 1910s/20s feel of France. The war scene pretty impressive.

All in all it is a good film with a complicated storyline. I won't spoil it by telling you the ending.

Posted by Doris

The Legend of 1900 (buy from Amazon)

Type: Drama, USA 1998

Director: Giuseppe Tornatore

My rating: 5

Tim Roth as "1900"
Pruitt Taylor Vince as "Max Tooney"

Story:
After World War II, Max, an unhappy american goes to a pawn shop to sell his trimpet. The shopkeeper puzzles the tune Max plays is also one as found in an unreleased record. Max tells him this record is made on the Virginian cruise ship, where he has spent several years, the happiest time in his life with the great jazz band and its pianist, also his best friend '1900'. Max starts to tell story....
A baby boy was abandoned by his first class parents on Virginian. He was named as '1900' for the year he borne.
He grew up on the ship & learnt piano by himself.
Everybody likes him for his gifted talents of piano skill, great music inspiration and good character.
He has never thought about leaving the ship till he falls in love with a young pretty gal.....
From here, Max realised 1900 might be still staying in Virginian soon to be demolished, he decides to find 1900....

My review:
Very touching, can't stop crying at the ending.
It's a good movie by director Giuseppe Tornatore beside "Nuovo Cinema Paradiso".
Tim Roth, the piano scene, the pace of this movie are all excellent!!

Cinema Paradiso (buy from Amazon)
Type: Drama, Italy 1988

Director: Giuseppe Tornatore

My rating: 5
Key actors/actresses:
Antonella Attili .... Maria (Young)
Enzo Cannavale .... Spaccafico
Isa Danieli .... Anna

Posted by Dominic
Story:
A man receives news from his aging mother in a little town that someone he once knew has passed away. A beautiful story unfolds about the man's childhood friendship with an old man who was the projectionist at the local theater. Their bond was one that contained many highlights and tragedies, and shaped the way for a young boy to grow and move out of his rundown village to pursue a dream.

My review:
Cinema Paradiso is one of the best movies I have ever seen. It is a very touching movie. I was deeply moved. The whole movie is about the relationship between a kid and the old man who is a film projector controller. The kid's passion towards movie had been developing since he first met with the old man. At the beginning of the movie, this relationship was presented in a very natural, interesting, and humourous way. The kid grew up and the old man continued to be his best friend. The small town had gone through many changes and the kid eventually left for the big city and made his own fame and fortune. He returned to the small town, now an old man himself, to attend the funeral of his life-time best friend and witnessed the demolition of the cinema/church where his relationship with the old man started. The ending was a particularly moving scene, I shan't spoil it by telling you what happened there. Highly highly recommended, don't miss this movie.