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...

Before Sunset (buy from Amazon)
Type: Romantic, USA 2004

Director: Richard Linklater

My rating: 5
Key actors/actresses:
Ethan Hawke - Jesse
Julie Delpy - Celine

Story:
This is the sequel to the romantic movie "Before Sunrise" where Jesse, an American guy who lived in Texas and Celine, a French girl who lived in Paris had the encounter of their life, when they met 9 years ago on a train and agreed to spend a day together in Vienna. They formed such an intense and irresistable bonding that they promise each other that they will meet again in 6 months in Vienna. However, they only met again 9 years later in Paris. What happened in the 6 month after their first encounter, why didn't they see each other again until now? How do you pick up a conversation again after not seeing someone for such a long period of time. So what's next? Are they still made for each other, the soulmate that they had hoped for 9 years ago?

My review:
Absolutely love this sequel as well, the acting, the script, the scenary and most important of all, the mood and feeling that it brings. Couldn't think of a more perfect ending than the one shown.

Ehtan and Julie played their role really well. The plentiful and natural dialogue make the audience feel they have re-ignited their intense connection as in the first movie, and that they have never forgotten each other for a day. It was tragic that they were unable to meet up during that 9 years because they didn't want to exchange contant information not even their last name, they don't want to just call or write to each other a little while and then the relationship will fade away, but as a result, once they have missed their rendervous in Vienna, they had no way of finding each other until Jesse published a book on their 1-night affair 9 years ago. All their possible romantic feelings were all injected and preserved in that 1-night, they were unable to feel and be happy with anyone else. Imagine such torture of not being able to feel love except with a person that you are uable to locate and then the joy of seeing the person again by chance. What sort of intense emotion is unleashed as a result?

Please also see Doris's review.

Before Sunrise (buy from Amazon)Type: Romantic, USA 1995

Director: Richard Linklater

My rating: 5
Key actors/actresses:
Ethan Hawke - Jesse
Julie Delpy - Celine

Story:
Jesse is an American student who lives in Texas, he is on a vacation in Europe and Celine is a French girl on her way back to Paris. They met by chance on a train and started a conversation, they felt there was an intense connection, a connection that most people don't even find during their entire life. Jesse is catching a plane to USA from Vienna the following morning and crazy as it might sound, he asks Celine to get off the train at Vienna and spend one day with him and they will part at sunrise. The brief encounter turns out to be much more than they have expected, what future holds for 2 people who have lived separate lives on two far apart countries until today...

My review:
I like this movie very very much, don't we all have the fantasy of meeting a complete stranger in the most unexpected circumstances who turns out to be the soul mate of our life? What seem to be two parallel lines somehow crossed by faith.

The connection of the two characters are instantly felt and the what seems to be a casual conversation shows harmony and reasonate. The dialogue is not dramatic, it is cozy and natural just like a conversation between two friends who have known each other for years. This is much more convincing than the super dramatic type of movie like the Titanic. One has to wonder if Jack and Rose (in Titanic) are really made for each other and if Jack had survived, how quickly he would have dumped Rose.

I particularly like the dialogue where they make conversation by pretending to be calling their best friend to talk about what happens in Vienna and role-play the best friend part. Exchanging their deep and honest view of each other since the moment they met on the train.

Not until too long, the loving feeling was coupled with physical desire, completing all the elements of knowing each other.

Audience can feel the sadness when the perfect couple must part and get on with their original path in life. Our hope is raised again with their promise to see each other again in 6 months' time, we are put in suspence not knowing that if they will indeed see each other again. Deep in our heart, we wish them luck and hope they will indeed see each other again, but on the other hand, we are not so sure if such brief but intense encounter is a strong enough foundation for their future life together (if any). Is it possible to put one's romance all into one night.

Also see the review of the sequel "Before Sunset".
Also see Doris's review.

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).

Se Souvenir Des Belles Choses/Beautiful Memories (buy from Amazon)
Type: Romantic, France 2002

Director: Zabou Breitman

My rating: 4
Key actors/actresses:
Isabelle Carr? .... Claire Poussin
Bernard Campan .... Philippe
Bernard Le Coq .... Prof. Christian Licht

Posted by irene
Story:
A young lady experiences the early stage of Alzheimer's and meets her lover in a house for amnesiacs.

My review:
It's a funny and touching story. Both actor and actress play really well.

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.