Category: Rating 3

Hard Candy

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Hard Candy (buy from Amazon)

Drama, USA, 2005

Director: David Slade

My rating: 3
Key actors/actresses:
Patrick Wilson ... Jeff Kohlver
Ellen Page ... Hayley Stark
Story:
Hayler is a supposedly 14-year old girl who has been lured by a grown-up photographer Jeff via internet chat room. But don't worry about Hayler, because Jeff is into a big surprise, he soon find out Hayler is a hard candy. His nightmare has just begun, he cannot even imagine what lies ahead...

My review:
Quite a powerful and interesting plot, full of twists and turns, even shocking at points. Splendid acting from Ellen Page.

Mezon do Himiko

Maison_Himiko
Drama, Japan, 2005

Director: Isshin Inudou

My rating: 3
Key actors/actresses:
J? Odagiri ... Haruhiko
Kou Shibasaki ... Saori Yoshida
Min Tanaka ... Himiko

Story:
Saori's father is a gay man who once owned a very popular bar/restaurant call Himiko. Himiko is dying of cancer, he is spending his final days in a house full of his gay friends including his current lover the young Haruhiko. Haruhiko has asked Saori to come and work as a maid in the house and also to see her father (though she has never forgiven her father for leaving her and her mother behind). At first, she felt very awkward among the gay men who are all interesting characters, soon she become accustom to them...

My review:
Unusual and creative story, especially, for the suggested scene that Saori and Haruhiko may have slept together which makes the relationship more complicated.

L' Enfer (Hell)

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L'Enfer (Bof) (buy from Amazon)

Type, Country, Year: Drama, France, 2005

Director: Danis Tanovic

My rating: 3
Key actors/actresses:

Emmanuelle B?art ... Sophie
Karin Viard ... C?line
Marie Gillain ... Anne
Guillaume Canet ... S?bastien
Jacques Gamblin ... Pierre
Story:
Three sisters live separate lives and all have their own problems. Sophie's husband is having an affair, Celine is approached by a man and she is not sure about his intention, Anne is in love with a married man - her professor who has a wife and a daughter. Their mother is paralysed after an accident that also caused the death of their father who was accused of a terrible crime...

My review:
Clearly a disfunc family. Sadly even when their mother learned about the truth, she still has no regret of her wrong accusation of a gross understanding, as a result, the family is broken and the daughters have suffered since. A sad movie and one doesn't feel good watching it.

"Hell" is supposedly to be one of stories that Krzysztof Kieslowski wanted to make, namely, "Heaven", "Earth" and "Hell".

Through out the movie there are signs of Kieslowski, such as the old lady pushing a bottle into the recycling bin (such scene also appeared in Blue, White, Red and Double life of Veronica).

You are the one


Filipino Philippine Tagalog DVD You Are The One (buy from Amazon)

Romantic Comedy, Philippine, 2006

Director: Cathy Garcia-Molina

My rating: 3
Key actors/actresses:
Toni Gonzaga ... Sally Malasmas
Sam Milby ... Will Derby/Vernard Garcia

Story:
Sally lives and works in Manila while her parents and elder sister live in USA. Her family wants her to join them in USA, she is not so sure but she applies anyway because her mother is not well and needed to be taken care of. At the US embassay, her application was rejected by the US officer Will, who is young and handsome. While she has a crush on this young man, she also hates him for rejecting her application. She has her chance of revenge, Will was adopted by US parents and he needs to look up some information on his biological parents, he ends up at the department where Sally works and she plays tricks on him at first. Eventually, she actually goes out of her way to help him and the two of them starts on a journey to look for Will's real parents and romance is in the air, but things are never so smooth as it first seems...

My review:
I got this DVD as a gift from a friend in Philippines. It is very funny and entertaining, old fashion clean fun (well, most of the time anyway), with a warm touch.

Dis-moi oui

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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.

The smartest guy in the room

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Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (buy from Amazon)

This is a documentary on the story of Enron, how the company has once risen to the 5th largest company in USA and then fell to become one of the biggest corporate scandals in history. Greed and arrogant have completely clouded the minds of the chair, CEO, CFO, executives and its traders to pursue highly profit at the expenses of the public by using fraudulent and creative accounting. Its fall also brought down one of the biggest accounting firms.

Bungee jumping of their own 情约笨猪跳


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).

Marquise

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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.

Non ti muovere (Don't move)

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Don't Move (buy from Amazon)

Type: Drama, Italy 2004

Director: Sergio Castellitto

My rating: 3
Key actors/actresses:

Pen?lope Cruz .... Italia
Sergio Castellitto .... Timoteo
Claudia Gerini .... Elsa
Lina Bernardi .... Nora (Elsa's mother)

Posted by Dominic
Story:
Timoteo is a surgent, his daughter Elsa had a traffic accident and is fighting for her life in the hospital, while waiting and praying for his daughter next to the operating thearter, Timnoteo thinks of the time before Elsa was born, in particular, a woman whom he loved called Italia. Their relationship started with Timoteo raping Italia...

My review:
"Don't move" describes a mid-life surgent torned between his present and past, life and death situation, family and adultary affairs. Well scripted, directed and act by Sergio Castellitto who played "Timoteo".

Trick

Type: Comedy Drama Suspense, Japan 2000

Director: K?ji Makita

My rating: 3
Key actors/actresses:
Yukie Nakama .... Naoko Yamada
Hiroshi Abe .... Jiro Ueda
Katsuhisa Namase .... Kenz? Yabe

Posted by Dominic
Story:
Yukie is a bad magician, no one watches her show. Her father was a magician too. One day she was asked by a couple from a very strange village to go to their village and pretend to be god. She is so down and out of luck that she decided to take this assignment. Her friend Hiroshi who is a professor who is also going to the same village trying to unearth some hidden treasure. The villagers believe that the village is cursed and every 300 years there will be a big disaster and this is the year. Yukie and Hiroshi are going to meet with some strange people, some of the them like Yukie are here to pretend that they are god...

My review:
A funny black comedy, quite entertaining. There is a TV drama of the same name. This is the movie edition.

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