YNOT at the Movies

Indeed "Maborosi" is a delicious treat for cinema like Mr. Kore-Eda's other films. It tells a very simple and sad story, through its unforgettable beautiful visual.

In "Maborosi," a young woman Yumiko lives with his husband Ikuo and their new born son quietly and happily in Osaka. A tragic event alters Yumiko's life. She moves to a small fishing village with her young son, but she can never stop wondering what really happened. That thought tortures her forever.

Director Hirokazu Kore-Eda is terrific at telling a story with his visual, with little dialogue, if any at all. It's remarkable to see how he can use a simple scene to convey so much emotion and tell us so much more.

I can never forget a scene when Yumiko sitting on the back of his husband Ikuo's bicycle. It's one of the sweetest and most romantic scene I have seen. No roses or candles, and they don't have to say how much they love each other. We all know by just look at this image.

In this film, not a single person is bad, or even remotely mean. Everybody is kind and nice. Yet, this is not a light happy film. It refuses to leave my mind after I watch it.

My rating: 9 out of 10.

How come the San Francisco Library has this Korean film on DVD even this film is not released in the US? My little finger tip research reveals the trail.

This South Korean film is put on Chinese subtitle and sold on DVD in Taiwan (either legally or illegally). Thanks to the California State Library Global Languages Materials Grant, San Francisco Library purchased this DVD (for $21) from Taiwan.

Now I have a Korean film on my table with Chinese subtitle (no English subtitle) in San Francisco, perhaps the only place we can see this film in the US. I am grateful because I really like this film.

Anyway, "My Brother" tells a story about two brothers raised by their mom alone after their father died. The elder brother Sung-hyun is quiet and shy who is very good at school. Sung-hyun was born with a cleft lip, so naturally, mom shows more affection toward him and becomes very protective. On the contrary, the younger brother Jong-hyun is rebellious and active, not very good at school, but quite savvy at picking up fights at school.

Jong-hyun is bitter at his brother and mom because he feels that he is left out, but eventually they regain their brotherly bound and realize how much they love each other as a family.

This film is different from most Korean tear jerker dramas that always involve some love stories of good looking boys and girls. Alright, there is an incredibly cute guy in this film. Jong-hyun is played by a Korean heartthrob Won Bin (元彬). who also staring in "Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War" (太極旗 휘날리며). It might sound shallow, but I will give up everything I have if Won Bin asks me to run away with him. Going anywhere, I don't care. Even Iraq. Not only because his look, but because his talent in acting, although I don't know what I am gonna do with it. Making a film?

This film is fully charged with raw emotion and at one point, I had tears in my eyes. It's so realistic that each character says exactly what they should speak and acts exact the way they should behave.

The editing of this film is so precise that it's like a mathematician's work. Each frame explains something, and also each frame exists because it's a prelude for the next event. The filmmaker's thoroughness is very impressively throughout the entire film.

I really enjoyed this film, especially watching the eye candy Won Bin (元彬).

My rating: 8 out of 10.

Tim (Emile Hirsch ) is a high school senior with a distant father (Jeff Daniels) whom he almost never speaks to and an eccentric mother (Sigourney Weaver) who can brings up masturbation with Tim without laughing. Tim also has a swimmer brother and a sister who goes to college. A tragic event at home challenges each of them to deal with the past, the reality, and each other. Perhaps, the future as well, if they have one.

"Imaginary Heroes" is written/directed by the talented Dan Harris, who was only 25 years old when the film was released. I absolutely love his terrific writing. No wonder he was hired to write the screenplay for "Superman Returns." The dialogue is sharp, witty, funny, and sometimes, makes one cry. Like this one:

Tim's sister: "Is there such a thing as the human heart, now there's the better question."
Tim: "Well, if you listen closely, you can hear it breaking."

The performance is simply superb. Sigourney Weaver should have given at least an Oscar nomination for portraiting this incredibly hippy, complex, compelling, and original character as Tim's mother. None of the characters in this film is happy and lovable. But I grow to care about them and feel their pain inside, and even sympathize their struggle. Yet, at the same time I laugh out loud throughout. The film provides many comic moments and lines that makes me laugh when I feel I shouldn't be laughing.

This is a great film and I am looking forward to other new films from Dan Harris.

My rating: 9 out of 10.

As I already decided, I didn't go to LA this weekend.

Instead, I stayed at home with tears running down my face like two rivers.

No, not because I feel sad for not going for the road trip, but because of a Japanese film I just watched: "Crying Out Love, in the Center of the World" ("世界の中心で、愛をさけぶ").

This is a beautifully shot and profoundly touching film about love and grief. Normally I am not really into sappy romance movies, because many of them insult my intelligence. But this sentimental drama completely captivates me and I cried and cried and cried again.

In "Crying Out Love, in the Center of the World," Saku and Aki are two high school classmates in the 80s. They fall in love and use audio cassettes to record their diaries for each other. However, this romance didn't last forever. And 17 years later, when Saku comes back to his hometown, he is still consumed by his love of his life time.

The film travels between two time lines seamlessly and never slows down on building up the emotion through a brilliant performance by a terrific ensemble cast. I believe in and feel the love between the characters, which is why I am so deeply moved by their love story.

The film is also very philosophical on grieving loved ones. For example, Uncle Shige said to Saku in the film:

"Heaven's just something invented by survivors. My beloved is there, someday we'll be reunited. We want to believe that."

And I also want to believe that even after I die, my love will still live on, after "tying up some loose ends."

My rating: 9 out of 10.

As the name suggested, an "air guitar" is a guitar made from air. A player on stage plays an imaginary guitar. If that doesn't sound familiar, what about drag queens lip singing with an imaginary voice? The same thing.

They are all performers and entertainers, and you gotta have some serious talent to be able to play an "air guitar."

"Air Guitar Nation" follows this subculture and air guitar players all the way to Oulu, Finland for the Air Guitar World Championships, where thousands attend concerts with no instruments.

The film featured a charismatic Korean American C-Diddy who determined to "out weird the world" and claimed the Air Guitar World Championships title like going to the Olympics. He and his competitors play their air guitars with a passion, and sometimes with a slogan: "Make air, not war."

That's the spirit.

This is a very entertaining documentary. To me, this film looks like a behaved brother to his slutty sister: "Trannyshack," a documentary about Trannyshack.

My rating: 7 out of 10.

"Little Children" is directed by Todd Field who also directed the brilliant "In the Bedroom." I am delighted to see his new film, even it's a little late.

"Little Children" focus on a few suburban married women, and men with kids, especially Sarah and Brad. They hang out in the playgrounds and the swimming pool to go on with their "normal" middle class lives. However, Sarah finds the courage to pursue her hunger for passion and rediscover her sexuality, with Brad.

What's remarkable about this film is that these suburban folks are ordinary people, except that pedophile character that I can't say is ordinary, but a well-written character nevertheless. The film digs deep in how these people deal with each other and diligently shows us their emotion. This film intelligently tells absorbing stories surround them and makes the audience to think long after the film is over.

However, I do feel that voice over sometimes annoying. I don't know whose voice it was, because it doesn't belong to any one in the film. Although something the voice said at the end of the film is quite insightful:

"We can no longer change the past, but the future could be a different story. But it has to start from somewhere."

Yeah, my future has to start somewhere if I want it to be a different story.

My rating: 8 out of 10.

The documentary shows us the life of a world renowned avant-garde stage director Robert Wilson and his artistic creation.

Although Robert Wilson is an American, but his work is more well known in Europe than in the US. I have never heard about this guy before I went to see this film. Through this documentary I was able to know (even just on the surface) about this amazing artist.

Robert Wilson was a slow developed child and had a father who doesn't accept him being gay when he grew up in Waco, Texas. He started to use theatre as his media form for his artistic imagination since the 60s.

Watching the footages of his plays, I feel like walking inside a Modern Art Museum. The visual is stunning and it makes me want to be there. But I also chuckled to some of the footage because I don't think I understand his artistic expression. We were told that his work is not meant to be comprehended.

Although I would like to see more about Robert Wilson's life in this film, this documentary mainly focus on his art work and the influence from his childhood. It does a fairly good job about it, at least the film makes me wonder about Mr. Wilson's work.

My rating: 7 out of 10.

In "Freedom Writers," Acaedmy Award winner Hilary Swank plays an ambitious young teacher who went to a public school in Long Beach to educate at risk kids. And those kids, mostly gang members are so inspired by this teacher and they published a book called "The Freedom Writers Diary."

How did she inspire these troubled kids? She bought them "Anne Frank's Diary" to read. And then, the kids start to throw away the guns and spend time to write diaries instead of engaging in gang activities.

Sounds absurd? Well, it is, from what the movie shows. This is a laughable film full of cliche. None of the characters are original. They are more like the pickled vegetables in a jar on the shelf and I have been looking at them for years. I don't know who open the lid and let them out. And they taste just like what I expected.

Hilary Swank definitely needs a new agent to pick up some good scripts. She has not done any good role except her winning roles in "Million Dollar Baby" and "Boys Don't Cry."

Despite some impressive performance from a few young actors, this film is a disaster and I hate to see that it even gets made at all, of course, by Hollywood.

My rating: 3 out of 10.

Twenty-one years old handsome educated city boy Mr. Kang comes to a countryside village to teach young children. One of her student is a 17 years old girl who immediately madly falls in love with Kang. But Kang has his eyes on another new teacher, Miss Yang. So some hearts are to be broken.

This film shows the tender affection with humor and sincerity. It's one of those Korean dramas that make my heart warm with an innocent love story. There is no big idea or complex plot in this film. It's simply shows the love in these characters as a matter of fact.

After the heavy "Address Unknown," this cute "The Harmonium in My Memory" is just what I needed.

My rating: 8 out of 10.

In "Address Unknown," Chang-guk is a teenager who is an outcast because his father was an American G.I. who abandoned him and his mom. Despite repeated returned letters marked "address unknown," Chang-guk's mother continues her writing effort to the United States to contact Chang-guk's father. Chang-guk becomes friends with another quiet teenager Jihum, who is constantly bullied by others and in love with a girl Eunok. However, Eunok can't keep the relationship with Jihum because in order to cure her injured right eye, Eunok reluctantly develops a relationship with an American G.I, who is very unhappy with his service in Korea. Misery never ends, and the suffering continues.

This film creates a few very impressive characters. None of these characters is happy, but we grow sympathy to them and suffer together with their pain. While most of the Korean actors had very good performance, the American G.I.'s performance was awful. I bet if director Kim Ki-duk had been as well known as right now, he would have had a better actor to play that American G.I. I can't stand that guy.

This is a emotionally charged film with very dark subject.

My rating: 7 out of 10.