There are some movies that have something magical. Something that keeps you glued to the screen and care a lot for its characters. La Vita e Bella (Life is Beautiful) is one of those movies that manages to enchant you. It initially is a very comedic and fun story, but slowly drama creeps into the movie and after watching it you will be heartbroken. Continue reading
If you look at the number of action movies that have a female protagonist and compare it to the number of action movies starring men you will notice that there are not that many female action heroes. With Alien James Cameron showed that women can be vulnerable, but at the same time are able to handle guns and fight evil. This meant more females in these type of roles, but if you´d ask me to name female action stars I´d probably be done pretty quickly. The only woman I would be able to mention is Angelina Jolie who has shown she can kick ass with the Tomb Raider movies, Salt and Wanted.
Hanna (played by Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones)) the next action hero. She´s only 16, but has been raised in solitude in the north of Finland by her father (Eric Bana). They live in a desolated area where no other people are around and they survive by hunting. Her father is constantly testing Hanna to see if she´s able to defend herself. All her knowledge comes from her father and an encyclopedia. She has never heard any music and has had no contact with anyone except her father. It´s no surprise that there is a moment where she starts to get curious about the world and wants to discover it. Her father helps her to get in contact with the outside world. Her first experience isn´t a positive one and it´s the start of a journey through Europe filled with suspense and action. Continue reading
Joe Clay (Jack Lemmon) is a PR-guy who is willing to do anything to keep his customers happy. It’s not a problem for him to arrange a group of women to appear when a prince visits the country and he’s happy to drink along when this is required. During one of his assignments he meets the secretary Kirsten (Lee Remick), who initally isn’t interested in him. Joe however is not someone who gives up quickly and uses all his wit and charm to win her attention. It pays off and the two start to see more of each other and eventually marry. It turns out that there aren’t the only two in the marriage though, because without a bottle of alcohol they don’t feel complete. Continue reading
Andrew Bagby is a 28-year-old medical student who starts a relationship with 41-year-old Shirley Jane Turner. Although his parents and friends get a weird feeling about it, it seems that she makes him happy, at least for a while. He decides to end the relationship, but it’s something Turner can’t handle and his lifeless body is found in a park. It’s a big shock to his family and friends, which gets bigger once they find out that she is pregnant with his child.
When director Kurt Kuenne, one of his childhood friends with whom he made a lot of home movies, hears the story he decides to make a documentary about Andrew. The goal is that this can be shown to his son Zachary when he’s older. This way he can learn who his father was. This movie is more than just a story about Andrew. It is one of the most emotionally gripping documentaries I’ve ever seen. Continue reading
Images can be very powerful. The can change someones opinion or generate a specific feeling about a war. Lots of war have one iconic image which people will remember when you mention it. If you think about Vietnam, a lot of people will know the picture of a man being executed by the army. If you think about the war in Iraq, the video of Sadam’s statue being taken down jumps to mind. Countries use these images effectively to shape an opinion, even though the reality might be different.
Flags of Our Fathers focusses on the picture of American soldiers raising the flag on the island of Hiroshima. It was a picture which was used to give the American people hope, but it was also used as something to raise money to fund the war. Continue reading
Lady Vengeance is the third film of Park Chan-Wook’s revenge trilogy (the other two are Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Oldboy). The protagonist is Lee Geum-ja (Lee Young Ae) who has just been released from prison after she was sentenced to go there for murdering a little boy. She’s innocent though and has been able to plan her revenge on the real killer (played by Choi Min-Sik). During her prison sentence she made a name for herself and after her release she can use the friends she made there to execute her plan. Continue reading
Hyeon-su Nam (Cha Tae-Hyun) is a succesful radio DJ, with a lot of listeners who regularly tune in to hear his show. Besides playing music he regularly has conversations with callers about their relationships. One of them is telling him that she has some issues with her father who has become a grandfather as well and he advises her to meet up with him and make him a meal.
When he finally gets home a young woman, Jeong-nam Hwang (Bo-yeong Park) is waiting in front of his door together with her son Ki-dong Hwang (Wang Seok-Hyeon). He thinks that they have the wrong address, but Jeong-nam tells him that she is his daughter and that he’s a grandfather too. It’s a dark cloud in Hyeon-su Nam’s perfect life which he really can’t get rid of soon Continue reading
When you are talking about samurai movie there of course is only on movie against which you measure other ones, Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai in which a small village has to be defended by a couple of samurai warriors hired by the village.
The story of 13 Assasins is slightly different: an evil lord, Naritsugu Matsudaira, reigns with an iron fist and isn’t afraid of using mutilation and rape to make everyone fear him. He’s about to climb on the political ladder which could have a big impact on the land. The samurai decide that he has to be stopped and they devise a plan to assassinate him. Continue reading
An agent that has become a pimp, Women that disappear and a serial killer are the ingredients for The Chaser, a South Korean crime thriller. Joong-ho (Yun-seok Kim) runs an escort company and notices that a couple of the women he is using are not coming back. When he sends one of his girls, Mi-jin (Yeong-hie Seo), to a customer he finds out that he has sent her to the same customer the other girls went after they disappeared. He decides to track him down as he’s worried about Mi-jin. He managed to find him (a role excellently played by Jung-woo Ha), but there is no trace of the woman. When both of them are arrested it’s the start of an exciting search for the missing woman in a race against the clock. Continue reading
Revenge movies. It’s a genre in which South Korea seems to be specialised. At least that’s my conclusion after having seen several of them. These films are not afraid to show violence in all its gruesome detail and manage to shock and make you feel something while you are watching it. I Saw the Devil takes the revenge idea a bit further than expected as just getting revenge once does not seem to be enough. While you are watching you will feel uncomfortable about this story in which Kim Soo-hyeon (Byung-hun Lee (The Good, The Bad, The Weird)) wants to have revenge on a serial killer, Kyung-Chul (played by Min-sik Choi (Oldboy)), who has murdered his wife. Continue reading