Reviews

First off, I did not care to much for Flags of our fathers, partly because it did not add much to the war movie genre. You know, your side is the good side and even though war is a grisly affair the butchering of young men is somehow still worth it. And I just wasn't taken in by it. Letters from Iwo Jima is something else, though. It portrays "the enemy" as humans with virtues and flaws, with children and friends, with doubts and convictions. No side is the good side. No side is the bad side. War is just sad and, at best, the indiscriminate killing of fathers, brothers, sons, boyfriends and husbands. Eastwood should be commended for making a passionate and inquisitive film about the enemy. I can only hope that it won't take 62 years to make a similar film about the enemies of today. Recommended.

Actually, there's not a whole lot to say about this movie. It's a pretty standard, albeit slightly subpar, Hollywood man-on-the-run/conspiracy movie. If you have nothing better to do, by all means see it! But if you're standing at Blockbusters with The Sentinel in your right hand and some other DVD in left you should probably go with the one in your left. Personally, my main complaint is that it's not particularly exciting nor is the conspiracy explained at the end. Why did those guys want to kill the president? Because they were foreign? I don't know, and I bet you won't either if you go with your right hand.

In psychology an ambiguous stimulus is something that there is no clear cut way to interpret. You have to make sense of it yourself using your pre-existing knowledge, point of view or prejudice. The deadpan expression of Schmidt and director Payne's wonderfully subtle storytelling does just this - leaves the making-sense-part to the viewer. What can we learn from Schmidt? Did he do the right thing?

I guess a lot of people see About Schmidt as a slow paced movie about a boring old man doing questionable things. I wouldn't disagree. However, as most movies tend be stories with a moral about a sympathetic person's journey of some sort, Schmidt's failures and mundane boring life is refreshing, just because that's closer to the kind lives most people lead. But that is not to say that most people's lives are pointless. If you pay close attention you might make some sense out of it.

An old man and a teenage girl live on an anchored boat somewhere out to sea. He plans to marry her at her 17th birthday. While he occasionally leaves their floating home to fetch fishing tourists she never does. Only the visitors seem to think there is something strange about the situation. The man and the girl seem happy. At first. A handsome young man who visits the boat gradually makes her question her situation, to the increasing dismay of the old man.

To me Hwal seem to be a metaphor of possessive love and moving on. On the dramatic level some things don't make sense. On the metaphorical level they do, to a greater extent anyway. When the old man shoots arrows at men who flirts or tries to paw the girl there is no police investigation or vindictive victims. This is just a way to show that jealousy makes you do stupid things that potentially can hurt others. When the boat where the old man and the girl used to live follows the boat on which the girl tries to leave with the young man, it doesn't matter that the engine is broken or that no one is driving it. Old relationships are hard to leave behind.

The downward spiral of jealousy and possessiveness are gut wrenching to watch. You just know something bad is about to happen. Love, or rather the risk of loosing it, makes you hurt each other. Accepting the loss, accepting the pain and letting go is a way out.

Just like other Kim Ki-Duk movies the pace here is tranquil, the photography is beautiful, and the main characters manage the express all the emotions they need using few or no words.

I really liked Hwal but perhaps it's not the best Kim Ki-Duk movie I've seen. The ending is a bit confusing and the theme of possessive love and the setting of a floating home are also explored in the superior Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom (2003).

Well. I liked this one. I'll give you three reasons.

1. It's dark. Actually, it's scary all the way through. I can't even remember hearing a single witty one liner. Much of the earth is destroyed and billions of people are killed, that shouldn't be funny. It should be dark.

2. In it's genre it felt real. Granted, aliens invading earth to drink our blood can never feel real. This one just about pulls it off, though. The focus on one family works wonders. They don't really know what's going on and don't have a lot of answers. They just try to survive. A focus on, say, the president or the military would have meant weapons, tactics and heroes. The feeling of presence and relating would be lost in such a big and formal perspective.

3. Visuals. Very impressive. The illusion didn't break once.

I'm sure a lot of people will have many objections and unanswered questions about this one. What did the aliens want? Wouldn't such a technologically advanced species be able to prevent what ends up killing them? But for me, that's what's good about it. The darkness, presence and sense of relating would have been somewhat lost if all questions were answered. Who could possibly have answers in the midst of annihilation and confusion? This was nothing like Independence Day. It was more like Alien, gritty and claustrophobic. This is sci-fi for grown ups.