It is narrated by the teacher of this community, who tells us of the strange events of that time. First the doctor is injured, then some children are kidnapped and tortured, other women die, a barn burns etc…

SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT!!

The village people (and the audience) start wondering who is doing these terrible acts, but what’s important here is what really happens in the village. We slowly learn that some men in power positions in the village appear kind from the outside, but at home they are tyrants, especially to their kids.

I think that’s the key to this story, these fathers (with the mothers watching) are horrible to their kids. Some think they are righteous (the pastor), but some are just abusing their kids (the doctor). Throughout the film we see the various kids trying to rebel, to find an outlet for their frustration. But in the end they still have to obey their parents.

However I think they do find an outlet, which is taking revenge on whoever they hate. The teacher himself plainly accuses them of this, but even though we don’t get a definitive answer, I think he was right. However, the real problem is not the kids, but their parents. This might be Haneke’s way of showing us where evil people come from, or what could lead them to an “evil” path. Ultimately parents have a big impact on their children.

The more I think about it the more I get, which is something Haneke does very well in his movies. I’m sure there many more hints that I missed, I admit I watch this in 3 separate sittings and a few days apart, so I was definitely confused at times as to the identity of the characters. I could barely make out the adults, but the children were hard to identify.

Which means a re-watch would definitely be rewarding. This is another good movie that makes you think, which I’m always up for. However the pacing was a bit slow and it felt so distant that I didn’t feel very connected to the characters.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Then there’s a group of friends who share an apartment and seem to have sexual adventures. There’s a comedic tone throughout, even though the subject is serious (relationships, prostitution etc…).

However towards the end things get more serious, as if to tell us that even though these boys take life very lightly and joking, sooner or later life will catch up with them. The movie ends with a certain sadness that I didn’t see coming.

It’s an odd movie, I don’t think I enjoyed it much (the humor itself wasn’t laugh out loud funny), but it certainly has some message behind it about Taiwan of the time, even through the eyes of foreigners. I just didn’t enjoy it in general.

Rating: 2 Stars

In the middle of these two, is Malik, who starts his 6 years in prison by doing a favor to the Corsicans, killing an Arab, Reyeb. From there we keep following Malik’s life in prison. It’s a roller coaster, alternating the almost boring life in prison with only a few intense violent scenes.

It’s a long film, but it’s necessary to tell this story about Malik and his growth. I really don’t want to spoil it, so I’ll just say that it’s well worth watching, one of the best crime movies of the year.

After he kills Reyeb, he keeps seeing him in his head, and he becomes his “invisible friend” in prison. There are only a few scenes with him, though I’m not sure it helped us get into Malik’s head. It felt more like a gimmick, even more so at the end.

Character wise we’re really concentrating on Malik, other characters are not that well developed, expect maybe for Luciani. But the others are introduced with their names superimposed, so that we might remember them better.

Tahar Rahim plays Malik, and he does a great job. The difference between Malik at the beginning and the end is noticeable, not just in his look, but his general physicality.

Rating: 4 Stars

This is a very odd and almost surreal romance. It’s narrated by Vicky from 2011, telling us about her youth in 2001, when she was living with her boyfriend Hao-Hao. She’s not happy in this relationship, he’s basically a loser who takes it out on her and lives off of her.

However this is not a typical abuse story. He does not beat her, but he is very jealous of her and often goes through her things and accuses her of cheating on him. He shouts at her, but I got the feeling that they both knew he wouldn’t harm her, that it was almost like a mask that he puts on, but deep down he’d never hurt her physically.

She tells us that if she left him, he would always find her and beg her to go back, crying. She does go back to him, though we’re not quite sure what she does that, at least we don’t see it on screen, but I think she’s hinting that she did like him, or need him somehow. And he is obsessed with her (he likes to smell her), but there’s one scene where I think he shows that he cares about her. He’s doing drugs, which she’s not happy about, but to spite him she takes it from him and wants to do drugs herself. But he doesn’t allow her, and throws it away. I think even though he’s self destructive, he doesn’t want her to do it too.

There’s also another man in her life, Jack, who’s involved with the crime community. He’s much more in charge, and he’s kind to her, but his involvement with crime is bad for her.

The narration is often paired with slow motion, which gives it a dream like atmosphere, almost a nostalgic feeling for those times, even though they were touch times for her.

I like that this movie doesn’t spell out the relationship for us to see, instead it’s much more subtle and we can try to draw our own conclusions. It felt like an emotional puzzle or mystery. But the pacing is very slow, and some scenes might feel boring. It succeeds in creating a particular feel, but it didn’t completely satisfy me.

Rating: 3 Stars

Obviously there are some difference of opinion on how to deal with it, and the siblings have a few arguments about it. But there’s nothing too dramatic, they do not shout at each other or physically fight, instead they just talk it out and make decisions together.

What’s touching is the more subtle sadness they feel, both at letting go of some of their childhood memories (and their mother’s memory), as well as the way their life has changed. They’re still a family, they are as close as possible to each other, they certainly are not estranged from each other. But their situations are just so different due to, well, life.

This film really captures that fact of life very well, anybody can understand this. This is a very moving film, but it does it very subtly, without big dramatic moments that only serve at manipulating the viewers emotions, often accompanied by a big dramatic musical score.

The final scene gave me a nostalgic feeling, which I thought was a great way to end this story.

Rating: 4 Stars

The technical side of this film was never in doubt, Martin Scorsese is a gifted filmmaker, and if nothing else, his movies will always look good. The atmosphere on the island is appropriately eerie, and the dream sequences are rightly creepy.

The performances are good, I like all actors in this movie, and I thought they did a good job overall. Leo carried the film by himself, he wasn’t great but he was good.

What surprised me though, was the plot. It starts as a murder investigation, but it slowly becomes something else, a psychological thriller where the truth could be very different from what we thought it was.

That twist towards the end was unexpected and surprising, it totally changed my appreciation of the movie. It made me want to go back and rewatch the entire movie and notice the little details.

I admit I am a sucker for this type of movie, but I thought it was well done here that I will re-watch it again. It’s not on par with Scorsese’s best, but it’s still a very good movie. Recommended.

Rating: 4 Stars

This is a very serious drama about a mother who’s addicted to drugs and tries to come out of it for herself and her two kids.

It’s a very depressing and realistic look at the struggle she goes through, but also at the completely unhelpful environment she lives in, especially her husband and her new boyfriend.

There are many scenes of everyday life here, that help paint a complete picture of how her life works. It helps us understand what she’s dealing with, even though there are times I wish I could just smack some sense into her.

This is not a movie to recommend to everybody, but it does give us a realistic portrayal of what addiction means.

Rating: 3 Stars

I’ve been in a long distance relationship, so I appreciated the first half of the story, where the two leads meet during summer and share two intense weeks. Then he leaves for military and they start an intense correspondence through hand-written letters.

I appreciated all that, I thought the actors were fine, and I especially liked Amanda Seyfried here, as well as previously in Veronica Mars and Big Love.

Then we get the twist, which I should spoil so that you won’t check out this movie yourself. But I won’t. Let’s just say that the twist felt so forced that the reasons behind it are just not believable and in turn it destroys my interest in the characters.

The final scene was even worse, as if the writers had no idea how to end it and they just threw a scene together. Totally skippable.

Rating: 1.5 Stars

The premise of this movie is simple: a French family (father Georges, mother Anne and son Pierrot) is receiving video tapes showing that they are being watched day and night. We slowly find out that these tapes are connected to the husband’s childhood, though he’s reluctant to share that information with Anne.

The point of this film is not the mystery, although we do find out about Georges mysterious past. Instead what’s important is how this family is affected by these tapes. Georges doesn’t trust Anne with his secret, Anne is frustrated and angry. Pierrot is just distant from both of them, although that could be just due to his age.

The visual style is very interesting. Some scenes are filmed with a fixed camera, so even though characters are moving we don’t follow them. In fact, some times characters are partly out of frame or their backs are toward the camera. Some of these scenes end up being the tapes themselves, although we don’t know this at first. Other scenes are shot with a steady cam, so we move around with the characters. Given the nature of the story, it’s fun to guess which scenes are filmed from the point of view of certain characters, and which characters they might be.

From a story structure perspective, we are basically seeing these characters engaging in normal every day life, which are interrupted by the thread about the tapes. For example, we will see them at work, or having dinner with friends, or preparing to go to bed. But these are not strictly related to the plot, they just make us feel like we are “spying” into their normal lives, which are interrupted by more dramatic events related to the tapes. I want to go back and see if there’s a correlation between the story structure and the camera shots.

As for the mystery, please stop reading now if you haven’t watched this movie, I will discuss the story in detail and SPOIL THE ENDING!!

At the end of the movie, we see Majid’s son and Pierrot meeting outside the school and having a conversation. I obviously didn’t notice this the first time I watched it, because they’re not at the center of the frame. So I read about it online and went back to check it out. Without this I was very baffled by the ending, we didn’t learn who sent the tapes or why. However this scene gives us at least a clue as to who did it. That scene doesn’t tell us any detail, only that they are friendly when they shouldn’t even know each other. We don’t even know if this is after the events of the movie or before. But that’s all I need, because I have formed my theory.

Majid’s son knew about what Georges did, so he wanted to punish him for it. So he befriended Pierrot, who was probably angry with his parents himself, and he helped Majid with the tapes. There are two scenes in particular that support this theory.

The tape with Georges and Majid was shot at Majid’s apartment, which indicates that only people who had access to that apartment could have hidden the camera there. That means either Majid or his son (I’m not counting other people living there, because we haven’t seen anybody else, and whoever is not mentioned in the movie is not a suspect obviously). However I believe that Majid didn’t do it, his suicide was very convincing for me (and very shocking too!).

The other scene is when they’re having dinner with friends at home, then suddenly the doorbell rings and Georges goes to answer it. He doesn’t see anybody, so he goes out on the street. Then he comes back and the tape is left on the inside doorstep. That’s the inside door, 1-2 meters inside the external door facing the street. The tape was left there AFTER Georges stepped on the street, but I don’t see how it could have happened seeing that somebody would have to get in from outside, step 1-2 meters to the inside door and left it there, while Georges was right there on the street. That’s just impossible to me. The only other explanation is that somebody put it there from inside the house. Later on in the movie, we learn that from that door, there are two ways to enter the house, in fact Georges went to his bedroom unnoticed, while Anne was having dinner with their friends. That’s clearly a clue to let us know that Pierrot could have easily put the tape at the doorstep without anyone seeing him. I feel like rewatching the scene and checking if we saw Pierrot right before or after that.

I think Majid’s son and Pierrot just wanted to scare Georges for what he did, hence why Pierrot left home for a night without telling them. However they probably didn’t anticipate that things would get out of hand, with the police involvement and the suicide of Majid. When Majid’s son goes to confront Georges after the suicide, he could be there out of guilt for causing his father’s death.

But that’s up to our own interpretation, like many other scenes. For example, what really happened with Georges and Majid? Georges told Anne that he lied about Majid having TB, because he was jealous. But then we see a flashback to what we think is Majid coughing blood. Is that a real memory or just Georges dream? My theory is that Georges did lie, which is why he feels so guilty and didn’t even want to tell Anne. But now that he’s telling her the truth, after Majid killed himself right in front of him, why would he lie about that? What’s worst? That he lied or that Majid did have TB?

Another question I had was about Anne’s affair. Did she have an affair? The way her friend behaved with her in the coffee shop, looked too intimate for simple friends. It’s not a certainty, it’s just my opinion. Also Pierrot suspected she was having an affair, and I didn’t feel he was lying in that moment, it felt like he was honestly upset with her. Even though Anne denied the accusation, it doesn’t mean she wasn’t lying trying to protect her son and her marriage.

This is why I like this movie so much. Nothing is spelled out, but there are enough clues for me to have a theory and be pretty convinced about it. It just fits for me, so I’m happy with my solution. This is similar to the way I feel about Mullholland Drive, though that movie has much more entertainment value aside from the mystery.

Still, this is definitely another great movie. I’m now very curious to check out Haneke’s latest The White Ribbon.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Another is that I’ve been busy watching some great TV shows recently. I’ve been more impressed with the quality of TV shows than movies. Admittedly it’s easier and more immersive to watch a serial.

But this past week I’ve decided to change that. I’m not watching any TV shows now that I finished The Office, so I will concentrate on critically acclaimed movies both old and new. Starting with re-watching a big favorite of mine, the Taiwanese movie YiYi.

This is a family drama that tells many different threads that cross in and out with each other. Each member of the family has their own story, that presents interesting aspects of human life. Even though this is clearly a Taiwanese family, their stories appeal to a global audience.

There’s the father who’s going through a crisis at work, while at the same time he reconnected with his first high school love. The way his love story is handled is completely different from what would happen in a Hollywood movie. This feels much more honest and real, much more subtle.

There’s the daughter, who’s very naive and doesn’t even know she’s involved in a very tragic love story between her two friends. Again, this is not the typical teenage girl story, with lots of drama. It’s more subtle than that. I think subdued might be a word to describe it.

The younger son has his own problems, dealing with girls bullying him at school. He presents a more philosophical aspect, almost showing us how he views the world. He uses the camera to express his viewpoint, which is a very interesting one.

I’ve lived in Taipei for a few months at a time throughout my life, and my wife is also from Taiwan, so watching this movie obviously brought back many memories from there. Just little details like the type of doorbell, or the fact that every bathroom has a Dove product, or the shape of a certain desk lamp, these all brought us back in time.

It’s no surprise than that this movie is truly a favorite of mine, I will re-watch this movie again and again in the future.

Rating: 5 Stars