June 2012

Review: Vampires (2010)

This one was sort of a random watch on the Netflix.  Normally, I don’t go in for vampire flicks unless they are exceptional or very different in their approach.  This one actually fulfilled both requirements.  Vampires is a French-language film that approaches the subject of the blood-sucking fiends from a documentary point-of-view.  It revolves around a camera crew that takes up with a family of vampires who live in French-speaking Belgium.  The main cast consists of the family, their basement ‘roommates’ and a variety of side-characters that appear to flesh out the world of vampiric society.

Review: Moss (2010)

The movie that caught my attention this week is a nearly three-hour Korean flick called Moss that was spawned from a webcomic.  Although the reviews I’ve read on the webcomic paint it as a dark look into the face of corruption, the movie, unfortunately, fell short of these praises.  Even before I started the film, I dreaded the two hours and 42 minutes that it promised, as once you’ve started into such a long venture it can end up being a trial to make it all the way through to the end.  Indeed, I had to take a couple of breaks from the film since it just wasn’t compelling enough to keep my interest for the entire run.

The basic premise comes in two stages.  At first we get a look at the past, though that’s not spelled out to the audience immediately.  There’s a corrupt, vigilante-like cop and a religious leader who meet under criminal circumstances and end up forming a partnership of a sort.  After this brief introduction, the main movie commences, revolving around the religious leader’s son who goes off to a small town following the death of his father.

Why watching foreign films is important

Many people overlook the prospect of watching foreign films simply based on the fact that they feel they’ll need to read something in order to get anything from the movie.  To some people, the goal of watching a film is to simply be entertained, and the more complex the process, the less likely they are to watch, even if it is amazing.  Others may watch foreign films but choose to use dubbing, which has the unfortunate side effect of blurring the actual meaning of the film.  But I insist that foreign films play an important role in both education and entertainment.

Review: Sonatine (1993)

Continuing my Takeshi Kitano string of films, I decided to move on to Sonatine.  It is another in the line of movies that star Takeshi as well as being written and directed by him.  The plot, as is typical for his films, revolves around a series of events in the life of a Japanese gangster.  Two rival gangs are looking to start a war and Takeshi’s gang gets dragged in to negotiate.  Things go wrong, people get shot and their group is forced into hiding while they wait for things to be resolved by the big boss.