Cinema du Randomness

Sunny - Well, this was a waste of time. Classic sappy Korean movie. Cancer patient terminally ill? Check. Lots of crying? Check. Uh… fighting scenes? Yes, even that. Although it completely lost me when the 40+ ladies took out their purses to fight. Not cool. Still, it is slightly more creative and better executed than most movies of this type. Some okay-ish points: depiction of the westernized Korea in the ’80s, some insight into political situation at the time, lots of cursing. Oh, and her face:

Castaway on the Moon - I’ve been putting off this movie for ages, but now that I think about it, maybe some higher force wanted to prevent me from watching it until now. Because it couldn’t have happened in a more appropriate moment - while being imprisoned in my room for two days, revising for my American literature exam, reading a shitload of extracts, among them Henry David Thoreau’s Walden. Why, you ask? Well, the two main characters (and pretty much the only ones of any significance) in this story happen to be a strange, agoraphobia-stricken girl who spends her whole days in the micro-cosmos of her room, and a yuppie-looking guy, fed up with Seoul’s life in the fast lane who decides to tell everyone to fuck off and goes to live in the wilderness. Now, you won’t hear anymore about the plot from me, but I will wholeheartedly recommend this film to you. It has just the right dosage of your Korean quirkiness and your Korean drama-moments. If you are like me and don’t always have the stomach to watch those insanely melodramatic Korean movies, yet still want some of that emotion with some cute details on the side, this one is for you. Oh, and also if you are one of those deep, intellectual folks who like to dwell on the question of man vs. nature. Might be a long shot, but I reckon you’ll like it. 

Also, no Tom Hanks. Sorry.

Mein liebster Feind - The definition of bromance, right there.

Salt White - Remeber when I said in this post how I’d like for someone to prevent me from going to see these obscure Georgian movies during film festivals? Yeah well, that never happened. And there I was, sitting in a theater surrounded with people aged 50+, watching a movie about a waitress, a policeman and a group of homeless children wandering about in some remote Georgian resort. You know when people use the phrase ‘festival movies’, but really mean ‘pointless, boring, movies without a plot, during which the only thing you think about is what you are going to eat after the screening is over’? Well, Salt White was definitely one of those. But not to be completely dimissive here, it was still a pleasure seeing new landscapes and hearing an unknown language, which is the main reason why I decide to see these movies in the first place. But for anyone not desperately looking for feeling of unfamiliarity, feel free to skip this one.

Poongsan - Seeing emotionally-draining Korean movies on Sunday mornings is slowly becoming a tradition of mine. Without any good reason, I might say, other than pure hatred for my well-being. Still, Poongsan proved to be tolerable, as in, I didn’t feel the need to grab a gun and blow my brains out due to all the tragedy in this world upon seeing it. It was a steady balance of action, politics, romance and thriller, quite neatly packed. Certianly kept me on the edge of my seat for two hours. Actors were immense. Yoon Kye-sang was flawless - I’ve never seen him in anything beforehand, but I’ve been told he’s the ‘quirky’ character in k-dramas, so that makes me appreciate him in this role all the more. Truly enjoyable cinematic experience, would recommend it to k-lovers, as well as people interested in situation between two Koreas, but not without a little bit of romantic relief.

Grizzly Man - Before I go on rambling about how much I was fascinated by this movie, let me present you with some facts why I think Werner Herzog is an awesome human being:

• He incidentally came across Joaquin Phoenix and saved him after a traffic accident
• He worked in NASA
• He got shot by an air rifle during an interview, but stayed calm, claiming the bullet ‘isn’t a significant one’
• On that note, he isn’t afraid to show his pink and purple polka dot underwear on camera
• Went from Munich to Paris on foot
• Shot a movie on every continent
• Ate his own shoe after losing a bet
• Domesticated the infamously wild Klaus Kinski
• Is 1/4 Croatian (reprazent)

Oh and, he makes pretty awesome films, and Grizzly Man is certainly one of them. If I only told you the basic plot, that it revolves around Timothy Treadwell, a quirky bear enthusiast in Alaska who spends months living in the wilderness and does nothing but rave about how much he loves grizzly bears, you wouldn’t think it would make for a very good documentary, right? WRONG. Because Herzog managed to transform his life (death) story into something much more profound, multi-layered and, dare I say, philosophical. It would never occur to you that a movie with a premise like this one would provoke such fundamental question about the relation between man and nature, alienation and the basic inner human psyche. To make things even more astonishing, Herzog succeeded in all that by mostly using the authentic footage Treadwell shot during his camping in the wild. To put Herzog’s genius aside for a moment, how bizarre was this Timothy Treadwell character? Not only that, but also very hard to define. Was he genuinly a fighter for animal’s rights or just a crazy individual? What drove him to involve himself in a world for which he knew was going to be hostile towards him? What is actually hidden under his overwhelmingly sunny persona? How inherently fucked up was he? The contrast between his and Herzog’s view of nature is something which is underlined here. To Treadwell, bears, the epitome of seemingly friendly, but underneath a very roothless phenomenon of nature, represented freedom, escape, purity and love he mentions so much. However, I am still partial to those striking words Herzog utters in the final minutes of the film, commenting on Treadwell’s last shots of bears made immediately before his death: “I discover no kinship, no understanding, no mercy. I see only the overwhelming indifference of nature.”

Drive - HEY GIRL. Now, don’t get me wrong, I absolutely don’t have anything against feminist/Silicon Valley/take-your-pick Ryan Gosling and a bit of mindless synthpop as a background music to his escapades. But I didn’t find much else to like about this movie. Yeah, it looks fresh in terms of visual effects, atmosphere and to some extent, violent scenes (couldn’t help but notice the influence of Asian brutality, especially in the hammer scene *coughChoiMinSikcough*), but I thought the story itself fell incredibly short, and that we didn’t really get to know much about the characters. Still, enjoyable experience, certainly worth a watch.

Подсадной/Podsadnoy - You know, I don’t get myself sometimes. I waited six months for some anonymous kind soul to put up subtitles for this movie, even though I knew it was going to be a mediocre film at best. And yeah, as one could expect, it turned out to be a perfectly average modern Russian thriller, one which I would have gladly passed if the cast/location had been different. The plot wasn’t particularly exciting, the whole parallel timelines dealio turned out to be really sloppy and the characters painfully lacked depth. However, if you’re a raging St Petersburg/Leonid Bichevin fangirl, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it, no matter how bland it really is. Even though I wasn’t sure at times if that boy could act at all (he was alright in Morfiy and Gruz 200, though), I chose to ignore it, mostly because his face is just pleasant to look at. I MEAN, SRSLY:

Elena/Елена - The dude who sat behind me in the theater and loudly proclaimed “Man, this shit was like some Raskolnikov in reverse!” upon the film’s ending reviewed this movie in one line better than I ever could in 3298 pages.

Still, classic Zvyagintsev. Those of you who are familiar with his earlier films will not be disappointed in the amazing cinematography and camera work, which was to be expected. The story - definitely not one of his best. Too slow, not much depth to it and I failed to see the overall point, honestly. Worth seeing for the eyegasm factor, if nothing else.

Wszystko, co kocham (All That I Love) - This movie does a good job at capturing all the frustrations of growing up in Eastern Europe - everpresent unstable political situation, need to rebel, strict authority figures, censorship, curfew and all that shit. In this case the country was Poland, and youngsters in question were four rebellious high school students who weren’t particularly interested in the political ideology of their homeland. On the contrary, they just wanted to drink, have mindless fun, hit on cougar ladies and play some catchy punk tunes. However, their plans don’t go that smoothly in early 80s Poland…

I guess if I had to compare it to another movie, in terms of atmosphere, it would have to be Goodbye, Lenin! but they are, in fact, quite dissimilar. It’s not particularly exciting story-wise, but hey, there aren’t many movies with this specific theme, so we’ll let it slide. It still remains an interesting insight into two polarized parts of Polish society just before all the shit went down with Solidarnosc and whatnot. Or in a gif:

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