Tearing through movies like there's no tomorrow.
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Stations of the Cross 2014
Technically excellent (yet resolutely unshowy), featuring super-long takes bolstered by fine performances. And it’s so deadly serious that it could almost be viewed as a comedy. The mother is a fascinating character, but since she’s entirely didactic and keeps herself emotionally distant, it’s nigh on impossible to feel any sympathy for her.
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Dust of Angels 1992
No country for young men
A tale which incrementally doubles down on the lack of options facing male juveniles in certain environments. In this case, with hoodlums as role models and a police force riddled with corruption, who is there to lead them out of a dead-end life of guns and gang warfare?
Even though the film is beautifully shot, there’s nothing glamourous about any of it, and the pervading sense of threat and low-level ennui is attenuated only fleetingly by a moment of genuine, authentic humour. (And throughout, I couldn’t help but think of Made in Hong Kong, though this came first.)
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Joint Security Area 2000
Even the conspicuous dubbing of Lee Young-ae’s English dialogue (and the stilted performances of two European actors) can’t dampen the power of this deeply humanistic story about a geographical, political, ideological and cultural nexus point, where North and South Korea meet. And at the heart of this particular zone are people, not monoliths, a point which Park Chan-wook, elegantly sums up with a single photograph – a picture that is genuinely worth a thousand words.
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The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice 1952
Sympathy for Mr Bonehead
In which Taeko (Michiyo Kogure) both scandalises and amuses a couple of her female friends and niece regarding her husband, whom she refers to as “Mr Bonehead” and compares to a dim-witted carp. And it has to be said, it’s pretty funny stuff. But then we get to spend some time with ‘Mr Bonehead’ – or Mokichi (Shin Saburi), to give him his actual name – and we realise that he’s a decent chap. It’s just…
