I'm not joking when I say this film literally changed the way I watch movies. I used to have a really analytical approach in watching and critiquing films, and had an imaginary checkbox of things a film had to accomplish in order to be a good film. Like... does it have a good screenplay, does it have good acting, is the cinematography good, etc. But when I watched Climax for the first time, it completely shattered my approach.
This filmβ¦
I was honestly not even planning on re-watching the first Top Gun before this, but I decided to revisit it on a whim yesterday night and I was absolutely surprised by how much I loved it. So much so that I was actually kind of worried that I wouldn't like this as much. In fact, for the first twenty minutes or so, I thought this was just going to be some nostalgia bait for the people who loved the firstβ¦
Gorgeous landscapes after gorgeous landscapes. A Touch of Zen is considered one of the best wuxia action films ever made, but in my opinion the action scenes here are focused less on excitement and more on just the pure beauty of it all. It's so fluidly choreographed, capturing both the surrounding environment and the fighting subjects. I was in awe.
This is by no means a perfect film, and I certainly wish some of the nighttime action sequences were betterβ¦
Bruh the photojournalist in this film has some god-tier manual focusing skills, like this man is pointing his Nikon F at random subjects from the weirdest angles but all his photos turn out incredible. Maybe I'm thinking too much into this, but as a film photographer I find it highly unrealistic that the photojournalist is able to rapid-fire shoot at his subjects in the nighttime with no flash. Like there is no way he is nailing the focus or evenβ¦
A sci-fi reinterpretation of Edward Yang's Yi Yi. It's about coming to terms with a potential death in the family. Both Yang and Kogonada are hugely influenced by Ozu, but Kogonada is able to inject so many of his trademarks just two films into his career.
His appreciation of architecture is really apparent in this (I'm not really surprised though considering he made Columbus), and the production design is so aesthetically pleasing. Truly moving film, and despite its title literallyβ¦
