Heartwarming films from the East

Gangoobai (2013)

Language: Hindi

Rating: Unrated

The story follows an elderly and widowed woman, Gangoobai, who works as a maid for a wealthy family. One day she witnesses the daughter of the family trying on a beautiful Gara Sari from an expensive upscale store called Ardra. She’s so in love with the sari that she can’t sleep at night and begins to save money for the next four years to buy it. Upon going into the city to the store Ardra, they at first dismiss her because she looks like a maid and they believe her to be to poor to afford one and try to dismiss her, but she shows them the money she saved up and wins they agree to take her offer.

It’s not a story that pulls your heart strings but it is very cute. Without giving too much away, Gangoobai starts to change the lives of the people she meets in the city one by one. It’s definitely a heart warming film and it left me with a smile on my face.

 

 

 

Wadjda (2012)

Language: Arabic

Rating: Unrated

Said to be the first feature length film shot in Saudi Arabia and the first film shot by female director Haifaa Al-Monsour, the story follows Wadjda, a ten year old girl living in a conservative world who is always pushing boundaries. Wadjda gets into an argument with a neighborhood boy named Abdullah, who she wasn’t supposed to be playing with, she sees a green bicycle and falls in love with it. She wants the bike so that she can beat Abdullah in a race but society says that girls can’t ride bikes as it will damage their virtue. Wadjda tries to earn the money herself while her mother is busy trying to talk her husband out of bringing in a second wife. Wadjda eventually enters a Koran reciting competition at her school. The prize of which is enough money to buy her bike.

This film is really cool. Its not something I’ve seen before or at least something I’ve seen from this perspective. I feel like countries in the middle east are often shown in a bad light by television and seeing a movie from another perspective can definitely change you thinking. This is just a really wonderful film that I wish more people would take the time to see.

Mr. Nobody

Mr. Nobody (2009)

Language: English

Rating: R

Co produced between France, Germany, Belgium and Canada. The film is set about 100 years into the future where death has been conquered through stem cell research and other science techniques. Nemo Nobody is 118 years old and reaching death and the whole world is interested in how life was before this new found “immortality”, yet Nemo can’t remember anything about his past and through hypnosis, a psychiatrist tries to bring back all his past memories. Nemo often says contradictory statement. Nemo is tells two story’s, one about the life he lives with his mother after his parents divorce, the other about the life he lives with his father.

I really liked this film and it possess this big overall theme about choice. At 9, Nemo has to choose if he should live the rest of his life with his mother or father and for a child that’s nearly impossible. This film made me think about the choices I’ve had to make in my life, like where to go to college, what I should major in. It just made me think about all these small choices that we have to make and can have a great impact on our future.

Studio Ghibli Films

If you’ve never seen a Studio Ghibli film you are missing out on so much. These are anime films from Japan and if I’m not mistaken they’re all directed by Hayao Miyazaki, who co-founded Studio Ghibli.They’re all very well known and watching them is an entirely new experience all within themselves. All of these films are child friendly and adults love them too.

My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

Satsuki and her younger sister Mei move into a house in the country with their father so that they can be closer to their mother who is being hospitalize. Nearby their new home, the two girls discover a forest filled with magical creatures. They soon befriend these Totoros, and have several magical adventures.

Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)

Kiki is a young witch who has left home on her year of mandatory independence. She finds a small town filled with loving people but realizes it is very hard for her to fit in, with being a witch and all. She picks up a few odd jobs but mostly runs her own delivery service, flying on her broom from one destination to another.

Princess Mononoke (1997)

Originally called Mononoke-hime, is about a girl who was raised by wolves and the impending doom on the forest that she lives in. The human villages are very industrial and they are moving towards the forest, putting it in danger. Mononoke must fight against the humans who are trying to take her home away. She doesn’t identify with people at all, believing herself to be one of the wolves.

Spirited Away (2001)

Ten year old Chihiro is moving with her parents to the suburbs and her father takes a wrong turn on the way there. The three wind up in a magical world filled with strange spirits. Chihiro’s parents eat like pigs at a small restaurant while Chihiro discovers a bathhouse. There she meets a boy named Haku who tells her not to cross the river before sunset but he’s too late, they already have and Chihiro’s parents have turned into actual pigs. The story follows Chihiros journey to turning her parents back to normal and finding her way home.

Well Known Fantasy Foreign Films

Here are two pretty well known fantasy films that you’ve probably heard of or maybe even seen. I know Pan’s Labyrinth has won a lot of awards at festivals and I actually went to see Mama in theaters with some friends. These two films shouldn’t be hard find and I’m pretty sure you could buy them in your local Target or WalMart if you really wanted to.

Pan’s Labyrinth (el Laberinto del Fauno) 2006

Language(s): Spanish

Rating: R

This film is directed by Guillermo Del Toro who is known best for working on the HellBoy films (1 & 2) and Pacific Rim. The film bounces back between a fantasy world centered around a labyrinth and a faun and the missing Princess Moanna. It takes place in Spain a few years after the Spanish Civil War and follows a girl named Ofelia. She goes with her pregnant mother, Carmen, to meet her new stepfather Captain Vidal. Ofelia is visited by a stick bug in the middle of the night that turns into a fairy and leads her to the labyrinth nearby where she meets the faun, a goat like creature as old as earth. The faun believes she is Princess Moanna and gives her three tasks to complete before the full moon.

I love this movie. If you haven’t seen, please do. It’s not an entirely fantasy based movie. There are lots of connections to the Spanish Civil War and some violence as the character Captain Vidal is a very cold-hearted man and only cares about killing the rebels hiding out nearby his camp and his unborn child in Carmen’s womb. The film leaves you questioning if all the fantasy things that are going on are real or if they’re just Ofelia’s imagination.

Mama (2013)

Lanauge(s): English

Rating: PG-13

The story starts out with a little intensity. We’re introduced to a distressed man coming home and picking up his 3 year old daughter Victoria, who wears glasses, and his 1 year old daughter Lilly. He’s driving recklessly on a snowy road and he swerves off the road and crashed into the woods. He survives and takes his children to an abandoned cabin her found. He takes Victoria by the window, takes her glasses away so she can’t see and points a gun at her head, but before he can kill her a mysterious shadow figure snaps his neck and drags him away. Victoria and Lilly huddle together in front of a fire and are rolled a cherry from an unknown figure. Their father’s identical twin brother,Lucas, has been looking for them for a few years and when he finds them he brings them home with him to live with him and his girlfriend, who isn’t excited about being a mother. But of course, the children don’t leave the cabin alone.

This is a Spanish-Canadian horror film directed by Andrés Muschietti. I remember going to see this in theatre’s and having no idea it was even a foreign film. Compared to other horror films I’ve seen, this isn’t really scary. Although there were moments, like when Mama finally reveals herself, that made me jump.  It’s one of those movies where I was more invested in the storyline than the fact that it was supposed to be scary.

Love comes in abnormal forms

Its officially winter here and all I can think about is snuggling up in my bed and watching a movie. But I’m really in the mood for an action films and I’m bored with the normal run of the mill romantic comedies. So I was looking around and I found these three movies and they’re definitely not what you would call average.

 
Eega (Makkhi) 2012

Language(s): Hindi, Telugu, Tamil

Rating:

This is an Indian romantic fantasy film directed by S S Rajamouli. The film starts with Nani, a man who makes fireworks, who loves his neighbor Bindu. She loves him back but chooses not to show it. A millionaire and womanizer named Sudeep immediately becomes infatuated with Bindu upon meeting her and becomes jealous of her feelings towards Nani. Sudeep starts following Nani and Bindu around and becomes enraged when Nani confesses his feelings to her over the phone, so Sudeep decides to kill him. Upon dying, when Nani hears that Bindu

feels the same way he is reborn as a fly and is bent on revenge against Sudeep. In other words, hilarity ensues.

I thought this film was so funny.  There are a lot of beautifully exaggerated visual effects that I loved and the story line itself is really quirky. It starts off with you thinking its going to be an average romantic film and then your introduced to a sorcerer and a man reborn as a fly bent for revenge. 

 

   Viva! Love (2008)

Language(s): Korean

Rating: NR

So the film focuses on Bong-soon, a fifty year old woman running some type of in home hotel/lodging business and a karaoke bar. She lives with her husband Mr. Ha and her daughter Jung-Yoon. Now here’s where things get interesting. Jung-Yoon is caught in a relationship with one of her mother’s tenants, Ku-Sang,and when her parents find out she decides to get engaged to Ku Sang. Jung-Yoon suddenly finds a job in the city and leaves nothing but a letter of apology. Ku-Sang is devastated and passes out in the streets where Bong-soon finds him, takes him home, and falls in love with the pitiful boy. After a one night stand Bong-soon finds out she’s pregnant and the two express their love for one another.

This movie was very “woah” to me. The beginning definitely caught my attention. What’s more interesting than a middle aged woman with a husband and adult daughter falling in love with her daughter’s ex boyfriend? A few of the twists in the film had me thinking they were a little too cliche and the ending left me feeling “that’s it?” Overall I really didn’t think it was that bad but I feel the other two films I watched are a lot better.

 

 

Seducing Mr. Perfect (2006)

Language(s): Korean, English

Rating: PG-13

Also known as Mr. Robin kkosigi, Seducing Mr. Perfect is about Min-jun, a woman who was recently dumped, bumps into the car of Robin Haiden and pretends she doesn’t know any English, having no idea that he is her new boss. She ends up asking Haiden for advice  in an attempt to avoid getting dumped again since he comes off as being Mr.Perfect. Haiden sees love as nothing more than a game of chess and when Min-jun starts acting in this way she realizes its simply not for her.

Although I think this is definitely worth the watch, for the most part this is one of your average romantic comedies. What makes this film abnormal from other films like it, is its English-Korean script. The character Robin only speaks English for the most part while Min-jun speaks Korean. Both characters understand both languages but have a hard time speaking their non native language. It definitely leads to a lot of comedic misunderstandings.

 

Food and Films

It’s November and the only thing I can think about is food and watching movies that have plots revolving around food didn’t really help much. I do not suggest watching any of these films on an empty stomach, you will be hungry.

 

 

Lo sono l’amore (I Am Love) 2009

Language(s): Italian and Russian

Rating: R

This is an Italian film directed by Luca Guadagnino and stars a well known actress Tilda Swinton who acted in Constantine and The Chronicles of Narnia. This film is much like a very elegant soap opera. The scenery and the cast and characters are beautifully portrayed. You get this storyline that starts kind of slow but its a very intimate movie. This movie simply has a shocking turn at every corner.

The film starts with a dinner party in Milan. Emma Recchi is from Russia and has married an Italian aristocrat. During the film one of Emma’s sons dies but before his death he had introduced her to a chef, Antonio. To not give much away, there are a few surprising events and she goes to San Remo where she happens to run in Antonio again. This time she is helplessly in love with him.

 

 

Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011)

Language(s): Japanese

Rating: PG

This is actually an American documentary film directed by David Gelb but the film is in Japanese and its so good I decided to add it. The film follows Jiro Ono, an 85-year old sushi master. Many even consider him to be the world’s best sushi chef. He owns a restaurant in Tokyo where it has won a prestigious award called the three star Michelin review. This film was nominated at the Tribeca Film Festival and won Best Documentary from the Detroit Film Critics Society. The film primarily focuses on Jiro’s relationship with his eldest son Yoshikazu. Yoshikazu is the heir to Jiro’s franchise and has a lot to live up to.

 

 

Les Saveurs du Palais (Haute cuisine) 2012

Language(s): French

Rating: PG-13

This is a comedy/drama type film. It’s lighthearted and funny, one of those movies that has a certain charm about it that you cant quite put your finger on. The film is based on the true story of Daniele Delpeuch, a world renounced cook, who became the private chef of Francois Mitterrand, a French President.

The actual film follows Hortense Laborie, a well known cook who suddenly is requested by the President of the Republic to be his personal cook. She’s responsible for cooking all his meals and deals with her own habit of imposing herself and the jealousies of the kitchen staff. Her cooking wins over the president but not without her having to avoid and battle a few traps placed in her way.

Films by Zhang Yimou

Zhang Yimou is a very popular Chinese director that has produced many films and won tons of awards. There’s a good chance that you’ve at least heard, if not seen, one of these films.

If you’ve never seen a Zhang Yimou scene then your in for a surprise at how visually stunning they are. They’re classic kung fu martial arts films filled with action and in depth story lines.

 

Curse of the Golden Flower (2006)

Language: Mandarin

Rating: R

This film is all about the dirty secrets of a royal family. It’s centered around a emperor whose second marriage is seeming to fall apart.  His first wife is said to have died during child birth and he has three sons, the eldest from his past wife and two others from his second marriage. The second wife, the empress, has become ill since she started taking a new medicine and suspects poisoning. The empress, no longer trusting her husband, has found that his previous wife never died during childbirth and actually has been exiled. The first wife has remarried the palace doctor and her daughter works as a maid in the palace. The middle son of the family has fallen in love with that maid, having no idea that she is his half sister.

I thought the storyline was a lot to follow and maybe there were a few points that didn’t add up for me but I definitely enjoyed it. The overall look of the film was amazing, like something out of a painting. It’s a film that keeps you on your toes.

 

 

Hero (2002)

Language: Mandarin

Rating: PG – 13

This film stars the well known, Jet Li as Nameless, a warrior who comes to the palace to tell the king he has killed the three assassins who attempted to assassinate him in the past. It’s based on the actual assassination attempt on the King of Qin in 227 BC. So the film is presented as a sort of story telling.

 

House of Flying Daggers (2004)

Language: Mandarin

Rating: PG-13

This film starts at the decline of the Tang dynasty. The country is in an uproar and there are rebel groups forming all over, one of which is the House of Flying Daggers. The leader of this group has been killed and his blind daughter,Mei , goes undercover as a dancer in an attempt to kill a police captain. She fails and is held in jail by Jin and Liu, two police captains. They devise a plan where Jin would pretend to be a warrior  that frees her in order for him to be lead back to her base but the plan falls apart when the two of them fall in love.

Although I don’t really like lover stories, this one was really interesting. There’s a lot of action and fighting going on in the film as well as deception. It’s far from being one of your sappy love stories where everyone falls in love and lives happily ever after.

Tales of Revenge from South Korea

Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man’s nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out. -Francis Bacon.

Who doesn’t think of getting vengeance after they’d been wronged by someone? These three films will make you think differently about the concept of revenge as each one posses a unique ending.

The Man from Nowhere (2010)

Language: Korean

Rating: R

This film was so exciting. It follows a pawnshop owner by the name of Cha Tae-sik, whose neighbor is a heroin addict and her daughter, Jeong So-mi, often comes to play with him. After taking some money from a gang, Jeong So-mi and her mom are kidnapped. This gang sends an assailant to Cha Tae-sik who kills him with ease. Cha Tae-sik is shrowded in mystery as no one can find information on him about his life for the past five years. It seem’s like he just came out of nowhere. *pun intended*

Out of the three film’s this one is probably my favorite. It’s a really good film filled with mystery, drama, and action of course. The overall plot had me hooked within the first ten minutes and I couldn’t help but feel bad for Cha Tae-sik and Jeong So-mi. Both are revealed to have rough lives, Cha Tae-sik’s past is quite heart touching. There wasn’t a moment when I was watching this film that I wasn’t on edge or curious about what was going to happen.

 

 

The Housemaid (2006)

Language: Korean

Rating: NR

Eun-yi Li is a divorced woman coming to work as a maid for a very high class family. The wife is expecting twins and already has a daughter named Nami. The husband comes home late often but treats Eun-yi Li and the head maid of the house, Byung-sik, with respect. The family takes a trip to a winter cabin,leaving Byung-sik at home. There the husband, Hoon Goh, goes into Eun-yi Li’s room and has an affair with her while his pregnant wife sleeps upstairs. When they return home, he pays her for it and they continue their relationship.  Byung-sik discovers that Eun-yi is pregnant and tells Nami’s grandmother. From this point on the family is trying to figure out how to get rid of the baby.

This is a lot more drama filled compared to the last film. I’m more into action but this was a nice revenge film. I’ve gotta say the ending of this movie really made me think. Her form of revenge said more about her assailants than herself. I had to watch it a few times but the family goes on as if nothing happened. They don’t face any problems they just hide it with money if they can, or completely ignore it. Without the film ending the way it did, I think it wouldn’t have had the same impact.

OldBoys (2003)

Language: Korean

Rating: R

The movie starts off with one man holding another over a cliff but quickly switches to a drunkard in a police office. This is our main character, Dae-Su Oh. He’s a father who, after being picked up by his best friend and on his way home, he suddenly disappears. When he wakes up he’s inside a small room and is imprisoned there for fifteen years. When he escapes he’s on a mission to find out who put him away and why, but things become very complex and his revenge isn’t as sweet as he’d hoped.

 

This is definitely the type of film that would make you think twice about wanting revenge. Dae-Su is imprisoned for fifteen years for what he’d purposely did to someone else. His thirst for revenge leaves him speechless, literally. After watching this I was left with so many questions. Was Dae-su right for wanting revenge although his imprisonment was someone else’s revenge? Revenge is just one big whirlpool spinning its victims round and round until it kills them all.

Faraway Horror Films: Unforgiving

Martyrs (2008)

Language(s): French

Rating: R

This was one of the first foreign horror films I’ve ever watched and it’s definitely one of the most terrifying. The story begins with a girl named Lucie escaping a terrifying and cruel ordeal. She meets and befriends a young girl by the name of Anna and they grow up together . Yet years later, Lucie is still struggling with the terrible things that she saw when she escaped an old abandoned building where she was being tortured. Lucie is haunted a badly hurt and deformed woman that constantly follows her. Wanting revenge, Lucie kills a family that was connected to those who tortured her when she was a child.

After murdering the family, Anna has chased down Lucie and tries to calm her down with no luck. Lucie can’t take her own mental tortures and commits suicide.  Anna, distraught, stays in the house with the dead bodies and finds a deformed and abused woman in the basement. Upon trying to save her, Anna is captured with seemingly no way to escape.

 

 

The Eye 2 (2002)

Language: Mandarin

Rating: R

This is also one of my absolute favorite foreign horror films. Jessica Alba was in an American movie called the Eye that was based on the predecessor to this film. I must say that this film is a lot better than the American one.

After a failed attempt at suicide when her boyfriend, Sam, refuses to contact her, Joey begins to see ghosts. These are not just ordinary white sheet ghosts, these ghosts are tortured souls who can’t seem to leave this world for a better one. Joey seems to be followed by one ghost in particular whose constantly interrupting further suicide attempts. Joey soon finds out that she’s pregnant and when Sam responds, she finds out that she hasn’t been communicating with her because his wife committed suicide when she found out that he was cheating on her with Joey.

On a visit to the hospital Joey witnesses a ghost trying to go into the womb of a pregnant woman on the verge of giving birth. This terrifies her as she realizes that the ghost that’s been following her, wants whats in her womb.

Faraway Horror Films: Three Strange Things

Three…Extremes (2002)

Languages(s): Mandarin, Japanese, and Korean

Rating: R

Three…Extremes is the sequel to the movie Three and, which like its predecessor, is split into three segments. Each segment with its own director and plot. It’s similar to having three short films compiled as one set.

The first segment and my favorite of the three, is a Hong Kong film titled Dumplings. It’s directed by  a man named Fruit Chan and focuses on a lonely wife who is dealing with a cheating husband. This woman is an actress who feels that she’s lost her youth and wishes to reclaim by any means necessary. She hears about a woman who makes dumplings that can make you young again. But what exactly are those dumplings made of? The woman who makes these dumplings is played by actress Bai Ling whose acted in American films like The Crow and Wild Wild West.

The second segment is called Cut and it is a South Korean film directed by Park Chan-wook. This story features a successful director who has just finished filming for the day when he suddenly wakes up on set, both him and his wife are kidnapped by a mad man. The mad man happens to be an extra from many of the directors films and forces the director to play cruel games in exchange for his wife’s life. But what did this director do to deserve such a fate? What becomes of his wife?

The third and final segment is a Japanese film called Box. It’s directed by Takashi Miike. This story was definitely the strangest of the three in my opinion. It features a young woman who keeps having reoccurring nightmares. In these nightmares she’s being buried in a box in the snow…in the middle of nowhere. Outside of these dreams she is searching for her long lost sister and comes upon a strange man from her past. Soon we come to realize that there are a lot of similarities between her nightmare and her reality.