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Reviews
Dalpaengee eui byeol (2011)
Must see.
An intensely moving, humbling, but most of all, inspiring experience. At the end I couldn't believe that an hour and a half had passed. I was totally entranced by this sensitive portrayal of these fascinating people's lives. I came to this film with very little knowledge about how a deaf-blind person might be able to communicate, so it was an education. On the one hand (or rather two) there was the extraordinary tactile language of playing each others hands like pianos. On the other, the wonderful state of the art technology which allows books to be read on a braille equivalent of the Kindle. The film-makers manged, in my opinion, to keep a delicate balance between the practical and the emotional. Never sentimental or maudlin, the documenting of the achievement of what most of us take for granted, through loving cooperation, was deeply touching. They have a lot to teach us about appreciation, patience and positivity.
How Do You Want Me? (1998)
Beautiful and Unique
"How do you want me?" was one of these programmes that grow on you from week to week, slowly and imperceptibly. It hardly even qualifies as comedy, since there are so few laughs. It's about people, and real life, and coping, and making the best of a total muddle: how we all flail about through life, not really knowing what it's all about, or why we're doing it. The tenderness at the heart of it was Charlotte Coleman. Every time she was on screen, you felt that life was worth living, because this is what it's about: finding those intimate moments, when all the bulls*** doesn't matter, because you know you're in the presence of someone who cares.
The Dylan Moran character is all bluff and bluster, and Charlotte is the port in the storm, for once playing a grounded and stable character. I, for one, will remember her most for this role, rather than her more off-the-wall efforts, because after the life she lived, it seems that she would really have been happy to lead that settled kind of life. The news of her tragic death at the age of 33 touched me in a way that felt like she was a friend. She always made you feel like hugging her.