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inuimari
Fave director: James Cameron, John Carpenter, Brian DePalma (although his directional style is great, his script it $hit though)
Least fave director: David Lynch, Michael Bay, Lar von Trier, David Fincher
Fave film: Lola Rent, Dark City, Cube, Girl Interrupted, Carrie
Leasts fave film: Forrest Gump, any Stephen King film (except for Carrie), Shrek (shallow film), Pearl Harbour
Fave Actresses: Sissy Spacek, Sarah Polley (I've seen a lot of $hit indie flick cuz she was in)
Fave Actors: Sam Neil, Chris Evans, Jeff Bridges, Ethan Hawke
Least Fave Actress: Wiona Ryder. Always playing a whiny character.
Least Fave Actor: Nicholas Cage! Bleh-, Eddie Murphy, Jack Black
Kind of film I like: A smart and engaging film about human behaviour and emotion. I like the kind of film where the main character overcome adversary to obtain happiness.
Studio Ghibli films, I love. Also multi-point of view films.
Kind of film I hate: A film that MUST have a happy ending, and relies on contrived plot. Also films in where the main character gets exempted from all his crimes, because he's the main character (Christmas movies follow this formula). Haven't seen Tsoti, but hate film where the main character, who is a scoundrel receive a wakening call, because the viewer MUST feel ease by having an illusion that evil-doers can be redempted that easily.
Fave musicians: Moby, Static-X, Poe, Godsmack, Bjork, BT, George Michael, Rob Halford, FC Kahuna, Alec Empire
Least fave musicians: Madonna, Eminem (bigger sell-out than Britney), Elton John (just plain dumb)
Reviews
Shokuzai (2012)
Incomprehensible mess
I'm a huge Kiyoshi Kurosawa fan. I find that he and my other favorite director, John Carpenter, really know how to use well space and eerie tone to maximize the dread and atmosphere. This is clearly a low budget drama series and Kurosawa does what he can with the budget (and ample space!). There are definitely key scenes and overarching sense of dread that Kurosawa fans have grown accustomed to. I have no problem with the direction but the plot...!
I've read the book and really loved it. I was curious to see how the book got adapted into the film and let me tell you, it seriously doesn't make any sense! Of course, when adapting a novel, there will be many changes made to make it work on the screen. However, the changes they made are incomprehensible, especially the second story. The conclusion to that story was simply unnecessary and seeing characters take abuse for no reason makes viewers feel annoyed. The plot leaves out so many details that were in the book that it seriously doesn't make any sense whatsoever. For example, the first story doesn't even bother why they had French dolls decorated in the house. Therefore, it was bizarre when the protagonist of that story suddenly says that they had a French doll displayed in the house. The ending came out of nowhere and didn't make sense; it doesn't not fit with the theme of "penance". The series doesn't really do a great job explaining how much the even that took place 15 years ago affected these girls. Asako's character was changed greatly to the point that it wouldn't fit the big revelation. I guess it won't be much of a spoiler since things changed but the book does make it clear that Asako is a selfish thoughtless woman and the entire event happened because of her. I felt a great catharsis when Yuka tells off Asako but that was lost in this series. The fact that Asako stopped being the selfish nightmare in this adaptation really made the final revelation not work and also shows how much the screenwriters didn't understand the original source.