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The Gift (2010)
Fatal box
Everyone desires the box - the mysteriously attractive box that, like the ring from The Lord of the Rings, make people attached to it even to the point of murdering. The short film takes place in a modern city where robots and 'traditional' human beings, like us, live together. One day, a man walks into the city carrying the box, and the scramble for the mystical box begins.
When I watched it for the first time, I didn't really get the whole story. Though it seemed like it was something new to me and it was fascinating. For instance, the way the robot moves and their human-like yet still very inhuman and steady face expression immediately grabbed my attention. I, then, tried giving it a watch another few times and I came to appreciate the short more. Everyone is attracted to the box and tries to get it, but when they finally acquire it, it brings them death. It's a deadly box. After I got it, I particularly liked the ending: a boy staring at the box.
The Lunch Date (1989)
Completely fooled!
At a train station, a wealthy looking old woman bumps into a man and her belongings scatter on the floor. He tries to pick them up with her but she refuses his help saying that the action would make her miss a train, which she does eventually. After missing the train, she realizes she has lost her wallet and goes back to the place she ran into the man, however, she cannot find it. She goes to a cafe and buys a plate of salad and decides on a place to sit down. She notices she has forgotten taking a fork with the salad so she leaves the seat to take it. When she comes back to her seat, she finds a man sitting there and eating her salad.
I have to admit, I was completely fooled. What a clever story the film has! At first, I thought the man eating the salad was such a rude vermin. He is eating someone else's salad and wouldn't even move a bit from the seat when told the salad belongs to the woman. I sympathized with her; I was angry and annoyed with him. However, at around the end of the film, we find out that it is the woman that is wrong. After taking her cutlery, she comes up to a different seat. That was very clever. I totally, fully, absolutely believed and was sure that the man was the rude one, but it turned out she was! The short film is a surprising, intelligent piece.
Knick Knack (1989)
It makes you giggle the whole time.
This Pixar short film takes place on a book shelf where travel souvenirs such as a flamingo-in- a-pool ornament from Florida and dancing palm tree from Palm Springs are put all together. They are all wearing sunglasses, dancing and enjoying themselves. However, on the very other side of the shelf, we see a snow globe from Alaska and a little, sulky looking snowman in it, all alone. When he glances at the hot bunch, he finds a beautiful blonde doll from Miami curling her index finger and calling him to join the party. The snowman wants to go to her so badly; but the problem is, he is stuck in the glass.
The film is utterly fun to watch. I absolutely enjoyed every minute of it. It is so colorful, bright, playful and clever that you could actually watch it again and again without being fed up with it. The snowman has a unique attractiveness to him. He is not your normal, cute character; he is sulky, cheeky and yet he is quite adorable. His series of funny and cute actions to exit the snow globe made me giggle countless times.
Fish Out of Water (2005)
Bright and entertaining, but...
A man is sick of hectic, stressful traffic and decides instead to go to work by boat. However, his comfortable and relaxing routine only lasts until he lets an attractive blonde woman share the boat with him on her way to work. This New Zealand short comedy film does not contain any dialogues but it has such a strong, clear plot that you do not really need the characters to utter anything; otherwise it would be too much. The film is very bright, colorful, musical and fun to watch indeed, and I also liked the ending. However, I did not particularly liked the film as a whole; not that I hated it or anything but I did not find it notably amazing. Yes, the film in general was entertaining to watch. Unique characters, lots of colors, bright music. However, it is not a type of film that you can watch over and over again without being fed up with, or at least that is what I felt. There are some films that never get old and you cannot get enough of, which are the types of films I go for, but this short film unfortunately did not make it on the list. I can go on living my life without watching it again.
Three Days in Kamakura (2012)
Married couple with problems
The film is mainly about the relationship between David and Keiko, a married couple living in Kamakura, a beautiful, coastal city in Kanagawa, Japan. Their marriage seems to be not working and has gone cold for apparently a miscarriage related reason. However, that relationship starts changing and regaining the old feeling when the English teacher husband takes home one of the kids from his eikaiwa school. I liked how the actor who plays David carries out the story very naturally, which seems effortless but I know is such a hard thing to accomplish. He is very ordinary, of course in a good way. Keiko, on the other hand, seems to me way too dramatic and stiff most of the time. Honestly, I was quite annoyed by the way she speaks her lines both in Japanese and English throughout the whole film. I also like how the film does not explicitly explain why Keiko is depressed and their marriage is under strain but gives us a hint that she might have undergone a miscarriage by showing us a scar on her belly. While I did not particularly like Keiko's acting, I liked the character in general. I can tell how much she has been struggling and find how she undergoes a change ever since the boy has come to her life, even though it has only been for three days. But then again, her acting destroyed all the touching and moving emotion I was supposed to get from the character (sorry for such harsh words but could not help it). However, the story was something I enjoyed and although I did not like some parts (Keiko, I am specifically talking about you), overall I had some good 20 minutes watching the film.
Father and Daughter (2000)
This perfect piece of art grabs your heart right away
I must warn you, you just cannot watch this without holding back your tears. The short animation film is a story about a daughter who has a deep, strong, remaining desire to see her father again. It is not as fancy or flamboyant as popular animated cinema like Toy Story and it only has around eight minutes of length but it is as or even more magnificent than those famous animations. I have already watched it several times but I never get sick of it. What is beautiful about the film in my opinion is its minimization of expression. There is nothing exaggerated or explanatory; for instance, no one in the film says a thing for eight minutes, but you can still perfectly understand how the daughter feels by the music and how she pedals her bicycle. The ending scene was really tear-dropping and also thought provoking. There are many ways to interpret the scene and again, I think less exaggeration allows us to think and appreciate the film. After I watched the animation, I was left with nothing but sadness. But as a sad-film-lover, this cinema completely caught me. This is one of those films I can watch over and over again without getting tired of it.
Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)
You feel emotionally attached to the characters throughout the film
One day, an ad is put in a newspaper saying that the writer of the ad is looking for someone who could accompany them to travel back to the past. One of the journalists at a magazine publisher suggests they investigate who exactly has put up the ad and interview them. An intern at the publisher, Darius, does not want anything to do with it or the psycho who believes they could really time travel, however, after meeting Kenneth,the man who has posted the ad, and actually spending time with him, she is gradually attracted to him and struggles between the mission as a journalist and her feelings for him.
I found this science fiction, comedy and romance film very entertaining, even though it looks like, in my opinion, it was made under a low budget. It is the screen writing that is doing the magic; the awesome characters and how the whole story is carried out cleverly. The idea of the whole story is obviously not new. It was probably done a hundred times, but it's all about how you do it. The characters and their lines are especially amazing and hilarious, and you can easily find yourself feeling sympathized with every one of them. Especially near the ending, you don't want Kenneth to find out that Darius has been doing the whole thing as her job as a journalist (though she develops feelings for him after a while) because you don't want to him to get hurt, and when the truth is revealed, you just want things to go well for the two and root for their happiness. One of the factors that is making the film entertaining is, I think, this sympathetic emotional attachment to do the characters throughout the film.
Terry Tate, Office Linebacker (2002)
Beastly yet likable American football linebacker
This is a comedy short film about a retired American football player, Terry Tate, enforcing rules in an office and correcting the wrongdoings of his colleagues in his own way. Believe it or not, since his arrival in the work place, the productivity of the company has increased, and despite the way he does his job, he fits right in the environment, and everyone, especially his boss, likes him. This is one of the most hilarious films I have ever seen. It was so funny that I saw half of the episodes in a row. Terry is quite a character, which I think is an essential factor for a good film, and I love his trash talking lines that never fail to make me giggle. I am not a huge fan of American football, well, I don't even know the first thing about it, but each and every one of the episodes still had me laughing. When I say the first thing, I mean I didn't even know what linebacker was and had to actually google it. This is a kind of film that you can still enjoy even if you have zero knowledge about the sport, and I am sure those who are expert about it can as well.
Whacked (1998)
Stressful work (may include a spoiler)
This approximately-5-minute short film is about a man who is stressed out from his work; from how people treat him like he is nothing, and decides to get a revenge on them. At first, you just do not have any idea what is going on in the film; it starts off with a New York landscape of a lot of building with an ambulance siren ringing in the back. The camera then changes its focus on people in the city - people falling down on the street all of a sudden. You do not know why they keep collapsing but as you watch the film, you will understand why. I like how the start of the film immediately grabs attention. At least it caught mine. You have no clue what is happening so you try really hard to get the idea. In that sense, the film reminded me of this scene in Jean Luc Godard's film Weekend, in which a lot of cars are lining on the road honking at each other, and the camera keeps focusing on the line of cars for minutes and you will finally find people bleeding and dying. Also, the film does not have any dialogues so I wonder what its screen writing is like. Overall, I sincerely enjoyed it. I just love how at the end you get everything.