All articles by Dan Fainaru – Page 33
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Reviews
The Sakai's Happiness (Sakai-ke No Shiawase)
Dir/scr: O Mipo. Jap. 2006. 102mins.Debut film-maker O Mipo mayfind that The Sakai's Happiness, herlaudably understated approach to family life in a provincial town, will findfavour with critics but alienate many potential audiences. Keeping at all timeswithin the boundaries of low-key drama, it's the sort of feature that mightstrike impatient ...
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Reviews
Gangster High (Pokryok Sekkeul)
Dir/scr: Park Kihyung. Korea, 2006. 102mins.An exceedingly violent high-school rumpus that deterioratesinto warfare, with dead and wounded left on the battlefield, Park Kihyung's GangsterHigh is the kind of picture no young teen will be allowed to see, should censorshave any say in the matter.Park Ki-hyung,whose disappointing family horror film Acaciaclosed ...
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Reviews
Before We Fall In Love Again
Dir/scr: James Lee. Malay-HK-Chi. 2006. 99mins.Husbands and their wives' lovers have never hit itoff as well as they do in Before We Fall In Love Again, a strange and tightly controlledMalaysian romantic drama. Granted, it would have gained much by being shot onfilm, but even in its digital form it ...
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Reviews
Eternal Summer (Sheng Hsia Guang Nian)
Dir: Leste Chen. Taiwan. 2006. 95mins.A far cry from his horror film debut Heirloom, which broke box-office recordsin Taiwanlast year, Leste Chen's new film Eternal Summer is an intimate coming-of-age love triangle,whose gay theme gradually emerges until it takes over by the end. Sensitivelydirected and performed with sincere emotion by ...
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Reviews
Traces Of Love (Gaeulro)
Dir. Kim Dai-seung. S Kor. 2006. 112mins.A perfect choice to promote South Korea's natural beauty, Pusan's official opener is an easily watchablebut unabashed sentimental melodrama, swimming in a sea of decorous tears andclassical music warhorses. Traces Of Love revolves around a real-life 1995 disaster in Seoul, when a departmentstore collapsed ...
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Reviews
Dasepo's Naughty Girls (Dasepo Sonyo)
Dir. Lee Jyong. S Kor 2006. 103mins.Going to see Lee Jyong's latestventure on the strength of his previous work Untold Scandal, a highly stylised periodrelocation of Dangerous Liaisons, is a serious mistake. Dasepo's Naughty Girls, a high-school romp, is a world away from thebeautifully-shot historical pageant which toured the world ...
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Reviews
My Friend And His Wife (Naeui Chingu, Geueui Anae)
Dir/scr: Shin Dong-il. S Korea. 2006. 116mins.After the hospitable reception for Host And Guest, his two-hander debut, lastyear, writer-director Shin Dong-il extends hishorizons to a full trio of characters with MyFriend And His Wife, an often fascinating if ultimately overlongexploration of an unusual relationship between two men and a woman.The ...
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Reviews
Nightmare Detective (Akumu Tantei)
Dir/scr: Shinya Tsukamoto. Jap. 2006. 107mins.By now a brand name whose body of work has its ownband of dedicated and faithful followers, Shinya Tsukamoto sticks to form with Nightmare Detective, a brutal, violent,and nerve-racking slasher feature that blurs allborders between fantasy and reality. Assailing the audience from the start withblazes ...
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Reviews
The Sugar Curtain (El Telon De Azucar)
Dir/scr: Camila Guzman Urzua. Fr-Sp. 2006. 80mins.A classic portrait of a dream gone wrong, Camila Guzman Urzua's personaland intimate Cuba documentary The SugarCurtain is as fierce an indictment of the Castro regime as any academicanalysis of it.The daughter of expatriateChilean film-maker Patricio Guzman, whosedocumentaries on Pinochet's military coup are textbookmaterial ...
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Reviews
The Sugar Curtain (El Telon De Azucar)
Dir/scr: Camila Guzman Urzua. Fr-Sp. 2006. 80mins.A classic portrait of a dream gone wrong, Camila Guzman Urzua's personaland intimate Cuba documentary The SugarCurtain is as fierce an indictment of the Castro regime as any academicanalysis of it.The daughter of expatriateChilean film-maker Patricio Guzman, whosedocumentaries on Pinochet's military coup are textbookmaterial ...
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Reviews
The Post Modern Life Of My Aunt (Yi Ma De Hou Xian Dai Sheng Huo)
Dir: Ann Hui. Chi. 2006. 113mins.A slapstick comedy opening leads to a melancholy and melodramaticending in Ann Hui's The Post Modern Life Of My Aunt, which is tailoredto please home audiences and Chinese communities abroad but will hold limitedinterest beyond that. Conceived as an episode piece that shifts from a ...
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Reviews
Forever
Dir: Heddy Honigmann. Neth. 2006. 95mins.An intellectual mood piece about life and art,observed through the perspective of death, Heddy Honigmann's documentary about renowned Parisian cemetery Pere Lachaise is surprisinglyaffecting and perceptive, despite its conventional structure.Taking a camera through oneof the most celebrated resting places in the world, and pointing it ...
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Reviews
Forever
Dir: Heddy Honigmann. Neth. 2006. 95mins.An intellectual mood piece about life and art,observed through the perspective of death, Heddy Honigmann's documentary about renowned Parisian cemetery Pere Lachaise is surprisinglyaffecting and perceptive, despite its conventional structure.Taking a camera through oneof the most celebrated resting places in the world, and pointing it ...
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Reviews
I Am The Other Woman (Ich Bin Die Andere)
Dir: Margarethe Von Trotta. Ger. 2006. 104mins.A faint scent of nostalgia for the past rules over Margarethe Von Trotta's handsomeproduction I Am TheOther Woman, which looks like a psycho-romantic melodrama from the 1950s. Justimagine Three Faces OfEve meets Belle De Jour on theRhine valley, with all the modern paraphernalia that ...
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Reviews
I Am The Other Woman (Ich Bin Die Andere)
Dir: Margarethe Von Trotta. Ger. 2006. 104mins.A faint scent of nostalgia for the past rules over Margarethe Von Trotta's handsomeproduction I Am TheOther Woman, which looks like a psycho-romantic melodrama from the 1950s. Justimagine Three Faces OfEve meets Belle De Jour on theRhine valley, with all the modern paraphernalia that ...
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Reviews
All About Lola (Lo Que Se De Lola)
Dir: Juan Rebollo. Sp-Fr. 2006. 112mins.After a long and successful career in short films,Juan Rebollo's much awaited feature debut All About Lola turnsout to be the kind of film one would rather talk about than watch.Intentionally hermetic, enormously self-indulgent and ignoring reality any timethat the real world disturbs its metaphor, ...
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Reviews
Delirious
Dir: Tom DiCillo. US. 2006. 107mins.Neither a spoof of the celebrityindustry nor an earnest appraisal of what this industry is all about, TomDiCillo's Delirious is anintermittently amusing rags-to-riches lark about a small time paparazzo and hishandsome sidekick who ends up a screen star. DiCillo aims his gently pointedbarbs at pop ...
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Reviews
Half Moon (Niwemang)
Dir: Bahman Ghobadi. Iran-Iraq-Austria-France. 2006. 107minsMore ambitious than his previous films, BahmanGhobadi's Half Moon about a famous musician travelling from Iran to Iraq for aswansong performance, explores the unifying spirit of the dispersed Kurdishnation. Not as narratively concise as his best work, the film tries to pack intoo much particularly ...
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Reviews
My Son (Mon Fils A Moi)
Dir: Martial Fougeron. France. 2006. 90mins Martial Fougeron's modest family drama went almostunnoticed during the San Sebastian film festival but certainly ended the eventcausing a storm of controversy when it was declared the ex aequo winner of theGolden Shell, a decision that was greeted by boos by some critics. An ...
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Reviews
The Tiger's Tail
Dir/scr: John Boorman. Ire-UK. 2006. 106mins.John Boorman's admirers,uneasily awaiting his latest feature after the disappointment of Country Of My Skull,can rest easy. Back on familiar ground - Dublin - and reunited with a sterlingBrendan Gleeson, The Tiger's Tail isan alternately funny and thoughtful doppelganger story that may well see theveteran ...