Memories (1995) [Anime Review]

Memories; or, Space Butterfly
     Memories aren't an escape!
I think it would be fitting to begin this review by stating that After Akira there were Memories… How come no distribution label used this as a tagline?! So yes, indeed, Memories is an anime feature, an anthology of science-fiction tales to be exact, adapted from manga stories created by Katsuhiro Otomo.

Release Info

Directed by: Koji Morimoto, Tensai Okamura, Katsuhiro Otomo

Language: Japanese Original Title: メモリーズ Runtime: 113 min

Synopsis
The movie presents us with three stories: Magnetic Rose; Stink Bomb; Cannon Fodder. The first one is basically a rescue mission in deep space which goes totally wrong. The second one presents us with a scientific worker who wakes up from a nap and discovers that all of his colleagues are dead. Whereas the final vignette introduces a bizarre world of a society that is at war with an unknown enemy and their lives constantly revolve around cannons.

In the Realm of Sci-Fi
I do not want to call this movie a spiritual companion to Akira (1988), but it goes without saying that Memories bears a distinct auteur mark of Katsuhiro Otomo in terms of animation style, colours, and motion fluidity. Nevertheless, this is first and foremost a joint-project made by three directors and their distinct visions.

As a result, Koji Morimoto’s Magnetic Rose consumes the majority of the film’s runtime, and rightfully so, because it is a stunning piece of sci-fi storytelling. It obviously takes visual cues from Alien (1979) and 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984), but this segment also manages to precede with its ingenious storyline Paul W. S. Anderson’s Event Horizon (1997). Magnetic Rose is an enchanting (Madama Butterfly!) yet at the same time demanding viewing experience. I felt so exhausted towards the end that I had to take a break and check out the remaining parts of Memories later on.

Tensai Okamura’s segment called Stink Bomb is undoubtedly the most light-hearted one in the entire movie. Thanks to bright visuals and kick-ass jazz/funk music score by Jun Miyake, the viewers can have a laugh at the wild misadventures of Nobuo Tanaka, a nerdy scientist who is determined to transport a top-secret drug from Kofu to Tokyo at all costs! This is my personal favourite segment, and allegedly, it was inspired by a real-life incident that took place in the US in 1994.

Last but not least, there is Katsuhiro Otomo’s Cannon Fodder. This is, unfortunately, the shortest segment of Memories, yet it does not mean that it is weak or bad. Within 20 minutes, Otomo really grabs you by the heart with his hot take on Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) mixed with a touch of George Orwell’s 1984. Many questions were running through my head with regard to the setting, context, and characters, but Otomo does not provide any answers at all. When a child asks his father about the enemy they are fighting, the father does not provide the details but only replies, “You’ll understand when you get bigger.”

Recommendations
All things considered, I highly recommend Memories if you are in need for a dose of old-school anime science fiction. The movie was released last year on Blu-ray from Discotek Media. I believe it is also available on Tubi, at least according to the letterboxd site.Overall score: 8/10

«Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future posts by following us»

Samjin Company English Class (2020) [Film Review]

Samjin Company English Class; or, Girl Power!
     Do you know why office workers can’t be detectives? We have neither time nor authority.
I think I would not have discovered this film if it had not been for a recommendation from my wonderful friend from MDL, Yuanwei. Samjin Company English Class is a 2020 comedy drama directed by Lee Jong Pil and Lee Jung Beom. It is yet another motion picture (see Office Royale: Hell’s Garden and Shomuni franchise) focusing on the challenging plight of hardworking office ladies.

Release Info

Directed by: Lee Jong Pil, Lee Jung Beom Starring: Go Ah Sung, Esom, Park Hye Soo

Language: Korean Original Title: 삼진그룹 영어토익반 Runtime: 110 min

Synopsis
South Korea, 1995. This is a time of major economic growth for the country. Companies are expanding to international markets and Windows has become a leading operating system across the globe. We follow three office ladies: Lee Ja Young (Go Ah Sung), Jeong Yoo Na (Esom), and Sim Bo Ram (Park Hye Soo) who are forced to do petty tasks at Samjin Corporation. Nevertheless, the three friends are ambitious and resourceful. They want to climb up the career ladder. As a result, they sign up to TOEIC-level English class. One day, Lee Ja Young accidentally discovers that there is a spill of a toxic substance known as Phenol from the Samjin factory. The office ladies begin their private investigation in the course of which they uncover a corporate conspiracy.

English is easy
I have to say that Samjin Company English Class feels very much like a spiritual companion piece to Shomuni (1998). The narrative structure is the same: OLs with vibrant personalities are basically the underdogs, and they oppose their white-collar superiors; the time setting fits perfectly: the 1990s; and even their company uniforms look very similar. Needless to say, these are the basic ingredients which make this movie entertaining, and even better than the reboot season of Shomuni from 2013.

I very much appreciated that the main heroines are not hateful or toxic towards each other, but from beginning to the end, they had each other’s back and were really engaged in doing their own investigation/corporate espionage. What is more, each character utilised her personal skill to get the job done. At first, I thought that the English class with this introverted, yet a bit impatient teacher (totally me, by the way) was just a comic-relief gimmick, but it actually served a purpose in the context of the film! In consequence, I very much value the message coming from this movie. That is: If you want to achieve something, you need to better yourself and never give up.

The ending was, in general, satisfying but a bit convoluted. In order to understand what is going on, you need to have a good idea of how big corporations actually work. Initially, I thought that there would be a hostile takeover, but actually, the baddies lowered the value of a company and tried to merge it with another one. I hope I understood this correctly. I sucked at a Business English course at my university. In addition, I don’t think that what I just wrote is a spoiler because there are many plot twists in the finale.

Speaking about performances, I love all the main actresses so much! Esom in particular won me over with her elegant and confident demeanour. Go Ah Sung is adorable as the office lady who wants to make a difference. Sim Bo Ram is extremely funny as a reserved maths genius who constantly looks for a fish called Rambo(!). Kim Jong Soo has a great supporting part as Sim Bo Ram’s mentor and friend. It is also nice to see Bae Hae Seon in a small role as a copywriter. As for David McInnis (who did very well as the CEO), casting foreign actors as baddies in Korean productions gradually becomes a clichéd trope. Please someone do something about this.

Recommendations
Samjin Company English Class is worth your attention mainly due to great performances, wonderful retrowave music score, top-notch production design, and cinematography filled with warm colours. The end credits constitute a separate, little artwork as well! So yes, you can’t go wrong with these office ladies. I am hoping that there is a chance for a sequel.

Overall score: 8/10

«Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future posts by following us»

A Confucian Confusion (1994) [Film Review]

A Confucian Confusion; or, The Way of a Copywriter
     Don't you feel emotion is becoming dangerous nowadays? Emotion has only become an excuse. It can be faked. Take you, for example, your innocence, loveliness, tenderness, vivacity. They all can be faked. Think about it.
Recently, I found myself in a dire need for Edward Yang. Yi Yi (2000) is obviously a masterpiece and to date remains one of my all-time favourite movies, but I wanted to check out the director’s earlier works as well. My choice became A Confucian Confusion from 1994. I have been eyeing this particular motion picture for quite some time, but I was either not in the mood for it or too tired to pay attention to multiple storylines. Well, I finally watched it, so here are my thoughts on the film.

Release Info

Directed by: Edward Yang Starring: Suk Kwan Ni, Bosen Wang, Chen Shiang-chyi, Danny Dun

Language: Mandarin Original Title: 獨立時代 Runtime: 125 min

Synopsis
The story focuses on the misadventures of Molly (Suk Kwan Ni), a fast-paced yet moody businesswoman who is unhappy at work and also within a relationship. She is engaged to Akeem (Bosen Wang) who is a businessman doing international travels. Needless to say, he is hopelessly in love with Molly and incredibly jealous. Molly manoeuvres through her friends, former colleagues, and relatives, who are also in search of true meaning in life and true love. Will they be able to find both?

Taipei Nights
Description of the film on MyDramaList says that if Woody Allen were to direct a Taiwanese picture, then it would have looked like A Confucian Confusion. In my opinion, this statement is a bit far-fetched. Edward Yang, in his own, idiosyncratic auteur style, mercilessly dissects the social stratum of Taipei yuppies. The 1990s were a decade in which Taiwan was a rapidly growing economy; therefore, people became overwhelmed by rampant consumerism. What were the implications of that?

In A Confucian Confusion, Yang elaborates on the themes of fakeness and emptiness. It is always so easy to fake emotions or to pretend to be somebody else at work just to achieve a certain goal. What is more, the masses are interested only in the mainstream stuff, opting to cheer for a scummy artist rather than series writer. If Confucius himself got reincarnated and returned to Earth, people would tell him that he is a fake.

So this is the main modus operandi of the characters. They are deeply unhappy in modern society and desperately try to do something about it, to make the right choice. Here Yang's allegory about choosing either autocratic rule or democracy is important. To be honest, I very much enjoyed all the interactions and conflicts presented in the film. Yang presented the whole thing as if the audience performed the function of bystanders who witness flashes of events concerning ordinary people. My favourite subplot was the one focusing on Qiqi and her boyfriend.

With regard to performances, I obviously enjoyed Suk Kwan Ni as the main lead, but I also greatly liked seeing Chen Shiang-chyi and Danny Dun in the supporting roles. Interestingly, there are small parts done by veteran actresses: the late Chen Limei who played Molly’s sister and Elaine Jin who portrayed the Auntie.

Recommendations
If you are in the mood for a satirical (nearly Shakespearean, indeed) comedy flick from Edward Yang that rides to the ground the unlikable (yet deeply existentialist) business people from Taipei, then I recommend A Confucian Confusion. It is indeed a hidden treasure from director Edward Yang.

Overall score: 7/10

«Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future posts by following us»

Farewell My Concubine (1993) [Film Review]

Farewell My Concubine; or, The Hegemon-King Bids Farewell to His Concubine
     I am by nature a boy… not a girl.
Today’s review is something really special, dear readers. I have heard about this movie for so many years. Even before the internet era, in special film guidebooks, this particular motion picture was frequently mentioned alongside Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai as one of the all-time best Asian productions. It comes as no surprise that to date this is the only Chinese production movie that won the Palme d'Or at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. In addition, it was also listed as one of the 100 Best Films in Global History by Time magazine. Let’s take a closer look at Chen Kaige’s Farewell My Concubine.

Release Info

Directed by: Chen Kaige Starring: Leslie Cheung, Zhang Fengyi, Gong Li

Language: Mandarin Original Title: 霸王别姬 Runtime: 171 min (unaltered version)

Synopsis
It is the year 1924, China after the fall of the Qing Dynasty. Dou Zi and Shi Tou are brought up together in an acting troupe under the strict regime of an opera master. Thirteen years later, the two friends become big stars, assume new names: Cheng Dieyi (Leslie Cheung) and Duan Xiaolou (Zhang Fengyi); and they act out together on stage the famous play known as “Farewell My Concubine”. World War II comes and goes, the Republic of China falls, yet in spite of hardships, Dieyi and Xiaolou continue their acting profession. A major blow comes for Dieyi when Xiaolou decides to marry a woman from the House of Blossoms known as Juxian (Gong Li).

Sentimental Haze
I was surprised to learn that Farewell My Concubine is actually based on a novel of the same name written by a Hong Kong novelist Lilian Lee. The book was pitched to director Chen Kaige who felt that the story lacked the emotional impact, so he recruited the services of Lu Wei, a screenwriter who later went on to pen Yimou Zhang’s To Live (1994).

Interestingly, the release of the film was quite a turmoil in itself. After the official Hong Kong premiere, the movie opened in Shanghai but was quickly removed from theatres. Only after heavy censoring, it was re-released mainly because it became a massive success at the Cannes Festival. As a result, there are many different cuts of the film out there. The full, unaltered edition runs at 171 minutes. The version I saw from local TV is 7 minutes shorter. Perhaps that is why I felt as sort of discontinuity between a couple of sequences.

The movie itself is a stunning, visual spectacle. It is one of these rare motion pictures which you can’t help but watch just for the breathtaking cinematography. Farewell My Concubine is undeniably a journey into the heart of Chinese art and culture. As for the story, it is deeply harrowing and tragic, yet incredibly romantic at the same time. This is a movie about faithfulness and forgiveness revolving around two friends and a woman who came between them. Yet, that is not all. The protagonists have to grapple with the consequences of great historical changes that influence them. Dieyi has to rescue Xiaolou from the hands of Japanese soldiers, Xiaolou has to rescue Dieyi from being persecuted by the Kuomintang. The most unsettling section is the third act of the film which depicts the horrors set in motion by the Cultural Revolution.

Many scholars focus in their analyses on the theme of homoerotics between Dieyi and Xiaolou. In my opinion, Farewell My Concubine presents this aspect in a very subtle manner (opting to show NSFW practices between patrons and actors they adore), so it is hard for me to call this film a representative instance of queer cinema. Dieyi is clearly in love with Xiaolou; that is why he opposes his relationship with Juxian, but there is a whole another layer of context between these characters in the form of an opera play itself. Dieyi acts out the part of a concubine who is loyal to her king (portrayed by Xiaolou). This blurring of boundaries between fiction and reality is what makes Farewell My Concubine an utterly enthralling and mesmerising movie.

With regard to performances, I absolutely love the late Leslie Cheung. He stole my heart with this film. I read online that supposedly Jackie Chan and John Lone were considered for the leading part, but I think none of them could channel this idiosyncratic sensibility as much as Leslie did. Zhang Fengyi is a wonderful onscreen partner of Leslie, and this really transpires in many scenes. The most heartbreaking one, in my opinion, was the moment when Xiaolou and Dieyi were forced to put on their make-ups for the shaming session. As for Gong Li, fresh after the success of Raise the Red Lantern (1991), she is drop dead gorgeous in this film. I really felt sorry for the plight of her character.

Recommendations
Farewell My Concubine is an obligatory must-watch from the time when Chinese Cinema was not beating around the bush and really faced the country’s controversial past head on. The performances of the main leads are just brilliant, cinematography unforgettable, and the story heartbreaking. This movie is a one-of-a-kind visual experience.Overall score: 9/10

«Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future posts by following us»