Three Colars: Blue

(summary)
Three Colors: Blue is the first part of Kieslowski's films. Blue is the story of Julie who loses her husband, an acclaimed European composer and her young daughter in a car accident. The film's theme of liberty is manifested in Julie's attempt to start life anew free of personal commitments, belongings grief and love. She intends to spiritually commit suicide by withdrawing from the world and live completely independently, anonymously and in solitude in the Parisian metropolis. Despite her intentions, people from her former and present life intrude with their own needs. However, the reality created by the people who need and care about her, a surprising discovery and the music around which the film revolves heals Julie and irresistably draws her back to the land of the living.

(theme)
Freedom is one of the major themes in the film; Julie as we come to find out becomes depressed after her accident and lost of her family. She decides to leave her old life behind, she moves out of her home, sleeps with another man, and finally doesn’t finish the music, which she was writing for her husband.

(reaction)
I thought this was a great but very dark film. I loved the blue shots in this film it really captured the feeling of depression from the main character.

Shanghai Triad

(summary)
Country boy Shuisheng is brought to 1930s Shanghai by his uncle who wants the boy to become a member of the powerful gang ruled by manipulative Tang (Li Baotian). In fact, Shuisheng will serve Tang's capricious mistress Bijou, a nightclub singer whom the boss proclaimed "the Queen of Shanghai." When the boy's uncle and the gang's several other members die during a rival gang's unsuccessful attempt on Tang's life, the latter retreats to a remote small island, taking both Bijou and Shuisheng with him and thinking of revenge. The film's English-language title is a little bit deceiving (the original Chinese title translates to "Row, Row, Row to Grandmother's Bridge," a line in Tang's favorite song performed by Bijou), as this film centers more on the boy's coming of age and Bijou's disillusionment and arrogance than on Shanghai gang wars.

(Theme)
The theme shows the cruelty of human nature, and the innocents are always suffer because of it. The director used familiar image to show this. In the beginning of the film, he showed the innocent face of the main character. In the end he showed the main character’s hang up side down. This showed how he changed because of some inhuman humans.

 (reaction)
I thought this film was excellent. It does have a slow beginning but it picks up and holds your attention up to the very end. The actors didn't have too much energy but they still got the lines across.

Eat, Drink, Man, Woman

(summary)
Senior Master Chef Chu lives in a large house in Taipei with his three unmarried daughters, Jia-Jen, a chemistry teacher converted to Christianity, Jia-Chien, an airline executive, and Jia-Ning, a student who also works in a fast food restaurant. Life in the house revolves around the ritual of an elaborate dinner each Sunday, and the love lives of all the family members. Their father, Chef Chu, is the head chef at Taipei Grand Hotel and taking care of his family on his own for the mother had passed away long ago. They seem to be very disconnected with one another and engraved themselves in personal issues that have probably carried on for years in life; just as any other family would experience.

(theme)
A major theme of the movie is that romantic relationships give life meaning and are necessities of life such as eating and drinking.The film features numerous scenes displaying the technique and artistry of gourmet Chinese cuisine. Since the family members have difficulty expressing their love for one another, the intricate preparation of banquet quality dishes for their Sunday dinners serves as a surrogate for the spoken expression of their familial feelings.

Another theme is aging. Chef Chu is showed as having lost his "one true love" (his wife), losing another (his ability to taste) and about to lose all three daughters to marriage, not to mention old age.

(reaction)
 I wouldn't call it a great film but it is good. It has a great character development and a unique plot. I really liked how each character had each there own little story. I loved the huge use of food which watching this film always makes me hungry. But the ending twist was very unexpected. Recommended.

Eat Drink Man Woman Trailer  

Bombay

(summary)
A south Indian Hindu man falls in love with a Muslim woman. They marry against family wishes and move to Mumbai, where he works as a reporter for a large daily newspaper. Eventually, the couple has twin boys. The rest of the film is set during the December 1992 January 1993 period when the Ram controversy raised religious tension in Mumbai and other parts of India, which sparked rioting and violence. The couple is separated from their children, and the fathers of both parents are killed when their home is burned by rioters. A reporter is shown interviewing politicians from both factions as well as the police. An underlying moral of thinking of oneself as an Indian rather than a Hindu or a Muslim is prevalent throughout the latter part of the film. The family is finally reunited after much searching through hospitals, morgues, and shelters. But the violence has left indelible impressions in the minds of the children.

(Theme)
Inter-religious relations and religious riots remain futile but factual. This film criticizes and directs the blame of unnecessary tragedy onto the Indian government, who is rendered manipulative. The hierarchy of the Indian government seems to be the product of the tragic event in Bombay, as well as the influence of hatred between the Hindus and Muslims for their own ravenous reasons.

(reaction)I am not too surprised about the events in this film. I find politics to be distasteful and ironically unfair to its causes. However, I do believe this is a great film to show the world. There are people who believe that assault is appropriate, given the circumstance. I don’t believe anyone would openly admit that but I do believe I see it for myself every day. The film Bombay does just that. It shows us the extreme assault that is derived from how greedy and selfish people are; people who create excuses to specifically get what they crave. But putting politics aside I don't know if I'm not used to the bollywood style but i felt that some of the music was out of place and just came from nowhere. But still recommended.

Bombay - Kuchi Kuchi (tamil)

The Unknown Women

(summary)
Irena, a Ukrainian prostitute on the run, is determined to find a job in an elegant apartment building in northern Italy, and starts by cleaning the stairs. She does it in order to inch her way into working for a family residing in that building. She befriends Gina, the nanny of the family's child, Thea, who also lives with them in their apartment. When the nanny is crippled in a fall tripped by Irena but presumed to be accidental, Irena is hired to take her place. Through flashbacks, we learned that Irena has been physically and emotionally abused, and forced to have nine children, all taken away at birth to be sold to adoptive families. After stabbing her pimp and leaving him for dead, she sets out to find her youngest child, whom she believes is Thea; hence the plot to work for them. Adoption documents in the apartment convince her that Thea is indeed her daughter. The mother grows suspicious of Irena and fires her, despite the loving relationship that has grown up between Irena and the child. Irena's pimp stalks her and sends out thugs to beat her up as she walks down the street. He rigs her employer's car, leading to a crash in which Thea's mother is killed. The pimp forces Irena to drive him to a location that may or may not contain the money Irena stole from him when she left him for dead. During a struggle, he falls and is killed as his head hits a rock. Thea's father moves to a new apartment and prepares a room for Irena, but as the police suspect foul play around the death of Thea's mother, Irena is taken into custody. She reveals both that the true culprit is the pimp and that she killed him. She is tried, and sent to jail. Thea stops eating until the judge allows Irena to visit her in the hospital and feed her. DNA testing reveals that Thea is not her daughter after all.

Trailer to The Unknown Women


(Theme)
Fear is a major player in moving the film forward and making it so suspenseful.

(reaction)
This was on the edge of your seat great film. The director did a fantastic job of making the audience feel, the fear Irena felt in her everyday life. One of my favorites of the semester.


 

Dreams

The movie consists of eight short stories. Most of which center around the issue of people's relationships with other elements that make up this world that we live in. 
Sunshine Through The Rain
In this first dream, a boy doesn't listen to the wish of a woman, possibly his mother, to remain at home during a day while its raining. The boy hides behind a large tree in the nearby forest, he witnesses the slow wedding procession of the kitsune. Unfortunately, he is spotted by the foxes and runs. When he tries to return home, the same woman says that a fox had come by the house, leaving behind a knife. The woman gives the knife to the boy, implying that he must commit suicide. The woman asks the boy to go and beg forgiveness from the foxes, although they are known to be unforgiving. The boy sets off into the mountains, towards the place under the rainbow in search for the kitsune's home.

The Peach Orchard 

Is about a family chopping down peach trees. After following a girl into a field, dolls appear out of nowhere. These dolls are the spirits of the peach trees which were cut down. The little boy starts to cry and the dolls let him see the tree orchard for one last time.

The Blizzard

The Blizzard dream is about mountaineers struggling up a mountain trying to reach camp. They all pass out from exhaustion. this brings about a dream that the main mountaineer is having a woman appears and then the snow storm clears and the camp is right in front of them.

The Tunnel

A soldier walking home from fighting. He approaches a long dark tunnel and hears barking. A dog then appears out of the tunnel. The soldier then walks through the tunnel. After walking out of it, he notices a ghost of a solder. The ghost tells him that his parents don't believe he's dead. The ghost then walks back into the tunnel. The soldier now hears matching and a  platoon of soldiers emerges from the tunnel and solute him. The commander tells them that they all died in action and that they should rest in peace. He orders them to march back into the tunnel.

Crows

An art student finds himself inside the vibrant and sometimes chaotic world inside Van Gogh's artwork, where he meets the artist in a field and converses with him. The student loses track of the artist and travels through other works trying to find him. He eventually finds Van Gogh walking through his Wheat Fields with Crows painting.

 

Martin Scorsese as Van Gogh

Mount Fuji in Red

A nuclear power plant near mount Fuji melting down. Everyone is in fear and are jumping into the ocean. Everyone ends up dying.

The Weeping Demon

This dream is about nuclear weapons and how land, as well as people get deformed as a result of them.

Village of the Watermills

 A village that is dedicated not to use energy and other things that pollute the earth. When the older people die the villagers have a celebration of life for them.

(theme)

Man Vs Nature. Man destroying nature, nature getting back at man, and man fixing nature.

(reaction)

I was totally amazed when i saw this film. It was visually gorgeous. To me this seemed like what Kurosawa wanted to do his whole life but finally got the chance at the end of his career. I truly loved this film. One of the best of the semester.

 

Tsotsi

(summary)
Tsotsi is a leader of an informal black criminal gang in South Africa. They are simply awful, inhuman, cruel and uncaring. We may understand why they act this way as we see the segregated black slums they live in, and, through flashbacks, their orphan-like upbringing, but you can't bring yourself to forgive them for what they have become. They are some of the worst thugs of the earth. He commits a car theft from a wealthy neighborhood, he unknowingly kidnaps a baby. He can't bring himself to let the baby die. Tsotsi attends to the baby in his small, slum house. He becomes half good and half evil.
(theme)
The film looks at the question whether the worst of our humans on earth can change and tip back into being civilized.
(reaction)
Even though this film was predicable, it was still great. I really enjoyed the flashback scenes of when Tsotsi was a young boy. The scene where his father broke his dogs leg was what I thought Tsotsi learned to hate. I feel he sees his father in anyone he hurts. It’s a unique film that faces the tragedies of the real world.

Protecting himself from society. Gun and Shield