Reviews

A well made and thought out movie.

The actors were all very believable. Vanessa Di Quattro did a particularly wonderful job playing the part of Ana. Her mothers refusal to allow sign language meant Ana was unable to communicate fluently, and you could feel her frustration. Each of the characters were well acted, to the point where I began to hate Antonio (Ana's stepfather}, and had great empathy with Ana, Sofia (her younger sister) and Manuel (Ana's brother). Towards the end I even felt sympathy for Julia (Ana's mother) who had been unable to see {or unwilling to see} what was going on between her own husband and his abuse of her daughters.

I gave the movie 7/10.

Child by Children (2008) aka Kodomo no kodomo is a sweet movie. The two children involved, Hiro and Haruna aren't promiscuous, just inquisitive. They're only elementary school children after all. The teacher Ms. Yagi tries to introduce sex education to the class but the principal, the other teachers and the parents are against it. Little do they know that its too late anyway for little Haruna. The sex education does at least enlighten Haruna as to what has happened between herself and her playmate, Hiro. Haruna realises she is pregnant, and eventually all the children in the class know about it. A number of times there are attempts to notify the adults, but the adults are too busy or preoccupied to listen.

The entire class of students become involved, following the pregnancy and eventually end up delivering the baby.

Naturally when the parents and the teacher do find out (the baby has already been born) there is shock and surprise, but they eventually show love and acceptance.

Very good acting by all involved. The teacher in particular is very good, and one of the students, Mika is wonderful. She's only a child but is attractive and has real charisma. I hope to see her in future movies.

Despite the title and the storyline, this isn't a movie that will offend anyone. There is no titillating moments for perverts or voyeurs. I enjoyed it and give the movie 8/10.

An autistic girl (Zen), the daughter of a money lending Thai mother and an estranged Japanese father, both highly skilled in martial arts, learns to become highly skilled in the art by watching the masters on TV, and also the training taking place at a martial arts school next door.

When the mother becomes ill, the now teenage (and cute) Zen seeks to recover debts owed to her mother to pay for the medical treatment She has to use her fighting skills to defend her friend 'Moom' and herself from the Thai gangs they approach seeking the money owed.

Whilst I'm not generally a fan of martial arts movies for the sake of martial arts, this has an extremely interesting storyline and some very good acting. The choreography is amazing and the fight scenes, especially the one that takes up the majority of the final 28 minutes of the movie is outstanding. You will have to see it to believe it. There is no doubt many actors/stunt men (including the star, Zen) were injured during the making of this movie, and you will see some of these takes during the closing credits.

Every now and again a movie GEM comes out of Asia. Eg. My Sassy Girl (Korea), The Road Home (China) Swallowtail Butterfly (Japan). I have become a lover of Asian movies, and while each of these is very different, they are all excellent. I have many favourites, but this Thai movie Chocolate is up there with the best of them. I've now seen it a number of times (showing friends, etc.) and I give it 9/10.

It is a long time ago that I watched this documentary and normally I wouldn't have considered writing this review, except for the fact that there weren't any other reviews here, and this documentary deserves some praise, so here I go.

I will preface this by stating that I am a keen sailor and I am Australian, so I no doubt have a bias as to the extent and the cost of this rescue.

The documentary is well presented, with a lot of actual footage of the discovery and rescue of Tony Bullimore in his upturned sailing yacht, the Exide Challenger.

He had been sailing his yacht in the Vende Globe single handed around-the-world yacht race. When 1300 miles south of Australia in the Southern Ocean, with reported 60' waves Exide Challenger lost her keel, overturning the yacht.

The Royal Australian Navy had been out assisting in other rescues and was diverted to search for Bullimore and the Exide Challenger. As it had been more than 6 days since Bullimore had been heard from it was assumed he had died in the freezing cold conditions. When the yacht was finally found floating upside down there was still no indication that Bullimore had survived. The Navy put out an inflatable to go and check the upturned yacht. The rescuers knocked on the upturned hull and to their obvious delight heard a knock back to them. Shortly after Bullimore swam out from his precarious refuge inside the upturned yacht. It was an overwhelming sense of relief just watching this (despite knowing the result prior to watching it). The elation that was obvious amongst the officers and crew of the HMAS Adelaide was amazing.

Bullimore had been trapped in an air pocket inside the yacht. If he had stayed outside on the upturned hull of the yacht he would have been washed off or frozen in the gale force winds that he had to contend with.

There was a lot of criticism of Bullimore (and others who push the boundaries) because of the massive cost of this rescue. However, in my mind the Navy seamen are being paid anyway, the HMAS Adelaide is being used, mostly just to practice their skills. This rescue was of more value than any normal exercises because it was real, because there was emotion and a life was at stake, there is nothing like the real thing to test our skills.