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Spielzeugland (2007)
So touching and can't look away till the end
The moment I heard melancholy piano instrumental played on the background, I felt to be pulled by a film. From a German language actress speaks and her serious reaction to the missing son, I soon noticed it is a story about The Holocaust. At first, it is slightly difficult to follow the story, because it is told from two perspectives of German mother and David, her son, in two timelines. The first scene starts with David's mother going to find David, who is seemingly captured by SS. In the next scene of David and Heinrich playing the piano together, we finally understand why David is missing.
One of the most impressive moments is the interaction between the mother and David. The mother cannot honestly tell David the cruel truth about entrainment of Jewish, and instead lies that they will go to "Toyland." Watching unsatisfied David and the conversation between David and Heinrich, Jewish friend of David, we come to see why David vanishes from his bed. On the latter part, I was really thrilled by the struggle to reach David by his mother. In every sequence such as finding the teddy bear, being suspected as Jewish by the police, and final arrival to the train where David is, the contents are considerably concentrated, and I couldn't avert my eyes.
The Lunch Date (1989)
Heartwarming interaction (maybe) between the woman and man
This story is about a typical misunderstanding of the main character and teases her unconscious prejudice toward others. It consists of a minimal extent of dialogues between characters, monochrome visual, and classical music, and so audiences can enjoy how the woman, main character, is changing by an unexpected encounter in only around 10 minutes.
It starts from the scene at the crowded central station and the woman is rushing for her train. On the way to the platform, she runs into a black guy and refuses his help, though he seems to be a kind person. In spite of the effort to hurry along, she misses her train and even drops tears! It seems so over reaction and is one of the funniest moments for me in this film. But except that, she is full of prejudice towards other races, too naïve, and also gets on people's nerves. So I did not assume that I come to like her slightly more compared with in the beginning.
Through the interaction with a black guy, who are "stealing" her salad at her seat, however, she starts to take a step to change (I do not want to say she has changed through the film, rather she seizes the opportunity). The scene of sharing salad, and then buying a coffee without any conversation is so lovely that I got disappointed when finding both take no action to each other.
La Luna (2011)
One of the most romantic Pixar shorts
This is one of the most favorite short films in my life. It starts from the scene on the boat - the boat with a boy, father, and grandfather goes on a silent, calm night ocean. The sounds of Spanish guitar is romantic, and I was attracted from the first moment. The little boy is always middle of his father and grandfather, and tries to behave like adults - so I can easily suppose it is a story of boy's growth. But the way to express it is really breathtaking! When the full moon rises, adults slowly prepare to climb to the moon! With the help of the anchor and ladder, the boy arrives at the moon, where lots of little star covers the surface. Again, I have never seen such an expression for the moon, and it tells us the image of warm, bright, and even cozy place for the moon, it is so surprising. While caught in a dilemma between the way of father and grandfather, they find a huge shooting star is coming. In an attempt to put it off, the boy finally finds his way to achieve the task. We do not have the answer to the question "What are they doing?" till the end, but once you look up the sky, the answer will be there.
Begin Again (2013)
Music will connect people
In the beginning, I expected it would be a typical success story of a singer-songwriter, who seemingly had trouble in the past and tries to "begin again." But as she is encouraged to come to the stage and starts singing with her guitar, I thought "It's not for me..." Maybe the voice of Gretta, starring Keira Knightley is great, and lyrics are touching; however, the melody is a little bit plain. Audiences in the film feel the same way, and there is only sparse applause after the performance except for one guy - he puts a full smile on his face and stares Gretta on the stage.
Suddenly, the focus of the camera moves to the guy, Dan. He used to be a talented music producer but loses his fame, property, job, family bond and almost nothing left. When he listens to Gretta's song, however, without hope at the bar, the story truly begins. While Gretta's performance, Dan sees musical accompaniments such as a drum, piano, or violin in his mind; now her plane song turns into much more emotional, attracting, and even breathtaking music!
As the story goes on, we find both Gretta and Dan is connected by their experiences of being betrayed by an important person, but I think the most attractive part of this movie is how two of them encounter led by music. The storyline is little bit typical, but I really like how various music in the film become the bridge for people with feeling of lost.
Atonement (2007)
It's a story about the guilty of little girl rather than couple romance
Before watching, I expected it was a romance between Cecilia and Robbie, who are separated by the irony of fate and wondered what for they would have to make atonement for. But as I keep watching, I noticed that it is a story of Briony, younger sister of Cecilia, and we would see her path to pay for her guilt.
In the first act, many of the scenes are described from Briony's eye. The landscapes of England is really beautiful, but throughout the scene, there is always a feeling of tension. Especially after Briony happens to see a secret romance between Cecilia and Robbie, the situation gets accelerated. The background music, synchronized with sounds of typing prompts nervousness among audiences.
While Robbie is arrested and struggles to go back to Cecilia, we have to face severe conditions surrounding soldiers. Especially after watching "Dunkirk", I had to update my image of Operation Dynamo as a severer one. It is so heartbreaking, but James McAvoy's act is amazing. The last scene is a little bit unsatisfactory; since Briony seems always try to justify her action and the interview scene sounds rather explanatory than emotionally. However, I feel saved by the ending Briony prepares for Cecilia and Robbie, and all the more with they could walk such a way together.
Born with It (2015)
Really painful even looking back our 10s
This film starts with the gaze of following old pictures of Japanese students. At this moment, we still do not have any idea what it means. As the camera zooms out, however, we find that it may derive from the appearance of Keisuke, who partly seems to have roots as an African-American.
When he enters the classroom and introduces himself to other kids, he starts to be exposed to their curious eyes - it does not mean in a positive way, but rather filled with prejudice toward his appearance different from the majority of the community. Children's horrible, but also very possible reactions make me terrified, and it accelerates as the story goes. But what betrays my expectation the most is how children today treat HIVs as the means to hurt a little child, whose only difference is his African-American appearance.
Even if kids in elementary school sometimes lack some consideration on serious issues, it is quite shocking to see a child around age 10 attack Keisuke, saying "You are black, so you must be HIV!". The scene of searching about HIV on the Internet also makes me realize how difficult it is to obtain correct information for kids of that age. The ending is not fully hopeful, but I want to believe in Keisuke at least.
Knick Knack (1989)
I cannot believe it's the product made almost 30 years ago
This film starts with one statement to tell us that it was made six years before Toy Story. It surprised me how fast animation technologies get developed because of its rough character making in Knick-Knack when comparing with those in Toy Story. It, however, does not affect my impression that the snowman, funny lead character, and the storyline changed, again and again, are fascinating and exciting.
The construction of story is explained as 3-act structure, and repeated attempts to escape from a tiny and fragile (but it is only for the audiences!) snow dorm keep us amused throughout the film, starting from igloo attack. The larger or stronger equipment he brings as the means to break the wall of glass, the more heavily he is shaken both physically and mentally. We, audiences, are carefully watching his hard struggles with nervous heart, but at the same time, I cannot stop laughing by his failures in a little world. At the moment he is exposed to the largest crisis, however, I am really thrilled and even scared, thinking in mind that he might be broken into pieces on the floor. Luckily such an expectation is betrayed, but there is one more complete reversal.
Three Days in Kamakura (2012)
Think about their future after watching
For me, it is a story to reconstruct the family bound. At the first look of the scene of a middle-aged couple, David and Keiko, we can see that they are currently, or even for a while on complicated terms from Keiko's nervous face and attitude toward her husband, David. When it comes to the couple issue, especially considering a wife behaves as if she were indifferent to her husband, we may suspect that David is cheating to her. But it is not. Just after seeing there is a tension between David and Keiko, here comes the next person - irritating neighborhood. Her action without any justification makes us confused why she acts in such a harsh way, and think that maybe it is the reason why Keiko gets nervous. But it is also not. After watching an awkward communication between David and Keiko, we realize that it is a story about family (or maybe couple) issue and recovery.
What struck me the most is the scene of dialogues about "to be a real family" between David and Keiko. Audiences know how much they long for having a child and there is a perfect chance in front of them, but they would never take such measure. Their decision really makes me relieved, and the last scene may not be a perfect happy ending for some people but leaves us a room to believe that this couple would move positively after the story ends.
The Crush (2010)
A boy out of control due to romance fever
As the story starts, we find there is a strange boy staring at somewhere else. With his dreaming eye and a female teacher whom he is looking at, we can easily understand that he is falling love with her. No matter what actions other children take like booing to an assignment or getting lively by her promise of treating, only he does is keep looking at her! What an innocent and single-minded first love it is, many of the audiences might think so at first. Maybe even with the expectation of broken heart in the end of the film from the title. But if you do, you should know that this kind of motivation of youth is sometimes driven in a very radical direction.
When he finds an engagement ring on her left finger, which is not the one he gave her, his youth blood starts to be out of control. To be honest, the female teacher seems so irresponsible person for me at this point. Though she once receives the ring from the boy and even puts on her finger, now she tries to convince immature boy to say that it is complicated in adult's world! Triggered by this word, he decides to revenge her fiancée and gets her back, and his craziness reminds me of boys in a film Lord of the Flies.
J'attendrai le suivant... (2002)
Skillfully constructed film
The story starts with the heavy and slow step of woman who is seemingly returning home by metro. She seems to be bored, indifferent, or even unhappy and we assume that she is not satisfied with her life at this point. The moment there appears a strange man starting a speech to call for someone who will be dating with him in front of various passengers on metro, we easily assume that there will be a romance between these two at the end of the story. I do not say the guy seems to be a man of destiny for her at this point, because his appearance is kind of so-so, what he is talking is just like a man who has been single for a long time... In other words, he is not attractive type of person for many of audiences. However, the more selling points he speaks in succession, the larger smile the woman makes on her face. Now we can say that he is the one for her! But we should be aware of the time limit as well. He is a passerby, and therefore she should be hurry if she wants to take this chance. You should watch the end of her story with your own eyes.
Father and Daughter (2000)
Classic but so fresh impression
There is no dialogue between characters from beginning to end, only melancholy classical music to enliven story, but it shows an unfaded affection toward father from his daughter with impressive Dutch landscapes such as bicycle and strong wind more than hackneyed words. Audiences will see how her wish would come true in the end of the film.
Before watching this film, I thought that facial expressions would achieve a significant role in movie-making. This product, however, surprised me in a quite positive way. It conveys storylines and characters' emotional aspects by the means other than words and facial look, which may come to our mind first when considering how to make the story move forward. Characters' faces are described with limited parts like eyes and tiny noses and give us few clues to expect what they are thinking about. Sometimes shadow covers their face even in important scenes and we have no idea about their thought. The music, their movements, and changing landscapes, instead, tells us how much they miss each other, how long people keep their wish precious in their mind, and how much they are moved when their wish has come true.
At the very beginning of the film at the river, I assumed that this is a story about death, because the action of the father reminded me of Japanese folk beliefs to send lost souls. It, however, did not seem to deal with sad, dark, or cold aspects of deaths of lover. Rather it told us an unchanged bond between a parent and child.
A Moment (2012)
Even without any dialogue powerful and touching message it tells
In this only 16 minutes long short film, we first see four main characters, who appear to have negative feelings in their mind. Some seem to suffer from an issue in construction of relation, and another is experiencing trouble while tackling with acting practice. One thing apparent is that every one of the characters is deeply hurt in their heart. We cannot clarify the reason of their mental damage till nearly the end of the film, and therefore all we can do is just keep watching how severely they are troubled with something and wondering why they cannot escape the pain. It was so heartbreaking moments for me that I almost looked away from the screen.
Suddenly, however, we see the story gets into a turning point: when looking back a clock at a park as returning where he comes from, when turning on a smartphone, or when taking a glance to a wrist watch, they (and some of us) find that a very special moment has come, and finally audiences notice the reason of their hurt, loneliness, or vivid lost feeling. This work describes an unforgettable, and still painful event for many citizens in Japan, and also those who lost beloved people on that day. At the same time, however, characters talk to us with a somewhat positive message: please remember that you are not alone. Look up, and then you will see there will be someone who is feeling in a similar way. It does not require them to persist in past regrets, but rather may try to help them look forward again and make the state to be stuck in the time warp change.