![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hexmixcombo of busy + misunderstood how long i'd have to watch the films ended with me not being able to catch very many at all, which i am a little sad about, however i did really enjoy the films i managed to watch! gonna ramble a bit about it c:
spoilers throughout.
I Am What I Am, dir. Tamada Shinya (2022):
aw man. i have to say, that final scene, particularly the line "All I needed was to know there was someone else like me" has stuck with me since i watched the film. you can really feel Kasumi's elation there and it just really resonated with me, especially being ace myself and just that sense of realizing that you're not the only one who feels like that.
i just felt that the film was really trying to be sincere and genuine, and i appreciate the care it took in that. there were a few things that didn't work super great for me, but overall i really enjoyed it and would recommend it to others.
it's effectively a character piece that is centered on Kasumi as an aromantic/asexual person in a society which fundamentally doesn't understand her. you see her interactions with family, friends and coworkers, and her frustrations with just being allowed to exist as herself. (god, her mom tricking her into going to the omiai is so fucking shitty. the film is a little more sympathetic to the mother than i really think it needs to be, but i also do think Kasumi's sense of hurt and betrayal is adequately conveyed later after she "breaks up" with the ramen guy (his name wasn't worth remembering lmao).
i also really want to mention the Cinderella digital picture book scene, because goddamn was that excruciating. i almost had to shut off the film during that scene, like the tittering of the parents combined with Kasumi's obvious discomfort as she effectively flays herself open just for them to react with confusion and audible judgement...and then you compare that to how easy she was with Maho in the previous scenes, and it's such a powerful one-two punch, like it was a genuine struggle for me to get through that scene.
there's also the element of just having an entire movie about someone who's ace like...idk it's just fucking rad.
there were a lot of really nice scenes in this film (pretty much everything involving the cello; the breakfast with Kasumi's family where her dad announces he's quitting his job; all of the beach scenes; etc) and i enjoyed the acting throughout as well. anyway, i'm just really glad i picked this one to watch c:
My Broken Mariko, dir. Tanada Yuki (2022):
i literally just sobbed my way through the second half of this movie lol. like my eyes hurt the whole rest of the day because of it. i don't regret watching it tho, it just hit me a lot harder than i was expecting.
the movie is basically centered on grief, particularly the grief felt after losing a loved one to suicide. the thing that i really felt that it did do very well was Shiino's sort of manic reaction. that in particular really struck me. Shiino rushes through the film, almost absent-mindedly at times, and then when she crashes she crashes real fucking hard. the disregard for her own well-being (which we see from her flashbacks isn't entirely due to her grief, but seems to be more tied to her loyalty to Mariko) coupled with her directionless anger just sort of slowly cracks more and more as the film progresses and it's suitably brutal.
a couple other things that i really liked that this film did involved the fisherman and the non-idealized glimpses we get of Mariko. like the fact that Mariko was a deeply manipulative person (which Shiino points out wasn't even necessary bc she already loved Mariko more than anyone) and is portrayed as such, no rose-tinting, with some of Shiino's anger bubbling up there too (she goes from wanting to shove aside those memories to remember 'good things' to drunkenly screaming her despair about losing even the worst memories she has of Mariko). by the time we get to the climax, when she's on that cliff screaming out all her frustrations at Mariko, it's a much more nuanced sense that we have of her grief because of this.
i also just really liked the casual kindness of the fisherman. it kept reminding me of the landlady in The Glory, especially in the sense that the fisherman keeps trying to help Shiino bc he himself has been in her position. we get this a little with Mariko's father's second wife too.
and as for the ending? as much as i'm curious as to what Mariko wrote, i do feel that the ending is more powerful as-is, and then it's also not really needed: the confrontation with the purse-snatcher following her "confrontation" with Mariko, slotting the girl that Shiino saves in for Mariko, like all that is already closure for Shiino.
anyway i definitely teared up again writing this lmao. if you're good for an entire 85 minutes about grief this is the film for you.
Horror Film Competition:
pls correct me if i'm wrong, but i believe these were student films? i mean i guess they felt like student films. anyway, i only got to watch The Closet, Best Wishes to All, and The Invitation, but of those three i did enjoy Best Wishes to All the most. it was definitely the creepiest, even tho The Closet did get me with that 水曜日 jumpscare lmao.
(actually, The Closet was the first film i watched from the Festival, and i didn't realize how to turn subtitles on until i watched the next film, but that's fine it was Japanese practice lmao.)
i also liked the idea of the bag ghosts in The Invitation, like the visual was pretty cool...until they showed it too much. and that is pretty much the easiest way to deflate the tension in horror tbh. basically what happened is what always happened: they showed me the monster and the monster was no longer scary.
conversely Best Wishes to All went the "old people are scary" route and it turned out the film was showing the monsters the entire time lol. but seriously, this one was genuinely creepy; that grandma hallway scene was downright eerie.
all three kind of suffer from the same "don't think about it too much" issue, but they were student films, it's fine. i enjoyed watching them and appreciated the spooky bits! kind of upsetti i didn't get to watch Karakasa too but ah well. at least i know better for next year; gotta set aside time to watch more & not think i have until the end of the month to do so orz
spoilers throughout.
I Am What I Am, dir. Tamada Shinya (2022):
aw man. i have to say, that final scene, particularly the line "All I needed was to know there was someone else like me" has stuck with me since i watched the film. you can really feel Kasumi's elation there and it just really resonated with me, especially being ace myself and just that sense of realizing that you're not the only one who feels like that.
i just felt that the film was really trying to be sincere and genuine, and i appreciate the care it took in that. there were a few things that didn't work super great for me, but overall i really enjoyed it and would recommend it to others.
it's effectively a character piece that is centered on Kasumi as an aromantic/asexual person in a society which fundamentally doesn't understand her. you see her interactions with family, friends and coworkers, and her frustrations with just being allowed to exist as herself. (god, her mom tricking her into going to the omiai is so fucking shitty. the film is a little more sympathetic to the mother than i really think it needs to be, but i also do think Kasumi's sense of hurt and betrayal is adequately conveyed later after she "breaks up" with the ramen guy (his name wasn't worth remembering lmao).
i also really want to mention the Cinderella digital picture book scene, because goddamn was that excruciating. i almost had to shut off the film during that scene, like the tittering of the parents combined with Kasumi's obvious discomfort as she effectively flays herself open just for them to react with confusion and audible judgement...and then you compare that to how easy she was with Maho in the previous scenes, and it's such a powerful one-two punch, like it was a genuine struggle for me to get through that scene.
there's also the element of just having an entire movie about someone who's ace like...idk it's just fucking rad.
there were a lot of really nice scenes in this film (pretty much everything involving the cello; the breakfast with Kasumi's family where her dad announces he's quitting his job; all of the beach scenes; etc) and i enjoyed the acting throughout as well. anyway, i'm just really glad i picked this one to watch c:
My Broken Mariko, dir. Tanada Yuki (2022):
i literally just sobbed my way through the second half of this movie lol. like my eyes hurt the whole rest of the day because of it. i don't regret watching it tho, it just hit me a lot harder than i was expecting.
the movie is basically centered on grief, particularly the grief felt after losing a loved one to suicide. the thing that i really felt that it did do very well was Shiino's sort of manic reaction. that in particular really struck me. Shiino rushes through the film, almost absent-mindedly at times, and then when she crashes she crashes real fucking hard. the disregard for her own well-being (which we see from her flashbacks isn't entirely due to her grief, but seems to be more tied to her loyalty to Mariko) coupled with her directionless anger just sort of slowly cracks more and more as the film progresses and it's suitably brutal.
a couple other things that i really liked that this film did involved the fisherman and the non-idealized glimpses we get of Mariko. like the fact that Mariko was a deeply manipulative person (which Shiino points out wasn't even necessary bc she already loved Mariko more than anyone) and is portrayed as such, no rose-tinting, with some of Shiino's anger bubbling up there too (she goes from wanting to shove aside those memories to remember 'good things' to drunkenly screaming her despair about losing even the worst memories she has of Mariko). by the time we get to the climax, when she's on that cliff screaming out all her frustrations at Mariko, it's a much more nuanced sense that we have of her grief because of this.
i also just really liked the casual kindness of the fisherman. it kept reminding me of the landlady in The Glory, especially in the sense that the fisherman keeps trying to help Shiino bc he himself has been in her position. we get this a little with Mariko's father's second wife too.
and as for the ending? as much as i'm curious as to what Mariko wrote, i do feel that the ending is more powerful as-is, and then it's also not really needed: the confrontation with the purse-snatcher following her "confrontation" with Mariko, slotting the girl that Shiino saves in for Mariko, like all that is already closure for Shiino.
anyway i definitely teared up again writing this lmao. if you're good for an entire 85 minutes about grief this is the film for you.
Horror Film Competition:
pls correct me if i'm wrong, but i believe these were student films? i mean i guess they felt like student films. anyway, i only got to watch The Closet, Best Wishes to All, and The Invitation, but of those three i did enjoy Best Wishes to All the most. it was definitely the creepiest, even tho The Closet did get me with that 水曜日 jumpscare lmao.
(actually, The Closet was the first film i watched from the Festival, and i didn't realize how to turn subtitles on until i watched the next film, but that's fine it was Japanese practice lmao.)
i also liked the idea of the bag ghosts in The Invitation, like the visual was pretty cool...until they showed it too much. and that is pretty much the easiest way to deflate the tension in horror tbh. basically what happened is what always happened: they showed me the monster and the monster was no longer scary.
conversely Best Wishes to All went the "old people are scary" route and it turned out the film was showing the monsters the entire time lol. but seriously, this one was genuinely creepy; that grandma hallway scene was downright eerie.
all three kind of suffer from the same "don't think about it too much" issue, but they were student films, it's fine. i enjoyed watching them and appreciated the spooky bits! kind of upsetti i didn't get to watch Karakasa too but ah well. at least i know better for next year; gotta set aside time to watch more & not think i have until the end of the month to do so orz
