A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
Park Chanwook, “Sympathy for Lady Vengeance” (2005) “… Lady Vengeance” is the third of South Korean director Park Chanwook’s revenge-themed movie trilogy that began with “Sympathy…
Wisit Sasanatieng, “Citizen Dog” (2004) Living in Australia with its huge Hollywood fixation, even though Hollywood’s output of films has declined a lot since the Global…
Alfred Hitchcock, “To Catch A Thief” (1955) A clever light-hearted comedy crime caper set in southern France, this was one of Grace Kelly’s last films before…
Joaquin Oristrell, “Unconscious” (2004) An amusing and vivacious romance comedy set in Barcelona, 1913, “Unconscious” starts off as a search, possibly whodunnit, mystery and winds up…
Nagisa Oshima, “Empire of Passions” (1978) By coincidence, when I saw this film the first time early in 2010, I had just finished reading “Therese Raquin”,…
Akira Kurosawa, “Throne of Blood” (1957) Often referred to as an adaptation of the Shakespearean play, “Macbeth”, this historical drama by Kurosawa is a fine film…
Doug Liman, “Fair Game” (2010) Picture Source: Melinda Sue Gordon for Warner Bros Pictures, www.hollywoodchicago.com A few weeks ago (early December 2010), I went to a…
French and French-language Films
François Dupeyron, “Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran” (2003) This is an easy-going coming-of-age story based on a novel of the same name set in…
German and German-language Films
Chinese and Chinese-language Films
Lu Chuan, “Kekexili: Mountain Patrol” (2004) Not often that you come across a film bearing a strong conservation message combined with a package of stunning…