Reviews

I _hated_ this movie, and every positive review I read about it makes me feel like I'm the child in the middle of _The Emperor's New Clothes_. There are so many aspects to film-making that go into producing great art, and if a film only hits 5% of those, it falls far below even the minimum standard. While I found LTA executed well technically (the ONLY reason I give it a "2" instead of a "1"), I found the tone self-indulgent and condescending. The characters and indigenous culture are so poorly sketched that even as someone intimately acquainted with Lima and its socio-economic complications, I found I had no empathy or feeling for what should have been a tragic tale. Very poorly written, the actors struggle to breathe life into this CORPSE of a script. I felt an abstract,near- hatred towards the ignorance and denial portrayed in the film, and doubly so towards Llosa for wasting 2hrs of my life AGAIN. I only dipped my toe into her suffocatingly shallow film-making because it was nominated for an Oscar. I sorely regret it and am appalled that LTA is being dolled-up as though it's on par w/ _Un Prophète_ or _El Secreto de Sus Ojos_. I'm an art-house, foreign film junkie, but _The Hangover_ was better than this tripe. At least I wasn't tricked into thinking it was good by rave reviews and awards.

Excellent film, perfectly written, performed, and executed. Unless you're a comic/ game fanatic, this film is worth anyone's time.

ccthemovieman, you may very well have the worst grammar and composition structure on this board. Please refrain from torturing us all with your ill-conceived opinions in your poorly-written blurbs. This is the third 'review' of yours I've read and they're all pure torture. I can barely understand you, and cannot gather your meaning from the minefield of spelling, grammatical, and linguistic errors littering your blurbs.

And yet, oddly enough, I have no problem understanding the, according to you, (sic)'dialog and the phraseology of early 19th century England.'

Best film I've seen in years, very much a revisit to the way films-- romances in particular-- were made in the Golden Age of Hollywood. The story is told entirely in subtlety, and passion burns quietly and for years, all motives played out in the quietest of ways, quite true to the Japanese way. There was a lot of criticism about the Chinese actresses hired for these parts, and while it is clear to the trained eye that they are not Japanese, they all did beautifully in capturing the essence of Japanese culture. Having lived in Japan for years now, I feel qualified in saying the film was extremely well-done and really showed a great deal of Japanese culture that remains true even today. Every time I went to the theaters here, this show was filled, I think the Japanese are an interesting mix of being both secretive, even among themselves, about their ways, and having a strong desire to be loved and appreciated by the world. Despite the Chinese leads, I get the impression they were quite pleased with the film.

Highly recommend this film, personally I could watch it over... and over... and over... just sumptuous in every way from the cinematography, costumes, and set design to the acting and the writing. Thought it was pretty much a perfect film.