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Reviews
Spielzeugland (2007)
nice!
The story is about a kid wanting to go to "toyland." The story happen during the Nazi's time. We see the boy missing in the morning. And his mom is very nervous and going everywhere to find her boy. Meanwhile, during her search, she remembers some memories for his kids. He is learning piano with his best friend. However, his friend is a Jewish. Their whole family is going to toyland and the little boy wants to go with them. We find out slowly that the the toyland is the concentration camp. We are so worried for the mother. In the end, the mother finds the police and stop the train in time before it goes away. However, she can't find her boy. Instead, she chooses to save a Jewish boy, a totally stranger in front of her.
The ending is surprising and makes me feel sad about the sad history of the Nazi's. However, I like this short film very much. It's a very sad and heartbreaking topic. They manage to make a good, happy, at least an optimistic ending for it.
Short film always have a mindset which is the makers expect people to remember characters or every details inside the whole film, so they tend to make it very essential. However, for a normal audience, I feel that it's very hard for me to understand the movie with so least clue inside when we see it for only one time.
The Mass of Men (2012)
Powerful, but affects human in a bad way, especially for teenagers or even adults
It surprised me. In the beginning, i don't know what is happening with the CCTV. I understand that there is a bad thing happening in the office. That orange bag is very bright, stands out and caught our eye. That jobless man is late for three minutes, and then the job adviser decides to punish him. Yes, it's his fault. The jobless man is being lazy, and he choose not to get on the bus so as result, he couldn't make it to the appointment on time. However, for the woman, everyday, she is facing so many cases like this, and she become numb and forget that even if that guy has fault, he is going to die without the welfare. It's her job to deal with so many this type of jobless people, she shouldn't use this kind of attitude to treat him, even if she is right.
i feel it's powerful, because it use the brutal violence to make you remember, to shock you, to give you strong emotions. However, it's bad because it's powerful only because of violence. And that violence is like you put a coincidence in the end. I don't buy it.
however, i learn a lesson, it's better not to tell the real thoughts and complaints inside you to our people, because it might provoke bad feelings from others and you might be attacked by some psychopath. And in the end, everyone is selfish.
Gasman (1997)
sophisticated film
In the beginning, we can see the little girl Lynne is a normal, pampered girl in her house. Her mom help her put on dress, and comb her hair,etc. And after that, his father brings her to the christmas party. Before they go, they meet a boy and a girl on the railway. We can see adults' face are a bit weird. But still the father takes them to the party. And on the way, two little girls become friends.However, at the party, when the kids play together violently, dad is drinking and sitting with his friends. The girl feels lonely and she go to the man, the man hugs her and put her on his knees. The daughter is angry and jealous. She starts to feel weird and she runs to that girl. She pulls her hair and tries very hard to drag her down. i feel it's so violent. Perhaps it's the cultural difference. Either the kids play together (hit, drag each other violently) or the little girl tries to pull and drags another girls'' hair, i couldn't believe those adults just look at them beat each other without concerning their kids might have gotten hurt seriously. For example, when see they punch each other, i feel so horrible that what if one of them use their hand to hurt another kids' eye? So i couldn't really enjoy the movie when thinking that's not logical. It's a pity. In the end, the little girl grabs the stone and throw it lightly, this makes me feel a bit sad.
The Lunch Date (1989)
black and white however, still attractive
It's a black and white short movie talking about a self-centered lady who is arrogant to others. She is rich and rushing personality. One day, when she is catching a train, she makes a mistake and she can't catch the train, so she needs to wait for the next train. And she goes to a restaurant to buy a salad, and see a black guy take her salad and is eating it. She was so angry and in the end she has no choice but share her salad with him. At the very end, she finds her fresh new salad sits on the table. And she is the one who stealing and taking others' salad. So, she feels awkward about herself and laughs like crazy. It's perfect that the film maker make us become her and fools us. We discover the truth with that lady, and feels the same awkwardness she feels. A good surprise is very important inside the movie, and it makes me think about myself. I hope I won't make the same mistakes as she does.
The Crush (2010)
surprised but liked
The story is about an elementary kid falls in love with the teacher. And because his genuine love towards her, he noticed that teachers' boyfriend doesn't treat her properly, and cherish her. So he uses his own way to help the teacher see that his boyfriend doesn't care about her at all, and in the end, the teacher doesn't marry that guy.
Originally, I felt a bit creepy about the boy's action. This should really credit to the maker. The way they film, the angle, the sequence, the sound effects, really pull me inside, and feel up and down with the teacher. However, now after thinking about whole story again, I feel that comparing to kids, adults are smart, capable to deal with lots of things fast and correctly. However, when it comes to the big decision, for example, marriage, or relationship, sometimes adults might ignore the important details or biased just to convince themselves that they are doing the right thing, for example, the teacher is going to marry her boyfriend, however, her boyfriend didn't treat her gently and nicely, she choose ignore it.
Father and Daughter (2000)
fine
The story is about father and a daughter who ride bicycles together to a seashore. After a tight hug for the daughter, the father went on the boat and left her daughter. The father never come back anymore. As the little daughter was growing up gradually, she rode her bicycle herself for so many times to the same seashore just to check if her dad is back. The film maker is very good at visual storytelling skill. There is no dialogue inside it at all, but only beautiful music, and it still draw out a very lovely story.
however, i don't get the last part, when the daughter who already become a grandmother by her age, and decide to go across the shore just like what her father do. And after sleeping inside the boat, the next day, she become young again and found his father. Finally, they reunite together in the end. My friend explain to me that it's a concept talking about time, and the genuine love between them never change even if lots of time( her whole life) pass by.
it's a very beautiful way to express the story. However, it's a pity that i didn't get it until i discuss with my friend. So i didn't really like it a lot.
A Moment (2012)
nice!
A moment is about a 311 serious earthquake in East Japan. First, everyone is living their normal lives. Then, suddenly, they all saw a message in smartphone. Suddenly, they became sad and numb. They couldn't walk out from the pain of losing the people they love, until they saw everyone standing still, closing their eyes, praying for those people. They suddenly understood that they are not alone, not only lots of people shared the same feelings with them but also people stopped their busy life to pay respect and warmth to those who died. And in the end, they found their strength again towards life and move on. There is no dialogue inside the whole film, only music and scenes. I saw perfect visual storytelling skill. I also want to note that the main characters, one of them is not Asian face. It reflects that now in Japan, there are a portion of "foreigners," which are living inside Japan. They are not Asian face, not the original Japanese, but they are deeply bonding with Japan, and also their beloved ones are also Japanese. And they shared the same feelings with original Japanese. As a foreigner, I hope that by watching this short film, Japanese people can understand better that we are human, although we might be born educated, and thinking differently, we are the same with them. There is no need to be afraid of us, or to keep distance with us.
Three Days in Kamakura (2012)
Nice
The short film is about a story of a couple who lives in Japan. The husband is British, and the wife is Japanese. Japan is a very conservative country especially towards foreigners, so they are bothered for those discriminated issues around their neighborhood. Also, they just recently lost a child, so the wife was depressed and was blaming the guy indirectly in the beginning.
The husband worked as an English teacher inside a kindergarten, and he loves kids. There is one kid who lost his mother and didn't get enough care and love from his family, so the teacher (the husband) wanted to keep/kidnap the kid. He thinks with the kid, he can bond a connection again with her wife and they can be happy later.
However, this is not a correct thing to do. So the wife stopped him, and overcame her own depression and told him, she accepted him as a family, will face the obstacle together.
We can see lots of scenes without dialogues, but still see the connection and feelings between the husband and the wife, which is super nice and delicate. However, sometimes the spectators are not paying attentions all the time to every detail in the 20 minutes, and then they might miss lots of information and they might not be able to get the logic and the story. Perhaps more hints should be given in order to make people understand better.
J'attendrai le suivant... (2002)
Amazing!
This short video is about a guy in Paris, who suddenly jump on the metro and tell everyone he wants to find a real girlfriend, establish a real connection with a girl and have a relationship. If any lady on the metro who share the same point of view towards life, please stop at the next station, and he wants to get to know her.
And at the spot there is a lady who is also there believe what he says and totally sympasize what he say and also is still single, so she goes down at the next stop happily and hopefully. However, it turns out that guy is just acting for a story. And the short video ends here.
The writer plots very well, we are drawn to the lady's eye, and shared the same feelings with her by feeling happy for her at the moment she thought she found her true love. It also felt so awkward and awful with her when she discovered the truth.
And I thought that the main character was the guy, however, until the end, I suddenly surprised and realized that film maker is writing a story about her not him.
It's incredible that the writer talked about her story without making her the main character and without making her speak a word.