Wow. A reverse Casablanca.
Cinematography: 10/10
Set Design: 10/10
Costuming: 10/10
Script/Plot: 10/10
Only thing was the acting was horrible the first 15 minutes. Then it becomes REALLY good acting from start of act 2 onwards. Kay Francis is fantastic. Everyone is fantastic.
Also really cool to see actual Asian people instead of only yellow face. (There is a little yellow face.)
See n this a few times and now I kinda get why people like the visuals. But it’s still boring. Story is just dangling a red herring for a crappy payoff at the end. Not good storytelling. Acting is mostly bad. Makeup is noticeably bad.
Saw it a local private screening with a before and after discussion/Q&A with director Kyle Hausmann-Stokes. Really cool story and definitely was in the right hands with Kyle. He did say it was very autobiographical of his own life which was interesting.
The concept of having the dead friend Zoe within Merits (protagonist) own diegetic headspace was really cool. The viewer could also look at it as a reflection of Merits thoughts. I liked this slight ambiguity which helps carry the…
