Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  A Brighter Summer Day 1991

  ★★★★★ Rewatched 25 Jun 2023

  Still one of the most masterfully crafted and deeply affecting films I've seen.

  Xiao Si'r's arc isn't one concerning his very person or behavioral patterns. It's not quite as simple as "He got mixed with the wrong crowd". Rather, it's in his shifting beliefs about his place in the world and the preeminence of his own value systems. And in the death and/or trauma of his role models, it's hard for him to rely on anyone but himself. He ends…

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  Memories of Murder 2003

  ★★★★½ Rewatched 17 Jun 2023

  The desperation was most palpable with this viewing. The film does a great job at, time and time again, showing how ill-equipped the team is to deal with the situation at hand. They simply do not have the necessary experience, skill, or ressources. It thrives on showing how the characters' poor decisions and behavior are what's keeping the essential data just out of reach. It always hits me to see characters reckoning with their own shitty selves.

  Then the dual…

Popular reviews

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  Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion 1997

  ★★★★★ Watched 20 Jan 2021 3

  Basically a panic attack on film. The cruel thesis at the heart of Evangelion is not that man is weak and insignificant: that's already a given. And the show is too smart to further wallow in an age-old observation already mashed to nothing eons ago. Mankind’s insignificance is a broad theme, one touched upon by a wide variety of groups, from the cursed and tortured minds supplying the cosmic horror genre with its eternally towering dominance, to the neck-bearded preacher…

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  A Brighter Summer Day 1991

  ★★★★★ Watched 12 Sep 2020 2

  Edward Yang's films do this weird thing where they start off mostly ok. Nothing amazing yet, but you're still riding the hype train, so expectations are high. You appreciate his staging and excellent use of colour. You notice how well he films large empty rooms and how effective his use of echo is. But nothing about the story immediately blows you away.

  About halfway through the film, which has a fat chance of being longer than your average movie, you…