Popular reviews

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  Review by Emilie Choi ★★★★

  “GAMA”: Unearthing Okinawa’s Historical Memory through the Depths of Time
  http://www.yidff-live.info/en/4460/
   
  Oda Kaori’s latest documentary, GAMA, delves into the fabric of Okinawa’s historical memory, excavating the stones and bones in the seashore and cave that entail the aftermath of the war. Part of Oda’s “Underground” series, GAMA has been shown in the YIDFF 2023 New Asian Currents section, foregoing how a region’s dispersed history can be passed down. Okinawa’s story is entangled with its indigenous history and community and marked by struggles of contested sovereignty and ethnicity. While not hailing from Okinawa like Takamine Gō and Yamashiro Chikako, who emphasize the colonial history and the mythology of Okinawa, Oda still embraces a unique perspective by examining the deep time…

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  Review by V. Lepistö ★★★★

  The narrator's dedication to returning to these caves where local people lived and died during the Battle of Okinawa feels like a ritual for peace, an attempt to calm down the angry ghosts that the war left behind and answer to the stories that the man has heard. Similarly, this feels very anxious filmmaking, perfectly embodied in the most memorable shot of the film where a woman sits on the beach as planes are flying above her head. GAMA is a film from a world where the fear of another world war has become a constant before people have managed to make amends with the last one. It's not only Japanese films of recent years to feel that way too, Suzuki Nonoho's Aburidashi belongs to the same category.

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  Review by yenyengomovie ★★★½

  《GAMA》
  面對村民們集體自殺的共同決定
  要有勇氣說出「我還想活下去」
  神秘藍衣女子跟隨者導覽員進入避難的洞穴
  導覽員語調平緩講述戰時寶貴卻痛苦的記憶
  運用打光讓場景有了新風貌得以沈浸體驗中
  地上的沙堆篩撿出遺骨的震撼迴盪在洞穴裡

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  Review by Emerson Goo ★★★★★

  Kaori Oda's potent body of work, which is centered around the moving image but encompasses lots of mediums, is quickly becoming one of the most brilliant, unique, and refined in all of contemporary cinema. I was utterly transfixed by this. I barely moved in my seat, because what this film does to bring back the past, with immense strength and tenderness, is absolutely supernatural. Call it mabui or something else - this is a movie about Okinawa but really about the spirit and sadness of islands everywhere. For me, this is best expressed by the scene where the unseen plane flies over the woman in blue, which created a low rumble that shook the entire theater. The film didn't have…

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  Review by Zakred567

  Open City Documentary Festival #5

  Was a pleasure to hear Kaori Oda sama talk about the makings of this relevant documentary on the history of Okinawa.

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  Review by matteoB ★★★½

  Reflections after the first time I've seen it last february here.

  After the second one:
  still like it, but the dancer's presence feels a bit out of place. And it's a structural "problem" since it is something that, as far as I know, connects the multiple works that will eventually constitute the final project "Underground".
  Really look forward to the next chapters of Oda's project.

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  Review by infero ★★★ 5

  @ Forum Yamagata

  第一次在大銀幕看小田香，也見到傳說中的寶塚型帥T😂 大段口述想起Straub夫婦，但或許更重要的是解說員身份與日語聲調（似乎也是小田香地下系列，首次出現她熟悉的語言）。洞穴內爬出藍衣女鬼的處理並不新奇，《綠色牢籠》就在幹類似的事，不過存在感與搭配元素都有不錯拿捏：如女鬼用手觸碰遺骨，這幕動人；女鬼坐在海灘，畫外傳來沖繩飛機飛過聲響——召喚二戰可怕記憶。

  -銀幕黑暗問題可想想。如今的光影方式，阿北手持手電筒的打開與關掉帶來的照度變化，反而太像開燈關燈（背景是否有打其他燈光？），似乎缺乏更飄忽的幽微鬼氣。

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  Review by yumcha ★★★★

  I had a YIDFF dip during this one, but I didn't want to ,,, the retelling of this story was in the same story telling way I heard in the Hamaguchi Sakae doco, I was really enveloped by it, but sadly did dip, long day I guess

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  Review by __guzz ★ 3

  dodo

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  Review by nnhong ★★★½

  導遊聲線單一/機械式的口述，加上很硬、開關燈的「黑暗體驗」，刻意缺乏氛圍，聽著聽著心竟也被強烈觸碰到，第二次「黑暗體驗」時（安里的故事）即感受到力道了，忽然很想哭，是召喚共感，也如一種安魂儀式。
  洞穴籠罩著黑暗回憶，至今仍篩得到遺骨，人與地景的關係。
  聲效極好：清脆遺骨與巨大轟鳴，應該說感官體驗很好。
  不太喜歡藍衣幽靈女子的安排。

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  Review by ChenPeiJu ★★★½

  彷彿置身沖繩的石灰岩洞穴裡，聆聽關於沖繩戰役的口述歷史，和導覽先生一起經歷洞窟裡的黑暗體驗。沖繩的海岸還聽得見玉碎的聲音，戰鬥機轟隆轟隆的巨響在洞穴裡迴盪。戰爭的陰影從未遠去，至少我們要有身為戰後X代的自覺。

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  Review by Ivan

  印象深刻的是聲音，落落長的日語導覽有意製造一種神秘的韻律。石頭（還是骨頭？）敲擊聲vs飛機轟隆聲，從一種平靜、好像已經可以往前走了的聲音，強硬的拉回過去的創傷，感受意外的強。