Hamaguchi possesses such a keen eye for the subtle dynamics of human relationships. More often than not, what sets out to be a genuine and direct expression of one's feelings and vulnerability ends up being wrapped in some awkward performative gestures and tangled in confused metaphors, as if these are the only routes for its articulation. It's simultaneously a delight and a pain to witness the initial conviction falters, bends, makes a twist, and bounces back until its edges soften, meaning diluted, before retreating once again, hopelessly yet inevitably, into the intimate embrace of ambiguity--like nothing happened.
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Ricordi? 2018
Anyone who has been through a long-term relationship will understand. When it ends tragically (or not), every gesture made, every word spoken, every place visited that is supposed to feel empty, open, and free becomes a haunted museum marked by another’s absence, each memory a brushstroke in fading ink.
There are some interesting experiments in this film with cinematography and narrative structure, but these innovations ultimately serve a familiar arrangement of "fate," lending characters their symbolic weight and guiding them…
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The Substance 2024
I think my brain is perpetually damaged after this n for once this is NOT a compliment………i am a woman, I have a troubled relationship w body images, I experienced psychotic breakdowns, but it’s way way more than what this film is trying to communicate. For the whole time I was like: is this ur whole personality n all u have to deal with in life? Really?
Plus it’s overly repetitive n lazy w its visuals, edits and sounds. Cheers…Translated from by -
Satantango 1994
Am I hallucinating or in the 82-minute span of Goodbye Dragon Inn (with barely any dialogue) there’re more movements captured, more space for reflection and more lives to see.
Some scenes are SO long for no apparent reason (to the point where although I’ve heard loads of positive comments about this film I would still dismiss these techniques as pretentious) that I often found myself drifting off trying to parse what’s in the minds of the others who were sitting…
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