loves me..loves me not..

exploring the theme of absolute devotion

"Dolls" by Takeshi Kitano is a sad and depressive movie based on the Japanese Puppet Theater Bunraku that tells three tales of guilt and eternal love. Each tragic love story is disclosed in a very slow pace and supported by stunning cinematography and excellent direction and performances.

Matsumoto and Sawako are in deep love for each other. When the president of the company where Matsumoto works "selects" him to marry his daughter, Matsumoto's parents force him to accept the engagement. On the wedding day, Matsumoto is informed that Sawako has attempted to commit suicide. She survives with brain damage and Matsumoto leaves his wedding to take her from the hospital and become her lifelong companion and caretaker.

The old Yakuza boss Hiro misses his girlfriend from thirty years ago that has promised to wait for him in a park while he would chase success. When Hiro visits the park, he sees her on the bench where they used to meet each other.

The pop-star Haruna Yamagushi has an obsessive fan called Nukui that stalks her. After a car accident, Nukui makes a decision to be close to his beloved idol.

:abnormalertyp:

Kaurismaki goes Kafka

Lights in the Dusk (2006) is the last episode for the Aki Kaurismäki's trilogy whose previous items were Drifting Clouds (1996) and the Oscar-nominated The Man Without a Past (2002). It ends his "losers" trilogy with what appears to be his most cynical film to date. All films of the Trilogy deal with people on the margins, common people who bear their sufferings stoically; and quite literally personify a "never-say-die" attitude. Where the first film was about unemployment and the second about homelessness, this final installment is about loneliness.

Night watchman Koistinen lives an alienated life. A sad sack without affect or friends, ridiculed and shunned by his workmates, regarded as incompetent by his employers, he lives alone, drinks alone, and only manages to talk in any decent way with the woman who sell hot dogs in the fast food stand. His life changes when a mysterious blond takes a sudden and unexpected interest in him.

Never ever has despair better been portrayed in a more subcutaneous way - not only as a trip into the light, but as a trip through the light - the light out of the darkness, not the light as opposite to night. Its mood of twilight doom is unforgettable.

Soom / Breath

in the world of grey a shadow light.
another day - another season.
for winter to end it all.
just take one last breath in this loneliness of yours.

i did not rape her, your beauty raped me!

how miserable you can become if you are irresistably beautiful?
is the beauty a blessing or a curse?
can you ignore all the men staring hopelessly at you? or the jealous looks received by fellow women?
do you have a choice not to start destroying this beauty?

in another world

shi gan

The Bow

l'appartement

out of control

2046

the isle

Seom by Kim Ki-Duk

short movies fest

not to be missed