Reviews

"Do you have a warranty?"

If you are in the mood for something super quirky that looks like it was made on a shoestring budget, search no further, Haruko’s Paranormal Laboratory is here to serve your quirky needs. It felt like writer/director Lisa Takeba brainstormed as many strange things as she could and then strung them all together in a surreal story.

Haruko is an odd little duck who has always desperately wanted to have a paranormal adventure. She’s been begging for a UFO to visit her for years especially after her brother was taken up in one. She complains about every show on her 1953 television set. Unseen to her a counter flips over a number for every complaint and curse word she utters. When it hits 10,000 her television turns into a man with a tv on his head and a super dong for other activities. They quickly become sex buddies. After a while he tires of being a house boyfriend doing all the domestic activities and goes out to find a job. Fortunately for him, he speaks 12 languages and lands a couple of teaching jobs on TV and the radio. Haruko works with a sex crazed woman turned “artistic” arsonist. Her next-door neighbor makes sex art out of veggies. The most dedicated TV licenser on the planet makes sure she pays her fees whether the television works like a normal one or becomes a man. There’s an “artistic” masked coin bandit and a Friday the 13th Jason cosplayer who follows her around. She also finds out some kinky news about her father and mother.

I’m sure there was some deeper message and social commentary on feeling socially alienated, the boredom of working a meaningless job, being unable to make your real passion make money (tea stain art?), and only being able to find true love with a television set, but it was a little hard to strain out with all the bizarre paranormal and abnormal people wandering around. If you ever wondered what an R rated Pee Wee Herman’s Playhouse made in Japan might be like, this would come close. Where else could you see a drugged-up television set have a dance-off with a camera?

22 August 2024

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This movie could have been so much more... Spoilers!

My gripe with this movie is that it had the perfect setting to turn into a romantic or social message. But in the end, it ended up being neither. The main character does grow in some sense, but not entirely.

One example: The ML went through harassment himself while dressed as a woman, but he never directly addressed why he was wrong, just saying, "I am sorry," even when he got a stage to say it out loud. He apologized to several women, but it didn't feel like he understood why his previous behavior was problematic. His realization seemed surface-level. In addition, it is really hard for me to believe that he grew up with a sister and was raised by a mom and ended up doing what he did.

But the comedy was good and you can never go wrong with this guy! His acting was A+!!!

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Movie Review

This movie uses a lot of camera work and close up to give a sense of eerie. Close by the victims as if we are the perpetrators yet we have no clue if we are. Honestly I didn’t really understand the idea of the movie.

19 levels of hell yet the main character only went through 6 levels because of the GM’s (game master’s) bias. Honestly I did enjoy the realism of the illusion: Gao Yuen. How the main character can just interact with him and we also had no clue he was an illusion. It felt so real to her that there were no sense that it was all fake. Even the room was the same.

The movie uses silence to create an eerie atmosphere as well as whistles and sounds that we tend to associate with fear and horror. Whistling, echos, abupt noises; many of these sounds are used and the character’s own breath caused me to feel like the characters were right in front of me.

Personally the acting was a little bad because I could see the actress trying to give that sadness act but honestly she just looks like she is in a romance movie, crying over a misunderstanding. Her lips remain juicy plump and she cries so gracefully. I did enjoy the movie despite that since it wasn’t really much to take notice of. Maybe because this is a 13 year old movie, I feel like the script isn’t polished and there is many weird things that I don’t think were counted for; The character development or the fully polished background story of how Dr. Yan got the idea to make a hypnotizing hell game. But enjoy it for its camera work sometimes. The closeup and Gao Yuen actor was really handsome. That’s about it :P

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Doesn't live up to the expectation I got from the trailer.

I had so much expectation for this film, but it did not meet much of it.

Cinematography was the only thing I liked about this film, particularly the way some of the scenes were shot and how it showed the gaze of the characters, revealing each character's emotion and motive well.

Other than that, the plot was subpar, it set out to tackle the topic of marriage inequality only to be sidetracked by a jumble of badly written vomit of drama on top of drama another sob story of who is more pitiful. Exploring human desires rather shallowly, such as greed and lust.

Jingha and Thongkham relationship was rather unbelievable and just came out of nowhere.

The only thing that went as expected was Jeff's face card.

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Everyone already left

The handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China in 1997 caused an emigration of citizens to the West. We see the very moment when the girl Wai prepares to leave the city forever, but she leaves behind not only home, school, but also people.

This is the story of the meeting of Tokio and Wai. They talk to each other clumsily in a foreign language, getting frustrated when they can't express their thoughts. We were drawn into their conversation, because we also try to understand what they are saying. Their friendship is a bit odd and uncommon.
A character of particular importance is Grandma. The director gently tells us the fragile relationship between the girl and her grandmother.

One of the visual themes of the film is emptiness. The director has styled the image through an intriguing play of light and shadow, showing in an overexposed photo abandoned city, a concrete pier, a house drowning in darkness and loneliness in a hospital. We see Hong Kong through the lens of a Tokio camera, and in this image everything becomes blurred, white, and without the detail. Against this colourless backdrop, the emotions of the characters are more apparent.

The film is a great visual journey through the love that takes on different forms: first youthful love of Wai, mature love of Tokio full of boring routine, love between granddaughter and grandmother. If you want to watch something slow, a small story with a artistic picture of the Hong Kong with a bit of sad nostalgia – Autumn Moon is for you.

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Poetic

I don’t even know where to start. I thought I wouldn’t like this movie, it’s not usually what I like nor what I look for to watch. So, when I started watching this I didn’t know what I was getting into much. But I can say it’s a very good movie, so beautiful, so heart wrenching, your emotions will always be on edge. You will feel a lot. Me personally I get deeply into shows/movies to the point I feel like I’m in it. So when I tell you I felt all the pain and anxiety and everything else that was portrayed in this movie. I just don’t know how to put into words how this devastating poetic masterpiece is. It was just so beautifully portrayed, mostly the ending. The ending is what lowkey took my heart. It was just so… beautiful. So much was constantly going on. And at the end it just ended. But the small details make this movie so much better. The fact that in Hong Rim’s last breath he turned to look at the king. I just thought that part was so freaking powerful. Like omg. And how in the end it shows them basically being happy together, how it could’ve been. Now, this movie can be viewed differently by people, depending on how you think and how you perceive things. I do think the king was in love with him but he had toxic love towards him. I do think Hong loved the King and the Queen equally but he just couldn’t have both. I also think in a way this was like forbidden love. I don’t know. It’s kind of confusing for me to interpret how I see this movie as. But all I can say with reassurance is that is was absolutely beautiful and a masterpiece. Truly poetic.

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When watching a road movie, there's one important point to consider: It's about the journey, not about the arrival.

This becomes very obvious in this film. The question of what Mu Ran will find when he arrives -- thee meaning of "Su Chen", who he is and where he is -- this is not the point of the film (also very obvious after a while).
The people he will meet on his journey, who live very different lives but are all part of the queer community, who will tell their stories about love and loss, about family and partnership, these people and their stories are at the heart of the film.

Mu Ran, and with him the viewers, will learn what it can mean to love. Will we regret having taken or not taken the opportunity to find happiness?

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After appearing in the 2008 Thai television drama 'Ubatruk Karmkobfah', and in 'Likit Fah Cha Ta Din' and 'Raak Boon', both the 2012, and in the 2010 film 'Eternity', Pirat Nipitpaisalkul, known professionally as Mike Angelo, the former member of the Thai musical duo Golf & Mike, along with his brother, Golf Pichaya Nitipaisalkul, starred in the 2012 Chinese LGBT+-themed short film 'Love in the Water'.
Who would later participate in the Thai series 'Full House' (2014) and 'Kiss Me' (2015), and in their Chinese counterparts 'Wu Xin: The Monster Killer' (2015), 'Delicious Destiny' (2015), 'My Little Princess' (2016) and 'Mr. Swimmer' (2018), among others, in this film he plays Xiao Le, a university student who has it all: he is young, attractive and has just joined the prestigious swimming team at his school. But he keeps a secret: he is in love with Jia Liang, his best friend and study and sports partner.
After confessing her love and hearing her lover's rejection, Xioa Le embarks on a one-night stand, her birthday, after Jia Liang, following her sister's bold suggestion of cross-dressing him to see if Jia Liang cares about her him or by his gender.
At just 21 minutes, 'Love in the Water' manages to achieve a level of intimacy, intensity and sensitivity that most of the longer films I've seen never achieved. The film points out all the turmoil, conflicts and sexual tension of a young man in love with his best friend with disconcerting acuity.
The dialogues between the two main actors are scarce and spontaneous, they seem more improvised than anything else. The camera captures most of the film during moments so natural and undramatic that their encounters, between deep glances and races around the university campus holding hands, have a magical and electrifying quality... in fact, it made me goosebumps In my opinion, this is the most effective way to portray a relationship that is both so fragile and passionate.
Starting from a dramatic situation as discouraging as not being accepted by the person you love because they see you as just a friend or because they are not interested in maintaining a romantic relationship with someone of the same sex, the director of 'Love in the Water' chooses dramatic material that already has its genre implicit and decides not to overload scenes that already have intensity.
To narrate it on screen, the director uses a linear chronological structure of cut sequences, with that sequence shot in which the camera follows Xiao Le during his birthday party, dressed as a girl, singing his love, approaching Jia Liang to dance with him, while he dances alone in the middle of the stage. All this, while listening to beautiful musical themes, such as the song "Fool", by Yoga Lin, and others performed by the same actor Mike Angelo.
He then breaks down Jia Liang's hurried departure into medium shots and details after confirming that the person he has been dancing with is none other than Xiao Le.
The short film continues with alternating sequences in which close-up shots and more open shots convey the evolving point of view of the two protagonists. A general overall shot that swings from comedy to drama with a simplicity and effectiveness that demonstrates the cinematographic mastery of its director.
In other moments of the film, the director gives importance to the characters of Xiao Le's sister who, aware of his feelings for his best friend, advises him on how he should act to win him over, or to the friends and fellow students of the two protagonists, who are also somehow aware of the feelings that one awakens in the other.
'Love in the Water' has its greatest weakness in a title that is poorly worked on in its evidence, although it may be effective as a commercial claim. It is a very worthy product that joins a wide list of Chinese films with LGBT+ themes.
In particular, it reminds me of 'The Raccoon', a film directed by Tang Shi in 2016, with Weng Hai Bin and Wu Di as the leading actors, as it also reflects a friendship relationship in which a boy is in love with his best friend and it is not reciprocated, also taking place in a university in Beijing, the Chinese capital.

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