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Ichi (2008)
Nicely shot movie without real deepness
Sorry for my English, this is not my mother tongue..
First of all it is almost impossible not to compare this movie to the Zatoichi series - if you watched that earlier. Zatoichi's character has nothing to do with Ichi, not because she is a female character, but she lacks of inner deepness - Ichi got stuck with her past and the feelings from that - she hasn't overcome her sadness, hasn't go beyond it. Unlike Zatoichi , who is ever present, yes he has a past too, but he is able to free himself of it (past is past - he says in one of the series about an event and walk away dancing joyfully). Yes, it is a comparison, but with it I just want to point out that in reality no one can be called a master, who hasn't look beyond the surface. Stillness is inside, outside - like face expressions can be changed according to the situation. The master is who is still inside (like before fight the master stand still - the posture is like he or she is going inside of him or her and from there he or she acts - very effectively), not outside. Ichi's face is, as mentioned by a lot of review, motionless, which makes the movie very unreal. At the end there is a smile on her face, which gives a bit of "hope", but it doesn't elevate the movie. The fighting scenes are all right, the movie is nicely shot, this could be a real potential - if the writer could have more insights about the real martial arts, which is about the Presence - not just in fight, but in other circumstances too. The character development of Toma also could be portrayed much better, remain wasted potential; and Ichi's character could be more visually influenced by the character of the child and Toma too.
Otherwise the music is absolutely amazing. Real gem is: Lisa Gerrard and Michael Edwards - The Memory Of The GOZE
Yet, I would advice to watch this movie, because it can be a caricature about us: if we stuck with our so called past mentally, we could become as dead as this character(and almost the whole movie) in most of our lives...
Dead Within (2014)
Fear is contagious!
It is not a zombie movie. Not a classic horror film. It has a very deep meaning.
The movie has the right atmosphere, gloomy until the very end. The woman - Kim - is nerve-racking, plays very well.
The poster's headline is giving us what it is all about: Fear is contagious. The whole movie is about the Fear. The epidemic which cause black-blood, and black-eye is the Fear itself. It is a symbol (when someone is full of fear, he can not see what is real, he is blind, "black-eyed". Also it can show, that almost the entire human population get this "virus". Everyone is afraid of something (death, pain, poverty, powerless, aloneness..). The fear can grow so big, that it can lead the person. And it is very dangerous... It makes people sick, psychotic. As in the movie, Kim gets crazy - believing that she is right! She saw things which were unreal. She is dead, she is not alive, she only exists in her mind. Do you think Ranger Mark was real? Maybe it was her conscience (? wanted to save her?)... Her partner, Mike, was also not "healty".. He wanted to possess the woman, and at the end, he ran to his fate..
This movie asks the question: do you want to live your life, and say no to fear(even if it is inside), or do you want to be like a zombie? What is more important than this?
So, in my view, this movie is very deep, intelligent work. Thanks. (Sorry for the poor English.)
Martyrs (2008)
A small complementary from my view: Love and compassion wins in the cruel environment
I would like to talk about the characters of this film, especially Anna. From the beginning we can witness her big heart and empathy towards those people who really needed it - Lucie. She also had a bad childhood, maybe not as cruel as Lucie's. She was so big hearted with her, that she could bear her "demon" (Of course Lucie's demon was her own conscience.) and the cruelty of it. And after all the years, Anna didn't lose her integrity with her Self, she wanted to help people still - she wanted to save the mother's life in the house, unnoticeable to Lucie. I guess not because she was afraid of her, rather she knew how big revenge is eating her friend inside, and she was understanding her so much. She was not starting to talk to her friend Lucie, about what is right and what is not, because her friend was unable to grow up in a normal situation. And what great power she had to find and help the other tormented woman. She took care of her, and hugged her, even that a lot of people would run away because of her frightening sight. So I have to tell again: Ann had so much deep understanding and really big heart! Even her all fear and hatred against her sick tormentors had gone totally. I guess in the end the suicide of the "lady" somehow an influence from Anna. Maybe she realized something more important than only the question of afterlife?!... Lucie's character was also showing that she had empathy. But it couldn't develop to so broad like Ann's, because of her terrorized childhood. So her conscience became her demon. She wanted to help the other tormented girl, but she couldn't. Her actions was so much clear. In the state of her, she could not act differently. She had to kill those people, and herself also. But her death was so long and painful... So it was a relief after all. The tormentor group was totally living only in the idea's world. So much, that they lost all of their connection with the heart. They victimized people, young girls, for the sake of their thirst to know what is in there after life. Or for the sake of their hypothesis. They killed Life, to know what is Life. It can show how much people can do wrong if they "live" only in the mind! ALthoug as I said, maybe the "lady" got to know something important at the end. Who knows? Pascal Laugier may be :) So, it is a really hard movie to watch, but with very important topics. Sometimes extra violence or brutal environment is needed in the movie for us to see Something.
The actors and actresses was doing very good job in this movie, also the director. The atmosphere was totally perfect, I could feel it all the way. It was so heavy, that I hardly could breath sometimes.
(I was reading a few opinion in a different websites. Some people wrote that the writer should be "rot" because of the sick violence in this movie. Can they think with the heart? Because how can somebody wish to a LIVING person anything bad? And with the reason that his movie was so brutal? It is paradox. So... we should be opening our heart...)
/Sorry for my bad English./