UNCLE BOONME WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES

Directed by: Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Here's the deal, you really wanted to like this movie but you just can't. Even though it has won Golden Palm at last year's Cannes Film Festival and it could bring you some dim hope that this will be some spark of thought provoking piece from a new movie but after seeing this disjointed vignettes of nonsense and too simple magical realism you will come into one cruel conclusion, that the film with the real title; Lung Bunmi Raluek Chat is nothing more than just some pretentious pseudo intellectual trash trying so hard to be artsy. Some incoherent mess people will call as as art in order to make them look important and sophisticated in front of people they wanted to impress since they just follow what the critics said instead of having their own opinion.

I am not going to praise this film just because everybody else is praising it, in my opinion, this one is a boring film and fail to impress people and don't give me the bullshit that it is my mistake since I have some hope for this film because it has won main prize at Cannes since what would life be without hope. Besides it's not like I hope that this film will appear in 3-D.

Uncle Boonme is an absolute bore. Make no mistake I do like weird and surreal films, like Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 which in my opinion is superb, but this film about an uncle called Boonme (Thanapat Saisaymar) who can recall his past lives and has serious kidney problem, coupled with apparition of his long deceased wife and spirit of his long lost son in a form of a scary monkey with eyes glaring red in a dinner table.

The rest is an incoherent mess filled with a catfish having sex with a princess and some kid soldiers in pictures.

This film seem try so hard to grasp the metaphysical and dreamy substance with hints of Thailand's folklore but fails to impress common people like me. I don't know why the critics like it, I even think that this film doesn't deserve to win Golden Palm at all and be in the same league with Das Weisse Band or Un Prophete.

In one interview the director said that this film is a symbol for the death of cinema. Well he got it right there, more boring and pretentious movies like this will sure bring people to sleep at the cinema.

BAL

Directed by: Semih Kaplanoglu

What do you get if you put a movie camera in a forest and record things just as it is? Then just add no sound tracks at all? You get this film.

At first I thought this one could be another pretentious movie about life and stuff (I hate pretentious stuff) but after viewing this I really like it, especially the cinema verite approach and the minimum amount of dialogs and how the director let the visual speak for itself. It makes me wanted to listen to Kitaro or Enya and root for the main character, Yusuf.

The title itself means 'Honey' and tells a story about a boy, a very adorable one, Yusuf (Bora Altas) who lives with his father, Yakup (Erdal Besikcioglu) a honey farmer and his mother Zehra (Tülin Özen) in a remote village in Turkey.

The six year old is having difficulties in school, especially in reading. Having a very close relationship with his father, Yusuf tried so hard to please his father by winning a special badge for good merit from his school.

But things went hard for Yusuf, he still have difficulties reading in the class and in a quick way he became the outsider of his class.

The only thing he like is when he accompany his father into the woods, finding honey. But one thing changed Yusuf's life. His father didn't return from the two day trip. What is happening? Will Yusuf keep struggling with reading and waiting the return of his beloved father?

What amaze me is not only the simplicity and the beauty of the story but how Bora Atlas can act very naturally, for a boy his age. Not only that he is adorable, but he got talent.

I just learned that this Bal (Honey) is the third part of a trilogy of Yusuf, after Yumurta (Egg) and Süt (Milk). I am curious to see the previous two films and to explore Turkish cinema in general since I rarely watch Turkish movies.

127 HOURS

Directed by: Danny Boyle

Don't worry guys, this is not the duration of the film but the time Aaron Ralston (James Franco) trapped inside a boulder with his right hand also trapped by a falling huge stone.

Talking about scaring people doing adventure huh? However, with the Buried feeling induced in this film, Danny Boyle manages to inspire people. So we get to see Aaron got trapped, him trying to survive and saying nice things to himself to keep the spirits up.

Aaron also see hallucinations of his life, which is great since it is not in the Requiem for a Dream kind of visualization. What makes this film more interesting that it is from a true story and we all know how true story can really inspire people, just like Daniel Day Lewis inspiring us through There Will Be Blood. Don't argue to me about this one, Daniel Day Lewis's character in that bleak movie is very inspiring, just like Woody from that Toy Story thing.

After seeing this you will be left inspired and be thankful for what life has given you so far, something that is rare in movies nowadays.

So the whole film gravitate towards James Franco's performance and he didn't disappoint. I already like this guy from Spider-Man movies (Sam Raimi's version) and don't you even dare to berate Spider-Man movies, even that weird third installment because I really like Spider-Man a lot.

Look at this, a man trying to balance his superhero life with daily minutiae. that's like everyone of us right? Although most of us cannot swing from skyscrapers but the 'with great power comes great responsibility' shit is something of a kind. Which Kick-Ass answered; With no power comes no responsibility.

However James Franco didn't act as Peter Parker but his best buddy/nemesis and he didn't disappoint. He is the one that makes Spider-Man more interesting in terms of story development and I think in the future James Franco is heading Leonardo DiCaprio way, not Robert Pattinson's lane.

I know, perhaps you might wonder, why partial review of Spider-Man movies got inside this 127 Hours review. Because I can and I wanted it that way.

THE MAN FROM NOWHERE

Directed: Jeong-beom Lee


Won Bin? Yeah I know the guy, no I don't know him because he used to be my school friend I just know him by reputation. Besides I don't spend my youth in South Korea. However upon hearing that name I promptly think that this new film from Won Bin is a romance one. Well I was wrong, although I have no interest in watching South Korean romantic movies but when I learned that Won Bin is going to kick some ass, it wakes my curiosity. Especially since I learned that this film is the highest box office holder for 2010 in South Korea. There has to be something right?

So the South Korean movie prince is playing Tae-shik, a pawnshop guy with annoying hair cut (we have to see this annoying hair cut for 50% of the movie duration). He is so mysterious, we cannot even see his eyes since that annoying hair cover half of his face. However his loner attitude is something of a template, we know that this quiet guy will make some noise.

Tae-Shik only connection with life (if you define life is something full of other people) is a little girl, So-mi, who lives nearby. Her mother, Hyo-jeong is a prostitute who smuggles drugs from a drug trafficking organization and entrusts Tae-shik with the product, without letting him know.

Yes, something beyond Tae-Shik's control will take control of his life. The rest of the story is familiar, Tae-Shik turns out to have this martial art capability of dicing people in pieces, not literally and the whole movie is about Tae-Shik trying to protect that little girl from the bad guys by doing bad things. It turns out that Tae-Shik is not just a mere pawnshop guy, but some bad ass trying to lay low. Lesson learned; don't mess with a quiet guy, especially the one with weird hair cut.

Actually I was hoping for some mind fuck twist in the end, just like Oldboy, but the whole film is in a linear line and no twist will fuck your mind, literally or figuratively. Some twist is here and there but not obvious and I think a 15 year old with 3 seconds attention span can understand it.

However the film is not boring, it is even exciting to watch Won Bin kick ass and at certain point I am afraid that this film will go in the way of making Won Bin shirtless and went berserk, just like those B-movies. Well he did went shirtless for a few seconds which is a bit weird since I have no idea what was that for but the rest of the movie he keep his shirt on.

I also learned that this is Won Bin's first action film and I do hope that he will acted in this genre more, he got the talent as long as in the next movie he doesn't sport that annoying hair cut.