5 Centimeters per Second

Makoto Shinkai's 5 Centimeters per Second (2007) is the culmination of the director's career. His lyrical storytelling and mouth-watering visuals come together seamlessly in this sad and melancholic love story.

The fragile main characters reach for love, but they face difficulties as alienation, melancholy, distance and longing come in their way. The bittersweet ending montage summarizes the film's idea in a stunning way. The film consists of three short stories that focus around one main character during his youth. Each segment calmly gathers tension that is often subverted to make the melancholic tone more tangible.

Shinkai's breathtaking background art, fascinating compositions and lyrical editing give the film a poignancy that is hard to achieve in cinema - especially with the running time of only a single hour. The voice acting should also be praised because it carries the film so well. The childlike innocence of the first segment is especially tangible through the soft and charming performances.

5 Centimeters per Second is an incredibly touching and gorgeous film that I like to return to once in a while - even if only to watch a few clips from here and there.

Score: 10 out of 10

The Place Promised In Our Early Days

Makoto Shinkai's The Place Promised In Our Early Days (2004) is the second film I've seen from the director (5 Centimeters per Second being the first; I loved it). The same melancholic tone and gorgeous imagery are featured this time as well, but the story is something different. The fragmented storytelling doesn't focus on a single theme - instead it goes a bit "all over the place". The film opens with a portrayal of three school kids' friendship as they prepare their own airplane to fly to the "Tower" - a mysterious building on the other side of the nation's border, something unreachable.

While the writing still packs a punch on an emotional level, Shinkai can't hold the film together at a few moments. The ramblings on multiple universes (on top of other confusing plot elements) and somewhat aimless (and weird) plot development hinder the film a bit too much. Visually the film is stunning in all aspects: editing, compositions, background art and character design are impeccable. Shinkai's editing is very similar to that of Hideaki Anno's - almost to the point of being an imitation. Luckily, it's a good imitation.

The Place Promised In Our Early Days is a solid and beautiful film and manages to deliver a great viewing experience despite its flaws.

Score: 8 out of 10

REWATCH: Last Life in the Universe

This is the first time I have watched a film that I have already reviewed on this blog again. I already reviewed Pen-ek Ratanaruang's Last Life in the Universe (2003) back in November so you better read it first in case you haven't already.

Ratanaruang's surrealistic and melancholic meditation on death, loss and isolation still packs a punch for me - although this time the film was not as surprising. The occasional black humor is brilliant and reminded me a bit of the korean director Chan-wook Park. However, the humor doesn't have a presense as strong as it has in Park's films. Doyle's cinematography is still fascinating and the musical score (and sound design in general) is haunting.

The thing I love the most about this film is the main character Kenji - and Asano's portrayal of him. Even though the character is an exaggerated stereotype, it never becomes a problem for me.  He is well developed and Asano's performance is simply stunning. I can not emphasize his importance to the film's success enough in this review.

Score: 10 out of 10

Syndromes and a Century

Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Syndromes and a Century (2006) continues the director's "traditions": long shots, slow pace and the lack of conflict in the plot. The film is Weerasethakul's own take on how his parents (both of them doctors) met and it is partly based on his memories of growing up in a hospital. The story is divided into two segments which share similar scenes and the same actors (and characters to some degree as well). The "repeated" scenes are however set in different locations and they are viewed from a different point of view (or the result might even be completely changed sometimes). A scene is repeated only one at most, and even then in different segments - so it isnt exactly the modern Last Year at Marienbad. 

The director seems to long for the past because the first segment that takes place notably earlier than the second is treated with more care. The second segment feels more like a piece of sharp social criticism with people acting more like machines and all the characters seem to be so isolated from others. The repetition of similar moments heavily punctuate the narrative, and they also provide a refreshing way to approach the content. It is truthful to say that the film is about the power of memory, but that statement makes the film sound a lot more simple than it really is. The film's content shoots at a lot of direction and thus its content is a bit confusing and nigh impossible to describe perfectly.

The film's dreamlike and hypnotic form deserves a lot of praise. Weerasethakul shows he has the talent and confidence to masterfully use long shots. His use of sound should not be forgotten because it plays a subtle yet significant part in setting the mood for the whole film. The compositions are stunning and I would say the film is worth watching even if it was only for the awesome cinematography.

In overall, Syndromes and a Century is an impressive and experimental film which I would recommend watching if its "meditativeness" doesnt bother you.

Score: 9 out of 10

Last Life in the Universe

Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's Last Life in the Universe (2003) is the complete opposite of his earlier film, Monrak Transistor (2001): it is melancholic, calm and it is more concerned about its concepts than a tight and complicated plot. The film is an accurate character study of the two main characters. One is a completely introverted Japanese man (Tadanobu Asano) who attempts suicide on various occasions, but he claims he isnt doing it out of hopelessness. Due to an unfortunate accident, he meets an extroverted Thai girl (Sinitta Boonyasak).

The character studies are simply fascinating in Last Life in the Universe. Both of the main characters are given equal focus and it really gives a wide perspective for the film. We enter their dreams and thoughts in an intriguing way. At its core, the film is about life, death, alienation and reconciliation. Death is always present in the film. The eruptions of violence are somehow so melancholic and even bittersweet. It is interesting even on the surface as it works as a romantic comedy, but I hardly even thought of it as one before writing this review.

Christopher Doyle worked as the Director of Photography for this film, and that can easily be noticed in the cinematography. Ratanaruang's form was already excellent in Monrak Transistor without Doyle, but now it reaches new, unbelieveable levels of quality. The compositions and camera movement are so essential that many reviewers easily call it the third main character of the film.

The film relies heavily on the two main actors who are astonishing. Tadanobu Asano's restrained performance as the introvert is so pitch-perfect that I would laud it as one of the best performances of the whole decade. It is the complete opposite of his performance in Ichi the Killer, and it is refreshing to see him in a role like this. Sinitta Boonyasak's performance is not to be forgotten: it is as glorious as Asano's. Their body language is essential for the interpretation of the film and they succeed in so many ways that it is hard to describe it sufficiently. 

The same thing goes for the whole film: I believe my review can hardly describe, evaluate and show respect to the film as well as possible. It is so carefully nuanced and delicately executed. It left me with this strong feeling of weightlessness and emptiness - in a good way.

Score: 10 out of 10