The Puppetmaster

Hsiao-hsien Hou's The Puppetmaster (1993) is the second part of his trilogy of historical films which focus on Taiwan's development. This time the period of time is between 1908 and 1945, which means the focus of the film is on the Japanese occupation of Taiwan. Taiwan's situation is reflected through the true story of a puppeteer, Li Tianlu (who has acted in Hou's other films). Hou mixes elements of fiction and documentary by recreating scenes of his life while letting his interviews with the puppeteer narrate most of the film. The director's admiration of the central character can be seen in the film - he once said that Li Tianlu is one of Taiwan's national treasures.

The easiest way for me to write a review of The Puppetmaster is to compare it with the first part of the trilogy, City of Sadness. While both of them share the social and historical layers, the intimate layer (personal, on the level of characters) is more perplexing in The Puppetmaster because characters come and go and there seems to be no central character other than the puppeteer himself - who remains a bit distant figure throughout the film. The narrative is more like a collection of short bits from here and there - and the way tension is subtly gained and then let loose is weird yet incredibly haunting.

Sadly, the way I saw The Puppetmaster only added to my confusion: the video was severely cropped so some of Hou's compositions were a bit messed up and the complex lighting lost some of its magic when the picture was too dark at times. Despite all of that, it didn't destroy Hou's formal magic that is a feast for the eyes - even though it is very minimalistic. And most importantly the music plays a significant part in The Puppetmaster - a soundtrack so poignant and fitting.

The Puppetmaster is a hard film to digest - there is no doubt about it. I will have to rewatch many times before I give my final evaluation for the film - so don't take this rating as the one that I will firmly stand by.

Score: 9 out of 10

Linda Linda Linda

Nobuhiro Yamashita's Linda Linda Linda (2005) migh seem like your run-of-the-mill feel-good film when you read the plot description: a group of girls decide to perform as a band in the school festival, but they have to face a lot of obstacles before the gig.

The film uses a lot of cliched tropes in its storytelling, but they are used in the best possible way - which makes them rather refreshing. The great build-up and an even better climax prove the narrative's power: it has been a long time since I've been so pumped up for the ending. The characters are properly developed (even the occasional lack of it is there for a reason) and genuinely interesting. This is a film that upgrades the term "feel-good" to "feel-great".

Yamashita's form is something you would not see used with a story as simple and unassuming as in this film: it is calmly paced with long takes, slow camera drives and absolutely gorgeous compositions. The instrumental music is a nice touch on top of the film - and naturally, The Blue Hearts covers performed by the fictional band are awesome. I never believed Doona Bae could sing that well in Japanese. The entire cast is great, but Doona really surprised me this time (even though I was a fan of hers even before the film) - her performance dominates the film in a good way.

Linda Linda Linda is flawless under its own restrictions, but I have to add a little bit of realism to my review: it's not a cinematic masterpiece thoroughly. However, I do admire the film greatly.

Score: 9 out of 10

An announcement and Little Miss Sunshine

I have to make a compromise at least with Little Miss Sunshine because I was rather exhausted by the review of Dogville. It was a tough writing process. In any case I want to continue the project so I'll write a lot shorter review for LMS which wont be so great because I will briefly tell what was good and what was not. I might do this with a few upcoming films aswell because I want to return to a better state of mind before bursting it all into a longer piece of text like with Dogville. You can PM me on Evageeks (Oz) or IMDb (OzymandiasJL) if you want to discuss about the film I review only briefly.

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Little Miss Sunshine tells the story of a big family (Kinnear, Collette, Carell, Arkin, Dano, Breslin) who decided to drive across the country in a VW bus to take their young daugther to a beauty contest. The story is a nice look at modern and dysfunctional families. Every character is wonderfully colorful and a nice study on certain kind of people: a stubborn man who sticks to his principles, a modern (in terms of upbringing) mom, an angsty teen (this one is one of the best portrayals of the type, seriously), a suicidal gay, a heroin-addicted grandpa who is overly enthusiastic and rude about sex and the energetic young girl. The film has an easy structure in which the family faces one problem after another and try to cope the best they can. In the end all of these problems pile up and turn into a feel-good ending which works well. It has intriguing compositions here and there to set the mood; the editing works just fine; the music is sometimes great, sometimes only decent. None of these aspects is necessarily great, but they work satisfyingly enough. The content is simple, but it has been executed well enough.

Score: 7 out of 10