A heartwarming film about love

Even though it is Shunji Iwai's simplest film, it does not lose all its symbolism behind a beautiful film. We meet Uzuki, played by Takako Matsu, where she moves from her city to another because of college. Uzuki goes through difficult times, as she is alone all the time, faces difficulties at school and spends almost the entire film alone. Like all Shunji Iwai films, it is extremely beautiful and comforting to watch. Obviously, it is a very simple film, different from his other films.

But, I think he just wanted to make something comforting to watch, for me it needs more time for much more development. But, 67 minutes is already good enough, it is very comfortable to watch, especially if you are with someone else. We see the journey of a person facing the problems of adult life alone, until at a certain point she manages to make friends and in the end finds her love. In the rain, with a red umbrella.

"When I entered university, my school teacher said it was a miracle. But if this was a miracle... want to call it a miracle of love."

Direction and soundtrack, as always, are very beautiful and gorgeous, made by Shunji Iwai himself, he is such a genius, there's no way.

This film is meant to make you feel warm, to be happy with the character. Even though she doesn't have any major conflicts in her life, you feel happy to follow her journey.

Read More

The love that is lost because of obsession

"Undo", an average film by Shunji Iwai. Things that won't change in his films are the great soundtrack and photography, I think 47 minutes was a reasonable amount of time to have in a story, it's crazy and fast.

The performances are simple, but very convincing. I think the person who stands out the most is Tomoko Yamaguchi (Moemi), she manages to convey the feeling of a person who is going through an obsessive syndrome.

The knots are very important to this film, being the main reason for the plot due to Moemi's obsession, they are also important to describe the love that will be lost with the couple, until Yukio, played by Etushi Toyokawa, will want to restore this love. Until in the end, he will be trapped in knots, without his Moemi. As Moemi had said to Yukio before:

"I'm really stuck"

Until he himself ends up being tied up by the knots, the obsession cannot be undone, no matter how hard you try.

Read More

Beauty in the shape of snow

There's nothing else to say, other than that it's very beautiful. It seems like every Shunji Iwai film is beautiful and melancholic. To tell you the truth, I wouldn't review this film. I think I have few words to say how beautiful this film is. The lack of knowledge that Itsuki's ex-wife had with another woman with the same name as her husband becomes something so melancholic. Fujii realizing that he loved Itsuki even though he realized it so late. Hiroko trying to overcome her past in order to move on with Akiba. The last scene of the film was the best for me, with Fujii realizing that Itsuki drew her on the back, saying that he had an appreciation for her, and her crying knowing that she really loved him. There's nothing else to say, it's beautiful and melancholic. Snow is present in this film, both in the deaths and in the melancholy behind it.

The music is spectacular as always, the direction, the cinematography, everything in this film is literally very well used and spectacular.

The snow and the cold are present, but you feel warm throughout the film.

Read More

The spring that is blue

I don't know what to write about this movie.

This was the movie that left me most speechless, I have no idea what to write during this review.

This was a crucial moment in my life, it was a perfect time for me to watch this movie. It came at an exact moment (I'm using the word "moment" a lot), this is perhaps one of the most important movies for me so far. This movie captures the feeling of despair in high school better than any other movie.

What if you just don't know what to do or just don't care?

Kujo shows this, even though he is the leader, he shows that he doesn't know what to do in certain situations, in fact everyone there doesn't know what to do about everything. It's easy when we're kids to define our dreams, but as you grow up, you realize that it's not as easy as it seems.

This movie is something much more personal to me than I feel in any other movie, this movie basically defines my life very well. I'm lost, I don't know what I want to be, I'm actually afraid of everything.

The movie is much more than just a movie, it goes further and shows you that your life will depend on your actions, it will depend on your choices. Your childhood dreams will be changed when you reach adolescence.

"- Sensei, are there flowers that never bloomed?
- Flowers were made to bloom, not wither! At least, that's what I believe"

Kujo is an extremely relatable character, even though he's not a person who doesn't talk much, just by his actions you can feel empathy and identify with such a character. The same goes for Kujo's friends, they all have dreams that in the end they won't be able to achieve, because in addition to following different paths, they no longer have the purpose they once had.

- Spoilers for the ending of "Blue Spring" in this paragraph -

I was left open-mouthed with the ending, I followed Kujo's journey the whole time and that of his childhood friend Aoji. Obviously, the two are great friends, but Kujo doesn't give Aoji the real importance until the end when Aoji makes a "joke" or a kind of "championship" to decide who will be the leader of the gang, something that happens since the beginning of the film. Aoji dies at the end, and Kujo realizes the real importance of his friend, but it was too late.

- Conclusion about everything -

I have friends, family and everything, but I'm still afraid of something, I'm afraid of the things that can happen to me. I don't know what I really want in my life, I just want to have a peaceful life.

This film shows how much I'm afraid of something, this film will be very important to me from now on. Even if I watch it several times after I'm an adult, it will always have a huge affection in my heart.

I have so much to say but it won't come out in words. I can praise the soundtrack and the direction, which are truly spectacular. The acting is also beautiful. I can't express how I feel about this film.

It's definitely going to be on my top favorites list.

Read More

The madness that has a symbolism behind it

"Picnic" is about 3 patients in a mental health clinic where they believe the world will end, so they go on a journey until the day of the "end of the world".

-Spoilers for the film ahead-

The first few minutes of the film are pure madness, you don't understand what's going on, you see a girl being taken to a strange place, a guy having hallucinations with a puppet and another jerking off (??), at a certain point you feel confused, hallucinating about everything. Shunji Iwai works a lot on the madness of all the characters, especially Coco who is the very definition of "faith in crazy people".

We meet Tsumuji, a young man who has hallucinations with a puppet that keeps pissing wherever he goes... (yes, it's crazy), at a certain point Tsumuji and Coco end up finding themselves on the fence, along with Satoru.

Tsumuji and Satoru wear the white clothes from the clinic, while Coco dyes her white dress black, which in my interpretation can deduce that she is the most "rebellious" among the 3 young people, the one who disrespects the rules the most. Them sitting on the fence can mean the freedom they have, on the fence, they are free, if they fall at some point, they can lose their freedom. That's why Tsumuji didn't want to climb down the wall when Pastor asked him to. Because, he thought he would lose his freedom. "Climbing the wall" Satoru falls off the wall, what happens when he dies is so beautiful that you don't understand, he fell off the wall. Satoru lost his freedom, and ended up dying. "I killed someone" Two identical young people who killed someone in their past, this is basically the sin they committed in the past. A sin that remains with them to this day. Coco is condemned to hell, since she doesn't believe in God, in this case, Tsumuji's God.

"Hell is hot, isn't it?"

This scene is so beautiful, the movie is almost over and we are happy that they (Coco and Tsumuji) have finally achieved their freedom. But, it all ends in a gunshot. Coco frees herself from Tsumuji's sin by committing suicide.

Satoru lost his freedom after falling off the wall
Coco lost her life to free herself from her partner's sins
Tsumuji lost Coco to finally be free

"I will free you from your sins"

-Final Thoughts-

Okay, I don't know what to say about all this, this was my first Shunji Iwai movie, and I simply loved it. What I liked most about this film was the beautiful photography, it has an aesthetic that I find beautiful and that brings a melancholy behind everything. A symbolism behind it. When Coco dies, you see this happening and you simply admire her death while the beautiful photography is there...

The acting is good, I think the boys don't bring as much emotion as the actress who plays Coco (Chara), but it doesn't change the fact that the acting is still good.

The soundtrack is simply beautiful, especially when Satoru dies, the singing behind the children, the piano playing in the background. Simply beautiful.

Maybe I didn't get everything the film wanted to convey, but I'll definitely watch this film again at some point.

Read More

a movie everyone needs to see.

Review in Portuguese:
Um filme que exala beleza, um filme que é extremamente humano, traumas que temos no passado pode mudar a gente no presente, criando uma nova personalidade por trás disso.

O filme entrou pro meu top 1, não é muito do que falar, virou meu filme favorito e o melhor que eu já vi. Um filme sentimental que trás a todos uma mensagem sobre superar um trauma, passamos o filme vendo o protagonista conhecido como Diretor onde ele conhece uma Garota que não sabemos o nome durante o filme inteiro. O Diretor quer fazer o seu filme, por isso que ele fica filmando o seu dia a dia com a Garota.

Esse filme teve o mesmo sentimento que eu tive com "O Menino e a Garça", você cria um mundo da sua cabeça para escapar do seu trauma, a Garota faz isso basicamente "matando" as coisas ruins de sua mente, escapando do verdadeiro e do real. Mas, sabemos que isso não pode durar para sempre, e é exatamente isso que rola ao decorrer do filme.

"Amanhã é meu aniversário."

A Garota cria uma dependência com o Diretor, já que ele basicamente ficou com ela durante 30 dias, até a chegada de sua Mãe onde queria o seu perdão.

A melhor cena para mim nesse filme, é quando a garota começa a surtar, onde ela quebra tudo e sai correndo que nem louca. Detalhe disso tudo é a música tocando de fundo, você se sente angustiado pensando o que pode rolar daqui para frente, a música fica o tempo todo rolando quando ela quebra tudo.

A Garota tenta escapar de seu passado, criando o seu próprio mundo imaginário, apesar do que ela diz a si mesma, a família da garota está viva, ela provavelmente não foi tocada em nenhum momento, só ao longo de seus anos vivendo com a sua mãe, ela foi insultada, culpada e comparada, não recebeu o respeito ou mesmo a validação como uma pessoa que ela merece, o que acabou afetando ela durante esse tempo.
A razão pela qual ela não ter pulou daquele telhado pode muito bem ser devido às mentiras que ela continuou contando a si mesma e todo o seu "ritual" que ela faz.

Necessitamos de alguém em nossa vida, a Garota precisa do Diretor para conseguir superar os seus traumas. Somos seres vulneráveis, podemos surtar a qualquer momento, podemos ficar tristes a qualquer momento. Só que, para mim, esse filme ensina que você pode superar seus traumas, o filme ensina que com alguém ao seu lado, você possa superar algo. Pode demorar muito, mas você consegue superar.

Hideaki Anno é um mestre na direção, a cinematografia desse filme é linda, bonita e azul.

As atuações desse filme são espetaculares demais, Shunji Iwai e Ayako Fujitani são bons atores, Shunji manda muito bem na atuação, mesmo sendo algo simples... Quem brilha mesmo é a Fujitani, toda o ódio, loucura e tristeza ela consegue fazer isso de forma linda.

Talvez eu seja muito otimista durante esse filme todo para dá uma nota tão alta, mas esse filme me cativou muito. Espero que mais pessoas assistam e curtam o filme.

Read More