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Movies Re-Watched in 2021 (40 movies items)

3 years, 10 months ago

CD Smiles rated All the Corners of the World

All the Corners of the World 8/10

3 years, 10 months ago

CD Smiles added 1 item to Movies Watched in 2021 list

January 4th Directed by: Tsai Ming-liang Tsai's first feature length made for TV movie complete with commercial breaks, shot beautifully on a shitty video camera. I LOVE this aesthetic combined with Tsai's visuals that feel so amateurish, even if you don't know what his later films are like you can tell this was made by someone without a clear vision of what it should look like, and it gives it such a wonderful youthful feel. It's also very influenced by Hou Hsiao-hsien and the story reminds me of an Edward Yang film. Probably the best scene in the film takes place in the same roller rink seen in Rebels of the Neon God, that could just be the greatest shooting location in the world. Overall this gets a big recommend if you're a fan of New Taiwan Cinema, if you can get past the poor quality, degraded video (or if you like that) then there's actually a lot of meat here in the story, a lot to glean from this film in every regard. YouTube.

3 years, 10 months ago

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3 years, 10 months ago

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3 years, 10 months ago

CD Smiles added 2 items to Movies Watched in 2021 list

3 years, 10 months ago

CD Smiles posted 2 images

3 years, 10 months ago

CD Smiles added 1 item to Top Ten Movies of 2018 list

3 years, 10 months ago

CD Smiles added 1 item to Movies Watched in 2021 list

January 4th Directed by: Tsai Ming-liang Absolutely riveting. I was glued to the screen. This one shocked me quite a bit, I kind of expected to just be staring at people's faces the whole time, but I think it's pretty clear Tsai gave the subjects little direction, so some decided to tell stories, do facial exercises, or even sleep. Another shock is we have music! Tremendous music that I was not shocked to find out Ryuichi Sakamoto was behind. The idea of studying faces is something that Tsai obviously cares about, but felt like a natural thing to do in all of his previous films that weren't so overtly about that. He holds so long on every thing he decides to show his audience that when it happens to be a person you can't help but study. What are they thinking? What are they going through? It's these things that most films don't give you the time to contemplate, and this film is wholly that. It's beautiful. Private stream.

3 years, 10 months ago

CD Smiles added 1 item to Movies Watched in 2021 list

January 3rd Directed by: Tsai Ming-liang Tsai Ming-liang is my #1 favorite director. At times, I felt like he was losing it. I was super hyped for this movie because in my mind it's a big return to feature-length narrative for Tsai, and under that lens this is even more impressively mundane. What other director could you say "impressively mundane" and actually mean it as a compliment? The story in this 2 hour long film could probably be explained in 5 seconds of speaking, but that has always been the beauty of Tsai's oeuvre. There's definitely a lot less going on in this than other works, but that just means the events are given even more time to breathe, and you will never waste your time giving it to Tsai Ming-liang. I would only recommend this if you've seen all of his big hitters though, this definitely falls behind most of them, but we're still talking about the master here. Private stream.

3 years, 10 months ago

CD Smiles rated Brunchbox

Brunchbox 7/10

3 years, 10 months ago

CD Smiles posted a list

Movies Watched in 2021 (153 movies items)

3 years, 10 months ago

CD Smiles added 1 item to Movies Watched in 2021 list

January 1st Directed by: David Lynch Before I begin I must admit I accidentally got the extended version of the film. 40 minutes of extra footage and probably a completely different cut on top of that, so basically I kind of didn't even watch the real Dune. I really wish I watched the original cut cause damn this thing drags. The pros of this experience are all the absolutely ridiculous lines of dialogue, over the top characters (not all of them, just a few.) and other absurdities, like the main weapon of the protagonists being an invisible laser that makes things blow up when they yelp. Small things that made me snap out of my drowsy daze like a giant sand worm big enough to eat an entire building making a little snapping noise like that of a pocket-size makeup mirror when it's mouth closes. Then, there are actual legitimate positives to this experience that are less fun to talk about, being the incredible set design and just general art direction of the entire thing. Unfortunately though, most of this movie I just found to be needlessly obtuse. I felt like you had to read the book first, because there were so many macguffins, even still being introduced in the last hour of the movie that were not really explained, so much terminology that I'm just supposed to either figure out what it means or not care. I chose the latter. I was surprised to feel a small bit of Lynch influence, mostly in small transitions and quick shots in montages, it's not much but it was welcome. Overall, despite how bored I was most of the time it was kind of a fun experience that I look back on fondly. I just really wish I lost those extra 40 minutes. Downloaded.

3 years, 10 months ago

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