A Rose Reborn (2014) Poster

(2014)

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3/10
An advertisement in disguise
ddangtruong2317 March 2016
A short directed by the famed director Chan-wook Park starring Daniel Wu and Jack Huston? Sounds amazing, right? Sadly, I should have known it was too good to be true.

Except for the nice-looking photography, the short is really bland and weird. It begins all mysteriously as if it was trying to give us some deep philosophical meaning, only to end in a very anticlimactic and unimpressive manner. The two good actors are given very flat characters and do not have any room to show their talents.

My biggest complaint, however, is about the inconsistency of the main character played by Huston. He was very hesitant to see Wu's character at first but somehow after just one very brief meeting, agreed to fly around the world and humiliate himself for the other guy. That is not character development, that is just lazy writing.

I was so baffled that a visionary director like Chan-wook Park could come up with something as boring as this, so I look into it some more and what do you know, it's sponsored by Ermenegildo Zegna, a high-fashion brand. They are heavily featured in the film, not only in the sense that you can see their products everywhere, but they also blatantly base a central plot point around their suits and accessories. Therefore, this film is no more than an expensive advertisement.
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4/10
Style over substance
Horst_In_Translation9 October 2015
Warning: Spoilers
"A Rose Reborn" is a 19-minute (with credits) short movie from pretty much exactly a year ago. It features a prominent director and 2 well-known actors, which is not too common for such short films. Chan-wook Park ("Oldboy") directed this little movie and British rising star Jack Huston ("Boardwalk Empire") and Daniel Wu play the main characters. Sadly, I felt that the two did not have a lot of chemistry and, what was even much worse, was the lack of real story in here. It felt like an agent thriller, maybe with sci-fi elements, some actions, some martial arts background etc. There was just no focus in here in my opinion. The ending sounded as if they were planning a sequel possibly, but from the impression of this movie here, I have no intention to ever watch, if they really make a sequel. Shame. This could have been a lot better, especially as I like Huston.
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