nikovski Reviews

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)

Hugely disappointing

[2/10 · 17 June 2006]

I was looking forward to seeing this film, expecting fairly competent work by the director and cast. Not really - a dialogue delivered in barely understandable English with thick Chinese accent is anything but authentic. The accents of the actresses are wrong, their intonations are wrong, the dances are wrong, their manners are wrong - in short, this film just screams "Fake!". I do not pretend to understand Japanese culture all that well, but still I work for a Japanese company, have been to Japan a few times, and work with Japanese colleagues every day, so if the film looks so fake to me, I can only imagine how it would look like to people that come from this culture or are deeply familiar with it. This is very regrettable, given the reputation of the director and the capabilities and budget of the studio that produced the film. Was it that hard to cast Japanese actors, and hire competent consultants? The only saving grace is Ken Watanabe's play (which is, however, not central to the plot), and the stunningly beautiful scenery and cinematography, which won a fully deserved Oscar. The rest, however, was hugely disappointing.

Yesterday (1988)

The best film of our generation

[10/10 · 20 January 2004]

This film marks the height of Bulgarian cinema in the XXth century. No other film shows better the social and cultural framework of Bulgarian society just before the end of the Cold War than Vchera. The film itself is about young people coming of age, struggling with the realities and paradoxes of their future adult life in Bulgarian society. Shown is the ferocious competition within the top classes in Bulgarian society, which was otherwise supposed to be class-free. (This competition actually costs the life of one of the film's characters, Rostislav.) Shown is also the inequality in a society where everyone was supposed to be equal. Shown is the impending sexual revolution in a country that was often hypocritical about sexual issues. The cultural background itself is the paradoxical contrast of the semi-military discipline in socialist high schools vs. the libertarian music of the Beatles, the students clad in drab uniforms vs. the Western ideas that were slowly filtering to them, the profanity and oafishness of the school officials vs. Shakespeare's exquisite poetry that was taught in these schools. (The title Vchera means "yesterday" in Bulgarian, the same "yesterday" from Shakespeare's verse in Macbeth: "And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death ..."). For millions of Bulgarians coming to grips with these contrasts, paradoxes, and realities, the film rings very true, which has helped propel it to near-cult status. Given the rapid decline of Bulgarian cinema after the end of the Cold War, it is likely that Vchera will remain one of its peaks for many more years.