tamosoeka Reviews

Black Stone (2015)

This is poetry in camera, don't miss it. The poet's name is Gyeong-Tae Roh.

[10/10 · 9 April 2022]

We all thought art is history. It has been exiled to museums for safekeeping. And our generation won't produce it no more.

Then I stumbled upon this film! It was so unexpected!

If I was given a chance, I'd delete Hollywood & Bollywood forever - to replace them with South Korea.

Today's audience have no idea, a lot of films that were made in the early period of when film itself was born were gutted in fires (they are irreplaceable as it is). Thanks to those industries, now the art of cinema is being lost with pop culture's obsession of stardom and glamour.

Very few South Korean films are bad, almost all are good. This one was over the moon.

Now, of course, it is not for everybody. I understand some might find it a slow-burner, usually art films are.

The difference is, this one was not trying your patience & keeping you with the story to the end.

This one is not a sleeping pill, unlike the countless productions billed as art films - it is a poetry.

Not just the last sequence, that drove me to tears. I'd be murmuring to myself those lines the boy was saying, for a long, long time (I only read the captions in English) :

"I a sinner, I have shoplifted expensive whiskey from the supermarket, I have crossed the road when the traffic was red, I have smashed car window..."

Then, the black stones.

Just hats off to Gyeong-Tae Roh! You did it! This world is a more beautiful place with directors like him existing, completely - not without.

Breaking Fast (2020)

Is this really the Gay, Muslim thing? Are you sure?

[1/10 · 17 March 2022]

If sitting on a time bomb is your thing, this movie is for you. Otherwise, skip it.

The film lures the Muslim, liberal audience into believing there is a good work, expectation shatters when one starts watching it.

My breathing literally stopped for two hours. I think the director was aware of it, what it could do to people. So came the dialogue, a woman choking on popcorn in a movie theater.

Let me say a thing or two about myself here. I stayed away from gay films for nearly a year & then returned to them again, discovering some wonderful works. 'Breaking Fast' is not one of them.

It is billed as a rom com, while throughout the time, if I'm not wrong - all it sounded like was a theological argument. I did not find one tiny drop of romance here.

Quite frankly, all it felt like is a well-familiar Islamophobic tirade. It pretends to be something else, but achieves the exact opposite. Is this your way to justify the Gay Muslim's existence?

Of course being gay & Muslim is no easy thing. Gays are executed in Middle East, there's no denying that. One can clearly see why the character Sam hates the religion he was supposed to inherit.

At the same time, the story is taking place in a completely different universe where there's barely reasons to weep for it or do all those overacting. It brings to the mind what happened after Iraq war, the liberator US army liberated a gay in Iraq at the cost of genociding the bloody straight people.

This was, of course, 'saving' people. The ultra-liberal director, easily forgot that one cannot save somebody from their own culture. Nothing can be more nonsensical than this.

Guess what? Now homophobia is thriving in all these countries. Every countries that the US has touched. What was already a taboo that no one spoke of, parents would know but pretend not to see, has now become an issue everybody is talking about. Does this help the persecution scenario?

Even as a comedy, it did not do a good job. The only thing I found remotely funny was when Mo started singing.

Plus, no one should have such a wrong idea of world's people, whatever their race or religion is, that juxtaposing vagina and hijab together the way it did would be very digestive. Except, the rapists.

The question that comes here is, who are your target audience?

I tried to figure it out. Is it the Americans? If so, allowing them to watch (and further confirm) their prejudices on screen is not a disservice. If it is gay, Muslim audience around the world, you have blundered.

For the entire film, Mo was an outsider, guinea pig in a laboratory - where everybody is attacking his faith. This, nevertheless, starts with 'respect my culture'.

What could be bigger joke than this? What could be more bullying, either? A bullying that lasts one and a half hour.

Everybody knows there are people who'd find it funny, still. It's not their fault.

But here, you are in Hollywood, you have good money funding your project, and your concern is homophobia in Muslim lands. Why'd you waste it this way?

The film managed to become overwhelmingly foody while talking about Ramadan & offering the basics of do's and don'ts during the month - in the guise of cultural representation.

The eyesore was the scene of Mo praying. By that time, I already went to the balcony & started telling Mo : don't pray! You don't have to. Do your stuff. You don't have to pray. If you are praying, you are causing even more damage.

Nobody should pretend to be what they are not. This film is a very prejudiced version of how things are in the Muslim world around its gays, and it perfectly manages to alienate the Muslim audiences devoted to their religion.

But what more one could expect, after all? It literally ended with a death kiss, that was too boring to watch.

Please try better.

The only good news is, this film is not the end of the world. And of course, better things are possible.

Alice in Earnestland (2015)

My best South Korean film ever

[10/10 · 9 March 2022]

I mean, how could one not jump all over the bed after seeing this?

The mere joy of seeing this film, being lucky enough to cross paths with it, you end up thanking your luck that you found it.

I have watched tons of South Korean movies and so far, nothing beats this one. I wish more works of the director is available for international audience, so I get a chance to see them, too.

I was simply envying that this was a director, after a long, long time, who invented a completely new and his own cinematic language - stunned by the mere fact, that it is still possible.

Happy Together (1997)

Well, if love is hitting your partner...

[8/10 · 9 March 2022]

Funny enough, just as I began to write this review, "Kill Your Darlings" came to my mind.

The violence on the screen, that we get to witness throughout - seldom felt like love to me. Was it boys being boys or does it cement their masculinity etc?

Of course the artistic attributes are undeniable. The film is somewhat a series of photography, every scene is composed that way.

This is art you can touch without digging up the gold. In other words, you don't have to be a digger.

The soccer scenes will remain with me.

But, if one really wants to make the tall claim that this is love, I am confused.

Can you imagine a straight couple knocking each other off this way without being taken to the court for domestic abuse? Why show it in Gay films, then? Are gays more prone to abuse each other?

I don't mind much about the debauchery 'cause that is an accurate picture of the Gay world, although it doesn't have to be.

But for most of the film, it looked like the director was out of ideas what to fill up the scenes with (in terms of storyline, not artistry) & he just chose different forms of violence, mindless abuse and tantrums.

Summer of Fear (1978 TV Movie)

It became Funny, instead of spooky

[3/10 · 5 September 2017]

Rachel was the funniest part. She looked funny, talked funny, sometimes became intolerable. But it didn't make me laugh. It made me yawn.

Considering the film is made in 1978, that is forgivable. Clearly Hollywood wasn't what it is today all the way back then. They gave it a try, they made something.

Julia - who was meant to be the witch, had some grace in her character. Rachel behaved like a disturbing teeny, which she is - in the film. The most interesting part in the film is, a witch can't be photographed. This was what drawn me towards it. Julia's photos wasn't showing her, and that was the best thing to happen in the whole film.

The film is boring, but it made me search about the author. Lois Duncan did write quite a few good stories, at least that's what it sounds like from her wiki.

It should have a remake I think. Today's directors would make a good commercial out of it.

The 1978 attempt failed.

Creepshow (1982)

Vegetable Horror

[3/10 · 5 September 2017]

I tried to find a good Stephen King film. To this day, I watched a dozen of 'em, found none.

This film was comical. It has a comic in it, doesn't it? None of the stories felt creepy.

Was it made for kids or something? Mister King writes a lot, but sorry to say, they are mostly vegetable. I mean, Where was the creep? It isn't possible that all the directors who made films out of Stephen King stories are bad at makin' it, is it? I am still to find a jump scare in a Stephen King film. I tried, I did not.

A Dark Song (2016)

It was difficult to watch it

[3/10 · 5 September 2017]

Because most of the times, nothing happened. At some point, I ran out of patience, opened the wikipedia, read what was the ending of the film.

Until the last fifteen minutes, literally nothing was happening. Just a fat ugly guy misbehaving with a lady who looked like a fool, throwing things on the floor, forcing her to have sex with him etc.

This film is a monotony. Better don't waste your time.

Housebound (2014)

Cool

[6/10 · 5 September 2017]

Yeah, it was cool.

Would like it better if things turned out to be really supernatural. But this was a cool film to spend the evening.

It's worth it. The house shown in the film was perhaps too small to have a secret dungeon - other than that, there was no defect in the film for a common watcher like me.

Flatliners (1990)

Tiring

[4/10 · 5 September 2017]

The basic storyline was to deliver something good. The film couldn't make it.

After a few shots, it became clear what the rest of the film was going to be. Then it got slow. I lost the interest after the first half.

It's a tiresome watch. But yes, you can watch it.

Sphere (1998)

I wouldn't mind watching sci-fi like this

[5 September 2017]

Sci-fi is a hard genre. Mostly, films that have spaceships in 'em. Things become too plastic that you wish you wouldn't sit to watch it. I am talking about my preferences. I don't watch spaceship films. Most of 'em looks like garbage to me.

This did the job better. Although slow, it has it's moments. I wouldn't mind watching films like this.

The Cabin in the Woods (2011)

What are people so excited about?

[4/10 · 5 September 2017]

What I usually do, I check a few IMDb reviews before watching a film. So I did, and I thought this was gonna gimme a thrill.

This is perhaps regarded as one of the best horror films made in recent times. I don't know why.

There are a thousand better horror films than this. I really didn't get it. Looked like the film sold good. But that was all.

The film had a good budget, there were some effects. But that was all. It wasn't that spooky. Most of the ghosts/demons/creatures - behaved like dolls, which became childish in the later part of the film.

This is not a bad movie, but it has nothing new to offer. I'm quite sure I won't watch it again. It has a fanfare, a hell lot of people going crazy abut it - but the film itself looks cheap, with all it's cheap ideas.

Audrey Rose (1977)

Started good, turned out boring

[3/10 · 5 September 2017]

I was watching this film a week ago, without knowing this has Hare Rama Hare Rama stuffs in it. That day, Ram Rahim Story came out in India. He was sentenced to imprisonment.

Now, I don't want to sound like Hindu-phobic or something, but the film was boring. There were better re-incarnation films made in Bollywood. Comparin' to them, this was a ridiculous attempt at it.

The film cuda been a hell lot good. It just wasn't.

The ending simply fall flat. When you make a story, you end it good, or you just don't know how to end it. With that meaningless hypnosis scene, it ended in nothing.

Skip it. There are better movies waiting' there.

The Skeleton Key (2005)

It surely wasn't bad

[6/10 · 5 September 2017]

I watched this film years ago. Then came back to it.

It's a real ghost story. Things that comes up when you look in the Horror Genre don't satisfy you these days. This one did.

As a mainstream film, it did well, too. There is no reason you would dislike it. It's re-watchable, a quality too many films lack.

The film will give you a good time. Perhaps one can't call it great, but it wasn't bad, either.

Grave Encounters (2011)

Decided not to watch found footage again

[2/10 · 5 September 2017]

This was it.

After watching this, I decided never to watch found footage films. I mean, what was that? In the whole movie, three or four ghost jumped out of the walls, and then the film ended.

I never liked found footage films that much. This was the last.