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"Tragedy in life starts with the bondage of parent and child"
The Only Son is considered director Ozu's first talkie. Even with the spoken dialogue he still leaves space and silence to contemplate his characters' actions and conflicts. Classically Ozu, he studies the relationship between a parent and grown child. Instead of the wealthier families of some of his later films, this widow and child are living in poverty. In this film he also has the son and mother begin to define what success means to them and the emotional cost of failure.The story begins in 1923 in rural Japan. The mother works at a silk factory doing rigorous physical labor. Her son wants to continue his education, an education she can't afford. His teacher who is preparing to leave for Tokyo stops by the house congratulating the surprised mother on allowing him to go to high school as the son had told him she'd agreed to it. Ultimately, she decides to make whatever sacrifices she must for him to have a better chance in life. The last thing he tells her is that he will become a great man.
The story jumps ahead to 1935 with the mother missing her son and deciding to go visit him in Tokyo. Mother and son have not seen each other in years and seem happy to be together again. The son has a surprise for his mother, he is married and has an infant son. He also is working as a night school geometry teacher and living in a small house in view of the garbage incinerator smokestacks. This brings about the critical theme of the film. The son is ashamed of his job and lifestyle after the sacrifices his mother made for him. The mother is disappointed that he seems to have given up on attaining a better life. Much like in Tokyo Chorus, 1930's Tokyo is portrayed as the great dream destroyer.
Later in the film, the son helps a neighbor in such a way, that the mother beams at him with pride. He may not have become the great man she'd hoped for, but he had become a good man with a good wife. For her, this is enough to ease her worries about him. This is success in her eyes.
Ozu uses many of the techniques and compositions that will define his later work. Filming from the mat, even when in a car is in place. His ubiquitous teapot takes center stage in many scenes. As always, every prop, every angle is thoughtfully and creatively brought together to be aesthetically pleasing and to help tell the story. At one point after an emotional confrontation between mother and son, with his wife sobbing in the background, Ozu lingers on a shot of a painting on a wall near a window and holds that shot for almost a minute, as night turns to day. Almost as if the raw emotions of his characters needed time to be processed by them and us.
Tokyo was the great soul crusher, and during this time the depression had finally caught up with Japan, making work hard to come by. The son's teacher had to become a cook in a small restaurant. The teacher was played by Ozu regular Ryu Chishu, someone you could always count on to bring a character quietly to life. Lida Choko conveyed the mother longing to see her son, happy to be in his presence, and also discouraged at his negative resolution perfectly. Himori Shinichi felt like the weaker acting link. He spent much of his time smiling and gave no inkling of his character's desperate emotions for most of the film.
Interestingly Ozu had the mother and son go to the movies and watch a popular German talkie. Rather lengthy clips of the film were shown. The son's house also had some posters from German movies. Though imminently Japanese, the great director was also open to influence from foreign films.
The German film was one of the only outings we see that the son took his mother on as he spent most of their money trying to show her Tokyo. Unlike so many of the ungrateful male characters in older movies, ones women sacrificed everything for, this son, despite the financial hardship, wants his mother to have a special time. He wants to make her sacrifice worthwhile and up until then had felt he'd completely failed. Even with hardships, disappointments, and setbacks, the film had a warmth and gentle humanity to it. Life wasn't easy, but the film showed the value of family and friendship, of looking out for each other.
As so often happens in Ozu's films, the parent ends up alone. The mother may have been alone, but after seeing the man her son had become could find acceptance in her trials and life. The son, reinvigorated from his mother's belief in him, sat aside his nihilistic acceptance to once again hope. This quiet film was realistic and engaging on many levels. Easily one of my favorite Ozu films.
10/24/22
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Let's Start Over!
Hand Rolled Cigarette is an old school violent crime drama that almost makes itself into something a little more special, but just misses the mark. Even in the face of debt and despair, two criminal misfits keep marching forward, hoping for that chance to start over. Along the way, the disparate strangers find themselves counting on each other to survive.The film begins with the turnover of Hong Kong and the servicemen previously in the Queen's army now being left behind. Chiu bolsters his military brothers by saying it's their chance to start over. Years later, some have made it better than others. Chiu and another military brother had borrowed heavily and invested in the stock market only to watch it crash and lose everything. Deeply in debt, Chiu hustles on the triad fringe to try and stay afloat, now shunned by his military brethren. His next big deal is as a middle man for a guy selling illegal turtles and a local kingpin, a deal that goes south landing Chiu in trouble.
Mani is an Eastern Asian immigrant, reluctantly in the drug business with his brother/cousin Kapil. Mani also takes care of his younger brother who is still in school. Due to racism, the family runs into financial and social walls everywhere. Kapil wants to take greater risks to make bigger scores which leads to deadly events after he makes a major mistake. They find out that drug dealers keep track of their product and are neither kind nor forgiving, especially with those who steal from them.
Desperately fleeing a vicious gang, Mani ducks into Chiu's apartment and hides. Chiu isn't thrilled when he finds the interloper but against his better judgement allows the young man to continue to hide there as long as he doesn't touch anything. They don't have many interactions but Chiu does help when Mani's younger brother gets into a fight at school.
Eventually, they decide to sell the stolen drugs to try and pay off everyone they owe. All of which leads to a violent no holds barred final confrontation.
Hand Rolled Cigarette is more of a character study at times than crime drama. Chiu keeps a video of his military days when he respected himself and what he did. He suffers enormous guilt over his past actions leading him to act self-destructively at times. Mani wants a better life for his younger brother, including a good education, even if it means sacrificing his own. The two small time criminals both are good men at heart forced into grim decisions by their crumbling circumstances. Recognizing that in each other they do make a bond.
Be advised there are scenes of torture and brutal murders. Mani is repeatedly called by a racist name. They don't shy away from expressing the racism underlying the society. It can be a difficult film to watch.
The cinematography while showing greater Hong Kong at night, also shows the suffocating world the men live in and all the deadly and dangerous things that can happen in small places.
This film is dark as the two men try to navigate the dangerous world of the triads, forming an unlikely bond. My only real caveat is that their friendship felt underdeveloped to me. I would have preferred a little more buildup of their relationship, events that might have shown the evolution of their devotion more. Or maybe they were just two guys that were hunkered down in the same foxhole with only each other to rely on as the bullets and bombs whizzed by. Either way it was an entertaining Hong Kong crime film, but with a little more relationship development I would have rated it higher.
9/15/22
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"Men will remain clueless unless we're more open about these things"
Our Rainy Days tackles a topic not only men are uncomfortable with, but many women as well---Menstruation. That monthly visitor most of the 51% of the population will deal with in some form or fashion in their lives is all part of being human for the female part of the species. Too often not medically studied or properly funded, because it's a "female problem", women have often suffered in silence. Period shame and period shaming will only end when people realize it is normal and healthy. This special takes a look at a photographer and a model both having to handle their symptoms on the job and in public.Kojima Hikari is a photographer on her fist big shoot and it's for a men's magazine. Aoi is a small time idol who wants to transition to acting and is following the path of a bikini shoot to get noticed. Hikari awoke to her alarm warning her it was PMS time, also that it was her first big shoot and to not screw it up. The day starts out raining as they travel by bus to the beach. Aoi's visitor pops in during the shoot causing problems that the men have no idea how to deal with.
This special discussed how not every woman can wear a tampon, much to the crew's chagrin. It also showed that despite their pain and other symptoms the two women were able to come up with creative solutions and do their work. As Hikari says, "Some crisis are opportunities, others leave you stuck." Menstruation is normal but it can also be challenging.
Our Rainy Days wasn't a be all end all in the discussion, but it did one thing that needs to happen more often-communication. By sharing our stories with each other we normalize something that is normal. What works for one may or may not work for another. There are lots of period paraphernalia options and medical ones for those who need it. Don't be afraid to talk with a medical professional or trusted female friend or family member. Most of all, be proud of being a woman and all that entails. And if you are a man, man up and learn about what the women in your life go through each lunar cycle and practice your empathy muscle. Sarcasm and shaming are no longer acceptable. And girls/women we have nothing to feel ashamed of, it's okay to be okay with our periods. So ends The Butterfly PSA addendum to this review. ^^
9/6/22
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"If you keep on believing, the dream that you dream will come true." -Cinderella
Two of my favorite Chinese actresses, Zhou Dong Yu and Zanilia Zhao starred in The Palace. More Cinderella fairytale than actual historical tale but entertaining nonetheless.Chen Xiang and Liu Li came to the palace as 13 year-old girls to serve as maids and became fast friends. Chen Xiang lost her earring in an abandoned garden on her first day, think Chekov's gun or Cinderella's slipper. Quickly fast forwarded 7 years, the two turned into Dong Yu and Zanilia, now twenty-year-olds still prone to giggling and screaming. Each had their dreams of winding up with a handsome prince no matter how remote the possibility. But in fairytales even remote possibilities can become reality. Chen Xiang met the 13th Prince once again in the abandoned garden only this time she wore a scarf over her face as they had a chaste memorable time. Liu Li, uh, banged into the nefarious 9th Prince. Before you could say mistaken identity the 13th Prince and Liu Li were to be married. Chen Xiang found herself becoming her friend's servant while Liu Li turned into a wicked stepsister to keep their secret.
Chen Xiang was the childlike, virginal, self-sacrificing heroine complete with a repertoire of giggles and screams. Liu Li with her lusty desires for sex and power went from fast friend to Fast Times at Ridgemont High turning evil at the drop of her clothes. There was never much of a reason for Chen Xiang to keep her secret other than to be the traditional martyr and long suffering heroine. I wasn't crazy about the portrayal of the young women. In this fairytale all women were considered pretty much alike and were designed to please men in order to have any security, which given the times probably wasn't too far off the mark. There was no shortage of examples of what happened to maids or concubines who failed to please. The fact that the 13th Prince couldn't tell them apart reinforced their interchangeable nature.
The costumes and sets were luxurious, with mood fitting lighting and exquisite cinematography. Every shot was beautifully framed. No pumpkin coach or mice, but there was a stunning CGI dragon and lots of luminescent butterflies. The actors were cornered into stereotypical roles but still managed to bring their characters to life.
Once the movie got past the giggling, so much giggling, it became more enjoyable for me, even when it dipped into melodrama and political intrigue. Being a fairytale all that mattered was the romance and Chen Xiang winning the Prince's heart through her kind and selfless acts. But it was a Chinese fairytale so that meant being able to avoid being beheaded, beaten to death or exiled in the process.
9/5/22
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Hard to Be Righteous, but Easy to Be Evil...
Ekin Cheng and Aaron Kwok returned as the characters they made famous a decade earlier in Storm Riders. Wind and Cloud were an unbeatable team who kept the bad guys at bay until The Evil Lord Godless and his son Heartless with their Japanese army kidnapped the emperor and searched for the treasure within the Dragon Tomb.I enjoyed The Storm Riders (1998). It was cheesy and the CGI was rudimentary, but the story was coherent and the action fun. The Storm Warriors (2009) took itself way too seriously and replaced storyline with endless slow-mo action scenes. Dialogue and character development were kept to a bare minimum. If you haven't watched the first one it may not matter because the atmospheric boys were hard to distinguish with the poor writing for them.
Simon Yam as The Evil Lord Godless seemed invincible and pretty soon it was just Wind and Cloud left to fight him and save China. They didn't have long for a super charged training montage so that they could take their revenge on the over-compensating dressed warlord. Wind went to Lord Wicked and took the, well, wicked route via an evil mud bath while Cloud went the righteous way and was trained by the wounded Nameless at the same time. Before you could say Buckets O' Blood, super slow motion, comic book style fighting with plenty of dismemberments and red goo flying through the air, took place and Cloud had to try and bring Wind back to the good side.
The story was frightfully thin and convoluted. Shu Qi knew what she was doing when she passed on the sequel and left her role to Tiffany Tang. The movie could have easily been 20 minutes shorter if the fights had been shot at regular speed. By the last twenty minutes I didn't really care about the consequences or who lived or died I just wanted it to end. A few of the fights were beautifully shot and the CGI was better than the first movie, but they dragged on at a glacial speed. When CGI replaces actual story and character development I lose interest quickly. During one of the overcooked fight scenes I really thought one of them might yell out, "Kamehameha!"
The Storm Warriors had a cast I was very excited about but they were criminally underused. Ekin and Aaron had grown as actors since the time Storm Riders was filmed but it was irrelevant as most of the time they were filming fight scenes in overly dramatic slow motion. They certainly didn't have to worry about learning many lines. Simon Yam was at least properly menacing as an undefeatable warlord, a nifty trick given how little time he had on screen. Nicholas Tse as Heartless had little to do except look pretty and scowl. Charlene Choi as Dream had little to do but look pretty and worried for her few scenes. Even for comic book characters the lot of them were mostly lifeless. Ultimately, I didn't care about any of them.
The OST was nice if melodramatic at times. As with many of the movies in this genre, the costume department used a lot of leather, gold lame, and metal looking armor. There was no shortage of wind machines as Ekin and Aaron had their long layered mom hairdos seemingly always flowing in the wind.
If you enjoyed The Storm Riders, don't get your hopes too high for this sequel. Several storylines were left dangling, completely forgotten. Maybe I am truly the Heartless one because I actually laughed during the last scene which I'm sure was so supposed to be emotional but came across as absurd to me. As one of my favorite TV baking judges would say, The Storm Warriors was style over substance. It might have looked good, but it didn't taste very well going down.
8/24/22
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Love means having to say hello and good-bye and hello and good-bye...
As young children Zhao Yongyuan (Nicholas Tse) and Anran (Gao Yuan Yuan) both suffered tragic events after an earthquake. They met as children and we in Dramaland know what this means: D-E-S-T-I-N-Y. Though they are torn apart again and again, pass just close enough to each other without seeing the other, suffer through lack of communication and noble sacrifices galore, we as the viewers know such obstacles are no match for Destiny. Or is the evil F-A-T-E in control?Spoilery opinions will follow so reader beware...
Yongyuan lived with his grandmother as a child, barely able to afford clothes. Anran's father provided well for her. Through one act of kindness the two children become inseparable with Yongyuan always following Anran, a heavy-handed foreshadowing. Fate tears them apart for the first time. They are offered a second chance in their twenties and yet again fate thrusts them apart. Along with broken hearts, misunderstandings and noble sacrifice the two suffer alone on different continents. Amran goes to the United States as a graduate student to Columbia (daddy must have made really good money). Yongyuan goes to jail where he learns impeccable English and how to become an international trading mogul in one year. (None of which you see.) Beijing prisons must be awesome! Anran, all alone in the US, suffers a horrible tragedy that is glossed over quickly.
They collide in the United States during their 30's where the tables have been turned. Yongyuan is outrageously wealthy and Anran can't get a job anywhere with her measly graduate medical degree from Columbia. Apparently, Daddy must have spent all his money on her Columbia degree leaving her no inheritance. Oops! Spoiler! Well, the writing was on the wall when she left for the US and he gave her his watch that stopped when her mother died. That's okay because his death is dealt with in one sentence. She washes dishes as well as being a "tour guide" for a living. Her job as tour guide entails escorting wealthy clients in clothes they provide for her and going to dinner and a show. I'll stop with the spoilery plot developments except to say through minimal conversation and no honesty between the lovers they get back together and through one of the worst tropes in Dramaland and are torn apart...again. And then again...
I'll start with what I enjoyed. The first two times they were together when they were young were quite entertaining, even moving. Nicholas Tse and Gao Yuan Yuan were lovely to look at as their young adult and adult selves and the child actors who portrayed the young lovers/friends were cute as well. Veteran actor Lam Suet made a brief appearance as YY's uncle.
What didn't work for me: The tragedy upon tragedy with no time to process them, lack of any adult communication and honesty, the heavy-handed foreshadowing for just about all the tragedies, no subtlety involved including the overwrought OST, many of the tragedies and heartache happened offscreen so there was no way for me to connect or feel any empathy with their unseen pain, Yongyuan's ridiculously fast rise to super wealth, and the fact that he waits for her and follows her for over twenty years (not including all the childhood years). It was hard to feel any sympathy for characters who kept their feelings and secrets locked down tight. The love triangle with a childish and unlikeable character was unnecessary. The writer mistook characters suffering tragedies, many of which were off-screen, as character development and reasons for the viewer to feel sorry for them.
The actual camera shots of them wandering around, alone and forlorn in China and the US would have been lovely if they hadn't blown them out to the point the film looked like it was a faded forty-year-old movie. I get they might have been going for a gauzy romantic feel, but it didn't work for me, it was one more blurry barrier to connecting with these two. When the final tragedy struck, which again was foreshadowed in the opening scene, I felt nothing but relief that the film was almost over except that I had to sit through a propaganda announcement at the end.
I need somewhat coherent and consistent plot and character development and relationship development, But Always gave me none of that. This felt more like two people who wandered into each other's lives, messed everything up when Fate wasn't hurling everything she could at them from dead parents to national disaster after national disaster (think Remember Me with Rob Pattinson, if you liked this movie, you should try that one out). All the pain and angst felt manipulative by the writer and director instead of organic to the story. They could have cut the tragedies in half, developed the characters and their dialogue, given them more realistic reactions to each other and their tragic lives and the tsunami of suffering (they missed using a tsunami!) and these gorgeous cardboard characters could have come to life. I know this is an unpopular opinion on MDL because this movie hit a lot of people in the feels, but it missed the mark with me.
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Dream Team vs Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster!
Earth is imperiled when a meteor drops a world ending monster in her lap. King Ghidorah threatens all life on Earth and only a reluctant team of Kaiju can stop him led by Godzilla.This movie is a fun monster ride. The writers threw everything at the screen in order to entertain the audience-a foreign princess with a death squad after her who is taken over by an alien presence (from Mars, Venus, or Jupiter depending on the version you watch), a police officer trying to protect her, an intrepid and annoying female reporter, various scientists, and a doctor who will look familiar to fans of Kurosawa movies.
The alien inhabited princess tries to warn the earthlings that danger in the form of the three-headed fire breathing Ghidorah is coming their way and that Rodan is waking up from inside a volcano. Everyone thinks she's a crackpot. Shimura Takashi as the doctor runs a number of tests on her to see what's going on inside her head even as the death squad appears with guns blazing. The Cosmos return to help out and warn that Rodan and Godzilla are headed back to town. Finally, people decided it's time to start running and screaming as the three giants make their presence known.
Ghidorah rains down destruction upon the people in town while Rodan and Godzilla fight each other in the countryside. Mothra, in her caterpillar form, arrives to try and convince them to fight together against a common foe to save humanity. And their response was, "what's humanity ever done for us?" When Ghidorah attacks the squabbling monsters, the story finally picks up and it is a royal rumble for the ages.
Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster feels like a movie aimed more at children than adults, but there is enough for adults to enjoy, too. Even though the movie spends too much time leading up to the monster fights, the humans and human-alien were more entertaining than in Godzilla movies from this era. Ghidorah was nearly always a worthy opponent for Big G and it was fun to watch the Dream Team of Kaiju take him on. If you enjoy the Showa era movies, this is definitely not one to miss.
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The production values of this older Taiwanese drama weren't terribly high yet it felt real and honest. If it had one flaw it's that it confronted too many social issues and was unable to spend enough time on each for the characters and the audience to fully digest their consequences.
Days We Stared at the Sun was gritty, raw, and devastating with glimmers of hope quietly woven through the unlikely friendships.
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Unless one is familiar with the book it's hard to get a handle on how this world works, because they simply did not spend the time needed to build it for us. The leads bonded together faster than Wolverine and Rogue with a similar relationship dynamic. The gruff, world weary, reluctant hero and the abandoned young woman with a power that frightens people.
It felt like the FL's one acting note she was given was to stand there and look pretty and forlorn. Not a lot of depth to the performance. The ML spent most of his time running and jumping which to his credit, he did well.
The CGI was very good and creative. The problem for me was that the story overly-relied on it and over-estimated how interesting it is without an emotional story to propel the characters through the monsters and labyrinths.
It's a shame they didn't spend a few more minutes developing these characters because there is an interesting story behind the wall of CGI.
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"It takes a village to keep a person alive"
When Life Gives You Tangerines was a lovely bittersweet story of three generations of women, each desiring to do better than the previous generation. While the male characters were important, it was Ae Sun, her mother and her daughter that were the core of the story.Much of the drama took place on Jeju Island centered around the haenyeo and fishermen. Most of the people struggled to live day to day, relying on each other when things became dire. The sea is a harsh mistress and not only sustained life but took it as well. Yet there was laughter amongst the tears. And most importantly, there was the great love story between Ae Sun and Gwan Sik.
The different generations demonstrated the sacrifices that parents make for their children as well as their mistakes. Children learned that regret was a bitter pill to swallow once a parent was gone. The village relied on each other giving with compassion often accompanied by biting humor. Sometimes love was enough to sustain a relationship and sometimes it wasn’t. Life wasn’t easy about handing out answers regardless of the season people were in.
“It takes a village to keep a person alive.” The people of Jeju Island were generous, reconciliation often came after many tears, and the people showed great resiliency in the face of a collapsing economy. “Go together with others. If you do, 100 miles will feel like 10.” When Life Gives You Tangerines also reminded us that growing up is a lifelong process.
3 April 2025
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Qiao Yan is a successful actress with an overly clingy manager. She’s rigidly unhappy and desperately seeking her freedom from the life she’s living. Her manager has other plans for her future and is unwilling to take no for an answer. Into this abyss her pregnant sister from Myanmar walks in. Her sister is looking for her deadbeat husband who is trying to escape his gambling debts. Due to Qiao’s secret slipping out, a long list of people line up to extort an exorbitant amount of money from her. Qiao will have to decide how far she’s willing to go to protect herself.
The characters were thinly and inconsistently written. The old, “if I’d had the opportunities you had, I’d be a famous actress and wealthy instead of you,” trope was used because yeah, life just works that way. Anyone can become rich and famous. That petulant phrase was overused. The older sister’s emotions and ethics swung back and forth like a pendulum. Her husband was utterly vile and made me wonder why she stayed with him.
What actually intrigued me about this film was that the entertainment industry was shown to be a patriarchal, capitalistic den of iniquity where wealthy men thought they owned the talent and could do what they wanted with them. I’d heard rumors about this type of behavior for years, just never thought I’d see a Chinese movie airing that dirty laundry. (I write this knowing Hollywood has had its issues, too. It’s always a problem when people hold unchecked power.) They also showed the negative side of the “one child” rule. Another shocker.
The story itself was uneven and dragged on too long. The actors did the best they could with the material. The movie Qiao was shooting gave Zhao Li Ying more of a chance to shine than the actual movie she was in. The Unseen Sister was watchable, but could have been better.
20 August 2025
Triggers: Lots of smoking if that bothers you
Attempted Sexual Assault
Dismembered finger
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"The only thing you can do for a person who is gone is to live"
I’m always hesitant to write reviews on films based on mangas or books because people who have read them are often able to fill in the gaps with their reading experience. Having not read the manga my review will be based solely on my reaction to the film.Shiino works for a verbally abusive boss. He’s labeled “@sshole boss” on her phone. While eating lunch she is horrified to hear on the television that her best friend has died. She discovers Mariko has already been cremated and the ashes given to her father. With little thought she talks her way into his apartment and steals her friend’s ashes at knife point. After running barefoot through town and seemingly owning only one pair of shoes, Shiino decides it’s time to take a road trip to the beach with her friend. She digs out an old pair of dilapidated Doc Martens, fumigates them, and takes the first bus out of town with Mariko’s ashes in hand.
Through flashbacks we learn that Mariko and Shiino had been friends since childhood and also that Mariko’s father had been abusing her since then. Their friendship endured many of Mariko’s cries for help and ultimatums. On her journey to take Mariko’s ashes to the ocean, Shiino suffered set-back after set-back aided only by a man dressed like the Grim Reaper who appeared whenever she needed help. While ostensibly this was Shiino’s journey through agonizing grief at her friend leaving without saying good-bye, I was always distracted by Mariko’s ongoing abuse at the hands of the men in her life. Were there no child services called or available when she showed up to school bruised and broken from head to toe on a regular basis? Did Shiino repeatedly try to get her friend to see a therapist to deal with the traumas she’d suffered? Why didn’t they call the police when one of the men beat both of them and attempted to break into their apartment or when one of Mariko’s lovers broke her arm and robbed her? Was there ever a point when Shiino stopped enabling Mariko’s self-destructive behaviors and attempted to get her the help she desperately needed? Shiino had her own issues that could have used a professional helping hand as well.
Grief and its 1000 cuts by haunting memories filled My Broken Mariko. But it also left unanswered the most important question of how both women’s lives might have been changed if they’d stop accepting whatever abuse was heaped upon them and sought to gain some agency for their own lives.
3 August 2024
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"What is the meaning of those days?"
The Days focused on the immediate aftermath of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami and their catastrophic effects on the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. The events were shown from the side of the workers and their heroic efforts and the political side which was hindered by personal stakes, ineptness, and evasion of responsibility. The performances were engaging and nuanced and by far the strength of this drama based on the tragic real-world calamity."Mistake or destiny?"
When the earthquake and tsunami devastated the electrical grid, the power plant was left without electricity relying on back-up generators to keep the safety measures going. Never dreaming that a tsunami would reach the heights it did, the generators were ruined by seawater. Men in the control room were in the dark both literally and in relation to what was going on in the deadly monsters they were in charge of. Maejima was assisted by veterans Furuya and Osugi as well as younger operators who sought to do what they could only aided by flashlights.
"Forlorn hope"
Manager Yoshida Masao set up headquarters in the Seismic Safe Room to assess the damage and brainstorm responses to the critical issues. Hampered by a loss of almost all communication after the tsunami and largely cut off from the rest of the world the plant operators had to use what they had to try and determine the status of the four units. They resorted to using car batteries to attempt to open vital valves. Things went from bad to worse with aftershocks and hydrogen explosions. Yoshida sought to protect his workers as best he could even while knowing they risked their lives as they attempted to gain information by traveling into the belly of the radioactive beasts and for the workers who fought to remove radioactive debris to bring the fire trucks and the hoses needed to supply water to cool and de-pressure the escalating situations. Eventually, he made the hard decision of who would stay as he ordered the evacuation of most of the workers, knowing that those who remained might die if the worst happened.
"Our company has lost its mind."
On the political side of things, Prime Minister Yan was not advised by nuclear power experts but often those who seemed to be political appointees-who needs an economist during a nuclear disaster? The management at TEPCO was completely unprepared for such a disaster and the manuals gave no guidelines. Both the political and business advisors seemed to be more concerned about giving unpleasant news or being held accountable. They also worried about looking bad to the public and never mentioned the nuclear meltdowns by name. Their ineffectual echo chamber could have led to even more devastation if Yoshida had listened to them. Yan at one point belittled the heroes' efforts. While the people safe from harm worried about plausible deniability, they failed to supply the plucky workers with the basic supplies they needed.
"We don't have a guide, we're in it to the end."
Yakusho Koji gave a powerful performance as Yoshida. Without histrionics he conveyed the calmness and strength of the man in charge of saving the nation with his decisions. Yakusho expressed grief, horror, resoluteness, and exasperation with his face and body movements and provided a stalwart character for the others to trust in and lean on. He showed Yoshida's defiance with deftness and even humor. It has been a long time since I have been so engaged by an actor's performance. Takenouchi Yutaka, Kobayashi Kaoru, and Musaka Naomasa played the operator warriors in the dark control room who braved the dangers so close to the deadly radiation. Though their faces were often covered by protective equipment and respirators the veteran actors' performance came through. These men portrayed, like Yoshida, knew their chances of surviving were slim to none and yet they did whatever was necessary for the greater good.
"I can no longer leave here alive."
The drama displayed the events and actions almost hour by gripping hour. I was always shocked by how much the operators had accomplished when the time clock was shown. Yoshida came across as the hero of this story and the faithful men who risked their lives to cool down and calm the radioactive beast that had the power to leave a third of Japan uninhabitable for decades. The actors who played the fearless Daiichi workers gave understated and formidable performances that were compelling and emotional. The Days was a cautionary tale of human hubris in the face of nature and yet how there are still heroes among us. It is a drama well worth the time for viewing.
9/7/23
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This review may contain spoilers
Time manages to weave together the disparate stories of a retired assassin team, the problems of the elderly, assisted suicide and team pregnancy. It brings together a cast of well-known older Hong Kong actors---PatrickTse, Bobo Fung, and Lam Suet and gives them a chance to shine. They did not fail to take advantage of the opportunity to show that they've still got it.Patrick Tse at 85 showed he could still be a menacing threat as the flying blade assassin who had been relegated to cutting noodles in his golden years. Bobo went from terrorizing her victims with her throwing weapons to singing in a small-time cabaret. Lam Suet, the getaway driver, now suffering from various illnesses and struggling to pay for and receive proper medical care spends his free time with a prostitute he's fallen in love with.
Without being morbid, Time shines a light on the plight of the elderly---illness, loneliness, ungrateful children, poverty, and the knowledge that more sand has run out of the hourglass than remains. The old team gets back together when they find the older population requesting their services and they earn extra spending money respectfully doling out assisted suicide. This works out fine until the blade man discovers his intended victim/client is a teenage girl.
Bobo did an amazing job as the mother with a child who believed because she gave birth to him, she was eternally responsible for him. The fact that he was a grown man who was married and a father and responsible for his own child escaped him. Lam Suet gave a heartwarming performance as the team member who kept them all together, finally getting his chance at a quality main role. The actress who plays the teenage girl was the weakest link in this movie. She was unable to keep up with the rest of the experienced cast. The youth story threatened to take over the narrative, but stopped just short, or maybe went slightly over the line. It did give Patrick's loner character a chance to connect with someone and discover a part of himself he didn't know existed.
There are many touching scenes in this movie and Time deals with its gray-haired characters and their problems with sensitivity and gentle humor. It shows that people of a certain age need love, time, attention, and care. And in the case of Time, it showed that actors who are no longer young still have stories left to tell.
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Also, I liked that the FL didn’t recoil from the ML’s kisses as if he was going to give her a root canal. They had a healthy tactile relationship. One of the few Kdramas I’ve seen where the couple was in a believable intimate relationship.
I found the acting solid all the way around.
Regarding the OST: I dinged it for the overuse of Stand By Your Man. They could have cut the use of that song by 80%. Bonus points though for Rachael Yamagata’s Something in the Rain. Already downloaded it.
I will rewatch all or at least parts of it when I’m having a bad day and need a smile and a warm feeling in my heart. I definitely recommend giving this drama a try.
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