THE HOAX

"THE HOAX"(2006/U.S.A)
Synopsis
Early in 1971, McGraw-Hill passes on Clifford Irving's new novel. He's desperate for money, so, against the backdrop of Nixon's reelection calculations, Irving claims he has Howard Hughes's cooperation to write Hughes's autobiography. With the help of friend Dick Suskind, Irving does research, lucks into a manuscript written by a long-time Hughes associate, and plays on corporate greed. He's quick-thinking and outrageously bold. Plus, he banks on Hughes's reluctance to enter the public eye. At the same time, he's trying to rebuild his marriage and deflect the allure of his one-time mistress, Nina Van Pallandt. Can he write a good book, take the money, and pull off the hoax?


Clifford's lie became larger gradually, and it was no longer to get onto the reclaim.
He was able to deceive people around him because of his knowledge of Hughes' background and he also tried to behave and think like Hughes for his success of writing an autobiography. His lies were going to be exposed several times, but he managed to avoid them. He had been involved in the world of his lies hence the inability to distinguish fiction from reality. He seemed like a mythomaniac.
But I thought he did not tell a lie at all. There were many facts in his book.
In addition, the issue of political contributions to President Nixon which was in the document Clifford got from an unknown person led to the Watergate scandal and so this scene had the ring of truth. Hughes wanted the downfall of Nixon, so that documents might have been Hughes' gimmick trap.
Clifford was going to deceive Hughes, but in fact he was deceived by Hughes. He might be a only chess piece for an execution of a large conspiracy involving politics.
Although this movie was based on the true story, I didn't know which part of the movie was true.
Anyway there were humor and thrill in this movie, so I enjoyed it very much.


My rating:★★★

THE ARTIST

"THE ARTIST"(2011/France)
Synopsis
Hollywood 1927. George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is a silent movie superstar. The advent of the talkies will sound the death knell for his career and see him fall into oblivion. For young extra Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo), it seems the sky's the limit - major movie stardom awaits. The Artist tells the story of their interlinked destinies.

This movie won an Academy Award Best Picture this year in Oscars.
At first I wondered why this movie won the said award, but after watching it, I have realized the reason.
Many of the recent movie have a complicated stories and make full use of a latest 3D technology.
"The Artist" is a silent film and the story is very simple, but I think these elements give a strong impression to the audience.
I also think that in a silent film or the classic film,  actors and the actresses appear to be more attractive when it is compare with a full-color movie,maybe because we can notice only their actions and body languages.We cant hear any dialogue so our attention is drawn to their action and physical appearances.
I think everything in this movie is so fresh to the audience.
There are two additional important things that I want to bring up about this movie.

First is that you can enjoy watching the costumes in Hollywood of the 1930s.
Second is that we can be surely entertained by the dog named Uggie as Jack,as one of the most imnportant characters in the film.

My rating :★★★

PERFECT SENSE

"PERFECT SENSE"(2011/U.K.)
Synopsis
An odd epidemic appears across the globe: people suddenly lose one of their senses. At first, it's an outbreak of loss of smell. It's often presaged by a destructive temper tantrum. In this mix are a scientist and a chef - she's Susan, one of a team trying to understand the epidemic; he's Michael, charming and engaging. Susan and Michael begin a relationship in the middle of increasing chaos, as the loss of other senses plagues more people and as civil authorities try to maintain order. Susan's voice-over reflections provide insight. Is love possible in such a changed world? Can anything make perfect sense?

One day people lost their sense of smell by an unidentified virus. They panicked at one time however they still tried to manage to act in a normal circumstance.

When Michael and Susan were walking in the park,they saw a performer whose dance let them remember what was having sense of smell like..

The scene is the park was the most impressive for me because it showed how the sense smell is connected to our memory.

This  pandemic disease didn't stop and later on people lost also their sense of taste.

They refused to go to the restaurant because they couln't enjoy tasting delicious dish at all.

When we lose one of our senses,it seems that other senses become more sensitive.

In other words,we can lose one sense but at the same time other senses can become stronger.

In this movie, people lost their senses of smell, taste and hear.They felt extreme loneliness however they found out that people's warmth were more important.

At the end of the movie,people lost also their sense of sight and darkness was  starting to fill their surrounding.
I dont have a clear vision what would happen after the story, but I think inspite of losing every sense that each person has, they will still continue to hold on with their family's , partner's, and friend's warmth.

My rating:　★★★

HESHER

"HESHER"(2010/U.S.A)
Synopsis
Loud music. Pornography. Burning shit to the ground. These are a few of Hesher's favorite things. And they are what Hesher brings into the lives of TJ and his father, Paul when he takes up residence in their garage uninvited.

Grief-stricken by the loss of TJ's mother in a car accident, Paul can't muster the strength to evict the strange squatter, and soon the long-haired, tattooed Hesher becomes a fixture in the household. Like a force of nature, Hesher's anarchy shakes the family out of their grief and helps them embrace life once more.


I didn't know that Hesher was a nickname for people who like metal music.
In this movie, who on earth is Hesher? Nobody knew this answer, but a few people knew that he was not only a crazy man.
He could not control himself and he was always dangerous. But the truth was that he was a pure-hearted man.  
For some reason Hesher liked TJ, and he helped TJ from the bully. Hesher was also very kind to TJ's grandmother. Maybe he was what was called a champion of justice. He was just a little too much to punishing the wicked.
Until the middle of this movie I could not stop laughing because of Hesher's strange attitude and behavior.
But in the ending, I was touched by the scene when he walked by pressing the coffin with TJ and his father.
In the interview Joseph Gordon-Levitt acted as Hesher and said he admired Hesher. I think that most people especially men may be attracted by Hesher's anachistic and bohemian lifestyle. 
If there is a person like him in my real life, I will not be close to him. And I don't usually listen to metal music. But I like this movie because Joseph Gordon-Levitt is so cool !


My rating:★★★

LUISA

"LUISA"(2009/Argentina/Spain)
Synopsis
Luisa is a solitary woman who has undergone a traumatic event in her past. When her pet and only companion Tino the cat dies it becomes the catalyst for a turning point in her destiny, helping Luisa to realize that despite her suffering and fears, she is still alive.


Luisa was strictly on time, working in two places everyday and her habits were not disrupted for more than thirty years. She lived away from the people she is related because of a tragedy for her family. She lost her family- the daughter and her husband and never open herself for other people.
One day her cat which was her only friend, died and then she was told she was fired from her two jobs. She lost everything at the same day. I think normally in such cases, the person tend to lose his mind and this happened to her. But when she went to a subway station for the first time and looked at the performers and homeless earn coins there, she decided to do so in the same way.  She bought lucky Chinese cards to use what little money she had and she tried to sell the card to passengers. After failing to sell them, she bought a pair of crutches and she started pretending to be injured to get money.
Her aggressive power behind her crazy actions just focused on earning her dead cat's burial expenses. Yes, her actions were really crazy but she felt so lively that people living in a subway station than in her practically dead life. Somehow I understood her feeling.
There were two men trying to understand her bad situation and when she felt the sincerity of these two men, she began to talk her past and opened her heart for the first time. I thought she did not despair of life and she would live happier than before.
I enjoyed this movie very much and the sound of the guitar which was used in this movie was very effective and it expressed Luisa's feelings of sadness and happiness.


My rating: ★★★

MY SISTER'S KEEPER

"MY SISTER'S KEEPER"(2009/U.S.A)
In Los Angeles, the eleven year old Anna Fitzgerald seeks the successful lawyer Campbell Alexander trying to hire him to earn medical emancipation from her mother Sara that wants Anna to donate her kidney to her sister. She tells the lawyer the story of her family after the discovery that her older sister Kate has had leukemia; how she was conceived by in vitro fertilization to become a donor; and the medical procedures she has been submitted since she was five years old to donate to her sister. Campbell accepts to work pro bono and the obsessed Sara decides to go to court to force Anna to help her sister.

Kate had Leukemia when she was two years old. Her parents wanted to save her life and decided to have another baby-Ann as her donor. It meant Ann was born as a product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis.
Anne from the age of five, endured surgery for her sister, but one day she accused her parents to protect her body and future.
At first, I thought this movie was about the trial but it was not. This movie was about family love and death with dignity.
Kate and Ann's mother, Sara was desperate to save Kate's life no matter how Kate wanted to end her suffering.　The real reason why Ann filed the case was to be free from Kate and respect death with dignity.
It's very difficult problem to understand the death with dignity. If I had a child who had a serious illness who is alive, I could not respect it and tried to do the same thing as Sara. But in this movie, the audience could understand Kate's feelings easily because of the great production and music and they could acknowledge that she is willing.
It is so sad to separate a person you loved, but sooner or later a life comes to the end and so we should cherish everyday and our family.
According to the production's note, the ending of this story is completely different with the original novel. I like the movie's ending, because I thought this was a happy ending than the novel although Kate died.


My rating:★★★★

HEREAFTER

"HEREAFTER"(2010/U.S.A)
Synopsis
A drama centered on three people who are haunted by mortality in different ways. George is a blue-collar American who has a special connection to the afterlife. On the other side of the world, Marie, a French journalist, has a near-death experience that shakes her reality. And when Marcus, a London schoolboy, loses the person closest to him, he desperately needs answers. Each on a path in search of the truth, their lives will intersect, forever changed by what they believe might-or must-exist in the hereafter.

The hero was a psychic and he could not lead an ordinary life because of his gifts. So he quited his job as a psychic and tried to be a normal person. But he could not escape his fate. 
The heroine had an intense near-death experience and her life was changed. She wanted the people around her to know the truth but the things that she had experienced was a taboo subject especially for a journalist like her.
The boy lost a twin brother and wanted to know what it feels like to die. He started to find information about a psychic on the internet.
The three story proceeded separately and one day, three people met each other.
In my opinion, they had been hurt very much before they met, so it is very hard to find a person who can understanding their feelings especially for people like them.
This movie was not an occult, but it was about totally different people who met each other by chance.
I like this movie very much, but I was shocked in the scene of the tsunami. That was very realistic and I was scared.
In Japan, this movie was released last February, but after the big earthquake and tsunami in Fukushima, this movie was discontinued because of the scene. Indeed, this may be very sad and painful for the victims.
But the end of the movie was not bad and it made me so happy.


My rating: ★★★

NEVER LET ME GO

”NEVER LET ME GO”(2010/U.K/U.S.A)

Synopsis

As children, Ruth, Kathy and Tommy, spend their childhood at a seemingly idyllic English boarding school. As they grow into young adults, they find that they have to come to terms with the strength of the love they feel for each other, while preparing themselves for the haunting reality that awaits them.

The three children were living in a exemplary boarding school and one of their teacher told them that they existed only as organ donors for transplants. It meant they were cloned human. They accepted their fate and they grew up with a feeling of  love and friendship until the day of donation.

At first I did not understand why they did not try to escape. But as the movie progresses  I found the answer to my question.

Their knowledge was all that they learned from the boarding school and their world was also confined in there. They could not think leaving of the outside world from there.

When I watched this movie, I thought the subject matter is similar to "THE ISLAND".　But when it comes to the storyline, this movie and THE ISLAND are worlds apart. In my opinion, this movie may be more cruel but this is realistic.

The cloning research may benefit the human but it always involve moral issues. In this movie, they were born and raised almost as livestocks. But they had souls and feelings and that made me so sad.

At the end of the movie the heroine Kathy asked to herself whether her fate is really any different from the people who will receive her organs: after all, "we are all complete" and we all have the feeling though we never had enough time. 

Yes, she is right.  Life is valuable whether you live long or not, it doesn't matter. What mattters is how you live your life.

My rating:★★★★

Elle s'appelait Sarah(Sarah's Key)

"Elle s'appelait Sarah(Sarah's Key)"(2010/France)
Synopsis
One of the darkest moments in French history occurred in 1942 Paris when French officials rounded up over 10,000 Jews and placed them in local camps. Eventually over 8,000 were sent off to German concentration camps. As 10-year old Sarah and her family are being arrested, she hides her younger brother in a closet. After realizing she will not be allowed to go home, Sarah does whatever she can to get back to her brother. In 2009, a journalist named Julia is on assignment to write a story on the deported Jews in 1942. When she moves into her father-in-law's childhood apartment, she realizes it once belonged to the Strazynski family, and their daughter Sarah.

The movie started with two different stories simultaneously.
One is the story of an American journalist living in Paris today.  Another is the story of a 10 year old girl named Sarah who lives in Paris in the past.
At first, I could not understand the relation of the two characters. But an American journalist, Julia traced the history of the persecution of Jews in France and I understood what the connection was all about.
Sarah had been round-up to a velodrome(Vel' d'Hiv) with her parents and she escaped there after a great struggle to help  her younger brother.
The success of her escape was because of the miracle of two things. First, a Nazi soldier with a conscience helped her escape. Second, a French elderly couple concealed her and after that, they became her foster parents. (In France during that time nobody could help Jews because of the negative rumors surrounding them and if would try to help the jews, they will be punished.)
Jewish survivors who have been exposed to the truth of the persecution of the Jews today, I think they have experienced a miracle just like Sarah. After the war,  they must have lived a life of psychological damage just like Sarah.
Julia searched for the truth about Sarah's life after the war because of her mission as a journalist. But the result of the search was disappointing for the people surrounding Julia and Sarah. Was knowing the truth the right thing to do?  Julia was suffering, but she had taken the pains and became stronger after learning of Sarah's life.
If I were Julia, I would do same thing like her but I have no strength like her.
Following the history, we faced a dark and tragic past of war. But history always repeats itself.
Modern world is unstable politically and economically and wars will always there waiting to erupt,  so I think we need a good story like this movie to always remind us of the past.
Touched by this movie, "The Pianist" ; Roman Polanski's masterpiece reminded me.
I highly recommend this movie!

My rating:★★★★

Pora Umierać (Time To Die)

"Pora Umierać (Time To Die)" (2007/Poland)
Synopsis
Aniela, is as much a sprightly, unyielding relic of the past as the big dacha-style house surrounded by tall trees in which she lives alone with her impetuous dog, Philadelphia. Across the way, she disapprovingly observes a boorish fat nouveau-riche man in a big new house, and over in a corner, a shabbier building occupied by a struggling music school, everybody wants Aniela's house or her land. When nouveau-riche neighbors, aided by her cold-hearted son, conspire to gain her property, she finds a way to outsmart them.

The heroine was a very aged woman and she lived in an old house for decades. I thought she was energetic, but she knew that it was near the end of her life.
She reminisced her memories of love, wedding, and her young son around the house. The scenes were projected beyond the old glass doors. They were so beautiful. Although this movie was black and white but I felt the colors of her memories one by one.
She was also a charming woman, but people around her, even her son, did not know about the goodness in her. She might be so lonely. She lived throuth memories.
This movie seems sad story and when we grow old we will feel same loneliness she felt . So I was sympathetic to her feelings.
Neighbors had wanted her big home land. She was not greedy. She just wanted to keep her memories.
Anyway the music of the movie is stunning and the heroine, Danuta Szaflarska's acting is so outstanding. (She is 96 years old and still active!) Everything of the movie can be compared to a poem.

My rating:★★★