Daisy (2006)

Storyline:
Daisy is about a professional killer and an Interpol agent who fall in love with the same young woman.
The girl, Jeon, plays a street artist who dreams about opening her own exhibition someday, while Jeong portrays a killer who loves her but can not confess his love to her because of his profession. There is also Park Yi who meets Jeon while investigating a case.
The movie then proceeds to tell the story about this dramatic romance.

Director: Wai-keung Lau
Writers: Gordon Chan, Felix Chong, Jae-young Kwak
Stars:Gianna Jun, Woo-sung Jung, Sung-jae Lee
IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468704

Year: 2006
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: South Korea

Trailer:


Review:
This is a very good dramatic movie, about a love triangle. What i liked the most, is how the movie doesn't focus on only one of the sides of the triangle, but it came to the points of view of all leads, keeping you in suspense, and end up in a split screen showing all the three main characters' emotions in a single event.
The movie has a very good photography, with beautiful images of landscapes and busy city squares of Amsterdam, with plenty of classical music.
The story starts as a typical South Korean romance, but the following scenes of tragedy and drama are what make this movie so unique and explendid.

Personal Rating: 7/10

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Batoru Rowaiaru [Battle Royale] (2000)

Storyline:
A group of ninth-grade students from a Japanese high school have been forced by legislation to compete in a Battle Royale.
The students are each given a bag with radomly selected weapon and a few rations of food and water, and then sent to a desert island where they have to kill each other untill only one has survived, for a time limit of three days.
The movie focus on a few of the students and how they help or kill each other.

Director: Kinji Fukasaku
Writers: Koushun Takami, Kenta Fukasaku
Stars: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, Tarô Yamamoto
IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266308

Year: 2000
Genre: Action, Thriller
Country: Japan

Trailer:


Review:
Battle Royale is a disturbing and shocking movie with great scenes of violence.
It's interesting to watch how a group of teenagers, who belong to a supposedly civilized world, find themselves in a position where they have to kill or be killed. The violent killing between them start rapidly as they arrive to the desert island, with desperation and fear on most of their faces.
The whole grotesque and violent scenes are basically what makes the movie that great, because on the other hand, i hated the interpretation of almost all teenagers. Seems like there was no casting at all to choose the actors, they just randomly selected a bunch of teenagers and hope that they would fit. But no. Apart a couple of actors, the rest of the cast seem completely amateurs. This is a shame, because the movie has so much potential that it could be a real masterpiece.
Don't be discouraged to watch it, because it is still a beatifull and great action movie to watch. There are great scenes that compensate the actors' bad performance.

Personal Rating: 7/10

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Das Leben der Anderen [The Lives of Others] (2006)

Storyline:
In the early 1980s, Georg Dreyman (a successful dramatist) and his longtime companion Christa-Maria Sieland (a popular actress), were huge intellectual stars in (former) East Germany, although they secretly don't always toe the party line.
One day, the Minister of Culture becomes interested in Christa, so the secret service agent Wiesler is instructed to observe and sound out the couple, but their life fascinates him more and more.

Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Writers: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Stars: Ulrich Mühe, Martina Gedeck, Sebastian Koch
IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt

Year: 2006
Genre: Drama, History, Thriller
Country: Germany

Trailer:


Review:
Das Leben der Anderen is a powerful but quiet movie, constructed of hidden thoughts and secret desires. A political thriller that's consistently as inventive as it is creepy.
The scope is especially impressive given that the movie is about a society obsessively focused on the tiniest of details.
Wiesler is a fascinating character. His face is a mask, trained by his life to reflect no emotion. Sometimes not even his eyes move. As played in Muehe's performance of infinite subtlety, he watches Dreyman as a cat awaits a mouse. And he begins to internalize their lives -- easy, because he has no life of his own, no lover, no hobby, no distraction from his single-minded job.
Racing toward its cataclysmic conclusion, “The Lives of Others” provided a troubling depiction of a political clamp on expression and emotion.

Personal Rating: 8/10

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Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)

Storyline:
The island of Iwo Jima stands between the American military force and the home islands of Japan. Therefore, the Imperial Japanese Army desperatly tries to prevent it from falling into americans' hands and providing a launching point for an invasion.
In the lower echelons, a young soldier named Saigo, a poor baker whose wife is pregnant, strives with his friends to survive the harsh regime of the Japanese army itself, all the while knowing that a fierce battle looms.
When the American invasion begins, the japanese army finds strenght, honor, courage and horrors beyond imagination.

Director: Clint Eastwood
Writers: Iris Yamashita, Paul Haggis, Tadamichi Kuribayashi, Tsuyoko Yoshido
Stars: Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Tsuyoshi Ihara
IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt

Year: 2006
Genre: Drama, History, War
Country: Japan

Trailer:


Review:
You won't even notice the almost two and a half hours passing by. The movie surely keeps you focused on it the whole time.
Make no mistake, this is not an action war movie with lots of blood baths. Letters from Iwo Jima will pull the humanity out of the monster that is war.
Unlike typical war movies, you'll get the chance to watch the story told by the Japanese side. You'll get to know how brave and patriotic they were. Such patriotism was several times shown as excessive sometimes reaching the absurd, but you'll never get the idea that they were stupid men who just ran into the american army like kamikazes.
In the meanwhile, touching scenes showing the japanese army's strenght and courage are also the reason of why this is such a great movie.

Personal Rating: 8/10

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Jin líng shí san chai [The Flowers of War] (2011)

Storyline:
During the second Sino-Japanese war, in 1937 China, a mortician named John arrives at a catholic church in Nanjing to prepare the priest for burial.
Upon arrival, he finds himself as the only adult among a group of convent young girls and prostitutes from a nearby brothel.
When he finally realizes that he's the only one who can protect both groups from the horrors of the invading Japanese army, he discovers the meaning of sacrifice and honor.

Director: Yimou Zhang
Writers: Heng Liu, Geling Yan
Stars: Christian Bale, Ni Ni, Xinyi Zhang
IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1410063

Year: 2011
Genre: Drama, History
Country: China

Trailer:


Review:
This is a beautiful and compelling story set inside very horrific events. Emotionally powerful story about people in a situation where seems to be no way of surviving.
Although the graphic violence is not so intense, it is still very brutal.
Christian Bale is an actor who everyone already knows, and as always his character is very good. He's an heartless man that day by day gains compassion with both groups and decides to help them even if his own life depends on it. On the other hand, we have the case of Ni NI who had her first major role in this movie, and we can say she made a brilliant work.

Personal Rating: 9/10

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Madeo [Mother] (2009)

Storyline:
A mother lives quietly with her mentally retarded son, Do-joon, providing herbs and acunpucture to neighbours. One day, a young girl is brutally murdered and Do-joon is charged with the killing.
The mother proceeds to fight bravely to defend the son's inocence, while the detectives are more interested in quickly closing the case than researching other possible leads. At first, the mother suspects the true murderer is Jin-tae, a friend of Do-joon who has a criminal life, but she finds out the truth is much more complicated as she digs deeper.

Director: Joon-ho Bong
Writers: Joon-ho Bong, Eun-kyo Park
Stars: Hye-ja Kim, Bin Won, Ku Jin
IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1216496

Year: 2009
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: South Korea

Trailer:


Review:
Madeo is a strong and powerful drama that portrays the love of a mother to protect and defend her son. The movie has a surprising plot and many twists that will capture all you attention.
It's an intense thriller with enigmatic characters that do not just populate the screen but are vitally alive.
The cinematography is quite astonishing. Scenes like the opening image of the Mother in a field doing an unlikely dance to the diegetic music are strangely beautiful to watch.
Madeo is very "emotionally unstable". One minute you have the most dramatic scenes that will will give you the chills, the other you have the most intense and powerful scenes that will surely make you remember this movie for years.

Personal Rating: 9/10

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Dalkomhan insaeng [A Bittersweet Life] (2005)

Storyline:
Kim Sun-Woo is an enforcer and manager for a hotel owned by a crime boss, Kang, to whom he is unquestionable loyal. Both share concerns over business tensions with Baek Jr., a son from a rival family, which is when Kang assigns Sun-Woo what is perceived at first to be a simple task while he is away on a business trip.
The task consisted on watching his young mistress, Heesoo, for fear that she could be cheating him with a younger man, with the mandate to kill them both if he discovers their affair.
Kim Sun-Woo becomes quietly enthralled by the girl's beauty and innocence, so when he finds about their affair, he fiercely beats the young man, but isn't able to kill them. He gives them the chance to never see each other again and so he wouldn't kill them.
The boss after discovers about the betrayal and orders his employees to kill Kim Sun-Woo. These events lead to the powerful families having the need to revenge, mainly Kim Sun-Woo, and the action/killing scenes are followed.

Director: Jee-woon Kim
Writers: Jee-woon Kim
Stars: Jeong-min Hwang, Yu-mi Jeong, Ku Jin
IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0456912

Year: 2005
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: South Korea

Trailer:


Review:
The story revolves all around Kim Sun-Woo, a sleek elegant mobster. The violence scenes are all gloriously coreographed and we get deeply involved on Kim's bravery and surprisingly profound perfomance.
Kim suffers brutal physical violence like you don't see often. The movie has a great photography with a bloody background. A touching fight to preserve one single moment of sweetness.

Personal Rating: 7/10

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J'ai tué ma mère (2009)

Storyline:
The teenager Hubert regards his mother with contempt, seeing only her tacky sweaters and kitsch decorations. Below the surface of these irritating traits, lie the ingrained mechanisms that his mother has always cultivated so dearly - manipulation and guilt.
The teenager finds himself confused and torn by a love-hate relationship that keeps him more obsessed as days pass, wandering in and out of an adolescence that is both marginal and typical, combining artistic discover, openness to friendship, ostracism and sex.
The turbulent relationship between mother and son unfolds with a compelling combination of savage fury and melting affection.

Director: Xavier Dolan
Writers: Xavier Dolan´
Stars: Anne Dorval, Xavier Dolan, François Arnaud
IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1424797

Year: 2009
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: Canada, France

Trailer:


Review:
The movie "J'ai tué ma mère" details the intensely volatile relationship between a 16-years-old gay teenager (Rubert) and his mother (Chantale). The movie goes through a series of hysterical scenes that show how these characters can't live with or without each other.
This is a brutal love story that portays a compassionate relationship of both sides of this complex human interaction.
As the main star of the movie being also the director and writer himself, and making this movie with only 19 years old, we have to congratulate Xavier Dolan for having the maturity to recognize the underlying causes of teenage arrogance.

Personal Rating: 8/10

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Die Welle (2008)

Storyline:
Rainer Wegner, a popular high school teacher among the students, is forced to teach autocracy for the schoo'ls project week.
At first, he is not very happy about it, but the student's reaction is surprising. Rainer forces the students to become more invested in the prospect of self rule, demonstrating what life is like under a dictatorship.
This experiment spins horribly out of control, while the class project gains its own power and starts to resemble Germany's past.

Director: Dennis Gansel
Writers: Dennis Gansel, Todd Strasser, Peter Thorwarth´
Stars: Jurgen Vogel, Todd Strasser, Max Riemelt
IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1063669

Year: 2008
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: Germany

Trailer:


Review:
This movie is a fascinating tale with a cleverly developed plot as the teacher unintentionally guides his students into a sense of fascism.
The project starts calm and harmless, as Rainer instructes the class to wear an uniform and create a name for themselves. With time, the project's group slowly turns into a fascism regime.
The irony on this movie is that when Rainer talked about Hitler's reign at the beginning of the project, the students quickly replied saying that such thing would never happen again in Germany, knowing what thay know nowadays. Those words are eaten by themselves when the group starts to behave like in a fascism regime.

Personal Rating: 8/10

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