Here are a bunch of mini reviews of things I watched from the festival and since then:

All Around Us (Gururi no Koto) -4/5 (CIFF09)
Great, though quite slow.  A family-drama that leaves many messages about living life and the connections between loved ones, especially a spouse.  Some characters were a bit annoying, though it can’t be helped if art imitates reality.

Surveillance -3/5 (CIFF09)
Not horrible, but could have been much better, in my opinion.  Some twists in the plot, some of which are predictable.  But this is no action movie.  It’s almost all dialogue, and awkward dialogue at that, for the first three-quarters of the film.  Probably would have been better as a short.

Chaser (Chugyeoja) – 5/5 (CIFF09)
Excellent thriller.  Korean movies contain some of the best psycho-killer/ detective movies and this is one of them for sure.  Though not as epic as a Park Chan-wook film, it has great pacting, characters, tone, and is interesting to watch.  Some gory parts.  Worth tracking down.

Sparrow (Man Jeuk) – 2/5 (CIFF09)
Too slow, and too long.  The plot is not interesting enough to make a whole movie out of, though it did hold my attention.  What was there was executed well and had some nice imagery.

White on Rice – 4/5 (CIFF09)
Good feel-good comedy.  You kind of root for the main character, and definitely grow to like his quirks.  You can see a lot of miscommunications that a Japanese-American may come across, and this really hits home if you have some familiarity with a non-native English speaker.  Plot is a bit uninspired, but serviceable for fun.

Meatball Machine – 1/5
After seeing the excellent Machine Girl, and iffy Tokyo Gore Police… I knew that Meatball Machine could go either way.  And it was bad.  Bad in a bad way.  Even for a B-movie, there is nothing really interesting that goes on.  The characters are beyond boring… enough to make a user manual seem a worthwhile use of time.  Gross out moments are not realistic or that gross if you’ve seen either of the mentioned ultra-gore movies.  Unfortunately, I can’t recommend this movie to even gore fans.

Tale of Two Sisters (Korean) – My 2nd viewing – 4/5
Although it’s probably one of the best Korean horror films I’ve seen, the rewatch isn’t that great.  The characters are a little boring and the pacing slow, but the ending and mystery is pretty good.  Although it’s a must see for asian horror fans, you really probably only need to see it once.  Compare with Ju-On, which I can watch many times and still enjoy.

The Wrestler

Mickey Rourke is up for best actor in this very realistic story about the downfall and clinging-on of past fame of an old wrestler.  The movie itself is kind of a downer, though more reflective than sad.  Some parts are extremely graphic, which really help the story seem realistic.  If the camera work weren’t so good, I would think this was a documentary.  I suppose this is a testament to Rourke’s acting.  Though, I’m not sure if he deserves the praise because of acting as much as him fitting the role both on and off the camera.  I can’t say either way.  To me, this is a great accomplishment.  The movie is meaningful, but doesn’t go the extra mile to really move the audience, in my opinion.

Rating – 4 /5

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Frost/Nixon

Another contender for Best Actor, in addition to Best Picture.  Frost/Nixon is a very interesting based-on-real-life story about an interview between an Australian TV figure with the recently outed Nixon.  Especially great if you like a politically charged film.  I don’t mean this like a nation-wide politics, but on a personal level: similar to The War Room, which focused mostly on the internal politics of the campaign managers.  Nixon is played very well.  It’s a tough call of whether or not Rourke in The Wrestler is better than Nixon’s portrayal in Frost/Nixon.  The main character of Frost isn’t anything great… he is more of a silent protagonist if anything.  He doesn’t really show you his feelings as much as Nixon does.  And Nixon does get very emotional.  His confession confrontation in the last interview is amazing.

Rating – 4 /5

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Slumdog Millionaire

Danny Boyle delivers again.  Aside from Millions, he’s put out some of my favorite genre movies.  And now…. a Bollywood genre?   Slumdog is unlike any other movie this year.  Aside from it’s emotionally-charged “love destiny” story, it shows some of the beauty and dirt of India.  It opens up some cultural barriers between India and the West, as well as shows us how to make a feel-good ending.  You couldn’t root for the main character enough, and one can feel each tough decision that he makes throughout his tough life.  Monetarily, it is a “rags to riches” story, but emotionally, he has one dream.  It is epic and Slumdog is easily the best film up for nomination at the Oscars.

Rating – 5 /5

I certainly went back and forth in whether or not I wanted to see Son of Rambow. In the end, I trusted some positive reviews and was bored enough to go check it out. Thankfully, I did. This is a great film. Very light-hearted and clever. If you want the bottom line: I didn’t find any flaws in it, at all.

So you follow the boy who appears on the poster to the left. He is the epitome of the term: protagonist. He grows up in a restrictive, religious household void of all electronics, in 1970s England. Rambo has just hit the theaters, and with the help of a trouble-maker become blood-brother, our boy grows a passion for the character Rambo. It is obvious that him and his new friend have a lot of talent, and it’s funny how they resemble a grown-up writer/director duo.

On our story of liberation, many quirky characters come into play, the best of which is a hilarious characterization in a French exchange student. With their help, the production becomes fairly complex, while the tensions arise between our two main characters. The acting of some “emotional” scenes aren’t the best, but you can’t blame them for not being child prodigy actors. I wouldn’t say the film is “cheesy” in any parts, because while there is some silly comedy, that is the goal of this movie. The story is not bad at all, and shouldn’t overlooked either. If you want, you can read into the plot and get some deeper message, but it’s quite subtle. It’s a great movie for all!

Rating: 4 /5