Movie reviews

The Legend of suryothai (thailand)
The film is about a young princess who goes about sacrificing everything and ultimately herself for the betterment of the country. I am not actually impressed by the character in itself, but I definitely liked the way movie moved. There were no dramatic scenes, no blundering/thundering armies grossly out of proportion from the real tale etc. The no nonsense aproach to the movie probably made it quite nice to watch. About the character of suryothai, not that her life was not an inspiration, but since I am used to seeing over dramatized characters in historical movies that her plain beauty and simple nuances seem to pale when compared to others. But contradicting to what I said just now, I like her probably because of that.

Ran (by Akira Kurasawa)

Before I go to the movie even, I should say this guy is master story teller. Firstly, the movie should not be seen for entertainment. Its genre is totally different. We basically need a no popcorn-no phone call-no friend bickering kind of atmosphere to see this movie. Every scene has depth with a profound thought process behind it. The last scene is really an eye opener where taramaru (who is blind) stands on the edge of a crevice with none to help him. He holds on to a picture of buddha with half belief that it will save him. All his relatives are dead and so also his enemies. The great clans have fallen, their castles burning and the land destroyed. Taramaru is blissfully unawre of all this, hoping that his sister(who was decapitated) would find him soon. Seems like he personifies humanity, blind, with half the faith in things which we think might save us and not yet realizing the potential danger we are in, yet blissfully unaware of everything around us and foolishly hoping for better times to return. I am not a cynical person, but, if the effort does not come from us, we will forever be like taramaru.