Weekly visions - week 46, 2024

Tomie/富江 , written and directed by Ataru Oikawa, based on the manga by Junji Ito, Japan, 1998 - ⭐⭐⭐

Another J-Horror series of films that I didn’t know and discovered because of the Arrow Films website trying to get all of my money. This is another film composed as a series of vignettes that come together as the film progresses; it seems to me this is more common for Japanese films than for Western ones. In general, I like this narrative structure, but sometimes, as is for this film, the dryness of these separate scenes leaves you a long time waiting for something to happen. I think it betrays a bit its manga origin, in the sense that its characters are just very roughly sketched, but it certainly has a couple of weird and memorable - though not too graphical - scenes, and a lead song that is weirdly calming despite the lyrics (If you betray me, I will kill you).

Dark Water/仄暗い水の底から , directed by Hideo Nakata, written by Yoshihiro Nakamura and Kenichi Suzuki, based on the short story Floating Water/浮遊する水 by Kōji Suzuki, Japan, 2002 - ⭐⭐⭐

Another instalment in Hideo Nakata’s ‘Young Ladies vs Water’ Cinematic Universe, this film features an unnervingly unresourceful single mother who rents a flat in an apparently completely empty apartment block, managed by the laziest concierge in the world. No wonder the young daughter of the woman keeps running away, looking for something interesting to do and someone to play with. The experience itself must have been more interesting than this because I rated it three stars: I think I liked the ending and some of the atmosphere. While watching it, I kept thinking I enjoyed the Jennifer Connelly-led US remake more, but then I checked and found out I gave it two stars. I’m very confused by these films and by myself, to be honest.

Deadpool & Wolverine , directed by Shawn Levy, co-written with Ryan Reynolds, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, and Zeb Wells, US, 2024 - ⭐⭐⭐

This film appeared on Disney+, and it was too early to go to bed, so I re-watched it - split in two or three evenings; I would have raised the rating, but of course watching it in three sessions diminishes the effects of overexposure to Reynolds’ humour and plot superficiality, so a reassessment wouldn’t have been formally correct.

All Against All/Vsi proti vsem , written and directed by Andrej Košak, Slovenia, 2019 - ⭐⭐½

This Slovenian political thriller was the theme of this month’s IndieWeb Movie Club, and I’ve written in a separate post how it reminded my of The Godfather Part III and the fact I quite enjoyed it, but it characters keep changing direction.

Evil Dead , directed by Fede Álvarez, co-written by Rodo Sayagues, based of course on Sam Raimi’s original film The Evil Dead, US, 2013 - ⭐⭐⭐½

Another rewatch because of ‘I don’t have time to watch a full film, oh look what’s on Netflix’, merely nine months after my first watching. Back in February, I had not started yet listing my viewings here, but my reaction then was the same as now: a very tense horror, tainted by Álvarez and Sayagues’ usual nastiness towards women and a very stupid male character who recites cursed words right after reading that he absolutely should not read them out loud (I would have never guessed this actor was also the - future - lead in Benson & Moorehead’s Spring).

The Devil’s Backbone/El espinazo del diablo , directed by Guillermo del Toro, co-written with Antonio Trashorras and David Muñoz, Mexico/Spain, 2001 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Early Del Toro, but already quintessential Del Toro, with fewer monsters but the same predilection for a war-torn past, good guys who are good, and bad guys that are really really bad and have no chance of redemption. It grew a lot on me in its last act, when the power dynamics between the characters are upset and there’s (narrow) space for some plot unpredictability.