Q1 2024 Film and Video Review Roundup

Sansho the Bailiff

As this smooth yet simple story drew to a close, I fell into a brief reverie. I think about what human duty is, and about what, within a life of suffering, one must ultimately hold on to.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Audrey Hepburn plays the guitar and sings “Moon River.” There is only one scene where the guitar appears, only one scene where she plays it. Yet the guitar stays with her until the very end. Was it impossible to throw away because she had left it on the front seat of the taxi, just out of reach? I thought about the anchors of a life.

Late Spring

After watching this famous film, only a handful of scenes come to mind. A man and woman riding bicycles. The subtle expression on the father’s face as he says he will remarry. The scene where she buries her head, unable to finish peeling the apple. As if I had lived their lives myself, the scenes from the film were etched into my mind like my own memories.

The Rules of the Game (1939)

This film, which somehow manages to weave together a chaotic plot, is remarkably modern.

North by Northwest

Eyes meet, hands clasp, and I pull you toward me. It is the beginning and end of all emotion. For this, what did you sacrifice, and what will I cast aside? A film with an exquisite ending. One thing is certain: if you’re good-looking, every problem resolves itself smoothly.

Sabrina

Now there’s something I want to try too. Let’s take a boat and go to Paris.

Vertigo

Several times a day I think to myself: if only I had one more chance! But chances like that are granted as rarely as the wish is desperate. So what if I were given one more chance? What is done is done. I can only hope I have the courage to let go of my regrets.

The Seven Year Itch

A film I watched on Cho Kang-hyun’s recommendation. He says Marilyn Monroe is incredibly adorable. Sure enough, there were the iconic Hollywood scenes, such as the one where she clutches her skirt over a subway grate. But I didn’t find Marilyn Monroe particularly appealing. I like pretty women, but I don’t like ditziness, and on screen there are nothing but pretty women everywhere you look. Even so, it is worth pondering why her charm continues to be talked about even fifty years after her death. The dissonance of an actor living in the real world playing someone other than themselves; the nature of film as a medium that, through a single shot and edit, freezes someone forever; Hollywood’s powerful influence and its popular image, and so on. Laying it all out like this only sounds clichéd, but my conclusion is this. People who pride themselves on being smart, who have in fact only soaked up a lot of book-learning without being truly outstanding, look down on those who seem foolish in order to confirm their own relative superiority. They never realize that all of this is merely a game played in the palm of those who are performing stupidity. Just like the psychiatrist in this film, who rattles off interesting stories but is in fact interested only in money and makes no effort to hide it, yet whom the protagonist doesn’t doubt in the slightest.

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Boys’ Time

Wuxia is a story of carrying out chivalry through martial arts. Because it is carried out through martial arts, it is simple and clear. Because it carries out chivalry, it is moving. The drama Boys’ Time stays faithful to these basics of wuxia. Yet it is not formulaic. That is because there is much empty space between martial arts and chivalry. Love and family, era and philosophy, courage and sacrifice. Everything else that makes the human heart tremble is enough to fill that gap. Following the rise and fall of the characters, and their dramatic soaring, I think once more about chivalry.

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Fight Club

When the protagonist spouts some trivial nonsense, his followers say, “It absolutely must be done.” And then they pick up a knife to cut off his balls…

A man’s worth is not determined by the two balls he’s had since birth. It is decided by the convictions he has upheld his whole life. If you die without a single fight, without a single scar, how can you call yourself a man?

This is an age in which a man’s way of life is held in contempt. It is an age in which all the values that made a man a man have become objects of ridicule and emblems of barbarism. But in an age where the mainstream are people who don’t even think of fighting to defend their convictions, the current outcome is only natural. I wish for the destruction of the weak.

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John Wick

A B-grade movie made by gathering A-grade actors to shoot A-grade action.

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Node.js

A chance idea gave birth to Node.js. The motive was nothing grand. At the very least, it wasn’t money. It started simply with the thought, “Hey, this is pretty good.” And many developers flocked to it. Biting, chewing, tearing, tasting, and enjoying it, they grew the project. Node.js was a huge success. A successful project becomes money. And so there were attempts to claim control over the project. But in the developers’ eyes, this was something intolerable. And they thought: it’s open source anyway, so why not just swap out the signboard? The dispute soon came to an end. Open source is freedom, and freedom does not submit. As long as there is lively activity from voluntary contributors, that is enough.

Looking back, the past decade was the age of open source. Now, if the age of AI is coming, will open source projects be enough? Most open source projects are built on the voluntary contributions of developers. Of course, developers are human too, and they aren’t the sort who recklessly enjoy giving away free labor. And AI costs a lot of money. Whether the dominance of big corporations will run rampant once again, or whether another world will unfold, I am terribly curious.

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Dune: Part Two

Some emotions seem to be inscribed in humanity’s genes. The mystery of the desert is precisely one of them. It felt as if, upon entering the vast desert, I might come to some realization. I too dreamed such a dream while watching the film Lawrence of Arabia and reading the novel The Alchemist. And after more than a decade, what I saw in the desert I finally visited was an unexpected sight. In the desert, the Israeli army was conducting training exercises.

If Dune: Part One focused on showing the beauty of the desert, Dune: Part Two focuses on human madness. Before great madness, nature simply shrinks. So does the desert, so does the sandstorm, and so even does the sandworm. In the scene where the army of fanatics riding sandworms breaks through both sandstorm and concrete wall, I even feel a sense of déjà vu about the current Israeli-Palestinian war. Going further, is it too much of a stretch to find traces of Muhammad in Muad’Dib? If the message of this film is that even after ten thousand years the madness inscribed in humanity’s genes will not change, that is truly a sad thing.

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The Silence of the Lambs

The lamb is me, and the silence is helplessness. Helpless as I am, I hear someone’s scream and do not know what to do. To overcome this, one must borrow the power of madness, even if it is a terror like no other in this world.

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Film of Q1 2024

By the overwhelming force of personal taste, Fight Club