Five Senses of Eros (R) 5.0

Five Senses of Eros (2009): Five assorted tales of love in modern Korea. "His Concern": A man and a woman are attracted to each other on the train, but he is nearly tongue-tied. "I'm Here": A wife hides every time her husband comes home, and wonders whether he will still look for her ... (5.5)

Directors: Hyuk Byun, Jin-ho Hur, 3 more credits »
Writers: Hyuk Byun (segment), Jin-ho Hur (segment), 3 more credits »
Stars: Cha Hyeon-jeong, Nan-Hee Kim, Soo-Yeon Cha

When I selected this movie to watch, I didn't realize that it was going to be five short stories. The first one had quite a bit of potential. It was funny, true to the point and engaging. Rest of the stories went downhill from there. Yeah, as five experimental shorts from budding directors, they all had some thing going for them. Then again, getting vampires and eating blood and flesh takes the eroticism right out of the whole experience. Thanks for that; not what I expected from the title and genre this was listed under.  My Rating: 5.0

Ikiru (NR) 7.5

Ikiru (1952) : Kanji Watanabe is a longtime bureaucrat in a city office who, along with the rest of the office, spends his entire working life doing nothing. He learns he is dying of cancer and wants to find some meaning in his life. He finds himself unable to talk with his family, and spends a night on the town with a novelist, but that leaves him unfulfilled. (8.4)

Director: Akira Kurosawa
Writers: Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto
Stars: Takashi Shimura, Nobuo Kaneko, Shin'ichi Himori

Another thinking man's movie from the famed directory Kurosawa. Like Rashomon, a simple question turns a man's life upside down and challenges his entire belief system. The story is intriguing, but it is the way of portrayal on the screen that grabs the attention. (It also takes some getting used to the Japanese social mannerisms, but bureaucracy is the same everywhere.) More than the dialog, the pictures and composition tell the story. My Rating: 7.5

Her (R) 8.0

Her (2013)  A lonely writer develops an unlikely relationship with his newly purchased operating system that's designed to meet his every need. (8.1)

Director: Spike Jonze
Writer: Spike Jonze
Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Scarlett Johansson

I was surprised to see that they had picked Scarlett Johansson for a voice-only role but it worked perfectly. This is a story without too much action so the dialog is a major part of the acting. Even the role played by Joaquin Phoenix has to do a lot of talking. What starts out as a Sci-Fi fantasy turns into a romantic relationship story pretty quickly and we learn to adapt pretty quickly; and that's the power of both the acting and the screenplay. I very much enjoyed all aspects of this movie, including the story, the acting, the directing, etc. My Rating: 8.0

About Time (R) 6.5

About Time (2013) : At the age of 21, Tim discovers he can travel in time and change what happens and has happened in his own life. His decision to make his world a better place by getting a girlfriend turns out not to be as easy as you might think. (7.8)

Director: Richard Curtis
Writer: Richard Curtis
Stars: Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, Bill Nighy

As a romantic comedy, this movie is pretty good. As a time travel sci-fi, the plot leaves a lot to be desired. Yeah, sure using the trick of time travel to land a chic is all fun and good, but you gotta be true to your own premises and time travel rules and besides; and, use it for something more valuable than to fix your awkward social mistakes. As a movie, it is nice. The leads do justice to the characters and play them perfectly. I guess, I expected a bit more from the time travel aspects than "fix what I just said by mistake." Yes, I expect movies to be mostly a storytelling medium and so I put more value on the story than the acting and camera work. My Rating: 6.5

Synecdoche, New York (R) 5.5

Synecdoche, New York (2008) : A theatre director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he creates a life-size replica of New York City inside a warehouse as part of his new play. (7.4)

Director: Charlie Kaufman
Writer: Charlie Kaufman
Stars: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams

This is a movie that some people, including some high society critics, will love for being obscure and weird. But for me, if I want to see shit, literally, I'd just look in the toilet bowl myself; I just don't want to see it on the movie screen, thank you very much. Longer you watch it, weirder or sillier it gets ... no, I mean, dumber it gets. Had it been a weird, silly, funny movie, I would have liked it. Instead it is weird and gross and irrelevant. If you want a different perspective of this movie, this review from The Guardian might help. I just want my two hours back. My Rating: 5.5

The Machine (R) 6.5

The Machine (2013) : Two artificial intelligence engineers come together as they work to create the first ever self-aware artificial intelligence. A veteran AI engineer secretly hopes to develop technology to help his diseased daughter. (6.1)

Director: Caradog W. James
Writer: Caradog W. James
Stars: Caity Lotz, Toby Stephens, Sam Hazeldine

Good cinematography and special effects. The central question of the story is how you can prove a robot is alive and intelligent. It asks the question the other way around, how do you prove the humans are what they claim to be. I'd seen this asked in Clarke's sci-fi stories a long time ago, so for me, this isn't a new way of looking at the question. Yes, the story has a nice seed inside, but the writer-director should have gone with that theme more than the usual military vs scientific theme in all these type of stories. So, in that sense we have the all too predictable evil military man, the scientist with a personal reason to continue the project, etc. The first half of the movie crawls along so there was more space in it for an expanded story. My Rating: 6.5