Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002)

1/5

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is a traumatic, searing film. It is brutal and unsparing. It delivers hit after unfortunate hit, for our story's protagonists and for our own sense of hope and joy. The movie is bleak and dreary, violent and sadistic. It manages to be viscerally intense without being visually graphic. It hits you with ideas and horrors that you wish you will never imagine again. It reminded me of I Stand Alone, but without much to say, kind of like Audition. It is haunting, to be sure, but not in a meaningful way. I abhor violence in movies for violence's sake. It is an assault on my eyes and my mind, so it should serve some function or be overcome by an equal and opposite force. That is not the case with this movie, and so I am left a victim of the film.

I was not particularly impressed with the cinematography. The director is trying too hard to be artistic and has forgotten that movies are supposed to flow. The acting, which for all I know might be categorically stellar in a vacuum, is absolutely ridiculous in the context of the events that take place in this film. I have no real-world comparison by which I can judge their performances. Also, not that I really cared, but there are some pretty gigantic plot holes that are simply not addressed (ones that are crucial to the progression of the story). All in all, I have no idea to whom I might recommend this film. I feel like doing so would make me a masochist.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0310775/

Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011)

3/5

Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a documentary about one of the best sushi chefs in the world. His name is Jiro Ono, and he's been making sushi for almost 80 years. The movie is not about the sushi, although there are enough sumptuous shots of the cuisine to make your mouth water. It is not about the fish market or his rice dealer, although they provide a surprisingly exciting backstory. It is a character study. It is an examination of an 85-year-old man who tasks himself daily with innovating and improving his technique. He comes from a time and place where a man is what he does, where your work is your life. But the movie fails to reach deeper, fails to keep digging into what makes this man who he is, fails to ask why? one more iteration. It is a sketch instead of a portrait. It satisfies itself with showing you a beautiful shot of sushi, instead of attempting to give you the experience of a real one in your mouth. And that is its fatal flaw.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1772925/