IP Man Review

IP Man is a Semi biographical film following the life of IP man, Bruce lee’s martial arts instructor. It is directed by Wilson Yip and stars Donnie Yen as IP man.

It takes place before and during the Japanese invasion of Southern china in the 1930s. At its base it is a Kung Fu movie and the fight choreography is brilliant, unlike more western fighting films which use quick cuts and shaky cameras director Wilson Yip allows you to see each hit and move as IP man takes on Japanese soldiers and other martial arts practitioners. It is a powerful film that evokes a lot of emotion as the family begins as a rather wealthy and ends up scrabbling for food in a bombed out house under fear of the Japanese. To go along with the superb martial arts it is also a beautifully shot film as the director takes advantage of the beautiful Chinese landscape for a number of establishing shots.

Despite its foreign language I felt incredibly invested in the characters, in no small part to the brilliant acting, Donnie Yen plays a brilliant role. As good if not better than many of the more well-known martial arts actors.

In the end it is a clever film that is well shot and the acting is very good. I enjoyed it immensely so much so I watched the sequel immediately after.

Testament of Youth: Review

Testament of youth is a coming of age story set on the memoirs of Vera Brittain’s First World War experience. This adaptation of the classic book is directed by James Kent and written for screen by Juliette Towhidi.

The story covers a young Vera Brattain as she changes from innocent, if rebellious young girl. To a more grown up and changed character who is more world weary and broken morally inside thanks to the events that transpire within the film. The Character of Vera is played by Alicia Vikander who is well suited for the role, as she has a good knack for displaying a wide variety of emotions without having to speak. The other characters come across with varying degrees of success when it comes to their acting prowess. Another notable performance is that of Kit Harrington, despite not appearing in the film for all that long he delivers a strong a believable performance that complements well with Vera.

In many ways it would be hard for the film to go that horribly wrong, based on its foundations of a strong and much beloved book it would make it difficult to butcher it too bad. Thank fully this adaptation works well, director James Kent Cleverly switches between shots to help you immerse yourself within the story. The director uses a lot of Extreme close ups and over the shoulder shots and relies a lot on the characters, to convey emotion only using their face. Despite the overall proficiency of the actors I felt that some scenes were a little unbelievable, the Director did take a few liberties when it comes to the certain scenes he chose to convey. In a few of them there was very clear “Hero Syndrome” where despite the fact that any other character would have died from that situation one of the main characters would survive it based solely on the fact that they are indeed, one of the main cast.

In conclusion, this adaptation does a proficient job and lives up to the works of Vera Brattain, though in my opinion it didn’t do enough to cement itself as a quality film. It kept my attention for the run time but it was not an experience I would come back too in a heartbeat. I don’t believe I am the target audience for this film but it was well directed, if not risky enough in its aims.

The boy in the striped Pyjamas Review

The boy in the striped Pyjamas is a film by Mark Herman and based off a book of the same name. It follows Bruno a boy growing up in 1940s Germany during the height of the war. Bruno’s father is a high ranking member of the armed forces and is moved to oversee a concentration camp.

The story is told from Bruno’s perspective and it is clear to see that the focus Is that on the child like ignorance of it all as it is made clear that Bruno does not understand that the place that his father runs is a concentration camp. He begins the film referring to it as “The Farm” and often asks his mother to go play at the “Children at the Farm”. The mother also for a large part of the film is unaware that it is in fact a Concentration camp and once she learns of this she would begin to unravel once she learns from a Guard that they are burning the Jewish people inside.

The story is clever in the it’s shooting as once Bruno meets Shmuel he questions him why he is in Pyjamas and tells him that he should come over for tea. Bruno seems to think that it is in fact a holiday camp. Bruno and his sisters get a tutor who pushes a strong agenda of anti-Semitism but this only brings more questions to the confused Bruno who is unsure what to think.

Over all the film is clever, as it does a good job of telling some serious subject matter but present it in a way as a child might understand. It is a powerful film, meant to invoke emotions in the audience. But overall I felt there was too little focus on the Jewish prisoners in the camp and I would have rather they focused more on the plight of the prisoners and less on the breaking of the family as they did not do a good job of it and in the end they expect us to be heartbroken for the characters, but bar the obvious circumstances which help it the character development was not enough for me to care feel all that bad about it.  

Dirty Pretty things review

Dirty Pretty things Review

Dirty Pretty things is a noir thriller directed by Stephen Frears and written by Steven Knight. It has aspects of Social realism and is a hard hitting story of illegal immigrants in London and what they have to go through to survive. The main character Okwe has come to the country from Nigeria for unknown reasons, what we do know is that he has to work multiple jobs to stay afloat. It all starts going wrong once he finds a heart stuffed into a toilet and he uncovers the sinister background of the hotel he works in.

The film is powerful, the main themes being fear and love, the majority of the employees at the hotel are illegal immigrants and this is the true heart of the story as we watch Okwe and Senay constantly forced to escape from immigration officials. Okwe (Played by Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a well-crafted character and well portrayed by Chiwetel. The acting performances across the board are well done with no clear exceptions to this. Each character seems well thought out and real. The film is rather linear in its story telling, and there is little deviation as the goal is made quite clear; Senay wishes to move to America and be with her family and as we learn later on Okwe wants to go back to Nigeria and back to his daughter.

This is only achievable by getting passports and what they do to get this is the main story focus. The main antagonist is not clear; “Sneaky” Is the hotel manager and is the one getting the illegal body parts but the real villain is never shown. The film is relatable to an audience as it shows the everyway struggle for a common man just trying to get by and do the right thing.

Overall I think it is a solid film, the story is fulfilling as each character seemingly gets what they desire, despite the fact that Senay and Okwe are separated they both seem individually happy and having reached their final goal.