Tag: divorce papers

Categories
Features Live Action Movies

The Brothers Kitaura
(Kitaurakyodai)

Director – Masaki Tsujino – 2024 – Japan – 94m

***1/2

A 40-year-old living at home accidentally kills his father, then enlists the help of his brother to dispose of the body – premieres in the Critics’ Picks Competition of the 28th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival

Morning. 40-year-old Sato wakes up, surrounded by bagged-up piles of manga, used food packaging and drink cans. The used food packaging squelches as he stretches into it. He is a slob. Meanwhile, his better-dressed, retired and widowed art teacher father is out teaching watercolour painting to a lady of a similar age to himself. They sit on the bank overlooking a picturesque river scene and seem to be enjoying both the act of painting and each other’s company.

Sato finds the note his father left him, and orders takeaway food to feed himself accordingly. Then, to satisfy more carnal appetites, he also orders a call-girl from Bang Club Tokyo, who arrives as promised in a matter of minutes, sitting for a relaxing smoke (which we see) before servicing her client (which we don’t).

The father isn’t just enjoying his lady student’s company. He appears to be teaching her and her alone for a number of consecutive days, and would like to formalise the relationship into something more.… Read the rest

Categories
Features Live Action Movies

The Road
To The Race Track
(Gyeongmajang
Ganeun Kil,
경마장 가는 길)

Director – Jang Sun-woo – 1991 – South Korea – Cert. 18 – 138m

*****

An academic returns to Korea expecting to hook up with the woman student with whom he lived in Paris, and they meet up, but she now repulses his physical advances – part of a strand of films celebrating actress Kang Soo-Yeon (1966-2022) from LKFF, the London Korean Film Festival which runs in cinemas from Thursday, November 3rd to Thursday, November 17th

As soon as R (Moon Sung-keun) arrives at the airport in Korea, he makes contact with J (Kang Soo-Yeon) and they get a room together, but she confounds his expectations by fending off his attempts at physical sex with her. This wasn’t what he was expecting, since she seemed willing enough when they lived together in Paris. He is desperate to have sex with her, but instead she offers to drive him first to the bus station and then to his home town, where he is reunited with his wife (Kim Bo-yeon), kids and extended family.

Whatever affection he once had for his wife has long since evaporated, and he callously repulses her attempts at intimacy in the bedroom. Brief scenes between the husband and wife punctuate the remaining narrative, the wife becoming increasingly hostile.… Read the rest

Categories
Features Live Action Movies

Everything
Everywhere
All At Once

Director – Daniels (Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert) – 2022 – US – Cert. 15 – 139m

*****

Do you know kung fu? A launderette owner in trouble with the IRS is sucked into serial, parallel worlds to defeat the being who threatens to annihilate the multiverse – available on demand in the UK from Monday, June 13th

You could describe it as a Cubist take on The Matrix. Or a mother-daughter relationship drama. Or a multiverse movie. Or a film about filing taxes with the IRS. Or a (multiple set of) romance(s). Or a Michelle Yeoh action movie. Or a Chinese American movie. Or a film put together unlike any other you’ve ever seen. All these descriptions would be accurate.

Chinese American Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) runs her own business. A launderette (or laundromat in American parlance). She sits at the table in her apartment which is covered with piles of receipts. She is sorting through them in preparation for an upcoming interview with the IRS. She isn’t sure she’s ready.

This pressing issue aside, her life is not without its challenges. Her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan, formerly the kid from Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom, Steven Spielberg, 1983; The Goonies, Richard Donner, 1985) is attempting to file for divorce and wants her to sign the papers.… Read the rest