The girl who leapth through time / Toki o kakeru shôjo (Japan, 2006)

A film that starts maybe a little bit childish and simple about a girl who discovers she can leap through time. She discovers the ways to use this newly obtained ability. For getting higher grades in school, helping friends with their love life and so on. But the second part of this movie is completely different and it becomes a very interesting anime. The main character suddenly realizes leaping through time has its limits and not all is positive….

Well in a way it reminded me of the series Haibane Renmei, which also starts very childish and becomes one of the deepest and most clever anime ever. The girl who leapt through time has maybe not this big emotional impact as HR but it surely gives a good image of consequences when changing the flow of time and the sadness of making not the right decisions. The animation stylesometimes seems to be a bit old fashioned but sometimes it is absolutely awesome as well which is a perfect combination for this film. The music, often classical piano music, is great. The casting of the character’s voices is done good as well.

Interesting, clever and a very emotional film!

Kung Fu Panda (USA, 2008)

Kung Fu Panda is a brilliant animation film by Pixar! The opening scene is really well done, they use a kind of different style which is typical for Asian cartoon (or games like 'Okami'). The story is not only hilarious but the backgrounds are really beautiful and they also paid attention to Chinese culture and legends. I could even be describes a s a wuxia movie. Yeah, the story is very simple, very predictable but that does no ttake anything away of the amusement of this movie.
Jack Black is magnificent as ‘Po’ the panda, with his very unique humour. The music in the movie is excellent as well, some mix of Chinese folk and modern music.

Visually, it is just stunning. So beautiful scenes of the mountains, water and bridges. And there are some slow motion scenes as well, where you can see some great expression on the face of ‘Po’! If you don’t have to laugh (or ay least smile) at that time, I have to say you are a pretty cold/too realistic person.
The fighting scenes are awesomely done as well, which don’t last too long and enough diversity to keep them interesting. Some of the voices are done by Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, Ian McShane and Dustin Hoffman.

Most of all, it is a film just to enjoy…. and Dreamworks understood this well. Maybe there best yet!! Hilarious, entertaining, exciting, beautiful and even some great Chinese wisdom!

The Dark Half (USA, 1993)

The 1993 film ‘the dark half’ is one of so many adaptations from Stephen King’s novels. At the same time, it is one of those rather bad adaptations (like many more in the 90's). The story is okay, maybe not a truly horrifying horror, but the acting no good. It is typical, those B-actors overact all the time and don’t get any atmosphere into this film.
The story is about a writer who quits with a series of books, but the main character (a violent alcoholic guy) in this book doesn’t want him to stop and seems to make his entrance in the real world. He wants the writer to write again…..

Just read the book!

Hadersfild (Serbia, 2007)

Hadersfild is a story about friendship. One guy, who has left Serbia for eleven years and worked in England(Huddersfield – Hadersfild), comes back and visits his friend. We are introduced to some very special personalities, all fighting with their own mental demons. It is about the struggle with yourself.

What you should know is that it is a film about the 90’s of the past century. A decade where a complete nation (Yugoslavia) was torn apart, not by foreign people but by its own inhabitants. That is what makes this war leaving so many scars behind for people in those regions. Though the film doesn’t tell about the war, it is clear that the characters never will be the persons anymore they were before. After it started, everything changed and even 11 years later most people still are confused and mentally and physically struggling.

Decent film, but for those who don’t know much about the Yugoslavian war it can be a bit hard to understand the emotion of it. That was also the problem for me, it could not convince all the time.