Gadjo Dilo / The crazy stranger (Romania, 1997)

Gadjo Dilo is about a French man who is looking for the singer he hears on a cassette. To find her, he is getting in touch with the Gypsies, the Roma. To be honest, this movie isn’t about a brilliant storyline. This movie is about looking for the music of the soul.
It is a rather good movie, it makes you feel happy most of the time. Everything is a bit too much overdone, like movies often do when they are about the gypsies, but this gives it a good joyful vibe.

I did not think it is a masterpiece but the music in it is just great. It really shows how important music can be for people’s emotions. The clothing is really beautiful as well, for what the gypsies also are known for.
The acting is ok, it isn’t the best of this movie, but once again it is not about a story or the acting really. A movie that shows the purity of music

When father was away on business / Otac na sluzbenom putu (Yugoslavia, 1985)

When father was away on business, by director Emir Kusturica, is a movie that shows a glimpse of the period in Yugoslavia I barely knew. When Tito broke up with Stalin in 1948 some dangerous years were coming for the Yugoslavic communists. For a simple joke, Mesa made about a cartoon In a newspaper, Mesa is being send to prison by his own brother in law.
This movie is about history, politics and the life of a family in Sarajevo during these changing days. It is sometimes very funny, and also sometimes very moving.
The acting is really outstanding. I love the way Mirjana Karanovic (Grbavica) gives depth to her character in the most natural way, just acting great.
Kusturica made a film which blended history and a glimmer of hope beautiful together. The music is really good as well, the typical emotional Balkan songs which live on tears.
In my opinion this movie is a little masterpiece, I enjoyed every minute of it!
In this film we see Muslim, Christian an Jewish people living peacefully together. How did it all change some years later……

The edge of love (Great-Brittain, 2008)

The edge of love stars Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller, Jonathan Rhys and Cillian Murphy. Though the temptation is huge to compare it with Atonement, I won’t even start it (also because I will think millions will do it already) because Atonement is of Hors Categorie.

So what is ‘the edge of love’? It is a story about the brilliant poet Dylan Thomas and the destructive influence de has on two woman (played by Knightley and Miller). Rhys is married to Sienna in this movie, but he shares a childhood love with Keira who is still in love with him but marries soldier Cillian. The story evolves around these characters and their emotions.
The story didn’t really enchant me. Though in the first part of the movie there are some great scenes, dark sensual with poetical texts, and even some fighting scenes in Greece, you never really know what the movie wants to tell you. Of course it is about the relationship of the two women who are bond to this man but it just could not really convince me. The second part of the movie takes place in Wales, where it focuses on the downwards spiral of the character’s lives. Towards the end of this film the mood really gets dark as the deepest night.
The acting is often good, to be expected, but sometimes the interaction between the actors is a bit lacking in quality (the friendship between Knightley and Miller never gets really believable). Cillian Murphy (wind that shakes the barley) did rather great as a traumatized soldier and shows once more he is a fantastic actor!

I liked this movie because I like the poetical dialogues and some beautiful and heartbraking scenes but I just expected a little bit more of it.

Memento Mori (Wispering corridors 2 or Yeogo goedam 2) - (South-Korea, 1999)

Memento mori, by directors Tae-yong Kim and Kyu-dong Min, is often categorized as a horror movie, but in my opinion it isn’t at all. It is a story about the relationship between two girls who are being disliked by the other students, Hyo-Shin (yeh-jin Park) and Shi-Eun (Young-jin Lee), in a school for girls. Their feelings towards each other are much more than friendship and together they keep track of a diary.
This diary has been found by Min-Ah (Min-sun Kim) and she is started to get interesting in this weird, almost baroque like, book of feelings. It seems all happy in the beginning but rather soon a sad feeling approached her. And than everything changes, Hyo-Shin kills herself by jumping of the roof. Why did this happen? Soon Min-Ah feels a cold hand on her body and a girl who is whispering ‘memento mori’ (remember to die) in her ears.
This film can be seen as society related. Who has great achievements in school and thinks like the rest (of the society) will be successful in their future career. To be different means to walk another path with less support of society.
Like most Asian mysterious movies, this one has a complex storyline as well with many flashbacks and will leave you with unsolved puzzles. The feeling is a bit sad, even the loving emotion between the two girls has something strange, almost morbid.
The camerawork is just great, an interesting innovating style which consist of a mix between unsteady shaking scenes and beautiful quiet scenes of a girl just standing on a roof. Just like the camerawork, the musical score is also impressive. Beautiful churchlike music with a rather interesting Kyrie Eleison.

An Oriental black magic / Gong Tau (Hongkong, 2007)

It has been a while since I watched a voodoo-like movie with needles and voodoo dolls (Gong Tau). But A Oriental black magic is taking me back to this kind of horror.
After watching it for about ten minutes I already thought it would be a bit over the top. The camera work is a little irritating I have to say. Much ‘scare’ effects in sound and camera work as well as the overacting of some characters give it the feeling for a B movie. The score isn’t really interesting but typical for this kind of movie. Besides of this, I continued watching it andjust enjoyed the ride.
The story is rather interesting (without being really scary) with the following theme: ‘what is worse than pain? It is to never know what pain is again’. A woman is cursed with Gong Tau and the story is about the why, what and how of her tragic fate.
It truly can be called a horror because it is really filled with gore. When you like corpses stuffed with really disgusting insects and/or animals, this is your film!
This one can please some people but it is not my liking of a movie should be presented and I just

think it is rather bad.

Still, maybe it is not the best horror film, there are some admirable scenes to watch for having a good laugh. In fact Gong Tau takes you back to the Hongkong black magic films of the 70's and 80's. Ifyou are into these kind of films (dark, sometimes a bit sensual horror), just watch it!

1 Litre of tears / Ichi ritoru no namida (Japan, 2005)

‘One of the most sad series ever made.’ When you search the internet for 1 litre of tears, this is a sentence you will possibly see for many many times. It is easy to call a serie ‘sad’, but is it really true?
Well to be short: yeah it really is, but I don’t really know if it will be the most sad series ever. Maybe the Korean ’Snow Queen’ got me even more emotionally moved.

The first episode of 1 litre of tears not yet captured me completely. I am used to watching Korean series and differences with Japanese series are very big. In the beginning I did not like the acting very much, the camera work did not convince me either. But, after I watched 2 episodes I got used to it and became more attracted to this series.

The story is a bout a girl who has an incurable degenerative disease. It starts when she is 15 years old and will only get worse. At first she will just fall down sometimes but slowly also gets problems walking, speaking and swallowing food. The brilliant thing about this series is that it focuses on the problems in this girl’s life. Like problems with going to school, different situation in the family, not being able to fulfill your dreams and knowing that your condition only will get more serious.
The story focuses on this girl ‘Aya’ but also on her friends and her brother, sisters and her parents. When I watched it, I felt the pain a bit as well.. the pain of feeling bothersome to others, the pain of not being able to help others.
The acting of the main actress Erika Sawajiri is really fantastic! The music also adds some depth to this production, it is well done. The fact that it is based on the diary of a girl who suffered this decease makes it even more realistic.

A series that will have a huge emotional impact but also makes you appreciate life more.

Sunflower / Haebaragi (South-Korea, 2006)

Sunflower is a Korean film about revenge. This genre seems to be pretty popular in Korea, according to the releases of movies like the revenge trilogy by Park Chan Wook and A bittersweet life. It is also a gangster movie and not the only one in 2006, also ‘A dirty carnival’ has been released.

Sunflower is not focused on its action though, it is more about feelings. It is dealing about a guy who wants to start a new life after coming out of jail but again gets in touch with the world of organized crime. So far, so good but the story doesn’t sound very innovating. Well maybe the story isn’t but the movie is really different from other ‘crime’ films.
The pace is really slow and won’t be too attracting for western audiences. This is also a Korean phenomenon, a rather calm story which often ends in the worst possible tragedy or most bloody massacre.
The scene were a girl is being hit on her head with a stone, by a guy on a motor who is driving by, is really horrific. And yes, it ends in a big fight, but in fact this is a pretty stylish fight. Especially good for those who love Korean revenge movies.

P / The Posessed (Thailand, 2005)

P is a Thai movie by director Paul Spurrier. The first scenes are rather interesting, images are shown of a young Thai girl in a tiny village. she is being disliked by other kids because she is the granddaughter of a witch. When her grandmom gots ill she needs to look for a job in Bangkok to pay for the medicine. What follows is her life in a bar and she gets caught up in the sex industry. The film is a bit dark and sensual and often it is said it is a bit like a Thai 'Showgirls'.

Though the acting was already not very good, after this point the film becomes so very very bad it is just not watchable anymore. The girls turns into a flesh eating demon at night.

It doesn't make any sense and it is just so tragically bad I don't really understand some people like this one. Maybe they only have seen the first 45 minutes. Or you want to have a good laugh, it is watchable at such a moment.

Thai horrors are pretty popular but sometimes they just are lacking every kind of innovation.

Day Watch / Dnevnoy dozor (Russia, 2006)

Day watch (Dnevnoy Dozor) by director Timur Bekmambetov is a Russian action/horror movie dealing about good and evil, about the day watch and the night watch.
If you haven’t seen night watch before you should leave this one unpacked for a while. This is because of the simple fact that you won’t understand anything of this film when you start with day watch. Night watch was very confusing and it complexity was brilliant but for the western audience it was too weird and difficult to understand it to its best.
Night watch continues the story where it was left. Maybe this film is a bit easier to understand, but don’t expect a simple storyline.
Most of all it is a great action movie, Hollywood could learn something from these scenes. I won’t say anything of the storyline cause I simply don’t know where to start. The fantastic and hypnotic music adds some dark mood as well. I can’t really describe it well but this movie breathes a ‘Russian’ feeling, in almost any scene. Westerns (like me) will probably miss some wordplay about Russian life and politics but that is fine, cause it will satisfy you enough!

A very interesting movie about good and evil, now we have to wait for twilight watch.

Lions for Lambs (USA, 2007)

Lion for lambs by director Robert Redford is a very interesting film about the war in Afghanistan, or in fact it is about the propaganda and what the USA government wants us to believe about their fight against terrorism.
The story comes close to your own life, for many Americans it even came to close. That these kind of anti-war movies (just like In the valley of Elah and Battle for Haditha) don’t bring in a big American audience it due to this fact. It is not because this film in not good or skilful made. On the contrary it is a very very intense film. But why were films like Apocalypse Now such a huge success and Lions for Lambs not. It can be explained rather easily I guess. Apocalyps Now was made when the war in Vietnam already ended, while the war in Afghanistan is still going on. But I understand, to watch a film about your own government, your own fight against terrorism is pretty hard when everything happened seems to be a wrong judgment of the situation.
With actors like Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, the Hollywood cast is enormous but also differs much. Robert Redford did a good job, cause Tom Cruise is perfectly presented like the Senator (not necessarily good or evil), Robert Redford as the teacher and Meryl Streep is the journalist who wants to dig deeper. We also follow two soldiers who are left in the snowy mountains of Afghanistan which adds a bit of drama to the story.

It will leave you with this question: did we do the right thing?

Let the games Beijing!!!

After a long long time of waiting we are coming close to the moment when it all starts! The start of the Olympics at Beijing isn't far away anymore!

The world seems to holds it breath while the opening ceremony is coming close, maybe when it has finished some noises can be heard again of human breathing. For now, the excitement seems to grab hold of my heart and still I have to wait for two more days.




I guess we will see the olympics of a very high architectural standard, some of the venues are really amazing, like the bird-nest. Last night I saw a documentary about already legendary badminton-player Zhang Ning. In fact this is what makes it really special, the story behind the athletes.

Our prince (heir to the thrown) and also IOC-member Prince Willem-Alexander said something interesting today. He said it would be better that with the next Olympics the olympic flame won't travel the world anymore before it arrives in its host city. 'The reality is that this beautiful symbol of hope has become a target of protest'. He also said that during the olympics, the sport is always more important than politics.


In my opinion our Prince is totally right, we shouldn't let the image of sport gets hurt because of some weird fanatic people who confuse politics with sport. After all, it is the biggest sport event in the world, athletes train and wait for four years for this moment. What kind of ungrateful people are going to take their pride away? There were also thoughts of boycotting the Olympics... people totally seem to have lost their way sometimes. It is a moment to unite all the countries, all these athletes and the most beautiful culture in the world.






Two days, just two days and than it all starts. Records will be broken, miracles will happen and many tears will flow. The only bad thing..... I won't be able to sleep too much.


Good luck The Netherlands!!! Good luck China!

Madeleine (South-Korea, 2003)

Madeleine, directed by Kwang-chun Park, is a film that won’t leave a very big impression but it tells a simple love story in its own way. In my opinion, many things could be better in this film. In the beginning I was very worried about the acting of the two main characters, later one I thought the film was trying to find its way in becoming a drama but didn’t really touched me.

Though it has its flaws, it can be very enjoyable as well. Like I said, it is a rather simple love story, very uncomplicated and very predictable. Still, it is no terrible film. I really liked it, maybe it is because some scenes really are beautiful and humorous, maybe it is because some scenes do contain emotion, maybe not at its fullest but that is what it makes a rather good film. Nothing too much, it’s all about showing the love between a boy and a girl and that it isn’t always easy, but sad things can be overcome.

I liked the acting of Min-a Shin ( a bittersweet life) pretty much, her smile really has something wonderful.

Battle of Wits / Muk Gong (China, 2006)

Battle of Wits, by director Chi Leung 'Jacob' Cheung, is a movie that deals about war. The tactics of war that are being used to deceive your opponent. But it is also a movie about betrayal and the cruelty of leaders/kings.

The first part of the movie shows the siege of a town. The defence has been taken care of a mysterious warrior, Ge Li, who has great knowledge about war. Though he manages to keep the city safe, the king doesn’t trust him anymore. He thinks he is wanting to take all the power to himself. This brings us to the second part of this film. Now the attackers strike again and without Ge Li the city is easily captured. But.....will Ge Li have another way to save the people and king who betrayed him. What is victory?

It really is an interesting film about the elements of the tactics of war. It has its weak moments as well, sometimes the director don’t seem to control the tension of the story very well. The music is sometimes brilliant and sometimes it is just gone (not completely of course, but not very strong), gone during a battle scene were some music really could help to make it more exciting. But, it really is a fascinating view on war and it is even very philosophical about honour.

The action is pretty good, the clothing is nicely done and the acting is pretty good as well. The main character is played by Chinese superstar Andy Lau. for the ones who like a movie about the tactics of war it is a great one, in fact everybody who is interested in watching a movie with a different view on war it is a must see. For those who do not know, it is based on the popular manga ‘bokkou’.

Samaritan Girl / Samaria (South-Korea, 2004)

Samaritan girl is directed by the famous Korean director ‘Kim Ki-Duk’.

Two schoolgirls want to travel to Europe but need money for the airplane tickets. They find the solution in prostitution. In the beginning it seems to be fun but it the mood effectively changes when one of the girls kills herself by jumping out of a window when the police enter the room. The other girl takes over the clients and offers them for once her body along with the money they first got from the people. She wants to buy of the sorrow in fact.
Her dad, a police officer, begins to suspect something and chases the clients of his daughter down.

First of all, this isn’t an easy movie. Like no other director, Kim Ki-Duk can create a suffocating atmosphere. The entire time watching this movie you will feel uneasy, don’t really know how to react. It’s a film that most of all deals about changes in personality after the experience of some tragic event.
The movie can be split in two segments. In the first we see the events that unfold and how their life is before. The second part shows what happens after this horrible event happened. Frustration and the feeling of not being capable of doing something about it will give a nasty feeling in your stomach.

Though this film is maybe not as violent like some other work of Kim Ki-Duk, don’t underestimate it. Some scenes contain very explicit violence and the entire story has a devastating impact. Also, it is a Kim Ki-Duk movie, so a very slow pace of the story and not too many talking are included.

In my opinion it’s is a beautiful but bitter story about the relationship between a father and daughter. In intriguing film made by a brilliant director.

Hana-Bi (Japan, 1997)

Hana-bi by Takeshi Kitano is a tale about love, pain and violence.
While quiet and violent police officer Nishi is going to see his wife in a hospital, she is seriously ill, his partner gets shot. Nishi is slowly being consumed by guilt. At the same time he has some money borrowed by the Yakuza and they seem to want the money back. Nishi decides to rob a bank and split the money between his partner, who ended up in a wheelchair, his debts at the Yakuza and he takes his wife on one last trip, to make her happy for one last time.

It’s typical Kitano-style! Few words, the beautiful stills and with amazing works of art I have to say, like those brilliant paintings with an animal with has a sunflower head! Also the tender line between the love for his wife and the hard violent scenes make it a very intriguing film to watch. Takeshi Kitano doesn’t chose a very narrative way of telling it’s story but let the scenes tell the story. Like many other times, he himself Takeshi ‘beat’ Kitano acts really intelligent. He doesn’t speak much but has a good expression on it’s face. It’s also a very emotional movie, in fact is has everything that makes a film great, it is kind of poetry!

A interesting movie with a perfect balance between love and violence. In one word: Masterpiece!