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Reviews
Ai no shinsekai (1994)
Wonderfully photographed
This is the story of two young girls who are working as call girls. The main person, Rei (Sawa Suzuki), is an S and M Mistress who likes to play with her slaves. The other girl is the more reserved Ayumi (Reiko Kataoka), who is a prostitute, pretending to be under age. They both have a normal life too, Rei is an actress struggling for success and Ayumi has a relation with a student. There's not much story to tell about, but it is all beautifully photographed. It also offers an insight in the world of Sado Masochism. Throughout the film there are some moments in which pictures are shown of Suzuki, they were made by the famous photographer Araki. The purpose of those pictures is unknown to me. This movie offers an interesting insight into the Japanese society. Ordinary men, working in large offices, enterprises and also the Japanese Mafia (Yakuza), try to get rid of the stress by letting themselves be whipped by the beautiful Rei.
There is a lot of nudity in this film, but it never gets obscene. The actors perform very good. When I watched the film I was amazed by the cheerfulness with which the two call-girls do what they do.
Finally the movie didn't show the traditional Japan as I knew it, it showed a modern country with people who could have lived anywhere in the Western world.
I would give this movie 8 out of 10.
The Matrix (1999)
Fantastic movie!
I saw this movie twice, and probably am going to see it once again. This is a superb film which combines action with science fiction and adds some philosophical questions too. I read some comments which say that the story is crap, but that isn't the point. The point is that it makes you think! The Matrix is just a story of an interpretation of reality and we all do that once in a while. We all sometimes question what is real and what is not. The Matrix is an enormously rich movie, that's why you should see it more than once.
The first time you can sit back and just enjoy what you are seeing, and you will see much. During the first part of the movie not just Neo is introduced into 'another' world, but we as viewers are too. And it just takes you away. Only super objective people can say that they are not 'sucked' into the movie. You won't be bored, I can guarantee you. The visual aspects are astonishing, the action scenes are perfect and don't forget the soundtrack! First of all it's a super action movie.
The second time, when you know what is going to happen, you can think about what you see. The story has pretension, it's about rethinking all that is familiar. Is the world what it seems to be? The symbolism within the movie is also overwhelming: it's Plato's cave mixed with the story of Jesus Christ. Sometimes you will see flaws in the storyline (especially in the end, when I started thinking we were in an adaptation of Snowwhite), but that doesn't matter, because after the movie has ended, it's just fun thinking (and talking) further about it. Imagine the moral implications of it all: especially the Cypher-character is interesting. What would we do in his situation? In general: Who is good and who is bad in the movie? Is that distinction possible?
I can really recommend this movie to all moviegoers, I'd rate it 9 out of 10. (By the way: Laurence Fishburne is magnificent)