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msmuffintop
Reviews
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
It's perfect
This is my most favorite movie of all time, not just as a Christmas movie. Sure, it has its morality plot points - but if you watch it carefully it is also a primer on economics. Watch what happens to banks before the FDIC was invented, and consider how owning a house effects a family's wealth generationally. In this time period the Martini's would not have been considered white, so apparently George Bailey is building a subdivision that doesn't have deed restrictions! Imagine that. Meanwhile Old Man Potter wants to keep everyone living in his cheap substandard rentals so they won't get "above themselves."
I love this movie in Black & White as originally filmed, but for those who can't bring themselves to watch a B&W movie, Ted Turner made a colorized version in the early 80s. Some of the beautiful shadows are lost, but Violet's hat gets a whole new look. I think everyone should watch this movie, at least once as kid to learn the real meaning of Christmas and at least once as an adult to unpack the economics lesson. For myself, I was lucky enough to see it once in a full size theater during a special. And in the 90s when it fell into the public domain it used to be run on TV every year so we could watch it as a holiday tradition. It never gets old to me.
Beyond Tomorrow (1940)
Worth viewing at least once
A little bit predictable, and as others mentioned - low budget. Yet this is a charming and sweet Christmas movie, I think you should watch at least once while you are drinking eggnog or a Tom & Jerry. (How is it I never heard of this drink before this movie? It sounds delicious!) Especially the early scenes displaying an old fashioned delight over Christmas which is at once less materialistic and plastic than the current day incarnation but also less religious, are very nice. I particularly enjoy Christmas when it's more about good food, good friends and good conversation more than about getting that newest playstation. The dinner party shows everyone being really kind, almost to the point of corny - but after a Year of COVID I was okay with corny and ready to be transported to a simpler time
Omotenashi (2018)
Predictable but sweet
I found this movie to be enjoyable, sweet and although predictable highly entertaining. There were many poignant scenes full of meaning and metaphor, the wind in the trees, fog in the mountains, the direction of the shoes. The three young leads were charismatic. The older characters were also subtle and interesting. "Omotenashi" is Japanese hospitality, an art form that was very visible when I visited Japan in the 70s and 80s. As the movie depicts it's now seen as quaint, old-fashioned, irrelevant. But is it?