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Reviews
Born with It (2015)
Born with It Review
This is a short film depicting the problems that hafu people are facing in Japan. The main character, Keisuke, moves to a new town in country side and changes the elementary school. One of his classmates insists that Keisuke has HIV because he has a black skin.
I realized the problem of education on diseases. In the textbook, the photos of the patients of HIV is mostly black people. Furthermore, there is not enough explanations about HIV at schools. Therefore, children tend to have a wrong idea that HIV can be seen in only black people. Also, they don't understand how HIV is contracted. There are many other films that depicts these problems of HIV education, such as BPM. Those films all insists the necessity of children's deeper understanding of HIV to decrease the infection rate.
I think this short film succeeds in depicting the ongoing problems of not only racial discrimination but also education systems of Japan. It can be the good teaching material for anyone.
The Lunch Date (1989)
The Lunch Date Review
This film is a story about a woman who misses a train and has lunch to kill some time. I think the interesting point of this film is that although there is no clear explanation, we can assume the characteristics of the woman by only watching the first 30 seconds of the film. There are two points which shows the characteristics of the woman in this film.
Firstly, the woman dresses up shiwily, carrying many shopping bags in her hands. We can easily assume that the woman is rich. Secondly, when the woman cannons into a man and he tries to gather the strewn items of the purse, she coldly denies his help and leaves him quickly. She does not believe people easily. She may be a very suspicious person.
Since this film is only ten minutes long, there is not enough time to explain the character's characteristics in detail. This film succeeds in depicting the least information about the main character possible to describe in such limited time.
Spielzeugland (2007)
Toyland Review
This is a short film directed by Jochen Alexander Freydank. First of all, I like this film very much. The story of this film is somewhat similar to The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. There are two boys, one is a Jew and the other is a German. In the morning a Jew boy is taken away for "Toy Land", a German boy is found missing from his room. A mother of the missing German boy tries to find him, and encounters a Jew family.
The opening scene and the last scene both of which two boys playing the piano is wonderful. Piano needs both black keyboards and white keyboards. If one is missing, it cannot be workout. I thought this relationship of black keyboards and white keyboards of piano expresses the relationship of Jew and German.
The lie the Jew mother tells is similar to the lie of Life is Beautiful. It is a white lie. However, it sometimes hurt children.
I think the director is awesome because he expresses really important things about the bonds of people in the age of holocaust in very short length of movie, which is only 13 minutes long. I really want everyone to see this film.
The Crush (2010)
The Crush Review
This is a heartwarming story led by an elementary school boy, Ardal, who crushes on his teacher Ms. Purdy. One day he gives Ms. Purdy a toy ring to show his affection. However, it turns out that Ms. Purdy is engaged to a man. Ardal confronts Ms. Purdy's fiancé by using toy gun.
What makes this film interesting is the acts of the characters toward Ardal. Although Ardal is a very little boy, Ms. Purdy's fiancé fights with him seriously. Also, the conversation between Ms. Purdy and Ardal is completely out of the world.
I like this film very much because the main character is very cute. Also, his facial expression is wonderful. When Ardal knows Ms. Purdy is engaged to a man he looks so sad. When Ardal finds Ms. Purdy's fiancé in the car, his eyes show his strong will not to submit him.
This film succeeds in depicting pure love of one boy and showing the importance of confronting difficulties bravely.
The Mass of Men (2012)
The Mass of Men
I have never seen this kind of surprising story. The main character is a man who is seeking for a job. He is late for his job-seeking appointment by five minutes. A female advisor penalizes him because of his tardiness. When he is about to leave the office, the female advisor is shot by someone using a gun.
The opening scene is filmed by surbeillance camera. We don't know what's going on at this point. However, we can see everyone in the office is in panic an is trying to get away from there when a man comes into the office. After this scene, the film moves on to the main character's job appointment scene. It is an ordinary scene that we can easily see in our daily lives. The interesting point of this film is the contrast between the strange man-with-a-gun scene and the ordinary in-the-office scene. Thus, the film is directed in a matter-of-fact way. The reactions that the characters take when the female advisor is attacked are so realistic. I felt like I am watching a documentary film.