I was sent Volumes 3 and 4 of MirrorLiar shorts and asked to write up a few of the shorts. The plan was to watch the shorts around my coverage of Toronto, SanSebastian and the New York Film Festival. I was going to just watch a film when I had a minute and then move on to the festival coverage and then come back to the shorts.
That didn't happen. I started with THE MAN FOR, about a man and woman walking on a road and pondering their relationship, and ended up going through the nine films in the first collection. My attitude was, "well that was good let me watch another.' I was going to go until I go to a bad one.
I didn't.
MAN FOR gave way to GOOD NEWS which gave way to ENGANGERED SPECIES (which is about humans in a world of monsters) Which gave way to.... everything to the funeral set I THINK I'LL STAY THERE.
I would have kept going but It was late and I had to get one more movie in before I went to bed. I would keep going the next day.
Again my plan was to stop when I hit a clunker. I didn't. While some films were better than others, they were all good. I enjyed the hell out of everything from TOKYO MORATORIUM to THE NOTES. And I wanted to keep going but I had run out of films.
My problem in writing is that all the films in the collections are good enough that I don't want to spotlight just a film or two or three. The truth is that all 18 films are really good. Certainly some of them are better than other, but all of them are worth your time. How do I pick one or three films in these collections when that means I'm influencing your choices. It also means I'm not talking about some of the other titles.
All the films are worth your time.
And that is a rave.
No it is. The reason for it is that short collections are almost always up and down. There is always a stinker or two. There are no real stinkers here. They are all good or better. This never almost never happens.
Trust me, I dozens if not hundreds of shorts every year so I wade through a lot of weak films, here I didn't.
I would love to say if you want to see some shorts seer these collections, but the truth is that if you just want to see some great films see these two collections.
Recommended.
Streaming on SAKKA as limited streaming event worldwide (excluding Japan)
Schedule: September 14 pre-sales open, October 2-24 streaming event
If you want to get more information or to buy a pass to watch the films go here.
Vol. 3
The Man For - dir. Takayuki Yamada
Good News, - dir. Daichi Watanabe
Endangered Species - dir. Hirotaka Nozaki
Mom in the Mirror - dir. Toshio Lee
INTELLIGENTIA - dir. Ken Shinozaki
Family Parting - dir. Tetsuji Muraoka
Saune - dir. Daigo Matsui
Our Own Bond, Anko! - dir. Aya Igashi
I Think I'll Stay There - dir. Takayuki Hayashi
Vol. 4
Tokyo Moratorium - dir. Michihito Fujii
Bye. - dir. Murotsuyoshi
Before / After - dir. GAZEBO
COMPLY+-ANCE - dir. Takumi Saitoh
When You Wish Upon A Star - dir. Yuki Makabe
About a Man - dir. Asami Mizukawa
Good night PHOENIX - dir. Elaiza Ikeda
Shirumashi - dir. Takeshi Fukunaga
The Notes - dir. Riko Murakami
No comments:
Post a Comment