This was a very successful year at the film festival

I saw 6 movies this year!

I sent out a message to a few people and a fair number of friends responded and joined me. I watched the movies in the above order

Wildwood

This is a giant movie by the guys who made Coraline. The movie is based off a Children's book and it was pretty intense for a childrens books. The animation was incredible. At times I couldn't believe it was all stop motion. I mentioned this to my cousin and he joked that the creators are probably sad to hear that. Overall I really enjoyed the movie but not a typical festival movie I would go and see since it would likely get a wide release even in Japan.

Time and Tide

By far the best movie I saw in the festival. This movie is a documentary following a son going back home to try and connect with his father and provide some support to his parents whose relationship is not great.

The movie was filled with these gorgeous wide, quiet shots of the suburbs where his family lives followed by really intense and emotional scenes of the family arguing. The Q&A after the movie was also really good. The director was commenting that the movie was originally not meant to be a documentary but he had this sci-fi plot in mind but when they were filming he learned that one, his parents can't act. And two, that the most moving scenes in the movie were the ones that were just their real lives. He also commented on how the movie showcases his family as a dysfunctional family but he thinks that most families are actually dysfunctional but we don't really talk about it. This I also thought was very true.

Everyone should see the movie.

Everything else

The rest of these reviews will be short since the movies barely made sense or were too slow to keep me engaged.

"Even if hell came" follows the resistance army in Italy during a particularly harsh time in their fighting. The movie was shot really well but it also just had moments where it felt like nothing was happening followed by some intense scenes. I was zoning in and of out sleep.

Magic Atlas I wanted to watch since it looked like an animated chinese painting. The visuals were again really cool but the movie made no sense. I fell asleep and I am worried that I snored.

"Ghost End of Night" I thought would be a really cool movie. There was a bit of hype around it I think and it looked kind of cool. This movie made absolutely no sense. I only briefly passed out but I stayed awake the whole time and had no idea wtf was going on. I saw it with Kang (pictured above) and Andrew and all of us had no idea what happened.

The final movie I saw was "Camp Miasma". This was a meta movie. It follows a director who has been hired to reboot an old slasher/horror movie franchise called Camp Miasma. The film mostly is about the director trying to persuade the actress from the original movie to come back for the reboot. Camp Miasma is a fictional franchise, I originally thought it was an actual reboot movie. The movie I think requires some basic understanding of slasher/horror genre. I had no idea wtf I was watching. The movie was weird but it also sounds like it was very mindful of the genre. I couldn't really get into it but I do think folks who enjoy slashers/horror might find it interesting. The movie wasn't scary and was surprisingly funny.

I am looking forward to do this all again next year

The photo at the top is after we watched ghost end of night. I wanted wine so we went to Sherry Club near Yurakucho. It was a bit pricy but I was happy to drink some wine after that terrible movie haha