Film Difficulty 3

To help you ease your way into our world, we have devised a the film difficulty ranking system to rate the difficulty of each film reviewed on our site. The easiest to watch films (the Rom-Coms and Superhero flicks that you watch anyway) will have a rating of 1. Foreign language films automatically add one point, as do black and white films, and films with strange and hard to follow plots. Welcome to Film Difficulty 3.

Film Difficulty Ranking 3: More of a challenge for those familiar with foreign films. Level 3 is like a mix between an intriguing European mime artist and your most interesting and demanding school teacher.

If you’ve mastered these films, move onto Film Difficulty Ranking 4.

When the Tenth Month Comes (Vietnam) – Prepare to be Moved

When the Tenth Month Comes Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

When the Tenth Month Comes will move you. Other films may have better story-lines and better cinematography, but this one has the most vital ingredient: pure emotion. Watch it for free here on YouTube – let me know if you find it anywhere else!

Image result for when the tenth month comes

Why Watch When the Tenth Month Comes?

If you want to watch a great film from Vietnam
Witness the emotional impact of war – it’s emotional!
There’s ghost towns!
It’s currently available to watch for free here on YouTube – let me know if the video is taken down or you find it available elsewhere!

The Breakdown

When the Tenth Month Comes starts with a young woman named Duyen returning home. We first see her walking along a dirt road before she hops into a canoe to cross the river. Throughout the opening scene, her blank expression, partially obscured by her conical hat, makes it look like she’s preoccupied or not totally present. Whilst she’s on the canoe, she loses balance and falls in, losing a letter from her satchel. Combined with the dramatic opening music, it’s clear that she’s bravely holding back her emotions.

The story patiently reveals what has happened. First, we find out she has a husband who has not sent a letter to his family. When she is asked why he has not sent anything home, she never gives a clear answer. She says his duty as a Vietnamese soldier is keeping him busy. Whilst the answer convinces his family, the close-ups of her face do not convince us. It’s obvious she’s hiding her husband’s death from his loving family for fear of upsetting them.

Only one person finds out about the death of her husband, a local teacher and poet named Zhang. He agrees to held out Duyen by writing letters to her family signed by her dead husband to keep her family happy and excited for his return.

Pure Tragic Emotion

There’s one scene in this film that will stick with you. In the scene, teacher Zhang stops at a public theatrical performance with his girlfriend which the majority of the town appear to be watching. They watch for a minute before his girlfriend gets restless. But just when they start to walk on, Duyen appears on the stage and starts singing her part in the performance. Zhang, his girlfriend, and the whole audience are captivated as she sings emotionally for her lost love. Only us (the viewer) and Zhang know the pain she must be feeling, but she keeps singing the tragic lines of the song. In every line it feels like she is about to break down but she keeps singing for a few minutes until she finally breaks down and disappears behind the stage curtain. Pure cinematic emotion.

Conclusion and what to watch next

Some films are harder to pinpoint than others. The story line of When the Tenth Month Comes is a bit cliched and the music is often a bit overly dramatic, but this film succeeds where many of the greats don’t: it manages to translate raw emotion to film. As a result, it’s this transcendent portrayal of raw emotion is what makes this film one of the greats.

For more raw emotion I recommend checking out Umberto D. , one of the most emotional Italian neo-realist films. It follows the tragic plight of an old man trying to get by without a pension.

If it’s something more arty you’re looking for, check out Lav Diaz’s From What is Before. It’s a 5 hour 30 minute epic that charts life in a small village in rural Philippines under the Marcos dictatorship.

Epicentro – An Outsider’s Perspective of Cuba

Epicentro Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Why Watch Epicentro?

It’s an interesting outsider’s perspective of a forgotten country
To meet anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist locals
Watch a filmmaker unwittingly become part of the cycle of exploitation

From: Cuba, North America
Watch: Trailer, IMDb, Website
Next: The Project of the Century, I Am Cuba, Let it Burn

The Clash – Spain/Latin American Competition – SBIFF

Roberto, an 18 year old boy, joins his father in Montreal to escape the violence in Peru. His father, now Bob Montoya, fled Peru a few years earlier and now lives with his Canadian wife and daughter. The Clash shows both the culture clash for Roberto and the macho clash with his now Canadian father. It plays out a bit like a Martin Rejtman film in which the oddball humour has been switched out for a tense underlying machismo.

The arrival of Roberto is a challenge to Bob’s male pride. We don’t know how much of a success Bob was in Peru, but he’s desperate to present himself as a success story in Canada. Roberto obviously knows where he came from in Peru so Bob wants to show him how far he’s come. Roberto is the medium for Bob to prove himself to people back in Peru.

In order to maintain his image, he tries to sell how great Canada is to his son. He keeps telling him it’s a place where you can be anything, a place where you can make lots of money. He portrays himself as a businessman that is one step away from the next big deal with a nice house and a nice car. However, the house, the car, and his suit are all for show. The nice house and car that he ‘owns’ are really his wife’s and his suit is just a image that covers up the debts he’s incurring.

Like Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite, Bob Montoya resorts to machismo to present himself as a big man. Whilst he’s grateful to have his son with him – as it’s a chance to prove to someone he’s achieved the American dream – he also sees him as a challenge to his masculinity. He’s a new male figure in the house that takes some of his wife’s and mistress’ attention away from him.

Their relationship fits Freud’s Oedipus complex theory. Bob is the father figure that dominates the household. Roberto is the son that reluctantly lives within the rules his father sets. They rarely talk beyond a few awkward words as Roberto lives in silence. Bob asserts his male dominance over Roberto by kissing his wife and his mistress in front of his son. In contrast, Roberto has fantasies of hooking up with his father’s mistress. In a final awkward party, Roberto battles his father for a dance with his mistress. It’s only in the club when he’s drunk that he can overcome his ‘castration anxiety‘. However, his father never allows her to dance with him in order to preserve his position as the alpha male.

The Clash is a brilliantly awkward film about a father and his son battling to prove their masculinity in a place foreign to the both of them.

Violence (Colombia)

Violence Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Image result for violencia forero You may have seen the great Netflix show Narcos and believe that you know everything about violence in Colombia. However, to truly experience violence in Colombia, you should watch the aptly named Violence. The film will take you to three parts of Colombia where violence exists. It will introduce you to it’s perpetrators and victims without revealing who they are or to which armed group they belong. Ultimately everyone is part of the violence in Colombia.

Why Watch Violence?

Experience some of the violent conflicts carried out in Colombia.
See the diversity of the Colombian landscape: the jungle, the city, and a small town in the country.
Recognise that all the characters are other beings of flesh and blood – perhaps the key to stop violence.
Learn how to make a violent movie without showing any violence!

The Breakdown

Violence starts in darkness. The only thing you can perceive is the sound of the jungle: the insects, birds, and cracking twigs. Slowly the outlines of plants and trees emerge from the darkness before the camera moves along the ground. The camera moves to the left and reveals a chain tied to a tree. The other end is tied around the neck of a man asleep on the jungle floor. He has blemishes and bug bite marks all over his body.

As daylight emerges, the camera stays in a close-up of the prisoner. All we can see is the prisoner, and some figures dressed in camo walking behind him, out of focus. The camera is restricted to where the prisoner can go, and it never ventures further than the limits of the prisoner’s chain. This shows us the lack of freedom that the prisoner has. We do not venture outside of where he is allowed to go, and everything outside that range is out-of-focus. We experience his captivity.

Whilst part one happens in the jungle, part two occurs in a Colombian city, and part three in the country. Firstly, the three locations showcase the diversity of the Colombian landscape. Secondly, the diversity of the locations show that violence is present everywhere (and not just Colombia). Even though we don’t directly see violence, we can tell it has occurred or will occur. Violence is evident in the character’s uniforms, the character’s actions, the words spoken, and the character’s faces.

Conclusion

Jorge Forero’s film shows the existence of violence of Colombia without showing the causes of it or offering a solution. Instead Ferero’s goal, as explained here (where you can also watch the film for a fee) is to make us recognise every character as human beings of flesh and blood. In doing this, we might just make it harder for another to commit violence against us.

Air Conditioner – A Laid Back Mystery Tour of Luanda

Air Conditioner Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Why Watch Air Conditioner?

If you’re looking for an urban mystery
For a tour of Luanda
Because of it’s dry humor

From: Angola, Africa
Watch: Trailer, IMDb
Next: The Magic Gloves, The River, The Burial of Kojo