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.

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Hana-bi (Japan)

Hana-bi Film Difficulty Ranking: 4

Ever heard of a Yakuza film? The Yakuza are the Japanese gangsters much like the Mafia in Italy or the Triads in China and Hong Kong. Intrigued? Hana-bi is a Yakuza film with more than the usual violence. You’ll meet a former cop who turns to the Yakuza for loans to help his dying wife. Watch the film to find out if he manages to pay of his debts whilst learning about his own life.

Why Watch Hana-bi?
  • It’s a sophisticated Yakuza film
  • To see one of the best gangsters on film in some kick-ass sunglasses!
  • Takeshi Kitano won the Golden Lion for this film, establishing him as one of Japan’s top film-makers
  • Kitano even painted all the paintings seen in this film!
The Breakdown

Hana-bi starts with Joe Hisaishi’s film score (he’s the guy that produced most of the sound of Studio Ghibli) playing over a few pictures of saints (which Kitano starts with in a few of his films). In the opening scene, two men in blue boiler suits are staring silently at a guy in a suit and sunglasses in a half empty parking lot. The soundtrack stops as one of the guys in blue slaps a wet cloth onto a car bonnet and starts cleaning. The guy in the suit watches him clean for a minute before kicking him off of the car.

The guy in the suit and sunglasses is Nishi, a violent former cop, and the main protagonist of this film. We learn about his past in his flashbacks. Nishi has segmented flashbacks to the same event multiple times throughout the opening 30 minutes, but the whole flash back is not shown until later in the film. Early on, it shows two people being shot multiple times on the floor. It is not clear who is shooting them or why they are being shot but it obviously pains Nishi. We learn that he was held responsible for their deaths and relieved of his job.

Without a job, Nishi spends most of his time with his wife who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. He brings her cakes and puzzles but they never talk. He obviously cares for his wife, but his dead pan face makes it appear like he is begrudgingly keeping her company. As stated by his former colleague ‘work is all they have ever known’ so this unexpected free time to spend with their wives and their hobbies is unfamiliar. Without work they are lost.

Conclusion

Hana-bi is a stripped down Yakuza (Japanese Gangster) film. Instead of focusing on violence and gangs, Kitano chooses to focus on the impact of retirement. Nishi and his colleague are both forced out of their police jobs because of a tragic accident. Both of them cannot forget the accident and both of them do not know what to do with their free time.

82

Cuestion de Fe (Bolivia) – A Saintly Road Trip Around Bolivia

Cuestion de Fe Film Difficulty Ranking: 3
  • Dodgy drug boss: check
  • Drunken protagonist: check
  • High stakes gambling: check

If you’re thinking Cuestion de Fe is a B-movie action flick, you’d be wrong. Whilst it does contain all the elements above, Cuestion de Fe is more of a fun, easy going road trip film. If you’re up for joining a drunk artist, a hanger-on, and a hustler in their bright pink truck to travel across Bolivia, this film is for you. You can watch the film here on Vimeo (Spanish only).

Image result for cuestion de fe bolivia

Why Watch Cuestion de Fe?
The Breakdown

Meet Domingo. He’s a craftsman who’s an expert at making statues of Catholic saints. But, he’s also a drunkard who uses his statues to barter for bottles of spirits at the bar next door.

One evening, a big drug boss from the Yungas (a region in the shadow of the Andes perfect from coca growing) pays Domingo’s local bar a visit. He wants Domingo to make him an exact replica of the Virgin featured in a local church. What’s more, he wants Domingo to deliver the statue to his town deep in the Yungas (a few days drive from them) within 12 days! Of course, it sounds impossible. But Domingo is the only person who could do it, and this drug boss is offering 80 million Bolivianos.

80 million Bolivianos is a very big sum of money, so of course Domingo says yes. He immediately gets to work with his friend and recruit a local hustler who offers to drive them to the Yungas. With the logistics sorted, can they make the statue and transport it in time?

Is it better to be a Statue or a Woman?

Like a lot of movies, Cuestion de Fe doesn’t pass the Bechdel test (that a film has to 1. have at least two women, 2. that talk to each other 3. about something other than a man). But, whilst you may not notice it, the subjugation of women in Cuestion de Fe isn’t great. There are only around 5 women in the film, all with minute roles. Here are the most memorable women in this film:

  1. A young woman sitting with 2 guys in the bar who returns Domingo’s stare and gets slapped by one of the guys, who is presumably her boyfriend, as a result.
  2. A prostitute who Domingo pays to keep him company at a pit stop
  3. The woman who Domingo’s hanger on instantly falls in love with and marries

In short, Cuestion de Fe does not show any independent women, they all rely on the male characters. In addition, the men don’t respect them or show them love.

When you contrast how the women are portrayed to the statue of the virgin that Domingo lovingly creates and looks after, I’d say that statues are treated better than the women in this film.

Conclusion and What to Watch Next

Cuestion de Fe truly is a fun movie to watch if you can either find a subtitled version or are quite good at Spanish. You’ll get to travel across Bolivia with a hilarious trio of oddballs, what more can you want!?

For more great road trip films you should check out:

  • Motorcycle Diaries: charting the famous road trip Che Guevara took with his buddy across South America.
  • Into the Wild: follow a recent graduate burn his money before roaming across the United States
  • Y Tu Mama Tambien: a raunchy coming-of-age road trip across Mexico
  • Thelma & Louise: one of Ridley Scott’s greatest films, a road race thriller which passes the Bechdel Test
83

The Journey (Iraq) – Get to Know a Suicide Bomber

The Journey Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

How much do you know about the Iraq War? Chances are, you’re picture of the war is made up of news footage and films like American Sniper. You’ll rarely see the Iraqi perspective of the war, which is inexcusable as this war happened in Iraq. So do yourself a favour and check out The Journey and learn about the effects of the Iraq war.

Why Watch The Journey?
  • See how the war has affected Iraq and the people living there
  • To see the Iraq war from the Iraqi perspective as opposed to the western perspective shown in The Hurt Locker and American Sniper
  • You’ll also get to know and understand a suicide bomber
  • It’s a perfect companion to Ahlaam
The Breakdown

The Journey starts with our protagonist, a woman walking along train tracks to a train station. As she gets closer she pulls off her hijab and throws it away and joins a group of schoolchildren to disguise herself as a teacher. In this disguise, she gets past the security checks and through to the station.

In the station, she stands silently people watching. You quickly see two kids cleaning shoes, a man loudly talking the phone, and hear the sound of a busker nearby. As life goes on, the camera cuts to a close up of her hand wavering over a detonator. She’s wearing a bomb vest!

The story was spawned from a news article that Mohamed Al-Daradji saw about a female suicide bomber in Iraq. Just before she was about to detonate her bomb vest, she went to the police station. But later on, she still blew herself up. What’s interesting is that she went to the police; possibly a moment of regret or doubt. Her uncertainty inspired Mohamed Al-Daradji to focus on a suicide bomber, to explore what could be going through their minds.

Image result for the journey film iraq

The Conclusion

The Journey is a must watch for everyone who remembers the Iraq War. It explores the side of the conflict that is rarely seen: the Iraqi perspective. It shows normal Iraqis carrying out the lives infected by the trauma of war. You’ll also meet a suicide bomber and become her friend.

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Munyurangabo – Post-War Rwanda through the Eyes of Friends

Ngabo and Sangwa

Munyurangabo Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

If you want to see a great film about life in post-genocide Rwanda then watch Munyurangabo. The production quality isn’t great and there’s a lot of singing that pops up now and then, but the dialogue is simple and waterproof. It doesn’t offer you much at the start, but it slowly reveals more and more as the film progresses until you realise you’re watching a much deeper film than you thought.

From: Rwanda, Africa
Watch: Trailer, Rent on Amazon, Buy on Amazon, Tubi, Kanopy
Next: Hotel Rwanda, Look of Silence, Sleepwalking Land
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Ahlaam (Iraq) – Experience the Horror of the Iraq War

Ahlaam Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Amazingly, this film was the first film shot in Iraq following the end of the Iraq War. Even more amazingly, it does not hold back at all from showing the devastating effects of the war on Baghdad and it’s citizens. If you haven’t seen an Iraqi film before, go watch this one! But beware, it’s not something you can sit back and relax to with a big bag of popcorn.

Why Watch Ahlaam?
  • To watch a film from Iraq! How many Iraqi films have you seen?
  • For a chance to learn a bit about the effects of the war in Iraq
  • Experience an Iraqi wedding complete with music and lots of ululations
  • Witness the fall of Iraq from the eyes of regular Iraqi citizens
The Breakdown

Ahlaam starts with bombs falling on Baghdad 3 days before the fall of the city. Inside an asylum, the patients are startled and scared by the exploding bombs. It is obviously not a pleasant situation to be in.

The film follows the true story of three Iraqi people as the Iraq war starts. One is a soldier for the Iraqi army. Another is the happy fiancee of a local man. The last is a man training to be a doctor. They are all based in Baghdad and all lead happy lives in what they describe as a ‘beautiful city.’

Of course, from what we unfortunately now associate with Iraq (war), we assume their happiness is not going to last. The director, Mohamed Al-Dara, does his best to foreshadow the bleak future. Firstly, there’s the snippet of the patients in the mental asylum at the start before the film jumps back to before the start of the war. Secondly, there are just too many nice statements. When you hear someone say ‘Baghdad is beautiful,’ and another say that ‘one day military service will be but a memory’ it’s obvious that Baghdad will not be beautiful by the end of the film and the army will be ever present. It’s like Chekhov’s gun, when you introduce a gun, it will be fired.

Conclusion

By the end of the film you will see the effects of war on the regular citizen of the world. It’s well worth a watch, but probably not the best option for your first date!