How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019) - Dazzling animation, tired sheet

♥♥

 

Splashy fresh colors and inviting animation lures from this poster for Dean DeBlois' How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

Hiccup is under pressure in his viking world, which is getting overcrowded with rescued dragons.

 

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is written and directed by Dean DeBlois (Lilo & Stitch (2002)). It is the 3rd and final film in DeBlois' How to Train Your Dragon trilogy (2010; 2014) based on the How to Train Your Dragon novels (2003-15) by Cressida Cowell (The Day of the Dreader (2012)).

A flat and formulaic plot together with Jay Baruchel's (Random Acts of Violence (2019)) unfunny, irony-laced voice performance sucks the magic out of this film, despite it having dragons by the dozens, many of them very cute ones. A feeling of awe for the incredible designs and animation is the sole attraction here.

 

Related posts:

Dean DeBlois: 2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

How to Train Your Dragon (2010) - A well-made, dazzlingly animated family favorite

 

 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

 

Cost: 129 mil. $

Box office: 524.5 mil. $

=  Big hit (returned 4.06 times its cost)

[How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World was released 3 January (Australia, New Zealand) and runs 104 minutes. It opened #1 to a 55 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more weekend at #1 and then 3 more in the top 5 (#2-#4-#5), grossing 160.7 mil. $ (30.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 54.5 mil. $ (10.4 %) and Russia with 27.9 mil. $ (5.3 %). It was the 5th highest-grossing animated film of the year. It was nominated for the Best Animation Oscar, lost to Toy Story 4. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe and won a National Board of Review award, among many other honors. How to Train Your Dragon returns as a live-action film also by DeBlois in 2025. DeBlois returned with TÍU (2022, documentary) but has yet to make his theatrical return. Baruchel returned in The Kindness of Strangers (2019). How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is certified fresh at 90 % with a 7.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World?

Ouija (2014) - Yawn your way to the netherworld

♥

 

A dark and anticipation-building poster for Stiles White's Ouija

 

A young woman, who has recently played with a Ouija board, hangs herself. But her friends are not 'finished' with her and contact her in the beyond, - with the Ouija board. That was a bad idea!

 

Ouija is written by Juliet Snowden (Knowing (2009)) and debuting co-writer/director Stiles White (Boogeyman (2005, writer)).

With uninteresting characters - and actors - and a deeply yawn-worthy plot, where dialog and action reeks of Movie as opposed to reality, - Ouija turns out a vapid and exceedingly dull time. It is strictly for the youngest and newest arrivals to the exciting world of horror.

 

Related post:

 

Stiles White: 2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]

The Possession (2012) - Bornedal's possession horror struggles with the demon of mediocrity (screenplay, also co-written with Snowden)

 

 

Watch a behind the scenes feature here

 

Cost: 7.9 mil. $

Box office: 103.6 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 13.11 times its cost)

[Ouija was released 23 October (Malaysia, Singapore, Slovenia) and runs 89 minutes. Development began in 2008, and scores of talent were involved over the years, with the film envisioned as a big-budget (up to 125 mil. $) tentpole picture for the first several years of development, before the scope and project changed to a 5 mil. $ film. Shooting took place from December 2013 - January 2014 in California, including Los Angeles, with extensive re-shoots in May-June 2014 after poor test screenings. Reportedly half the film was re-shot; Lin Shaye was also cast in a new character to bolster the film at this point, and the extensive re-shoots are likely what caused the budget to balloon 58 % over-budget to 7.9 mil. $. The film opened #1 to a 19.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another weekend at #1 and then one more in the top 5 (#4), grossing 50.8 mil. $ (49 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Mexico with 6.6 mil. $ (6.4 %) and the UK with 5 mil. $ (4.8 %). The success prompted a sequel (without the involvement of White and Snowden or any of the film's cast), Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016). White has not returned to directing but is announced to be writing an untitled Bermuda Triangle movie. Olivia Cooke (The Signal (2014)) returned in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015). Ouija is rotten at 6 % with a 3.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Ouija? 

Ma (2019) - Spencer entertains in Taylor's uneven revenge horror

♥♥♥

 

Star Octavia Spencer's face through a shattered glass makes up this simple poster for Tate Taylor's

 Ma

A group of high school students get a woman named Sue Ann to buy them alcohol, and not long after they are even throwing parties in her basement. - But why is she interested in them doing that...?

 

Ma is written by Scotty Landes (Deadcon (2019)) and co-produced and directed by Mississippian master filmmaker Tate Taylor (Pretty Ugly People (2008)), whose 5th feature it is.

Octavia Spencer (Next of Kin (2008)) is good as the scarred, lonely Sue Ann, SPOILER but we get no answer as to why exactly now, 20 or 30 years after her own traumatic high school experiences, she goes off the rocker... Although there's some timeliness to the implication that violations can be avenged decades later by the victim!

Luckily Ma also has a good secondary cast and sexy youths, although it doesn't really compute that Allison Janney (Away We Go (2009)) is here in a non-role as a mean boss. (The reason must be that both Spencer and Janney are friends of Taylor, as they both acted in his 2008 debut.)

The bonkers ending doesn't hit bull's eye, but Ma is still very entertaining up until this.

 

Related posts:

Tate Taylor: 2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
2011 in films - according to Film Excess 

The Help (2011) - Taylor and an impeccable ensemble portray heart-thumping change in Jackson, Mississippi 

Watch a 1-minute clip from the movie here

 

Cost: 5 mil. $

Box office: 61.1 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 12.2 times its cost)

[Ma premiered 30 May (Germany and 12 other markets) and runs 99 minutes. Shooting took place around February 2018 in Mississippi. The film opened #4 to a an 18 mil. $ first weekend in North America, behind fellow new release Godzilla: King of the Monsters, holdover hit Aladdin and fellow new release Rocketman, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 45.8 mil. $ (75 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 2.3 mil. $ (3.8 %) and the UK with 2 mil. $ (3.3 %). The film made in excess of 3.1 mil. $ additionally on the North-American home video market. Taylor returned with Ava (2020). Spencer returned with 3 voice performances and a miniseries prior to her theatrical return in The Witches (2020). Ma is rotten at 56 % with a 5.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Ma?

Get Out (2017) - Peele arrives in a big way with funny American race nightmare

♥♥♥♥♥

 

Star Daniel Kaluuya screaming from intense emotion in a lounge chair on this striking B/W poster for Jordan Peele's Get Out

Chris is an African-American man, who is going with his Caucasian girlfriend Allison away for the weekend to visit her family's country estate, defying his misgivings about her not informing them of the color of his skin in advance ...

 

Get Out is written and directed by great New-Yorker filmmaker, debuting Jordan Peele (Keanu (2016, writer)).

It is terrifically awkward and amply shows what it feels like to be the new (literally) black sheep of a family; and then it is funny, really funny, - not least in the scenes of repartee between Chris and his friend (Lil Rel Howery (Good Boys (2019)). Get Out cultivates racial paranoia, (SPOILER whites overtake black bodies with brain transplants!), and the reluctance among blacks for other blacks to become 'too white'.

In the horror part of the film it is especially the 'sunken place' scenes, where this nightmarish hell is achieved through hypnosis, which is rather frightening, and Catherine Keener (The Soloist (2009)) functions well as a stoic hypnotist. You might have to be black to find Allison Williams (College Musical (2014)) actually scary here, SPOILER and the culmination in which Chris murders his way through the house to escape it, could have been achieved to greater effect.

But Daniel Kaluuya (Chatroom (2010)) is outstanding as Chris, and Get Out has a timely electricity to it that must have been most powerful in an American cinema around the time of its release. It is original and, in my opinion, more funny than frightening, - and hopefully it brought its multi-racial audiences closer together than it divided them further?

 

Related post:

 

Jordan Peele: Us (2019) - Get in line to scratch your head (writer/director)

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 4.5 mil. $

Box office: 255.5 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 56.7 times its cost)

[Get Out premiered 23 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 104 minutes. Shooting took 23 days from February 2016 - ? in Alabama. The film opened #1 to a 33.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 3 weekends in the top 5 (#2-#3-#4) and grossed 176 mil. $ (68.9 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were South Korea with 15.5 mil. $ (6.1 %) and the UK with 12.7 mil. $ (5 %). Deadline Hollywood calculated the film's net profits at 124.8 mil. $. It was nominated for 4 Oscars, winning for Best Original Screenplay. It lost Best Picture to The Shape of Water, Actor (Kaluuya) to Gary Oldman in Darkest Hour and Director to Guillermo Del Toro for The Shape of Water. It was also nominated for 2 Golden Globes, 2 BAFTAs, won an AFI award, won 2/5 Independent Spirit award nominations, 3 National Board of Review awards, among countless other honors. Peele returned with Us (2019). Kaluuya returned in Robot & Scarecrow (2017, short), Great Performers: Horror Show (2017, short) and theatrically in Black Panther (2018); Williams in Girls (2012-17), Patrick Melrose (2018, miniseries) and theatrically in The Perfection (2018). Get Out is certified fresh at 98 % with an 8.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Get Out?

The Great Wall/长城/Cháng Chéng (2016) - Damon appears foolish in unexciting, major US-Chinese monster turkey

♥

 

+ 2nd Worst Movie of the Year

 

Things are exploding left and right and a frightening siege is apparently taking place, but star Matt Damon is on the wall with a bow and arrow on this poster for Yimou Zhang's The Great Wall

An Irish mercenary adventurer with a Spanish companion is searching for gunpowder in Song dynasty China [about 1,000 years ago], but they come into a massive battle against the monsters that the Great Wall are meant to keep out.

The Great Wall is written by Carlo Bernard (The Uninvited (2009)), Doug Miro (The Great Raid (2005)) and Tony Gilroy (State of Play (2009)), with Max Brooks (World War Z (2013, novel)), Edward Zwick (The Siege (1998)) and Marshal Herskovitz (A Marriage (2009, TV movie)) contributing story elements, and directed by Yimou Zhang (Red Sorghum (1988)).

It is an ambitious, giant production, which attempts to please both a Chinese and an American/Western audience with the result becoming an often involuntarily comical compromise. The presence of Matt Damon's (Syriana (2005)) ponytailed character alone in this old-Chinese context is comical: He is a hero of Western fabric, full of one-liners and incredible fighting skills. Across from him are Chinese by the boatloads, who appear very different; saluting uniformity and sacrifice for the majority's improvement. The Great Wall also marks a major cultural meeting that may be more than a bit anxiety-provoking for the China-skeptical Westerner.

There are impressive sets and costumes, strange, not very interesting monsters and a thankfully contained running time. The main  problem for this film, though, is a fundamentally unexciting story: The Great Wall marks a cultural summit that so far as the plot goes never really takes place.

 

Related post:

 

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 150 mil. $

Box office: 334.9 mil. $

= Flop (returned 2.23 times its cost)

[The Great Wall premiered 6 December (Beijing) and runs 103 minutes. Shooting took place in China and New Zealand from March 2015 - ?. It is Zhang's first English-language film and reportedly the costliest movie shot in China to its day. It reportedly employed 100 on-set translators to help with the communication between the international cast and crew. It opened #3, behind holdover hits The Lego Batman Movie and Fifty Shades Darker, to an 18.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another two weekends in the top 5 (#3-#4) and grossed 45.5 mil. $ (13.6 % of the total gross). It was the film's 2nd biggest market; the biggest by far was China with 170.9 mil. $ (51 %); 3rd biggest was Russia with 10.9 mil. $ (3.3 %). 110-120 mil. $ were reportedly spent to market the film worldwide, making its overall loss in the neighborhood of 75 mil. $ according to Deadline Hollywood. Regarding critique of his part in the film, Damon has stated: "For the first time, a film deeply rooted in Chinese culture, with one of the largest Chinese casts ever assembled, is being made at tentpole scale for a world audience. I believe that is a trend that should be embraced by our industry." The Communist Party of China have had negative reviews of the film removed from online sites in China. Zhang returned with Shadow/Ying (2018). Damon returned in Downsizing (2017). The Great Wall is rotten at 35 % with a 4.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Great Wall?

Us (2019) - Get in line to scratch your head

♥♥♥

+ Strangest Movie of the Year 

Lead Lupita Nyong'o removes a mask of her own face to reveal a disquieting other version of it, wearing a red suit, ensconced in darkness, on this quizzical poster for Jordan Peele's Us

An American nuclear family head out on their first day of a summerhouse stay to visit the Santa Cruz amusement park. But the visit awakes unpleasant memories for the mother, and soon the family find themselves under attack from mysterious doubles.

Us is written and directed by great New-Yorker filmmaker Jordan Peele (Get Out (2017)), whose 2nd feature it is. It is the talk-about movie of the day, but perhaps what most who see it will talk about after watching it is simply; what the devil is it really about?
Peele has cooked up one strange beast here, and while some pundits have pointed to film references and proffered Peele a true cinephile in light of these, I will only go on to suggest that Us might also be the work of a writer/director who gets his ideas while smoking weed and then combines them as a big mass of clay, which is what we see now in front of us in cinemas. (And which may be the reason that its construct is less salient and understandable than we might wish.) Of course this is just speculation, but often when artists become as highly regarded as Peele is at the present moment, the truth of the source of their works are a lot less gilded and much more practical and commonplace than the admiring critics and scholars will lead some to believe.
The film may be a meditation on African Americans' collective identity and the development of this over the course of the last century; it may be about Americans in general, the spoiled nature of modern urbanites, and the tragedy and misery that lurks in the corners. - Or something else entirely. - Does it even seem to embrace a kind of violent activism?
One may leave it with these types of questions, or just shake one's head and move on in life.
For a wide mainstream hit, Us sure is strange, and this is probably its biggest distinction.
Lupita Nyong'o (Non-Stop (2014)) is hailed for her demanding dual performance, and she certainly transforms impressively, though its scare effect on me was regrettably limited. Winston Duke (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2014, TV-series)) is very likable as her big but second-in-command husband. SPOILER Elisabeth Moss (On the Road (2012)) plays an acerbic, binge-drinking mother, who suffers an unenviable fate and serves as subject for some of the film's humor, of which some instances are misplaced.
Peele's film survives largely because he flourishes with conviction in his odd game: The execution feels deliberate, and the film's musical sequences are memorable, in particular the climax, which utilizes Luniz's I Got 5 on It to stage a dance fight of doubles, - one that is not that scary but strange indeed.
Us isn't as comprehensible or sensational as Peele's great first film Get Out; the family here keep their cool way too much, and the peril they are in isn't nearly terrifying enough for the film to get truly scary. It is entertaining and a great conversation starter but leaves us with way too many question marks: SPOILER Why do the doubles eat rabbits? Why do the doubles emulate behavior overground? Why does the mother double, who is in fact the original girl, tell the strange story of hurt and hard gifts? What is the connection to the old commercial of holding hands? Why do the doubles want to meet and hold hands? ... But most of all ... 
What is this movie actually saying? Grrr....!!

Related post:

Jordan Peele: 2019 in films - according to Film Excess

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 20 mil. $
Box office: 174.5 mil. $ and counting
= Mega-hit (has returned 8.72 times its cost so far)
[Us premiered 8 March (South by Southwest Film Festival, Austin, Texas) and runs 116 minutes. Shooting took place in California, including Los Angeles, from July - October 2018. The film continually reference Biblical place Jeremiah 11:11, which reads: "Therefore this is what the Lord says: 'I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them.'" It has been reported that the marketing spend for the film is as high as staggering 77 mil. $, which, if added into its cost, would set its break-even mark at 237.5 mil. $. The film opened #1 to a 71.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent its 2nd week in #2 and has grossed 128.2 mil. $ to date. The film's 2nd and 3rd biggest markets at this point are the UK with 3.6 mil. $ (2 %) and Australia with 2.7 mil. $ (1.5 %). It is set to open in 2 more markets coming up: Italy (4 April) and Mexico (3 May). Peele has not announced his next project as director, but is helming the hyped new iteration of iconic sci-fi horror TV-series The Twilight Zone (2019, TV-series) as executive producer/narrator, as well as producing a bunch of other coming attractions. Nyong'o returns in Star Wars: Episode IX (2019), Duke in Avengers: Endgame (2019). Us is certified fresh at 94 % with a 7.93/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Us?

Shoplifters/万引き家族 (Manbiki kazoku, 2018) - Kore-eda gives another poignant family tale

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Japanese Movie of the Year + Best Tokyo Movie of the Year

This happy poster for Hirokazu Kore-eda's Shoplifters seems to show an ideal family, but the film's title tells us that there is more to their story than meets the eye here

In a small house in Tokyo lives a ragtag 'family' of individuals who are not biologically connected but share each others' limited means, as they discover a little neglected and abused girl in the neighborhood, whom they decide to take in.

Shoplifters is the 13th film from Japanese master writer/director Hirokazu Kore-eda (Like Father, Like Son/Soshite chichi ni naru (2013)). It is a film which, like previous films from his hands, probes the fabrics that make a family a family. It also delves into some of the strategies that underclass people employ in order to make ends meet:
Lily Franky (After the Storm/Umi yori mo mada fukaku (2016))  is poignant as the 'father', who teaches his 'son' and new 'daughter' how to shoplift successfully. The young woman does striptease shows. The 'grandmother' (the late Kirin Kiki (Rage/Ikari (2016)) is a natural as the tough old bird) collects an indemnity and receives pity donations. And so on. But the sadness of their low plight is countered by the fact that they cling together and act as something like a real family. But as crises hit them that fabric is tested. SPOILER In the film's moving ending, we are shown how abandonment and neglect are poison to family relations, and how family breaks create wounds that run deep. SPOILER On the more optimistic side, Shoplifters leaves the little girl back with her poorly equipped biological mother but implicitly shows us that the time spent in an actual, loving environment stays with the girl, who is tough and will likely make it.
Kore-eda's humdrum pace is laced with moments of intimacy, humor, confusion and pain, as he brings several complex relationships together in this fine, intelligent, compassionate, humanistic film. 

Related posts:
 
Hirokazu Koreeda: 2018 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2018 in films - according to Film Excess
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
After the Storm/海よりもまだ深く (Umi yori mo Mada Fukaku) (2016) - Koreeda's striking portrayal of a disappointing man
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV] 
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
Like Father, Like Son/そして父になる (Soshite Chichi ni Naru) (2013) - Koreeda's magnificent reflection on upbringing and family  

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: In excess of 55.1 mil. $
= Uncertain, but most likely a huge hit
[Shoplifters premiered 13 May (Cannes Film Festival, France, in competition) and runs 121 minutes. Kore-eda developed the story during his making of masterpiece Like Father, Like Son (2013). Shooting took place in Japan, including Tokyo, from December 2017 - ?. The film won the main prize, the Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival under jury president Cate Blanchett. Its biggest markets have been its production country Japan with 37.8 mil. $ (68.6 % of the total gross), making it one of the highest-grossing domestic releases there for the year, China with 14 mil. $ (25.4 %) and South Korea with 1.2 mil. $ (2.2 %). Several markets' grosses are not listed on the film's Box Office Mojo sheet yet, and it has yet to open in several markets: 22 Nov. (Portugal), 23 Nov. (UK, Ireland, US), 12 Dec. (France), 13 Dec. (Holland), 21 Dec. (Sweden), 27 Dec. (Germany), 3 Jan. (Brazil), 10 Jan. (Hungary), 18 Jan. (Turkey) and 7 Feb. (Argentina). More countries may be added. If made on a realistic 7 mil. $ budget, which may be set too high, the film would have made back already 7.87 times its cost. It has been chosen as Japan's official Oscar entry for the year. Kore-eda returns with The Truth (2019), his first non-Japanese film, starring Ethan Hawke, Juliette Binoche and Catherine Deneuve. Franky returned in The Gun/Jû (2018). Shoplifters is certified fresh at 98 % with an 8.8/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Shoplifters?

After the Storm/海よりもまだ深く (Umi yori mo Mada Fukaku) (2016) - Koreeda's striking portrayal of a disappointing man

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Japanese Movie of the Year

The faces of the four main characters of Hirokazu Koreeda's After the Storm adorn this pleasant poster

Ryota is an under-achiever, a gambler and a disappointment to his mother and ex-wife. During the period up to and during the 24th annual typhoon in Japan, he tries to make up for his flaws, especially because he wants to keep his son in his life.

After the Storm is the 12th theatrical fiction feature from Japanese master writer-director Hirokazu Koreeda (Nobody Knows/Dare mo Shiranai (2004)), who presents another great drama with humanistic insight, once again asserting himself as one of the truly unique and gifted filmmakers around today. The original title is taken from an old Japanese pop song that is heard in the film and which translates to 'even deeper than the sea'; strictly speaking a better title than After the Storm, which only refers to an actual storm that the action takes places around.
The film's unassuming cinematography leaves the space wide open for the actors, and they honor this with some terrific performances: Hiroshi Abe (A Yell from Heaven/Tengoku Kara no Êru (2011)) is right on as Ryota, who is a bum of a man, but one whom Abe's resourceful portrayal makes sympathetic even through his stealing, lying and wasting away of his money. Ryota has loafed through too much of his life with a goal for himself that he hasn't been able to make happen, while he has let the most important things, his nearest relations, fall apart. We come into his life at a time when this becomes crystal clear for himself as well, though he is unable to make up for his flaws and change the way his life has turned out.
All the actors here give honest, terrific performances, but two that especially also deserve singling out are those of Kirin Kiki (Lake of Tears/Umi no Koto (1966)) as Ryota's very direct, endearing mother and young Taiyô Yoshizawa (Kamisama no Wadachi (2017)) as his intelligent son, who may or may not be following in his father's footsteps, more or less inevitably, just as Ryota seems to have followed in his father's.
After the Storm doesn't match the greatness of Koreeda's recent masterpiece Like Father, Like Son/Soshite Chichi ni Naru (2013), and may appeal to a narrower audience, - certainly to Koreeda fans, - simply because it is very talky, deliberately contemplative in its form and may appear slow. It doesn't have much action; much of the plot moves through dialog, and the result is an entirely realistic drama with universally recognizable behavioral patterns and themes such as divorce, unfulfilled ambitions, gambling, parental responsibilities, neglect - all of it seen against Koreeda's stories' usual arena that is Family.
The film wouldn't achieve the level of impact it does if it wasn't for the outstanding dialog as well, which is both character-specific, wise and funny. In fact After the Storm is surprisingly funny; honest and unapologetic in its dealing with Ryota's vices, family strings and Japanese traits. It deals with the past, sometimes nostalgically but also as a burden that needs overcoming daily, and is both poetic and ultimately moving, another Koreeda treasure that shouldn't be missed.

Related posts:
 

Hirokazu Kore-eda: 2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
Like Father, Like Son/そして父になる (Soshite Chichi ni Naru) (2013) - Koreeda's magnificent reflection on upbringing and family 
 

Watch a short trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: In excess of 5.1 mil. $ and counting
= Uncertain
[After the Storm premiered 18 May (Cannes' Un Certain Regard section) and runs 117 minutes. Koreeda began thinking up the film in 2001, visiting his mother who lived alone in a housing complex following the death of her husband, Koreeda's father. Shooting lasted 1½ month from May 2014 on, during the year that Koreeda was also shooting his Our Little Sister/Umimachi Diary (2015). 89k paid admission to the film in its opening weekend in Japan, where it grossed 3.1 mil. $ (60.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 815k $ (16 %) and South Korea with 672k $ (13.2 %). In North America, it opened #47 to 27k $ in 6 theaters and peaked at #46 in 35 theaters and grossed 252k $ (4.9 %). The box office sheet is incomplete with several markets missing. The film was nominated for an Asian Film Award. After the Storm is certified fresh at 95 % with a 7.9/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of After the Storm?