Tsotsi

Tsotsi is an African film winner of The Oscar in the year of 2005 as best international film. It was directed by Gavin Hood. This movie basically talks about the story of a young lonely and disturbed guy. This guy is most known as Tsotsi.

The movie starts with a robbery scene on a train and the killing of the person robbed. The killer was a young guy named Tostsi. Tostsi is a problematic guy full of violence. His life is to rob others and earn money this way. One night he decides to assault a woman to whom he shoots and steals her car. For his surprise there was a baby in the back sit of it. He panics for a while but he then decides to adopt that baby as his. This event becomes a turning point in the life of Tsotsi. He then starts to remember his childhood and all the problems and sufferings he had to go through.

During that story many passages of Tsotsi are shown in flash backs he has. This may be one of the reason he has so much love for a child he doesn’t own. This baby starts to make him feel again love and the willing to take care of others. While this happens he becomes a wanted man by the police. The parents of the baby start to look for him to recover their son. Meanwhile he becomes a parent to the baby and even though he wants to take him back he doesn’t want to lose this baby. He also recurs to a woman who lives near him to be able to feed the baby. Then after too much thinking he decides that it’s the best for the baby and for himself to return him to his parents. He starts to show his friends that he has changed. He is no longer the merciless killer and robber. He wants to start over and be a good guy. However, sometimes life chases back our crimes. At the time that Tsotsi was returning the baby to his parents he is trapped by cops. This means that Tsotsi could have to pay for his crimes. The good part is that he changed his thoughts about life.

This was one really good movie. I always like movies that have a good story line. Even though this movie doesn’t have any special effects or so, it has the power to get the attention of the viewers. What I like the most about this film is the way the director portraits Tsotsi. A guy, who seems to be corrupted by the bad life and influences of a childhood full of sadness and loneliness, suddenly starts to change. This is due that his heart starts to soften after he finds a baby in the backseat of a car he stole. Again, this movie is very good because until the end nobody has a clue of what could happen at the end.

Amores Perros

Amores Perros is a Mexican movie. It was directed by Alejandro Gonzales Inaritu. This production was nominated to the Oscars in 2000. This movie shows three different stories that are connected in a certain way by unwanted events.

All starts with Octavio (Gael Garcia Bernal) who is in love of Susana (Vanessa Bauche), his sister in law. Apparently he was always in love of her but he kept that in silence and more when she married her brother. The fact of living under the same roof made him have a bigger desire for her and with more reason because of the bad treat that she was given by his brother. Some passions are bigger than others and his case was not the exception. He decided to earn money by making his dog fight in illegal “dog fights”. This was in order to give Susana all the things that she needed and to run away with her. What he didn’t know is that she could later escape with his brother taking all the money that he was saving. This event made him feel lost and decided to make his dog fight for the last time. Due to the envy provoked by his winning dog someone decided to shot at the animal. This caused the fury of Octavio who stabbed the shooter and run away.

In the rush to escape and to take his dog to the veterinarian he collide his car with the one of a known model. She was Valeria, a girl that just had moved with his lover; Luis; the same day. This crash changed completely Valeria’s life. From a top model she passed to be an invalid girl. This brought many fights and problems in the relationship. But looks like the love for each other made them over take this. Now she could live her life with Luis and her dog. Here is when another story is told. When the crash between Octavio’s and Valeria’s cars happen an old man rushed to the car to steal some goods of the occupants. He also found Octavio’s dog and cured him to later treat him as him. This man was a man who was responsible for many killings. He was a killer. However, he only wanted money to give it to her daughter. The story ends with this man trying to start a new life. In the other hand Octavio realized that he could never be love by the woman of his dreams.

I found this story very interesting at the beginning. The plot about the dog fights and how Octavio was making a living out of this was very interesting. However, when the director switches the story to a start a new one it started to get a little boring. I was engaged by the first story and the only reason I kept watching was to go back to Octavio’s story and see the outcome. I think the stories were interesting but they didn’t have the same balance of intensity. If the first part of this movie is taken away, I don’t think that there could have been any interest at all to keep watching this movie.

Children of Heaven

“Children of heaven” is a film that belongs to the Iranian Film Industry. It was directed by Majid Majidi. It was released in the year 1997. Later the following year was nominated to the Academy Awards for best foreign film. This film basically deals with poverty in countries of the Middle East. One of these countries is Iran. The story tries to show how things so simple can become a problem for families who are extremely poor. In this case, how a brother (Ali) and sister (Zahra) have to face different obstacles when one of them loses its sneakers.

The story starts with the sights of a city that seems to be full of poverty. That’s when we meet Ali, a child of around 10 years, who seems confused and preoccupied because he lost his sister’s sneakers. Ali’s family is very poor and they don’t have enough money to buy another pair of sneakers for her sister. He knows that, so he decides not to tell anything to his sick mother or his working father. He and his sister know that they could get in so much trouble due to this reason. The only solution that they find is to share the sneakers that belong to Ali. This until they see that their father has some money to buy them new shoes.

In this journey of sharing shoes in order to go to school the siblings start to get closer to each other. This builds a really strong relationship between them. One day, while Zahra was sad watching other girl’s sneakers at school, she saw her sneakers on the feet of another girl. She decided to follow her and take her shoes back. However, she and Ali found out that the girl’s father was blind. This softened their hearts and they decided to find another solution. Ali entered a competition for the best students. He wanted to win the third place competition to receive the price for that position; a pair of new sneakers. The bad part is that he was too good and ended up winning the first place and therefore another price. This was another disillusion for both children. Apparently this disillusion was only going to be momentary because at the end the bicycle of their father can be seem with 2 new pairs of shoes for each one of them. This means that after all their effort, they could finally be happy. They would get their new shoes.

This movie is very interesting to watch. Children are very innocent and heart given. If you watch this movie it’s very probable that you could feel sad or happy at the same time. Many people have had the joy to have a happy childhood without any needs. This movie showed that not all persons have the same fortune. However, the love that exists in a family will ever be the most important thing. I think that this movie should have more screenings worldwide. It helps to the viewers to remember what’s childhood about and to value the things that we have and not.

Bombay

Bombay is considerate to be a love movie with a lot of socio-religious problems. It belongs to the collection of Bollywood. It is one of the most acclaimed movies of the Hindu cinema in the last years. It was directed by Mani Ratnam. The plot of the movie has as background of real events that were happening in India. These events include riots and problems between people belonging to the Hindu and Muslim religions.

The movie starts with the crush that a young ma; Shekhar; has on an unknown gir; Shaila. This later develops in a love relationship. However, here is when the real plot of the movies starts. They belong to different religions. He is Hindu while she is Muslim. Due to this fact, their families start to argue about this relationship and prohibited it to happen. As a consequence the two young lovers decide to escape away from their relatives and go to the city of Bombay. In this city Shekhar was starting to work as a newspaper reporter.

The years passed and the couple had twins. Since religion was an important factor for them to run away from their families, they decided to teach both children their religions; without preference. Things went well for this new family. Even years later both Sides started to have communication with their families. Then one day the parents of the couple arrived to meet their grandsons. This was a happy event for both; Shekhar and Shaila. However, there could be another twist in this story. At the same time that the situation for this family was getting better there were outcomes in the city of Bombay. A lot of disputes and riots were being originated by the differences between Muslims and Hindus. Suddenly a war between religions exploited in the city and the family was affected.

One night while everybody was at home a giant riot happened. Houses and streets were burned and the parents of the couple were killed. Also both children were lost in the multitude and chaos. It was a journey for Shaila and Shekhar to find them. Finally both children are found and the internal war that the country was facing stopped.

For me it was a very interesting movie. It was the first time that I ever watched a Hindu film. Even though I found it funny at times due to the musicals that are incorporated I found it very sad too. It’s a very well done film. It has most of the elements that make a film so good. It had scenes of love, action, drama, suspense, and a happy ending. What I liked more about this movie is the twist that this movie had. It started as a love story and ended as movie full of action scenes.

Eat Drink Man Woman

The following film is named “Eat Drink Man Woman”. This film belongs to the Taiwanese cinema and was directed by known director Ang Lee. In this film a lot of traditional can be appreciated. Basically this film tries to make the characters of the movie interact with food.

The film starts with an old man; retired master chef Chu, preparing dinner for his family. He lives with his three daughters who seem to have a problem of communication sometimes with him. It looks like with the pass of the time chef Chu has lost his ability to sense the taste of food and has also become a solitary man due to the death of his wife. In the other hand his daughters are starting to experience the feeling of love. Surprisingly, his youngest daughter meets a young guy who makes her pregnant. Then she decides to leave chef Chu and her two sisters to start a new life with this guy.

While this happens, chef Chu starts to receive offers to get on the kitchen again and start to work. He rejects these offers and decides to stay home. He stills have two daughters to who support. What he doesn’t know is that both girls have other plans in mind. One is growing professionally and the other is growing in feelings toward a man. This situation becomes a conflict for both daughters, because they feel that if they decide to go ahead with their desires or projects they could leave his father abandoned. However, what they didn’t know is that his father had already another woman in his life. For the surprise of everybody she was a young woman. This becomes the break point towards the end. Since that moment every family member takes a different path towards a new happiness. However, they seem to always meet to enjoy dinner.

I’m not the typical love movie fanatic. However, I found this film interesting. This is the good thing about films that are made internationally. They try to exploit the plot of their movies to the most. I found very interesting the way they focused to compare how food and the value of food sharing in a table can unify a family. I also liked how all big decisions that every member of the family were taken were revealed during dinner time.

Not One Less

Not one less is a movie that belongs to the Chinese cinema. It was directed and produced by Zhang Yinou. This movie basically tells a story of a little girl; Wei; who has to take the role of a substitute teacher. The interesting fact here is that she only has 13 years old. However, in a world surrounded by poverty this is not unusual at all. She has to learn how to be a leader and at the same time continue being a child. It’s really hard to act as an adult when you are still a child and this can be appreciated during the movie.

Wei is designated as the substitute teacher of a very poor school. She has to be in charge while the former teacher is in on a trip. For this action she will be rewarded money and if she makes sure that none of the children drop out of school she could receive more money. It becomes a difficult journey for her to have control of children that have almost the same age as her. However she finds a way to do it with a lot of effort. The most important part of this comes when one of her most problematic students is sent to the city to work. This was in order to help his sick mother.

At this point another story starts. She made a deal in which she could be given extra money none of the students dropped from school by the time the former teacher returns. Not one less. That fact influenced her to take the decision to raise money and go to look for him at the city. Lost and confused in a place where she didn’t know anybody she starts to look for him. She soon finds out that the boy was lost in the city. Her willing to find him even makes her go on TV. This action helped her to find him and return to their village. However, at her return she won more than money.

This is really a good and funny movie to watch. Even though it’s sad to see how poverty affects some people more than others. It is also very illustrative. This is one of the good things of watching foreign films. They don’t worry about visual or special effects as much as Hollywood does. In this story a very good story line can be appreciated. Most important, it keeps the audience engaged with the dharma of the movie. The fact of using children in movies also gives a feeling of belonging. By saying this I mean that every time a movie shows children it makes many viewers to compare their childhood with the one of the actor. This film has a lot of values that people can appreciate and remember. Very good movie.

La Femme Nikita

La Femme Nikita is an action movie. It was written and produced by Luc Besson. The movie is in its entirely in French. Most of its actors are also from that country, including Anne Parillaud, who has the role of interpreting Nikita. Nikita basically is a movie that tells the story of a girl who was sentenced to prison after being captured during a store robbery and then was sentenced to death. However, her luck could change rapidly after she is secretly erased from society and adopted by a secret agent agency. This means that she was dead for the society and her family. The story line of this movie is very simple and interesting to follow.

Nikita spent many years aisled of society while being trained by secret agents. Once her training ended she was released to integrate society again and to be on hold for any secret assignment. This meant that she could no longer have a life of her own. She now was property of a spy agent agency. The interesting part of all of this is that while being on hold and waiting for an assignment she started to develop her own life. She met a man on a supermarket to whom she later married. Everything started to go fine in her life again until she was officially given her first assignment. Then problems started to surround her. These problems were basically emotional problems. She had to live a double life (her husband didn’t know her real job). This could be really depressing for any person and she was not the exception. Her emotional stability was being brought down after each assignment. Then the turning point comes when she has to get into an embassy and steal important documented information.

During this assignment something went wrong and the agents decide to call another spy agent “the cleaner” to fix the situation. This really had a bad impact on Nikita. She accomplishes the mission; but the cleaner has also another mission. He must kill Nikita. Fortunately Nikita is able to kill the cleaner and escape. However, she doesn’t only escape from the cleaner, she also escapes from the world in which she lives and decides to start a new life.

I really enjoy this film. The reason for this is that in comparison to many action films, this one was not full of visual or special effects. The producers and director focused more on the story line. As well, they tried to keep it the more realistic possible. It was also a very original movie. Most of the action movies have as action figures to men. Since this movie was released in the late 80’s and early 90’s, I think that in some way it influenced to filmmakers to take the adventure of having women as action figures too. I also like the ending of this movie. It’s not typical happy ending that Hollywood movies have. In this case, you don’t really are show a detailed ending. For this movie, the viewers had the chance to interpret in their own way the destiny of Nikita.