Children Of Heaven

Children of Heaven is an Iranian film from 1997. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. It has also achieved critical acclaim and other awards at the time of its release. This film has a very simplistic storyline and a short running time. Even with its very simple story the film never drags. This young boy, Ali, takes his sister’s shoes to be fixed, but on the way home stopping for vegetables, a blind trash collector unknowingly carries them away. They keep this hidden from their parents because his parents have no money to buy a new pair and they know if they tell them, they will get punished. They figure they can share Ali's sneakers. His sister wears them to school in the morning and runs to Ali on the other side of town at midday so he can attend afternoon classes. This gets Ali in trouble because he is late to class everyday. He then enters a footrace in hoping of getting the third prize of a new pair of sneakers and 2 weeks at a summer camp and other prizes, but he doesnt care about anything but the sneakers. He tells his sister that he will come in third. After a long foot race, he actually comes out in front and is very dissapointed.

A running theme of this film is the love shared between brother and sister. It’s rare to see a movie where siblings actually love and respect each other. Where one sibling goes out of his/her way to please the other one. Usually films show sibling rivalry or how they so different from each. This film showed a very touching relationship that makes an only child like myself, very envious. The things Ali did to please his sister was incredible. Begging to be included in the race and crying over his first place win was incredibl y unpretentious of him as he was doing all of that for his sister. This film showed a real touching relationship between the two siblings, which is probably the best thing about the film.

I was suprised at how much I enjoyed this film. After it was over, I just thought about for awhile and the more I thought about it, the more I liked it. It was a very well made film. The acting between the brother and sister was really great. The whole movie felt real and unscripted. The locations also proved to be essential to film as it gave the film real character. The story was incredible and I would probably buy this film if I saw it at a store for a good price. The footrace at the end of the film was really compelling. I got really into it and was rooting for Ali to get third place. This film is great for all ages and I’m surprised it is not more well known. The story was very touching and compelling. It is rare to see a film like this that lets it’s story be front and center.

Salaam Bombay!

Salaam Bombay! is an award winning Indian film from 1988. It was nominated for Best Foreign film at the Academy Awards. This film is about a boy, who struggles to maintain a life in the streets of Bombay. This boy was abandoned by his mother at a circus. After breaking his brother’s motorbike, he is told not to come home unless he has 500 rupees. Krishna gets a job with the circus in order to get the 500 rupees. After coming back from an errand, he sees the circus has packed up and traveled somewhere else. He then decides to use his last few rupees to travel to Bombay. This brings him to the life of an average street child living in Bombay. He is now living with pimps, street hustlers, drug addicts, and prostitutes. Where he has to fend for himself in order to survive as he finds out saving money in his surroundings will be incredibly hard to do.
The first thing I noticed about this film was its music. The music in the film was incredibly charming and it gave the film its own personality. I enjoyed the story and liked the way it ended even more. Over the course of the film he works odd jobs to feed himselg. The boy eventually makes the 500 rupees but it gets stolen by his junkie friend who he helped. He gets taken in by the police and but into a juvenile detention center after they apprehended him for breaking into an older man’s house to steal his things. He then escapes and is brought back into the world he just was in. In the film he falls in love with a young prostitute. At the very end, he stabs her pimp in the back and runs away with her. The way the film ends with the boy crying was very powerful. The fact that he doesn’t have the 500 rupees or any family or hope is very touching. It doesn’t welt that he could be wanted for stabbing the pimp. I liked how it didn’t have a happy ending but a more realistic one. The fact that nothing was really settled in the end made me appreciate what the film was all about.
A major theme in this film is survival. Krishna, the central character, spends the entire time in this film trying to survive admist all the drug pushers and street hustlers. He runs into many shady people in Bombay. Surviving in the streets of Bombay is not easy and Krishna learns that the hard way. The theme of survival can also apply to the character of Sola Saal, the young prostitute, who is treated very poorly by her pimp. It is not until the very end until she is saved from him by Krishna. Her life should be better from that point on, but Krishna’s survival is still up in the air.
The dedication at the end of the film to the children on the streets of Bombay was also a nice touch. There are probably many kids outthere who are in a similar situation that main character of this film was in. It was a very realistic film and things happen so natually. The children in the film, especially the main character, were very good actors. That’s why I felt it flowed so natually. I never once thought these were child actors. The film was very well made, acted, and directed. The film also feels like a documentary at the times probably due to its shots of Bombay. It feels like we are capturing something in reality at times. It was somewhat slow moving at times but the story was good and the ending made it worthwile.

Akira Kurosawa's Dreams

Akira Kurosawa's Dreams is a Japanese film from 1990. Akira Kurosawa's Dreams is exactly what the title tells you. This film is simply one man’s dreams. Dreams he has had over his life. This is film is basically eight short films, with some overlaps in characters and plot. Most of the stories deal with man's relationship with his environment.
A running theme throughout all the stories seemed to be identity. The first story, Sunshine Through The Rain, is about acting against the cultural barrier. The boy acts out against his mother. He is destroying what the world that he was raised with. This ostracizes him from his previous identity. In the second story, The Peach Orchard, the dolls’ culture was put to an end by the boy's family when they destroyed the peach trees. They made the decision to go against their traditions and separate themselves from their culture. With this act, the child is denied a his identity and is forced to live with that now. With Mount Fuji in Red and The Weeping Demon, Akira Kurosawa, depicts the world as a nuclear wasteland. This world is now inhabited by cannibalistic demons. They are now the main people who live on Earth. Kurosawa comes into this world not knowing where he is or why or what now. The identities of mankind have been stolen and now changed into demons. In the last story, Village of the Watermills, a boy is faced with the option of suicide or eternal searching after witnessing the fox wedding. He is left with no choice but to find a new identity. This basically says trying to recreate a new identity is a bad idea. Instead, keeping your original cultural and born identity is necessary in having a strong, meaningful existence.
This film was quite different than most films I’ve seen before. I enjoyed the fact it was very original and very nice to look at. Some of the visuals in this movie are insanely different. The scene with the man going inside Van Gogh’s paintings was incredible. I enjoyed watching the darker dreams the most in this film. The Tunnel and Mount Fiji in Red seemed like very short Twilight Zone episodes. The Tunnel’s story about a man encountering the ghosts of an army platoon he was responsible for killing was intriguing. Why did Akira Kurosawa even have a dream like that? I didn’t enjoy The Weeping Demon because I felt it was a bit redundant after pretty much knowing that was how everything was going to turn out after the nuclear explosions. Crows and Mount Fiji in Red definitely felt like the most realistic dreams for me. Realistic in the sense of Akira Kurosawa actually having those dreams. I’ve had dreams similar to those two in terms of how they looked and what I was experiencing. Some dreams were better than others but that didn’t really stop my enjoyment of the film. Despite whether you liked the film or not, Akira Kurosawa did a very commendable job. The film was very original and I hope to see that people will make more films like this that are daring and creative.

The Eye

The Eye is a 2002 horror film from Hong Kong. The film is about a woman, Mun, who has been blind since the age 2, getting and eye transplant. She enjoys the transplant at first, but not for long as she starts seeing ghosts that foretell deaths. She goes on a trip with her doctor to track down the donor of the corneas. She is told that the previous owner was looked down on as a witch for seeing death. She warns everyone about a huge disaster but no one believes her. The disaster kills tons of people and feeling guilty, she kills herself. Her spirit possesses Mun until her mother rescues her and they make up. Mun feels a bit better until she sees ghosts while stuck in traffic. The traffic was caused by a huge tanker that had been tipped over and now Mun is in a similar situation that her donor was in. She knows that a disaster is about to happen but no one is responsive to her. The tanker explodes and a piece of glass goes into her eye. Mun is now blind again and doesn’t mind not seeing anymore. She says she has seen all that she was meant to see.

A theme in this film is not to mess with the way things were intended to be. In this film we see that Mun only achieves true happiness once she is blind again. She says at the end of the film that she saw all that she was meant to see. After getting the cornea transplant, she realizes she got into more than she bargained for. After seeing all these haunting visions, having vision is now more of a hassle than actually not seeing anything.

The Eye had an intriguing story with a good ending but I felt there wasn’t enough story in the film. It was nearly 100 minutes but the story could easily have been a highly entertaining 30 minute episode of The Twilight Zone. I felt things were padded out or went slower because they needed to fill time for a feature length film. Basically the first hour of the movie is Mun seeing visions of dead people over and over again. The most entertaining scene was probably the end featuring the explosion of the tanker. It was obvious that no one would pay any attention to her and that they would all perish considering that basically happened to the other girl. I liked how the ending wasn’t a typical horror movie ending. There was nothing screaming sequel, even though they made 2 more films after this one. The fact that she was now happy being blind after going through all that peril was interesting to see. The film was decent enough but I wanted something more. The scene with the dead man in the elevator was entertaining, however, I wanted more thrills, instead of scenes relying on high volume music to make you jump. The whole troubled ghost needing to be put to rest idea was a bit lame. The film was alright but considering its potential, it could have been better.

Shanghai Triad

Shanghai Triad is a Chinese film from 1995. It takes place over seven days in the 1930s. The story begins as a boy, Shuisheng is a sent to work as a servant for a mob boss. He then gets assigned to serve Jinbao, a singer and the girlfriend of the mob boss. Shuisheng becomes the only person she can talk to openly. As his relationship with her is not motivated by power or greed. The whole film basically just chronicles Shuisheng's arrival to work for the Boss, his conflicted emotions for Jinbao , an attempt to kill the mob bass, Tang, and then fleeing to an island safe house.
A running theme of this film was the dangers of the condition of China. It is clearly ruined by dangerous, powerful, greedy men. They will pretty much kill anyone in their way or anyone who knows too much about their operation. Jinbao tells Shuisheng to start a shop and get out of Shanghai as soon as possible. She knows it’s no good and the people in her life are dangerous. After going to the safehouse, the film ends with a return to Shanghai. Shuisheng might be stuck there as he gets to see first hand what Jinbao was talking about in the beginning.

I would say this was a decent film. As a gangster film, it isn’t like the rest. There isn’t a whole lot of violence and it deals mostly with the character of a young boy. Shuisheng is used to represent the audience. Everything that takes place is seen through the eyes of Shuisheng. There are first person camera shots where we see events open up from the perspective of Shuisheng. It is as if the audience is in his position as we are finding out everything going on the same time he does. I felt the boy who played Shuisheng was a little emotionless in is acting. Everyone else was pretty good and natural. However, the boy was a little stiff. I liked the growing relationship between Jinbao and Shuisheng and Jinbao’s relationship with the young girl, Ajiao. I also enjoyed the ending of the film as it held my interest and it wasn’t particularly happy. The film then ends with Shuisheng tied to the sails of the ship as it sails back to Shanghai. The silver coins that Jinbao gave him to start a shop and get away from Shanghai have fell out of his pocket and into the ocean. The mob boss thinks tying him up upside down like training a dog. Ajiao will be brought up to be the next Jinbao. The future doesn’t look too bright for both Jinbao and Ajiao. I feel like there could be another film showing us what happened to these characters 20 years later.

Yi Yi

Yi Yi is an award filming Taiwanese film from 2000. Yi Yi is about the Jiang family seen through three different perspectives. The father NJ, the son Yang-Yang, and the daughter, Ting-Ting. The starts with a wedding and ends with a funeral. In between the wedding and the funeral we see a birth, an attempted suicide, and a murder. This film shows all areas of human life and struggle. The film basically shows us the emotional struggles of a Taiwanese family seen though three generations. The film switches back and forth of the stories from those three different characters.

A running theme in this film is life and the existence of people and the complications that come with it. On the day of the wedding, two major events occur. NJ runs into his first love from thirty years ago and he is faced with some unfinished business. His first love wants to know why he left her waiting for some long. Later on in the film they flirt with each other, when she meets him on his business trip in Japan. However, NJ runs into complications that kept them apart for so long, however now he has a wife and children in the mix. The other major event that occurred that day was the stroke of NJ’s wife’s mother. NJ’s wife then tries to find a spiritual enlightenment after this. As the film stays true to its themes throughout, it is also firmly based in reality. As in real life, there are tears, tragedy, laughs, and love. The film is true to that in every way.

I felt the film was too long and slow. I believe there is an entertaining film somewhere in Yi Yi. I enjoyed some of the humor but there wasn’t enough. The scene with the teacher mistaking a balloon for a condom was entertaining. Also, I felt there were two funny things within the opening scene that had me anticipating a meaningful film with lots of humor. The first thing we see in the film is a groom picking his nose. I had to rewind the film to make sure that was in fact what I just saw. Then about three minutes later, a guy puts a picture of the bride and groom up upside down and doesn’t even know. For whatever reason, I thought that was a bit humorous. I did in fact laugh at that. Maybe I was being a little generous. For a near three hour film, the humor in life should have been more prevalent. I also felt the use of filming through glass to be a bit odd. It happened a lot during the film as we see the characters speak through their reflection of a window. The film had many vibrant colors in a lot of the shots. I believe this film showed a nice representation of Taiwanese life and the culture. I also enjoyed the instrumental music that started off the film and played in other scenes. It reminded me of instrumental music you would hear in movies of the late 80’s. However, it just wasn’t my cup of tea. Sometimes I enjoy slow moving films about life. Because some of the time I can relate to it, or there is witty humor, or it has an interesting story or a struggle. It wasn’t a poorly made film or anything, the film just didn’t entertain me as a whole.

Three Colors: Blue

Three Colors: Blue is a highly acclaimed French film from 1993. The film is about a woman who loses her husband and daughter in a car accident and how she deals with the pain. She initially wanted to kill herself while recovering in the hospital. But she later decides to dissociate herself from anything of her past life. Julie tries to live a new life that is free of grief, love, commitments, and anything resembling a social life. She tries to live a quiet, lonely, solemn life with no one in it.

The theme of this film is liberty. Liberty in this film has a lot to do with emotional freedom. Julie wants to live a life completely alone without any friends or anyone in her life as if she doesn’t exist. The problem with that is people keep entering Julie’s life. She befriends a prostitute that lives downstairs from her, she falls in love with her husband’s friend, and helps her late husband’s mistress who is carrying her late husband’s child. After seeing these people in her life care for her and need her, she has a realization. These people give Julie a reason for living and she is now ready to start a new chapter in her life. In Julie’s search for liberty, she learns lessons from her mother is institutionalized. As her mother represents the liberty Julie is trying to achieve. As the film goes on, Julie reestablishes her connection to her past life and her search for liberty ends.

This film was very well made. The acting and directing was spot on. However, I felt the film was a bit too high brow for my tastes. I felt I was looking at art instead of a movie and therefore I wasn’t that entertained. I appreciate what the director was trying to accomplish but it just didn’t appeal to me. I think the director wanted the audience to pay attention to nearly everything going onscreen for it will all come together in the end. If you miss apart of it, you probably will be lost in the story. Something that bothered me was the classical music that came in and out of the film with strange fade ins and fade outs. I was a little of sick of this ten second piece of classical music that would just come out of nowhere. I liked the story though but felt it was told in a slow, boring way. While it was very artistic, it just didn’t entertain me enough to recommend

Talk to Her

Talk to Her is an Academy Award Winning Spanish film from 2002. The film is about two men, Marco and Benigno, who care for their loved ones while they are both in comas. There are many story and character revelations as the story becomes clearer with flashbacks. Benigno is a nurse who is in love with a woman in a coma he doesn’t even really know but is smitten with her. His job as a nurse requires him to clean her and take care of her. Benigno did a similar thing as a boy when he had to take care of his mother. Marco’s girlfriend got gored by a bull and she is also in coma. That is where these two men begin to talk. Then there is an out of left field moment as Benigno gets accused of raping the comatose woman.

There are a lot of themes in this film as this film has so many things happening at once. But one theme that stood out for me was loneliness and the need for intimacy. The character of Benigno said at one point in the film he never goes out. He basically has no social interactions. Due to his loneliness, he craves intimacy and love. He stares outside his window looking at a woman he is smitten with. He was brought up as a young boy caring for his mother. He spent his whole life mostly cleaning, feeding, and looking after bed ridden people. This carries on in the hospital with Alicia. If he did in fact rape her, it was because he was in a one sided love affair with her and that he didn't fully know what he was doing was wrong. There was an earlier scene where he asks tells Marco he wants to marry her even though she is in a vegetative state. Benigno was obsessed with Alicia but he was also loving and caring at the same time. In fact he was probably the cause of her waking from the coma due to the pregnancy.

This film had a very interesting and different story. I felt the filmmaking and storytelling was also very creative. I enjoyed the use of flashbacks to tell the story. It was also very interesting that the first scene of the movie shows these two men sitting next to each other at a ballet. They are complete strangers and then come to know each other later through the circumstances in the film. The way the film’s story kept introducing new things to the plot was very exciting. Once I heard that Alicia was pregnant, I got a little bit more comfortable in my chair. I knew things were about to get very interesting. Pretty much after that revelation up until the ending, the film became incredibly engrossing. I didn’t really know what to think of the film as it began, but a little soon after I kind of warmed up to it. I felt like some things I have seen in the film in the beginning didn’t quite make sense at first, but as I thought about it and the more the film progressed it was all starting to make sense. I think this film would definitely be watchable and just as interesting the second time around now knowing what is going to happen in the story and what the film is all about. It definitely made me think about what I just saw. I felt like almost anything could happen in the story. The silent movie scene was also extremely bizarre. I thought the film was very well made. The acting and direction was spot on. The writing was probably the best thing about it. The film was well deserved of its Academy Award for best screenplay. The film makes for a great conversation piece afterwards.

Strawberry And Chocolate

Strawberry and Chocolate is an Academy Award nominated film from 1994. The film is about the blossoming friendship between two different men. A friendship that overcomes intolerance, politics, and sexuality among other things. David is a heterosexual communist and Diego is a homosexual artist. Diego is mad at Cuba’s intolerance of the gay community and the censorship of art and culture. These two men meet once Diego sits down next to David outside. Diego is eating strawberry ice cream. This refers to the title of the film when David said he knew Diego was gay when he chose strawberry ice cream instead of chocolate. David's only reason for befriending Diego is his responsibility for the Communist Party by revealing counter-revolutionaries. This could bring Diego ten or more years in prison. Diego tries to seduce David at first with sexual intentions but that quickly fades into a growing friendship. David then falls in love with Diego’s neighbor, Nancy, and another new relationship blooms.

I think the major theme of this film is tolerance. It takes David’s relationship with David to understand more about different viewpoints and life. The David we see in the beginning of the film is a much different David from the end of the film. David’s friend Miguel would more represent David’s original prejudice thinking. The contrast between Miguel and David at the end of the film is quite vast showing the tolerance, understanding, and love David had achieved. Miguel wanted to use David as a spy, as Diego seems to be a threat to the Communist party. The time David and Diego spend together definitely allows David to see what Diego is really about and what he has to offer intellectually. Diego’s character intrigues David is the beginning of an incredible relationship.

Most of this film is just conversations between the two main characters. Diego and David pretty much just sit around and talk about books, art, politics, music, etc. This is essentially the driving force behind the change of David’s character. I understand that this movie could not have been made any other way. It needs those long conversations. However, I felt it to be a bit slow and the conversations sometimes went on too long. The addition of the character of Nancy I felt was much needed. The film couldn’t rely on the relationship and conversation of David and Diego alone. Bringing Nancy into David’s life also helped change his character as we see him with nothing but smiles the day after he makes love to her. Strawberry and Chocolate is a well made film. The acting is very good and it stays as naturalistic as possible. However, I found the film to be a little too slow for my own taste. There are interesting scenes, dialogue, and characters but as a whole I felt the film was a bit dry.

Amores Perros

Amores Perros is an Academy Award nominated Mexican film from 2000. The film has 3 different stories connected by a car accident that briefly intertwine each story’s characters. In the first story, a man named Octavio wants to run away with his brother’s wife and needs the money to start their own life together. Octavio then gets involved in dog fighting to raise the money. When the rival owner of a dog shoots Octavio’s dog all hell breaks loose. This causes Octavio to flee away. Octavio then sets in motion the car accident that brings the film’s different characters together. In the second story, a man named Daniel leaves his family to run away away with a supermodel named Valeria. She then gets injured in the car accident caused by Octavio which helps put an end to her modeling career. In the last story, a hitman named El Chivo is hired to do a kill but is interrupted by the car accident caused by Octavio.

A major theme of Amores Perros is what people do for love. This theme pretty much creates the fate of the major characters of each story. In the first story, love is what causes Octavio do go into dog fighting. Without love, he would have no reason to need the money and run away from his brother’s wife. In the second story, love is what brings Daniel to leave his family and live with the supermodel Valeria. However, the life he had in mind with her is cut short after the car accident. She is now in a wheelchair and her dog has disappeared into the floorboards. Daniel now feels the repercussions of this decision as he regrets it. The love Daniel had felt has now messed around with his head. In the last story, the hitman El Chivo seems like someone who doesn’t feel love since his job requires him to kill people. However, he eventually has a change of heart during one of this supposed kills.

I particularly enjoyed how the film was divided into 3 different stories. This made the film much more interesting. When I saw the 153 minute running time, I was a bit worried. But the way the film was made, kept me interested throughout. I liked how the film started with something already going on and you had no idea what this was. Until the accident you realize this is what is going to bring all the characters together as they flash back to the beginning of the story. Seeing the different stories of the characters and how one of the character’s actions changed all their fates was very thought provoking. The use of dogs in all the scenes at first was very strange but since it wasn’t coincidental it all made sense according to the story. I think the director of the film maintained a good use of drama and tension throughout the stories. I liked the way he brought the difficulty of relationships and how people deal with love. He tied everything together with dogs which on paper sounds bizarre but in the film it makes sense. I enjoyed this film because it was different and I was invested into the different stories. I also enjoyed the connection between the 3 different stories. Amores Perros is definitely worth a watch.

The Battle Of Algiers

The Battle Of Algiers is an academy award nominated film from 1966. The film chronicles both sides of the French and the Algerians during the Algerian War. The film shows the torture techniques the French used and the tactics used by the Algerians in order to gain independence.

A major theme in this film is what people will do in order to stand up for what they believe is right. The Algerians go through some amazingly difficult tactics in order to fight the French. They also have smart and cunning ideas. The increasing violence they had to endure was a major feat. The Algerians proved they are worthy to put up a good fight. They showed they could stand their own ground. They were there to battle the French rule all the way to the death. Their actions may have seemed ruthless but the French were just as ruthless in their tactics.

I really wasn’t expecting much of this film but there were some scenes that I really liked. The scenes with the women carrying the bombs and placing them in public places were really great. I wasn’t expecting to be that into it. I honestly enjoyed any scene involving waiting for something to explode. The director created a lot of tension in those scenes. The film also felt very real at times. It could have been because it was a black and white film and that the film featured no stars at all. So, it naturally felt realistic in that sense. The riot at the end of the film especially felt realistic. I can see why this film was very important at the time of its release. I personally liked how the Algerians were not portrayed as ruthless, evil terrorists. They were portrayed as individuals struggling to keep their independence and their culture. This allows the audience to care for the characters as we see them as actual humans and not one dimensional characters. We see what the actions these people have to go through to get their voices heard and it’s very powerful.

The film’s subtitles at times were hard to make out. Having white subtitles on top of a white background was not a good idea. I wouldn’t say that takes away from the film. I just thought it was annoying. What I’ll remember most from this film are the tense scenes involving the women and the bombs. It’s not necessarily the kind of film I like, however, there are worthwhile moments.

Tsotsi

Tsotsi is a 2005 Academy Award winning film from South Africa.  The film is about a murderous thug who unknowingly kidnaps a baby while stealing a car and chooses to take care of it.  This allows for a change in his own character and behavior as he becomes attached to the baby.   

    The major theme of this film was redemption.  The character of Tsotsi that we first see is a street thug out to rob and murder.  A simple twist of fate allowed Tsotsi’s character to go through a much needed change for the better.  After stealing a car with a baby in it, Tsotsi keeps the baby and looks after it. Tsotsi desperately wants to care for it and feed it.  He notices a mother on the street and forces her at gunpoint to feed the baby.  He probably had no intentions of ever shooting the woman, but needed to get his point across somehow.  Caring for the baby has controlled Tsotsi’s evil actions to a point.  He no longer was the heartless thug we saw in the beginning of the film.  He has not necessarily become a great person, he has just put an end to his thuggish ways.  Holding his hands up to the police at the end of the film will allow Tsotsi to achieve his full redemption after he serves his jail time.     

I enjoyed Tsotsi more than I thought I would.   Everything in the film was strong.  The acting, directing, and writing were all top notch.  The music also provided a strong background to the culture we see on the screen.  What I enjoyed about the film is that the story unraveled in a naturalistic way.  The true achievement of the film was its storytelling.  Nothing in the film was contrived or forced.  The story of a thug becoming a better man on paper sounds like a familiar idea.  However, this film gives it a fresh take.  I particularly enjoyed the film’s story.  The story of a thug becoming a different person through the power of redemption made for an interesting film.  The fact that caring for the baby changed his overall behavior was something I did not see coming.  It was never boring as I was intrigued to where the story was going to lead next.  I’m not sure if the film will hold up on repeat viewings.  Part of my enjoyment of the film was that I didn’t know what was going to happen.  However, I will still recommend the film, even to people who don’t normally watch foreign films.