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Us and Them (2018)
This was a beautiful film that left me heartbroken and speechless. The story of Xiaoxiao and Jianqing makes me wonder about all the “what if” scenarios that I would go through in the next 10 years. I wonder if I will sit down one day and think about where I would be if I had… Read more
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Army of Darkness (1993)
What is nice about Army of Darkness is that the film is full of cheesy jokes yet they never seemed bizarre or out of place. I never felt the need to seriously ask “why is Ash transported to 1300 AD and how did that happen?” because the movie established itself as a lighthearted story to… Read more
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Batman Returns (1992)
Growing up in the 2000s, Christopher Nolan’s Batman was the “Batman” I knew. Heath Ledger’s joker performance brought the villain to life, but Batman is still largely about Bruce Wayne. The image of Gotham city in my mind was crime-ridden as portrayed in Joker (2019): just a very disorderly and busy city. Read more
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Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
When I watched Little Miss Sunshine in middle school for the first time with my brother and father, I concluded that the movie was about chasing dreams and staying determined through hardships. I liked that idea then; I was a middle schooler figuring out what I wanted to do in the future, and any hint… Read more
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The Boy and the Heron (2023)
Hayao Miyazaki took inspiration from his childhood experience and brought to life a beautiful story about loss and grief. Set after World War II, during which Mahito lost his mother in a hospital fire, he and his father move to the countryside. His father has remarried Mahito’s aunt (Mahito’s mother’s younger sister), who looks identical… Read more
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Poor Things (2023)
Poor Things is a “coming of age story” that one may read in teenage novels, except that it is a lot darker and explicit. The story follows the adventures of Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), a scientific creation by Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), in a fantastical world. Given that Bella has the “skin” of an… Read more