Wednesday, 25 May 2016

ISYS100 group video on Movies

Angry Birds Review

Here is a video that we created when we went together to the cinemas to watch Angry Birds as a group for the first time! We share our experience and give our thoughts on the film after watching it.
Enjoy!



Everyone took an active part in doing the group assignment. We had a great time together.

Thursday, 19 May 2016

3 idiots movie review by Charles Luo






3 idiots is a classic comedy movie from India, smile with tear is highest evaluation for the comedy movie,  from Chaplin's age, the film began looking for a playful way to refer to reality and this always touched audience inadvertently.

This movie is about friendship among three friends, they meet in the university and Rancho as the centre. They experienced obedience, rebellion and then self-liberation and cognitive processes, from this scene, the movie want to illustrate how fail of the India's education in university and the issue of  hierarchy. Therefore, the reason why audience have strong effect because this movie matched their feeling and most audience have the similar experience with this movie also this movie reflect the modern society in that time.


'All is well!' is Rancho's motto, born with humble but he got the talent, play a role of rebel in this university, but he not supposed to doing that, in contrast, he unconscious to be the opinion leaders, just follow the heart easily. In Rancho's view, everything is about dream, its good for have a smooth roads, but also hardships can be resolved, as long as their is no fear in your heart, success will be coming.

Follow the heart direction, this is a advice that Rancho to Farhan, he keen on the photography, but due to the father's pressure, he select the mechanical engineering, the result is oblivious. Put down the fear from heart,  that the advice Rancho to Raju. The poor family background make him have a big pressure, then just  transformed into the fear of the gods.


See, these two people's situation and this two advice how matched today's university student's experience. Facing the ideals we bowed to reality, facing reality, we are resigned to this, there are always contradictions. Someone taken a brave step towards to dream, and most of us devoid into reality gradually.


Wednesday, 18 May 2016

Ansatsu Kyoushitsu (Assassination Classroom) Movie Review


The Assassination Classroom Japanese film is based off the anime series, which is in turn based off the manga series. I have seen the first season of the anime series and really enjoyed it, and as I knew about the existence of a film counterpart, I've decided to review the live action film in comparison to the anime. 

Caution: due to my extremely positive view of the anime, this review might be extremely bias.

Synopsis

'Koro-sensei' is the name given by the students of the 3rd grade E class of Kunugigaoka Junior High School to this mysterious octopus monster who is responsible for destroying a large portion of the moon and plans to destroy the Earth by the end of next March. Due to Koro-sensei's ability to move at Mach 20 speeds, the government has no hope of being able to destroy him, however for a reason yet unknown, Koro-sensei made a deal with the government that he will teach class E-3 in the ways of assassination. The class's first priority is to assassinate their teacher whilst they study for their exams.


Positives

- I like the setting of the film, as it sticks to the anime's setting and shows what a messy, broken down Japanese classroom looks like.
- The props shows the odd scene of school children using realistic weapons in order to learn how to kill their teacher.
- I was wondering how the live action film would emulate the high speed movement of Koro-sensei, and was surprised by how good it looks. The use of a blurring effect, the producer is able to properly emulate the way that Koro-sensei can move in the anime, which is a feat that took me by surprise.

Negatives

- The thing that i dislike the most is the acting of some of the students in this film, which doesn't quite emulate the emotions and personality of their anime/manga counterparts. Some of the acting looks so forced that it gives a completely different impression of the scene from when I watched the anime.
- I am aware that the time limit for a live action film can't quite match the over 7 hour anime series, however the way that characters are introduced is so rushed that the audience is only able to understand what is going on through small hints, and will surely be confused unless they have seen the anime or read the manga.
- There are also times where they add random, not important scenes from the anime which would be scenes that I would think to be better left out. It just serves to further confuse the audience on the meaning.

Overall

I am aware that my review may be harsh due to my comparison with the anime, however with proper directing or cinematographic techniques, the film could have turned out better. Thus I give this film a 3/10.

----Will

Review on Annie by Zheng Shao


Annie is a Broadway classic stage play that was turned into movie in 2014. This story  aims at delighting audiences with the humorous and moving story of a girl called Annie and Will Stacks, one of the important characters in this movie who adopt Annie at last.

Annie, a young and happy girl but actually made a tough way in New York in 2014, she was left by her parent when she was a still a baby with a “fake” promise that her parents would come back to pick her up someday. She lived with other foster kids rather than orphans. She And other kids were  treated rudely by the landlord. But everything had changed when the candidate of New York mayor election Will Stack advised by his assistant, to adopt a child to win the reputation of the public to increase his support. Annie was that lucky girl.

At first, Stack didn't take Annie seriously, just a way of gaining reputation from the public. Annie broke her heart when she knew that Stack pretended to take care of her only with the purpose to win the position of the New York Mayor. She felt thankful at first when she was lucky enough to be adopted by Stack. To everyone’s surprise, the cute, kind-hearted Annie finally aroused Stack’s  interest.Stack can’t help himself taking care of her.

He began to draw Annie’s attention, he wanted to adopt Annie with no commercial or political purpose, but he already lost his trust from Annie. He did lots of things to let Annie turn back. The story has a happy ending that Annie became the real family member of Stack.

Many people wrote bad comments on this movie, but from my perspective, I was a music-addicted person, the theme song for this movie attracted my eyes the first time I heard it when watching it. I also listened to different languages of this song, every version gave me a different movie. I think the movie version is a success, at least I was touched by Annie and Stack’s story.


American dreams in China By Baiming Qu 43780415





American dreams in China

The American dreams in China is a famous movie which is talking about the people's studying life in 1990s. From 1990s, there was a popular which younger generations wanted go abroad to America and see the other country. However, the visa requirements were very strict and some of them were rejected by immigration office even without any reason. This movie is talking about three young men whose name is Dongqing, Xiaojun and Yang. They wanted to go America but cannot go for many different reasons. They love challenge and they want to be successful. This movie touched many younger generations to pursue their dreams even there are many difficulties to achieve them.
 
Dongqing comes from countryside and his parents are farmers. Dongqing's parents cannot afford his university fees thus he got a part time job doing his bachelor degree. After he graduated from Yanjing university, he got a job in his college as a teacher. However, due to his part time job out of campus, he lost his job. Dongqing wanted go to America but he was rejected many times by American immigration. Xiaojun was born in a rich family and his parents were working in University. He went to America for his master degree. Yang had the opportunity to go to America but his America girl friend was broken up with him before he went abroad.
 
These three young men establish an English School whose name is New Dreams. Even they cannot achieve their America dreams, they helped many students go America. They helped many younger generation pursue their dreams. In China, there still many children who want to go abroad but cannot afford. They still need people's help to achieve their dreams in China. 

Tuesday, 17 May 2016

La Famille Belier Movie Review

About this film

The Belier Family is a French film about a deaf french family living in the countryside, where daughter Margo, who is the only one who isn't deaf in her family, has a dream to go to Paris as a singer. The film is full of comedy and drama as the family struggles to adapt to a life where they no longer rely on Margo for her sign language translations, and as Margo struggles to realize her dream.

My Thoughts on the Film

This film has left a very positive impression on me for multiple reasons. It explains a concept which is relateable with anyone; family. The Belier family's dramatic and emotional scenes firmly grabs the audiences attention and contains a tear jerking scene toward the end though the use of the deaf motif, which had been the source of their struggles. The innovative fashion in which Eric Lartigau, the director, has created this film proficiently reveals a new perspective on the lives of deaf people and their mental struggles to fit into society; which serves as a good lesson as well as a enjoyable film which sticks to the memory.

Rating

I give this film a 9/10 for its great cinematography such as the filming techniques used and the ability to draw out the emotions of the audience as well as its brilliant story and the implementation of the deaf disability, which provides new perspectives and perhaps even sympathy and respect towards real deaf people. I also like this film because its in french, which helps me to remember it seeing as I barely use it so its rusty, however that's a personal reason.

----Will

Sunday, 15 May 2016

The Revenant Movie Review By Serbay Sert

The Revenant is an epic historical survival western film and is inspired by the experiences of frontiersman Hugh Glass in 1823. The film is about some fur trappers that kill Glasses son and leaves him to die after he is severely injured by a grizzly bear, and the fight for survival with native Americans as well and his revenge for the ones who killed his son and left him to die. Most of the movie is inspired by true events although not all is 100% accurate. First of all the environment they shot this movie was so good and so real that it feel like the audience was there as well which brang chills. The acting was superb especially from Leonardo DiCaprio. The part where they used CGI was also good and real. The movie is more of a survival movie then a revenge yes its shown that he wants revenge but most of the movie he is just trying to survive in the wilderness. The movie had some good costumes which made it feel like it is actually 1823, the story of the movie was also really good and intense as well. The movie was 2 hours and 40 minutes long and as the movie went on it started to get boring because there was not much aspect left to it then the guy just trying to survive. This movie was intense to watch and it was also a really good survival movie but it was just too long that it started to get boring after the first half of the movie, so maybe they should of cut some scenes out of the movie because they were just unnecessary. I cant really give any other negatives to this movie either then its runtime because it was really fun to watch the acting was good the environment was awesome and the costumes were brilliant which actually made it feel like that year and age. But as I said the movie does start to wear of from your interest as it goes on, with him just trying to survive more then to get revenge on his son and himself, he survival parts of the movie was so intense and real looking that you almost feel how bad the situation is for the guy in the wilderness. In the end I will say The Revenant was a good time just starts to get boring because of its run time but still recommend it to everyone especially someone who likes survival movies because this was a really good survival and I will give The Revenant 7/10.

Zootopia Movie Review - Charles Luo








Zootopia related to the word utopia, however, this movie is not fully utopia, it reflect the real human world. Someone thoughts this is a absolute  American political commercials, especially in the issue of return migrant and immigrations. Let's see what the truth behind the utopia.


In general speaking, Zootopia was set the background as all the mammal take off their nature ability and grow like a human, they live together 'peacefully' with technology, fox and rabbit, cat and rat, they seems like still have grudge but the hunter already lose their natural. In other words, its a not hundred present utopia world, its reflect the modern human society, make it clearly, its says the United States.




You can feel the each kind of shadow in the human world, such as prejudice, bullying even hate crimes. Then I want to understand what maintain the utopian world running.

There is a details which when Judy leaving from her home by train, there is a electric broad showing the population number and increasing very quick, it shows although the   mammal has evolution but the rabbit breeding instinct does not disappear. The important things need to know is the rabbit living strategy is breeding what they gonna eat. It seems when economic got developing, the human or animal reproduction instinct will be suppressed, that's why the population is going down in recent years. But the rabbit in this movie still increasing and breeding by kind of motivation, so where is rabbit going?



The most  animal in the movie still looks like carnivore, but what they eat?  The bird, fish and other reptiles does not appear in this movie is that means they will be downstairs of this life cycle.

Movie Review on Harry Potter

Recently, I spent time to review the whole Harry Potter series which I had been after since I was a child.

Harry Potter Series, as far as I know has been a success in the history of the development of the movies. A young boy who had no knowledge of being a wizard, during his study in Hogwarts (a school for wizards and witches to study and improve their skills) used his braveness to against the dark side of the magic world.

He grew up in a tragic circumstance, with no parents who was killed by the Lord Voldemort, not even realized that he was a wizard until Hogwarts sent him the letter for enrolment into Hogwarts. He met his for-life friends Ronald Wesley and Hermione Granger. Ronald Wesley seems to be a yellow-bellied guy but had never left Harry and Hermione away even they have arguments; Hermione is the top student of Gryffindor who helped Harry Potter and Ronald Wesley in their adventure of against Voldemort.

What impressed me in this series is the technology and the completeness of this story. It described how Harry grew up with Hogwarts and how Voldemort ceased his times. I appreciated the writer of the original novel, JK Rowling, she was so genius to have written such a wonderful story. And the technology used in the movie is hard to be distinguished from whether it is computer made or the real scenes.


The story of Harry Potter and his friends will continue 
-----Souzern Shao


Thursday, 12 May 2016

The Jungle Book Movie Review By Serbay Sert

The Jungle Book is a fantasy adventure which is produced by Walt Disney and is inspired by Walt Disney's 1967 animated film of the same name. The Jungle Book is about a young boy named Mowgli who lost his family to Shere Khan a Tiger in the jungle and was raised by a pack of wolves, in the movie the animals talk like the boy so this gives us a much more understanding of what is going on. The movie is about the boy trying to adapt to the wildlife like how the animals adapt and he is having a hard time trying to do so. One of Mowgli's bestfriend is Bagheera a Panther who helps the boy throughout the movie, he has another friend who is Baloo a Bear which he tags along through the movie. So the movie is about the boy who is trying to adapt to the jungle and the tiger trying to kill the boy because he believes humans don't belong in the jungle with animals. That is pretty much what the movie is about I was very pleased with this movie because it did not change much at all to the 1967 adaptation of the animated version. There was one actor in the whole movie which was the boy which done a really good job acting by himself throughout the whole movie and all the animals were just CGI. The CGI and visual effects of the animals were astonishing and perfect. The movie did have some scenes were it hyped me up which was good but I cant expect a movie for kids to be much more than that, the movie also lived up to its original which was the animated that was released 1967. Everything in the movie was really detailed especially the animals. I cant say that there was a lot of negatives for this movie from the plot to the visuals it was superb, and fun to watch. One thing is that this movie is for a much more younger audience then for adults but adults will even have fun watching it. There were some scenes in the movie where I expected more things to happen . The movie was also good in the way the story just built up till the end and by the end I was really satisfied by The Jungle Book. The most positive thing in the movie was the plot and the visual effects, a negative thing in the movie was that they could of added more to some scenes where I expected more and that it is much more for a younger audience but still a good time for adults. In the end I will say The Jungle Book was a good time I enjoyed it and I recommend it to everyone and especially to kids, and I will say the verdict for The Jungle Book is 7 /10.

Tuesday, 10 May 2016

Kurouni Kenshin Review


A few weeks ago, I watched the Japanese film Rurouni Kenshin along with some members of the Japanese Association at Macquarie (JAM) as the first 'film watching event' of the 2016 year.
Rurouni Kenshin is said to be a famous Japanese movie that is popular among foreign viewers. On that note, it is for this reason that I think that it is important for me to introduce and review this film so as to discuss why it may be popular and encourage those who have not seen it, to do so.


The story is set in 19th century Japan after the Boshin civil war against the Shogunate, representing the cultural change happening in Japan in this period of time. The props and the sets used in the film show a picturesque view of traditional Japan which reflects well on foreigners who are interested in or like Japanese culture elements. Though the story is not that deep, it still reflects well on serious themes such as honor and love, whilst sometimes having comedic elements. I think the think which attract people the most about this film is the action scenes which are performed using stunning stunts and fighting styles that properly portray the characters personalities.


Overall, I would give this film a 7/10 due to my like for Japanese culture, the coolness of the main character, the fighting scenes and possible some of the hilariously bad acting which pleasently took me by surprise.
----Will

Monday, 9 May 2016

Kung Fu Panda 3 by Baiming Qu


                                        Kung Fu Panda 3

Kung Fu Panda 3 is comedy cartoon movies with Chinese traditional factors which produced by DreamWorks Animation in 2016. Due to the considerable success of Kung Fu Panda 1 and 2, the 3D Kung Fu Panda has a stable audience, both children and adults. The box office is around $500 million. This movie is a continuation of the previous story, talking about the Dragon Warrior, Po and his friends and families and spread love, courage, devotion and concentration.  






In the 3 edition there is a new character, Kai, who fights against Master Oogway, Master Shifu and Furious Five members. Kai wanted to get them “Qi” to realize his selfish goals, beating the Dragon Warrior to be the Master Qi. Before the final fight, Po found his dad Li Shan and his other relatives. Li Shan told a lie to Po that he knew how to use “Qi” and could teach to Po. Actually, Li Shan had no idea about Kung Fu and he only do not want Po to go fight again. Po had a very happy time to stay with his families; However when tiger told him that Master Oogway and Shifu has already been defeated by Kai, Po realize that he should fight for his Masters and be a competent Dragon Warrior. Protecting people is his duty. Po taught other pandas and did some exercise as well. In the final fight, Po used his Qi to protect other people and scarifies himself to save all. After Po’s disappear, Master Shifu, Furious Five members and other pandas use their Qi to survive Po and the love and effort let Po return to mortal world.





Kung Fu Panda has many Chinese traditional factors, like Chinese animals, dishes and Kung Fu. It is a good chance to let people understand about China better and share Chinese culture with the world. We learn love and be loved in this movie. The courage and effort could defeat all evil forces. 


Sunday, 8 May 2016

HACHI movie review - Charles Luo










This movie based on the true story which happened in Japan.
Hachi is dog which post from Japan to USA, however he has lost during the delivery in a American station. Professor Parker Wilson find him and take it to the home because no one want to keep Hachi overnight due to the late night. Parker's wife don't want to keep this dog in their home because they have a dog before, when the dog dead, his wife is so sad and can't experience this feeling anymore, therefore, Parker trying to find the owner and someone want to keep Hachi. After few days, Parker did't find the owner and no one want to keep Hachi, during these days, it have some special relationship between the dog and Parker, all of this has noticed by Parker's wife, so she decided to keep this dog.




After that, the new family member has enjoyed with his new host. Hachi so loyalty to Parker, he walk together with Parker to train station everyday morning and waiting for him in train station when Parker finish his job.
One day, Parker was suddenly fall down in the lecture time and dead, everyone knows that  except Hachi, when he hear the train's noise, he ran to the station and waiting for Parker, but in this time, Parker not appear, and he will never come back. After  Parker dead, his wife selling the house and moved. Hachi was kept in Parker's daughter's home and still take care to him. But nothing can stop Hachi waiting for Parker, he escaped from the house and go back to the station. Hachi just wait there 10 years until he dead.





I was crying so bad when finish this movie, although I watched this movie several times. In recently, my dog was dead in my home country, so this time I watch this movie I was  missing my dog so much. Dog always the human's best friend, in dog's whole life, they will recognize only one host and stay with them loyalty forever. The music in this movie is perfect matched the rhythm of the story developing, touched audience heart and let us thinking.

Friday, 6 May 2016

The Boy Movie Review By Serbay Sert

The Boy is a psychological - horror movie about a boy who has died years before the present day and now lives through a puppet doll. The movie follows a lady who comes to the families house as a babysitter for the boy, but there is no boy to look after since he has been dead but the family tells them to look after the doll as a person would look after a normal child. At this point of the movie the lady playing the role of the babysitter is not shocked at all why she would be doing that so she just goes with it. After a while the doll just starts moving on its own switching places in the house and the lady is not surprised that all this is happening which is unrealistic and she keeps doing her own thing the family leave for a vacation and the babysitter has to look after a doll the whole movie. There is no horrific scene which makes the doll or any other scene scary.This movie was one of the worst horror movies I have seen for a long time, it made no sense by the start the actors did not feel any emotion and were boring throughout the whole movie. One of the most important things was the lack of horror in the movie itself!. It was so boring and dragged too much and it was plain. It did not scare me at all and I am truly disappointed in a movie like this when it lacks horror when it is a horror genre! It did not build any tension or make me shutter at any point of the 1 hour and 40 minute of its running time!! The characters were unbelievable there was no horror yes it was more psychological but that was not enough to make this movie a average movie. It was slow and boring to the point where I shut my TV ! I was really disappointed at the fact of this movie being so over rated . Why it is because the movies trailer was better than the whole movie it self they made the movie look so good before it came out on the trailer but the whole movie was just rubbish the plot was all over the place and it just got more frustrating as the movie went on I will rate this move a 4/10 and that is because the environment of the movie was actually chilling and it did have psychological factors to it but that is not even enough to give this movie a average rating this movie was bad and I do not recommend it to the horror movie lovers because they will be disappointed. .

Review on Litchi Hikari Club

This is a movie that carried out based on nine beautiful boys who resist becoming ugly adults. They are normal student during the day but act as different at night in Hikari Club which is the secret base to satisfy their unbelievable and cult interest. They obtain the strongest power and eternal to rule the Keikoh Town’s Adults.



Date back to an industrial town called Keikon in Japan, nine pretty boys are crazy for the beauty and urgent to find the deep of maintain beauty, they loathe the ugliness of adults and want to ruin the adults. Every time they found an ‘ugly’ adult, they would implement brutal punishment on them. Too bloody and inhuman.

They created a machine called Litchi, his mission was to find beauty in Keikoh Town. Litchi finally bring back a girl called Canon, who almost have all the characteristics of what beauty is. Nine boys locked her to preserve its beauty.


To everyone’s surprise, Litchi, the machine, who are programmed as have no human feelings, fell in love with Canon and helped her to escape, which annoyed Zera, the emperor of the Hikari Club. They punished them. Litchi was compelled to drown Canon in the water, which drove him crazy. He killed one member after another in the Litchi Hikari Club, and finally it turned to Zera. Litchi was programmed not to hurt Zera or he would explode, regardless of the consequence, he killed Zera cruelly and end this unbelievable world ruled by Zera.



I admire the way of filming this movie, the director Eisuke Naito gave the audience a strong sense of fear, terror which you might seldom feel in most of Japanese movies. 

                                                                                                               ------------Souzern Shao

Wednesday, 4 May 2016

Finding Mr. Right By Baiming Qu


Finding Mr. Right
Finding Mr. Right was a popular love movie in 2013 and the box office was extremely high which was 520 million. This movie is talking about a woman whose name is Jiajia and she was pregnant in Beijing. Her boyfriend has already get married, thus Jiajia cannot get the birth permission for her baby. Her boyfriend let her go to America Seattle and gave her a lot of money. He also hired a nurse, Frank, for Jiajia to took care of her life in Seattle. Frank was a doctor in Beijing. Due to taking care of his daughter, Frank resigned his job and went to America. This love story between Frank and Jiajia is start from here. 

Jiajia was a  text editors before she went to Seattle. Her favorite movie is Sleepless in Seattle, thus after she was pregnant, she choose to give her baby a birth in Seattle. However, when she was living with her roommates, her lose the connection with her boyfriend and she did not have enough money either. During this difficult time, Frank gave her much help and she found that there was something different between she and Frank. 

Frank’s daughter liked Jiajia very much and they went to NewYork together. After Jiajia contacted with her boyfriend and went back to Beijing, Frank and his daughter missed Jiajia very much. Then Jiajia recognized that her true love is Frank and she learnt to live independently. After two years, Jiajia and Frank met again at Empire State Building. 

Finding Mr Right is a romantic love movie. This story told us that pursuing our true love is undoubted mission. And beautiful love story is playing in our daily life. 


Finding Mr Right 2 is showing in the event now. It is a similar loving story and talking about a girl in Macao and a man in L.A. Hope you could enjoy this movie.