adventures of a tired coder

Made it through the first week of SIFF@Home without quitting! This week I've watched a consistent 1 film per day, which is more than I usually watch during non-SIFF times but is a good pace to keep me sane and rested. And it allows me some time to cook food to feed myself. 

You may be wondering about my rating system. What's the difference between a "ballot vote" and "Letterboxd rating"? 

At SIFF, they give out ballots for all films except for the last day, and they're used to determine the audience awards. It's 1-5, with 5 being the best, and no halves, despite many an audience member's attempt to create one (as a volunteer, I've counted many, many, many ballots). I generally vote high with my SIFF ballots, and I'll vote even higher if it's the sort of film I want to tell SIFF that they should program more of, even if I didn't love it as much as my vote suggested. 

On this scale, a 3 basically means I didn't like it at all. I'd only give a 1 or 2 if it was offensively bad. Letterboxd ratings also go from 1-5, with 5 being the best, but there are halves. Here, less than a 3 means I didn't like it at all. 3.5 either means I liked it but didn't think it was technically that good, or I thought it was okay but was technically admirable. I don't really give 5s so 4.5 means I thought it was amazing.

Burning

South Korea, 2018

Ballot vote: 5

Letterboxd rating: 4.5

Of course I'd heard everyone hyping this movie for the past year or so. I managed to get to this point without anyone spoiling it or finding too much about the plot, and it was great to go into the movie blind. I didn't even realize it was based on a Haruki Murakami story! Though the movie did contain the typical Murakami cat, empty well, and pasta, I was happy to see that the female (Haemi) was a fuller character than what I'd expect in a Murakami story, and she was delightful and genuine. I don't want to say much more, but it was both a satisfying watch and left a lot of things to think about and analyze. Highly recommend.

Kaili Blues

China, 2016

Ballot vote: 4

Letterboxd rating: 3.5

The original plan was to watch Kaili Blues, followed by its sequel, Long Day's Journey Into Night, but I got started late and there wasn't time for it. I was also really not in the right state of mind to watch this film anyway. I kept pausing for various reasons, and what I really wanted to do was read more and think more about Burning from the day before, since I didn't have time to fully process everything. With a faster paced or lighter film, I might have been okay, but Kaili Blues was slow and dreamy, with lots of spoken poetry and scenes with unclear relevance to the plot. IMDB labels its genres as drama and mystery, and I think it's a mystery because the viewer has no idea what is going on. I originally thought I was confused due to my lack of focus, but reading other reactions on the internet, it seems like that's just how it is. It's not that there's no plot, but it's tossed at you in dreamlike fragments that aren't necessarily directly connected to each other. But it was a beautiful movie. I hear the sequel is better and more clearly sequenced, so I do still want to make time to watch it.

We Go Way Back

USA, 2010

Ballot vote: 5

Letterboxd rating: 3.5

I had planned to watch this livestream, which was to include commentary from Lynn Shelton and members of the cast of the film. Then all of a sudden, Lynn passed away, a huge shock and tragedy. Northwest Film Forum kept the livestream but turned it into a tribute instead. Many of the people involved with the film were commenting live on Facebook as the film played, so we got to hear some details of the film that we might not have known otherwise, like when Lynn's ex-husband and son were in the background of a scene, or how they managed to get the rights to some of the music. The film featured a bunch of Seattle actors, and it was fun to see them looking so young! Lynn was really great about showcasing Washington, and there's some nice "way back" nostalgia with the viaduct, Empty Space theater, and smoking still being legal in bars. After the film, we got a "Q&A" in the form of an old interview about the film with Lynn and a UW professor. I still can't believe she is gone.