City of God (Portuguese: Cidade de Deus)

Movie: City of God

Year: 2002

Director:Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund

Language: Portuguese

Synopsis: The story begins in a slum of Rio where there are three small time gangsters who are fast going up the ladder by small time hold ups and their robin hood ways. They are idolized by the local kids and the locality as well. However as they recruit people they hire a small kid Li'l Dice who is asked to cover them for a robbery. The robbery turns murky when there is a mis-signal and a lot of bloodshed. “Tender trio” is sought after and by politics Li'l Dice becomes a ring leader calling himself Li'l Zé. With Benny, his friend, he establishes a drug cartel and there is relative peace in the locality as he is the boss. Rocket who is narrating the story witneses Benny trying to make his entry into the higher class by trying to be a party animal and having nice suave clothes and friends. Li'l Zé somehow agrees to this but at his farewell party there is a shoot out and Benny gets killed. Li'l Zé goes on a wild spree killing many and raping Ned’s girlfriend. Ned who is a sharp shooter joins a rival drug lord and then the politics gets murkier and in the process “runts” the young criminals (just like Li'l Zé and his gang years ago) capitalize on this. Story comes full circle as Rocket chronicles this.

My own take: you must have seen a lot of gangster flicks which have taken crime from being glamorous to being a power circle. We have been mesmerized by the godfather flicking his finger and the clever plots to eliminate people. But this movie is far from that. Its about the gangster you know in your heart exists but you never confronted on screen. The one who rises from the gutter literally and makes it big through sheer killing and bloodshed sometimes planned sometimes caught by surprise. Its not about hierarchy of gangs and cool casinos but ones that are in the crossfire. Having to live on daily deals and having an aspiration to make it in the flashy cars somehow. The denial of opportunities and the denial to a passage to a comfortable life which is the breeding ground for crime is so very beautifully portrayed in this movie that for once you see a heart in the story that comes full circle. Lots of shooting and action. But also a nice way to say how one thing leads to another when intentions, ambition, craving all collide in an explosive mixture. No doubt it won loads of awards...if not for anything watch it for the research

Chungking Express (Chinese, Chóngqìng Sēnlín)

Movie: Chungking Express

Year: 1994

Director: Wong Kar Wai

Language: Chinese

Synopsis: Its never easy to describe a movie by a director as talented as Wong Kar Wai. Like for example this movie is distinctly split into two halves each bearing no correlation to the other. The story begins with a cop called Qiwu who is dumped on the 1st of April by his girlfriend. He decides that he would wait till 1st of May, his birthday for her to come back else move on. From that day he goes on to buy a can of pineapple daily with the expiration date of 1st May as she loved pineapples. Meanwhile a drug smuggling bid fails and the lady involves is on the run. Qiwu who drifts in his sorrow has a chance encounter with this lady. They have a very strange relationship and somewhere in between this the new story begins. Where Faye, who is an attendant in a Sushi joint, has a crush on Cop 663. She somehow manages to make a key to his flat and goes to his place often to tidy it up and feel like his wife. Her ploy helps cheer Cop 663. So one day he fixes a date with her. She ditches him to go on a world tour leaving him with a fake boarding pass for a date exactly one year from that date.

My own take: Imagine a situation that I tell a story from which I take away certain parts which you believe are critical. Now what you are left with is a skeleton of a story and a lot to imagine. That is the way the story is told. Its amazing how the missing parts don’t keep you feeling incomplete but make you enjoy the movie in its own way. The other part of the movie which makes it equally gripping is the way the humor is built in the story. There is a scene where we Qiwu tries to have a rebound relationship and tries really hard to get back at someone, actually anyone, and end up calling girls who used to sit next to him in KG class or someone whose name also seems faintly familiar. And added to that is the symbolism that the director uses. The boarding pass, the pineapple, the key all of it gives the movie a distinct identity. Watch it only if you have patience. The tag line warns the impatient ones when it says: "If my memory of her has an expiration date...let it be 10,000 years"

Malèna (Italian)

Movie: Malèna

Year: 2000

Director: Giuseppe Tornatore

Language: Italian

Synopsis: I think in every language this movie has been tried in some form or another but I think this version is the best. Renato is a young lad in a small town in Italy who just starts on his journey towards adolescence and starts facing the familiar problems. He starts his journey of sexual exploration by noticing Malèna, an extremely beautiful young war widow in town. As he starts peeping into her life he finds out the sorrow behind the beauty. Malèna’s father the village teacher is deaf and supports her. He is shattered when he comes to see a letter portraying Malèna as a lady of loose character, subsequently he dies in a bombing leaving Malèna alone and unsupported. The lustful looks of the villagers is complimented by the jealousy of the local ladies who think that Malèna is a strong enough influence for their men to stray. As Malèna struggles to deal with her sorrow and loss of husband she is also has to fend for herself financially. Very soon she slips into prostitution which is what the ladies talked about. Well the stry ends on a hopeful note overall when she is accepted back into the society. Find out how. Not to be missed.

My own take: The last line that Renato says on growing up is that “Of all the girls who asked me to remember them, the only one I remembered is the one who did not ask." You can feel the sentiments if you remember the first crush you had or that seemingly unattainable person you always hugged your pillow as a teenager, thinking… The movie is so sensitively made that you realize that the racy poster it had was only a bait to get people into the theaters. Monica Bellucci excels in a role with minimal dialogues and lots of emotion. The beauty of the scenery and sets only makes the movie more credible. Critics find the movie low in depth or subtlety. I cannot comment on it but all I can say is that nice watch.