La Caja (The Wooden Box). Director: Juan Carlos Falcón. Spain—Portugal (2006). 113 min, Spanish with English subtitles.
www.imdb.com/title/tt0772892/
Brings new meaning to “I spit on your grave.” What seems to be a somber film about revenge is actually a hilarious, dark comedic farce about revenge. Shot in the Canary islands, under an unflinching sun and camera, the story takes place in a poor seaside fishing community in the 1960’s. A new widow, hidden away for most of her life by her husband, who was a corrupt market inspector, suddenly needs her neighbours to help with the wake and funeral. Everyone seems to have been hurt by her late husband, and they all want revenge on his corpse, or some of the money he stole from them. The widow’s blameless, and gradually begins to realize that he was a far larger monster than the horrible husband she knew. The characterizations are priceless – just one example the prostitute cousin of the downstairs neighbour. You’d swear she’s a transvestite or a transsexual – I cracked up when a personal quote from Antonia San Juan, the actress who played the part, actually addresses this question. A definite must-see.
Mamiya Kyoudai (The Mamiya Brothers). Director: Yoshimitsu Morita. Japan (2006) 119 min, Japanese with English subtitles.
www.imdb.com/title/tt0777932/
An very, very light comedy about adult brothers who share a Tokyo apartment and have average jobs, but are so impossibly geeky that they are still single (no, they’re not gay). Akinubo’s a school janitor, and Tetsunobu is a beer taster at a brewery. They vow to have a curry party and invite young ladies from their respective jobs, in the hopes of finding someone to marry. I was expecting light comedy, but this was positively helium.
Almost two hours of excruciatingly light comedy with just a dash of drama. Will our two good guys find heterosexual bliss by the end? I’d be channel surfing for something else and not worrying about what I missed while doing so with this one, as Jonathan said. I concur.
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