ROMERIA - MIFF 2025

 

As per the MIFF guide: “In 2004, 18-year-old orphan Marina, armed with a backpack and a camcorder, arrives in the coastal Spanish city of Vigo to meet the affluent family of her father, who died when she was just a small child. She’s there to connect with people she’s never known, to legally establish her father’s paternity so she can apply for a filmmaking scholarship and to learn more about who her dad was. But as she encounters a mix of hospitality and resistance, she begins to understand why so much of his life has been shrouded in secrecy.”

After being impressed by her previous film, “Alcarras”, about a family of peach farmers, I was really hoping Carla Simón's follow-up “Romería” would make it to MIFF this year, which it certainly did, although I was surprised by how little attention the film received at Cannes where it premiered. After seeing the film now, I am even more puzzled by the muted response to “ Romería” as I thought it was another wonderful family drama from Simón, which combines a coming of age storyline, with the discovery of family secrets that some members would prefer stay hidden.

In “Romería”, eighteen year old Marina travels to Vigo to meet with the family of her parents who died when she was very young. The family is welcoming to the young girl but we can see through half spoken conversations often held through whispers, and certain looks given by the family members that perhaps all is not what is seems. I love the way Simón has told her story through Marina's eyes, which means we, as an audience, only receive certain information at the same time Marina does. Simón never provides us with any details before Marina knows, so we go through the journey of discovery with her. Because of this, we find ourselves feeling what Marina is feeling; when she is shocked about something, so are we, or when she feels like something isn't right or that she is not being told the full truth, we too start to question what is being explained to us or what we thought we already knew about Marina and her parents.

Carla Simón paces her story nicely without rushing, and doesn't reveal all of the family's secrets at once but it doesn't take long for Marina to realise that what she has been told about her parents her whole life, may not in fact be the truth. Thanks to her mother's diary that she has access to and some old video footage that she shot, Marina has her own opinion of what her parents were like, and through this footage she tries to retrace her mother's footsteps, armed with her own video camera to record her journey. She discovers pretty quickly that her father's family are sick of all the secrets, and are happy to talk, Marina just has to find the correct questions to ask them. Her curiosity forces Marina to come face-to-face with the dark side of heroin addiction and her parent's place within that.

As I said, Simón tells her story in a nice leisurely pace that feels real and naturalistic of people learning about one another. At times you cannot help but feel for poor Marina when someone will say something off-the-cuff about either her mother or father, and it contradicts what she knows or thought. You can see this poor girl trying to process the new information, while also wondering if she has been lied to her whole life, and if so, why? Throughout the film, two things remain constant; the first being that everyone thinks she is the spitting image of her mother, and the other is her attraction to her cousin Nuno. The two get on like a house on fire, and you could cut the sexual tension between them with a knife, and they quickly become thick as thieves. Whilst most of the family welcome Marina with open arms, her grandparents are very cautious around her, with the grandmother almost hostile. When her grandfather gives Marina a large sum of money to pay for her schooling, she is immediately offended and sees it as a way the family is paying her off, to make her stop questioning the past. Her rejection of the cash is the catalyst for the family to finally confront their past and come to terms with it despite how unsavoury it may have been.

The lead role of Marina in “Romería” is played by newcomer Llúcia Garcia and she is utterly outstanding. She gives the girl the right amount of innocence, wonder and naivete for someone travelling by herself for the first time, whilst also giving her an inner strength to fight for the dignity of her parent's memory. Garcia is also excellent at showing her confusion, when things are said that contradict everything she thought she knew, and does a great job of exposing Marina's pain when she learns the truth, even though at times she tries to hide how much she is actually hurting. Garcia actually has a double role in the film because about two thirds of the way through “Romería”, Simón changes the naturalistic way of telling her story by including a dream sequence (that works like a flashback) where Marina first meets her parents on a rooftop, before we see their life and love together, with Garcia now playing the role of her mother and Mitch Martin (who plays Nuno) filling the role of the father. As the mother, Garcia gives a much different performance, creating two distinct characters. Here she is free, loose and with a world weariness behind her eyes. This is a girl who loves the night life, and who gets mixed up with drugs in a bad way, and Garcia does a fantastic job of showing the mother strung out, willing to do anything for a hit. The innocence felt in her performance as Marina does not exist at all when Garcia is playing the mother, and it is incredible how different the two women feel whilst being played by the same actress. It is also seriously impressive how Garcia makes the mother feel so much older than when she is playing Marina, who comes across as so young and fresh. One thing that cannot be denied is the true love between the mother and father, which feels so real thanks to the fantastic chemistry between Garcia and Martin. I must say that while this fantasy sequence is well shot and acted, I found it to be the one misstep of “Romería”, as a film that was once grounded in such truth and honesty is now clouded with a scene of either fantasy or flashback. This is the biggest chance Simón takes with her film, and sadly I do not think she pulls it off, because whilst these these scenes in and of themselves are pretty great, I just felt that in the context of the rest of “Romería” the scenes did not work, due to the way Simón gives us this information via fantasy, so I am not sure if we are meant to believe this is how it all happened, or if this is just how Marina has processed everything she has learnt, which makes the storytelling a little vague.

Hélène Louvart's beautiful cinematography is another highlight of “Romería” as she makes great use of the sea and it's surrounding beach locations thanks to the natural sunlight of the area. There is a warmth or glow in the way show follows Marina with her camera that is instrumental in the audience falling in love with her and caring for her plight. As the film is predominately through Marina's eyes, Louvart shoots the surrounding landscape with a sense of awe and wonder, more like a tourist new to the area, rather than someone who has lived there their whole lives and now takes the beauty of the place for granted. Due to the nature of the story, and with Marina being a budding filmmaker, there is a bit of video footage used in “Romería” and whilst I will never be a fan of the video aesthetic, I understood its inclusion and importance to the story, so had less of a problem with it than I normally do.

Overall, I thought “Romería” was another successful film from Carla Simón about family and the secrets sometimes hidden under the surface. It goes to a much darker place than her two previous films but still feels as real as them both. The film has been anchored by a stunning debut performance from lead actor Llúcia Garcia (who plays two roles in the film) and has been expertly lensed from the always dependable Hélène Louvart. Whilst Simón makes a slight misstep in the third act by including a scene of magical realism that does not work within the whole of the film, I still thoroughly enjoyed “Romería” and am very surprised that it has not garnered more attention for the great and subtle film it is.

3.5 Stars.

 

CLOUD - MIFF 2025

 

As per the MIFF guide: “Yoshii is a bored, responsibility-averse twentysomething who channels all his ambitions into a side hustle as an online reseller. Flipping everything from medical supplies to action figures to knock-off handbags, he overhypes and underdelivers, peddling junk with exorbitant mark-ups. As his online business booms, Yoshii moves from Tokyo to a lavish rural house with his girlfriend and a newly hired assistant. But as his dissatisfied customers grow from a disgruntled few to an angry mob, Yoshii becomes increasingly paranoid, fearing violent IRL retribution.”

Kiyoshi Kurosawa's latest film “Cloud” was the only film I was seeing at this year's MIFF that I had seen previous, but such is my love for Kurosawa's cinema, that I never miss a chance to see his work on the big screen. My opinion of “Cloud” remains the same as after my first viewing in that it is a wildly inconsistent film, basically a film of two differing halves, but when “Cloud” is firing on all cylinders, it is some of the best stuff Kurosawa has done in his entire career.

“Cloud” sees Kiyoshi Kurosawa return to the world of the internet and the darkness and dangers that emanate from cyberspace, some twenty plus years after he scored a massive hit with the horror film “Kairo” (Pulse) back in 2001. In the time since that classic film was released, the internet has changed substantially as has people's usage of it, with a sad portion of them using the supposed anonymity of the platform to abuse and bully others, without any thought of the repercussions. “Cloud” is a very different film from “Kairo”, in that it is not a horror film, but rather a dramatic thriller, before it descends into somewhat of an action film towards the end. Still with Kurosawa at the helm of “Cloud”, you can be sure that the film is at times effectively creepy.

The world of resellers (or scalpers) is what “Cloud” is essentially about, and Kurosawa does an expert job at detailing their profession, as well as their negative standing in the world. There is a sense that resellers are just ripping off regular folk by selling them fakes or imitations of custom goods, or by buying up all stock of real collector's items to sell at a much higher rate. I am actually a blu-ray collector and scalpers have such a bad reputation, more so now because of the limited edition model the hobby has began to favour recently. These people buy large numbers of these limited edition discs (thus making them scarce more quickly), only to sell them at an inflated price soon after. After Yoshii hits it big selling a medical item for half it's recommended price, but much dearer than he paid for it after low-balling the product's owner, Yoshii decides to make a living being a reseller full time. He quits his day job (offending his manager in the process), and leaves his tiny Tokyo apartment with his girlfriend Akiko, for a large house and open spaces of the country. Kurosawa does an excellent job at showcasing Yoshii scouring the web for hours, searching for bargains he can buy and then sell at an increased price straight after. We watch him carefully photograph each item, from every angle, before putting it on the internet for sale, as he sits back and waits for the products to sell. Even though at times he is ripping people off, he doesn't see what he is doing as anything necessarily bad, but those being taken advantage of by Yoshii obviously feel differently. One thing that I loved that Kurosawa does is show that reselling is not easy money, and just because you hit it big once, does not mean you can repeat that luck with everything you try to sell. It is certainly not guaranteed money, and needs an outlay of your own cash initially to buy the stock you want to sell at a mark-up. It is true that Yoshii has a huge win at the start of the film, but since then it hasn't been as smooth sailing, although Kurosawa does not explicitly state this, but through a quick glance at his bank book, it exposes his money supply is dwindling, not increasing. Kurosawa also fills Yoshii with a nervous energy whenever he lists something new on the internet, knowing how much it actually means to his future finances.

The opening half (or two thirds, really) is Kiyoshi Kurosawa at the peak of his powers. It is absolutely sensational, as he sets up the dodgy world of resellers and the benefits and negatives that come with it. As I mentioned earlier, Kurosawa has a gift at making the normal seem very creepy, and it isn't long until he has his audience biting their nails from the suspense, as it starts to feel that everything is not as it seems, particularly the new assistant Yoshii has hired to help him. There is a simply outstanding moment that takes place on a bus that illustrates just how great Kiyoshi Kurosawa is at creating dread out of nothing, making the mundane feel threatening. On the bus, Yoshii is talking to Akiko, showing her on a map where their new house is actually situated. During the conversation, Kurosawa shifts the angle of his camera ever so slightly, exposing that someone is standing directly behind the seated couple. The couple continue with their conversation, when suddenly Yoshii notices the person behind him. At the exact same moment, Kurosawa drains all the sound out, so it plays in complete silence, as the guy gets off the bus. It is incredibly unnerving, but we don't know if anything really happens. Was the guy eavesdropping and trying to find out Yoshii's new address or was it just a coincidence and he is just standing behind the couple, minding his own business? We never know the truth but it certainly gets you thinking that “maybe” something fishy was taking place. Another terrifying moment in “Cloud”, this time much less ambiguous, is soon after Yoshii and Akiko move into their new house, a part of a car engine is violently thrown through one of their windows in an attempt to intimidate them. Again Kurosawa uses sound brilliantly to achieve maximum impact, as he quietens the scene once more before a loud smash comes from nowhere. From there he goes into full suspense mode, as he has Yoshii wander around this house and surroundings looking for the culprit, and it is very tense. The other chilling moment has to do with timing and perfect execution as, later in the film, Yoshii hears a noise outside, and then notices that his side door is actually wide open, so rushes to attempt to close it, only to find the lock is broken and the door wont stay closed. Panicked, he finds some wire to tie around the handle to close the door, and as he is doing it, he drops the pliers he is using and bends to pick them up. As he rises, there is suddenly the figure of a masked man in the frosted window of the door who wasn't there a second prior. It is so well done, it is incredibly chilling, and it sets in motion the start of the less successful second half of “Cloud”.

Watching “Cloud” on the big screen, I was struck by just how effective Kiyoshi Kurosawa's films are, especially his suspense dynamics. I was equally impressed by his expert use of light and shadow, as well as colour. Early on in the film, “Cloud” sports and overly clean and sanitised look during the scenes that take place in Tokyo. Once the action moves to the country, “Cloud” sports very autumnal colours with browns, yellows and oranges regularly seen. I particularly loved the orange costume Kurosawa dressed actress Kotone Furukawa (playing Akiko) in for the film's finale. Kiyoshi Kurosawa actually made three films in 2024, each having a different cinematographer with the duties of “Cloud” falling to Yasuyuki Sasaki. As I said, his use of light and shadow is exquisite and I particularly loved when characters would come out of the darkness and only a sliver of light would illuminate just a part of their face. Sasaki is obviously a cinematographer who is not afraid of the dark, as large parts of the film (especially towards the end) play in almost complete darkness. For a thriller, this type of lighting was very effective.

An interesting wrinkle in the story of “Cloud” is when Yoshii comes across a doxxing page on the internet for his username “Ratel”, with strangers who felt duped by the reseller intent on exposing his true identity, publish his address and maybe even physically hurt him as revenge. Again, these strangers are given Dutch courage by their anonymity and hiding behind fake names (something Yoshii himself does when reselling), although when a group of these keyboard warriors are angry enough to hunt down Yoshii, this is when “Cloud” starts to become less and less interesting as it goes along, before it ends in a series of dull gun battles. Up until this lynch mob kidnaps Yoshii, I consider “Cloud” to be Grade A Kurosawa, but after that it drops in quality quickly as character motivations and personalities seem to change completely from what we have known earlier in the film, and probably most inexplicably, a secret society of spies (!) are introduced with one important character in the film turning out to be a member, which is stupidity in its purest form. The very final scene set in a car is also utterly bizarre.

What I did like in the second half was, of course, the craft of film making itself and Kurosawa's continued great use of sound, especially the extreme volume of all the gunshots that echo throughout the warehouse. I also really liked the conclusion of the storyline between Yoshii and his girlfriend Akiko, but really the second half of “Cloud” pales in quality compared to the first. So what about the title, “Cloud”, what does that actually mean or signify? That is a good question and very vague in the film itself. At one point there is a throwaway line from one member of the mob who says “People like us keep billowing up around Yoshii, like clouds in the sky”, and this is the only mention of a cloud in the entire film. Personally, I interpret the meaning of the title to be about the potential success and wealth you may get from reselling, in that you may make big money every now and then, but eventually that money will disappear, like a cloud dissipates in the sky....but maybe I'm reaching. The only other thing I think it could mean is in regards to cloud technology where all our details and information are kept in cyberspace, but really it is never fully explained.

Overall, I absolutely loved the first two-thirds of “Cloud” so much and feel it is Kiyoshi Kurosawa working at the top of his game, that I am willing to look past its deficiencies that occur in the final third of the film. It is intriguing, creepy and tense, however sadly it descends into a series of gun fights which then makes the film a whole lot less interesting, as the uniqueness of the story is gone. The film making craft on display throughout the whole film though is exceptional, particularly Kurosawa's use of light, shadow and sound. When is “Cloud” is firing, it is a brilliant watch, and I think the good in it certainly outweighs the bad, which is why I recommend “Cloud”, and like it so much.

3.5 Stars.

 

RESURRECTION - MIFF 2025

 

As per the MIFF guide: “Somewhere in the future, humans have discovered the secret to immortality: not dreaming. While most of society has embraced this practice, rebellious Fantasmers continue indulging in nightly reveries, obligating the Big Others to put a stop to their defiance. One such Fantasmer, now decrepit and monstrous, escapes into the dream realm. As a Big Other chases after him, the film shapeshifts across genres and epochs, prioritising a different bodily sense over each of its five chapters.”

Despite not liking Bi Gan's previous film “Long Day's Journey into Night”, I was still really looking forward to his follow-up “Resurrection”. The reason for this is because it is so obvious just how much talent Bi Gan has, particularly with his use of camera, that I am sure that he is going to make a masterpiece one day, and was hoping “Resurrection” would be it. My reason for disliking his 2019 film was I felt it was a total gimmick film, with the whole thing being shot in 3D and it containing a continuous shot that went for an hour. I felt that the whole thing was an exercise in style, and this affected my appreciation of the drama within the story. Reports that “Resurrection” was a tough watch due to both its extended running time (it runs for 160 minutes) and it's fractious narrative gave me a little concern, as did the fact that the film apparently had another long single shot in it, this time around fifty minutes, but I still went into the film feeling pretty positive.

The biggest shock I had in regards to “Resurrection” was just how little Shu Qi was actually in the film. I found it very curious that she would probably only have fifteen minutes of screen time in the entirety of the film, especially when she has featured so heavily in the marketing images of the film, and how big the news of her casting was. The film is told in six longish vignettes, which I will talk about soon, but Shu Qi only appears in the first and last of them, which is a shame because she is so great in the brief time she is in the film, and suits the aesthetic to a tea (incidentally, has Shu Qi aged at all in the past thirty years? I think not!).

It turns out that “Resurrection”, despite its length, was a very easy watch, as Bi Gan tells his story of a dreamer in six distinct parts, that also works as kind of a look back through the history of cinema itself, as each dream is a different cinematic style of film, with the first section being the silent film. It appears that Bi Gan equates dreams with cinema itself and vice-versa so every time the Fantasmer has a new dream, it is basically a new movie, with the Fantasmer himself morphing into a new character in each dream/movie. Each segment has nothing in common other than the Fantasmer himself, which is to say that “Resurrection” does not have one continuous narrative, rather many and these do not have beginnings or endings, rather we are plonked right into the middle of a new story whenever the Fantasmer begins a new dream. Whilst it may sound confusing, it actually is not, and the short stories of each segment have been so well made and put together, that you as the viewer, are intrigued the whole time, even though we know we will most likely not get any closure in regards to each story. As I mentioned, the first segment plays out like a silent film, free of dialogue with information told to the audience on inter-titles, and works as a prologue for “Resurrection”, before the Fantasmer is allowed to have a few more dreams before his eventual death (thanks to his Big Other). These next four segments are the Fantasmer's final dreams, with the first one taking the form of a film noir or suspense type film, where he is immediately accused of murder. This segment involves the introduction of a mysterious suitcase, the contents of which we never learn, and an amazing shoot out in a shop of mirrors. There is also the cryptic line of dialogue “if I lose my hearing, I will be able to go to the other side of the mirror”, which again we never learn the truth about, but it is so damn intriguing. The style of this segment is all about darkness and shadows, with a huge focus also on reflections in objects. It looks absolutely stunning, but then I guess the whole film does, but I think I loved the visuals of this segment so much because of how stylised it was. The following two segments see a hero situated at a Buddhist monastery during a snowy winter where he begins a dialogue with a person who may or may not be the tooth he just removed from his mouth (it's the weirdest segment for sure), followed by a grifter training a young girl in the art of the grift involving playing cards to become his partner at ripping off a mob boss. This leads us to the final, and most substantial segment, and the crowning achievement of “Resurrection”, a vampire tale that is told in almost one single continuous take, which is simply incredible to say the least.

Originally, Bi Gan had no intention of including another one of his now trademark extreme long-takes in “Resurrection”, but found that the dock locations of the vampire segment lent themselves perfectly to the technique, and pivoted quickly, where he has said that shooting became much easier for this segment once he decided to do it all in (almost) one-take. And it is absolutely glorious and a marvel to behold. Whilst it is not as complex as the shot seen in “Long Day's Journey Into Night”, I actually prefer it because it seems less like an exercise in showing off, with the camera supporting the narrative rather than being the main focus itself. To say that the shot isn't complex though is ridiculous because the way the camera moves and swoops between characters is incredible, with the camera sometimes portraying a subjective point-of-view before changing to an objective point-of-view, and it is done in such an invisible fashion that feels true to the story. Probably the most incredible moment in the shot though is when the entire colour pallet changes in the shot, the exact moment our hero breaks through a glass window, with everything going from red to blue. It is “the” moment of this already mind-boggling shot, and something I have never seen before, at least done at this level of craft. Whilst I do not know the exact length of this shot, as I have read different times from half an hour to fifty minutes, it is incredibly fluid and impeccably done and the highlight of “Resurrection”. However, Dong Jingsong's cinematography is special throughout the whole film as he is able to recreate the looks of six different cinematic eras without it feeling like pastiche or theft. He accurately creates images that feel they could have legitimately come from these earlier eras without being direct copies of anything that already exists. The level of craft in “Resurrection” is just extraordinary.

So what does it all mean, and what is Bi Gan trying to get across in the complete story in “Resurrection”? This is when it starts to get a little vague, and you have to ask yourself whether the level of storytelling in the film matches the brilliance of the craft on display seen in “Resurrection”. Sadly, this is where I think the film falls down. Personally I think the whole wraparound concept of the Fantasmers and the Big One needed fleshing out a whole lot more, because as it is now, it doesn't make that much sense and comes across more as a means to tie the unconnected stories together rather than making it feel like a true part of the complete whole. Another aspect that I did not pick up on at all while watching “Resurrection”, but learnt reading interviews with Bi Gan, is that each of the segments has to do with one of the five senses (sight, hear, smell, touch, taste), with the sixth one to do with the mind. Apparently, after each of these segments finishes, the Fantasmer loses that sense, getting closer to death.......but without reading about this, I wouldn't have known any of this because it just is not clear in the movie at all. I am not even sure what Bi Gan is actually trying to see with “Resurrection” either. My take is he is talking about the death of cinema, and wanting to bring it back to its past glory. By recreating dead genres or styles of cinema that were popular in their day, but hardly exist now, I think this is his chance to resurrect the grandness of cinema past. Is there any merit to my theory, well I do not know, but the fact that the film ends on a cinema filled with patrons, which is all made out of wax and melts down to nothing, I think it means I am at least on the right path.

Overall, there is no denying the impeccable craft that is on display in Bi Gan's “Resurrection”. It is a stunning looking film, with some truly incredible cinematography, where each story is shot in a different film style. The complex nature of some of the shots cannot be undersold, and it culminates in a one-take wonder that needs to be seen to be believed. Each of these six short stories are all very engaging to watch which makes watching “Resurrection” a joy, despite its lengthy run time, but unfortunately I think though when you look at the film as a whole, it does not make a huge amount of sense and it is hard to understand what Gan is really trying to say. It is so obvious how much talent Bi Gan has, and I am sure that one day he is going to make an out-and-out masterpiece, but unfortunately “Resurrection” is not it. It is a brilliantly crafted film, that is entertaining to watch, but sadly, it is not as great as the sum of its parts.

3 Stars.