Romance
Noah’s Barks pages relating to the romance genre.
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Sweet Poolside
An early effort by Shūzō Oshimi, ‘Sweet Poolside’ is a short romance story between a boy and a girl who bond over their gender incongruities. (read more)
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Fallen Angels
Fallen Angels is better than Chungking Express. More effort is put into having the disparate stories connect to each other both literally and thematically. As a wandering city romantic I wanted to like this more than I did, but Wong Kar-Wai’s excessively quirky characters drag down the genuine emotion in the narrative and make the… (read more)
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Antichrist
Antichrist is a good counterexample of what kind of horror works best on me. The atmosphere is there, the imagery and implications are all shocking, but I’m unmoved because I never establish a connection and empathize with the characters. It’s all fictional regardless, but identifying with fear is the only way I can feel it… (read more)
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Chihayafull
‘Chihayafull’ is the best anime you could possibly make about a game with arguably less depth than Pogs… unfortunately, it’s still "about" that game. (read more)
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Lost in Translation
Conceptually, Lost in Translation is a brilliant movie. Capitalizing on alienated people looking for romance by placing them in a culture they can’t connect to as another country, and the cinematography further empathizing crowdedness and the disorienting size of the world around them. Technically expressive, but the dialogue, including most of the leads’ interactions consists… (read more)
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Crash
Those who champion Crash as another David Cronenberg cult classic at least have an understandable reason: it’s arguably the last of his original format. Sexual psychology abounds, draped in darkness and colored with Cronenberg’s body horror tastes in a mangled orgasmic car Crash. What’s missing is his ability to contextualize this psychology through human beings… (read more)
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I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK
Yes, the premise sounds cute. For a half-hour, I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK even feels cute, but the film’s devotion to setting building over plot can’t sustain itself due to the strangling nature of this schizophrenic hospital’s culture. Deciphering the meaning of many scenes is a waste, because when you do, it never pays… (read more)
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A Short Film About Love
A Short Film About Love contains much of Kieslowski’s human compassion and interest in fatalism. I find the story’s resolution to be disappointingly trite, as the display of a man driven mad by his inability to express his obsession is far more interesting than an idealistic, bogus love story from a deviant’s perspective. I really… (read more)
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Tramway
It’s charming to see that Kieślowski is still himself in his first film. Yet again a simple but poignant observation of ordinary people’s lives taking sudden major turns. It’s a story that’s happened to everyone. Still, though it may be Kieślowski, there’s nothing really special about Tramway. I hope Jerzy Braszka eventually plucked that unibrow.… (read more)
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The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
I’m heartbroken. Not because of the story of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, but everything else. I love musicals and thought its concept of every spoken line being sung was brilliant. I saw the bright, blooming colors and that this was a French movie and assumed that Jacques Demy foresaw my birth and created this movie… (read more)