movie review: the personals

yes another movie! we saw a lot this weekend. liz was sick, and so we didn't do a whole lot of going out. it was nice.

this movie, I also really liked. it was made in Taiwan and is in mandarin ( sub-title haters beware ). It tells the story of a woman who is fed up with her career and aborted love life, and takes out an ad in a paper to find herself a husband.

the movie is mostly her interviewing perspective mates: who are at turns sad, disgusting, dull and or just plain old evil. The movie is shot with lots of closeups, holding in on a character for a long time, often at a slightly odd angle or not as the center focus of the screen. It was sometimes a little distracting and might be termed pretentious and unnecessary by some, but overall it added something I can't quite describe.

the woman's exasperation became palpable by the end of it. she obviously has her own issues, and they are slowly unraveled through the film, quite brilliantly I think.

while very comic, it is slow and does have a very sad and melancholy undertone -- not unlike lost in translation actually. overall, I think it was an excellent film.