mollycat

This is a good series to explain the implications of war to older children. I know a lot of people think that it is only for older teenagers and adults, because themes like child soldiers, rape, and totalitarianism are shown and/or implied, but the story is told in such a simplistic and naive way that it might leave older audiences feel rather patronized.

The animation is very good, and some of the backgrounds look great. The characterizations are simple, people are good or bad, but most are presented as having some history, and shown as leaning towards the opposite at first. For example, a character/child that commits war crimes is then revealed as a victim of war crimes itself. But that is the most ambiguous the characters get, mostly its very black and white. And the series uses obvious emotive images to drive home its point, such as the child soldiers leaving tiny footprints in the desert sand. The irrational behaviour of Shuu, the main character, also adds disbelieve to situations (such as being whipped) that would otherwise seem more dramatic.

I liked this series, but found it a bit clumsy. Other anime series that use a cutish style of animation, like Full Metal Alchemist, show a far more mature approach in the way they tackle issues of violence, responsibility and loyalty. This is for the kids only.

Having just watched Acacia, I find that I have to agree with the negative reviews here. I like Asian, and Korean horror, and I had great expectations for this film. Man, was i disappointed. Watching this, I kept thinking "surely they just do this to catch me off guard later on", and for a while I expected something ingenious to happen. However, I slowly realised that the film really is that bad. It is the cheapest cash in into the Asian horror market I have seen so far.

The basic story is perhaps not even that bad, but the way it is filmed it seems like the most laughable plot ever. The tree as a 'scary' device might be okay if used cleverly, but all the filmmaker does is giving us different shots of...yes, a tree, over and over again. He seems to hope that the tree will do all the work for him in terms of tension and build-up, but it just feels like what it is: shots of a tree. For goodness' sake!

Slow build-ups can be very effective, and a film that presents the viewer with only few glimpses of what is wrong might deliver good scares, but not Acacia. Sure, we get a glimpse of a child on a tricycle disappearing around a corner, and, yet again, meaningful shots of the tree from above, or underneath, or the side, but these scenes are just not scary. They feel silly, especially because you realise that the director means them to be scary. They simply aren't.

Apart from that I agree with some of the other reviewers, that the characters are ridiculous. In particular the one character's 'descent into madness' is laughable. However, what really breaks Acacia is the terrible editing. Its hard to see why scenes were cut together the way they are, but it's bad, and it kills any spark of interrest it might have had. It also makes me feel patronised, because I can see what they are trying to achieve with it, but I cannot believe that they think I would fall for such cheap ploys.

There are lots of great Asian ghost films, and lots of bad ones, but this is by far the worst I have seen. They must have been going through the list of 'what to put into ghost movies', and ticked them all off, but in the end they forgot to add the actual movie.

Dolls are artificial beings, machines created by humans in order to serve as prostitutes. They live in a dark underground world, where they roam the streets looking for human clients. Those clients, however, have disappeared, and the dolls lead a purposeless existence, following meaningless routines that are focused on masters which have been absent for a long time.

Malice is one of them. She gets up every day, walks around looking for non-existent clients, and goes for maintenance. The world around her is slowly decaying, as are the dolls themselves.

Things change for her when she gets attacked by a strange monster, which turns her into flesh and blood. Thrilled by her new body, Malice tries to pass on this gift to the other droids that inhabit her world, only to encounter fear and despair instead of the hope she wanted to spread, raising questions about awareness and existence.

I didn't know anything about this movie when I rented it, and felt very confused for the first half hour. However, the feeling of 'what the hell...' soon changed to 'wow, this is great' as i started to make more and more sense of the story. The cg animation is unusual, and reminds of puppetry more than anything else. The world which the dolls inhabit is a mechanical nightmare, and the changed Malice is the only organic thing amongst all the cables and metal. I found it quite moving, especially the relationship between Malice and Joe Admin. It is brave, weird movie, and takes some thinking to make sense of. Highly recommended!