Hilos: un viaje de amor y vínculos

Strings" is quite a unique and interesting movie going experience. This just happens to be one of those movies I had never heard of before that I ran across doing research, and decided to give it a shot. My biggest problem with Strings is that the puppets do not move their mouths, which made it a little hard to follow as the dialogue as it switched back and forth between characters. Once your able to get past that - this is really a beautiful little film.

A little over-dramatic but with some pretty high production values, "Strings" is unlike no movie you have seen before. The cinematography, voice overs, and set designs are well done and very pleasing to watch and to listen to all throughout.

One thing I enjoyed about "Strings" was the how the actual strings were incorporated in the movie. There is no effort to hide them. In fact, the strings themselves are part of each characters actual being, reaching all the way up in to the sky with the "head" string being the strongest and most valuable. Cut the head string, and your dead! Get a little to playful, and you might get tangled and need some help getting undone! Interesting little concept.

Strings is a fantasy story about a King who commits suicide, leaving the thrown to his son. When his son is lead to believe by his evil uncle that some outside rebels are responsible for his death, he seeks out to find them and avenge his father. In the process he goes on a magical journey, learning about life, love, war, and the fact that people and things aren't always quite what they seem.

"Strings" is a film that stands on its own two feet- apart from anything else out there. All in all, it's a very impressive piece of work- and a good family oriented film.

Recommended!

For all those who say "I'm too old for puppet theater" I can only say "Think again".

The story might not be the most original (though it is leaps and bounds more complex and consistent than most of the actual blockbuster) but the directing and effects are simply beautiful.

The original part in the film is indeed that the puppets know of their strings and live and play with them. As another commenter says, the film does not try to hide the strings, but it does hide the puppeteers. Part of the mystery of the film is where the strings come from (and here you have several great shots and effects).

I can only recommend the film, but I doubt it will run in too many big cinemas (I saw it in the Edinburgh Filmhouse)...

I hadn't heard anything about this (Danish!) movie until a friend brought over a DVD he'd ordered from Thailand, of all places! (Available from www.ethaicd.com.) Four of us watched it and agreed that it was interesting, unique and original, but also rather dull. The story is a stereotypical (but very decent) fantasy fairy-tale, with the very interesting added element of the "stringed puppet reality". It worked very well, with a quite serious and emotional story a bit reminiscent of Gormenghast - all immensely well produced. But it wasn't engaging enough to maintain that much enthusiasm in the viewer. It was a bit too dark to be for children, and somewhat too, I dunno, uninvolving to be for grown-ups. I appreciate it as an honest, very competently produced fantasy movie with a detailed and good-looking but also quite crude and limited universe.

I do think it would be more engaging on the big screen than on a TV screen, because I was slightly bored through much of it. Granted, I was a bit tired when we watched it, and this is not a movie one should watch while tired. But it was a very interesting experience.

7 out of 10.

I happened upon this film the other night, fresh (!) back in Phuket from Burma. Tired though I was, and the film was perhaps a quarter of the way through, I was absolutely mesmerised by it.

First, I was trying to guess the actors' voices. Second, I was captivated by the – don't laugh – "acting" skills of the marionettes.

Granted, there were no facial expressions, no morphing/animatronics/etc but still there was a warmth to these carved blocks of wood. BTW I was brought up watching Gerry Anderson (Thunderbirds, et al) and now realise that I have retained a soft spot for filmic puppetry.

Perhaps that is part of the attraction of the film for me, the fact that it is reminiscent of half a dozen long-forgotten puppet programmes – generally from Eastern Europe, as I recall – shown during the school holidays when it was probably raining.

Gentle – despite the violence in the story – moving and entrancing.

Watch it if you can – through child's eyes.

The king commits suicide, but his evil brother covers it up to make the death look like murder from a rival faction. The prince disguises himself as a slave to go out and avenge his father's death, but after infiltrating the "enemy" camp, begins to learn an alternate history of his people -- sometimes the good guys have a dark past.

This film was incredible. You very rarely see a film with puppets in it these days (or ever, really). Sure, there was "Team America", but I really found the puppeteering on that to be average and the overall film to be a waste of time. This one had a rich back story, characters with epic lives and a whole realm of fantasy that could have been real life.

I think of the movie like "The Dark Crystal". I don't know why, but I get a similar vibe from them. With one key difference: I don't like "The Dark Crystal". Other films could be compared to this, I suppose: "Lord of the Rings" to some extent, maybe "Willow", probably a hundred more. It had all the classic fantasy elements: a hero, a kingdom, love, betrayal, evil, an oracle, battles. Everything you'd want.

There was an underlying political message here, too, which I enjoyed although I don't know if I really got the exact parallel they were shooting for. But the idea that "we" are always the goo guys and "they" are always the bad guys when not viewed as people was very nice, and could be used to talk about America and the Middle East (or the Native Americans), it could be used to talk about Israel and Palestine, or just about any other rival groups.

The love aspects were a bit much at times. I liked the idea that our strings are all attached and that love really makes that stronger. I tend to agree with the sentiment. At times I think it bordered on hippie or New Age levels (my ability to digest peace and love only goes so far). But, it was never so much I became uninterested in the film.

If you want something different than your usual action or romance, give this one a chance. You might have to open your mind a little bit because it's fantasy and puppets and voice-overs (not just because they're puppets, they're also Scandinavian). I think you'll find a special treat in here. Really glad I had the opportunity to catch it at a friend's house, as I probably never would have found it on my own.