trickstar_trippy

Asa fan of the old Flemish Masters, I couldn't miss Jan de Licht's exploits on Netflix. I binge watched it in two days, and I was hungry for more when it finished. It's a beautifully lensed period piece about bandits in Flandres, set in 18th century, duing the Austrian succession wars. The mini series opens en force, it has one of the best openings scenes, whose build up will remind many of the viewers of Tarantino. The casting is so spot on - many fresh faces for me, or maybe I'm not so well versed in European actors, but many of them with a pictural quality - hence many of the shots brought to mind paintings of sitters or Flemish portraits, you ve got to love those red-headed ladies, but also the men, great casting overall; but not only that, but the acting is very good, believable, which adds on to the already well fleshed out characters. Maybe the fact that the film is based on a novel helped, as many of the lines in the show are quote-worthy. It's a show about les nouveau riches, the new blood, about the bourgeoisie, about banditry and outlaws, but with relevance for today. It's a very contemporary show in tone - and aesthetics, although it pays homage to Pays Bas painting, it's very modern in terms of camera, those hand held's in the forrest, that I first saw in Black Death, are surprisingly fresh in a period piece about bandits and nobles. It can be read as a story from rags to riches, but with enough Belgian grit for the connaisseurs to enjoy. It's filthy and beautiful at the same time. The language is Flemish and it's beautiful, its mixture of Dutch and German and French, sounds so exotic to me. Watch it in original, with English or French subs.

I expected this to be another Memories of a Murder, but I was so wrong to expect this much from this tedious - albeit admittedly gruesome - movie. Where Memories of Murder had mood and a carefully written plot, No Mercy is full of all kinds of flaws in logic, of dumb twists in the plot and bad acting.

The heavy handed tone in which the movie preaches all sorts of teachings about truth, vengeance, etc reminded me of better movies, such as Symoathy for Mr Vengeance, or even the (overrated Oldboy).

The cinematography is less than I've come to expect from South Korean movies, and the acting is too dramatic for the movie's own good.

The lack of actual thrills (then again, the gruesome imagery works every now and then) make this movie a forgettable affair.

Oh, and don't get me started about the Se7en-inspired final.

This is NOT the best South Korean cinema has got to offer.

Contrary to the other two user reviews, I found the series rather entertaining, albeit admittedly not as intense as I would have liked. They shed more light than, say, Ros Kemp's factual series on gangs, yet fall short of being hard hitting docos (La Vida Loca by Poveda, being one of the most insightful portray of gang culture, violence, and redemption).

It is not my intention to debate whether or not the blurred narrators were actual gangsters, by the same manner I don't question whether the sicario in El Sicario was indeed a hit man. Real criminals don't jeopardize their lives by letting themselves filmed in broad daylight, so am fine with concealed identities.

In addition, I would say the series is about war photographers, the way they witness the facts, which is not always the way they happen. they call it the world through their lenses for a reason. In the end, I think HBO opted for a more emotional approach rather than a factual one, yet offering first hand access into mostly uncharted territory. And contrary to what a user wrote, the South Sudan episode does show tribal scarring (7 minutes in). So much for accuracy.