Strings

With an inherently traditional, however nearly perfectly executed plot, and a visual style that justly deserves the attributes "fantastic" and "mythical", Strings is a very singular experience. Be it the dark, allegorical story, the fleshed-out characters or the technical sophistication, the movie is a necessary viewing for fans of fantasy and animation movies.

Overall 7/10

My full review here: https://goo.gl/6uzPyr

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.

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!

I watched this movie at the Norwegian International Film Festival, and I was totally blown away. The atmosphere, world and characters this movie introduces you to feels so incredibly unique and extraordinary.

The most brilliant thing, however, is the fact that instead of editing out the strings, or pretending that they're not there, they use the strings as a sort of...lifeforce.. If somebody looses their head-string, they're dead. This simple fact made the world seem even more real, and suddenly made the puppets into something living.

If I had to say anything negative about this movie at all, it's the fact that since the mouths of the puppets aren't moving when they're talking it's a bit difficult to get into at first. I found myself confused in the beginning as to whom it was that was talking, but I guess this is just the nature of movies that use puppets like these.

I couldn't recommend this movie any stronger than I do. Pray that this gets a US distributor, because as of now it's not picked up.

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.