eric_vdberg

This movie was a lot of fun. The actors were very high energy and the special effects were pretty convincing. At least some of the inspiration must have come from "A Bug's Life", but the animation was well blended in with the live action. This film seemed quite original in it's particular blend of teenage romance, comedy and action. One slight drawback was the subtitles. Although the subtitling was better than many of the flicks coming from the Long Shong Group, there were still several instances where the lines disappeared from the screen too quickly. Grammar and spelling also could have been improved in a few places. Another minor irritant were the credits at both the beginning and end, which were too small and seemed fuzzy.

I found this movie strangely compelling for such a simple plot. It reminded me of the Bhutanese film "The Cup", as well as the Iranian film "A Time for Drunken Horses". All of these films contain singular seemingly straight forward quests within a framework of largely tedious everyday life. I believe that my interest was held because they are studies on different cultures and ways of living. They allowed me to feel grateful to reside in North America, and to have myriad options in life. There is little extraneous content in these films, the life situation is set up, the quest is introduced, and some kind of conclusion is reached. Most of the characters seemed very genuine, as if they were being filmed by a hidden camera. I felt that the lead child actor did a passable job, however the constant sour expression on his face, that was probably meant to convey utter hopelessness, seemed quite out of place in a number of scenes, and I found this increasingly annoying as the film progressed.