First off, a review:
I've been hyped for this movie ever since seeing the teaser a year ago. Although the movie didn't live up to all the hype, I must say it's a brilliant film.
It starts off a bit slow, but at one point it seems as if a switch is turned on and the movie moves from being interesting to amazing. On nearly every level the movie delivers. As you know it's subtitled. To me subtitles take you out of a movie to a certain degree, but here this was countered by a brilliant atmoshere that sucks the viewer directly in. The emotional undercurrent of the movie is very strong and impacts every aspect of the movie. And that emotion is perfectly captured by the beautiful soundtrack, which can be heard at the movie's official site.
Although some have complained that there wasn't enough of a fantasty element to the movie the balance seemed perfect to me. Both the fantasy world and the real world were very interesting to me, and both intersected.
Visually the movie was stunning imo. There were parts where I literally stared with my mouth open lol. The same can be said of the more...violent visuals. Actually, "violent" may be an understatement. There is a lot of intimate violence in the movie, which to me is the most powerful form of violence in movies. People were squirming in their chairs and even crying at some of the more extreme scenes (especially the cheek scene, holy shit).
Overall I thought the movie was very good, and delivered in nearly every way.
9/10
