Laura Clark

This movie sucked so bad, it made me deeply resent that I wasted my time to watch it. The great acting could not redeem the total absence of any interesting "story" here, and it was simply uncomfortable to watch; it was nausiating and made me want to turn down the volume and dim the screen, like it was causing me to have a migraine aura, but I wasn't, it was just the vibe of the film. The general experience was like having a nightmare I could not wake up from. Regardless of the allegorical meaning attributed to the story, I'm sorry, but it really did not feel "deep", to me, at all. It was just a sloppy stack of gratuitous, unrelated, arbitrary layers of unsettling but beautifully crafted violence and absurdity. The setting was beautiful, the actors were beautiful, and the costume and animation was beautiful, but the plot, or story was such garbage, (even if you tried to appreciate it from a more vague 'symbolic' perspective) that it was *still* horrible, despite everything else, that could have saved it. I am fully capable of enjoying a well made, open-ended, allegorical art film, but this film was not *that*. This film was just *annoying*, in that it had all the focus and dicipline in it's message, as a drug induced-psychosis. The fact that it had the *potential* to be so much better, and still was *so terrible*, makes me angry at the director for wasting the talent of so many great artists who obviously did their best, but could not save this trainwreck because there was *no interesting story or message behind this film*, to begin with. (Other than this: artist (or man's) ego destroys that which he loves/ his muse (or nature/life) ... wow. Insert eyeroll. First of all, that's a pretentious idea to make an entire film about, without any other element of a story to tell, but whatever, it could have still been a good 'short' film. It started in such a way, that it seemed to have an element of a narrative, but it soon disintigrated into what felt like improvisation and nonesense that just dragged on, for a hellish eternity. I read that the filmaker created this film because he was very 'sad' and wanted others feel his pain. His sadism is noted.

This is one of the best drama series I've seen. The plot is so simple, yet it had me completely enthralled, with every minute. I didn't want it to end! The performances were each exquisite, as the entire theme centers around interconnectedness of human pain, each character rendering a unique picture of the complex psychological experiences of turmoil, violence, trauma, and love. 'Realism' is the word that comes to mind, describing the superb acting; it carries an understated intensity. The dark theme is conveyed as a disturbingly familiar cultural phenomenon, yet from a point of view less often shown, particularly with such empathy. What I also loved was that it didn't just depict the tragedy with accuracy, but it offered hope and redemption, as well. It was really a masterpiece of an intimately told psychological drama.