Nakanishi Ryota

Slow Horses - a total of four seasons since 2022 - is a British spy thriller TV series based on the thirteen novels by British author Mick Herron, Slough House (novel series) distributed by Apple TV+. I recommend this TV series as two great masterpieces of spy fiction along with 007 (James Bond is a fictional character created by British author Ian Fleming in 1953). The former is about MI5, the latter about MI6. Both legendary intelligence agencies are also involved in Hong Kong affairs. The story is about an unofficial MI5 department headed by Jackson Lamb, the head of Slough House, who assists Diana Taverner, the Deputy Director General of MI5 and head of operations, and is called the "Second Desk" to deal with issues that are difficult to tackle in the official line of duty. Although 007 belongs to the Cold War era, Slow Horses belongs to the era of virtual feudalism, transnational actors, the so-called "intermestic" period. Theoretically, transnational actors are seen as substate or non-state actors, but the reality as known as international terrorism, most transnational actors are state actors in disguise. From a public perspective, Slough House is also such a non-state actor. My point here is that in season 4, the main antagonist, ex-CIA agent turned mercenary, Frank Harkness, pretends to be a drainage worker and enters the MI5 archivist's living unit to get information, he cites the exact same line, "a water leak," an excuse used by Matthew Trickett, 37, an immigration officer and director of another security firm called MTR Consultancy, which specializes in security, surveillance and private investigations, who served as a British Royal Marine between February 2007 and March 2013 when he broke into a living unit of one of the "political refugee" Hong Gongers in the UK. People still remember the 2024 Hong Kong Trade Office spy case. However, it turned out that these spies were privately exploited as debt collectors for mainlanders' personal disputes. Moreover, the harsher result is that even this level of scandal, corruption and shameful disaster is too embarrassing for the British side to make it into the TV episodes. Reality doesn't fit the fictional form, which must maintain a certain uniformity of tone, style, dignity, and material. In other words, this is where a line is rationally drawn between what should be made into fiction and the incompatible dynamic reality. If the British had made the whole context into the TV series, it could have exploded the whole tone and unification of the spy thriller, since Frank Harkness is a typical fictional antagonist on demand in this genre. This micro detail is at the heart of Slow Horses. And why is that? It makes the difference between Slow Horses and Hong Kong Snails. It also reveals that the spies of the Hong Kong side, especially Matthew Trickett, became cannon fodder, and to this day, no official has taken responsibility for this scandal. The HKSAR government's "zero accountability", or "legitimate corruption", is one of Hong Kong's major social problems in the eyes of its citizens. Therefore, these fake Hong Kong movies and inferior TV series are advertisements of the ruling class to cover up their wrongdoings and true nature with irresponsible illusions.

Mahavir Singh Phogat teaches his two daughters to become international wrestlers for India! It is a simple and impressive story. And they finally defeat Great Britain in the wrestling match. I think this is India's 'Ip Man'! This kind of nationalism is healthy and beneficial to all audiences without background considerations. The length of the movie is also right. The growth of the protagonists takes 160 minutes. And the emotional reactions to their tragic mistakes are well described in detail by the talented actors. Audiences can fully immerse themselves in this movie. Many Asian audiences have a prejudice against Indian movies that their movies are just dances and songs for two hours or more, but there is a perfect construction of story with minimalist use of songs and music. This quality is higher than any Japanese movie today! Indian filmmakers should maintain this high quality of movie content! It can compete with Hollywood movies. At the end of the movie, it is full of enlightenment, the most important thing in life is not 'thing' but human relationship with emotion. If you're faithful to the goodness and emotions of your family, you'll find the best solution to your problem. Even if you fail in this way, your family relationship will only improve as a result of your effort and sincerity. That is what this movie tells you! Thank you very much!

This movie is not an art movie at all, but it is a well-made Hong Kong action movie with karate and typical human relationships around it. And we can enjoy it without any political position of the director in Hong Kong's political environment. Chapman To is obviously influenced by Sugata-Sanshirou (Dir. Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1943) and Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby (US, 2004), but only in some essentials. For example, the 30-year-old girl is trained by an older trainer who is sympathetic to her drastic life situation; the official karate sequence in which the antagonist looks like the opponent of Hilary Swank's boxer in the final fight. The plot is simple enough that Mari Hirakawa who is a half Japanese Hong Kong girl does not get along with her father, karate master on his disagreement on Mari and her boyfriend's affair. After, her father's death, Mari unexpectedly inherits the karate school, dojo with ex-student of his father, Yakuza, Chan Keung, who also succeeds the half of it. The conflict is clear enough. Main conflict is not focused on who inherits the whole dojo. On the contrary, it is the development of Mari through her conflicts with Chan Keung at her half inherited dojo, after her breakup with her boyfriend, uncontrollable Mari gets beaten by karate kids there. This is the beginning of a mutual relationship between the protagonist Mari and Chan Keung, who teaches her and his students karate. There is only one strong antagonist at the karate match where only one audience is present. The result turns out to be a victory over Mari's opponent. The karate match is typical Hong Kong film's performance on action sequence that its extent of violence exceeds Hollywood standard, and it is adequate to make the audience feel the pain of the protagonist. This kind of alienation is effective! What I prefer is the training montage sequence of Mari. You can see her jogging on the streets of Hong Kong Island, Wan Zai and Causeway Bay. It is also unusual to show Mari jogging in the middle of the streets in the early morning. Stephy Tang used a few stunts for her actions, almost all performances are done by herself. It adds acting values to a certain extent. The ending is quite sudden and vague, the dream sequence in which abstract light on the dark space shows Chan Keung leaving the dojo to Mari, and Mari also gets defeated by the opponent on the ring. It is an open ending, which is typical for art movies. Without it, I appreciated everything and enjoyed the development of Mari. Mixture of genre film and art film characteristics are harmful to the box office. Anyway, I prefer this movie, The Empty Hands, among all Hong Kong movies this year! 10 out of 10!

The 8th episode, Star Wars The Last Jedi (2017), is about Luke Skywalker and actor Mark Hamill. Unlike the former, this episode is not a simple manipulation of the plot of episodes of the oldest trilogy during 1977-1983, and it is quite sadistic for fans, but from it is also full of twists and surprises. Rey and others are not as charismatic as Luke and Leia. Also, Snoke is said to have been created and modeled after actor Ed Harris. The Asian-looking Rose is something familiar to contemporary audiences. Adding racial diversity to this trilogy. One of the typical twists in this episode is the death of Snoke, and the Darth Vador-like Kylo unexpectedly takes the initiative. As Rey and Kylo work together to fight Snoke and his entourage, the audience physiologically hopes that Kylo will come to the light side. However, it is only an episodic collaboration between them. This episode shows a failed master/teacher confronting his past failures and his worst student who is beyond his abilities. This is the most emotional content of the movie. When Luke's shadow is confronted with the full force of the First Order forces in front of the sealed gate of the last bastion of the Republic, the catastrophic moment arrives. The heroic figures of Luke and Mark Hamill are quite impressive and memorable among all the characters of this episode. I love this episode more than the previous one. It is not a simple duplication of the plot of the oldest trilogy. Mark Hamill and Luke proved that a filmmaker only needs their iconic work throughout their entire career. Mark Hamill is experiencing the second peak of his film career since the oldest Star Wars trilogy (1977-83). It is a remarkable thing that Disney made the newest trilogy. Everyone remembers Luke Skywalker as a living legend.

Revolutionizing the traditional disaster movie: Lacking impressive visuals, well-written characters, or involving drama, Geostorm aims for epic disaster-movie spectacle. The review 'Lacking impressive visuals, well-written characters, or involving drama, Geostorm aims for epic disaster-movie spectacle but ends up simply being a disaster of a movie.' is a lie and an anti-China campaign! This sci-fi disaster movie is a disaster for the poorly made genre movies of today's industry! Geostorm is really a photogenic one for real cinemas! Traditional disaster movies depict natural disasters and people around them. And the antagonist is nature. However, this movie not only depicts the cutting-edge weapon that is space satellites that can control geographical phenomena. This is the most effective weapon than nuclear weapons, which cannot be used in real war. In this movie, the real disaster and the real evil come from the human side. Ed Harris played the antagonist, a political extremist who conspires to use the satellites "the Dutch Boy" as a weapon to bring about Armageddon against mankind. The intelligent conspiracy to bring about the killing of people is covered up in the manner of an apparent accident. This intelligence is very real in the real political context of this era. The employment relationship between Jake and Max is also typical of the era. The younger Max hires and fires the older Jake, even though Jake is his relative... The personal development of this movie is in the recovery of Jake and Max's mutual relationship and cooperation to shut down and clean up the virus infected geography control satellite 'Dutch Boy'. I'm personally impressed by the Mong Kok, Hong Kong sequence, which is a familiar place for me. In this movie, Hong Kong proudly represented the goodness and international character of China. This kind of joint operation is helpful for Hong Kong film industry and its market! Thank you all for this real blockbuster masterpiece, which is something new for us!

In this movie, Blade Runner 2049 (2017), the filmmakers have created a completely imagined and realistic future world! The rhythm of the action is slower than average Hollywood genre films. However, it tends to fully express and create the sense of a virtual future world in detail! For example, when Rick Deckard finally meets his daughter, the filmmaker used only minimal shots with long duration to fully create the emotional imagination among the characters. This is psychologically realistic! Replicants that can create replicants seem to be a threat to the survival of the human race. And you can also see the completely corporatized country in this movie, where the country is run by a giant capitalist who owns replicant factories. They are looking for the perfect model of a replicant, which was Rachel in the first movie, who can create a new generation through her own function. I really enjoyed the detailed world of the replicants. The slow pacing is a special example of sci-fi blockbusters, and it works. Personally, I felt deeply humanistic values in Joi, who is a virtual girlfriend of the protagonist K. Replicants embody a pure capitalistic view of life, and replicants are also slaves without human rights. They can be destroyed at any time. She is the ideal of capitalism and its future goal. The virtual girl is more human than the replicants and humanity itself. Good work! It's the best of 2017! I love it! Personally,

First of all, you have to see Prometheus (2012) first. David's storyline is quite confusing to the audience with Walter's storyline. In other words, the audience cannot easily tell which one is David or Walter. This is the biggest problem of this movie positively and negatively. In the 21st century, the good is weaker than the evil like in this movie, Alien: Covenant. The story starts when the new captain takes the initiative to divert the planned course of the colonial voyage. They are forced to go to an unknown planet where evil David and his creatures are waiting for the victims. That's all there is to it narratively. Daniels is the Ripley of our generation. She is also doomed to tragedy after defeating the aliens. Also, the Bishop-like Walter is gone, there is the worst and most intelligent android David. This is a typical character of successful people who deceive others for their own cause, not for social justice. Alien embodies the internal corporate politics of today. You can think of the Covenant as your corporation, then you can better understand the core idea behind this story. It is not about outer space or ancient times at all. This franchise was originally created from "Planet of the Vampires" (1965), directed by the father of Italian horror, Mario Bava. The creatures are different, but its plots and the space shuttle are similar. Mario Bava's contribution and influence are huge on this Hollywood horror franchise.

This movie tells us what kind of film can accurately reflect the social consciousness on the most important political issue of the nation today. It is a typical example of realistic filmmaking. Although this movie took place in Nixon's ear during the failed Vietnam War in the early 1970s, this is for this Trump era. Trump is also dictating and clashing with freedom of expression in media and individuals as Shinzo Abe's regime is doing with its domestic media. Steven Spielberg is the legendary master of filmmaking and socially responsible to defend the democracy of the United States of America in filmmaking. Where is Ang Lee? Could you make such a film that seriously disturbs the authorities as Mr. Spielberg did? You can't! We know that, KMT. There are several features of this film, such as JFK was equally criticized as a war maker among Nixon and predecessors who engaged in covert actions to invade and destabilize other countries like the Southeast Asian countries mentioned in this film. Criticizing JFK has not been taboo since then. He was the one who conspired the Bay of Pigs invasion by creating a fake attack from North Vietnam. Michael Kahn's construction of a scene in dialogue is unique, that is to carefully hide the camera that takes reverse cut from opposite position at the end of reverse cut. It is a typical feature of this scene construction in editing. The significance of this film is that it defended and encouraged the media to have the courage to criticize and monitor the government even under the threat of dictatorship. As the tagline says: "To protect the freedom of expression is to publish. What the CEO of the Washington Post and its editor-in-chief did in the Nixon era is what we need today! Japan needs it too! Why does no one make movies like this? Thank you, Mr. Spielberg! You are Mr. Hollywood! Great American artist!

I enjoyed this movie and found myself quite familiar with the taste of the editing style. This movie was originally the work of Mr. Stan Salfas, ACE! His editing is strictly based on the storytelling methodology of Robert McKee. His beautiful cuts in this movie appeared in the sequence where Caesar's family is killed by the Colonel. The close-ups between Caesar and the Colonel are well done in the most tragic moment. On the other hand, it is when Caesar is suddenly shot in silence after the Colonel's death. Caesar is a typical leader of an oppressed nation, and the colonel is a classic imperialist army officer. Mr. Salfas' reverse editing reveals this core conflict. What I appreciate is that U.S. films reveal the wickedness of the imperial acts - wars - undertaken by their politicians. Self-criticism is done through filmmaking. Moreover, it has successfully become a blockbuster entertainment. Individualism and anti-imperialist attitudes are quite strong, and others need more intelligence. Caesar and the Colonel are too big. I prefer more anti-imperialism and more collectivism. Fate is not religiously determined, but it cannot be controlled individually. What we can do is to do our best under difficulties. At least the monkeys expressed this thought.

I was quite surprised that this movie, Get Out, turned out to be an anti-racist movie! The story is simple enough that an African-American, Chris, goes to the home of his Caucasian girlfriend, Rose's parents, where everyone is victimizing African-Americans for their body transformation. The killer's motive is more religious cult than human trafficking. This theme is common in recent Asian films that criticize the theft of body parts from victims to sell to upper-class millionaires. The technical features of this movie are quite common. For example, the most elaborate VFX is when a hypnotized Chris is drawn into the liquefied ground in a flush back sequence. The surreal expression in this sequence is well done. I'm afraid of this filmmaker's courage to make a white versus black movie in the present. But it is not that kind of propaganda, it just belongs to black comedy. And it also embodies the ideological race phobia of the Caucasians after the Obama regime appeared in US history. It deeply expressed the Caucasians' racial fear of more powerful African-Americans and their historical revenge. This movie physiologically expressed well the mindset of the whites in the US society in the post-Obama era.