Mama's Guest (2004) @ مهمان مامان Mehmane Maman

"This cake, it is made from virgin juice. I marinated all night."

At a glance:

Iranian cinema vet Golab Abdineh plays the matriarch of a poor family. She's thrown into a tight spot - they have to welcome her policeman nephew and his bride but they haven't got a single morsel of food in the house! Like the old school Hitchcock movies, we're given a slow introduction to the characters, some of which include her cinema projectionist husband Yousef (Paras Pirouzfar), her naughty young son Amir, her daughter Bahareh (Melika Sharifinia), and neighbourin busybodies like a chemist (Amin Hayayee) and an old hag (Farideh Sepah Mansour). Simply to give the good colonel (he's just a sergeant, really) and his exquisite wife a feast, everybody puts their wits together and overcomes adversity in charmin ways. Not dissimilar to the Asian values of pride and "face" as incessantly repeated in the film, this tight-knit family is so enamoured with preparation and procedure that they become instantly likeable, although it may take longer than usual to relate to their culture of halvas and curious posters of bodybuilders on their walls.

Bad news on the doorstep:

Not for everyone, obviously.

Perennial wonderment:

When you watch a movie like Mama's Guest (2004) @ مهمان مامان Mehmane Maman, you'd realise why fast food culture in the 20th century completely destroyed the family as a unit of society. From the process of pickin out the freshest fish to peelin onions and boilin water, home cookin is one of the last bastions of family time that ensured everyone had somethin to do and somethin to talk to each other about. When you place a phone order for McDonald's Value Meals, that old time tradition becomes a bygone relic. That's why Mama's Guest is still a rewardin watch despite appearin very dated for a 2004 film.

Reminds me of:

Cookin pork feet in vinegar with me gran, God rest her soul. Of course, no pork was depicted in this movie about Moslem people.

Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?

Three stars. Mama's Guest is a New Year movie - fun and easy to watch. With quirky scenes like an operation on a goldfish to wife-beatin antics by a drug addict, one may find this movie to be just the sort of light entertainment that is interestin enough to stimulate Hollywood-hardened cinematic taste buds. For further readin, please see what this Mongoose guy wrote.

Trailer for the curious:

Pusher II (2004)

At a glance:
A standalone sequel but best watched with the '96 original, Pusher II and Pusher III are nevertheless projects that were done because director Nicolas Winding Refn reportedly needed to bail his foreclosin production company back out into the black after runnin into debt. Thank goodness the man went back on his word not to touch the cult classic because the product is definitely top notch, expandin on the characters shown in the first film. Pusher II focuses on Tonny (Mads Mikkelsen, left) the seasonal loser so desperately eager to impress his disappointed dad (Leif Sylvester) and overturn his catalogue of lifelong fuckups that he ends up spirallin further down the abyss of self-destruction instead. It's not as intense as the first film but by golly it is a magnificently depressin one with wonderfully built themes of family dysfunction, drugs, responsibility and friendship.
Bad news on the doorstep: 
 I'm a big fan. I can't think of bad things to say about this very studied trilogy, except maybe I think not every female in this movie needed to be a prostitute.
Watch out for:
A particularly heart-warmin and suitably underhit scene in which Tonny discovers how his mother is doin.
Most memorable line:
"Dude, I just got this new girl in the house, right? A really nice, little cunt. Then last night, I was doing her doggy-style in the bathtub, right? Then suddenly, she slipped in the foam and smacked her teeth on the edge - four teeth out her mouth. Must have hurt like shit, dude. But don't worry, it's only her baby teeth."
Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?
Mads Mikkelsen is a very good actor and you can go swimmin in the depth of his actin. Just like the first film, you know it's a great movie when you start carin for people as irredeemable as these.★★★★

Yoshino's Barber Shop (2004) @ バーバー吉野

Clearly you might have been born in the wrong generation
not to have known this tactile pleasure.

At a glance:

Masako Motai

In Naoko Ogigami's debut feature, we have one annoyingly low-key movie about small town sentiments against modern change. Told through a few central characters with the main plot device being a compulsory haircut on school children, one would not have expected the film to be such an effective, although slow, social commentary. In sleepy Kaminoe, the good people live a life of silent rigidity - people wake up, get hurried to finish their breakfast, go to work or school, come home to dinner and sleep by night - only to do the same thing again tomorrow. The social structure that enshrines their way of life is never better represented than by the Yoshino haircut - a ridiculous bowl-shaped style, forced into the minds (and onto the heads) of young children through tradition without question. Rattlin their universe of meanin is Yosuke (Hoshi Ishida), a student from Tokyo who waltzes in with his swanky J-pop hair. His refusal to accept the Yoshino haircut triggers an awakenin amongst the townsfolk - where does it say that we all need to be the same?
Bad news on the doorstep:
This movie projects a stubborn lack of urgency. Yet the quiet charm of the story may just win those who'd give it a chance after being initially interested by the colourful characters.

"With the right set of underwear,
I will win me a man."

Reminds me of:
Schoolin days. This film is gentle but very ambitious. The humour sits you down and not up, and sometimes borders on tasteless - but always believable because life is sometimes, exactly like that. Yoshiko's ball-bustin character (played by the wonderful Masako Motai) evoke memories of the strict woman discipline teacher in anyone who was ever a schoolkid, but colourful characters like these, especially the village madman who does nothin but chase people about, are visual representations of the central discussion - do we really need to conform to be accepted? Consider the retrenched father who is strugglin to be accepted for a job, yet when he sings in the bath out of a sudden unexplained joy, he's quickly told by his wife not to disturb the neighbours. Consider also the sexy sister, who buys the reddest, most attractive lingerie to be accepted by her boyfriend. These are the lives of people who are livin for others, more than for themselves. Yet director Ogigami provides redemption and wrote them all a way out - to first learn to accept themselves.
Most memorable line:
A father in the film would tell his son: "Bein an adult simply means bein considerate to others."
Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?
Go watch this movie but don't come back askin for me to be given a Yoshino haircut if you didn't like it.★★★

Trailer for the curious:

A Dirty Shame (2004)

At a glance:
Annoyin sex farce about a frumpy woman (Tracey Ullman) who turns into a cock-cravin, gang-bangin, dick-suckin, hard-fuckin, ball-lickin piece of aged ass when she sustains a head injury. She goes round Baltimore indulgin in every type of sexual deviance. Yea I'd hit her.
Bad news on the doorstep:
Watched this on Malaysian cable TV, so even if there were nudity I didn't see me none. Could anyone comment on whether it was worth it?
Reminds me of:
Porn.
Watch out for:
Selma Blair's burdensome bosom (pic). Who can put an alphabet to the cup size? She plays exhibitionist go-go dancer Ursula Udders. Also, Johnny Knoxville is actually in this, playin a self-styled sex guru.
Most memorable line:
None.
Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?
None. Trash.