The Good Life (2008) @ La Buena Vida

Have you ever heard of the Chilean piledriver?

At a glance:
From the director of Historias Del Futbol and La Fiebre Del Loco (as if I've seen them), this award-winnin 2008 Chilean drama is a tight, well-edited caper about Teresa the government social helper, Edmundo the hairdresser, Mario the clarinet player and an unnamed prostitute, who all share one thing in common - the cruelty of life in Santiago when the goin gets tough. Roberto Farías (tache, pic) gives the most vivid portrayal of a down-and-out thirtysomethin hairdresser who lives with his mum still and can't find the money to impress a girl, buy a car or finance his father's reburial. Meanwhile, Aline Küppenheim gives the standout performance as a torn woman who cannot reconcile her failure in bringin up her daughter well and keepin her husband happy with her job of sex education at the government help centre. However, the best explored of these is Eduardo Paxeco's turn as gifted clarinetist Mario, whose dreams of playin for the Philharmonic are constantly bein ruined by people who just didn't have the time for him.
Bad news on the doorstep:
Lackin a certain tenderness and a certain endurance.
Perennial wonderment:
Chile makes movies? Please recommend me some, if you know any.
Watch out for:
The other character in this movie - the most elusive and perhaps, purposefully unexamined. Appearin only a few times, we see a destitute prostitute facing all sorts of problems that nobody seems to be able to help her with. She represents all the untold stories that remain untold in a city like Santiago, contrasted against the three main characters in this movie who do get told.
Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?
Two and a half. Unlike similar Hollywood efforts like Crash, the stories in this movie are weaved into each other not by a didactic central theme but merely by the pivotal urban location in which it all takes place. The characters don't need to meet up in the end like a beautiful fairytale with strong social messages. They need only live out their story in the short duration of the movie convincingly and we get a peek into the fairly interestin private lives of these people.

Bonus material:

The good life. Really?

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:

The Hairdresser's Husband (1990) @ Le Mari De La Coiffeuse

At a glance:

Anna Galiena obliges.

One of the more enjoyable (and accessible) Patrice Leconte films, about a kid who fantasises over a fat hairdresser and her tits, so he gets a haircut every bloody week. Kid grows up to be a peculiar fiftysomethin man (the evergreen Jean Rochefort) and meets a hot hairdresser (a gorgeous Anna Galiena) so thus begins a FUBAR relationship of which the climactic end will surely piss you off if you're not used to watchin French movies.
Perennial wonderment:
Why can't I find more movies with Anna Galiena, whose tits you might last remember from Jamón, Jamón (1992) or more recently in Tinto Brass' Black Angel (2002).
Reminds me of:
I'm not sayin!
Watch out for:
Rochefort dancin crudely to Arabian-soundin music.
Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?
Four stars for a tender, tragic movie, with all its French aloofness.
Bonus material:

The best afternoon a man can have.