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Reviews
Paraiso Travel (2008)
Great story about illegal immigrant's reality, portrayed in a very original way.
I went to see this movie with very little expectations, since most of these movies are usually just depressing and unoriginal; but Paraiso Travel is VERY well made, the characters are well developed and the actors and actresses certainly get the job done! The story of two young adults (Reina & Marlon) apparently after graduating high school and dreaming of having "the American dream" in New York, but encountering the crude reality of how things really work and happen when you're illegal in an unknown country and language. The story works combining flashbacks of how they got to the US (leaving Medellin, Colombia to Guatemala, Mexico, Texas and finally New York) with Marlon's present in New York. Upon arriving to a 4 by 4 "dirt-hole" in New York Marlon has a small argument with his girlfriend Reina, he goes out to smoke and throws a package of cigarettes to the ground some policemen are around, and come up to him to let him know about littering; Marlon knowing he's illegal and unable to understand a word in English runs for his life and ends up getting lost, homeless and without Reina. His fight is not only surviving in NYC but searching for his girlfriend, working and most importantly finding himself; while the viewer sees all of what Marlon and his girlfriend had to go through to get to the United States.
Great movie I completely recommend it!
Honogurai mizu no soko kara (2002)
Dark Water (japanese version)
I really didn't enjoy the movie. I liked the start of the movie because it was very clear that the mother's life was changing and how much she loved her daughter, blah, blah... The humidity stain... very disgusting, and how it thickened the intensity of the mother's emotions and problems, I liked that. Still I found it pretty easy to guess what happened to the missing girl. And then Boom! they let us see the girl in the tub and elevator, what an unreal monster/ghost! it wasn't scary at all I didn't even jump once. I'm very disappointed in this movie! The which played the mother's role, drove me insane, it was completely exasperating, she was scared before she even saw the ghost, that "help me, help me!" face through the entire movie, it just wasn't believable, someone that nervous shouldn't have the right to keep a child in the first place! It's completely unreal to have a stain like that, a constant leak inside your apartment and do nothing about it, that's simply inconceivable!
I guess I liked the building, the water, the ghost but just the glimpses of it, not when they showed her; and ikuko's (the little girl not the ghost) I guess she's the only one that played her role well!
The story is not developed enough for me, the acting was not that great, but great set designers! There wasn't enough suspense or scary moments for me.
I haven't seen the US version yet, but if it stayed true to this one I certainly do not intend to rent it!