Chaos (Japan, 2000)

A man gets involved in a kidnapping scheme with the wife of a wealthy businessman. She lets herself be tied up and confined in his house while he sends the ransom demand. When he returns home that night, however, he finds her laying dead on the floor. In a panic he buries her body deep in the woods and tries to return to his ordinary life. One day, he thinks he spots her walking down the street. Is his mind playing tricks on him, or has she somehow returned from the grave?

A couple of years after Hideo Nakata directed one of the most iconic horror films ever with Ringu (1998) he tried his hands at a thriller involving a kidnap scheme which gets way out of control. It doesn't have the same weight as his other horror films like Dark Water (2002), but it's still a good film from the time Nakata actually made good films. The dark plot and direction reminds me a bit of Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and while it's by no means as good as his Cure (1997) it still evokes some of those sinister undertones beneath a stylish thriller. 

Genre: Crime/Mystery/Thriller

An Elephant Sitting Still (China, 2018)

In the northern Chinese city of Manzhouli, they say there is an elephant that simply sits and ignores the world. Manzhouli becomes an obsession for the protagonists of this film, a longed-for escape from the downward spiral in which they find themselves. Among them is schoolboy Bu, on the run after pushing Shuai down the stairs, who was bullying him previously. Bu's classmate Ling has run away from her mother and fallen for the charms of her teacher. Shuai's older brother Cheng feels responsible for the suicide of a friend. And finally there's Mr. Wang, a sprightly pensioner whose son wants to offload him onto a home.

An Elephant Sitting Still is one of the most moving  and memorable film experiences I've had in a long time. It manages to say so much about human nature, and accomplishes to flesh out the extremely exposed and vulnerable characters we get to follow through one whole day. There's a big chance the 4-hour running time will scare people away, I know I certainly saw the film way later than I could've, but it's wild how I actually can't think of anything they should have left on the cutting room floor. Every scene builds up towards a goal and every character are a thread which the viewer will follow until their inevitable convergence. Together with the carefully planned, long continuous shots there's a beautiful and melancholic post-rock inspired soundtrack so the themes of guilt, bullying and alienation are in a happy marriage with cold, melodic guitars and atmospheric ambience.  

The bleak and oppressive atmosphere hangs over the film like grey, never moving, ever-present rain clouds. The saddest thing though, is the fact that the films director Bo Hu ended his life during the post-production at age 29, making Elephant his first and last feature-length film. The testament to his skill and attention to detail shines in every scene, and how he made all the characters truly come alive is awe-inspiring. A masterpiece from a visual artist who left us all too soon.

Genre: Drama