Parasite (2019)
(film 132 minutes)

Directed by: Bong Joon-ho

Language: Korean

Rating: 5/10 | Yaser Tohidi

August 22, 2019

A poor family opens its place inside a bourgeois family's mansion as the mentors, driver and housekeeper by performing funny tricks. One night that the bourgeois family is on a trip, the poor family gather in the house and enjoy a luxury night until the former housekeeper comes to the door and asks for entrance saying she forgot something in the house and that is nothing but her husband who has lived in a hidden bunker in the basement for years. She also finds out that the newcomers in the house are a family. At the same time the bourgeois family call and say they have shorten their trip and they are coming back in a few minutes. The poor family puts the former housekeeper and her husband in the hidden bunker injuring severely the former housekeeper and go home except the mother, the new housekeeper. Next day is the birthday of the boy of the bourgeois family and every one is there. During the celebration, the husband of the former housekeeper comes out of the bunker after injuring severely the son of the poor family and kills the daughter of the poor family and in response, her mother kills him. Triggered by his daughter and son wounds and more importantly by father of the bourgeois family's disgust over the smell of the husband of the former housekeeper, father of the poor family kills the father of the bourgeois family. Father runs away and finds nowhere to hide but the hidden bunker. At the end, his son promises that he will buy that house one day and brings his father out of the bunker.

Parasite is a black comedy coming out of the wealth inequality of two families. It has a good rhythm in the first half but from the moment that the former housekeeper comes, the tune changes. From this moment the logic of the incidents is not strong, like the sequence of the incidents in the birthday when the father does not react when his daughter is wounded but gets angry when the father of the bourgeois family turns his face from the bad smell of the husband of the former housekeeper! The first half is engaging and funny when it shows how the poor family cheat easily the bourgeois family, but the second half lacks strong logical bonds and the story line changes direction, challenge between the poor family and the former housekeeper and her husband. Moreover, in Parasite, characters are not truly introduced. The scenario actually refrains from getting closer to the characters. The movie is focusing only on the incidents. Anyways, the movie's ending is brilliant.


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Through the Olive Trees (1994)
(film 103 minutes)

Directed by: Abbas Kiarostami

Language: Persian

Rating: 6/10 | Yaser Tohidi

August 18, 2019

A movie crew wants to make a movie in a location hit by earthquake one year ago. During the production, we find out that Hossein, the actor selected for the movie, has asked for marriage just before the earthquake with the actress, Tahereh, who lost her parents in the earthquake, and now that they play in this movie, it’s another opportunity for Hossein to ask for her marriage again. Last time, his proposal was rejected because he didn’t have house but now that nobody has house, he might have a chance. Their affair is interfering with the movie making as the movie making in their affair, and this is building the story line.
Through the Olive Trees depicts intimate and beautiful scenes from villagers and their surrounding despite the destruction caused by earthquake. Their life is calm and slow and closer to the rhythm of the nature and this not only attracts the movie crew in a way that they become part of their life but also the viewer. You might think at the beginning what a basic and primitive life they have but step by step you get closer to their life and you see how full and rich it is. We see that the life continues one year after the earthquake with all its beauties. Villagers don’t care about the production of the movie and it’s difficulties. They even don’t care about earthquake and death. They are just occupied with life and all its burdens and beauties. Among all these, we see also a love story. Hossein’s love to Tahereh and his persistence to marry her are convincing. We wish them to marry. Hossein's love and the pictures of this movie will stay in your mind.


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A Separation (2011) 
(film 123 minutes)

Directed by: Asghar Farhadi

Language: Persian

Rating: 3/10 | Yaser Tohidi

August 15, 2019

A middle class family is at the verge of breaking up, why? Wife wants to immigrate because, among others, she wants to raise her daughter in a better place but the husband feels strong attachments to his home-country especially because of his ill father. They find the only way is divorce but the judge finds the couple's problems insufficient to warrant divorce. So the wife leaves the house although their daughter decides to stay with her dad. The husband hires a person to manage the house and to take care of his old father who suffers Alzheimer. This is the beginning of a chain of incidents which put the husband in a difficult situation. Everybody is lying or at least hiding the reality at some point during these incidents except the wife who tries to resolve the problems by offering money, forgetting that the money cannot solve everything when moralities come into place. Moralities from persons who lied before! Finally, the parents file another divorce application -although the grandfather is dead this time and the man's excuse is irrelevant!- and this time it’s accepted and the judge leaves their daughter to choose with whom she would like to live.

A Separation is forming a social drama but is unable to stick to its original question: should the daughter leave her home-country or not? Majority of the time spent on the incidents and small details. All the characters are gray and there is no protagonist. They are locked in their situation and cannot select between putting moralities on top or going after an easy life. Nothing new, as we are facing with these situations in our life and probably it has been always like this in human societies. Analogously, the scenario line is not clear and therefore it reduces to a melodrama between two families from two different levels of society and the hates that they have towards each other, although sometimes they love each other! As you see, whatever you start saying about this movie is not true! This is coming from a scenario with no clear direction in mind. 

The movie throws questions about morality but leaves them unanswered and makes the viewers busy with chain of incidents till the next question. There is no effort to answer those questions. Therefore, there is no aim or message for the ending. At the end we are faced with more questions than answers.

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A Man of Integrity (2017)
(film 120 minutes)

Directed by: Mohammad Rasoulof
Language: Persian

Rating: 4/10 | Yaser Tohidi
August 13, 2019

A previously student activist who tries to enjoy a quiet life with his wife - a high-school dean - and his son by fish farming is faced with (beside financial problems) one problem: a company operating in the area where they live is interested in their house. The company is powerful in the region where corruption prevails. The movie continues to show how the company makes problems for the man, our yet protagonist, the moralist, and how corruption blocks him from resolving these problems. He cannot accept to pay bribe although his life is in critical situation. His wife, who supports his moralities at the beginning, cannot bare the problems anymore and encourages him to resolve the problems by any means even paying bribes, but he refuses. 
A man of Integrity is a social drama about corruption augmentation. The man is our protagonist in the beginning when he fights the situation while putting moralities on top. But at the end, he fails and changes to a monster. So the story does not conclude to any promising ending. Positive social function - catharsis if you like - is a prerequisite for a good plot for a social drama. A social drama results to a positive/good feeling when there is some hope in the plot. This is lacking in A man of Integrity. 
Apart from this, the movie includes some extra side stories, such as the minority family whose daughter commits suicide, which are not related to the main line of the story and make the movie go out of rhythm. 

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Chernobyl (2019)
(miniseries 5 episodes 60–72 minutes)

Directed by: Johan Renck
Language: English

Rating: 2/10 | Yaser Tohidi
August 12, 2019

Chernobyl is a historical drama trying to dramatizes the story of the April 1986 nuclear plant disaster which occurred in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (Soviet Union), however it fails to do so because it fails, to the large extent, in following a dramatic story. 
The main story line is the denial by the Soviet Union officials about the extent of the disaster. But this story line is referred to only in few dialogues and scenes and there is not enough dramatic evidence. On the other hand, in some cases we see full support for addressing the incident from highest officials. Then, this story line gives way to a new one: what was the main cause of the incident and how to reveal that in spite of KGB monitoring? Again here, without much drama, the story line is concluded and the main cause is revealed in the court. Apart from these two main story lines, sometimes you want to follow the story of the people involved in the disaster but it does not happen and instead, the miniseries depicts some of the lesser known stories of the disaster as if it's goal is just to inform you about them and does not want you to be involved with the stories of the people. This is in contrast with the form of the miniseries, i.e. the mise en scène implies dramatic stories but they are not followed. Mise en scène does not imply a fact-by-fact documentary for an incident.
Anyhow, Chernobyl depicts eye-catching pictures of the incident, logistics, hospitals and official buildings of Soviet Union. 
If you want to know a bit more about the Chernobyl disaster - and you don't care about the legitimacy of the story being told or you will follow it up later -  this miniseries is for you. But if you want to watch a series in which people's stories keep you engaged for some time, Chernobyl is not for you.


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