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The Practice (1997)
Best program in the history of television!
So astonishing. So human. Even when the cases are fantastic, one believes itt. Because the characters are so real....and so compassionate.
In the face of contemporary mass-culture, make on remember what it likes to be a human being.
Best regards,
Richard Koenigsberg
Huo shao yuan ming yuan (1983)
Wonderful depiction of Chinese civilization at a certain moment in time
Wonderful depiction of Chinese culture at a particular moment in history. Beautiful song by the concubine who wins the Emperor's heart, and eventually becomes his Number 1. There's a battle between the British and the Chinese...but the Chinese are just on horseback, and they are mowed down by rifles and cannonballs.
Wonderful scene in which the losing General challenges the winning British general to a personal fight, and throws him into a pond. But this leads to the burning of the palace.
Law & Order: Criminal Intent: Playing Dead (2009)
Utterly Brilliant
This program seems too good to be true: such deep psychological understanding. The sick--yet believable--mother son relationship is equaled only by the one depicted in the MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE.
The greasy attachment on both sides; the mother's ambition for her son; the son's willingness to support her son's ambitions--in spite of everything.
The ambivalence on the part of the wife, as well as on the part of the step-daughter are depicted with great subtlety.
Even after utter disappointment, the "love" remains; the mother cannot abandon her futile dreams.
Law & Order: Criminal Intent: Probability (2003)
Intellectually complex yet emotionally compelling
This series is really extraordinary, and this is an excellent episode. The logic is sometimes hard to follow (things move quickly from one step to another), but one assumes there is a logic: great deal of intellectual complexity.
But the "kicker"--what holds everything together--is the ending: the emotional conclusion. One may think that the character is "over the top:" to extreme; unbelievable. However, the ending makes sense, emotionally. A lonely man, trying to fill his empty house.
"Law & Order, Criminal Intent" is heads and shoulders above anything I've seen on television: so compelling. But then, I miss Manhattan (where I lived for 30 years) and love the street scenes.
The Deadly Look of Love (2000)
Very interesting and mysterious movie.
Very interesting and mysterious movie. Strange mood. I'm not quite clear about the ending. Who actually did the killing? It's quite subtle, psychologically. The young lady did have some power. Women who are slightly "off" can be appealing.
It's not clear to me what the other reviewers had against the movie. We are brought into a young lady's fantasy world. It is not the kind of fantasy we ordinarily see in movies--obviously not a "feminist" theme. But I'm sure there are women that possess this mystical sense of romance, as well as confidence that they can "make a man happy."
It any case, movies are a fantasy--Americans take them so seriously as if they are supposed to equate with reality.
Telling Secrets (1993)
Hard to tell what it's all about
Nice music and scenery--somewhat portentous from the beginning. The film draws you in and takes itself very seriously. We're constantly waiting for momentous things to happen, but the movie just goes on and on.
The men really seem to have problems in this movie. Is this a new trend: impotent men who don't love their wives, and who are hen-pecked. None of the heavy, masculine, powerful stuff in this movie, and probably that's good: more like real life.
Hard to know what the film is all about. The motivation for the killing is unclear. And why do all the guys fall in love with Cybil? She doesn't seem so appealing to me: kind of cold and not really sexy. Phony baloney to imagine her as so alluring, and presumably that's the core of the movie-- the main character's seductive power.