The Whispering Star (2016)

Even with subs it's an incomprehensible art house movie; follows the rulebook religiously - even to being filmed in black and white. Basically, just a nonsense movie made by a pseudo intellectual director who believes he much more clever than he really is. Don't bother unless you're tired and need something interminably boring to send you to sleep - you'll be fine because even the dialogue is quite hushed and spoken in hushed tones and whispers. lol!

I'm not going through the review list stage by stage - there's no point. I gave the actors 2.5 because they did the best they could with a dire script. I wouldn't even watch this once if you can avoid it, so it has ZERO rewatch value but the review won't let me do that, so 1 it is. I can't believe how bad this was to be honest. It wasn't even one of the 'so bad it was good'....it was just TERRIBLE.

The plot had a LOT of promise and could've been something really thought provoking - sadly the director had other ideas.

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A combination of Kubrick, Tarkovsky and Akerman

I didn't know what to expect from my first Sion Sono movie, so when The Whispering Star ended up as what I can only describe as Stanley Kubrick meets Andrei Tarkovsky I was certainly surprised. Its narrative is almost wholly visual with minimal dialogue, often spoken in hushed and reverential whispers, expecting the audience to fill in the gaps with the limited information they've been given. Despite the clunky and unoriginal outlook of society and nature, it's the way the film is presented to you that makes all the difference, the black & white photography of the seemingly abandoned Fukushima Prefecture is gorgeous, with one scene of colour feeling beautifully alien to the rest of the movie. The long periods of reflective silence allow the audience and character to ponder on their meaning and place in the universe. While at times feeling akin to that of an arthouse production, for what it's worth, your patience will be rewarded if you can make it to the end.

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