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pacificpikachuI just watched the movie 回路/Pulse, and just wanted to share my odd thoughts on it.
I'm reading some thoughts about it online, and it's interesting to see the different reactions to it. Some people thought it was ridiculously slow and boring (which I can understand, though I found it engaging regardless--I have a long attention span once I'm drawn in), some people emotionally connected with it and others did not, and it seemed quite a few people didn't 'get it.'
Personally, I did not find it all that scary, but I did find it intriguing and thought it was well-done. Artistic, in a way, or at least carefully crafted. I feel it's an atmosphere piece, primarily, and while it was far from perfect, I felt it conveyed a strong sense of isolation and loneliness. That's why there is so much silence and stillness. I can see why that wouldn't work for some people--it's slow paced, nuanced, and much of what is happening and being felt by the characters is not spelled out, but implied. It's like you have to see the negative space, in art terms, in order to understand. I would not expect most people--especially Americans, who have (IMHO, in general of course--I wouldn't expect the same of people who regularly watch international movies/TV) a desire for constant stimulation, explanation, and closure in movies, to understand or even be able to make it through most of it. I don't think it did that well as a horror movie (then again not much creeps me out, and the things that do tend to be weird/not necessarily things that freak other people out), but as an atmosphere piece it excels. It was not scary, but it was certainly creepy.
I wanted the characters to be able to escape, to not be alone even when they were together, but clearly that was not the intent of the movie. The ending...I'm not one who insists on closure, but that was not how I was hoping for it to end either. That said, now that I'm distanced from it a bit I think I see why it ended that way, even though I wish it could have had more closure, at least emotionally. The last line wasn't convincing to me, or I can't see her feeling that way in the context of the movie, I guess.
I saw it as being a bleak movie, rather depressing in a way, but I also feel like it makes me want to connect with people--to not be alone. It was cold, and isolating, and rather colorless, and that is not how I want to live. I feel like the hollowness that seemed to exude from the movie was something that resonated with me. It's an emotion I've felt the edges of, a feeling of meaninglessness, despair, distance, and loss of sanity, loss of caring about life or living. I feel like I don't get that feeling myself, as me, but that I can sense it in things I hear or read about (factory farms, the Holocaust, certain stories of serial killers or suicides), and sometimes it seems to burrow into me, and I can feel it for short periods of time. I can't properly explain it. It's a numb, hollow, scary feeling, and I imagine that is what truly suicidal, lost people feel. I struggle at times, I've been in dark places before, but I don't feel that that emotion is mine--it's something that I empathize with, maybe remnants of a past life or from some collective subconscious that I unintentionally tap into sometimes--but it is not mine.
It was certainly not the best movie I've seen--I'd give it an 7.5/10 or 8/10--but I felt it was incredibly carefully put together, and I think it will stick with me. The ending especially makes it stick with me, now that I think of it, though my initial reaction to the ending was disappointment. The sense of loneliness conveyed in it reminds me slightly of some of the scenes in Let the Right One In, actually, though the two movies are very different overall. (Let the Right One In, incidentally, is a favorite movie of mine.)
I like when movies make me think. :D
I'm reading some thoughts about it online, and it's interesting to see the different reactions to it. Some people thought it was ridiculously slow and boring (which I can understand, though I found it engaging regardless--I have a long attention span once I'm drawn in), some people emotionally connected with it and others did not, and it seemed quite a few people didn't 'get it.'
Personally, I did not find it all that scary, but I did find it intriguing and thought it was well-done. Artistic, in a way, or at least carefully crafted. I feel it's an atmosphere piece, primarily, and while it was far from perfect, I felt it conveyed a strong sense of isolation and loneliness. That's why there is so much silence and stillness. I can see why that wouldn't work for some people--it's slow paced, nuanced, and much of what is happening and being felt by the characters is not spelled out, but implied. It's like you have to see the negative space, in art terms, in order to understand. I would not expect most people--especially Americans, who have (IMHO, in general of course--I wouldn't expect the same of people who regularly watch international movies/TV) a desire for constant stimulation, explanation, and closure in movies, to understand or even be able to make it through most of it. I don't think it did that well as a horror movie (then again not much creeps me out, and the things that do tend to be weird/not necessarily things that freak other people out), but as an atmosphere piece it excels. It was not scary, but it was certainly creepy.
I wanted the characters to be able to escape, to not be alone even when they were together, but clearly that was not the intent of the movie. The ending...I'm not one who insists on closure, but that was not how I was hoping for it to end either. That said, now that I'm distanced from it a bit I think I see why it ended that way, even though I wish it could have had more closure, at least emotionally. The last line wasn't convincing to me, or I can't see her feeling that way in the context of the movie, I guess.
I saw it as being a bleak movie, rather depressing in a way, but I also feel like it makes me want to connect with people--to not be alone. It was cold, and isolating, and rather colorless, and that is not how I want to live. I feel like the hollowness that seemed to exude from the movie was something that resonated with me. It's an emotion I've felt the edges of, a feeling of meaninglessness, despair, distance, and loss of sanity, loss of caring about life or living. I feel like I don't get that feeling myself, as me, but that I can sense it in things I hear or read about (factory farms, the Holocaust, certain stories of serial killers or suicides), and sometimes it seems to burrow into me, and I can feel it for short periods of time. I can't properly explain it. It's a numb, hollow, scary feeling, and I imagine that is what truly suicidal, lost people feel. I struggle at times, I've been in dark places before, but I don't feel that that emotion is mine--it's something that I empathize with, maybe remnants of a past life or from some collective subconscious that I unintentionally tap into sometimes--but it is not mine.
It was certainly not the best movie I've seen--I'd give it an 7.5/10 or 8/10--but I felt it was incredibly carefully put together, and I think it will stick with me. The ending especially makes it stick with me, now that I think of it, though my initial reaction to the ending was disappointment. The sense of loneliness conveyed in it reminds me slightly of some of the scenes in Let the Right One In, actually, though the two movies are very different overall. (Let the Right One In, incidentally, is a favorite movie of mine.)
I like when movies make me think. :D
