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ryannichols7 wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 3:49 am I hope that the reception to Toki and Lokita (which has been poor, from what I've seen) doesn't put people off from revisiting this.

Where are you seeing poor reception? I’ve read nearly universal praise calling it their best film since Two Days, One Night almost a decade ago, after The Unknown Girl and Young Ahmed disappointed critically - and I definitely agree with that assessment. It’s also probably their most ferociously depressing film

swo17 wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 4:38 am Tori & Lokita is very good. It only really suffers from being exactly the same as all their other movies, though there are a couple of key distinctions

I totally got the title wrong and will own that. it's gotten quite a few 2-2.5 letterboxd reviews from people I follow, though that's obviously not a great barometer. I'll certainly see it, though hearing it's "ferociously depressing" isn't really reassuring

I should rephrase. Like swo says, it’s not much different from their normative shtick, and that goes for the tone, so you’re not in for something more oppressive for the viewer than what you’d expect already. It’s just a movie that’s quietly angrier ‘at’ a specific target of our systems than their usual approach of objectively documenting the acute observations of apathy playing out. They still locate the same humanism in their formal strategy but this feels like a more pointed and less patient social commentary

Eh, if Hong can be great making the same film forty times a year I don’t see why they can’t making the same film once every three years.

Tori and Lokita opens this weekend (and it's being accompanied by a full retrospective at IFC, including some new 4K restorations). I caught the sneak preview tonight, and it is indeed very good. Swo mentioned that it suffers from being too much like their earlier work, and it does feel like familiar territory for them - but I don't want to knock it too much because they're still really good at what they do best with regards to crafting a suspenseful and viscerally wrenching story that draws on a meticulous understanding of the poor and the marginalized, in this case two Africans who are at the mercy of migrant smugglers and criminal exploitation.

The story does carry some added weight for me because I did have to research migrants and asylum seekers in France and the UK when I was in school, and one of the big areas I never got to explore was the fate of those who decide to go underground once it becomes clear they are facing likely deportation. For a variety reasons, it wasn't something I had the time or resources to cover, but anecdotally it was a given that it was a harrowing prospect and somewhat mysterious simply because the agencies I talked to lost track of anyone who ends up going that route. But regardless, you'd peripherally get bits and pieces of info as you covered other areas, and watching this was kind of like seeing someone fill in some of the gaps.

This will be added to the Criterion Channel on the 18th.