A Liquid Fairy Tale

Under the celestial pillow, she was born.
Bent on crystalline dreams, her mind was torn
into imperishable, effervescent harmonies.

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Daguerrotype (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2016)

☼☼☼☼☼☼(☼) out of 10☼

Kiyoshi Kurosawa brings a hefty dose of Japanese meticulousness and dense, somewhat eerie, almost stifling atmosphere to his francophone debut - the chic modern gothic Daguerrotype (aka The Woman in the Silver Plate / Le Secret de la chambre noire) which provides us with a handsomely produced, exquisitely lensed and wonderfully acted tale of obsession (with women, outdated contraptions and art of photography) that unfortunately fails to send shivers down the viewer's spine and to maintain the same level of investment in the unapologetically brooding proceedings after reaching its peak in the mid-section.

Adoration Exit

With his last, glitchy breath, the Boss Devil murmured something about the program’s unresponsiveness, yet we didn’t experience even the slightest error. To commemorate his defeat, we opened the Level-Up Muses from the Achievement Gallery and used their euphonious OGG song to return to the Desert. That is when we learned about the legendary chevalier who was the first to crack the Goddess.

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Adoration Campaign

As soon as we pressed ‘Start’, we realized that the Boss Devil had been hiding in the midspace Pixel. His thousand-year sleep disturbed, he challenged us to a one-on-one battle above the Clouds of Downloadable Content – we didn’t know that location would give him a few extra advantages, so we accepted w/o hesitation. After spending numerous continues, the Goddess granted us with the Staff of Perseverance (and Invincibility Cheat), so that we could finally take the victory.

 

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Adoration Setup

Amidst the Desert ver. 3.0.666 we stumbled upon the Infinite Plug, but none of us dared to touch it, in spite of our Digital Saint status. All of the sudden, one of the freshly updated AntiRealities appeared before us, reminding us of an ancient No Loading Time Prophecy. In a matter of seconds, it unlocked the code for the Goddess of Electricity, letting us inside her Virtual Soul.

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Six (+1) Wild Steps Behind Thirteen...

It has almost crumbled down, this Jadikovka. Their madness grows each day, so its explosion seems imminent. Perhaps a smile is but a thorn, and a whisper... What is a whisper? A blunt sword or a fish in the skies? It doesn’t matter anyway.

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The Forgotten Colours of Dreams (Johnny Clyde, 2018)

☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼ out of 10☼

First-timer Nina Viola brings poise, grace and, paradoxically, life to the role of Death's (charming) personification in Johnny Clyde's outstanding multilingual feature debut The Forgotten Colours of Dreams - a lyrical, transcendental, contemplative, deeply melancholic, brilliantly gloomy, phantasmagorical drama which is admirably carried by non-professional cast, subtly imbued with thought-provoking dialogue (on love, beauty, life, death, memories, religion...), densely packed with experimental, ethereally beautiful VHS visuals in 'tondoscope' aspect ratio, and neatly wrapped in haunting soundscapes often evoking spectral dimensions.

(The pre-premiere review is based on the online screener provided by the author.)