This film is not my favourite Kurosawa (be sure to watch Rhapsody In August), but it certainly fills the screen with beauty. My favourite dreams are the one about the tunnel and the last one, but they’re all amazing and emotionally wrenching. Definitely worth your time.

A lot of people appear to hate this film, but I thought it was okay. There were a couple of jumpy moments, and though the story was a bit derivative, I didn’t think it was half-bad as pop-thrillers go. It’s certainly not the best Korean thriller I’ve ever seen, but I wouldn’t say it’s a waste of time, either.

I read this book just hoping to pick up some hints and tips about improving my reading. I was a slow reader due to poor concentration— this book covers that issue and many others ranging from eye exercises to utilising peripheral vision. Very useful.

I watched this film without knowing anything about it beforehand… for the first half hour I thought it was going to turn out to be a romance drama. Boy, was I wrong. Holy god.

The film appears to be reasonably low-budget, and yet the effects are incredibly real and life-like. I was amazed.

I recommend this because Anthony Hopkins is a superb actor and this performance is one of his finest.

One of my favourite things about reviews on this site is that when reading a review (either positive or negative), one can then look at the goals and aspirations of the person writing the review, and thus get a feel for what sort of personality does or does not like a certain type of film/book/whatever.

I mean, I’m not saying it’s completely ill-advised to trust the opinion of an adult whose recent achievements include pissing on furniture, pissing in clothing, or other variations on the willful incontinence theme, but… well, I’m just saying. Your mileage may vary. Perhaps some wouldn’t want to trust me with my sissy scarf making. It takes all kinds to make the world go around, I suppose.

But seriously, who needs films when you can be entertained right here?

Nonetheless, if you’ve got a couple of hours to kill I’d suggest you could do a lot worse than seeing this film. I enjoyed it.

Somehow I managed to avoid reading this in high school… so I read it today. It’s a quick read, but afterward requires a lot of reflection. Well worth the time it takes to get through it.

I’m going to agree with many others here— this is not my favourite Murakami (I don’t swing so much with the sci-fi-esque theme), and I certainly wouldn’t recommend it as a starter book, but after having read many other Murakami novels first, Wonderland was a welcome addition to the collection. The story is surreal enough that I didn’t get bogged down in the sci-fi stuff, and the imagery is rich and deeply textured. I’m a Wind-Up fan myself, so I like my Murakami stories twisty and multi-layered. Wonderland delivers on both counts.

This film is a dark gem of comedy. I love it.

I think this is one of those films that will separate viewers into two groups: those who had supremely dysfunctional upbringings and can relate, and those who grew up in Brady families and think this stuff doesn’t really happen and therefore aren’t able to get it.

Me, I’m pretty much the same age as Frank (i.e. I was 13 in 1986), and my parents had the opposite relationship to Joan and Bernard (my Dad was the slut and my mother was the bitter, grasping-at-desperation intellectual).

I found this film to be charming and even funny at times, but beneath all that I was disturbed beyond belief to be shown a mirror in such a clever way. I wasn’t as depraved as Frank, but I certainly see a lot of my fucked-up teenage behaviour in Walt.

Two lasting highlights of this film for me were the name choices (it couldn’t have been better than Joan, Bernard, Walt, and Frank), and of course the haunting image of the squid and the whale in the museum. I will definitely watch this film again at some point once I’ve had a chance to fully absorb the initial viewing.

Started it today, in it for the long haul. I expect this to take a year or more.