The Great Hypnotist

During this movie, the hypnotist got quite a beating. And you wouldn’t really guess at the beginning of the movie that his ego could even admit it. During the first 10 minutes nothing major happens, but then a solid wipe-out starts, and it is reinforced by very decent effects and atmosphere, which could be cut with a knife. It’s nice that the whole mesmerizing story is being introduced by the Chinese creators in a way that it cannot be not understood. They explain the final, shocking punchline in a way that leaves you with no questions concerning your understanding. A pleasant small-scale movie I wasn’t expecting from the Chinese and I was, at the same time, pleasantly surprised. (11/06/2015)

A famous hypnosis expert and a tricky case of a seemingly rational female patient that "sees dead people" who her colleagues have no idea to do with. A mysterious thriller about two characters who get to the essence of things one night through psychotherapy and hypnosis. There have been some films of a similar nature (whether working directly with hypnosis or dreams, for example), but not so many good ones. Especially those that would be so well thought out, built and properly executed in terms of quality. Basically, there is not much to complain about in terms of the first part of the movie until the point. But after the point... But don't get me wrong, the problem is definitely not in the point as such, but in what follows. It's hard to find another film of a similar kind, which would devote fifteen minutes of footage to literally explain everything in a way of "shot by shot, sentence by sentence, look after look". What's more, it's not justified, because it's not so tangled that the viewer can't unravel it himself (after all, it's likely that you'll see it through to some extent before it's revealed). And to make matters worse, this is followed by quite a few more minutes, which spoil the movie even more; namely, a melodramatic ending which is superfluous and looks like a scene from a film of a completely different genre. (02/22/2015)