Reel-View Ratings: The Bigger The Beard, The Better The Movie

BREATHLESS

Violence begets violence begets violence in this Korean gangster flick, but it does not quite live up to the bar set by genre compatriots like Oldboy or I Saw the Devil. Debt collection muscle Sang-hoon gets into a scuffle with schoolgirl Yeon-hee, only to discover they’re not all that dissimilar. They strike up a friendship, but leaving a bloody past behind is never that easy. (Everyone in this film has an abusive history that has shaped them all into the violent people they are today.) The film is long — very, very long — and the violence is brutal without finesse, but the very human characters glimmer amidst the darkness.

Plays at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 24 at UH-Manoa’s Center for Korean Studies

LEVIATHAN

Russian stories are not known for happy endings — and that fact is twice as true when the story is based on the Book of Job. Kolya, a Siberian mechanic, fights with Vadim, the town’s corrupt mayor, over ownership of his family’s lands. This film is a critique of the Russian government, yes, but this is not a revolution, and nothing here changes for the better. Blood, lies and adultery stand in the spotlight, and Putin’s political hand ever lingers in the background. It’s a dense, tightly woven tale, atmospheric and haunting. This story may not have a happy ending — but that does not mean it isn’t worth hearing.

Opens Feb. 27 at Kahala Theatre

WATCHERS OF THE SKY

To the decent man, genocide is wrong. But in the world of international politics, even something like systemic, targeted mass murder needs to be defined to be condemned. The documentary tracks the mostly fruitless struggles of Raphael Lemkin, the man who coined the term “genocide” and sought to criminalize it after WWII — to little avail — in his brief lifetime. Director Edet Belzberg’s pacing isn’t always quite right, but she mixes archival footage, testimonials and animation adeptly, building a grimly cohesive timeline of chaos leading into the present-day quagmires of Darfur, Bosnia and Rwanda, reminding viewers that Lemkin’s struggle still has not truly ended. Plays at 2 and 6:15 p.m. Feb. 26 and at 4:15 p.m. March 2 at the Movie Museum