Aniki Bóbó

For much of the film this seemed like a traditional romance film, transposed onto children. Not bad but nothing special, and the mugging at the camera from the boy who's in the lead in the first half is annoying. It picks up quite a bit in the second half with some more interesting plot developments and focus on a more interesting child character. It still feels a bit simplistic and dated, but it's pretty good.

Star Rating: ★★★★1/2

-31 points for animal cruelty, poor cat! Just kidding, it's just not that good.

manoel de oliveira's third film, and his first feature, is an annoyingly cutesy family comedy-drama about a little boy who steals a doll so the little girl he has a crush on likes him. i think this is easily the earliest feature length movie i've seen targeted directly at children. not my thing really, i found it extremely irritating and even a bit unpleasant.

The kid got off too lightly. He did attempt to kill him, he just got lucky the victim was clumsy. But I guess this is all about growing up and learning from one's mistakes. A genuine one at that from Manoel de Oliveira, almost a tougher European version of the children's world Hiroshi Shimizu was so good at before him. I really enjoy films like this, and Oliveira found the right characters for it.