Walk on Water is a 2004 film directed by Eytan Fox. The film centers around a man named Eyal and his interactions and deals with a variety of issues, ranging from the complicated social climate between Israel and Germany to issues of homophobia and transphobia. Eyal is an assassin for the Israeli government, and he is good at it -- a generally cold, unfeeling type, he displays little other than an eagerness to get back to work after his wife commits suicide. This indifferent demeanor persists for a large portion of the story, but Eyal's character begins developing when he is reassigned to an entirely different mission by his superiors.

Rather than an assassination, this time Eyal is tasked to infiltrate the home of a former Nazi Germany leader, aiming to grow close to the old man by way of his grandchildren. Eyal, however, loses his objectivity and becomes close with the grandchildren, Pia and Axel. Axel, in particular, is an important foil for Eyal -- the characters are dynamic and oppose each other in nearly every conceivable way at first. Despite this, Eyal begins to bond with Axel, strugging over their differences. Not only do they contend with differences of race and religion, but sexuality, as well.

This nearly ends Eyal's relationship with the grandchildren as well as his mission entirely when he discovers Axel is gay -- Eyal attempts to withdraw from the mission for that reason, but is pressured to stay by his superiors. He learns that the mission is to be an assassination after all, and he is ordered to kill Axel and Pia's grandfather. When the opportunity arises to do so, however, Eyal is unable to make the kill, and he leaves the grandfather alive, only to have Axel finish the job. Axel is now likely aware of Eyal's original motives in befriending him and his sister, but Axel does not seem to care -- he values their friendship too deeply.

The most important development for Eyal is here -- prior to this moment, killing had become monotonous and easy for him. This eventually lead Eyal to his detachment from humanity and inability to sustain personal relationships (evidenced by his wife's suicide) but made assassination that much easier. Having forged a relationship with Pia and Axel, however, he finds his own humanity again, and can no longer view the grandfather as a target even though the man represents and worked for the Nazis themselves.

The film does an excellent job of presenting many as many complicated and deep issues as it does in so short a span of time, exemplifying these issues through the interactions of Eyal and Axel, two characters who begin viewing one another as complete opposites and eventually come to mutual understandings on both sides. Eyal's progression from cold-blooded killer to something far more human is conveyed through his interactions with Axel, Pia, and various other characters throughout the film.

Shanghai Triad

Shanghai Triad is a 1995 film directed by Yimou Zhang. The film is set in Shanghai, China at some point in the 1930s. The film is powerful in both visual aspects as well as characterization aspects, presenting well-defined and multi-dimensional characters throughout. One exception to this, however, is the protagonist, Tang Shuisheng. From his country origins, one would have expected him to be more innocent and unassuming, or far more gung-ho about what is going on with him. However, he seems to display something close to a callous indifference through certain parts of the film, lacking a particularly strong reaction about it. While this might come off as an annoyance in other films, it works well here to illustrate the other characters and allows the audience to fully absorb them.

Shuisheng is sent to Shanghai to work with a crime family; he is assigned the task of caring for the boss's mistress, Jinbao. His uncle Liu assists him in becoming acclimated to the lifestyle; the households displayed in Shanghai and the general feel of this area is one of immense emptiness -- though the homes are beautifully decorated and styled, one nonetheless draws from them a hollow feeling. These aren't well-lived in homes with smiling children -- they are the homes of vicious mob bosses, and their feel implies this in a carefully underhanded way.

Jinbao is beautiful, herself, but also displays her own callous indifference and viciousness -- she insults Shuisheng and his country heritage, though it is later revealed that Jinbao herself has rural origins. The contrast between the city life and rural life is illustrated sharply when the mob flees to a place in the country to escape their rivals -- gone are the immense mansions and nightclubs, replaced with a quiet, natural setting. The city characters are terribly out of place, and they bring to this peaceful rural setting their violence and hatred.

The film's theme revolves around crime, and heavily implies that only bad things can come from it. Most aspects of Jinbao's life are controlled by the crime family, and she has lost most of what was probably a good nature as a result of her involvement with Tang and the crime family. Although Shuisheng is not presented as an innocent in the beginning of the film, one can surmise from the brutal ending that his opinion of crime families and their lifestyles has soured immensely. Though this theme is not as deep or intellectual as much of Zhang's other work thanks to political pressures, there is certainly a valuable underlying message here about the mob and its affect on the people caught up in it.

Dreams

Dreams is a 1990 film directed by Akira Kurosawa. Kurosawa was eighty years old when the film was released, and it draws from various dreams and nightmares he experienced over the course of his long lifetime. With forty years of experience, Dreams is the 28th film Kurosawa has directed. The film is composed of several distinct and disconnected stories -- there are various themes and overtones that encompass the entire film, with distinctive moods and emotions for each of the individual pieces, ranging from temptation and tiredness to art and environmental pollution.

Kurosawa draws not only from his own dreams but the Japanese culture in which he grew up; common features include the Kitsune, a mythical Japanese fox character. As these creatures are typically portrayed as magic-using tricksters, Kurosawa does not deviate -- in his first story, a little boy views the Kitsune wedding ceremony and draws their ire. Blossoms are another common feature to traditional Japanese culture; they make an appearance later, in "The Peach Orchard." In addition, Kurosawa also draws upon his own fears -- with "The Tunnel" he examines war and death, and with "Mount Fuji in Red" he explores a potential nuclear holocaust and the effect on a family remaining behind.

Symbolism is key throughout the story, and various characters represent different things -- the still-living soldier in "The Tunnel" represents guilt. Clearly, the soldier feels horribly not only for his lost platoon, but those he may have killed over the course of the war as well. Most of the characters and representations follow a similar theme, however -- death and time are important motifs throughout the story. Many of the stories near the end feature a sort of end to the earth -- "Mount Fuji in Red" and "The Weeping Demon," both sequences near to the end of the movie, deal with a nuclear apocalypse and the aftereffects.

Though Dreams has a sensible progression of time (the first stories focus around a young boy, while the last stories focus around an old man), there is little else leaving the film easily accessible and understandable. The abstract nature of the film, as well as the lack of transitioning between sequences, work well for the sort of film that Kurosawa wanted to make -- however, this feels as though it was a film created by Kurosawa for Kurosawa. Perhaps it was his way of dealing with aging and getting older. It is difficult for a younger viewer to simply watch the film and fully absorb the message Kurosawa is attempting to convey -- it is the sort of film that requires intense retrospect to fully comprehend.

Central Station

Central Station is a 1998 film directed by Walter Salles. It is similar to a previous movie, The Motorcycle Diaries, in that it follows the characters over a formative journey. The film takes place in Brazil, opening in the largest train station in Rio de Janiero, the country's capital city. The film is character and scenery driven, immersing the viewer into Salles' world quickly, not only by the believable and extremely well-developed characters, but their surroundings, as well. From the beginnings of the film, the viewer is thrown into a world with bustling and fast-moving characters. Despite the general atmosphere of the busy Central Station, there are characters with which the audience must sympathize -- those illiterates for whom Dora writes letters.

The movie centers around two primary characters -- Dora, an older female woman who was once a teacher, and Josué, a young, recently orphaned boy. The pair both spend a majority of their time at Central do Brasil, the Central Station of Rio de Janiero. Dora, who is extremely poor and near homelessness, makes her living by writing letters for illiterate travelers. However, she does not mail these letters -- she keeps or destroys them. Josué is a boy who, until recently, had been living with his mother, Ana. However, she dies after being struck by a bus outside of the station; Josué is left orphaned, as he has never met his father. Despite this, Josué still yearns to meet and know his mysterious father figure.

Dora is presented at first as a harsh and unsympathetic figure; though she writes all sorts of letters, she does not mail them out, preferring instead to destroy them or keep them for herself. When Josué is at first abandoned, even, she does not want to help him and goes out of her way to make things more difficult for him; however, eventually she relents and takes him home with her, figuring the train station is no place for a young boy. Eventually, the pair depart on a journey to find Josué's rather. As the pair embark on this journey, there is mutual growth -- Josué learns more about his own father and his family, and develops relationships with his half-siblings; Dora rediscovers the parts of herself that had become hardened and unsympathetic as she learns to care about Josué.

One of the primary motifs of the film is faith -- not only is it shown symbolically and literally throughout the film, it is a driving force behind the characters themselves. Josué, as a young boy, still has plenty of faith left in the world -- although Dora is doubting of his father, he is unrelenting in his quest for the unknown man. Dora, as an older woman who has experienced the harshness of the world, has lost some of her humanity, becoming a callous and harsh person as a result of her experiences. As the pair embark on their journey, they share with one another their faith and their personalities, and each gains valuable experience and exposure from the other.

Amores Perros

Amores Perros is a 2000 film directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, centering around a cast of characters in Mexico City. Like both Babel and 21 Grams, Amores Perros employs multiple stories which weave together to form one complete narrative, shifting from one story to another and interlinking these stories with one central event. Much of the story draws inspiration from contemporary Mexico, displaying both the squalor and destitution residents experience as well as the beauty and riches of the upper classes. The wealth disparity in Mexico is quite deep, and this story spans from the bottom rung to the uppermost tier of the socioeconomic ladder in Mexico. The characters and their interactions drive the story, with each main character possessed by love and affected by crisis in a different way.

The stories are all similar to one another -- each primary character deals with love. Octavio is in love with his sister-in-law, Susan. Valeria is no longer in love with her husband, Daniel. El Chivo loves his daughter and wants nothing more than to reconnect with her. Each character also deals with a personal crisis -- Octavio is abandoned and betrayed by Susana; Valeria realizes she can no longer work as a model; El Chivo loses all of his dogs. Each character's reactions are different, however -- while Octavio is unchanged by the betrayal, continuing to yearn for his sister-in-law, Valeria is destroyed by it, losing meaning in her life with the loss of her career. El Chivo is perhaps the only character to grow for his crisis -- at the end, when he could have easily killed both men, he instead leaves them to decide each other's fate.

The central point in these stories is a terrible car crash. The first story culiminates with the car crash and the second begins with it, centering on the aftereffects of the accident on Valeria. The third story is interrupted by the car crash, just as El Chivo is lining up his shot. El Chivo is arguably the most important character and his narrative the most striking, though certainly the previous stories served as valuable framework for the movie. Unlike Octavio and Susan, he is not forced to live in squalor; it seems to be a lifestyle he has chosen. Unlike Valeria and Daniel, he does not have money and fame, and he shows no desire for it. El Chivo is able to reconcile his problems with love; though his rescued dog brutally massacres all of his other dogs, El Chivo is able to forgive the dog and continue seeking his love. When he finds her, however, he does not involve himself with her life, perhaps realizing his potential to poorly influence her or dramatically change her life. For this reason, El Chivo is the only character to receive a satisfactory ending and the only one able to move away from his problems.