Haibane Renmei (2002) 灰羽連盟

she was born from a large cocoon, with only a dream as her memory, she didn't know who or what she was. she was greeted by a group of girls with small wings on their backs n halos on their heads, n live them ever since. neither human nor angel, they had to work with the humans to earn their stay in the town. while they tried to search for the meaning of their existence, some of their members went beyond the wall, which was strictly forbidden.

a slow moving anime, it was mostly about their life in the small town. being new in the world, she wanted to know why they were born, n from the pain of losing one member beyond the wall, she struggled to accept that it was meant to be. there were no exact ending to the anime, only acceptance.

Leery.

she pressed her lips together and stared blankly straight ahead, wishing secretly that she could climb inside his head and see the thoughts that he wasn't keen on sharing. getting to the bottom of everything that happened within these 2 days. despite the confident smile he gave her, or the dismissive shrug he hoped she would buy, nothing he told her for the past 10 minutes made the least bit of sense. when he tried to further persuade her that all was fine, she shrugged, fully convinced that something was up, though knowing better than to say it out loud. she looked straight into his eyes, hoping for a glimpse of recognition or defeat where he will then admit and lay out the scheme. but none of that happened as he continued grinning foolishly. surrendered, she pushed her way through him into the room.

隠された真実。

Sleeping Beauty (2011)

Julia Leigh was originally an author of a few novels, she wrote a twisted version of Sleeping Beauty and made this Australian film her debut in directing as well. the story followed a university student named Lucy, who went for an interview for a part-time job. the job required her and some other women wearing only their lingerie to cater for a room full of old men. the employer of Lucy also had a service called Sleeping Beauty, where a girl was chosen and given a drug so that they will be asleep for the next few hours. the service was directed for the grieving, age-weakened, or angry old men. to the chosen Sleeping Beauty, those few hours doesn't exist while the old man would have his personal time with her, doing to her what he desired. when the current Sleeping Beauty was fired, Lucy was chosen to be her replacement. the longer she went through with this job, the more curious she got, wanting to know what happened when she was asleep.

there was nothing Disney about this film, no handsome prince in shinning armor nor awakening kiss for the princess. in fact, it was far from being innocent. for half of the screening time, Emily Browning who played Lucy was required to stay naked, however her being so comfortable in it was far more unsettling than the sex trade itself. the film failed to connect us viewers to its characters. Lucy especially, was cold and indifferent. the idea itself, though original and brave, was difficult to relate, it felt more strange than arousing. there were also other parts that left us puzzled, such as her proposing to her sick ex-boyfriend, or rent a high-class apartment without as much as a second thought, had one wondering what was the purpose of her working. the story was painfully slow, some scenes completely unrelated, some even pointless until the very end.

The Immortals #4: Dark Flame (2010)

Ever performed a binding spell to bind Roman to her, where if the spell was successful, he would hand over the antidote obediently. she needed the antidote to remove the curse Roman placed on Damen. but the spell went wrong when she accidentally summoned the dark powers of Hecate, as the result she was bound to Roman instead. she became addicted to Roman, needing him in ways she never imagined possible. it ruined her relationship with her best friend Haven, whom she turned Immortal the moment Roman taunted to kill her. a decision she immediately regretted when Haven became so powerful in a short amount of time, her abilities stronger the Ever's. again and again she asked Roman for the antidote, through ways even she felt ashamed of. when she finally understood what hold her bound to Roman, she was able to break free from the spell and confronted Roman in a proper way. but just minutes before Roman handed over the antidote, Jude appeared, destroying Roman together with all hopes Ever had of obtaining the antidote.

despite how well written was Evermore (2009) and Blue Moon (2009), the Immortals (2009-2011) series seemed to went further and further downhill from there. ever since Shadowland (2009) required me to drag myself through it, skipping lines just so i can proceed, Dark Flame (2010) to my dismay, was no difference. Ever made more and more obviously wrong choices, Damen retreated and gave Ever the chance to love Jude, and Jude whom Ever entrusted her secrets with more than Damen! after watching Ever rolled herself over and over in the mud just to figure out how to unbind herself from Roman for more than half of the book, she surprisingly did it with some simple repetitive meditation stuff that she already knew all along, the solution didn't quite make sense nor gave me any satisfaction. Ever seemed to never grow throughout the story, stuck in her selfish little world of never taking any advice and being so predictably impulsive. there were completely no progress for her relationship with Damen, it dragged on and on since the third book and it was getting harder and harder to see them going beyond that line.