The Substance (5 Stars)

The Substance centres on Elisabeth Sparkle, a former Hollywood star whose career has withered as she ages. Once celebrated for her beauty, she is now dismissed, patronised and quietly erased by an industry that values women only while they remain young. Her life is reduced to routine, isolation and humiliation, culminating in her being fired from her long running television job on her fiftieth birthday.

In this moment of despair, Elisabeth is approached by a mysterious medical company offering an experimental treatment known simply as "The Substance". The promise is intoxicating; it will create a younger, improved version of herself. This new body will be flawless, energetic and desirable. The catch is strict and non negotiable. Elisabeth must alternate between her original body and the new one on a fixed schedule. They are not allowed to exist simultaneously. Balance must be maintained.

After taking the treatment, Elisabeth gives birth to Sue, a younger version of herself who immediately thrives in the spotlight. Sue becomes everything Elisabeth once was and more. She's confident, admired and quickly embraced by the same industry that rejected the older Elisabeth. As Sue's success grows, Elisabeth's resentment and dependence deepen. The boundaries between the two selves begin to erode as Sue increasingly resists giving control back.

What follows is a spiralling breakdown of identity, morality and physical form. The rules of the substance are violated and the consequences are grotesque. Their bodies deteriorate, merge and mutate as Elisabeth attempts to reclaim relevance and control. The film moves toward an extreme and deliberately excessive finale in which the cost of denying age, mortality and self acceptance becomes horrifyingly literal.

At its core, The Substance is not about vanity; it is about erasure. The film presents ageing as something society inflicts on women rather than a natural process. Elisabeth is not afraid of getting older in isolation. She's afraid of becoming invisible. The horror comes from the realisation that her value has always been conditional.

Sue represents the idealised female body as a product. She is not a true second self but a commodified version shaped entirely for consumption. Her rebellion is not empowerment; it's the logic of the system taken to its extreme. Youth, once created, refuses to relinquish space. The older self is expected to disappear quietly.

The film also critiques the language of self improvement. The substance is marketed as empowerment and choice, yet it demands obedience, sacrifice and self mutilation. Elisabeth believes she is taking control, but in reality she's submitting to a harsher form of exploitation, one that comes from within as much as from the outside world.

The escalating body horror mirrors Elisabeth's internal fragmentation. As she tries to split herself into acceptable and unacceptable parts, her body literally collapses under the contradiction. The grotesque excess of the final act is intentional. It refuses subtlety because the violence done to women by beauty culture is anything but subtle.

Ultimately, The Substance argues that the pursuit of eternal youth is a losing battle not because ageing is ugly, but because self rejection is corrosive. Elisabeth does not destroy herself by growing older. She destroys herself by agreeing with a world that tells her she should not exist as she is.

Success Rate:  + 2.3

Flammende Herzen (5 Stars)

If I describe this film's plot to you, you'll think it's a comedy. It's true, there are many ridiculous scenes, but the overwhelming atmosphere is of sadness.

The film was made in 1978. Peter Huber lives in Laufen an der Salzach, a small Bavarian town close to the Austrian border. He owns a small kiosk where he sells newspapers. Every day he goes home to his small apartment, where he lives alone. He has no friends. His only comfort is the music of Peter Kraus. Peter is obsessed with him. There are pictures of him all over his wall.

One day Peter wins a prize. Two weeks in New York. He stays with a German couple in Manhattan. To entertain him they take him to German culture centres. That's terrible! He wants to learn something about America. He already knows all there is to be known about Germany.

Peter rescues a young woman who's attempting to kill herself. He takes her home, and he's surprised to find that she has records of Peter Kraus, including "Blue Melodie", which is played in full. The woman is German. Karola Faber moved to New York from Kaiserslauten after marrying an American soldier, but she left him when he cheated on her. Since then she's been working as a stripper.

An awkward relationship develops between Peter and Karola. She likes him, but he's never had a girlfriend, so he keeps his distance.

On the insistence of his German hosts, Peter takes Karola to a Bavarian Oktoberfest taking place in Manhattan. Something he's never seen before? Poor Peter, he's being bombarded with fake Germany. But his luck is still good. He and Karola are chosen as the festival's Cornflower king and queen. They go on stage to sing, and they're surprisingly good. Then they receive their prize: a cow. They walk home leading a cow. Karola wants to take it to a slaughter house, but Peter doesn't want to kill it. What do you do with a cow in New York?

The story doesn't have a happy ending. Peter returns home to his lonely life.

Life is absurd. This film is absurd. I hope you'll like it. Unfortunately, it's never been released on DVD. It's occasionally shown on German television. I made enquiries, and I was told that the film will never be released because the company that owns the film is in limbo since the death of its owners. That sucks. Luckily you can find it on YouTube, in German, without subtitles.

Despite hardly ever being seen by anyone outside Germany, the film has a mythical status. The soundtrack album with the same name was recorded by the popular German guitarist Michael Rother. If the film were ever released it would be a big hit.

Iron Bodyguard (5 Stars)

Iron Bodyguard is a 1973 Mandarin-language historical martial arts drama directed by Chang Cheh and Pao Hsueh-li and produced by the Shaw Brothers Studio.

The film centres on Wang Wu (played by Chen Kuan-tai), a legendary swordsman and head of a bodyguard/security company in late Qing dynasty China. When Wang intervenes to stop corrupt imperial officers from unjustly arresting innocent men, he attracts the attention of Tan Sitong, a young scholar and reformer. The two form a friendship after Tan helps Wang fight off attackers, and Wang becomes aware of the broader political struggle unfolding in the empire.

Tan Sitong and other reform-minded officials are appointed to the government and attempt a series of reforms aimed at modernising the Qing state. Their efforts draw the ire of Empress Dowager Cixi, who views the reforms as a threat to her authority. She accuses reform leaders including Kang Youwei of subversion, prompting a crackdown on reformists.

As conservative forces close in, several reformers including Tan Sitong are captured and sentenced to death. Wang Wu and his allies attempt a daring rescue but are betrayed and overwhelmed. In the ensuing conflict Wang kills his betrayer but is fatally shot, and the reformers, including Tan Sitong, are executed.

The film blends martial arts set-pieces with political intrigue, using Wang’s personal journey and loyalty to friends as a way to explore themes of honour, loyalty, sacrifice and the price of political idealism.

The Hundred Days' Reform

The historical background of the story is the Hundred Days’ Reform of 1898, an episode in late Qing dynasty history when the Guangxu Emperor and his supporters attempted rapid modernising reforms.

Iron Bodyguard does not simply reference the Hundred Days' Reform as background colour; it actively builds its dramatic structure around recognisable historical moments, then reshapes them through Shaw Brothers genre logic. Each major political idea in the film is anchored to a concrete scene, usually filtered through the perspective of Wang Wu, a man who stands outside the bureaucracy yet is drawn inexorably into its collapse.

Reform as Conversation, not Policy

Historically, the Hundred Days' Reform was driven by documents, memorials and imperial edicts. The film translates this abstraction into dialogue driven scenes, most notably the early meetings between Wang Wu and Tan Sitong.

Their first extended conversation, following the street fight where they fend off attackers together, is crucial. Tan speaks passionately about national weakness, foreign encroachment and the need for moral renewal. Wang listens rather than lectures. This mirrors Tan Sitong's real world role as a philosophical reformer rather than an administrator. The film accurately frames him as a thinker whose ideas inspire others rather than as a man with direct political power.

By staging reform as something discussed in tea houses and private rooms, the film reflects a historical truth; the reform movement lacked a mass base and functioned largely through elite discourse. The warmth of these scenes also foreshadows the personal cost of political failure.

The Emperor as an Absence

The Guangxu Emperor appears briefly and at a distance, framed by palace architecture or separated from others by physical barriers. Historically he issued reform edicts but lacked military authority. The film visualises this weakness.

In the scene where court officials debate the reforms, the Emperor is silent for long stretches. Orders are read aloud, but real momentum is missing. This matches the historical reality that the reforms moved quickly on paper but slowly in practice.

The camera's refusal to centre the Emperor reinforces the idea that power lies elsewhere. When Empress Dowager Cixi later acts, she does so decisively and off screen at first, reflecting how her coup unfolded suddenly and with little public warning.

Empress Dowager Cixi and the Collapse of Reform

The film condenses the palace coup into a small number of scenes, but their structure mirrors the historical sequence closely.

One key moment occurs when Tan Sitong realises that Kang Youwei has fled. Historically Kang escaped abroad, leaving others behind. In the film this knowledge arrives quietly, in a dim interior scene rather than a dramatic announcement. Tan's response is calm acceptance rather than panic.

This reflects historical accounts of Tan's refusal to flee. His famous declaration that reform requires blood is not quoted directly, but its spirit is embodied in his decision to stay. The scene where Tan calmly prepares for arrest is one of the film's most historically grounded moments.

The Six Gentlemen as a Single Tragedy

Rather than presenting all six executed reformers individually, the film treats them as a collective presence. Arrest scenes are cross cut, reinforcing the idea of a coordinated purge rather than isolated punishment.

The executions themselves are not sensationalised. They are shown briefly and without elaborate choreography. This restraint aligns with the film's political seriousness and reflects the historical purpose of the executions; they were meant to send a message, not to glorify violence.

Tan Sitong's death is framed less as an end than as a moral turning point. Immediately after his execution, the film cuts back to Wang Wu, shifting focus from political martyrdom to personal responsibility.

Wang Wu and the Myth of Armed Resistance

This is where the film departs most clearly from strict historical record. There is no evidence that Wang Wu led armed rescue attempts against imperial forces. However the film uses these sequences to explore a historical question rather than to answer it.

The failed rescue attempt functions as a cinematic "what if". What if martial loyalty could have altered history? The answer the film gives is no.

The ambush scene is particularly telling. Wang and his allies are betrayed from within, echoing the real reform movement's internal divisions and lack of secure support. The gunshot that kills Wang is historically anachronistic but symbolically precise. Traditional martial skill is rendered powerless by modern weaponry, just as Qing China was militarily outmatched by foreign powers.

The Gun as History Intruding on Wuxia

The use of firearms against Wang Wu is not incidental. Throughout the film, combat is mostly hand to hand or blade based. Guns appear only at decisive moments.

Historically, one of the reform movement's key failures was its inability to modernise the military in time. By killing the martial hero with a gun rather than a sword, the film visually encodes this failure. Martial virtue alone cannot save a nation that refuses systemic change.

This moment links Wang Wu's personal fate to the political fate of the reforms. Both are overwhelmed by forces they cannot counter with tradition alone.

Loyalty, Honour and the Cost of Idealism

The final scenes, following Wang Wu's death, are quiet and reflective. There is no victorious survivor to carry on the cause. This reflects the historical aftermath of 1898; reform did not resume in earnest until years later and under very different conditions.

By ending on loss rather than triumph, Iron Bodyguard aligns itself with the historical consensus that the Hundred Days' Reform was not a heroic failure that immediately bore fruit, but a traumatic lesson paid for in blood.

The film's historical accuracy lies less in precise detail than in structural truth. Reform is hopeful, brief and crushed. Idealism inspires loyalty but cannot substitute for power. Individuals act bravely, but history moves remorselessly.

The Housemaid (4½ Stars)

Millie Calloway is a young woman who's been released on parole after being in prison for murder. It was a crime of passion, as we later discover. She's desperate for a new life, so she fakes her CV in order to get a job as a live-in maid with a wealthy family. She soon realises that the woman in the house is neurotic, frequently forgetting the instructions she gave Millie an hour earlier, but she desperately needs somewhere to live and puts up with everything. The longer she stays, the more hidden secrets she discovers.

This is a fascinating film with brilliant performances by Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney. You'll be sitting on the edge of your seat as the mysteries unravel.

At the end there's a hook for a sequel. It's possible that it could become a franchise. I just hope that the sequels are different enough to be worth watching.

Die Drei ??? - Toteninsel (4 Stars)

This is an adaptation of "Toteninsel" (engl. "Death Island"), the 100th book in the series of "Die Drei ???" ("The Three Detectives"). The three youngsters, Justus, Peter and Bob, pursue a team of smugglers to an island in the South Pacific. An unknown treasure has to be retrieved before the island is destroyed by an active volcano.

In the book the boys are aged 13. It would have been too difficult to find actors in this age, so older actors appear, aged 17 to 19. In the books the three detectives have never aged after carrying out over 100 adventures from 1968 to today. 

The books are popular in Germany, not just among children. The cinema was almost full today. Looking around, I saw a lot of older people without children in the audience. The film was very exciting, though not as scary as the previous two films. And most importantly, my grandson Oliver loved it.

King Eagle (5 Stars)

Jin Fei is a wandering swordsman who doesn't want to get involved in the disputes of the martial arts world. Even when he witnesses a man being slaughtered by a gang, he doesn't do anything. He's drawn into the fights when he goes home and finds that his two best friends have been killed by the same gang. He takes revenge.

He falls in love with An Yu-Lien, the seventh chief of the Tien clan. Confusingly, she claims to be less beautiful than her younger sister An Bing-Er, the eighth chief. I say it's confusing, because they're both played by the same actress, Ching Lee.

This is a masterful martial arts epic directed by Chang Cheh. Made in 1971, this is one of the early examples or wire-fu, i.e. kung fu action exaggerated by unnaturally large jumps.

Hamnet (5 Stars)

My main reason for going to see this film is its recent nominations for the Academy Awards: eight nominations, including Best Picture. I wasn't disappointed. For the first half of the film I was thinking to myself "a typical four star film", but as it progressed I was more and more impressed.

The film is about William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, who's called Agnes in the film. It begins with love at first sight. Shakespeare is teaching Latin in a village church. He looks out of the window and sees Agnes, so he abandons his class and goes out to talk to her. They get married despite the objections of her family.

Fast forward 18 years. Shakespeare is spending most of his time in London, leaving Agnes at home in Stratford-On-Avon with her three children. Their eleven-year-old son Hamnet dies. Agnes is bitter than Shakespeare wasn't with him in his last hours. A short while later the play "Hamlet" is announced in London, so Agnes travels with her brother to see it. Though not explicitly stated, this seems to be the first performance she's seen of one of his plays.

Very little is known of Shakespeare's private life, so I don't know if all the smaller details are historically accurate. The film is based on a novel, whose author may have invented things to make the story more interesting. That doesn't bother me. As long as the known facts aren't contradicted, I don't care how much is added.

The focus of the story is on Agnes, not Shakespeare.