Riceboy Sleeps achieved an overall appreciation score of 79.2%. Many members found this a beautiful, gentle and sobering film. However, some found it too long, slow and predictable. Some of the comments submitted:
- Beautiful, gentle film examines the close familial ties between a mother and son. She is trying to protect him and has sacrificed so much.
- Very moving and sobering – dealt with big issues with a very personal touch.
- A very beautiful and moving film. A sad story but also full of humanity, incredibly well acted and directed.
- Very moving and engrossing. Very well done indeed.
- Beautiful, thought provoking film that covered so many ranges of subjects. Cultural prejudices, racism, sexism, adolescence, death. Spoke with another afterwards about how good the film was. Definitely recommend this one.
- Beautiful, moving film. Well acted and directed. Feels authentic.
- Good story and good representation of the difficulties of interaction between different cultures. It would have been useful to have subtitles also when the dialogue was in English as some of the speech was not clear enough.
- Beautiful and sensitive film but oh so so sad. There was no happiness at all in this film.
- I would have given a higher score but for two reasons. Firstly, the English dialogue in the first half was unclear. Secondly, I was confused by ‘missing’ bits. Why not marry in the light of Korean culture and attitudes to children born to single mothers? Also, how did the main character attain home and car and lifestyle after arriving in Canade. Not knowing enough on these things I was left ‘filling in the gaps’/guessing and not finding some things believable.
- The print seemed poor, and it would have helped to have subtitles throughout, not just for the Korean.
- A thoughtful exploration of several difficult themes. Sensitive photography but the sound was poor at times.
- “A sweet and sour film”. Strong, sad and happy scenes, beautifully and sensitively presented. It would have been rated Excellent but sound quality very poor in places – sections of English language were unintelligible. Picture quality sometimes poor too. This is one where subtitles for English language would have been very helpful.
- Some really great aspects but another ‘issues’ film – Despite the range of films and cultures, there is a sense that many of the films have to be ‘serious’ and ‘relevant’ (see the nature of the reviews in the handouts). Entertaining films can also be thought-provoking and make serious points.
- Difficult to engage with emotionally despite the story line, it seemed very objective and remote.
- Rather predictable storyline with some plodding dialogue at times, but just about maintained interest and had an effective conclusion.
- Slow and not particularly cheerful with plenty of ill health, racism and misogyny. Somewhat predictable storyline.
- The film had a reasonable start and ending but seemed to stall during the middle. It felt a bit long.
- Quite charming but also very boring.
- Score might have been higher if the film had been clearer to see and the sound had been good enough to hear the majority of the dialogue.