Dead Hearts

A tale of love, death, kung-fu, and monsters. This short film is really on a knife's edge of whether or not it will work for you. The tone is relentlessly whimsical, but at the same time frequently heads off into silliness and excess; many other short films will show you how hard this is to get right (a lot of people want to be Wes Anderson) so at least Dead Hearts deserves the credit for getting a lot of this right. The style is really lifted from other influences – Anderson being the most obvious, but the dark romance is very much a Tim Burton product.

Together these two elements do limit the film somewhat, and make it feel like it is trying to hit too many buttons or reference points, but yet if you are in the mood then it does work mostly. I found it quite charming for the most part and the whimsy elements were the most successful. The kung-fu and horror elements did not mix particularly well, although by this point the whimsy had charmed me more or less enough. I could very much understand why some people would hate it and others would love it. I mostly really liked it, but it is always right on the line.

It has very obvious nods to writer-ditectors like Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Wes Anderson, Bryan Fuller and Tim Burton, but still has its own quirky take and is quite fun. I've NEVER enjoyed Wes Anderson, and as soon as I saw the similarity, I expected to dislike, but it was still unique enough, that the writer-ditector found their own voice and made the style their own.

The only real problem I had was that the writer seems to struggle with math and the ages/timeliness. I won't spoil it for anyone, but it keeps bothering me even more on the rewatches.

Some short films are complete on their own, while others feel like it is an audition for a full-length, and this happily fits the former. That said, I found the brief glimpse at their lives to be interesting enough, that it would be fun to have additional stories of these two whether as subsequent shorts or as a series.

Best wishes to director.

A charming film. About love, life, death, after-life, kung fu and Tim Burton mark. Simple, dark and seductive. Because it knows using in well manner the cliches and proposing a good, reasonable romance story , nice for a large public category. The humor represents the lead ingredient. And the key for a film about one of the most important things in life.