Not sure, I have only set the movies as “watched with eng subs” and wasn’t offered to grade anything, maybe only those who watch without subtitles can vote for the difficulty.
Hm… I had tried from Italy, will try again.
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Subtitles are working for me so far - am about halfway through.
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Yep, a few too many songs for me too. Am enjoying it though (but only halfway through)
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Yes, working the thief/ex narrative into the main narrative earlier would have kept the same tension but ended with the “Yay! They did it” moment.
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Just watched Single8. I’m so glad they actually showed us the film they made - one of my big frustrations with the “A Place Further Than The Universe” anime is that they spent much of their time setting up to film videos, and then never showed us the videos. I am, however, mildly unsatisfied by the film ending with the characters dismissing Yamashita as what the subtiltes rendered as “vamp” (couldn’t make out what the character actually says) because she’s watching the band perform rather than the first of what is apparently multiple film screenings. It seemed to me like she was definitely invested in the film production - and for that matter, it was entirely her idea to give him the photo she took of him, so there was something going on there…
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I did like that “he didn’t get the girl” though. It was about making a movie most of all, romance was incidental. He could control the creative process, not the girl. And she seemed to be passionate about (all forms of) artistic expression more than the boys themselves, so good for her. Maybe she won’t end up with any one of them. In fact, my one regret with the movie they made was that the girl only existed to approve or disapprove of the male lead. But it was the era (and their age) I guess.
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subs worked fine for me
I have noticed that every time I watch a movie I have to turn them on
and ugh the language options are in a different random order 
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I thought the same thing!! It seemed wrong of them/the movie to dismiss her when she just spent her entire summer filming with them. Obviously she cared about the movie, she wouldn’t have filmed it otherwise! That was the only thing I didn’t like about the story.
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Oh yeah I noticed that too, sometimes English is at the end sometimes at the beginning, grrr
Aah now I have the subtitles working, thanks everyone 
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I watched the Horror film competition short films!
Karakasa
This one was the weakest, I think. It felt too long, like why did we get so much backstory for the first girl that died? And one of the roommates spent like a minute of precious screen time explaining what a shared house is for no reason. Then they magically find the story of the murder-suicide because, idk, they followed some vibes? There were some decently creepy images, but overall meh.
The Invitation
Liked this one, pretty well done classic horror, so no complaints. I did find it hilarious that the police woman was crawling on the floor for so long at the end though, I was like girl get up! Also didn’t really understand the murder girl getting out her phone and taking a picture, but oh well.
Closet
This was aight. I guess the moral is something about our real selves being locked away because we have to be productive worker drones in society? Not really getting where this is a ‘new kind of cinema’ as per the blurb, though
Best Wishes to all
Definitely the best in terms of inventiveness and mood. Although it was just omelas, haha.
Now I might need to go to the store and get snacks and beverages for my afternoon movie 
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I have only watched 3 of the horror ones. 
Invitation was interesting but execution a bit lacking.
Closet was kinda meh.
Best Wishes to All, pretty interesting and well done. Looked up what you mention, and yeah. It’s also something I remember seeing before somewhere else, but it’s still a neat idea.
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I actually like the randomized subtitle listings & appreciate that English isn’t always given top billing as so often occurs. Everytime, I go to switch on the subtitles I have a “where will we be this time” moment.
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I watched My Broken Mariko.
This was a tough movie at times due to the subject matter, but I think it was handled pretty well and I appreciated the classic message of continuing to live even though someone is gone. I thought the acting was well done and I especially liked the scenes between the main character and the fishing guy.
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Just finished “I Go Gaga”. Mixed feelings about this one. Hated the English title, much preferred the Japanese one and was distressed by the way the daughter continued to film her upset mother even though her mother asked her not to. The parents were both lovely and I was impressed by their commitment to each other. Loved that he called her by her first name at the end.
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I also struggled with some of the intense scenes, especially because there was so much yelling (for some reason yelling really freaks me out) but in the end I’m glad I watched it.
At the end, when Shii-chan is in the ramen restaurant again, and the news said that a man was hit and killed by a car, I wonder if that’s supposed to be fishing guy… I’m just convincing myself that it was helmet guy instead.
Tonight I’ll either watch Zen Diary, or The Lines that Define Me.
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Yep, some of the yelling scenes were intense. Especially the first scene where as a child she’s yelling and banging on the door of Mariko’s house. I think it being children in that scene made it worse.
I was wondering the same thing. It said an old man was driving so I was like, was it one of those old guys from the restaurant drunk driving or something? 
I hope it wasn’t fishing guy though, he literally JUST told her to keep on living!!
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made me go back and watch this bit just now
my thoughts
a man in shinjuku was crossing the street
would mean that fisherman dude was in the city
me thinks it wasn’t him
however the old man driving was from nakano
so im thinking maybe the old man was from the town (but honestly don’t remember the names of everyone in town), but in any case, unless fisherman was in shinjuku visiting or something, probably wasn’t him that was hit and died.
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Watched The Lines That Define Me. It’s nice to know that even natives can read names wrong at first. Still haven’t cried yet but there were cows so 10/10.
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Finished KIBA tonight
really enjoyed it, wasn’t expecting to like it so much.
Someone mentioned a lot of characters and sometimes it was hard to follow
the various power struggles
thankfully knowing that ahead of time, paid extra attention and didn’t have any confusion, but if I had watched it casually, def could have been confusing
and sometimes - spoiler
just in case - blurred this detail
just grinds my gears, that lady would have been cut to bits and dead by that stalker, and yeah she broke the law, but self defense saved her life - she didn’t even harm her stalker
but she has to go to jail (ugh)
stupid moronic laws that make it the victims fault
where were you お巡りさん when you were needed!
and who does security for that building letting that scumbag in
grrr…that ticked me off
at first though it was a setup but by evil mr mastermind, but didn’t seem like it to me
(or if it was, went very wrong cuz he didn’t know she was 3dprinting pew pew)
in any case hopefully she will end up making lots of money and get early release
I can hope! 
Now only 2 left to watch and probably watch Wedding High since seemed to be something everyone loves. (so maybe 3 left)
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Just watched Wedding High and it was surprisingly good, the type of story I like.
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