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Great Film overall

Admirable film.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Blistering performances.

I loved 'Citizen Dog' and this movie falls under the same category. I haven't seen many Hungarian films, but recently I saw and liked 'White God'. After seeing the overwhelmed responses to this, I think I anticipated a lot only to get disappointed. I'm not completely upset with it, I liked the story, maybe I expected more cute and innocence like an Audrey Tautou character from 'Amélie'.There are lots of fun that you could feel the movie is not simply trying to impress you, but begin to evolve to build a fine storyline and a better conclusion. The deaths, inclusion of a Japanese character, songs and a fairytale is how the concept was developed that became the centre of the narration.At a time I felt a little too much use of them is why my interest on this slightly declined during the watch. I definitely won't consider it a bad movie, but only felt it should have been a little better in the storytelling. I might have not liked it as much as other similar films, but it's a superior quality, with the good performances. I think anyone who enjoyed 'Citizen Dog' and 'Amelie' should try it with the low expectation.6/10

I originally had no idea what to expect. I just wanted to watch a movie & saw this had a rating over 7. So it couldn't be too bad could it? WOW! What a pleasant surprise!Don't be scared off, even if you need subtitles. This was still some of the most fun I've had watching a film in a long time. That's saying a lot for something that is basically just a love story.As the film's titles drop onto the screen, they are suspended by imaginary ropes and dangling to and fro. It lets me know right off the bat that this is a comedy even though the text is in a language I can't read.It starts off with a fairly tale feel right away too but... we are soon introduced to a sequence with Japanese pop music. I found this and all the song and dance segments to be hypnotic. The music sounded great but what I really couldn't get enough of were the visuals. These were really beautiful for me to look at. (and I'm not normally a big fan of musical numbers in film).As the story unfolded, we come to understand the legend of the Fox-Fairy. As an Anime fan I was hooked from that point on. There are some great sight gags all along the way. Some fun with the local Mekk Burger and even a little social commentary on the merits fast food.They live happily ever after... those who manage to survive that is.

Liza, the Fox-fairy is one of the most pleasant surprises I ever had watching a Hungarian movie. The cinematography and scenery were beautiful, the actors did an excellent job. The idea of adding Japanese pop culture and mythology to a fictional capitalistic 70's Hungarian scenery might seem a little far fetched at first, but it really works well. The story was captivating. Most reviewers mention Jean-Pierre Jeunet's 'Amélie' and Wes Anderson's movies as probable inspirations. I have to agree, but these influences are not explicit at all, they stay on a vibe level. Also I have to add, it's way darker than those movies and that it has more of a 'Delicatessen' mood, (also) a Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro movie. Anyway, if you like weird love stories with dark twists and dark humor you should definitely give this movie a chance.

This movie starts like a fairy-tale, and retains this style throughout: Liza is a simple young (well, she's hitting 30) girl who hasn't found her dream prince yet. She's working in a fictional Budapest as a live-in nurse for an elderly lady, who teaches her Japanese because she used to be the wife of the Japanese ambassador. Did I mention that it's a very complex fairy tale? Simple Liza reads her favourite Japanese novel over and over, listens to J-Pop and dreams about meeting her prince over a crab burger, just like in the novel. One day, a Japanese pop star from the Sixties appears to her, and they both shake it out. Liza manages to get two hours off to go to a burger joint, which is the closest thing to the crab burger joint of her dreams. While she's gone, her ward dies, killed by the only seemingly innocuous spirit of a Japanese pop singer, Tomy Tano. Liza inherits the flat, but the evil spirit is now jealous of her quest for a dream lover. Many good men, and some mediocre ones, die, and Liza's only explanation for this is that she is a fox-fairy, a Japanese mythological figure of a young, attractive woman who is inevitably killing off all of her suitors ...This is a very odd, very complex and very well made movie in the style of Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain about a young woman finding happiness. I especially enjoyed the subcosmos of equally erstwhile as well as fictional J-pop star Tomy Tano, he seemed to be living in an eternally hip and fun world of great tunes and swinging moves.