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0 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Thanks God, It was such a great relief for me mentally that there were no scene of violence or intimidation against Venla and Sa, Aug 13 2009
This review is from: Producing Adults (DVD)
Cruelty against female is cruelty against mankind itself! We all need females for their purity of love and depth of compassion. Throughout civilisation, women have never been valued equally as men . . . . .But why? In some culture, they even have discarded new born female infants as trash or even traded for money or abondoned in favour of male infants. What a shame! Females are more pleasing to look at because their love and compassion are finer and deeper . . . bringing a priceless enlightenment through their innate sensitivity to our lives. Pope Clementius V enacted ecclesiastical law citing that females were inferior subjects not suitable to appear in any place of human assembly such as Theatres and Schools nor to voice their opinions. Except Japan and Sweden, Female homosexuals were almost always executed, imprisoned, institutionalised, slayed, raped and burnt alive to death whereas male counterparts had survived (China under Han dynasty, Spain under Franco dictatorship) Thanks God, It was such a great relief for me mentally that there were no scene of violence or intimidation against Venla and Satu in the entire length of film. As being purist and idealist myself, I have always wondered why the majority of other similar films had to end in tragedy unless there is a motivation to depict and criticise the cruelty of political agenda of the nation in effect during a period where scenario is written for, or worse yet when director is affiliated with the conservative financiers or with a political party where he or she belonged to supplant the idea on audience that it is wrong for any woman to love another woman hence the punishment is inevitable. When such scheme is in effect, how true and natural women's right to love can be accomplished free from delusion or deception? Since the beginning of civilisation, philosophers, psychologists, many scholars and like had debated against the superiority of love that a woman can offer to all of man kinds (to both men and to women). I strongly believe that of women are definitely superior to the others. Since the majority of us do not experience temporary loss of vision or complete loss of consciousness due to deep sedation for major surgery such as open heart or open skull procedures. Using artificial Heart and Lung machine, often the heart is removed outside the sternum whilst surgeon can work on. Such a procedures can cause tremendous trauma to your psyche. It is not unusual for patient and nurse to develop an almost like loving attachment to each other from the moment the nurse transfers you from a rolling bed to a recovery bed, then calling your name and caressing you as if rescuing you from desolated realm of unconscious. If you compare it with the same task performed by male surgical assistants at operating room , you will become quite impressed with the fact that a woman's love is a priceless enlightenment. The tenderness of woman's expression of love is inexplicable beyond any words. It is highly likely that someone like Satu already had intuitively known the enlightenment that only a woman can bring to her soul. Every female child has dreams of being swept up into a great adventure, of being the beautiful princess. Lamentably, when women grow up, they are often swept up into a life filled merely with demands, duty and responsibility. Many women are tired, struggling under the merciless pressure to be of a faithful servant, or a caregiver for children, husband or authoritarian father and like. I have known an award winning blind female writer back in Japan and her nurse companion who helped her publishing her novels until the end of writer's life at age 72. The nurse companion died next summer found afloat on River Kamo during Gion Festival (Buddhist Spiritual Revisiting season) leaving a will to be buried next to the writer. In fact I have seen them twice together on the stone bridge across a pond within the property of an ancient 10th century Buddhist temple in 1970's. Nurse were eyes to the writer and describing everything that the nurse can see. The both women looked very beautiful radiating the glory of love between them. They both were descendant of ancient noble families go back to 11th century and their presence seemed to enhance the tranquillity of the mid-autumn setting. I could not help but wishing their happy union forever from the moment I saw the strength and intensity of woman's love. Wheather all the wonen victims from crime against humanity can see what is going on this earth from the realm of afterlife, depending on the varieties of mythology and religions. Very basic and fundamental requirement is that our every day effort to support humanity through our awareness and compassion still counts the most in order to prevent the same gross negligence of humanity. It is my vision that a carefully directed love story can help re-educating public and children to more readily accept romance between women. If your daughter fall in love with a woman, it is most idealistic to accept her as a member of extended family. such a contribution to the humanity surely helps to create better world. People-Focused-Cinematography was superb and of course I am grateful not to see out-right intimidation nor violence against Venla and Satu. I personally developed a deep sympathy for Satu who never had experienced lasting romance with someone freely reciprocate woman's love so that Satu can see for herself its superiority over other kind of love. Things do not just end there. Understanding its superiority can definitely enhance her career in medicine by enforcing sublime desire to contribute for humanity and further help her to appreciate her own destination of being born as a female. It must hve taken months and months to find the right timing to express her growing fantasy on Venla and she has not got a decent emotional fulfilment the way it ended up. It must have left a empty feeling in her psyche that takes months to heal and Venla's apathetic change of her focal point. It indeed broke my heart. But it was Venla's abrupt changing nature was appealing to Satu so much so that her attraction to Venla so irresistible. I happened to have a sister who read general surgery in 1960's and become a thoracic surgeon specialised Lung and Breast Cancer and Tuberculosis in 1970-1990's. It seemed to require great patience on top of good academic grades for a female to become a competent professional in the field of medicine. She spent at least 5 hours or reading every evening for 6 years. Their social skill often compromises and remains infantile or rather naive at best and they panic easily to handle common household problem such as electric power outage or clogged kitchen sink that requires help from a construction tradesman. They also seem very vulnerable to sarcastic jokes from nurses. Some nurses are quite motivated to torment new doctors to tears. A nurse placed a thumbtack in one of her shoes whilst she was performing surgery on her cancer patient. I was no exception, I played all kind of dirty and obscene mischiefs on her for years. I have dated a few female physicians in the past, both in Japan and in USA their naivety was still apparant even in USA. They seem to be quite fearful of ghosts and curse. At least half of them could be attracted to and came to sit down by you if you played Bach, Haendel, Vivaldi or Mozart (Haendel is definitely the best and my favourite - by the way Haendel's father was renown court physician in Halle during the late 1600's). I only knew Keyboard scores but if you knew lute, violin or flute, they can melt their heart even quicker than piano or harpsichord. They are all waiting for some assurance that they were no less lovely or womanly as other women in your life. You can theorise the beauty of music owes to her presence and her presence further embellishing it like a magic. Even without my personal desire as spectator of this film. Satu truly deserved a romantic fulfilment of being courted by someone more sensitive to recollect her childhood dream of being a fairy princess so tenderly loved. She perhaps did not know what to do with her passion built up halfway with Venla who never clings nor looks back and goes straight to deal with own life It is still highly likely a woman like Venla can do impressive job in this arena despite such difference in their temperament. I am a straight male however I relate to woman's feeling and needs much precisely than those of man. Women those who tends to look for love from another woman in pursuit of sense of unity, perfect harmony and sentimentality enhanced by their innate and superior ability of imagination. Us - men have to congratulate their ultimate happiness and be grateful of the fact that such a perfect love does exists in real world. I can almost visualise how content both Setu and Venla could be listening to Mozart's Violin Concerto No 3 KV216 and Venla stroking through Setu's hair in synchronisation to tune of violin in the candle-lit bedroom The music might drive them to tears but feeling and intense bliss of togetherness may last in their soul for days particularly for Satu who tends to cling back to every emotional experience, very womaly trait indeed. Vivaldi's Violin or Lute Concerto "Estro Aarmonico (Inspiration of Harmony)" RV230 2nd movement is quite suitable for star gazing with a female lover on a balcony on a star-lit autumn night. (Transparent Sonorous beauty on Lute played by renowned virtuoso Palo Chelci is absolutely inexplicable beyond comparison that makes you feel like as if your thought for your lover reaching constellations together with each pluck on Lute string. You can almost feel that Vivaldi had loved his female chorus members when he was il maestro di cappella del'Ospedale della Pietà ( in 17th Century Ospidale;an ancient word for hospital actually meant orphanage - here again the...
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Intriguing movie about the disintegration of a straight relationship, Jun 10 2006
By K. E. Fox "Voracious reader and movie fanatic" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Producing Adults (DVD)
This movie is about a lovely Finnish woman named Venla, a psychologist at a fertility clinic, who has been with her boyfriend for 15 years. She has decided she now wants to have kids but he doesn't want any and instead says he wants to have her support them while he pursues his speed skating dreams. In this film, the boyfriend ends up doing several unethical actions to Venla to ensure that they never produce children, including slipping her a morning after pill in her champagne to ensure she isn't pregnant after a condom busts and then later on getting a vasectomy. He also lies and tells her he wants to have kids. At work Venla discusses all the trials of her relationship with a female coworker named Satu, the lab worker. Satu is a lesbian who seems to have given up having anyone in her life to love and has ended up in an unfulfilling relationship with a male next door neighbor just to alleviate her loneliness. About halfway through the film Venla decides to take drastic action in order to get pregnant and asks for the assistance of Satu, who cares deeply for Venla. When they are caught by the boss of the clinic, a number of surprising happenings occur, including both the women going bed together and being caught by the Venla's boyfriend. -- The cover of this DVD said this is an amusing film. I didn't find it amusing so much as gut-wrenching to watch as the male/female couple relationship as it crumbles. I'm only giving these film three stars because I bought this film thinking it was going to be a lesbian love story but this film is not about that, so much as adults making hard decisions in their lives after finding they aren't getting what they want from their partner. This film also did not develop the romantic relationship between Venla and Satu and I found their sudden sexual/romantic was rather abrupt, and not romantic or persuasive. I wish the filmmaker would have spent much less time on the selfish boyfriend who doesn't want to grow up; and was also a dishonest and unethical cad to a woman he said he loved. I also wanted to know more about the enigmatic Satu and have seen the romantic relationship between the two women developed more. This film also ended very abruptly and I would have liked to see a better end between Venla and Satu by adding at least another 20 minutes to this 90 minute film.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Refreshingly unique queer love story...with substance., Nov 17 2005
By queer movie lover - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Producing Adults (DVD)
"Producing Adults" is a refreshingly unique story of a love triangle with a clever queer twist. It's a film about figuring out just where your heart lies -- in work, hobby, family, and romance -- and what exactly it takes to figure it all out. Set in Finland with English subtitles, "Producing Adults" is audacious, with the perfect amount of humor and cute romance laced into an absolutely profound love story. Venla, a fertility counselor, wants nothing more than a baby with her aspiring speedskater boyfriend, Antero. Antero, however, is too devoted to his skating to want anymore complications in his life, but is unwilling to talk about it with Venla. The overwhelming secrecy begins to push Venla further and further away, and what was meant to minimize complication ends up doing the exact opposite. Soon enough, someone in the relationship develops feelings for someone else....someone of the same sex. What ensues is a sometimes-sexy, always realistically challenging romantic story about love -- both what we love (job, kids) and who we love. The story is engaging throughout, and I'd be hard-pressed to find any remote complaints. Good acting, good script, and excellent production. "Producing Adults" has won audiences over around the world, with several awards from international and queer film festivals alike. Join the queer masses and watch this movie. With just the right balance of comedy, romance, and drama, it's perfect for any mood.
30 of 35 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
original take on the theme of parenthood, Oct 11 2005
By Roland E. Zwick - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Producing Adults (DVD)
Venla is a fertility clinic psychologist who provides counseling for couples before they take that life-altering plunge into child-rearing. The irony is that Venla wants desperately to have a child of her own, but Antero, her boyfriend of fifteen years, who wants no part of the responsibility of fatherhood, is secretly sabotaging their efforts at conception, going so far as slipping contraceptives into her drinks and eventually even having a vasectomy without her knowledge. The third major character in the drama is Satu, a lesbian co-worker at the clinic, who also wants a child and with whom Venla begins to fall in love. "Producing Adults" is one of the few films I can remember that actually deals with an issue that most people end up struggling with at some point in their lives: when - and even if - to have children. The movie tries to be fair with all its characters, even showing Antero, who does some pretty despicable things in the course of the movie, in a reasonably sympathetic light. Although his motives for not having children arise from a certain core selfishness - he is a championship skater who feels fatherhood would severely limit his chances of winning an Olympic gold medal - we can see that he truly does love Venla and is terrified of losing her. We can also empathize with his terror when he visits his prolific married buddy whose home seems to be literally overrun with rampaging little ones. And, for all his dishonesty, at least he isn't producing children THEN deciding he doesn't want to have anything to do with raising them. Moreover, writer Pekko Pesonen and director Aleksi Salmanpera, although their sympathies clearly lie with the two women who want desperately to be mothers, still acknowledge that the very act of having children can often be as rooted in selfishness as NOT having them. In addition, Venla is not always completely honest herself, even going so far as to trick her husband into "donating" a sperm sample to see if he's fertile without his prior consent. This Finnish film offers a complex study of human nature as the three main characters interact in ways that are both revelatory and highly unexpected. Actually, the movie is at its most interesting when it is focusing on the marital conflict between Venla and Antero, and a bit less interesting when it is chronicling the burgeoning love between Venla and Satu. Venla's almost instantaneous "conversion" to lesbianism seems too much a matter of convenience to be taken seriously and, thus, puts a strain on the story's credibility. Still, despite that weakness, the film is not only well acted, but has some profound things to say about the kind of compromises people have to make when they become mature adults.
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