Killers of the Flower Moon and The Third Brigade

Before 2023 came to a close, I managed to watch the two movies I was most eager to see this year: Killers of the Flower Moon and The Third Brigade. The plots of both films are top-notch, as expected. Killers of the Flower Moon is adapted from the bestselling book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, while The Third Brigade is based on the nonfiction work Please Tell the Director, the Third Brigade Has Completed the Mission from NetEase’s “Human World” series. Both original works are excellent. I watched The Third Brigade in an online TC version, which had average clarity, but since it’s a drama, high-definition wasn’t crucial. Killers of the Flower Moon was downloaded in 4K, so the high resolution allowed me to catch all the details I was interested in. Watching movies on my computer has the advantage of being able to pause and rewatch scenes at will, unlike in a theater where you’re bound by the movie’s pace.

Killers of the Flower Moon doesn’t seem to be about seeking justice for the Osage people or exposing the dark history of America’s early 20th-century oil industry; it feels more like a showcase of the actors’ performances. Leonardo DiCaprio will likely get an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, but the film itself might struggle to win Best Picture. Jesse Plemons, who bears a striking resemblance to Matt Damon, delivered a performance that could well earn him a Best Actor nomination as well.

The Third Brigade features a cast full of familiar faces. With such a seasoned cast, as long as the script is decent, the film is unlikely to go wrong, though it might not stand out either due to the strong associations the audience has with these actors. The most memorable performance was by Wei Chen, who played Xu Yizhou. Despite being born in 1986, Wei Chen convincingly portrayed a newly graduated police officer. Both Wei Chen and Xie Miao are at an awkward age for roles—they’re too old to play fresh-faced youths and too young to convincingly portray middle-aged men.