In Full Bloom

An impressively polished debut feature, admirably ambitious and elegantly crafted.

The acting is solid in this tale of a post WWII boxing match, but it is the music and cinematography that make it great.

"A" for effort. Unmistakable parallels to Malik's "The Tree of Life," but with none of the profundity. A movie this artistically good-looking begs for some nuggets of wisdom beyond fleeting cherry blossoms equaling boxers having short shelf lives.

The film is a flourish of style, with strong direction eliciting top-shelf performances from a no-name cast and filling the film with tough dramatic scenes and lyrical visuals that rework a standard scenario into a package we've never really seen before.