“Terrace House”: The Kinder, Gentler Japanese Alternative to Reality TV
"Terrace House" improves on the standard reality TV format by affording its cast privacy, freedom, and respect.

L'Etat Sauvage is based on the novel by Georges Conchon which won the highly esteemed Prix de Goncourt. The story chronicles the mindless racism of both the departing French colonial overlords and the emergent black Africans in a newly emerging African state. Laurence (Marie-Christine Barrault) suffers the outrage of her white acquaintances, including her former lover Gravenoir (Claude Brasseur) and her ex-husband Avit (Jacques Dutronc), for her affair with Patrice Doumbe (Doura Mane), an official in the new government. He in turn is ridiculed by his fellow cabinet ministers for stepping out with a white woman. The vilification escalates to such a point that Patrice is brutally murdered, and Laurence barely escapes the country alive, with the help of her ex-husband Avit.
"Terrace House" improves on the standard reality TV format by affording its cast privacy, freedom, and respect.
An anti-war film denouncing the valorization of senseless violence, 'All Quiet on the Western Front' is (unfortunately) all too relevant in 2022.
The justice system in the United States of America is supposed to operate as you are deemed innocent until proven guilty. But "When They See Us" shows what happens for Black people is they are deemed guilty until proven innocent.
It’s passionately protective of the women mentioned in the story or appearing on screen. Just like the article and the #MeToo movement, the film could help a trapped person find the courage to fight back.
Striving for validation. Let’s be frank….we ALL want to be successful. Whatever we put our efforts into, ideally it is to make it culminate in the best possible results across the board, especially when it comes to what career path we are pursuing. We WANT to excel, to shine, to advance, to be acknowledged. AND…let’s hope that we also wish to better everyone around us to boot. However, what occurs when those whom we initially put our trust in suddenly become a burden instead of a boon? Do we falter under the weight of rejection? Or STAND UP for WHO WE ARE?
Despite the film’s efforts to reframe its heroine with modern complexity, a certain emotional distance lingers.