To be fair, the entire movie is a two year old and a lady playing a dead body. The two year old isn't really acting, it's more like they just filmed her messing around under controlled circumstances. They couldn't get her to do everything they needed, so there is quite a bit of ADR and things that clearly aren't actually being done by Pihu, but by someone off screen. I can't really fault a two year old for being a shit actress, she is two after all, but they really needed to either get a kid older than two to play a two year old or just make the character older because Pihu is the entire movie. This is one film that absolutely prohibits any critical thinking or honestly, any thought other than "Oh no! Poor Pihu!". The timeline makes no sense. The plot has a million holes. Every character is a total moron and it only is acceptable for the two year old. The biggest issue is that there is zero attention to detail or really anything going on in the movie. I could go on for hours about all the things they do wrong, but some highlights include the gas stove that is on for literally hours, filling up the apartment with gas which is never referenced and is ignored when the multiple sparks and explosions happen, the microwave which apparently has a reverse function for its revolving tray, the phone that spends four or so hours being used after the low battery warning pops up that Pihu tells us isn't working even though we see she's on YouTube and also she takes a call on although the phone isn't on the right screen (also Pihu just randomly pokes and drags across the screen and it just happens to do whatever the movie needs her to do), and the ending which is just plain impossible given the circumstances. Any thought of "Wait... what? That's not right" has to be pushed aside. If you can manage to do that and effectively shut your brain off, it's an hour and a half of watching a toddler do the stupid things a toddler would do: she somehow make toast, open the jelly jar, spread jelly on multiple pieces of toast, and then just eat the jelly off the toast with her fingers, she reaches for a cellphone under a shelf, but instead of moving closer to the shelf (there is at least half a foot between her and the shelf), she just gives up and cries, and she constantly hears people at the door and says "Pihu is coming" and then never gets within six feet of the door. I get that there is only so much you can do with a two year old, it doesn't really feel like they tried to get her to do anything. I understand the acting potential of a two year old is minimal, but they could have given her more direction. The only things I liked where watching Pihu almost die and the absolutely astounding acting by the dead body. Seriously, the woman who had to play dead while Pihu rubbed jelly all over her face, played with her feet, kneeled on her face, threw things at her, shoved things in her face, layed on her, etc. and SHE DIDN'T FUCKING MOVE A MUSCLE! Her face didn't even twitch. Take any one of those things and put that on a normal actor and they'll crack; just imagining trying being completely limp and motionless while that kid touches my feet and I'm out. That lady deserved some awards for that performance. Your experience with Pihu is going to depend on how much you can push out anything that pulls you out of the movie and what you want to get out of it. Netflix classifies it as a Thriller; you're supposed to be on the edge of your seat cringing and praying that Pihu's stool doesn't fall over while she reaches for things on a shelf, that she doesn't eat things she finds on the floor, and that she doesn't plummet to her death from the balcony. Does it make me a bad person when a started a cheer when Pihu asks her dead mother if she can have one of her (apparently chewable) sleeping pills? Yeah. Yeah, it probably does, but there is absolutely nothing about this film grounded in reality, so it was incredibly hard for me to get invested in effectively watching a child play pretend while daddy filmed; hoping that the movie would have the balls to go that direction was all I had. Pihu will either give you anxiety or have you actively rooting for the death of a child.
To be fair, the entire movie is a two year old and a lady playing a dead body. The two year old isn't really acting, it's more like they just filmed her messing around under controlled circumstances. They couldn't get her to do everything they needed, so there is quite a bit of ADR and things that clearly aren't actually being done by Pihu, but by someone off screen. I can't really fault a two year old for being a shit actress, she is two after all, but they really needed to either get a kid older than two to play a two year old or just make the character older because Pihu is the entire movie. This is one film that absolutely prohibits any critical thinking or honestly, any thought other than "Oh no! Poor Pihu!". The timeline makes no sense. The plot has a million holes. Every character is a total moron and it only is acceptable for the two year old. The biggest issue is that there is zero attention to detail or really anything going on in the movie. I could go on for hours about all the things they do wrong, but some highlights include the gas stove that is on for literally hours, filling up the apartment with gas which is never referenced and is ignored when the multiple sparks and explosions happen, the microwave which apparently has a reverse function for its revolving tray, the phone that spends four or so hours being used after the low battery warning pops up that Pihu tells us isn't working even though we see she's on YouTube and also she takes a call on although the phone isn't on the right screen (also Pihu just randomly pokes and drags across the screen and it just happens to do whatever the movie needs her to do), and the ending which is just plain impossible given the circumstances. Any thought of "Wait... what? That's not right" has to be pushed aside. If you can manage to do that and effectively shut your brain off, it's an hour and a half of watching a toddler do the stupid things a toddler would do: she somehow make toast, open the jelly jar, spread jelly on multiple pieces of toast, and then just eat the jelly off the toast with her fingers, she reaches for a cellphone under a shelf, but instead of moving closer to the shelf (there is at least half a foot between her and the shelf), she just gives up and cries, and she constantly hears people at the door and says "Pihu is coming" and then never gets within six feet of the door. I get that there is only so much you can do with a two year old, it doesn't really feel like they tried to get her to do anything. I understand the acting potential of a two year old is minimal, but they could have given her more direction. The only things I liked where watching Pihu almost die and the absolutely astounding acting by the dead body. Seriously, the woman who had to play dead while Pihu rubbed jelly all over her face, played with her feet, kneeled on her face, threw things at her, shoved things in her face, layed on her, etc. and SHE DIDN'T FUCKING MOVE A MUSCLE! Her face didn't even twitch. Take any one of those things and put that on a normal actor and they'll crack; just imagining trying being completely limp and motionless while that kid touches my feet and I'm out. That lady deserved some awards for that performance. Your experience with Pihu is going to depend on how much you can push out anything that pulls you out of the movie and what you want to get out of it. Netflix classifies it as a Thriller; you're supposed to be on the edge of your seat cringing and praying that Pihu's stool doesn't fall over while she reaches for things on a shelf, that she doesn't eat things she finds on the floor, and that she doesn't plummet to her death from the balcony. Does it make me a bad person when a started a cheer when Pihu asks her dead mother if she can have one of her (apparently chewable) sleeping pills? Yeah. Yeah, it probably does, but there is absolutely nothing about this film grounded in reality, so it was incredibly hard for me to get invested in effectively watching a child play pretend while daddy filmed; hoping that the movie would have the balls to go that direction was all I had. Pihu will either give you anxiety or have you actively rooting for the death of a child.
