-
I wish more people understood this simple fact!
-
-
-
The Americans
-
Fantasia 2012: ‘The Sorcerer and the White Snake’ – a disappointing effort all around
The Sorcerer and the White Snake
Directed by Ching Siu-tung
Written by Charcoal Tan, Tsang Kan-Cheung, Szeto Cheuk-Hon
Hong Kong/China, 2011
Adapted, one assumes loosely, from an ancient Chinese legend, The Sorcerer and the White Snake reveals the tale of how two worlds, the world of humans and the world of demons, collid together for love despite tradition dictating for years that they should not. Two snake demons, the white snake Susu (Eva Huang) and the green snake QingQing (Charlene Choi), each fall for two different human men, propelling their respective universes into tremendous conflict, particularly when the great monk Fahai (Jet Li), constantly on the prowl for such monsters as the snake woman, learns of their infatuation. Is it true that love conquers all, or shall old divides keep everyone apart?
We live in a day and age in which hundreds of films employ the assistance of computer generated technology to enhance movies. There is an entire legion of people who show their disliking for CG like war veterans wear their medals with the highest honour. For me, CG, when used in the right doses and for the right purposes (which is what eludes filmmakers all too often), it can be a terrific visual tool. One need only watch Avatar as a prime example…
Fantasia 2012: ‘Poongsang’ – another brilliant Korean cinematic jewel
Poongsang
Directed by Juhn Jai-hong
Written by Kim Ki-duk
South Korea, 2011
The year in cinema would not be complete without a new South Korean gem. The much revered Kim-Ki-duk wrote and produced this Juhn Jai-hong directed action thriller, Poongsang, about a a mysterious smuggler (Yoon Kye-sang) who helps families reunite by transporting, via his own one-man operation, men and women from North Korea to the South. His missions always occur under the blanket of night, but let that not have believe there are no risks involved. Highly skilled, extremely professional, and never uttering a single word, his austere nature is betrayed by humanity the night he falls for his latest parcel: the wife (Kim Gyu-ri) of a wealthy Northern expat. Now, the Korean federal police are after him, as are Northern spies who have infiltrated the South.
It is ironic that Poongsang should have its North American premier at Fantasia film festival in the leadup to the release of the latest Bourne adventure, The Bourne Legacy. There are some striking similarities between the two characters and how they go about their projects. Both operate outside the boundaries of institutions, both have earned reputations as being near-mythic individuals, both are trained in the martial arts so as to make any assailants appear as pathetic amateurs, both are quick and creative thinkers when the odds are stacked against them and neither says very much…
Fantasia 2012: ‘Love in the Buff’
Love in The Buff
Directed by Pang Ho-Cheung
Written by Pang Ho-Cheung, Luk Yee-sum. Jody Luk
Hong Kong, 2012
One of the few films to be presented in 35mm at this year’s festival, Love in the Buff (which, in the film’s title card, really really looks like Love in the Butt) is a sequel which reunites the two main lovers of the first instalment, Jimmy (Shaun Yue) and Cherrie (Merriam Yeung), whose relationship is on the rocks. Early on the in the film Cherrie, who finds Jimmy’s slow maturation process into adulthood insufferable, decides to call it quits. A new job takes her from Hong Kong to Beijing, where new opportunities of love await. Things get sticky, after having met someone, when Jimmy is also relocated to Beijing for employment. Even though each has found a new companion, fate sees that they stumble upon each other, and old feelings rear their heads…
Fantasia 2012: Depravity and lunacy cannot remain ‘Hidden in the Woods’ forever
Hidden In the Woods
Directed by Patricio Valladares
Written by Patricio Valladares and Andrea Cavaletto
Chile, 2012
What exactly consists of a good groundhouse picture? Which conceivable, perceptible elements are sufficient for one movie fan, presumably one owing some familiarity in the genre, to conclude that groundhouse movie ‘a’ was swell, whereas movie grondhouse ‘b’ was not. Is the genre itself not supposed to give birth to films that, if assessed along the typically recognized guidelines (good acting, good story, good directing, good special effects provided said effects are present), are by and large bad? That is partly their charm, a charm virtually no other genre can claim. This year’s Fantasia International Film Festival lineup reserved some special projects for such fans. One was Michael Biehn’s directorial debut, The Victim, a film this movie reviewer found dreadful (for an altogether different take, here is Michael Ryan’s review and interview with the director himself), another being the world premier of Chilean Patrico Valladares’ Hidden in the Woods, which somehow earned far more points and more…respect, if such a quality can be ascribed to fetishistic muck like this movie. Loosely inspired by real events, by the way.
This is the sort of film for which plot matters, but only by the thinnest of margins. Plot is not of the essence. Its genuine purpose is to set the hysterics in motion, to let hell in on God’s green earth loose, unhinged, uncontrolled, unadulterated. Director Valladares’ film opens with a quick series of events from the past, relating to how sisters Ana (Siboney Lo) and Any (Carolina Escobar) got to where they are today: imprisoned in their father’s home in the Chilean countryside with little to do save being raped by dad and caring for, ill suited for the task as they may be, their younger, completely retarded brother Manuel (José Hernandez). Their father helps uncle Costello (François Soto) with the latter’s small drug empire, preserving significant amounts of products nearby for safekeeping in the event of future deals. Things take a turn for the worse, somehow, if it can be believed, on the day two police officers arrive on the premise, alerting the father to drop his chainsaw. The latter refuses, proceeds to hack the officers to bits, during which time the sisters and Manuel take off. Their major concern is that daddy was eventually apprehended, making Costello very nervous about the whereabouts of his drugs, knowledge only the girls are privy to now. It’s time to hunt them down, by any means necessary…
Fantasia 2012: It’s all fun and games in ‘Game of Werewolves’
Game of Werewolves
Directed by Juan Martinez Moreno
Written by Juan Martinez Moreno
Spain, 2012
Ah, the classic werewolf creature. It is one of the vintage, most fondly remembered beasts made famous by Universal Studios back in the earlier days when cinema was but in its infancy. The first classic actor to portray the role? Lon Chaney Jr., whose performance, both with and without makeup, has remained etched in the memories of monster movie fans old and young. Since then, the werewolf’s cinematic record is spotty at best. For every The Wolf Man is a Wolfman (2010, Joe Johnston). For every American Werewolf in London, there is an American Werewolf in Paris. Is the creature that limiting as a storytelling device? Perhaps, but blessed be the filmmakers who come along and create what proves to be one of the successes, among them Spaniard Juan Martinez Moreno with his latest, Game of Werewolves.
Tomàs Marino (Gorka Otxoa) considers himself a celebrity, although he would have a world of difficulty convincing many other people. An author, he is struggling to come up with ideas for his second novel, the first having quickly been forgotten in the minds of the public, at least among the few who actually read it as his grandmother (Mabel Rivera) reminds him over the phone at the start of the picture. Tomàs is on his way back to the small village where he grew up, Arga, far outside any of Spain’s metropolis, Madrid. The plan is to take refuge in the family’s old estate, be quiet for a few weeks or months and start writing again. Much to his surprise, his old buddy Calisto (Carlos Areces) awaits him for a warm welcome. Among other surprises is the arrival of his publisher, Mario (Secun de la Rosa), a wily, spirited man who seems just as desperate to make a buck with what he hopes will be Tomàs’ next book, as well as a re-acquaintance with his uncle, the village priest. The latter invites Tomàs for a special ceremony involving the bringing in of a new mayor, but that, in truth, hides yet another unexpected twist. On the day of the celebration, both Tomàs and Mario, because the latter is a witness, are knocked out cold and brought to a decrepit old church where the townsfolk, as Tomàs’s uncle explains, are to finally rid themselves of the curse of the werewolf which has plagued Arga for 100 years to the day. If the beast eats the flesh of a Marino, then Arga is freed of the monster’s reign of terror. Not exactly the creative thinking process the author had in mind…
Fantasia 2012: ‘Excision’ extremely unsettling, often amusing
Excision
Directed by Richard Bates Jr.
Screenplay by Richard Bates Jr.
2012, USA
Writer-director Richard Bates. Jr. draws on years of movie-watching for his audacious feature debut Excision. The most obvious influences for Excision is possibly Brian DePalma’s Carrie, Todd Solondz’s Welcome To The Dollhouse and Michael Lehmann’s Heathers. Toss in equal parts Gregg Araki, Dario Argento, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and John Hughes and an ending reminiscent of Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers - and Excision might just be the best “adolescent misfit” movie in a very long time.
Richard Bates Jr.’s dark domestic offbeat black comedy (a passion project converted from his 2008 short with the same name), is greased up with enough cultural references, sarcasm, graphic sex and bloody violence to turn John Waters into a preacher man. Yet despite the controversy stirred up earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, it is important to note that Excision avoids falling victim to the usual trappings of the average independent horror film. Every violent and grotesque twist serves a purpose outside of shock value, helping to move the story forward and flesh out the complexity of the main character.
Fantasia 2012: ‘Asura’ is messy in some areas, but packs a lot of realized potential
Asura
Directed by Keiichi Sato
Written by Ikuko Takahashi
Japan, 2012
Who has not heard or read about the story of the man or woman who thought it was a neat idea to own as a pet, not a dog, cat, or some fish, but rather some wild beast they believed they could somehow tame and, in the process, form an inseparable bond with? A tiger, a lion or any other range of intuitively ferocious animal belonging in its natural habitat, that is, the wildlife. The story ends with mention of how the so-called pet turned on its its master, causing dreadful injury or even death. What propels people to engage themselves in as risky an endeavour as taming something that belongs in the wild is anybody’s guess. In Asura, the latest Japanese animated film, this one based on a 40 year old manga book from George Akiyama, screenwriter Ikuko Takahashi and director Keiichi Sato toy with the notion of taming wild beasts by having the creature be a real human boy who knows nothing of civility, only hunting and killing.
The setting of our story is feudal Japan, at a time and in place where poverty and death by starvation reigned supreme. One mother gives birth to a little baby boy on a violently stormy night, nearly perishing in the process at the hands of a famished wolf stalking her from just outside the abandoned cabin. Under the current socio-economic circumstances, the mother’s plight is now twofold: find a way to feed and offer shelter for herself and now a child. As the weeks go by, hunger, frustration and hopelessness get the better of her morals as she tosses the child into a sea of flames. The child unexpectedly survives, but without a proper upbringing, is it unlike any other youth. The boy is an animal, roaming the countryside with a spear, attacking unsuspecting innocents and hacking them to death for food. His barbaric ways take a different turn on the day he stumbles upon a Buddhist monk, who accepts to offer him food provided the boy, whom he baptizes Asura, refrain from killing. Thus begins Asura’s hurdle prone metamorphosis into as regular a human being he can become, the most emotionally challenging episode being when he is taken in by a young, beautiful woman who works in the fields for her father…
Fantasia 2012: Jennifer Lynch has ‘Chained’ the Serial Killer Monster
Chained
Written by Jennifer Lynch, based on a screenplay by Damian O’Donnell
Directed by Jennifer Lynch
“I shall call you… Rabbit,” is the most chilling line of any film this year. Spoken slowly but deliberately with a slight lisp and a faint Germanic accent by Vincent D’Onofrio, the voice alone places Bob somewhere between Hans Beckert and Jeffrey Dahlmer. D’Onofrio’s performance as Bob is a virtuoso effort by one of our great (albeit under-utilized) actors, delicately inhabiting a brute, like a ballerina trapped in a gorilla’s body.
“When I said I cast Vincent D’Onofrio, I was told that he was too TV… What The Fuck?! Have you not seen Full Metal Jacket?”
-Jennifer Lynch
Bob is a taxi driver whose specially modified cab makes it easier for him to kidnap women, drive them back to his isolated rural home, rape them and kill them. One day, he picks up Sarah Fittler (Julia Ormond) and her ten year old son Tim (Evan Bird) at the movies where they have just seen a horror film. After killing Sarah, Bob changes Tim’s name to Rabbit, telling him, “I didn’t choose you, but I will make the most of it.”
“I wanted to talk about abuse. I wanted to start a dialogue. The main thing is we have to fucking stop hurting the kids!”
-Jennifer Lynch
Rabbit becomes Bob’s servant, “You will have one job. You do what I say. You clean up my house,” which begins with cleaning up the remains of his mother. In time, teenage Rabbit (Eamon Farren) becomes Bob’s reluctant student and it becomes clear that Bob intends for Rabbit to become his son and heir.
“I wanted to write an original horror story… I decided not to do something supernatural, which left serial killers. I had seen films where someone is chased by the killer, Halloween, and I had seen films where the police chase the killer, Se7en, Silence of the Lambs, but I had never seen a film where an ordinary person is parachuted into a serial killer’s life and can’t get away.”
Fantasia 2012: ‘The Kick’ Makes Martial Arts a Family Affair
The Kick
Written by Jong-suk Lee, based on a story by Prachya Pinkaew
Directed by Prachya Pinkaew
Thailand/South Korea 2011 Fantasia imdb
Traditionally, films that pit one country’s martial arts against the martial arts from other countries are blood-soaked chauvinistic affairs like One Armed Boxer and its sequel Master of the Flying Guillotine. Both great films, they up the ante on the Kung Fu bragging rights by having the hero Tien Lung (Jimmy Wang Yu) beat the champions of Japan, Korea, Thailand, India and Tibet with literally one arm tied behind his back – or chopped off, depending on how you look at it.
The Kick is a much more gentle film, turning the battle between Korea’s Tae Kwan Do and Thailand’s Muay Thai into a family comedy and adding Thai star Jeeja Yanin to the winning Korean side to salve any hurt Thai feelings. (Almost deliberately, halfway through the film Jeeja wins a friendly match against the main male Korean lead, Ji-won Ye, and ties against the main female Korean lead.)
Fantasia 2012: ‘Black’s Game’ Makes Unfamiliar Moves
Black’s Game aka Svartur á leik
Written by Óskar Thór Axelsson, based on the novel Svartur á leik by Stefán Máni
Directed by Óskar Thór Axelsson
It would be easy to describe dismiss Black’s Game as an Icelandic crime thriller, but that would be short changing this stylish film that zags every time you expect it to zig, making choices that make sense but are completely opposite to the choices made in other, similar crime films.
As a prime example, in the middle of the film, the crime gang performs a daring daylight bank robbery. When they count up their ill-gotten gains, the co-leader of the gang, Tóti (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson) complains that they make more money in one day selling drugs with much less risk and without doing the dirty (criminal) work themselves. In most films, drugs are what topples a successful criminal empire; in Black’s Game, drugs are the criminal empire that can only be toppled by other crimes.
The time is 1999; our viewpoint character is Stebbi (Thor Kristjansson). After spending the night in the Reykjavic drunk tank after getting into a drunken night-club brawl, Stebbi needs a good lawyer to keep from spending five years in jail for aggravated assault. Luckily, he runs into childhood friend Tóti as both men leave the jail. Tóti offers to get Stebbi legal help from the best lawyer in Iceland, if Stebbi does him a favour.
Fantasia 2012: ‘Smuggler’ Fails to Conceal its Influences
Smuggler aka Sumagurâ: Omae no mirai o hakobe
Written by Katsuhito Ishii, Masatoshi Yamaguchi and Kensuke Yamamoto, based on the manga Sumagurâ by Shôhei Manabe
Directed by Katsuhito Ishii
The writers and director of Smuggler clearly watched Ichi the Killer a lot – A LOT – as kids. It’s all there: the yakuza setting, the gang war, the eccentric characters, the torture, the weird unsettling pacing, the killer who feels like he infiltrated the film from some other cinematic universe.
The difference is that nothing works as well as Ichi. Every time the film quotes Ichi, we are reminded that this film isn’t quite as good as the original. The eccentricities come across as forced, the pacing feels like a car repeatedly back-firing rather than a dangerous roller-coaster, the killer just seems out of place rather than being transgressive, and the torture becomes irritating rather than unsettling.
The best part of Smuggler are the original elements: Kinuta (Satoshi Tsumabuki) is a slacker who passively allows himself to be manipulated into owing loan shark Yuki (Yasuko Matsuyuki) a massive debt, which leads to being assigned as the junior man in a three team truck of body smugglers – cleaning up the mess created by the team of assassins Viscera and Vertebrae (Masanobu Andô) who work for a Chinese gang feuding with the yakuza. (Vertebrae is so named because of his scars and a series of metal protrusions grafted on to his spine.)
Fantasia 2012: ‘Errors of the Human Body’ is disturbing, but not because of any mistakes
Errors of the Human Body
Directed by Eron Sheean
Written by Eron Sheean and Shane Danielson
U.S.A./Germany, 2012
There is so much potential in films relating to scientific experiments gone awry that one wonders why there are not more which play at Fantasia. Part of the reason may have to do with the fact that the premise is too limiting and only so many plot development can arise from it. However limited the number of story points may be, the thematic structure they may adopt are multitudinous, whether the screenwriters and directors go for emotional gravitas, horror or more science-fiction based material. Eron Sheean opts for a healthy mixture of all three in his latest film, Errors of the Human Body, where hopeful scientific research for the future has immediate impacts on the present and bring back harsh memories from the past.
Geoff Burton (Michael Eklund) is a new arrival in the town of Dresden, Germany. Having flown over from North America, the painful memory of his infant son’s grisly demise at the behest of an unspeakably foul degenerative disease propels Geoff to pursue his sophisticated research at one the world’s leading genetics laboratories. It is there that he re-acquaints himself with an old colleague and old flame, Rebekka (Karoline Herfuth), who is one of many employees attempting to crack the code that should result in a new vaccination type medicine, the purpose of which would be to enable organisms to regenerate destroyed tissue. The testing stage is still in its infancy, with the lab mice succumbing to the foreign product in their bodies. One rival scientist, Jarek (Tomas Lamarquis), with whom Geoff does not get along with especially well, seems to be engaged in late night tests in the basement of the establishment, at least as far as Geoff can assess the night he opts to snoop around the premise. Upon smuggling one mouse and a tiny sample of the liquid vaccine his opposite was studying, Geoff makes a startling discovery back at his apartment, one that puts everything into brand new light.
Fantasia 2012: ‘Monster Club’, for all its violent ideas, is poetic and graceful
Monster Club
Directed by Toshiaki Toyoda
Written by Toshiaki Toyoda
Japan, 2011
How often is it said that one person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter? Maybe that is but a cliché which has emerged out of tired movie scripts. Be that as it may, most people in the world do claim entirely opinions on the nature of guerrilla fighters, their objectives and the strategies by which they go about achieving said objectives. It all depends on whose side the individual or group is fighting on that helps influence the nomenclature. What about someone who is literally fighting for themselves, who has no allies, no assistants, who operates as a recluse yet when he or she strikes, people pay attention? Monster Club, from Japanese director Toshiaki Toyoda, takes a look at one such curious person, at what makes them tick and what might, just might, make them change their mind about their current lot?
Ryoichi (Eita) is a one man bomb squad. He lives as a hermit in the snow covered Japanese countryside, as far away from civilization as he can afford. The cabin he dwells in, old, creaky, belongs to the family, of which precious few members are left following a series of unfortunate accidents and the one tragic suicide by his older brother. He cooks his own food, listens to music and, when the time and target is right, prepares bombs that are subsequently sent back into the cities at the addresses of CEOs and various other people of important stature. In one of the film’s few long, detailed inner monologues, Ryoichi reveals to the audience his fury towards modern society. As such, he has chosen to fight back at the establishment via his bombs and calling card, ‘Monster Club.’ It is unclear whether he is slowly going insane after such elongated time in the wilderness or if otherworldly beings are actually soliciting him, but at one point odd looking fellows sneak into the cabin to meet him, one is covered in white with bright red lips and the other resembles a human with its skin peeled off. Following some discomforting, silent encounters with them, they are eventually revealed to be his two deceased brothers who have come to ask him some life altering questions.
Fantasia 2012: ‘Cold Blooded’ is one of the year’s best thrillers
Cold Blooded
Directed by Jason Lapeyre
Written by Jason Lapeyre
Canada, 2012
When it comes to leading parts for female actors in cop and action films, the landscape is relatively barren. Even when such parts exist, rare as it is to begin with, all too often the roles are sexed up to the point where the believability factor is wiped out. Indeed, there appears to be no place for women in films where the grit and the grime are prominent, films that get really down and dirty and require the protagonist to go through hell before reaching the finish line. If things are to change, some filmmaker and some actress will have to rise to the challenge and prove audiences that such a film can be made and be credible. Enter director-writer Jason Lapeyre and star Zoie Palmer, who collaborated on Cold Blooded, shot in Toronto (making it one of the few Canadian films to earn screen time at this year’s Fantasia film festival), one of the real surprises to emerge out of the Canadian film industry this year.
Officer Frances Jane (Zoie Palme) is requested to take the night shift at a local downtown hospital and guard a patient in one of the establishments more secluded wings. This is not any ordinary patient. Cordero (Ryan Robbins) is a jewel thief who was part of a sizable operation earlier that very day with his colleagues. Despite his best efforts, Cordero was caught and his partner found dead beside him. Now the criminal is not only facing charges related to theft, but murder as well. While making small talk, Cordero tries to convince Frances that he never dared killed anybody, least of all his own partner. Frances will have none of it, preferring to keep to her own, get through the night shift and head back home afterwards. Unfortunately for her and Cordero, the latter’s boss, one Louis Holland (William MacDonald) has arrived at the hospital with some cohorts and plans to retrieve the diamonds and liquidate Cordero if need be to prevent him from testifying against the gang. Louis, however, is not someone to be messed around with, and before they know it, Frances and Cordero have to form an uneasy alliance if they are to make it out of this desolate hospital wing alive.
