What's Goro Watching?

Bandhobi (Korea, 2010)

2011-09-05T16:37:00.000-07:00

A tale of friendship between two outsiders, one a seventeen year old high school girl that doesn't fit into normal society, the other a Bangladeshi immigrant laborer in a society that doesn't want him. The set up is intriguing as I've seen little from Korean cinema about immigration issues. Tackling the issues from a personal perspective should be quite interesting.

The DVD cover and movie poster makes the film seem like a cutesy little rom-com. Fortunately, it turns out that the film is actually fairly gritty and dramatic.

Min-seo is a rather mean-spirited high school girl, struggling with school and a messy homelife; Karim is a archetypal nice-guy, working hard as a laundry laborer. The two meet and Min-seo agrees to help Karim find his former employer who still owes him money. Through this little adventure, the two begin a relationship that grows over the course of the film. Min-seo learns of Karim's Bangladeshi and muslim ways as well as the way in which Korean culture treats him and his kind.

The movie itself has a very put-together feel to it, that is there are a number of major events and notable expositional opportunities that are stitched together with perfunctory storytelling. While there is quite a bit to like, the overall film just does not hold together particularly well. The characterizations are broad and there is no real depth and no real pathos, partly due to the poor acting. Baek Jin-hee tries hard as Min-seo, but it really does show. Mahbub Alam as Karim is unsurprisingly terrible as it's unlikely there were many Bangladeshi actors to choose from; he's not asked to do much and even at that, the character just lies flat.

I wanted to like this, but I was just never involved nor engaged by the proceedings. I didn't care whether Karim was going to leave or not, whether he would be deported or not, what Min-seo was going to do, etc. From a distance, watching the events unfold, it was ok, but nothing more than that.

I was hoping for something akin to the US film The Visitor (imdb link), but The Visitor is a far superior film in every way. In fact, I think I'd rather watch that now.

Johnny Mad Dog (2008)

2011-08-22T19:48:00.000-07:00

Honestly, I'm burnt out on War movies. I have no desire to have anything to do with another war film in any form. So it's surprising that not only did I watch Johnny Mad Dog, but that I was totally entranced by it.

While it follows some certain patterns of war movies, it is a drastically different animal; by placing it far from the painfully ubiquitous Middle East, it gains a freshness that other war movies just can't match.

The concept is compelling as well: the child soldiers in Africa. Now calling them "soldiers" is giving them too much credit; they are more feral than human and their training is composed mostly of (a) Shooting their father, (b) taking cocaine to get jacked up before combat, (c) brainwashing chanting by the campfire. The movie follows a combat squad led by the eponymous Johnny Mad Dog and populated by such colorful names as Never Die, No Good Advice, Take it Free.

This isn't a polished Hollywoody war movie, not even the "dirty" war movies like Hurt Locker. No, this is different: It's Lord of the Flies meets Mad Max meets Saving Private Ryan. The soldiers shown are between ten and fifteen, with Johnny Mad Dog stating that he's been a soldier since he was ten years old. They don't behave like you expect movie people to behave; it has no scripted dialogue feel at all. The kids scream and yell over each other at people and their violence is intense and sudden. As you might expect from children raised in this way, there's little emotion and certainly no remorse.

The camera work and editing and overall film making are first rate and make this film transcend the medium. At some point very early in the film, the lines blurred and it ceased to become a fiction for me and felt more like some kind of documentary depiction, as if these acts were actually occurring. The screen is electric. You cannot look away. This is raw, unfiltered human emotions captured by fantastic cinematography. Amazing. Absolutely Amazing.

The narrative is rather obscure. Since we are following a squad of kids, we're not really privy to much except a couple of their missions and even those are a bit vague. At times, we're aware of the general form of the resistance war that's occurring but as the film proceeds, there's no clear story. There's also no real pathos; this is a band of children that have been conditioned to be killers. They are close to sociopathic and there is little to redeem them, nor does the film ask you to. We are observers, not judges.

There is a secondary story about a young thirteen year old civilian girl who struggles to survive with her young brother and her legless father (who she moves around with a wheelbarrow until it gets stolen). Hers is a story of struggle and while she is clearly an innocent, it is not a story that is built to gain sympathy.

The power of this film is that it is so raw. You feel thrown into the midst of the fighting that is going on in Africa and have a strange, tacit understanding of how things are and how they might have become this way. But in the end we have no answers and no conclusions.

The film ends abruptly; there's not quite resolution and we're left with more questions than there are answers. It's not a perfect ending, though it is one that will leave you sitting in meditative silence for a few moments, to absorb what it was that the past 90min were about.

The film is in English... sort of. It's a thickly accented, almost pidgin and many times I needed the subtitles to tell exactly what they were saying. It's a strange little note but worth mentioning as I'm sure many could be thrown off as I was.

I don't know if this will rank as one of the great War movies, but it is a phenomenal experience. And it's one that I highly recommend.

Children's Hospital (US)

2011-08-21T20:28:00.000-07:00

Adult Swim: The master of the 10min episodes. To me Adult Swim is Aqua Teen (or whatever it's called now), Venture Bros, Robot Chicken, Space Ghost, etc. etc.

Add to that, the live action hospital spoof show, Children's Hospital. All those hospital shows (General Hospital, Grey's Anatomy, House, etc) provide lots of parody material. It also takes shots at alot of those hospital tropes like "the healing power of laughter."

It's pretty crazy and while sometimes it tries a too hard and sometimes has some bits that are very obvious, the show really does work in the 10min context. It's stupid. It's pointless. It's fun.

One episode, I think it was Season 1 Episode 3, was a St Elsewhere series finale parody. It had me rolling.

Definitely check this out. Heck, if you don't like it, you only waste 10min of your life.

The Perfect Host (US, 2010)

2011-08-21T20:17:00.000-07:00

You pretty much know what you're in for with the Perfect Host, although it would be much more fun if you don't for there's a pretty nice first act reveal. But just looking at the movie poster, reading the title, and then watching the opening, you're pretty sure that you have an anti Funny Games in front of you.

And so it is and then we're mostly asking if the film is entertaining. Does it take on the basic idea and then progress with verve and style? Yes, owing to David Hyde Pierce's excellent performance as the somewhat deranged "host."

It's not particularly thrilling nor is it scary. It's strange to watch this and have little pathos for either participant. There a moment when Pierce's character says, "You have only yourself to blame." And it's true. And as things unfold, it's deranged, for sure, but it's not gruesome. No, it's not like Saw or any other torture porn film although it does take a nice little twist on those films.

It wasn't a fantastic film nor was it really a genre film. Lots of little plot elements were handled too easily and there was much thrill or tension. In the hands of great genre director, this could have been a really crazed experience. I can imagine if Kim Ji-woon (I Saw the Devil) did this movie, it would blow my mind.

It's entertaining, though. David Hyde Pierce is clearly having fun with the "Dark Niles" character and the Ray Liotta-ish Clayne Crawford does a good job of being the criminal cum victim. It's a fun flick and a good time-waster. Nothing more than that, but sometimes that's enough.

The 5th Quarter (US, 2010)

2011-08-21T20:00:00.000-07:00

It's a well-intentioned, good-hearted, emotional tearjerker that tells the true-life story of a family who loses a son to a car accident. Layered upon this the fact that an elder son is a linebacker for Wake Forest University's football team.

It's really a Hallmark family movie that poses as a football movie and that suffers for its half-hearted focus. The narrative spine is compromised and as such there's quite a bit of tearjerking emotive scenes and expository scenes, but very few narrative scenes. It really misses the point. Although the emotional center is naturally the family tragedy, what should give this movie its story arc is the football and more precisely, the elder brother (Jon) and his impact on the football program.

The storytelling's shortcomings appear almost immediately. The tragic car accident happens within 5 min of the opening credits. In this, we have no sense of who any of these people and why we should even care. Then in the post accident, we have these tearful people telling us about how tragic is all is. And while it is sad, it feels self-indulgent to basically watch these people wallowing in sorrow. That's because there has been no investment in the characters yet. There is far too much telling instead of showing and that robs the story of much of its power. And I don't know how many scenes of Aidan Quinn crying I can take, but the film really tested that.

What is particularly disappointing is that the football sequences were handled in a off-handed manner. It was an interesting choice to use actual game footage, but to leave much of the games as highlight reels only give it very little impact. In fact, the point that Jon is a leader of the team is never really given weight with respect to the games. When the highlights are of the running back scoring a touchdown or the QB throwing a TD pass, it's hard to connect the dots to how John was leading the team.

There are additional potentially interesting story elements that are discarded. Jon's friend, Jon's girlfriend. His return to the football field is shown as a Rocky-esque montage as he cross trains in what seems like cardio kickboxing; this might have been true, but it's just baffliing in the context of playing football.

And there's a nearly throwaway scene that explains the entire "5th Quarter" affectation. But this is another element that is given no weight in any of the actual football sequences. In fact, there's so very little about the football that I wonder why it is even really included. It's clear the filmmakers had no interest in the football and wanted to focus on the family, in particular they were more interested in the mother and father (Andie McDowell and Aidan Quinn) than in the son.

It's a great story. It deserved a much better movie.

Africa United (UK, 2010)

2011-08-16T20:26:00.000-07:00

An uplifting, fun, road trip film about two African boys who are undertaking a trip to go to the World Cup. Dudu is a fast-talking, street-wise hustler and the Fabrice is a well-to-do, soccer talent who is invited to try out for the team of young footballers who will represent the country during the opening ceremonies at the World Cup: Africa United.

A mishap causes them to miss the tryouts at local stadium and so have to go to 2000 miles to the South African stadium for the last tryouts. Along the way, the go through various trials and tribulations that are unique to the African states and meet a variety of colorful characters. Throughout, we get an look at the way of life in Africa that is vivid and insightful; it's not just slums, poverty, and AIDS here (though they are certainly commonplace).

The characters here are typical for G-rated fare, being drawn in broad, fairly boring, strokes. Dudu is clearly supposed to be one of these big-talking, small-acting, pie-in-the-sky, lovable tramp-types, but he strikes me as just loud and painfully obnoxious, though to be fair, as the film wears on, Dudu's does grow less annoying. And Fabrice is one of these overly pessimistic, somewhat pragmatic, types. Together they balance each other out and also provide some back and forth banter.

It is a nice travelogue film, though and if you want a neat way of getting a South African geography lesson, this is a pretty good one! The film overall is balances light and heavy nicely and takes on some rather heady topics while maintaining its family-oriented focus. It has a great energy to it and is paced very well.

Overall, as a family film, it's fine; it has a good narrative spine to hold the film together, lots of excitement to keep the interest, and perfunctory emotive moments to tug at the hearts; it has lots of humor, much of it of the "AHHHHHHHH"-screaming nature. And most of all, it does have its heart in the right place.

Watch it with the kids; they should have fun with it, but for me, I did expect more and as such I was disappointed.

Totally True Love (Norway, 2011)

2011-08-16T19:49:00.000-07:00

This is a weird little movie and I'm still not quite sure if I entirely liked it or not. On the face of it, it's a cutesy little coming of age/first-love movie about a young Norwegian girl in a small town. Sounds simple enough, but there's a layer of complexity here that makes it a very interesting movie, a much more honest movie, a much truer movie, and also a much less likable movie.

No, it's not an adorable, bittersweet peek in at the world of ten year olds; rather it's a vision of how love can drive and consume people even when they are only ten-years old.

Mom: "You're ten years old; it's [love] not real."
Anne: "It is to me."

And even that doesn't do justice to how this movie unfolds. There's a group of several ten year olds, including Anne, her best friend Beate, her beautiful nemesis Ellen, and a variety of other colorful characters. Anne falls in love with new boy Jorgen, but unfortunately, Ellen has eyes for him also. So naturally Anne is driven to come up with a plan to "get" him. What is interesting is that the plan ends up having quite a mean streak to it, to the point where Anne grows less and less sympathetic as she lashes out at nearly everyone, including her best friend, her brother, her mother, and finally herself. While bright and colorful, there is clearly a very dark streak through this movie, including a side-story that is borderline horror that involves a murdered girl who is then "buried" in the wall of a house.

It is an interesting film but not altogether a successful one. The storytelling loses its way a bit in the second act and the big reveal is not worked into the body of the film very well. The difficulty in balancing the effort of a lead who commits particularly unpleasant acts yet remains sympathetic is a difficult one and tips on the side of bad and as a result lost me. While I continued to watch, I was not engaged and involved.

The kids taking the lead in this are fantastic. Not just Maria Annette Tanderod Berglyd as the lead, who is a revelation, but all the kids are great in their roles and you can buy into the 10 year old world that is created.

Overall the movie is good but not great, which is unfortunate since it really has the potential to be a truly compelling film. A near miss, but still a film that I think is worth checking out.

Toast (UK, 2010)

2011-08-13T18:24:00.000-07:00

"No matter how bad things get, it's impossible not to love someone that makes you toast." This is the rumination of the main character in the the biopic of Nigel Slater. I had to look up Nigel Slater on wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Slater) and found that he's a food writer of some repute in the UK. I've never heard of him and so some of the relevance of elements of the film may elude me.

Still, I like cooking and food and thought this might be a pretty entertaining movie. Unfortunately,I was really mistaken about that. The movie is based upon Nigel Slater's memoirs and as such there's quite a bit of material there. It feels like there was an effort to include much of these major moments even if it interfered with telling a unified, interesting story.

Worst of all, the lead character, Nigel, is not at all sympathetic. In fact, it did not take long for me to really dislike him quite a bit. He's mean spirited, irritating, and terribly self-centered.

In fact, I started feeling more sympathy for the characters around him and not him at all. Helena Bonham-Carter was in great form; meanwhile, Freddie Highmore was surprisingly bland. Ken Stott in the thankless role of his father was quite good, giving some nice texture to the unpleasant persona.

To be fair, there were some good parts. The daydreams young Nigel has are quite fun. The desire to cook and to try different food is nicely done and it's depicted well. The joy he shows when he eats good food is at once beautiful and terrible. It does show how affecting food can be; at the same time, it highlights his selfishness and lack of interest in anyone else.

I couldn't finish this movie. I lasted a little more than halfway before I just gave up. I didn't care about anything that was happening. I disliked the lead character and it was more of a chore to keep watching than to do my laundry, so I did that instead.

Hanna (German/US, 2011)

2011-08-13T18:00:00.000-07:00

I should've liked this. It's an action movie about an engineered super assassin in the form of a teenage girl. How good does it have to be for it to be entertaining? After all, it's not high art that we're after here, we want a good enough plot to wrap some action around.

And it just never came alive for me. Saoirse Ronan is a revelation; she's great as the Nikita-esque assassin who is finding her humanity. Eric Bana is fine but Cate Blanchett. I don't know about her. I guess her Texan(?) accent in this is revenge for what Kim Cattral in the Ghost Writer, but beyond that there's just something off about her in this movie and it's like fingernails on a chalkboard every time she's on screen.

The storyline is ok, but just doesn't seem to go anywhere. The whole film just lays flat and I really started to lose interest about midway thru. I did finish off the film and it ends pretty much as you'd expect. There are a few big reveals in the movie that are interesting (in a Dark Angel-ish way) but that are just there and don't seem to be anything fundamentally important. The story felt just a bit too cookie-cutter and too perfunctory to be engaging. By comparison, Man From Nowhere has a very familiar storyline but has such great pacing and energy that it's easy to get caught up in it.

The action is rather boring as well. There are some fight sequences but they seem executed in slow motion. There's one fight sequence in particular where Eric Bana fights a bunch of guys in a playground that is terrible; it looks very slow and stagey. Ugh.

I saw the trailer a while back and I was really excited about it. My expectations were medium-high and I actually expected a nicely executed albeit derivative movie. Unfortunately it was just derivative and not at all nicely executed. The trailer is better than the movie.

The Secret in Their Eyes (Argentina, 2009)

2011-08-13T16:19:00.000-07:00

I don't necessarily put that much stock into Academy Award winners. Just because it wins the Oscar (or is a nominated film) doesn't always translate to being an enjoyable movie to watch. Crash and Hurt Locker come to mind. However, what I have found is that the nominated films for Best Foreign Language Film are generally very interesting. So I generally try to seek those out. I think i missed this past Academy Awards and so I totally missed out on the Best Foreign Language Film of 2009: The Secret In Their Eyes and it was my loss! I have rectified that now.

I don't want to give anything away and so I'll summarize it by saying it's a great take on the Cold Case, with all elements of the movie perfectly executed: the writing, the editing, the storytelling, the acting. It's an absolute masterpiece and although there are some recognizable moments (some may even venture to cliche territory), they are done amazingly well and add a finishing touch to it that takes it to someplace special.

There's a compelling crime and a solid police procedural storyline that provides the narrative spine. From there, we have strong drama and humor that is tone-perfect and sprinkled at the perfect times. And of course, there's a love story, but this is an amazing love story, one that is secondary to the plot, but one that is handled so expertly that it surprisingly powerful; I will say that it is the best romance of the year (and perhaps of many years).

From opening to ending, I was totally and absolutely hooked on this and, yes, its Academy Award is well-deserved. Seek it out. Watch it. And look for more films by Juan Jose Campanella. I know I will.

An

Hesher (US, 2010)

2011-08-12T20:53:00.000-07:00

Another movie just snuck up on me: Hesher. What the Hell is a "Hesher" ? And it stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt? He's come a long way since 3rd Rock and, in the past five years or so, he has become a very interesting actor. And Natalie Portman? Really? So why had I not heard of it before? And now, looking at the movie poster, I'm not sure what to expect. Is this a docudrama about a Metallica-like metal band?

It's not a new story. In fact, it's a fairly standard one. A coming-of-age story about a wimpy, picked-on kid who meets a strong outsider-type; think a new millennium version of My Bodyguard.

What really makes it a standout film is that it starts with the fairly straightforward story and executes it with its own particular style that makes it seem like something very fresh.

I tend to harp on storytelling quite a bit. How the filmmaker tells you the story that is in his/her heart. Quite often, I feel like the storytelling tends to be rather muddy or convoluted or pointless. In this, the storytelling is first rate. There are multiple themes in place here and so the storytelling has to be quite strong to intertwine them successfully. Whether it's about the friendship, personal tragedy, loss, first love, struggling through adolescence, or finding your inner strength.

The very opening sequence tells you that you are in the hands of a very refined storyteller. With a minimum of visual scenes, you are immediately thrust into the center of the story; you have a very strong idea of what has happened and where what the emotional states of the people are. It's quite amazing, actually.

Now a well constructed story, effective narrative, fantastic editing could go for naught if the acting is poor. Here is where the movie really shines. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is fantastic as the troubled, over-the-top, outsider; holding his own is Devin Brochu as the kid who is dealing with personal tragedy even as he's having trouble at school. Rainn Wilson plays a character far distanced from The Office's Dwight Schrute: Brochu's father who is also struggling with the tragedy that has hit the family. He's surprisingly good and shows a range that you might not expect. Natalie Portman is solid in a tertiary role. Her acting was great, but I found it rather distracting to have her in the role. I would have preferred to have had an unknown in the role.

The movie is compelling. From beginning to ending, it had me firmly focused and engaged. Even as it headed into nearly cliche territory, I willingly accepted it since I was already so fully invested in it. It's a fantastic movie that deserves far more notoriety than it has received.

Tucker and Dale Vs Evil (US, 2010)

2011-08-07T12:54:00.000-07:00

Tucker and Dale are best friends, off to renovate Tucker's old cabin, which just happens to be off in the middle of nowhere. At the same time, a group of college kids off for a Spring Break-ish gathering end up in the same area. The college kids are being killed off one-by-one and it seems like Tucker and Dale are the evil murderers.

It's a great setup, taking the traditional Friday the 13th-ish scenario and turning it edge-wise. There are gags that play with the horror genre tropes and then there are some great death scenes that are both gruesome and hilarious.

The college kids think that Tucker and Dale are homicidal maniacs and Tucker and Dale are convinced that the college kids have a suicide pact and are intent on killing themselves on or near their property!

As things progress, the movie converges to a more traditional horror film and the way it resolves is actually very interesting.

I was a bit wary of this film from the start. I wasn't really sure where it was heading and it definitely had a low-budget feel to it. But it quickly grew on me and once the deaths started, I was fully engaged.

It's not brilliant. It's not particularly subtle, but the actors play the parts with vigor and there's a fun energy throughout. The deaths are pretty decent and the reactions from both sides (Tucker/Dale and the College Kids) are laugh out loud funny at times.

Good: yes.
Great: no.
Rewatch: unlikely.
Recommend: Yes.

Fermat's Room (Spain, 2007)

2011-08-07T12:30:00.000-07:00

Four mathematicians each receive an invitation to a gathering to solve the greatest mathematical enigma in the world. They arrive only to find themselves trapped in a room. One at a time, mathematical riddles appear on a PDA. If they cannot solve the riddle within the time limit, the walls begin to compress. So now, they must combine their resources to find an escape to this trap.

It's a low budget affair, reminiscent to such one-scene (ish) movies like Cube or Exam. This has the added overlay of being (supposedly) mathematics-based and so (theoretically), it should be a more intellectual exercise.

These types of films are at once easy to execute and difficult to execute. There's a natural thrilling energy and conflict that is built into the set up of trapping a few people in a single room for an extended period of time. However, on the flip side, there are a limited number of directions that the story can take and too many of the twists and turns are already tropes (and perhaps even cliches) to this sub-genre that it's a difficult proposition to introduce anything new.

So here, we have the idea of making the principals mathematicians, code-naming them after four famous mathematicians (Pierre de Fermat, David Hilbert, Evariste Galois, Blaise Pascal) and one philosopher (Oliva Sabuco) and then making them solve math problems as the key element to trap. It seems like a decent set up that, at least, has some potential. Unfortunately, the movie quickly devolves into a very standard room trap movie and the high concept of having these be supposedly brilliant mathematical minds falls apart, mostly because the characters are supposed to be much smarter than the screen writer is.

The movie is stupid. Much of the plot is stupid. The setting is stupid. The problems that are to be solved are stupid. The contrived machinations are stupid. And worst of all, the big reveal is stupid. Although there are a few moments very good moments within the film, the entirety just doesn't hold together.

It's forgivable to have some contrivances in a film like this. It's not to be taken at a strictly literal level, but what becomes very important is that the proceedings be interesting, compelling, and thrilling (this being a thriller after all). While the math problems give a skeleton for the interactions, what should make it interesting is that the characters interact and learn about each other as they work towards discovering an escape. And that is yet another failing. The characters are entirely uninteresting and the reveals are painfully bad and the search for an escape? There is basically no search for an escape. At best, what they do is attempt to prevent the walls from compressing by putting furniture in the way.

Cube is by far the best of this type of film. While it's hard for a film to measure up to Cube, it is possible to be a decent entry. Unfortunately, this film is torpedoed by a pointless plot and stupid elements at nearly every juncture and an ending that is worse than could be expected, falling into nearly a Deus ex Machina. Skip this movie.

The Conspirator (US, 2010)

2011-08-07T09:54:00.000-07:00

It's called The Conspirator, but perhaps a better title for Robert Redford's thinly veiled message movie would have been The Unjust Trial of Civil War Terrorist Mery Surratt.

I knew little of this movie going in; basically all I knew was that it was about the conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. To let you know about my level of knowledge in this area, I didn't even realize there was a conspiracy to kill Lincoln! I just knew that Lincoln was at the theatre when he was assassinated by John Wilkes Boothe. That's all. I didn't even know (really) what ever happened to Boothe, whether he got away or was captured and tried. So, I thought this would be a somewhat interesting film.

It's not much about the assassination. It's not anything about John Wilkes Boothe. It's not so much about the conspiracy either. It isn't really about the trial either. It's mostly about the injustice surrounding the execution of the trial.

The Civil War is over and the United States are united once again. Abraham Lincoln has just been assassinated and the Northern United States are in shock and mourning. John Wilkes Boothe has been identified as the assassin, but at the same time, the Vice President and Secretary of States were also targeted. Clearly it was not the work of a single man, but a conspiracy that has put the entire country on alert: The Northern US to prevent any more acts of this kind and the Southern Confederacy to followup on this act. The principals of the assassination have been identified and captured (or killed). Additionally, their steps have been traced back to their original gathering, a boarding house where several of them had stayed. This boarding house was run by southerner Mary Surratt (Robin Wright) whose son was seemingly part of the murder plot. Mary Surratt is to be tried in a military court with former Northern "war hero" Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy), in his first trial, has been assigned to her defense.

I think we've seen this set up before. The defense attorney is one that doesn't like the defendant; in this case he even thinks she's guilty. But he is obligated to give her a fair defense; along the way, he becomes sympathetic to her and grows ever more earnest in his efforts at her defense. And in that, the court room drama is familiar, albeit tinged with Civil War era touches.

But the point of this is not that about the trial or talents of the attorney, but time after time, the rules are shifted in favor of the prosecution. In fact, the entire premise of the trial appears to be mostly a perfunctory, a facade to allow the Government to state that this Confederate plot has been completely stamped out. Thus allaying the fears of the citizenry and "keeping this war won."

And so it was that I grew somewhat tired of the in-your-face moralizing and tedious meanderings of this film. Much of the film was dedicated to the growth of Aiken's righteous indignation with little real insight into the very real question of whether Mary Surratt was guilty of the crimes. And with such a one-sided telling, much of it flattens out: the plot, the complexity, the characters.

James McAvoy and Robin Wright are front and center and while they are strong in the roles, they are painfully one-dimensional. Mary Surrat's good-hearted, strong-willed, and innocent and yet it's not particularly interesting and there's this feeling that there's a real story that isn't being told. And Aiken is a woefully underwritten character. Yes, he does a lot and says a lot, but there's nothing really there to him. The most interesting conflict here would be inner conflict in a man who must defend his enemy. The transition from adversarial attorney to whole-hearted defender of justice was rather sudden and never rang true. And throughout it all, I never had much of a sense of who he was nor did I even really care.

The trial itself was obviously a mockery and all the courtroom moments were rather banal which made the two hour running time feel even longer.

The scenery and backdrops were nice and gave a strong sense of the era, though many of the actors felt anachronistic, like 21st century actors dropped into a 19th century world. Justin Long and Alexis Bledel, in tertiary roles, were particularly awkward, though even McAvoy seemed out of place. Many of the secondary actors, in contrast, did seem to inhabit the roles well, notably Kevin Kline, Colm Meaney, Tom Wilkinson, and surprisingly Stephen Root.

It's a message movie and an obvious one at that. The parallel to modern era United States reaction to terror and the potential for the US government to set aside human rights to achieve a solution is obvious, too much so. This skews the storytelling and makes it a soapbox speech and undercuts any dramatic strength that the story itself may have. Any complexities are crushed and the proceedings are fitted into a convenient morality arc and as such it kills the film.

The Perfect Game (US, 2009)

2011-07-31T18:06:00.000-07:00

Kids. Poverty. Insurmountable Odds. Baseball. Those are the ingredients to automatically make for a watchable movie. You could even throw Cheech Marin in there and it would still be ok!

The Perfect Game is based on a true story about a group of 12 year olds in 1956 from the Colonia Cantu barrio of Monterrey, Mexico who form a Little League team. With only one month to train and little if any money at all, these boys make a journey to the Little League World Series. Along the way they learn about the racial inequalities in the United States; they play the game and approach the game with skill and honor. Meanwhile, their coach, former Cardinals coach Cesar Faz, has to find it in himself to believe in something again.

It's good movie. It has what you want and it provides it in a really solid manner. It follows a fairly obvious arc but, as with many movies of this type, the journey and the execution are what are truly important.

It tells alot of story in a relatively short amount of time and so there's not as much depth as I might like. It shortcuts some things and so the characters (notably the kids) must come to life with performance more than explicit depictions. The games themselves are, for the most part, perfunctory. There's not a whole lot of strategy of rationale behind how and why they win, but they do.

I am currently reading the book on which the movie is based and it is quite good. The movie is faithful to the material, perhaps too much so.

There are a couple of side stories: Coach Faz's hidden past, beautiful love interest Maria, an American female journalist turned sports journalist for this story, a Priest, and a difficult relationship between a boy and his father.

The acting is generally good. The aforementioned Cheech Marin plays a priest and does a good job. Louis Gossett, jr has a cameo and is winning for those few moments. The kids are wonderful and feel like they are really just playing; they do have an unpolished feel to their acting, but that is very endearing. The lone real weak point here is the single most important character : Coach Cesar Faz. Clifton Collins, Jr looks totally out of his depth here. For the most part, he looks and sounds like he's just reciting his lines, showing little actual interaction/chemistry with the kids and even less with the love interest. At best, he's boring and worst he's just wooden.

The entire movie is competent. It goes from point to point and handles the story in direct fashion. No real surprises and no real dramatic tension. It's almost as if the director is impatient with the entire story and wants to get to the "big game." But for that, it is still very affecting. Cutting in archive footage of the actual Monterrey team was brilliant and elevates the entire film.

The movie is a bit disappointing overall. The material is there for a fantastic movie. There's everything there. Unfortunately, it's a low budget affair with no one with real vision or seemingly with little passion for the material. It never really comes to life in the way that it could and that is sad. But this competent execution still makes for a very watchable movie, particularly for young baseball lovers.

Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec (France, 2010)

2011-07-31T17:13:00.000-07:00

Luc Besson has been working. Did you know that? If you've been paying attention you realize that after The Fifth Element, he's been relatively active in directing movies (and very prolific in producing them). But if you think of Luc Besson as "the guy that did Nikita and Leon" then you might not quite realize that his output is rather varied. Even before the (US) breakthrough film La Femme Nikita and the thematic followup of Leon: The Professional, his notable films were Le Grande Bleu, Subway, and Le Dernier Combat. Those don't really bear much similarity to his actioners.

Heck, even Fifth Element is a drastic stylistic departure from his other work. After that, he's been doing films like Angel-A (Fantastic), the Arthur films (so-so), and then a comic book movie: The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec.

So by now, you shouldn't be surprised if I tell you that this is another stylistic departure for Luc Besson and that you should not expect anything along the lines of Nikita. Even at that, it's not like Fifth Element, Big Blue, Subway, Dernier Combat, or Angel-A. It's closer in tone and visuals to Jean-Pierre Jeunet's film Amelie.

It is a light and weird film that has a surreal bent to it. The camera work, effects, and editing make the entire world feels bizarre, crazy, and comic book-ish. With this established, it's not difficult to accept a mind-controlled pterodactyl, a mummified physicist come to life (and making some nice tea), a girl with a hairput stabbed thru her head and jutting from her forehead, and many of the other fantastic images and moments in this movie.

The narrative spine of the film is not great; it's rambling and meanders all over the place. There's a primary mission and various little adventures as a result; what seemed important at the beginning vanish somewhere in the middle and the end is in a nearly totally different place. It would be bad if the narrative were really that important; but in this case, it's like a roller coaster ride: you don't really care where you end up, the fun part is the ride. And the ride is a lot of fun.

Besson handles the material with great dexterity, manipulating the entire world to have this wonderful sensational style. The energy is fantastic and the dry and sarcastic wit--sometimes spewed at machine-gun speed--is hilarious. Costumes, scenery, and all of the production place us solidly in this great period Paris (a la Moulin Rouge, say) and the amazing makeup really bring these characters to life, sometimes moreso than the actors themselves. The CG effects are good enough, though if you pay attention, it's relatively low-grade.

And Adele herself, played by Louis Bourgoin is absolutely wonderful. Bourgoin is drop-dead gorgeous, but the real epiphany is that she is so charismatic and compelling in this role (and not just for the topless bath scene). She was great in Girl from Monaco in a role that wasn't that demanding and as a bit role in Little Nicholas, she was fine. Here, she's made her mark. She is at her best when the material is light and the wit is quick and sharp. The more dramatic moments were a bit too much for her.

And that brings me to the problem with the movie. It is 85% of a great movie in the Amelie vein. However, towards the end of the film, Besson chooses to insert some emotional gravitas into the proceedings and much of it works against much of what had been working so well previously. Yes, there needs to be emotional underpinnings to make us care about the characters and their goals, but at the 75 mark is not when to do it. Add to it that it's clunky and awkward and the tone almost totally different from the rest of the film and it feels perfunctory and forced.

The worst offense of this is that it also serves to make Adele herself feel LESS likable and LESS sympathetic because of the depiction of her reaction. Her sarcastic wit turns to unpleasant jabs and her light-hearted quirky nature devolves into vicious and angry selfishness. It's really strange. In this 10-15 minute period, Adele becomes unlikable and it really ruined much of what was so great about the earlier 70+ minutes of the movie.

Still, it does redeem itself after this and finishes up in nice, cute (if predictable) fashion that would seem to lend itself nicely for a sequel or (if Arthur and the Minimoys is an indication) perhaps a franchise.

The movie is light, frothy, confectionary entertainment and works particularly well. It's so very easy to turn off the brain and lose yourself among the surreal world of Adele Blanc-Sec. Even if it's not perfect, it's definitely worth seeing.

Domo-kun (Japan)

2011-07-25T17:41:00.000-07:00

So, Domo-kun is the official mascot for NHK channel in Japan. But additionally, he's had a few short "episodes." These are 2-3 min little adventures with Domo on little (nearly pointless) adventures with some of his friends.

It's surreal, weird, bizarre, and cute. It's not mind-blowing and the first time I watched it, I just stared at it, just awestruck.

I have 13 eps and can watch them all in half an hour. I suppose it would be nicer to have longer eps, but then the cuteness might wear thin quickly.

Probably the biggest thing about watching this is that now i want some Domo-kun plushes and the like. Man, maybe I am just a marketer's dream!

A Man Who Was Superman (Korea, 2008)

2011-07-25T17:20:00.000-07:00

Jun Ji-hyun needs a good movie and soon. Daisy was meh. Blood: The Last Vampire was unwatchably bad. And this, A Man Who Was Superman is pretty poorly done. Curiously, Jun Ji-hyun has grown as an actress since her early ingenue days of Il Mare and My Sassy Girl and yet she's grown into roles that are just not particularly interesting.

Here, she's a world-weary, chain-smoking, borderline misanthropic documentary filmmaker who just wants to get away from the big city and do a feature in Africa. Instead, she comes across a good-hearted, crazy man who thinks he is literally Superman. Taking him as the subject of her latest documentary, she builds a story and as she spends more and more time with him, the unbridled enthusiasm and boundless good nature can't but affect her.

It's a well-worn story with standard tropes. Jun Ji-hyun really doesn't have much to work with and does her best to breathe some life into what amounts to a really unpleasant character. What really undermines the film mostly, though, is that the Superman is played annoyingly by Hwang Jeong min (as if he had attended the Robin Williams scenery chewing school). While at times, he can be amusing, the forced, over-the-top, self-centered performance betrays any pathos and any potential for chemistry with any of his co-actors.

The story itself doesn't help. It's pretty one-note and rather uninteresting. Yeah, there's the neighborhood cute kid as someone that believes in him; there's also that kid's mother that doesn't. There's his hidden past. There's the even-more-jaded boss. All the things you might expect are right there, depicted with not much creativity.

The one redeeming factor is the film does seem to have its heart in a good place. There are several moments within the film that are honestly touching and, at times, very brave in the emotional portrayal. There are some very good visual moments that juxtapose reality and fantasy; it's creative and vibrant enough to be quite good. And the ending 20min are shockingly powerful. If the front end of the film had carried its load, this could have been a great movie. As it is, it's a borderline. In a good mood, it could be quite enjoyable and effective. Otherwise, it's a bit of a tough watch trying to get thru the banal in order to see the good parts.

Penn and Teller Fool Us (UK, 2011)

2011-07-24T17:44:00.000-07:00

I'm not a die-hard Penn and Teller fan. I have never seen them live, but have enjoyed them when I've seen the TV specials. I also liked their Showtime show Bullshit, but I didn't love it and did find it a bit forced at times.

I'm not that big on magic and illusions, but like most, it is fun to watch and the best ones provide so much entertainment value over and above just the trick itself that, yeah, I have a good time with it. But I don't ever actively seek it out.

I guess it's a reality show of sorts. It doesn't fit the standard formula and maybe that's why I'm willing to give it a chance. The goal here is for the magicians to execute a magic trick that Penn and Teller can't figure out. If they can figure it out, they will explain the trick, sometimes privately to the magician or sometimes vaguely so that we get some insight into the trick or sometimes spelling it out explicitly. If they can't figure it out, there's no reveal; instead the magician wins the prize, a trip to Las Vegas.

The format is nice. Thankfully Penn is no Simon Cowell and doesn't try. He's complimentary and seems to genuinely enjoy the performances even if he and Teller know how it's done. There's no voting, no challenges, no "put them all in a house", or anything else like that. It's just the magician(s) v Penn & Teller for our amusement.

It's fun. The performances are all excellent and the dynamic of the show is fantastic. The segments are each about 10 min and then Penn and Teller try to figure it out for another couple of minutes at the end. When you see the trick you root for them to "win" by fooling P&T, but on the flip side, you want to know how they did it so you want P&T to win. Add to it that there's a great chemistry and good humor between the contestants and the hosts (including main host Jonathan Ross) which makes the entire show just great overall entertainment.

It's at episode 6 now and I'm loving it. Definitely seek it out.

Timmy Time (UK, 2009)

2011-07-24T16:27:00.000-07:00

"It's Timmy. It's Timmy. He's a little lamb with a lot to learn."

I like Wallace and Gromit. I like Chicken Run. I like Shaun the Sheep. I like Wallace and Gromit's World of Invention. Heck, I like just about anything Aardman and Nick Park create.

I just discovered Timmy Time. If Wallace and Gromit is for youths and Shaun the Sheep is targeted slightly younger, then Timmy is even younger still. It's nearly wordless--though not lacking communication--and takes place in a day care center; the adventures are pretty banal and yet elevated to entertaining status by the skewed point of view of the director and the wonderful animation that we've come to expect from Aardman.

The episodes are rather short, running around 10 min each, but are perfectly timed. Long enough but not too long! While it's ostensibly Timmy's show, the secondary characters all steal their scenes.

It's obviously for the younger kids, but it has so much charm that adults can't help but love it. If you are like me and love the Aardman oeuvre then this is a must-see.

Priceless (France, 2006)

2011-07-24T15:09:00.000-07:00

It's sort of a French version of Pretty Woman. No, not a French remake, but a take on the "escort" with the heart of gold-trope. In this case, Audrey Tautou is a gold digger, working her mark for what he's worth and hoping to get the ultimate prize: a wedding ring. Gad Elmaleh plays yet another good-natured, wage-earner; this time he's a bartender at a fancy hotel.

Irene (Tautou) mistakes Jean (Elmaleh) for a wealthy man, which he doesn't deny. When she finds out, though, she teaches him (and his bank account) a lesson and then dumps him in a most memorable scene. Later, they meet again...

You sort of know what's going to happen, right? It's a romantic comedy and these are the two faces on the cover so they have to end up falling in love and end up together, right? Probably! But as with most rom-coms, the execution's the thing and what's really fantastic about this is that it takes an unexpected, interesting, and very fun turn at the beginning of the second act. It's also brilliant as it motivates a relationship between Irene and Jean that makes sense and that is more dynamic and that allows for more twists and turns than otherwise.

Elmaleh is great as normal and Tautou is fantastic and looking mindblowingly beautiful. Tautou manages the difficult role of being sympathetic and compelling even as she takes her turn to being shrill and mean. Meanwhile Elmaleh has a challenge at being so terribly likable even as he's manipulating people.

In the end, it's a wonderful film with a strong emotional spine, bolstered by great performances. It's a definite winner.

A minor note on the DVD: English SDH subtitles only, which is absolutely irritating. Grrr...

The Valet (France, 2006)

2011-07-23T15:30:00.000-07:00

Name a French romantic comedy. Probably the first title that comes to mind is Amelie. Ok, name another one. Uhhh...
There are a few even though most of us have never heard of them. For instance, The Valet is a truly excellent romantic comedy.

While the movie sports big names Daniel Auteil and Kristin Scott Thomas (speaking fluent french), the heavy lifting is done by goofy-handsome Gad Elmaleh (Francois) and the Christie Brinkley-beautiful Alice Taglioni (Elena).

He's a working stiff valet, she's a supermodel. He's in love with a girl that isn't interested and she is the mistress to a rich married CEO. And now they're forced to pretend to be a couple. Yes, it's a bit contrived and a bit predictable and quite familiar, but the strength of this movie and the rewatchability hangs on the execution of the familiar.

It's a light movie that doesn't purport to much else. It's a diversion that is nice with a wonderful sweet undertone. While it may not be a laugh out loud comedy, it is one that can make you smile throughout. The two main characters are very likable, both as written and as acted, they have a great chemistry (which thankfully does not venture into the romantic).

The plot machinations are silly but the reactions and reactions to reactions are wonderful, owing to the strength of supporting actors Daniel Auteil, Krtistin Scott Thomas and Dany Boon.

It's nice to watch a film like this, one that is so pleasant and nice, where the characters are so engaging and likable, where the plot turns enough to be interesting but not so much as to be annoying complicated. This is an excellent movie whose strength is in its execution, which makes it a highly rewatchable film.

13 Assassins (Japan, 2010)

2011-07-17T20:07:00.000-07:00

Miike Takashi. I remember the first time I saw a Miike film: it was Audition and I was in shock and in awe. The guy was fantastically talented and a brilliant director, but this movie was just not to my taste, not at all to my taste. The tension, atmosphere, the energy in the scenes, and his visual sense are all amazing. But the film itself was just too much for me. Since then he's done many more of these Asian Extreme films that I just never had any interest in (I never did get around to seeing Happiness of the Katakuris, though, which was a departure). I was ready to chalk him up to a great director who tells stories that I'm not interested in.

So now, I hear that Miike has decided to do a Chambara (period samurai) film. Additionally, it stars Yakusho Koji, who is one of my favorite actors. This makes me positively giddy with excitement.

The last time that a director shifted from his normal stories to make a chambara film was Yamada Yoji who made the unbelievably wonderful thematic trilogy Twilight Samurai, The Hidden Blade, and Love and Honor. Those films are among my favorites in the genre and Twilight Samurai is an absolute classic. Is it too much to expect that Miike's film could be something special, also?

Well, Miike's made a really good movie.

Lord Matsudaira is a twisted, sadistic man who travels the land, taking whatever (and whomever) he wants, putting people to torture and death at his whim, and generally being an awful human being. He's allowed to do this because he is next in line to be Shogun. If he becomes Shogun, he intends to do some terribly disastrous things and bring all of Japan back to the warring period.Shimada Shinzaemon has been hired to lead a team to assassinate this Lord, but how are thirteen samurai to assassinate a lord guarded by hundreds?

The main story echoes the legend of the 47 Ronin and the execution feels very Seven Samurai-influenced. If building a chambara film, those are pretty good templates to use and Miike infuses the proceedings with his own style; there are some visuals here that are positively skin-crawling. There's no doubt about the evil of this Lord as well as the lack of any sense of honor.

The first half is the recruitment of the team, the preparation of the plan, and then setting off to the mission. The second half is the mission itself. The first half is very interesting; the world is fleshed out and the roles of the samurai are put into focus. There are machinations on various levels on both sides and they will all come into play. It's more political intrigue at this point than actual chambara sword fighting, though there is a fair share of that. And the second half has enough combat to fill several chambara films. It is nearly wall-to-wall fighting, with hardly a breath taken!

It's a good movie. It's interesting and visually fantastic. The story is fairly simple but the execution has many layer. The pacing is good and there's lots of energy on screen. However, there are a few failings which keep it from being something really special. First, the characters given short shrift. They play rather flat and don't have much going for them and there's not much subtlety to them. While the characters in Seven Samurai were archetypes, they also had some depth and breadth which made them come to life. In this, the recruitment comes rather quickly and without much narrative. "I've chose several good swordsmen for you. They are..." suffices in some cases.

The Evil Lord is certainly evil and some of those images resonate; however, his character is so one note that it becomes cartoonish. There's no texture here and that keeps him from becoming real and for becoming a classic villain.

While the story is set up to have some interesting subplots they resolve in rather perfunctory fashion. There was potential for a more complex and compelling story arc at places which fall flat. The 47 Ronin-esque conflict between duty and honor are available here but are not really taken advantage of.

The ending battle is epic, but it's rather long and at times, it gets a bit tedious. There's not really a good feeling of ebb and flow, rather it very quickly devolves into several massive melee battles. Yes it's kind of cool and that's the desired payoff, but with the rather flat characterizations, there's not as much investment in them. I actually found myself a bit bored during some of these extended battles.

It's a very good movie, though. The story itself is a great place to start and the early establishing sequences are pretty exciting. Miike brings great atmosphere and visuals to this and does give it a special kind of life here that is different from any other chambara film. But it's not an amazing film and it's not a special film, which is what it really had the potential of being.

School Days With A Pig (Japan, 2008)

2011-07-17T17:16:00.000-07:00

Just when you think you've seen it all, something like this comes along. This is a based-on-real-events, docu-drama of a first year middle school teacher who decides to have his class raise a pig, kill it, and then eat it. Thus they will be able to discuss the cycle of life.

As soon as you hear the premise, you know that it's not as simple as it appears. Kids + animals = emotional attachment, especially when they name the pig (P-Chan) on the first day and build him a special "house." But how is this all going to be resolved? And will we get a strong message or a muddied one?

The movie is based on a true story and filmed in a faux documentary-style giving the entire story a strong basis in reality. It feels true. The kids in particular are honest and real, in fact, it appears that they aren't actors, that they found kids that looked the part and just went with it.

There's a lot to like about this, but the key to the whole movie is the class, more precisely, the kids. There are about twenty students in the class and they are all involved in taking care of the pig. There are little side stories involving some of the students, but for the most part, they are just kids at school. Even by the end, it's hard to recall any of their names and yet they are not faceless masses. You have a sense of each child as they act and react within the film. They may go buy tomatoes for the pig (they agreed to only feed him leftovers), or they may stop finishing their meals at home so they have something to bring in; their father might run a butcher store or they may just be a bit rebellious at home. Or they may just be one of the girls that really likes the pig or the boy that won't eat pork anymore. Whatever it is and whoever they are, the kids feel real and their expressions and the way they speak just says, "12 year old."

Tsumabaki Satoshi plays the young teacher. He's a big-name, "pretty-boy" actor who has really made his name in Japan prior to this (mostly in J-Doramas). It's tough playing in a movie with both children and an animal, being overshadowed by 20 children and a pig. Of course, he's in charge of everything and all the issues end with him (often with him apologizing). And while the children and pig take front and center, this young teacher is very interesting and his character arc is subtle but also quite important. He learns quite a lot. It's not all as simple as he though and when real people, particularly emotionally vested children, are involved, everything becomes difficult and less obvious. He knows far more at the end than he did at the beginning. I could easily imagine a version of this where his character is at the fore, but thankfully that's not this movie.

What is really interesting and fantastic about the movie is the way in which he handles this "lesson." There's instruction, to be sure, as the lesson is about the Cycle of Life and for them to have a stronger idea about where their food comes from. That's the intent, but the actual lesson becomes something far more important and far more insightful.

Along the way, the children have formed an emotional bond with P-Chan. He's really a pet and class mascot and yet they are committed to killing him. To keep from killing P-Chan, they must come up with an alternate solution. If they don't kill him, what to do with him? They graduate this year and so they won't be around. This becomes their lesson and this becomes their debate. The teacher takes a step back; instead of lecturing and giving them the answer, he allows them to discuss it, argue it, debate it, stepping in only to moderate them.

These group discussions form the emotional spine of the movie. Here the children get to speak; they say what they believe in, sometimes even as they are crying because it hurts them to say. While at times, these scenes may run a bit long, they are nonetheless compelling, and allow the full breadth of the class to have a voice. It's a difficult decision with no easy answer and while it's tempting to want them protected from such decisions, it's also rewarding to watch them handle it.

It's a strong, sweet film with a nice message about where our food comes from as well as the nature of education. The documentary style filming technique combined with the honesty of the acting gives it such a strong authenticity that it is easy to confuse it with a true documentary. In the end, therein lies its strength and the reason the film has stayed with me. Definitely see this movie.

Mon Pote (France, 2010)

2011-07-14T19:32:00.000-07:00

I don't only watch crazy Asian movies. Every once in a while, I try to mix in the European movie, in this case a buddy movie called Mon Pote (My Buddy), a light french drama. I call it a "light drama" but sometimes French films are a touch hard to categorize. The subject matter is fairly strong dramatic fare and yet the way it is handled is with a gentle, light-hearted touch as if it were a comedy. It is not a comedy, though, nor even what I would qualify as a dramedy.

The story itself is pretty straightforward. Victor's a CEO of a small car magazine. Bruno's a car nut, so much so that he's in prison for stealing cars. Under the work release program, Victor takes on Bruno. Bruno's intent on righting his life and is a model employee. Soon he and Victor are becoming fast friends and so when Bruno is released from prison, Victor hires him full-time. But Bruno thinks he has one last heist in him.

It's not a plot intensive movie, in fact the plot elements are really just excuses for the two principals to be together. It may be the quintessentail "Bromance" movie. While they share their love of cars and are both good men at heart, they are drastically different and come from totally different worlds. Victor's world is suburbia, where his day to day issues are meeting the next issues deadlines, whether he may have to sell shares to make payroll, and whether he buys the caviar that isn't on sale. Meanwhile Bruno's just trying to make ends meet on the wrong side of the tracks.

Both characters are very likable and they are fun when they are together. The friendship is palpable and their interactions are so believable. The emotions are honest and it's quite touching. While the movie follows some fairly obvious patterns, nothing feels contrived or stupid; we don't have some ridiculous misunderstanding that results in a pointless fight or somesuch. These are both adults and thankfully, they act like it. It's a humorous film and while I never laughed outright, I had a smile the entire time.

I'd be remiss if in the midst of this buddy film, I didn't mention the actress Diane Bonnot who plays Agathe, Victor's wife. She steals every scene she's in. She gorgeous but gorgeous in just the right way that you see her as Victor's wife. And her reactions are just so fantastic. When they are bantering back and forth, her facial expressions and just the energy she exudes takes over the screen. The scenes with her could potentially play very flat, but with her, they are some keystone moments.

This movie makes me think of a couple of other french buddy movies by one of my favorite french directors Patrice Leconte: The Man on the Train and My Best Friend. Each of these plays the opposites as friends and breathes life into the formula. I loved Man on the Train. I was surprised by My Best Friend (and loved that one as well). I really like this movie as well. It's light and while it's fun and lovely, it doesn't have that emotional resonance that makes it memorable. And yet it's so very easy to rewatch. This movie is nice and comfortable, like hanging out with your buddy. Watch it.

Taro the Dragon Boy (Japan, 1979)

2011-07-11T19:16:00.000-07:00

"Lazy and selfish, Taro loves to eat, sleep, and wrestle with the forest animals. He has little direction or inspiration in his life. That is, until a wizard passing through the forest one day bestows young Taro with a magical potion. Upon drinking the potion, he gains the strength of a hundred men! However, there's a catch: he may only summon this power when he is helping others."

That's the set up for Taro the Dragon Boy, a fantastic animated movie inspired by Japanese folklore. It has this remarkable quality about it, an old-world charm. It is fun. It has a strong, honest message. It is sweet and naive with a natural sense of right and wrong. And it has an emotional core that is as strong as you can have: a boy's love for his mother.

The movie itself is like a storybook come to life. The background are gorgeously painted and feel like they were captured from some ancient scrolls. The character designs are wonderful and easily exposes the personality of these characters. While the animation and the score have a dated feel to them, it adds to the allure of this movie.

The movie is a typical adventure fable, Taro is the hero and is on a quest to find his long-lost mother, but along the way he finds many people that need help and so, naturally, he helps them. There are woodland animals, demons (oni) of various colors, a pretty flute playing girl, a flying pony, scheming witches, a Mountain curse, a blind dragon, and more. Everything you could want from an adventure!

This is the opening titles sequence. You can see the art work on display and the natural charm that comes to play. It sets up the world right away, Taro is a magical boy and he's friend to all these animals of the woods. Though he's lazy, he's not thoughtless and he's a fun loving boy. You can't help but fall in love with him.

And this is the wrestling scene where Taro meets a Tengu and gets his magical strength. It's a strange, quirky, skewed view of the world and just the way the plot progresses is hilarious and yet engaging. I am totally charmed by this. Of course, if you decide to wrestle with the big blackbear and win, all the animals of the forest (including a monkey?) will cheer for you!

There's something very special about this movie. It captures the essence of a fable, bringing the heroic child to life in a way that makes sense to children and adults alike. The biggest strength is that there is a special innocence to the entire world. There's right and wrong, there's being kind and being mean, and there's doing good and being selfish. If you say something, you shouldn't lie and to Taro, it's surprising when someone (say a Demon) would lie to him! In the world today, we seem to sneer at innocence, make jabs at it, and prefer the mean-spirited. This is different; it is unapologetically naive. And in watching it, we can laugh or smile at it at the same time that it is enchanting us.

I've often been asked to recommend a film for those that loved the Ghibli movies like Totoro and Laputa. Now I have a definite response: Taro. While they are different in many ways, what these movies do have in common is this classic, timeless charm that speaks to us all. Go seek this movie out.

Scandal Makers (Korea, 2008)

2011-07-10T18:23:00.000-07:00

You ever have a movie that when you first watched it you thought it was ok, but then you seem to come back to it again and again? Pretty soon, you realize that you actually like it quite a bit. That's Scandal Makers for me. At first, it was a so-so, reliable Korean comedy that played well with what it had, but I didn't really think that much of it. Later, I watched it with Mom and I thought, "This is nice." And I've come back to it several times since then. And now, it's a comedy that sits right in the middle of my enjoyable comedy list.

The premise is inventive as it plays multiple standard plots among each other. In one sense, it's an odd-couple romance; in another sense, it's a father/unexpected son comedy.

Cha Tae-hyun plays a big-time talk-radio personality; he's conceited, obnoxious, and selfish. One day, a woman from his past arrives at his door and along with her is her son. The twist here is that the woman is the daughter he never knew he had and the child is his GRAND-son. Hah. And thus hilarity ensues as his bachelor life is turned upside-down. Add in a love interest, a cute little girl, the child's real father, and a singing contest and you pretty much know what you're in for. The strength of the movie is that it handles everything well, gives you what you expect in the way you want, packages the emotion with laughs, and wraps it all nicely in the end.

Chae Tae-hyun plays the put-off bachelor pretty well, his pained reactions are great cause for laughs; but he's loud and painfully abrasive at other times. Some of his actions go too far and seem nearly unredeemable; it's actually awkward. The daughter is suitably cute and pushy and it works. And the little kid is painfully precious. You can't help but love him and he steals every scene he's in.

There's great chemistry among these three principals and the domestic scenes really are the high points of the movie. The evolution of bachelor to head of household work is fun and you can't help but smile. The contest gives the film an excuse to have some music and singing and the requisite drama that comes from a performance. It also gives a nice segue to end title music.

It's formulaic movie but one that uses the Coke Classic formula and not the New Coke one. It works and works well and at the end you feel satisfied. Not an earthshattering movie, but a dependable one. It will make you laugh, will tug at your heartstrings, and then make you laugh again. Well-executed, well-paced, well recommended.

This is the scene when Cha Tae-hyun first meets his daughter.

My Sassy Girl US v Original

2011-07-09T22:48:00.000-07:00

My Sassy Girl. It was one of the films that changed my view of Korean moves and was one of the films that made me fall in love with Korean cinema. On my list of Korean comedies, it is no worse than #3 and, depending on my mood, it will be #1. And I'm certainly not alone in my love for the movie. It's converted alot of people. So with all this praise and notoriety, of course it's going to appear on the Hollywood Remake Radar.

There had been rumors of the remake for a long time; at one time Bend It Like Beckham's director Gurinder Chadha was attached to the project. In 2008, after languishing in Development Hell for a few years, the US Remake finally became a reality, directed by Love Me If You Dare director Yann Samuel and starring Elisha Cuthbert and Jesse Bradford. It was not good. I can't recall if it ever released in the theatres, but if it did, it certainly didn't get much attention.

I love the original and I didn't want a remake; I was convinced there was no way they'd capture that magic. So, naturally that makes me biased. I watched this movie and just shook my head as it played out, a lifeless, joyless husk resembling the original only superficially. It's a movie equivalent of a zombie.

Then I wondered why it failed. What is it about this remake that keeps it from being even a decent film. Even if I try to take it on its own merits as a standalone film, it just isn't enjoyable at all.

A major reason is that it is not charming at all. Both Bradford and Cuthbert fail to provide any depth to their characters and that's key to making them likable. Bradford plays it as written and is just a boring cardboard cutout of a person. Cuthbert plays it as written and is just a shrill, annoying bitch. And without any likability, there's no charm and there's no investment in the romance. That kills so much of the film right there. Romance. Humor. Tension. Those all depend on the audience being invested in the characters.

By comparison, Cha Tae-hyun and Jun Ji-hyun are wonderful. Jun Ji-hyun has received alot of accolades for her performance as the film rests on her, but Cha Tae-hyun is also excellent and provides a perfect foil for her.

It's a real remake (and not a re-worked version of the original) that takes the story and many of the original scenes. It does take a few changes, some are understandable (the pop culture references for example) and some, not so much (the shoe exchange sequence; more on this later). While making the same motions as the original, it has lost some of the heart and focus.

Here are a few of the notable changes:

(1) In the original, there's a little mystery around the girl. For instance, she never has a name. There's a distance between their real lives and the life they have when they are with each other. It gives some support for a few of the humorous scenes and it also gives substantial weight to the separation scene. In the remake, there is no such mystery.

(2) In the original, there's a humorous opening bit about how Gyun-woo (the boy) was dressed and treated as a girl; he even thought he would be a girl. This is interesting in that alot of the interplay between The Girl and Gyun-woo has gender roles reversed. This makes the "sass" more interesting; she takes the dominant role and Gyun-woo is forced into the more submissive role. As he struggles in it, there's humor. In the remake, without this role-reversal, the scenes play flat.

(3) Gyun-woo is an underachieving, ne'er do well. He's sort of lazy and not particularly good at anything. Charlie, the boy in the remake, by contrast is a highly-motivated student who is focused on a very particular future.

These just set the tone slightly differently and lead to the scenes having a different feels to them. On their own, it's not really a big deal. Combined with unlikable leads, though, it really becomes problematic.

Here are a few comparison sequences.

This is the first meeting (technically the second meeting, actually). Earlier, the girl was drunk on a train. The guy helped her and eventually got arrested for his good deed. Now, the girl calls him up to find out what happened and this begins their tumultuous relationship:

The Original version actually has a couple of edit points in it, so I could highlight the elements that were similar to the remake, so if it seems to jump (storywise) that's me and not the movie itself.

This scene really sets the stage for everything that comes after. The biggest difference is that the original has a strong sense of romance and chemistry. In the end, we get to see Gyun-woo's mission, "to heal her pain" and that explains why he acts as he does from then on.

This next scene may be the most famous scene from the movie:

It's a special scene because it plays out like the Marriage sequence. Here, Gyun-woo walks down the aisle and in the end, they have the moment where they have a metaphorical marriage. The remake ends with a quip that undercuts the romance here. Another interesting difference is that in the original, the girl plays Pachelbel's Canon because Gyun-woo likes it; Gyun-woo brings her the flower because she likes it. This provides a give and take that's missing in the remake.

And this is a funny scene involving swapping shoes that plays wonderfully in the original, but is so awkward and out of place in the remake that I question why they included it at all.

There's charm in the original. That really is the best word to describe it. The leads are charming and they are given nice things to do that are charming. While much of the movie is given to the girl tormenting Gyun-woo, there is an air of playfulness to it that takes the edge of and makes it all charming. When she first says, "You want to die?" You don't know how to take it. Later, though, when she says it, you know what she means and you can smile even as Gyun-woo pretends to take it to heart.

My Sassy Girl really shouldn't have ever been remade. Perhaps the initial intent was good and they were going to cast A-list actors and write a strong script, but somewhere along the lines, it became a throwaway, disposable, generic romcom. There's no reason to watch the new one. The original is excellent and holds up well today, while there's nothing in the new one to compare.

In past years, there have been other Asian romances that have been mentioned as Hollywood remakes. Notably, the fantastic Japanese movie Be With You. Let's hope those never get made.

The Quiz Show Scandal (Korea, 2010)

2011-07-09T20:28:00.000-07:00

The Quiz Show Scandal is a big named, big budgeted, hyped comedy from Korea. While there have been a few comedies from Korea that I have liked (My Sassy Girl, My Little Bride, Marrying the Mafia 2, Too Beautiful to Lie, etc), I'd have to say that more often than not, the comedies fail and fail miserably... especially the "big" ones.

From the look of it and from the title, I'm wondering if this is just a Slumdog Millionaire ripoff. The DVD cover gives me no help. I can't make sense of what that's supposed to be! And so I guess I might as well give it a chance.

It's a crazy movie, actually and describing the plot doesn't do justice to it. Here's the plot, though: There's a big car accident on the freeway and a person was killed. The people involved (about 20 people all told) are brought into the Police Station to give statements about what happened. It turns out that the dead woman researched and wrote the questions to the popular TV Quiz Show. AND, on her person is the final question to the next Quiz Show. As these people go on their own way, they each prepare. They have the question, so they have to discover the correct answer, get on the show, and get all the way to the end.

This set up is more like a caper film and with some tweaking, this could have been set up as a thriller or a tense drama. But it is a comedy through and through and from the opening sequence to the end, there's no doubt. The characters are bizarre, their interactions humorous, their actions and reactions are larger than life, and beneath it all is a strong story. The very serious elements play "straight man" to all the comedic elements; that combined with the excellent comedy direction make this a fast-paced, engaging, and very funny film.

Here's the opening teaser sequence.

It's an ensemble comedy and we get a quick intro to the participants right away. Later, we'll meet them all. It's amazing that the film manages to keep the large cast of characters distinct and clear. There's a nice tone that's set here and the energy builds throughout the first half. There's little let up and no time to get bored.

The latter half, when the contestants are competing on the Quiz Show is a little less focused. It's still got energy to spare and lots of funny moments, but it all feels a bit random; it's like they are making up the rules to the show as it goes. Part of that is because we aren't given the exact rules and pattern of the show. It's not The Weakest Link. It's not Who Wants to be A Millionaire. It has its own quirks and (as with many comedies) if you think about these rules, they don't really make much sense in an actual quiz show. Still, it's funny and it works. By this time, you're along for the ride.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. I wasn't sure what to expect from this and it didn't really hold to many patterns. It played parody to some tropes as well as playing within others. The humor all worked and there was a genuine sense of fun throughout the entire movie. The director has a strong feel on how to direct dramatic and thrilling scenes, as well. These scenes are quite remarkable really help set off the comedy. A lesser director could easily have botched that.

Let's hope Hollywood doesn't try to remake this...

Luther Season 2 (UK, 2011)

2011-07-09T18:24:00.000-07:00

I liked Luther Season one. I liked it quite a bit even if it wasn't perfect. and even if there were some bits that really bothered me. What did work is that Idris Elba is awesome and that the Luther-Alice interplay --a Clarice-Hannbial Lector relationship turned edgewise--worked fantastically. In fact, I would say that I didn't care much for the actual detective work that was going on, but rather Alice held my attention and drove me to keep watching.

Season One ended on nearly a cliffhanger, concluding a story arc but not closing it, leaving quite a bit to be determined in Season Two. So naturally when Season Two started, I was excited. My earlier post on Luther Season 2 episode 1 clearly depicts that.

Well, now I've watched the entire season (or series, if you will) and must say that I am overall very disappointed, to the point where I almost didn't finish watching the series and that I'm not interested if, somehow, a Season Three should drop.

Season Two basically resets the world. In the off-season, nearly everything is resolved and Luther is back on the police force in a new unit, a serial crimes unit. The season consists of four episodes, two major crimes span two episodes each, and there's a secondary storyline involving some kind of underground Crime Boss blackmailing/extorting Luther.

And what about Alice? There's an interesting set up scene in episode one, but in episode two, there's only one small scene which gets rid of her from the series entirely. It amounts to about 10minutes of screen time. Terribly disappointing in that respect, but if they replace her with something/someone else equally interesting, then all is not lost.

Alice has been replaced by Jenny, a wayward teen who is taken up into the world of "sex worker," which is something of a combination between prostitute and porn actress. Luther rescues her from that world and takes her in. But now the Crime Lord that "owns" her takes aim at Luther. It's a trite set up that works a bit owing to the screen presence of Idris Elba and Aimee Ffion-Edwards. Edwards in particular has that nice combination of vulnerability and harsh exterior sheen.

The major problem with Luther Season Two is that the plots in place are terrible. There are two crimes and both of the crimes, as well as the detective work to solve the crimes, are absolutely poorly done. For example, in one crime, when Luther walks out into the crowd at the crime scene, the perpetrator runs off. Luther gives chase, catches up to him, and is then blinded by pepper spray. They get DNA evidence from that encounter and there you go, you have the crminal. The other case is one involving guys rolling ten-sided die Dungeons and Dragons style to commit assaults. Sound stupid? It is. It's unwatchably stupid and doesn't really make any sense. To their credit (I suppose), the writers don't even try to make much sense of it and just run with the story.

I liked episode one; I was hopeful. By episode two I was disappointed. By Ep three, I had given up. The only reason I watched ep four was that it was the finale; if it were a six-episode season, I would have stopped.

Luther Season One was very good. I'd say the weakness in that were similar to the weaknesses in Season Two. However, Season One's spine was the Alice-Luther relationship and that made everything work. Season Two had benefit of no such plot and so fades into irrelevance.

Freeter Ie wo Kau episode 1 (Japan, 2010)

2011-07-08T15:39:00.000-07:00

The Zero-to-Hero is a pretty common tv and movie trope. There's also the character arc that goes from self-absorbed jerk to "good guy", commonly known as the "Tom Cruise"-arc.

When it goes wrong, it can make for a pretty awful movie/show. If you don't buy into the character change or if the person is unpleasant enough, it can ruin an entire film. So, while many of my generation could get behind Tom Cruise's Maverick in Top Gun, not so much for Tom Cruise's Brian Flannagan in Cocktail. There are many other examples all around (it's just so easy to pick on Tom Cruise).

So, it's with a bit of hesitancy that I watched this Japanese drama tv series (J-Dorama) called Freeter Ie wo Kau (The Part Timer Who Buys a House) or simply "Freeter" for short. It's the story of an obnoxious 25 year old good for nothing who grows into being a useful member of society. Or something like that. Coming of age isn't supposed to happen at age 25, but we'll see how this turns out.

As it opens and I watch the show, my reaction is mainly, "Man, this guy is a tool." He's annoying and arrogant and shown to be not very capable. He's one of those guys who is more impressed with himself than he has any right to be. I'm disliking him very much! So it's not quite unmitigated hatred. The show keeps him within arm's length of so pathos. Not much, but some. So while he's acting the pompous jerk, there are moments where you can see the seed of doubt and some elements of self-doubt. So, there's some depth to him. Not a lot depth; he's certainly shallow water, but you can tell there's something to work with.

What makes this episode very interesting is that it's almost entirely problematic for Seiji (the lead character). It starts with him quitting his pretty good, full-time job over some minor quibble. His father then scolds him, points out his faults, and says how difficult the job market is. The rest of the time, he bounces from job to job, having trouble here and there and really growing increasingly discouraged. By the end of the episode, he's near the breaking point of just giving up. "Pride goeth before a fall." In this case, his pride is just about totally gone and he's about to fall and fall hard.

The show spends time breaking Seiji down, little by little. It's not rushed and feels quite natural. Seiji fights to keep his view of himself even as his world crumbles around him. But slowly, inexorably, the man starts to see a glimmer of the truth. There's no easy resolution yet. Good. I want to see him struggle. He's such a little punk that for the show to redeem him in my eyes, I must see quite a bit of effort on his part. The good thing is that it looks as if that's the direction the show is headed. It's not looking to give him short cuts.

The interesting thing is that I do like this irritating little punk. Yeah, he's not really awful; he's not hateful and doesn't do any bad deeds. He just has an annoying attitude, a lofty opinion of himself, and doesn't take anything really seriously. In other words, he's like just about any teenager you'll meet! And if we take a look at ourselves, we can find these in ourselves at some point in our lives. So while he's not sympathetic and I don't really LIKE him and I don't root for him, I do like him and I want him to win me over.

The show is off to a very strong start. Seiji is the most formed character, but the secondary and tertiary characters have enough emphasis that they do give a strong backdrop. The father, in particular, played by notorious goofball Takenaka Naoko, is fantastic, giving a portrayal of one of those "Tough-Love" fathers, but with enough gradations that make him both sympathetic and disliked.

I'm very interested in seeing how the following episodes proceed and what we will see in them.

Here's the Asian Media Wiki site that has some more info: Asian Media Wiki site

The End credits

Villain and Widow (Korea, 2011)

2011-07-07T19:24:00.000-07:00

ARGH!!!

This movie sucked and it sucked in a way that just pissed me off. I've watched a lot of bad movies and it seems there have been a TON of them in recent days, but this one just sucked the life force out of me.

There was not one single bit to like about anything that happened before I turned it off. The characters are awful, obnoxious, and annoying. The story was just stupid and the interactions between them was awful. After about ten minutes, I wanted the zombies from Walking Dead to wander in and eat them all. Gawd! Anything to make it interesting.

About 30min in, I gave up. I try to watch films all the way thru and I even watched all of Moss (all 2:30+ minutes of it) and that was terrible. This was worse! I would actually rate this as worse than Bedeviled, which I think was the worst film I've watched this year.

There's a rare artifact that terribly valuable stored in this house somewhere. The guy that owned it has died and his widow and daughter are living there and don't know about this antique item. It could be anywhere. So this con man type guy is after the item; he needs to find it within a few days, so he can sell it for a nice big profit. So he rents out the room above the garage, posing as a writer.

The guy's a jerk, btw. The woman's psycho and bipolar. The daughter is a nutcase. The guy's trying to get into the house. The woman's trying to get money out of the guy. The daughter is just stupid. And there it is. I think it's supposed to be one of these comedy/grifter type movies where you've got people playing against each other. It's not funny. It's not interesting. There's no chemistry (romantic or otherwise) and most of the "dynamic" is one of the characters just yelling. Ugh.

This trailer in not subbed, but you can get a feel for what's going on and probably why I gave up on it.

Actresses (Korea, 2009)

2011-07-07T15:58:00.000-07:00

There is no reason I should have watched this movie. Just look at that DVD cover. It's six actresses of various fame-levels and in varying generations gathering together for a one day photo shoot. Great. That sounds wonderful... for an estrogen-bonding film. I'm guessing My Dinner With Andre meets Divine Sisterhood the Ya Ya-whatever it was? Heck, additionally, it's a faux documentary. That just has trainwreck written all over it.

I'm not sure why I watched it.

I did not hate it.

In fact, it's really unbelievable, but I really enjoyed this movie. I will hold back and not say I loved it, but I really liked it quite a bit and far more than I could have expected.

First of all, it's a faux documentary. The term used often is mockumentary, but the "mock" part gives the word adds either humor or parody to the connotation. Or perhaps it's because the films that are most often associated with the mockumentary are The Christopher Guest ouevre (Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, Best In Show, etc). In this case, the film is set up as a documentary and the actresses play "themselves" (or at least characters set up to be versions of themselves). While there is humor at times, the film plays as a normal documentary, giving a fly-on-the-wall feel to the proceedings, but it's not set up as a parody or a comedic film.

Korean Vogue is having an anniversary issue and they have set up a Christmas Eve photo shoot with six famous Korean actresses. The first half is about the photo shoot. The actresses arrive one at a time, each with her own particular story and with her own distinct personality. They hang out and talk, getting to know each other. Friendships form as well as a few rivalries. It's mostly polite, surface conversations with the bulk focused on establishing the characters. The latter half of the film is about an impromptu dinner party, where they eat, drink, and talk. By this time, the group has formed a strong union and the conversations are deeper and more to the heart.

It's really a talky film; there's not really much action going on and it all takes place within the studio set where they are doing the photo shoot. They move from room to room and go to the stairwell to smoke, but that's about it. So of course dialogue and acting are front and center.

After the first ten minutes, I really did feel like the proverbial fly-on-the-wall. I was caught up in what was going on. Little things felt important because the person seemed so fully fleshed. I tend to doubt that everything was scripted out since so many little details felt so natural. So much of the talk seemed so comfortable. There was nothing earth shattering, no major issues and so in a sense, it's all rather trivial, but in growing interested in them and sharing their concerns, it's a compelling and interesting triviality.

Getting to know these ladies was a nice time, a nice and pleasant diversion. The film is in essence just about having a social get together and in the end, the effect of watching this film was like being at a little social get together: it was nice and fun and I enjoyed spending my time with them.

Unfortunately this trailer is not subtitled and much of the movie is driven by the dialogue, but I think you get a little bit of a feel of the tone and style of the movie here.

Boy (New Zealand, 2010)

2011-07-03T16:59:00.000-07:00

I am a sucker for coming of age films and so when I heard of a new coming of age film from New Zealand that broke Box Office records held by Whale Rider (and then World's Fastest Indian), my interest was piqued. Invoking Whale Rider is going to get my attention! It's been a few years but I recall loving that movie! So, yeah, there was no question that I was going to see this movie; the question was would I like it.

Boy is about an 11 year old boy named Boy. He and his younger brother Rocky live in a rural village with their Gran. When Gran leaves for a week, they are on their own and then their Dad shows up. From here, it's a touching and humorous tale of a father and son coming together, but it's not quite all it seems to be. Told mostly from Boy's point of view, we see the Hero that a father appears to his son. At the same time, we can see the man for what he really is, even if Boy cannot. As the film progresses, the substance behind the mirage becomes more and more pronounced, until Boy comes face to face with the man himself and not the ideal that he has created.

There's so much to like about this. I will begin by saying that, similar to Whale Rider, the authenticity here sells it. While there's a "roughness" to the acting (i only say "rough" as opposed to "polished." It's not bad, it's just not, say, Haley Joel Osment or Dakota Fanning-polish), it has an honest, true feeling allowing the child to take center stage. In this, that honesty makes the film more compelling than if it were an extremely refined performance that would read like a performance. So much of the father-son interactions have the feeling of just two kids at play and that energy so totally wins me over. The story's characterizations is also very honest. How a kid views his father and how the world sees him. How a kid brags on his dad. How jealousies can arise and how they are handled. It all feels just so natural, at times you wonder if the writer just copied real life...

As with any indie film, it's got to have some personality. It has to have a hook. In this, the hook is that it is 1985 and that Boy worships Michael Jackson. Every other reference is to Michael Jackson. When describing his father, Boy will say things like, "He's a great fighter and he was a great soldier... and he's as good a dancer as Michael Jackson." While this village is a rural, near time-less, village, the Michael Jackson references (there are several, some of which are visual) are universal and hilarious. The other notable personality trait of this film is Rocky's bits. Rocky imagines that he has superpowers and spend his time sketching superheroes. He also befriends the local mentally challenged person. Rocky's bits might be some of the funniest parts of the film.

It's funny. It's good natured. It's good naturedly funny and that's a hard thing it seems. It has that Wonder Years kind of humor. It's a wistful, days-gone-by kind of humor. Some of it is just funny because it comes from an interesting place. There's this one scene in the bedroom. The father shows Boy a carving behind a painting. It's a swastika. "I did that." The Boy looks on in amazement, clearly impressed. "Don't get into that Nazi shit, though," the Dad kindly instructs. Does that seem like a really funny scene? Not on paper, maybe, but on the screen, it plays wonderfully.

There's a romance subplot, a buried treasure bit, a goat, a motorcycle gang fight, Michael Jackson, and much more. It all comes together into a fantastic package and runs a breezy 83 minutes. This could easily have been 20min longer and I wouldn't have noticed! I actually wish there would have been a bit more to the romance plot, though as-is, it is tone-perfect for 11year old relationships.

The last time I loved a coming of age film as much as this one and reacted to it like I did to this was SON OF RAMBOW, which is fantastic. It's films like this that make me recall why I love movies so much. I sit thru and watch so many awful films just so that I'll occasionally come by the rare gem like this. Boy: A Must See.

Cold Fish (Japan, 2010)

2011-07-03T16:24:00.000-07:00

I think I've had my fill of psycho serial killer movies. Even if they are good, I don't think there's much more that they have to say to me and for the most part, they are not good. So I don't know why I sat down to watch Sion Sono's Cold Fish. Of his filmography, I've only seen Suicide Club (aka Suicide Circle), which generated a great deal of buzz at the time, but left me rather cold.

To call Cold Fish a "psycho serial killer" story is to do a disservice to it; it is technically about a psycho. He also killers people. Serially. But it's not really about that. Our entrance into his world is via a dysfunctional family that is comprised by milquetoast father, a sexy step-mother, and a rebellious, disrespectful teen daughter. They own a small tropical fish store and through circumstances, they meet Murata, the wealthy, outgoing, gregarious, jovial owner of a Super-Petstore, and his beautiful and sweet wife. As their lives become intertwined, it's clear that all is not as it seems with Murata.

From there, the story progresses in a direction that you might expect. The innocent guy gets sucked into the psychopath's world and becomes accomplice to a murder and the intricate disposal of the body ("Making him invisible."). What elevates this film and separates it from banal entries into the genre are the pacing and presentation of the inexorable plot and the overlay of black comedy onto some of the most horrific moments.

As the film progressed, I wasn't sure I wanted to keep watching; it was clearly headed into "Asian Extreme" territory and did I really want to be subjected to the gruesome and horrific scenes that were coming? I mean it was going to be like I SAW THE DEVIL, wasn't it? Well, I did keep watching and thankfully (amazingly?) director Sion Sono handles it with care and a deft touch, metering out the details and yet taking the edge off with camera work, music, and moments of crude and biting humor. Yes, humor. You can imagine a scene that is nearing its peak of emotional intensity: The murder is committed and the body needs to be disposed of. The father is dragged into the affair and is forced to help wrap and carry the body in the middle of the night. They drive to a cabin in the mountains, light the candles, place the body on the ceramic tiles in the bathroom, and open up the "toolkit" which is a kit of 8-10 knives of various sizes and forms. The psycho is setting about to dismember these bodies and who knows what he's going to do next! In the next moment, the intensity is cut as the psycho gets to work. He's bantering and teasing. It's gone from serious and scary to almost playful. While there's still the undercurrent of horror, the tension has been cut and we know that our "hero" for the moment is safe from harm. Whew. And then we can pay attention to the meticulous disposal techniques.

The plot proceeds and while it's not an intricate one, it has enough twists to stay entertaining. Yes, close investigation of the story and plot might reveal some holes, but the pacing keeps me interested so that I'm not asking those question. There's a 3rd act character escalation that feels a bit cliche and kind of tacked on, but it works mostly because it's what you basically want to happen.

There are a few weaknesses. The characters aren't given full breadth; there's clearly some backstory there to be told and some of it is hinted at, but much remains unrevealed and as such leaves the film feeling a little flat. For example, the wife is an enigma. What is her history? Is she really a "whore"? What did she see in the milquetoast father? Why did they get married? It doesn't all need to be spoonfed to us, but a exposing a little more of this backstory would have helped and made sense of some of what occurred and particularly of why it ended the way it did. The ending was another major weakness. I suppose it was meant to be shocking and to be revelatory and some of it was (the daughter's reaction, for instance), but it was also a little silly and nearly elicited a laugh from me.

Still, this is a strong strong film. The opening sequence is fantastic; it sets up the general dynamic of this family unit so visually and so quickly, that you don't realize exactly how much you feel you know about them until you think about it. Amazing. As mentioned above, the pacing and the overall direction are great. The director has a great sense of what is on screen and how we are reacting to it and then how he wants to adjust our reactions. It's really pretty impressive. As a scene unfolds, you have a clear sense of where it is going but then it strays a bit and then the tone shifts enough to set us totally off balance.

It's not my favorite genre, the horrific thriller/serial killer/Asian Extreme. The last one I liked was the aforementioned I SAW THE DEVIL, but this movie has a totally different sensibility to it. While it is a dark and bleak view of the world, the film is not unremittingly dark and bleak. It has a good rhythm to good and bad, peaks and valleys. I didn't anticipate liking this film this much, but I did and I will recommend this movie very highly.

My Sassy Girl : There's a Japanese Remake?

2011-06-28T21:43:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite Korean movies and perhaps my favorite Romantic Comedy of all time is My Sassy Girl, the Korean original. I actually watched the US remake and it was amazingly bad and now I have discovered that there was a Japanese version made in 2008 starring "The J-Dorama Guy" Kusanagi Tsuyoshi.

So now I'm off to watch the 11 episodes. I'm keeping my expectations low, because I imagine it will have a very different flavor. All I ask is that it is enjoyable in its own right.

The Botany of Desire (US, 2009)

2011-06-27T19:22:00.000-07:00

Not a movie, but a PBS documentary. These days, it seems I'm more likely to enjoy a documentary than a fictional film... even those faux documentaries like Catfish and Exit Through the Gift Shop. PBS is like a quality guaranteed badge and so I'm not too hesitant to check it out. In this case, it's called the Botany of Desire and I had NO idea what it was about before starting to watch.

So, it's about Botany basically. The tagged on "of desire" is an interesting bit in that it frames the botany in its effects on human beings desires. Through four different cases, the film traces how a plant has established itself with some desirable characteristics and as a result, humans have worked on its behalf to propagate the species, sometimes to ludicrous levels. These plants are Apples, tulips, cannabis, and potatoes.

We're given a nice history lesson and tour of some farms that specialize in these and each of these segments are interesting and involving; they could have easily expanded each segment to a full hour in its own right and I still would have been riveted. The history of apples in the US in very full, from Johnny Appleseed to (fermented) apple cider being a major source of alcohol and thus stigmatizing apples to the "Apple a Day"-rebranding to its modern incarnation. Tulip mania provides the biggest backdrop to tulips and is truly a compelling story, but not less amazing is the world's largest tulip garden. Wow. Cannabis is a gigantic story on its own right but in this case, restricting it to how and why people need/want it and how it has adjusted various environments (indoors, esp) really works. Potatoes gives a ready segue into a discussion into genetically modified foods (Monsanto) that never gets into the depth that I'd like (but maybe that's what Food Inc et al are for).

The hook for this show is that the perspective taken is how humans are acting like Ultra Worker Bees in service for these plants. The plants want to reproduce and expand and if they possess qualities that we crave (sweetness, beauty, mind-alteration, ready food source), then we will expend untold effort to propagate their species. It's a fun concept and it really works.

It runs two hours and covers four topics and so each one gets about 15min which, in all cases, feels not quite adequate. there's so much and this only scrapes the surface. I really enjoyed it and perhaps I will seek out the companion book.

Official Site

World of Silence (Korea, 2006)

2011-06-26T12:30:00.000-07:00

Damb, I think I really need to stop watching these Korean thrillers for a while. They're all to similar, too often derivative of each other, and mostly just very loosely put together.

This one had a neat hook though and that's what caught my eye: There's a guy who can read minds and he gets inextricably intertwined in the tracking of a serial killer. The opening 5 minutes that sketched this man's "power" (or curse) is brilliant: it has this fantastic mysterious energy that left me slightly off-balance about what was happening and very curious about what's going to come out of it.

The problem is what comes out of it is just another Korean thriller. Argh! Some serial killer is kidnaps orphan girls, feeds them 'shrooms, drowns them, and then leaves their bodies in various water storage places along with his calling card, a jester doll. (Why drug them with mushroom? Why drown them? Why the jester doll? Of those, only one is answered at the end and it's not a good answer at all.)

There's a grizzled, hard-edged cop and his semi-incompetent partner. There's the aforementioned telepath. There's a cute little girl. There's a creepy guy at the orphanage. There's the kindly matron of the orphanage. There's a street-level criminal. Throw in a few other bits and then toss it all together and you have this movie.

There's no real police work or research and the way the real suspect is found is so bizarrely and obviously Deus Ex Machina'd that I had to rewind to see if they really did do that! No, I didn't miss anything, they really did just insert a totally disconnected scene solely to deliver the criminal to the officer. For a thriller, the ending can really make or break it. In this case, it's nearly pointless and there's a tacked on pathos play that is groan inducingly bad.

There is a little bit to like here, though. The leads are actually pretty good, giving a little more depth to the characters than the norm. The characters are clear types from the Korean Thriller cast list: quite, saturnine, introspective man and the hyper-aggressive, hard-boiled cop. But there is texture to them and some good charisma, even lacking chemistry. The cute, kind, sweet, little girl (another standard type) is cute, kind, and sweet. The visuals are suitably dark and there's a nice bit of atmosphere, but nothing special.

Not a good movie. It's saving graces are that it is relatively short and that the performances are interesting. The script torpedoes all of those efforts and delivers a very bad movie.

Assault Girls (Japan, 2010)

2011-06-22T17:47:00.000-07:00

Mamoru Oshii's name carries some weight because of Ghost in the Shell and his CG-heavy film Avalon. Assault Girls feels like a philosophical followup to Avalon, where the CG is quite mature and he's playing with it.

I'm not really sure what this is really supposed to be. 65min of watching some Japanese girls play a sci-fi shooter MMO? It's not particularly interesting. It looks nice, but not anymore than anything else and it's just there. I'm not sure why I'm even supposed to care what they are doing; in fact, there is more than a passing similarity to Sucker Punch...

In fact, I don't. I watched the beginning (interesting that they all speak English, heavily accented but English), lost interest, and eventually just turned it off. It's not even that long and I couldn't really bring myself to sit there watching it. Maybe if it were 10minutes long...

Luther Season 2 Episode 1 (BBC, 2011)

2011-06-22T17:41:00.000-07:00

Luther is Back. Luther is Back. Luther is Back!

Between Game of Thrones finishing up (awesome) and reading about the hubbub generated by The Killing's finale (boo!), I totally missed that Luther season 2 had started!

Luther Season One ended on an odd note, seemingly to lead to something dynamic happening this season. So I was a bit disappointed to see how Season two started off, mostly by resetting Luther, almost Rebooting it actually.

Luther is now on an SVU-like team, recruited by the very man that tried to kick him off the force last season. He gets his old friend back on the team, as well. Alice is in a Maximum Security Hospital. And here we go...

The criminal du jour is a V for Vendetta-like serial killer who strangles women, slits their throat, and then dances for nearby CCD cameras while leaving voice mails with "He is the Sunrise; He loves everyone" The B-plot centers on a 16 year old "sex-worker" (porn/prostitute) who Luther is tasked to "rescue."

These plots are not particularly good: The women apparently can't fight back (the guy's like 5'4, 110lb isn't he?) and can't scream (one woman is killed in the middle of some street bazaar with people less than 20' away). The detection of the criminal is not so much detective work than happenchance. The B-plot's backstory: Luther arrested a man for killing a prostitute. The man killed himself in prison. So now, he feels like he owes a debt to the man's widow, whose daughter is the aforementioned teen sex worker. It's all a little silly and feels like it's already been done... often.

What makes the show actually watchable is that the performances are great. This isn't so much a detective show like CSI where the investigation is front and center, in fact much of the investigation/detective work happens off-screen. It's about Luther and these plots are there to reveal elements of Luther's character; the A-plot to show his strength and the B-plot to bring out his heart. It works. It works because Idris Elba carries it so well that I am willing to forgive the silly plot machinations.

Paul (US, 2011)

2011-06-22T17:11:00.000-07:00

I like Simon Pegg and Nick Frost; I think they're movies are fun and although I loved Shaun of the Dead, I haven't much loved their stuff since. Hot Fuzz was ok if overlong and, while I thought the high concept for Burke and Hare was great, I thought the movie was only so-so. It's sort of how I feel about Ricky Gervais movies; they have great core ideas and lots of fantastic bits in them, but as a whole, it never feels like that great a movie.

In this, they take on science fiction and road movies. Pegg and Frost are two lifelong buddies who go to San Diego Comicon and follow it up by taking a Winnebago tour of Alien landing hotspots in the Southwest. Paul, an Alien kept captive for the past 50 years, is escaping and hitches on with the guys.

So these three are on the run, trying to get Paul to the mothership. Jason Bateman leads a pair of semi-competent FI guys trying to recapture Paul. There's also Kristen Wiig as a born-again Darwinist, her gun-toting, bible-thumping dad, two hillbillies (one of which is the always reliable David Koechner), a weird Area 51 Waitress (Jane Lynch being Jane Lynch), and "Big Bad."

My reaction to this is much as with the previous Pegg/Frost films: Love the premise, like the guys, great bits, but the film as a whole was only ok. The romance was stilted and forced; Kristen Wiig, in particular seemed really stiff and out of place in this. I like her and she would have been ok as a tertiary character, but as the main love interest, she just doesn't hold the screen.

The story just runs all over the place; they're basically just running for their lives, trying to get somewhere and getting diverted at every turn. There's not really a point to much of it and often it just feels like a bunch of gags set next to each other. That's fine and all (and certainly has some humor value to it), but it undercuts any narrative which in turns undercuts any pathos. That has the effect of keeping me at arm's length from these characters instead of embracing them.

Seth Rogen was quite the surprise here; I was sure that he was going to be painfully grating, but his voicing of the alien Paul was spot-on perfect. And the CG mocapped Paul was great; I could easily just accept him as an on-screen character. Pegg and Frost's on screen chemistry was, as always, great and they worked in Rogen equally well.

The best parts may have been the Bill Hader and Joe Lo Truglio (both from Superbad) as the bumbling FBI guys. They were hilarious and Jason Bateman playing straightman to those two made for some fantastic scenes. There are also some throwaway bits about how Paul affected pop culture ("Mulder was MY idea", "Listen Mr. Spielberg..."). There are a lot of pop culture references here and I'm sure I didn't even catch all of them. A few were a bit broad and obvious but there were a lot that were spot-on and that made me laugh.

In the end, it's a good diversion. There's great chemistry, some really good bits, and some hilarious lines. It just never quite all comes together. For Pegg/Frost fans, I'm sure this is gold, though.

The Borrowers Arrietty (Japan, 2011)

2011-06-20T19:01:00.000-07:00

I think I'm one of the few that is growing a little worried about Ghibli's output as of late. Howl's Moving Castle was terrible as was Earthsea. The Cat Returns was ok but nothing fantastic. Spirited Away and Mononoke Hime were fantastic, but even those were a step down from the heyday. Ponyo was a return to a simpler story and I enjoyed it, but it didn't resonate with me as much and as long as I'd wish it had.

When I first heard of Karigurashi no Arrietty and that it was to be made from an English language young adult novel, I was ambivalent. I was worried because that's what Howl's was; I was intrigued and interested because it sounded like an interesting project and seemed to have a touch of Miyazaki to it (IIRC Miyazaki wanted to do a project about a caterpillar that sounded tangentially similar to this). With Miyazaki handling the writing and producing and a first time director at the helm, it could go either way.

I watched it today and left... ambivalent.

It starts off like Totoro, a boy, Sho, is taken by his mother to a country house to stay to because he is ill. In this country house live a family of "Little People" (mother, father, and daughter Arrietty) who are basically Liliputian-sized people. They live in the house and "borrow" small items that the Big People won't miss, like a sugar cube here and there, a bay leaf, a couple of green tea leaves, a cookie, etc. They only need a small amount to subsist on so no one ever really notices. Their existence is based on not being detected. But on a night run for supplies, the boy spies Arrietty. This begins their interesting relationship.

It's a great set up and in execution there's quite a bit to like. But at times the storytelling is a bit muddy and will jump quickly to the next plot point. There are definite Miyazaki fingerprints all over this, but then there are the odd divergences. The mother is played rather hysterically at times and is even rather shrill; the bad guy is Haru the Housekeeper who is a bumbling, semi-mean villain. There are times when the visual style goes from this very natural, beautiful look to a exaggerated, cartoony style that is very very jarring; it happens alot in TV anime for comedic effect; but it's not common in Ghibli films and feels out of place here. And the ending, oh the ending. While I think it's nice to have an atypical ending, this one just begged for a better ending than what we got. I understand it and I'm pretty sure I get what is meant by it, but I really was not happy with this ending.

But there's a great deal to like here also. The visuals are excellent; the character designs are familiar as we might expect and the background (especially the exteriors) are gorgeous. There are lots of little finishing touches that are marvelous like a bit with a couple of crickets and another one with some roly-polies. The opening sequence is wonderful, quickly drawing the world in a light-hearted and kind way. And over the whole movie is a layer of kindness with a nice moral compass. It makes it all feel very nice and mitigates any of the issues I had.

It's a nice film, but I really do think it had a chance to be a real classic if everything had come together just right. It doesn't, but it still manages to be a very engaging film and worth watching, especially for the kids.

Toilet (Japan , 2010)

2011-06-19T15:56:00.000-07:00

I don't know what I really expected from a movie titled "Toilet." And then after about 5 min, I really didn't know what I had gotten into. It's a Japanese film with a Japanese writer/director, but the cast is Caucasian (except for one), the setting is the United States, and the dialogue is entirely in English. It's sort of bizarre.

The setup is pretty basic: After their mother dies, three adult siblings gather and live in her old house along with their long-lost Obaachan (grandmother). The three each have their own idiosyncracies: one is a anti-social lab tech with the sole hobby of collecting mecha models, one is a college english major seeking her voice via poetry, and one is a neurotic, panic-stricken piano virtuoso who dabbles in sewing. Obaachan? Well, she's the elephant in the room. And so what we get is a breezy, quirky story about this family and how it grows together.

I feel like I want to compare it to one of my all-time favorite films, "A Taste of Tea" but it's not really fair and not really quite appropriate. The set up is different and the humor is vastly different. The similarity is just the depiction of the flow between distinct personalities in the family dynamic.

Much of the film is light. The humor plays light, making you smile more than laugh; the drama plays light, touching your chest rather than your heart. The story works fine and fits the tropes in nicely and manages to make the familiar pleasant rather than trite, quite an accomplishment as the basic situation lends itself readily to cliche after cliche. There's actually a major moment near the end which ends up being exactly what my heart wants even as my head knows it's a terrible cliche.

There are some brilliant moments in the film, also. Comparing piano playing to working on a sewing machine was one and an image that stays with me. There's a sequence of the family coming together over making and eating dinner one night that is very touching. And there are a number of silent moments between Obaachan and one of the siblings that jump off the screen.

There are two fundamental problems with this movie, though. The first is that the acting is borderline terrible; distractingly bad. In fact, I nearly turned it off in the first ten minutes because the acting put me off. The film is mostly carried by the three principles and they put forth an amateurish performance. There's seemingly so much more to the characters than on the page, but nothing extra is brought to the film by these actors. It's a shame. I'd like to recast this with Michael Cera as the lead, Emma Stone or Anna Kendrick as the sister, and Todd Louiso (from High Fidelity) as the older brother and I think it immediately becomes a much finer film.

The second major problem is that the film, while being light, feels almost unfinished. There's a depth that's missing to the drama (and the characters) as well as plot components that arise and vanish rather perfunctorily. There's an air-guitar subplot that's little more than a footnote. There's an adoption story that's finished too easiliy. There's the "sigh" that never gets resolved.

In the end, it's a nice film. It doesn't bog down nor does it delve deeply, but that's what it is.

After watching this, I looked up the director (Naoko Ogigami) and discovered that I have actually seen and enjoyed two of her other films: Kamome Diner and The Yoshino Barber Shop. Of them, I think Kamome Diner is the strongest, but all of them have that same light and airy content feel to them.

Shaolin (Hong Kong, 2011)

2011-06-19T11:17:00.000-07:00

To me, the hook for this was "Jackie Chan and Wu Jing in modern re-telling of a Shaolin Temple movie." It turned out to be "Andy Lau and Nicholas Tse in a period movie with a Shaolin Temple involved."

Guess what? I was a bit disappointed.

My reference points for Shaolin Temple movies starts and ends with Shaw Brothers, mainly 36th Chamber of Shaolin and Shaolin Temple (aka Death Chamber). Yes, it's not really that fair to compare any new film to these iconic classics, but if you call your movie "Shaolin" that's exactly what my mind conjures up. And if you cast Wu Jing, who is an absolutely phenomenal wu shu talent, you better believe that I've got some high expectations for fight sequences. Not fully utilizing him would be like casting Jackie Chan as just a cook...

Andy Lau is the evil General who takes refuge at the Shaolin Temple after his right hand man overthrows him and kills his daughter. Grief leads him to turn over a new leaf and become a monk, dedicating his life to caring for others. Meanwhile Command Cao Man is continuing and accelerating Lau's former Reign of Terror, digging up National Treasures and selling them to foreigners (British?) in exchange for rifles, cannons, and gatling guns (although apparently these foreigners also have Surface-to-Surface missiles which they are keeping for themselves, wtf?!). In the end, there's a big showdown, the army vs the Shaolin monks.

It's a decent enough story, I guess; not fantastic, not terrible. It has a character arc that goes from totally evil-to-totally good and it has a nasty bad guy. Lots of shaolin monks and a big finale. The problem is that it's all rather perfunctorily put together and never really comes to life.

Andy Lau's character General Hou Jie is introduced as caricaturishly evil; you can almost hear the maniacal "Muahahaha" laugh from him as he kills off innocents. Then his switch to goodie-goodie is rather quick and he is rapidly accepted by all. He then seems to have ascended to a high position akin to 2nd in command and by the end is leading the Shaolin forces. Nicholas Tse character is even more evil and if we didn't realize that, he strikes these absolutely villainous poses that are actually laughable; at times, it looks like he has a hunch on one side of his back! These general characterizations might have worked if the actors could bring something to it, but sadly Andy Lau is no Gordon Liu or Alexander Fu Sheng. And Nicholas Tse is no Andy Lau.

Now a major component of Shaolin Temple movies is the training sequence. There's often more training sequences than actual fight scenes, but they are always so cool and compelling that they almost feel like fight scenes. Here, it's thrown away rather quickly in just a few quick (but cool) scenes. I want more.

Fight sequences were terrible. Bad camera work, way too much wire work substituting for kung fu technique. Lots of loud audio work to try to enhance the fights that are just very boring. There's a sudden introduction of some bad guy fighter who is just there to fight and kill and get killed, i guess. Pointless, because in the end, he's actually not that bad ass; he just fights one guy.

And perhaps the worst worst worst thing of the whole movie is that there is melodrama here and it's WAY overwrought, even for melodrama. There's no building up to these scenes, they just jump out and they have the woeful music and the crying as they show some terrible tragedy, like a 10 year old girl dying. It's really tedious and just kills any pacing (not that there's much good pacing anyway). At over two hours, it's a long affair and it takes almost 50min to get Andy Lau to the Shaolin Temple! From there, the movie actually feels rather rushed and hurried.

In the hands of a master director, this could have been a really good film. I would really like to know what this movie would have looked like if someone like Chang Cheh or Lau Kar Leung were directing it.

Skip this and go watch the original Shaolin Temple from 1976 directed by Chang Cheh or 36th Chamber by Lua Kar-Leung.

Shaolin 2011 Trailer:

Chang Cheh's 1976 Shaolin Temple trailer:

Lau Kar-Leung's 1978 36th Chamber of Shaolin trailer:

22 Bullets (France, 2010)

2011-06-18T22:16:00.000-07:00

Oh look, another Revenge Flick. Hooray! I have no idea why I would subject myself to this except that maybe, just maybe, if Jean Reno is in it, maybe it could be kinda cool?

Well, I think Reno is past the point of guaranteeing quality by being in a movie. And this confirms it.

It's not just another Revenge Flick, it's another "You tried to kill me, so now I'm going to kill you off one at a time..."-flicks. Now that doesn't preclude it from being a fun little movie. You just need to work the material well.

Alas, this material is worked very poorly indeed. I'd hope for a nice intricate plot and strong characterizations and dynamic drama, but I'd settle for good acting, fun action, and great energy. Acting is mediocre across the board, Reno included (as he looks terribly bored during the entire film). The action scenes are disappointing. There is a near total lack of energy in everything that occurs on screen. There are moments when mobsters are rampaging and it just seems silly; there's no danger, no true emotion, just a guy throwing a chair around a room etc. etc.

In the Spanish film Biutiful, the screen crackles with energy that just draws your attention; in this, everything just lies flat and fades into the background. Stay away from this one.

Russian Dolls (France, 2005)

2011-06-18T22:05:00.000-07:00

This has been on my To Watch list since it came out way back almost a decade ago! I remember seeing L'Auberge Espagnol in the theatres and enjoying that movie very much. When I heard that there was a sequel, my interest was automatically piqued. Add to that, one of my favorite ballerinas Evgeni Obraztsova had a minor role in it. For whatever reason, I never did get around to watching it until now.

L'Auberge Espagnol came out in 2002 and I haven't seen it since. All I really remember about it was that it was about a group of 20-somethings who go on an exchange program in Spain and share an apartment. This sequel is a reunion of sorts when one of them decides to marry a Russian ballerina (Obraztsova).

Most of the movie, though, is about the struggles of Xavier in finding a relationships that works and in the process resolving what about him is causing his problems with women. He's a writer and so that forms the framework for his story.

Mostly it's him whining about his life, embarking on one failed relationship after another (through mostly his own fault). Repeat.

I wonder if I've just outgrown the story it's telling (adolescent 30ish man seeks love) or if I'm too distant from the original movie so that I'm out of touch with the characters. In any case, I found it not particularly interesting. The bright spots coming mostly from the Obraztsova scenes because she really does light up the screen.

I'd definitely say that the characters here depend on the background established in L'Auberge Espagnol and so if I were to do it again, I'd watch it before watching this.

The Warrior's Way (New Zealand, 2010)

2011-06-18T05:53:00.000-07:00

Oh good grief. I guess I should have known. I don't know why I go into some of these movies with expectations of seeing something worthwhile, especially when it's seemingly a throwaway movie with a disposable title like "The Warrior's Way."

I guess I wanted it to be good because I like Jang Dong-kun, but that should probably have been my first warning: Jang Dong-kun, Korean superstar, cast as a runaway Samurai in the Old West (United States). Hong Kong Legend Ti Lung plays the Leader of a Ninja-like clan who is out to kill him. Geoffrey Rush plays some throwaway old timer and Kate Bosworth plays some ridiculous caricature of the Sharon Stone character from Sam Raimi's The Quick and the Dead. Oh, and there's Stryker from The Wolverine movie attempting to chew all the scenery there is... except that most of it is CG on a soundstage. It's directed by a Korean first time director on a New Zealand project. This melange is indicative of the total mess that the movie turned out to be.

That the plot was derivative (part Lone Wolf and Cub, part Unforgiven, part David Carradine's Kung Fu) was not the problem; I can really accept that and those story elements are good enough for me. It's that (a) it was put together poorly, (b) the storytelling is poorly done, and (c) the acting is terrible with Stryker and Boz ruining every scene they are in.

Even the action scenes are uninteresting and uninspired. The big climactic battle of Cowboys v Ninja played out with so little energy that I was ready to fast forward thru it.

I've seen three previous "Eastern Westerns" : The Good The Bad and the Weird (Korea), Sukiyaki Western Django (Japan), and Peace Hotel (Hong Kong). They were all fun and enjoyable so seek those out and skip this one.

Biutiful (Spain, 2011)

2011-06-16T20:41:00.000-07:00

I've heard people raving about this and it's Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu directing Javier Bardem, which sounds like a winning combination. Going into this, I had no idea what it was about, just that it was getting lauds.

When it was all over I'm still not sure exactly what it was all about. The basic premise is Uxbal (Bardem) is a street hustler brokering deals involving sweatshop workers, knock off purses, illegal immigrants (from Senegal and China), and whatever else comes his way. He's struggling to make ends meet for his daughter and son, while his estranged wife struggles with her bipolar disorder. Oh, and he's got terminal cancer which will kill him in 2 months. And he's also able to speak to the dead.

Most of the film is devoted to Uxbal's machinations thru the underground of Barcelona. Money is the key and he struggles and fights to get it. The odd thing is that much of the money he gets is from other poor people and much of his money is given to other poor people; it's not a high-growth economy.

Uxbal's family relation form the emotional spine here. His on-again-off-again relationship with his crazed wife has just finished the "off-again" mode and they are trying to make things work. The kids and he have moved in with her and at present, she seems as normal as she's going to get. While that is resolving itself, Uxbal's also dealing with this gay Chinese couple (the gay relationship is odd and awkwardly shoehorned in for no apparent reason) who are human slavers, housing 25 Chinese workers in their basement and forcing them to make knockoff purses and eventually to work construction.

There's no real strong narrative in place here. We follow Uxbal and he goes from one thing to another. The world is robust and not strongly organized and so police raid this and people do that and some people die and his son does something stupid and so on and so forth. It's less a story and more a slice of Barcelona slum life.

It seemed to be building to an interesting final act when he's called to seek out some dead people and ask forgiveness. For this, he struggles and the visions he has are amazing both in how they are portrayed and set up and also in how the camera chooses to show them. In this, it reminds me a touch of the Korean film Oasis.

The screen just crackles with energy, though, and it's hard to get bored or distracted. I'm not much of a fan of the hand-held camera-look/feel, but here it's put to fantastic use. And shooting on film instead of HD gives it that grittiness and edge that brings it right into your face. Wow.

Aside from the cinematography, the acting is first rate and we're just drawn into this fully realized world, as awful as it is. And that's a big drawback here; that this world is almost unmitigatingly awful and dire. There's so very little joy anywhere and the oppressive nature of this film starts to wear me down. After the two hour mark, I was really ready for this to end, even while marveling at how "beautiful" it was.

I really loved Amores Perros and 21 Grams. Those were both fantastic films. I skipped Babel as it never really appealed to me. Biutiful is an interesting movie with lots to like, but it's a very heavy movie, thick and dense at times and not entirely rewarding at the end. I liked it ok, but I wasn't blown away by it. Worth watching, but not an imperative.

Come Closer (Korea, 2010)

2011-06-16T16:31:00.000-07:00

It's a series of 5 vignettes detailing failing/dysfunction relationships; that synopsis sounds interesting enough and as an anti-Love Actually, it could be nice...

It may have been ok if the vignettes were at all, remotely interesting, if the characters were at all, remotely interesting, if anything of note happened. Instead, we're bombarded with banal conversation paced at a a rate that makes GLACIAL seem like Usain Bolt.

The first ten minute vignette: A Korean girl answers her phone. A Polish guy is calling and asks "What country is this?" He goes on to tell her about Amsterdam with such gems as "there are lots of Chinese here" and "people like to ride bicycles." Ten minute of this that ends with, "If you see my girlfriend Anya, ..." and "Anya doesn't like coffee but I do."

The second piece is a 30min marathon where a girl is in an apartment with a rumored-to-be-gay artist. "Do you want to do it with me?" she asks at some point. Apparently, in an attempt to stay in the closet, he proceeds to have an awkward love making session with her. That's it. 30min of that. The girl is kinda cute and we see a boobie... and there's the closest thing to a money-shot in a mainstream film here.

The third piece is 20min. A girl jumps into her ex-boyfriends car as he's in the parking lot. She proceeds to tell him that she's now dating-challenged because of him. She goes on about wanting to punish him or wanting to have him back or some such. Then at the end, her boyfriend calls her cell so she leaves. WTF?!

*click*

This is when I gave up. I wish Jason Voorhees would show up and just kill absolutely everyone in this movie.

What's funny is that in thinking about Love Actually, it made me recall that there already WAS a Korean anti-Love Actually. It was called Sad Movie and it was actually very good (in a a similar way to Love Actually and with the Korean Melodramatic bent).

71 Into the Fire (Korea, 2010)

2011-06-16T14:50:00.000-07:00

I've liked a few historical dramas from Korea. I loved Silmido. I loved The President's Last Bang. I liked May 15th, despite many of its failings. I like The President's Barber. I know almost nothing of Korean history (even the relatively modern history as in May 15th) and so these movies at least give me a motivation to look up events.

71 Into the Fire sounded like a pretty cool story: during the Korean War, 71 high school students were tasks with protecting an out-of-the-way (but important) little town; the South Korean army did not expect any fighting in that area, so when a North Korean detachment arrives, it surprises everyone.

That's a fantastic set up, that sounds like Red Dawn meets Taps, but unfortunately, the story gets mired in very tedious characterizations, brutally trivial and trite conflicts, and mostly uninterested characters. Once the combat begins, I actually was rooting for the North Koreans, because these teens were so unlikable.

Time Traveler (Japan, 2010)

2011-06-16T14:43:00.000-07:00

I loved the animated film The Girl Who Leapt Thru Time; it was a nice fun movie. I wasn't quite sure how to feel when I heard it was to be remade into a Live Action film. Imagine if news came out that Kiki's Delivery Service was going to be made Live Action. There's a good chance it would be bad, but the source material is so fantastic, if they did manage to get it right, the result could be fantastic.

Well, I lasted about 20min before I surrendered. The movie was loosely based on the story and didn't appear a straight adaptation and had a really amateurish, made for TV feel to it. The worst offense was that the lead girl was just terrible, her acting felt so wooden, forced, and affected. I actually liked her in Cafe Isobe, but here, where she's front and center and asked to carry the film, she's just not up for the task.

It might end up being an ok little teenie-melodrama, but was nothing special. It's sad, but the good thing is that I still have the original to watch.

Synesthesia (Japan, 2005)

2011-06-15T20:04:00.000-07:00

A movie with an intriguing high concept that generally fails to deliver. Synesthesia is a neurological condition where the various senses are conflated when one is stimulated. In the film, it means that these "synesthetes" perceive the world differently from normal people. A spoon could elicit images of "Alternating red and blue." This basic premise forms the idea behind this film, which seems like it means to be a J-Horror entry, but ends up seeming more like a little police procedural.

There's a guy known only as Picasso who causes people to commit murder (or suicides) by somehow manipulating them. He knows all about everyone but no one knows about him. There's a girl named Mari who has been adopted three times and each time her new parents died curious deaths. There are two guys that work with the Yakuza on a streaming video business that end up becoming intertwined with Mari. There's this female detective who is investigating these curious deaths.

It seems like a movie that wants to be like the Kurosawa Kiyoshi movie Pulse but fails in most of the important narrative elements. The central concept is fairly involved and complex and so the main method of explaining it is "brute force exposition." So there are nearly endless scenes of people explaining what is going on, what people perceive, why this or that is important, etc. This "exposition dumping" eventually permeates all the major scenes. Characterization is replaced by description of the person's qualities like "You might wonder why I am interested in this. I find it to be a puzzle. blah blah blah." Most of the movie is like this and as a result, there's little chemistry between the characters and even less personality to them.

At 2:00 running time, it's a long one and it feels even longer. Tedious even. If it were more Horror, giving more energy and thrills, it might be ok. If it were more procedural, giving some spine to the detective work and the mysteries, it might be ok. As it is, it is just... there.

About 1:00 in, I realized I just didn't care what was going on and yet with an hour invested in it, I wanted to see it through. No, the ending didn't make it worth the viewing. I should've just turned it off...

Marwencol (US, 2010)

2011-06-14T21:42:00.000-07:00

An artist friend of mine raved about this movie. Within the first twenty seconds of watching the trailer, I knew I had to see this. Whoa. I wasn't sure really what to expect from the entire documentary, but it just seemed like such a cool and amazing thing (this entire Marwencol exercise) and I just wanted to see more.

It starts with tragedy. A 38 year old man named Mark is at a bar and some guys are making fun of him. Later, when he leaves, these guys follow him out and beat him near to death. He's in a coma for 9 days, awake with a reconstructed face, no memory, and has to learn all his basics again, like walking and speaking. You might imagine that this has caused him some psychological damage as well.

After a short time, he's no longer eligible for therapy and is sent on his way. So now, he's living at home, no recollection of his previous life, suffering distress, and wonders what to do? What he does is invent his own therapy: he constructs a world... literally. He builds a model city using whatever scrap wood he can find and dolls (action figures!) that he has on hand or that a kindly friend buys for him. He makes these dolls as alter egos of people he knows (and himself), sets up stories that occur here, and photographs them.

Marwencol is the name of this place and it's a World War II era town that has 20 "Barbies" in it because the SS had come and killed all the men. Mark's alter ego arrives and is made a hero and given his own place, which he turns into a bar.

We proceed to learn about the stories he tells, see the photographs he's taken, and then delve into the story that backs these photographs, the pain and issues that he's dealing with. For instance, with his memory gone, he doesn't recall that he was married. Looking at old photos, he can see that he was married to a beautiful woman and knows that he is not now, but doesn't know why. He knows that he used to be a heavy drinker, but now he doesn't even remember what it feels like to be drunk so he doesn't feel any compulsion from the alcohol. The layers of Mark's story are revealed and each one is more interesting than the last.

Of course the driving force behind the film is the photography. We get a lot of those. And these photos are amazing.

There's no real resolution here. It's not finished at the end like (say) Regarding Henry; Mark's life is a work in progress and it seems like it will always be such, but there are some nice major events that take place and it's a fun ride seeing Mark take part in them.

It's a must-see as far as I'm concerned. I love this film and I think it would be pretty cool if Henry Selick got together with Mark and built a stop-motion film of the Marwencol fiction!

No Doubt (Korea, 2010)

2011-06-14T21:17:00.000-07:00

It's hard to put into words exactly how bad this movie is. It's one thing to just be a bad movie; it's another thing entirely to aspire to create a powerful thrilling dramatic murder mystery overlaid with social commentary about mob mentality and injustices and then to fail utterly at absolutely everything.

A convicted sex offender moves into a small rural town and opens up a bicycle rental shop; within days, precious little 7-year old Mi-rim goes missing. Everyone knows that it must be the sex offender, including the cops and notably Mi-rim's father. Meanwhile, the sex offender's mother and sister face various degrees of ostracizing from the community.

In painfully contrived steps following cliched step, this story unfolds. Procedural that doesn't follow their procedures so as to leave main clues for the denoument. Circumstantial evidence that is clearly meant to be misdirection but it is painfully obviously doesn't.

It's The Woodsman or Little Children without any substance. The acting is terrible and the director commits what is a common sin among Korean movies: It confuses Yelling with tension and Crying with emotion. It's the worst of Korean melodrama mixed with the worst of Korean police procedurals. And to cap it all off, it's pretentious as well, as if making some kind of startling revelation about leaping to judgments about ex-cons.

Ugh. This movie is bad. It's less than 90min but feels about 4 hours long. About 20min in, I imagined the "Dynamic conclusion" to the movie and it followed as predictably as I thought. Stay Away!

My Rainy Days (Japan, 2009)

2011-06-14T18:51:00.000-07:00

She's a 17year old hustler, prostitute, bully, blackmailer with the face of an angel. She's got a sugar daddy that's set her up in a luxury apartment in a Tokyo highrise, as much cash as she can spend, and a group of friends to party with. Guys want to be with her, chicks want to be her. Life is good.

But then one day, she goes to the photomart (film processing?) and gets the wrong envelope of photos. She's Ozawa RIO and he's Ozawa Kouki. She sees this set of attempted (botched, mostly) self-portraits and immediately takes a liking for him.

The rest of the movie is about her pursuing him. Oh and he has terminal brain cancer. And there's this bit about a class mate who loves her (that happens to be a she). And then this part about how Rio hustles a fellow classmate into turning tricks with her group.

It's pretty cliche, tired, hollw, and superficial and has all the artifices of the Japanese melodrama. There's a decent story in here, but it's hidden. For a wonderful take on similar material, see the Korean movie Christmas in August.

Former model Sasaki Nozomi is breathtakingly beautiful and the camera just loves her. She has a natural charisma even if her acting is at times painful and mostly built on Japanese school girl affectations. Nonetheless, she makes many of her scenes actually watchable, which was the big surprise.

Fans of teen melodrama (which are probably melodramatic teens) may enjoy this. Adults, though, should stay away other than to take note of Sasaki Nozomi.

Wakaranai. Where Are you? (Japan, 2009)

2011-06-14T16:19:00.000-07:00

This movie is depressing, painfully so and being filmed in the verite-style, it makes it all the more powerful. But dammit, it really is a heart-crusher of a movie and sometimes you just don't want that.

There's a Japanese movie by Hirokazu Kore-eda called Nobody Knows, which is another fantastic movie that is also a spirit-destroyer. This is very similar and I would say that is a compliment as Hirokazu is a filmmaker who continually produces fantastic and interesting films.

In this, we meet 16yo Ryo who appears to be on his own, working at a convenience store, stealing food, filling up water bottles from an outdoor spigot, and living (squatting?) without running water or electricity in a tenement. His mother is in the hospital and he has no father. We might think he's a feral child from watching him consume his food. And his general behavior seems like that strange place between human society and animal.

As things progress, Ryo's life does not really get much better. His mother dies and having no money he can't provide a decent burial. He's running out of food and goes to try to find his father.

It's a tough watch and there's no indication that things are ever going to turn around for him. It has that hand-held documentary feel and the way we see things going, the grim reality is that he's facing an awful life and perhaps and even worse death. Ugh.

I grimly watched the entire thing and it wasn't unmitigatingly depressing, but there weren't that many rays of hope either. It's fantastically put together and the acting feels like it's not really acting. For the genre, it's amazing, but for content, it's not actually anything that I really want to watch. I sat thru it once but never again. It's a bleak couple of hours to spend, but may be worth it if you enjoy this type of material.

Be My Guest (Kor, 2009)

2011-06-14T15:57:00.000-07:00

What the Hell did I just watch? I mean, seriously. What. The. Hell.

Taking a look at the DVD cover, getting a brief synopsis, I felt like I was in store for Funny Games meets Saw with a Korean Horror bent. Not my favorite elements, but I thought I'd give it a try.

The synopsis I went in with: A corporate CEO goes to a country cabin with his family but once he gets there, a recently fired, very disgruntled former employee finds him and torments the entire family.

Within the first five minutes of the antagonists arrival, I saw a guy get his leg chopped off with an axe, a guy get his arm sawed off at the shoulder, a girl get her hand blown off with a rifle, a woman get her ear ripped off and tosses into a gutter, and a guy get his foot shot off. THAT'S the set up! It's graphic but not TOO graphic, staying safely on this side of Torture-Porn.

The most bizarre bit about this movie is that it's a black COMEDY! Yes, the music is that silly "wah-wah"-type of music that you associate with more broad, slapstick-ish comedy! So is it funny? Yes, yes it is. What makes it funny? Well, first of all, despite these people getting their limbs shorn, they continue to hobble around. Second, they are only moderately concerned with the bad guy. Instead, they are squabbling about money on the one hand and the car keys (to escape) on the other... (well, presuming the person has two hands, that is).

It's bizarre.

And it get weirder once a food delivery person arrives on the scene. There's a turning of tables, severe irony, and a crazed sequence that could be a basis for a fabulous level-platform video game that had me laughing out loud. God that was insane.

But is it good?

It's been a day and I still don't know. It had great energy and while the characters had little depth to them and were firmly rooted in stereotype bordering on caricature, it was easy to dislike them and to feel little sympathy as they were attacked and suffering.

The blend of horrifically violent thriller elements and the black comedy are at total odds with each other and yet it does manage to be watchable. I don't think it's great, but I do think it's worth checking out just to see and to take note of director Park Soo-young. I think he's got a chance to be a very interesting director in the future.

Kamome Diner (Japan, 2010)

2011-06-14T15:44:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I'm in the mood for something light, a comedy or a light drama that doesn't try to tackle great issues (eg., Crash) or has too much oppressive emotional content (eg., Squid and the Whale). Sometimes I want something that's just nice. And Japan seems to have a nice history of these little light, day-to-day movies harkening back to Ozu Yasujiro days. The latest entry that I have come to enjoy is Kamome Diner.

Sachi, a 30ish Japanese woman, had opened up a Japanese comfort food diner in Finland. No sushi. No teppanyaki. No sake. No ramen. Instead, she specializes in onigiri! Onigiri are rice balls, often with umeboshi (pickled plums) in the center, with a piece of dried seaweed wrapped around it. It's a mainstay in Japan and probably every Japanese adult recalls eating them as a youth. But it's not really something many people outside of Japan are going to even know of, much less want to eat at a restaurant. As a result, business is bad.

Sachi does get a customer though. A teen-aged boy who comes in mainly to ask Sachi if she knows the lyrics to the Gatchaman opening titles. He comes in daily to drink coffee and read his manga and since he's her first customer, Sachi gives him coffee for free.

Of course, the main story is about the diner. The efforts to make it successful, the people that come into her life, her experiences. There are two Japanese expats that Sachi takes in and hires to be waitresses, even though they outnumber the regular customers 2-to-1.

What is most interesting and compelling about this movie is the way the story is handled. Normally we have goals, conflict, and tension set up right away; typically it is something like the protagonist has some burning need to be successful, there's a strict time limit to when the place must make a certain amount of money or else become a failure, often being taken over by some insidious villainous lease-holder. There are trials and tribulations that arise along the way.

In Kamome Diner, we really don't have this. When asked what she'll do if the diner isn't successful, Sachi says, "I guess I'll go back to Japan." It's not a big deal and not a crushing defeat. Money is not focused on and there seems to be enough of it. There is no villain, though, at times various characters sometimes play that role. There are no great revelations, no big dramatic scenes. It's just quiet. And despite all that, the movie does not fade into irrelevance, it doesn't become boring.

The characters on paper seem very basic, drawn in broad strokes, little actually revealed. But within that, there's quite a bit of leeway in allowing the actresses to imbue the character with life. No, we don't know where she went to high school or what drives her, but we feel as if we know her as if we had spent time with her. They come to life and they feel so very genuine; that genuineness makes them so very likable. That is a credit to the director and the actresses. So despite having no ratcheted up tension, we infer tension, because we like the characters and we naturally want them to succeed. In this case, that's enough.

There are some people that are funny because they try to be funny. They act up, say crazy things, do oddball things, play with words, do impressions, etc. etc. Then there are people that just act naturally and just the things they do and say are funny. The humor in Kamome Diner is the latter-type of humor; much of it is just in how the characters react to a curious situation or just a situation itself. It's not laugh out loud humor, but, ironically, it often gets me to (literally) laugh out loud.

I liked it quite a bit and while some may find it a bit boring or perhaps even hollow, I found it very comforting and likable. Someone once said that what makes music special is the space between the notes. In this film, there's generous space between the notes and it allows the movie to breathe.

Adrift in Tokyo (Japan, 2010)

2011-02-19T16:24:00.000-08:00

There are movies that just sort of sneak up on you. You're not quite sure what to expect and it seems nice enough and then all of a sudden you realize that you are loving it and don't want it to end. That's Tenten (aka Adrift in Tokyo).

Is there a name for the "Walk around a city, see stuff, and just talk"-movie trope? The movie that I associate most strongly with this is the fantastic Linklater films Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. Adrift in Tokyo is a movie of this form.

It is quickly set up, a guy named Fukuhara owes 800,000 yen and a mullet-sporting guy named Takemura breaks into his home, stuffs a sock in his mouth, and tells him to pay up. Later, Takemura offers Fukuhara 1,000,000 Yen if he will walk around Tokyo with him for an indeterminate amount of time. And of course they do.

Walking about in Tokyo, they chat, they look at the sights; but they don't look at the famous or trendy sights, they end up at the back-alley jello shop and various other out-of-the-way places. If this is a travelogue, it's the insider's guide to strange places in Tokyo. Along the way, they trade curious insights into Tokyo, Life, and the world at large. "Did you know if you walk backwards, you get younger?"

Later, they find and stay with Takemura's pseudo-family of which Fukuhara pretends to be a part. This is the most tender and sweet part of the movie and was when I realized exactly how invested in the characters I was.

The movie is at times funny, touching, sweet, weird, off-the-wall, and insightful. I would have liked a stronger, nicer, more resolved ending as the movie didn't seem to end so much as it just stopped.

Regardless, I really enjoyed this movie. For a movie that is all walk around and talk, this is a very visual movie, so many gags need to be seen and the director gives full value to the visual compositions; it's no My Dinner With Andre (which I also liked, btw).

If you have a chance, see this movie.

The Recipe (Korea, 2010)

2011-02-19T16:09:00.000-08:00

The story concept seemed interesting enough: a documentary reporter hears about a doengjang jigae (a Korean fermented bean paste stew) that is so wonderful that it is near mystical in nature. As he starts looking for the cook, he finds a bizarre, byzantine story.

Sounds good, right? And it does have some really good elements to it. The main problem is that it never does quite come together nicely. What starts off as a faux documentary with curiously comedic elements shifts into a bit of a mystery and then into a dramatic form totally different again. What is exciting about Korean cinema is that such disparate elements often find themselves melding together in a single movie. When it is successful, it is quite amazing; but so often it does not work well and ends up a mess.

In this case, it's rather a mess. The entire beginning, how a notorious criminal on deathrow comes to taste this special doengjang jigae, which leads to his capture and eventual execution is totally, absolutely extraneous. There is no real reason for it and it wastes the first 15 - 20 minutes of the movie.

In fact, the main part of the movie takes place much much later and involves the mysterious vanishing of the cook, the documenter's search for her, and then what turns into a quest FOR the recipe for the doengjang jigae. The documenter proceeds to start learning more about what goes into each component, each ingredient. It can't simply be water. It has to be a special spring water from the mountains in a particular prefecture. And so on. This quest is really what the movie is and, not so coincidentally, is when the movie is at its best.

But there are other lapses that inhibit the enjoyment of the movie. The characters are really flat. Just terribly flat and given not much to work with the actors seem barely interested in the roles. The plot proceeds, but there's not enough back story to give proper motivation to the characters. It's this that makes it tedious. While I wanted to engage in it, I just really could not find anything to latch onto.

It's another movie that has a really good story within it and in the right hands could have been very good. Unfortunatley, it really isn't.

The Killing/Forbrydelsen (Denmark, 2007)

2011-02-06T10:48:00.000-08:00

It's not a movie; it's a TV show from Denmark. I had just heard of this and decided to check it out. I'm not much for the police procedural shows; I've not watched any of the CSIs, NCISs, Numbers, Criminal Minds, Law and Orders, etc. I used to like Law and Order and I loved the BBC/HBO miniseries Five Days and The Wire is one of my favorite TV shows.

So, hearing that it was highly recommended--so much so that a US remake is due out this year (by AMC, at least, so there's hope it will be good)--I decided to check it out.

I tried the first episode and was hooked. A setup episode of any series is a tough go, but this one really did it well. In a quick, but unhurried fashion the world is laid out and the major principals introduced. The general nature of the interrelationships are sketched out and we have a reasonably good idea of where we're going to go.

I think that many of the story elements are not innovative or new. At this time, it may be very difficult to create something totally new and fresh. But the setting is Copenhagen, Denmark which does give this US-dweller a reason to consider it a "fresh take."

You've got a detective who is on her last day before she moves to Sweden with her son and her fiancee. There's the incoming detective who is taking her place and the diametrically opposed approaches they have. There's the family with stoic, strong father and emotional mother and their two sons and the friend of the family. There's the man running for political office whose campaign is being compromised because someone may be involved. There's the University the victim went to and her friends therein. And so on and on.

Each episode is one day. There are 20 days. I'm on day four and it is starting to get very interesting. I have only one qualm about how these episodes may be structured. I don't know if the next few will be structured like the past two but if so, then it may become a bit annoying. If it becomes "misleading suspect of the week" then I may lose interest. From the popularity, though I expect and hope this is not how it will be.

A Woman, A Gun, and a Noodle Shop (China, 2010)

2011-02-06T10:30:00.000-08:00

It's easy to complain about the "needless" remake of foreign films. It seems every time you turn around, some other fantastic film from Asia or Europe is set to be remade in the US. But what about Asia needlessly remaking a US film?

In this case, it's Zhang Yimou (Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Not One Less, The Road Home, The Story of Qiu-Ju, To Live, Raise the Red Lantern, Red Sorghum, and The 2008 Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremonies) remaking the Coen Brothers film Blood Simple.

Now it's been so long since I've seen Blood Simple that I could not tell you the plot nor even who the main characters were. Obviously it's not a movie that's near and dear to me, though I will say my vague recollection was that it was very taut and tense and extremely well-done without the wry humor found in later films. I'd say it was a needless remake and if I was interested in the story I think I'd rather watch the original again than a remake.

Still, this remake got on my RADAR if only for Zhang Yimou's name and it released on R1 DVD this week, which seems strangely quick.

So it's a convoluted crime film that quickly entangles everyone involved and causes lots of grief. As I watched the film unfold, I could only think "eh" and as it ended, my overall feeling was, "That was ok."

It's gorgeously shot with lots of desert vistas showing scintillating blue sky against searing orange desert landscape (the "blue-orange" of movie posters infamy), but the camera returns to this so often and stays fixated on it so lovingly, that it feels excessive and by the end, it is irritating. But visually this movie is beautiful.

The actors are good but the characters are not. There is a single motivation set for each person and that is about it. There is really not much in place for the characters to do and so it is really difficult to feel fully engaged. And moments that are played for emotion just lacked that punch. And so the film is really all about just watching the plot unravel.

And the plot moves along nicely and does a great job of creating problems for nearly everyone. Good job, Coen Brothers. The problem with the story/plot is that it feels very contemporary. I suppose there's nothing particularly anachronistic about the story elements in feudal China, but it just seemed that the plottings of each person did not feel like typical period films. I suppose that was the point, but it served to keep me from enjoying it, I think.

It's an ok film. Without Zhang Yimou's name on it, I would never have taken notice. With it, I only watched out of curiousity. I'll never revisit it and not recommend it. I think I'll watch the original again.

Paper Man (US, 2010)

2011-02-05T14:58:00.000-08:00

Just the trailer makes me think that it's like Simple Simon: an autistic/asperger's person interacts with someone who engages him and truly comes alive. Well, he's not autistic, he's a writer. The visions aren't a result of any disease, but it's just a anthropomorphic coping mechanism. But other than that it basically follows the similar formula, which is not necessarily a bad one.

Jeff Daniels is wonderful and Emma Stone continues to grow into a most interesting actress. She goes from being "The Hot Girl" in Superbad to coll chick in Zombieland to the star in Easy A to being a "legitimate actress" here in Paper Man. Ryan Reynold and Kieran Culkin are highly enjoyable in their roles. In fact, the only issue I had with the acting was that Lisa Kudrow simply ruined every scene she was in. Put Laura Linney in that role and the cast is perfect!

It's not a great nor even innovative film, but it is good and it is well executed. Story flows along and the characters act and react like you want. There are awkward, somewhat contrived moments to force plot points ahead, but these are easily overlooked. There's light-heartedness, there's deep seated issues, there are hidden secrets, there are changing relationship dynamics and reveals. But yet it never really seems to get to where it wants to go.

I compare this to something like Blue Car about a non-traditional Man-girl relationship, but that film really excelled where this is merely competent.

I Saw The Devil (Korea, 2010)

2011-02-05T14:54:00.000-08:00

Let me list a few of the great Korean films of the past decade or so:
A Bittersweet Life
Joint Security Area
The Good The Bad and the Weird
Crying Fist
Old Boy
Shiri
Failan
Tae Guk Gi
A Tale of Two Sisters

So, if you said, the star of A Bittersweet Life, JSA, The Good The Bad the Weird and the star of Crying Fist, Old Boy, Shiri, Failan, Tae Guk Gi are going to be in a movie from the director of A Bittersweet life, The Good the Bad the Weird, and A Tale of Two Sisters, it would be like a Korean movie dream team! And the movie is called I Saw The Devil.

Yes, I heard about this a while ago and was immediately excited. I held of on watching trailers or learning too much because I already knew I'd watch it and even if I didn't love it, i knew that it would be interesting. But then I heard that it was a serial killer/revenge thriller and that it was so extreme that the film was banned in Korea until scenes were removed or edited.

So this put me off just a bit because I've really had a fill of revenge thrillers. I don't hate them or even dislike them, but I certainly don't seek them out and I have to be in a particular mood for them. Also, while I'm not squeamish and I love intense films (one reason I love Korean cinema, actually), some Korean stuff can really push me and I wasn't sure what to make of it. Still, I knew it was just a matter of time. Well, the time was now.

I was totally blown away. Yes, this is an intense movie and at times it was almost too much for me. But this was amazing. It had that rare energy that held everything together, the acting that imbued the characters with something that comes from off the page, and the visual dynamism that makes even gruesome scenes absolutely beautiful.

The first 13 minutes (or so) is a very graphic depiction of a serial killing and dismemberment. The rest of the film is a curious investigation into the mind of a serial killer and into the psyche of a man driven over the top and chasing the serial killer. There's a saying, "Never wrestle with a pig because the pig likes it and you only get dirty." The serial killer is the pig and the "good guy" really gets dirty.

There's no happy ending in this movie, which isn't that unusual for revenge thrillers, but this goes farther that I thought it would and there is a moment in the plot of sheer, gruesome brilliance; when I realized what was going to come, I had to pause to collect myself before I could proceed, not quite ready to view it. At the end of the movie, I was exhausted.

I loved the movie. I think it's brilliant. But I will likely never ever watch it again. There's nothing for me to revisit here and so many of these scenes just stayed with me. For instance, there's a sequence where a guy opens a dungeon-esque locked room, drags out a girl (who has ostensibly been there for days), attached chains to her and drags here along to the kitchen where he prepares to dismember her while she's alive. It's grim but also handled just so matter-of-factly. The guy isn't talking to her or yelling or acting crazy; he's just going about it as if he was getting some burgers from the freezer to defrost.

Not a movie for the faint of heart. Those that love the extreme will love this. Those that are in between (like I am) will likely feel as I did: it's really amazing, but disturbing and almost too much.

Waiting For Superman (US, 2010)

2011-02-05T14:30:00.000-08:00

Education is a topic that's near and dear to me and I'm a pretty easy mark with respect to it so when I first saw the trailer, I was sure that this was a documentary to love.

So it was a major disappointment for me to find that while this is not a bad movie, it is not a particularly engaging one. There's a veneer on this film, one of superficiality, of one-sidedness, and of shallowness that I found distancing. I kept wanting to be involved with the images on screen and the film itself kept pushing me back.

There is a problem with education in our Country. Yes. And there are a multitude of questions, answers, more questions, and intricacies involved. There are concerns that start at the basic level where you may ask "Do standardized test scores properly indicate teaching success and student achievement?"

The documentary presents things very naively, very basically, very obviously. In this world, the answer is obvious and is not up for debate. Yet, this single-minded insistence makes the argument less interesting. That the more complex considerations are not discussed nor the question about whether some approaches could be implemented is a severe question.

In the beginning we are introduced to the principal children involved via camera-facing interviews. These are pretty standard, but these really put me off right away, mostly because they felt staged. Did the producers and directors coach the kids up and give them multiple chances to say it? I don't know, but it sure felt that way. And I just could not get away from this feeling that I was being led along something that I was not confident as authentic. That's pretty bad for a documentary.

Another big item of note is that the entire set up of this film is that if the kids don't get into these Charter Schools via the Lottery, then they are doomed to failure. This is reinforced throughout and gives a real tension to the proceedings at each of the Lotteries. But what is not discussed is that children have been successful coming from public schools. Even in the poorly performing schools, the (questionable) statistics are about large scale numbers and averages, but still indicate that there are successes. Why? What is the root cause of that? So, this girl Daisy who has strong family backing, a strong will and desire for education in the future, good work ethic. Will she really be doomed because she did not get into a charter school? What would be interesting is for a followup in about 5-10 years to see where these children are then.

And there seems to be a self-filtering in place for these charter schools as well. These are highly desirable schools because they have produced a high number of successful students. So now, families that want their children to be successful have to compete to get in. You are unlikely to get the apathetic students. This is not necessarily bad, but it is something that occurred to me while watching and a topic left undiscussed in the movie.

There are a number of these things throughout the movie and as such it just fell flat. What was presented was definitely interesting. It seemed like it had its heart in the right place. But the end result is a documentary that feels like an anti-Teacher's Union propaganda film. There is no texture to the film and without that, it ends up as just something that reinforces a person who already has the same viewpoint as the film. But it has no power beyond that, which is a shame.

Dear Alice (Sweden, 2010)

2011-02-04T20:48:00.000-08:00

What's worse than a self-important film? How about a really poorly realized self-important film that at its height becomes laughably bad?

I was never that fond of Crash when it came out. It was a bit obvious even though it was well-crafted. This movie is like a poorly crafted version of Crash, both thematically and in execution.

It deals with racism in Sweden, by individuals and also the Institutional racism that can be tacitly accepted. And while those elements are there and increasing in importance as the film proceeds, the more dominant theme (to me) seemed to be of the loss of humanity involved in a dependence of an rule system that allows for no exceptions. That when people are only allowed to follow the explicit rules laid out, human interactions become less humane.

And with these central themes, the film could potentially have been very good, but there are so many problems with this movie. First, the acting is rather poor. Second, the characters given are unpleasant, act ridiculous, and are painfully one-dimensional. Third, the intermingling stories is poorly executed. Basically, you end up watching a number of irritatingly, self-involved people complain about how other people won't make life easier for them.

By the end, when there was a major tete a tete, it became literally laughable. That is to say I did laugh out loud at this scene : a Uganda drives his wife's Volvo station wagon with their two daughters in the backseat. He goes to a White guy's place, knocks on the door, punches him in the face, and then walks back to his car. The White guy runs out with a golf club and proceeds to hit the car as the Ugandan tries to start his car. This scene was supposed to be taught and tense, I think, but it was oh, so bad.

I would probably say that it's about a 7/10 really, but with its sort of high-and-mighty message that fails so miserably, it becomes more like a 4/10. I really hated this movie.

Midnight FM (Korea, 2010)

2011-02-04T19:37:00.000-08:00

It's a genre film. That means by its very nature it's going to be a rather stupid affair. But in its best form, these suspense thriller movies can make you look past the unbelievability or sometimes outright silliness because of the winning qualities.

This is not such a suspense movie. This is like the worst of the midnight USA channel thrillers that start with some bizarre idea that has no connection to reality and then proceeds to grow ever more ridiculous. But beyond that, it is not fun. The characters are not interesting; the lead is not sympathetic nor even engaging; the villain is not really threatening and vaults well past caricature status into comic silliness. And there's a kid, an annoying kid who is supposed to be cute and sympathetic but who manages to be painful even though she doesn't utter a word (she's a mute).

So, the main story is that this woman is a the host of a midnight FM radio show where she plays music from movies and ruminating on the themes. On her final night, some crazy guy breaks into her home, holds her daughter and sister hostage and demands that she play certain songs (based on clues) in order for him. And there's this serial killer that preys on criminals. And there's this guy visiting the radio station who is a "stalker" fan. And there's this awful station manager. And a few other pointless plot elements.

Yeah, I couldn't really pay that much attention after the first 20minutes. I did manage to get to the end, but only by fast forwarding and skipping ahead. The acting is terrible. The action is terrible. The story line is awful. It is pointless and has little energy. It is an embarrassment, really.

Do not watch this movie. I wish I hadn't.

Man From Nowhere (Korea, 2010)

2011-02-02T05:49:00.000-08:00

There are times when I watch a movie and I just get totally jacked up. It's not just that I'm watching a good movie, but it's that I'm watching something special. I remember when I first watched Joint Security Area; it was one of the first Korean films I had seen. It just blew me away and re-oriented how I thought of Korean films.

Years later, after watching countless throwaway Korean thrillers/actioners, I was beginning to get jaded on Korean films. Then along came The Chaser and again, bang, I'm thinking, "This is why I love Korean films."

Now, again comes a film that gets me juiced up. It's called The Man From Nowhere. Plotwise it's basically a rehash of several movies and leverages standard action tropes. Cha Tae-sik is an ex-military operative who has retired and now is a loner who just wants to be in peace and run in little rundown pawn shop. He befriends the 10yo girl who lives next door, who has the bad luck of being the daughter of a crack whore who stole a shipment of drugs from her boss. A gang war erupts and the neighbor girl gets caught in the middle. Now all he wants to do is rescue the girl, but that means that he has to relive the past and, more importantly, he has to care again.

So, it's part Leon: The Professional, part Rambo, part Bourne trilogy, part this, part that. Just about any Lone Assassin gone recluse movie could be part of the lineage of this movie. But there's a reason there are so many of these films: it's because the built-in drama is exciting and that many of us just have an affinity for that type of character, going back to John Wayne and perhaps earlier.

No, it's not original, if I haven't already made that point. So why do I love it so much? It's because the things you need to make a good action/thriller movie into a great one are all here. The film is so well-crafted. That is, the film is treated as if they wanted to make something special and not just another throwaway movie. Storytelling is handled first rate, pacing is excellent, acting is quite good (though some of the baddies tend to caricature), and the tension is fantastic. The tension in particular is compelling; instead of the normal ebb and flow, we get more of a layering tension. We follow Cha Tae-sik as he proceeds on his "mission" and as he progresses, we feel as if we are descending into some kind of Hell and we are getting involved in things we don't want to and we are going to places that are very uncomfortable. This progression, this ratcheting up of tension, this inexorable descent makes for a powerful, cathartic exultation in the finale.

In deeper post-view analysis of the film, I can pick out lots of problems with the movie. But I won't. I will just say that I loved this movie and that it just rocked the Hell out of me while I was watching. It's a definite top shelf movie and it's one that I'm really glad to have seen.

Dogtooth (Greece, 2010)

2011-02-01T09:42:00.000-08:00

File this under What's Goro NOT Watching.

One word: Ugh

Another word: WTF!

I have no idea what it is that I was watching. I mean. I really have no idea what this was.

It was bizarre and kinda funny. Really bizarre. There's a stilted shooting style and acting style that does work, but it's just not an enjoyable experience and it's in a more experimental style so that there's no real narrative in place, just the following of events and watching things unfold as a voyeur.

Take and isolate three people (ostensibly from birth), cultivate them as human sociological experiments, and then see what happens. What I really got out of it was that if you raise children in the absence of society, you are likely to raise sociopaths.

Not an enjoyable experience, though to be fair it has some very interesting bits to it. Central ideas and concepts are attractive, but I just didn't care for the packaging at all.

Poetry (Korea, 2010)

2011-01-31T17:38:00.000-08:00

There is no name in film that will get me more excited about a movie than Lee Chang-dong. Right now, I think he is the greatest, most interesting, challenging storyteller working and his stories are fantastic.

His films are all masterpieces: Oasis, Green Fish, Peppermint Candy, Secret Sunshine, and now Poetry. These are all films that are strong in all areas and have a layered texture that belies description. It's hard to exactly describe how he manages to convey so much thru what is shown on screen. Kurosawa, when asked to explain his movie, replied, "If I could explain it in words, I wouldn't have had to make a movie." And that's a great way to describe both Kurosawa's work and Lee Chang-dong's work. It would take more effort and time to try to explain the work than for you to just watch the movie. And the explanation still wouldn't do justice to the film.

Poetry is a fairly simple story. An aging woman who is about 65 years old decides to learn to write poetry and so enroll in a class at the local community center. She's instructed to inspect the world with a poet's eye because she doesn't really know what she's been seeing. So she continues with her life, caring for her high-school aged grandson since her daughter works out of town, goes on errands, works as a housemaid. She then discovers that her grandson has become involved in a major crime and that affects her life as well.

The magic of the movie is in how it handles all this and more. She's not just a grandmother, she is a person with so many qualities that you feel and understand but are passed with a nonchalance, Lee trusting that you as the viewer will pick up and understand, that you can piece things together and that the world makes sense to you. It does and it makes such a lasting impression because of it.

Lee Chang-dong's last film Secret Sunshine was magnficent and I couldn't believe what I was watching as it unfolded. I kept thinking, "THIS is why I love movies. THIS is why I slog through all those terrible and mediocre films. So that some day I can find an absolute cinematic gem like this." Poetry had that effect on me also. This is a must-see.

The Hovering Blade (Japan, 2009)

2011-01-31T17:08:00.000-08:00

I'm not a big fan of Revenge movies even though they are becoming increasingly popular these days. I Spit On Your Grave remake, Taken, Kill Bill, Payback, Man on Fire, and several other in the past few years.

So, I wasn't that enthused when I heard of the Japanese movie Hovering Blade. However, it stars Terao Akira who, though he tends to be one-note, is an actor that I have enjoyed quite a bit going back to Akira Kurosawa's Dreams.

I gave it a chance and while it was a bit difficult at first, since watching the kidnapping and murder was naturally quite grim, but it proceeded in a slightly off-the-beaten path way.

It's not a thriller even though it has the initial trappings of one. Rather, it is a morality play and a drama, often focusing on the issue of revenge and its value. The film is at its best in the more quiet moments when characters open up and they grow to fill their dimensions. It's a heady topic and there's lots to work with. It all culminates with the climax and then is refined during the coda. It was surprising, though I felt that it was lessened by the fact that the issues revealed later were not properly foreshadowed prior.

Overall, it is a good entry into the genre and gives thrills for those that seek it and has a very strong emotional and moral center that supports the film. Recommended.

RED (US, 2010)

2011-01-31T17:00:00.000-08:00

Retired, Extremely Dangerous is just an excuse to get a bunch of old actors together and let them have fun. For that it is. In fact, it's much more fun than it really ought to be and I think it owes most of that to John Malkovich (who steals every scene), Helen Mirren (who is still beautiful), Morgan Freeman, and very notably Mary Louise Parker who is simply fantastic. Bruce Willis? Well, he does what he always does and I feel like it really hurts the movie.

It's just another actioner with the twist that they are all retirees and that they were not all necessarily on the same side. The banter between the no-longer-quite-foes varies from amusing to outright hilarious.

Mary Louise Parker gives the everyman view and she wonderful at it, the only thing off is that she and Willis have no romantic chemistry, owing perhaps to the fact that she looks like she should be playing his long-lost daughter.

Action scenes are fine, banter is great, chemistry is wonderful, and the film is not to be taken seriously. It romps around and has a good time and invites you to do the same. I found myself relaxing and not bothering too much thinking about plot points and whether something was too contrived or not. It was easy to just watch and smile.

Moss (Korea, 2010)

2011-01-31T16:53:00.000-08:00

When I hear that an overseas movie has generated alot of buzz, it's hard to take a whole lot away from it other than it is noteworthy since there's no clear relationship between popularity and quality. So when I heard of a film based on a popular internet comic, debuting at #1, shattering box office records (or maybe it's just making a lot of money), then I just think that I may give it a try when it comes out on video. That movie is Moss.

It's a mystery/thriller about a man who investigates his father's death. His father was part founder of a religious commune in the countryside which has given rise to a fully functioning village. The longer he stays, the more curious and insidious this village becomes. What is the secret?

It has all the requisite pieces: the villagers who act strange, the dark, villainous village chief who has some strange control over all who live there, it has the woman who knows more than she tells and may be on the side of good, and it has the elephant in the room: the Secret of the Village.

A really cool set up that flounders terribly in its execution especially given the 2:40 running time. That's not a typo, TWO hours and forty minutes. The mood and tone are good and even the ideas within it are pretty interesting. When it starts to hit the execution and when he starts to explore and discover and proceed to learn about the town, things start to fall apart. People act not just irrationally, but just outright stupidly. All subtlety is lost and events start lining up like dominoes. And the ending is just painfully bad, committing the cardinal sin: offering no real surprise for the "secret." As the finale unfolded, I could only sit and think, "That's all you have for me?!"

To be fair, it's surprising that it could hold my attention for its entire running time. It is paced relatively well and has so much going on that it is sort of fun paying attention to it all. But that is all for naught as it ends up being ruined in the last half hour or so.

I would not recommend this unless you are a die hard genre fan in which case it might be ok. But overall, just a bit of a mess of a movie and I have no idea why it made so much money.

Simple Simon (Sweden, 2010)

2011-01-31T15:06:00.002-08:00

Today, the Swedish movie Simple Simon came into my RADAR since it was submitted by Sweden for the Best Foreign Language film (not nominated). It's comedy about a man who takes in his brother who has Asperger's Syndrome, who then goes on to turn his life upside-down.

Because I've watched Big Bang Theory and Community for a while, the Asperger's bits fell flat for me. They were fairly obvious (even if based on actual traits), but the humor in the aforementioned comedies has progressed well beyond that.

The strength of the film is really the relationships between the main characters. There's a real honesty there and at times it's so very beautiful. There's also fantastic energy from Cecilia Forss who you cannot help but love.

Overall a nice film; it's got a nice heart and will make you smile. It's not great and for similar films, I'd take Benny and Joon, Mary and Max, or Rain Man over this, but it's still worth a watch.

After School (Japan, 2008)

2011-01-31T15:06:00.000-08:00

What kind of movie do you expect when you see a title like "After School" ? Some middle class domestic drama? A teen melodrama? Sometimes it's just strange and cool to watch a movie with only the title to guide you. After School, Japan, 2008. [Play]

It turns out that this is a corporate espionage thriller movie where there's a mysterious guy with a girl that's causing problems all the way to the top of the Company. Now everyone's scrambling to find him! And so it goes.... but then plot shifts to... Yakuza film. Even darker and scarier. Then tonal shift to light-hearted caper film. And do I detect elements of a sweet frothy romance? At the heart of the movie is still this puzzler of the man and the woman and the effect on the company.

Often tonal shifts that are this drastic fail, but in some cases it really works. There were some of these extreme, hyperactive films in the 90s that did this, Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl, Adrenaline Drive, Surive Style 5+, and even the US film Go. In these cases, it works because the transitions are great and that the segments fit together so very well. It also helps when the actors involved are very enjoyable and likable in their roles and that the puzzle in place shifts shape and ends up in a very palatable form.

It has some problems. Notably that with the tonal shifts comes a pacing problem and a loss of the initial inertia. It begins with the power of a thriller and you start to become invested in it, but as we find other things out and the tone lightens, also the jeopardy decreases and the conflict diminishes. The puzzle remains but there is a feeling of a waning that comes about 2/3-to-3/4 of the way thru the movie. I still found it quite fun and I did like where it went, but I do feel like it didn't quite manage what it attempted to.

It's worth watching and will give you a fun 100min.

btw, it's called After School because of one of two things: (1) one of the principals is a school teacher and these proceedings occur outside of school hours and (2) it's about people who were friends in high school years ago and the are now adults.

Secret Reunion (Korea, 2010)

2011-01-30T18:20:00.001-08:00

It's a buddy cop movie disguised as a secret agent thriller. A North Korean agent and a South Korean agent cross paths six years after chasing each other.

While the main plotline is a bit banal and at times feels uninspired, there are some very good moments between the two leads. The odd couple formula is a reliable one and is leaned upon quite a bit here. Dramatic irony adds some drama and some interest, but never realizes its potential. To its credit, there were some good action sequences and the finale is exciting, although the coda was either too much or just right (depending on your tolerance for happy, happy endings)

Overall, it's an ok-to-good genre movie that really had a chance to be excellent.

The Trailer (no subs)

The Fighter (US, 2010)

2011-01-30T17:10:00.003-08:00

It's been garnering accolades but I couldn't find that much enthusiasm for it since my initial impression was a Rocky by way of The Wrestler movie. But i did decide to watch it and, while it affirmed my impression for the first 10-15min or so, it became evident that it was much more than that.

It's really two intertwined but substantially different movies and i was very surprised exactly how immersed in it i became. I don't particularly like the faux documentary style and hand held cam stuff has been irritating me for some time now, but in this (as with The Wrestler), i found myself ignoring it. Why? Because the stories and the acting were so great.

Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg are brothers, each a boxer, one at (past?) the end of his career with a notable highlight to which he owes all his acclaim and the other, at a crossroads where he might become either a contender or a never-has-been (or as the movie puts it, "a stepping stone fighter").

Family, cross interests, love, frustrations, drug addiction all have strong roles in this and Perhaps the actual boxing is the least of the most interesting bits. Mark Wahlberg is ok playing the oh-so-nice kid brother, but all the other actors in this movie are absolutely excellent. Amy Adams and Christian Bale will get fawned over no doubt, but Melissa Leo is tone-perfect and steals all the scenes she's in. I'm not sure how many scenes she's in, but she feels an integral part of the movie; i get the feeling that she wasn't on screen for that many minutes, but every single moment is potent.

The rest of the background actors are so authentic that I wouldn't be surprised if they were just people from the neighborhood (a la The Wrestler).

I think the only disappointing bit for me is the finale. Yes, there's grande boxing match at the end and the way it unfolded was a bit trite. Based on a true story, but i'm not sure how much of the
minutiae was true. Still, it works (for some more than others and for me not that much) b/c of the emotional investment of the previous 1hr 50min.

This movie could have been even better if Marky Mark were replaced with someone that could hold the screen with both (or either of) Christian Bale/Amy Adams/Melissa Leo.

Great film nonetheless and worth watching.

Cyrus (US, 2010)

2011-01-30T17:10:00.001-08:00

John C Reilly, Marissa Tomei, and Jonah Hill in a Mark and Jay Duplass film. I'm not much on the Mumblecore movement and I only really know it as a style of semi-improved, indie filming. To be honest, hearing that a movie is mumblecore (or any of the other indie movements) is more of a turn-off than a selling point. But John C Reilly is cinema gold and Marissa Tomei is simply fantastic and growing ever more interesting (and beautiful) as she ages.

This was a really interesting film and I was surprised at how much it engaged me. It's a fairly direct story about a "love" triangle between a man, a woman, and her 20ish year old son. It's curious as to the directions that the film heads in the middle act and the strange tonal shifts that really work.

I ended up really liking this movie quite a bit even though it has no rewatchability for me. It has a great energy and great performances. I knew what I was going to get with Reilly and Tomei, but Jonah Hill was really fantastic as well. Definitely worth seeing, but it is a bit unconventional.

Never Let Me Go (US, 2010)

2011-01-30T17:09:00.001-08:00

Watching Never Let Me Go is like reading the book or perhaps more like having someone read major points of the book to me with some illustrations. It's like a Book-on-Film or something. The story itself is somewhat interesting and the real excitement and the reason it is so highly regarded is because of the writing. It's involving, interesting, easily captures the spirit of the era and the area, and slowly, gently reveals ever more about the society in place.

It's the kind of storytelling that works marvelously in print, but that dies on screen and in this case, it does exactly that. Ponderous, tedious, glacial immediately come to mind as I struggled to get thru this movie (i failed).

In the end, if you have any interest in this movie, seek out the book. It's a quick read that is made even quicker because the writing is fantastic. Skip the movie.

Let It Rain (France, 2008)

2011-01-30T17:08:00.000-08:00

I thought this was going to be a farcical french comedy, but it turned out to be much different. It was more a dramedy that started off like a farce. The movie begins with larger broad comedy components but that grows to fill in the details of the characters which leads to ever increasing and refining pathos.

The plot is familiar but comfotable, the humor is fairly obvious and is of the chuckle variety and not of the laugh out loud type, and yet something about the dynamics of the characters grows more and more interesting until you realize that you really are involved with the story.

Two guys decide to make a documentary on their friend who is a feminist and running for office. Of course the two guys are not-quite-competent and the filming process is a bit of a mess. As the film continues, we meet relatives and gain more insight into the curious relationships that exist. The documentary is merely the excuse for our invitation into this world, otherwise it's a light-hearted version of The Summer Hours

It's a very nice movie notable for its excellent dialog and the winning performances by its leads. The film as a whole might have been strengthened with more of a solid dramatic spine, though, as I felt it was a bit too light at times. But in films of this type, I'm glad to err on the side of humor.

It's Kind of a Funny Story (US, 2010)

2011-01-30T17:04:00.001-08:00

It's like a watered down, modern day take on One Flew Over the
Cuckoo's Nest. Obviously adapted from a book (replete with far too
many voice overs that explain far too much), it's a solid piece of
work that has some very interesting performance. I like it ok, but
think that it only manages a slightly more than cursory investigation
into the heartache of being 16, a high performer, and unhappy. The
lead is fine, but the film begs to have a much better actor to handle
this material. Zach Galfianakis is excellent and very moving at
times. I take Dead Poet's Society over this.

Mixed over this. I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it, but i
didn't dislike it.

Younger Brother (Japan, 2010)

2011-01-30T17:02:00.001-08:00

Most people focus in on actors when deciding to see a movie, which is why (for the most part) advertisements focus on the actor. And while there are a handful of actors that I feel are so amazing, I'm likely to consider watching anything they act in, I'm far more likely to enjoy a Writer's work or a director's work. Even that's not always true as directors do tend to experiment with their storytelling.

However, for me, Yamada Yoji falls into the must-see category. Whenever he puts out a new film (or if an older film is released on DVD), it's automatically at the top of my queue. So many absolutely fantastic movies have come from him, so many movies that I just love that it must be something about him and his way of viewing the world that is in sync with me. Perhaps it's that he is an optimist and that he is sentimental, sometimes to a fault. If Kurosawa was the Japanese John Ford, then Yamada Yoji is the Japanese Frank Kapra and that's just fine with me!

When I heard that he had created another movie (he's nearly 80 so I'm amazed that he continues to churn them out so quickly), I knew I had to see it. The last movie, Kabei, was really amazing and the "Samurai Trilogy" (Twilight Samurai, Hidden Blade, Love and Honor) he did prior are among my favorite Samurai films and within arm's reach of iconic Samurai films like Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Hidden Fortress. But this film is not a samurai film, it is not even a period film, it is a modern day piece that is like a grimmer, more real, more tragic Uncle Buck that relates the story of a middle aged woman to her younger brother who hasn't changed since youth and so remains annoying, so much so that he ruins his niece's wedding by getting drunk, causes
problems by running up huge debts, and generally causing anyone near him to cut him off. This isn't a warm fuzzy lovable guy like John Candy; it's a guy with lots of harsh edges to him and we get to see most of it. We get bits of the good side only tangentially and so he's not really a sympathetic character. In fact, it is the sister
who is the target of our pathos mostly for having to put up with him. One of the impressive aspects of this film is that despite all that, we don't hate him, a credit to the writing, the acting, and the direction.

It's an interesting film. Sweet in places, bittersweet in others, painful and embarrasing at others, and through it all, there's something that keeps us watching, keeps us hoping. We watch because we have hope and even though it fails us time and time, we believe there's redemption in the end. Yamada Yoji is good at giving us what we want, even if it's in a form slightly different than we expect.

I like it. I may even love it. I definitely recommend it. Fall in love with Yamada Yoji films and add this one to the list.

Catfish

2011-01-30T16:49:00.001-08:00

I've heard little bits about Catfish but didn't really pay much
attention other than that it got some hype and that it was rather
"indie." So i went in with a relatively clean slate.

I watched and didn't realize the form it was going to take and then i
wasn't sure which of the initial precepts was going to expand full-
form into the central topic. As it ventured forth, i found some of
the interactions painfully banal yet i stuck with it. As it
progressed further, the banalities I had scorned earlier were the
point and were expounded upon rather well.

Several moments rang false or hit a poor note and yet the story
revealing itself was interesting enough to propel me on. Into the
latter half of the film, I found that the film rang truer and felt
more honest. In the final act of the film, it felt beautifully and
painfully authentic. In fact, it is so touching that I wonder if I'm
being manipulated!

In the end, while there are some questions and slight apprehensions
about the film, the movie experience itself is enjoyable and worth
watching. I'm not sure it measures up to hype but i think taken on
its own merits, it is a nice little film.

Goodbye Solo

2009-09-19T05:02:00.000-07:00

A misanthrope hires a cab driver to drive him to an isolated cliff in one week, apparently so he can kill himself. They form a loose and fragile friendship and fragments of their life stories come to light.

This is an truly splendid film. It starts with stereotypical characters, the jovial, gregarious immigrant cab driver and the cranky old man. But the mastery in the film is that the director trusts his actors and the characteres and lets them breathe on screen. The script allows them to have depth of character and the actors imbue the characters with life that goes well beyond the script.

A beauty of the writing is that not everything is predigested and spoonfed to you. Elements of their lives are shown quite naturally but other piece--that are hinted at--are not. You have quite a bit to ponder about these people because their entire lives are note explicitly set before you on screen. And that makes you feel mentally and emotionally vested.

90/100

Nursery University

2009-09-19T04:56:00.000-07:00

A documentary about the super highly competitive world of New York City nursery schools. The film follows several diverse parents as they try to get their children into the best possible nursery school which will set the course of their academic and financial futures.

While at first somewhat interesting, mostly in a morbid curiosity fashion, it quickly grew old. I found the parents to be all somewhat awful and really had no interest in what they accomplished or didn't.

I watched about 30min in and then finally gave up and won't look back.

65/100

The Class

2009-09-19T04:53:00.000-07:00

An amazing film that i couldn't get enough of. Drama about a teacher and his under-achieving class in a french school. Gives an interesting insight into the social issues surrounding young people in France, how they are similar to US students and how they differ. Very interesting about this movie is that the teacher is not perfect, in fact he is quite terribly flawed, though good-intentioned. This is not the teacher from TO SIR WITH LOVE or DEAD POETS SOCIETY. And in many ways, he is more flawed and less fully realized as a person than the students are.

Amazing. Worth owning and re-watching.

93/100

Shinjuku Incident

2009-09-19T04:43:00.000-07:00

Average drama about Chinese illegal immigrants trying to make a life in Japan. Jackie Chan was fine, but nothing special in the role and was a bit distracting because of what he brings with his reputation; i would have prefered another actor, i think.

Overall, tended to idealize the immigrants and vilify the Japanese.

Average, but nothing special.

75

Why I Gave Up On SPRING WALTZ

2007-10-23T08:13:00.000-07:00

The First K-Drama I ever watched was AUTUMN IN MY HEART and it was an epiphany. Moon Geun-Young and Song Hye-Kyo on the same show? WoW. And from the first moment that Song Hye-Kyo showed up on the screen, she had me swooning. The story worked fine as well; it was pretty standard for K-Drama fare, but being new to the scene, it worked for me. From there, I continued to watch many MANY K-Dramas. Some were excellent, some were not-so-good, and a few were absolutely awful. Many of them fell into the same plot patterns, though that wasn't necessarily the determining factor between the good ones and the bad ones. The bad ones (or at least the ones that I did not enjoy much) were mired in poor execution. I don't mind revisiting similar plot lines or themes; in fact, the plot lines and themes are arguably WHY I like the K-dramas! But when the execution is poor it is impossible to watch.

What constitutes poor execution? Shallow, uninteresting characters, poor acting, and perfunctory and contrived plot points; those are the major elements that strike me and cause me to lose interest.

K-Dramas are often populated by fairly shallow characters; that's a given. But when they are shallow, uninteresting, and boring then there's nothing to latch onto. The good ones have some depth to them, as well as something particularly compelling. There's conflict of course, often an external one as well as an internal one; these are all part of the formula; when it's boring, the conflicts seem trivial, unimportant, irrelevant. When it's interesting, the conflicts are something that I can buy into, that has some weight to it, and that I do care about.

Sometimes, what is compelling is not actually the way the character is written, but how he or she is portrayed, which is to say, The Acting make the character interesting. Some actors just bring something special to the role, imbuing it with personality, or sometimes just being so magnetic on screen that you can't help but love her/him. Some actors are just the opposite, so wooden, so poor at delivering lines, so painfully to watch hitting their marks that it just sucks the life out of any scene. And of course, there's the chemistry between the actors. Whether the on-screen chemistry works or not often determines if I can actually watch the show.

The story interestingly is the least important element, but can go a long way to elevate or lower a K-Drama. If it does have interesting chars and great acting, it'll be watchable, but there may be head-shaking moments. What often adds to the interesting characters are the situations in which they must live and the situations they must resolve. Sometimes a conflict arises for no apparent reason and it really detracts a great deal from the show. Sometimes, when these perfunctory conflicts arise, it detracts from the characters, reducing them emotionally (if a person acts or reacts in a very shallow way, it reflects poorly upon the character). Often in the K-Dramas I found most awful, I noticed that the story seemed in a hurry to get to the "exciting" parts, often sacrificing the more important "setting up" parts. There needs to be some patience involved in establishing situations, establishing relationships, establishing who people are, then letting the characters work within these contexts.

AUTUMN IN MY HEART was the first of a four K-Drama series, followed by WINTER SONATA, SUMMER SCENT, and SPRING WALTZ. I loved AUTUMN; I enjoyed WINTER (although I don't like Choi Ji-Woo at all); SUMMER was very good. So I had high hopes for SPRING.

Unfortunately, SPRING WALTZ was absolutely awful from the get-go and proceeded to grow much worse until I gave up. The biggest failing was the casting of Daniel Henney as the "good-guy" love interest. While he's certainly handsome, he's so miserable an actor as to suck the life out of any scene, regardless of the talent of the other actors. Han Hyo-Joo has nice charm and did fine for what she was to do, but since many of her scenes were with Daniel Henney, I was more distracted by trying to gouge out my own eyes than paying attention to her work on screen.

The characters seem fairly standard for K-Dramas, nothing special and the actors don't bring much else to the table. One is a tortured soul, world-class pianist; one is a "nice guy" and the tortured soul's manager; one is a naive young girl who won a trip to Austria; one is a the childhood love of the tortured soul-guy come back to meet him after 15yrs.

The unique element of this K-Drama was that it was filmed in an exotic location: Austria. And it does add a bit to the show; after watching many K-dramas, it is nice to see a different locale.

The intersection of the four principals is fairly standard and somewhat boring.

There was nothing special or interesting about the show and the lack of depth or energy or chemistry from the actors just really put me off. In particular, Daniel Henney just really makes it impossible to watch. I gave up after 3-4 episodes.

About 30 Lies Review

2007-08-03T18:15:00.003-07:00

ABOUT 30 LIES is a reunion/character study film masquerading as a caper film. From the trailers, it looks like a cross between MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS and OCEANS 11, but in the end, it is a closer relative to THE BIG CHILL than the aforementioned films.

The caper (and the associated cash) is just a maguffin; the true focus of the movie is about the relationships between the main characters. Previously, the crew got together for a big heist, but in the end, there was a double-cross, the money was lost and the team broke down and separated. Now, three years later, they plan on one last job. The job goes well, but the real test is to see if they can make it thru the train trip to the end and split the cash.

He loves her... and so does this guy. She has a boyfriend... maybe. And these two guys like this girl, who may or may not have betrayed them all before. And she seems to like the guy that likes this other girl. Meanwhile, these two have a plan to steal the money. But so do these two. And this guy plans to...

It's about double-crosses, hidden agenda, big-scale plans... no, actually, again, it's just about how these friends interact with each other in the context of being con-artists.

What makes the movie so successful is that it is engaging and fun to watch. The characters are alive and banter with the same audacity and pointlessness that will take you back to those college days. The actors do a wonderful job of bringing these characters to life, allowing them to fully breathe well beyond the boundaries of the screenplay.

While the plot is fairly easy to discern, the more intriguing aspect of the resolution of the characters is far more in doubt.

Though it was not without some problems, it was an enjoyable ride and well worth seeing.

Underrated movie: Pom Pom and Hot Hot

2007-08-03T18:15:00.001-07:00

When you hear about the great Hong Kong action movies of the early 90s, you'll hear much talk about John Woo or Ringo Lam or Benny Chan or che Kirk Wong and so on and so forth. But rarely will anyone mention this strange little movie called POM POM & HOT HOT and it's a shame because it deserve more notoriety.

Starring Jackie Cheung, Lam Ching-Ying, and Bonnie Fu, it's a mix of modern gunplay action (gun-fu) and bizarre slapstickish HK comedy that feels like it should be a Wong Jing film. It's not. The action is directed by Stephen Tung-Wai who also was action director of Tsui Hark's THE BLADE and John Woo's A BETTER TOMORROW , among many others.

The plot is basically around cops chasing bad guys, in this case drug runners, with sidebars into the private homelife of one of the cops (Jackie Cheung). Story is fairly typical for the 90s HK actioner, which is to say it feels made up on the fly (as well it could have been). But what elevates this from pedestrian to amazing are the fantastic action scenes. Lam Ching-Ying may not have been better, though in PRODIGAL SON and MR VAMPIRE (both of which are worth seeing, esp. PRODIGAL SON) he was quite excellent, and execute the best gun-fu I can recall seeing on screen, including an amazing "bullet spitting" scene that has to be seen to be believed. The comedy varies from silly to painfully dumb, but Jackie Cheung's charisma and Bonnie Fu's beauty manages to keep it from being too much to bear. It's an odd combination; if you've seen Mark Wahlberg's film THE BIG HIT (directed by aforementioned che Kirk Wong) and disliked the juxtaposition of comedy and action in that film, likely POM POM & HOT HOT will bother you as well. However, it's worth seeing just for the action scenes themselves.

It's apparently available on an all-region dvd from YesAsia (it's not at some of my other favorite sites), but I still have the old laserdisc. I'd imagine the dvd quality is quite mediocre and my LD exhibits some audio oddities (a high-pitched whine during certain scenes), so I'd wish there were a nicer version out.

Formula 51 Review

2007-08-03T18:14:00.002-07:00

With all the action movie on the market these days, every once in a while, a really good movie comes along and slips under the radar. I had seen the trailer to FORMULA 51 and never even really bothered with it; later, when I found out it was directed by Ronny Yu (BRIDE OF CHUCKY, WARRIORS OF VIRTUE, BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR, FREDDY V. JASON), I immediately rented it... then bought it!

Samuel L. Jackson plays an American chemist (dressed in a kilt) who has invented the ultimate hallucinogenic drug. He ventures to London to sell the formula to some "bad guys." The deal goes wrong and he's on the run with semi-bad guy Robert Carlyle. Meanwhile, Robert Carlyle's ex-girlfriend is beautiful Emily Mortimer (*swooN*), a hired killer taking a bead on these guys with a sniper rifle. And Meatloaf's chasing them down because Jackson had earlier double-crossed him on selling him the formula. And these skinheads are mad at him, too.

This movie falls squarely in the category of dumb, fun, over-the-top, comedy-action movie. It's a movie that very easily could have been a terrible film; the plot, if you pay a modicum of attention to it, falls apart like a damp piece of paper, but Ronny Yu is used to handling such types of films and he manages it deftly, mostly by keeping the pacing and energy at a frenetic level. It's like watching a Guy Ritchie (SNATCH, LOCK STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS) movie on crack.

The movie goes from one stage to another without allowing you to think too much about WHY things are happening, until the characters get a chance to rest, at which time they pretty much argue with each other. You're either laughing out loud at some of the one-liners and darkly comedic situations or "oh-my-god"-ing at some of the frenzied, outrageous action, but rarely are you left to think too much. Visually, the movie is striking, as is typical of a Ronny Yu movie. It has that electric, slick, comic bookish feel to it.

The casting is wonderful. Samuel L Jackson and Robert Carlyle play their parts to perfection as the mismatched, always at odds couple forced to work together. Meanwhile Emily Mortimer looks absolutely stunning and actually plays the role of the tough chick very well. Meatloaf steals his scenes, especially his final one.

The movie is dumb. It's all style and no substance. It pretty much knows this and makes no bones about it, nor does it apologize for it. It just runs with it and does whatever it wants. Skinheads losing their bowels in their jeans: ok. A man strapped to the bottom of a hanging giant metal crate, only to have the crate dropped (squish): here it is. Samuel L. Jackson in a kilt, beating people up with a 5-Iron: check. It's not just over-the-top, it's way out there. But if you turn off your brain and just enjoy this, you'll have a great time.

FORMULA 51 is called THE 51ST STATE in the UK.

Running time is a breezy 92min.
Rated R for bad language, drug use, and lots of stylized violence.
It's readily available in the US and should be at your local video store.

Red Wolf Review

2007-08-03T18:14:00.001-07:00

The popularity of the Matrix and of Yuen Woo-Ping's action choreography has made his name synonomous with "Great action." You cannot be a proper action movie afficionado if you cannot name at least three Yuen Woo-Ping movies. As a result of Master Yuen's popularity, just about any movie he directed is releasing on dvd. RED WOLF is one of those "any movies."

No director or action choreographer has a 100% track record and for the volume of work that came out in Hong Kong, lots of directors, choreographers, and stars had about as many awful movies as great ones. RED WOLF is not awful but it really is not anything special. It is a remake of DIE HARD on a cruise ship (or UNDER SIEGE). Kenny Ho is the head of security and Christy Cheung is a pickpocketing waitress who get caught up as the First Officer and an ass-kicking singer lead a group of terrorists to take over a cruise ship and steal the Uranium that is, for some unknown reason, being stored in the ship's Uber Safe from Hell. In typical Hong Kong fashion, the plot makes little sense and tends to meander wildly, basically just offering excuses to move from one action stage to another. That is par for the course and you really should not try to make too much sense of the plot.

The biggest problem for RED WOLF is that the two leads, Christy Cheung and Kenny Ho, are just not engaging at all. Kenny Ho looks good, but is just an awful actor with very poor stage presence. It does not help things that his character has zero personality. As for Christy Cheung, she is gorgeous as always, but her acting makes Kenny Ho seem good. Her stage personality varies from boring to eye-rollingly annoying to "Just Kill Her Already, dammit!" As far as her martial arts ability, she's a far better actor than a fighter.

A film like this can be redeemed in toto if the action is good. A couple of great stunts, an impressive chase scene culminating in an unbelievably good fight sequence will make us forgive just about any transgressions in plot or character development. Yuen Woo-Ping, Cho WIng, and Yuen Cheung-Yan share the credit for the action direction. There are certainly lots of action sequences, lots of gunfights, lots of chasing, lots of hand-to-hand fighting; there's even a big fight amidst electrified walls (and things). Unfortunately, very few of these action sequences are interesting in the least. The gunfights are certain loud, but surprisingly unengaging. The martial arts (or "marital arts" as printed on the DVD case) choreography is quite boring. It's very karate-esque, with lots of straight punches, uppercuts and hooks, and front/roundhouse kicks. There's no kung-fu technique used at all. While there are some nice big tricks (both Kenny Ho and Ngai Sing have some impressive leaping kicks), the choreography overall is just boring; it could be from a Van Damme movie. I wonder if the choreography was a conscious decision or if they just worked with what the actors could do best.

RED WOLF was released in 1995, which was near the end of the Golden Age and RED WOLF is fairly representative of the type of movie that was coming out of Hong Kong at the time. 1994 saw Jet Li's FIST OF LEGEND and NEW LEGEND OF SHAOLIN, as well as Jackie Chan's DRUNKEN MASTER II. By 1995, we were getting THUNDEBOLT, RUMBLE IN THE BRONX, BLACK MASK, etc. Directors like John Woo, che Kirk Wong, Ringo Lam, Tsui Hark were all giving the US a try around this time. It would be two years until Johnny To's LIFELINE would come out and three years until STORM RIDERS just blew everyone's mind. There were still some very good movies being made but sadly RED WOLF was not one of them.

The 2-disc SE DVD by Tokyo Shock is ok. The picture is soft as was the case for HK movies of the time but is very watchable. English dub is awful and the Cantonese dub seems fairly bad as well. Subtitles are a nice yellow with black outline and are easy to read. There is a second disc of extras, but I just wasn't interested enough to watch them.

Righting_wrongsIf you want to see a straightforward actioner or if you are a Yuen Woo-Ping completist, then this may not a bad movie to watch, but there are much better movies to watch. I'd recommend RIGHTING WRONGS (imdb link, DVDAsian link, HKFlix link ) with Yuen Biao and Cynthia Rothrock if you can find it (I'll do an in depth review sometime later).

Audio : English DD5.1, Cantonese DD5.1, Catonese 2.0
Subs : English
Extras : Bobby Samuel featurette, Stunt Class, Theatrical Trailers, Gallery

Red Trousers Review

2007-08-03T18:13:00.001-07:00

At the Peking Opera School, when the young boys are being trained, they wear red trousers, indicating both that they are in training and that they are in servitude to the School. This is where the main training for the Hong Kong stuntmen comes from and this is what the documentary RED TROUSERS covers.

Hosted by Robin Shou (MORTAL KOMBAT), himself a former Red Trouser, we get a glimpse into the training of a HK stuntman, his life, his work, and his attitude. There are interviews with such legends of Hong Kong cinema as Sammo Hung and Lau Kar Leung, as well as with some current stuntmen as they prepare to perform stunts on location. There are some clips of interesting stunts from various HK films, varying from the very old to quite modern, as well as behind-the-scenes footage of the stuntmen working with the choreographer in preparing and executing a stunt.

The documentary is pretty good for what it is, which is a nice tribute to the life of a Hong Kong stuntman, but what it lacks is what the typical viewer of this documentary is desperate for: depth. Most fans of the genre already know much of what is presented: yes, training at the Peking Opera School was brutal (see the movie PAINTED FACES for instance); yes, stuntmen often get injured; yes, HK stunts are different from US stunts; and so on.

It begins with some footage of the Peking Opera School, where ostensibly most (if not all) of the Hong Kong stuntmen get their training. We get some interviews about how difficult the training is, but all we see are some training clips that look like any fairly intense gymnastics training. There's obviously quite a bit of varied training and a training methodology which is quite different from what we know here in the US. Unfortunately, we do not get to see any of that.

The aforementioned interviews with Sammo and Lau Kar Leung are nice because we get to see these giants of the cinema, but these interviews are litte more than just "it was so tough in my day"-anecdotes, which little or no footage for context. Sammo Hung's and Lau Kar Leung's filmographies read like list of veritable greatest films of HK (they were both performers, action directors, directors, and choreographers):
Iron Fisted Monk, Enter the Fat Dragon, Knockabout, Prodigal Son, Lucky Stars, Project A, Wheels on Meals, Millionaire's Express, Pedicab Driver, Moon Warriors, Eastern Condors, Mad Monkey Kung Fu, Drunken Master 2, 8 Diagram Pole Fighter, Martial Club, Dirty Ho, and on and on.

And yet no footage from any of these films. If you did not know who these guys were and just how impressive their resumes were, you might think they were just "any other HK stuntguys."

And the major problem with this documentary is that, although it seemingly has the best of intentions, there's just not enough access to the stunt footage and the stuntmen that made the films so great in the first place. No Jackie. No Jet. No Donnie. No Yuen Wo-Ping, Yuen-Kwai, Yuen Wah. These men, and many others, put Hong Kong on the map by virtue of their stunts. So instead of footage of these greats, RED TROUSERS is limited to the stuntmen that are at work on Robin Shou's new movie and they seem to be of average level or even lesser; these are not the top guys and the stunts they execute are nice, but not really impressive.

By far, the most compelling part of the documentary was when the current students at the Peking Opera spoke about their views, their family life, their future. It was quite moving.

RED TROUSERS is a decent documentary, which honors the tradition of the Hong Kong stuntman as best as it can, but the depth to which it delves, as well as the archival footage to which it has access, is just too limited to make it more than just a "nice, litte" film. For hardcore fans, this is likely not going to contain much new information, but for new fans to the genre, it will probably be fairly enlightening.

Running time : 93min
Language : English + some Cantonese (with Subs)
Video : Non-Anamorphic widescreen

Born to Fight Review

2007-08-03T18:12:00.002-07:00

Ok, this movie is NOT ONG BAK 2; it is directed by the Action Director of ONG BAK and produced by the same Producers as ONG BAK, but does not star Tony Jaa and is a totally different movie. It is called a "followup" to ONG BAK (which can mean just about anything really), but does not actually have the prefix "ONG BAK 2."

When ONG BAK exploded onto the stage, Tony Jaa's stunts and athleticism, as well as the choreography, just blew people away; there was nothing like that out there anywhere. The closest thing people could compare it to was old-school Jackie Chan and even that comparison does not ring quite true. So naturally there would be some kind of followup, official or not, and with the awareness that ONG BAK brought, people were keeping an eye out for Thai action movies. Now, BORN TO FIGHT has released on DVD. Like ONG BAK, it has released in a Region 3 PAL DVD with no english subtitles, so English speaking fans have to invent their own stories. Not that it has a wildly imaginative plot (seemingly). From what I can discern, this is the plot: Dan Chupong is a cop whose partner (or brother?) is killed while they are busting a criminal kingpin of some note. Later, he returns to his home, a village in rural Thailand, only to have a crime syndicate take them all hostage, set up a nuclear missile, and demand the release of the kingpin. Chupong rallies the villagers as they overcome the bad guys.

The plot is really just a throwaway excuse to string along action and fight sequences and that's what will separate this from the run of the mill actioner anyway. The real key question is : Are the action scenes worth sitting thru non-subbed, Thai language dramatic scenes for? The answer is "YES".

The action in BORN TO FIGHT varies; there are many more stunts than in ONG BAK, some huge fighting tricks, and lots and lots of gymnastics. What's missing is nice fight choreography. The bad guys in BORN TO FIGHT are gun-toting militia-types, which means the danger they pose is on inasmuch as they can pull the trigger to their gun; they are woefully deficient in any hand-to-hand skills. So what we get are baddies who are little more than moving targets for the heroes to showcase their big whirling, spinning, jumping strikes. Which is cool, mind you, but there's no Level-Boss! So we never get a lengthy fight scene, any back-and-forth fighting that escalates over time, no jeopardy in fact. As a result, the fight scenes feel a little less interesting than they could have otherwise. But in defense, the fight scenes have a physicality, an urgency, and a brutality that creates an intensity that we never ever see in Hollywood films. There's a feeling that they are actually just filming hardcore sparring sessions. They follow the Hong Kong tradition of "powdering up" (putting powder on their clothes and shoes) so that you can see them make contact with each other.

A slight nit to pick is that there's an overabundance of gymnastic techniques used in the fight sequences, things like conveniently located parallel bars or balance beam or uneven bars or a makeshift pommel horse to flair-kick from; I had GYMKATA flashbacks. It's just the bit too precious and contrived, although admittedly still kinda cool; these guys are seriously talented.

And what is nice to see here is that while ONG BAK focused nearly entirely of fight scenes and fight stunts, BORN TO FIGHT has a large number of big vehicle stunts. Some of these are just mindblowingly frightening. There are moments when I had to pause and rewind to see just how close these guys were to being killed. And if you told me that the stuntguys spent as much time in the hospital as on set, I'd believe you. These are the big, dangerous, crazy stunts that we haven't seen since Jackie Chan's heydey in movies like PROJECT A I, II, SUPERCOP, WHEELS ON MEALS, etc. The opening stunt (semi truck) and the closing stunt (motorcycle crash) are worth the price of the DVD alone. And in true Jackie Chan fashion, the credit sequence shows the behind-the-scenes action (this too alone would be worth the price of the DVD).

The film begins with a great action sequence and then lulls into story exposition for a while with intermittent action. Then, around the half-way mark, the movie erupts into a short bit of furious action. Back to more story. Then for the last half-hour or so, it is almost non-stop fighting, stunting, and big tricks.

It's a Thai DVD and so you have to be able to view PAL and Region 3, nut really, if you are any sort of fan of Asian action, drama, or horror films, you should have a Malata or Oppo anyway. Hong Kong DVD's quality has become better and better, but sadly this Thai DVD's quality is quite mediocre, although, to be fair it may not be the fault of the DVD mastering process as much as the initial filming process. The colors are a bit faded with a slight green tinge to everything, the image is soft, feeling more like a 1990 Hong Kong movie than a recent production. There are some extras on the DVD, including something called FIGHT SCENSE (sic), Behind the Scenes, Trailers, Gallery.

If Tony Jaa is the modern day Jackie Chan, then Don Chupong is like a modern day Yuen Biao. He's slighter in build than Tony Jaa, but is more fluid and acrobatically athletic and the movie's action scenes are tailored to his skills; there are less in-close, knee-and-elbow fighting and more acrobatic combat. Unfortunately, there's no single signature action sequence like the Chase Scene from ONG BAK.

There are a few other principal actors/stunters, but I'm not sure who they are. There's a long-limbed, beautiful woman who shows off her gymnastics skills (balance beam, uneven bars) and has a nice, short muy thai fight. There's a one-legged man who fights using a crutch (no lie). There's a little 10year old girl who throws down. None of them are going to impress you with their acting, but they more than make up for it with their fighting.

In the end, this movie, for all its faults, is definitely worth having and watching. The story is passable, the acting is adequate, and, although the fight scenes don't have engaging choreography, the fight scenes themselves are fun to watch, while the stuntwork is simply mind-blowing. For the sheer athleticism and physicality, this is an action fan's dream, with the small caveat: it's not quite ONG BAK.

The DVD is only $15 at DVDAsian and in my mind it's worth having and hopefully we'll be seeing more and more action films coming from Thailand.

Description of some of the stunts/fights:
1. Fighting on the top of a moving semi-truck. Throwing people off (and seeing them land on the ground), kicking people, kipping on the top. Then a second semi comes alongside for more fighting. Guys are thrown and bounce off the edge of a semi, falling IN BETWEEN the moving trucks.

2. Double front tuck (in a pike position) off the top of a village hut.

3. Motorcycle crash into a car

4. Motorcycle crash into a wooden barrier, throwing the rider through a wood-frame of a house.

5. Jump back tuck, over-the-top roundhouse kick to a bad guy (initially standing behind the guy). Hard to explain, amazing to see.

6. Big pyrotechnic explosion, destroying the village (oops, is this a spoiler?)

7. Triple kick, ie. kicking three guys, right-left-right.

8. Jump kicking an apple out of a tree

and much more.

Running time : 91 min
Language : Thai
Subtitles : none
Rating : Probably R for violence. No nudity or anything interesting.

Messengers Review

2007-08-03T18:12:00.001-07:00

I think it's difficult to make a romantic comedy. No, wait check that, I meant to say, I think it's very difficult to make a good romantic comedy, especially one that a guy will be able to watch without attempting to strangle himself (One good step is to not cast Kate Hudson or Brittany Murphy). There are lots of romantic comedies that come out, seemingly one every other week, but few of them are actually of any note whatsoever. So when there is something that is good, that manages to strike all those familiar notes and yet not seem so glaringly ridiculous, it's good to take note of it. The 1999 Japanese movie MESSENGERS is just such a movie.

It is your basic fish-out-of-water scenario about Naomi Shimizu, an advertising executive, who accidentally strikes a Yokota, owner of a fledgling bicycle messenger company called Tokyo Express, and puts him in the hospital, unable to ride. In order to avoid jail, Naomi agrees to take Yokota's place at Tokyo Express alongside his friend (and only other messenger) Suzuki. Together, Suzuki and Naomi, along with a cast of colorful secondary characters help Tokyo Express to thrive. But there's an Evil Messenger Service that uses motorcycles and they are determined to put Tokyo Express out of business. Meanwhile, as Naomi and Suzuki clearly show signs of (vigorously denied) affection for each other, there's an opportunity for Naomi to leave Tokyo Express and return to the glamour life.

Sublimely gorgeous and vibrantly engaging Naoko Iijima, a former fashion model plays the Naomi, the girl accustomed to $200/bottle Krug champagne and designer wardrobes reduced to riding a bicycle and delivering packages all day. Were she not so charismatic and her personality not so engaging, her character's constant whining and tantrums would be irritating, yet she exudes a lovability that goes beyond just her physical beauty. And she handles the transformation from wealthy socialite to working girl (no, not in THAT sense) with the ease of Claudette Colbert (in IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT). It's up to her to carry the movie, for if we dislike her for a moment, the enjoyment of the film fails. Fortunately, she does it well.

Playing opposite her is Tsuyoshi Kusanagi as the hard-edged, stoic Suzuki, who obviously expects her to quit at any moment but grows to fall in love with her. His refusal to acknowledge how he feels, even though it grows increasingly obvious to all, is key to the emotional tension that propels the film.

Most romantic comedies are elevated by the antics of the secondary characters. Here, too, MESSENGERS does well. There's the bleached blonde, former motorcycle messenger, the wacky, clueless Yokota the owner of Tokyo Express, Yokota's naive girlfriend, retired traffic policeman, and the somewhat manic head of the competing motorcycle delivery company.

Director Yasuo Baba takes full advantage of the strength of his actors, letting them act freely on screen. The chemistry between all the principles is palpable and you feel like they could all be friends in real life. When there is the requisite breaking-away moment, it's heart-wrenching, which makes for a strong reunion (natch).

The story is straightforward and the movie breezes through it quickly. One scene flows into the next and the moment you stop laughing from a humorous moment, you'll be smiling at the next nice or sweet moment. It's sitcom-esque with how it plays with some of the slapstickish humor yet has a very strong emotional center, which never gets too far off. Though it is a romance, the majority of the film is about refusing to admit to it, and thus it never gets bogged down in saccharine, sickly sweetness.

The rich girl cum cyclist gives lots of humorous material to work with and the movie does well with it, whether it's Naomi falling over because she can't free her toeclips as she comes to a stop or her misunderstanding of Suzuki giving her a place to stay (paraphrasing: "There are rules. You can't just cut to the chase, you have to buy me three nice dinners first!"). The humor works best here, not because it is so original (it's not), but because the tone of the film, the charisma of the actors, and the pace of the film put you in an already good mood. At the end of the film, as the credits run, we have an odd rap video starring the principals of the movie ("Rakusho-Rakusho"?), which is cute and fun enough to sit thru and watch.

MESSENGERS is not an original movie. It's fairly direct and predictable, following the recipe of the typical romantic comedy, yet doing so with the best of ingredients and creating a wonderful entree.

Running time is a quick 118min.
Video is a nice anamorphic 1.85
Audio is DD5.1 Japanese
Subtitles are in English.

Ping Pong Review

2007-08-03T18:11:00.002-07:00

A sports movie exists in a very special world, a world dominated by the particular sport; people talk about it, newspapers have stories on it, tvs show programs about it, pecking orders are decided by it, and seemingly everyone has a heightened awareness of it. This makes sense if it is high school basketball in Indiana or high school football in Texas, but seems a bit incongruous with a more obscure sport, but that’s part and parcel of the sports movie, so the first step is being able to immerse yourself in this world. Of course, sports movies aren’t really strictly about the sport in question anyway. It is about character and the arena of sports provides an easy and effective vehicle to depict it. Qualities like motivation, effort, focus, love, sacrifice are all on display, whether the sport is baseball or crew, football or synchronized swimming, basketball or ping pong.

Fumihiko Sori’s 2002 movie PING PONG is a movie concerning the eponymous sport and as such, fits into the sports movie structure quite well. The world in PING PONG is a world in which high schools ping pong teams are King, where ping pong halls are as commonplace as pool halls, where being a successful ping pong player can have school girls writing you fan letters. In this world, ping pong tournaments have crowds like Lebron’s high school basketball games and players train for ping pong more as if they were preparing for a boxing match.

The story is a typical one: multiple high school ping pong players of varying talents and personalities are all on a collision course, culminating in the mandatory championship ping pong tournament.

The true strength of a sports film is decided by the strength of the characters and PING PONG is well populated by strong, interesting characters. Peco Hoshino and Smile Tsukimoto, two freshmen players on their high school team, are longtime best friends despite having diametrically opposed personalities.

Peco is the brash, talented top player on the team, who gleefully basks in his skill at every opportunity. Smile is the quiet, unassuming (to the point of disinterest) eternal always-ran. The Rival Team has Demon, the hard-working, though less-talented player on the rival team, and is led by Dragon, the top player in the league. Kong is the top Chinese player, a ringer brought in by a rival school to topple Dragon’s top seeding. We also have the requisite Coach.

Typically in a movie with a varied cast of characters, few characters are given much depth, but the strength of PING PONG is that its characters are allowed to have a voice and to express their unique point of view, allowing for a fuller, more expansive story than otherwise. Peco Hoshino (“Hoshino” means “star,” which is why he is labeled with a star on his clothes, shoes, and paddle) and Smile Tsukimoto (“Tsuki” means “Moon”) being opposites provides for a natural duality in storytelling. Peco, as the player who has always been the best, must naturally deal with what it means to lose and when his veneer of invincibility is broken, what is left? Smile provides the most interesting character as gives the emotional spine of the film; he has a raw talent for ping pong that could be far greater than Peco’s or even Dragon’s, but what he lacks is a desire. He has no commitment, he plays “to kill time” rather than from any joy (in fact, his nickname “smile” is ironic as he never smiles), and his concern for his opponent causes him to play to less than his full abilities. The question he must answer is: is it better to be a nice, gentle, good player who has consideration for other people’s feelings or to be a focus, hard-edged, excellent player who is inconsiderate and rude to people.

Demon provides a seemingly throwaway character as a former friend to both Peco and Smile; he has little natural talent, but through sheer hard work has become a very good player, playing a Salieri to Peco’s Mozart (ref: AMADEUS, duh). Portrayed at first as little more than “caricature bad guy,” he later provides a surprisingly strong sympathetic voice.

Dragon in a normal movie would be the Ivan Drago (ref: ROCKY IV) Level-Boss, but in this, he become a curious character, similar in many ways to Kyuzo in Seven Samurai. He is one who not only excels at ping pong, but has a respect for the sport that goes beyond his own winning and losing. His final match provides for one of the more beautiful moments in sport movies, getting to the heart of why people play sports.

The actors play these characters with wild abandon. The fit so perfectly and naturally, it is easy to forget that they are not just acting. Yosuke Kubozuka as Peco has the difficult task of being brash, prone to tantrums at times, and conceited while continuing to be likeable. Arata as Smile has an equally (if not moreso) difficult task of providing an introspective, almost unreactive character that you can actually have some concern for. It is always a joy to see Naoko Takenaka, who seems to play a coach/mentor in every other film (SWING GIRLS, WATERBOYS).

The character development is very good, although it does seem to lapse into fairly deliberate character exposition at times. The pacing and editing, especially early on, could be a bit tighter, but despite the rather slow pace, the film never fails to engage.

Of course, with any sports movie, how good the action sequences are will largely determine the success of the movie. PING PONG has lots of ping pong action sequences, from club matches at the ping pong hall to training segments to off the cuff games here and there to the big tournament matches. These are overall very good, possibly excellent, depending on your particular metric. There are often rapid edits rather than long shots, which can be irritating if you want to see more true ping pong technique, but these cuts are generally very well done and so add energy to the sequence. This movie was based on a manga and some ping pong matches are stylized in this fashion, with guys jumping to hit the ball and bullet-time-ish camera shots.

In the end, even if they are not entirely realistic, these matches are fun to watch and work very well as linchpins in the story. What truly elevates these match sequences is the character development. Being interested in the story and the characters invests you in the match. Who wins and loses matters as there are consequences. And even though we have a good idea of how a match will end up, it’s still very entertaining and at times surprising.

One minor, though fairly bothersome, nit to pick: The camera for the matches is placed at the scorer’s table. This doesn’t seem so major, but it causes a bit of confusion. Why? Consider Peco and Dragon having a match. As they are playing, Peco is on the left and Dragon is on the right. Then when a point is won, they show the scorer’s table. Peco’s score is shown on the right and Dragon’s is on the left. This is irritating at the least and (if you can’t read Kanji) can be very confusing.

PING PONG follows the conventions of a typical sports movie and despite some early pacing issues is extremely enjoyable. The well-developed and well-acted characters carry this film thru the typical formula-laden plot and provide for unexpected depth and heart, elevating the film. Buy into the world of ping pong and you should have an enjoyable time.

Running time is a solid 114min
Audio is Japanese
English Subtitles are available

Drive Review

2007-08-03T18:11:00.001-07:00

There are quite a few of the martial arts B-movies, many of which have interchangeable covers and titles that could have been created from a "Cool Action Title" generator. Most of them just aren't worth watching--unless you are a hardcore action junkie--as they suffer from poor acting, poor production values, mediocre direction, stupid story, and in many cases, very poor choreography. Occassionally, though, there is a movie that innocuously finds its way thru the muck and muddle and ascends to a different level. These films normally get a cult following. DRIVE (1997) is such a film.

DRIVE is a B-film, directed by a non-famous director, featuring two nearly no-name actors, in a basic, pedestrian plot with the typical moderate budget production values. It's a surprisingly engaging film, despite a fairly ridiculous plot, with above average performances from the leads, and most importantly, very nice overall fight sequences.

Toby and Malik are trying to deliver a device to a company that will pay them $5M for the device. Only problem is that a gang of badguys are chasing after them to steal the device and deliver it to a rival company. The device is a bio-tech device that makes a person into a super-fighter. And the device happens to be implanted in Toby's chest.

Toby Wong is played by Mark Dacascos, an under-appreciated martial arts talent, who also appeared in CRYING FREEMAN, CROW (the tv series), and ONLY THE STRONG (a capoeira movie). He's quick, very graceful, and has very clean technique which comes thru wonderfully on camera. His acting and charisma are so-so. Malik is played by Kadeem Hardison, probably best known for his character Dwayne Wayne on the COSBY SHOW spinoff series A DIFFERENT WORLD. He mostly plays the Chris Tucker-esque role of the wise-cracking, black sidekick. There's a certain sitcomish charm to the two of them. And then there's Brittany Murphy in a post-CLUELESS, pre-GIRL INTERUPPTED role, playing a strange, vapid, vampy, Lolita-esque 16year old. It's certainly diverting in a moderately bizarre way. The acting and natural charm of the principalsworks on a tv-level. As opposed to such actors as Sasha Mitchel or Ken Shamrock, at least the ones in DRIVE are easy to watch and listen to.

The fight scenes are plentiful and very solidly executed. There are some nice innovative sequences, like a very cramped fight scene in a hotel room against guys with shock sticks. Dacascos really carries the show here and the choreography allows him to really excel. The end fight sequence between Dacascos and the Level-Boss was good, but a bit disappointing. I would have prefered longer engagements, with more back-and-forth fighting and better rhythm, but it was still good.

In the end, DRIVE is a very solid movie with good fight sequences, but with tv-level production and acting and a plot that may leave you shaking your head. It's not a great film and it's not a hong kong level actioner, but it's a cut above the masses of terrible action movies that populate the video stores' shelves. If you give it a chance, DRIVE might just surprise you.

Notes:
The US version runs 100min, while the UK version runs 117min. This might be why the plot seems so untenable.

SeaMonkeys Review

2007-08-03T18:10:00.001-07:00

Summer movies on the whole are big, boisterous things, full of Dolby Digital sound and furious digital effects, but in the end, signifying very little. If they are good (increasingly rare these days), then they offer two hours of testosterone-injected invigoration; if bad, then the two hours of tedium results in days of grumbling and lashing out. Once the province primarily of the United States, the summer blockbuster has migrated to other continents.

Umi (Sea) + Saru (Monkeys) are the nicknames of the trainees of the Japanese Coast Guard and UMIZARU is a movie based on a Manga chronicling the trials and tribulations of a class of trainees as they strive to make it through training and become full fledged Rescue Divers. The Drill Sgt states up front that, "I am not here to make you into divers; I'm here to get rid of those that aren't." And thus begins the Odyssey for the 14 trainees as they struggle through difficult pool swims, in-class studies, and each other.

Patterned after such hits as AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN, TOP GUN, HEARTBREAK RIDGE, NAVY SEALS, and BACKDRAFT, there's scarely a moment that hasn't been done before. We have the requisite training sequences, the male bonding sequences, the tragedy, the self-doubt, the venerable DI with a terrible secret, the heart-felt outpouring of a tragic backstory, and an entirely too predictable ending. It's a shame that this film is so intent on being a TOP GUN-In-The-Water because there is an excellent film lying within this one and it occassionally rises to the surface.

Senzaki is the talented, confident trainee who joins because "he wants to have some fun" while Mishima is the equally talented, confident trainee who excels as a loner. Meanwhile Kudo is the opposite, a diligent but talentless trainee who is called "the worst trainee ever" and who never fails to come in last. Naturally, Senzaki is paired with Kudo and an unlikely friendship arises. There are 11 other SeaMonkeys all trying to pass the tough tasks set forth by Drill Sgt.

When focus shifts away from the individuals and towards the group as a whole, the movie very much finds its way. We see the team rallying around one another and sacrificing for each other, we see the strength in their numbers and, in stark contrast to TOP GUN, the Hero (Senzaki) is not the Maverick, but the main opponent (Mishima) is. It makes for a fundamentally different pathos to see Senzaki trying to win over Mishima's trust.

The actors are very good even though the characters themselves are quite shallow. Mishima is suitably dour. The Drill Sgt affects the hardened but wise and caring persona quite well. Senzaki plays the confidence and likeablility with verve. Kudo is spot-on and his travails more than anyone else's were the most interesting. The rest of the SeaMonkeys play their roles very well. There's a moment when they get shore leave for the first time and they just explode into craziness. This scene was absolutely brilliant and hilarious and was the type of energy that the film needed more of.

And unfortunately, very few of the characters have much to work with. There's little to glean about them. What makes groups and teams interesting is that it is a group of individuals coming together. There are personalities that must work together, some sacrificing, some stepping to lead. The interactions of these personalities makes for something that is truly engaging. Unfortunately, UMIZARU misses mostly on this.

Rather than focus on these relationships, the requisite romance is thrust upon us and these are among the worst moments of the movie, moments where one character says, "You know..." and then proceeds to expound for ages on his troublesome past or her career choice. It's all rather painful as there is no screen chemistry, no matter how much Journey plays on the soundtrack. The film would have been much more palatable if the entire romance was just excised as there really was no point in it. In fact, the Senzaki/Kudo relationship is by far more interesting and the unexplored relationship between Senzaki and Mishima would have been extremely compelling.

The training scenes, though cliche as they were, actually played very well. The camera work added energy to the scenes, the soundtrack was effective, and the actors (or stunt doubles) performed excellently. The montages were edited well and the action was very compelling. In short, these action scenes were really fun to watch and exciting. They would have been even more effective had there been any drama along with them. The only dramatic question was whether Kudo would finish or whether Senzaki would beat Mishima and that's a terrible waste of the rest of the cast.

In addition to the Shore Leave scene and the training scenes, there are quite a number of great scenes in this movie. There is a scene where two SeaMonkey's challenge each other to see who can hold their breath the longest.. in a lobster tank in a sushi bar. There's a moment when the girl that Kudo likes has gone diving with all the guys, but when she goes back to shore, everyone else has vanished, leaving Kudo and her alone; then we see the guys surface in the distance, having conspired to give Kudo this opportunity. There's a moment with Mishima and Senzaki near the end that is very good, almost in spite of itself.

The movie is based on a manga and so it's not surprising that it is formulaic. Despite the predictability, the cliches, the tedious romance, the movie provides more enjoyable moments than not. The energy level stay high and the actors are engaging. The story moves along at a good pace and it's rarely boring. On balance, it's not a great film, but it's not a bad one. There are many missed opportunities, but just as many great moments. It's a diverting movie and if you're in the mood for a nice rah-rah, male-bonding movie, then it's worth watching.

My Grade : 80 (B-)

Running time: 120min
Audio : Japanese
English Subtitles available.

Windstruck Review

2007-08-03T18:09:00.002-07:00

WINDSTRUCK is the eagerly anticipated followup to the smash hit MY SASSY GIRL, reuniting the director (Gwak Jae-Yong) and actress (Jeon Ji-Hyun). Technically it is a followup but thematically, it works best as a precursor to MY SASSY GIRL.

Summarizing the plot is fairly straightforward and does not sound very interesting at all. Jeon Ji-Hyn (who I first fell in love with in IL MARE) is Officer Kyungjin, an ass-kicking cop who has somewhat poor decision-making skills and a penchant for throwing her shoes at escaping crooks. She meets high school Physics teacher Myungwoo and they manage to get handcuffed to each other for the night. After that night, they are firmly in love and begin dating.

It sounds like the making of a fairly pedestrian RomCom, but it manages to be substantially more than that. This movie avoids genre-categorization because it continually shifts emotional tones. At times it is a light and frothy romantic comedy; occassionally, it is a wacky, bizarre, semi-manic slapstick comedy; there are moments that belong in a LA FEMME NIKITA-esque actioner; finally, it is a heart-wrenching, tear-jerking melodrama. That it manages to be watchable at all is a huge victory; that it is a very good film is unbelievable. But then this should be of no surprise to people who have seen Gwak Jae-Yong's MY SASSY GIRL, as it also manages to shift between comedic romance to melodramatic romance easily.

The tonal shifts lend an air of unpredictability to the movie. There are tacit rules for genre films; we know what to expect from a romantic comedy (there will be a breakup based most likely on a misunderstanding, the ending will be a happy reunion, etc.) or a melodrama (there will be a tragedy, one of them likely will have an incurable disease, etc. etc.). When a movie shifts back and forth among genres like this does, you are not quite sure of what rules it will follow. The events are not necessarily unpredictable (if you are paying attention, it's not especially surprising) but it's enough to keep you off-balance.

There's a difficulty in executing a movie that so rapidly changes; even as it shifts into different moods and styles, it must maintain the integrity of the characters and the story. There still must be an internal consistency that makes sense. Fortunately, director Gwak Jae-Yong manages to keep it all harmoniously working together and as a result, creates a really interesting movie, but one that is hard to pin down.

What helps greatly is the sheer charisma and chemistry of the two leads. Jeon Ji-Hyun has the most difficult task as she plays the same character in slightly different fashions all throughout, but she pulls it off effortlessly. Her screen presence is dynamic as she simply commands the camera in scenes as simple as when the two are dancing in the rain, holding little drink umbrellas above their heads. Jang Hyuk as the physics teacher has the easier role as he is more constant in his lovable clumsiness, but nevertheless is excellent.

The movie has all the necessary pieces to be a great film; it has pleasant, engaging characters with charismatic actors; it has several flavors of humor; it has a beautiful romantic story. These pieces are on display in many absolutely sensational moments that are just stunning. There's a deus ex machina scene that is just perfect; there's a pinwheel scene that just sends chills down your spine; there's a dancing in the rain scene that is hilarious both on its own and as a parody of such scenes (I'm not sure exactly how to take it); the scene where they get un-handcuffed is priceless; and there are a few surprisingly excellently staged action scenes that could have been from a Crime film. There are many great moments in this film.

The only thing that keeps this from being an absolute masterpiece is the tightness of the screenplay. It's understandably difficult to write a good screenplay of ANY sort, but this one in particular because of the rapid changes in tone, must have been extremely difficult. However, there are several key issues that still remain that detract from the overall film.

Officer Kyungjin is a twin. Her twin sister died and that is why Kyungjin became a police officer. This major character and plot point is handled almost perfunctorily, mostly with a simple exposition and flashback. She also plays piano. Sometimes. It mentioned as a fairly important element in her life, but yet is often neglected. A element of the latter half of film is The Wind and how it affects Kyungjin's life. Although it is mentioned earlier, there's really no reason why. If the screenplay could have been tightened to incorporate these elements together more naturally, it would have elevated this from a really good film to a truly memorable memorable one.

On its own, it's a very good film, but taken as a prequel to MY SASSY GIRL, it becomes an even better film. Although the events don't directly correlate, thematically MY SASSY GIRL begins where WINDSTRUCK ends. If you haven't seen MY SASSY GIRL and plan on seeing WINDSTRUCK, then I highly suggest that you watch them both (WINDSTRUCK first) back-to-back. One of the major flaws to WINDSTRUCK is the rather odd and perfunctory ending; it's hard to take really, but gets cleared up in MY SASSY GIRL.

It's understandable why this was popular in Korea and Japan and I can also understand why people would dislike this film as it is a "moving target." If you are able to lose yourself and not think too much, it's easy to love this film.

My Grade : 85 (B)
Running Time: 125 min (Director's cut)
Language : Korean
English subtitles available

100 Days With Mr Arrogant Review

2007-08-03T18:09:00.001-07:00

n the United States, since we're bombarded with ads for upcoming movies, we're highly aware of the fact that Hollywood has little creativity. We know that for every successful film, there are dozens of knockoffs as well as at least two sequels and three parodies due out within a couple of years. It's logical enough to believe that the same thing occurs in foreign markets, but since the less successful movies vanish before making it over to the United States and since we're distanced from the advertising hype of other countries, it's easy to be unaware of foreign knockoff films. The Korean romantic comedy 100 DAYS WITH MR ARROGANT is just such a knock off, being a derivative melange of any handful of Korean romantic comedies, best described as MY LITTLE BRIDE meets BAD GUY.

Kang Ha-young is a pretty high-school senior, just recently dumped by her boyfriend. On her way home, she kicks a soda can, which strikes handsome, rich, arrogant 20-some year old Ahn Hyung-Joon's Lexus coupe. To recoupe the $3000 cost of fixing the car, he forces her to sign a contract to be his slave for 100 days; in response to her fears of BAD GUY-esque ramifications, he immediately says, "Forget it, you're good-looking enough." During the course of the enslavement, they naturally start to fall for each other...

RomComs depend a great deal on the leads and the chemistry between them. Ha Ji-won is very good as the female lead (Kang Ha-young) and is given the most to do, as is typical for a RomCom. She's suitably petulant, angry, silly, and ingenuous, while always remaining sympathetic and dynamically controlling the screen. Kim Jae-won fares less well as the male lead. He's good-looking enough (i suppose), but is rather flat and not very compelling. What's missing is a layer of personality below the outer facade. There is none, so he seems so very superficial and it's very difficult to find much sympathy for him.

The story is straightforward and dependable, with typical gags thrown in, some of which are very humorous, especially the SAILOR MOON moment and the neighbor/elevator gag, but much still seem so very programmed. The romance's bumps along the way to fruition are typically contrived and the "protests too much" grows a bit weary at times. Much of the story, though, works well with Ha Ji-won's acting or perhaps it is her peculiarities that actually make the awkward moments work. When she puts on the air of a superhero getting ready for action when she's only really preparing to do the cleaning, it's humorous only because of her mannerisms. The ending has a "twist" to it that is almost painfully idiotic and really robs it of any real pathos.

The movie teeters between good and mediocre, with several very enjoyable moments nestled among several very blase scenes. The movie breezes along, quickly, though, spending little time dwelling on any plot items and this makes for an easy viewing. Little of it is groan-inducing, except the twist ending and the light-hearted atmosphere makes for an overall pleasant tone. In alot of ways, this could have been a typical Brittany Murphy RomCom (that's not a compliment!).

In the final assessment, the only real reason to watch this movie is to watch Ha Ji-won and her myriad affectations. She's fun to watch, but the rest of the film just doesn't give her much support. If you are a fan of Korean RomComs and don't mind the formulaic plot contrivances, then this might not be too bad a movie for you. I'd rate this below MY SASSY GIRL and MY LITTLE BRIDE and on a par with S-DIARY and above PLEASE TEACH ME ENGLISH.

Score : 76 (C)
Running time: 96 min
Audio : Korean
English subtitles available