365 Days, 100 Films #24 - My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

My Neighbor Totoro, 1988.

Directed by Hayao Miyazaki.
Featuring the voice talents of Dakota Fanning, Elle Fanning, Tim Daly, Lea Salonga, Frank Welker, Pat Carroll and Paul Butcher.


SYNOPSIS:

In post-war Japan two young sisters move to the countryside and discover a forest inhabited by magical spirits known as Totoros.


Remember when you were a kid and everything was massive? Cynicism barely existed back then. You could genuinely believe that a ‘People’s Elbow’ was the most devastating move in all of sports entertainment when really it was just The Rock doing an elbow drop. You could sit for hours in your bedroom plotting out mass, universe-wide battles pitting a Boba Fett action figure against an evil army of Lego drones. Some stories would span across many planets from under the stairs to the back of the garden. Christmas was great not just for the presents, but also because there was a rare military base that appeared only once a year in that assembled tree.

Suspending disbelief is easy when you’re young. There’s no doubting or second-guessing the realities you create with friends or toys. I’ve never seen a film that commits this unquestioning belief to film more than My Neighbour Totoro. It’s about two sisters who move to a new house with their father. Their mother is in hospital, but with nothing serious. It isn’t that sort of film.

Nothing much happens besides three brief scenes. The two sisters, Satsuki and Mei, about ten and four years old respectively, play in the garden and explore their new surroundings for most of the film. Satsuki eventually starts attending school, leaving Mei at home with her father. Mei’s the sort who could entertain herself for hours with only a toy bucket. On one of these play sessions, about half an hour into the film, she sees a tiny, faint blob hopping across the ground in her garden. Its ears are two small triangles on the top of its head. Mei startles the creature and chases it through the bushes at the garden’s edge. She comes to the base of an enormous tree, one that stands about twice the size of the rest of the forest. The faint blob jumps down into a gap between the roots. Mei jumps in after it.

Here she discovers two more of these blob-like creatures, only one is a little bigger and furry, and the other is much bigger and furrier. They are ‘Totoro’, which is Japanese for ‘forest spirits’. Satsuki compares them later on in the film to some drawings in Mei’s picture book. A lesser film might have used this to reveal the Totoro as figments of Mei’s imagination. That’s the easy interpretation – the sisters have created a fantasy to deal with their mother’s extended stay in hospital. If you wish to reduce the film with such redundant psychoanalysis, you’re missing its point. My Neighbour Totoro isn’t about the power of a child’s imagination. It’s about an entire realm of fantasy of which only children are conscious.

My Neighbour Totoro wisely never addresses this explanation, rather opting for a world where such fantasy is real for the children but only warmly humoured by their parents. It suggests that these Totoro are real, but because we’re a little older now, we just can’t see them.

Toy Story does this more obviously. After first watching that film, who didn’t believe that their toys would jump to life as soon as they saw you close the door? See it when you’re a little older though. You’ll appreciate the technique and some of the humour more, but you’ll loose that sense of wonder – that Toy Story was actually revealing something a lot bigger, a grand conspiracy where toys are actually sentient beings. My Neighbour Totoro addresses how a child’s imagination experiences the world more subtly. In doing so, it merges together this fantasy with reality. It makes you want to not only believe like a kid again, but for that lost perspective when you could see where the Totoro existed.

That the Totoro are used so sparingly is another of the film’s great strengths. You’re left wanting far more than you’re given and you start to dream yourself about what they might be up to when they aren’t on screen. Are they nocturnal? Are they the last of their kind? Do they take trips into space on the Cat Bus? Oh, right, the Cat Bus…

The Cat Bus is arguably the greatest animal form of transport ever conceived. It has five legs on either side and two mice on its roof for illumination. Its face owes a great debt to Lewis Carroll’s Cheshire Cat and its eyes beam out strong headlights.

Its first appearance comes in the rain, whilst Satsuki and Mei are waiting for their father at the bus stop. He forgot his umbrella and they’ve brought one to give to him when he arrives. That’s how nice they both are, and how superbly simple this film is. King Totoro (the biggest of the three) has joined them, but he’s has only a leaf to cover his head from the rain. Satsuki offers him her father’s umbrella. He doesn’t know what to do with such a contraption, so he plays with it in Chaplin-esque naivety. He’s delighted when it opens above him. This is the first time Satsuki has encountered a Totoro, yet she batters not a single eyelid.

After standing in the rain for a while, King Totoro lets out an enormous roar to summon the Cat Bus, who gallops down the road and takes him away. You’re as unfazed as Satsuki because you share her child’s perspective, accepting the bizarre with a merry shrug. It’s only when the camera cuts to a witness frog across the street, mouth agape, that you realise the how absurd it all is – two girls and King Totoro underneath an umbrella that’s hardly half his width. Oh, right, and the Cat Bus. Taken out of context, it’s as trippy as balls.

So many movies are hard going. Lead characters often have some form of parent trouble or bereavement; others require parts of intense conflict for the conclusion to mean anything. Some, however, like My Neighbour Totoro, are just charming. It’s easy to read “a child’s perspective” as condescending, like it’s inferior to our wiser, aged view. William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience addresses the differences between the two outlooks. He also spoke of a higher innocence, an enlightened stage that follows experience. My Neighbour Totoro helps you get there.

Oli Davis

365 Days, 100 Films

Movie Review Archive

Hayao Miyazaki: Drawn to Anime

365 Days, 100 Films #23 - Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

Grave of the Fireflies, 1988.

Directed by Isao Takahata.
Featuring the voice talents of J. Robert Spencer, Rhoda Chrosite, Amy Jones and Veronica Taylor.


SYNOPSIS:

A boy and his younger sister struggle to survive in war-torn Japan during World War II.


"Yes, it's a cartoon, and the kids have eyes like saucers, but it belongs on any list of the greatest war films ever made." -Roger Ebert

Seita is a pre-teenager in Japan who has just lived through World War Two. The film opens on him as he slowly passes away, homeless and starving in a train station. His war is over as he utters “Setsuko” with his last breath. He whispers it in the same way Kane spoke ‘Rosebud’. The camera tracks back as two janitors start to tidy him away. The shot’s increased scope reveals many more like him, supported by the station’s numerous pillars. Commuters consider them a nuisance.

Seita takes a ghostly red form and begins to wonder through his life during the war. Grave of the Fireflies is animated, so these moments aren’t ruined by warped special effects. Those at Studio Ghibli imbue more humanity in their subjects than most live action films can muster with their claims to truth. Seita boards a train that will proceed to call at events in his past. It’s so he can understand what has happened and how he ended the way he did. Only then can he finally be free of his guilt.

These flashbacks start at Seita’s home with his mother and young sister. The latter is his ‘rosebud’ – five-year-old Setsuko. The comforts of home and family are in stark contrast to the previous opening scene of Seita’s death. American planes are dropping napalm canisters over their city. Most of the homes are built from wood. They never stood a chance.

Seita and Setsuko become separated from their mother during the air raid. They take cover away from the city and are unharmed, but their mother sat like a duck in the local shelter. They reunite at a makeshift hospital in a levelled city that doesn’t have enough medicine or staff. Seita’s mother is so badly injured, it wouldn’t make a difference if they did. She looks as though her eyes have been seared clean off. Her lips are two swollen sausages and her skin is replaced with blood-soaked bandages. Seita doesn’t let Setsuko see. He tells her that mother’s quite ill so they’re off to stay with their aunt. Seita has decided to shoulder the pain exclusively, and he continues this way until his death. His protectiveness appears noble now, but will become selfish and harmful soon. As they leave we see mother’s body being lifted upon a bonfire. Maggots and flies already feast away.

Their aunt holds a grudge against the orphans. Seita and Setsuko come from a military family, living with more generous rations than their relatives. That Seita and Setsuko do nothing but play like children all day also frustrates the aunt. Her husband and daughter work constantly to support the war effort. But what can the brother and sister do? Their mother has just died and are without a home. Their father is a Navy man from who they haven’t heard in so long. Go to school, their aunt insensitively suggests. It burnt down, replies Setsuko.

By default, Seita is now the head of the family. A very small family, but at least he still has that. Exhausted by the pestering aunt, he pawns his mother’s clothes and withdraws the family savings so he can support Setsuko alone. They find an abandoned air raid shelter near a lake and, like children playing ‘house’, plan the rooms of their new home.

Money, however, quickly becomes worthless as the Japanese currency falters. It’s all about trading needed item for needed item now. As they live outside the system, in their cave by a river, Seita and Setsuko aren’t entitled to food rations. Setsuko begins to show signs of illness. She scratches a lot and has sores on her back. Sometimes she faints. Dependent child characters often become tiresome or annoying. Not Setsuko. It’s the way she’s drawn clutching her doll and wearing her hat. She’s so endearing and helpless you want to rescue her yourself. It’s why Seita’s relationship with her is so heartbreaking.

She becomes delirious from hunger, chewing marbles and making rice cakes out of mud. Seita does all he can to save her. He takes food from people’s empty houses during air raids and steals fruit from farmer’s fields. But he never considers going back to his aunt, even when their situation becomes increasingly desperate. She’s a horrible woman, but she could have saved them.

It’s almost as though it’s because of a hidden selfishness. Seita has invested all his loss, of his home, mother and father, into caring for Setsuko. If he lets someone else take over, or even merely share, he would have failed her and his deceased family. His love is smothering, but he does everything for that girl. He’s only a kid – how’s he supposed to know any better?

The film itself is based on a semi-autobiographical novel. The author lost his sister to malnutrition at the end of the war too, but unlike Seita, he survived. He blamed himself for his sister’s death and wrote the book to make amends.

This is the one Studio Ghibli film for which Disney does not hold the distribution rights. The book’s publishers do. It’s fitting, in a way. Grave of the Fireflies should to be separate from the rest of Ghibli’s canon.

There’s no overt anti-war agenda because the story is such a human one. These aren’t soldiers or politicians, they’re civilians. But in focusing on and attempting to deal with such a personal tragedy, Grave of the Fireflies becomes as powerful a statement against war as Wilfred Owen’s Anthem for Doomed Youth or Roberto Rossellini’s Germany, Year Zero.

Oli Davis

365 Days, 100 Films

Movie Review Archive

Hayao Miyazaki: Drawn to Anime

365 Days, 100 Films #22 - Young Bruce Lee (2010)

Young Bruce Lee (a.k.a. Bruce Lee, My Brother), 2010.

Directed by Manfred Wong and Wai Man Yip.
Starring Aarif Rahman, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Christy Chung and Jin Auyeung.


SYNOPSIS:

A biopic exploring the early years of martial arts legend Bruce Lee.


There’s a great story about how Davey Boy Smith (aka The British Bulldog) got his name. Smith’s mother, still weary from giving birth, accidentally wrote her newborn son’s gender, “Boy”, as the middle name on his birth certificate. Young Bruce Lee opens with a similar mix-up. Bruce Lee has just been born, and his mother, tired and slightly delirious, murmurs the word “push” over and over, echoing her long gone doctor’s words of encouragement. When asked for the child’s name, the American nurse mishears “Push” as “Bruce”. His family and friends knew him as “Phoenix”, but he kept “Bruce” as a stage name. There’s a lot in a name. The Americanised “Bruce” sits snugly alongside the Eastern “Lee”. That juxtaposition was arguably what made him such an international star.

Young Bruce Lee is the story of Bruce Lee before this happened, opening with his birth and ending as he leaves for his first trip to America. Two of his surviving siblings introduce the film in a brief prologue, claiming theirs as the untold Bruce Lee story. One of them is Robert Lee, and it is his book, ‘Bruce Lee, My Brother’, on which the film is based.

There are three stages: baby Bruce (1941), youngster Bruce (1947) and teenager Bruce (1957). You need gaps about that size in biographical films. It lets you change the actors without too much fuss. Throughout he lives with his huge family in Hong Kong and maintains a group of close friends. It’s their exploits that the film follows, including a love triangle between Lee, his friend Kong and Kong’s girlfriend. He can get away with a lot, because he’s been a local film star since an early age, but he values his friendships more than anything else.

It’s remarkable how Americanised their lives were. They listen to Elvis, dance the ‘Cha-Cha’, watch Rebel Without a Cause and dress accordingly. It’s American Graffiti with a Chinese cast. Hong Kong was a portal to the West in these times, but their domestic film product had not yet broken through to the international market. This is what Lee wishes to achieve.

You wouldn’t really know it, though. People wonder through the narrative with no definitive goals, and thus few obstacles that could create dramatic tension. There are flashes in the love triangle, and in Lee’s feud with an American boxing champion, but they phase in and out with little or no build. Apart from the ending scenes, there isn’t anything particularly special about the film’s story. If Lee weren’t its subject, Young Bruce Lee could be accused of being about very ordinary affairs.

Thankfully, there’s a lot of joy to be had with Lee. It shows what an enduring pop culture figure he is. The yelps! I could listen to them all day. The film occasionally treats you to one with a zoom-in close-up. Shit’s old school. It has a lot of heart, too. There’s a big emphasis on Lee’s family, and their warmth to each other comes across very well.

It does have an odd, recurring stylistic device though, where there will be slow motion close-ups of quite mundane actions (a foot stepping forward, a hand being placed on a chair). It’s not like they’re contextually meaningless actions, just that slow motion should be used sparingly. It makes it all a bit melodramatic. The film could have probably shaved off about 10 minutes if they played them at normal speed.

For a film that introduces itself as the “untold Bruce Lee story”, by his brother and sister, you wouldn’t expect it to be so stylised. There’s the aforementioned flogging of the slow-mo close-up, a barely believable ‘Cha-Cha’ competition and quite a few stagey fight scenes. It makes you want to take the film like a Tequila slammer (with a pinch of salt and lots of alcohol). But then, just before the end credits, a series of actual photographs are shown alongside stills from the film. There’s Bruce Lee dressed in a dapper black suit and tie, triumphant with his younger brother after winning a ‘Cha-Cha’ competition. It’s a bit of a slap in the face, but it isn’t your fault for harbouring such cynicism – it’s the film’s. Why should it feel the need for melodrama and exaggeration when its source text is so rich? All it needs is a bit of toning down.

Rating: **

Oli Davis

365 Days, 100 Films

Movie Review Archive

365 Days, 100 Films #21 - Laputa - Castle in the Sky (1986)

Laputa - Castle in the Sky, 1986.

Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki.
Featuring the voice talents of Anna Paquin, James Van Der Beek, Mark Hamill, Cloris Leachman and Jim Cummings.


SYNOPSIS:

A young boy and girl race against pirates and foreign agents in the search for a legendary floating castle.


People call Studio Ghibli the Eastern Walt Disney. I couldn’t say which people exactly, but that seems to be Wikipedia’s general consensus. That they make animated children’s films is the most obvious reason for comparison, but there’s something more intangible about the similarity. They both share a sense of ‘magic’. Cringe away.

Laputa – Castle in the Sky was the first film the studio released in 1986, which places it within the last classic age of Disney from Fox and the Hound (1980) to The Lion King (1994). To further show the two studios’ affinity, Disney currently holds the Studio Ghibli’s distribution rights in the west.

It follows the sprawling adventure of Sheeta and Pazu in the seas of the sky. Everyone is after Sheeta because she possesses something they all want – a strange stone held in a necklace, inherited it from her mother just before she died. The film opens with Sheeta under military protection, or rather, ‘imprisonment’. But the people in Laputa don’t travel by roads; they voyage on vast airships that surf the clouds as though they’re waves. They’re shaped like giant boats tweaked with wings and propellers to keep them in the air, with a gloss of steampunk seasoning.

The main delight is in the film’s mythology. It places you, along with Sheeta and Pazu, in the middle of a much grander story of which Laputa is merely a chapter. None of us know why the stone floats Sheeta gently down to the mine where Pazu works when she falls overboard from one of the ships, nor why it is so sought after. As their adventure develops, and they encounter other, more knowledgeable characters, the legacy of Laputa is slowly disclosed. Many centuries ago there were races of people who lived in floating cities of their own invention, the grandest of which being the castle of Laputa. In time, these sky people moved to the earth and their history was consigned to legend. Pazu’s father, a pilot, once saw Laputa half obscured by a torrent of windy clouds, but everyone thought him crazy when he spoke of it. Sheeta’s ties to the castle are a little stronger. Such an epic story, spanning thousands of years, invests you in an entirely different world full of its unique history and myth.

The secondary delight is the film’s quirk. It possesses a surreal sense of humour, and you should expect nothing less from a film so imaginative. Pay attention to the background because everyone has something to do. Henchmen struggle with the simplest of tasks whilst others bicker. Most trip or fall.

Perhaps a little too long overall, but Laputa has such a rich tapestry of story and background detail that it’s hard to complain.

Oli Davis

365 Days, 100 Films

Movie Review Archive

Hayao Miyazaki: Drawn to Anime

The Tree of Life takes the Palme D'Or at Cannes

The 64th annual Cannes Film Festival drew to a close yesterday as the jury announced their prizes for 2011, with Terrence Malick's divisive drama The Tree of Life taking the top award, the Palme D'Or. The film, which stars Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, was met with a mixed reaction of cheers and boos when it premiered earlier in the festival but the jury, which was headed up by legendary actor Robert De Niro, deemed it worthy of their most prestigious honour.

Take a look at the full list of honours below...

Palme D'Or - The Tree of Life (dir. Terrence Malick)

Grand Prix - Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan) and The Kid with a Bike (dir. Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)

Prix de la mise en scène - Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive)

Prix du scénario - Footnote (dir. Joseph Cedar)

Jury Prize - Polisse (dir. Maïwenn Le Besco)

Prix d'interprétation féminine - Kirsten Dunst (Melancholia)

Prix d'interprétation masculine - Jean Dujardin (The Artist)

Camera d'Or - Las Acacias (dir. Pablo Giorgelli)

Be sure to check back later this week when we will be posting an in-depth article on the making of The Tree of Life.

DVD Review - Max Schmeling: Fist of the Reich (2010)

Max Schmeling: Fist of the Reich, 2010.

Directed by Uwe Boll.
Starring Henry Maske, Susanne Wuest, Heino Ferch, Vladimir Weigl and Yoan Pablo Hernández.


SYNOPSIS:

A biopic of the German boxer and heavyweight champion Max Schmeling.


Nazi Germany is a historical setting we are all familiar with. Films set within the Third Reich often have similarities; good natured people trying to help persecuted Jewish neighbours, informers, political intimidation, concentration camps and the striking red background of the swastika. Equally there are areas often overlooked. The boxing rings for example.

Max Schmeling is a German film directed by Uwe Boll which tells the story of one of the 20th century’s greatest boxers. He became world champion in the early 1930s, getting his big break by beating the title holder by default after an illegal “low blow” from his opponent. The film begins by following Max as a paratrooper for the German army in Crete, where everyone seems to know his name. During a conversation with a British prisoner he recalls how his fame started, flashing back to his regret at being denied the world championship outright. The rest of his career became a struggle to prove he deserved that title.

Schmeling wanted to prove himself outside of Germany as well as within it. He wanted to be the best in the world. He was already a national hero but he wanted to win other countries over with his ability. He frequently flew to America for huge matches at iconic venues such as Madison Square Garden. He was beginning to win admiration around the globe until his task became a lot harder with the rise of the Nazi party. As Germany’s image was soured so was Schmeling’s. One of the interesting themes in this film is that Schmeling saw himself as a boxer first and a German second. And that Nazism would simply pass as though it were an adolescent phase.

Hitler wanted Schmeling to be a symbol of the Aryan race and Germany’s might. As Schmeling sought to arrange fights with the formidable black American boxer Joe Louis, an opponent with an unbeaten record and extraordinary number of KOs that would enhance his boxing credentials should he somehow beat him, the Nazis tried to portray the clash as a battle between races and ideologies. Schmeling was naive in one sense but extremely brave in another, to carry on regardless of this manipulation and insist it was just a boxing match. Through his honour he simultaneously became a political pawn by refusing to recognise the wider significance, and rose above the Nazis by continuing with his dream.

So this film is an epic historical drama, encompassing wide areas of German life before and after the Nazis took power. We see both the glitz of the Weimar era and the race riots of Kristallnacht on the streets of Berlin, when Jewish shops and residents were viciously attacked. The period detail, particularly the costumes, and the variety of locations, are impressive. It is also a story of the rise of a sporting great, with Rocky-style montages as Schmeling trains for his big fights and moments of tactical deliberation. And there is a love story, when Schmeling meets his soul mate in actress Anny Ondra and manages to marry her.

The love story gives this film something extra. There are, as I said, a lot of stories set in Nazi Germany, often with romances, sometimes with sporting heroes trying to avoid the control of the regime. But this romance is particularly convincing. Henry Maske gives an Arnie-esque performance, as a simple man falling for a beautiful woman. And Susanne Wuest is believable as first a teasing woman suspicious of a brute pursuing her affections and finally an actress frightened by what the Nazis are doing to her profession.

A short but enlightening “Making of” feature on the DVD reveals the reason for the authenticity of this relationship on screen; Maske is not an actor but a boxer. Therefore, as Wuest puts it in an interview, we have a boxer playing a boxer and an actress playing an actress. Director Boll was impressed with Maske’s performance and put it down to his ability to effectively play himself, identifying with Schmeling to inhabit the character.

Overall this might not be the most original film experience but it is immensely enjoyable. All of its various elements are superbly executed, from the production standards to the acting, from the music to the exciting and raw boxing matches themselves. This feels like an incredibly real snapshot of history and it’s a story that deserves to be well told about a remarkable man.

Liam Trim (follow me on Twitter)

Movie Review Archive

DVD Review – Laputa - Castle in the Sky (1986)

Laputa - Castle in the Sky, 1986.

Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki.
Featuring the voice talents of Anna Paquin, James Van Der Beek, Mark Hamill, Cloris Leachman and Jim Cummings.


SYNOPSIS:

A young boy helps a girl with a mysterious crystal hunted by pirates, the army and secret agents in the search for a mythical floating castle.


Laputa - Castle in the Sky was the first film to be created by the Japanese animation studio and production company Studio Ghibli. The famous studio behind more recent successes Princess Mononoke (1997), Spirited Away (2001) and Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) released the original version of this film back in 1986 and it won the Anime Grand Prix 1st prize that year. It was written and directed by the prominent and influential film director Hayao Miyazaki, co-founder of Studio Ghibli.

Laputa follows a young girl called Sheeta who is voiced by Anna Paquin (X-Men, True Blood) in this English dubbed version. Sheeta wears a mysterious crystal as a necklace, which lots of people want to get their hands on. An exciting pre-credits sequence culminates in her falling from an airship after being tracked down by sky pirates, the crystal starts to glow and enables her to float safely into the arms of a young boy called Pazu (James Van Der Beek; Dawson’s Creek, The Rules of Attraction).

Hunted by the pirates, the army and some secret agents, Sheeta and Pazu go on the run and join in the search for a legendary floating castle that many believe to be a myth. The crystal has been in Sheeta’s family for years, passed down by her grandmother, and the different groups that want to claim it believe it holds the key to finding the castle of Laputa and unlocking its secrets.

Laputa - Castle in the Sky is a reference from Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, which features a hovering castle called Laputa. This imaginative extrapolation of that small idea is a very strong first outing from the studio responsible for a number of enjoyable animations that have become popular not just in Japan, but across the world. It is a fun adventure story with many selling points; pirates, conspiracies, robots, airships, magic crystals and a beautiful floating castle. The familiar visual style is seen in many Ghibli films, it is colourful and well-drawn. The supporting cast of voice actors includes Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill, along with Cloris Leachman, Jim Cummings, Richard Dysart and others.

The film reverses audiences’ opinions about the different types of people we are introduced to. The pirates who at first (and often in films) seem to be the bad guys, later join forces with Sheeta and Pazu to try and find the floating castle. The men who work for the government should be agents for good but they have sinister ulterior motives.

Laputa - Castle in the Sky is a very engaging fantasy adventure. There are moments of action, comedy, coming-of-age drama, suspense and thrills that keep you hooked. The film also boasts great visuals and impressive animation. Although it lasts two hours, it successfully fills its runtime and maintains a high level of interest and excitement so you won’t be checking the clock. It’s a really fun animated film that will amuse and entertain the whole family.

Laputa: Castle in the Sky is released on Double Play Blu-Ray and DVD on May 9th.

Emma Hutchings

Hayao Miyazaki: Drawn to Anime

DVD Review - Budrus (2009)

Budrus, 2009.

Written and Directed by Julia Bacha.
Starring Ayed Morrar, Iltezam Morrar, Kobi Snitz, Ahmed Awwad, Yasmine Levy and Doron Spielman.


SYNOPSIS:

A documentary depicting the non-violent demonstrations by resident of Budrus against the building of the Israeli West Bank barrier inside of their village.


Walls aren’t always great. Take the Berlin wall for example. It divided a country into two opposing sides. When used like this, all a wall does is to show how opposed to each other each side of the wall is. A literal metaphor, if you’re so inclined. But what about the people who aren’t on either side, but just happen to be caught in the wall’s path of bricks and segregation? Julia Bacha’s recent documentary on the Palestinian town of Budrus (entitled “Budrus”, funnily enough) gives an insight into what happens when the bulldozers come rolling up. In 2000, the village of Budrus would have been divided and surrounded by the building of the Israeli West Bank barrier, resulting in the loss of hundreds of acres of land as well as thousands of olive trees, both part of their culture and their economy.

Budrus focuses on Ayed Morrar, a father of four who is also the leader of the non-violent movement in Budrus. He has been to prison four times for his protest work with Fatah, a Palestinian political party. “We don’t have time for wars”, says Ayed. This line pretty much some up the nature of the film, as the group of people he leads area strict in their non-violent approach. The documentary shows Ayed giving a speech in a village community hall, which whilst not very dramatic, is one of the honest thing’s I’ve seen. Bacha is showing us a man who doesn’t ooze charisma in the most obvious fashion, but his passion for what he believes is not too subtle that it is totally missed.

We’re also shown interviews with Ayed’s daughter, Iltezam Morrar, who convinces Ayed to allow women to take part in the demonstrations. Iltezam shows a more youthful confidence than Ayed and the rest of the villages women seem more than happy to muck in. Some of the scenes of the women demonstrators chanting against the armed police are heart-warming in a weird way. Shots of them smiling and laughing make it seem like they have no fear and are more than happy to be there, which draws up parallels’ to some of the demonstrations we’ve had over here lately. Even when the police start firing rubber bullets at the crowd, they show no pain and often get up instantly and shout back. Those have to be the strongest women I’ve ever seen.

As well as showing the side of the protesters, two members of the Israel Border Police are interviewed. Whilst they try to make things as calm as they can, they are in severe doubt about the protests working. At some places in the film, we see the police fight back in a way that seems totally robotic, as if they are taking no side in the fight, but to suppress everything. As the film progresses the situation builds up until the police start opening fire at various parts of Budrus. At this point, the documentary takes a turn from being optimistic to showing just how bad a demonstration can go.

Bacha starts by painting a beautiful picture of a village blessed with community and flora before diving in deeper into the people that are trying to keep the village away from drastic change. But it’s not all about resilience against an armed force; the villagers of Budrus are surprised when they come face to face with native Isreali’s helping to fight their cause. These people where their sworn enemy before, and now they have no choice but to fight alongside each other. Whilst it’s a slow moving documentary to begin with, the last half really shines and provides a concise insight to how effective non-violent protest can be.

Will Preston is a student at the University of Portsmouth. He writes for various blogs (including his own website), presents a weekly radio show on PURE FM and makes various short films.

Movie Review Archive

Movie Review - I Saw The Devil (2010)

I Saw The Devil (a.k.a. Akmareul boatda), 2010.

Directed by Jee-woon Kim.
Starring Byung-hun Lee and Min-sik Choi.


SYNOPSIS:

A serial killer has long evaded the best efforts of the authorities until he picks the wrong victim - the daughter of a retired police chief and fiancée to a Korean Secret Service agent.


It will be a day of unforgettable celebration. The nation will rejoice in a night of endless partying and universal happiness, or so they’d have you believe. The flags and the bunting will sway proudly in the sunshine in the streets, on the most iconic landmarks and the grandest stately homes. All our troubles will be forgotten, swept under the carpet, out of sight and out of mind. Everything will be the best of British; sweet, comforting and clockwork. As the fizz flows and the glasses chink, polite patriotism will give way to unparalleled scenes of euphoria. Derelict dance moves will stumble drunkenly from graves and tombs long since sealed. Like it or not, success or failure, it will be a date etched on the face of history.

Friday the 29th of April: Wills and Kate shall finally tie the knot. I wouldn’t say I fall into the “like it” or the “not” category. Instead I’d jump in with what I sense to be the quiet, grunting majority; the “don’t give a shit” group. Most of these people will be happy to use the Royal Wedding as an excuse to get “frightfully merry” but I’m not even fussed about that. I’ll just be glad when they bugger off on honeymoon and everyone calms down.

The long awaited date also happens to herald the release of Korean revenge thriller I Saw The Devil. It will hit selected cinemas as the happy couple say their vows and head rapidly to DVD and Blu-Ray for the 9th of May, when I assume they’ll still be relaxing on a lavish honeymoon. I have a feeling that honeymooners in general, not just those benefiting from pure and perfect blood, will steer clear of this one though. That’s unless they are devoted fans of Korean filmmaking or lashings and lashings of gore, or prefer a particularly sick and dirty tinge to the consummation of their holy joining.

I Saw The Devil is the tale of a serial killer and one specific family he devastates. It begins with a beautiful young girl trapped in her broken down car in the snow. Sounds predictable right? Well I Saw The Devil will continually take seemingly generic set ups like this and make them raw, real and surprising. The refreshing thing about this opening scene was the phone conversation between the girl and her fiancé, who will become the film’s “hero”.

I can never really relate to characters and protagonists like him. He is a slick and successful high flyer with a super cool job (a secret agent in this case). He is so busy and absorbed in his immensely interesting and important work, that he has little time for the woman he is with; a woman he is lucky enough to love and have this love reciprocated. I’m a man with time on my hands, with ordinary clothes and standard prospects, for whom love is usually a one way street. Add into the mix a ruthless ability to kill and a purposeful crusade for revenge and this is the sort of man I fantasise about being; not one I can readily empathise with.

And yet as I Saw The Devil embarks on an unlimited chase through as many deadly sins as possible, prompting comparisons with such notorious projects as Antichrist and endless cuts on the editing room floor, it keeps the moral implications of its action in focus. It’s not simply your typical revenge thriller but a thoughtful one that questions the nature of revenge. Our secret agent swiftly catches the killer of his beloved, only for him to decide that a monster deserves a monstrous death. Butchering him would cause the beast no real distress, so a tracking device is popped in his mouth and the hunter becomes the hunted.

The ethics of this are clearly dubious and as the killer rampages the Korean James Bond wishes he’d ended it when he had the chance at times. But despite my inability to relate to characters of his ilk, the audience sees the twisted emotional logic behind every move he makes. True justice and true revenge is necessarily brutal when confronted with such soulless savagery.

This is a beautiful film as well as a shocking, horrifying and thrilling one. In its opening chapter alone there are numerous stills that would warrant a frame and a prominent place on a wall. The score does a wonderful job of evoking grief, fear, anger and terror. Prior to watching I Saw The Devil, I had heard about a controversial rape scene during which the victim begins to “enjoy” things. This led to even more debate and conflict over its age rating and release than the countless bloody violence. In terms of morality it is the most questionable scene in the movie, but it did not spoil it.

The film could have done with being a little shorter but I was never bored. Things reach a suitably dramatic climax and the whole thing is well paced. But for me a scene from the film’s opening is the most memorable. It’s just as the girl’s body is being discovered and the forensic teams, hounded by the press, swoop on a spot in some marshes to bag and remove her decapitated head. Flash bulbs erupt and officers shout and the head is knocked from the hands of the forensic team. It rolls shamefully in the dirt. The grieving father and fiancé look on aghast.

It may be over the top but this scene captured something real about the growing phenomenon of the serial killer. In many ways such barbaric deeds are now common place news and the only way to keep the true horror of it all in focus is to focus on the families and friends. Those who really feel the pain. I Saw The Devil is a gripping illustration of what emotional pain can do to a human being. Life never ends with a fluffy wedding dress or a cup of a tea.

Liam Trim (follow me on Twitter)

Movie Review Archive

DVD Review - Dobermann (1997)

Dobermann, 1997.

Directed by Jan Kounen.
Starring Vincent Cassel, Tchéky Karyo and Monica Bellucci.


SYNOPSIS:

Following a brutal bank robbery, the charismatic criminal Dobermann (Vincent Cassel) is pursued by the Paris police, headed up by the sadistic renegade cop Christini (Tchéky Karyo).


Coming off the back of his acclaimed performances in Jean-François Richet’s two-part crime epic Mesrine (2008) and Darren Aronofsky’s psychological thriller Black Swan (2010), Second Sight have delved into the back-catalogue of French actor Vincent Cassel to deliver a re-release for one of his earlier domestic films, the stylish heist flick Dobermann (1997). The debut feature of filmmaker Jan Kounen (director of the 2009 biopic Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky) and based on author and screenwriter Joël Houssin’s series of pulp crime novels, Dobermann is Cinéma du look by way of Hong Kong’s Heroic Bloodshed, forgoing plot and characterisation in favour of lashings of highly-stylised, hyper-violent gunplay.

Dobermann sets its stall from the get go, an anthromorphised CGI dog pissing over the title credits before we shift to a Christening where a baby receives a somewhat unorthodox present, a mean-looking customised .357 Magnum. It will go on to become the signature weapon of its owner, Dobermann (Cassel), leader of a group of notorious bank robbers that includes his deaf girlfriend, Nat the Gypsy (Cassel’s other half, Monica Bellucci) and a motley assortment of characters including a priest, a transvestite, a dog-loving knucklehead and a trigger-happy psycho. Together, they run rings around the Parisian police force, much to the displeasure of Inspector Cristini (Tchéky Karyo), a detective so brutal and sadistic in his methods that he makes Dirty Harry seem as ‘by-the-book’ as Dick Tracy. After Dobermann and his crew pull off an audacious daylight robbery, during which the police are humiliated and two officers killed, Cristini takes it upon himself to put an end to the gang by whatever means necessary.

That’s about as much-set up – and indeed as much story – as you’re going to get with Dobermann but the plot itself is largely irrelevant when its purpose it simply to take us from one explosive action set-piece to another. Cassel delivers a solid performance as the anti-hero Dobermann but the real highlight is Tchéky Karyo’s Cristini, a bona-fide bastard who revels in his depravity and thinks nothing of beating on women and tossing babies through the air in his obsessive quest to topple the gang. Meanwhile the supporting cast of stock characters are admirable, although generally they’re left with little to do apart from a few memorable scenes for Belluci’s Nat (who, rather surprisingly, keeps her wongas under wraps) and Stéphane Metzger’s Olivier, a cross-dresser who also moonlights as Sonia.

In a way Dobermann is Heat without any of the depth, the entire film building to a climactic showdown between Dobermann and Cristini, leaving the audience to take a back seat and watch as the unrelenting carnage unfolds. Dobermann comes across as one long music video, moving at a breakneck pace and packed to the brim with over-the-top explosions, shoot-outs and high-speed car chases that are almost comic-book in their absurdity. It's paper-thin, but director Kounen employs almost every trick in the book to capture the mayhem and delivers a visually excessive and turbo-charged treat that makes for perfect after-pub viewing.

Gary Collinson

Movie Review Archive

DVD Review - The Tunnel (2001)

The Tunnel (German: Der Tunnel), 2001.

Directed by Roland Suso Richter.
Starring Heino Ferch, Nicolette Krebitz, Alexandra Maria Lara and Sebastian Koch.


SYNOPSIS:

A group of West Germans hatch an audacious plan to rescue their loves ones from the communist regime of the East by tunnelling beneath the Berlin Wall.


Film fans love a good tunnel. Whether it be the ingenious method for a daring bank robbery or the claustrophobic road to freedom from a tightly fenced POW camp, they are a vital ingredient of many a cinematic classic. Tunnels are a striking but simple storytelling device, that place the focus of the narrative firmly on the characters of people getting from one place to another, usually against the odds and at a snail’s pace. And what are all stories but snappier versions of the long and slow journey of life?

Sitting just a hay-fever induced sneeze away from surprisingly sizzling Easter sunshine with the windows flung open to the fresh spring air, I doubted my ability to fully inhabit the journey of the characters in Der Tunnel, a German film finally released on DVD on the 25th of April. In the comfort and luxuries of a 21st century room, blessed with the freedom to liberally gulp countryside air, I felt a million miles away from the damp, stuffy, volatile tubes carved torturously through the soil by countless characters in tunnel based films of the past. Not to mention feeling a world away from the 1960s Berlin setting of Der Tunnel.

Berlin is a constant inspiration for superb historical drama. It’s a fascinating city and just a glance at the ingredients that comprise its vibrant whole tells you why it’s so popular for storytellers. It’s steeped in history of all kinds, even before the rollercoaster the 20th century put the place through. It became a radical melting pot for cultural and political change, ravaged by wars and economic turbulence and enriched by the presence of artists, writers, intellectuals and dancers.

Then with the division of the city via its infamous wall, the eyes of the world came to rest on a stark clash of cultures. When JFK declared himself a spiritual resident of the city he confirmed its status as a symbol of the Cold War, the tense conflict in microcosm. The West stood for freedom and the East for brainwashed or enforced conformity. Whilst Der Tunnel is ultimately pro the West and anti the Eastern regime, it does make you consider such simplifications more carefully. Standards of living do not change magically because of a move, and state intrusion can be replaced by the media. The West is no sure-fire ticket to happiness.

Of all the tales inspired by the city though it’s perhaps those of suspicious spies and elusive espionage that endure with the widest and most thrilling legacy. Set a film in Berlin and it’s almost guaranteed shorthand for the audience that secrets will lurk and loom at the centre of the plot. Der Tunnel is no exception to this rule. There are a number of features that could be ripped straight from a Cold War thriller, with a manipulative East German Colonel using relationships and blackmail to protect the regime a superb example.

And yet this isn’t a tale of meddling foreigners but a story based on the truth of real Berliners, trying to escape meddling and ideological interference in their private lives. It’s principally the tale of champion swimmer Harry Melchior, who gives up a comfortable and celebrated lifestyle in the East to flee to the West before the wall is completed. He’s unable to get his beloved sister out in time though and he sets about finding a way to “bring her across”, and is joined by others cruelly parted from family, friends and lovers.

It’s a dramatic scene between two separated lovers, one of them also Melchior’s love interest, that really stood out for me from Der Tunnel. One of many emotional moments in the film, this rises above the rest because of superb acting and high drama but also due to the visual presence of the wall: painfully, physically and unavoidably denying the lovers a precious moment together. The tender scenes after this event are also moving, and the standout scene itself certainly has the potential to pluck tears from the coldest of eyes.

At just twenty minutes short of three hours long, I was worried about the wearisome effects of Der Tunnel. Would I need to scramble to the surface for air? In many ways this isn’t very creative or original storytelling, but it’s undeniably well executed, from the acting to the direction. I was engrossed by the lives and loves of the characters throughout. Crucially the tense and exciting climax delivers a classic, satisfying conclusion that’s fitting for such a classic premise.

Liam Trim (follow me on Twitter)

Movie Review Archive

DVD Review - Assault on the Pacific: Kamikaze (2007)

Assault on the Pacific: Kamikaze a.k.a. For Those We Love, 2007.

Directed by Taku Shinjo.
Starring Keiko Kishi, Satoshi Tokushige, Yosuke Kubozuka and Michitaka Tsutsui.


SYNOPSIS:

A World War II epic about a squadron of Japanese Kamikaze pilots and their journey through training and first missions toward the terrifying destiny of their battle with the US Navy over the Pacific Ocean.


In films, the kamikaze have generally been shown as menacing, faceless danger, first appearing as an ominous dot on the horizon and then as a source of death and destruction. Assault on the Pacific: Kamikaze takes a different route, focusing instead on the young men in those planes. Touching on their personalities, fears, desires and relationships. The men, most of them barely out of their teens, are not rabid zealots or men devoid of emotion. Many of the young pilots have flashes of doubt, one flight leader even going to his Colonel to raise his concerns that his pilots have nowhere near the skill to hit a battleship and their lives are being thrown away needlessly. He is censured by his commander, are all who try to question the validity of the kamikaze missions, even though many show flickers of doubt.

This attitude, the suppression of reason and emotion in the face of duty and “glory” that many characters show is sown at the start of the film, when we are shown the upper echelons committing to the plan after the head of the air force states that defeat is inevitable but talks about 'The Spirit of the Nation' and Japan's identity through defeat and emerging on the other side. These generals espouse the Japanese military code of death before defeat or capture. With this attitude historically woven into their offices and ranks, the top brass seemingly only think in grand, nationalistic terms, not without an awareness of the loss of good young men, but more with an obstinate doctrine that it must be so, for Japan to state its intent and retain its honour.

Assault on the Pacific mostly takes place in a small town where the suicide squads, as they call themselves, are stationed. Young girls from the local school are drafted in to care for the men in their last few days of life. In the town, a lady affectionately known as 'Auntie' to the young men, runs a restaurant where the men come to relax and eat. For Auntie, this ushers in a time of continual tragedy and loss, as the young men she remembers as cadets who trained nearby come back one after another to tell her that they will soon be dead. The one young man who she sees the most is Kanayama, who had trained there as a cadet and whom Auntie had taken under her wing as if her own son. As the film goes on, and each character becomes more known and liked, a palpable sense of tragedy builds. Casual, everyday actions are tinged with a dark finality. When Auntie's eldest daughter – Reiko, is lent a book by Kanayama, she tells him that she'll return it in a few days. A silence follows as they both realise the importance of the statement and he tells her that she can keep it. Auntie constantly struggles with the dichotomy between her own, paternalistic feelings for the men (and Kanayama in particular) and trying to be an impartial comfort to them.

The continuous strain of seeing these happy, healthy young men before her and having prior knowledge of their deaths is an odd, emotionally strange situation for a person to be in and Auntie seems more drawn and weighed down as the film progresses. The film doesn't attempt to provide any clear-cut resolution to these feelings, as it would be impossible to crystallise one over-arching, all important message to be gleamed from what happened at this time, in this place. It instead shows a more realistic portrayal of war, from multiple viewpoints. The decisions and motivations of the men at the top of the ladder will and will not be in line with those of the men giving up their own lives. The young men, between themselves, display wildly differing attitudes to their mission. Some are volunteers, others are not. Kanayama, the night before his flight, breaks down to Auntie and her daughters. He comes to the conclusion that he doesn't know who or what he is dying for, just that he knows he will. There is a crushing inevitability in his words, the ultimate realisation that even his life is not his own.

The film again injects more ambiguity about half way through, when a pilot who has been noted to have doubts about giving up his life is beaten and berated and sent out again the very next day. After taking off, the pilot pulls his plane upwards so it will stall and allows it to crash to the earth in a ball of flames. Other pilots and mechanics rush to the scene whilst his commanding officer watches on, aware that the man has taken his own life on his own terms. The film again throwing open the concept of 'honour' to interpretation.

After this, an officer talks with another pilot and the justifications for their mission. Told that he and others are going to bomb a relatively unimportant target, the pilot asks why their lives would be given up for such an innocuous reason. The officer tells him that it is because if they bomb things like the jetty they have been ordered to, the Americans will believe that there are thousands of kamikaze, ready to attack anywhere, at any moment. The pilot grasps that all that is important is their death: that a show of fanatical (manufactured or not) intent would make the invasion of Japan itself a terrifying prospect. The officer states that 'There is right way and a wrong way to lose a war.' and that the kamikaze will help Japan strive for a better peace settlement. This, obviously, was not the case. The film time and again highlights the disconnect between this knowledge of the officers and upper command and the respective information available to those actually dying.

When time comes for the young pilots to actually go and undertake their mission, their fate is mostly to end up blown out of the sky or exploding into the sea. The battle scenes are well handled, with no sense of misplaced victory or defeat in the men's actions – just the sense of futility at their deaths. When one pilot does hit a ship, the repercussions are shown, with American crewmen trying to help their wounded, who are just young men themselves.

Ultimately, Assault on the Pacific aims to present a character study rather than anything over-the-top or distastefully action-laden. It shows the kamikaze pilots as young men at the heart of a conflict that their country was losing. They are not shown as bloodthirsty or hateful, just as normal men. The film does an exemplary job of avoiding portraying its characters as the familiar war film tropes and generates a genuine sadness for the fate of characters you come to know well. There are some moments that tip over into melodrama but these can be forgiven as the film, overall, is an effective parable about the real people behind actions that can sometimes seem incomprehensible.

Alex Williams

Movie Review Archive

DVD Review - The King Maker (2005)

The King Maker, 2005.

Directed by Lek Kitaparaporn.
Starring Gary Stretch, John Rhys-Davies and Cindy Burbridge.


SYNOPSIS:

A Portuguese soldier of fortune sets sail for the Orient seeking the man who killed his father.


Last year the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg was dubbed a “King Maker” by many in the press, due to the historic power afforded to him as a result of a hung parliament. He could either prop up grumpy Gordon or crack open the party poppers for Dave’s coronation. The public rejoiced in watching the usual big boys squirm and a new man get a chance to pull the strings. But now no one agrees with Nick and he’s plummeted from the heights of Britain’s most popular to the land’s favourite burning effigy. Thousands genuinely hate him and want to scratch out his entrails for his sickening, unnatural marriage to the Tories. They despise him for drunkenly tossing away longstanding pledges to the public on his stag night and loathe him for cutting chunks from the country’s finances lustfully on honeymoon. For many it’s a painful, all consuming dislike of this one yellow tied Westminster suit amongst hundreds.

It’s sometimes easy to accept the idea that in today’s world, truly bad films don’t get made anymore. It’s impossible to find two hours in front of a screen with some flickering images completely unsatisfying. You can’t hate a piece of filmmaking like you hate a man. You can’t find it as painfully offensive to your artistic taste and morality as swathes of reckless, damaging government spending cuts. This may be true. Even the most misguided projects I review usually have some kind of redeeming quality, at least one moment of real enjoyment or an admirable aim. But The King Maker is a film that took only 60 seconds for me to want the blessed release of the end credits. It’s an absolute and total turkey, the sort of film that goes straight to the bottom shelf at Tesco for a reason, the sort of film that without qualification deserves the label: BAD.

Out of scores and scores of poor movies, The King Maker is one of the few that if you have any sense of quality and taste, you’ll rapidly be able to regard with something close to hate. Seriously you should heed my warning if you want to avoid an excruciating hour and a half; do not watch The King Maker. Certainly DO NOT PAY ANY (real) MONEY TO SEE THIS. You might think its 88 minute running time short, but it feels a hell of a lot longer and you’ll never get those precious minutes back. There is nothing at all to justify spending time on this lifeless, empty shell of a film.

Literally nothing at all, everything about The King Maker is purely bad. As I’ve said it takes less than a minute for the shoddy editing and woefully low production standards present throughout to raise their ugly, persistent heads. The film opens with an action chase sequence peppered with ludicrous ninja/karate style high kicks and flips. There are jumps and landings that would be laughable were the tone not so serious or the camerawork and execution not so dire. In fact much of the action in The King Maker could be from a masterful slice of slapstick Charlie Chaplin or a ridiculous Monty Python sketch. But The King Maker is not even so bad it is funny. At times it ought to be hilarious. I did not laugh or smile once at its awfulness though. Afterwards my face hurt from the exhaustive efforts of a non-stop grimace.

The main reason I can’t even recommend The King Maker as refreshing fest of unintentional LOL moments is because it’s evident that the actors are trying so damn hard. You can’t have a good old heartening chuckle at all those involved in the film when it’s so obvious that they were trying to make something good; they have no idea how shit it is and you’re left with an endless feeling of painful pity. Every element of the movie is bad, every acting performance poor at best and agonisingly awful at worst. In fairness to the cast they are not helped by the script. Rather than rant about its failures one quote sums up the clunky, grating quality of the dialogue: “Look it’s the king’s emissary, I wonder what he wants?”.

For what it’s worth the film chronicles the story of Portuguese mercenary Fernando De Gama (Gary Stretch), who is shipwrecked in Siam and rescued from slavery by his love interest. He works his way up through the ranks of society, stumbles across a plot, and has scores of his own to settle blah blah blah...it’s really not worth it.

There are continuity errors aplenty, an out of place soundtrack that will make you cringe, silly stunts and cliché black and white flashbacks. CGI of a port full of ships looks like it’s been taken from an unsuccessful computer game with unconvincing Windows 98 graphics (the water in particular looks atrocious). In fact the plot and action set pieces and horrible attempts at a historical setting all seem like ingredients from an out of date, bargain basement video game. There are even punch and kick sound effects ripped straight from cartoon archives.

Despite my partial defence of the actors earlier, the standout flaws of this film are their totally unbelievable performances. The worst offender is the plotting Queen and her lover as they fail to convey the passion of their secret affair. The majority of their scenes together seem like a disappointing porno with an inexplicable lack of flesh on show. Another potentially career devastating turn comes from lead Gary Stretch. His limp delivery of lines serves as the final nail in the coffin for The King Maker. Even a film so badly executed could have salvaged some likeability with a charismatic turn from the lead actor. Stretch merely drags things further into painful depths of disappointment and dismalness.

The King Maker was supposed to be a spectacular showcase of Thailand. It’s only the third Thai film to be made in the English language, and the first since 1941. There are some superb, beautiful locations occasionally visible in the background amongst the appalling action of the story. But they don’t deserve to be associated with the worst film I’ve seen this year and I suspect the favourite by a mile in the race for worst film of 2011.

Liam Trim (follow me on Twitter)

Movie Review Archive

DVD Review - The Unforgiving (2010)

The Unforgiving, 2010.

Written and Directed by Alastair Orr.
Starring Ryan Macquet, Craig Hawks, Claire Opperman and Michael Thompson.


SYNOPSIS:

Two survivors are the only link to a spate of killings that has plagued a desolate highway on the outskirts of Johannesburg.


Taking its cue from various torture porn fare like Saw and Hostel, The Unforgiving is a topsy turvy, chronologically disordered tale of three people stranded on the South African R106 freeway, prisoners of a gas mask wearing serial killer. Beginning with Rex Dobson (Ryan Macquet) awaking and finding himself tethered by a chain to big rock, the film gradually introduces via flashbacks (and flash-forward cuts), Alice (Claire Oppeman) and Vincent (Craig Hawks) who are also being held in the remote shell of a house.

As the film progresses it becomes clear that one (or more) of the prisoners are not what they seem and the editing has fun playing around with the viewer's suspicions as it cuts back and forth between the interviews the survivors give to Detective Hirsch (Michael Thompson). The story is one of the film's stronger points, while the dialogue does not fully do justice to the characters as they sometimes resort to traditional horror dialogue that goes against the grain of the decent concept. The script does, however, throw up a curse word that will become a firm favourite in my vocabulary as one character curses another as a 'Fuck-Knuckle'.

The Unforgiving has a good time skewing the moral compass of it's characters and doesn't offer up an easy resolution that clearly lays out who is good and who is evil, it just imbues the characters with the motivations and histories to show that most people could resort to violent acts given a nudge by events beyond their control, be they long in the past or relatively recent.

Director/ writer Alastair Orr makes the most of what must have been a low budget and his direction, whilst sometimes falling back on too many hand held, shaky close ups, is relatively assured and shows promise. With the budget low, the film is shot on digital and has the requisite harsh, bleached out look that its setting would demand. Considering that this is Orr's first feature, it has to be said that he handles his duties well but could sometimes remove the camera from the immediate vicinity of the violence and allow the audience to watch from a more removed point of view, as the camera sometimes is so close to the action and seemingly caught up in the frenzy of violence that it can be hard to tell clearly what is happening. That being said, the film is not overpowered by senseless gore and, in fact, the characters are given more space to develop than many other ultra-low budget horrors.

The acting, whilst sometimes marred by the aforementioned dialogue lapses into cliché, is steady, with the actors giving their all and manifesting the skewed and unpredictable nature their characters well. Michael Thompson does well as Detective Hirsch, giving a good performance as an assured law man with something vaguely dangerous lurking beneath the surface. It is Ryan Macquet who is probably the stand out though as he twists and turns through despair, fear and horror, eventually morphing into something quite different from what you would initially expect of the character as the film reaches it's climax.

All together, despite its short running time (clocking in at 1hr 13 minutes), The Unforgiving offers up a decent tale of subverted morality and unpredictable characters that transcends its low budget and sometimes clichéd dialogue. Despite its flaws, it would be interesting to see what would become of the director were he given a bigger budget and took a step back from the horror to let it play itself out, rather than getting too up close and personal.

Alex Williams

Movie Review Archive

DVD Review - Demon Empire (2006)

Demon Empire, 2006.

Directed by Dong-oh Jo & Dong-oh Cho.
Starring Woo-sung Jung, Jun-ho Heo, Tae-hee Kim, Kwang-il Kim, Jeong-hak Park, Sang-wook Park and Ha-jun Yu.


SYNOPSIS:

A demon slayer finds himself in the place between our world and Heaven where, reunited with his lost love, he attempts to stop the leader of an unholy army from shattering the gates to the human realm.


First-time directors and co-writers Dong-oh Jo and Dong-oh Cho bring us the magical martial arts romance Demon Empire.

Under the rule of a corrupt royal family, the Royal Demon Slayers, called the ‘Chuyongdae’ carried out an unsuccessful rebellion to try to save the people. With most of their fighters wiped out, the desperate people began offering the living as a sacrifice to the demons. During this time of chaos, a mysterious young man rescues a woman bound to a post and kills the demons that came to claim her.

The townspeople rejoice and offer him food and wine for killing the evil creatures. It appears that all of the remaining Demon Slayers have been executed except for him; Yi Gwak, head soldier of the Chuyongdae (played by Woo-sung Jung; The Good, the Bad, the Weird, The Warrior, A Moment to Remember). Although he rescued their village, its people want the bounty on his head because they are poor and starving. They reveal that they drugged his food and he hurriedly escapes to the forest before he falls asleep.

On waking, he finds himself in a fantastic and strange place called Midheaven, which one man explains is where the spirits stay for 49 days before they are reincarnated. He doesn’t have a nameplate like the others, and can’t remember meeting the grim reaper. It soon transpires that he isn’t dead after all, but has somehow made his way to this place. In Midheaven he meets a young woman who announces herself as So-hwa (Tae-hee Kim). She is a ‘Chuneen’, a heavenly being with no memories of being human. Yi Gwak remembers her as Yon-hwa, his lost love who was accused of bringing demons to her village and burned.

Midheaven is under attack from the demons, and So-hwa has been given the mission to take her elder’s spirit to the Pool of Reflection to save the spirits. If Midheaven vanishes, the dead can’t get into Heaven and there will be no more births in the world. Ban-chu (Jun-ho Heo) is the one behind the attacks. He is building an unholy army ready for the time when the gates to the human realm are shattered and as that hour draws near, he sends his forces on the hunt for So-hwa, who is the only one with the power to stop him. Ban-chu and his allies have a connection to Yi Gwak that leads to some difficult experiences for both sides in the battle.

The film raises some interesting questions, such as whether a soldier’s duty is to protect the world or try to change it. It also asks what makes a person who they are and how big a part their memories play. So-hwa can’t remember her life with Yi Gwak but she finds herself falling in love with him all over again.

It won the Grand Bell Award in South Korea for Best Art Direction in 2007. The trio of Art Directors who worked on the film includes Ming Wu who previously worked on Hero (2002) and House of Flying Daggers (2004). Like those films, Demon Empire can be categorized in the Wuxia genre, popular in China and Korea. These martial arts fantasies are usually set in the past, star a chivalrous protagonist and include fight sequences where characters achieve superhuman feats, have lightning fast moves, fly, levitate, and show expert swordsmanship.

The film boasts some impressive special effects, such as So-hwa’s whirling flower petals she uses as a defence and the deaths of the demons. When they are defeated, they turn to ash, like an internal fire has spread from the fatal wound and they become only charred remnants. Bits of singed paper float down from where they stood.

The supernatural apocalyptic storyline that is highlighted in the poster and other promotional material is often sidelined, while the more personal love story between Yi Gwak and Yon-hwa is focused upon. There are enjoyable and well-choreographed fight sequences but it isn’t end-to-end excitement. The emotional storyline is frequently at the forefront, which isn’t really a criticism because it is interesting and complex. However, those expecting a martial arts extravaganza that never lets up on fights and action may be a little disappointed.

Demon Empire is released on DVD on March 28th.

Emma Hutchings

DVD Review - We Are What We Are (2010)

We Are What We Are, 2010.



Written and Directed by Jorge Michel Grau.

Starring Adrián Aguirre, Miriam Balderas, Francisco Barreiro, Carmen Beato and Alan Chávez.





SYNOPSIS:



After the head of a family of cannibals dies, his wife and three children must confront the question of how to survive.





We Are What We Are is a family film. But not one in the typical, animated and cuddly mould. Its grisly, grown up themes of cannibalism and corruption, prostitution, parenthood and sexuality, make a cocktail of taboos pretty clearly unsuitable for children. This is a story about the transition from the child to adult worlds though, based far more firmly on the drama of volatile family relationships than blood and gore.



That said this Mexican film by writer/director Jorge Michel Grau has some horrific elements to it. In the very opening scene a soundtrack of jumpy, chilling strings coupled with the sight of a man coughing and spluttering to death with agony drowned eyes, sets out the various shocks to come. The beginning of the story is also loaded with social and political comment, which continues throughout. We watch as the staggering father of the family finally collapses to a messy death, only for his sprawling body to be swiftly dragged away by shopping centre staff. In one attractive shot from an inventive camera angle, we see the still warm corpse heaved away like a bag of sand, a cleaner immediately wipe away the drool and blood and finally a group of happily chatting girls walk right over the spot where he breathed his last.



Indeed Grau’s distinctive stylistic touch makes the most of the contrasting wealth and scenery of Mexico City right the way through We Are What We Are, so that at times it is a visually beautiful film as well as one capable of shocking and delivering political points resonantly. We see the slums, the towering roads and the modern malls. We experience the corruption, crime and poverty of one of the world’s largest cities. All of this means that this film is more than a conventional horror; as Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian puts it, the central premise of cannibalism is “a symptom of the horror; not the cause”. The true horrors are the easily accessible, addictive sex trade, the grim living conditions and the shaky, sporadic sense of law and order.



It’s ultimately the strength of the characterisation within the core family dynamic that ensures Grau’s film does not become an essay on the inequalities of city life or simply an unconventional horror movie. With the father’s death, the two brothers of the family are left to assume leadership duties. A wonderfully shot and acted market scene in which the younger sibling gets into a needless fight, establishes his violent unpredictability; a poor choice then, for leader of covert cannibals. The same scene however gives us a lingering first look at older brother Alfredo. He is forever wearing a sulking, sickly expression, and seems too weak, awkward and innocent to capture the family’s specific dietary requirements. Even if he does look like a vampire. Encouraged by his confident, manipulative sister Sabina behind the scenes however, he reluctantly agrees to keep the reins of command away from their dangerous brother.



We Are What We Are breaks almost every kind of taboo. But what’s so refreshing about it is that they compliment the truths and drama of the narrative; they are not mindless headline grabbing additions. There are undertones of incestuous tension between all three siblings, perhaps not surprising given their taste for human flesh. Alfredo’s awkwardness is explained as he battles his own personal sexual demons and seeks a sense of identity, stalking groups of guys into gay bars. Their mother, bitter that her husband used to seek out whores like heroin, beats one to death and returns it defiantly to the side of the road.



There are glimmers of light relief amongst the serious soul searching, gut spilling and social comment. There’s a movingly beautiful song on a train. And the eccentric coroner, if that’s what you’d call him, steals a scene in which a finger is revealed from the body of the dead dad. He has gone to great lengths beautifying the deceased, only for his colleague to reveal that they plan to cremate him. Also in this scene we meet a pair of bumbling cops, out for their own gain. They serve as both a diversion from the intense family drama and further comment on the corrupt police force.



It all concludes with an action packed, bloody ending, involving a fascinating twist between the three siblings that’s open to interpretation. We Are What We Are takes an age old staple of horror and uses it to craft a superbly symbolic story about many of the fears, problems and real life horrors of the modern world. It’s excellently acted and directed, to such an extent that you sympathise with the struggles of the cannibalistic creatures at the story’s heart. With a snappy 90 minute running time, Grau leaves you hungry for more.



I’m sorry I couldn’t resist.

Liam Trim (follow me on Twitter)



Movie Review Archive

'Hitler Begins' with Dawn of Evil: Rise of the Reich

Up-and-coming German actor Tom Schilling (The Baader Meinhof Complex) stars as a young Adolf Hitler in Dawn of Evil: Rise of the Reich, a biopic recounting the early career of the most infamous dictator in history, tracing Hitler's transformation from humble origins as an aspiring art student to a power-obsessed and ruthless egomaniac. Premiering at the Montréal Film Festival back in 2009 under the title Mein Kampf, Dawn of Evil will arrive on these shores with a DVD release later this month.

It is of course rare for German cinema to tackle the rather sensitive subject of the former Führer and while we aren't expecting Downfall: The Beginning, this could still be worth checking out. Let's face it, if anyone could do with a reboot it's this guy.

Take a look at the synopsis and official trailer...

"Rejected by the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, the young, dictatorial and strikingly untalented Adolf Hitler is befriended by a Jew, Schlomo Herzl who at the time is working on a novel entitled 'Mein Kampf'. Herzl's concern for the sad young Hitler leads him along a new path which will lead to disaster in world history."


Dawn of Evil: Rise of the Reich is released on February 28th.

DVD Review - Black (2009)

Black, 2009.

Directed by Pierre Laffargue.
Starring MC Jean Gab'1, Carole Karemera, Francois Levantal and Anton Yakovlev.


SYNOPSIS:

Black (MC Jean Gab'1), licks his wounds and considers his future after a bank robbery gone wrong, in which nearly his entire crew is wiped out. He soon receives information from his cousin about a large cache of diamonds currently residing in a bank in Dakar, Senegal. Quickly assembling a new gang, Black sets out for Africa and what he believes will be the score to end all scores. However, his gang are not the only people interested in the diamonds and Black is propelled into a world of corrupt Russian army gunmen, voodoo and spiritual awakening.


From the outset, Black sets out its stall as something different from a straight up heist movie. On his way to hijacking a bank money transport, Black (MC Jean Gab'1) narrowly avoids hitting an old man in tribal priest's robes who reveals to Black a prophecy, telling him; 'You are the lion. The one who will defeat the evil snake.' Black takes the old man's words in his stride and continues on to the robbery which turns into a disaster. The holy man's prophecy will, of course, prove eerily accurate and adds an extra dimension to the film. Black is not just drawn to Africa by the thought of riches but is also seemingly pulled there by forces beyond his control. These elements of the supernatural / magical could jar when coupled with the heist objective but the film is structured as such that the more fantastical elements of the story emerge towards the end of the second act and work well as a more spiritual juxtaposition with the gun play of the previous action.

Debut director Pierre Laffargue does a good job of adapting his craft to suit the stylistic back and forth needed for a genre-masher like Black. He allows the cameras to get in close when gun fights erupt and has a good eye for a raw, gritty aesthetic. Laffargue is equally adept at staging and capturing glamorous, slow-motion sequences and flowing, one take shots. It is the director's fluency and adroit hand that allow the film to cross over into various filmic realms without it feeling disjointed or fractious. Laffargue is ably assisted by his leading man, with Gab'1 handling his duties well, able to bring out a boyish charm and capable, muscular presence in equal measures.

In combining elements of blaxploitation and spiritual/fantastical themes with the modern heist movie, Black is able to tread and, quite often, cross the boundaries of believability to no ill effect and mesh the various elements therein to keep the film running. The film does sag slightly, however, in the second act. Taken up chiefly with the meeting of and burgeoning relationship between Black and Pamela (Carole Karemera), for a while the film is subject to some aimless meandering. This is remedied by the pair's journey into the Senegalese plains and their time with a native tribe. Seen as fulfilling an ancient prophecy, Black and Pamela undergo the rituals of the tribe and soon embody the spirits of their 'totems' – Lion and Panther respectively. After their awakening, the pair journey to the lair of ubiquitous white panama suit wearing villain Degrande (Francois Levanthal), who has metamorphosed into a snake-man creature thanks to his voodoo priestess wife (Mata Gabin). Phew.

The final showdown is shot in an ethereal, blue hue and gives the whole climax a woozy, animalistic feel. The film ends with Black back in the Parisian suburbs, subject to the excited talk of young men about his legendary exploits in Africa. He sits in silence, listening and drinking a beer. Making his way to the street to be rejoined with Pamels, Gab'1 radiates calmness in his final scenes and displays outwardly the mystifying experiences of his character's time in Africa, which has now taken him far beyond the base nature of money and diamonds.

Alex Williams

Movie Review Archive