FadedBlue_net

If you’re wondering were Day 1 went, I only saw The Silence.  So check the review for that.

Day 3 was a long day, with a three-peat of downers.  They were all kind of depressing, but at least they were in the middle of my schedule.

Seven Days in Heaven (2010) – This movie was a late addition to my schedule, so I wasn’t expecting much from it.  While it had some decent cinematography, there wasn’t too much going on in the plot.  It had some comedy, that was much needed, otherwise the film would have been a waste, in my opinion.  A couple scenes seemed to take from Wong Kar Wai’s blurred action technique, which was a nice reference.  I’m not sure who I recommend this movie to, it was just ok.  I supposed hardcore asian film fans can get something out of it, but for the general population (which isn’t reading a blog on asian film anyway!) can skip it.  3 / 5

The Green Wave (2010) – An interesting, but very message-beating documentary.  Although all accounts are based on actual writing, blogs, tweets from real events of the Iran election and subsequent human rights violations, the documentary felt a little too pandering to rebellion.  Don’t get my views wrong, I am completely on the side of supporting human rights and the furthering of it especially in the Middle East.  But the bombardment of vicious and darkly poetic thoughts coming straight from the source are a little too much to handle unless you want to make the audience basically cry or incite revolt.  Not a fun watch, but the animated scenes were great and the message and information had importance.  3 / 5

Caterpillar (2010) – See my review.

Title: The Man From Nowhere (aka Ajeossi)
Director: Jeong-Beom Lee
Year: 2010
Genre: Action / Crime / Revenge
Format Reviewed: Film (@CIFF 35)

The Man From Nowhere kind of came out of nowhere.  A new director and a seemingly typical Korean crime-drama plot.  I mean; just look at the poster.  I’ve seen dozens of movies of a clean-shaven dude in a suit that has some kind of connection to enforcement that goes above the law.  Right?  Wrong.  The Man From Nowhere is easily the best revenge movie since Chan-wook Park’s Vengeance trilogy.

The Man From Nowhere has strange cadences.   The first hour is action-packed.  It introduces characters perfectly, without slowing down the flurry of mystery and crime scenes.  Just when it feels like the whole movie is going to be a full-on Jason Statham-style 90 minute spree, The Man From Nowhere takes a breath.  I bit of a long breath, then continues to another half hour of intense “holy shit”-ness.

In between all of this is incredible cinematography and an interesting storyline.  Incredibly beautiful establishing shots make one realize that there are certain visuals lacking from most “gritty epics” coming out of Asian film.  At times, it can even feel like an adventure film.  Even with all of the action going on, I never once felt like I didn’t know what was going on or confused by the characters.  The characters themselves are varied and give more realistic emotion than the typical Asian thriller.  One bad guy in particular reminds me of a character from a Japanese yakuza film or The Good, The Bad, and The Weird (it may have actually been the actor from the latter) – he is a bit cartoony, but complements the extreme end of the gangsters nicely.  The usual violin-heavy classical violence music underlies most dramatic scenes.

The one gripe I have with the film is the use of the little girl in the plot.  She gives a great performance – actually she delivers lines a little too well for her age, pulling me out of the film slightly – and is designed to really pull at the hearts of the audience.  In theory, this is fine, and almost needed to scrap together a plot so cluttered with action scenes.  While the plot is developed well and she worked to pull even myself to love her from the start, the ending relied a little too strongly on this.  Perhaps The Man From Nowhere is using a bit too much from a typical Hollywood endings.  I personally would have preferred something less one-sided, emotionally.

The Man From Nowhere is a great example of what Korean films do best.  It combines great film-making with crime, revenge, action, style, and prose.  While this film is more a straight-forward crime movie than the aforementioned Vengeance trilogy, it will nonetheless be loved by fans of Oldboy and Korean crime films.  While the focus is not on catching the audience off-guard in the final scene, it is a thrill to see The man From Nowhere play out.  Jeong-Beom Lee clearly has the talent to become one of the growing number of great Korean directors, and I anxiously await his future work.

Rating: 5 /5

Title: Caterpillar
Director: Koji Wakamatsu
Year: 2010
Genre: Drama
Format Reviewed: Film (@CIFF 35)

Caterpillar is messed up.  Like most experimental and pink film directors of prior decades, director Wakamatsu knows how to make a typical audience feel uncomfortable.  Unlike that era, though, where the audience is mostly just shocked into a message, Caterpillar delivers powerful messages on Japanese society (both historical and contemporary) around a relatively realistic and dramatic framework.

Caterpillar basically has two cohorts of characters.  The wife & husband (the war god), and the rest of the village.  Most of the scenes are basically studying how the wife treats and is treated by her husband, both before and after he enters the war and returns home severely injured.  While there isn’t much difference in the war god’s attitude and expectations of his wife, the power has shifted greatly in her favor.  While she struggles to accept and care for her husband, the only reason to keep him alive is her national pride and encouragement from the town.  Without their support and empowerment of the nation, she has little reason to treat him like a god.

The film has many messages, and it would clearly take multiple sittings to understand all that is being offered from Wakamatsu.  Besides the obvious WWII story and the accompanying comments on war in general and Japanese nationalism, Caterpillar makes a comment on the traditional Japanese husband-wife relationship.  Not only this, but perhaps it can be broadened to say Caterpillar fights against Japanese’s society of male domination.

The trouble is that as deep as the movie is, it is probably only going to be enjoyed, or at least put up with, by Japanese film scholars.  Caterpillar is a film that will easily be overlooked by the casual viewer (though they probably wouldn’t have found this to begin with) and written off as a weird anti-war movie.  While the tragedy of war is depicted dramatically, the real focus of the story is the on the wife.  She represents something more than a housewife, perhaps a whole civilization itself and how it must battle it’s past mistakes – whether directly causing it or themselves being a victim of their own ancestors.

Rating: 4 /5

Title: Still Walking (歩いても歩いても aka Aruitemo, Aruitemo)
Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
Year: 2008
Genre: Drama
Format Reviewed: Netflix instant streaming (HD)

Still Walking has been a movie I wanted to watch for a while.  Although it’s not readily apparent what the movie is about by reading a plot synopsis, Koreeda is 2 for 2 in my book (Air Doll and Nobody Knows).  Having been on Netflix instant streaming in HD for a while now, and recently released on Criterion bluray, Still Walking is oddly accessible for what might have been an under-the-radar release of a relatively indie filmmaker.  It’s focus from movie distributors is, though, justified in the depth of the film.

Like a lot of Japanese films, especially of those which aren’t obviously labeled as “Asian Extreme/Horror”, the viewer can’t be very sure where a Still Walking is going to take you.  For a while it feels like the movie isn’t going anywhere.  There is a middle-aged couple made up of divorcées, and a child who doesn’t quite fit his new family.  The greater family of the step-father has it’s own discriminations and conflicts within themselves.  But the true story arcs are much more subtle than, of course, these details and are not readily apparent until late in the film.  And maybe this intentional, as the moral of the story itself is something that people don’t typically focus on.

The speed of Still Walking is similar to an Ozu film.  That is to say at a speed similar to normal life.  This is both a complement on good editing, but also a warning to anyone who can’t stand a slow movie.  Unlike Ozu’s films, though, some characters are extremely talkative.  Again, this is likely closer to reality than one is used to in a typical Japanese film.  Some characters are a bit cumbersome and others too characterized, but overall the families function realistically, which ranges from pleasing to disappointing to watch.  Acting is not quite up to par as a classic Ozu, either, but it is definitely well enough to put together Still Walking, and more importantly, to effectively pace the movie.

Still Walking shows us the difference between the drama we think we must resolve in our lives to what we must come to terms with.  While some conflicts in the movie seem to lead to character development, they are eventually dwarfed by a realization of the importance of one’s outlook on life.  This drama portrays a contemporary, simple family and how they deal with jealousy, pride, and revenge deep below the surface.  It may be difficult to watch in the outset, but I highly recommend anyone who start this movie to watch it to the very end.  There is an emotional payout which is somewhat subtle and clever, replicating the feel of a real-world personal epiphany.

Rating:  4 /5

Title: Bandage
Director: Takeshi Kobayashi
Year: 2010
Genre: Drama
Format Reviewed: DVD

Knowing nothing about Bandage until I watched it, the movie seemed to be a sure hit.  Generally, Japanese movies with music, especially ones with youth forming bands, like Swing Girls, have almost always been fun to watch.  While Bandage doesn’t live up to those expectations I had going into it, it is an overall enjoyable film.

Bandage feels more like an indie film than one might expect given it’s premise.  Contemporary Japanese movies concerning music is generally upbeat, and their plots usually follow this tone.  Bandage has a darker look to it.  The scenes are gritty, and hardly any shots take place outside during sunlight.  Most action is happening at night, sometimes all night.  Even one character quits school to get a job, shown early on.  The camera work is also a little more down-to-earth, with a lot of hand-held and moving shots throughout small apartment rooms that gives Bandage a more realistic feel.

The characters of Bandage also don’t behave like your usual upbeat Japanese music story.  The band members all have issues, and the main love interest of the lead girl is especially juvenile and rude.  While the band mates’ characters are somewhat rounded, with their own scenes of showing off talent or their work ethics, there isn’t exactly a melding of drastic changes to their temperaments from one scene to the next.  Luckily, the best developed character is the lead protagonist, as we see her step outside her safe zones many times, with good results and bad.   What she feels and learns throughout the story climaxes to a great performance in a long shot at the end of the movie.

Despite the slightly darker nature to the story, Bandage still has what you would expect:  several scenes of the band performing in front of crowds, rehearsing, and fiddling around on their instruments.  Sound effects and music is great, but the movie maybe could have used one more song, especially in the latter half of the film where things really slow down.  It doesn’t quite keep full-steam going in the story, but Bandage is kind of saved because the fore-mentioned excellent performance is right in the middle of this third-act lull.

Bandage is an interesting watch and  accessible to anyone who can relate to youth in angst, trying to find themselves in life.  This is  the theme of the movie, and has little to do with the band itself.  The conclusion is a bit drawn out, but never does the movie really feel too long or boring.  The first half moves along well and kept me engaged, hoping to see what happens next.  Overall, I thought this was an enjoyable watch.

Rating:  3 /5

Title: Villon’s Wife (Viyon no tsuma)
Director: Kichitaro Negishi
Year: 2009
Genre: Drama
Format Reviewed: Film (@CIFF 34)

On the opposite end of the spectrum from Bare Essence of Life is Villon’s Wife (and hey, it rhymes).  Villon’s Wife is going to be the complete opposite feel of Bare Essence, with traditional characters, a classic setting, and a serious, realistic, adn dramatic story.

Villon’s Wife lives up to it’s name.  It is a period piece set in late-WWII of Japan, and focuses on the wife of an often drunk and even suicidal writer who gets caught stealing a large sum of money from a local food & spirits joint.  The rest of the story follows her as she sways between being a loyal wife and leaving him for a better life.  The story is somewhat sad because of the traditional values in the wife’s character.  Like the ‘good’, loyal wife that she is, she is very forgiving of just about everything her husband does, including cheating on her and stealing her money.  Without giving in to cultural relativism or feminism, the movie is better watched knowing that this is the “traditional role” for the wife at this time and place, at least before the war.

The acting, storytelling, development, pacing all are quite good until the very end of the movie.  It’s easy to fall in love with Sachi, the wife, as several men in the film do.  Tadanobu Asano delivers another great performance as the meandering, drunk villon.  The characters, besides the villon, feel a lot like some of Ozu’s, albeit more modern and less subtle.  Much of the story is very lively, with Sachi either working at the bar to pay off her husband’s debts.  It slows down considerably, as you might expect in a melodrama.  The story even falls apart a little bit at the end when it tries to pull everything together.  Some of it feels out-of-place or unexplained, and I was left wondering what happened to one character all-together.

There definitely seems to be some underlying message in Villon’s Wife.  I read somewhere that it is supposed to be about Japan changing after the war.  This can definitely be felt near the end of the movie where we see girls with lipstick running away with GI’s.  If anything, it shows the faults and benefits of Japan’s traditional double standard roles of husband & wife in the transition to an industrial society.

Villon’s Wife is a great movie for anyone interested in ‘old life’ in Japan, though I think you have to also be on board for the drama.  It is beautifully shot and one of the most believable WWII-era settings I’ve seen in a while.  It’s not really a romance picture, but it is decent as a slow, relationship drama.  Without ruining the ending, it can keep you guessing.  There are several different ways it could have gone, and if the director had taken a more Ozu-esque open ending, it probably would have been a perfect fit.  But the story clearly is leading to the definitive ending given.

Rating – 4 /5

Title: Bare Essence of Life (aka Ultra Miracle Love Story)
Director: Satoko Yokohama
Year: 2009
Genre:  Comedy, Drama, Love Story (?)
Format Reviewed: Film (@CIFF 34)

Ultra Miracle Love Story is a crazy movie.  Note the actual Japanese title of the movie is the katakana translation of this ‘English’ title, so I will call it this name throughout the review.  This title is also much more reflective of the actual plot and feel of the movie.  It really is a follow-the-character story plot that has some love elements, irrational and imaginative plot changes, and is borderline insane.

It was interesting to see a lot of actors and actresses from some other major films appear in Ultra Miracle.  The protagonist is L from Death Note, teacher Machiko is from Kairo (Pulse), as well as an appearance from an actress of the classic Kaidan (Kwaidan)!  At first, it seems that Kenichi Matsuyama plays a very different role from L (and different his role in Akarui Mirai) in Ultra Miracle since he is go outgoing and rambunctious.  Honestly, the first third of the film is tough to watch him run around and cause havok.  Some of it is funny, but most of it equally annoying.  It’s really going to depend on your tolerance for silly and ridiculous things whether it’s enjoyable or not.  Later in the film when he calms down, he seems to turn back into a low-key rational guy like L (but without the ultra logical thinking).  Kumiko Aso is somewhat the same character she was in Kairo: quiet and a ‘typical’ Japanese female role.  As a teacher, this fits her role, though.  The acting and development of the characters are great throughout, which is really a saving point of most of the movie.

The plot of Ultra Miracle is very strange.  About half of it is somewhat logical and placed in reality.  But as we progress toward the end, several ‘miracles’ happen and things get crazy.  Clearly the purpose of Ultra Miracle is not to tell a story at all.  There seems to be a desire to show human emotions and exploration of life through freedom, spirituality, and irony.  I felt that there were some messages underneath the strange events of the last third of the film, but it’s so crazy and seemingly dumb that it’s difficult to understand what’s trying to be said.  This is really the most disappointing aspect of Ultra Miracle.  Had this been really fleshed out or given more time (especially with cutting a bit from the beginning of the film), it would have been a much greater and meaningful film.

Ultra Miracle is not a movie for everyone.  It will definitely not be liked by a good majority of Western audiences.  If you’ve seen other bizarre Japanese family-driven comedies, you know what kind of silliness and bad visual effects can be in these types of films.  Luckily there is very little of the latter, mostly because the film doesn’t try for too much, visually.  A few notable things were some extremely long camera shot (long in time, not field of view).  There were several parts that were at least three or four minutes without cut.  This said, there are a lot of interesting elements of comedy, camera work, and a sort-of ‘flight of spirit.’  It was also quite interesting to hear some thick Aoyama dialect.  Someone who can sit through similar Japanese movies should be fine, but a ‘normal viewer’ should be warned before seeing Ultra Miracle.  It is definitely a “WTF” movie.

Rating – 3 /5

Title: Thirst
Director: Park Chan-wook
Year: 2009
Genre: Drama
Format Reviewed: Film

Some Park Chan-wook films, specifically the Vengeance Trilogy films and Cut, are known for their realistic, brutal violence.  Adding J.S.A. and I’m A Cyborg… But That’s OK, the comparisons by plot are less, but the trademark features of a Park film are still present: silly humor and well-defined characters.  On all three of these levels, Thirst delivers.

Like Let The Right One In, Thirst is definitely a different take on the vampire genre.  The main character is a priest who donates his body to scientific research in order to find a cure for a disease and become a vampire by accident.  His motives are clearly good, and even as a vampire he refrains from killing any humans. The girl, on the other hand, becomes a vampire by choice.  As soon as she transforms, she kills at will and for pleasure.  Her whimsical nature about killing will likely bring joy to fans of the violence in the Vengeance movies.

Thirst never becomes a horror movie, nor does it really commit to a drama.  It’s pacing reflects the slow, method of Lady Vengeance, and is more of a study of the imagination surrounding vampires than the resolution of the plot itself.

Title: Let The Right One In
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Year: 2008
Genre: Drama
Format Reviewed: Bluray (US)

Let The Right One In is a much more serious take on a vampire story.  In fact, unlike Thirst, the ‘vampire parts’ of the movie are not the main focus.  At it’s core, Right One is a coming-of-age love story.  Vampire movies often include seduction or love, but this one has a classic “it’s not going to work out” love story that you would find in any other romance.  But this is definitely not the feel of the film.

The visuals of Let The Right One In are just as gory, and actually even more visceral than Thirst.  The kills in Let The Right One In, which are a combination of necessity and passion crime, are realistic and disturbing in a Fargo way, not to mention all the snow.  The imagery and slow pacing helps to make the small town and it’s citizens feel like an otherwise stable, quiet community.

In the end, Let The Right One In is a better film in almost every way.  The characters are developed better, the violence is stronger, the pacing is more deliberate (a plus to the drama), and ending much more powerful.  This isn’t to say Thirst is a bad film.  If it weren’t for Let The Right One In, I might declare it the best modern day vampire movie.  But Let The Right One In transcends the genre to deliver both a gruesome killer and a dramatic romance that delivers on both ends, perfectly.

While I would recommend Thirst to any Park Chan-wook or violence fan, Let The Right One In is a must see for anyone serious about film that can put up with a rated-R film.  The last 20 minutes are truly epic.

Ratings:
Thirst: 4 /5
Let The Right One In: 5 /5

I’ve been pretty busy studying for exams, so sorry for the absence.  I will be watching a lot more DVDs and blurays in the next two months.  Border’s had a 50% off sale on their DVD’s so I picked up a lot!  Right now, I’ve been going through the Ghost in the Shell: SAC 1st season box.  I hope to finish my Ozu box set as early as today.

Here are a bunch of mini reviews of things I watched from the festival and since then:

All Around Us (Gururi no Koto) -4/5 (CIFF09)
Great, though quite slow.  A family-drama that leaves many messages about living life and the connections between loved ones, especially a spouse.  Some characters were a bit annoying, though it can’t be helped if art imitates reality.

Surveillance -3/5 (CIFF09)
Not horrible, but could have been much better, in my opinion.  Some twists in the plot, some of which are predictable.  But this is no action movie.  It’s almost all dialogue, and awkward dialogue at that, for the first three-quarters of the film.  Probably would have been better as a short.

Chaser (Chugyeoja) – 5/5 (CIFF09)
Excellent thriller.  Korean movies contain some of the best psycho-killer/ detective movies and this is one of them for sure.  Though not as epic as a Park Chan-wook film, it has great pacting, characters, tone, and is interesting to watch.  Some gory parts.  Worth tracking down.

Sparrow (Man Jeuk) – 2/5 (CIFF09)
Too slow, and too long.  The plot is not interesting enough to make a whole movie out of, though it did hold my attention.  What was there was executed well and had some nice imagery.

White on Rice – 4/5 (CIFF09)
Good feel-good comedy.  You kind of root for the main character, and definitely grow to like his quirks.  You can see a lot of miscommunications that a Japanese-American may come across, and this really hits home if you have some familiarity with a non-native English speaker.  Plot is a bit uninspired, but serviceable for fun.

Meatball Machine – 1/5
After seeing the excellent Machine Girl, and iffy Tokyo Gore Police… I knew that Meatball Machine could go either way.  And it was bad.  Bad in a bad way.  Even for a B-movie, there is nothing really interesting that goes on.  The characters are beyond boring… enough to make a user manual seem a worthwhile use of time.  Gross out moments are not realistic or that gross if you’ve seen either of the mentioned ultra-gore movies.  Unfortunately, I can’t recommend this movie to even gore fans.

Tale of Two Sisters (Korean) – My 2nd viewing – 4/5
Although it’s probably one of the best Korean horror films I’ve seen, the rewatch isn’t that great.  The characters are a little boring and the pacing slow, but the ending and mystery is pretty good.  Although it’s a must see for asian horror fans, you really probably only need to see it once.  Compare with Ju-On, which I can watch many times and still enjoy.

Title: The Machine Girl
Director: Noboru Iguchi
Year: 2008
Genre: Action
Format Reviewed: DVD

I don’t know how much you can really say about The Machine Girl to convince whether the movie is good or not.  It is a total exploitation movie.  Blood, guts, more guts, insane Japanese things, etc., etc.  There are many lists out there to tell you all the crazy stuff they threw into Machine Girl.  I think this is really the first exploitation movie outside of Grindhouse that I’ve seen where I knew going in that it was going to be bad.  And I mean bad in the good sense, like how sick is awesome.  The Machine Girl is hella sick.

First off, some of the actresses are apparently porn stars.  So if you want to watch for the looks, you’re set.  There is as much blood and guts as a Miike film, though much less realistic.  If you want an “asia extreme” flick, you’re set (just don’t expect anything near as powerful as say, Oldboy).  There are some very funny things that you can only do in a Japanese move, like have an arm tempura-fried.  So if you want some laughs and an inside joke, you’re set.  Lastly, if you like revenge and strong women characters… that’s the main plot element.  Check.  Everything is 120% superficial, on purpose.

So pretty much everything you could ask for in a moving picture, right?  Well.. if you’re into it.  I think for an “average” person, Machine Girl is going to be love it or hate it.  If you’re like me, and Yakuza, chainsaws, and skirts are your bag, then all you have to do is get past the “B-movie” aspect of Machine Girl.  Yes, the plot can be a little illogical at times, but honestly it’s not that bad, and nowhere near the level of stupidity in Hollywood horror movies.  The actions scenes are not too unrealistic, though it seems to be a bit under-budget for some special effects.

I wouldn’t say Machine Girl is better than the sum of its part, because I think that’s exactly what the movie is.  A bunched up package of awesome scenes meant for those who already like it.  If you are in that crowd, Machine Girl is a must-see.  There are a lot of things here that I’ve never seen before in a movie, including one of the grossest scenes ever (the mom getting stabbed).  Usually gross-out scenes stop at the first or second level.  This one goes one more (or 11 in Spinal Tap terms).

Note: The DVD extras are short, but fun to watch.

Rating – 4 /5