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.

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

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: The Silence (aka Das Letzte Schweigen)
Director: Baran bo Odar
Year: 2010
Genre: Drama / Suspense
Format Reviewed: Film (@CIFF 35)

Starting out my CIFF 35 reviews is a rape-murder scene and a two hour slow burn of a crime investigation drama.  Like most killer plots, The Silence‘s murderer starts in the 1980′s, but we flash forward quickly to a present-day Germany, where he remains uncaught and hidden issues still lie beneath.

The Silence isn’t driven so much by a psychotic, vengeful, or neurotic behaviors of the killer, but by the drama ensuing in the police side of the investigation, as well as the accomplice.  Each with issues of their own, as well as having to confront skeletons in the collective town’s closet, the film mostly revolves around interactions between characters.  This sounds kind of vague, but the point is that there is very little action.  But where there is, it is powerful and realistic.  The pacing can be slow at times, and I think the film could definitely been improved a bit from more cuts, though it doesn’t feel like a drag for too long.

The Silence has a cool style, clearly inspired by movies like The Shining and Funny Games.  From up-side-down camera angles and low fly-by’s of pine trees, there is a very unnerving, creepy feeling throughout.  The music adds greatly to the setting, giving what might be a boring drama a sense of purpose.  Another cool aspect of the movie is the female officer.  She is a very interesting character and defies both female stereotypes and counter-stereotypes.  She gives a down-to-Earth and truly human feel to an otherwise angry and depressed cast.

Overall, The Silence is a good Drama that could have been easier and more interesting to watch.  As it is, it is a good movie and worth the watch if just for the references to other films.  I found myself rooting for the good guys, and while the ending won’t keep you guessing too hard, it was enough to keep me interested and was ultimately satisfying.

Rating:  3 /5

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