Archive for the ‘Foreign’ Category

Shuttlecock Review

Posted: May 20, 2014 in Drama, Foreign, Reviews
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imageAh, the road movie.

Disparate characters somehow wind up in a car or a bus or a plane, a train, or an automobile. They fight. They bond. They fight some more. Inevitably, they find themselves on the side of the road, in the middle of nowhere, seemingly without the means to go on. And that’s when the realization comes over them them. The trip was never about the destination. It was always about the journey.

And – gasp – they find out that they needed to get away from everything to discover each other or themselves or the big beautiful country or whatever.

Arrrgghh, the road movie.

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Saibi (The Fake) Review

Posted: May 6, 2014 in Foreign, Reviews
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2013 - The Fake (still 6)Yeon Sang-ho’s first feature film, Dwae-ji-ui wang (The King of Pigs), achieved a certain notoriety and acclaim on the festival circuit as an animated film that offered an unusually brutal and vivid depiction of bullying in a South Korean middle school and the ramifications of the abuse on the victims and their subsequent relationships as adults. Sang-ho’s follow-up, Saibi or The Fake, shows that the director and writer continues to develop as this work offers a richer and more nuanced plot and greater depth in characterization. The animation is improved as well.

That is not to say that the movie is easier to watch.

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Sin-ui Seon-mul (Godsend) Review

Posted: April 26, 2014 in Drama, Foreign, Reviews
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1d4dc73113914baa80f967167b0c4993The treatment of rape in the arts – particularly the visual portrayal of the incident and its aftermath in movies and television – remains controversial though not taboo. In the most recently completed season of the British soap opera, Downton Abbey, fan favorite Anna was assaulted, and viewers did not respond well. Most believed it a cheap plot device that was not justified by the subsequent direction of the story or treatment of the characters involved. The same criticisms also apply to Sin-ui Seon-mul (Godsend), the new film from Korean director Moon Si-Hyun. Midway through the film, the narrative is derailed by a violent and artistically indefensible act that undercuts the good will that the director and her actresses have established to that point. The story does not recover, but instead lurches through a series of increasingly difficult and preposterous moments before finishing with a cloying, unsatisfying sequence.

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Las brujas de Zugarramurdi (Witching and Bitching) Review

Posted: April 19, 2014 in Foreign, Horror, Reviews
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witchingandbitching_01It’s a safe bet that filmmaker Álex de la Iglesia is in complete agreement with the famous Oscar Wilde quote: “Moderation is fatal. Nothing succeeds like excess.” No two sentences could better describe de la Iglesia’s approach in his latest film, Las brujas de Zugarramurdi (aka Witching and Bitching), a frenetic visual and linguistic exercise in the extreme. Over-the-top is the movie’s starting point, and the Spanish director is hellbent on ratcheting up the absurdity at every opportunity. While ultimately the film suffers from being too much of a good thing – a trim of about ten minutes from the 104-minute run time would be in order – the picture is so original, the cast so committed, and the production design so much fun that the experience is as irresistible as the English language title.

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Art Girls Review

Posted: April 15, 2014 in Foreign, Reviews
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Maturanazwillinge-mit-Angels_falckenbergmaxmittelNo one sets out to make The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Even those responsible for The Rocky Horror Picture Show did not intend to produce the phenomenon. The midnight-show cult classic was the unintended consequence of a desperate movie studio trying to recoup some of its investment after the film bombed in its initial, traditional theater run. Therefore, it is inherently unfair to say that a picture should have aspired to being the next Rocky Horror, but that may be the most constructive criticism to offer Art Girls, a genre mash-up of a movie that never melds.

Director and screenwriter Robert Bramkamp dips his toe into the swimming pool of camp, but refuses to dive in. (more…)

Geung Si (Rigor Mortis) Review

Posted: April 8, 2014 in Foreign, Horror, Reviews
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rigormotis_01Director Juno Mak, in his maiden effort behind the camera, has made an almost spoiler-proof movie. At any point in Geung Si (Rigor Mortis), up to and including the ending, you have no idea what the hell is going on. You might think you know who’s dead or dying or destined to die, but chances are excellent that the next scene or the one after that or certainly the final scene will have you going back over that assumption.

“The twins now possess the vampire,” is a line delivered by a character indicating a key turning point in the movie. Good luck explaining that to someone unfamiliar with jiangshi or the hopping vampire myth. And any recap of the action will include relaying the fact that if a malignant spirit takes over a living soul, the correct approach is to kick its ever-loving evil ass, kung fu style.

Rigor Mortis is absolute nonsense, but it is gorgeous, grotesque nonsense that is visually thrilling, never less than enthralling, over-the-top, must-see Hong Kong horror. (more…)

To Mikro Psari (Stratos) Review

Posted: March 20, 2014 in 2014 Berlinale, Drama, Foreign, Reviews
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ImageFor all those who have been asking, “When is there ever going to be a Greek version of Leon: The Professional?” please take note. Your wait is over. While not a remake of the 1994 movie starring Jean Reno, who takes in and protects a pint-sized Natalie Portman, To Mikro Psari (Stratos) has the same central dynamic of aging hit man and endangered young girl. Director Yannis Economides film is quiet, meditative, and one could even say, mannered, in comparison to Luc Besson’s hyperkinetic full throttle bullet blitz.

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Wu Ren Qu (No Man’s Land) Review

Posted: March 15, 2014 in 2014 Berlinale, Action, Foreign, Reviews, Thriller
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ImageWhen the lights went up after the premiere of Wu Ren Qu (No Man’s Land) at the 64th Berlinale Film Festival in February, the twists and shocks that came with the feature were not quite over. Director Ning Hao and three of the stars, Xu Zheng, Yu Nan und Huang Bo, took the stage to acknowledge the well deserved applause of an appreciative audience.

There they delivered the final surprise: Xu Zheng, who plays the bespectacled and shaggy-haired lawyer in the feature, had assumed the physical appearance of his adversary, Huang Bo, who portrays the film’s bald, stocky villain. Bo, meanwhile, now sported an almost Elvis-like pompadour. It was more than mere make-up, hairstyles, and costumes, the quartet explained. They looked different (the exception being Nan, familiar to Western audiences from her role as Maggie in The Expendables 2, who remains as lovely as ever) because of the amount of time that had passed since filming. The movie was completed four years earlier, but had been kept from release by Chinese censors who deemed it too nihilistic.

And the censors were half-right. Wu Ren Qu is nihilistic. But wonderfully so.

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Historia del miedo (History of Fear) Review

Posted: March 13, 2014 in 2014 Berlinale, Drama, Foreign, Reviews
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ImageHistoria del miedo (History of Fear) was clearly one of the best films in the Forum section at the 64th Berlinale Film Festival in February. The Forum is home for the more experimental and avant-garde works shown in the program and often provides a first look at outstanding, upcoming talent. Historia del miedo, directed and written by Benjamin Naishtat, serves as an example of just that. In his first feature, Naishtat offers a work that is all atmosphere and mise-en-scène, effectively establishing a time and place where paranoia and anxiety touch every aspect of life inside and outside a gated community.

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The Midnight After Review

Posted: March 6, 2014 in 2014 Berlinale, Action, Foreign, Reviews, Science Fiction
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ImageIn his new film, The Midnight After, director Fruit Chan learns a hard, but familiar lesson: while it’s relatively easy to strand people in a phantasmagorical situation, it’s quite difficult to find a fantastic way to explain why and figure out what’s next.

The premise Chan conceives is as intriguing as any Rod Serling offered for your consideration. A disparate group of passengers board a minibus late at night in Hong Kong. En route, the bus goes through a tunnel. When it emerges on the other side, the city is empty.

Shortly, thereafter, the bus passes a blinking billboard that reads in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese: “A great film pitch does not always a great film make.”

If only. (more…)

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