Selected as the Opening Film of the 2018 Shanghai International Film Festival, “Animal World” is the new film from director Han Yan, best known for “Go Away, Mr. Tumor”, which represented China at the 88th Academy Awards, and producer Chen Zhixi, famed for the hits “Lost in Thailand” and “Detective Chinatown”.

Based on the bestselling Japanese novel and anime series “Ultimate Survivor Kaiji” and described as China’s “The Hunger Games” meets “The Matrix”, the film is headlined by megastar Li Yi Feng (李易峰), joined by award-winning actress Zhou Dongyu (周冬雨) and Hollywood legend Michael Douglas.

The suspenseful action-packed blockbuster will have a national release across the UK via Cine Asia from 29th June, the same date the film will be released in China, and is expected to be one of the year’s biggest and most exciting hits.

Synopsis

Like in his previous movies, Chinese independent director Miaoyan Zhang signs script, direction, cinematography and editing of this fourth feature, “Silent Mist”. A China-France collaboration, the work has benefited of the Busan Festival’s Asian Cinema Fund and was consequently launched at the 2017 edition of the same Festival. Like all Zhang’s movies, “Silent Mist” is firmly grounded in Chinese social realm and channels some real-life unsolved cases of rape to tackle other aspects of greed and lust.

Silent Mist is screening at Art Film Fest Kosice 

With efficacy and realism, the director introduces the location of his movie during the opening credits with an impressive sequence in which we are chaperoned along a Chinese canal town. A very long single take – a constant feature of the movie –slowly reveals the water-side houses of a town that expands on a linear vector and looks disturbingly endless. The camera then follows an old folk performer walking on the promenade at twilight, the sound of his steps is deadened by the moist fog raising from the water. We see him from behind and the camera seamlessly moves from him to a woman and – one after the other – gently touches the three women that will inhabit the story about to unravel. But an invisible danger is lurking in those dark, silent alleys, a rapist is waiting for a pray and his first victim is a young schoolgirl. Very soon the whole town seems to be informed of the rape and starts gossiping about the girl with no sign of compassion. In the meantime, a greedy and smug businessman does his round, tormenting house and shop owners with his offers and requests to buy their properties.

The rapist and the businessman are both inwardly obsessed with personal gain, they are gluttons for money, pleasure and ultimately, power, and their roles of violators will eventually overlap and symbolically merge. In this doomed village that seems impossible to escape, the story elliptically ends back where it has started, brushing past – one by one – the violated women and their despair, resignation and insanity. In a final gesture of hope, the young schoolgirl frees a small fish in the river.

The sensory experience that Silent Mist provides is unique. Every single frame of this movie is a stunningly composed photograph, extremely elegant in composition and colours, the latter unsaturated to the point of a semi-black-and-white effect with just touches of colour, mostly red paper lamps at night and a blinding yellow in one poignant scene. Mostly using long takes, the director follows the characters, frames dramatic wide-angle crossroads and plays with time and space creating suspense out of long, excruciating pauses on empty alleys. Like the photography, the sound design here is crucial too. There are barely 50 spoken words in the whole movie and only some hints of music, the rest is a collage of background noises, distant chatter, footsteps, dog barks, all muffled and quietened, as if emerging from the thick fog that envelopes the town.

Director Zhang has named three stages of the narration after the places where the violations are perpetrated, Alley, Boat and House and his claustrophobic town of connivance is, in fact, a numbing sequence of alleys, boats and houses and again alleys, boats and houses (it oddly reminded me of the dream-like strolls along endless corridors, halls, rooms and salons in “Last Year in Marienabad”). The very recurrent sight of hanging meat and fish – something you see everywhere in Chinese towns – is here emphasized and extended to form a surreal pattern of sprawled corpses, a taunting cemetery of victims. It is an incredibly strong visual statement.

While Zhang uses extremely subtle tones for the formal aspect, he doesn’t hold back when it’s time to point the finger at the rapist and the businessman. They are grotesque – almost caricatures – in their look and body posture. Like characters of a folktale they are hunched like rats or have irritating grins and this contrast with the subtlety of the visual is sometimes slightly overplayed. However, they also manage to deliver a couple of moments of odd, dark humor. The businessman evokes the insidious side of progress, the consequences of the materialistic culture, brought out by the abrupt social changes China is going through at great speed. It’s also another face of the age-old culture of sexual dominance.

Miaoyan Zhang has orchestrated a dreamy parable of excessive desire and its high casualties, following a very clear vision of the form. “Silent Mist” is a strong statement encased in an extremely sophisticated package and will easily gain consensus within festival-goers.

“There’s nothing else to see…”

Chinese actress Xin Wang was born in 1988 in the city of Tianjin. At the age of 19 she moved to France to study, but during her frequent visits back and upon her return, she noticed the drastic change her home country was going through. With the increasing globalization, the outer appearance of Chinese cities added the brands of global players to its streets. However, apart from the wealth global trade brought to the country, it also propelled a development long forgotten in Communist times.

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Of course, eventually the riches were soon divided among the few on top. Eager to spend their wealth on property, cars and other investments, it was just a matter of time until the concept of concubinage was rediscovered. Banned under Communist rule, the idea of being a concubine seems appealing to many young women in search of lucrative career options. When Xin Wang attempted to enter the film industry of her home country she encountered how the process of objectifying women to “fresh meat” had already started. No one noticed her talents, only her looks mattered, and it was naturally assumed she was open to the idea of becoming someone’s “er nai” (second wife).

Considering these developments, French filmmaker Emmanuel Sapolsky became interested in the idea of portraying this new version of Chinese society. Having lived in Beijing for quite some time and worked in Chinese television, he was able to observe similar changes to the ones Xin Wang already witnessed. In an interview published on filmdoo.com, the director states how he loves Chinese culture, but could not help noticing the rise in population, pollution and other issues in the Chinese capital. With his first feature film “The Eyes of Silence”, a mixture of thriller, fantasy and drama, Sapolsky and Xin Wang, who produced, co-wrote and played the leading role, attempted to explore these issues. A society whose ties increasingly depend on money, influence and status surely has its fair share of bodies to hide, things which are better left “unseen”.

Amélie (Xin Wang) and her friend Coco (Bo Sun) try to get by in the city of Beijing accompanying other men to business meetings and other kinds of events. More importantly, they aim to find a man, one with money and influence, before they turn 30. Recently Coco has met Huang Yi Bo (Qing Li), a rich businessman, who has already spoiled her with many gifts, compliments and invitations to parties. Because her friend is still looking for someone, Coco convinces her to join her and Huang on one of those parties.

Even though the view of two other men accompanying Huang makes Amélie a little nervous, she finally gives in to the rambunctious mood of the occasion. When she meets the charming Li Sheng (Qi Dong), who wants to meet her again, she is even more willing to give in to the now quite drunk  atmosphere of the party. However, as Huang proposes to play one last game, something terrible happens, and Amélie, who is able to see in the dark, is the only witness to the crime the men have committed.

Right from the opening minutes, Sapolsky’s film introduces the most important character of the film: the city of Beijing. Joel Allis’ hand-held camera, in combination with the fast-paced editing job by Jean-Baptiste Mithout, present not a city, but a moloch with a dark, neon-lit underbelly. The bright lights of the streets resemble the veins of this entity which seems to expand indefinitely and only seems to calm down for some brief moment when the sun goes up, when characters like Amélie have gone sleeping. However, this place never rests, the repeated use of wide shots showing the skyline of the city, its streets and expansive nature seem to view it is a living, breathing organism.

Consequently, one has to take a look at the image of the city and its characters. While Beijing is undoubtedly embedded in Chinese culture, there is a strong feeling this version of “Chinese-ness” has become more globalized. Interrupting the rows of red lanterns and Chinese restaurants is the constant flow of the “Starbucks”-, “Sony”- and “McDonalds”-signs on the side of buildings. There is also the idea of disguising one’s culture as one can see with the two female characters “hiding” their Chinese names behind supposedly more French surrogates. Since “culture” has become a concept so vague, no one really asks twice about the true nature of these names. In many scenes, it becomes evident the Chinese characters Amélie encounters have no idea about the French she uses resulting in her and Coco making fun of their ignorance.

At the same time, their idea of “French-ness” is also questioned. The tacky bedside lamp shaped like the Eiffel Tower, the “Amélie”-poster on the wall and even the nature of their names, all of these aspects show a very narrow view on what constitutes being French. But then again, this kind of stereotypical understanding goes unnoticed in a space whose nature confirms these narrow concepts.

Considering these observations the “winners” or “beneficiaries” are either the rich or the one quick to adapt to the pulse of the times. With her ability to see in the dark due to her “cat eyes”, Amélie is almost logically a creature of the night, almost the majority of the scenes with her either take place then or with her eyes covered behind sunglasses. Especially after she has witnessed the true extent of moral corruption, which forces her to move during daytime, her movements becomes unsure as if she walks through dangerous, unknown territory.

On the other hand, the portrayal of the masculine upper class shows the true extent of the social gap. Shaping the face of the city from their ivory towers, the privileged like Huang Yi Bo are used to the darkness of the VIP-lounge or the urban image framed by the size of their office windows. Their portrayal echoes similar characters from the cinema of directors like Elio Petri (“Property is No Longer Theft”) or Damiano Damiani (“Confessions of a Police Captain”) in their focus on profit and personal gain. Their lack of morals showcases an attitude to distinguish between “them” and “me”, a view which has completely filtered out any unwanted, outside interference.

For characters who are used to do their business in the disguise of shadows, a woman able to see in the dark must logically pose a threat, one that has to be dealt with permanently. But of course, there are hired lackeys standing by willing to perform the dirty work.

“The Eye of Silence” delivers an interesting blend of drama, thriller and social commentary. While its general tone might be a little uneven at times, its cinematography, editing and the lead performances will certainly make for a decent viewing experience. If anything, its awareness of the urban space, its themes and visual metaphors will not go unnoticed as the portrayal of the city is truly disturbing at times and a good foundation for a thriller.

Sources:

1) Pountain, David (2017) Emmanuel Saplonsky Talks The Eye Of Silence
https://www.filmdoo.com/blog/2017/02/15/interview-emmanuel-sapolsky-talks-the-eye-of-silence/, last accessed on: 05/29/2018

2) Coonan, Clifford (2009) China Concubines Return Thanks to Increasing Capitalism
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/26/china-concubines-return-t_n_269482.html?guccounter=1, last accessed on: 05/29/2018

3) Er nai – the modern Chinese concubine
http://www.beijingmadeeasy.com/beijing-society/er-nai-modern-chinese-concubine, last accessed on: 05/29/2018

New York, NY – The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Subway Cinema announce the 17th edition of the New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF), June 29 – July 15, 2018.

From vicious, life-destroying phone scams to balletic battles between equally corrupt cops and yakuza, NYAFF offers films that reflect on contemporary society while offering extreme genre pleasures. There are self-referential takes on cinematic zombies, existential date nights, and teens finding their own corners of the world despite familial and societal expectations.After last year’s Sweet Sixteen, this year’s program is dubbed the Savage Seventeenth edition with four world premieres, three international premieres, 21 North American premieres, three U.S. premieres, and twelve New York premieres, showcasing the most exciting comedies, dramas, thrillers, romances, horrors and arthouse films from East Asia.

Savage Seventeen: The festival has a rich history of presenting films that deal with the social issue of teenage bullying. Many of these have proven to be launching pads for some of Asia’s biggest stars, and the subject is at the root of such modern classics as All About Lily Chou-Chou, Whispering Corridors, and Confessions. In a year when youths in the U.S. are standing their ground and demanding political change, NYAFF presents the North American premieres of three films about teenagers who just won’t take it anymore: Kim Ui-seok’s After My Death, Ogata Takaomi’s The Hungry Lion, and Naito Eisuke’scompetition title Liverleaf.

More than ever, the festival aims to show that Asia is a beacon of cinematic excitement, its films as rich in provocative artistry and as emotionally compelling as those of its Western counterpart. In the age of algorithm-dictated curation and Eurocentrism, NYAFF holds two convictions: that taste in films cannot be deduced or reduced to one’s browser history; and that the best in new cinema is rising from the East.

Opening Night is the North American premiere of Tominaga Masanori’s “Dynamite Graffiti”, an unorthodox and sprightly drama based on the life and times of Japanese porn magazine king Suei Akira, who cultivated future artists such as Araki Nobuyoshi and Moriyama Daido. This spirited tale of sexual exploitation is an ode to free expression, proving that the so-called “smut” of today might very well become the art of tomorrow. The film is a metaphor for the humble origins of the festival as a Chinatown-born grindhouse showcase introducing the works of Johnnie To and several of the modern masters of Korean cinema.

Closing Night is the world premiere of Erik Matti’s “BuyBust” from the Philippines. On the surface, it is structured like an action film in the vein of The Raid, with superstar Anne Curtis and MMA worldchampion Brandon Vera as narcs taking down a drug kingpin against insurmountable odds over one unrelenting rainy night. The film employed 309 stuntmen and features a wildly ambitious three-minute, one-cutaction scene. Being a Matti film, it also offers a searing perspective on the ongoing drug war and broader issues of political corruption. The director and stars will attend the screening.

The Centerpiece is the world premiere of Sunny Chan’s “Men on the Dragon”, starring Francis Ng and Jennifer Yu. Always central to the festival’s DNA, Hong Kong cinema demonstrates the resiliency of an industry whose identity is easily blurred with Mainland China, but on which it also exerts a considerable influence and provides storytelling expertise and craftsmanship. The film is a quintessential underdog story about a group of blue-collar workers who reluctantly join their company’s dragon boat team. A directorial debut of a veteran Hong Kong screenwriter, Chan’s film is being presented one year after NYAFF had a special focus on first-time directors from the territory. Chan and actress Jennifer Yu will be among the attending guests.

Seven films will battle in the second edition of the festival’s re-launched Main Competition: Shiraishi Kazuya’s “Blood of Wolves” (Japan), Nam Ron’s “Crossroads: One Two Jaga” (Malaysia), Naito Eisuke’s “Liverleaf” (Japan), Dong Yue’s “The Looming Storm” (China), Sunny Chan’s “Men on the Dragon” (Hong Kong), Jeon Go-woon’s “Microhabitat” (South Korea), and Treb Monteras’s “Respeto” (Philippines). Six of the seven films are receiving their North American premieres at NYAFF, with one world premiere. Four of the competition titles are debut films, reflecting the festival’s ongoing support for new directors.

The festival honors its tradition of presenting awards to recognize outstanding talent and filmmakers from Asia that are still under the radar in the West.

Hong Kong’s Dante Lam has been at the creative forefront of the action genre for ten years, when his psycho-thriller Beast Stalker became an instant modern classic. The festival celebrates his career by awarding him the Daniel A. Craft Award for Excellence in Action Cinema and a special 10th anniversary screening of Beast Stalker on 35mm, together with his MMA drama Unbeatable and his latest film Operation Red Sea. The latter made over half a billion dollars in China to become the second highest-grossing Chinese-language film of all time, and Asia’s biggest hit of 2018. Lam attends our opening weekend to discuss his films with long-term producer Candy Leung.

This year, the festival presents two Star Asia Awards:

South Korea’s Kim Yun-seok is best known to North American audiences for his role as the grizzled ex-cop in 2008 serial killer thriller The Chaser. A decade on, he stands firmly in the top tier of his country’s leading men. Like his contemporaries Song Kang-ho and Choi Min-shik, he came late to movies after a background in theater. Jang Joon-hwan’s powerful drama 1987: When the Day Comes screens, in which Kim plays the frightening head of South Korea’s anti-communist bureau, hellbent on holding back the country’s democracy movement.

Chinese filmmaker Jiang Wu‘s career has bridged independent cinema and mainstream success for 25 years. Two decades ago, he was at the forefront of a new populist independent cinema about big city life that transformed modern Chinese cinema with Zhang Yang’s Shower. He has worked with Zhang Yimou (To Live), Jiang Wen (Let the Bullets Fly), Jia Zhangke (A Touch of Sin), and Herman Yau (Shock Wave). Xin Yukun’s part noir, part western Wrath of Silence will screen in tribute, in which his terrifying nouveau riche mining magnate falls into a trap of his own design.

The Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Japan’s Harada Masato, a former U.S.-based film critic. He is most recognizable to Western viewers for his role as the villain Mr. Omura opposite Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai. Since his debut in 1979, he has positioned himself as one of Japan’s most unique and important directors. While he has worked in nearly every genre, he is best known for tackling societal issues such as teenage prostitution, illegal immigrants, and the role of the media. Screening in the festival are his dark classic gem Kamikaze Taxi on 35mm, the recent Kakekomi (2016), a period piece about female empowerment, and his most recent historical epic Sekigahara, about the one-day battle in 1600 that defined modern Japan.

The Screen International Rising Star Asia Award recipient will be announced at a later date.

The Hong Kong Panorama, backbone of the festival’s programming, returns with nine features, including two world premieres: Sunny Chan’s debut Men of the Dragon and Antony Chan’s comeback House of the Rising Sons. Antony Chan is an original member of The Wynners, the popular teen-idol band of the 1970s that launched the careers of mega-stars Alan Tam and Kenny Bee. Chan, the band’s drummer, returns to the director’s chair after 26 years to present a vibrant biopic that avoids hagiography. Highlighting the miracles of motion and irresistible kinetic force that are the signature of Hong Kong cinema, is a three-film Dante Lam tribute, and an action-packed thriller run on July 4: Jonathan Li’s debut The Brink, Oxide Pang’s The Big Call, and Wilson Yip’s Paradox. Also screening is Chapman To’s family drama set in the world of karate, The Empty Hands starring Stephy Tang.

The China section continues to take a more central role. One year ago, NYAFF committed to supporting the new generation of first-time directors emerging in Asia with the Young Blood series, focusing on Hong Kong; this year the festival shifts to Mainland China. Once again, the films are heady and diverse in subject matter, including Hunan-set, rain-drenched serial-killer thriller The Looming Storm, Inner Mongolia-set sexagenarian drama Old Beast (produced by Chinese auteur Wang Xiaoshuai), and the razor-sharp Northeastern comedy Looking for Lucky, which revolves around a man, his father, and a missing dog. The Chinese film industry is changing fast, and trends are best reflected in where new directors are taking it. We also present films about the shifting rules of romance: Dude’s Manual and The Ex-Files 3: The Return of the Exes.

The New Cinema from Japan lineup is represented by one of the festival’s largest contingents of directors yet. In addition to NYAFF’s tribute to veteran director Harada Masato, the festival is bringing a group that could be described as defining a “new wave” of Japanese cinema: Naito Eisuke with his circle-of-revenge drama Liverleaf, Ogata Takaomi with experimental youth drama The Hungry Lion, Takeshita Masao with slow-burn drama The Midnight Bus, and Kanata Wolf with his slacker debut Smokin’ on the Moon. Also attending is actor Emoto Tasuku who brings his mischievous charm to the protagonist of porn publishing odyssey Dynamite Graffiti. Other highlights include Sato Shinsuke’s cross-generational superhero showdown Inuyashiki, Ueda Shinichiro’s meta zombie film homage One Cut of the Dead, and Yukisada Isao’s brutal youth drama River’s Edge.

There are ten films in the South Korean Cinema section. This year, female-directed titles represent almost half of the NYAFF selection. They include Jeon Go-woon’s competition title Microhabitat, Yim Soon-rye’s Little Forest, and Jeong Ga-young’s Hit the Night. Actress and director Jeong’s positioning of herself as a female Hong Sang-soo—she recently starred in and directed Bitch on the Beach—is itself a critique of the macho posturing of much of South Korean cinema.

The festival selected five films showcasing the uniqueness of Taiwan Cinema and the strength of both its arthouse productions and its genre output. Of note is the North American premiere of gangster film Gatao 2: Rise of the King, poised comfortably between classic yakuza and triad movies from Japan and Hong Kong. In complete contrast is The Last Verse, which charts a romantic relationship through the turbulence of three presidential eras; it was directed by Tseng Ying-ting, one of Taiwan cinema’s freshest voices since Edward Yang.

This year’s program features the largest Southeast Asian Vanguard selection yet, representing a fifth of the festival lineup. This region is one of the most creative corners of Asia, which NYAFF continues to champion in the film selection and guest lineup. Outside of Asia, arguably no other film event has so fully committed to exploring Southeast Asian cinema, which is at the heart of the festival’s future. Six films from the Philippines, three films from Thailand, two films from Malaysia, and one film from Indonesia will screen.

The festival goes all-in on the Philippines with the largest lineup in NYAFF since 2013. Three strong films examine the nation’s ongoing drug war: Mikhail Red’s Neomanila, about a “mother-and-son” death squad; Treb Monteras’ Respeto, set in the milieu of rap battles; and Erik Matti’s BuyBust. There will also be a special screening of Matti’s thriller On the Job. On opening night, NYAFF hosts the world premiere of Richard Somes’s brutal We Will Not Die Tonight, starring Erich Gonzales as a stuntwoman trying to survive a single night. On a lighter note, Irene Villamor’s blockbuster (anti-) romance Sid & Aya (Not a Love Story) screens, also starring Anne Curtis from BuyBust.

There has been a recent Malaysian New Wave reflecting the country’s societal and political changes, and it is only now reaching our cinema screens. NYAFF presents two films that would never have seen the light before 2018: police corruption thriller Crossroads: One Two Jaga and black magic thriller Dukun. The latter is the long-buried debut of top Malaysian director Dain Said, screening twelve years after its shoot was completed. Together with Brutal/Jagat (NYAFF 2016), these films hint at why Malaysian cinema is a territory to watch.

Southeast Asian Westerns: The links between the western genre and Japanese cinema are well documented, from remakes of Akira Kurosawa’s classics to Lee Sung-il’s own remake of Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven. But the western was also a genre embraced in Southeast Asia for decades, most recently with two Indonesian films: Mouly Surya’s Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts (which opens in New York on June 22) and Mike Wiluan’s Buffalo Boys, which screens on the final day of the festival. Like their Northeast Asian counterparts (the Manchurian western), the genre offers tales of freedom and emancipation with Eastern heroes rising against their colonial oppressors. This year, Wisit Sasanatieng’s madcap Tears of the Black Tiger returns in a special 35mm screening.

Young Art at NYAFF: “Safe Imagination Is Boring”
“Safe Imagination Is Boring” is a group exhibition of 10 emerging artists who have created new work inspired by Asian cinema. The exhibition features Asian, second-generation Asian-American, and mixed-race artists.

HBO® Free Talks at NYAFF
This year, NYAFF presents several free talks, sponsored by HBO®, at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center’s Amphitheater. They include opportunities for NYAFF audiences to meet festival guests from Japan, China, and Southeast Asia and discuss their careers, trends, and regional genre cinema. Guest speakers include Harada Masato, Dong Yue, Xin Yukun, Erik Matti, and Mike Wiluan.

The New York Asian Film Festival is co-presented by Subway Cinema and the Film Society of Lincoln Center and takes place from June 29 to July 12 at the Film Society’s Walter Reade Theater (165 West 65th St), and July 13 to 15 at SVA Theatre (333 West 23rd St). It is curated by executive director Samuel Jamier, deputy director Stephen Cremin, programmers Claire Marty and David Wilentz, and associate programmers Karen Severns and Mori Koichi.

FULL LINEUP (58)
Titles in bold are included in the Main Competition; the list excludes the surprise screening.

CHINA (7)
Co-presented with Confucius Institute Headquarters and China Institute
– Dude’s Manual (Kevin Ko, 2018)
– End of Summer (Zhou Quan, 2017) – New York Premiere
– The Ex-Files 3: The Return of the Exes (Tian Yusheng, 2017)
– Looking for Lucky (Jiang Jiachen, 2018) – International Premiere
– The Looming Storm (Dong Yue, 2017) – North American Premiere
– Old Beast (Zhou Ziyang, 2017) – New York Premiere
– Wrath of Silence (Xin Yukun, 2017) – New York Premiere

HONG KONG PANORAMA (9)
Presented with the support of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York
– Beast Stalker (Dante Lam, 2008) – Tribute to Dante Lam
– The Big Call (Oxide Pang, 2017) – North American Premiere
– The Brink (Jonathan Li, 2017) – New York Premiere
– The Empty Hands (Chapman To, 2018) – New York Premiere
– House of the Rising Sons (Antony Chan, 2018) – World Premiere
– Men on the Dragon (Sunny Chan, 2018) – World Premiere
– Operation Red Sea (Dante Lam, 2018) – Tribute to Dante Lam
– Paradox (Wilson Yip, 2017) – New York Premiere
– Unbeatable (Dante Lam, 2003) – Tribute to Dante Lam

INDONESIA (1)
– Buffalo Boys (Mike Wiluan, 2018) – US Premiere

JAPAN (14)
– Blood of Wolves (Shiraishi Kazuya, 2018) – North American Premiere
– Dynamite Graffiti (Tominaga Masanori, 2018) – North American Premiere
– The Hungry Lion (Ogata Takaomi, 2017) – North American Premiere
– Inuyashiki (Sato Shinsuke, 2018) – North American Premiere
– Kakekomi (Harada Masato, 2015) – Tribute to Harada Masato, New York Premiere
– Kamikaze Taxi (Harada Masato, 1995) – Tribute to Harada Masato
– Liverleaf (Naito Eisuke, 2018) – North American Premiere
– Midnight Bus (Takeshita Masao, 2017) – North American Premiere
– One Cut of the Dead (Ueda Shinichiro, 2018) – North American Premiere
– River’s Edge (Yukisada Isao, 2018) – North American Premiere
– The Scythian Lamb (Yoshida Daihachi, 2017) – New York Premiere
– Sekigahara (Harada Masato, 2017) – Tribute to Harada Masato, New York Premiere
– Smokin’ on the Moon (Kanata Wolf, 2017) – International Premiere
– The Third Murder (Kore-eda Hirokazu, 2017) – New York Premiere

MALAYSIA (2)
– Crossroads: One Two Jaga (Nam Ron, 2018) – North American Premiere
– Dukun (Dain Said, 2018) – International Premiere

PHILIPPINES (6)
– BuyBust (Erik Matti, 2018) – Tribute to Erik Matti, World Premiere
– Neomanila (Mikhail Red, 2017) – New York Premiere
– On the Job (Erik Matti, 2013) – Tribute to Erik Matti
– Respeto (Treb Monteras, 2017) – North American Premiere
– Sid & Aya: Not a Love Story (Irene Villamor, 2018) – New York Premiere
– We Will Not Die Tonight (Richard Somes, 2018) – World Premiere

SOUTH KOREA (10)
– 1987: When the Day Comes (Jang Joon-hwan, 2017)
– After My Death (Kim Ui-seok, 2017) – North American Premiere
– The Age of Blood (Kim Hong-sun, 2017) – International premiere
– Counters (Lee Il-ha, 2017) – North American Premiere
– Hit the Night (Jeong Ga-young, 2017) – North American Premiere
– I Can Speak (Kim Hyeon-seok, 2017)
– Little Forest (Yim Soon-rye, 2018) – New York Premiere
– Microhabitat (Jeon Go-woon, 2017) – North American Premiere
– The Return (Malene Choi, 2018) – East Coast Premiere
– What a Man Wants (Lee Byeong-hun, 2018)

TAIWAN (5)
– Gatao 2: Rise of the King (Yen Cheng-kuo, 2018) – North American Premiere
– The Last Verse (Tseng Ying-ting, 2017) – New York Premiere
– Missing Johnny (Huang Xi, 2017) – New York Premiere
– On Happiness Road (Sung Hsin-yin, 2017) – North American Premiere
– The Bold, the Corrupt and the Beautiful (Yang Ya-che, 2017) – New York Premiere

THAILAND (3)
– Premika (Siwakorn Jarupongpa, 2017) – North American Premiere
– Sad Beauty (Bongkod Bencharongkul, 2018) – North American Premiere
– Tears of the Black Tiger (Wisit Sasanatieng, 2000)

Last project of producer Abis Rizvi before he passed away in the 2017 Istanbul nightclub shooting, “T for Taj Mahal” is coming to the London Indian Film Festival. The movie, directed by experienced filmmaker Kireet Khurana, was supported by the National Film Development Corporation of India’s Screenwriters Lab. Despite a few weaknesses, the feature manages to point to social issues while being entertaining and sending a positive message.

“T for Taj Mahal” runs as part of the 9th edition of the Bagri Foundation London Indian Film Festival, that runs at 15 cinemas, across London, Birmingham and Manchester, from 21st June to 1st July, with 27 films, including features and short films, in competition. It is the largest South Asian film festival in Europe. Buy your tickets via this website, at respective cinema box offices: http://londonindianfilmfestival.co.uk/

Janet Knight, an American tourist, is visiting the Taj Mahal. She meets her friend, who tells her about this small village’s dhaba (roadside restaurant). This leads the viewers to follow the story of Bansi and his village, Bajjar.  The small town does not have a school, and Bansi, himself uneducated, wants a better future for the next generation. The generous man goes on a crusade to find someone to teach Bajjar’s children but faces the dishonesty of corrupted politicians and ends up empty-handed.

Bansi, epitome of altruism, then has an idea. He is going to build a restaurant and pay for the school with the profits.The main character does not lose faith when everyone is telling him his project is doomed to fail. Little by little, the other villagers rally behind his cause. The restaurant can open. Saneejar will take orders and Naturam will cook. The first obstacle is overcome. The establishment is opened but things still don’t go as planned. The restaurant doesn’t make enough money. Bansi, full of ideas and very decided, comes with a new policy. Clients can either pay or give time to teach the younger generation. No one believes in it, but after a while, the project starts working. New obstacle overcome.

Janet arrives to the village and decides to stay there and teach, as a sociological experiment.  She discovers the culture, systematizes schooling (that can now be expanded to girls and adults), and settles in. The future is bright, but the group of four has to face new difficulties.

“T for Taj Mahal” depicts charming characters, but that sometimes lacks nuance and depth. Although the actors’ performances aren’t bad, this makes the identification process harder. Bansi is pure and kind but doesn’t seem to have any flaws. Saneejar is the perfect side-kick, funny and good friend. Naturam is the rough man with a big heart. Janet is the Western tourist on her Eat, Pray, Love journey. Her character actually raises some questions. She is the red wire of the narration, opening and closing the story. Yet she is not indispensable to the story, and her voice-over is often useless. Moreover, it could be wondered if the movie was made while thinking of foreign audience. The feature perpetuates some clichés about India, and Westerners (including Janet) are put in a savior position, bringing the right education. Finally, the relationships between the different characters could have been explored a little bit more.

Nonetheless, the movie carries a message full of optimism: to not lose hope for things that matter, to have faith in humanity and in community. Moreover, it points up to the importance of education and overall gives a good-mood feeling.

On a more technical note, the film is relatively fast-paced and enjoys naturalistic images. The natural light is predominant, the film starts off almost as a documentary (due to the many handheld camera shots) and ends up on a more “classical fiction” note (no more handheld camera, many close-ups). This gives the movie a social drama aspect, while keeping fairy-tale elements. Some shots, enhanced by warm colors, are beautiful and make the movie worth-watching. The editing can sometimes come as a little bit off,  but this does not impact the movie’s coherence.

In the end, although some aspects are lacking, Kireet Khurana’s latest film is worth- watching as a feel-good movie that delivers a social message.

Tokyo-born Shugo Fujii’s interest in crafting movies started when he, at the age of nine, discovered the potential of the medium by experimenting with his father’s Super 8 camera. After his graduation from Junior High, he decided to move to the United States in order to become a director. In 1998, he received a bachelor’s degree at the California Institute of arts and one year later he returned to Japan. Fujii’s career as director started in 2000 when Tsunku, the famous music producer, chose to produce his horror narrative ‘Iki-jigoku’. While Fujii’s career as suspense and horror director was going great, he became inactive in 2009 after a certain event. After 9 years, the time was right for the talented director Fuji to return to cinema.

Yes. I was away from film making, but it is not because I wanted too. I just had no choice. In the year of 2009, I was making a horror project titled “Senritsu-Meikyu”, but some yakuza people took over my project and kicked me out (After they kicked me out, they brought in the director Takashi Shimizu. The film turned out to be horrible). After that, I joined a couple of projects, but somehow these projects were never completed. “Red Line Crossing” was one of the projects I was willing to make together with a major studio in Japan. However, I decided not to work together with them. They asked for a different ending which was not acceptable for me. That event made me decide to make this film as an indie. Because I strongly thought that this story needs to be told as soon as possible and, above all, in the correct way. Not telling this story with a happy ending; that’s my definition of “the correct way” for Red Line Crossing.

Is the problem of bullying and negligence by teachers truly that problematic?

I believe so. Bullying and negligence by teachers are at an all-time high.

Why do you think politicians are not interested in the problem – given suicide rates and so on?

Because the bullying problems never go away and are too difficult to solve. That’s also why having an interest in these problems won’t help their election. In the end, politicians do not work for their country, but for being elected.

Surprisingly, no parents of students featured in your movie. What does that say about the position of the parents?

“Wake up! Parents! The good old school days are over. No more fantasy. There are so many fucked-up teachers and fucked-up schools. What are you going to do about it?” That is the statement I want to confront the parents with and that is why there are no parents in my movie. However, I made this film as a metaphor of the crisis in my country. The school symbolizes my country; the students the citizens, the teachers the politicians. All the teachers were named after real Japanese politicians.

You show, in a very painful way, that teachers are not trying to understand the radically different world of the students. They are preoccupied with their social image. Do you think this preoccupation is the central problem in Japanese society?

Yes. But I think this problematic preoccupation originates from a communication-problem. Teachers and students do not communicate with each other. I have two kids and I can tell you that their teachers are not talking to them. That is causing the problem. And school and society are essentially the same.

You made some interesting – and highly effective – aesthetic choices in this narrative, e.g. concerning color. Can you explain your process of making such aesthetic choices?

While all my memories are so colourful, I see the world as so dark, black and white. That’s why I decided to make the past colourful and the present dark with almost no colour. The colours for the imaginary sequence of the student Manda were defined by three things. The sequence must give the audience the impression of “pureness“,“sexual”, and ”scary”. It was really hard to find a colour that had all those essences.

The movie asks for more attention to mental health in Japanese society. Can you elaborate this?

That is something I cannot answer quickly. But anyway, I can give you a short first version of my answer. I chose not to show the face of the students in the film. While the job of the teachers is to care about their students, they only care about themselves. I think the most important thing to make a relationship functional is to communicate with each other. But there is no communication between teachers and students. That is causing mental-health problems. However this is not only true for schools. It is also true for our society as such.

What do you hope your movie can accomplish?

Well, I want people to know what is going on with the kids and how fucked up the teachers are. And if a few people are able to realize that this film is also a metaphor for our society, I feel that this hope I have can be accomplished.

Can you tell us about the locations the film was shot? How was the shooting like, any memorable episodes good or bad?

This film was shot in 5 days and nobody slept for 96 hours straight. That was a nightmare.

Can you give us some details about the casting procedure?

Actually, I run the actors agent company myself. I trained the actors for many years and cast them for “Red Line Crossing”. But there is a fact that may surprise you. The cast members are not only actors. They are also crew-members. Yes, I train them not only as actors but also as crew-members. So they act, while doing production work like production designer, assistant director, gaffer, line producer, special make-up or grip work.

What is your opinion about the Japanese movie industry at the moment?

The Japanese film industry is a disaster zone. When they make films, they only care about which celebrity will be in the film. They do not care about the quality of the story. Most producers can’t speak English, so they don’t have an interest in the global market. For that reason, not many Japanese films go international. As a consequence, they make little money outside Japan.

I sincerely hope you will keep making such socially-engaged movies. Are there already any future projects you can tell us about?

I just finished a horror film named “Gitairei”, a movie about child-abuse inspired by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It turned out to be a great film and I hope you can see it sometime this year. And I’ve just finished the shooting of a movie titled “Ankoku” (a.k.a Dark Country). This is a suspense-horror film and will be complete sometime in October. And I got another horror film that I will start shooting in the fall. But I cannot say anything about that project at this moment.

After a brief “stray” with “The Third Murder,” Hirokazu Koreeda returns to what he knows best, the family drama, with “Shoplifters,” one of his best works of the latest years, which netted him the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. His brush with crime, though, seems to have affected him somewhat, as we are about to see.

Shoplifters is having its Slovakian festival premiere at Art Film Fest Kosice and later this year it will be distributed in theatres by Film Europe Media Company.

Osamu Shibata and his wife Nobuyo leave in a rundown house with their son, Shota, his sister Aki and her grandmother, Hatsue. Osamu and Nobuyo have some low paying jobs, while Aki works as a sex worker in a peep show club. The money they receive, however, is not enough, and they rely much on Hatsue’s pension, and their constant shoplifting, into which Osamu has decided to train Shota. The two of them shoplift quite frequently, but during one of their “excursions”, they stumble upon Juri playing on a balcony alone in the cold. Osamu feels that neglecting a child is a crime and decides to take the girl with him in their house, particularly when he realizes that she is also bruised and scarred. Juri ends up spending the night, and soon finds herself part of this rather unusual family, as all of its members seem to care about her. As time passes though, a number of secrets regarding the family members come to the fore, while reality eventually catches up with them all.

Similarly to “Like Father, like Son”, Koreeda explores the concept of family and what, actually, makes one. Again, he stresses the fact that blood relations are not as important as people usually consider, as much as the fact that love can come from any place. This opinion is highlighted throughout the film, but particularly in the heartbreaking finale, which establishes this viewpoint in the most shocking way.

Furthermore, Koreeda exemplifies the marginalized and the poor, highlighting the fact that they actually have to “indulge” in petty crime in order to survive, thus justifying their actions to a point, only to shutter this idea completely during the last part of the film. His general concept moves, once more, very near the borders of surrealism, but it is this ability of his, to portray extreme situations utterly realistically, that has brought him to the top of the genre (to say the least). In that fashion, I think that it is a true accomplishment that he manages to portray one of the most heinous crimes (child abduction) as an action deriving from love and caring, and a number of (petty) criminals as loving, even dignified individuals.

The acting is on a very high level, with Koreeda highlighting his ability to direct children in a way that makes them seem as long-time professionals. In that fashion, both Miyu Sasaki as Yuri and Kairi Jyo as Shota give great performances, and particularly the latter is exceptional as he highlights his growing discomfort for their practices. Lily Franky is the undisputed protagonist of the film as Osamu and is great as always in the role of the cunning but sensitive “poor devil,” while Sakura Ando as Nobuyo portrays the marginalized but content and sensitive woman quite convincingly. Kirin Kiki has perfected the role of the feisty grandmother and her role as Hatsue is no exception.

The production values follow the usual “rules” of the Japanese family drama. Ryuto Kondo’s cinematography focuses on realism without neglecting to include some very beautiful scenes of the various settings, while his framing, particularly during the last part, is exceptional. Koreeda’s own editing retains a relatively slow pace that suits the aesthetics and the story of the film quite nicely, although I felt that some scenes, particularly during the end, could be shorter. Akiko Matsuda’s set decoration is also exceptional, particularly in the family’s house, which is set up as messy as possible, mirroring the actual circumstances of the protagonists.

“Shoplifters” is a genuine Koreeda film, a masterful family drama, and of his best latest works, which definitely says something considering the quality of all of his films.

Under the brooding warmth of the secular sun, the state of the human experience is in constant flux. It is an age of traditional perversion: an age where moral codes are subverted for hedonistic voyages of pleasure; an age where national identities become twisted in a battle for a homogenous cultural society, defending the antiquated borders of the nation-state from the outside. To be young here is to relish in this pursuit of pleasure and to seldom worry about the repercussion of our actions – within reason we are entitled to make our own decisions and to do as we please. Those we look up to encourage us to pursue our dreams and mould our lives any way we so wish. For Nisha, who is bound to a heritage culture which neither approves nor even welcomes the lifestyles of their host, the corruptible indulgence of an adolescence submerged in alcohol, club music, and the carnal flirtations of the flesh comes at an insurmountable cost, not only to her freedom to pursue her own happiness, but also to her identity as a young (and bicultural) woman. Director Iram Haq removes her own restraints in exhibiting her harrowing semi-autobiographical tale of a life not free of consequence in “What Will People Say”, in which the film’s message surpasses the story it tells, both in importance and execution.

“What Will People Say” runs as part of the 9th edition of the Bagri Foundation London Indian Film Festival, that runs at 15 cinemas, across London, Birmingham and Manchester, from 21st June to 1st July, with 27 films, including features and short films, in competition. It is the largest South Asian film festival in Europe. Buy your tickets via this website, at respective cinema box offices: http://londonindianfilmfestival.co.uk/

A complementary piece to Haq’s feature-length debut “I Am Yours”, the beautiful yet tragic tale of loneliness for a Norwegian-Pakistani single mother, “What Will People Say” presents itself as a coming-of-age story where Nisha – played with unflinching realism by newcomer Maria Mozhdah – precariously treads between the world of youth amongst her friends and the one of her traditional Pakistani community, until a fateful and careless mistake brings the latter crashing with rage into the former. When she invites Daniel into her bedroom after a night of intimate flirtation, they are caught by her father Mirza – a towering performance wrought in complexities by veteran Adil Hussain – who unleashes a frightening wrath on the two. Pressured by his peers to make an example of her, Mirza forcibly snatches his daughter with him to Pakistan, submitting her to the life he and his wife left behind to, to teach her a lesson for shaming her parents’ reputation with her behaviour; a lesson fraught with reluctance on Nisha’s part, until she gradually accepts her place as a Pakistani teenager until old mistakes resurface once again.

Haq’s vision of the turbulent complexities of bicultural life delves much deeper than its premise – that of a second-generation immigrant caught between two worlds, who reluctantly comes to accept their parent’s culture once forbidden to have control over their own lives – one which has graced the silver screen in a variety of forms over the years; Damien O’Donnell’s “East Is East” and Gurinder Chadha’s “Bend It Like Beckham” immediately spring to mind. Unlike these films, there is a suffocating darkness closing in around Mozhdah’s understandably flawed character, which the audience has no choice but to endure. It is a darkness contrasted in the film’s diverse colour palette, one which strips away at her identity slowly before its uncontrollable spiral as the film approaches its harrowing finale (this is a thankful move on Haq’s part, as the culture-swap is perhaps this films weakest element and feels forced in scenes where Nisha is corrected in saying her culture instead of her parents’). Beneath the film’s admittedly bleak surface are waters of abyssal depths, where instead of playing on cultural differences, it exhibits the archaic notions of shame and honour in a community tied to its ancestral past and the unimaginable lengths which are carried out to restore reputations.

The devolution of Nisha’s treatment, not just from her parental family but also her extended family is where the true horror of “What Will People Say” lies. She is snubbed, beaten, harassed, assaulted, and threatened with marriage into a lowly peasant’s life and even death throughout the course of the film, all in the name of honour. As a Western viewer, this makes for very uncomfortable viewing as we are unwelcomed to witness the consequences of Nisha’s actions, ones which seem perfectly innocent within the realm of youthful naiveté as sex and romance are seen as rites of passage during our adolescent years. The struggles to keep such forbidden acts secret from those who uphold tradition are laid out for all to see and we cannot help but watch as Nisha makes the same mistakes in Pakistan, this time with more disturbing consequences, just as it seemed her lesson had been learnt. Youth’s recklessness takes its toll here in ways a young Western audience will be completely unfamiliar with; if anything, the film serves as a window into an antiquated world where women have a distinctly rigid purpose, where dishonour and shame are very real and treated with brutal severity. It is a world that is all too real for Pakistani women in an age where Western feminism is on the rise.

Just as horrifying as her treatment is Nisha’s degrading identity, a staple of the female leads in Haq’s films. Beginning the film as a girl who loves her family yet is openly reluctant to the strictness of her upbringing, she is transformed across the film’s three acts into a silent vessel who seemingly loses her fight to resist, completely numb from the world around her, and is reduced to a cooker of Pakistani food and good with household chores who will be too busy raising children to study and work. As previously mentioned, this is a reality all too real to those who have treaded in Nisha’s shoes, one which Haq doesn’t shy away from portraying – especially knowing the director has experienced similar circumstances. There are flutters of life and colour, where Nisha initially gets closer to her cousins, especially Amir, and in the striking landscape around her, but despite this, the emptiness of her situation is all too much and it becomes difficult to suppress. It is this realisation that her family’s honour is more important than her well being which deals a crushing blow, as she is passed from one continent to the next in an attempt to uphold this, with Nisha being told it is for her own good.

Ultimately, “What Will People Say” delves in the need for the generations to develop a deeper understanding of one another by immersing themselves in dialogue. Haq stresses the need for first-generation immigrants to realise the conflict their children are in, to put themselves in their shoes and come to trust them, whereas the children need to respect the choices made to leave their homes as well as the traditions which keeps them tied to the life they know. It is a crucial theme in the film as it is not just Nisha’s actions that put her in peril but the lack of a deeper communication between her and her family, where emphasis is placed on the fear of being ostracised from the community and the hearsay of their peers, an emphasis made all the more clear in the film’s moniker. The complicated relationship between Mirza and his daughter is used to great effect to drive this point home, for whilst there is a deep love for one another, neither one understands each other, both being isolated and alienated from their opposing worlds. It isn’t until the third act’s heart-breaking close where, after all the sacrifices made by Mirza and his wife, all the shame they have faced, and the tragic ordeal Nisha has been put through, do they finally see eye to eye.

It is the striking performances by Mozhdah and Hussain and the verisimilitudinous of their father-daughter relationship which keeps the audience from looking away with despair as events unfold and their lifelike rapport only helps the film drive its points across. Assisted by a brutal performance by Ekavali Khanna as Nisha’s mother and Haq’s brilliant use of natural ambience and haunting sounds to amplify the tension, “What Will People Say” is a film which feels all too real, and comes at a time when films by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, which display the perils of being a Pakistani woman even in the twenty-first century, Arshad Khan’s Abu and Lokesh Kumar’s “My Son Is Gay” – the latter of which also plays at London Indian Film Festival – which stress the need for dialogue and acceptance between the generations, are being released; a time when, even after the rise of Malala Yousafzai and other adovcates for female rights in Pakistan and beyond, women are still treated as expendable objects to uphold honour and social standing. As unsettling as it is raw, Iram Haq’s distressing film provides an eye-opening glimpse into a world hidden from Western eyes, an in-depth character and community study of how one innocent mistake in one world can prove fatal in the other and makes for an important watch in an increasingly intolerant world where understanding is needed now more than ever.

“I still have something to do.”
“Don’t be too reckless.”

Shortly after the release of “Beyond Outrage”, the first sequel he filmed to this day, Kitano stated how he wanted to conclude his modern day-narrative on the yakuza. Besides the financial success of the last two films, a conclusion seems to be the logical next step after focusing on the hierarchy within the underworld (“Outrage”) and its evolution to a business (“Beyond Outrage”). The last entry into the series would be centered around the individual and highlight the lasting consequences of Otomo’s actions and those of the other characters.

Outrage Coda is screening at the Toronto Japanese Film Festival

Despite their roots within the cinema of directors like Ken Takakura or Kinji Fukasaku, Kitano emphasizes how he regards his films as different from these traditions. Even though his approach remains stylized, the image of the yakuza as an all-present entity controlling parts of Japanese politics and economy was something he was after with the three films. Thus, his philosophy on shooting these movies has been to create a balance between a sensationalist style and this particular way of portraying the amoral underbelly of Japanese society.

In the end, “Outrage Coda” remains a film essentially about various ways of causing violence. According to producer Masayuki Mori, Kitano spends a good deal of time thinking of ways of killing off the large personnel of the “Outrage”-films. In almost Shakespearean fashion, the eventual demise of Kitano’s gangster characters comes as a true reflection of their violent lifestyles. Referring to “Beyond Outrage”, Kitano mentions how an environment defined largely by betrayal, shouting and scheming contains a lot of violence which will undoubtedly unload at one point.

It has been five years since the events of the last film and the Sanno-kai crime syndicate has been decimated and absorbed within the larger Hanabishi-kai under the leadership of Chairman Nomura (Ren Ohsugi). Otomo (‘Beat’ Takeshi Kitano), a former henchman of the Sanno-kai, was forced to leave Japan and offer his services to a powerful Korean clan led by Chairman Chang (Tokio Kaneda).

When a young executive named Hanada (Pierre Taki) causes trouble for Otomo and his men while on vacation, Nomura sees a chance to finally get rid of a few of his underbosses, namely Nishino (Toshiyuki Nishida) and Nakata (Sansei Shoimi). Ordering Hanada to make peace with Chang and his men, he plans on making the two underbosses eventually fight each other for a chance to advance in the syndicates hierarchy.

However, as this plan fails and relationship among the clan as well as towards the Koreans become volatile, Otomo sees his chance to settle some old scores with former partners and take revenge for his banishment so many years ago.

There is a familiar sight at the beginning of “Outrage Coda” as Katsumi Nanagijima’s camera looks upon a small gangplank with a few men standing nearby wearing Hawaii-shirts. The image centers on Otomo and one of his subordinates, a man named Ichikawa (Nao Omori), who is fishing. Talking about the ingredients of kimchi stew, the difference of cooking it yourself and eating it in a cheap diner around town defines the majority of the conversation between these two. The moment is rare, since the dialogues revolving around crime, betrayal and schemes will make up most of the dialogues to come. However, the appearance of the ocean, the color blue and the sight of the aged Otomo may hint at the return of a more philosophical, existential undertone reminiscent of works such as “Hana-Bi” or “Sonatine”.

More specifically, the world of the “Outrage”-movies has always been eminently cold. With the deterioration of values like honor and loyalty, as well as their replacement by a cut-throat business mentality, the environment of these characters is cynical, violent and without warmth. Kitano, always a director particular in his use of color, has created a universe of blacks and grays, of transparent surfaces and tinted windows. The sparse camera movement emphasizes this world of the “living dead” on the screen, one in which only death has become the absolute truth and certainty. In another dialogue with Ichikawa, the young man plans to take revenge for the death of a fallen employee. Enraged by the event, he ignores Otomo’s remark on how will most certainly die trying without having achieved anything. A certainty underlined by his chuckle following Ichikawa’s “So be it.”

Ultimately, one has to mention the meticulous design choices within the “Outrage”-films. Even though Kitano tends to change scenes while shooting, the final result is one of a true auteur, of a unique vision. For example, much like the environments in “Brother” or “Sonatine”, the distinction between the urban and nature has become almost suspended, has fallen under a process of “bleaching” (Casio Abe). Whereas the former highlighted the erosion between the cultural surfaces, in “Outrage” it may emphasize the image of the yakuza as indeed one of a whole society. While the bosses hide away in their mansions and wide offices, the “proxies” disperse to carry out the dirty work, which will likely only serve their bosses and lead to the servant’s death. People like Otomo have accepted the certainty of death, a characteristic branding them the ultimate threat to a hierarchy only afraid of not receiving a paycheck.

As a result, one might argue whether there is indeed some kind of development within characters such as Otomo. And while the previous film did not develop the character that much, the realization of death, the culmination of disappointments and vanished ideals have clearly taken a toll on the gangster. Although he might lack the nihilistic humor of his character in “Sonatine”, Kitano plays a stoic, a man of action rather than words, since the latter is only deceptive, as he had to learn the hard way in the previous films. Referring to the masculine, cold world Kitano creates, author Sean Redmond speaks of the body becoming the “animal” who has abandoned language and expresses himself almost exclusively through violence.

At last, there is the score by Keiichi Suzuki, who continues his work from the last two movies. Besides the cool, jazzy tunes, most of the music has a slightly mechanical, brooding quality to it. In combination with the static camera, the superficial quiet is interrupted, betrayed almost and slowly building towards a violent climax. At the same time, the actions on screen appear predetermined, confirming the notion of the certainty of death as a constant aspect of the film.

“Outrage Coda” is the final look inside the snake pit of Japan’s criminal underworld. As a conclusion to the series, “Coda” is definitely darker, more disillusioned than the previous entries. Founded on a great cast, a good script, a brilliant score and effective cinematography “Coda” is a worthy ending to the “Outrage”-series, whose best moments will remind its viewer of the director’s best works such as “Sonatine” or “Hana-Bi”.

Sources:

1) The presskit for “Outrage Coda”
http://www.filmpressplus.com/?films=outrage-coda, last accessed on: 06/13/2018

2) Takeshi Kitano on “Beyond Outrage” (part of the German mediabook for the film, released by Capelight)

3) Abe, Casio (1994) “Beat Takeshi vs. Takeshi Kitano”. Kaya Press

4) Redmond, Sean (2013) “The Cinema of Takeshi Kitano. Flowering Blood”. Columbia University Press

Sometimes there’s nothing better than getting your friends round for a back-to-back movie marathon armed with nothing more than beers and chips. Staying in needn’t be a bore when you’ve got this top five list of the best films to watch with your buddies, so grab the snacks and get your friends round for a night of movie mayhem.

Confessions of a Murder

If you and your buddies enjoy thrillers with a bit of gore thrown in, this is the perfect film to start with. A slippery serial killer has escaped the grasp of Korean cop,Choi Hyeong-goo, but not before the cop shot him in the arm. Fifteen years after his disappearance the killer returns with a tell-all book about his murders. The authenticity of the book and its author are doubted by many, but when the alleged killer produces the bullet that was embedded in his arm from Choi Hyeong-goo’s gun, people will have to believe him, won’t they? This is a fantastic film with plenty of plot twists and turns to keep you questioning what will happen next.

Once Upon a Time in Seoul

Set in the 1940s, this heist movie provides a credible blend of action and comic relief. Protagonists, Kanemura and Heruko become embroiled in a quest for a diamond, and as expected, they meet a lot of opposition and violence along the way. If tales about thieves, and gang action sequences are your thing, Once Upon a Time in Seoul is for you.

The Thieves

This stylish heist movie has more than just a hint of Ocean’s Eleven about itand indeed it was touted as the Korean version of this much-loved film. The Thieves was a box office hit in South Korea and when you watch it you will see precisely why. A fantastic cast portray an array of intriguing and sometimes amusing characters who set out to rob a casino.

21 Jump Street

Featured on Dude Pins, 21 Jump Street is a must if you need a night of laughs with your boys. Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum star as undercover cops disguised as students determined to intercept a drug ring. Obviously, it being a comedy caper, things are not going to go smoothly. Both actors are incredibly funny, with the script and direction making for a memorable film you will want to enjoy time and again.

Seven Samurai

Go all out retro with this 1950’s Japanese classic. Set in 1586, the film’s basic plot is that when a village comes under attack from a group of bandits, the villagers enlist the help of seven Ronin samurai to protect them. The bandits come to the village, yet decide to attack after the harvest to reap the benefits. With the farmers’ produce under threat, the village is left with no choice but to employ the services of samurai with no masters (Ronin) to protect them. This film is considered one of the greatest of all time – decide for yourself when you watch Seven Samurai.

Plano, Texas – Famed action director Dante Lam returns with this explosive follow-up to his 2016 box office smash Operation Mekong when “Operation Red Sea” debuts on digital, Blu-ray and DVD July 24 from Well Go USA Entertainment.

Buy This Title

Set amid militant unrest in a fictional Middle Eastern country, it tells the stories of a ship’s crew and an assault team as they rescue Chinese citizens and foreign refugees, resolving a potential nuclear crisis along the way.

A massive box office hit, the film is China’s first modern naval film and a celebration of the 90^th Anniversary of the Founding of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and the party’s 19th National Congress. “Operation Red Sea” stars Zhang Yi (Goldbuster), Huang Jingyu (Guns and Kidneys), Hai Qing (Finding Mr. Right), Du Jiang (The Wasted Times), Jiang Luxia (Legend of the Naga Pearls), Yin Fang (Fist & Faith), newcomer Wang Yutian and Simon Yam (IP Man).

Synopsis:

When a terrorist plot to obtain nuclear materials is hidden under the cover of a violent coup, only the Chinese Navy’s elite Jiaolong (Sea Dragon) Assault Team have the deadly skill and precision needed to take on the situation.

South Korean director Kim Jee-woon (“I Saw The Devil”, “The Good the Bad the Weird”, “The Age of Shadows”) has finally completed the live-action/remake based on Mamoru Oshii’s manga series, “Kerberos Panzer Cop” which has already had two live-action adaptations (“The Red Spectacles” in 1987 and “StrayDog: Kerberos Panzer Cops” in 1991), and one anime adaptation (Hiroyuki Okiura’s “Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade” in 1999).

His new film is called “Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade” aka “In-rang” and Warner Bros. has just released a new trailer for it.

Synopsis

In the year 2029 a special police unit has been created to maintain the order between South and North Korea while the two countries are about to create a unified government after 5 years of negotiations. Protests and demonstrations, pro and anti the new government, become fierce and the titular special force will have to confront the terrorist group known as The Sect, opposing the unification.

Starring Gang Dong-Won, Han Hyo-Joo, Kim Moo-Yul, and Han Ye-Ri, it’s due for release in Korea in July 2018.

Veteran director of the Hong Kong New Wave, Ann Hui is back this year with “Our Time Will Come,” a movie that retains all the trademark comfort elements that made her a legend. Produced and distributed by Chinese Bona Film Group this WWII drama movie arrives just in time for the 20th anniversary of the return of Hong Kong to China even if Ann Hui’s work is far from celebratory, and it was presented as a world premiere at the Shanghai International Film Festival.

Our Time Will Come is screening at Art Film Fest Kosice 

“Our Time Will Come” is set in Hong Kong in 1942, during the Japanese occupation and it immediately introduces a spy thriller atmosphere, opening in a secret meeting where a group of activists is planning a mass evacuation of Chinese intellectuals from Hong Kong to help them to cross the border with China. In the meantime, Mrs. Fong (Deanie Ip) earns little spare money subletting a room of her house to the exiled poet Mao Dun (Guo Tao) and his wife, while her schoolteacher daughter Lan Fong (Zhou Xun) has just declined a marriage proposal from her boyfriend Wing (Wallace Huo) who then decides to work as double agent in a Japanese office.

Lan and her mum are not happy to learn their lodgers are soon and inexplicably leaving. In fact, the two have no idea that Mao Dun is one of the intellectuals that are going to flee Hong Kong with the help of Blackie Lau (Eddie Peng), the fearless leader of the Dongjang guerrillas. When by pure chance Lan finds herself in the middle of the action and is forced to help Blackie Lau and his comrades to rescue the group of fugitives, she is profoundly touched by the motivations of the brave partisans and it doesn’t take long for her to start helping the resistance. At first, she just delivers propaganda leaflets, but soon she will become more involved and she’ll mature into the generous guerrilla heroin the film is based on.

Because of her decision to cooperate with the Dongjang, Lan eventually flees the city and goes into hiding in the surrounding fishing villages with the partisans, while her mum does what she can to help the cause (and the daughter) from a progressively deteriorating Hong Kong under siege.

Behind the spy-thriller veneer, this is a quintessential Ann Hui film and the espionage theme quickly reverts into the director’s trademark perspective, where the war is filtered through the eyes of ordinary people dealing with tragic and unexpected circumstances. Far from a traditional war epic “Our Time Will Come” is instead a powerful epic of endurance and struggle. Fights are sporadic and often in the background, what we rather see are the subtle details of the everyday life under strain, little gestures, stretching the rice, wartime economy, giving shelter, all narrated with Hui’s delicate touch and empathy. Every single scene of the movie posses an undercurrent flow of emotions but the director chooses to maintain a quiet and distant tone. Understated and realistically narrated the story unravels in front of our very eyes without using a defined point-of-view character.

It’s not the first time Ann Hui sets a movie in Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation, always with strong female characters. Unsung heroes of war times, women are center stage here too. Refusing to be called brave by Blackie Lau, Lan modestly delivers a line that most synthesize Ann Hui’s beloved subject: “Ordinary people do extraordinary things in extraordinary circumstances”. “Our Time Will Come” closes in modern days, life goes on along the neon-lit streets of Hong Kong. Resilience is the pride of Hongkongers.

Zhou Xun and Eddie Peng’s performances are compelling and both full of a very different kind of energy, while the noir and spy moods are mainly in the hands of Wallace Huo, but who really shines is (again) Deanie Ip. She is truly terrific, and it would not be a surprise if she bagged some best actress awards this year for her compassionate, funny and moving display of humanity.

Voice-over has often been one of the director’s favorite tricks and in Our Time Will Come she uses it in the form of an interview she is conducting in present days with former guerrilla members. One of them and main storyteller is Tony Leung Ka-fai in a poignant role as an elderly Hong Kong taxi driver once very close to Lan and lovingly fond of her. His tale gets really moving towards the end when we see his young persona in the story. Leung’s extended cameo is not the only one, many Hong Kong actors show up in little parts, Sam Lee, Ivana Wong, Candy Lo and we can spot the director herself, interviewing the elderly partisans.

The outstanding original score has been composed by Japanese Maestro Joe Hisaishi and in accord with the realistic style of the movie, is delivered drop by drop leaving long parts of the movie devoid of a soundtrack, but when it’s on, especially in the final crescendo, it is a goosebumps experience. Man Lim-chung’s excellent production design shows an accurate and fascinating reconstruction of 40’s Hong Kong, from the Lan’s family home in Wan Chai, down to the pier on the Victoria Harbor and the familiar landmark, the Star Ferry, while the guerrilla hideaway is filmed in the New Territories, north of the city.

Ann Hui is in great form and “Our Time Will Come” is another proof of her consistency in delivering solid universal dramas, populated by humane and relatable heroes. Easily one of the best movies of 2017.

“Our Time Will Come” is distributed in Australia by China Lion Entertainment

Winner of the Grand Prix de Montreal at the 21st Festival International du Film Pour Enfants de Montréal Film (FIFEM), “Relief” is a rather unusual children’s film, both for the central concept and the general style, which, after a fashion, functions as a parody of Hollywood movies and a rather pointy satire of the Indian ways.

“Relief” runs as part of the 9th edition of the Bagri Foundation London Indian Film Festival, that runs at 15 cinemas, across London, Birmingham and Manchester, from 21st June to 1st July, with 27 films, including features and short films, in competition. It is the largest South Asian film festival in Europe. Buy your tickets via this website, at respective cinema box offices: http://londonindianfilmfestival.co.uk/

The story takes place in one of Delhi’s oldest slums, where most people work separating garbage, and not a single house includes a toilet, forcing everyone there to defecate outside, near the train rails close to the slum. Pichku, however, is not able to “go” there, and instead finds ways to trick his father about the fact that he does his work at home. This act brings tension quite frequently between father and son, but things take a turn for the better, when an initiative by the local government presents money to the people of the slum in order to build toilets, to the great joy of Pichku. His father however, has other plans for the money and a series of events initiates, which has Pichku and a friend of his with the same problem, roaming the streets of New Delhi, where they witness the other, rich side of the city.

The parody of Hollywood movies aspect I mentioned in the prologue derives from the way the concept of the “American Dream” is presented in here. When one is born so poor, the dream can take the form of having a toilet in your house, a “luxury” that is considered a given, even among the “poor” of the “first world”. The way this dream is presented in the film, through extremely vivid colors, almost epic music by Shankar Mahadevan, Loy Mendonsa, Ehsaan Noorani, the rather fast editing by Archit D Rastogi and a number of dream-like sequences, heightens this sense of parody even more. On the other hand, Nila Madhab Panda deals with his main theme with such sensitivity and love, which truly buries this aspect under many layers, to the point that is somewhat difficult to discern if the parody was actually on purpose.

The obvious element though, is the social satire and the pointy social remarks, which deal with a plethora of subjects in the Hindi society. The patriarchic-driven family, the huge gaps between the rich and the poor, the role of the government, the mischievous nature of the poor, and the cunningness of the low level social workers are among the concepts most explored. The main one though, which stayed for me despite the ending, is the sense of hopelessness deriving from having been born in a place like that, where the chances of getting out and changing your life are very few, as a number of episodes portray in the film.

The acting complements the general aesthetics of the film quite nicely. Tathastu gives a great performance as Pichku, highlighting his character’s resolve against all odds, while Ranvir Shorey is quite convincing in the role of the strict father.

“Relief” is an impressive film, which manages to hide meaningfulness and social drama under layers of colors, comedy, music and dancing, in a package that succeeds on all aspects.

People trying to find their real parents is a theme that has been done a fair bit in cinema for a long time now. The latest voice to tell the story is that of Jason Wingard’s, who attempts to put a fresh spin to the tale and, for the most part, succeeds.

“Eaten By Lions” runs as part of the 9th edition of the Bagri Foundation London Indian Film Festival, that runs at 15 cinemas, across London, Birmingham and Manchester, from 21st June to 1st July, with 27 films, including features and short films, in competition. It is the largest South Asian film festival in Europe. Buy your tickets via this website, at respective cinema box offices: http://londonindianfilmfestival.co.uk/

Omar and Pete are two brothers who’ve been raised lovingly by their grandmother after the death of their mother and Pete’s father in a freak accident. After the death of their Gran, they are taken in by the family of Pete’s aunty, who clearly doesn’t like Omar very much. Upon finding a letter from Gran which talks about his biological father, Omar decides to find him. The urn with Gran’s ashes tucked safely under arm, Omar and Pete set from Bradford to Blackpool with an aim to scatter the ashes at sea and find Omar’s father, armed with his birth certificate and an old photo of their mother with the man who is allegedly his father.

“Eaten by Lions” is based on director Jason Wingard’s 2014 short film “Going to Mecca”. The 19-minute story from the short has been fattened to an hour and thirty-one minutes, but it doesn’t feel needlessly extended. In fact, it is to the credit of the screenplay by Jason Wingard and David Isaac that it leaves you wanting more. A fair few scenes have been brought over verbatim from the short, but several new characters are introduced to the story that are welcome additions. Humor is a strong point of the film, as evident by the casting of well-known comedic actors, and it often strikes the right chord. Themes of loneliness and a need to belong are nicely touched upon. There are, however, some scenes that do not sit well with the overall mood of the film. A scene that attempts to cause distress in the brothers’ relationship feels underdeveloped and sticks out like a sore thumb. The attempt to set up a romantic angle for Omar also feels feeble and unnecessary.

Omar and Pete really carry the story forward and the film required the right actors to play the part. Fortunately, both Antonio Aakeel as Omar and comedian Jack Carroll (of “Britain’s Got Talent” fame) as Pete are competent, if a little inexperienced. While Jack Carroll has played the character before in “Going to Mecca”, Antonio Aakeel is a more suitable replacement for Aqib Khan, who played Omar in the short. They are supported by a very colourful bunch of supporting characters played brilliantly by veteran actors. Nitin Ganatra as Malik Chaudhry, who’s allegedly Omar’s father, Asim Chaudhry as Irfan, Malik’s younger brother, Tom Binns as a Fortune-teller on Blackpool Pier and Johnny Vegas as Ray, a hotel owner who takes the boys in when they arrive in Blackpool are a delight to watch. Asim Chaudhry, in particular, gets the most to do with his character and is impressive. While Darshan Jariwala tries to make the most with what he’s got, the actor feels a little wasted.

Matt North’s cinematography does justice to the bright, sunny beaches of Blackpool and its nightlife. Certain wide shots are breath-taking, even for someone who’d be fairly acquainted with Blackpool and its surroundings. One particular scene inside Sea World, set against the backdrop of a huge shark tank with the characters in silhouette in the foreground is wonderful. Music is sparsely used but composer Dan Baboulene manages to set the right mood with it.

While it would have been nice to see the arcs of some of the other characters in the Malik family explored a bit more, “Eaten by Lions” works fairly well providing several funny situations and genuine laugh-out-loud moments.

Just when you think 2017 has been a good year for Taiwanese cinema, here comes a movie that upgrades “good” to “excellent”. “The Great Buddha +” is the debut feature film of Taiwanese director Huang Hsin-yao and it’s an extended version (hence the “+”) of his 2014 short movie “The Great Buddha”. Previously a documentary director focused on social and environmental issues, Huang has been helped in his new enterprise by fellow director Chung Mong-hong, in the role of producer and DOP. “The Great Buddha +” scooped several awards at the Taipei Film Festival and later the prestigious New Director Award at the Golden Horse Awards, along with Best Original Film Score, Best Cinematography and Best Adapted Screenplay.

The Great Buddha + is screening at Art Film Fest Kosice 

Like in his documentaries, the storytelling is aided by the director’s own voice-over commentary, punctuating the movie here and there with dark jokes, sarcasm, social comments or deadpan explanations.

The film opens with a striking scene of a funeral parade that looks straight out of an Italian neorealism film of the 60’s. A rickety, lousy band is playing (or I should say torturing) the Auld Lang Syne ballad. Pickle (documentary director Cres Chuang) is the drum but this is only a side-line job he does in order to earn a bit more money to spend on his elderly mum’s care. In reality he has a night job as a watchman at a factory and foundry where the boss Kevin Huang (Leon Dai) produces big bronze statues of Buddha, making him an important member of the community. In reality, behind the respectability, veneer Kevin is an unstoppable predator and womanizer, surrounded and protected by a conniving circle of corrupted members of the city administration.

Nothing really happens in the control room where Pickle spends all his nights and the only pastime is provided by his friend Belly Button (Bamboo Chen), a recyclable collector during the day who visits regularly to share with Pickle his lonely nights. They usually watch an old television while eating expired lunch boxes – sometimes still frozen – that Belly Button collects in his rounds and if it’s a lucky day, they can even have a pick at few “very used” porn magazines. One night that the TV is out of order and the boredom is unbearable, Belly Button comes out with the brilliant idea of checking the dash-cam footage of the boss’ Mercedes. Reluctant Pickle is soon sucked in this voyeuristic video game. Watching streets and tunnels unravel feels a bit like treasure hunting as the footage is dotted with saucy bits and pieces of dialogues between the boss and his sexual prays for the entertainment of the two bored friends. But one of the video clips reveals something that will make the duo regret to have been so noisy.

Strictly speaking, “The Great Buddha +” can be placed in the Thriller box (Find-Footage sub-box) but there are many more layers and keys to read it as the movie flies above the genres and lightly mixes black comedy, noir, social commentary and exposé of society corruption. But its peeping game is also a sour metaphor of the airtight bubbles and cliques that constitute our life and in specific of the impermeability of social classes.

In a reverse fashion to the traditional find-footage movie, “The Great Buddha +” is shot in a very crisp, contrasted black and white while the dash-cam videos are in bright and vivid colours. Like a portal on another dimension, the computer screen opens up a psychedelic world that our 2 losers, stuck at the bottom of society, can only imagine and that feels light-years away from them. In a surreal P.O.V. mode they peruse a city that is not for them, with colours they never see and women they’ll never have. It’s a world of “us” and “them” on the other side of the glass, but also the of “me” and “you” as in one of the final scenes of the movie Pickle sadly reflects, sitting in Belly Button’s bed-pod and surrounded by the soft toys won by his friend at the Claw Machine. As the director’s voice comments: “Pickle realised then, how little he really knew about Belly Button (and that) we’ll never be able to explore the universe of others’ hearts”,

The narration of this underclass world is populated by an array of eccentric and whimsical characters, beautifully sketched with just few lyrical details. Sugar Apple (Shao-Huai Chang) is a decent and enigmatic loner, Peanut (Na Dow, seen in Godspeed) is the lazy, grumpy guy working at the convenience store, Pickle’s spectacle-seller uncle is a compulsive trickster. Some truly memorable scenes involve a semi-nude pool party and a conversation between a congressman and a religious woman, heavy with innuendos and cheeky mannerism. Moreover, the karmic finale will leave you with a good deal to ponder over.

Under the pseudonym of Nagao Nakashima as director of photography there is Mong-Hong Chung, director of that other successful Taiwanese product, “Godspeed”. Impressed by the short “The Great Buddha”, back in 2014, he offered to produce and shoot this extended version. His elegant and artfully framed moving images play a big part in the charm of this movie, giving it gravitas and a very distinctive flavor.

An art-house movie with a humorous dark heart and a sarcastic observation of social insurmountable divide, “The Great Buddha +” is a very high starting point for first-time feature director Huang that deserves wide visibility and recognition.

The hopping dead of the 80s Hong Kong Mr. Vampire movie series is brought back to live in this lively but less comedy orientated tribute by Juno Mak, in his debut as a director.

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The story is pretty simple; a middle- aged man moves into an apartment in an old, rundown block of building. As it turns out, he intends to end his life there because of his career and family problems. However, he fails his suicide attempt and becomes possessed by some evil spirits that still haunt his apartment.

From here, we are introduced to the rest of the occupants as he slowly gets to know them and learn about their everyday life, while strange things start to happen. Soon enough, besides the living, we encounter death, the undead, ghosts and the granddaddy of them all, the hopping vampire (Jiangshi) fully dressed in his finest traditional costume of course. Welcome to the rundown building that’s the breeding ground for creepy, gruesome tales and black magic.

Juno Mak did a fantastic job on this tribute; he even recruited some of the veterans from the original Mr. Vampire movie series. The movie looks great and the special effects are believable, very well put together, full mark to the set designs and art direction.

Actor Chin Siu-ho, who plays Chin, the troubled suicidal man, is very good at portraying a tired looking, down on his luck and sad human being. Another actor from the Vampire series, Anthony Chan plays Yau. He is actually a retired Vampire hunter now running a small eating place in the building. Interestingly, he now specializes in cooking glutinous rice, which in fact was an ingredient used to hunt those hopping vampires in the old days. Consequently, the two men bond and face the Vampire that will soon haunt their building.

Kara Hui, another veteran, plays Yang Feng, who’s a traumatized character and mother to an albino young son. She is forever looking for her son as he likes to explore and getting into trouble. Accordingly, her search leads her face to face with the dreaded Vampire which ends up in a fierce fight.

There is also an old lovely couple, Uncle Tung, played by Richard Ng and Auntie Meiyi, played by Nina Paw Hee-Ching. One day, Uncle Tung falls down the stairs and dies, but Auntie Meiyi is too heartbroken to let him go. This leads her to seek help from a local black magic master, Gau (Chung Fat) as she is determined to preserve and bring him back to live. The scene in which she dresses her husband in the traditional costume is both very touching and sad. Nina brings so much human emotion in her role and it is a delight to watch her. Richard Ng, who usually plays comedic roles, is more serious here as Uncle Tung but is equally good. He is eventually resurrected as a disfigured Vampire or Jiangshi by Gau in which he proceeds to haunt the building block with his killing spree.

“Rigor Mortis” is a well-balanced, modern update of both 80s Hong Kong and Japanese horror genre filled with interesting characters that you care about. Juno Mak didn’t use lots of blood or gore to tell his story or to shock the viewers; in fact, the slow pacing actually helps to bring out the movie’s spooky and gloomy atmosphere. There are lots of references to traditional Chinese mythology with a touch of Japanese horror, courtesy of a pair of long haired ghostly twins.

Overall, I highly recommend “Rigor Mortis” to anyone who likes Asian horror because of its stunning beauty, moody atmosphere and a great study of characters.

Norichika Oba was born 1978 in Fukuoka and graduated from Japan Film School in 2003. Afterwards, he worked as assistant director for Hiroshi Nishitani (“Suspect X” and “Hirugao”), Yu Irie (“The Sun”) and Hideaki Anno (“Shin Godzilla”). His first feature film, “Nora” (2010), received awards at Tama New Wave and at Tanabe Benkei Film Festival. “Cyclops” is his second feature film.

On the occasion of the international premiere of his film “Cyclops” at the Nippon Connection – Japanese Film Festival , director Norichika Oba talks about the current state of the Japanese movie industry, his troubles shooting on a small budget and ultimately reveals the meaning of the Cyclops.

Your debut film “Nora” came out in 2010 and won several awards. “Cyclops” was released eight years after that. What happened in between that? 

I had wanted to film another movie for some time. But I didn’t see the point in hurrying the creative process just to shoot a film quickly. I had a substantial amount of time to work on various scenarios.

Between your two movies, you also worked with Hideaki Anno on “Shin Godzilla“. How was the cooperation with him and did it influenced you on your own way of making movies?

Mr. Anno is a philosophical thinker. He is usually very gentle and honest with others.
But when it comes time to make movies, he definitely refuses to compromise with others, which sometimes made me feel cruel. His personality combines strictness with devotion for his work. Though I’m not as gifted as he is, I’d like to learn his mindset as a film director. Of course, I have been trying to do so since I worked with him.

You shot “Cyclops” on a small budget. How was the experience and were there any issues due to the lack of funds? In general, how was the shooting like? 

It’s not easy working on a small budget in terms of paying staff, having a tight schedule and limited locations and actors. But the positive is having less staff makes communication more straightforward. I tried my best to work with my whole production team to achieve maximum results under tough condition. I have a profound respect for the staff and actors supporting me.

At one point in the film, the viewer is introduced to a picture of a Cyclops and the mythology of the Cyclops is explained. Why did you choose that specific title, and can you explain the meaning of the Cyclops in your movie?

I love the painting “Cyclops” by Odilon Redon. I was inspired by its hidden deep meaning,
When a similar image between Shinohara and “Cyclops” suddenly occurred to me, I decided on the title without any hesitation. Shinohara goes out in public after 14 years in prison. Moreover, he is exposed to a lot of information from others. Gradually he turns into a state where he can’t be rational which reflects this age where we are surrounded by dubious information. If you look at something with one eye, how will it look? You could lose a sense of distance and depth like Shinohara in the film.

Mansaku Ikeuchi, who originates from a famous film related family, plays a magnificent lead role. How did this collaboration come about, and how did you guide him for his role? Furthermore, how was the casting process like, for the film?

Mansaku Ikeuchi can naturally express various emotions like warmth, cruelty, and painfulness. This ability of his is what I admire the most. I had always wanted to work with him. He has a talent for understanding the cast intuitively. During the first few days, we spent a lot of time discussing how to act his part. Right after that, he became the real “Shinohara” without any advice from me. Most of the other cast members, I had worked with before. Thanks to their outstanding performance, I believe this film became truly powerful.

Your main character falls in love with a woman, who looks like his dead wife. This concept of doppelganger reminded me of Hitchcock’s “Vertigo”. What are your cinematic influences? Are you more influenced by Asian or non-Asian filmmakers?

I haven’t thought about this similarity to “Vertigo”. Maybe I’m not such a cinephile after all.
So many directors influenced me – Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Coen brothers, Clint Eastwood, Claude Chabrol, Edward Yang to name a few.

What is your opinion of the Japanese industry at the moment?

It’s been found that the average person in Japan sees 1.3 movies per year. The Japanese film industry is desperately trying to cater towards what people want to see such as romantic comedies. Because of this, the quality and variety of movies is declining. This is very disappointing. It is not necessarily healthy. Although I can’t see a bright future for the film industry, we still have to keep making movies. I want Japanese people to really see and appreciate how wonderful a movie can be. We producers also have to encourage critics to be more aware of the difference between artistry and popularity.

What are your plans for the future?

I have many ideas for future film projects. I would love to make the next movie as soon as possible.

The housing issues in post-handover Hong Kong has been a recurring theme in HK movies recently, as we witnessed in films like “Mad World”, which uses it as a base to present a number of social comments. New writers-directors Stephen Ng Hon-Pong and Nero Ng Siu-lun use the issue in similar fashion, although in a completely different approach, which lingers somewhere between the parody and the slapstick comedy.

The Sinking City: Capsule Odyssey is screening at Art Film Fest Kosice 

The script, which is based on the homonymous novel by internet author XXharuki, revolves around Hin, a very beautiful young man, who seems to have it all: education, money, a gorgeous girlfriend and the ability to persuade. His true situation, however, is quite different, since the exuberant amounts he has to spend for the apartment he rents has led him up to his neck with debts. In order to manage to raise money, he lies to his girlfriend about moving to New York for a few months for his company, but in reality he moves to a one-room apartment subdivided into capsules, where he begins sharing with Shing, the mentally unstable landlord, Sui Cheung, a former robber and convict who tries to become an actor, a deluded gangster named Fung, and Ming, a lorry driver who desperately tries to find a place to have sex with his obese girlfriend. The five of them eventually deal with their problems together, as all hell breaks loose around them.

Nero Ng and Stephen Ng direct a film, which, after an impressive intro, comes crushing almost immediately to the spectator with its rather intense style. The pace is extremely fast, the events that take place completely illogical, and the acting hyperbolic to the point of parody. This combination works quite well as it offers much laughter, although at some times, the jokes and the episodes take over the narrative, to the point that it becomes a bit difficult to follow what is happening.

However, underneath this slapstick and occasionally even crude style, one can easily find rather point comments that deal with the movie industry, crime and the way the police functions, (un)employment, and friendship and love, among others. The most important comment though, deals with the difficulties of living in Hong Kong, both financially and socially, with both issues deriving from the housing problems and particularly the fact that the prices have skyrocketed to the point than owning an apartment is considered the ultimate goal in one’s life, even among the “middle class.”

In that fashion, and as the fact that there is very little space in Hong Kong due to overpopulation is highlighted repeatedly, I could not avoid thinking that the film is addressed, chiefly, towards the people living there, with a number of very “indigenous” jokes also pointing towards this direction. This, however, does not mean that one has to be a Hongkonger in order to appreciate the humor of the movie, since the majority of jokes are not restrained to local circumstances (the ones involving martial arts for example).

The cinematography by Nathan Wong works quite well in presenting the various settings in the film, with the contrast between the environments Hin used to live and the one he leaves now being quite eloquently portrayed. Alan Cheng had a very difficult job editing, in order to retain the occasionally frantic pace, but he succeeded to the fullest, as the editing in the movie actually dictates its overall aesthetics.

The acting follows the same, extreme style of the story. Pak-ho Chau plays the gorgeous but distressed young man convincingly while Babyjohn Choi is great in the role of the naive “criminal.” The ones who steal the show though, are Andrew Man-Chung Lam as Shing, with his almost constant incoherence and a “Dude” (from “The Big Lebowski”) attitude, and Shing-Bun Lam as Sui Cheung, who manages to spend a whole film acting in absurd fashion, with his physique helping him much in that aspect.

“The Sinking City: Capsule Odyssey” is an experience that one has to succumb to, and abandon every sense of logic, in order to truly appreciate its slapstick and nonsensical nature. The fact, though, that the directors manage to include so many socioeconomical comments in this setting, is a feat by itself.

The wonderful trilogy based on the homonymous manga series by Yuki Suetsugu reaches its ending and its climax in the third part, in a one of the best adaptations of the recent years.

Chihayafuru 3 is screening at the Toronto Japanese Film Festival

The story of this part takes place 2 years after the second one, when Chihaya is now a high school senior. Her problems, however, seem to be more and more significant, as they surpass the borders of Karuta. The search for new members is more imminent than ever, since a number of the former ones are in their last year in high school. Even more, the new arrivals seem to care more for her and Taichi’s looks than the actual game. Both Chihaya and Taichi also have to think about the future outside of the game, while Taichi’s parents pressure him to quit Karuta in order to dedicate himself to the Tokyo University entrance exams. In a moment of spur, Arata confesses his love for Chihaya, in a concept that eventually leads Taichi to abandon the group, and Chihaya with a decision to make. Lastly, the emergence of Hisashi, the most successful player in the history of the game, takes on toll on both Hideo and Taichi.

Of course, and as in the previous two parts, Karuta remains in the center of attention, with the presentation of the game being impressive and quite agonizing, as it benefits the most by both Norihiro Koizumi’s direction and Hiroo Yanagida’s cinematography. In order to do so, Koizumi has implemented much slow motion, which, along with the Masaru Yokoyama’s music works quite well, although, at times, I felt he may have used it a bit too much.

However, and despite the epicenter, the social comments are more intense and more frequent this time, as the characters grow up and have to face love , along with their academic and, in essence, their professional future. Add to all that comedy, quirkiness, and the presence of Hisashi, who adds a much more mysterious and eventually philosophical element in the film, and you have the backbone of a great movie.

The acting follows the rules of both manga adaptations (with the occasional excessiveness) and the coming-of-age (reluctance to express feelings and an uncertainty about the future) productions. Always adorable Suzu Hirose as Chihaya embodies this combination in wonderful fashion, while Shuhei Nomura as Taichi and Kento Kaku as Hisashi are the “representatives” of the seriousness in the film. Mayu Matsuoka as Shinobu, Chihaya’s archrival, is also great in a role, which, this time, lingers towards the comic.

“Chihayafuru 3” is a great conclusion to a more than worthy of the original adaptation, and a very entertaining film.