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Mother

Andrew Heskins — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 09:00:47 +0000

A masterful piece of cinema from Bong Joon-ho, director of The Host and Memories Of Murder…

A single mother and practitioner of alternative medicines, Hye-je’s (Kim Hye-je, Mayonnaise, Late Autumn [dir. Kim Soo-yong] ) world revolves around her son, Do-Joon (Won Bin, Taegukgi , My Brother) a naïve and gullible young man with the mind of a child. When the body of a young girl is found in a derelict building, Do-Joon quickly becomes the first and only suspect by a police force seemingly only too happy to wrap up the case quickly, even if the evidence is hardly substantial.

With little help from her apathetic lawyer, Hye-je becomes determined to find the girls real killer and prove her son’s innocence.

The plight of the wrong man is a common theme in film, from the majority of Hitchcock’s main pretexts to Lu Chuan’s The Missing Gun and Roy Chow’s Murderer. It’s not often we see it from the perspective of the accused’s own mother, though.

It’s a clever spin that brings director Bong Joon-ho’s recurring themes of family – continually coming back to perpetual love/hate relationships and misplaced loyalties like some warped Yasujirō Ozu – to the fore once again to centre on the topic of unconditional love. Just how far will Do-Joon’s mother go to find the truth, and will she like what she finds?

Only his fourth feature length film, Joon-ho’s confidence as a director grows as he follows the blockbuster and box office success of monster film The Host with a far more subdued and personal journey that doesn’t necessarily play out as you might expect. But then even from his first film, Barking Dogs Never Bite, Joon-ho has been an expert at subverting audiences’ expectations.

With typical Korean black humour Hye-je’s journey quickly descends into darker tones. Her encounter with her lawyer and his friends in a karaoke bar, surrounded by escorts, for instance, swirls around in an increasingly surreal world reminiscent of Hitchcock’s often underrated and forgotten The Wrong Man. It’s a similar decent into an underworld far out of the control of it’s leading participants, or perhaps the real key is that Hye-je has spent her life distanced from reality to avoid mistakes she’d rather forget. The superb cinematography by Hong Kyung-Pyo matches this descent, following Hye-je’s journey to darker and more unpleasant environments.

It’s a poignant, heady mix that explores her devotion to the hilt, to conclusions that will force the audience to ask disagreeable questions of themselves and their own relationships. Last year in conversation Joon-ho admitted that he’d shown the film to his own mother and she’d not spoken to him about it since. Indeed, it shows just how horrific that devotion can become.

Veteran actress Kim Hye-je is superb in the lead role, whom Joon-ho saw as a ‘mother figure’ in Korean TV and film. In the role of Do-Joon, he amused himself and audiences casting heartthrob Won Bin (something co-star Jin Goo, in the role of Do-Joon’s iffy friend Jin-tae, thanked him for as audiences saw his role as far sexier). Indeed, Won makes a good job of not playing his character over sympathetically, but making him more realistic – full of flaws that can be exploited by those who wish to.

A fine cinematic experience by a master storyteller that stands up to repeated viewings.

Back in November 2009, Bong Joon-ho spoke at the BFI Southbank in London, which we reviewed here.

Mother is released by Optimum Releasing and ICO in cinemas from Friday, 20 August, and will be released on DVD by Optimum Home Entertainment on 20 September.

14 Blades

Andrew Heskins — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 09:00:24 +0000

Director Daniel Lee is back, this time with Donnie Yen and Vicky Zhao in tow – thank god this is an improvement on Three Kingdoms then…

The 14 Blades in question are a special weapon only bestowed on the leader of the Jinyiwei, a select group of secret guards to the Emperor honed from childhood into deadly martial art experts, subservient to his every merciless whim. Their current leader Qinglong (Donnie Yen, Ip Man, S.P.L.: Kill Zone, Bodyguards And Assassins) becomes aware of a power play by the leader of the Imperial Court eunuch Jia, abusing his monarch’s disinterest, but is bound by the Jinyiwei laws to follow the Emperor’s orders – even if in reality they come from Jia – only to find himself betrayed by one of his own men.

On the run from his own deadly Jinyiwei, Qinglong fins sanctuary with wine merchant Jiao Zhong (Wu Ma, A Chinese Ghost Story, Swordsman, Deadful Melody) and his daughter Qiao Hua (Zhao Wei, Mulan, Red Cliff, So Close) – until they realise just how dangerous a man Qinglong is to be around. In order to create a diversion and uncover eunuch Jia’s plan, he kidnaps Jiao.

He soon finds out that Jia plots with the exiled Prince Qing (Sammo Hung, Ip Man 2, Three Kingdoms, S.P.L.: Kill Zone) to take control of the kingdom, qnd has sent his deadly daughter Tuo Tuo (Kate Tsui, 72 Tenants of Prosperity, Contract Lover) to do his bidding. Qinglong must stop this alliance from happening, but finds unlikely allies in the Sky Bandits led by Judge (Chun Wu, Butterfly Lovers), but can he truly start to feel beyond his duty?

After the abysmal and frankly embarrassingly condescending Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon, Daniel Lee goes a long way to redeeming himself with this better paced, more fun action thriller. Sure, there are many common themes: Kate Tsui’s fem fatale is the spit of Maggie Q; there’s all that stupid, stupid dreadlock hair; hell, even most of the costumes look like they were left over. The film makes more of that spin on spaghetti westerns, and not just on the soundtrack this time.

Yet this time the characters get more of a chance to breathe. Wei Zhao is always a welcome presence (though my previously aired thoughts on Zhao in period dramas still stand – what, cast as another doting daughter?), and actually Yen is not at all bad. I rather like the way the film turns into a wuxia It Happened One Night for a while after Qinglong takes Jiao hostage. It’s all fairly predictable, but well played out.

And the action is particularly well choreographed by action director and Yuen Woo-ping collaborator Ku Huen Chiu (The Warlords, Fearless, Kung Fu Hustle, The Forbidden Kingd0m) – who even got a Best Action Choreography award at this years Hong Kong Film Awards for his troubles. After seeing Donnie Yen in so many more ‘grounded’ fight scenes, it’s actually rather fun to see him in a more ‘wire-fu’ based movie for a change. With such a long career in Hong Kong movies it is, of course, something he excels at.

The fights themselves are a delicious take on old school martial art movies, combining wire-fu with modern techniques they don’t overstep the use of CGI, a regular complaint of ours. (Though those hoping for a pre-emptive clash from Yen and Hung will still have to wait for Ip Man 2.)

Indeed, the whole film rather pays tribute to the martial art films of the 70s and 80s, updating them to a true 21st century look. The 14 Blades weapon itself recalls the increasingly inventive designs by Tong Kai for the Shaw Brothers for films like The Magic Blade and Deadly Breaking Sword, whilst the clandestine plan evokes Killer Clans. The pale eunuch a recurring figure during 80s/90s wuxia films, but most notably the villain of the original King Hu version of Dragon Inn. And just like then, it seems Hong Kong filmmakers hardly make films in Cantonese anymore, this is just in Mandarin.

Not perfect, but a lot of fun – this has enough going for it to appeal to Eastern and Western audiences alike.

14 Blades is released on DVD and Blu-ray (£17.99) by Icon Home Entertainment from Monday 16 August 2010.

Tokyo Gore School

Andrew Heskins — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 09:00:48 +0000

Battle Royale meets social networking on the streets of Tokyo, from Yôhei Fukuda, the director of Chanbara Beauty…

Fujiwara is an intelligent, good looking young high school student with a bright future who happens to hang out with bullies in order to not end up being a loser. He soon finds the (occasionally literal) boot is on the other foot when he becomes dragged into an online game involving school students where they must defeat each other to gain points, and prevent their darkest secrets from being revealed.

As pockets of allies start to turn up, from the nerds and wimps who stand no chance alone, to Fujiwara’s ex-friends who don’t even choose to play by the given rules, the game quickly turns from minor scuffles to deadly serious conclusions. But as Fujiwara’s secret is the darkest of them all, will do anything to protect it?

Despite the involvement of Yôhei Fukuda, director of Chanbara Beauty and cinematographer for the controversial Grotesque (which remains banned in the UK) and it’s rather misplaced English title, Tokyo Gore School is not, in any way, related to the recent spate of Japanese splatter punk movies led by Tokyo Gore Police and The Machine Girl. (Though things do turn rather messy by the end…)

Indeed I feared the worst from the film the second I saw the production company credit, JollyRoger, whose last film Geisha Assassin was utterly dire, but have to admit to being pleasantly surprised. Again this film is shot on DV, but instead of looking cheap (note to JollyRoger: DV, like Video, and historical drama don’t really mix) it adds a real energy to the piece. The editing is tight and keeps momentum through out.

Sure, Tokyo Gore School owes a great debt to Battle Royale – there’s even a hint that the ministry of education are behind the website and game (though god knows what that means of the general opinion of education in Japan?) – and in turn Lord Of The Files, of course. But there’s no doubt about the extra mileage Fukuda and co-writer Kiyoshi Yamamoto gain from the central concept, adding the social networking side and taking ‘cyber bullying’ to its next logical step on the streets of Tokyo. Such concepts may have been hinted at before, for instance in Kenta Fukasaku’s Yo-Yo Girl Cop, but never taken to this extent.

Fukuda lets the characters play out pretty well: the crushes, the angst, the rivalries, the fears – it’s all there. My only major sticking point is this: I don’t know what the hell is on the curriculum in Japanese high schools, but free running and martial arts seem to be top of the list!?

This ‘over basting’ of students abilities may make for a more exciting film – the chases really are quite exhilarating – but you half feel it really doesn’t need it. A more realistically grounded film would have had more overall and lasting impact. It’s not like everyone in Battle Royale immediately knew how to fire a gun; in fact very few of them did – so why do we need such an invention here?

That said, the cast do a pretty good job of making this believable. Really quite enjoyable – just see Battle Royale first, if you haven’t already!

Tokyo Gore School is released by Manga Entertainment on Monday 16th August.

Jackie Chan and the Kung Fu Kid

Andrew Heskins — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 09:00:31 +0000

The Karate Kid isn’t the only adolescent trying to crib moves off Jackie Chan…

Zhang Yishan is a 15-year-old Chinese boy who idolises Jackie Chan. Living in Indonesia with his grandmother and in his last year of Chinese-speaking High school, his grades are slipping. Though he loves sport, his academic classes are of no interest, and ability to actually read or write Chinese are severely lacking. He’s dreading a trip to his Beijing based grandparents, until he learns that Jackie is shooting a film there.

Using it as an excuse to follow his hero, Yishan turns up without a clue on how to get to his intended destination. Unsurprisingly this causes him a few problems, but along the way the people he meet (interestingly mainly female) start to make him reappraise his priorities. But will he ever meet Jackie?

Oddly marketed almost as a documentary (it isn’t), Jackie Chan and the Kung Fu Kid (aka Looking For Jackie) exists in a rather awkward world between real life stars as themselves, like Jackie himself and Bai Bing (New Shaolin Temple, Crossed Lines), and the rather juvenile invention of the script. Jackie’s appearance itself comes across more like those uncomfortable moments in a soap opera when a ‘real life’ star appears, than say Being John Malkovich or even Billy Idol in The Wedding Singer… well, are you with me, anyone?

(Hell, even Jackie has made better appearances in this mode – even in the diabolical An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn!)

Jackie Chan and the Kung Fu Kid is almost like one of those Children’s Film Foundation efforts that we (in the UK) were brought up on in the 70s and early 80s: not terrible by any means, but rather cheap looking and never quite, you know, all that. And let’s be straight here: this is a kids movie!

The biggest problem with Kung Fu Kid seems to be how it has devoured plotlines from bad 80s movies as the basis for it’s ‘realism’. On the one hand presenting us with quite positive role models for China in the 21st century, intelligent and kind, against one-dimensional, cardboard villains who appear to have walked straight out of John Hughes comedies like Home Alone. Exactly what is this film trying to tell us?

One thing’s for sure, intentionally or not this says some pretty interesting things about middle class China right now, with plenty of very Western originated magazines like Bazaar lying around.

Perhaps it’s due to the stars who were so happy to give there time for (quite possibly) very little, if anything at all, but ultimately this comes across rather like an advert for the Chinese film industry. Far from dispelling the myth of a glamorous life in film, even with the rather discounted sets, the camera follows the stars like a faithful hound.

It also makes it seem like there’s films being shot all over Beijing all the time – maybe things have changed since the Olympics but that definitely wasn’t the case both times I was there. Perhaps the films actually been funded by the Beijing Tourist Board?

The interesting thing about that is just how ingratiated Hong Kong filmmakers are into mainland China now. It’s not just Jackie Chan, John Woo is mentioned and so are a bunch of other Hong Kong stars. Old fans of JC will be happy to see another ex-pupil of the same Peking Opera school Chan was brought up in, Yuen Wah (Kung Fu Hustle, Iceman Cometh). Of course it seems funny to make such a deal of it now, but for those of us who’ve loved Hong Kong cinema for a long time it still feels quite strange.

The thing is, the kung fu isn’t bad at all – mainly thanks to the involvement of another member of the Yuen clan/ex-Peking Opera student Yuen Bo (PTU, Election, Protégé). But by it’s very presence – where everyone seems to ‘know kung fu’, like a bleedin’ shaolin monk – seems rather absurd against the attempts to set this in the real world.

And it all leads up to a rather heavy handed sermon from Jackie Chan that seems more pointed generally at young Chinese teenagers who may be not be respecting their elders and keeping up with their school work, rather than directly at the little toerag that is Yishan. I mean, please!

Sure Kung Fu Kid is okay, but kids will probably prefer even the original Karate Kid to this – even if Ralph Macchio made the world’s least convincing karate expert!

Kamui: The Lone Ninja

Andrew Heskins — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 09:00:31 +0000

A very enjoyable manga adaption from director Yoichi Sai (Blood And Bones) and starring Ken’ichi Matsuyama (L Change The WorLd, Bare Essence Of Life), but ‘probably the best ninja movie ever’… what, really?

Based on the legenadry series created by Japanese artist Sanpei Shirato in 1964, Kamui: The Lone Ninja tells of it’s eponymous hero, played by Ken’ichi Matsuyama (Death Note, Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler), a young man who has spent all of his life as one type of outcast or another. Attempting to find true freedom away from inherited cast and clan he turns his back on life as a ninja, making him a target for the ninja hunters led by his one time master Dumok (Ekin Cheung, Storm Warriors, Tokyo Raiders).

Kamui finds fleeting solace with spirited fisherman Hanbei (Kaoru Kobayashi, Princess Mononoke, Tales from Earthsea) who invites him to stay with his family. Yet even here Kamui discovers himself face-to-face with a long-forgotten nemesis, another renegade ninja with a deadly score to settle. And all the while the ninja hunters are setting a trap from which there can be no escape…

Director Yoichi Sai (Doing Time, All Under The Moon), together with co-scripter Kankuro Kudo (Ping Pong, Zebraman, Go), keeps the film close to its source, becoming as much about the social commentary that ran through Sanpei’s work as it does of great battles. (And presumably it’s where the storyline gets some of its ‘weirdness’.) The opening titles, perhaps cutest thing in the whole movie, actually use frames from the original manga to set the scene.

Here he greatly benefits from solid performances from a great cast that also includes Suzuka Ohgo (Memoirs Of A Geisha), Koichi Sato (Sukiyaki Western Django, Starfish Hotel), Koyuki (Blood: The Last Vampire, Kitaro) and Yuta Kanai (L Change The WorLd). Ken’ichi proves again just how compelling and increasingly versatile he can be, making sympathetic but believable lead.

Easily one of the better manga adaptions of late, it’s easy to forget beyond the seeming overwhelming trend that there’s something of a long history to live-action adaptations from manga, and from its predecessor martial art novels. A note that brings to mind two of the more successful efforts from the same period as the original Kamui manga, Zatoichi and Lone Wolf And Cub. The former expanded from a minor character in a novel, the later itself very close to the original material.

Arguably Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima’s work picked up where Sanpei left off, itself a well research commentary on social status both then and now. Of course, the film adaptions of Lone Wolf and Cub fell foul of the early 80s video nasties label. Though violent, the films embodied the original manga values and visual composition, making them both poignant and surprisingly beautiful.

With Kamui, Yoichi has created something rather similar, having some for the almost deliberate over-the-top approach of samurai and martial art movies from the late 70s and early 80s, like Lone Wolf, many Shaw Brothers films, and even Ching Siu-tung’s delightful Duel to the Death.

But ‘Probably the best ninja movie ever made’ as critic Tony Ryans said?. That quote may have been somewhat overused (largely by myself) but I admit it gave me high expectations for Kamui which were not quite fulfilled. The overuse of CGI is frankly distracting, as though animating humans may not quite look as bad as it used to, it’s still a bit weird. I’d rather see more clever use of wire work and editing. The recent Goemon did a better job (though admittedly you might expect that from green screen king Kazuaki Kiriya). Then there’s just odd uses of it in other places, like the awkward superimposing of water when the characters are on a calm sea, and so on – it just seems a bit cheap and needless.

Visually the film fails to really find a character for itself. It’s well shot but in quite a mainstream Western action movie bland sort of a way. The aforementioned comparison with those old Lone Wolf movies is not favourable.

So ‘best movie’? Perhaps if your reference point is Ninja Assassin or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but no, I wouldn’t go that far. But enjoyable, and with a deliberately open ended conclusion, I wouldn’t mind betting there’ll be more on the way soon…

Kamui: The Lone Ninja is released on DVD and Blu-Ray by Manga Entertainment on 9 August.

Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler

Andrew Heskins — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 09:00:32 +0000

The cast of Death Note reunite for another live-action version of a manga and anime, this time with a gruellingly perilous walk across a girder between two skyscrapers (not for vertigo suffers!)…

Kaiji (Tatsuya Fujiwara, Death Note, Battle Royale) is one hell of a loser. A part time convenience store clerk, he dreams of making the big time of a scratchcard, frustrated by the unfiar hand fate has dealt him. That all changes when loan shark Rinko Endo (Yûki Amami, Ponyo) arrives to collect a debt he seemingly signed as guarantor on. She gives him a choice, pay it off for the next 10 years, on spend a night on a gambling boat and no only pay it off but have a chance of making a whole lot more.

On the boat he finds himself surrounded by similarly asset-challenged, no hope (read loser) men, and a lot more a stake than his debt – his very life…!

Based on Nobuyuki Fukumoto’s manga Tokaku Mokshiroku Kaiji, aka Kaiji – Ultimate Survivor, and a 26-part anime series, like Death Note, the film suffers from trying to condense the events of the long-running manga and anime into a relatively short running time, jettisoning much of the stories more complex aspects to concentrate (and dwell far too long on) on what the filmmakers consider to be the more dramatic elements.

In the case of Kaiji that means losing much of the original stories power, the repetitiveness of having Kaiji himself bet all in the hope of escaping his imprisonment, facing one tortuous challenge after another, only to have that hope dashed time and time again. By reducing that to a couple of events, that residual building of hope over a substantial amount of time, and of Kaiji’s character, is lost.

Tatsuya Fujiwara as an entirely unsympathetic character as he was in Death Note, if for different reasons. That is, of course, part of the satire of Nobuyuki Fukumoto’s original manga, a comment on well-educated young men who consider they ‘deserve’ a fair break, without ever working towards it. (The irony being that much of the manga’s core audience would be men just like this?) The trouble is Kaiji doesn’t really seem to grow as a person, to stop breaking into tears at each trial that comes along.

The same isn’t true of co-star Ken’ichi Matsuyama (Death Note, L: Change the World, Bare Essence Of Life, Kamui: The Lone Ninja). Appearing in little more than an extended cameo Kenichi acts Tatsuya (and everyone else) off the screen, giving a depth to his underdeveloped role only he could. The cast also incudes Teruyuki Kagawa (20th Century Boys, Tokyo Sonata) and Taro Yamamoto (Princess Racoon, Battle Royale), but it’s Yûki Amami, best know for TV work such Wasted Land and Boss, who shines as the debt collector boss who may, or may not, have a heart.

Of all the scenes, it’s the gruelling walk across the girders between the two skyscrapers that catches your attention. Excruciatingly stretched out over 20 minutes, it comes closest to capturing the unpleasant torture of the original manga. It’s pretty effectively played – almost unbearably for us vertigo suffers – but as with much of the film it’s just a little too long.

Again, the script by Mika Omori (Detroit Metal City) has many of the same flaws as Death Note, the main one being that the denouncements are nowhere near as clever as they’d like us to believe – and definitely not worth waiting for.

All that said, this is still more enjoyable the Death Note: The Last Name…

Goemon

Andrew Heskins — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 09:00:04 +0000

Director Kazuaki Kiriya’s follow-up to Casshern is as visually dazzling as its predecessor – thank god it’s a bit easier to understand, too…!

In 2004 fashion photographer and music video director Kazuaki Kiriya burst onto the filmmaking scene with his mind-blowing adaption of an early 70s manga and anime series, Casshern. One of the first movies to be shot almost entirely on a studio back lot with it’s actors against a greenscreen, it was a dazzling, imaginative vision of a future world, the nearest to a proper live-action version of an anime we will probably ever see.

Unfortunately it was so much of a visual overload that it made what narrative there was all but incomprehensible!

Five years on Kazuaki is back with a similarly breathtaking period tale of action and adventure, Goemon.

It’s 1582 and the ruler of Japan Oda Nobunaga has been brutally murdered leaving the country in a state of political chaos. Master thief Ishikawa Goemon (Yosuke Eguchi, Shaolin Girl) has risen as a hero of the people due to his inclination to take from the rich and give to the poor. His latest haul could get him in trouble, as it includes small box that holds a secret that could rock the kingdom to its roots.

Unfortunately for Goemon, he’s discarded it into the crowds, caught by a street urchin. On discovering it’s value he quickly tries to reclaim it, only to find it’s also come to the attention of legendary swordsman Matahachi (Tetsuji Tamayama, Norwegian Wood, Casshern) and legendary ninja Hattori Hanzo (Susumu Terajima, Hana yori mo naho, Casshern, Ichi The Killer, Hana-Bi).

Soon there’s far more at stake than untold riches, as it transpires there’s far more to Goemon than meets the eye. But can he save the nation from destruction – does he even care anymore?

Produced by Takashige Ichise, best known for launching so-called J Horror with films like Ringu, Dark Water, Ju-On: The Grudge, and Shutter, director Kazuaki Kiriya’s latest film is as sumptuous a creation as Casshern. As with his earlier film, Kiriya’s obsession with classical art creates a beautiful sets and costumes as Renaissance art mixes with a baroque vision of Feudal period Japanese design.

There’s definitely a particular style at work, and Goemon’s tendency to wear masks that cover the lower half of his face is just one of many similarities with the films predecessor. The pacing and basic plot structure is almost an exact duplicate, as are many of the filming techniques used and black and white for flashback, etc – but here at least Kiriya lets the characters breathe a little more. And if the conclusion is, once again, that war is terrible and countless innocents are lost just so warring commanders can make their plays for power (yada yada), then at least this time Kiriya doesn’t take himself quite as seriously. It’s easily a lot more fun than Casshern, and this time there’s much more focus on shooting the action, and more combat between humans rather than CGI’d robots and endless jetting around.

Sure, there is a mass of CGI, and with the period setting this makes the film seem a little less original than Casshern. Computer generated fireflies, for instance, seem to have been used countless times now, including way back in The Storm Riders. The film itself is rather like an extreme version of Chen Kaige’s The Promise, but, again, perhaps a bit more enjoyable.

The character of Ishikawa Goemon is indeed a real folk hero, Japan’s equivalent of Robin Hood, who has been referenced in films and media many times before, including as a regular character in the animated series Lupin The Third (Lupin III), occasionally directed by a pre-Studio Ghibli Hayao Miyazaki. Like our very own (though rather older) Robin Hood folk tale, very little is known in truth about this figure. Even then (surprise surprise!) it’s hard to find much correlation between any of the known legends and Kiriya’s take on them, let alone the actual documented historical events. (Though many of the characters are named after real Feudal figures of the time, such as Mitsunari Ishida, played by Jun Kaname, Blood, K-20: Legend of the Mask, Turtles Are Surprisingly Fast Swimmers, and Hideyoshi Toyotomi, played by Eiji Okuda, The Sea Is Watching, Black Kiss.)

See it as a Casshern 2.0 and you won’t be far off. It might not be quite it’s visual equal, but it’s a far better story – and that’s got to be a good thing!

Goemon (cert. 15) is released by Momentum Pictures and will open at selected UK cinemas this Friday, 23rd July 2010.

Casshern

Andrew Heskins — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 09:00:46 +0000

Visually one of the most inventive films of the last decade, but ex-promo director and fashion photographer Kazuaki Kiriya’s movie debut is rather like watching a two and a half hour long music video – unintelligible and actually a bit dull…

In a near-future a fifty-year war between the Eastern Federation and Europa has finally come to an end, with the federation taking control of the Eurasian continent. And yet the war goes on, with a new rebellion breaking out in one former Eurasian zone.

Amid this ongoing chaos, Dr Azuma (Akira Terao, Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams, Ran) proposes a solution to depleting armed forces, the invention of a neo cell that can regenerate any human tissue. Kaoru Naito (Mitsuhiro Oikawa), a representative of Nikko Hairal Inc., soon helps him get the cells into production, yet his experiments seem fruitless until a mysterious lightning bolt stimulates the cells, and regenerates the cells into new mutants, who call themselves ‘neo sapiens’.

That same night Azuma’s son, Tetsuya (Yusuke Iseya, After Life, Memories of Matsuko) body is returned home, a casualty of war. Azuma tries the neo cells on his body and brings him back to life, though it takes the father of his fiancé Luna (Kumiko Aso, Bare Essence of Life, Kaidan), Dr Kozuki (Fumiyo Kohinata), to build him an ectoskeleton to allow his body to survive it’s new abilities.

With the leader of the neo sapiens, Burai (Toshiaki Karasawa, 20th Century Boys) and his surviving associates including Barashin (Jun Kaname, Blood, Goemon) having reanimated a dormant army of robots, now only Tetsuya, having adopted the name of legendary Eurasian saviour Casshern, stands between them and their goal of annihilating mankind…

Casshern was one of the first films to be shot almost entirely against a green screen, with all but the actors and costumes themselves actually composites of 2D and 3D computer generated graphics, alongside contempory films like Sin City, Able Edwards and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Visually easily the most ambitious of the films, it’s a fascinating vision of a futuristic world, if not as successful as Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller’s ‘comic book-ification’ of Miller’s Sin City.

Indeed director Kiriya takes many of his visual cues from the original series, including those cheap ‘anime’ style battles where the animators would show a still of the participants against a moving background. It’s the closest I’ve seen to a proper live-action version of an anime, and yet it doesn’t help the narrative, with Kiriya more interested in plaintive conversations between combatants than the fights themselves.

It’s Kiriya’s convoluted take on the original story – which from all accounts appears to have simply been Casshern versus the robots – that is the real problem here. Too interested with how the film looks, he introduces to many elements into the narrative without really wanting to take them to their conclusion. Kiriya may have publicly counted Shakespeare’s Hamlet amongst his influences for the film (and there sure is plenty of family tragedy), but this is far harder to follow.

Accidently or not, themes of endless wars begun for nefarious reasons, with hints of a larger corporate companies behind them, is reminiscent of Japanese author Hiroshi Mori’s work, recently adapted by anime supremo Mamoru Oshii as The Sky Crawlers. Interestingly the look of the military uniforms, so obviously Nazi-based, is all too reminiscent of those in Oshii’s Jigoku no banken trilogy, culminating in Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade. Kiriya’s futuristic vision is also evocative of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (much more than Blade Runner), of which a 40s adaptation by Astro Boy creator Osamu Tezuka had only recently remade when the film was originally released.

Those who’ve seen Kiriya’s latest film Goemon will recognise the director’s declamation of the needless perpetuity of war. Fair enough, but he does seem to go on about it. And the film is way too long, though the US cut removing 20 minutes definitely doesn’t help.

Casshern is a beautiful movie that proves the strength of using green screen if you have a powerful imagination behind it. In this case that mind may be a little too distracted to follow an narrative, but it’s still impressive. In spite of the film weaknesses, if not because of them, Casshern will take repeated viewings well, as there really is so much going on.

Just don’t expect to enjoy it too much.

Goemon (cert. 15) is released by Momentum Pictures and will open at selected UK cinemas this Friday, 23rd July 2010.

Merantau Warrior

Andrew Heskins — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 09:00:49 +0000

In some corners they would like you to see this as a successor to Ong Bak, but perhaps the biggest shame about this cliché ridden film is that the lead Iko Uwais’ performance isn’t half bad…

Yuda (Iko Uwais), a skilled killed practitioner of Silat Harimau, travels from the small village he was brought up in to make his way in the big city of Jakarta. Naive and innocent, it’s not long before street urchin Adit (Yusuf Aulia) steals his wallet.

On retrieving it, he saves Adit ‘s older sister Astri (Sisca Jessica) from a local thug involved in human trafficing. The only trouble is the thug wants revenge, as do his Western bosses…

And there you have it. Well, no one’s going to accuse Welsh-born director Gareth (G.H.) Evans of originality. This film runs with every cliché under the sun. Smalltown boy, big city, check. Attractive young girl involved in sex trade (to suggest that’s all there is in an South East Asian city?), check. Western bad guys, check. Stupid reason to go back to the bad guys hangout, check. And so on…

Which is kind of a shame, as otherwise Evans actually comes across as sympathetic towards the Asian and tradition he’s portraying – my biggest concern with Western directors working on Asian films. He gets strong performances from his Asian leads too, but the same can’t be said for Mads Koudal as Ratger despite a reasonable amount of experience and Laurent Buson as his brother and lead henchman Lars.

On the whole Merantau is pretty well shot, it’s not as if comes across as in any way amateurish, yet some sequences seem too loose for their own good. The choreography is tight, the scenes high up on roofs and scaffolding are particularly thrilling, but there’s a noticeable ‘hanging back’ by some of the participants in fight sequences that a better choreographer or editor would be able to hide.

Adept as Uwais is, the Silat Harimau style of fighting seems repetitive and lacks the aerial acrobatics that the Ong Bak crew put into their version of Muay Thai. It very quickly becomes rather dull, and the inevitable drawn out finale between Uwais and the Western bad guys quickly becomes rather forgettable. This is not the spectacle of Ong Bak, there’s little of the outstanding stunt work that made that film so special, or the more gimmicky fight scenes that made follow-ups like Chocolate or Raging Phoenix so enjoyable.

The film too easily descends into an attempt to be a kung fu movie, when it’s initial premise (at least in terms of acting performance) held so much more. The real shame of Merantau Warrior is that Uwais is actually a far better actor than Tony Jaa. Which may sound like faint praise, but it’s plainly obvious that a role that concentrates less on kung fu and more of a real plotline could really turn him into a star.

Interestingly, the Indonesian cut runs at nearly 30 minutes longer than the international release, an amount not accounted for in the deleted scenes included on the UK DVD. It makes you wonder exactly which elements director Evans took longer over, the fight scenes (unlikely) or perhaps more the all-important character building scenes?

Ultimately Merantau Warrior is definitely not Ong Bak, but we may well have a future star in the making in Iko Uwais – let’s hope he get’s the right role next time…!

Merantau Warrior was released on DVD by E1 Entertainment on 7 June.

The Storm Warriors

Andrew Heskins — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 09:00:32 +0000

A decade on Ekin Cheng and Aaron Kwok return as Wind and Cloud in this highly-anticipated sequel to The Storm Riders by The Pang Brothers, directors of The Eye – but if special effects have come a long way in that time, the art of narrative seems somewhat lacking…

Back in 1998 The Storm Riders was a pivotal moment in Hong Kong filmmaking. Directed by Andrew Lau and co-produced by digital effects company Centr0, it was one of the first HK films to use CGI to great effect. Based on the popular manhua or comic book by Ma Wing-Shing, Fung Wan, it reinvigorated the wuxia / swordplay genre – just in time for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. But whereas Ang Lee would play up far more traditional influences of the 60s and 70s, Lau pulled heavily his own popular Young And Dangerous to appeal to a post-MTV generation.

(And arguably it helped the comic book movie makeover boom of the late 90s, early noughties, too.)

Now the Pang Brothers (whose Danny Pang co-edited the original) have brought together the original leads Cheng and Kwok for a spectacular, dazzling follow-up.

Many years on from the events of The Storm Riders, China now finds itself in the grip of an invading army led by ruthless Japanese warlord Lord Godless (Simon Yam, Vengeance, Election) and his son Heart (Nicholas Tse, The Promise, Bodyguards And Assassins), both hell bent on ruling the nation. Wind (Ekin Cheng, Tokyo Raiders, Forest of Death, Heroic Duo) and Cloud (Aaron Kwok, Murderer, Divergence, Saviour Of The Soul) are not a match, and even legendary martial artist Nameless can not defeat him.

With time running out for China and the captured royal family, both Cloud and Wind try desperate measure to turn the tables: Cloud becomes Nameless’ new disciple, creating a new sword fighting style; Wind decides to learn evil martial arts, but can he keep his dark side in check? Soon these old friends find themselves pitted against each other for the future of China.

I rather liked the idea of picking up the story so long after the original timeline, consciously echoing the passing of time between films in the real world, rather than trying to make a direct sequel and have the actors pretend they’re the same age. (Mind you, not that Kwok looks any different other than appearing to have spent all that time in a gym!)

So there’s no need to worry if you’ve never seen the original. Trouble is, even if you have seen Storm Riders you may well feel like you’ve walked in halfway through the film. Never ones for overdoing expositions, the Pang Brothers drop you straight in the action, and never let up, taking us from one conflict to another. Sure, it’s exciting and definitely keeps the attention levels up, but it’s not, well, you know, a movie, is it?

The cast do the best with what they have, but there’s little for them to get their teeth into. Kwok, in particular, is engaging as Cloud, with his character finally learning to care about something or someone other than himself. But there are subtleties in their portrayal and subplots that are lost on all save the most devoted of the original comic books.

Visually the film is stunning. The quality production of sets and costumes, mixed with seamless compositing of CGI effects is superb. All of which goes to show just how far computer graphics have come since the original film (which itself didn’t look bad considering the undoubtedly limited budget available).

One sequence in particular, when Heart is shown cruelly pursuing Nameless and destroying every martial art school he comes across in the process, however, hints at an even more striking visual route. Taking it’s cue from the Frank Miller style of Sin City and 300, reflecting the comic book roots of the story. It would have been great to see much more of this in the film, even if it might have brought comparisons with the latest from the green screen king, Casshern director Kazuaki Kirita, Goemon. (Though there are intimation’s that would have just proved too expensive.)

Storm Warriors is a highly enjoyable, quality action production. I just wish they’d paid a bit more attention to the script.

easternkicks.com » Reviews

Mother

Back in November 2009, Bong Joon-ho spoke at the BFI Southbank in London, which we reviewed here.

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