Both Lala Pipo and Kamikaze Girls are available today from distributor Third Window.

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Mad Detective writer/director Wai Ka-fai and lead Lau Ching-wan reunite for a sad, soppy, sloppy mess of a film…

After the brilliant Mad Detective, I’ll admit I was looking forward to the latest pairing between that films writer and co-director Wai Ka-fai and its leading star Lau Ching-wan (who first collaborated back in 1997 on Too Many Ways to Be No. 1) – how wrong can you get?

Several years after the loss of her father in a car accident where she, her mother and brother survived, Melody (Mia Yam, Flying Butterfly) decides to write a novel about him to help her family get over their grieving. Blinded by the accident, in her story the roles are reversed, with their blind father (Lau Ching-wan) the only surviving member of the accident. The character in her novel seems to take on his own life, as he too tries to resurrect his family in a story, but tragedy is not far away for Melody.

And so the loop goes round, deliberately building on the confusing layer upon layer of different narratives in order to propel the suspension. At the core there are some interesting thoughts about alternative realities, and characters and scenarios breaking free of their authors intentions, echoing the Pang Bothers Re-cycle or even Stanger Than Fiction (though I guess we all have Charlie Kaufman to thank for that!). Yet unlike Re-cycle Ka-fai dabbles in these themes rather than commits to them, and as the story becomes more fantastical it lacks the both the Pang’s tension and inventive vision, which was more like Alice In Wonderland for grown-ups.

Indeed, between the overbearingly sentimental tone of the piece from the opening scene, right up to increasingly juvenile ideas of lead young adult Melody – with her brother deciding to appear to his father as a (fluffy and stupid looking) dog, a mysterious ‘Ghost Whisper’ (not Jennifer Love Hewitt!) and casting a young version of herself as the operator of a ghost tram, driving ghosts to the after life – this shambolic piece starts to come off more like a kids movie, something like a Studio Ghibli film with all the life and imagination sucked out of it.

Such naivety jars against the darker themes of coming to terms with bereavement and a young adult so in the pits of despair that she contemplates suicide. In Hong Kong itself the film received an IIB rating, the equivalent of a 15 (sort of). It’s reminiscent of Tsui Hark’s equally disappointing Missing, reiterating that films need for a bizarre and ultimately unengaging take on loss. There’s little here to make you connect or sympathise or care about the characters.

There’s no doubting the enthusiasm with which Lau threw himself into the role, even learning braille, but Written By is a convoluted mess. Neither childlike nor adult in tone it’s over simplistic treatment is evocative of the current trend in Hong Kong filmmaking to treat audiences like idiots. Very disappointing…

23 March features what is described as a pre-release screening of God Man Dog (hey, isn’t that on DVD?) by acclaimed Taiwanese director Singing Chen. God Man Dog follows the emotional and literal journeys of a middle class Taipei couple, an alcoholic Taiwanese aborigine and his estranged daughter, and an amputee who drives on a truck glowing gods dispensing good fortune. Half road movie, half social-realist drama, this three-part narrative is interspersed with moments of beautiful comedy. Starring Jonathan Chang (A One and A Two).

On 27 April Asia House presents a special screening of 24 City, Jia Zhang-ke’s chronicle of the thunderous fall of a state-owned munitions factory and its conversion into a luxury high-rise apartment complex. Jia weaves the stories of three generations of factory workers into a fascinating history of post-revolutionary China. Blending documentary and fiction, interviews with workers are intercut with real and staged vignettes on life before and after 24 City.

Find out more on the screenings and book tickets »

Find out more and book tickets online from the BFI’s website »

A breathtakingly impressive directorial debut, and one of the best Asian films of 2009…

Winner of numerous awards throughout Asia and Europe, including the Tiger Award at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, the Jury Prize for Best Film and Best Male Performance at Montreal’s Fant-Asia Film Festival and the Best Film award and Critics’ Prize at the Deauville Asian Film Festival, Breathless marks the writing and directorial debut of Yang Ik-June, an actor whose track record to date has seen him in little more than supporting and bit roles.

Yang Ik-June gives a remarkable performance in the lead role of Sang-hoon, a debt collector and general thug for hire, prone to violent outbursts directed at pretty much anyone or anything that happens to get in his way. He leads a solitary life of few connections save his boss and old friend Man-Sik (Man-shik Jeong), his estranged half-sister and her son, and his ex-convict father – for whom Sang-hoon as nothing but hatred as the man who killed his mother and broke his family apart.

Things change for after a chance meeting with schoolgirl Yeon-Hue (Kot-bi Kim), and what begins for Sang-hoon as a customary violent encounter – she slaps him and he knocks her out cold – soon turns into a offbeat and touching friendship as they recognise how much they have in common – both have been damaged by domestic violence.

Yang Ik-June’s approach as director is surprisingly assured and understated, combining an unapologetic and even shocking view of his characters and the violence around them with a genuine warmth and humour. It’s an unerringly believable account of an unlikely friendship that doesn’t beg for audience sympathies with big swells of music to pull your emotions – there’s little music at all (not that that was, from Ik-June’s accounts, deliberate).

Certainly, the character of Sang-hoon remains pretty unsympathetic even after you discover his tragic history. And yet with Ik-June natural, if unassuming charm, he truly creates a character you care for as you see realise he has the potential to break free of this violent cycle. It’s touching without artifice, and that makes it very impressive indeed.

Moreover, despite the often-violent content and almost non-stop profanity, Ik-June creates a film that is unexpectedly watchable and entertaining. It’s akin to films like Nil By Mouth – which itself was written and directed by an actor, Gary Oldman (even though he chose not to take a role in it) –in it’s themes of working-class life coloured by domestic abuse.

With extemporary performances from the cast, which features both veterans, novices and – if Ik-June is to be believed – some very talented extras from the filming crew, Breathless is a breathtakingly uncompromising portrayal of life, yet manages to be funny and moving at the same time – a brave and remarkable debut film from a young actor and filmmaker who we will definitely see more of in future.

We spoke to Yang Ik-June late last year, read the exclusive interview here…

Breathless is released this friday, 29th January, by Terracotta Distribution and will open at selected UK cinemas.

Also out today – and sharing a common theme in Catholism – is the four-hour epic Love Exposure, from writer-director Sion Sono (Exte: Hair Extensions). Highly inventive and less of an endurance test than you might expect at that length, to my mind the end result is flawed – not helped by the lack of chemistry between leads Takahiro Nishijima and the delightful Hikari Mitsushima.

We talk exclusively to Yang Ik-June about his fantastic debut feature Breathless…

If you’ve already seen Breathless, then the film’s lead actor (and writer, director and editor) Yang Ik-June wouldn’t be quite what you’d expect. Of course, it’s not as if you’d be expecting that intimidating presence, ready to spurt into a violent and angry outburst at the drop of a hat, but in person he’s charming, fun, hip and very laid back. He later tells me the girls always tell him how much cuter he is in real life.

He has much better dress sense too. None of those terrible, 90s style chavvy, unfashionable shirts on him today.

Even if it hadn’t been his directorial debut, Breathless is an impressive feature. Applauded throughout the world, winning awards from festivals from Rotterdam to Singapore – most recently picking up the Grand Prize and the Audience Award at the tenth annual Tokyo Filmex – it’s an uncompromising study of a two-bit gangsters life and domestic violence in working class Korea, about a hired thug who begins an unlikely friendship with an equally damaged schoolgirl. On paper it shouldn’t work, but on screen the film reaches an unexpected understanding of its characters and their motivations, reminiscent of films like Nil By Mouth and more recently the work of Andrea Arnold, including her Cannes Jury prize winner Fish Tank.

Most impressively, despite Yang Ik-June’s lead character of debt collector Sang-hoon being almost entirely devoid of any redemptive qualities, he ultimately wins over audiences without apologetically architecting your sympathies. Not bad for an actor whose roles have previously rarely made it into the first five names on a cast list.

‘Well, I made it just for you and so you’d be surprised’, he jokes.

Really, you shouldn’t have gone to this much trouble for me? But really, what was his inspiration for the film that deals so candidly with domestic violence?

‘Actually there wasn’t any! There was no message that I intended to deliver. It was only after the film had been written and made that I understood what it was trying to say. In that sense I’m just another member of the audience.’

Did he enjoy playing a character who is, at least until we find about more about him much later in the film, quite unsympathetic?

‘I love playing such emotionally strong and dominant characters. It’s actually ironic, because I wanted to show just how bad these people are, but actually it’s when I play roles like this that I enjoy it the most. In the scenes where my character gets violent and angry, I actually feel a sense of catharticism, of synergy with the part I’m playing and getting that burst of energy out.’

‘You know in some of those scenes where I’m so, argh!’ he screams loudly, ‘it was only because I couldn’t contain all those emotions, it was like I was screaming and letting it out. It was just a natural process for me. And like you said, he’s a very unsympathetic character. Korean audiences reacted in the same way. You watch the movie in the first half and he’s just such a pathetic character, you don’t feel any identification with him, he’s just aggressive.’

‘It’s only as the movie progresses you see that, although he does have this violent side, he’s not a bad person fundamentally, and you start to have more compassion towards him, By the end you want to care for him even. He’s quite a vulnerable and weak character. And I find that female audiences felt that a lot. On my movie homepage there was like 30 or so women who said “I’m completely head over heals in love with you, marry me, marry me”.’

‘When I meet some of those women at film festivals they’re always quite hesitant at initially to approach me. Then they say, “Oh my god, you’re much cuter than I thought you would be from the film”. Then it’s “Come on, swear to me, swear to me”.’ (His character swears almost non-stop through the film.) ‘They like that side of me.’ So of course he obliges!

The film itself is so wonderfully understated in its direction; the tone is naturalistic using handheld camera, and very, very little music. Was that deliberate?

‘I don’t know,’ he begins in English, ‘with regards to the music, I don’t know why I ended up using so little. In fact I asked a friend of mine, who happens to be in an indie band of sorts, to write me some music for the film. He came back with some 30 odd pieces and said, “I’m done! This is as much as I can make, take your pick”. From that I took a few songs, trying to pick the most unusual, the ones that didn’t sound like something you’d listen to commercially. I think they work well, because although they sound a little strange and weird when you first listen to them, the more you hear them the more familiar they become and the more you like them.’

‘As for the use of handheld camera, I think that comes from me having been an actor for the last 10 years. I’m sure there are plenty of elements that are important to a great movie, but for me it’s the actors, they are pivotal and I guess I wanted to pour into that. I just wanted to follow them, get up close to their emotions and facial expressions, stare right into their soul even.’

In fact he wanted to get a little too close. Until the filming director told him it would be far too much on screen, too uncomfortable and awkward to watch. He’d intended there to be far more of those kinds of shots on screen.

‘For me the actors emotion is the most important thing, and that’s what I wanted to capture. There’s an American actor/director who has a very similar style, John Cassavetes, so I think it must be something to do with being an actor.’

So had any other actors turned directors influenced him to make leap himself?

‘Not directly, no. It was more a case of when I was writing the script that I didn’t have any other actor in mind to play the role. And it wasn’t a case of his own acting ambitions either – I just felt it had to be me to portray those emotions.’

Similarly, he ended up editing the film, and even working on the poster with a friend.

‘I think I just wanted to pour as much of myself and my feelings as I could into the film as possible, and that’s why I took all these different roles.’

That didn’t stop him from searching online for actors like him who had turned director, out of curiosity to see what had come before, and found actors who, if they didn’t inspire him directly, he certainly admires. Takeshi Kitano, Clint Eastwood and Vincent Gallo.

‘Kitano I find really interesting because he’s so minimal. I’m an actor who likes to scrunch up my face to portray my feelings, but he is so calm in his facial expressions.’ (He drops into a flawless impression of Kitano, doing little more than raising one eyebrow.) He can get a sense of his feelings and emotions without these sort of violent outbursts and exaggerated facial. Clint Eastwood, I love the fact that he deals with human beings as his themes. I just love that. And Vincent Gallo, well, I just find him cute.’

Interestingly, all of these directors deal with unpleasant and often violent themes in their work. Does he think there’s anything in that? Could it be they wouldn’t ask someone to play a role they’re not willing to play themselves?

‘I don’t think it’s because they don’t want someone else to do it, like they wouldn’t trust another actor to do it. It’s more that it just feels right for them to play that role. There’s no ambition for them to have the “best role”. It’s just because, like in my case, with their love for their own film it just comes naturally.’

So how did he find his cast?

‘Let me say first, for me it’s not about getting the best technician or the best possible actor, or anything like that. But it has to be somebody who can fit into the setting comfortably. Someone who can have a good laugh and enjoy themselves, and somebody who suits my style.’

‘The lead actress Kim Kot-Bi, who plays the schoolgirl Yeon-Hue, I first saw her in a short film and I just leapt up! I was astounded by her ability to play emotions. Initially she was up for another role in the film, and there was another woman to play the lead, but things didn’t work out so I used Kim Kot-Bi instead, and she did excellently.’

‘Yeong-Jae, the part of the younger brother was supposed to be played by another actor, but again that didn’t turn out. So Lee Hwan, who had read the script from somewhere (!) came and found me and said he would really love to play this role. Eventually I gave in and said okay, you can play it.’

‘The father figures on both sides were difficult people to get. It was only in the middle of the film that I got conformation that they would be able to do it. And for the role of Sang-hoon’s sister, she was someone I knew from before. As was Man-shik Jeong, cast in the role of Man-Sik, the boss of the debt collectors company. He was a guy I knew and hung around with. I always had them in mind. So it was generally people I knew and people that I felt I could work with.’

‘I don’t believe that the technically trained and experienced actors were superior to any of the other actors in the film. It was more a case that our passion and our trust in each other could overcome those sort of technicalities and deficiencies that they might have in comparison to other actors and I do feel that the film has shown that.’

Amazingly, other than the main cast, all the extras seen in one or two scenes were made up from the filming staff and crew.

‘You know in movies when you see extras who are really obviously from the crew, awkward and conspicuous. My guys were nothing like that. I think everyone in my filming crew must be a born actor, everyone was so great and so natural!’

As for the future, does Yang see himself as a director now?

‘By no means, I don’t feel any sort of restrictions on my career. I’m just going to follow wherever my heart goes. My latest work has been as an actor, I’ve just finished one movie with another to start next month.’

But who knows what the future holds? One thing’s for certain, Yang Ik-June is certainly a talent to look out for.

Breathless is released by Terracotta Distribution and will open at selected UK cinemas on 29th January 2010.

Thanks to Yang Ik-June for his time, the guys from Terracotta and The Associates for setting up the interview.

Lu Chuan’s latest film about the rape of Nanjing may be in black and white, but his characters most definitely are not…

It was over three years ago when I spoke to Lu Chuan about his fabulous second movie Kekexili: Mountain Patrol, then about to begin a limited theatrical release in the UK courtesy of Axiom films (despite the fact it had previously been released by Sony on DVD). At the time I asked him what his next film would be, and without any hesitation the answer came back that it would be ‘Nanjing! Nanjing!’ (the original Chinese title of the film). Of course, while it’s usual to ask directors their future plans it’s all the more exciting when they actually come to fruition…

Introducing the film to an audience at the London Film Festival, Lu Chuan revealed the film had been in production for over four years, with much of that time taken up with meticulous research into the situation not only from a Chinese perspective, but also from that of the occupying Japanese soldiers. Unsurprisingly, it makes for grim if undeniably compelling, viewing.

With the Japanese Imperial Army at gates of Nanking, from vignettes the story builds up a broader picture of the travesties committed and motivations of those involved: from the doomed Chinese resistance leader who leads a group that includes children against the might of the Japanese forces (Liu Ye, Curse of the Golden Flower, Purple Butterfly); to the Japanese soldier confused into believing a real relationship could develop between him and a –so-called ‘comfort woman’ (Hideo Nakaizumi); to the anxious Chinese secretary of a German missionary, forced to compromise loyalty to his own nation in order to keep his wife and child alive (Wei Fan, A World Without Thieves).

As you might expect from Lu Chuan’s previous work Kekexili, the picture he paints is not a simplistic version of events where Chinese are the persecuted and heroic, the Chinese secretary effectively sells out his own nation to keep himself alive, while the Japanese soldier is overwhelmed by his own forces merciless treatment of the Chinese. Yes, the film may be in black and white, but when it comes to conflict, Lu Chuan’s loyalties are decidedly grey.

Of course, this has made the film rather controversial in China, where neither a sympathetic Japanese nor a dishonourable Chinese character are particularly favourable. But of course, that’s Chuan’s point – in war we do what we must to survive. It’s not a judgement but an honesty so often missing from films based around war.

Lu Chuan candidly admitted in a Q&A after the LFF screening that his choice to shoot the film in black and white came from his dislike of the sight of blood. He felt it would be too distracting against carnage that was, frankly, horrific enough. (Ironically the same was true of another film screening at the 2009 London Film Festival, Polytechnique, based on the Montreal Massacure of 1989.)

This can’t help but bring Spielberg’s Schindler’s List, but those hoping for a similar uplifting final segment to truly lift the soul won’t find that kind of simplicity here. City Of Life And Death is a haunting but elegant take on the monstrosities of war.

City Of Life And Death will be released by High Flyers Films on 16 April at Curzon Mayfair and selected cinemas around the UK.

Dante Lam directs Nicholas Tse in a tense, extremely well-played thriller…

Following the recent trend for ‘back-to-basics’ in Hong Kong filmmaking shown in movies like One Nite in Mongkok, Invisible Target and Full Contact, the latest film to surface in the UK from director Dante Lam plays down the usual style for showboating set pieces in order to focus on tension to dramatic effect.

Nicholas Tse (New Police Story, Invisible Target, The Promise) stars – surprisingly convincingly – as Sergeant Tong, a hot headed and uncompromising Hong Kong detective unforgiving of his team’s errors. In trying to apprehend his target, kingpin Cheung Yat-tung (Philip Keung), a tragic car crash sets off a tragic series of events – beginning with Tong accidentally killing the daughter of Ann Gao (Jingchu Zhang, Protégé, Seven Swords), the public prosecutor in charge of the case against Chang.

Still wearing the scars from the accident, both mental and physical, Tong is horrified to learn that Ann’s younger daughter has been kidnapped by the triads to blackmail her into ‘losing’ a vital piece of DNA evidence that locates Chang at the scene of the crime. The kidnapper, Hung (Nick Cheung, Exiled, Election, Election 2, The Stunt Woman), is an unremitting contract killer who is no stranger to tragedy.

Despite Ann’s wishes, Tong vows to rescue the girl in the hope of some redemption for his fatal mistake, and to perhaps rebuild his broken life – not realising his link to the kidnapper is stronger than he could imagine.

Unlike many of director Dante Lam’s lighter, glossier more recent works, from Twins Effect to Love On The Rocks and Undercover Hidden Dragon, his latest feature is a whole-hearted return to the genre that made his name. (Indeed, the English title hints at the director’s best-loved film Beast Cops. The original title Ching yan roughly translates as Witness – according to my Mac’s translation widget – a title already taken and seemingly not entirely appropriate, but that’s probably an extremely simplistic take on the words meaning?)

Despite tight, well-directed action sequences, the film itself (rather unusually for a Hong Kong movie) rather shies away from any standout spectacular set pieces – relying instead almost totally on the performances of the actors themselves. Perhaps the biggest surprise is just how well balanced the film becomes because of it. The often near-superhuman abilities of characters even in more grounded, triad based bullet ballets can – in the wrong hands – often distance audiences from the more emotional elements directors so need them to relate to.

As previously mentioned, Nicholas Tse is both a surprise and delight in the lead role, playing a very different role to the cocky, cute youngster we so often associate him with. Of course, it’s Nick Cheung who’s multi-facetted, unapologetic, but ultimately sympathetic portrayal of Hung overshadowed all else, nominated and winning several Asian best actor awards in the process, including the HKFCS Award. The ensemble cast is superb, with Kai Chi Liu as Tong subordinate detective Sun just one of several great, unfussy performances.

Speaking on interviews included on the UK DVD, it’s seems surprising to hear the cast compare this to something of a more American-styled thriller. If anything it’s more European, like the original Vanishing, and also puts me in mind of another Lam, Ringo Lam, and some of his more understated (and usually underrated) pictures like Wild Search and Full Alert – both of which share a lack of specific standout sequences and excel in their leads depictions.

Though the film plays up it’s emotional punch, the sentimentality never seems to overwhelm the piece – unlike many Asian and particularly Chinese movies. Indeed, there’s always something of an edge to the film – it makes you believe that things might not end very happily at all!

The camera work mirrors the nervous tension of the piece, playing out action sequences in downtown Hong Kong to the (rather genuine looking) bewilderment of passes by. It has a genuine energy about it that excuses the rather predictable contrivance of the finale twist. (Without blowing it, it probably won’t come as a huge surprise to find the link between the central characters is not unlike the core device of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Amores perros.) The fight choreography by Tung Wei (Painted Skin, Perhaps Love, Hitman) is tight, grounded and mainly believable, as is the action direction by Bruce Law (Flashpoint, High Risk, Project S).

This is an impressive, intelligent thriller from Dante Lam with a better balance between sentimentality, action and drama than you might expect. Damn fine!