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K-ON!

dakkar — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:00:58 +0000

Moe, singing, schoolgirls – if moe’s not your thing, run away now…!

The setup: the “Light Music Club” at the high school risk disbanding, since there are only two members instead of the four required by the school rules. Ritsu and Mio are therefore looking for anyone who’ll join. A third girl, Tsumugi, gets convinced to join, but they’re still short one member. The clueless and klutzy Yui needs to join a club, any club. A match made in Heaven? Not exactly, since the only musical “talent” Yui has is playing castanets.

The story: the four girls (five, later in the series) play songs, write songs, and do generally cute things. Don’t expect much character development, or serious challenges. Do expect lots of moe In fact, most of the episodes are not much about songs, they’re more about day-to-day events in the lives of the characters, and the overwhelming cuteness of it all.

The work behind the series: Kyoto Animation (Fullmetal Panic, Haruhi Suzumiya, Lucky Star, Clannad) does, as usual, a great job designing and animating the characters; a bunch of musicians give us bubbly girly songs. The English voices are a bit weird, to be honest: they sound the wrong age… but then again, I find most English dubs seriously lacking. To get the full moe effect, you really need to listen to the original voice actresses.

The results: if you don’t like moe, run away now. Seriously, there is no other reason to watch this series. Yes, you do get a few musical numbers, but not near enough to warrant watching the whole thing, you could just pick the soundtrack discs. If you liked Ichigo Mashimaro, you’ll almost certainly like this: the characters are older, but the cuteness is of the same calibre, and there’s the same lack of real plot. Not that this, of course, prevents the series from selling well: this is another purely commercial product, aimed at a specific market, and it works pretty well at that.

K-On! Volumes 1, 2 and 3 are available now from Manga Entertainment.

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Nowhere to hide: an interview with Lee Myung-se

Andy H — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:00:53 +0000

We speak to Lee Myung-se the visionary and dazzling director of Duelist and Nowhere To Hide, as the first of KCCUK’s The Year of the 12 Directors series…

Brought to the UK to conclude a month of screenings, including Gagman and M, Lee Myung-se will present a screening of Duelist that evening. An ambitious undertaking by the Korean Cultural Centre UK, they plan to bring a different director to the UK each month to celebrate their work – a sign of how popular and successful the annual London Korean Film Festival has been, and how appreciation has grown for Korean Film in the UK. They’ve got the year off to a flying start…

I ask Myung-se if he has a favourite own film. ‘My next!’, he says mischievously. ‘Mr. K is my next movie, it’s a Korean 007 movie!’ The film will star Seol Kyeong-gu (Public Enemy) as the secret agent, reunited with his Oasis and Peppermint Candy co-star Moon So-ri (The Housemaid, Ha Ha Ha) playing his wife and TV star Daniel Henney (My Father, The Fugitive Plan B, Spring Waltz) playing his first villain as a terrorist. He can hardly contain his excitement over the project, even if it is still in pre-production, which he maintains will be ‘better than James Bond’.

It’s a return to action for Myung-se after his last film, the ghostly, almost surreal M – not that his films can be too tightly attributed to any genre. His debut Gagman, a comedy, led to a series of romantic comedy dramas in the 90, but it was Nowhere To Hide, about a Detective and his squad, who pretty much bully their way to the truth more than investigate, that won him international acclaim.

For most of us, it was our introduction to South Korean film, just emerging from a new freedom in censorship and an incredible flood of creativity and expression in that country, it spearheaded the so-called Korean New Wave, as films like Kang Je-gyu’s Shiri, Kim Jee-woon’s The Quiet Family and Park Chan-wook’s JSA: Joint Security Area emerged. It was the first South Korean film to be released on DVD.

(An over simplification admittedly, but then those were simpler times…!)

Did this global exposure put him under any pressure from distributors, both within Korea and internationally?

‘At the time, no. but the experience taught me a lot about what they expected from me. Duelist and M attracted quite a lot of interest from distributors, though it was quite different from Nowhere To Hide – I think they were extremely disappointed.’ Put in its simplest terms, they were expecting more action, and he admits that’s been a factor in his choice of subject for the next film Mr. K.

He explains: ‘Firstly I choose the genre, and for me that is just a tool to reach the audience in the easiest way. Once that decision is made, I try and absorb everything that’s been done before in that genre so I can make mine the best. So in the case of Mr. K, out of all the 007 films in the world, whether it’s James Bond or Mission: Impossible, I want to try and make that into my own style as a director.

‘When trying to attempt a film like Duelist, I looked at Samurai and martial arts films but interpreted it very much in my own way. So for example, if I were to direct a hardcore melodrama, then looking at films like Basic Instinct, then my challenge would be to overcome or do better than those films in my own style.

‘So that’s always the goal I have in mind when I’m directing.’

Myung-se rather shrugs off the suggestion that many of his lead characters are flawed, simply saying ‘Aren’t we all?’

Explaining the process of how he come to make films, Myung-se uses Auguste Rodin’s statue of Balzac as an illustration. ‘When Balzac first showed the sculpture, a lot of reviewers criticised it. But Rodin made thousands and thousands of sketches in order to make that sculpture; he even wore his clothes and walked the streets in order to get the feeling of being Balzac. And he condensed all of that into the one form he could make.

‘For me it’s exactly the same process, I constantly sketch just like Rodin did, all towards the one final outcome, the film.’

I want to try and get to the bottom of Myung-se’s highly visual style, but the director seems uneasy being considered in those terms. ‘After Duelist came out there was a lot of talk about storytelling and visuals in the film. To me the visual is just a part of the storytelling process in film, but a lot of people talk as if they are two separate elements.

‘Even when Duelist previewed at a lot of international film festivals, there were exactly the same comments that there was not enough story but too many visual elements. I’m really curious at how people can say such strange, foolish things. Film is, after all, a visual medium. But there is a trend lately that film is becoming more related to literature.’

It seems those criticisms of Duelist, even though it was well received in Korea and internationally, has been hard for the director to shake off. Later in the Q&A he tells of how he used to think it was a shame that he’d had so little opportunities to watch movies while growing up and in film school, but now he thinks of it as an advantage. I would imagine my own teachers and seniors, and created my own film world in my head, and I’d rely on poetry and literature to get my inspiration.

I ask him if all the meticulous research and sketching contributes to the long gaps between films?

Myung-se chuckles. ‘Well, that is part of the reason why. But more importantly my last film didn’t do so well, so it’s a tragic story of not getting the funding I wanted to do my next project.’

For Myung-se it’s been a painful succession of projects that have fallen through for one reason or another, including The Days of My Youth, which would have starred Lee Min-ki and Breathless’ lead and director Yang Ik-joon.

‘When I was very young I watched the films of Andrei Tarkovsky and at the time I thought only a true artist is able to make a good film over a long period of time, that’s what it means to be a good director! But much later I read in a book that actually he wanted to make two films a year but it was a matter of funding.’ He laughs, ‘The same story as mine!’

One striking element of all his films is the strong and often unexpected use of music, from classical to dance, even Western rock. It’s obviously a question he gets asked a lot, and the answer is one he will repeat that evening at the screening.

‘To really, really exaggerate, it’s like when God created the universe and declared that it was good in his eyes. It’s the same for me: if I like it and I feel that it’s good, then I use it!’

I ask him about the recurring motif of fights turning into dances, a short visual gag in Nowhere To Hide, it became a distinctive part of Duelist. ‘As a genre, martial arts was only the outer garment of the film, but I wanted to create emotions just through the movement of the actors in the film. And that’s where the idea came about.’

What filmmakers have inspired him most? He holds up his hand. ‘There are only five directors who make what I consider to be proper films: Jacques Tati; Buster Keaton; Charlie Chaplin; Yasujirô Ozu and Federico Fellini. And if I where to recommend a film by each of these directors, it would be: Fellini’s Rome, Open City; Ozu’s Late Spring; Tati’s Mr. Hulot’s Holiday, Keaton’s Cameraman (and Sherlock Jr.!); and lastly Chaplin’s The Circus.’

Armed with such fantastic recommendations, I ask him when we can expect Mr. K. ‘Filming begins in March, and it is due to be released at the end of the year.’ Perhaps with a keen eye on wanting the film to be as successful as possible he adds, ‘You must go and see it!’ I definitely will…

Lee Myung-se was interviewed shortly before the screening and Q&A at the Apollo Cinema on 26 January, 2012. For further reading please see Paul’s interview on Hangol Celluloid.

Thanks to Lee Myung-se for his time and the Korean Cultural Centre UK for arranging the interview.

NOT another shameless plug? No really…

Andy H — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:00:14 +0000

Sure, okay – the latest issue of Scream from our friends over at Screen Power Group may have a cover by someone familiar looking – but it also has an unmissable extended interview with Eihi Shiina star of Takashi Miike’s J-Horror classic Audition and splatterpunk gorefest Tokyo Gore Police.

On shelves soon in Forbidden Planet, The Cinema Store and other specialist magazine retailers…

KCCUK Year of the 12 Directors: E J-yong

Andy H — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:00:47 +0000

Having got their Year of the 12 Directors event off to a flying start with Lee Myung-se, the Korean Cultural Centre UK continue with the work E J-yong (Lee Je-yong), beginning with his debut An Affair (1998) this Thursday, 2 February.

The season continues with Dasepo Naughty Girls (2006) on 9 February, Untold Scandal (2003) based on the same French novel on which Dangerous Liaisons was based on 16 February. All screenings will take place at the Korean Cultural Centre UK, near Trafalgar Square, London. Admission is free but must be booked via the a title=”KCCUK Film Night page” href=”http://london.korean-culture.org/navigator.do?menuCode=201104050063″ target=”_blank”>KCCUK website.

The months events culminate in a screening of E J-yong’s last film Actresses (2009), followed by a Q&A with the director himself, at the Apollo Cinema, off Piccadilly Circus. Booking will be available for the event later.

Red Light Revolution

Andy H — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:30:37 +0000

Hardly a revolution, but stars Zhao Jun and (particularly) Vivid Wang shine in this likable comedy about a Chinese sex shop…

Shinzi (Zhao Jun) is a loser of monumental proportions. He’s lost his job as a taxi driver, lost his wife to a wannabe actor, and now his house as she’s thrown him out. His only option is to move back in with his parents – who have the unfortunate habit of disappearing to the bedroom at any point of day – in the hope of making some, any, money in order to allow him to build his life up again.

With part time jobs such as a ‘bad’ example for a diet drug getting him nowhere, an old school friend, Jiang (Jiang Xiduo) offers him a chance with local Japanese gangster Iggy (Masanobu Otsuka, City Of Life And Death, Lovers On The Road) to set up a sex shop in his conservative neighbourhood.

He engages the help of fellow diet salesperson Lili (played by Vivid Wang – really! Was that deliberate casting from the filmmakers?) to help him. The only thing is Iggy isn’t joking when he says he’ll break Shinzi’s legs if he doesn’t deliver thousands of rmb in cash every week, and now the neighbourhood watch have found out he’s been operating without a permit…

My heart sank a little when I read in the press release that the film’s director was Australian born Greek and son of a former diplomat and politician from Papua New Guinea. No offense, but we’ve been here before: the Sinophile or Asiaphile making a film in the country that interests them most. There can be awkward performances, missed or even over emphasised cultural references that really don’t gel. (And oddly it rarely seems to work that badly the other way around?)

But that isn’t the case for writer/director Sam Voutas’ film…

As noted in various reviews, Sam hooks his film on very much of a Full Monty backdrop, the approach is very Western, one might even say rather more British than American. Yet the narrative feels just as natural in it’s Beijing setting – it’s surprising just how reassuring a cup of tea can be in hard times all around the world!

Chinese comedies can always be a difficult humour for Western audiences. Voutas’ script pulls back on such broad and heavy-handed approaches, finding for the main part a quiet character-led comedy. (One thing this doesn’t play to though, in these post American Pie and The Hangover times, is areal gross-out comedy.)

Luckily Voutas’ leads are solid in their debut performances. Zhao Jun, very much a Chinese Mark Addy, is engaging and believable with fantastic comic timing. Vivid Wang (despite the unfortunate name) is the real find, full of attitude and sassiness; let’s hope we see her much more in the future. Voutas’ previous work on documentaries about China, screened throughout Asia Pacific, has given him an eye for the improvised. All of his cast predominantly feel naturalistic in front of the camera, and never better than when letting their hair down in unscripted, off the cuff playacting.

During the film Voutas cites some interesting facts: that there was only one sex shop in Beijing in 1996, and now there are over 2000; that 70% of the worlds sex toys come from China. His real target, though, appears to be the aspirational nature within our modern culture to want to own ‘things’. It struck ME how rarely Chinese filmmakers seem to want to put modern day poor or even working class on screen, particularly within reasonably commercial films.

Voutas’ script falls in the last act. The permit is signposted so obviously that it actually comes as a disappointment when it becomes a crux for the narrative. More bizarre is the inclusion of potion recipe Shinzi’s mother just happens to have which makes Viagra look like a sedative – it feels like something straight out of sex comedies of the 60s and 70s, and hardly consistent with the grounded feel of the rest of the film.

But if Red Light Revolution’s ending is a bit limp (pun intended) and in need of some of mum’s special recipe, it’s still pretty enjoyable…

Red Light Revolution is screened today at the Prince Charles Cinema to coincide with Chinese New Year.

It will be released on DVD on 13 February by Terracotta Distribution with plenty of extras, including: Directors intro; Deleted scenes; Audience Q&A’s at Terracotta Festival; Directors Masterclass at Terracotta Festival; Audience Q&A’s at Wuhan Film Club; Making of and a featurette: Art Auction.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Andy H — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 09:00:03 +0000

It’s the Year of the Dragon. ‘Nuff said…

Lee Myung-se Q&A with screening of Duelist

Andy H — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 10:00:46 +0000

As we mentioned a few weeks back, the first month of the KCCUK’s 2012 – Year of the 12 Directors season draws to a close with a Q&A with director Lee Myung-se (Nowhere To Hide, M) and a screening of Duelist.

What wasn’t clear initially was that this will not take place at the KCCUK, nor will it be free. (Shame, but this is one hell of an event?) The screening will take place at the Apollo cinema, Piccadilly Circus, and tickets can be purchased directly from their site.

Overheard 2

Andy H — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:00:21 +0000

Infernal Affairs meets Wall Street as the original cast and writer/directors Alan Mak and Felix Chong (The Lost Bladesman) reunite for a new, unconnected story…

Keeping the core themes of Overheard, surveillance within a financial setting, writer/directors Alan Mak and Felix Chong (Infernal Affairs, Confessions Of Pain, The Lost Bladesman) reunite the core cast of Lau Ching-wan (Mad Detective, The Longest Nite, Running Out of Time, Full Alert), Louis Koo (A Chinese Ghost Story, Election, Accident, Connected) and Daniel Wu (Shinjuku Incident, Divergence, Protege, Purple Storm) for a completely new story.

(Maybe it should have been called Overheard Again? Or Overheard As Well?)

Lau Ching-wan plays Mansun Wong, a successful stockbroker who works for a shadowy syndicate, the Landlord Club, to handle their portfolio. Well aware that the money comes from questionable sources, he prefers not to ask questions and get on with his job. What he doesn’t realise is that every move he makes is being monitored and surveyed by the mysterious Joe (Daniel Wu).

Mansun takes his orders from Tony (in a magnificent performance from Kenneth Tsang, A Better Tomorrow II, The Killer, The Touch) only via satellite phone away from his office. On his way to receive such a call, he realises he is being followed but while managing to dodge his tail manages to end up in an accident with a truck.

When police also pull a sophisticated military surveillance bug from the wreckage Inspector Jack Ho (Louis Koo) of the Security Bureau is called in to investigate. Though Jack suspects that Mansun may be involved in nefarious dealings up to his neck, he still has to track down the eavesdropper who will cause any sort of collateral damage to the public in order to evade capture.

Mak and Chong once again put together an enjoyable thriller full of twists and turns, but engaging, rounded characters who all have there own motivations for their own actions. It goes without saying that even Wu has some very good reasons for wanting revenge on the syndicate, becoming increasingly sympathetic as the film progresses.

The real villains of the piece are the bankers who manipulate the stock markets to their own gain, never caring about the greater consequences to the economy and peoples lives. A fact none too subtly played out as it’s suggested by one character that the secretive cartel where in no small part responsible for the downfall of the Lehman Brothers!

(Once again Hong Kong filmmaking proves it can take a mundane subject matter like the global economic crisis and turn it into an entertaining movie!)

The script allows the cast to shine, with Louis Koo once again proves his versatility as an actor playing a believably older, seasoned cop. There’s a nod to the great influence of Le Samouraï (particularly on John Woo), which turns out to be Joe and his families favourite movie, with plenty of conversations about Alain Delon.

Effectively building the tension as Inspector Jack tries to track down his suspect, there’s a few great action scenes tossed in that support the story, rather than divert from it, particularly one scene that sees Joe thrown about in a motorcycle chase. It’s only at the final hurdle that the film comes undone – no matter how hard you try, no one can make dealing on the stock exchange seem exciting, not even great HK filmmakers! And the resolution lacks the drama that makes the rest of the film so successful.

But if the ending falls a little flat, this is still another great movie from Mak and Chong, and I’m looking forward to the next…

Win Yamada: Way Of The Samurai on DVD

Andy H — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 09:00:19 +0000

We have three copies to giveaway of historical Thai martial arts epic epic Yamada: Way Of The Samurai on DVD, all you have to do is enter our competition!…

Get ready for hard-hitting, hi-impact fight action from the cinematic tradition that brought you Ong Bak & The Warrior King.

Set in the ancient Kingdom of Ayothaya, this incredible true story brings to life the adventures of Yamada Nagamasa (Seigi Ozeki), a young Japanese Samurai warrior, who gave up his homeland to protect the sovereignty of the Thai people. Betrayed and left for dead by treacherous Japanese forces, he finds a new family in a remote village and masters the devastating fighting art of Muay Boran (Thai boxing). Fearless, he ascends to the royal bodyguard of King Naresuan The Great, but will soon face his greatest ever battle against the elite Japanese warriors he once regarded as brothers…

Starring boxing olympic gold medalists Somjjiit & mahnut & Muay Thai Superstars Somluck, Saenchaii, Annuwat, Yodsanklaii & more.

Yamada: Way Of The Samurai is released by Cine-Asia on Blu-ray and DVD on 30 January.

To enter all you have to do is fill out the form below and answer our blatantly obvious question. Good luck!

Please note, only entries from the UK will be accepted for this competition. The competition closes midnight 5 February 2012, no entries after that time will be accepted. Prize winners will then be randomly picked and prizes only sent out after that date.

Revenge: A Love Story

Andy H — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 09:00:08 +0000

A dark and gruesome tale of revenge from director Wong Ching-Po (Jiang Hu, Let’s Go!)…

Detectives Jeff (Chin Siu-Ho, Tai Chi Master, Ticket, Battle of Wits, Mr. Vampire) and Kwok Hua (Tony Ho, New Police Story, 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy, Flash Point, Divergence, Infernal Affairs) are tracking a serial killer who targets pregnant women. Cutting the foetus from their living bodies he’s been labelled ‘The Dissector’ by the press.

Investigating the latest murder, with the woman’s husband found drowned in a bath of boiling hot water, they manage to capture the man they think responsible, Chan Kit (Juno Mak, Dream Home, Truth Or Dare: 6th Floor Rear Flat).

Stopping at nothing to interrogate the man, whom they also suspect of targeting their own colleagues, they are forced to release him when another woman is found mutilated. But if Chan is not guilty who is? As the story unfolds we discover their shared history. That some injustices will not remain covered up or unpunished, and how unconditional love can turn to bloody vengeance…

Wong Ching-Po approaches his gruesome subject matter in cool, desaturated tones. Having cut his teeth on commercial films like Jiang Hu, there’s no doubt this is much more personal, working from an original story by lead Juno Mak, but full of style and, for Hong Kong cinema at least, unconventional in look and just as unpredictable in plot.

It’s a dark and pretty nihilistic look at vengeance. Like the revenge films of Park Chan-wook (Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance, Old Boy, Lady Vengeance) and Kim Jee-Woon’s I Saw The Devil, though the participants may be looking for some kind of justice, once the path has been taken their hatred just leads them well beyond the chance of any sort of redemption themselves.

The comparison to Korean filmmaking seems apt. Though this is faster moving, it feels like it has much more in common with South Korean films than it does with much of Hong Kong cinema. The action is highly stylised, even when digital effects are used – such as the sequence when a car flips over into a field crashing right behind Chan – meaning that Wong Ching-Po must possess a strong vision of what he wants from the final film.

It’s that style that really sets the film apart, titling the chapters as they overlap in a manner not unlike Takashi Shimizu’s Ju-On: The Grudge series. But this is far more a case of gruesome activity than of terror.

Watching the film I felt like it had much in common with Edmond Pang’s Dream Home, so it didn’t come as a massive surprise to find it had the same producer, Conroy Chan, who set up the production company 852 Films with his wife Josie Ho in order to push boundaries and give actors more opportunities to play roles other than ‘gangsters or prostitutes’ as he puts it.

If pushing boundaries was the remit, then pushing our expectations of Hong Kong horror seems to be part of that too. Hong Kong has always managed to complement wacky kung fu sequences and/or comedy with horror, but truly scary or gory films with intelligence or satire behind them often haven’t worked out as well this side of Fruit Chan’s Dumplings and the Pang Brothers The Eye (though the Pang’s have done little to match it since).

The one issue I have with the movie is a common one, particularly in action films: that the rape sequence is filmed in a salacious (at best) manner. Though filmed in an ugly manner, I still felt there was far too much on show that didn’t need to be. What really doesn’t help matters is the casting of Japanese adult movie superstar Sola Aoi (Big Tits Zombie) – she does happen to be extremely cute!

That aside, this is visually striking film that doesn’t follow the usual rules of the revenge or horror genres. Hong Kong horror is really coming of age…

easternkicks.com

K-ON!

K-On! Volumes 1, 2 and 3 are available now from Manga Entertainment.

Related Posts:

Nowhere to hide: an interview with Lee Myung-se

Lee Myung-se was interviewed shortly before the screening and Q&A at the Apollo Cinema on 26 January, 2012. For further reading please see Paul’s interview on Hangol Celluloid.

Related Posts:

NOT another shameless plug? No really…

Related Posts:

KCCUK Year of the 12 Directors: E J-yong

Related Posts:

Red Light Revolution

Red Light Revolution is screened today at the Prince Charles Cinema to coincide with Chinese New Year.

It will be released on DVD on 13 February by Terracotta Distribution with plenty of extras, including: Directors intro; Deleted scenes; Audience Q&A’s at Terracotta Festival; Directors Masterclass at Terracotta Festival; Audience Q&A’s at Wuhan Film Club; Making of and a featurette: Art Auction.

Related Posts:

Happy Chinese New Year!

Related Posts:

Lee Myung-se Q&A with screening of Duelist

Related Posts:

Overheard 2

Related Posts:

Win Yamada: Way Of The Samurai on DVD

Yamada: Way Of The Samurai is released by Cine-Asia on Blu-ray and DVD on 30 January.

Related Posts:

Revenge: A Love Story

Revenge: A Love Story is on DVD now, released by Terror-cotta (Terracotta Distribution).

Related Posts: