Steve's take on Fabricated City (2017) New York Asian Film Festival 2017 Fantasia 2017

One of the best films at both of this year's NYAFF and Fantasia FABRICATED CITY is a rip roaring action film of the highest order.

The film is the story of a video gamer who is suddenly arrest for the rape and murder of a high school girl. Framed, convicted and thrown into jail he has to find a way to escape and then find the real person who did it and the reason for his being set up.

FABRICATED CITY is full of an unending chain of white knuckle set pieces. While normally the plot in a film like this could run the danger of being overwhelmed by the motion, that doesn't happen here thanks to a great cast who create and sell you on their characters. We believe because we not only like the action but we love the characters.

Adding a level to the film is the wicked social commentary and satire that runs through the film. Questions of violence,the government, corruption, patriarchy, and the place of women run through the film. One of the gang helping our hero is a woman who is light years a head of all the men, that is not a typical place for a woman to be. Its a heady mix of themes on display,most of which you'd mix unless you paused for a second to see them.

Mostly you'll remember the killer set pieces. From the opening, not to be topped mega assault in the video game on through the fights, chases and armed standoffs FABRICATED CITY is one of the best action films in several years. a beautiful blending of story character and motion this is one film you can't afford to miss.

Highly recommended

FABRICATED CITY has played NYAFF and will play the 29th at Fantasia. FOr tickets and more information go here

The stunning Carrie Ng was radiant (and silly) at her New York Asian FIlm Festival appearances here's proof

Jared King continues his reporting with some stunning pictures of Carrie Ng at the New York Asian Film Festival

Carrie Ng and ZOMBIOLOGY director Alan Lo center

Alan Lo and Carrie Ng

Carrie Ng and Jared show off one of his newly signed posters

In a silly moment Carrie Ng makes a face while signing

Pictures from Eric Tsang's Lifetime Achievement Award at The New York Asian FIlm Festival 2017

In addition to helping ot with the Eric Tsang interview good friend Jared King covered the red carpet and awards ceremony when the New York Asian Film Festival gave him their Lifetime Achievement Award.

Eric Tsang

Wong CHun, director of MAD WORLD says a few words about Eric

Eric Tsang with Award in hand poses for th cameras

Eric takes a moment to sign for a fan (and our reporter Jared)

At the pre-screening party Jared talks to Wong Chun  about MAD WORLD and Eric Tsang

Eric Tsang and Wong Chun talk MAD WORLD and a lifetime in film NYAFF 2017

Eric Tsang and Wong Chun

On July 12th, a couple of hours before Eric Tsang received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York Asian Film Festival, I sat down with Mr Tsang and Wong Chun, the director of MAD WORLD, for a discussion of the film and Mr Tsang’s career. Along with the myself, Mr Tsang and Mr Chun was translator Frank Djeng, and Jared King, the Unseen Films resident expert on Hong Kong cinema. Jared helped craft the questions and acted as my wingman stepping in to clarify my hazy recall. Jared also reached out to his friend Kenneth Brorsson, the man behind So Good Reviews and Podcast on Fire, who helped by giving us more questions which nudged us into how best use our limited time.

What follows is an edited version of what transpired during our fifteen minute talk. Because the answers from Mr Tsang and Mr Chun bounced between Chinese and English I’ve had to edit some of their answers for readability.

I want to thank Emma Griffith and everyone at Subway Cinema for setting this up, Jared for coming along for the ride, Kenneth Brorsson for help with the questions, John DiBello for help in the final edit and especially Mr Chun and Mr Tsang for taking time out to talk to some crazy fans who got to meet one of their favorite filmmakers.

Steve: Where did MAD WORLD come from?

Wong Chun: So, the idea for MAD WORLD came from Florence (Chan), the screenwriter. She saw a TV news story about a middle-aged man killing his father who had been his long-term care giver. But the the news never explicitly explained why he killed him.

So Florence was intrigued by that idea and wanted to know, you know, what would lead, you know, a sibling or to kill his or her own parents. So that's how the, the fruit of the project started.

Steve: Was the actual story about have a son being released from a hospital?

Wong : Uh, no, not really.

Steve: So that was just created for the film?

Wong : Yes. Florence was kind of interested in writing a story about depression, at first. But she did all of the research and found out that bipolar disorder is on the rise in Hong Kong.

And at the same time, we knew nothing about it, and we have some really serious misconceptions about it. And she started to think that maybe that's something a little bit more urgent for us to talk about, so she started a project and combined the two things together into one story.

Steve: I’m curious if there are situations where children are being released into the care of parents they don’t really know. Is this something that happens frequently in Hong Kong?

Wong : Uh, I wouldn't say that. The film is kind of a specific case but actually, I would say there some cases, 'cause the father is a truck driver driving between mainland and Hong Kong. And usually these kind of drivers spend very little time with their family, so they usually have some issues between the guy and their families. And when the driver's issue combines with the mental illness issue, that's where the story came.

Steve: How did you come to cast Eric?

Wong : Actually, the script was tailor-made for him. I mean, the character was tailor-made for him. And of course we have watched all his films. We have seen all his acting in comedies or in gangster movies. He had some really good caring characters in films of the '80s or early '90s like COMRADES or ALAN &ERIC: BETWEEN HELLO AND GOODBYE and we wanted to bring back that type of Eric Tsang acting to 2017.

Steve: Were you happy to get a meaty role like this? You're primarily known, especially here in America, as a comedic actor. Jared and I watch tons of Hong Kong films so we've seen everything you can do, but for many people you're not thought of as this deep heavy actor.

Eric Tsang: As an actor, of course I want to try something new, or something rare. I've been a comedian for over 20 years and I’ve always wanted to do a serious role, but not something that's too sappy, you know, too tragic.

I usually try to avoid starring in a film that requires a sad character. But I was very impressed by Florence's script and the director's intention in the project, the passion and the dedication, and so on. You know, that's why I decided to take on this character.

Steve: You are a man who nurtures up and coming filmmakers in Hong Kong. I can't believe the number of films you've produced or starred in just to make sure a project gets made. How important is it for you to nurture the up and coming filmmakers?

Eric: So, I was a newcomer, too. At the time when I was a newcomer, I wanted to have a mentor or someone who could guide me in my career path or my acting career. So now that I've become sort of, like, a mentor myself, I wanna help newcomers. I feel it’s my chance to help new talent, new directors achieve their goal.

And also, I want to find someone who can sort of inherit a seat in terms of the Hong Kong film industry -- we are aging, so we're desperately looking for new talent and new people. And when I look for new talent, I don't look for just technical excellence. Their own personality, their own character are all very important to me, and I feel that I found that in Wong.

Steve: When you put the film together you weren't overly melodramatic. Hong Kong films tend to wring everything out of every bit of emotion. Of the things I absolutely love about this film, is that it doesn't go overboard. It's really realistic. I have friends who have parents and kids who have mental illness and based on what I've seen with them, you've got it right, you didn't give too much. Was it difficult to make that choice not to make it more melodramatic, but make it more serious, make it more real?

Wong: It wasn't that difficult, but you've asked a very good question. That made me struggle for a few years from the writing to the shooting and editing in how I should portray the story and the characters.

But the most important point was that when we wrote the story we heard a lot of real stories from real people. And so, for me this was not only a drama that we created, but it's also reflecting some real experience from real people.

So, I have a very strong feeling of respecting the people who, who gave us their story. And, and this kinda feeling gives, gives me a restraint to execute everything. I didn't have an intention to make it too melodramatic anything. So, it wasn't that difficult, but that was the top -- I mean the number one question in my mind when I was doing every scene, when I was doing every part of the film.

Steve: You've done everything...

Eric: [laughs]

Steve: What is your favorite type of movie to do? Do you prefer to do comedies? Do you prefer to do dramas?, You're in several films this year. You're in this. You're in the VAMPIRE CLEAN UP DEPARTMENT, You're a villain in VILLAGE OF NO RETURN. So, you've got silly and you've got drama. Which would you prefer to do or you don't? Or do you just wanna do everything?

Eric: I feel this is the best part that I've held in making movies, you know. You experience different lives. You know can act in different roles. You can become different people, you know, not just in drama, not just action, but also comedy. And to me that is, you know, that's by far the happiest part.
You know the one thing that makes me very happy about it, is to experience different lives. So, I was like, maybe I'll be doing a few comedies now and then, "Oh, okay, now I switch to dramas." And then after a few dramas, "Okay, now I switch to action."

So as far and it doesn't really matter what kind of genre I'm acting in, as long it is a good character, I would be more than willing to be involved in the film.

You can work as different guys. You know, you could be a bad guys Well, you could be anything.

Steve: Are you going to direct more? I know you produce, you direct, you write.

Eric: Never know, because once we've got a good screenplay, once something happens, then you do it. So, don't plan it. The change will come. Because for now I won't repeat my work.

Steve: Does your son (director Derek Tsang) come to you for advice?

Eric: No, no, no, nothing. You know, this is much better for him. I enjoy that, that he could do it himself.

Steve: I have to ask you this. You've done over 300 films, in various forms. You're getting a lifetime achievement award, which is long overdue. What would be the one role or what would be the one thing you'd want to be known, remembered for?

Eric: So, yeah, I mean, I, I, I really don't know. I've done so many things, I've done so many roles, you know. Um, I do serious roles to show audiences I'm not just a comedian. I do, uh, acti-, I do gangster roles to show I'm not just a dramatic actor, or I do other roles to show I'm not just a gangster. So, I try to give audiences new impressions of myself.

A new perspective on myself as an actor, so, the one thing that I hope they remembered most is the roles that I've played. To me this is the best part of my artistic career that I hope that people will remember me, for the roles that I've done.

I mean, you know, different people like different roles that I play. Some people like me being a gangster, some people like me being a comedian so, like, that's what I hope, my hope is that people remember me for all the different roles that I've played, not just one, single role.

In Brief WITH PRISONERS (2017) NYAFF 2017

Harrowing tale of a tough as nails gang leader thrown into juvenile detention after a bar fight. The beatings and humiliations he receive there push him to the very edge...

Solid prison drama goes wonky in the last third as the prison drama turns into social justice tract toward making the system change. The second part isn't bad but it is a bit too preachy to satisfy after such a dark first hour.

Still its very much worth a look.

In Brief DUCKWEED (2017) NYAFF 2017

Race car driver who hates his father ends up in a car accident with him and then is catapulted back in time to the time before his birth and where he meets his younger father. As they hang out together they bond and he comes to understand his father and his choices.

While this is a story we've seen any number of times before director Han Han's script makes this something better than the rest because he's created such great characters. You completely understand why they react as they do and buy the change of heart in the son.

Worth a look.

JANE (2017) NYAFF 2017

This is not so much a film about the transgendered Jane of the title but a runaway teen named Sohyun  who tells us about her life in which Jane may or may not be part of.

The film takes the form of a letter that Sohyun is writing to someone telling of her life. She speaks of how she tried to commit suicide but was saved by Jane who then brings her home where she joins a new family with other kids.  When Jane dies Sohyun is out on the street again...

Not to worry that is only about a third of the way into the film there is plenty more to go.

An odd mix of fantasy and reality we are at the whim of an untrustworthy narrator who may or may not (probably not) be telling the truth. This is a moody dream like film that doesn't really work. To be certain the film has a unique feel to it thanks to some moody cinematography and a wonderful electronic score, but the narrative and thematic elements are all over the place.

This all over nature is partly the result of not being able to trust our narrator. I don't mind unreliable narrators but you need to get a sense that somewhere in what we are being told is something they believe in, here Soyun is simply spinning a fiction to make her world better but she knows bits aren't real. Much of this is a wish fulfilment of a sort. I know that if there had been something to grab on to so the narrative could have pulled me through to the end I would have liked it more.

While I know that many people have loved this film, I also know many people, myself included haven't clicked with it. If the subject interests you give it a shot, but I suspect that you'll like the bits more than the whole.

In Brief: QUIET DREAM (2017) NYAFF 2017

Odd ball dream like film about a woman who runs a bar, her catatonic father and her three regular customers. Full of surreal moments, touching passages and witty lines the film drifts across the screen very much like a dream,

While I like the film and it's quirkiness I am very much of the opinion that there was much in the film I didn't get which was something reinforced by reading on the film. According to what I've read the film is full of cinema and cultural references (the three customers are all inde directors) that went right over my head. I really like the film but I think the more you know about what its referencing the better it will play.

Mondocurry's take can be found here

NYAFF 2017 Capsule Reviews: Vanishing Time:The Boy Who Returned., The Mole Song: Hong Kong Capriccio, Vampire Cleanup Department and Godspeed

VANISHING TIME:A BOY WHO RETURNED
Bitter sweet tale of a young girl who is caught up in the middle of a frenzy when she goes off with three friends and find a strange egg in a cave. When the the girl returns to the cave for something she left she comes out to find her friends gone. As everyone tries to find the boys a twenty something year old man appears claiming to be one of the missing boys.

Grimm's fairy tale for the modern age is full of earned sadness. The loss of friends, the passage of time, and belief are beautifully explored in this moving fantasy. While this may not play well with those who want light and fluffy, this is probably in the ballpark of BRIDGE OF TERIBITHEA but not as tragic through equally sad.

JB's take can be found here

The Mole Song: Hong Kong Capriccio
Takashi Miike's follow up to The Mole Song: Undercover Agent Reiji is rude crude and extremely funny.

Here Reiji continues his undercover attack on the yakuza by winning even more of their trust and ends up being sent to Hong Kong to fight the Chinese gangs.

The film gag a minute, nothing is sacred or serious assault on our sense is best in the numerous comic set pieces that fill the  film. I say this because the plot is largely overly complicated and the sheer volume of characters make this a bit hard to follow. I saw the first film when it played Japan Cuts four years ago but I haven't seen it since so many of the details as to characters are gone from memory. The rapid fire recap at the start was little help- but it didn't matter this is Miike's insanity in overdrive so I knew just to buckle up and let it wash over me.

If you like sheer comic insanity, especially of the Miike variety, this is highly recommended

VAMPIRE CLEANUP DEPARTMENT
Charming throw back to old school Hong Kong horror comedies has a young man join his family business running the secret Vampire Clean Up Department which is tasked with making sure vampires don't run amok in the city.  Their primary task is trying to stop a big bad vampire who is causing all sorts of problems in the city.

This is the sort of film we might have seen in the 80's or 90's  when the hopping vampire films or Chinese Ghost Story series were at their height of popularity. The film is a beautiful mix of laughs and scares and is exactly the sort of thing that's perfect with a tub of popcorn an a beverage of choice.

While not perfect (most similar films ever were) it is grandly entertaining.

My only question is why is this running in a late night slot when I can't take some kids I know who love monsters?

GODSPEED
Billed as a comedic buddy film, GODSPEED is something else entirely. While there is humor, the film is really more a drama about life as a guy who delivers drugs takes a cab to the delivery and "back". Getting in what could only be described as the wrong cab he and its older driver bond on the trip.

One of the few films of this year's NYAFF Godspeed grabbed me at the start  and just kept me entranced. The 42nd film into the festival it's the first of the films that I watched for the festival where it didn't seem by the numbers don't get me wrong- there are films I loved, and films that are better- bt this was the first one that took me on a ride I never expected.

Flawed imperfect yet always entirely compelling this is the one film I probably will carry from the festival for years to come.  A must see.

Mondocurry's take can be found here

Bamseom Pirates Seoul Inferno (2017) NYAFF 2017

Bamseom Pirates Seoul Inferno is about the duo Bamseom Pirates, a Korean black metal/performance art/anarchistic band that loves to tweak everyone. Playing sets in small venues- often abandoned buildings the group attracts what appears to be exclusively young men who jump around as if in a mosh pit. The group not only play music they also make videos and art that pokes a pointed stick into the eye of Korean society. In the film we watch as they go through abandon building make music and piss off the establishment.

This is a good but DIY documentary about art on the fringe. It’s a good portrait of a couple of guys who want to change the world and say their piece.

Despite my liking the film (or admiring it) the film has two problems which kind of keep me from wholeheartedly recommending it.

First the film is wildly overlong. Running two hours the film really doesn’t need to be this long since a chunk of this film just seems to be the guys rambling about.

The other problem is the film is very intentionally jagged. The director wants to maintain the low tech esthetic of the band with the result that chunks of this look like a home movie. Additionally and more annoying is the sound is not mixed. It’s an intentional choice the film makes because it wants to both give an approximation of what it’s like to see them live and to give physical representation of the distortion in Korean society. To me this resulted in a massive headache starting about a half an hour into the film.

Full disclosure, the only time my head rang like it did after I saw Bamseom Pirates Seoul Inferno was when I saw Bob Dylan at the United Palace Theater in Manhattan.  He played at a volume level of 50 and extremely distorted.  My head rang like a bell for days afterward. While my viewing of Bamseom Pirates Seoul Inferno was nowhere near as loud, it was on a laptop from its small speakers on low volume, the distortion was still there and it gave me a wicked headache and my head rang for hours afterward.

Bamseom Pirates Seoul Inferno is worth trying if it interests you, but bring ear plugs

Happiness (2016) New York Asian Film Festival 2017

If I described Sabu's HAPPINESS as the bastard child of MONDAY and MISS ZOMBIE with the silences of BLESSING BELL thrown in almost none of you is going to understand what I'm talking about. I would use other descriptions but the only things I can compare HAPPINESS to is other work by the film's director Sabu. Despite it's happy start, HAPPINESS is a sad painful film that will infect your soul and make you wonder about the good and bad in our lives.

The film concerns a man who arrives in a dying town carrying a case. In the case is a helmet that can be used to make you remember your happiest memory. He is more than willing to use it on the various towns folk in order to make them come back to life. However making the town happy isn't why he's there. He has a purpose that is not so cheerful...

I doubt that anyone other than Sabu could have made this film. A meditative throw back to his early philosophical  explorations such as DRIVE, MONDAY, or BLESSING BELL this is not so much a feature film as a cinematic discussion about the best and worst moments in or lives. As one character says the best and worst memories are very close. HAPPINESS explores that as the joyous first half hour turns on a dime to something darker.

I will not say what happens or why but I will say that it will break your heart and have you thinking about life's moments and other things for a long time afterward. We really see the good in the bad and vice versa. A good time on I'm still trying to figure this out.

Beautiful and told with a minimum of dialog Sabu lets his images speak, He makes us feel what he wants by careful combinations of shots. He is  also blessed with actors who are good enough not to need words to let us know what they are thinking. This a film where it's all in the body language and in the eyes of the characters. We buy everything that happens, even the seeming left turns because we accept the characters.

I was, and am, moved.

I love the film but I know that not everyone is going to like this. The turn toward the heavy is going to bother some, as is the violence.   There is a reason why Sabu's films are nigh impossible to see in the United States, they are not your typical art or genre films. No one knows what to do with or how to market his films.  I've had a giddy conversation with a writer from Japan who loves Sabu and a heated argument with another Japanese writer who despises him, clearly passions run high.

From my stand point HAPPINESS is a must see. A heady challenging film that is unlike any other film anywhere other than from Sabu (and that will make more sense once you see all his work). If you don't want to be challenged and made to think and feel stay away. If you are ready to see something special go....

HAPPINESS plays Friday July 14th and is highly recommended.

In Brief: TRACES OF SIN (2017) NYAFF 2017

Sordid thriller has a reporter looking into a year old unsolved murder case where the victims seemed to be the perfect couple. However things in their lives are not as perfect as it seems.

Dark brooding film concerning how we all have a hidden side is an entertaining potboiler. Its bleakness from the get go, the reporters sister is in prison for neglecting her baby,  kind of lessens the impact since we know from the mere feel of the film its going to end badly for everyone- and it does in spades.

Recommended for those who love the dark places that on Japanese films can go.

Mondocurry's review can be found here
JB's take can be found here

NYAFF ’17: Dealer/Healer

“Cheater” Chen Hua will completely reform himself, but he still associates with known felons. Sometimes, he serves as their substance abuse counselor. Other times, he is recruited by the Hong Kong police to serve as an arbitrator and peacemaker among warring drug gangs. Thugs and coppers do not intimidate him, but winning back the great love of his life might be beyond his powers in Lawrence Lau’s based-on-a-true-story Dealer/Healer, which screens during the 2017 New York Asian Film Festival.

“Cheater Hua,” as most people call him, really is based on dealer-turned-counselor Peter Chan Sun-chi, who serves as executive producer. As a teen, Cheater Hua and his mates Cat and Bullhorn ran wild through Kowloon Walled City as the top dogs in the 13 Warlocks Gang. As they didn’t mature into young men, they started to take more professional roles in the HK drug trafficking industry. They were also junkies, which the clean and sober Cheater Hua contends is more honest than substance-free pushers hooking customers without sharing the junkie experience.

For a while, Cheater Hua really starts to make a name for himself, despite all his junkie weaknesses. For reasons we can never fathom, his straight, long-suffering girlfriend Carol continues to support him. He even browbeats her into working as a dancehall hostess, which was not prostitution, but still highly stigmatizing at the time. As is happens, the night she decides she has had enough is also the night Harley, a former cop-turned-minor-druglord decides to set him up for a fall. However, he gives him an escape-hatch that nonetheless results in a five-year stint in prison.

When he gets out, Carol is long gone, but he finds Cat and Bullhorn. After helping them kick their habits, he becomes a legit counselor. He also stays on good terms with Harley, as well as the senior detective, who always rather fancied Carol. It is only when his do-gooder fame spreads internationally that Cheater Hua finally meets her again, but those fences will be hard to mend.

Dealer/Healer is largely a predictable redemption story, but the period look is impressively detailed. The way it recreates Kowloon Walled City is frankly amazing. It is hard to imagine living inside, but people did—thousands of them. Renee Wong and the design team are scrupulously faithful to the limited photos of the hulking enclave, creating an environment that feels more closely akin to Bladerunner than a traditional gangster movie.

Boy oh boy, is the wardrobe ever accurate to the period as well. In all honesty, Louis Koo rocks the Andy Gibb wig, but Sean Lau Ching-wan’s younger-days wig is distractingly awkward in its perch. Still, Sean Lau has the right grit and gravity for Cheater Lau. Zhang Jin (stone-cold awesome in Kill Zone 2) and Gordon Lam are rock-solid as Cat and Bullhorn. Jiang Yiyan silently levels one devastating indictment after another, simply with her eyes and body language. However, Louis Koo upstages everyone as the ultra-sly and unrepentantly roguish Harley.

Chan Man-keung’s screenplay could have used a sharper edge, but cinematographer Zhang Yin makes it a sight to behold. The Hong Kong cityscapes and mountain views are lovely, but it is the grubby, overwhelming images of Kowloon Walled City that really define the film. Recommended as a remarkably well-rendered period crime drama, Dealer/Healer screens Monday (7/10) at the Walter Reade, as part of this year’s NYAFF.

NYAFF Capsules:Soul on a String and Split

SOUL ON A STRING
Either you click with this odd, mystical meta film which unspools at it's own pace or you will fall asleep. Full of grand vistas and gorgeously arranged sequences the film tells the story of a man who finds a mystical jewel in the mouth of a deer. He then heads off to bring the jewel to a mystical land but other people want it as well.

Not so much action packed as a slow contemplative trip SOUL ON A STRING is very much about something.  This a film that is trying to teach us something and it is going to do so in it's own way. I'm not entirely sure that it works since by the half  hour mark I was fighting to stay awake. Things only go worse in the later art of the film where the film become temporally unstuck and gets meta in it's plotting.

While not a bad film this is not a film for most audiences who will not warm to it's rhythms.

Nate Hood's take can be found here
JB's Take can be found here

SPLIT
Every year the New York Asian FIlm Festival runs at least one sports film, SPLIT is 2017's.

The film is the story of a once promising professional bowler for whom anything was possible. Sidelined after an leg injury he s reduced to making money in back alley games.  Just as the need to make money to get out of a crushing debt arrives he meets a young man with autism who can throw strikes at will.

Odd mix of Hollywood feel good sports film and gritty Korean thriller SPLIT is a really good movie that would be a perfect strike (sorry) if the two styles meshed better, particularly  had the film not switched back and forth between styles, especially in the final third as the darkness closes in (to a degree) and things feel artificial as a result.

Reservations aside this is a really good sports film and recommended.

In Brief:SUFFERING OF NINKO (2017) NYAFF 2017

Awesome visual effects and animated sequences lift up the tale of a monk who has to deal with a sexual attraction that causes women to run off with him. Driven to distraction he heads off into the wilderness in the hope of getting things under control. It doesn't go as expected.

Not what you expect film, this is not a sex film, ends up being a truly haunted by it thanks to its serious tone, unexpected twists and some killer visual effects and animated sequences. The effects/animation are spectacular  and add the kicker to the story.

JB's take on the film is more to the point and his review can be found here 

Fabricated City (2017): Gamer Gets Played New York Asian Film Festival 2017

JB reviewed Fabricated City when it played in theaters back in February. With it playing the New York Asian FIlm Festival next week I'm reposting the review.

It takes a real piece of scum to make a lay-about millennial slacker look sympathetic, but an attorney should do the trick. Min Chun-sang will do in spades. He is no mere crooked mouthpiece. The supposed public defender is really the mastermind of a shadowy organization that frames the unemployed and marginalized for murders committed by their powerful clients. Kwon Yoo is their latest victim, but the gamer has more game than they anticipate in Park Kwang-hyun’s Fabricated City, which opens tomorrow in Los Angeles and the Tri-State Area.

It all proceeded according to Min’s usual playbook. A cell phone was left for Kwon Yoo to find, which he readily agrees to return to the owner’s hotel room for a reward, but finds himself framed for murder instead. Kwon Yoo is referred to Min, who does a bang-up job defending him. Nobody was supposed to hear from him once he was safely buried in prison, but the former Taekwondo junior champion has more fight in him then they bargain for. First, he will stand up to the beatings meted out by gangster Ma Deok-soo and his men and then he pulls off an unlikely escape.

Once at-large, he will finally meet-up offline with his online gaming team, Resurrection. Together with their help, especially that of socially awkward hacker Yeo-wool, he investigates his notorious case. When they figure out Min’s culpability, they start taking the fight to his network, so he temporarily springs Ma to do his dirty work.

As Min, Oh Jung-se makes one of the creepiest, clammiest sociopaths (bordering on outright psychopath) you will see in many moons of movies. He is just a vile, oily dog. In short, he is a convincing trial lawyer. TV heartthrob Ji Chang-wook is actually pretty impressive in his first film role, dialing up plenty of righteous outrage as the wronged Kwon Yoo. Shim Eun-kyung (the original Miss Granny) plays effectively against type as shy, reclusive Yeo-wool. Kim Sang-ho also takes a bit of a departure from the shlubby figures he frequently plays, but he records mixed results as the thuggish Ma.

Park stages some nifty car chases and enough explosions to keep even the snobbiest film critic awake, but the best sequences involve Resurrection’s sneaking and scheming. It is a super-slick thriller that never feels its running time (just over two hours, which isn’t as excessive as it sounds, by Korean cinema standards). Recommended for fans of Korean and “wrong man” thrillers

Mad World (2017) NYAFF 2017

One of the best films at this years New York Asian Film Festival MAD WORLD is a must see for the stellar performances of Shawn Yue and Eric Tsang.

As the film opens Eric Tsang has been contacted by a hospital to see if he will come and get his son Shawn Yue. It seems his Yue has become bipolar and the hospital has done all it can for him. Tsang, who hasn't had much contact with him takes him in. Now sharing what amounts to a bunk bed in a closet the pair are forced to come to terms with the illness and their past.

Heartfelt and real MAD WORLD moves you. Its a stunning portrait of mental illness and the toll it takes on families and friends. HAving dealt with friends and family in various similar situation I can attest that the film gets a hell of a lot right. This is how it goes sometimes.

As good as the film is at making as feel the pain of the situation the real glory must go to Yue and Tsang who burn up the screen in two of the best performances I've seen all year. Tsang has always been one of the best actors working in the world so his magnificent performance is no real surprise. Why he hasn't come to Hollywood is a mystery since he could act pretty much everyone under the table with his understated power. Yue, who I've seen elsewhere in a few films is masterful. This is a calling card for more than the action films I'm accustomed to seeing in.

A must see.

Highly recommended.

MAD WORLD plays July 12 at NYAFF when Eric Tsang will get the Lifetime Achievement Award

RAGE and THE TOOTH AND THE NAIL at NYAFF 2017

Here's my thoughts on last night's NYAFF double feature of films at the Walter Reade

Lee Sang-il’s epic RAGE is a tale that spins out from the brutal murder of a couple in their home. As the police attempt to find the killer we get three seemingly unrelated stories that the murder tale will touch. The first is that of a single father who brings his daughter home after she had run off to work in the sex industry. She forms friendship with an outsider who has started to work for her dad. The second has a semi closeted man falling into a relationship with an unemployed and shy young man he meets in a bath house. The third tale is that of a young woman who moves to the coast and becomes interested in a wandering stranger who occasionally spends time on a deserted island.

The film is a good, but it is one that would have been much better if the stories had been not tied together. The murder tale is the weakest part of the story and while Sang-il uses it to explore his main (and least interesting) theme of the place of the outsider it really has nothing to do with any of the story lines other than to add an unnatural catalyst to the plotlines. You could do the same thing if the murder never happened. Sadly had Sang-il had not focused on the murder and chopped the stories apart and made them separate films we would have had two, maybe three of the best films of the year.

In all seriousness the gay love story is one of the best films at NYAFF and it may very well end up on my best of the year list. It’s a stunning carefully modulated tale of love and longing and it broke my heart in all the right ways. I desperately wanted to see more because the story is gloriously human and one that we can all relate to, whether gay or straight. I wanted to see more of their story because I was truly invested in the characters and their lives.

The father/daughter tale was also great. Ken Wantanabe is fantastic as a father who loves his unconventional daughter and wants to protect her as much as possible. It’s an other story that speaks of all humanity.  If it had been given more time they could have fleshed things out so we really got to know both the dad and the young lovers and really gotten weepie at the end. As it is it's a killer tale that moved me.

The other two stories, the murder and the stranger on the island tales don’t really work. The problem is that the tales never feel fully formed. They don’t exist as living stories, rather they exist as kinds of polemics to drive the deeper meanings that Sang-il wants to get across. Within the stories events happen which never seems real. One horrific turn serves no purpose other than to cause turmoil and spark the conclusion. The revelation of who done it (the least interesting thing in the film) seems to be out of left field and just tacked on because they couldn’t not reveal who did it. Both storylines just seem to twist for the hell of it and it’s disappointing.

I like the film but I want the first two stories as their own films.

THE TOOTH AND THE NAIL was described as a kind of Perry Mason meets The Prestige by Hubert Vigilia. It’s a wonderful throwback to the murder mysteries of the 1940’s or 50’s. It’s a film you’ll want to watch on a rainy afternoon while curled up on a couch with a big bowl of popcorn.

A two part tale the film is the story of an unknown suspect for a murder at Stone Mansion. The house was found riddled with bullets and a burned up body was found in the furnace. Outside of it was a severed finger and signs of a bloody struggle. As the trial progresses we flash back to the story of a stage magician in the sticks who meets a mysterious woman. He falls in love with her once they begin to work together setting in motion the events that lead to the murder. This being the days after the Second World War the scar left by the Japanese occupation effects everything.

While not high are it is high entertainment. This is a film that grabs you and drags you along all the way to the end. Its great characters doing interesting things and making you wonder how it’s going to come out. Yea you know what bits are going to be but there are twist we don’t see coming and as a result we murmur at the screen.

This is a nifty mystery, and while directors Jung Sik and Kim Whee go out of their way to misdirect and withhold information (we don’t know who is on trial for a good chunk of the film) it’s okay because we are given characters that we like enough that we are willing to wait. Everything is so finely crafted that we want to take the ride to see how it all ties together. And despite knowing we are being messed with we don't care because we are having fun.

Watching the audience around me at the Walter Reade added to it because everyone seemed to into it. I could see them leaning forward in their seats and trying to work out how it was all going.  After the heavy lifting of RAGE, which screened before it, everyone was willing to chill for a couple of hours.

I loved this film a great deal. I want to go again because now that I know what happens it all unfold knowing how it comes out.

This film is a blast and worth a look- with popcorn

KFC (2017) NYAFF 2017

After about six admonishments that this film never happened nor will ever happen the narrative begins. What follows is 65 minutes of ugliness, cruelty and "WTF was that" behavior as people are killed, tortured and eaten by various members of the cast.

While most certainly a punch in the face and a poke in the eye, KFC is one of the least films I've run across at this year's New York Asian Film Festival. An unending stream of loosely connected cruelty I was ready to throw up my hand early on but hung there because the film is so short.

Truly little more than a catalog of bizarre behavior this film never adds up to very much. Sure it provokes a reaction but since its made clear at the start this is not now nor will ever be a mirror of reality what is the point? The publicity material lists it as having something to do with the cycle of violence, I'd rather think it has more to do with the pretentiousness of the director.

I'm sorry there is this point I have to call everyone out on a film and say- guys I've seen more films than you and you're full of shite. I've seen way too many pretentious pieces of trash by first time directors that have been sold to the cinema establishment as works of art to recognize a bad bill of goods when I see one. I've seen even more pretentious pieces of melding of art and horror to know when someone is doesn't know when they've fallen on their face.

This movie is just pain and misery and eye pokes for no good reason.

Rationale aside the bits in KFC are often quite chilling and well done. Taken on their own terms they are masterpieces of horror. The trouble here is that there is nothing meaningful to link them together and since the film insanely thinks it's making a high and mighty point (a fact stressed both in the film and in the publicity material) instead of just delighting gore hounds the film becomes a spectacular failure. (this would have been great if there was no pretense)

For gore hounds and depraved individuals who should be locked up only

JB's take on the film can be found here

This is Not What I Expected (2017) NYAFF 2017

It must be an olfactory thing. Gu Shengnan and Lu Jin can’t stand each other unless she is cooking for him. She is a sous-chef and he is a hotel tycoon, so they both know food. They just don’t know they’re in love yet, but her dog Boss, an adorable English Bull Terrier, knows it just as well as we do. Somehow all that cooking pays off in Derek Hui’s This is not What I Expected (trailer here), which plays July 11 at the New York Asian Film Festival.

Lu Jin has checked into room 1123 of his latest Shanghai acquisition—and if the kitchen staff does not impress him with something before he checks out at noon, the entire hotel is in trouble. Bafflingly, Gu’s boss (and the ex who just dumped her) waits till the very last minute to ask her to take a shot, but her flair for flavor and aroma saves the day. Soon she is constantly creating dishes to meet room 1123’s challenges.

Much to her embarrassment, Gu realizes Lu Jin is the same rich jerk she previously met under rather disadvantageous circumstances, so she will go to great lengths to avoid a face-to-face meeting. Yet, fate keeps conspiring to bring them together. After years of eating alone, is Lu Jin finally really for ramen for two? If you doubt it, go ask Boss.

Frankly, TINWIE might be the most misnamed film of the year. It is pretty much exactly what we expected, but Hui sure knows how to stage some culinary indulgences. In fact, the cooking scenes are executed with such colorful visual panache, they pull us through the predictable storyline. Plus, Boss certainly holds up his end as well.

The food and the dog up-stage everyone (basically, W.C. Fields was right, he just didn’t take it far enough), but Zhou Dongyu (still red hot popular in China for the local smash SoulMates) is ridiculously cute (and only slightly cloying) as the plucky, brow-furrowing Gu. On the other hand, Takeshi Kaneshiro’s Lu Jin is such a cold jerkheel, it is hard to believe he never gets a Wüsthof through the heart from someone on the exhausted kitchen staff. However, Lin Chi-ling adds some heat as Gu’s third act culinary adversary and perhaps romantic rival as well—in fact, the film suggests they are basically one and the same.

The battery of screenwriters hit every predictable note, at least once, but Hui and art director Ben Luk Man-ah make it all look fresh and frothy. Somehow, it doesn’t feel as slapsticky as it would sound if you broke it down scene-by-scene, thanks in large measure to Zhou’s soulful pluckiness. If you have to go to a “date movie” this weekend, TINWIE is hands down the most stylish choice available. Recommended accordingly,