Tiong Bahru Social Club (2021) NYAFF 2021 Fantasia 2021

 

A 30 year old still living at home with his mom is given a membership at the cult like Tiong Bahru Social Club which uses computer data to make sure everyone is happy. As part of the deal he is required to help spread happiness through the community.

Off kilter comedy is one part art film, one part satire and one part silly. This a film that you either click with or you don't. If you click with it its a charming film with odd people and odder asides. If you don't its a film that has moments but is trying too hard. 

I fell into it and was charmed by it and its drive just to be something unique and questing to be happy. It was an unexpected reaction since I wasn't planning on covering it and did so on a whim

Recommended

College Behind Bars (2019) NYFF 2019

College Behind Bars is a very good look at the Bard University program that gives inmates in the New York prison system a chance at a college education. Over the course of four episodes the series follows several inmates over the course of the studies and we get to see them and the changes becoming better educated has on their lives in prison and hopefully outside.

I need to make a full disclosure at the start, I was given the four episodes to watch about three weeks before they premiered at the NYFF where they are running in marathon screenings. I am not sure how those seeing the film reacted to the film when it was run as a four hour movie, but my attempt to do that failed about ten or twenty minutes into the second episode. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the material, rather I felt that I needed to take time to process what I was seeing. Watching it all in one shot made it start to compress a bit, things began to run together. When the feeling came on I stopped and I walked away and finished the second episode several hours later and then I spaced out the remaining two episodes over the next two days. I mention the need to space things out because as good as the series is, and it’s a great series, the basic idea of the film runs very close to several other documentaries that talk about the life changing effect prison programs have on inmates lives. Honestly we’ve seen this before and watching the film in a block the film flattens and it can make you wonder why this is four hours. I stopped the marathon when I realized I had almost two and a half hours to go.

But College Behind Bars transcends the “been here and done that” feeling because the length of time allows us to really and truly see the difference the education makes in the lives of the inmates. We really see the men and women change over time. We are on the journey with them and not jumping through mere feel good moments. Additionally we get more details. We really get to know the people being profiled. And most importantly we become more solidly informed about the issues concerning providing programs like this. Having four hours to explore the people and issues results in something truly special.

And I’m glad I got to see it in pieces. I’m glad I got to ponder what I was seeing instead of being overwhelmed. I know had I seen this at one of the public screenings I simply would have been overwhelmed, all the information both personal and sociological would have crushed me making any sort of post screening discussion difficult.

Ultimately College Behind Bars is a great series. In this age where we are trying to reform criminal justice this series must be part of the discussion

The series screens again at the NYFF on September 30 (Tickets here)
It will air on PBS November 25 and 26.

Money (2019) Fantasia 2019

Super little thriller played around the US earlier this year and now is playing at Fantasia concerns a young stockbroker who make a deal with a shadowy source called The Ticket for tips. When the regulators come calling The Ticket decides to close up shop and take care of loose ends.

Beautifully acted by some of the best actors in Korea MONEY is a smart little film that grabs you and drags you along. The cast works perfectly with the script so that the technical talk never over whelms the drama. We are invested in what is happening.

How good is MONEY? The fact that the film is being picked up by festivals like Fantasia and NYAFF even after it's run earlier this year is a good indication of a fan base that wants to have this film get the recognition it deserves. I couldn't agree more.

Highly recommended.

Sabu at the New York Asian Film Festival 2019

On June 8th, right before the New York Asian Film Festival’s Sabu double feature I got a chance to sit down with the director one on one and talk to him about his career. This was my third meeting with the director who is one of most favorite filmmakers in the world. The first time was a passing encounter at the Japan Society where I confused him with an autograph request. The second time was interview I tag teamed with Nobu Hosoki of Yahoo Japan when he was here for the NYAFF screening Chasuke’s Journey. This time I had the man to myself and I could ask him anything I wanted.

What follows is pretty much what happened. Since Sabu’s English is not good we spoke through a translator, Kana Hatakeyama who is also a kick ass filmmaker in her own right.

I want to thank Stevie Wong of the New York Asian Film Festival for setting this up. I need to thank Ms Hatakeyama for her excellent translation and mostly I want to thank one of my cinematic heroes, actor, writer and director Sabu for taking the time to speak to a crazy fan boy about his body of work.

Steve: Thank you for taking the time. Please excuse me, I may have to do this from the notes because you've made too many movies.

[laughter]

Steve: I want to begin with the film you're in but only because I was thrilled to see you in it Martin Scorsese's SILENCE. I'm just curious how did that come about? Is Scorsese a fan? Did he come to you?

Sabu: I actually auditioned for this. The auditions were in Tokyo. And right now, I'm living in Okinawa so I couldn't make the auditions in Tokyo, but they asked me to send a video so I had my wife and children help me with the recording, and the lights, and stuff and then I sent them the video.

And he had also watched my films. He really liked MISS ZOMBIE."

Steve: Speaking of MISS ZOMBIE, you mix up genres when you when you make films MISS ZOMBIE was promoted here as a horror film, but it’s more complex than that. Other of your films also defy genre. Do you try to do films that are a certain type of film, or do you just make the film that you want?

Sabu: I'm really not thinking about genre at all when I'm making films. You know, it really depends on the cast I have, my instinct and what I want to be seeing in that moment.

Steve: When you make a film do you come in, "Oh, this is a great idea," or do you just start writing?

Sabu: It's actually really both. You know, sometimes I start with an idea and then I write it, but sometimes as I'm writing the idea comes, becomes more crystallized. But I think a lot of my earlier works were, started more with an idea like with MONDAY, DRIVE  and like, you know, like the memories coming back so I started more with the concept for a lot of the earlier works.

Steve: On the train ride in, I was looking over a list of your films again ad I was wondering if you see your films as connected? 'Cause you could almost say like,MONDAY DRIVE," and THE BLESSING BELL almost tied together. Are they tied together or are they all completely separate entities that stand on their own?

Sabu:  I think early on it was connected you know. Uh, one idea would kind of lead to another idea, but more recently there's been kind of other projects in-between. And I'm finally understanding what it is to make a film. So, my works in the future might be a little bit different in how that manifests.

Steve: When you do a film from a novel as opposed to just writing it, do you attack adapting it differently if it is something based on your novel different than somebody else's novel? Or do just look for what's gonna be the best way to do this? I'm thinking specifically of  CHASUKE'S JOURNEY which you wrote  the novel of and  KANIKOSEN which you didn't.

Sabu:  I think when I'm working based on a novel and if it's not based on my novel, I really do try to not let my sensibility and my style interfere too much. When it's based on other people's work I try to stay as true as I can to the source material.

But there's a movie coming out next year that's also based on a novel. And the people who have seen  have told me it is my movie [laughs] and it's in my style.

Steve: Your films tend to be about the journey of through life either physically or spiritually. You've got the early films like DRIVE, the more recent CHASUSKE'S JOURNEY. And then you, in the middle of these you have KANIKOSEN which is a political film.

Looking at your range of films  it's the one that doesn't fit

What made you make a film that seems so radically different than, um, everything else you've done?

Sabu: With KANIKOSEN, the novel is really popular in Japan. And it was offered to me. And , I was a bit like "Should I be the one doing this?" But I did it. However  I infused a bit too much of comedy into it and so I got into a bit of trouble with the political party. [laughs]

Steve: That's crazy. I think of it as a very political film. I don't understand why there would be a problem with that. Then again I only know the novel by reputation.

Sabu: Well, originally it's a really old story, so I just did a lot of modernizing a bit. So, for example,  the boat that was getting the crabs was a little too chic. Things like that.

Steve: Could you do a film that was a straight drama? Because all of your films have humor. That's one of the things I absolutely love about your films is that, no matter what's happening there's always a sense of, "Yes these are, this is tragedy and yes this is whatever," but you still see the humor of, of things. You know it's heartbreaking as say, "MISS ZOMBIE" is. But there's still ridiculousness to some of it. However I was wondering could you do a film with no humor?

Sabu:  I could work on a serious drama. If I come up with the right idea, maybe. The next film that's being released next year, is also based on a novel but that one is quite serious. Although you might still laugh a little.

Steve: It's the George Bernard Shaw quote, "Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh".

Sabu: Yeah. It makes me really happy that, you'd be viewing it this way, that you can cry but also laugh.

Steve: That's what I love about your films. [Looks at Notes]The one thing I don't think you've done... But could you do say, a period drama? Say a, samurai film or something deep in history.

Sabu: I would really love to. It's just hard because those tend to be more expensive. Um, but if I get theright script, yes. But I actually do have a lot of ideas back from in the day so it's something I would really like to do.

Steve: Well, cool.

Sabu: , I think maybe it might be easier and faster to write a novel. Like a historical period novel. kind of like a CHASUKE'S JOURNEY as opposed to just having a screenplay. In Japan right now I think without  it existing a different medium, it's kind of hard to get made. So that might be the path.

Steve: .How do you feel about  the way people watch films now? Do you have a preference?  Everybody's watching them on phones. Um, you know, a big screen. Would you prefer big screen? .

Sabu: Of course I would rather people see it in theaters 'cause I spent so much time on the sound and color. And so than to have people watch it on such a small screen, that's kind of well, yeah. But you know, I do think it's not bad that it's become more easy, more accessible to watch films.

Steve: Why aren't you in more of your movies?I don't think you're in many of them at all. Is it too hard to act and direct or...?

Sabu: I just...I can't focus. And so I appeared in up until my third film as a director. But since then, I haven't.

Steve:  I thought it was you were more expensive as an actor than a director.

[laughter]

Sabu: Yeah, I was in Silence so I'm not expensive as an actor [laughs] .


Steve: Is there like any dream projects that you have? Is there any film that you'd love to do? That you simply, you know...

Sabu: There's a project I've been wanting to make for a very long time. And I haven't quite got been able to get it made. Although, it might finally go through. But uh, it's a project that I would make in Europe.

The screenplay is all done. Um, I would cast it over there in Europe. It'd probably be in English but you know, we'd shoot somewhere like Berlin or Venice. So that's something that I'd like to make happen.

Steve: That's cool. That's really cool.

Sabu: Good.

Jared King's Jade Leung/Michael Tong Interview on Podcast on Fire

Jade Leung and Michael Tong and their careers in posters

I have a story to tell…

Somewhere on July 3rd word went out that Jade Leung and Michael Tong were going to be appearing at the new York Asian Film Festival on July 5. It was a last minute addition. I was informed by Jared King when I got an email asking if I knew anything, specifically if they would be doing anything for the press. Emails were exchanged and we were informed that they would be  willing to sit for an interview before the screening of Fatal Raid on July 5th, so off Jared went.

After the interview Jared sent me audio and I was delighted.I loved that the interview was more a conversation between a bunch of people having a fun. You could hear everyone was having a good time laughing and talking. I sent it off for transcription figuring it was gold.

The problems started when I got the transcription back and realized it didn’t read as well as it played. Neither Jared nor I liked it. I sent it off to Mr C who didn’t like it either. I figured it could be saved if I mercilessly pared it back… and the result was even worse. Shorn of all of the vocal inflections, crosstalk, laughter and commentary in Chinese the conversation died on the page.

I’m mentioning this because the conversation Jared had with the two stars was something special. It was two stars and their handlers being confronted with a fan who loves them and falling into a conversation even before the recording started. When Jared jokes at the start “I know who you are” it gets a laugh because they know from the material he brought with him he really does. It’s echoed later when Jared says something that causes to Jade to sigh that he know her better than she knows herself.  All the friendliness and delight in everyone’s voices missing from the transcript.

In contemplating how to present the conversation Jared asked me if I had a problem if he gave the audio to Podcast on Fire to run. I did not. Indeed having fought with the transcript I knew it was the only way to go.

To that end here is the talk, I dare not really say interview that Jared did with Jared Leung and Michael Tong on Podcast on Fire J.uly th 2019 at the New York Asian Film Festival

Michael Tong Jared King and Jade Leung

Nate hood's 400 word on Song Lang (2019) NYAFF 2019

For his gorgeously realized, opulently shot feature debut Song Long, director Leon Le takes audiences to 1980s Saigon, a culture in the midst of painful transition. On the one side are the elder generations, survivors of decades of constant warfare and jealous protectors of traditional Vietnamese culture. On the other, the younger generations born into an increasingly pervasive capitalism, unconcerned with the old ways and obsessed instead with money, sex, and consumer goods. On the one side is Ling Phung (Isaac), filial son and performer of cải lương—Vietnamese folk theater. On the other is Dung (Lien Bin Phat), an emotionally deadened debt collector for a loan shark. Their lives are thrown together when Dung pays a visit to Ling’s theater to collect on his mother’s debts, sparking an odd friendship between two young men who have more in common with each other than they might imagine.

Many early critics have praised Song Long for its luscious cinematography—Chen Kaige’s Farewell Me Concubine (1993) seems a common point of reference—and loving depictions of cải lương. But the film is more than a wistful entertainment; it’s a anatomical cross section of a society on the brink of anomie. Notice how Le juxtaposes Dung’s shiftless life as a gangster with those of cải lương performers: whereas every moment of every day is strictly regimented and defined with purpose for the actors, Dung languishes most of his days away in a detached haze, drifting from empty rooftop to empty rooftop in between “collections.” The actors experience the full breadth of life preparing for and performing their art: joy, love, loss, tragedy. But Dung wanders in an anhedonic torpor, showing as much excitement when he makes love or plays video games alone in his apartment as he does when he learns one of his “clients,” the mother of two small girls, killed herself to free her family from her debts. Even Dung’s avowed atheism seems superficial when compared to the prevalent Catholicism and Buddhism surrounding him.

The film could’ve easily leaned towards the reactionary with its celebration of traditional Vietnamese culture and societal collectivism, but Le’s not interested in political proselytization—he’s telling a story first and foremost of two young men struggling to navigate life, tragedy, and heartbreak in the only ways they know how. It’s this blending of subtexts, narrative, and undeniably pictorial beauty that makes Song Lang an auspicious debut.

Rating: 7/10

Not a review of Sabu's Jam (2018) NYAFF 2019

This is purely a place holder. I wanted to simply say that I saw Sabu’s JAM which played at the New York Asian Film Festival, but I don’t know what to think. This uncertain reaction is not what I expected from a Sabu film since every film of his has produced some sort of emotion—even if only in the end when the plot threads came together in an ah ha moment.

Beginning at the end the film follows three people as their lives end up converging in a single moment where, they literally crash into each other. And I really don’t know.

A couple days on I’m still pondering it. I know I should watch the film again but I’m torn, especially since I’ve been told that the film is getting a sequel. Perhaps down the road, linked to another film it will make more sense, or provoke a reaction that I can put into words.

For now I just want to say that I’ve seen the film and full review is coming. Until then here is Nate Hood’s review.

Maggie (2019) NYAFF 2019

Sweet small scale film begins with an X-ray being found of a romantic twist in the X- ray room, which leads to speculation as to who it was. Nurse Yoon-young thinks it was her and goes into resign only to find she and one doctor are the only ones who haven't called in sick...

...spinning out in unexpected directions from there so as to include all sorts of seeming digressions from sink holes to cat fish, MAGGIE charms at almost every turn. Working entirely because we like the people in the film MAGGIE simply is good times with good people. To be certain things go oddly at times but we always accept it. What ever happens we simply accept it.

I was delighted and I suspect you will be too.

MAGGIE plays Saturday at the New York Asian FIlm Festival and next week at Fantasia in Montreal

Zombiepura (2019) NYAFF 2019

An amusing mix of horror and comedy has a squad of soldiers on a training retreat being ending up in the middle of a zombie plague.

Longtime readers of Unseen Films know that while I like the zombie genre, I am also sick to death of it. The last refuge of an increasing number of lazy filmmakers, the genre has been reduced down to people in bad make up chasing people around for 90 minutes before the end credits roll. There is no logic, no reason, just flesh munching. There is very little thought just the search for cheap scares as the same tropes are repeated over and over again.

By all rights I should be clumping Zombiepura into the crappy zombie film category but surprisingly that isn’t the case. Yes the film is your typical tale of a group of people surround by monsters going to eat them, but the filmmakers spice things up with not only a knowing sense of the genre, but also with real characters that create real situations where we laugh at the silliness of some of it and, most importantly we fear and dread what is going to happen next. We like our heroes and heroines and don’t want them to die.

One of the best films at this year’s NYAFF, Zombiepura is recommended when it plays Saturday night. For tickets and more information go here.

Still Human (2018) NYAFF 2019

Anthony Wong once again proves how good an actor he is in Still Human, the story of paralyzed man who takes on a new caregiver who doesn’t speak Chinese. At first butting heads, Wong, and an equally good Crisel Consunji as a Filipino nurse eventually find a common ground.

While not hitting any new ground, the film is in similar territory as INTOUCHABLES and the recent remake THE UPSIDE except in a low income setting, the film shines because the actors create characters we really care about. These are real people up there on the big screen and we are moved. Frankly I completely understand why the film has won numerous awards.

As much as I like the film I am in awe of Wong’s performance. Watching his body language in the wheelchair it would seem as though he has been in the chair his whole life. It goes beyond the way he sits to the way he moves his arms and hands and reacts to the people around him. It is a total body performance and it is stunning. It is one of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen.

Even allowing that there have been a couple of similar stories told recently, Still Human is a must see when it plays at NYAFF this Sunday.

For tickets and more information go here.

Nate Hood on Zombiepura (2019) NYAFF 2019

Hear ye, hear ye! The first zombie movie from Singapore has arrived!

And incredibly, it isn’t half-bad. That might sound unfairly glib, but anyone who works the festival or VOD circuit long enough usually develops an innate suspicion of any international horror movie that touts itself as the first of anything. Usually it’s just a cheap marketing gimmick meant to suck in horror completionists or the merely curious—rarely are they actually competent films in their own right. But Jacen Tan’s Zombiepura has some putrid meat hanging from its decrepit bones.

Utilizing the tried and true formula for zombie movies seeking crossover appeal, it bounces from genre to genre getting progressively darker and more serious as it continues. The first third plays as a slacker comedy as Kayu (Alaric), the laziest soldier in Singapore’s army reserves, runs afoul of his commanders and the military bureaucracy as he tries to get off guard duty by claiming to be sick. Of course, when he finally arrives at the doctor’s office he discovers that it’s already inundated with soldiers with a strange cough. It’s in this extended introduction that we’re introduced to a large, diverse cast of characters inevitably doomed to become zombie chow, such as Kayu’s best friend, the equally cowardly Jeya (Haresh Tilani). But we also meet a handful of characters who’ll obviously survive until at the least the incredibly dark—figuratively and literally—last act, as they’re either foils for his own personal growth or potential love interests, specifically the appropriately named “Beauty” (Joey Pink Lai), the daughter of one of the army camp’s employees who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

While the third act descends into predictable genre hysterics, it’s the second act that packs the most punch as it follows its band of misfits as they navigate the overrun camp. Tan gets a lot of comedic mileage over his zombies retaining “muscle memory” of their past lives—whenever the Singaporean anthem is played they snap to attention and when they’re confronted with an obstacle course they instinctively run it even while pursuing prey. But unlike the films of George A. Romero, there’s no satirical bite here—Tan isn’t making a statement about militarism or the depersonalization endemic to restrictive states like Singapore, they’re just gags. That might not be enough for some people, but for casual genre fair, it’s decent enough.

Rating: 6/10

The Odd Family: Zombie On Sale (2019) NYAFF 2019

Off kilter zombie comedy has a family who runs a gas station in the middle of nowhere, and scamming everyone as they go, finding themselves in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. The outbreak is due to a new diabetes medicine that turns the users into rabid monsters. The family also ends up taking in a zombie who isn’t that bad.

Better in its parts than as a whole Odd Family is the going to play best for those who are part of the undead army of zombie aficionados. Extremely well done with frequent laughs this is going to delight them and whose ever funny bone they are nibbling at the moment.

For some of us, myself included, this is going to be a good, but largely unremarkable trip to the zombie well. While there have been some great zombie films of late, I’m growing weary with the genre which cannibalizes itself over and over again. While there are some moments the film hits too many typical tropes for my taste. Perhaps it would have worked better had it not run almost a much too long two hours.

Worth a look for the zombie faithful.

For tickets and more information go here

ODD FAMILY will play later in July at the Fantasia Fest in Montreal

Nate Hood's 400 words on Sabu's Mr Long (2017) NYAFF 2019

Few directors play with genre as audaciously and consistently as auteur Sabu. For decades he’s crafted some of the oddest, most unclassifiable films to poke their way out of Japanese genre filmmaking, challenging norms and audiences with stories that refuse to fit into boxes. His 2017 film Mr. Long is no exception, deftly skipping from gruesome violence to light-hearted comedy to soul-crushing tragedy.

The film follows Mr. Long, a Taiwanese assassin who finds himself trapped in Japan after a hit gone wrong leaves him stranded with no cash or identification. Wandering through the outskirts of Tokyo, he discovers a young boy and his junkie mother living in a squalid neighborhood. He quickly bonds with the child and draws the attention of their neighbors after they learn that he’s an excellent cook. (Apparently, slicing jugulars aren’t his only knife skills.) The neighborhood bands together and builds him a noodle stand where he serves Taiwanese beef noodles outside a nearby temple with the boy as his assistant. Meanwhile, Long forces the mother to get clean the old fashioned way: tying her up until she rides all the poison out of her system. Crude and pitiless, yes, but considering Long’s bloody pedigree it might be the most compassionate way of helping her he can think of. Soon, the two fall in love and start a new family with the boy. But then Sabu pulls the rug out from under us by revealing that the mother was a former prostitute who ran away from her mafia handlers after getting pregnant from a customer she’d fallen in love with. And that mafia boss whose been hunting her all these years? He’s the same gangster Long failed to hunt down earlier. And wouldn’t you know that right as she starts a new life with Long he finally finds her.

The thing that keeps Mr. Long cohesive as it weaves its way through various tones is an overarching emotional unity of loneliness and sadness that gives way only through the kindness of strangers and the individual’s ability to forgive themselves of their pasts. It keeps us from mentally disassociating as Sabu shifts from ultra-violence where Long stabs and slices his way through literally dozens of goons to gentle comedy as he tries to navigate his new adopted country despite not speaking the language. It’s by keeping the drama human that he keeps it believable.

Rating: 7/10

Joe Bendel on FURIE which plays NYAFF July 11 with Veronica Ngo in attendance

In the movies, human traffickers are woefully inept at cost-benefit analyses. In Taken, someone should have decided to quietly return Liam Neeson’s daughter on the condition of no questions asked. That is even more true of Hai Phuong. The former gangster has a pretty lethal skill set of her own, but it is her mama bear protectiveness that makes her so formidable in Le Van Kiet’s Furie, which plays at the New York Asian Film Festival July 11.

Hai was once a gangster, which is why she is still estranged from her family. All she really needs is her daughter Mai, who is unwisely snatcher away from her one day in the country market. They had been fighting before her abduction, so Hai is especially distraught. She will doggedly follow their trail all the way to Saigon, where she used to haunt the streets during her earlier criminal years.

Yep, that is about the size of Furie. This is not exactly what you would call a complex narrative structure, but it finds virtue in its simplicity. This is the sort of old school beat-down that defined Hong Kong action movies in the 1970s and 1980s. Kiet sets up the pins and Ngo knocks them down. Why complicate something so brutally effective?

Ngo’s action chops are already well-established, but she performs some of her grittiest, most cinematic fight scenes yet as Hai. She really takes it to the level of Villainess, but the mother-daughter relationship is also quite touching, thanks to the rapport she shares with young Mai Cat Vi, playing her namesake. Viewers will really, really root for Hai to rescue Mai and to dish out the payback the traffickers so richly deserve.

Phan Thanh Nhien is appropriately steely as Luong, the honest copper, but he is a distant second fiddle compared to the ferocious Ngo (and Hai). However, Hoa Tran’s scenery chewing presence and ferocious physicality makes trafficking gang leader Thanh Soi a more than worthy nemesis. Frankly, her character exits too soon—and with too much finality.

Kiet and Ngo deliver some juicy red meat for action fans. This is a lithe, street smart movie that only has one speed: full throttle. So, it’s a simple, straight forward review for an unfussy, gleefully violent film. Highly recommended for patrons of marital arts films and Vietnamese cinema, Furie Plays July 11 at the New York Asian Film Festival with Veronica Ngo in attendance. For tickets and more information go here.

G Affairs (2019) NYAFF 2019

G AFFAIRS lets us know we are not in Kansas early on as we watch a young woman being interrupted in practicing her cello when a severed head comes tumbling through the window. From there the film takes off on a walk on the wild side as the various people connected to the case and the apartment prove everyone has a dark side.

Form over content thriller is an okay time passer. Better for the art house crowd than those looking for a typical thriller. The reason I say this that the film seems to be more intent on setting a mood than figuring out how the head ended up skidding across the floor. When the film concludes and we get to the reveal I felt the ride was better than the destination.

While not a bad film it never lives up to the promise of the opening moments

After NYAFF G AFFAIRS will play Fantasia Fest in Montreal

White Snake (2019) NYAFF 2019

Playing at the New York Asian Film Festival before getting a release in the US from GKIDS White Snake is an animated retelling of the classic tale of a snake goddess who ends up falling in love a young man tasked with hunting and killing snakes. In this version of the story the romance is complicated by the inclusion of a dark lord with a big army trying to take over the country.

This is a spectacular animated martial arts film that takes the recent spate of Chinese CGI heavy fantasy films to their logical conclusion. It is truly a wondrous thing to see, especially on the big screen as the image envelope us and take us to another time and place.

The film is an odd mix of family friendly adventure and adult bits which makes this a tonally odd film at times. Sometimes moving like the wind as if it is trying to hold the attention of the younger set the film will put in play certain adult ideas that make the film seem to be striving to be more than just a kids film. At the same time the amped up action which is wonderfully cartoony sometimes is capped off by a little bit of graphic violence as bad guys are run through and blood splurches. While I have no trouble with animation for adults or for animation that is realistic, the mix of adult and family, while not jarring or wholly out of place, isn’t always blended well as I was left wondering who this was made for.

Several days on after seeing the film I’m still trying to work out what I think about it. As I said above the film is spectacular both in shot composition and action sequences, but I’m not sure of the rest. While most assuredly a good solid film you should see I’m dealing with a gnawing feeling that the film should have been great instead of just good. I suspect part of it is the result of GKids picking the film up, and partly because it moves so fast it breezes though some moments that would have given the film a bit of weight.

Then again I’m probably not the intended audience.

Regardless of my feelings definitely worth a look, especially if you can see it big where the images will overwhelm you.

White Snake plays later today at NYAFF. It will also be screening at Fantasia in Montreal at the end of July.

Nate Hood's 400 words on Sabu's Jam (2018) NYAFF 2019

For his eighteenth feature Jam, idiosyncratic Japanese auteur Sabu abandons the straightforward storytelling that’s dominated his career in favor of a film featuring three distinct storylines that weave and intersect purely by chance much like the early 2000s hyperlink features of Alejandro González Iñárritu. The first revolves around Hiroshi (Sho Aoyagi), a struggling enka singer with a devout fanbase of older women who dreams of global stardom. Following a meet-and-greet session with a group of his fans, he’s kidnapped by a mentally unstable woman named Masako (Mariko Tsutsui) who ties him to a chair and forces him to write a love song for her. Elsewhere there’s Tetsuo (Nobuyuki Suzuki), a silent ex-con fresh from prison hunting down the gangsters who abandoned him during a heist gone wrong. While not killing his way through the criminal underground, he dutifully cares for his senile grandmother, pushing her around in a wheelchair as he goes about his bloody business.

Both of these storylines unfortunately feel like pale imitations of other, better movies: it’s impossible to watch Hiroshi’s story without having flashbacks of Rob Reiner’s Misery (1990) and Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy (1982), while Tetsuo feels ripped straight out of Chan-wook Park’s Oldboy (2003) what with his imperviousness to pain, bedraggled appearance, and use of a hammer as his primary weapon.

It’s only the third and final storyline that feels truly original, and it’s here that we see the dark humor that’s characterized so much of Sabu’s career. It centers on a young man named Takeru (Keita Machida), a good-natured fellow with cosmically bad luck. After his girlfriend is accidentally shot and sent into a coma while a bystander to the heist where Tetsuo got arrested, he receives a vision from God telling him that if he does three good deeds a day she’ll wake up. However, his good deeds seem to backfire, such as almost getting lynched after getting mistaken for a pedophile while trying to help a crying little girl. In his eagerness to help others, he inadvertently becomes the getaway driver to a duo of robbers. Their next big score? An upcoming Hiroshi concert.

Jam is an occasionally charming genre exercise, but an ultimately hollow one, as it never demonstrates any underlying philosophy or ideas; there’s a recognition of fate and coincidence, but no conclusions about them. There isn’t even a point about pointlessness.

Rating: 6/10

Mr Long (2017) NYAFF 2019

This is my review of MR LONG from the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival

Sabu's MR LONG is a film that only he could have made. A rambling, philosophical gangster/cooking film it goes off in unexpected directions and returns with unexpected delights.

The film concerns Long, a Taiwanese hitman who is sent to Japan to kill another gangster. When the hit goes wrong he barely escapes with his life. Wounded he ends up in an abandoned part of town. Making the acquaintance of a small boy he eventually falls in with the residents who warm to his ability to cook. As he waits for a boat back home he helps the boy's mother get off drugs and builds a culinary business.

A deliberately paced film, the film can seem long at times. The film has a long digression into the history of the boy's mother. It may seem an odd thing to do but it pays off in the end with an emotional punch in the face at the end.

This is a great film to just look at. This is a film that uses all of the visual cues to heighten and deepen what we are feeling about the story. The opening city sequence is stunning and it makes us feel we are seeing something special. The action sequences are among the best I've seen in a long time. How Sabu films them adds a real punch. When the final confrontation occurs it is as a cathartic bloodletting as anything I've ever seen on film. It's not just what physically happens but what we are seeing actually means that makes it so shattering. There is a release not only for Long but for us in the audience as well. Even the final ridiculously joyous traffic stopping sequence works because of how what we are seeing amps up the emotion of the moment.

I am a huge Sabu fan. His films are not like any one else's. No one mixes things up quite the way he does. This is fact that makes selling his films difficult because people don't know what to make of them which means studios don't know how to release his films in the US. His films defy genres and it annoys people

After the screening I got into a very heated argument with another writer who despises Sabu's films. In their mind he is an actor and should remain that and not turn out films because they don't follow cinematic rules. I don't know what rules they are thinking about, however I do think the films are something more since they tend to be more philosophical journeys rather than straight on narratives. That Sabu's films break the rules, whatever they are, is what makes them so delightful and special.

MR LONG is a delight. It is, as all Sabu's films are, a must see. He's to hoping it gets a wide US release.

MR LONG plays Monday at NYAFF with the director doing an intro and Q&A. For tickets go here

Nate Hood on The Fable (2019) NYAFF 2019

One of the biggest plot holes in any narrative about secret societies of assassins is that at some point all the lucrative targets will be dead. Who could afford million dollar hits when all the business executives, greedy politicians, and stock brokers lie dead with bullets in their foreheads? At what point does the assassination racket fall prey to the tragedy of the commons? The handlers of “The Fable” (Junichi Okada), Tokyo’s most infamous assassin, must have felt that very anxiety when they ordered him to go into hiding for a year following a particularly gruesome job where he gunned down a small army of international businessmen at a wedding reception. Relocated to Osaka, he was given an assumed identity and ordered to try and live a “normal” life and not kill anyone. This proves no small feat for Fable, as his upbringing was anything but “normal”—when he was just a child his father abandoned him in the woods for a month to toughen him up. From there he was trained into the perfect killer, equipped with a savant’s concentration and a secret agent’s skills. Yet now he must acclimate himself into everyday life, working a mind-numbing 9-to-5 during the day and watching mind-rotting television at night. This too is easier said than done after he’s immediately targeted upon arrival in Osaka by rival assassins and local gangsters.

The inherent absurdity of this situation lies at the heart of Kan Eguchi’s The Fable, an adaptation of Katsuhisa Minami’s manga of the same name that tries and only occasionally succeeds in blending oddball comedy with high-octane shoot-em-up action. Eguchi gets a lot of mileage from the ridiculous lengths Fable goes to in order not to kill, such as letting himself get beaten up by two street thugs in such a way that his attackers end up hurting themselves during the fight. The way he hobbles himself while preparing for a climactic shoot-out by arming himself with toy bullets and improperly calibrated guns are equally clever. But much of the rest of the comedy is extremely hit-or-miss. The same can’t be said for the actual action scenes, particularly the opening wedding reception shootout. Emulating John Woo in his prime while maintaining its own kinetic flair and brutality, they’re some of the most viscerally satisfying gun-fights this side of John Wick.

Rating: 6/10

FABLE had played NYAFF earlier in the week. It can next be seen at the Fantasia Fest in Montreal at the end of July

NYAFF Capsule reviews MA, FATAL RAID, and WALK WITH ME

MA
Disappointing horror film concerns a young boy mourning the death of his mother who makes a deal with a spirit in a haunted cave bring her back. Running a brief 75 minutes the film feels strangely padded. Filled with too many moody scenes and an intrusive score, the film seems to be forever setting the stage for some big scares that never come. To me this would have made a killer 50 minute episode of a horror anthology where the rigid time frame would have required tighter editing.
A miss

FATAL RAID
20 years after a raid that went wrong an all female team head off to Macao to pursue a terrorist leaving a trail of death and destruction.  A nonsensical plot is only in place to string together an almost endless series of 20 plus minute action set pieces. While absolutely entertaining on its own " forget plt an characters,action is the only thing that counts" terms, the film is so close to parody that it often crosses over with over done colors, slow motion and beautiful women in skin tight leather firing guns and breaking heads. If the violence wasn't so earnest this would be a comedy (though it's damn close to be one unintentionally). For action junkies this is a must- for anyone wanting a serious film look elsewhere.

WALK WITH ME
Bullied young woman has to deal with an abusive parent, a dead sibling, evil spirits and other supernatural troubles in an uneven horror film. Working best in its numerous creepy sequences WALK WITH ME is hindered by both trying to juggle way too much and for going too far into familiar territory. I'm not going to say what exactly is going on, but I'm going to bet you that if love horror films you've been here before. Still there are enough of the small moments to make this worth a shot for anyone who wants to see better than average horror film.

For tickets or more information to any of these films go here.