Fantasia 2016 Animated Shorts- ANIMAL BOOK, ACCIDENTS...., JUNCTION, JOURNAL ANIME, OFF TO THE VET, and THE TEENY WEENY FOX,

Every Year Fantasia has some of the best short films you'll see. I always try to make an effort to see them because every year some end up on my best of the year list. This year I wasn't given access to any of the live action shorts (though filmmmakers have sent me a few and reviews are coming) but I did get some of the animated films.

What follows is the first of two posts with brief word on the short animated wonders of the festival. (Because the films are playing in differing collections you'll have to check the Fantasia website for the times and places) 

ANIMAL BOOK
Ecological minded film about a man driving who begins to run over endangered animals. I appreciate what its trying to do, but its not a particularly good film.0

ACCIDENTS BLUNDERS AND CALAMITIES
Wickedly funny animal version of the Ghastly Crumb Tinies by Edward Gorey

JUNCTION
A face changer makes a journey to a far off mountain. Wonderful eye candy

JOURNAL ANIME
Pictures in a newspaper come to life under an artists hand and interact- amusing call back of sorts to the Warner book gag cartoons but updated-includes a wicked Simpsons gag.

SIMON'S CAT OFF TO THE VET
Simon's cat get stung and so Simon has to get the cat into a carrier and bring him to  a vet. If you've ever had a cat you know how true it is.

LE RENARD MINIUSCULE (The Teeny Weeny Fox)
The adventure of a tiny fox. How timy? Smaller than an insect. Its a charming little film about hat happens when he meets a young girl.

The Inerasable (2015) is one the scariest films I've ever seen Fantasia 2016

Yoshihiro Nakamura‘s THE INERASABLE scared the crap out of me. This low key film of suggested horror had me up way too late and sleeping with the windows closed and the AC on so I wouldn’t hear the wind outside. I haven’t been this disturbed since I saw Brian DePalma’s CARRIE, though THE INERASABLE‘s terrors come not from a scare but a carefully created feeling of dread that there are vengeful ghosts in the shadows.

The plot of the film has an unnamed writer who uses writer suggestions of real life events in her stories getting a letter from a woman who just moved into an apartment block. An exchange of emails occurs and the writer seen realizes that she had received other letters about the goings on in the building. This send the writer and her new found friend on a search for the source through the history of the building and the land.

More a story of suggestion then graphic horror, there is no blood, no gore, no jump scares, this film is going to drive those who want the blood and the ghosts front and center crazy. Designed as a puzzle box trap that pulls the characters and the audience deeper and deeper into the darkness this is a film of stories. Everyone is telling us what happened before, as the ghosts we know are found to have ones influencing them from before.

Beautifully crafted, this is a film builds a wonderful toxic atmosphere. We are told stories with some facts and fill in the details for the rest. Yes we do see some ghosts, but more often than not it’s a sound or an image in a flashback or story that makes out skin crawl. The film is so adept at creating tension that when I heard a voice at one point a shivered violently and the hair stood up on the back of my neck.

I know that the film will split audiences. I know the regular horror crowd who want shocks that will cause them to scream and then dismiss them are going to be disappointed. This is something else. This is a terror built on the stories we tell each other. These are the sort of tales that we tell about the supposed haunted house down the street or what happened in the aftermath of a tragedy. Ghosts walk and restless spirits want payback.

This maybe one of the finest ghost stories ever made. It certainly is one of the scariest films I’ve ever seen.

Thank you Fantasia for bringing this film to North America. Films like this are the reason you are one of my favorite festivals in the world.

Nathanael Hood takes on Emi-Abi (2016) Japan Cuts 2016

Those who think movie going is not a social event have never gone to the movies with myself or any of the Unseen Films crew. We wade into films and film festivals and end up picking up people along the way. We are a bunch of people who love good movies, good company and good discussion.

It’s the last two that bring me to the author of this review of EMI-ABI, Nathanael Hood. I met Nate last year at the Tribeca film fest. We met waiting on the line for one film or other. We fell into a conversation that has continued for the last year and a half on line and in person and it has brought a good many laughs, much thought and general good time. Finding people like Nate who not only writes well but is a hell of a nice guy makes doing Unseen worth it.

Nate is a hell of a writer. He is a freelance  film critic and writer and his writing can be found at TheYoungFolk.com, TheRetroSet.com and ScreenComment.com.. He also is on Twitter (@NateHood257) and Nate Hood Reviews. (Do yourself a favor and read his other stuff because he’s great). 

He is a man whose opinion I respect to the extent that when I got tied up trying to review EMI-ABI I asked Nate to step in and help me out. After some arm twisting and a promise of dinner he agreed to take over and do a review.

So with out further adieu, except to say thank you to my friend for stepping up, here is Nate's review of EMI-ABI

Precisely 50 minutes into Kensaku Watanabe’s Emi-Abi, the film craps the bed. Or, to be more specific, the pants of Unno (Tomoya Maeno), one half of the eponymous manzai duo. While on a date, a trio of thugs try to rob him. But upon recognizing him from television, the thugs give Unno an ultimatum: make them laugh and they’ll leave; fail and they’ll kidnap his girlfriend. He concludes his desperate attempts at getting them to laugh by squatting down, grabbing his legs, and farting so hard he literally levitates a good ten feet off the ground, suspended in mid-air for several seconds before crashing back down. Keep in mind that until now Emi-Abi had been a deathly serious drama about grief and loss. The scene itself is a flashback to before Unno and his girlfriend were killed in a freak accident, devastating his manzai partner Jitsudo (Ryu Morioka) and putting him out of a job. Unno was the frantic funnyman, Jitsudo the straight man—although in an odd reversal of Western-style double acts, Unno spent their routines overreacting to Jitsudo’s cocky, bizarre antics. Without his funnyman, Jitsudo’s world falls apart. He comes to the sobering conclusion that he isn’t funny on his own.

But after the farting scene, it becomes impossible to take Emi-Abi seriously. The scene severs any sense of realism from the story, completely spoiling our emotional investment in Jitsudo’s recovery. For the rest of the film we wonder if we’ll see him demonstrate some other magical power. The farting scene is quickly shown to be a comedically exaggerated retelling. But later the film confirms that, yes, Unno achieved flight via farting.

I can appreciate what Watanabe tried to do with Emi-Abi. He attempts to examine the whole idea of comedy by deconstructing it, ruining serious scenes with comedy and comedic scenes with tragedy. The most devastating example of the latter comes when Jitsudo visits his old mentor Kurosawa (Hirofumi Arai) and gets ordered to make him and his recently departed sister laugh. Kurosawa ends up abusing, insulting, and finally assaulting Jitsudo for his terrible comedy. But then the scene takes a further turn when Jitsudo’s manager Natsumi (Haru Kuroki) runs in and reveals it was all a prank. Or maybe it wasn’t. The film doesn’t seem to know. There’s also a sobering scene in a graveyard where Kurosawa tries to perform for a grieving couple before—in a twist more at home in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia (1999)—getting smacked in the head with several large metal bins thrown by a tornado with laser accuracy.

If Watanabe had been more straight-forward in the film’s presentation, it could have been remarkable. There isn’t a bad performance in the bunch. Maeno in particular steals the show in his handful of scenes, demonstrating the same emotional elasticity and physical prowess that made Robin Williams so formidable. The few manzai scenes are astoundingly effective despite the language and cultural barrier. I like how subtle sound effects were added or emphasized to further accentuate the comedy: fabric rustles as loud as the dialogue, springs snap for certain punchlines, air whizzes by their gesticulating limbs like they were in a kung fu movie. But Emi-Abi is too scattershot for any of it to truly work.

Rating: 5/10

I Olga Hepnarová (2016) Fantasia 2016

I am a loner. A destroyed woman. A woman destroyed by people... I have a choice - to kill myself or to kill others. I choose TO AVENGE MY HATERS. It would be too easy to leave this world as an unknown suicide victim. Society is too indifferent, rightly so. My verdict is: I, Olga Hepnarová, the victim of your bestiality, sentence you to death.

True story of Olga Hepnarova who drove a truck into a crowd of people in 1973 killing 8. She ended up being the last woman person executed in Czechoslovakia. Stark black and white film shows us the story of a young woman neglected by her parents and bullied by society who reacted in a violent way to force society to take a look at the way it views the down trodden.

Or that's what it seems to be trying to say. The trouble for me is that Hepnarova is clearly not all there. The film begins with her first suicide attempt and goes on to show us in the psychiatric hospital and her life after that. She is already an individual who is standing slightly apart from the rest of the world and her interactions with the world show us a person who has trouble fitting in. She is challenging the world as much as she is being victimized by it. She is not quite the victim of the world that film would make us believe she is. This isn't to say she deserved hat happened at any point  only to point out she had issues that made connecting difficult and its understandable why some people struck back at here.

I think the problem is that writer/directors Petr Kazda and Tomas Weinreb have framed the film action more to make a point rather than give us a fair idea of anything. Everyone Olga encounters is cold to her and her presence is always framed to make her the outsider.  One can see the hands of the directors at work. It never feels real and is more theatrical art than a film because its so clearly manipulating things for effect and to make a point rather than show what happened.

I like this film to some degree but I find it is something I admire more in the craft of the making than in the viewing.

The film screens again at Fantasia on the 25th. For tickets and more information go here.

Japan Cuts Capsules-BEING GOOD. KAKO MY SULLEN PAST and KEN AND KAZU

BEING GOOD
Pained slice of life from Mipo O who gave us the bleak but amazingly wonderful THE LIGHT ONLY SHINES THERE which played Japan Cuts last year. The intertwined stories of an elderly lady misidentified as a shop lifter, a teacher trying to to decide what to do with abuse and a mother trying to cope as a single parent.

A very heavy very serious drama that sucks you in and drags you along BEING GOOD is one of those films that is not for anyone wanting a light and fluffy film. This is full course of extremely well done and well acted strum and drang. If you are looking for a heavy meal this is very recommended.

KAKO MY SULLEN PAST
High schooler drifts through life not caring about anyone or anything has her life up ended by the aunt she thought was long dead, killed in an explosion years before. The returning aunt wrecks her thoughts and her complacency.

Unremarkable comedy drama isn't bad but isn't anything to write home about. This is a middle of the road film that has moments but is largely forgettable and the sort of film you'll wonder why it was being programmed.

KEN AND KAZU
Feature version of a short film is a low budget crime film that looks no different than any number of American films- only all in close up.

The plot has two drug dealing friends having their friendship and partnership tested to the breaking point when one of them want to go straight with his pregnant girl friend.

Well acted tale might have amounted to something more than run of the mill and merely adequate if only director Hiroshi Shoji had decided to use something other than a close up. Told almost entirely in faces the film has no real sense of place because for most of the film we are tight on someone face or looking at a location in such away that a body or some part of it fills the frame. I felt claustrophobic and after a while I simply didn't want to bother watching any more because I got no sense of anything beyond  the stern faces.

I have no doubt that Shoji is a fan for Dreyer's JOAN OF ARC with its constant close ups, but even so Dreyer knew when to go wide.

For those who think inde films can do no wrong only.

Harmony (2015) Fantasia 2016

The World Health Organization's Helix inspectors watch over the worlds conflicts. They decide who receives aid and who doesn't.  A backdoor deal with one of the sides in the conflict she is watching over results in her being sent home she arrives just in time to be faced with a rash of suicides. Could the wave have something with a childhood friend long thought dead?

Based upon the work of Project Itoh (Satoshi Ito) HARMONY is one of three films recently produced bringing the writer's small body of work to the big screen. This is film full of heady ideas that stretch far and above the typical science fiction or even anime film. Chief among the ideas floating around are the film's questioning of the so called nanny state which watches over everyone. In this future world everyone is fitted with a device called Watch Me which activates upon adulthood and monitors everyone's health and literal place in the world. Do we have free will any more and ill we have it it the future or will we hand it over to the government in order to be safe? From an intellectual stand point this film has a lot on it's mind and is to be applauded.

From an execution stand point I'm not so sure the film really works. Filled with long flashbacks, meaningful silences filled by choral music and some over ripe dialog that make damn sure you know the film is about something this film is a long haul. I kept wanting to hit the fast forward button so that I could get to the next thing. As I said give the film points for being about something but take them away for making it a slow slog to piece it all together.

To be honest I've read that the problem with adapting Itoh's work is that the choice had to be made be 100% faithful and have a film like this or chop out the ideas and have a slam bang action film. I have not read any of Itoh's work, nor do I think most critics who have mentioned his books, so I can't say it's true, however I can't believe that their wasn't a middle ground somewhere.

I will admit part of my problem with the film is the graphic design which aligns closely to typical anime styles. While I find nothing wrong with the style, I love anime, the use of the style kind of works counter to the story. Here is a unique heady subject and it should look different rather than exactly like every other anime.

Recommended for the heady ideas but not its execution.

Fake (2016) Japan Cuts 2016

FAKE is the story of Mamoru Samuragochi who was hailed as a modern day Beethoven because his deafness and his musical abilities made it seem like he was similar to the great composer.  However it all fell apart on the eve of the Sochi Olympics. Seemingly out of left field a man came forward to say that he was the real writer of all of Samurgochi's works and that the composer was lying about his deafness. The media attacked Samurgochi was destroyed and the man who accused him was hailed as a hero for revealing the truth.

The trouble is what was revealed isn't the whole truth.

Tatsuya Mori returned to documentary filmmaking for the first time in 15 years in order to chronicle Samurgochi's story. Using long takes that allow things to play out Mori's film paints a complex portrait of man who is neither hat he presented himself to be nor what the media said he was either. While it's clear that Samuragochi can hear sound, he is effectively deaf since his ability to differentiate sound isn't there. Also he it's clear  he does have talent.

While that may sound spoilery, I assure it's not since the film is about more than can he or can't he. This is a portrait of man in crisis and the nature of the relationship with his wife who is kind of trapped in his cage. Its also a portrait of an out of control media which never really fact checked and just kicked a man because they felt they could. Its interesting to note that director Mori doesn't think the film will do any business because a TV interview with Samuragochi examining his side of the story was unwatched.

I like this film. I like the long flowing sequences because this is a situation where letting the camera run allowed for things to be caught on tape. Where Mori did similar things in his previous two films on the Aum Shinrikyo cult making them a tough slog, here it works to the film's advantage as we really get to see and examine the man at the center of the film.

One of my favorite films at this year's Japan Cuts, Recommended, especially for anyone interested in the media and the gulf between the truth and what is reported.

The Seventh Fire (2015)

Opening Friday at New York's Metograph is the Terrence Malick produced documentary THE SEVENTH FIRE. Its a powerful documentary that you have to stay with early on before it hooks you and drags you to the end.

Returning to the White Earth Reservation where he filmed an earlier short documentary, director Jack Pettibone Riccobono turns his camera over to following Rob Brown a man who has been in and out of prison numerous times and his young acolyte of sorts Kevin Fineday over a several year period. As Rob heads back toward prison he sees Kevin heading down the wrong road and has to figure out how to stop the inevitable.

Filmed over several years the film is an unevenly chronicled portrait of some people living in extreme poverty for whom crime and the "dark side" is the only option. We drop in now and again and play catch up with their lives and what is happening. Its all largely verite as things are not really explained and we are left to piece it all together.

A beautiful to look at film, its easy to see why Malick got involved with the project. One could almost see him directing a live action version of the film without too much trouble.

I really like the film a great deal. this is a window on a world I know nothing about and am utterly fascinated by.

If the film has any flaws its the uneven presentation. Some sequences are much too short, a few other could have been trimmed. There is a sense at times of wanting to know more.

However, ultimately the film is a kick in the ass and highly recommended when the film begins it trek around the country in theaters.

La Rage du Demon (2015) Fantasia 2016

Wonderful low key horror mixes with a wonderful tribute to Georges Melies in LA RAE DU DEMON an hour long mockumentary that manages to make you believe the events depicted actually happened.

The premise of the film is that a supposedly lost film, that may have been made by Georges Melies turned up and was screened by a noted film historian in 2012. The screening was a big to do at a Paris museum that ended with a riot and the police being called. The film then tracks the history of the film and its supposedly cursed history.

Playing like a typical TV documentary LA RAGE is a brilliant mix of film clips and talking heads that manage to blend the horror story with history in such a way that unless you really know your cinema history odds are you’d be willing to buy into the film completely. Watching the film they had me completely believing what they were saying until a reference to something in New York made it obvious it was all made up. I knew it was a mockumentary going in but it’s so perfectly done they really do sell it.

This film is an absolute delight. Not only is it a neat little horror film but it’s also a glorious tribute to Georges Melies and the early days of movie making when they were seen by many people as magic.

One of my favorites of this year’s Fantasia and highly recommended

Quest for Fire (1981) Fantasia 2016

I’m old enough that I saw QUEST FOR FIRE in the movies. When the film came out it was a big to do with director Jean-Jacques Annaud working with Anthony Burgess and Desmond Morris to create reasonable vocal and body language. The film was loved by many, others thought it was too arty, and pretty much everyone laughed at the sex scene where the missionary position was discovered.

My biggest memory of seeing the film in the theater all those years ago was being aware of the sound design. This was a film where the sound wasn’t just left and right but all around the auditorium. It was cool and began my interest in movie sound.

The story of a two early humans who go looking for fire when their tribe’s fire has gone out is just a grand adventure. Transcending this is a universal story that’s expertly told. Along the way the two men pick up a woman who actually knows the secret to making fire. The trio then must face various dangers to get home.

This is one of those small films most people don’t think about but which sent shock waves through the film industry. The naturalistic/documentary form of story telling was noticed by many in the main stream and some films became less Hollywood. The film became a watermark in how similar films are viewed. When Jane Auel’s CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR was turned into a film a couple of years later it was savaged for reasons that included the fact they didn’t take QUEST FOR FIRE’s approach. And the film gave us Ron Pearlman in his first big role.

The film itself has haunted me. It’s a film I return to time and again. It’s a film that while not perfect is so self contained and so documentary like that the film seems real. We feel as though we are there and watching actual events. It's a film that plays better on the big screen where the world falls away and you fall into the world on screen. I think I love the film because I fell into the ancient world 35 years ago...

...which is why if you're in Montreal because you really should see this film big and in the dark.  Even if you've seen the film before but not on TV you need to see this at Fantasia because this is a film that grows exponentially better on the big screen. Trust me you don't know how good this film is until you see it big.

Go see this film at Fantasia.

For tickets and more information go here

White Coffin (2016) Fantasia 2016

 Sometimes it's better to be dead


We will see each other again when you find the white coffin.

I found it and it's a kick as adrenaline fueled rock to the moon.

Mother taking her daughter down the road to a new life stops at a rest stop and has her daughter disappear.  Chasing after a car she believes has her daughter in it she begins a dangerous game that will force us to ponder if sometimes the things we do  to keep our loved ones safe are better left undone.

Hitting all the tropes of the wild and crazy horror films of the 1970's and 80's with their choral music, rear screen projections, cars that get a flat by the cemetery this film knows that much of the film isn't breaking new ground, but it dresses up the early stages with some awesome set pieces (the flat, the car chase) that hold our attention before the film  flips everything and takes us into real nightmare territory with an ending that is more than just a little f-ed up. This is the sort of film that some of the desert horror films from 40 years ago like RACE WITH THE DEVIL or THE DEVIL'S RAIN might have been if they took things too far.

What an absolute delight this film is for a hardcore horror fan. This is a film that doesn't skimp on the blood and violence and it mixes it up with enough strangeness to keep you knotted up on the edge of your seat.

One of the real joys of the film is also one of it's curses. Running a speedy 70 minutes this film moves like the wind. The brief running time is a plus since it forces the film to run at full speed from start to finish. There is no time to take a breath or ponder what is happening because the film is moving so damn fast. The problem is that the film runs 70 minutes which is going to make a theatrical release, at least in the US difficult if not impossible- which is sad because this should be seen on a big screen.

Still there should be lots of festival screenings now that the film has premiered (Oh please Lincoln Center pick this up for Scary Movies)  and of course home video.

One of the real delights of Fantasia 2016. If you love horror especially action horror track this film down.

Eyes Of My Mother (2016) Fantasia 2016

Why would I kill you, you are my only friend

In the 1960’s a clean cut but odd looking young man shows up at the home of a family in the country. Asking the mother where the bathroom is things escalate rapidly as the man produces a gun. When the father returns home and find the young man chopping up his wife in the bathtub all hell breaks loose. What follows, the ramifications of the act on young Francisca, is chilling

Actually for the first 20 or 25 minutes this eerie black and white film is aiming to be something truly unique. Described as a dark tone poem by the Fantasia promotional material the film really is just that. It’s a quietly disturbing film that sucks you in with long takes and a twisted turns that chills you with its whole atmosphere of the world off the rails.

The trouble is that what is one of a kind for about 20 minutes has the uniqueness go away as the film jumps ahead in time and we get a film that follows the horror trope of a sweet looking young who doesn’t want to be alone and is completely nuts. While the film gives us moments in the last hour that chill, a potential lesbian encounter that goes wrong, a moonlight hug in field, things never match the opening quarter of the film. I suspect that it’s the result of having the real world intrude on the lyric beauty. Once Francisca goes away from home the spell is broken, yes, what happens is scary, especially since we often only see the lead up and the aftermath , but it’s real world. The poetry is gone as people speak in real world sentences about real world things. What was an outstanding film becomes a good one.

Disappointment at not having a film that hits it out of the park aside, I like this film a great deal and it’s insistence on trying to be different and stand apart from the rest.

I AM A MONK (2015) Japan Cuts 2016

I AM A MONK is one of the reasons Japan Cuts exists. Highlighting small films which would probably not get a big audience if released widely in the US, Japan Cuts points out films that really need to be seen. I Am A Monk needs to be seen.

Based on an autobiographical story by a monk, the film tells the story of a young man who takes over the family business, running one of 88 temples on the trail used by pilgrims seeking enlightenment. We watch as he tries to find his footing handling the daily prayers and the daily grind of actually administrating the temple. It is a humanizing portrait of the men and women who have chosen the religious road for life since we also see him blowing off steam, getting drunk and hanging out with friends. This is a wonderful peak behind the curtain of a religious life, probably all religious lives. What I like is that the film gives us the sense he is just this guy like us.

I think this is one of the best films at Japan Cuts and I recommend it…with one proviso, the pacing is methodical and very deliberate. The film has been described as plodding by some other reviewers and it’s a criticism I can’t argue with. However at the same time the pacing matches the ebb and flow of life at the temple. This is life and this is the way it goes. The pacing is also a reflection of meditation.

If you’ve ever wonder what it’s like to be a Buddhist monk or follow a religious life see this film

For tickets and more information go here

The Art of Fasting (2015) JAPAN CUTS 2016

Masao Adachi's art film is going to be one that splits the audience. This work of confrontational art is going drive many people from the theater and make them ponder what sort of person would schedule crap while others are going to connect with it and think it' great.

The basic plot has a guy go into mall and sit down and fast. He refuses to be movedMeanwhile the act is interpreted by various people in differing ways and we get side pieces that are supposed to highlight the main ideas.

Personally I found the film a tough go, with everything intentionally obtuse and striving to be deep and meaningful. My instinct was that its pretentious twaddle. I would dismiss the film out right except that a friend of mine who shall remain nameless sung the films praises and said that he had wanted to run the film at his film festival but knew it was going to a film that was going to have a small audience and result in lots of complaints by people who didn't get it. For him it was a masterpiece of the highest order- praise he rarely gives, and not to films as challenging as this.

Your're on your own with this one- but recommended for those who want their films challenging and more the multiplex fodder.

In brief: The Unseen (2016) Fantasia 2016

Solid crime/fantasy/noir has a barely making it mill worker Bob Langmore being called by his ex-wife to look in on their troubled daughter. Moving from the country back home he ends up taking a job working for the local crime lord, however things go from bad to worse when his daughter goes missing and Langmore thinks it maybe because his daughter may have the same disease he does, one that is turning him slowly invisible.

More character study than straight on crime drama THE UNSEEN  is full of great characters and, invisibility aside, true to life feeling to its actions. This is a film that really is about the characters, with everyone from to bottom giving top drawer performances.

I like this film a great deal. It was a wonderful surprise.  This is going to be one of those films down the road that I hand off to people and say don't read on it just watch it. I say that because once you toss in the invisibility thing people kind of take a step back. They shouldn't, nor should you because this is a film that takes something you think is going to ruin the film and makes it something infinitely better. Writer/director Geoff Redknap needs to be commended and then some for making the run of the mill something special.

If I maybe allowed one word of warning, the pace of the film for the first half hour is kind of slow. Stick with it. Redknap is building mood and character and it pays off on the back end when everything is finally moving.

Highly recommended

One Night Only (2016)

Aaron Kwok stars as hardcore gambler who just can't win. When a hooker pushes her way into his room he convinces her to let him use her money for a night of gambling. They do well but there are complications.

A great looking film with some killer performance, Kwok kicks ass as a man seemingly out of luck man as does Yang Zishan as Momo the girl who came to stay for a night. Its a neon drenched romance with  a sting in the tail. Yea it takes some well worn melodramatic turns but at the same time it has some kick ass set pieces (The blindfolded race) and an emotional punch in the chest that will bring a tear to your eye.  Once this film gets going and settles in this film is a winning emotional rollercoaster. Trust me it gets better and better.

And why the hell haven't I heard of it?

ONE NIGHT ONLY is one of those films that makes you wonder where it sprung from. Why hadn't I heard about this film before getting a cryptic email at 2am? While I understand that with NYAFF, Japan Cuts and The Asian American International Film Festival all taking over the New York film scene this month, and Fantasia burning up the international scene it's understandable that some films are going to get lost if they are being released at this time outside of the fray. However ONE NIGHT ONLY is good enough that I can't believe that someone didn't snap it up for a big New York festival push.

What a wonderful surprise.

This is one of those films you watch and you instantly fall in love with it. Its one of those films that feels like an old friend, partly because it cobbles together bits of plot and characters that seem you to know so can't not help, but also because what it does with the bits is just so damn cool that it fashions something new out of them.

This is a super little gem that you shouldn't let get away. Search this one out.

ONE NIGHT ONLY opens in New York Friday and you must see it.

Bed of the Dead (2016) Fantasia 2016

The film begins when a tree used for a sacrificial site is cut down and turned into a bed. Years later the bed is in a sex club, and when the club burns down the police begin to investigate - meanwhile in flashback four friends go into the sex club for a party only to find that the bed is alive and evil and won't let them leave and is going to make them pay for their previous misdeeds.

Good little horror film has some creepy moments and some really messed up images like what the hell is that that thing on the ceiling? Its a film that preys on our childhood fear of their being a monster under our bed and turns it into an adult nightmare.

The best thing about BED OF THE DEAD is that this is a horror film that manages to over come some logic problems (say like if the club knew the bed was evil why did they let anyone use it, or even have it?) the longer as it goes on simply because it gets us caught deeper and deeper in it's web. There is a point about a half an hour in when we are so caught up we accept the film's intentionally overly obtuse logic. Its just a weird horror movie and we want to see what happens and who dies next.

My only real complaint with the film is the feeling that this would have been a better film if the scares and jumps weren't accompanied by the soundtrack going to 15 on a scale of 10.  The film is good enough that that it doesn't need to have each scare punched up so much that the edge is taken off the suspense.

Recommended once this gets a wide release.

In brief:Mother, I've Pretty Much Forgotten Your Face

Every July  Japan Cuts usually runs one film full of music that knocks my socks off and becomes a favorite. This year  its MOTHER,I'VE PRETTY MUCH FORGOTTEN YOUR FACE.

I love this film.

I loved it so much that when it was done I sat down to write about it and found that all I could say was that was great, let me see it again. That's not a proper review but it kind of explains where the head space is- "the this is really special let me experience it again".

The film is a  portrait of musician Michiro Endo on the eve of his 60th birthday. Endo was and is one of the major movers and shakers in the Japanese punk scene. He eventually left several influencial groups and started touring on his own As he tours the country in the spring of 2011 the Fukishima native learns of the devastation of 311. This sets him reflecting about life , his home and his mother.

A fantastic mix of talking heads, conversation and music (the film has lots of great music) we get to know the man and his music. This is the sort of a film where I went in knowing almost nothing but came out wanting to know more. This is one of those films where you get the feeling that you've discovered a new favorite artist.

One of my must sees of Japan Cuts.

For tickets and more information go here

Johnnie To's Three (2016) Fantasia 2016

A doctor having a bad day, her surgeries have been going wrong lately to the extent one patient is constantly threatening to get her, finds things going worse as the police bring in a bad guy with a bullet in his head who wants the hell out. He refuses surgery knowing his gang is going to come and get him so it becomes a waiting game.

Odd mix of character study, medical drama and police thriller is a kind of throw back to the Hong Kong films of the 1980's and 90's where genres mixed and seeming dramas would turn violent or action films would have lead ups that made you wonder where things were going. Its a mix that you're either going to love or hate.

As a nostalgic throw back to Johnnie To's early career I kind of liked THREE. While in no way on par with his best films, its kind of nice to see that he can still handle what amounts to a chamber piece after so many big blockbusters (though there is one hell of a shoot out t the end).

For fans who miss the old days of Hong Kong Cinema or for those who want a slice of crime that isn't like all the rest this is recommended.

The film screens again at Fantasia on the 18th and  is also getting a second run at Manhattan's Metrograph theater this week.

Experimental Anime Shorts Japan Cuts 2016

I was curious why the Japan Society was essentially burying the collection of experimental anime shorts at 930 on a Sunday night and then I saw them and I kind of understand why, some of them are the sort of thing that will confuse the regular audiences for the festival and send them out into the street with an early exit. Some of these films are not for general audience

Not to beat around the bush this collection of films is a mixed. Bouncing from visually amazing (LAND, AGE OF OBSCURE) to just strange (OUCH CHOU CHOU and MASTER BLASTER) the collection had me swinging from wide eyed delight to “how much longer is this going to go on” (MASTERBLASTER- I mean do we really need to see women flying out of people’s butts?)

For the most part the collection is pretty good, with the visually wild ones (LAND and AGE OF OBSCURE) being the ones that are going to get your blood pumping and being the reason that if you don’t mind being up late on a Sunday night go.

The biggest problem with the collection is that there is a sameness to the films. The visual motifs repeat in film after film. It’s as if someone with a certain eye picked all of the films and then threw in some button pushing films simply to mix things up. While I was enjoying some of the films I started to keep an eye out for the things that tied the films together.

Should you see the collection? If you are a fan of animation and don’t mind being up late on a Sunday give it a shot, if not you can skip it.