Where The Witch Lives (2022) Fantasia 2022 (Spoilers)

A mother and her two daughters have to follow the rules to stay safe from an evil witch.

Awkward “horror” film tries to do too much and to be more than a chiller with the result the film doesn’t really work. The problem is the film is not  really a horror film, but something else entirely, as is demonstrated by the final line of the film. Its something that most views are going to catch on to much earlier in the  film.

What is going on with the film is that it is a custody battle between two women over their children. The film speaks of  the women getting divorced and while most of the film seems like a fantasy the moment when the cellphone nails it as something more- which is re-enforced by the final line about returning to the real world.

As the film stands now its an okay film, but nothing special

The Killer (2021) NYAFF 2022 Fantasia 2022

The Killer is killer.

The film has a married hitman/mercenary who is tricked into watching a teenage  girl  while his wife goes on vacation with young girl's mother. The hitman wants nothing to do with her but his wife asked, so he’s doing it. Things almost instantly slide into the toilet when the girl ends up being kidnaped by human traffickers. He rescues her but somehow the people he rescued her from are all dead (he didn't kill them) and the police are snooping around him. Things heat up when the baddies come and kidnap her and make the mistake of thinking that the hitman is an easy kill. Bodies pile up as the only good person turns out to be the stone cold killer.

Balls to the wall action film is an absolute delight.

Jang Hyuk and director  Choi Jae-Hun reteam after The Swordsman for another grand popcorn run. The pair work wonderfully together and its potentially going to be the backbone  of  a long run of great films. 

One can completely understand why the New York Asian Film Festival decided to give Jang Hyuk the Daniel Craft Award For Excellence in Action Cinema, he is a powerhouse. He was one of the fight choreographers and his sense of bone crushing action is superb. During the intro director Choi Jae-Hun said that Hyuk was injured during filing and I believe it. (more so since there is footage in the end credits).

How good is the action- I could hear people gasping around me in the theater.

This is a must see.

This is playing in theaters across America right now and at Fantasia in Montreal August 2nd.

To see the video from the NYAFF special screening I shot go here

LESSON IN MURDER (2022) NYAFF 2022

Button pushing thriller about a serial killer talking to a young man from death row. The journey the young man takes is the film

Well made but highly manipulative film is going to push all your buttons with it's carefully designed structure. Its a film that wants to play with you and your emotions and it doesn't care that you know it's doing it. Personally the overt nature of the film kept me distanced since I never could give myself over to it. At the same time I wanted to see where this was going to end up.

Yes the film is often incredibly intense and unnerving but seeing the man behind the curtain pulling levers took away some of the fun. Yes it's a blast but I felt cheated, more so since I expected some sting in the tail.

Reservations aside this is worth a look.

THE HARBINGER (2022) Fantasia 2022

Director Andy Mitton (YELLOWBRICKROAD, WE GO ON and WITCH AT THE WINDOW) returns with another okay film.

The plot of the film has a woman leaving a isolation in country during the coivid out break to help a friend who is having nightmares of a dark figure in a plague mask called the Harbinger, She quickly learns that the figure is real and is trying to come into our world.

Full disclosure outside of seeing YELLOWBROOKROAD in the theater where the film's aggressive sound design made it one of my favorite film going experiences (though it paled on a second visit on home video), I have found Mitton's films to be good, but nothing special. He never quite manages to make a wholly scary film. Mostly I find that his set ups never quite manage to follow through to his endings.  His films are not bad but  to me they are nothing special.

Such is the case with HARBINGER. It's good but nothing special. I was never scared. I think part of the problem is the pacing is off. After a good set up we shift to the country for a bit and then by the time we get back to the city the film has to restart building suspense but it never gets traction. I never became invested, though I stayed to the end because I was curious.where it's going.

As I've said about Mitton's other films, worth a look for horror fans but wait for streaming.

Jang Hyuk and director Choi Jae-Hun at the New York Asian Film Festival 2022

 Here is video from this year's New York Asian Film Festival when Jang Hyuk and director  Choi Jae-Hun introduced their films THE SWORDSMAN and THE KILLER, and Jang Hyuk received  the Daniel Craft Award For Excellence in Action Cinema. 

The quality isn't the best. My camera is on it's way out. Apologies.

The Blood Of Dinosaurs (2022) Fantasia 2022

Joe Badon is a director I really like. I loved his SISTER TEMPEST and THE GOD INSIDE MY EAR so I was looking forward to seeing his latest film, the short THE BLOOD OF THE DINOSAURS.

The film is  a short film that begins with with two people talking about the film we are going to see. The focus then shifts into a weird kids TV show ala Mr Rogers but on acid.  And then it goes all over the place ending with the birth of a girl named Purity.

As much as love Joe Badon's films I have to say "I'm sorry Joe, this film is a mess" . 

Its all over the place with all sorts of things being thrown at us which would be fine except the film only runs 14 minutes and there is too much here for that amount of time. Worse the film is supposed to lead into a film  called THE WHEEL OF HEAVEN and it ends with the couple from the start talking about that film so as a result the film doesn't end it just stops. Having managed to get the motor running and the car moving down the road he suddenly turns of the engine. We are left wanting to know where this goes but we are going to have to wait.

We shouldn't have to wait- More to the point you can't start and stop Joe Badon's films- you have to watch them from start  to finish in one go or else you don't get the full effect. I remember watching both of Badon's earlier features and loving the pacing, loving how you have to stay with them and not look away. Waiting and waiting  and then having it all click in a brilliant "AH HA" moment. Had I stopped or walked away the films would have collapsed. Here Badon slams on the breaks and he cuts his own throat. He stops us before he should have- now when we see the next film we will need to see this film again to have that one work.

I honestly don't understand what Badon did or why. We should have had a whole film not a proof of concept.

Honestly this is interesting (its a Badon film so how could it not be?) and it works until it stops. But the film stops and I want to see where this story is going. If you are like me not having  the whole story is just going to frustrate you because nothing is resolved.

For my money wait until Badon has the whole story filmed- then watch that because what's here makes me think he's going to be telling a hell of a story.

CHOROKBAM (2022) Fantasia 2022

Low key horror film has a security guard’s life going down hill after he finds a dead cat hanging in a playground. Burying the cat he then finds his life breaking apart.

Billed in the Fantasia material as an entry into the “slow film” genre, this film kind of feels inert. Perhaps billing the film as a horror film is a stretch with the chills being more intellectual then physical. I’m not going to lie, I drifted off a couple of times and had to replay sections over and over again to see if I missed anything (nope).

While I love that Fantasia isn’t afraid to grab things from the art house and play it in the grind house but sometimes it bites you on the butt. This is going to be much too leisurely for most horror fans at the fest.

For slow art film lovers only

Confession (2022) NYAFF 2022 Fantasia 2022

A man is arrested for the murder of his former lover. 

This is an art film masquerading as a psychological thriller. It is going to  delight some and bore others with it's meaningful silences, beautiful images and carefully crafted dialog. Deliberately paced at something slighty faster than glacial there is going to be a good chance that you are going to be either all in or all out somewhere early on.

I was all out early on. When I'm second guessing the directors choice you know things are not right. I know why some of the choices were being made, but at the same most didn't need to be this obtuse. Time and time again I was asking why are we seeing this?  The answer to me is that without the artistic touches this is a story that wouldn't  seem as special. 

I can't recommend this film either at NYAFF or Fantasia

Jeanette (2022) Outfest LA LGBTQ+ Film Festival 2022

Portrait of bodybuilder and single mom Jeannette Feliciano.  Jeanette was a survivor of the Pulse Night Club shooting. She deals with the aftermath of the shooting by training people at the gym, many themselves survivors of the shooting. Just as life starts to get back to normal a hurricane wrecks Puerto Rico and it throws her back into chaos.

Wonderful portrait of a life in the aftermath of a trauma. Not cutting away the film shows us that the pain never goes away and how it touches our lives ever after.

And while I am calling the film wonderful, I am in no way lessening the impact the film has. This is a film that will rattle you. It will rattle you because it will make Jeanette's pain our own. We take it on as we would take on the pain of our friends.  It rattles us because there but for the grace of god what she experienced could have been something we ourselves suffered - especially in today's America where nut jobs with guns are shooting either children or the things they hate.

I was rattled and heartbroken.

A must  see.

THE FUNERAL (2022) NYAFF 2022

 

Mother and daughter go home for a funeral and feel they are being pursued by spirits.

Mostly good horror film really could have used a decision as to what sort of a film it is.  Is this a moody supernatural tale or is this a loud noise jump machine? I found the film worked best when creating mood rather than  going for the jump scares. 

There is a good plot here though I don't know if director Dan-Guei Shen understands that since the late in the game sting in the tail could have been more chilling had Shen not tried to make the film everything to everyone. You can't have the film cover everything since some of the legs collapse as we go along. 

Still I mostly had a good time. Worth a look for horror fans. 

The Roundup (2022) Fantasia 2022

This is a sequel to OUTLAWS, not that you need to have seen that film, Ma Seok-do is a killer cop who is set up as a bad ass from the second scene where he stops a hostage situation cold. Everything you need to know about the unstoppable cop is learned in that one scene. Frankly he’s so kick ass I’m shocked this is only the first sequel.

The plot has Seok-do going to Vietnam in order to pick up a fugitive who voluntarily surrendered. Why he was doing that is a question that bothers the veteran cop and it becomes clear when he finds out that fugitive’s business of kidnapping tourists for ransom and killing them blew up in his face when he picked a mob connected victim and now his boss wants him dead. At this point bodies begin piling up and Ma Soek-do has to follow them to the man behind it all.

Told with wit and speed THE ROUNDUP is a killer film. Moving like a bone crushing wind this is one of the best action films I’ve seen this year. It’s not trying to do anything but entertain and make its audience yelp out loud with delight. This is a film you’ll want to see again and again with all your action loving friends and family. Best of all this fitting sequel to OUTLAWS scores bonus points for being a wonderful stand alone film.

I can’t say enough good about this film.

See it

Brief thoughts on UNIDENTIFIED OBJECTS (2022) Outfest LA

Peter, a cranky dwarf living in New York gets talked into taking a road trip with his neighbor, Winona to a place where she says they will be able to make contact with aliens.

I don't know what to really say about this film other than: All hail the glorious Matthew August Jeffers and Sarah Hay. They take a solidly scripted comedy drama and lift it up into something special. I was probably fifteen minutes into the film when I found I was less interested in where the plot was going and I was more interested in where these characters were going to go. I absolutely fell in love with the characters  and the actors who portray them. They made the film something special.

Highly recommended - especially if you want really good character driven films.

Brief NYAFF Reviews:Finding Bliss: Fire and Ice – The Director’s Cut (2022) ,MAMA BOY, RIBBON, and LEGENDARY ACTION

 

Finding Bliss: Fire and Ice - The Director's Cut
A group of musicians from Hon Kong who travel to Iceland to perform.  Visually stunning documentary is otherwise just okay. We meet the musicians and follow them as they go across the globe. It's nothing we haven't seen before with Music that doesn't make up for the short comings of the rest of the film..

RIBBON
Young student tries to deal with the complications set before her because of covid. 

Okay film isn't anything we haven't seen before until late in the game  when some twists and turns lift the film up from your typical covid drama.

While not bad it never truly soars and just sort of blends into all the other covid films.

LEGENDARY IN ACTION
Ode to the Hong Kong action film is an amusing behind the scenes comedy. While it hits most of the expected notes the film still manages to entertain and produce laughs.

(This film is also playing this years Fantasia Festival)

MAMMA BOY
29 year old man who works in a fish store finds love with an older woman
Earnestly acted but nothing we haven't seen before

THE GIRL FROM THE OTHER SIDE (2022) Fantasia 2022

 

THE GIRL FROM THE OTHER SIDE is one of the most beautiful films I’ve seen this year. I really hope to get a chance to see it on the big screen.

Set in an other time and place. The film concerns a young girl named Shiva who wakes up in a forest. It is outside a village which fears outsiders who maybe cursed. If you touch them you will become cursed yourself.  This involves becoming some sort of monster.

One of the cursed finds Shiva and takes her to a house where they begin to spend time together. She takes to calling him teacher and becomes a father figure to her.

This is a gloriously lyric film. Its quiet and gentle and probably not what anyone looking for ray guns and car crashes will like. On the other hands those who want a beautiful tale of characters and emotions are going to be moved. All I wanted to do was tell all of my friends that they had to see this glorious gem of a film.

No it doesn’t rattle the pillars of heaven, however it rattles the pillars of our hearts which is something so much more special.

This is true cinematic.

Highly recommended.

Mercenaries from Hong Kong (1982) Fantasia 2022

This is an insane Shaw Brother film that I have fallen madly in love with. An action packed popcorn film of the highest order this is a must see.

The plot of the film has a man hill the nephew of a Hong Kong crimelord.  Before he can flee the city he is hired by member of a wealthy HK family to go into Cambodia and kidnap the man who killed her father. It doesn’t go as plan and there is a traitor in their midst. Humor mixes with action and a bleak out look  as a team in put together and the plan is set in motion.  

I loved this film a great deal. It has a gritty  go for it style that pulls us in and drags us along. Yea some of it looks a bit dodgy, I mean some the cars that get crashed early on look beat up to start, but the pacing is intense and the turns are never quite what we expect.

I’m still trying to figure out why more love isn’t shown the Shaw Brothers modern day action films. Everyone I have ever seen has been lean mean machines that absolutely delighted. They never felt run of the mill, which some of their period martial arts film do at times. There is a real sense that they were trying to do something more than the usual and it resulted on stunning films like this.

I am so unhappy I didn’t see this at the Fantasia screening because this is a big screen movie that demands to be seen with an audience.

Go get some popcorn and a beverage of choice and enjoy

Highly recommended

Ox Head Village (2022) NYAFF 2022

 

A couple months back when the Fantaspoa film fest was happening Liz Whittemore  caught Ox Head Village and was raving about it. She wouldn’t say much  but she simply told me that the opening of the film would have me talking to the screen and then it would get worse. Intrigued I considered trying to catch it at the festival but realized that I couldn’t fit it into my schedule. I then hoped I could catch it down the road.

With the film playing at the New York Asian Film Festival I go  my chance and I started to talk to the film at the opening and I kept talking for the rest of the film.

The film is the story of three high school friends who disappear investigating a haunted hotel. When footage of what happened to the girls surfaces, one of their friends sees a figure that looks like her in it.  Curious she goes to investigate.

Taking well worn tropes and turning them in unexpected and often creepy ways. The opening for example had me certain I knew how it was going to go and then it  did and then it didn’t  and it made me sit up and take notice.  From that point I was willing to go anywhere the film was going because I wanted to see how director ---used our expectations against us. I was chilled.

This is a super film that really surprised me in so many great ways. While I know some people have been disappointed that it doesn’t take things far enough, I was entertained. I liked that --- didn’t feel the need to change everything up, but kept it feeling real. It made the film more compelling and perhaps a bit more festering in that we could see the rot behind the scenes which made it scarier.

Recommended.

Full Strike (2015) NYAFF 2022

This is a repost of my review from 2015 when the film premiered at NYAFF.

Fornicate your mammaries - curse repeatedly uttered in FULL STRIKE

Ten years ago a badminton played  by Josie Ho was at the top of her game and the badminton world, her antics on the court and off earned her the nickname The Beast. When it all turned to crap she retreated from the game, gained weight and ended up supported by her brother. When a shuttlecock shaped meteor crashes near her she finds her self at a seeming abandoned badminton academy. Once there she meets three notorious criminals trying to go straight by being professional badminton players...

I think that's about the first ten or fifteen minutes of FULL STRIKE a largely nonsensical but very very funny film. This is a film that mixes every type humor into a concoction that is the sort of thing where you need only wait a few minutes for something that will come along that will have you laughing so hard you're doubled over in pain when you hit your head on the seat in front of you.

I have no idea how to describe this film- I want to tell you details but a great deal of the fun is finding out who everyone is and how they interact. To tell you too much will take away the joy of discovery.

I will say that its like every sort of sport film you could think of thrown into a blender with every style of humor. There is slapstick and word play and very clever send ups and really weird flights of fantasy. There are odd ball lines like the opening line or crab boy or these long rambling non sequitur by one of the characters that you would think are mistranslated except that at one point after a great deal of verbal nonsense has been thrown around one of the characters asks what all the weird lines mean-its not bad translation its just characters who are on their own planet.

I would add that the film does have a real heart. At one point Josie Ho's character hits a low spot and she calls her brother. She expects on some level to be yelled at but his reply about how she can do whatever she wants and he'll be hind her is wonderfully touching. Equally touching is the ending which is decidedly not something anyone is going to guess going in.

If the film has any real flaw is that the film is wildly all over the place. Things happen for no reason or things happen just for a laugh. There is a long side story involving thieves who know the badminton players that kind of goes nowhere-even if it is used to set up some stuff toward the end. While the weird brain farts do produce laughs and create truly memorable characters it kind of leaves you wondering what some of it was about.

On the other hand, and most importantly none of that matters because this film is just so god damned funny and uplifting- Trust me this movie will make you feel good.

The film played its only one time at the 2015 New York Asian Film Festival (How could you have missed it?) but but its back now for a new screening..

This was one of the funniest films of 2015 and a big ball of joy.

(A word of warning there is a scene that rivals the Mr Carbolic scene in MEANING OF LIFE- and it's just as funny and tasteless)

GOODBYE DON GLEES:(2022) Fantasia 2022

 

The official  synopsis of the film says its about three friends who go into the woods in order to find a drone that will clear them of setting a fire. The reality is that the film is a complex look at friendship and our place in the world and each other's lives

This is a lovely memory tale. Its a tale that gets all of the little bits of being a geeky teen friend right. There was so much I could relate to from when I was geeky teen.

If you ever want to know what animation can do to enhance a story consider that this is pretty much a straight forward drama  However the created images and color palette, things not possible in the real world with out looking wrong, here add emotional depth. The hand drawn world trumps the real and instantly puts us in a head space from frame one.

I was stunned.

As good as much of this film is I don't know if it all works. The structure of a memory play doesn't always hold together. The problem isn't the structure at self rather it's that early on director Atseuko Ishizuka can be felt manipulating things.  You feel her angling for the end game, and while it did make me misty, I kind of felt it wasn't wholly earned. I don't want to feel manipulated.

Still outside of that this is a really cool film and I for one can't wait until it's done with the festival run and I can see it in theater with my niece.

Recommended

Orchestrator of Storms: The Fantastique World of Jean Rollin (2022) Fantasia 2022

 

I have been trying to get a handle on the films of Jean Rollin for several decades now. Pushed toward them by writers such as Tim  Lucas, Pete Tombs and others I have struggled to find a foothold with in them in order to understand the wonder that many people feel for Rollin’s off kilter films.  I have been so desperate to figure them out that years ago that I had the long gone Video Search of Miami send me a couple of his films gratis so that I could see the wonder. It never happened.

It was with that hope in mind I went into seeing ORCHESTRATOR OF STORMS the biographical documentary that is playing Fantasia fest.  Sadly while I only came out of the film realizing I have to view the films as surrealist, I didn’t have an “ah ha” moment about his films.

On the other hand I fell deeply in love with the man himself. This is a great portrait of a man who struggled to find the funding in order to make his movies. It’s a portrait of a really interesting fellow who had his vision and went with it. Its also the story of a man who loved movies and who would call up people he met just to talk to them for hours. I love the stories of him connecting with his audience and the tales of his trips to film fests.  I especially love the story of him going into a a theater at a fest that was near empty and delighted at the “big turnout”.

As a film on it’s own terms ORCHESTRATOR OF STORMS is really good. I enjoyed the hell out of my time watching it. Sure I didn’t become a fan of Rollin’s films, but I had a blast learning about them and their creator.

This film is a must for any film fan and especially for those who are interested in Euro-horror.

Baby Assassins (2021) Fantasia 2022

Two high school girls are about to graduate, however they are in capable of doing anything other than being assassins. The trouble is they are getting close to graduation and their bosses tell them they have to get a regular job and learn to blend in. Worse they are insisting that the pair move in together. As they struggle to learn to be normal they end up running  afoul of a yakuza family.

Wickedly funny  feminist action buddy comedy turns all of the typical conventions of these sort of films. Yea we've been here before but at the same time this takes the expected tropes and turns them on their head in ways that make you laugh out loud as you wonder why no one thought of that before.

That the film works as well as it does it is due entirely to the two leads Akari Takaishi and Ayaori Izawa, who create perfectly charming sociopaths we want to hang out with. Psychos should not be this much fun. They are so good together that I want to see either a sequel or a reteaming. 

If there is any real problem with the film it is that the middle section of the film goes a bit too far into the buddy comedy. The action drops away and while it remains funny, the pace slows. Fortunately things pick up and the film drives to the end with some kick ass action sequences.

Ultimately this is a great time and is highly recommended.

See this film.

After the Fantasia screening the film streams exclusively on Hi-YAH! July 22 before hitting digital, Blu-ray™ & DVD August 16