March 31, 2005
Updates
HKFA
The Hong Kong version of the Oscars happened last weekend. 2046 and KUNG FU HUSTLE tied with six wins each. It's interesting to see the highest profile art film and the highest grossing film tie in award wins. KUNG FU HUSTLE won Best Picture with 2046's Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi winning Actor and Actress respectively. The film that was arguely really the best film from Hong Kong this year, ONE NIGHT IN MONGKOK, got Directing and Writing. KUNG FU HUSTLE will be released in the US on April 8th and 2046 on August 5th, both by Sony Classics. As far as I know, ONE NIGHT IN MONGKOK has not been bought for US distribution.
Kiss of Death
Meera, a Pakistani actress allegedly kisses Ashmit Patel, an Indian actor in the new Indian film NAZAR. Pakistan is generally Muslim and India is generally Hindu. Well, the Pakistani Muslims just ain't having this and poor Meera has been suffering under death threats and will not return home until the president of Pakistan assures her safety. On the one hand, this situation is sad and ridiculous, on the other hand, half a century ago America probably would have felt the same way about an interracial kiss.
THE RING TWO
I don't blame Nakata. Although a veteran director, he's a first time Hollywood director and I doubt he had much pull on the film (John Woo was an international legend when he came to Hollywood and he got locked out of the editing room). I think the script was as well directed as it could be. But the script was the problem. And it's hard for me to nitpick the film and say what's wrong, because I think the whole concept they went with was wrong. But he's already signed up for his next Hollywood directorial effort -- a remake of THE EYE -- a film that probably would not have existed if not for Nakata's RINGU. Odd, I know.
STEAMBOY
Katsuhiro Otomo has not directed a Feature animation since he redefined anime altogether with AKIRA in 1988. Standing outside my not-so-local movie theater, in a line that went down around the block, the anticipation was palpable. There are guys wearing AKIRA shirts for goodness sake.
But almost as soon as you get in the theater, the lights go down, and the film starts you know this is not AKIRA. First off, it takes place in Victorian England. It surrounds the Steam family -- Grandfather, Father and Son -- who are inventors. While waiting for the film to start I was flipping through Animation Magazine, which was provided for free at the theater, and the reviewer called it a "Family film". While I would not take my family, if I had one, to a film with so much beating of small dogs, people being scarred by steam and dead people, I see what he's saying. Because it's definitely not quite AKIRA.
It's not fair in any way to compare this movie to AKIRA and so from this point I will stop doing so. In order to have any hope of enjoying this film at all, one has to look at it for what it is. On it's own terms.
Ray lives at home with his mother -- his father and grandfather are off on a job. When Ray gets word that his father has died, he also gets a mysterious package from his grandfather -- a steam ball. But he's hardly opened it when men from the O'Hara Foundation come to retrieve and Grandfather himself shows up to stop them. Ray attempts to get the steam ball to Robert Stevenson at his Grandfather's request but is instead kidnapped by the O'Hara Foundation.
It turns out the steam ball is one of three and needed to run the Steam Tower. Ray's Father and Grandfather had a falling out over the purpose of their grand invention. The head of the O'Hara Foundation is the young Scarlett O'Hara who is bossy and naive. She has very little idea of what is going on and spends most of her time trying to get Ray to do as she says. She's unfortunately unneccessary in this film and in the end becomes tacked on.
The real story is young Ray and how he must decide between the ideals of his Grandfather and those of his Father. Ray's Father becomes a Darth Vader-esque presence. He works on the side of the capitalist conglomerate for his own reasons. He is an Edward Teller, wanting to push the boundaries just to push the boundaries without thinking of consequence. Ray's Grandfather, on the other hand, is an idealist. He simply wants science to help people and make them happy.
Otomo creates a unique Victorian world -- full of invention, on the cusp of great change. His character style is similar to how it's always been. He started in animation around the same time as Miyazaki so they have similar looking character styles. But great attention has been paid to the design and the backgrounds. There are great colors which contrast well with the dank background of the machines. While this is all a marvel to look at, you've taken it in as much as your going till by the ending. Which is my biggest problem with the film, is that it does go on a bit long. But up till when I thought it should have ended, I truly enjoyed being emersed in this family drama emersed in scientific invention. And there is something worth waiting for in the end when you see the Tower in it's full glory when it shows both what the Father intended and what the Grandfather intended -- looking like a grotesque and inhuman creation in the end.
The film's design is great, it's themes -- topical and it's characters, while at times stereotypical, are interesting. I would recommend this film to others, but I would not recommend comparing it to AKIRA.
This film is currently in limited release and it is dubbed with the running time cut down partially to garner a PG-13 rating. It was simultaneously released in 7 theaters throughout the country in the original Japanese with it's original 126 minute running time. Michael Schlesinger, Vice President for Sony Pictures Repertory claimed the approved of the dub due to the particular nature of the film. It takes place in Victorian England, yet everyone speaks Japanese. I must admit, seeing it with the original soundtrack, this was a bit odd.
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OLDBOY
Chan-Wook Park is getting international attention as one of the world's new auteurs. He's taking advantage of the boom in the Korean film industry to get backing for his cult favorite high octane pictures. His first feature, JOINT SECURITY AREA, was his most successful in Korea. It was a thriller about men on both sides of the 49th parallel which divides North Korea from South Korea. He followed it up with the significantly more daring SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE. He was dissapointed with how it did in Korea, but it really began to get him an international audience. A dark story about a deaf man trying to do anything to get a kidney transplant for his sister. Instead of going back to the mainsteam, Park stuck to his path, creating a second revenge film in what is going to be a trilogy. (Keep an eye out for the upcoming third installment, SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE)
OLDBOY is a challenging, violent film, adapted from a Japanese manga. It's a film in which a man is jailed in a mysterious room for fifteen years. This man is Oh Dae-su and he is played by one of the world's finest actors, Min-sik Choi. Choi plays him with great intensity and drive. A man on the brink of insanity from his unexplained prison stay but driven by the need to find out why. Oh Dae-su's path to finding out why he was imprisoned, and subsequently framed for his wife's murder, is not an easy one. But he is aided by Mido (Hye-jeong Kang), a young girl who is taken with the stranger but also has a connection to his imprisoner.
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To tell more of the plot than that would give away "the twist" which it's important for the viewer to experience for themselves. But this film is about a man being forced to walk in another man's shoes. The "other man" is not a third act reveal, but a character present throughout the film. Woo-jin Lee (Ji-tae Yu) is a wealthy man who never fails to get a kick out of Dae-su's suffering. Despite their run-ins together, Dae-su does not kill him because if he does, he may not ever know why he was imprisoned.
This film is intense and has many scenes of violence but not gratuitously. A man's vengeance is not generally flowers and puppies. But this film has a lot to offer. The style and compentency of filmmaking is a breath of fresh air. It is clear that Park knows how to make a movie. Also, the acting is superb. The elements of the film are entirely superior so the only thing left to criticize is the story. Whether or not one likes this particular tale may have to do more with the viewer themselves. There are important themes to be had here but they are shown up by the fimmaking. The film does not scream 'this is what I'm trying to say' but instead 'this is what I'm trying to show you'.
And show he does. Dae-su's world is colorful, but it's one that's been around the block a few times. The color of the world is bright but aged by his fifteen year imprisonment. And Park's camera moves and is static in the most organic way, always helping the viewer walk along on this journey with Dae-su.
Much has been made of Dae-su's eating of a live Octopus (or possibly Squid?) upon his release from his imprisonment. But this is also not gratuitous but a good character moment where he feels the need to eat something alive -- so perhaps he can feel alive again. The actor, Min-sik Choi is a Buddhist and there were four takes of this scene. He prayed each time for the Octopus since eating it is an affront to his Buddhist beliefs.
There has been quite some controversy in the blogosphere this week caused by a couple of the reviews of this film. Rex Reed's review in the New York Observer has been chided for being racist and Manohla Dargis' very negative review in The New York Times has been chided not for being negative, but for saying completely offensive things about cult film lovers. I, personally, was offended reading it because of what it says about 'my kind'. Needless to say, the film has gone over unbelievably well with these fanboys but also with others. At time of printing, it's number #91 on IMDB's Top 250.
So, of course, Hollywood is remaking this Cannes Grand Prix winner. It's to be directed by Justin Lin (BETTER LUCK TOMORROW) and it's been recently reported that it will star Thomas Jane. To say this is a bad idea is a giant understatement. And I think this could be a career killer for Justin Lin.
IN TWO WEEKS: Alison interviews actress Yunjin Kim. You may know her as Sun on LOST but before that she had a great career Korea, breaking out in the hit film SHIRI. Come see what she has to say about working in Korea but growing up in the US.
Do you want to hear what else Alison has to say? Perhaps even what she has to say about American movies? You can, at her new movie blog, Electric Shadow. You can even see her ripe apart Manohla Dargis' OLDBOY review sentence-by-sentence.
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