I may check out The Housemaid over at auteurs.com , hear good things about it.

I liked Bong’s contribution to Tokyo! as well. A lot. It was beautiful, a real visual feast, but short films often bum me out, leaving me wanting more. I would love to have seen that relationship play out. Gondry’s was good too. His kinda felt more like a whole movie.

I’ll set up a separate topic for this, but I’ll mention it here as well: http://www.camerajapan.nl shows the full program for the upcoming Camera Festival of Japanese films in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Breda, several other cities…
 
Be sure to check it out if you’re anywhere near these cities.

City of Life and Death 2009

Damn.

Best to just read Eight Rooks review here.

I’ll only add (by differing a bit) that I think Hideo Nakaizumi did a great job.

The drumming scene near the end of the film scared the crap out of me. Mr. Tang’s decision seemed unbelievably stupid. As one of a few scenes obviously created for dramatic effect, it was the one that made me distrust the film a little.

But, damn.

Heh, ‘stupid’? I admit it’s very likely to be primarily for dramatic effect, but pessimistic/cynical much? Again, not wanting to spoil anything, but given what everyone else did in reality during the course of those events whilst that whole sequence was obviously tugging on the heartstrings somewhat I didn’t find it particularly implausible. Maybe with a lesser actor it’d have collapsed into schmaltz, but Fan Wei was just… wow. Schindler’s List pales in comparison, to my mind.

Big Props to Fan Wei for sure. As I think about that scene and the one following it, I realize that there are a number of things that aren’t clear to me. I wonder if he was pre-aware of the result that followed. I wonder about the condition of his wife and who, or what, was responsible for it. Or was that obvious?

Oh, come on, he knew what was going to happen. That’s sort of the whole point. And his wife? You’ve never seen those two things juxtaposed for dramatic effect before?

It has its problems, but next to something like the godawful The Tokyo Trial the shortcomings really don’t matter so much. (That’s the only other specifically Nanking film I’ve seen, however.)

And yes, Fan Wei is a hugely under-rated actor who livens up anything he’s in - he can turn in a powerhouse performance without pausing for breath or he can give saccharine nonsense like Ticket more dignity than it has any right to. I guess there’s precedent for this sort of thing but honestly I still find it startling he’s apparently better known in the mainland as a comedian.

Watched Canary (Kanaria) 2005, another film by Akihiko Shiota, director of Harmful Insect. It had some moments but nothing special for me. I’m not sure what to think of Shiota at this point. I appreciate what he is trying to explore, disaffected, abused and neglected youth and all that, but I’m not convinced he’s good at it yet. Harmful Insect would have been a lot less interesting without Aoi Miyazaki. I think Mitsuki Tanimura did a good job in Canary, Hoshi Ishida not so much, but his character was the brooding, doesn’t-say-much type, which is difficult for a teenager to pull off (unless you’re Aoi Miyazaki).

I will confess that the cultural pointers were lost on me ... so there’s that, I mean, if they were supposed to be specific. Cultural historians and professional film critics (and Japanese folks) might enjoy this film more than I did. I’m not giving upon Shiota but I’m also not ready to call him a director to look out for.

Mother 2009 Bong Joon-ho

It’s too bad that because this film is ostensibly about an old lady it must be considered a ‘smaller’ film in Bong’s oeuvre. It’s not. It is every bit as brilliant, and as large, as Memories of Murder, in my opinion.

In many ways this is the natural, and equal, follow-up to Memories of Murder. It’s every bit the caper film that one was, and, although slightly more somber in tone, the film keeps unraveling in directions you don’t expect making it much more a plot driven movie than a character study. Kim Hye-ja is, however, magnificent as the titular (gawd I hate that word but I’m using it anyway) mother. There is a scene in this film where she tells the family of the victim her son didn’t do it and her eyes are so electrically charged it made me jump back from the screen. Mother fires on all cylinders. The direction, cinematography, script, and acting are all grade A. It’s one of those films where each of the secondary characters steals the show for a brief period. How ‘bout that cop who kicks the apple from Won Bin’s mouth? Bong does a remarkable job of populating the world of this film with real people and manages to give them depth and development in a very short period of time. I confess to having a little trouble tracking the other adult female characters in the film, but no matter.

I wasn’t sure where Bong was going to end up going as a film maker. Barking Dogs Never Bite was a reasonable debut. Memories of Murder, a masterpiece. But was it a lucky shot? I’m glad I don’t have to consider the dismal Antarctic Journal a Bong film if I don’t want to. The Host was lots-o-fun, but that’s the one that worried me. Maybe he was going to start making blockbuster type films. But now, after recently seeing his contribution to Tokyo!, and now Mother, I have every reason to believe he is going to kick my butt with interesting film for a long time.

Edited to add that I think the scene (without spoiling anything here) where Kim Hye-ja asks the other ‘retarded’ kid if he has a mother is one of the most complex and heart-rending scenes in cinematic history. Hyperbole notwithstanding, just freakin’ WOW! on that one when you ponder just why she is crying.

About to watch Mother right now. The only thing that worries me is having Won Bin in the role. From what hear, he is decent, and really can’t hold his own to Kim Hye Ja, BUT I guess I’ll find out soon enough. I really wanted Shin Ha Kyun in the role of Won Bin.

Tbe weird thing about Anartic Journal was that I was frustrated by the movie, and I didn’t enjoy the movie that much, but after a week went by, I had moments where I started to think about some scenes and the characters a lot. I’m not sure if I would watch it again, but there are many things I enjoyed in reflection. I guess it’s the tone of the movie that engages me more than story? i don’t know…

Won Bin was fine by me, although I’m new enough to east asian cinema that I don’t qualify to have ideas about whether he was the best choice or about who might have been better suited. I thought he did a great job. All the filmic history of Kim Hye Ja that X talked about in his review was lost on me too, but she still floored me.

I think you’re going to like it.

I did consider doing a proper review but… Jesus, Tracing Shadow has to be the most boring film I’ve seen all year. Not funny (especially the lookalikes - no, no, no), not particularly interesting, hardly entertaining for most of the running time. I guess the kung fu is actually surprisingly good - rather fewer cuts than I was expecting and some relatively complex choreography - and the art designers put the budget to pretty good use, but Christ, A Chinese Odyssey 2002 flattens this in every department. A huge disappointment.

Though Francis Ng doesn’t seem to be doing too well in general lately, what with the ghastly reviews I’ve seen Buttonman getting (and the trailer for that certainly looked appalling).

Eight Rooks - October 11, 2009, 1:38pm

I did consider doing a proper review but… Jesus, Tracing Shadow has to be the most boring film I’ve seen all year. Not funny (especially the lookalikes - no, no, no), not particularly interesting, hardly entertaining for most of the running time. I guess the kung fu is actually surprisingly good - rather fewer cuts than I was expecting and some relatively complex choreography - and the art designers put the budget to pretty good use, but Christ, A Chinese Odyssey 2002 flattens this in every department. A huge disappointment.

Though Francis Ng doesn’t seem to be doing too well in general lately, what with the ghastly reviews I’ve seen Buttonman getting (and the trailer for that certainly looked appalling).

Just popped in to say I loved Chinese Odyssey 2002…

Haeundae, Tsunami, Tidal Wave, Humammoth Fuckup, whatever. (2009)

Haeundae is a great big huge gigantic disaster. The first ten minutes introduces about a dozen characters all of whom you’ll hope are dead in the next ten minutes. It’s the strangest character development I’ve ever seen. There’s no subtlety or differentiation to them. They’re all loud, extremely loud, obnoxious idiots. And they hit one another, a lot. There are three things at play here: stupid, godawful, and annoying as hell. The director of the film, in a pre-emptive strike sort of way, has acknowledged that the special effects aren’t very good (i.e., very expensive) so he’s going to treat us to some good ol’ Korean charm. FAIL. I hope this film never sees the light of day outside Korea because it could set back by decades the good reputation of that country’s cinematic output. The acting is bad (WTF Sol Kyung-gu & Ha Ji-won), the myriad plot lines are predictable and groan out loud unpleasant, the special effects are cheesy, and, well .... you get the point. If you ever get roped into seeing this movie I promise that you won’t believe how bad it is.

I watched the international version that cuts 13 minutes from the Korean domestic release. Thank gosh for small favors.