Reviews

The problem with the Hollywood studio system is that movies are so tightly bound to the initial script, and very little on-set creativity is allowed. Sometimes this is ok, but usually it's placing far too much trust in the scriptwriter - trust that few scriptwriters deserve, from experience. The Scorpion King is a good example of this - a movie that is in many respects well made, but shackled by a lame cheesy script. But hey, it's a Hollywood action movie... if you go in expecting anything else then you're only suckering yourself.

The flaws in the script are numerous, but best represented by the pointless inclusion of an annoying comedy sidekick and a cute street urchin. These feel like rejects from a Disney movie, and really had no place in this film. Maybe they're what got the movie its PG-13 rating, which I think was actually a poor decision. Scorpion King is a very violent film - people are slaughtered in the hundreds, and 90% of the killings are executed by the good guys. True, you may not see any blood, but the cabbage slicing sound effects fill the role just as well.

But violence is rather unavoidable in an action movie, which is what the movie primarily is. And the action is actually very good by Hollywood standards. The influence of Hong Kong choreography and camerawork is clearly felt, though the action is still dominated by American big muscles and testosterone in the end. Well staged and filmed though, and quite satisfying.

The movie also scores well on production values - the costumes and sets are all very evocative of the time and place in which the movie is set (though some of the CGI used to create certain scenes could have been better). It's a good looking movie, and not just the scenes with Kelly Hu.

Overall verdict, not one to watch over and over, but a pretty good popcorn experience.

I've really enjoyed all the movies I've seen from the Dogme movement, and Mifune is no exception. Stripped down of all the special effects and glitz and glamour that has subverted the movie business in Hollywood, the film makers who adhere to the Dogme principles are able to focus on those elements that really make a film worth watching and memorable - good characters, good acting, good dialogue, tight editing.

All it takes is a small cast and crew and minimal technology to add these things to a movie, and create a work of art that stands unique and challenging. So why is it that George Lucas with his billions of dollars and millions of special effects technicians can't manage to get these fundamental elements right? (To pick one recent prominent example of Hollywood squandering time, money and talent).

Thank goodness there are still places in the world where the cynical marketing dollar doesn't control all, and real movies can still be made!

The back of the DVD case claims that Sarfarosh is the first Hindi movie to take a look at some of the real reasons behind terrorism and insurgency in India. This seems like a fairly radical claim that I doubt they could really defend even though my knowledge of Hindi cinema is still far from complete. DIL SE seemed like a pretty honest examination of the subject to me, and that was several years earlier. I don't want to hold the claims on the DVD case against the movie though, as SARFAROSH is certainly an interesting take on the subject.

Ajay Singh's brother is killed and his father brain damaged by terrorists when Ajay is a small boy, because his father was going to stand up against them in court or something. Ajay takes this to heart (as you would), and as a young adult he devotes himself to becoming a police inspector and fighting against crime, and terrorists in particular. The movie is essentially about one case, where Ajay has to get to the roots of an operation smuggling guns into the country. The operation is backed by a Pakistani general, with the rationale that arming criminals in India is a cheap but effective way of waging war. The movie does push a fairly unbalanced "Pakistan aggressors, India = victims" message, though it is very careful/keen not to equate this with Muslim vs Hindu and turn it into a religious issue.

The movie is fairly serious throughout - although there is a romantic interest (the lovely Sonali Bendre), it's not overplayed and does serve a useful function by building the character of Ajay and putting the case in the context of his life. For the most part though, the movie is focussed on the investigation and the encounters between the police and the criminals as they trace the criminal network closer to its roots. It's quite an action packed movie, and features some of the best action scenes I've seen in an Indian movie. No bullet ballet or kung fu, but quite realistic fights and shootouts that are never-the-less very well choreographed and filmed. The movie bears an 18 rating, because the action does get quite violent. A lot of people die in the course of the movie, and a few of them in quite gruesome ways. One thing I've noticed in quite a lot of Asian movies is that police violence is treated quite sympathetically - even as quite noble. The cops in Sarfarosh don't mess around - if threatening, beating or framing a criminal is the best way to get a result then they don't hesitate to do so. If a criminal happens to get killed in the course of an operation then they don't seem terribly upset either, unless it was somebody they wanted to interrogate .

Ajay Singh is played by Aamir Khan, an actor I haven't come across before. He's not a pretty boy by any means, but he does a very good job with the character. It's a good character too - well developed and believable, honorable without being sanctimonius. The rest of the cast all do a good job too, although Sonali Bendre doesn't have a lot to do except look pretty and dance around in the musical numbers.

The script for the movie is very tight, with both the criminals and the cops operations and motivations seeming quite convincing. The movie does veer a little towards preaching in places, especially towards the end, but this is forgivable. The direction is very confident and focussed, and sound and cinematography throughout are good throughout.

All round, a good movie worth seeking out.

Years ago I was having a discussion about anime with one of my colleagues, and she told me that "Nausicaa - Valley Of The Wind" was her favourite anime. "That's a stupid name", I thought, "I bet its rubbish really". Well, I was wrong and she was right - Miyazaki's first movie under the studio Ghibli banner is a fantasy of the absolute highest order.

Set thousands of years hence, the human race is eeking out an existence around wastelands populated by all manner of alien plants and animals, all emitting deadly toxins. As if this wasn't a hard enough life, the different groups of humans are at war with each other. Nausicaa is a princess in the Valley Of The Wind, a tribe of pacifists who are closer to nature than most others. The movie is a tale of struggle, adventure and discovery - all with a strong environmental message. Those who have played the Final Fantasy games will recognise much here in terms of narrative and art style. In fact, there are quite a lot of similarities with the Final Fantasy movie, though the story here is definitely better constructed.

Miyazaki has always been an imaginative writer/director, and especially here. The world of Nausicaa is fabulously detailed and unique - like the best sci-fi and fantasy, Miyazaki has envisaged a whole history, ecology, sociology and technology... all of which is very well realised in the animation and art. He's also got a good eye for characters, and the various people you will meet in the world are all very well developed. Nausicaa herself is the centre of the story, and a fine embodiment of purity and virtue.

It isn't often you see a movie that is so well developed. Anime is a medium with some unique strengths when it comes to fantasy, and Nausicaa exploits them to the full. Even without the artistic license that animation provides, the story is one that is so strong it could have been placed in any environment and still made a wonderful movie.

Recommended! As others have observed though, the only way to see it really is widescreen/subtitled/uncut (115 minutes).

There is no doubt in my mind that Zhang Yimou is one of the world's finest film makers. He manages to straddle the bounds of both art house and commercialism with his catalogue of works that show a beauty and grandeur that often earns the description "painterly", whilst also telling a really good story. Happy Times is something of a departure from works like Raise The Lantern and Shanghai Triad, being a fairly realist comedy.

Happy Times ("Happy Times Hotel" on the print) is about a group of 'retired' (laid off) factory workers who conspire to hoax a young blind girl. Not as callous as it sounds though, as their intentions are relatively good. The main characters are a 50 year old bachelor (Zhao Benshan) and the blind girl herself, played by newcomer Dong Jie. A small crowd of interesting friends and the gargantuan love interest/stepmother of the leads pad out the cast, which mostly plays out in a couple of small locations - two cramped flats, a sprawling abandoned warehouse, and a delapidated bus.

It's very much a character piece, focussing mainly on the relationship that develops between Zhao Benshan and Dong Jie, thrust together under circumstances that neither planned. It's a tender story... a little bit happy, a little bit sad. Bittersweet I guess, but only slightly bitter.

Zhang Yimou forgoes his usual luscious cinematography for quite a naturalistic feel. Apparently he used "hidden cameras" to shoot some of it, but I've no idea what that means (maybe the street scenes?). It's quite a simple piece, a light 95 minutes long, yet still crafted with the dexterity and care that Zhang Yimou always brings to a film. Being a character piece, it is very much dependent on the performances for success - Zhang could coax an oscar winner out of a mannequin, but Dong Jie here is especially good. If I hadn't seen her walking around the theatre unattended, I would certainly have believed she was genuinely blind (this is not an easy thing to act), and her emotional expression is spot on too. You couldn't possibly not care for her character, or that of Zhao Benshan.

The movie might be quite 'slight' in Zhang Yimou's filmography - it's unlikely to win any oscars for him, but it is a nicely made movie that I think everybody can enjoy.

By 1999 Takeshi Kitano had quite rightly gained a lot of international recognition for his brilliantly constructed Yakuza/Cop stories, but was apparently dis-satisfied that everybody tended to focus on the violence in them. So he decided to make a movie without any violence to remind people that he was a much more rounded talent than that. "Are you sure about this?", the world asked. "Yes", he replied... and made Kikujiro.

Kikujiro is difficult to adequately describe, but the fact that it was allegedly inspired by the Wizard of Oz is a good starting point. The basic premise is a road trip, where Kitano is the unlikely chaperone for a little boy who wants to go and find his mother. After gambling away all the money his wife gives him to take the kid, they have to improvise their transport across the country. Along the way they meet a small but colourful cast of characters, and get to know each other a little bit too.

I'd hesitated about picking this up for ages, and eventually went for a rental rather than a purchase. Kitano minus violence just didn't seem right! But that was definitely an injustice I was doing him, and Kikujiro is a good demonstration that his talents really are much broader. In fact, after watching it there is no doubt that he is one of the greatest director/actor/writer and editor working in the world today. A brilliantly painted story, full of subtly and quirkiness. Awesome cinematography and an incredible soundtrack... truly world class in every respect. Well, to be fair the child actor was a bit stiff, but it seems mean to hold that against the movie.

Definitely recommended!

Clever Korean 'heist gone wrong' movie, based around the premise that 3 groups of people all decide to rob the same bank at the same time. Hence chaos arises. What's clever about the movie is that it is one of those 'self-revisionist' type movies like Too Many Ways To Be Number One/Memento. The first half of the movie plays out straight, following the 3 groups from the start of the heist to the end. Then (quite without warning or indication it must be said) it flashes back to some time before the start and plays through again, this time showing you all the things you didn't see the first time. This changes the meaning of certain key events, and hence your perception of the conclusion.

Good characters and performances, clever idea, nicely executed. Good stuff!

SANCTUARY was Dacascos' first movie after the excellent DRIVE, I think, and it shows all the hallmarks of direct-to-video Hollywood junk on the surface. I really wasn't expecting much from it at all, but found myself pleasantly surprised. Mark plays a priest who has something of a dark past... in fact he was a CIA secret agent, trained from childhood to do the dirty off-the-book jobs for the agency without questioning. But he couldn't help questioning, and fled the agency after one particular job. He ended up becoming a priest in an attempt to atone for his past life. But his past life doesn't want to let him escape so easily.

The plot sounds incredibly cheesy and free of subtlety, but the script and direction manage to flesh it out into something with a bit more subtlety. The movie splits its time between flashback to Mark's past and the hunt-chase after he is found doing his priestly work. Mark shows much better acting skills here than in Drive, perhaps because the movie is generally darker & serious in tone. He could have been more expressive and convincing, but I think he did a passable job.

It's not really his acting that has got Mark noticed by the HK cinema crowd though, it's his extremely impressive martial arts skills, which are arguably the best of anybody working in movies anywhere in the world at this time (if we assume that Jackie/Jet/Biao etc are unlikely to ever match their early work again). Although there's a moderately high degree of action in the movie, there's not all that much acrobatics or hand to hand fighting required, so we don't get to see Mark's skills to anything like the extent that they're showcased in DRIVE. He still handles the action well though, and I really can't imagine how some reviewer came to the conclusion that he was "a poor man's Jean Claude Van Damme".

The action scenes are better filmed than I expect from a Hollywood movie, and quite realistic - bullet impacts in particular are almost disturbingly convincing. It has to be noted that Mark gives up his priestly vows a little too easily, and could have been much less lethal at times than he habitually is. I guess it's just his training :D

A less forgiving reviewer might dismiss it as the Hollywood b-grade movie it probably is in objective terms, but I found myself pleasantly surprised and am glad I bought the DVD, as I'll probably watch it again a couple of times. It's a shame the DVD distributors chose, in their infinite wisdom, to release it Pan & Scan though.

GO, GO, SECOND-TIME VIRGIN! (1969): First things first - quite possibly the best name for a movie ever! A strangely jaunty, optimistic sounding title for such a grim and nihilistic movie though.

"If you tell me why you want to die, then I'll kill you"

"Really?" "Yes?" "It's because I'm so hopelessly unhappy in this life"

(Bit of a rough quote there I'm afraid). GGSTV! opens with a 17 year old girl being dragged to a rooftop and raped by a gang of thugs, whilst a boy of a similar age watches on expressionless. The sun rises the next day to find boy and girl still in the same positions, sat in silence until the girl rises and wishes him "Good morning". Awkward conversation arises, and the girl reveals that this is the second time she's been raped. She is surprised to find that she has bled this time too (hence the title, which is actually a line from a song she sings to herself). The conversation progresses little better when she asks the boy to kill him. Throughout the course of the day, the boy lets her into his own life a little, which we find to be at least as f***ed up as hers. I don't know what it is about the Japanese, but they seem to have a knack of producing the strangest and most disturbed movies in the world. Takashi Miike might be shocking audiences and provoking walk outs now, but 32 years ago Koji Wakamatsu was producing movies that were at least as dysfunctional and disturbing. Whilst the west was having flower power and free love, Japan appears to have had quite a different approach to the hippy movement (though this may not be an entirely representative sample!). If GGSTV! were to be made now, it could only be a student film, and it would be largely criticised for its naivety, probably accused of being self-indulgent. And for having some truly awful acting. But movies in general were different in 1969, and GGSTV! was certainly a pioneering film and seemingly quite sincere in its bleak world view. It feels in many ways more 'film' like than most movies today... the cinematography is all very photographic, and the way the interesting soundtrack is blended with the movie - definitely 'cinema as art'. I'm not going to suggest it's a great movie, but it is fascinating and provocative, and deeply bleak and depressing, so that might appeal to some .

REFUGEE is "A Human Story", according to the tag-line. More specifically, it's about a guy called "Refugee" who lives in a village on the Indo-Pakistan border, and helps Muslim refugees from Bangladesh to cross over to Pakistan where they hope they will have a better chance of a life free from oppression. The first such group that we see him transport across the desert consists of two families, one of whom is eventually revealed to be Kareena Kapoor under her veil. He takes a bit of a shine to her, and she to him. Love blossoms, and it is will do in these circumstances. The family settle in a village on the Pakistan side of the border, and they meet up with Refugee whenever he makes the trip across.

But crossing the border is not a terribly safe activity, especially with Jackie Shroff guarding the Indian side and Sunil Shetty guarding the Pakistan side. One might expect that Refugee would encounter trouble with the law making these trips on a regular basis, and indeed the guards are soon on his case. But the law turns out to be amongst the least of his worries in the harsh and extreme desert living conditions where war and hardship are a way of life.

REFUGEE is a movie of two halves, or possibly three thirds. We open up with an hour or so of character development as the romance between Refugee and Naaz grows, and we learn more of the families and others in the village. In the second hour or so the complications that have been hinted at before start to develop and grow, personal conflicts with others rise to the surface, and life for our heroes starts to get tough. In the next hour the tension that has built erupts and the situation becomes desperate as politics and social turmoil overwhelm the lovers personal lives entirely, all of which builds to an insanely incendiary conclusion.

At 3 minutes short of the 3.5 hour mark, REFUGEE requires a little bit of stamina, but it uses its time well to flesh out the situation and the characters. The overall theme of personal happiness being stomped on by political issues is one that comes across a lot in Indian films. REFUGEE tries hard to be fair and to present the message that people are people and killing each other over the concept of 'nation' is a terrible waste of the potential of life. In the end there does seem to be something of an "India good, Pakistan bad" sentiment in the film regardless of its efforts otherwise. The film closes with a speech dreaming about a world with no borders, "No passport, no visa"... but one can't help suspect that J.P.Dutta imagines such a world would be established on India's terms rather than Pakistan's.

TOMIE - Japanese horror about... ummm... well, there's this schoolgirl who has to see a psychiatrist because she can't sleep, which the doctor suspects is related to the complete loss of memory of the events surrounding some accident she had some years ago. And then there's chap who lives on the floor below with a baby in a box, and ... well, some more stuff happens. Something that I've noticed in a lot of Japanese horror films - no attempt is made to explain why the spooky things are the way they are, what caused them or whatever. It's just presented to you that this is how things are, take it or leave it. I'm not a big horror movie fan in general, so I generally prefer something beyond "ooh creepy sensations" to hold my interest in a film. In this case the particular attractiveness of the main protagonist was probably the only thing that kept me watching, and the hope that somebody would explain it all before the end I guess. If you like creepy asian horror movies, I'm sure this one is well made... but I'm still not sure what the point of the exercise was. Would probably appeal to fans of RING anyway.

This film could be described as a "mainland martial arts movie", but that would probably mislead anybody for who the term "martial arts movie" is heavily influenced by the Hong Kong approach to the subject (or the mainland's contribution in the SHAOLIN TEMPLE series). The movie is more akin to He Ping's RF, GF but bleaker in tone. A young swordsman travels to Double Flag town to claim his bride, betrothed to him at birth by his father and revealed to him on said father's deathbed. Upon reaching Double Flag, the girl's father is rather dubious about handing over his daughter to one so young, but invites the chap to stay with them and work in his horse-head soup restaurant.

Double Flag is not a terribly happy town, being the regular pillaging place of the "Invincible Swordsman" and his gang. TIS is a bandit leader famous for always killing with a single deadly stroke. When the Invincible Swordsman's brother takes a fancy to the young swordsman's betrothed, he gets to prove whether or not he has what it takes to protect her as a husband. He calls on the "Desert Eagle", a braggart swordsman from nearby, for assistance.

SIDFT is more Kurosawa than Tsui Hark, with a large helping of Sergio Leone thrown in too. The desert locations and characters permanently covered in muck have drawn comparisons to THE BLADE and ASHES OF TIME, but it's nothing like either of those HK movies. ASHES is probably the closer of those two, but SWORDSMAN IN... has none of the epic grandeur or high philosophy of Wong Kar-Wai's work. Like Kurosawa's Yojimbo or Seven Samurai, this is a story of a village living under terror of bandits in a location miles from the law. Ping's characters are not given to much philosophy, just the challenge of getting by without dying.

The film is rather beautiful to watch, with the desert town of Double Flag being remarkable to behold, carved from sandstone in the Chinese desert who knows how many centuries ago. Everything in the film is "gritty" and functional. Ping has certainly seen his share of HK swordsman films, and the character of Desert Eagle plays a similar role to Tsui Hark's monk in THE BLADE - to make fun of the idea that a swordsman's life is all glamour. HK action fans will be severely disappointed if they're expecting wirework and long complicated battle choreographry. The action here is swift and decisive, an age of waiting in fear then a swift strike in a flurry of close up cuts, then we see who's still standing at the end. It's quite effective in its own way though.

SWORDSMAN IN DOUBLE FLAG TOWN is a well crafted and engaging film, with a wonderful aesthetic. Well worth watching, as long as you remember that not every film with "SWORDSMAN" in the title is going to be like the Tsui Hark/Ching Siu Tung series of that name :-)

CITY OF LOST SOULS - Takashi Miike

The film starts with Michelle Reis writing a letter telling her mother that she is in love with a Brazilian man who is "strong and kind". We then see the sleeping back of said Brazilian as CG butterflies flit across the screen. One settles on his shoulder and melts into the skin, becoming a tattoo that he will wear to the end of the film. Next we see Michelle on a bus with armed guards set to deport her from Japan. Her boyfriend steals a helicopter by force and stops the bus mith a machine gun, killing the guards in the process. He then whisks Michelle away to freedom.

All of which sets the scene for what is to follow in this remarkable film. Strange and fascinating characters cross paths in a plot that is broadly irrelevant, except as a vehicle for bringing these characters together in a series of surreal events and encounters, not a few of which are also rather violent.

Our 'cool Brazilian b****rd' hero and Michelle wish to marry and settle down abroad, but events and people would seem not to want them to. CITY OF LOST SOULS has a richly populated universe - a Japan where Japanese is barely the dominant language spoken, and characters of comic-book archetypes in appearance but anything but under the skin. The comic-book feel pervades much of the film, especially in the occasional CG enhanced shots that surely deserve an award for the best use of CG on screen - to push reality where it could never otherwise go.

The script also has comic book touches, blending the dark and brutal with the strange and hilarious quite un-self-conciously. Miike shows here why his name is so revered - truly an artist pushing boundaries hard. I look forward to more of his films heading west (I'm determined to see DEAD OR ALIVE one day, circumstances having conspired to make me miss 3 festival showings so far!).

Wow, nothing short of a masterpiece IMO. Brilliantly filmed, edited, scored, acted, scripted and directed... in fact I don't think I could fault the film in any aspect. Be warned that it is violent though. Very violent. Stylish, surreal and very very violent - one of the most violent films I've ever seen in fact. Not HK-style millions of bullets and a huge body count (counting survivors in GONIN is more appropriate), but a much more japanese style of brutal, realistic violence. Takeshi Kitano films are obviously a good point of reference, though GONIN isn't a Kitano film at all, despite his prominence on the Ocean Shores DVD case. His part is actually very small (but classic Kitano).

The plot involves a guy who runs a disco, who gets into financial problems, so he borrows money from the Yakuza that he then can't pay back. He comes up with a plan to rob the Yakuza of their own money, and assembles a "motley crew" to carry out the plan. This annoys the Yakuza. You don't want to annoy the Yakuza.

The style of the film is somewhat reminiscent of the Korean film NOWHERE TO HIDE, but more violent. Did I mention that it was really violent yet? I'd probably take bets on the director of NTH having seen GONIN before making his film in fact.

I think that's all you need to know. If you're a fan of Takeshi Kitano, extreme Japanese cinema and very well crafted films, get GONIN in your next order.