Recently Seen, Part 6 (July 2017)

[JepGambardella]

One more Asian film from Fantasia 2017: House of the Disappeared (Korea).

Three minutes in and I am thinking “This looks familiar”. Five more minutes and I say to myself “This has to be a remake of a Venezuelan film that I saw right here at Fantasia some years ago”. As the film progresses, more details of the earlier original film start coming back to me. It’s a very faithful remake. I remember liking the original one a lot. The Korean version, not so much, but I am sure that this is largely because I already knew where the story was going. If you haven’t seen the original (and since it is from Venezuela, it is unlikely that you will have seen it) then I think House of the Disappeared is a quite decent suspense/thriller movie.

The original film is called La Casa de lo Fin de los Tiempos.


Tonight, Sion Sono! Shinjuku Swan 2, a sequel of Shinjuku Swan from 2015, about a young man who works as a recruiter of fresh meat for the sex industry. I saw the first one also in this same festival, but I don’t remember much about it – not even how much I liked it, since I don’t seem to have rated it on IMDb.

 

[plsletitrain]

OThe Korean version, not so much, but I am sure that this is largely because I already knew where the story was going. If you haven’t seen the original (and since it is from Venezuela, it is unlikely that you will have seen it) then I think House of the Disappeared is a quite decent suspense/thriller movie.

Yeah I just watched this last month and I loved the Korean version (maybe because yeah, I haven't seen the original). Actually, I didn't know there was an original. Damn, and here I was, all praises for the Korean version I saw.

 

[JepGambardella]

Yesterday I watched Sion Sono's Shinjuku Swan 2. It has a pretty low rate on IMDb (5.4) and I think it fully deserves it. Uninteresting story of rival gangs of "scouts" - young men attempting to convince pretty young girls to go to work as "hostesses" in night clubs, with none of the wackiness of "Love and Peace" or "Tokyo Tribe".

 

[JepGambardella]

A few more movies from Montreal Fantasia 2017

Jail Break (Cambodia): First Cambodian movie I've ever seen. A group of cops bring a criminal-turned-informant to prison. The leader of the gang that he belonged to orders a riot in order to facilitate his elimination. The cops are caught in the middle of the riot and have to fight off hundreds of criminals.

It is an action movie in the vein of The Raid, but lower budget and not as polished. Still, a very competent effort and well-worth seeking if you like that kind of movie.

A Day (South Korea): The Groundhog Day premise applied to a thriller. A father keeps looping in time on the day that his daughter is killed in a traffic accident. No matter what he tries, he can't prevent the accident from happening. Excellent movie from a first-time director, apparently. I will be very surprised if there isn't a Hollywood remake within the next five years.

God of War (China): Period action piece featuring the Chinese putting up a fight against Japanese invaders in the 16th century. Great production values and competently done, but there is something missing. I can't put my finger on it. The quality that we are used to seeing in Korean movies is just not there in Chinese productions (IMHO).

And a couple of non-Asian entries:

Cold Hell (Austria): A woman witnesses a serial killer in action and becomes his next target - but she is no damsel-in-distress that one! Really enjoyed this taut thriller.

Money (France): New thriller from the writer/director of 13 Tzameti (remade in the US as simply 13). A trio of friends embark on what is supposed to be an easy robbery. Things go well at first, but quickly take a turn for the much, much worse. I also enjoyed this one very much.

 

[JepGambardella]

View attachment 2494 Hello there! Welcome aboard. Yes, the Japanese women's volleyball teams have eclipsed my movie watching. It's a pain in the arse to view the Grand Prix games because NBC bought the broadcast rights in the US so they can't be streamed live or shown in replay here. The real shitty thing is that NBC is only broadcasting games where the USA team plays, who I don't care about--and not even broadcasting them live. Okay, deep breath. Let it go. Let it go. If some corporation in Canada hasn't made a similar dick move, you can watch the games on FIVB's YouTube channel.

​

Nope, not blocked here in Canada. Watching Brazil vs USA live right now!

 

[Daniel Larusso]

Your Name (2016)
Two strangers find themselves linked in a bizarre way. When a connection forms, will distance be the only thing to keep them apart?
Awesome love/fantasy/time travel story that covers emotions of falling in love for someone even if you haven't actually met and the feeling that someone out there loves you. This film has a beautiful way to portray the character's emotions without ever feeling forced. The characters are so likeable and the animation is wonderful. The romance and comedy is so well balanced. My favourite film from Makoto Shinkai and also one of my new favourite films, I placed it on #25 on my list of favourite films.
9/10

 

[JepGambardella]

I saw Your Name during a flight some time ago and loved it as well. I am definitely planning on buying the blu-ray if and when it is released.


The Fantasia Festival here in Montreal added a new film that wasn't in the program initially: Takashi Miike's Blade of the Immortal. I already got my ticket and I am looking forward to it. They've also added an extra screening of Bad Genius, which apparently was one of the most popular movies of this year's edition. Got tickets for that one too (first screening was sold out).

 

[plsletitrain]

I wish I liked Your Name more. It was almost there....but it still didn't make it. I don't see myself as a Makoto Shinkai fan. I wish those too-melodramatic voicing appealed to me but it was too much to handle.

 

[JepGambardella]

Split - South Korea, 2016

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6147768/reference

A former bowling great with a bad knee, now reduced to playing small-time games for cash, discovers a phenomenal new talent in the form of an autistic young man rejected by his family. In spite of the difficulties in dealing with his idiosyncratic behaviour, the two team up and soon find themselves playing for increasingly higher stakes.

Very good drama, with beautifully shot bowling scenes, quite a lot of humour, some touching moments and nice tension. I am very glad I had a chance to see it at Montreal's Fantasia 2017

 

[sitenoise]

Very good drama, with beautifully shot bowling scenes

As I glance over news of upcoming films and saw this I thought "A Bowling Drama"? I guess it could work. Thanks for taking one for the team.

I just watched the
Ghost in the Shell [2017] • USA, India, China, Japan, and on and on with the countries!
Director: Rupert Sanders
6.1726/10

I didn't hate it at all. That's impressive since I am so not into Scarlett Johansson. I enjoyed the body she put on display, and sort of admired her ability to not smile. Something about her scowling made it seem amime-y. Then, maybe the only time she does smile it was cute. It's near the end when she succeeds in pulling the hatch open on the monster thingy and her arms rip in half. Very cute. Oh, she did smile once with Batou's dog. That was meant to humanize her.

I think it's normal procedure for US remakes of Asian films to be explain-y. This is no exception. It made it seem a little dry, flat. But the set designs and such were good enough, some quite awesome. There is a washed out, or overly sepia'd or something to the cinematography but I think it would be less noticeable in a dark theater than on my TV.

It's been a while since I watched the original and its many sequels and such so I may have this wrong, but a couple things nagged at me a little story-wise. I thought the Major was supposed to be more gender ambiguous, even though she sports a smokin hot naked female body most of the time. And I thought she took a deep dive into a bad guy in female form. In this film, her search for her history seemed like a Lifetime Channel, very recent, contemporary, mommy issue.

Michael Pitt has some good moments.

All in all, I think people who don't have remake or whitewashing issues they need to express, will enjoy this. A lot. It looks great most of the time, and it condenses and cleans up the story. The condensing and cleaning will bother those who enjoyed the complexity and mystery of the original but it does work here for what it set out to accomplish. It's a standalone movie but I'll bet dollars to donuts we'll see many more iterations of it in the future.

I thought I had a lot more to say about this but I can't remember it now.

[EDIT] - Oh yeah, Scarlett Johansson's walk. Pure comedy!

Obsessed (In-gan-jung-dok) [2014] • South Korea
Director: doesn't matter
1/10

This is the worst kind of Korean film for me. Tiny little wannabe star studs who can't act are given a chance to play tough in a manufactured drama. Doesn't matter what it's about.

 

[Daniel Larusso]

Ghost in the Shell (2017) is an awesome homage to the original, without all the philosophy. It's okay for what it is, a simplified version of the original film. 6/10

I re-watched this classic yesterday night:

Akira (1988) - 3rd viewing
9/10

 

[Daniel Larusso]

Barefoot Gen (1983)
A powerful statement against war, Barefoot Gen is a disturbing story about the effect of the atomic bomb on a boy's life and the lives of the Japanese people.
So disturbing it's very hard to watch.
5/10

 

[plsletitrain]

Ghost in the Shell [2017] • USA, India, China, Japan, and on and on with the countries!
Director: Rupert Sanders
6.1726/10

I've said this before and I'll say this again: One of my life's mysteries is how the hell do you arrive at a rating such as 6.1726? Where does the .1726 come from???????????

And I remember GITS was one of the first Asian movie I saw because I read it was popular but I didn't finish I through because I didn't understand it. It was rambling in circles that I didn't comprehend.

I'll watch Obsessed because it has Song Seung-hun my love. Hehe.

 

[sitenoise]

Just watched

 

[JepGambardella]

And it’s almost a wrap for the 2017 edition of Montreal’s Fantasia Festival. Tonight I’ll watch Takashi Miike’s Blade of the Immortal and that will be it.

Over the weekend I’ve watched:

Fabricated City - Korean action thriller about a young man framed for murder trying to clear his name. Entertaining enough if you are of a generous nature and are willing to let slide the parts of the story that are contrived, bordering on silly. Might not be worth going out of your way to seek it, but it won’t be a waste of your time if you have the opportunity to watch it.
https://letterboxd.com/film/fabricated-city/

Rage – Japanese drama already discussed here. I can’t say that I was enjoying it very much while watching it, but afterwards, thinking about it, I appreciated it a lot more.

Bad Genius – Thai movie about a top student at an expensive private school who helps her best friend improve her grades, and soon finds herself helping more and more of her classmates cheat on their exams, for cash. The movie was introduced before the screening as “The Breakfast Club meets Mission: Impossible” and while that was probably tongue-in-cheek, it does contain a grain of truth. It is (very well) made in the style of a caper movie, and while the stakes are much lower than international terrorist threats, it is still quite gripping stuff.

https://letterboxd.com/film/bad-genius/

 

[sitenoise]

Rage – Japanese drama already discussed here. I can’t say that I was enjoying it very much while watching it, but afterwards, thinking about it, I appreciated it a lot more.

Just watched

<<-- Rage

There were a couple touching moments but I can only conclude I don't find resonance with this director. (I did not like the critically and popularly loved Villain at all.) He "can assemble an excellent bunch of ingredients, but he overcooks them and the result is a less than tasty meal." I love the technique of layering space and time but somehow I got tired of it in this film. It created a rhythm I couldn't dance to. Three actors did a swell job of acting guilty for a couple hours, but who didn't see through that? I had told myself that I'd never watch another film with Mirai Moriyama but I think the long hair and goatee did wonders for him.

To continue aping my letterboxd blurb: A big bell rang every time someone said the word trust. Obvious much? There were a couple enjoyable moments in the film where I thought Aoi Miyazaki was going to lose it, turn evil. I want to see that sometime!

 

[plsletitrain]

Rage – Japanese drama already discussed here. I can’t say that I was enjoying it very much while watching it, but afterwards, thinking about it, I appreciated it a lot more.

This was what I felt too. At first I didn't like it that I almost put it off because it was too dragging. But then, as the characters' lives were lensed, I learned to appreciate the film. And not even the mystery of who really is the murderer inspired me to keep on going.

Three actors did a swell job of acting guilty for a couple hours, but who didn't see through that?

Me. To be honest it took me awhile to figure that I was supposed to take out my detective lens and figure who's the murderer. I thought that the lives of the 3 characters either were consequences of the murder. Or prequels to it. Or that somehow they'll all be victims. Only until I intently focused that I realized they have similar facial features.

 

[plsletitrain]

@sitenoise

When I saw your emoticon without revealing the movie, I immediately guessed "Rage". I almost posted my guess but I held back because it it could also be a lot of things.

 

[sitenoise]

@plsletitrain I want to point out a scene in Rage that I consider an "excellent ingredient". Remember when Yuma (Satoshi Tsumabuki) got the call from the cops asking if he knew Naoto (Gou Ayano). Forgive the script writing boof of presenting the conversation in a way that would never happen. Yuma starts trying to erase the existence of Naoto in his home. He's tossing stuff in the garbage etc., and then we see a suitcase flying outside. I assume it's Yuma tossing a Naoto suitcase out. Then more suitcases keep flying out. I'm thinking wtf is up with this? Then we realize we're seeing Tanaka tossing the suitcases out from where he works for some inexplicable reason. This is what I call layering space and time. It doesn't matter if these things were supposed to be happening at the same time. The director did a ton of it in the film. I love this technique/device in film making. M, the best film ever made, uses it to great effect. It's not until near the end when Yuma sits down with Kaoru, Naoto's foster sibling, that we understand what that cop call was all about.

Another example is where a character is saying something but the visual has changed to a different character but the original character's dialog keeps going. Where Have All the Flowers Gone takes the technique to the extreme, imaginatively and wonderfully.

 

[plsletitrain]

Wow, I never thought of that. I always knew you were smart but I mean, you have to be smarter to be able to "see" your layering space and time rather than the scene absorbing you. I watch those scenes without meaning until you point it out. You sure the director intended it that way or he's lucky his movie got viewed by you who came up with your layering space and time theory? Hehe.

@plsletitrain It's not until near the end when Yuma sits down with Kaoru, Naoto's foster sibling, that we understand what that cop call was all about.

Good point. Dang I always take anything at face value. I missed that part, I don't know, probably everything was too heavy for my brain already, there's so many events I wasn't able to figure the cop call wasn't a distress call.

"Another example is where a character is saying something but the visual has changed to a different character but the original character's dialog keeps going"

Yeah I think I remember noticing it here a couple of times. I also like this style.

Note to self: I should seriously take a good look at my viewing skills. I take anything at face value! I honestly haven't taken into consideration these points until you mentioned them. I'm better off to watching Pixar movies. lol