Thai director Prachya Pinkaew re-energized with great verve the action movie genre. He was known thanks to the movie Ong Bak, which contained crazy fight scenes and made an international celebrity out of the now famous Tony Jaa and his complex figures of Muay Thaï. Without much effort, the director reuses the ingredients of the first movie with some exceptions. No man here, the main character is an autistic young woman. Chocolate could almost be considered as a truly super-hero movie. With a handicap that prevents her from integrating herself in the society, the young Zen has been developing since her childhood extraordinary physical talents. She learns the movements just by observing other people, and particularly by watching TV and movies from Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan or Jean-Claude Vandamme (yes. I can assure you, I think I saw an excerpt from Bloodsport).
Regarding the stakes, Chocolate is a B-movie. Zen uses her power to extort money from Mafiosi, previous creditors of her mother, herself a bit Mafiosi. The movie is a bit moving, as she gets the money for her mother’s cancer operation. Isn’t that wonderful? Thankfully, only a minimum is shown avoiding any indigestive pathos. On the whole, the movie is quite naïve, but that makes it nice. The actress does quite well when it comes to play and is not above getting physical. Like a mime, she changes herself (again, like a superhero) and switches from a clumsy homeless person with bowed legs to a flexible super-ninja. The movie is pretty harmless, but there is one scene that is kind of trashy where Zen must fight another mentally handicapped person. The latter cannot control his movements, hence is completely unpredictable, which gives our heroine a hard time. It is quite daring to show a fight between handicapped people!
JeeJa Yanin’s physical performances will knock you down. You have to see it for yourself! With a supernatural flexibility, she makes her movements with surprising speed. Of course, in the movie, there are more and more fight scenes and always offers something original, using complex topologies or unexpected accessories. On this account, the fight scene in the slaughterhouse is remarkable. The place is painted in bright red – like in hell – and one fights with butcher’s knives and machetes. The final scene is a build-up of violence and offers several fight scenes on the façade of a building. You would believe it to be in the platform games of old! Except that here, the falls are very painful. In the end, the heroine reminds us of GunnM, a manga where a little girl with a harmless look cuts gigantic muscled guys by hand.
Like in Ong Bak, the actors realizes all the stunts and fight scenes with minimal security. Not many wires, no special effects, the director can film the action very closely and carries away the audience with a spectacular choreography. One can also see in a close-up actors being hit in the head! The reverse side is shown in the credits as a little making-of. The slightest mistake during a fight and you are guaranteed to be hurt, even the main character. I am not sure if they have insurance in Thailand.
One of the most talked about films at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival and the UK’s premiere fantasy and horror film festival, Frightfest, MUM & DAD, the impressive debut feature by writer-director Steven Sheil is one of the most disturbing Brit-shockers to emerge in recent years.
Partly inspired by the grisly, real-life exploits of serial killers Fred and Rosemary West, and starring Shane Meadows regular Perry Benson (Somers Town; This Is England), the film puts a unique spin on the British horror genre, setting its tale very close to home (quite literally) and resulting in a brutally realistic horror story.
Co-starring Dido Miles, Olga Fedori, Toby Alexander and newcomer Ainsley Howard, this boundary-pushing journey into suburban terror is not without its moments of dark humour, but, viewers be warned, MUM & DAD is definitely not a film for the squeamish or the easily offended.
MUM & DAD (cert. 18) will open at selected UK cinemas on 26th December 2008. In addition, in a unprecedented and groundbreaking move by Revolver Entertainment, MUM & DAD will be the first ever UK film release to appear in cinemas at the same time as being available on retail and rental DVD, electronic sell-through and Video on Demand.
Special features on the DVD include: Director and Producer Commentary; ‘Through a Vulture Eye’ - A short film by Steven Sheil; Behind-the-scenes footage; Cast and Crew Q&A at Film4 FrightFest 2008; Interview with Steven Sheil; 8 on-set interviews with cast and crew; Theatrical Trailer.
Moments after take off, a passenger Jetliner plummets to the ground killing all on board except its pilot ‘Keller’ (Robert Powell). After the investigation declares that no one should have survived the crash, Keller finds himself tortured with guilt and sets upon a journey of discovery to find out who was responsible
and how he managed to survive.
The Survivor is directed by actor / director David Hemmings (Blow Up, Harlequin) and is based on the best selling book by horror writing legend James Herbert.
Based on a terrifying and mysterious tale that has echoes of ‘The Sixth Sense’ and ‘Unbreakable’, this is an overlooked horror from an overlooked master of the genre.
From prolific Japanese auteur Takashi Miike, director of extreme cinema cult classics such as Audition and Ichi The Killer, comes Sukiyaki Western Django, a deranged exercise in movie genre splicing that not only redefines the spaghetti (or, in Japanese terms, ‘macaroni’) western in Miike’s own inimitable style but also stars Quentin Tarantino (returning the favour for Miike’s cameo appearance in ‘Hostel’).
Taking its thematic and visual cues from Sergio Leone’s A Fistful Of Dollars and Sergio Corbucci’s Django – significantly, both remakes of Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo – Miike’s wildly inventive film brings the origins of the spaghetti western genre full circle in a surreal and colourful operatic orgy of gun play, bloodletting and stylish ultra-violence.
Miike’s first full English language feature (inspired by the success of Imprint, his English language contribution to the TV series, Masters Of Horror), Sukiyaki Western Django stars Hideaki Ito (The Princess Blade), Koichi Sato (Starfish Hotel), Yusuke Iseya (Casshern), Masanobu Ando (Black Kiss; Battle Royale), Yoshino Kimura (Copycat Killer), Teruyuki Kagawa (Twentieth Century Boys), Kaori Momoi (Memoirs Of A Geisha) and Renji Ishibashi (Twentieth Century Boys).
In the village of Yuta, the white clad Genji and red clad Heike gangs are locked in a deadly face off as they both struggle to uncover a fabled treasure hidden somewhere in the desolate mountain settlement. Into this ongoing feud strolls a lone gunman, a drifter with a dark past and deadly shooting skills. With a vast fortune at stake, each of the warring clans tries desperately to persuade the mysterious stranger to join with them, but he has other, secretive, plans of his own…
As the story unfolds in a hail of bullets, vengeance, lust and heroic bloodshed, the lies, deceit and betrayals spiral toward a final, explosive showdown.
SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO (cert. 15) will be released on DVD (£15.99) by Contender Home Entertainment on 2nd February 2009. Special Features include: deleted scenes; Q&A with Quentin Tarantino; English 5.1, Stereo and DTS audio options.
Directed by Adrian Garcia Bogliano; director of “Rooms For Tourists”, BEST FILM ROJO SANGRE, Silver Award Weekend of Fear.
Four University girl friends travel back to their family home in the remote outback of the La Plata region, Argentina. On the road they witness a crime scene perpetrated by local thugs. They become captive, are violated and some shot dead…The surviving women out of sheer determination for revenge mercilessly pursue their attackers to the bitter end.
Feature film of violation and revenge with influence of great classics in the genre, such as ‘ I Will Spit on Your Grave”, “Lipstic”, They call her One Eye”, “The Bride Wore Black”, “The Last House on the Left”, “Rashomon”, among others.
One day, in a fishermen and hunters’s community, as poor and as timeless it can be, nature decides to show it’s macabre side. From the mangrove swamp, where they get the wretched sustenance, Cannibal zombies emerge. Nobody knows the cause of this “contamination”. The important thing is to run and survive, to run again. With every bite, parents, friends and brothers, become awful creatures.
In front of a horror that doesn’t move back, not even with the daylight, that doesn’t exempt fish or crustaceans, an obstinate and fearful survivor is revealed, skillful with the axe and terrible when the moment comes to declare to the brunet who makes his heart beat.
Japanese director Tetsuya Nakashima (Memories Of Matsuko) has rapidly earned himself a reputation as a hugely talented and idiosyncratic auteur whose genre-busting films have been favourably compared to the work of directors such as Tim Burton (Charlie And The Chocolate Factory; Big Fish), Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge; Romeo And Juliet) and Jean-Pierre Jeunet (A Very Long Engagement; Amelie). Now, the pop culture
phenomenon that has taken Japan by storm, Nakashima’s Kamikaze Girls, comes to DVD debut courtesy of Third Window Films.
Based on the bestselling novel-turned-manga by cult author Novala Takemoto, Kamikaze Girls concerns 17-year-old Momoko (Kyoko Fukada), a self-absorbed dreamer and ‘Lolita’ fashion obsessive whose love of all things Rococo sees her fantasizing about fleeing her backcountry home and living life in 18th Century Versailles. While selling off her father’s supplies of bootleg designer fashion goods in order to fund her expensive obsession, Momoko unexpectedly meets the rebellious Ichigo (Anna Tsuchiya), a rough-and-tumble ‘Yanki’ biker chick. The girls begin a tentative and unlikely relationship that soon sees the two seemingly incompatible misfits forming a unique friendship. Together, they embark on a vividly coloured, sugar sweet, hyper-stylized odyssey of female bonding all set to a pounding J-Pop beat.
Described as ‘a wild, surreal speed-freak’s walk on the kitsch side of pop culture obsessions’ by The Sunday Times and by Metro as ‘everything you’d want in a slice of Japanese pop culture and more,’ Nakashima’s adaptation of Takemoto’s novel is a full-on bubblegum-laced extravaganza – the cinematic equivalent of a sweet-toothed teenager being given the keys to the candy store.
Starring J-Pop idol Kyoko Fukada (The Ring 2; Dolls) and pop star turned actress Anna Tsuchiya (Dororo; Sakuran), Kamikaze Girls is delightfully exuberant trip through teenage alienation terrain in the company of two of the most fun and endearing girls ever to grace the screen.
Kamikaze Girls (cert. 12) will be released on DVD (£14.99) by Third Window Films on 12th January 2009. Special Features include: interviews with Kyoko Fukada and Anna Tsuchiya; theatrical trailer; Third Window trailers.
Tetsuya Nakashima’s Memories of Matsuko (cert. 15) will also be released on DVD (£14.99) by Third Window Films on 12th January 2009.
Beginning October 15th 2008, Filmakers’TV, the first web-TV totally dedicated to independent cinema, will broadcast in streaming, everyday 24/7, feature films, short films, TV series and television broadcasts such as Sit-com and TV news programs on weekly schedule. The films are also available at any time through the “on-demand movies” page on the site. There’s only one rule: the movies must have a narrative intent and be strictly independent. Designed by Daniele Favilli, author and actor in film and television, along with director Nello Ferrara and web-designer Andrea Palomba, Filmakers’ TV is also a community where to exchange tips, find news and exploit new opportunities.
From now on the independent cinema has an ultimate place, and obviously it’s free!
The services for film-makers are in fact completely free as well as the access to the web-TV and movies on demand for the audience. All movies have to be subtitled in English for international viewing…
V2 Cinema presents the short feature WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?, starring American composer Philip Glass, on www.v2cinema.com. Directed by Camila Gonzatto, the movie combines documentary, musical and surreal imagery. The video is the fourth of five shorts from online series Boundaries of Thought: THINK TANK (AKA Fronteiras do Pensamento: ENSAIOS VISUAIS). The THINK TANK is sponsored by Braskem and Copesul Cultural and produced by Davi de Oliveira Pinheiro and Letícia de Cássia.
A lonely piano lost in floating waters of a river, urban landscape, a brief exposition of Glass’ ideas and a particular piano concert from the maestro are mixed together in order to composite the experience proposed by director Camila Gonzatto. “The idea of the production was to make a ‘visual essay’. I followed that line, trying to find and create images that could work as metaphors of the sonority and, in a way, the structure of Philip Glass’s music” says Camila. WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? was shot in two days in the city of Porto Alegre (Brazil).
“The film shows us a point of view about music, of an artist that had an incredible contribution to music nowadays. I believe that, from him, many more ways can be discussed”, says Camila. WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? alternates between black and white Super 8 film and high definition video (HDV) in the search for its way to represent Glass’ work. “The idea was to get a different texture for the same images, a bit like Glass’s music, that works with repetition, but the repetition is never the same, it always has something different”, explains the director.
***
WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? - Directed By Camila Gonzatto Produced By Davi de Oliveira Pinheiro and Letícia de Cássia. Photographed By Glauco Firpo. Edited By Alfredo Barros. Running Time: 7 minutes. In English.
How have you got this strange idea ?
Sadly, this strange idea is based on reality! I have suffered from bulimia since I was about 20. It’s terrible. I wanted to show what it feels like to be that sad and only be able to express your pain by throwing up.
Bulimia is a real disease. It is an eating disorder that causes people to binge eat and then throw up their food. It is usually accompanied by severe depression and anxiety. The wife does hallucinate at the end, but that is not part of bulimia. But all of her throwing up and eating food obsessively instead of dealing with her problems is classic bulimia.
How have you convinced Greg Nicotero to get involved ?
Greg is a friend of mine, and a very very very nice guy. He did a favor for me. He’s just that nice of a person. I think everyone should know how incredibly nice that man is.
Were there actual toilets or a studio ?
That is a real toilet in a public bathroom. We filmed the whole thing in two days in Los Angeles at real locations - nothing is in a studio (we couldn’t afford that!)
I think that horror movies directed by women are more disturbing because they talk more about deep fears and fears about the body, do you share that thought ?
I agree that there are some movies that are directed by women which are scarier to me: Dans Ma Peau by marina de van, for instance. That is a film that deals with fears and the body. But so does Cronenberg. I think that there are some amazing female filmmakers out there and that they often have a different perspective on horror than men do - what truly frightens women is different than what frightens men. But I have seen some amazingly scary body-oriented horror by men as well.
Will you go on with moviemaking ?
If I can! I need money to make a movie. I have several more shorts that I want to make, and am just trying to get the funds together now. They are also depressing and bloody.
Regarding the stakes, Chocolate is a B-movie. Zen uses her power to extort money from Mafiosi, previous creditors of her mother, herself a bit Mafiosi. The movie is a bit moving, as she gets the money for her mother’s cancer operation. Isn’t that wonderful? Thankfully, only a minimum is shown avoiding any indigestive pathos. On the whole, the movie is quite naïve, but that makes it nice. The actress does quite well when it comes to play and is not above getting physical. Like a mime, she changes herself (again, like a superhero) and switches from a clumsy homeless person with bowed legs to a flexible super-ninja. The movie is pretty harmless, but there is one scene that is kind of trashy where Zen must fight another mentally handicapped person. The latter cannot control his movements, hence is completely unpredictable, which gives our heroine a hard time. It is quite daring to show a fight between handicapped people!
Moments after take off, a passenger Jetliner plummets to the ground killing all on board except its pilot ‘Keller’ (Robert Powell). After the investigation declares that no one should have survived the crash, Keller finds himself tortured with guilt and sets upon a journey of discovery to find out who was responsible
Beginning October 15th 2008, Filmakers’TV, the first web-TV totally dedicated to independent cinema, will broadcast in streaming, everyday 24/7, feature films, short films, TV series and television broadcasts such as Sit-com and TV news programs on weekly schedule. The films are also available at any time through the “on-demand movies” page on the site. There’s only one rule: the movies must have a narrative intent and be strictly independent. Designed by Daniele Favilli, author and actor in film and television, along with director Nello Ferrara and web-designer Andrea Palomba, Filmakers’ TV is also a community where to exchange tips, find news and exploit new opportunities.