Fantasia ’18: Montreal Dead End

It is quite fitting that we wrap our Fantasia coverage with a collective anthology tribute to the city of Montreal. Too bad its done for. Evidently, the town is built over a Hellmouth thingy that is wafting evilness into the Quebec capitol. Okay, but can they handle a steam pipe explosion? Like the Flatiron District, Montreal residents will just have to do asbestos they can. At least they have a “Guardian” who can take care of this kind of thing, if only he could find his Lovecraftian book in—bear with us—Hugo Belhassen, Audric Cussigh, Julie De Lafreniere, Tiphaine DeReyer, Eve Dufaud, Remi Frechette, Emilie Gauthier, Mara Joly—hang in there—Quentin Lococq, Charles Massicotte, Mickael N’Dour, Jimmy G. Pettigrew, Priscilla Piccoli, Gaelle Quemener, Loic Surprenant, Frederick Neegan Trudel, Catherine Villeminot & David Emond-Ferrat’s Montreal Dead End (trailer here), which screened during the 2018 Fantasia International Film Festival.

The sinister green smoke manifests itself in various ways. There is body-switching, cannibal zombies, creepy-crawlies, and ghosts. Some are pretty gross, whereas others are rather clever. The two best stories involve a bogeyman who preys on both the descendants and memory of prominent historical Canadians and a couple who cluelessly navigate a mini-zombie apocalypse only affecting Celine Dion fans. There is also a rather straight-forward but effectively creepy tale of a night watchman in a gardening nursery stalked by a malevolent spirit. In contrast, the body-switcheroo is a little too shticky and there are two night-club horror stories that are way hipsterish and not sufficiently differentiated.

In this case, the wrap-around segments are unusually clever and intriguing, thanks to Marco Collin’s wry performance as the First Nations Guardian. He could hang with Lin Shaye’s Elise Rainier. Alice Tran and David Noël also have some terrific comedic timing and an admirable willingness to act in a little goofy as the couple apparently unaffected by the Celine Dion outbreak.

MDE manages to be low-fi in a way that isn’t annoying. Granted, it is uneven (several of the constituent tales are really more like interstitial sketches), but it is jolly entertaining to watch the Collectif filmmakers throwing in increasingly larger and more eccentric kitchen sinks into the no-holds-barred mix. It also makes us glad we covered the festival remotely this year. Highly recommended for fans of horror anthologies, Montreal Dead End premiered at this year’s Fantasia.

Fantasia ’18: Tokyo Vampire Hotel (Feature Cut)

This vampire tale bears some superficial commonalities with Underworld, but it is exponentially gorier, with a fraction of the logic. It was written and directed by Sion Sono, so look out. Humanity’s extinction is imminent, but the Dracula and Corvin vampire clans are still battling like its Y2K in Sion Sono’s feature-length edit of his television series, Tokyo Vampire Hotel (trailer here), which screened during the 2018 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Manami is the last chosen one, who was born at a fateful hour and fed ultra-powerful vampire blood. She is supposed to be the difference maker, who will help the old world, crucifix-fearing Draculas overcome the crass, nihilistic Corvens, but she knows nothing about her true self or prophesized destiny. She thought she would be celebrating her twenty-second birthday with friends, but instead a heavily-armed vampire assassin arrives to massacre the entire restaurant, most definitely including Manami.

“Fortunately,” K, a trusted Dracula enforcer, arrives in time to “save” Manami. Of course, it is probably safe to say neither clan really has her best interests at heart. Nevertheless, Manami’s lack off trust allows the Corvens to capture her, whisking the strange hybrid women off to their Japanese base of operations, the Hotel Requiem. It is a busy time in the undead hotel. The Corvens have lured a large assembly of shallow, entitled party people into their clutches, so their sexual couplings will help provide the vampires’ mojo after the impending Armageddon. Naturally, K will go in after her, with mucho bloodshed resulting.

Arguably, Sono’s cobbled together feature edit is more coherent than its reputation suggests. The first half-hour exactly matched the opening of the series. Presumably, that is also true of the non-stop carnage of the final hour. Yes, the mid-section is a bit patchy, but everyone should be able to get the gist of it.

One thing you can’t miss is the massive action chops and uber-femme fatale screen presence of Kaho [Indo] as the supernaturally formidable K. Holy cats dude, is she ever something. She is like Kim Ok-vin in The Villainess, but with a taste for blood. On the other hand, Ami Tomite is shockingly poignant as Manami, even when she is tearing Corvens limb-from-limb.

Frankly, there is probably more blood per frame in TVH than in Sono’s Why Don’t You Play in Hell, which is really saying something. In some ways, the narrative echoes that of Bad Film, but Sono fully capitalizes on the bloody possibilities of vampirism.

For the record, the film version is missing a rather clever bit from episode one, wherein all of Tokyo’s fortune-tellers start freaking out, because they foresee every one of their customers is doomed to die the next day. Still, Sono’s one hundred-forty-two-minute super-cut certainly does not shortchange viewers in the action and gore. After watching it, you know you’ve seen something, that’s for sure. Recommended for Sono fans who refuse to patronize Amazon, the feature version of Tokyo Vampire Hotel had its Quebec premiere at this year’s Fantasia.

Fantasia ’18: Number 37

In Hitchcock’s Rear Window, Jimmy Stewart played a photojournalist recuperating from a broken leg suffered while on an exotic assignment. Randal Hendricks is not quite as dashing. He was paralyzed from the waist down when a drug deal went sour. Rather shortsightedly, he funded his ill-advised foray into the narcotics trade with a vig from a loan shark. Yes, there will also be a murder committed in the opposite building during the early going of Nosipho Dumisa’s Number 37 (trailer here), which screened during the 2018 Fantasia International Film Festival.

The wheelchair-bound Hendricks only has himself to blame, but he never seems to learn. Instead, he cooks up ever more reckless schemes to compensate for each disaster. His girlfriend Pam Ismael has not thrown him out yet, but she really should. His self-pity and passive aggression are not very pleasant to live with. He is not even grateful when she gives him a pair of binoculars to help pass the time. Of course, he soon takes to voyeurism, so he happens to witness the murder of a corrupt cop in the apartment across the grubby courtyard.

Instead of calling the despised police, he hatches a plan with his slacker pal Warren to extort 100 grand from the sinister “Lawyer” to pay back the just as evil Emmie. Unfortunately, Warren is not the sort of accomplice who inspires confidence. Likewise, it is unwise to antagonize a cat like Lawyer. Yet, Hendricks remains convinced this is his only play.

Dumisa proudly wears her Hitchcock influences on her sleeve, but she substitutes grittiness and moodiness for the wit and elegance of Rear Window. It is safe to say Ismael’s frocks can’t compare to Grace Kelly’s wardrobe. Nevertheless, she quite dexterously piles up one darned thing after another on poor luckless Hendricks and the long-suffering Ismael. In fact, she unleashes a veritable perfect storm of criminal mayhem down the stretch.

Irshaad Ally is all kinds of intense as the intensely exasperating Hendricks. However, Monique Rockman really sets the hook as the naïve and vulnerable Ismael. Viewers will want to kill Ephram Gordon’s recklessly irresponsible Warren themselves, while David Manuel and Danny Ross seem like they are in a pitched battle to out-do each other’s creepy malevolence as Lawyer and Emmie, respectively.

Unlike Stewart’s well-appointed bachelor pad, Ismael’s apartment is dark and uncomfortably claustrophobic. It is the sort of thriller location that automatically creates tension. Frankly, Dumisa might overdo the naturalism for viewers seeking pure suspense escapism, but nobody can say it doesn’t reflect the street-level realities of contemporary South Africa. Recommended for fans of scrappy, hard-edged thrillers, Number 37 had its Canadian premiere at this year’s Fantasia.

Fantasia ’18: Loi Bao

Tam always kept a good head on his shoulders, until he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Now he keeps his head on the body of a murdered assassin, thanks to the breakthrough technology of “Uncle” Ma (who technically isn’t either). That muscle memory is a trip, but it will be awkward when the dead man’s nasty associates will come looking for him in Victor Vu’s Loi Bao (trailer here), which screened during the 2018 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Like Condorman’s alter ego, Tam used his superhero graphic novels as his own wish fulfilment fantasies. He also wrote bizarrely tragic historical epics about fathers dying in battle that will be little comfort to his wife and pudgy son as they wrestle with his prognosis. However, Uncle Ma has the technology. He just needs a viable body, which very conveniently delivers itself, along with a hail of bullets from his murderers. It is a good thing Tam and Ma happened to be in the right forest at the right time, because they are able to sneak the body back to his lab for a head switcheroo.

Suddenly, Tam knows Kung Fu, but his hands need to relearn how to draw. He also might be getting flashes of the previous tenant’s memories, especially when he visits a pretty young emergency room doctor after some of his early heroics. Inevitably, Tam starts saving children from burning buildings and the like. He also does a lot of parkour. However, his new body won’t be so much fun when an organ trafficking gangster starts threatening Tam’s family.

Since Charlie Nguyen ran afoul of the government censors, Vu has become a veritable one-man Vietnamese film industry. He has been working his way through the catalog of genres, so it was probably inevitable that he would give superheroes a go. Frankly, the action in Loi Bao is pleasingly gritty compared to the films coming from the Mouse House and Bugs Bunny’s corporate masters, including quite a bit of slickly choreographed gunplay.

The biggest drawback is Vu’s predilection for melodrama, which remains undiminished in Loi Bao. Like clockwork, the film comes to a screeching halt so Tam’s wife can lecture him about calling undue attention to himself or suspect him of getting up to some hanky-panky with Dr. Young-and-Available. Seriously, give us all a break. On the other hand, there are at least two wildly over-the-top third act revelations that perfectly reflect the spirit of superhero comic books.

Cuong Seven is just okay as Tam, but he is definitely at his best performing action director Vincent Wang’s fight scenes. The entire ensemble is rather uneven, but Ngoc Anh Vu is the clear, unchallenged standout as Dr. Temptation.

The action scenes are crisp and clean—and so is Nguyen K’linh’s cinematography. In fact, it is rather interesting to see a superhero tale in a Vietnamese setting, where sleek, affluent homes lay nestled not far from grimy back alleys, at least judging the Hanoi Vu depicts. Regardless, few superhero movies have a body-count this high so you have to give Loi Bao credit. Recommended for fans of superheroes, martial arts, and parkour films, Loi Bao had it North American premiere at this year’s Fantasia.

Fantasia ’18: Penguin Highway

When scores of penguins suddenly appear in this rural Japanese village, it is a little like Magnolia, but exponentially cuter. In fact, these penguins might just save our word as we know it, but until then, they are quite charming to have around in Hiroyasu Ishida’s Penguin Highway (trailer here), which won the Satoshi Kon Award at the 2018 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Aoyama is a reasonably well-socialized fourth grader, considering how smart he is. Nevertheless, the compulsively-experimenting science whiz is already looking forward to his future success. When “waddles” of penguins start waddling through his baffled town—way outsides their natural habitat, obviously—Aoyama is the first to start formulating hypotheses. Of course, that means he starts researching in the field, with the help of his loyal pal Uchida. However, he is also rather interested in the mysterious woman now working at the local dentist, whom he gallantly refers to as “The Lady.”

She is smart and has attitude, as well as other things a boy on the verge of puberty might notice (she is voiced by Yû Aoi, after all). Aoyama realizes he can learn a lot from her just from their conversations and chess games. However, his interest in her rises to a higher level when he realizes she apparently has a mysterious connection to the penguins. As if that were not enough, Aoyama and Uchida also help their classmate Hamamoto investigate a phenomenon that pretty clearly holds cosmic significance. Hamamoto is also quite the junior scientist, which is probably why she has a crush on Aoyama.

Highway is surprisingly intriguing as science fiction, warmly endearing as a coming of age story, and it is just the living end as a penguin fantasy. Despite the borderline Summer of ’42 relationship between Aoyama and the Lady, the film has a lot to offer family viewers, including lessons on the scientific method and the depiction of two fathers who are smart and engaged parents (Aoyama and Hamamoto’s dads). Plus, there are all those fun-loving penguins.

The animation (with character design work from Yojiro Arai) is visually quite lovely, but it is the film’s bittersweet vibe that really stick with you. The trappings are contemporary, but narrative has a timeless element to it. When you get right down to it, it would be ever so nice to stroll through this burg in the foothills, with a dozen penguins for company.

To his credit, Makoto Ueda never dumbs down his screen adaptation of Tomihiko Morimi’s source novel. There is some clever stuff in here and the stakes get planetary in scope. Yet, it still faithfully evokes all the optimism and confusion of young adolescence—with penguins. This film is just a total winner that is just too good for American anime fans to miss out on. Very enthusiastically recommended, Penguin Highway had its international premiere at this year’s Fantasia.

Fantasia ’18: Rokuroku The Promise of the Witch

These are absolutely, positively not the Yokai of Lafcadio Hearn. They are the work of cinematic provocateur Yudai Yamaguchi, who is indeed Japanese, whereas Hearn was not, much to his regret. Yamaguchi even happens to be a horror movie maker, but he tones down a signature gory mayhem a tad in the strange and spooky Rokuroku: The Promise of the Witch (trailer here), which screens during the 2018 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Izumi lives with her grandmother and aged grandfather, whom they assume is going bonkers whenever he raves about the spirit in the tree watching him. Yeah, well guess what? There is indeed something malevolent and uncanny afoot. In fact, there are quite a few Yokai spirits preying on people tangentially linked to Izumi.

Initially, Rokuroku looks and acts like an anthology film, with Izumi’s narrative serving as the framing device, but we eventually learn everything is insidiously linked together and rooted in a sinister episode from her childhood. The truth starts to reveal itself when she reunites with her childhood friend Mika. So, what transpired years ago in room 666 of that eerie abandoned hotel? To be honest, Izumi isn’t so sure herself.

Co-written and produced by creature creator Keita Amemiya, Rokuroku has a wonderfully macabre look. Some of the assembled Yokai tales are little more than sketches, but several are strong enough to stand on their own, particularly the story of an art student who falls under the influence of a weeping balcony spirit. Yet, they collectively work together quite cleverly. Miho Nakanishi also hits all the right notes as the somewhat shy, but resilient Izumi.

Of course, the third act is completely nuts, so be prepared and buckle up. Tonally, the film rivals the madness of Obayashi’s House, but it is even more logic-challenged. Yamaguchi and Amemiya practically throw the kitchen sink at viewers, but the film is still considerably less bloody or scatological than Yamaguchi’s greatest hits. Recommended for fans of supernatural horror and cult weirdness, Rokuroku: The Promise of the Witch screens again on Tuesday (7/31), as part of this year’s Fantasia.

Fantasia ’18: Ajin Demi-Human

Think of them as a race of Logans, but more demonic. They could be cousins to the Tokyo Ghouls, but they are pretty much invincible. You might think Kei Nagai would be delighted to learn he happens to be one, but instead it leads to nothing but trouble in Katsuyuki Motohiro’s Ajin: Demi-Human (trailer here) screened during the 2018 Fantasia International Film Festival.

The discovery of the Ajin is relatively recent, but it has the Japanese government spooked. They look like ordinary humans, but they have superhuman regenerative powers. They cannot be killed—they just “reset.” Nagai learned of his Ajin status when he was hit by a bus and popped back up. Ever since, he has been poked, prodded, sliced & diced, and constantly reset by the government research team led by the emotionless Yu Tosaki. The good news is Sato and Tanaka, two Ajin liberation terrorists are about to break him out of the lab. The bad news is their lust for vengeance and genocidal terror is more than he can stomach.

Suddenly, Nagai is on the run from both the government and Sato. His only allies are his ailing sister Eriko and a kindly old lady living on the outskirts of the forest, who adopts them both as surrogate grand-children.

Frankly, the parallels between Motohiro’s Ajin and Kentaro Hagiwara’s Tokyo Ghoul, two live action manga-anime adaptations, is quite striking, but there is more action and better visual effects in Ajin. In fact, the fight scenes rather cleverly incorporate the Ajin powers, making them quite distinctive. If you are hit in the arm with a tranquilizer gin, just hack it off. Stuck in a disadvantageous position? Try a strategic reset.

Takeru Satoh is a bit aloof as Nagai, but his has the necessary steeliness and action chops to be convincing in the super-powered melees. Gô Ayano is flamboyantly sinister as Sato and Tetsuji Tamayama makes an even more loathsome jerkheel as Tosaki. However, former AKB48 Team A member Rina Kawaei steals scene after scene and fight after fight, as the formidable Izumi Shimomura.

Frankly, the X-File­-style government conspiracies and cover-ups are tired clichés at this point, but action director Takahito Ouchi manages to keep upping the ante with each big, ultra-cinematic set piece. This is not a subtle film and it sure isn’t boring. Recommended for viewers in the mood for some supernaturally super-charged action, Ajin: Demi-Human had its Canadian premiere at this year’s Fantasia.

Fantasia ’18: Da Hu Fa

He is short, pear-shaped, and scares the willies out of the Chinese film authorities. Although approved for distribution, the first animated adventures of this rotund royal protector reportedly irked the powers-that-be when it voluntarily imposed a PG-13 rating on itself (presumably, they do not say “thanks for the adversity” in the trailer and one-sheet for nothing). His clashes with a violent and irrational totalitarian regime probably did not help either. Potentially both a cult favorite and a cause célèbre, Busifan (a.k.a. Yang Zhigang)’s thunderbolt-out-of-the-blue debut feature Da Hu Fa (trailer here) screens during the 2018 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Da Hu Fa, the Grand Protector of Yiwei (a.k.a. The Guardian), doesn’t look like much, but he is surprisingly lethal with his steely cane. Just ask the wood-cutter ruffians lying dead by the side of the road. He has come to Peanuttown in search of the prince and heir apparent, whom he has sworn to protect. Alas, the absconded prince is wildly irresponsible, making life difficult for Da Hu Fa.

Alas, Peanuttown is no place for the artistically inclined prince. The inhabitants do indeed look like peanuts, but more fundamentally, all signs of individuality seem to have been beaten out of them. Wisely, his royal highness has holed up outside of town, where he has befriended one of the few independent-thinking Peanuts. Eventually, even the prince will agree it would probably be wise to move along, but by that time they attract the attention of the Peanuts’ malevolent oppressors.

It is hard to say whether DHF is more or less subversive than it sounds, judging solely by Western standards. People revolt and rebel all the time in our films, without it meaning very much. China is different. Frankly, it feels like Busifan expects the absurd and arbitrary nature of the repressive regime to resonate with Chinese audiences, more so even than the violence and paranoia.

Regardless of its allegorical intentions, the world is still wildly disconcerting. In many ways, it is like the Chinese analog of Western fantasy realms modeled on Medieval Europe. Peanuttown looks as if it could have come off a centuries old scroll painting, but firearms (and firing squads) are a daily fact of life there. In any event, the terraced roofs provide a nifty setting for chase sequences and fight scenes. Visually, it is often lush and cinematic looking, roly-poly Da Hu Fa notwithstanding.

In fact, DHF works smashingly well when judged merely by the criteria of martial arts movies. Da Hu Fa is the underdog of underdogs, yet he kicks some serious butt. The film might be a protest against oppression and injustice, but it zings along at a full gallop. For a first-time film, it is hugely impressive, because it isn’t merely a pointed cinematic statement with acidic subtext. It is also jolly good fun. Very highly recommended for animation fans, Da Hu Fa screens again tomorrow (7/24), at this year’s Fantasia, in sunny Montreal.

Fantasia ’18: A Rough Draft

It turns out Star Trek and DC Comics didn’t lie to us after all. There are alternate universes out there, somehow existing parallel to our own. In point of fact, there are twenty-two such universes, but the mysterious Arkan has been closed to outsiders for decades. Kiril Maksimov has been recruited to serve as a gatekeeper and custom-taker for those traveling between universes. It sounds like dreary TSA kind of work, but apparently it requires a special touch. Regardless, he has a hard time leaving his old earthly life behind in Sergey Mokritskiy’s A Rough Draft (trailer here), which screens during the 2018 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Maksimov is on the brink of superstar status as a video game designer, when suddenly he turns into Thomas Veil from Nowhere Man. All records of his existence are erased and none of his friends and family recognize him anymore. For good measure, the shadowy cabal also frames him for murder. Then they lead him to a creaky old tower, hiding in plain sight a stone’s throw from the Kremlin. This will be his new home, where he will facilitate travel between the universes, as part of the “functional” class.

One universe is a lovely beach front world. Another is a steampunky analog of Romanoff Russia, which apparently is a charming place for afternoon tea. There is also a Stalinistic Gulag universe, where difficult functionals get sent. The big question is: what is Arkan really like? Supposedly, it is a lot like our world, but a few years ahead, so we could learn from their mistakes. Arkan could be the rough draft for our universe. Unfortunately, Khrushchev had the passage connecting our universe and Arkan destroyed when it looked like “Rightists” were on the verge of taking over there. Now the elites of the multiverse are eager, even desperate to observe current developments in Arkan, so if Maksimov can figure out a way to “open a door” to the lost universe, it will justify all the trouble they took installing him.

Rough Draft is consistently intriguing as an example of Russian science fiction, even though its narrative is patchy and inconsistent. Obviously, the charm of the Czarist universe and the dystopian grimness of the Gulag universe say quite a bit about the last one hundred-plus years of Russian history. Tellingly, Arkan becomes a black box that holds some vastly disparate ideological speculation.

There is no doubt the alternate universes of Rough Draft resonate on an archetypal level. The problem is the rules for interdimensional travel seem to constantly change, as do the powers of the cabal that hold Maksimov in check. The editing is also pretty rough, allowing characters to just magically turn up in places.

As Maksimov, Nikita Volkov is not exactly the second coming of Stanislavski, but he is probably adequately luggish. Likewise, Olga Borovskaya is mostly just serviceable as Anna, the woman Maksimov can’t forget, even though she has been made to forget him. Easily, the most memorable, screen-grabbing work comes from Severija Janušauskaitė as Renata Ivanova, Maksimov’s initial recruiter.

A Russian film that warns of oppression at the hands of oligarchical authority figures is always notable. Frankly, it is a little like warning there could be rain in Seattle. It is probably already too late, but the gesture is still appreciated. Mokritskiy also creates some striking visuals and the special effects are way better than the stuff of other recent Russian sf movies, such as Attraction and particularly the cheesy Guardians. If you are seeing many films at Fantasia than it might worth catching Rough Draft to satisfy whatever curiosity you might have, but as a film considered on its own merits, it just doesn’t hold together. Choose accordingly when A Rough Draft screens again this Friday (7/27), as part of this year’s Fantasia.

Fantasia ’18: The Outlaws

You know Ma Seok-do must be a tough cop, because he is played by Ma Dong-seok (Don Lee). Ma has ten days to clean out every last member of the Chinese gang from the Garibong-dong neighborhood. Naturally, he will not have any help from the Chinese authorities and precious little from his own Korean police bureaucracy, but he can handle the task anyway with his crushing face-palm. It is time for Ma to take out the trash in Kang Yun-sung’s The Outlaws (trailer here), which screened during the 2018 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Ma is not a superman—he has bad knees. Criminals are better off running when they see him, rather trying to go toe-to-toe. In the past, he has informally maintained a truce between the local gangs of Seoul’s Chinatown district, but that went out the window when the savage Black Dragons arrived.

Jang Chen doesn’t respect anything except raw power. He came from Harbin to collect debts for his gang and decided to stay to build an empire. Reluctantly, many henchmen from the Venom Gang defected to his syndicate for reasons of self-preservation, but the only people Jang treats with any respect are his two psycho lieutenants. Of course, the merchants and residents of Garibong get the worst of it. Ma will have to convince them to stand with his ragtag unit if he has any chance of rounding up the Black Dragons before the case is kicked upstairs to the pompous homicide squad.

Ma Dong-seok beats the snot out of Black Dragons. Seriously, what more do you need to know? There is actually a fair amount of inter-gang rivalry and intrigue, but the film is really about Ma putting his foot in their butts. Frankly, the film is a little slow out of the blocks, but Kang uses that time to establish his many characters and the cowed and depressed atmosphere of Garibong-dong. Of course, when Ma hits the streets, the film is all business.

After Train to Busan broke Ma/Lee out in Korea and internationally, The Outlaws and Champion have solidified his status as a crossover action star. In both films, he shows he has the size, chops, and the amiableness to be something like the next vintage Schwarzenegger. Watching him swagger inspires endless confidence in a film. While Ma’s Ma is the drinking buddy you always wanted, Yoon Kye-sang makes Jang Chen one seriously cold-blooded villain. He is the sort of ruthless sociopath the audience will yearn to see crash and burn. Yet, Park Ji-hwan and Jin Seon-kyu manage to periodically upstage him as his chief rival and first lieutenant, each of whom is dangerously erratic.

In fact, Ma’s final fight is the sort of scene that will bring a smile to fans’ faces. Ma exerts his body-slamming authority all over the film, but we’re always comfortable in his presence. There have been plenty of Korean gangster movies, but Ma is still relatively new to being a leading man and former pop star Yoon also ventures outside his rom-com safety zone—and viewers can pick up on how fresh and energizing it all is for them. Recommended without reservation for fans of Ma and Korean crime films, The Outlaws had its Quebec premiere during this year’s Fantasia.

Fantasia ’18: The Vanished

If Hollywood remakes this Korean thriller, there will be a temptation to call it “Habeas Corpus.” In this case, the National Forensic Service had the body of industrialist Yoon Seol-hee and then lost it. Basket case copper Woo Joong-sik assumes someone stole it, but there are suggestions of something even more sinister afoot in Lee Chang-hee’s The Vanished (trailer here), which screened during the 2018 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Yoon’s body disappeared during a brief blackout, when the night watchman was also knocked out cold. The slovenly, booze-smelling Woo will lead the investigation. That ought to be good news for the prime suspect, Park Jin-han, Yoon’s prenupped, trophy husband, but Woo doesn’t have much left to lose. When he starts uncovering circumstantial and physical evidence linking Park to his wife’s murder, he defies orders from above to release his suspect.

In fact, Park did indeed do it—or so he thought. He conspired with his lover Hye-jin to kill Yoon with one of her company’s own experimental drugs. However, the mysterious calls and texts they both start to receive makes him suspect Yoon was playing him all along. Or maybe option C.

Strictly speaking, Vanished is not a horror movie, but Lee definitely serves up plenty of atmosphere and general foreboding, along with a dark and stormy setting. Throughout most of the film, he plays it coy regarding Yoon’s disappearance, but when the truth comes out, it is rather sly.

Kim Sang-kyung is an absolute fount of entertainment as the rumpled and grizzled Woo, like a bitter, half-drunk Colombo. Kim Kang-woo is all kinds of despicable as Park, but he makes viewers feel for him a little (in spite of ourselves), when his world really starts to implode. Of course, he withers next to Kim Hee-ae, who truly channels her inner Bette Davis as Yoon. As an added bonus, Kim Ji-young lends the film some presence and authority as Dr. Cha of the forensic agency.

Vanished is a dark and twisty thriller that should also appeal to horror fans as well. Lee keeps us off-balance throughout the first two acts. Even when we start to piece together the big secrets during the closing twenty minutes or so, it is still rather fun to watch Lee’s revelations. It is a lean and eerie take-no-prisoners thriller that translates really easily for foreign markets. Highly recommended for genre fans, Vanished had its North American premiere at this year’s Fantasia.

Fantasia ’18: Room Laundering

Call it karma fraud. Japanese law requires prospective tenants receive notification of a recent death in a rental unit, but it does not stipulate how far back that regulation applies. Goro Ikazuzi provides a work-around. He supplies a short-term resident to establish a buffer between future tenants and the deceased, rendering the flat “laundered.” His niece Mika Yakumo might either be the best or worst person for such a job, because she sees dead people. Usually, Yakumo resolutely resists any form of personal connection, but she will uncharacteristically find herself getting involved with two ghosts and maybe even a living human during the course of Kenji Katagiri’s Room Laundering (trailer here), which screens during the 2018 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Yakumo’s father died when she was five years old and her mother mysteriously vanished a year later. It is now just her and angle-working uncle. He is a bit of a sleaze, but he seems genuinely protective of her. Most of the time, Yakumo easily ignores the ghosts in the apartment she launders, but she rather starts to enjoy the goofy personality of Kimihiko Kasuga, a punk rocker who now regrets committing suicide. In fact, she is somewhat sorry when she is reassigned to her next flat.

This could be her toughest case yet—her first murder site. Yuki Chikamoto was a cosplaying business executive, who was brutally stabbed by an intruder. She would very much like Yakumo to help bring her killer to justice. Kasuga would too. Much to her surprise, he has also moved with Yakumo, because he is attached to an object she removed from his former home. There also happens to be a somewhat geeky but presentable young chap next door who is quite interested in Yakumo—again, much to her surprise.

In many ways, Room Laundering is a dark film, but it also manages to be absolutely charming. Katagiri and co-screenwriter Tatsuya Umemoto never water down Yakumo’s emotional issues and anti-social tendencies, which is why it is so satisfying when she finally starts to come out of her shell. Fundamentally, this is a story about growing up and learning to process pain, but the room laundering premise and the attendant ghost subplots are wickedly clever.

Elaiza Ikeda is terrific as Yakumo. It is a restrained and disciplined performance that never takes the easy way out, but still pays off in a big way. Likewise, Joe Odagiri is endlessly surprising as Ikazuzi. This isn’t his splashiest or most important role, but it is likely to become a fan favorite. Kiyohiko Shibukawa earns all kinds of bittersweet laughter as Kasuga, while former AKB48 member Kaoru Mitsumune is quite poignant as Chikamoto.

First time helmer Katagiri takes his time establishing his characters and the rhythm of their lives, but his third act is an endlessly inventive parade of revelations. This is an undeniably eccentric film, but it should be described as soulful rather than quirky. Very highly recommended, Room Laundering screens again on Saturday (7/21), following its North America premiere at this year’s Fantasia up north.

Fantasia ’18: The Scythian

One thousand years ago, give or take, Russian Slavs had largely displaced the Scythian nomads of Iranian-Assyrian descent along the Eurasian Steppe. The Russian warlords had ambitions of conquering Kiev, so yeah, not much has changed in all this time. However, the stout-hearted Lutobor has more pressing problems than empire building. He must rescue his wife and daughter from a band of assassins known as the “Wolves of Ares” in Rustam Mosafir’s The Scythian (trailer here), which screens during the 2018 Fantasia International Film Festival.

The Scythians’ days are numbered, but they are not going down without a fight. Making a bold play, they kidnap Lutobor’s family, demanding he assassinate the prince in exchange for their safe return. Lutobor remains loyal, but the Prince’s hatches a scheme to feign his slow death from poison to smoke out the conspirators. Unfortunately, his trusted lieutenant will have to become a fugitive from feudal judgement. His only ally will be Marten, a Scythian warrior betrayed by his own comrades during the raid on Lutobor’s compound.

If you have been craving hack-and-slash action, there is plenty in The Scythian. It is also loaded to the gills with weird pagan imagery. On the other hand, the logic is a little light. It never makes much sense that Marten would so immediately and decisively align himself with Lutobor, but so be it. Don’t bother looking for strong women characters here either, because it is a product of its environment.

As for the guys, there are a lot of them, but only three or four really register. Aleksey Faddev has the brawn and action chops for Lutobor, but Aleksandr Kuznetsov is a much stronger screen-presence as the mongoose-like Marten.

It is hard to miss the significance of the Christian proto-Slavs mastering the wild steppe. Even more fundamentally, that this Russian production would opt to identify with the pillaging hordes is even more telling—whereas in the West, our sword & sandal flicks usually feature heroes of Greek or Roman civilization, instead of rampaging Vandals. Granted, the ending somewhat deconstructs its own heroic Slavic mythmaking, but that probably just left its target domestic audience confused.

So, mind your steppe everybody. Frankly, The Scythian is such an oddball train wreck of symbolism it really is worth seeing. More importantly for most well-adjusted viewers, the fight scenes are definitely staged with gusto. This is a film that would make MSNBC’s talking heads wet their pants, because it combines rampant unchecked testosterone with barbaric Robert Spencer-alt right hair-styles. Recommended for Donald Trump and the curious, The Scythian screens again on Thursday (7/19), as part of this year’s Fantasia.

Fantasia ’18: Crisis Jung

If you thought Heavy Metal magazine was insufficiently violent and sexualized than this is the animation you have been pining for. Now please seek professional counseling. The gender-bending might lure in a different class of viewer, but boy will they be sorry. Hopefully all in attendance were prepared for some lurid gore when Baptiste Gaubert & Jeremie Hoarau’s French web-series Crisis Jung (trailer here) screened feature-style during the 2018 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Jung (now there’s an archetypal name) and Maria are lovingly gamboling in the fields when an army of space demons swoops down, engulfing the world in darkness and installing their leader as the cruel overlord. His name would be Petit Jesus, which should tell you all you need to know about where this film/micro-series is coming from and what its intentions are. Being a cruel bastard, he kills Maria and utilizes her severed head as cornerstone of his temple.

Thanks to his rage, Jung becomes a superhero, but before he can defeat PJ, he must overcome his own mental hang-ups. Each time the evil Jabba’s minions beat him to within an inch of his life, he is sent careening into another surreal therapy session, in which an unseen headshrinker helps him work through his emotional issues.

If Gaubert & Hoarau really wanted to be subversive, they would have made the psychoanalyst a strict Freudian. Be that as it may, the shock value of Crisis Jung quickly grows tiresome. If you have seen one evil henchman with a chainsaw phallus, you have pretty much seen them all. Watching the episodes back-to-back, their opening and closing credit sequences included, also reinforces how much they all follow the same, repetitive template.

Gaubert & Hoarau probably think this is all very edgy, but until they redub their Galactus-like supervillain “Petit Mohammad,” we’re just not impressed. They maybe have the germ of something in the outlandish analysis sessions, but the characterization is stilted and much of the sexual violence is gratuitous and counterproductive. Totally unnecessary, Crisis Jung probably will not leave much of an international footprint after screening at this year’s Fantasia.

Fantasia ’18: Aragne—Sign of Vermillion

According to this film’s mythology, people once believed “insects that affected our subconscious lived inside us”—sort of like Scientology, but not as creepy. Unfortunately for Rin, there might be something to that superstition. In fact, it might be part of the perfect storm of bad karma she must weather in Saku Sakamoto’s short-in-length, but long on weirdness Aragne: Sign of Vermillion (trailer here), which premiered during the 2018 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Poor Rin has a lot more to worry about than just her university exams. She was duped into renting a flat in a truly sinister apartment building. In addition to horrendous Feng Shui, it just might be built over something horrific. As if that were not enough, the neighborhood is also being stalked by a serial killer, who arranges his victims in a highly ritualistic manner. Rather ominously, there were earlier cases of his MO, dating back decades.

Aragne is a wildly eerie film, but we wish Sakamoto had developed the insidiously intriguing backstory more before lighting off into a maelstrom of woo-woo spectacle. Sakamoto did digital effects for Mamoru Ishii’s Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, so it is not surprisingly that we can see a bit of visual kinship between the two films. Sakamoro crafts some wild imagery as well as some extraordinarily atmospheric set pieces. It just seems like he rushes the film too much, because he also created some genuinely inventive narrative elements.

Still, the artistry that went into this film is immediately apparent. He particularly capitalizes on the grotesque nature of the insects to give the film a uniquely textured feel. It is not just style, there are plenty of inventive narrative elements—we just wish there had been more time to explore them. (You won’t hear us say a film should be longer very often, so savor the moment).

Of course, it could very well have been a factor of budget constraints. The fact that Sakamoto independently produced such an ambitious and aesthetically distinctive film is quite a feat. Real animation fans will surely appreciate the accomplishment. Recommended for horror and anime connoisseurs, Aragne: Sign of Vermillion screened as part of this year’s Fantasia, up north.

Fantasia ’18: Destiny—The Tale of Kamakura

If Orpheus and Eurydice lived in this charming Japanese village instead of ancient Greece, they might have had a better chance at cheating death. In Kamakura humans and spirits (as well as a menagerie of other mythical creatures) openly cohabitate as friends and neighbors. It is a lot for Akiko Isshiki to get her head around when she marries a Kamakura native, mystery novelist and part-time detective Masakazu Isshiki, but she will see even more fantastical things when she is forced to visit the realm of death in Takashi Yamazaki’s Destiny: The Tale of Kamakura (trailer here), which screened during the 2018 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Viewers get a rather scenic introduction to Kamakura, along with the incredulous Akiko. There are cute little kappas living in their yard and all kinds of spirits selling wares at the night market—not all of them are friendly. In fact, one sinister goblin tries to kill the Isshikis with poisoned mushrooms. However, that brush with death allows Masakazu to temporarily perceive agents of death as they go about their business. They are not bad folks, really. In fact, the agent assigned to his faithful editor Honda is quite personable. Together, they help the distressed man to make arrangements that allow him to continue to watch over his family. In this case, he is forced to reincarnate immediately as a toad spirit.

About midway through, we learn there is a malevolent entity out there that resents the Isshikis’ married bliss. It will do anything to break them up, including divorcing Akiko’s spirit from her body. At this point, Destiny takes a turn towards the territory of Richard Matheson’s What Dreams May Come, but it always remains sweet and indomitably optimistic.

Despite being based on Ryohei Saigan’s mid-1980s manga, which doesn’t seem to have much readership here, some hip distributor ought to pick it up, because it could be the geek date movie to end all geek date movies. The Isshikis are a completely winning couple and their story of love reincarnated in successive lives is deeply romantic. It also tops the wonder of Vincent Ward’s vision of the afterlife, which was the best aspect of his Matheson adaptation.

Masato Sakai and Mitsuki Takahata are altogether charming as the Isshikis. Their chemistry develops naturally and they are both refreshingly earnest and even virtuous. Yet, Sakura Ando (probably best known for 100 Yen Love) steals scene after scene as the big-hearted, snappy-dressing grim reaper. In addition, the film is fully loaded with colorful supporting characters, many of whom are played by some of Japan’s most recognizable thesps.

Yamazaki helms with the perfect touch, involving viewers on an emotional level, but never shaking our confidence in his plucky leads. Based on Destiny, as well as previous films, such as the Always Sunset on Third Street trilogy and Space Battleship Yamato, he might just be the best in the business for manga/anime live action adaptations. We would love to see the Japan Society do a retrospective of his work. Destiny will be indispensable to any such surveys. Very highly recommended for fans of romantic fantasy and fantasy world-building, Destiny: The Tale of Kamakura screened at this year’s Fantasia, up in Montreal.