Alice Lowe’s Timestalker

Maybe what some people call fate is really just chronic, centuries-spanning stupidity. That is basically the whole point of this film. In life after reincarnated life, Agnes keeps falling in love with Alex and it always ends really, really badly—or worse. Yet, she repeatedly makes the same awful decisions in screenwriter-director Alice Lowe’s Timestalker, which releases today in theaters and on-demand.

Frankly, Alex probably peaked during his first meeting with Agnes, in 1680 Scotland. He was quite taken with her, but she still dies throughout an unlikely accident. Still, you can see why she might want a do-over. However, Alex the 1790s English highwayman is a slimy user. So is Alex the fading 1980s New Wave pop star. Unfortunately, these are the two time periods Lowe devotes the most time to.

In each of her lives, Agnes quickly recognizes Alex as her man of destiny. Yet, she never seems to mean anything to him. However, the Iago-like Scipio appears to understand Agnes’ fateful dilemma, at least to a partial extent.

Timestalker is sort of like the Orlando spoof we never knew we needed, because we obviously didn’t. Lowe had much more success translating British “kitchen sink” aesthetics into genre films like Prevenge and Sightseers, which she co-wrote Ben Wheatley. This time around, she leans into cringe, with swiftly declining marginal returns.

At times, Lowe captures a hint of cosmic mystery, but what the film does best is simply reminding viewers how Sally Potter’s Orlando is such a better film. Perhaps, part of the problem is a structural imbalance. The narrative spends too much time in 1790 and the unspecified early 1980s, while the 1940s and futuristic segments are sketchy in a tacked-on afterthought kind of way.

Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days

Heaven can wait, but reincarnation has a strict deadline. “Paragons” must prove their worthiness in forty-nine days or they will have to go through the purgatorial slog with the rest of the moral slobs. Apparently, paragons run in the family. Gang-lim and his team of guardians helped firefighter Kim Ja-hong navigate the seven hells and now they have been assigned to his murdered brother Su-hong. This time, the case awakens painful memories for the guardians that had been suppressed for nearly a millennium in Kim Yong-hwa’s Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days (trailer here), which opens this Wednesday in New York.

It isn’t easy being a guardian. Gang-lim and his assistants, Hewonmak and Deok-choon are one reincarnation away from their one-thousand-year quota, but despite his worthiness, Kim Su-hong will be a hard case. He was an angry ghost, because he was killed by two of his army comrades, but Gang-lim helped ease the bitterness in his heart, only slightly violating the afterworld’s Prime Directive. As a further complication, Kim claims he does not want to be reincarnated, but he goes along with the process out of curiosity.

As a condition for Kim’s expedited trial, Gang-lim’s team must also take care of some housekeeping in the human realm. An old man is long overdue to ascend, but Sung-ju, the house god living in his flat chases away all guardians that come with a death notice. He is played by Ma Dong-seok/Don Lee, so you know he will be formidable. In a major violation of protocol, Sung-ju now lives openly with old man and his abandoned grandson. However, he has a few secrets that will be of interest to Hewonmak and Deok-choon, because he served as their guardian way back when.

The previous film, AWTG: The Two Worlds, featured some intriguing afterlife world-building and some Tsui Hark-worthy fantastical action sequences, but seemed relatively self-contained. However, Last 49 Days answers just about every question viewers might have had, while deepening the backstories and mythology, eventually serving up several heavy revelations. It definitely tops the first film, even rectifying the some of the first film’s flaws, like the weak prospective paragon.

The intertwined histories of Hewonmak and Deok-choon are particularly compelling and so is the chemistry that develops between them, as played by Ju Ji-hoon and Kim Hyang-gi. As Gang-lim, Ha Jung-woo is still all kinds of steely, but he also ups his game, reaching for levels of classical tragedy. Even though Ma/Lee has become an action lead in his own right, it is easy to see why he would take an ensemble role as Sung-ju the household god, because it is quite an effective showcase for his larger-than-life screen-presence and good-naturedly luggish comedic chops.

The Two Worlds was visually impressive, but it is The Last 49 Days that really forges an emotional connection. We liked the first film, but after watching the second, we kind of love these characters. So, good news: we will be seeing more of them. The first two films were shot back-to-back, Matrix/LOTR-style, but The Two Worlds was such a monster hit in Korea, two more films have already been greenlit. Consider us down for the franchise. Recommended for fans of action-fantasy and good karma, Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days opens this Wednesday (8/1) in New York (simultaneous with Korea), at the AMC Empire.

Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds

If reincarnation were easy, everyone would be doing it. Frankly, there is no shame in laboring for a while in the afterlife. However, a stout-hearted fire-fighter who dies in the line of duty might be one of those rare paragons, who are allowed to be reborn in forty-nine days, provided they are acquitted of the sins represented by the seven domains of Hell. Three Guardians will guide him through the process and act as advocates on his behalf. They are highly motivated, because two more reincarnations will earn them their own terrestrial rebirth. Kim Ja-hong should be a slam dunk, but events on Earth will complicate his tribunals in Kim Yong-hwa’s Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds (trailer here), which is now playing in expanded markets.

During the maelstrom of the final fire, Kim lost track of how many people he saved. That is the kind of guy he is—or rather was. Hewonmak and Deok-choon are the ones to break the bad news to him—but to them, he is good news. As a reputed paragon, his reincarnation trials should be a snap. However, when they meet up with their “Captain,” Gang-lim, they discover a vengeful ghost is darkening Kim’s karma. He is not being particularly helpful either, but it is all due to his deep concern for his long-suffering mother. Alas, she has more bad news coming, based on what Gang-lim sleuths out.

Evidently, Kim’s younger brother Su-hong died shortly after him, but his body has yet to be discovered, thanks to a cover-up. Su-hong’s ghost has a right to be angry, but his wrath might also expose secrets that could derail Ja-hong’s reincarnation.

Reportedly, AWTG: The Two Worlds and its forthcoming sequel, The Last 49 Days, are the first big budget Korean tent-poles filmed back-to-back, presumably to realize economies of scale. It hardly seems like there was a compelling continuity justification doing it that way, because Two Worlds probably has more closure than half the films we covered this week. However, there is a mid-credits teaser featuring completely new characters that might make sense to readers of the web-comic it is based on, but will completely baffle the rest of poor naïfs (although the fact that Ma Dong-seok will play a substantial part is definitely intriguing).

Basically, AWTG is like What Dreams May Come (the film, not the book), but with periodic interludes of high-flying martial arts. The problem is the Guardians are considerably more interesting than the paragon, but its probably better that way than vice versa, because there are three of them and only one of him. In fact, Gang-lim is the real hero of the film, not the whiny and passive Kim. As the Captain, Ha Jung-woo just radiates steely badassery. He totally walks the walk, even when he is flying around CGI-style in his billowing black cassock.

Kim Hyang-gi is cute and plucky as Assistant Guardian Deok-choon, but sensitively turns some surprisingly touching scenes. Ju Ji-hoon also plays it to the hilt as Hewonmak, the arrogant and maybe not so scrupulous Guardian. Unfortunately, Cha Tae-hyun’s Kim Ja-hong is just dull as sawdust. In recent films, character actor Oh Sal-su has reined in the shtick, but not so here as one of the two Devil’s Advocates.

Based on this film, we would assume Gang-lim and Deok-choon will be the focus of the sequel, which could work out okay, since they are the ones we would have chosen anyway. There is some impressive world-building in AWTG, but its weird flights of fantasy call out for competing analysis from strict Freudians and Jungians. Yet, you have to admire its conviction. Watching it might actually be good for your karma. Recommended for fans of sentimental after-life movies (Heaven Can Wait, without the clouds and harps), Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds continues in New York at the AMC Empire and it is now playing in the Denver-Metro Area at the AMC Arapaho Crossing.

NYAFF ’10 & Japan Cuts ’10: The Blood of Rebirth

In Fifteenth Century Japan, heroic masseurs roamed the land, living by their wits and hands. At least such is the case for Oguri, the protagonist of Japanese director Toshiaki Toyoda’s comeback vehicle. Derived from the legend of Oguri Hangan Daisukeshige (the hero of many great kabuki theater productions) and Buddhist concepts of reincarnation, Toyoda’s trippy The Blood of Rebirth (trailer here) screens in New York this week, as a joint presentation of the New York Asian Film Festival and the Japan Society’s Japan Cuts: Festival of New Japanese Film.

Oguri is a wandering masseur who treasures his freedom. When the syphilitic Lord Daizen requests his services, he knows it is a bad gig, but he cannot say no. When he politely declines an offer to become a permanent retainer, the cruel warlord murders the footloose Oguri. However, when the noble masseur reaches the after-world, he declines a place in paradise, preferring to return to the world he knew. Unfortunately, his reincarnated body comes back as a “hungry ghost” which must be submerged in a mythical spring of life for his spirit to be renewed. Feeling a strange connection to Oguri, Terute, Daizen’s only surviving disease-free concubine, escapes from the royal camp to drag the masseur’s husk to the rumored magical waters. Much death and rebirth ensues.

Blood is a lot like the psychedelic 1970’s films made by the likes of Dennis Hopper and Don Cammel with a bunch of their stoned friends up in the Hollywood Hills. Featuring an acidic prog-rocky soundtrack with some monster drum breaks performed by the band Twin Tail, a lush verdant backdrop, and strange metaphysical themes, it is definitely a druggie friendly film. (Ironically, it was an arrest for possession of “stimulants” that very nearly ended Toyoda’s career.) Yet, there is definitely a craftsmanship apparent in each and every scene.

Toyoda’s approach is often cool and maddening, simultaneously. Knowing when he has a striking shot, he holds some scenes seemingly forever. Still, there is no denying there are things in Blood audiences have never seen on film before. It even concludes with a genuinely uplifting crowd-pleaser of an ending that still remains faithful to the tenor of the film (if not the restrictions of logic). Though not necessarily a great showcase for the cast’s acting chops, Twin Tail drummer Tatsuya Nakamura is appropriately cool and world weary as Oguri, while the standout Mayuu Kusakari is surprisingly touching as Terute.

Indeed, Blood will not be to everyone’s tastes, not by a long shot. For the adventurous viewer though, it ultimately pays off rather well. For those who enjoy archetypal fantasy and power drumming, it screens this Friday (7/2) and Saturday (7/3) at the Japan Society as a joint selection of NYAFF and Japan Cuts.