Taiwan Film Days ’13: Forever Love

It was known as Hollywood Taiwan and it sure was fun while it lasted. From the mid 1950’s to early 1970’s Taipei’s Beitou District was home to a scrappy Taiwanese Hokkien dialect film industry, until the big Mandarin change-over was mandated from above.  The Beitou Roger Cormans cooked up about a thousand films give or take, but only two hundred have been properly preserved for posterity.  The golden age of Hollywood Taiwan is fondly remembered in Aozaru Shiao & Kitamura Toyoharu’s nostalgic screwball rom-com Forever Love (trailer here), which screens during this year’s edition of the San Francisco Film Society’s Taiwan Film Days.

Liu Chi-sheng was once the busiest screenwriter in Hollywood Taiwan, because scripts needed to be turned out fast. Volume was more important than nuance. Hardly anyone remembers his films anymore, but his granddaughter Hsiao-jin used to have her own private screenings at his now shuttered revival house.  She has come to visit him in the hospital where he is recuperating from an athletic misadventure.  In the mood to reminisce, Liu reveals to her how he came to marry her now Alzheimer’s-stricken grandmother, Chiang Mei-yeuh.

It all started with a characteristically goofy James Bond rip-off called Spy No. 7.  When it opens to packed houses in Taipei, Liu’s boss, “Mr. Pig” orders him to write the sequel, Spy No. 7 on Monster Island, once again featuring the lovely but cold Chin Yueh-feng and the arrogant heel, Wan Pao-lung, Hollywood Taiwan’s superstars of the moment.  Like so many young women of her age, Chiang has a massive crush on Wan.  Despite a bad case of stage fright, she has a few advantages over her competition at the poverty row studio’s open casting call.  She has genuine charisma and the right surname.  Liu also takes an interest in her career, even though they start out on awkward terms, as is always the case with rom-coms.

It will be a great romance, culminating in a big tear-jerking finale, because anything else would not be true to Hollywood Taiwan.  Along the way, there are plenty of double takes, miscommunications, and flat out pratfalls in Forever, but the film has a romantic soul. Indeed, Shiao and Kitamura (who also appears as Liu’s hard partying art director crony) make no secret of their affection the old Taiwanese cinema, reveling in its gleeful energy and love for love.

With gloriously silly black-and-white sequences and kiss-me-you-fool fireworks, Forever Love proudly empties its kit-bag for the sake of audience satisfaction. It is a rather endearing antidote for cineaste cynicism, steadfastly avoiding irony in favor of unrepentant romanticism.  Granted, characters rattle all over the film like pinballs, but there are surprisingly touching low key moments too, such as those exploring young Liu’s relationship to the studio’s boozy veteran director and old Liu’s scenes with his granddaughter, a well cast Li Yi-jie, who looks and sounds like the spitting image of her grandmother Chiang in the 1960’s.

Lung Shao-hua brings Herculean dignity to the grumpy old Liu, enlivening the contemporary framing scenes.  Blue Lan is a bit bland as his younger analog, but former pin-up model Amber An is sweetly innocent yet undeniably Betty Boop-ish as the younger Chiang.  As Wan, Edison Wang hams it up like a champ, while Tien Hsin brings a bit of subtly to Chin, the ice queen.

Coincidentally but fittingly, Forever screens as part of Taiwan Film Days just as the former San Francisco International Film Fest selection Golden Slumbers opens in New York at the Anthology Film Archives.  Davy Chou’s documentary is a moving elegy to a lost cultural legacy: the Cambodian cinema almost completely destroyed by Khmer Rouge.  While Forever Love is far more upbeat and sparkly (thanks to Patrick Chou’s bold, candy-colored cinematography), it still wistfully honors the spirit and enterprise of Hollywood Taiwan.  Recommended for those who love old school movie romances and the wonderfully idiosyncratic craftsmen who made them, Forever Love screens Saturday night (11/2) at the Vogue Theatre during the SFFS’s Taiwan Film Days.

SFFS Hong Kong Cinema ’13: A Complicated Story

It was supposed to be a simple temp job. A mainland university student in dire need of money agrees to be surrogate for an anonymous couple of considerable wealth.  However, when Liu Yazi’s Hong Kong employers mysteriously cancel the contract, her maternal instincts kick in with full force. She might be a country naïf, but Liu will not be easily intimidated by wealth and privilege throughout Kiwi Chow’s A Complicated Story (trailer here), which screens during the San Francisco Film Society’s annual Hong Kong Cinema film series.

For Liu, carrying the mystery couple’s child is about the only way she can pay for her older brother’s operation. She will temporarily defer her education, as she lives in luxurious isolation. Liu sees almost nobody except the couple’s doctor, her personal assistant, and Kammy Au, the lawyer who overseeing the entire sort of legal arrangement.  After befriending the young woman, Au is forced to break the bad news to her: the divorcing couple demands she abort her pregnancy.

Not inclined to cooperate, Liu seeks out her own medical advice, which leads to the first of several revelations.  Liu in turn will surprise her minders when she slips away, finding shelter at a combined women’s shelter-medical clinic. It turns out the father, Yuk Cheung, is not such a bad guy. Tracking down Liu, he makes it clear he intends to do the right thing.  He and she just happen to have very different ideas of what the right thing might be.  On the other hand, his ex-wife, actress Tracy T, is the sort who always makes matters more difficult.

Complicated probably sounds like sudsy soap opera fodder on paper, but its execution is admirably restrained and archly observant of HK social dynamics. It could also be the year’s most pro-life film without an overtly religious agenda, but third act developments will still limit its appeal to the Evangelical market. Regardless, in terms of emotion, it certainly lives up to its apt but nondescript title.

Helmed by first-time director Chow with nine colleagues from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts’ film masters program contributing as crew, Complicate was conceived as a foot-in-the-door career calling card, but it looks far more polished than most American pseudo-indies.  Obviously, executive producers Johnnie To and William Kong (producer of Hero, Fearless, and Crouching Tiger) lend it all kinds of credibility, along with marquee movie star Jackie Cheung.

No mere celebrity cameo, Cheung’s considerable screen time as Yuk is unusually disciplined in its understatement, yet deeply powerful.  Likewise, the strong but not showy Liu should be a breakout role for Zhu Zhi-ying (who was excellent in the little seen Zoom Hunting).  Still, it is Stephanie Che who ultimately defines the film with her richly complex performance as Au.

Granted, there are times when Chow’s adaptation of the Yi Shu novel (co-written with three other screenwriters) seems to be throwing out plot points just to force the drama.  Nevertheless, it is rather nuanced in its social criticism, portraying upward social mobility as well as inequality.  Featuring great turns from Che and Cheung, as well as a lovely slightly-more-than-a-cameo from the great Deannie Ip, A Complicated Story is one impressive “student film.” Recommended for those who appreciate complex relationship and social issue dramas, it screens this Sunday (10/6) at the Vogue Theatre, as part of the SFFS’s annual Hong Kong Cinema series.

SFFS Hong Kong Cinema ’13: The Conspirators

They say lawyers who represent themselves have fools for clients.  Evidently, the same holds true for private detectives.  This is especially true of Chan Tam, the so-called “C+ Detective,” who has never inspired much confidence with his sleuthing skills.  He will enlist a local gumshoe in Malaysia for a highly personal case in Oxide Pang’s The Conspirators (a.k.a. The Detective 3, trailer here), which screens during the San Francisco Film Society’s annual Hong Kong Cinema film series.

As the dubious hero of Pang’s Detective franchise, Tam has considerable history as a character, but the only backstory viewers need to know Pang establishes in about five seconds.  The C+ Detective’s parents were murdered by the drug cartel they may have once worked for in some capacity, so Tam has come for revenge.  Since Thailand is his base of operations, he has retained the services of Zheng Fong-hei, a skilled but asthmatic martial artist, who is considerably better at his job than Zheng.

As soon as Zheng starts helping Tam track down persons of interest, dead bodies start popping up. It is dangerous to be an old friend of the family like the mysterious Chai.  Before long, both detectives are marked for murder.  However, the soon-to-be late Chai’s daughter might know where to find the MacGuffin Tam lost before he even knew he had it.

Pang is not Johnnie To, but he can still stage an effective action scene, capitalizing on one-time Royal Hong Kong police officer Nick Cheung’s chops.  In fact, Conspirators has a murky, morally ambiguous atmosphere that is quite evocative of 1970’s genre films.  It is also rather entertaining to see watch Cheung’s Zheng and Kwok’s Tam engage in a battle of hardnosed seething.  Cheung takes the honors, but Kwok hangs with him, revisiting what has become his signature character of the last decade or so.  Shaw Brother alumnus Chen Kuan Tai and Bullet Vanishes standout Jiang Yiyan also add further noir heft to the supporting ensemble.

The crime story mechanics of Pang’s screenplay, co-written with his brother Thomas and Ng Mang-cheung, are all rather workaday, but the execution on screen is quite strong. Old pros Cheung and Kwok deliver the goods as the action co-leads, while Pang drenches everything with pseudo-John Woo visual style.  The results are highly entertaining.  Recommended for fans of dark revenge thrillers, The Conspirators screens this coming Sunday (10/6) as part of the SFFS’s eagerly awaited Hong Kong Cinema series.

SFFS Hong Kong Cinema ’13: Blind Detective

He is sort of a consulting detective, whose bedside manner is about as warm and friendly as Holmes at his chilliest.  Chong “Johnston” Si-teun has a sizeable ego and an even larger chip on his shoulder, but he is not without empathy—for the dead.  Somehow, he still might find love with a far less deductive copper (his personal Lestrade) in Johnnie To’s genre blender, Blind Detective (trailer here), which screens on the opening night of the 2013 edition of the San Francisco Film Society’s annual Hong Kong Cinema series.

Johnston’s sudden onset of blindness forced him to retire as police detective, but he still solves crimes for a living.  He now relies on reward bounties, particularly those still valid for cold cases. Impressed by his results, Inspector Ho Ka-tung retains his services to find her long missing high school friend, Minnie. She has always been good with firearms and martial arts, but the cerebral side of detective work has always troubled her.  Promising to teach her his methods, Johnston moves into her spacious pad, but immediately back-burners Minnie’s case in favor of several expiring bounties.

The half-annoyed Ho indulges Johnston for a while, eventually embracing his extreme re-enactment techniques.  Blind arguably reaches its zenith when Johnston and Ho recreate a grisly murder conveniently set in a morgue, strapping on helmets and whacking each other over the head with hammers.  If you ever wanted to see the Three Stooges remakes Silence of the Lambs, To delivers the next closest thing.  Of course, their search for Minnie soon percolates back to the surface, when Johnston starts to suspect she fell victim to a serial killer preying broken-hearted young women.

Much like the old cliché about the weather, if you don’t like the tone of Blind Detective, just wait five minutes, because it will change.  You do not see many films incorporating elements of romantic comedy, slapstick farce, and dark serial killer thrillers, probably for good reason.  To gives roughly equal weight to all three, yet it all hangs together better than one might expect.

Sammi Cheng is a major reason Blind works to the extent that it does. It is great to see her Inspector Ho act as the film’s primary action figure and her radiant presence lights up the screen.  She develops decent chemistry with Andy Lau’s Johnston, but he looks profoundly uncomfortable in the intuitive curmudgeon’s skin. However, To fans will be relieved to hear Lam Suet duly turns up as a fugitive gambler hiding out in Macao.

To also delivers plenty of bang for the audience’s bucks in the third act. There are some distinctly creepy bits and a fair amount of suspense.  On the other hand, a drawn out subplot involving Johnston’s long held crush on a dance instructor chews up plenty of time but serves little purpose except to telegraph the feelings beginning to stir between the odd couple detectives.  

Thanks to two well executed showdowns, Cheng’s winning performance, and some evocative Hong Kong locales, Blind Detective chugs along steadily enough for a while and picks up mucho momentum down the stretch.  Recommended for To fans and those with a taste for comedic mysteries, Blind Detective screens this Friday night (10/4) at the Vogue Theatre as part of the SFFS’s 2013 Hong Kong Cinema series.  Action aficionados should also check out Chow Yun-fat’s massive return to form in Wong Jing’s The Last Tycoon screening Saturday (10/5) and Sunday (10/6) at the same venue.

Once Lovers: The Swell Season

With all due respect to “Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová’s “Falling Slowly” from the film Once had to be the best Oscar winning song since Isaac Hayes’s “Theme from Shaft” took the honors in 1971. Perhaps because their characters were star-crossed ships passing in the night, fans invested special meaning in their off-screen musical and romantic relationships. Yet, the demands of success will tax those bonds in Nick August-Perna, Chris Dapkins & Carlo Mirabella-Davis’s documentary The Swell Season (trailer here), which the San Francisco Film Society presents for a one week run starting this Friday.

Known collectively as The Swell Season, Hansard and Irglová scored a respectable art-house hit with Once, but the Academy Awards took them to another level entirely. When Irglová wished “fair play to those who dare to dream” in her acceptance speech, even presenter Colin Farrell got choked up. Unfortunately, Seaison is not very diligent catching up viewers up with their lives pre-Once, focusing entirely on the time as established headliners.

Evidently, Irish expat Hansard was living with the somewhat younger Irglová’s Czech family when they began their relationship. Obviously, their courtship involved music, but that is about all the film cares to explain. Instead, it focuses the stresses and strains caused by the demands of fame and constant touring. Indeed, Season may distress the duo’s admirers, because it largely documents the potential dissolution of their romance. Whether their musical rapport is strong enough to endure those personal trials becomes the film’s central question.

Nonetheless, fans should still enjoy the tunes heard throughout Season, as well as some insightful interviews regarding their songwriting processes. Hansard and Irglová’s music typically features strikingly harmonized vocals and their musicianship is completely legit. Frankly, many of their songs are just as appropriate to the end of an affair as the hopeful beginning stages.

Shot by co-director-cinematographer Dapkins fly-on-the-wall style in glorious black-and-white, Season’s look is often reminiscent of U2 videos and documentaries, which is rather fitting. It also gives fans an opportunity to see the duo naked. They certainly look better than John Lennon and Yoko Ono, for what that is worth. There are some uncomfortable but memorable moments of truth shared by the couple, but it will ultimately be of much greater interest to devotees than general audiences. For most viewers, it is a passable diversion, but hardly essential. For Swell Season’s considerable fan base in the Bay Area, SFFS’s screenings start this Friday (11/25) at the New People Cinema.

SFFS Artist in Residence Federico Veiroj: A Useful Life

Depicting the imminent closure of Montevideo’s Cinematheque, Federico Veiroj’s A Useful Life (trailer here) might hit too close to home for a lot of art-house theater managers. Yet, the film’s love for cinema and those who treasure it is infectious. Veiroj brings his passion for filmmaking to the San Francisco Film Society as their current Artist in Residence for a screening of Useful this coming Tuesday and a special master class with the director the following Saturday.

A longtime programmer and jack-of-all-trades for the Cinematheque, Jorge’s life is somewhat akin to that of a tenured academic. Unfortunately, their small but loyal base of support is no longer sufficient to keep the high-end art theater in business. At first, Jorge operates largely in denial preparing for the Manoel de Oliveira centennial retrospective (who has amazingly already released two more films since reaching that milestone) as if nothing has happened. Yet, slowly but surely he resolves to begin a new life, starting not with a job search but the halting pursuit of Paola, an attractive law professor and soon to be former patron.

Well cast, Uruguayan film critic Jorge Jellinek perfectly balances Jorge’s pathos and reserved charm. His arc of development is so significant and satisfying, precisely because of its relative modesty. Likewise, as her namesake, Paola Venditto comes across as an attractive and intelligent woman, but not unrealistically unattainable for the slightly more confident Jorge. Veiroj also capitalizes on the Cinematheque itself, whose International style architecture looks striking in black-and-white. Indeed, it brings to mind the glass and concrete of university buildings that initially look rather austere but become comfortable with familiarity.

Useful would make a great double feature with Michel Hazanavicius’s The Artist. Though the rumpled Jorge is no matinee idol like George Valentin, both protagonists find their movie careers jeopardized by changing times. Stylistically comparable, both films were shot in color but printed in glorious black-and-white. Though not a silent film, Useful is also rather quiet, relying music (including that of Uruguayan composer Eduardo Fabini) to convey the mood. In fact, both films pay tribute to classic movie musicals in unexpected ways. Perhaps most importantly, they are just excellent films.

Unmistakably paying homage to the auteur cinema of the 1960’s, Useful definitely has much dedicated cineastes will appreciate. Yet, its mature joie de vivre should resonate with wider audiences as well. A subtle but endearing film, it is clearly the work of a major, relatively new voice in Latin American cinema. Indeed, the SFFS artist in residence program now has a short but impressive track record for choosing intriguing filmmakers, following their inaugural selection of Israeli documentarian Ido Haar. Highly recommended, A Useful Life screens this Tuesday (11/15) at the New People Cinema, with Veiroj’s master class From Short to Feature scheduled for Saturday (11/19) at the same venue.

Ido Haar In-Residence at SFFS: Melting Siberia

Ido Haar’s road to San Francisco ran from Israel through Novosibirsk. Chosen as the inaugural filmmaker to launch the San Francisco Film Society’s Artist in Residence program, the still youthful looking Haar has already established an international reputation. At one point an editor for BeTipul, the Israeli series on which the HBO series In-Treatment is based (often word-for-word), Haar is probably best known on the festival circuit for the naturalistic, issue-driven documentary 9 Star Hotel. In contrast, his first non-fiction feature was the distinctly personal Melting Siberia (trailer here), which screens next Wednesday as part of two weeks of programming related to his residency.

Given its uniquely tragic history, many grieving spouses and children immigrated to Israel without parents and loved ones. Such was the case with Haar’s mother and grandmother, but his grandfather was very much alive. A Soviet Red Army officer stationed in Latvia, Marina’s father abandoned her and her mother shortly after the war. Always understandably resentful, Haar’s mother never sought out the father she never knew. However, when Haar tracks down his grandfather in frozen Novosibirsk, Marina reluctantly but resolutely follows-up in a series of phone calls, letters, and finally a fateful visit, all faithfully documented by Haar.

Deliberately modest and intimate, Melting is true to life, capturing the messy conflicting emotions and social awkwardness of Haar’s family reunion, finding closure where it can. Clearly a strong woman, Haar’s mother emerges as the star, tough but vulnerable all the way through. Yet, even on his supposed best behavior, his grandfather remains a deeply problematic figure. Before their eventual meeting, Marina muses whether deserting one’s family was conduct becoming a Soviet officer. It is a fair question, perhaps even more so following a devastating confrontation between a father and daughter still strangers to each other.

Unlike Haar’s other works, he frequently appears in Melting, good naturedly taking his family ribbing. It augurs well for his stint in-residence at SFFS (2/21-3/5), especially his classroom visits and master class scheduled for this Saturday (2/26). Haar will also be in-attendance for a special screening of Melting next Wednesday (3/2) at New People Cinema in San Francisco. Unblinkingly honest, it is quietly moving film, well worth seeing at any time.

Taiwan Film Days ’10: Hear Me

While the Beijing 2008 Olympics were rife with controversy, the 2009 Deaflympics in Taipei earned high marks all the way around. The Taipei games also helped inspire a ridiculously cute teen rom-com that deals respectfully and forthrightly with the hearing impaired. A huge hit in Taiwan, Cheng Fen-fen’s Hear Me (trailer here) has a good heart and an earnest cast that should translate well when it screens next weekend during the San Francisco Film Society’s Taiwan Film Days at the Viz Theater.

Tian-kuo is a gooney delivery boy working for his family’s restaurant, who somehow picked up considerable fluency in sign language. It comes in handy when he tries to put the moves on Yang-yang, the sister of Xiao Peng, a Deaflypian swimmer in training. Though Yang-yang is the younger sibling, she is her sister’s sole financial support, willingly juggling multiple jobs to support her dreams of a gold medal.

By contrast, Tian-kuo only has one job, which he does rather poorly, but of course his nagging yet big-hearted mother and “aw-shucks” father are not about to fire him. Being an idiot (but a well meaning one) he inadvertently offends Yang-yang. Deeply heartsick, he desperately tries to make amends, but Yang-yang is more concerned with her other family tribulations.

A sweetly luminous screen presence, Ivy Chen displays a dynamic spirit and considerable dramatic range as Yang-yang. For his part, Eddie Peng makes a likable enough goober as Tian-kuo. Their chemistry together is pleasingly credible, even though she ought to be well out of his league. Adding further heft, Michelle Chen’s spot-on supporting turn as Xiao Peng is believably nuanced and ultimately quite moving.

Granted, Hear hardly breaks any new rom-com ground, but its execution is surprisingly strong. In fact, it pulls off a potentially gimmicky ending largely through the strength of its engaging cast. For cineastes, Hear might be a guilty pleasure, but for most movie patrons, it should be an entertaining crowd pleaser. It is really impossible not to have some affection for the film. It screens next Saturday (10/23) as part of the SFFS’s Taiwan Film Days.