RIFF ’25: Dream!

Santa Claus must prefer his St. Nick alter ego to an exclusionary extent, because he obviously overlooks children in countries that do not share the Christian tradition—or does he? A little Thai girl named Lek will learn the answer to that question, but it will take her nearly two and a half hours of screentime, as she journeys through eight provinces of Thailand in director-cinematographer Paul Spurrier’s Dream!, which screens today at the 2025 Rhode Island Film Festival.

After the tragic death of her first love, Lek’s mother found herself an unmarried mother, so she accepted Nin’s marriage proposal. In retrospect, that was a mistake, because the old abuse drunkard insists on drinking away any money she makes. When he raises his fist towards Lek, her mother dies protecting her. Wisely, escapes under the cover of night, carrying the only Christmas present she ever received: a one-legged hand-me-down doll, given to her by her school teacher.

For a vividly colorful movie-musical that takes clear audio and visual inspiration from Rogers-and-Hammerstein classics, Dream! veers into some surprisingly dark territory. As orphans go, Lek is especially piteous and vulnerable—and she isn’t even truly an orphan. Maybe she would be better off if she were. Nevertheless, as she treks through the strikingly scenic Thai countryside, her honesty teaches much needed lessons to many of the people she encounters.

For a while, the grotesquely entitled Namwaan “adopts” Lek as her first “friend,” but the younger girl shrewdly recognizes the spoiled princess really wants another servant. She later joins forces with a modern medicine man, until she discovers the truth of his snake oil scam.

In fact, Dream! is an incredible earnest musical fable deeply concerned with virtue and morality. However, the constant one-darned-thing-after-another rained down on poor little Lek starts to feel punishing, both for viewers and for her. Indeed, most audiences will emotionally invest in her, quickly and deeply. We and her just need more respite from the cruel travails of the world. The two-hour twenty-minute-plus running time will also challenge younger viewers.

Nevertheless, older patrons who share a nostalgia for the grand old movie-musical will appreciate the films bigness, starting with its throwback widescreen CinemaScope aspect-ratio. Mickey Wongsathapornpat’s score also sounds huge, in a show-stopper kind of way, but it could have used more intimate ballads for variety. However, the natural grandeur of the Thai landscape is often stunningly cinematic.

Ironically, genre film fans will recognize several cast-members, especially Vithaya Pansingarm, from A Prayer Before Dawn and Mechanic: Resurrection (among many others), who is both frighteningly nasty and sadly pathetic as abusive Nin. Many might also remember Sahajak Boonthanakit co-starring with Pansingarm in Mayhem! and Only God Forgives. This time around he plays a relatively good guy, Namwaan’s father, who appreciates Lek’s heartfelt decency, but maybe lacks the conviction to do something about it.

Kitty the Killer

The so-called “Agency” is a lot like a Southeast Asian version of the La Femme Nikita covert organization. Each female assassin has a “guardian,” who is only supposed to watch over them. In practice, the watchers code-named “Grey Fox” will have to fight like heck. It sort of goes with the territory when you work for an assassination agency. They will have to fight each other when a power struggle splits the Agency. Again, this isn’t so surprising for a group of killers-for-hire. Whether he likes it or not, the new Grey Fox must look after his Kittys in Lee Thongkam’s Kitty the Killer, which releases today on VOD.

It is a bit of mess when Keng, the Grey Fox, sends Dina, his favorite Kitty, to retrieve a box from sleazy Wong, before he can sell it to the Japanese wing of the Agency. Whatever is in that box is a lot like the glowing briefcase in Pulp Fiction. Keng has his reasons for wanting it, which puts him crosswise with Ms. Violet, the Agency’s boardroom boss, who unleashes “Nina the Faceless” on Keng.

The Grey Fox handily fends off hordes of generic henchmen, but the Faceless Kitty is too much for him. As he nurses his mortal wounds, Keng carjacks poor Charlie, a nebbish office worker, forcing him to become the next Grey Fox.

Or something like that. Honestly, it’s debatable how much of this weird story really makes any kind of sense.  However, it is easy to get all the heads that get decapitated by katana swords. Charlie’s shtickiness can be a bit much, but the martial arts beatdowns are brutally spectacular. Sumret Mueangputt’s fight choreography is wildly cinematic, but also dirty and gritty.

Xavier Gens’ Mayhem!

Whenever a foreign production shoots in Thailand, it is probably considered a mixed blessing. It is good for the film bureau and skilled local crew-members, but the finished movies usually discourage Thai tourism, like Only God Forgives, Skin Trade, and A Prayer Before Dawn. This film is a French production, but it follows in the same tradition. A French ex-con starts a new life in Thailand, but violence inevitably finds him in Xavier Gens’ Mayhem! (with an exclamation point), which opens today in New York.

Samir Darba wanted to go straight when he left prison, but his old drug gang had other ideas. When they got rough about it, Darba accidentally killed to gang leader’s brother. Somehow, he slipped out of France, making his way to Thailand, where he was living peacefully with the half-French Mia and her young daughter Dara. It was all good until they try to buy a stretch of beachfront land, which brings them into conflict with Narong, an expat French gangster.

Initially, Narong demands a favor, but when his scheme goes south, he decides to punish Darba. Although left for dead, Darba’s Muay Thai coach Hansa nurses him back to health. With Hansa’s help, Darba sets out to rescue the kidnapped Dara, doing his best to damage Narong’s illicit business in the process.

It takes over forty minutes for Mayhem! to really get going, but when it does, the action comes at the audience hard and fast, like runaway freight train. This is definitely the best film Gens directed that has been released in America and the brutal fight sequences matches the style and intensity of the Gangs of London episodes he helmed. Seriously, the action in Mayhem! is no joke. It is probably even more brutally realistic than that of the Raid duology.

The Lake: a Thai Kaiju Rises

Remember kids, kaiju eggs are not keepsakes. When a village girl steals on of its eggs, of course the alpha kaiju will come looking for it. Ditto for when the big city cops capture a junior kaiju. The resulting carnage might even satisfy the bloodlust of Ivy League student “activists.” Death comes wet and muddy in Lee Thongkham’s The Lake, which screens at the Spectacle in Brooklyn.

When torrential rains wash a batch of kaiju eggs to the shore, you better expect one of the beasts will come to retrieve them. The next morning little May luckily stumbles across the last one left and she refuses to give it up when her family asks: “what the heck.” Arguably, this will all be her fault.

When the first kaiju attacks the village, Keng and Lin barely escape, but his wound gives him brief, disorienting moments of kaiju vision. Unfortunately, the creature follows them to the bigger city, where he is receiving treatment. Soon, Suwat, the police chief, summons all officers to handle the attacking kaiju. That would include James, an inspector, who leaves his truant teen daughter Pam in the backseat of his cruiser, because what is the worst that could happen under the circumstances? Remember, they haven’t even seen the big one yet.

The kaiju effects are cool, which is, by far, the most important thing about The Lake. The junior kaiju sort of looks like a cross between the Creature from the Black Lagoon and the Xenomorph from Alien. For some shots, there is still a dude in the suit—and he acts incredibly pissed off. It was augmented with CGI, but the mix looks terrific on-screen. The senior kaiju clearly owes a debt of gratitude to the king himself, Godzilla. It has a big set-piece scene that clearly rips off Jurassic Park, but they do it well.

There is no question the biggest stars of the film are the kaiju, designed by Jordu Schell, whose sculptural effects have been seen in films like Starship Troopers, Cloverfield, and Hellboy. The people, on the other hand, are somewhat hit-or-miss. However, the great Vithaya Pansringarm brings a lot grounded maturity to the film as Chief Suwat (who also must worry about his own daughter Fon, a junior officer on the force).

Theerapat Sajakul is also impressively hard-boiled as Inspector James, but his character is not a good decision-maker or strategic thinker. Frustratingly, the younger the character, the less patience viewers will have for them.

Sergio, the Netflix Movie (English & Portuguese Reviews)

(You can find a Portuguese translation below the following English review, courtesy of Angelica Sakurada. The Portuguese is hers. Any controversial opinions are entirely my own.)

It was not exactly the United Nation’s finest hour when it tapped China to join its Human Rights Council, despite its dismal record of press censorship, cultural genocide in East Turkestan, and the continuing oppression of religious worship (plus, they made whistleblowers in Wuhan disappear during the early days of the current global pandemic). Hypocrisy and corruption have long been rife throughout the UN bureaucracy, especially during the days of Kofi Annan’s administration. The one shining exception was Brazilian diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello. He had the unique distinction among his UN peers for actually brokering equitable peace deals, but he was tragically killed by the Al-Qaeda faction that evolved into ISIS. After chronicling Vieira de Mello’s story in documentary form, Greg Barker retells it in the narrative feature simply-titled Sergio, which starts streaming this Friday on Netflix (after premiering at this year’s Sundance).

Vieira de Mello opposed the Iraq War—a fact Barker and screenwriter Craig Borten clearly do not want us to forget. In fact, they revel in his disagreements with Paul Bremer, the Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority of Iraq. Alas, it is no spoiler to mention the titular diplomat was killed during his Baghdad posting, because Barker uses it as a narrative device, flashing backwards to happier times, while U.S. Sergeants Bill von Zehle and Andre Valentine, firemen in civilian-life, struggle to unearth Vieira de Mello and his colleague, Gil Loescher, from the precarious rubble. Obviously, the prognosis looks bad.

Those better days include Vieira de Mello’s tenure as the UN’s Transitional Administrator for East Timor, where he negotiated the new nation’s peaceful independence from Indonesia. East Timor is also where the divorced High Commissioner meets Carolina Larriera, a micro-finance expert, who becomes his lover and UN colleague. Unfortunately, such distractions cause Vieira de Mello to neglect his sons. Indeed, family time is rare and awkward for the diplomat (sadly, a big pot of delicious shrimp moqueca is neglected during a short-lived family reunion).

Sergio’s biases are blatantly obvious, but they still probably could have been worse. Arguably, Bradley Whitford’s cartoonish portrayal of the nebbish Bremer as cynical villain is the most egregious aspect of the film. On the other hand, it forthrightly depicts the heroic efforts of von Zehle and Valentine to save Sergio and Loescher. It is worth noting von Zehle served as a technical advisor, which is a major reason why the rescue sequences are so tense and realistic.

Borten’s screenplay readily admits Vieira de Mello’s decision to evict the U.S. forces guarding the UN’s headquarters in Iraq left it directly vulnerable to terrorist attack. However, for some dubious reason, it omits al-Zarqawi’s cited motivation for the bombing in his statement of responsibility: the East Timor deal that result in a net loss of territory controlled by the Islamic Caliphate—in that case the Indonesian government.

As a film, Sergio moves along at a good pace and convincingly recreates the major events of his time, even though Barker and lead actor Wagner Moura are transparently mindful of protecting Vieira de Mello’s reputation throughout the film. They show some self-doubt and human weakness, but just enough to provide an opportunity for redemption. Ana de Armas is pretty believable expressing frustration with his workaholism and commitment phobia, but the character is largely defined in relationship to him.

Sundance ’20: Sergio

It was not exactly the United Nation’s finest hour when Turkey was tapped to co-chair the human rights committee that accredited NGO’s, despite its dismal record of press censorship and oppression of the Kurds. Hypocrisy and corruption have long been rife throughout the UN bureaucracy, especially during the days of Kofi Annan’s administration. The one shining exception was Brazilian diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello. He had the unique distinction among his UN peers for actually brokering equitable peace deals, but he was tragically killed by the Al-Qaeda faction that evolved into ISIS. After chronicling Vieira de Mello’s story in documentary form, Greg Barker retells it as the Netflix-produced narrative feature Sergio, which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.

Vieira de Mello opposed the Iraq War—a fact Barker and screenwriter Craig Borten clearly do not want us to forget. In fact, they revel in his disagreements with Paul Bremer, the Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority of Iraq. Alas, it is no spoiler to mention the titular diplomat was killed during his Baghdad posting, because Barker uses it as a narrative device, flashing backwards to happy times, while U.S. Sergeants Bill von Zehle and Andre Valentine, firemen in civilian-life, struggle to unearth Vieira de Mello and his colleague, Gil Loescher, from the precarious rubble. Obviously, the prognosis looks bad.

Those better days include Vieira de Mello’s tenure as the UN’s Transitional Administrator for East Timor, where he negotiated the new nation’s peaceful independence from Indonesia. East Timor is also where the divorced High Commissioner meets Carolina Larriera, a micro-finance expert, who becomes his lover and UN colleague. Unfortunately, such business leads Vieira de Mello to neglect his sons. Indeed, family time is rare and awkward for the diplomat (sadly, a big pot of delicious shrimp moqueca gets neglected during a short-lived family reunion).

Sergio’s biases are blatantly obvious, but they still probably could have been worse. Arguably, Bradley Whitford’s cartoonish portrayal of the nebbish Bremer as cynical villain is the most egregious aspect of the film. On the other hand, it forthrightly depicts the heroic efforts of von Zehle and Valentine to save Sergio and Loescher. It is worth noting von Zehle served as a technical advisor, which is a major reason why the rescue sequences are so tense and realistic.

Borten’s screenplay readily admits Vieira de Mello’s decision to evict the U.S. forces guarding the UN’s headquarters in Iraq left it directly vulnerable to terrorist attack. However, for some dubious reason, it omits al-Zarqawi’s cited motivation for the bombing in his statement of responsibility: the East Timor deal that result in a net loss of territory controlled by the Islamic Caliphate—in that case the Indonesian government.

As a film, Sergio moves along at a good place and convincingly recreates the major events of his time, even though Barker and lead actor Wagner Moura are transparently mindful of protecting Vieira de Mello’s reputation throughout the film. They show some self-doubt and human weakness, but just enough to provide an opportunity for redemption. Ana de Armas is pretty credible expressing frustration with his workaholism and commitment phobia, but the character is largely defined in relationship to him. 

Buffalo Dreams Fantastic ’18: Eullenia

Marcus Hammond is the Monte Hall or Howie Mandell of serial killers, but he always offers his victims the same deal: their life willingly exchanged for a desperately needed sum to be provided to their loved one. Admittedly, he is not a very sporting serial killer. He’s no Count Zaroff, that’s for sure. He preys on hopelessness, but karma might just come back around for him in Paul Spurrier’s Eullenia (trailer here), which screens during the 2018 Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival.

Hammond notices the little people. That is a great trait to find in a micro-finance tycoon, but not so hot for serial killer. He happens to be both. As the chairman and guru-in-chief of the Eullenia Group, he has enough money and clout to buy as many corrupt cops and public officials as he might need in Thailand, but his manservant-accomplice Boo (sort of an evil Alfred Pennyworth) is still scrupulously careful. Nam is the first victim we see dispatched in the film, but it is clear there were many more before her. Her death follows step-by-step according to Hammond’s plan, except perhaps for the note she leaves for her beloved sister—the one who needs money for chemotherapy.

In the second act, poor Em does not fully realize what she is dealing with, but Boo will make the terms crystal clear. However, there is something very different about Lek. She seems to be stalking Hammond more than he is stalking her. Viewers will probably guess her motives (no surprise, it involves revenge), but she and Spurrier still have some twists in store for the audience.

Apparently, Eullenia was originally produced as a six-episode limited series, mostly in English to cater to the foreign market. Presumably, many of the edits to accommodate this 129-minute feature-festival cut came from Em’s storyline. Regardless, the version that will screen in Buffalo (or rather Williamsville right outside) is quite grabby, thanks in large measure to the terrific cast.

Vithaya Pansringarm has become the international face of Thai cinema, with good reason. This could very well be his best work in an unambiguously villainous role (that of Boo), precisely because it is so subtly turned. As Hammond, Alec Newman manages to create a whole new variation on the monstrous serial killer: the benevolent philanthropist who takes his life-altering power to dark extremes. You could just as easily compare him to Warren Buffet (and his weird obsession with over-population) as any other movie serial killer.

Newcomer Aomkham Kamonrattanan is also dynamite as Lek. She keeps us guessing and makes us care. Likewise, Apicha Suyanandana is absolutely heartbreaking as Nam. Krittima Chockchal’s appearances as Em do indeed feel abbreviated, but thesp-director Manasanun Phanlerdwongsakul has a very effective cameo as a financial journalist who brings out Hammond’s craziness.

Spurrier is now an expat filmmaker based in Thailand, but he was once a child actor, best known for playing Richard Harris’s son in The Wild Geese. There is a bit of irony that he would introduce to the world the ultimate predatory expat, but his sympathies are always with the marginalized and his skepticism obviously falls on their supposed benefactors. Yet, the film cuts deeper than mere class warfare. After all, Hammond was once a striving lower middle class kid who made good. There is something fundamentally broken in him that has been accentuated and exacerbated by all his laudatory press as a Lord Bountiful. It is a pretty twisted film, but it is definitely compelling stuff. Enthusiastically recommended for fans of serial killer thrillers (slightly horror-ish, but light on blood and gore), Eullenia screens this Thursday (11/8), as part of this year’s Buffalo Dreams Fantastic.

A Prayer Before Dawn: Doing Time in Thailand

Getting involved with hardcore drugs in a nation like Thailand is a bad idea. A really bad idea. Mere words cannot express the awfulness of such a decision. British boxer Billy Moore made it anyway. He found Klong Prem prison was no Club Fed. That is a lesson he learns the hard way, over and over again in Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s A Prayer Before Dawn (trailer here), which releases today on DVD.

Moore is hooked on yaba, a locally baked meth derivative. He also has anger management issues that do not make him a lot of fun to be around. Somehow the cops were tipped off to his drug use, which really couldn’t have been very difficult to figure out. Sauvaire does not show us any of the prosecution, but it is safe to infer Thai justice is swift. It is not specified how many years Moore is supposed to serve, but it could very likely be a life sentence.

It is never clear how much Thai Moore speaks. In fact, there is a good chance he has no fluency whatsoever. Nevertheless, he fakes it as well as he can, doing his best to protect himself from the horrors of prison life. It is touch-and-go for a while, but he finally achieves a bit of stability when he bribes his way onto the prison Muay Thai team and trains like mad to stay there. It provides him better living conditions, but all the other nasty facts of prison life remain unchanged.

To approximate Moore’s perspective, Dawn deliberately refuses to subtitle most of the incidental dialogue, but like the yaba-jonesing boxer, we really don’t need translations to get the general gist of it all. Sauvaire also heightens the disorientation with his restlessly whirling camera, but this is not cheap shaky-cam jiggling. It is a largely successful (if somewhat nauseating attempt) to recreate the whirling maelstrom of Moore’s world.

As Moore, Joe Cole is quite credible as a strung-out, unstable punk, but he lacks the charisma to explain away all the favors various people do for him. He also develops some intriguingly ambiguous romantic chemistry with Fame, a transgender prisoner (convicted of murdering her abusive father), played by Pornchanok Mabklang. Yet, it is rather frustrating to see the talent of Vithaya Pansringarm (recognizable to Western audiences for his work in Only God Forgives and The Last Executioner) is largely wasted in yet another prison warden role.

Dawn is almost too much (realism) and simultaneously not enough (narrative and context), but it is certainly a memorable cinematic experience. There is a good deal of Muay Thai action, but it is almost too brutal for martial arts fans to really enjoy it. This is a tough, uncompromising film. If it doesn’t scare you straight than no movie can. Recommended for those who appreciate no-holds-barred MMA and prison movies, A Prayer Before Dawn releases today on BluRay and DVD.

SDAFF ’17: Paradox

What makes a series a series? In the case of Wilson Yip’s thematic, in-name only martial arts thriller franchise, it is the consistently superior fight choreography. It is known as Sha Po Lang (a Chinese Zodiac reference) in the Asian market, but it goes by SPL or sometimes Kill Zone in the West, but apparently the latest film has dropped the series prefix altogether for the international festival circuit. There are no overlapping characters or story arcs, but Yip returns to the director’s chair after assuming a producing role on Kill Zone 2 (a.k.a. SPL 2: A Time for Consequences). No matter what you call it, the series maintains a well-earned rep for high-octane action with Yip’s Paradox (trailer here), which screens during the 2017 San Diego Asian Film Festival.

As a police negotiator, you maybe would not expect Lee Chung-chi to Liam Neeson’s very particular set of skills, but when his daughter Wing-chi disappears in Thailand, all bets are off. Fortunately, one of the few honest coppers in Bangkok is assigned to the case. Lee and Tsui will follow the trail to an organ harvesting ring, but eventually Lee goes rogue after receiving a tip implicating the blatantly corrupt Det. Ban. Tsui’s compromised police chief father-in-law pressures him to relent, because the intended beneficiary of Wing-chi’s abduction is the secretly ailing mayor, but obviously that is not going to happen.

Although there is no narrative continuity, Paradox continues the tradition of bringing back prior cast members in completely different roles. Serious martial arts fans will be happy to know this includes Tony Jaa, now appearing as Tak the devout Buddhist cop, but frustrated to learn it is a “special appearance.” He will not be around for the third act, but he definitely makes his limited screen time count.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is how hardcore Louis Koo (another holdover from 2) gets as Lee. He has made plenty of cop and gangster movies before, but often the more demanding work has been assigned to a partner, like Nick Cheung in Line Walker. He earns mucho credit for really upping his game for Paradox.

Likewise, Yue Wu hangs with both of them, going toe-to-toe with the flamboyantly villainous Chris Collins as the organ harvesting ring-leader. Gordon Lam effectively counterbalances him as the icily ruthless political fixer, Cheng Hon-sau. Unfortunately, Vithaya Pansringarm is under-employed as the problematic Commish (he is not really evil, just weak), but Ken Lo takes sleazy repulsiveness to a new level as Ban. This is definitely a testosterone kind of film, but Jacky Cai manages to make a strong impression as Siu-man, the prostitute who informs on Ban.

Even though Master Sammo Hung never appears in Paradox, he still counts as one of the stars, thanks to his bone-crushing action direction. This isn’t pretty Crouching Tiger aerial work. It is hard knees and elbows, in the Muay Thai tradition. Frankly, the combination of the tough but hugely cinematic fight scenes with the all-star cast firing on all cylinders is tough to beat. Highly recommended for action fans, Paradox screens this Tuesday (11/14) and Thursday (11/16), as part of this year’s San Diego Asian Film Festival. 

DFF ’17: Godspeed

Cabbies and drug mules have one thing in common: the mileage. That is particularly true of Old Xu, an expat cab driver originally hailing from Hong Kong. In contrast, Taiwanese Na Dow is new to the drug delivery business and he might not last very long. Their comical road trip periodically takes dark detours in director-screenwriter Chung Mong-hong’s NYAFF-selected Godspeed (trailer here), which screens during this year’s Denver Film Festival.

It figures Na Dow might be in for some trouble, because his boss Da Bao barely survives the extended prologue. Someone is clearly looking to move in on his business, so Da Bao and his lieutenant Wu will discretely follow Na Dow on his latest run. It turns out to be quite ride when the mule reluctantly agrees to the persistent Xu’s terms. Their misadventures will really just confuse their secret shadows, rather than vindicating or condemning Na Dow.

Godspeed veers all over the road, but it still works nearly every step of the way. HK comedy veteran Michael Hui still goes for plenty of laughs, but Old Xu is definitely a sad clown. It is a complex, deeply humane performance that directly compares with Eric Tsang’s even more serious turn in Mad World. Na Dow (as his namesake) is an adequate straight man and he has some nicely turned moments down the stretch, but he is definitely the junior partner of their tandem.

Starting right from the start, Leon Dai nearly steals the picture several times over as the deceptively quiet and amusingly sly Da Bao. Ironically, a lot of viewers will be disappointed when they discover he really isn’t the focus of the film. As an extra added bonus, professional steely Thai authority figure Vithaya Pansringarm does his thing as the drug lord who nearly kills Da Bao, mostly just because he is psychotic.

Chung seems to be a bit like Tarantino in that he has a knack for casting nostalgically beloved actors in roles that help redefine them for younger generations. He did it with Jimmy Wang Yu in the wonderfully subtle and evocative supernatural film Soul and obviously, he did it again here with Hui. While Godspeed is bit plottier and talkier than his previous film, it still very much a work of mature restraint.

The guys who have been around the block a couple times really come through in Godspeed. It is a flattering showcase for Hui’s talents, but Dai, Pansringarm, and even Tou Chung-hua (as Da Bao’s dealer crony) score plenty of points. Despite some sudden tonal shifts, it still keeps purring along, because Chung trusts his characters and never overplays his hand. Recommended for fans of wry caper and road movies, Godspeed screens this Saturday (11/4) and Sunday (11/5) during the 2017 Denver Film Festival.

River: The Fugitive in Laos

You have to feel for the consular officers who will be forced to work on Dr. John Lake’s case. The American doctor is wanted in Laos for the murder of an Australian senator’s entitled son and the rape of a local. Unfortunately, a one-armed man was not seen fleeing the scene of the crime. Lake more or less dispatched the ugly Australian, but everything else was the dead man’s handiwork. Due to the victim’s misunderstanding, Lake opts to make a desperate run for the Thai border in Jamie M. Dagg’s River (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Lake was volunteering with a medical NGO, but his supervisor sent him off on two weeks leave following the triage work they did for a truckload of accident victims. He decides to visit the picturesque southern islands in the Mekong River Delta, as do two hard-partying Australian lads. Lake tried to dissuade them from plying the petite Nang Chanh with liquor, but he has no qualms about partaking himself. Later drunkenly stumbling over the unconscious girl and her predator, Lake sort of snaps. Rather inconveniently the girl comes to just in time to misconstrue Lake’s blood stains.

Ordinarily, taking flight is a very bad idea, especially sans passport and cash. However, it is tough to blame him in Laos, a state still ruled by a Communist regime, where trials are considered a formality and executions are an inevitability. In fact, it makes you wonder why he is there is the first place. Regardless, Lake’s crisis disperses any wishful thinking he might have had, which leads to full galloping panic.

In fact, River should jolly well dissuade most viewers from visiting Laos, just as Midnight Express probably temporarily depressed Turkish tourism. Still, the humid delta and surrounding rainforests are an evocative locale. Cinematographer Adam Marsden makes gives the film an appropriately swelteringly noir look, while Dagg nicely compounds the tension of being a fugitive in a foreign land.

As Lake, Rossif Sutherland (terrific in Hyena Road and not bad in Helions) is convincingly sweaty, but his performance largely confines itself to a narrow zone of guilt and paranoia. At least the dependably cool Vithaya Pansringarm offers some charismatic support as the friendly bartender who befriends Lake that fateful night. It is a comparatively small supporting role, but Pansringarm is apparently incapable of being dull on-screen.

All things considered, River is quite fair to the Laotians. In fact, Dagg really should have more fully explained why standing trial in Laos for a crime you did not commit is such a perilous proposition. It is also seems rather strange Lake and his NGO boss are Americans, considering River is a Canadian production, helmed by a Canadian filmmaker, featuring several Canadian cast-members (Sutherland, as well as Sara Botsford, Ted Atherton, and Karen Glave—the latter two playing U.S. Foreign Service Officers). Regardless, Dagg gives viewers a pungent sense of the region and ends on a graceful note. Recommended as a future video pick, River opens this Friday (6/24) in New York, at the Cinema Village.

My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn: When the Behind-the-Scenes are Better than the Movie

It was not a total lost when Only God Forgives, Nicolas Winding Refn’s much anticipated follow-up to Drive, bombed with the Cannes press corps. At least it should have shown Ryan Gosling how to deal with the Lido drubbing dealt to his directorial debut, Lost River. Maybe Winding Refn’s film is not looking as bad to them, by comparison. Maybe. Nevertheless, his family did not return from six months in Thailand without bringing home one highly watchable film. Alas for Winding Refn, that would be his wife Liv Corfixen’s up-close-and-personal behind-the-scenes documentary, My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

When watching Corfixen’s film, you immediately realize there was no way OGF was going to work. Winding Refn essentially admits his script makes no sense, which is never a good sign. Yet, his own contradictory impulses imply an even deeper identity crisis for the film. On one hand, he is clearly preoccupied with the pressure to repeat the success of Drive, yet he is perversely determined to produce a something utterly dissimilar. Mission accomplished on that score.

Much to her frustration, Winding Refn strictly limited Corfixen’s access to the set. It is evident from their often testy exchanges that she missed a lot of “making of” drama as a result. Still, it is blindingly obvious from the get-go this is a “troubled” production. In some shockingly revealing scenes, she captures all of her husband’s unvarnished self-doubt and self-pity, as OGF irreparably runs off the rails. Winding Refn’s references to compatriot Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier sounds especially telling. They seem like they should be two neurotic peas in a pod, but Winding Refn clearly nurses an inferiority complex.

Life should really not be dismissed as a DVD-extra, because it is hard to see anyone packaging it with OGF. After all, the shorter film basically explains why the longer feature attraction is such a chaotic mess. Short is also the right term. The actual movie substance of Life clocks in just under sixty minutes. However, Life has one thing few films can boast: their legendary family friend, director Alejandro Jodorowsky reading tarot and providing marriage counseling.

In all honesty, OGF has its moments, but they all come courtesy of the wonderfully fierce Kristin Scott Thomas and stone cold Thai movie star Vithaya Pansringarm, both of whom are seen in Life, planning their climatic scene together. In contrast, Gosling is utterly underwhelming, but to be fair, he comes across like a good sport in Corfixen’s doc, often seen playing with the couple’s young daughters. Perhaps he and Winding Refn should just leave the making of David Lynchian films to David Lynch.

Regardless, Life is a brutally honest look at the personal and emotional repercussions of a film that never worked, in any step of its production. It is also frequently very funny, in decidedly uncomfortable ways. Frankly, it is a shame we do not have similarly intimate records of the notorious production processes for films like Heaven’s Gate, but Life will be there as a cautionary example for all future filmmakers battling their expectations and egos. Highly recommended for fans of cult cinema, My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn opens this Friday (2/27) in New York, at the Elinor Bunin Monroe Film Center.

NYAFF ’14: The White Storm

Eight-Faced Buddha is the Al Sharpton of Thai drug lords. That ridiculous coif should be sufficient grounds to throw his butt in jail. However, he also has an extensive body count to his credit and a massive wave of heroin headed towards Hong Kong. The only thing standing in its way is an extremely tired undercover cop, his handler, and their boss and mutual boyhood chum. Their friendship will be severely strained in Benny Chan’s action conflagration The White Storm (trailer here), which screens during the 2014 New York Asian Film Festival.

So Kin-chau is due for some R&R with his very pregnant wife, but Chief Inspector Ma Ho-tin keeps sending him out for one more sting. They were supposed to finally bust his longtime target Black Chai, but when Ma learns the trafficker has a deal in the works with Eight-Faced, So must engineer a last minute escape for the both of them. So reluctantly goes deep undercover with Black Chai with only Ma, their third Musketeer Cheung Chi-wai, and another honest HK colleague for back-up.

Frankly, the boundary between cops and criminals in Thailand is rather porous. Ma and his colleagues have to go rogue just to foil the crooked cops trying to rat out So. Unfortunately, when Ma’s game-changing operation goes wrong, it goes massively, cinematically wrong. It will fatally sabotage his career and plague his conscience for years, until a big twist suggests his guilt might be a tad misplaced.

There is nothing subtle about White Storm. It is all about projectile explosions and brooding, but it truly delivers some awesome over-the-top action spectacle. Nothing is off the table including a romance with Eight-Faced’s transgendered daughter, Mina Wei. Arguably, that is the most sensitively rendered element of this delirious gun-down. Evidently, Nick Cheung’s steamy publicity photo shoot with the transgender beauty queen Treechada “Poyd” Malayaporn raised quite a few eyebrows in HK, so mission accomplished.

In fact, all three big name leads are in fine form throughout. Louis Koo’s So slow burns like nobody’s business, while Sean Lau Ching-wan compellingly portrays Ma’s rapid descent from hot shot to a self-loathing shell of a man. However, Cheung takes viewers on the wildest character arc as his rapidly evolving namesake. Vithaya Pansringarm, who stole just about every scene in Only God Forgives, also turns up, playing a far more ethically ambiguous cop, but he is criminally under-employed.

While White Storm indulges in quite a bit of exotic Thai exoticism, Chan never strays too far from an old school hail of bullets. Its super-charged energy level and tragic sensibilities follow in the tradition of some of the best HK action films. Highly recommended for fans of Hong Kong Cinema and the big name cast, The White Storm screens tomorrow (6/29) at the Walter Reade Theater, as part of this year’s NYAFF.

Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives

Evidently, expat Julian Thompson had a spot of legal trouble back home.  He and his drug-running brother Billy now assume Bangkok is their oyster and act accordingly.  However, Thompson might just miss those coppers with their due process.  The family business will get decidedly ugly in Nicolas Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives (trailer here), which opens today in New York.

Julian is the sensitive Thompson brother.  He runs the legit side of their Muay Thai boxing club front and keeps his regular prostitute Mai on-call, even though he never fully avails himself of her services, if you get the drift.  Billy Thompson was always their mother’s favorite.  Unfortunately, he is now dead, but he sure had it coming.

After raping and killing an under-aged prostitute, the elder Thompson brother was locked in a room with her guilt ridden father, who knew what to do.  Chang was the one who told him to.  The mysterious retired police officer still seems to call all the shots on the Bangkok force.  Although he sometimes appears eerily bad-assed, Chang is probably just a metaphorical “Angel of Death.”  Of course, Thompson is just as dead either way.

Given the circumstances of his brother’s death, little Julian has trouble ginning-up sufficient outrage to seek vengeance.  This is not the case for their Oedipus Complex-on-wheels mother, Crystal.  She blows into town like a hurricane, determined to avenge her preferred son.  Crystal will also take every opportunity to mess with Julian’s head, while re-asserting control of her far-flung illicit businesses.  Killing a cop is no big deal to her, but Chang is no ordinary flatfoot.

For what it’s worth, Only is nowhere near the train wreck Cannes reviewers made it out to be.  The film has its memorable moments and performances.  Yet, there is no denying Winding Refn’s approach is rather self-indulgent.  There are so many long slow David Lynchian shots of empty hallways, viewers will half expect the giant and the dwarf to eventually pop out of a door.  There is also an oppressively misogynistic vibe to the film.  Thai actress Ratha Phongam is a lovely woman, who does what she can with Mai’s pencil thin character, but the way the Thompsons treat her is rather appalling—and she gets off easy compared to others.

Of course, some might call Crystal Thompson a strong female character.  That is certainly true, but a foul mouthed, sexually manipulative, woman-hating, sociopathic mommy-monster should not exactly constitute a feminist role model.  Kristin Scott Thomas is rather awe-inspiring in the role, hardening her tart-tongued imperious image in a forge of Hellfire.

To the film’s credit, it finally finds Ryan Gosling’s comfort range: sullen and emasculated. The film also delivers vicarious payback during Julian’s massive beatdown scene.  Audiences will start to cheer in their heads “that was for the interminable Blue Valentine and that was for the pretentious The Place Beyond the Pines, and that was for its ridiculously awkward title.”

Frankly though, Vithaya Pansringarm is the star of the film, following-up his breakout performance as the murder-solving Buddhist monk in Tom Waller’s Mindfulness and Murder.  An intensely righteous screen presence, his Chang is like a Dirty Harry with a divine mandate.  As the president of the Thailand Kendo Club, he also swings a sword with authority.

Throughout Only, Winding Refn’s directorial hand is so heavy it nearly crushes everyone on screen, except KST and Pansringarm—they never wilt.  Too laborious and too stylized, it still serves as a dramatic showcase for its fine supporting players.  Only recommended as a curiosity piece for cult film veterans, Only God Forgives opens today (7/19) in New York at the Angelika Film Center.