NYAFF '13: The Rooftop

That’s right, “Wax” is the word.  Named for his hair styler, Wax is a singing kung fu motorcycle gang member, who is out to win the heart of the innocent ingénue.  There will be dancing, fighting, and swooning in Jay Chou’s The Rooftop (trailer here), the closing night film of the 2013 New York Asian Film Festival (and also part of the Well Go USA spotlight), which opens theatrically in New York this Friday.

Wax and his bowling biker buds live in the Rooftop section of Galilee, under the shadow of the huge outdoor billboards.  They do not mind the scenery though.  In fact, they are rather fond of the one featuring Starling, a budding starlet and supermodel.  Wax’s three stooges, Tempura, Egg, and Broccoli refer to her as “Sister-in-Law” to needle the big smitten lug.  Everyone assumes nothing will ever come of his impossible crush until the day Wax picks up some part-time stuntman work getting the snot beat out of him on the set of her next picture.

Of course, she notices him.  As their chaste courtship heats up, William (the one-named), Starling’s mobbed-up movie star patron, contrives to sabotage their romance.  We know he is bad news because he is an associate of Red, one of Tempura’s unfriendly rent-collecting rivals working for the corrupt housing authority.  That’s right, some of the villains are Taiwanese HUD bureaucrats, albeit decidedly more flamboyant than our homegrown variety.

For his second outing in the director’s chair, pop idol and action super-star Chou channels his inner Baz Lurhmann, unleashing a kaleidoscope of colors and staging big flashy, razzle-dazzling musical numbers. Clearly, not afraid of a little sentiment, Chou indulges one big melodramatic set piece, after another.  One minute Wax and Starling are strolling through a carnival, next they are dancing in the rain, and shortly thereafter they stare into each other eyes in his quaint rooftop neighborhood as fireworks explode in the background.  It’s all good.

Chou and the radiant Li Xinai look like an attractive couple and develop some half decent romantic chemistry together.  She even does some legit acting in her own scenes. However, the crafty old HK vet Eric Tsang often steals the show as Dr. Bo, the lads’ martial arts mentor and local snake oil salesman.  Alan Ko also has his moments as Tempura, the enforcer trying to go straight.  Unfortunately, the shticky comic relief delivered by Egg and Broccoli becomes embarrassing over time.

Still, Rooftop has a few gags that will have viewers laughing in spite of themselves.  Truly, this is kitchen sink filmmaking.  Chou throws it all in, including a way over the top framing device.  Yet, Mark Lee Ping Bin, considered one of the world’s finest cinematographers for his work on films like Norwegian Wood, makes it all look bright and sparkly.  If you want spectacle, Chou has your spectacle right here.  Recommended for those who thought The Great Gatsby was too staid and did not have enough martial arts, The Rooftop officially closed this year’s NYAFF last night, but will open this Friday (7/19) in New York at the AMC Empire.

Japan Cuts ’13 & NYAFF ’13: The Kirishima Thing

Is he a teenaged John Galt or is something more sinister afoot?  Either way, the mysterious absence of a high school’s top BMOC leaves a void his peers will struggle to fill in Daihachi Yoshida’s The Kirishima Thing (trailer here), which screens tonight as a co-presentation of this year’s Japan Cuts and the New York Asian Film Festival.

Even though he was selected to the state squad, Kirishima has reportedly quit the volleyball team.  His friends and teammates have yet to hear it from him directly, because he has not been to class lately. He has not even contacted his bombshell girlfriend Risa, whose insecurity mounts when everyone turns to her for answers. 

She is still at the top of the social pyramid, but the interregnum loosens her hold on Kasumi Higashihara, a geek-turned-hottie.  Temporarily falling back into old habits, she even attends a Tetsuo screening where she runs into Ryoya Maeda, the socially awkward leader of the school’s film club.  Picking up on the spirit of anarchy, Maeda convinces the club to defy their faculty advisor by shooting the sort of zombie film they always wanted to make.

As Maeda starts to get ideas about everything, including Higashihara, prize-winning band saxophonist Aya Samashima considers acting on her attraction to Kirishima’s elitist crony, Hiroki Kikuchi.  However, these are not pleasant times for the bench-warmer taking Kirishima’s place on the team, thanks to Kubo, the punishing team captain.

Will the established social order breakdown or will knuckle-draggers like Kubo maintain it the hard way?  Just how irreplaceable is Kirishima to the school’s social ecosystem anyway?  It is hard to say for certain, because K Thing presents so many conflicting viewpoints. Kirishima and his absence mean many things to many people.  He is probably a better chap than Kubo, but viewers never have the chance to see for themselves.  Instead, he serves as a giant Rohrschach to evaluate his peers.

Frequently doubling-back, K Thing excessively analyzes relatively mundane encounters from just about every POV.  At times, it really is overkill, but in the process, Yoshida fully develops his large cast of characters and their intricate relationship dynamics.  When the film is over, alert audience members will be able to produce flow charts of who likes who.  Despite the mysterious vibe lurking over the proceedings (and an occasional zombie flight of fantasy), these kids and their school feel really real.

Evidently, some things about high school are universal, but this student body is unusually good looking.  Nevertheless, Ai Hashimoto is fantastic as the chameleon-like Higashihara.  Who she is largely depends on who she is with, but Yoshida never condemns her for that. Arguably, it is a reflection of human nature. Suzuka Ohgo is compellingly intense as Sawashima, even though she hardly looks like a band-geek. Appropriately ambiguous, Ryunosuke Kamiki’s Maeda comes across as a half-victim and half-provocateur, which suits the film nicely.

K Thing will not shake viewers to their souls like Tetsuya Nakashima’s thematically related Confessions, but it will still get under their skin.  One could argue it is also more genre than it initially appears. Yoshida skillfully balances his large ensemble, getting brutally honest performances out of the young but accomplished cast-members. Recommended for those who appreciate dark teen dramas, The Kirishima Thing screens tonight (7/14) at the Japan Society, as a co-programmed selection of Japan Cuts and the New York Asian Film Festival.

Japan Cuts ’13 & NYAFF ’13: Thermae Romae

When in Rome, do as the Japanese do.  Time-travelling Roman Architect Lucius Quintus Modestus unwittingly adopts this strategy.  Sure, you might think he looks more Japanese than Roman, but there is no need for pedantry when Hideki Takeuchi’s Thermae Romae (trailer here) screens tonight as a co-presentation of this year’s Japan Cuts and the New York Asian Film Festival.

Nursing his wounded pride at a Roman civic bath, the recently fired Modestus is inexplicably pulled through the drainage system into modern day Japan.  Initially contemptuous of the old-timers soaking in the neighborhood bath, the man has to admit their facilities beat anything Rome has to offer.  It all rather overwhelms his Roman pride, while his chiseled looks overwhelm aspiring manga artist Mami Yamakoshi.  After causing a great deal of naked commotion, Modestus quickly returns to his era, just as mysteriously as he left.  Soon, he is the toast of Rome, applying the innovations he observed in Japan.

His new found fame earns Modestus the ear of the stern but wise Emperor Hadrian and his thoughtful counselor Antoninus.  Of course, the Emperor’s hedonistic adopted son Ceionius is a different story.  Each time Modestus needs inspiration for a major commission, he somehow finds his way back to Japan and Yamakoshi, whether it be the upscale bathroom showroom where she works part-time or her mother’s rustic mountain spa.  Eventually, she will pulled back to classical Rome with him, just in time for a major imperial power struggle.

Based on a popular manga series that also spawned a short-lived anime incarnation, Thermae Romae has plenty of pratfalls and fish-out-of-water humor, but the cast plays it surprisingly straight. In fact, Masachika Ichimura and Kai Shishido play Hadrian and Antoninus as if they thought Sir Derek Jacobi might be popping round the set in his I, Claudius costume.

Hilariously stone-faced Kore-eda regular Hiroshi Abe does not really have that option, given how much time Modestus must run about in his altogether.  Still, he conveys a sense of the architect’s principled rectitude, even when embroiled in truly outrageous situations.  In a role original to the film, Aya Ueto is likable enough as Yamakoshi, but she is saddled with a problematically passive character.  There are plenty of Euro-looking Romans as well, dubbed into perfect Japanese to keep the madness chugging along at full steam.

Partly filmed in Italy’s celebrated Cinecitta studio, Thermae’s period production scenes frankly look better than they needed to.  It also observes the conventions of time travel movies, without getting bogged down in them.  Lightweight but entertaining, it is a goofy romp that avoids all the cheap excesses of recent “Blank Movie” spoofs.  Recommended for fans of time travel and manga-inspired films, Therma Romae screens tonight (7/14) at the Japan Society, as a co-programmed selection of Japan Cuts and the New York Asian Film Festival.

Japan Cuts ’13 & NYAFF ’13: A Story of Yonosuke

He was the sort of guy who would always help a friend move.  He would also loan them money without grumbling.  Yonosuke Yokomichi was a mop-topped tool, but he had a good heart.  The impact he had on his college friends is slowly but surely revealed in Shuichi Okita’s massively bittersweet A Story of Yonosuke (trailer here), which screens today as a co-presentation of the 2013 Japan Cuts and this year’s NewYork Asian Film Festival.

In the 1980’s, Japan’s booming economy had our opportunistic politicians worked up into a protectionist fury.  As a freshman business administration student, Yokomichi would seem well placed to join the economic elite, even if he is a naïve kid fresh off the bus from the coast.  However, our protagonist’s college years will be more defined by his involvement in the samba club than his course work.

Actually, the samba club looks like a blast.  Characteristically, it was something he just fell into.  Joining on freshman orientation day with two recent acquaintances, he would stay, even after an unplanned pregnancy forced Kuramochi and Akutsu to drop-out.  Yet years later as a happily married couple they reflect on how Yokomichi brought them together.

Yusuke Kato also has found memories of the title character, even though it took him a while to warm up to the earnest doofus.  Nonetheless, it would be Yokomichi’s tolerance that the jaded Kato remembers so fondly.  Ironically, it is Kato who introduces Yokomichi to Shoko Yosano, the great love of his life and perhaps vice versa.  It takes a while for them to realize it though and given the film’s elegiac tone, it is probably safe to assume they never really get in synch.

There are no big known-down drag-out melodramatic episodes in Story.  The film is too smart for that kind of acting-out.  Instead, Okita focuses on the sort of small telling moments that become indelibly etched in memory.  When he finally delivers the film’s Rosebud moment, it is devastatingly effective because of its casual simplicity.

Somewhat resembling a Japanese Louis Garrel, Kengo Kora is gangly and weirdly fidgety, but he plays Yokomichi with a fresh-faced charisma that grows over the long haul.  The on-screen chemistry he forges with Yoriko Yoshitaka’s Shoko Yosano is mature, complicated, and highly credible.  Likewise, her work as the one who got away (or let him get away) is remarkably honest and multifaceted. As her character evolves day-by-day and year-to-year, it is hard to say just what their relationship truly meant to her, but it was definitely something. Yet, Ayumi Ito is the film’s secret weapon, giving it unexpected bite as Chiharu Katase, a scandalous older woman with whom Yokomichi develops a long-term flirtation.

Deceptively simple sounding, Yonosuke is an epic film about the sort of people and events that are typically not portrayed in a grand manner.  Combining good humor and an elegant sensitivity, A Story of Yonosuke is an excellent film that is likely to be sadly overlooked by arthouse distributors because it lacks a sexy hook.  However, those who see the film will remember it warmly just like the title character’s friends.  Highly recommended, it screens this afternoon (7/13) at the Japan Society, as a joint presentation of this year’s Japan Cuts and New York Asian Film Festival.

Japan Cuts ’13 & NYAFF ’13: It’s Me, It’s Me

The expression “delete bad copies” sounds like relatively benign office work, until you start encountering your own personal doppelgangers.  Much to his surprise, Hitoshi Nagano gets along rather well with his first other “me.”  He is okay with the next one too.  Then things start getting complicated in Satoshi Miki’s It’s Me, It’s Me (trailer here), which screens tonight as a co-presentation of the 2013 Japan Cuts and this year’s New York Asian Film Festival.

Nagano does not have a lot going on in his life.  Having thrown in the towel on his photography ambitions, he limps through each day as a clerk in a big box appliance store.  One fateful day at a fast food restaurant, a loud mouth young wheeler-dealer named Daiki inadvertently leaves his smart phone on Nagano’s tray.  Acting on a perverse impulse, he uses the phone to con Daiki’s mother into depositing a few hundred thousand yen into his account.  Feeling remorseful, Nagano tries to return the money.  However, Daiki’s mother will not take it back.  She also seems to think he is her son, Daiki. 

As it happens, they could indeed be twins.  Yet, when Nagano visits his own mother, she does not recognize him.  Instead, she insists Daiki the Doppelganger is actually Hitoshi Nagano.  Later, the man who admits he kind of, sort of is Daiki explains to Nagano his mother was particularly upset because a third doppelganger had been coming round, making scenes.  That would be Nao, the hipster student.

When the three get together, they are like three peas in a pod—different but the same.  They start calling their bolt-hole “Me Island” and cover for Nagano when he needs to bail on work.  As if meeting his second selves were not eventful enough, he also starts cautiously pursuing Sayaka, an attractive older customer, who is married to a gangster. The mood darkens drastically though when Nao starts bringing round even more doppelgangers.

Based on the novel by Hoshino Tomoyuki, IMIM is one of the most original takes on the doppelganger archetype since Capt. Kirk battled his evil twin in the late Richard Matheson’s “The Enemy Within.”  Part urban fantasy, part dark thriller, and part surreal head-trip, it is devilishly difficult to classify.  In a way, IMIM has a vibe similar to Sion Sono’s Love Exposure, in which strange and bizarre circumstances take on nationwide significance that everyone accepts with matter-of-fact nonchalance.  Indeed, the straight-faced media reports on the mushrooming “copy deletion” phenomenon serve as a sly social commentary, but they are deadly serious for the original Nagano.

J-pop star Kazuya Kamenashi nicely steps into the postmodern Alec Guinness role of Nagano et al, creating intriguingly distinct personas for each “me.” Yuki Uchida adds some grace and sophistication as Sayaka, while Ryo Kase is all kinds of creepy clamminess as Nagano’s abusive store manager, Tajima.

It’s Me, It’s Me is a very clever film that patiently establishes its character(s) and premise.  As a result, the payoff is subtle but satisfying.  A smart genre hybrid, It’s Me, It’s Me is recommended quite highly when it screens tonight (7/13) at the Japan Society, as a joint presentation of this year’s Japan Cuts and New York Asian Film Festival.

Japan Cuts ’13 & NYAAF ’13: I’m Flash

Rui Yoshino’s family heeded the advice of a certain science fiction novelist.  They started their own religion.  Perhaps cult would be a more accurate term.  Regardless, his telegenic looks have served the church well during his tenure as “Guru.”  Unfortunately, scandal threatens to disrupt the family business in Toshiaki Toyoda’s I’m Flash (trailer here), which screens tonight as a co-presentation of this year’s Japan Cuts: the New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema and the New York Asian Film Festival.

The Guru has not been himself lately.  Physically, he is fine.  He walked away from the car crash that killed a motorcyclist and left his single young lady passenger in a coma.  However, the incident has left its mark in other ways, as viewers will learn over time.  To protect their frontman and their interests, the family sequesters the Guru in his tropical compound, recruiting three unnamed underworld types to serve as his bodyguards.  Their services will indeed be needed.

A controversial figure in his own right, Toyoda bounced back from his unplanned filmmaking hiatus with two wildly idiosyncratic films.  His hard-rocking period fantasy Blood of Rebirth is a redemption allegory of unusual power, which will reverberate in viewers’ heads, perhaps for all eternity.   His subsequent Monster’s Club, an austere invitation to sympathize with the devil, might have been more about exorcising some of his own tortured demons.  Happily, I’m Flash is an eerie return to form and arguably Toyoda’s most accessible film since his “troubles.”  In fact, I’m Flash often seems poised on the brink of a caustic noir portrait of corruption in the Chinatown tradition, yet it always remains slyly elusive.

Death Note’s Tatsuya Fujiwara nicely hints at the imp of perverse lurking inside the not-as-dumb-as-he-looks Guru and Ryuhei Matsuda sets off all the right alarms bells as the bodyguard who is not too young and impetuous or old and cantankerous, but just deadly right.  Kiko Mizuhara also keeps viewers thoroughly off balance in her flashback sequences as the mystery woman.  Still, everybody wilts when sharing the screen with Michiyo Ookusu as the Guru’s Machiavellian mother—have mercy.

Like everything about Toyoda, I’m Flash is bound to be divisive.   Those with a taste for intelligently challenging films will appreciate its genuine air of mystery.  It is also a surprisingly handsome production, capitalizing on the evocative locale and subtly creepy set design, most notably the Guru’s villa, which looks as if it could grace the cover of both Architectural Digest and Cult Living.  

Toyotarô Shigemori’s cinematography is also weirdly effective, in a way that is difficult to pin down.  Over-used as a form of critical shorthand, the term “fever dream” does not really apply here.  This is clearly our world, in broad daylight, but something still feels not quite right. Very highly recommended for the moderately adventurous, I’m Flash screens at the Japan Society, this evening (7/11), the opening night of this year’s Japan Cuts, in conjunction with the New York Asian Film Festival.

NYAFF ’13: Beijing Blues

Fred Dryer would approve of this Beijing police detective named after his famous TV character.  Brother Zhang Huiling (Hunter) is a broken-down, asthmatic copper, pursuing workaday crooks on Beijing’s bunco squad, but there is no denying his work ethic.  After years of hard drinking and hard policing, Zhang encounters his personal Moriarty in Gao Qunshu’s Beijing Blues (trailer here), which screens today during the 2013 New York Asian Film Festival.

There is a lot of money on the streets of Beijing, but many of the flim-flam artists Brother Zhang’s team investigates prey on their fellow proletarian.  Shot in a hand-held, on-the-fly docudrama style, Blues is initially rather episodic, capturing Brother Zhang on the job, stalking and eventually busting assorted counterfeit pushers, traffic accident scammers, and fortune-telling hucksters.  However, the legendary con artist Gold-Digger Zhang has reportedly blown into town and dispatched his minions for an impending crime wave.  A street level chess match ensues between the two old dogs.

Having established his blockbuster credentials in recent years, Gao returns to the gritty aesthetic and unconventional casting of his kind of brilliant, NYAFF selected Old Fish.  Like the real life cop who played Fish’s protagonist, many of Beijing’s Finest appear in Blues, usually playing cops, logically enough.  However, most of the cast were well known Chinese bloggers and social media figures, including former publisher Zhang Lixian, who is sensational as Brother Zhang.  Zhang perfectly expresses his namesake’s world-weariness, as well as his steadfast commitment to principle, while still suggesting he is always an inch away from doing a full Howard Beale.

Gao could have easily trimmed some of Brother Zhang’s plugging away from the repetitive mid-section, yet his character is always engaging.  When Gao kicks it into gear, the tension truly mounts, but in subtly ironic ways.  Much like Fish, Blues consistently defies cop movie conventions.  While his earlier film presented a jaundiced view of the corrupt and ineffectual police bureaucracy, Blues lets Brother Zhang’s colleagues and superiors off the hook.  Instead, contemporary Chinese go-go-don’t-get-involved society falls under Blues’ withering glance.

Who knew China’s micro-bloggers, street buskers, reality show contestants, and screenwriters were such good actors?  From stem to stern, the entire ensemble appears true-to-life and completely believable in character.  Led by Zhang’s richly textured lead performance, Beijing Blues delivers entertaining idiosyncrasies and unexpected depth.  Highly recommended, it screens today (7/9) at the Walter Reade as part of this year’s New York Asian Film Festival.

NYAFF ’13: The Peach Tree

It would have been a Sophie’s Choice worthy of Solomon, but a devoted father was understandably reluctant to make it. Instead, he raises his two sons, conjoined twin brothers fused at the neck, in seclusion.  When they finally encounter a young woman, both will be profoundly affected in Ku Hye-sun’s The Peach Tree (trailer here), which screens today during the 2013 New York Asian Film Festival.

Dong-hyun is the sullen brother who controls their shared body.  Sang-hyun is literally the superfluous one, who can only watch passively from his backward looking vantage point.  He is the one doctors wanted to “remove,” but their father could not bear to consent.  Both bear the emotionally scars of their mother’s rapid descent into madness.  Thinking it best to shelter them from an insensitive world, their father raises them in a remote farmhouse, with their mother hidden away like Rochester’s wife.

Concerned by his increasing resentment of Sang-hyun, the well-meaning father tries to realize Dong-hyun’s ambition to become a published writer by recruiting Park Seung-ah, a struggling children’s book illustrator.  Shrouded in a hoodie to appear unremarkable, Dong-hyun starts falling for Park as they work on a book transparently based on his own experiences: The Peach Tree.  Yet, even though Sang-hyun cannot see Park, he still shares his brother’s growing attachment.

Throughout Peach Tree, Ku’s approach screams to be compared to Tim Burton, in both good and bad ways.  Visually, she commands the screen, while showing an acute affinity for outcasts and underdogs.  There is a comparable attention to detail, but unfortunately there is also a somewhat similar slackness to her narrative.  It is no surprise where this film is headed, but Ku takes her time getting there.

Still, there is no getting around the fact Peach Tree looks incredible.  Cinematographer Kim Soon-yong gives it all a rich, sun-drenched look appropriate for a fairy tale.  Formerly a major Korean TV star, Ku has become an artistic polyglot, producing well received works in a variety of media, like a Korean James Franco, except more talented and less annoying.  Clearly, she is an actor’s director, coaxing some finely wrought work from her cast.  Ryu Deok-hwan nicely expresses all the complicated and conflicted turmoil roiling within Dong-hyun.  In contrast, Cho Sueng-woo is mostly just called upon to look sad as Sang-hyun, but he does so convincingly.  However, Nam Sang-mi finds unexpected depth in Park, who turns out to be more human than your typically noble Miracle-Worker.

It is hard to watch the first and last ten minutes of Peach Tree and not get choked up.  It is also difficult to miss the naked manipulation.  Ku’s film is lovely to look at and features some finely drawn performances, but it would have been nice to have a bit more life in the middle.  Recommended for those who appreciate high-end melodrama, The Peach Tree screens this afternoon (7/9) at the Walter Reade as part of this year’s NYAFF.

NYAFF ’13: The Last Supper

The Biblical echoes are slightly misleading, but not wholly inappropriate.  For those present, the notorious Hongmen Banquet is the betrayal that keeps on betraying.  The murky events in question will continue to haunt the first Han Emperor until his final tormented moments in Lu Chuan’s The Last Supper (trailer here), which screens today during the 2013 New York Asian Film Festival.

Everyone realizes Emperor Gaozu, a.k.a. Liu Bang, is not long for this earth, including the common-born emperor from Pei County.  However, he is not going out gracefully.  Haunted by nightmares and visions of his past, Liu Bang sees conspiracies in every shadow.  He ought to know.  He reached the throne through some shrewdly timed treachery.  Once sworn allies with Lord Yu and General Xin, he has killed the former and imprisoned the latter to solidify his hold on the throne.

Liu Bang has not exactly been scrupulously faithful to his wife, the Empress Lü Zhi either.  Regardless, she will act ruthlessly to protect his legacy.  The empress decides it is time to be well rid of Xin once and for all, but his prominence and his highly placed friends in court provide him a slim measure of protection.

Frankly, we are quite fortunate to have Last Supper screening at NYAFF, considering its release was held up for four months by government censors.  It is not hard to see what troubled the obedient apparatchiks.  Even a bureaucrat could pick up on the film’s “absolute power corrupts absolutely” implications.  This is the high tragedy of a man who gains an empire but loses his humanity (a point that also emerges, albeit somewhat less forcefully, in Daniel Lee’s White Vengeance, which also dramatizes the circumstances surrounding the Hongmen Banquet.)

For Lu, this represents a dramatic change of pace from his stark portrayal of Japanese war crimes in City of Life and Death.  Obviously less politically correct for the powers that be, Supper is further differentiated by a feverish atmosphere that often approaches the outright demonic.  Yet, it is also a grand period production, with enough imposing sets and palace guard extras to satisfy Cecil B. DeMille.

Supper is also notable for the geographically diverse casting of the main triumvirate that surely ought to pay dividends at the respective box offices.  Mainlander Liu Ye nicely portrays the raging paranoia of Liu Bang’s twilight years without descending to shtick or gimmicks.  Hong Kong super-star Daniel Wu captures the nobility of the tragic Lord Yu, while Taiwanese Chang Chen is impressively steely as General Xin.  Nonetheless, Qin Lan (Lu’s wife and frequent collaborator) dominates the film with her spellbinding Lady Macbeth-like portrayal of Lü Zhi.

The strangely timely Supper comes as a welcome rebuttal to Chinese films like Hero or The Guillotines that celebrate or at least excuse strong centralized authority.  Lu’s vision of Liu Bang clearly suggests the emperor’s madness and absolute power are two sides of the same coin.  In addition to its challenging subtext, The Last Supper also happens to be an excellent film, well worth seeing for its striking look and Qin Lan’s commanding performance.  Highly recommended, it screens tonight (7/7) and Wednesday afternoon (7/10) at the Walter Reade as part of this year’s New York Asian Film Festival.

Japan Cuts ’13 & NYAFF ’13: The Warped Forest

Does directed dreaming lead to bad luck?  Anything is possible in Shunichiro Miki’s world.  Now who’s hungry for dumplings?  Viewers really should fortify themselves before tumbling into Miki’s The Warped Forest (trailer here), which screens today as a co-presentation of the 2013 Japan Cuts and New York Asian Film Festival.

Warped Forest is not really a sequel to the two-and-a-half hour psychedelic head trip, Funky Forest: The First Contact, Miki co-directed with two co-conspirators.  However, it shares a similar sensibility.  Three men are getting drunk while the oldest relates a story about his budding boy-band dancer students who mysterious materialized in the nearby forest one night. Next thing they know, the agitated innkeeper bursts in.  Evidently, they too had been missing for the last two days.  Warped now flashes back, ostensibly showing viewers those two eventful days, but in a very strange and different world.

There is a narrative thread to the film that follows, but it impossible to describe in rational terms.  The professor is now a baker, who periodically sneaks off to the local cat house, where an otherworldly anteater-like creature attaches itself to his nipple.  Humans live and work side-by-side with either giants or Lilliputians, depending on one’s perspective.  Apli hunts the snark-like Pinkie Pankie with a decidedly phallic rifle, while her sister Au Lait harvests fruit resembling certain organs from the naked nymph trees.  She quietly pines for the local self-help guru, whose wife obsessively sharpens his samurai sword.

Eventually, just about everyone considers dream-hacking, which can apparently be done with the help of the ominous black inverted pyramid spinning overhead, bringing to mind The Tripods or V.  Frankly, if this is a case of a corrupted Matrix program, it would explain a lot.

Of course, Miki is not interested in banal explanations.  He wholly funded Warped himself through ten years of commercial work.  His independent spirit is admirable and obviously necessary.  It would be worth the price of admission just to see him try to pitch this film to a studio.  A whole lot of inventiveness went into Warped and a lot less logic. There are some oddly touching scenes in which characters try to forge connections, but the film’s overriding mission is to lead us on a guided tour of its mature, drug-influenced Candyland.

Somehow, Miki still managed to attract some big name stars to Warped, including Rinko Kikuchi, the Oscar nominee for Babel soon to be seen in Pacific Rim.  Viewers interested in either of those films should definitely check out Warped too, because how different can they be?  Kill Bill co-star Yôji Tanaka seems to be on a mission to make his filmography weirder with the recent punk rock dystopian Shakespeare non-adaptation Sado Tempest and his rather fearless and sometimes shirtless turn here as the baker/professor.  To their credit, the entire ensemble takes each scene scrupulously seriously and gives it their all.

You should have concluded long ago whether or not Warped Forest is your cup of tea.  For cult film connoisseurs, the bright colors, up-tempo music, and optimistic vibe of Forest are a rather refreshing change of pace from the dour, fatalism that often characterizes the cinema of the surreal.  Recommended for mature adults who want to see something new and bizarre, The Warped Forest screens tonight (7/7) at the Walter Reade and next Sunday afternoon (7/14) at the Japan Society, as part of this year’s Japan Cuts and NYAFF.

NYAFF ’13: An Inaccurate Memoir

Bet you didn’t know Dodge City was once occupied by the Japanese.  Evidently, they took it from the Chinese, but one undercover freedom fighter is determined to take it back in Leon Yang Shu-peng’s An Inaccurate Memoir (trailer here), which screens today as part of the Well Go USA spotlight at the 2013 New York Asian Film Festival.

Ambushed by the Japanese, the wounded Gao Dong-liang lies low in Taiping, a Northern Chinese city that mostly consists of jails and brothels.  After watching Fang You-wang’s gang break their ringleader out of prison with lickety-split efficiency, he starts hatching ideas.  Masquerading as a tempting rich twit, Gao gets himself kidnapped by the Fang gang, subsequently insinuating himself into the gang, after they tire of beating and torturing his uncooperative hide. 

Fang’s younger sister Jen takes a particular shine to him, which the outlaw is not exactly thrilled about.  Aside from Gao, the gang is not keen to tangle with the Japanese, but the Imperial Army forces their hands when they raid the hideout.  Suddenly, Fang is down with Gao’s crazy plan, but he gives it a distinctly bandito spin.

Inaccurate Memoir has already been widely compared to Jiang Wen’s Let the Bullets Fly, but it is less shticky, with more Spaghetti western grit to it.  Yang gets a bit bogged down with Gao’s first act abduction scenes, but once the soldier is part of the gang, Memoir settles down to business with commendable energy.

To its credit, the Fang Gang also boasts an unusually number of strong women members.  Working as a “professional” in town, Lady Dagger is as dangerous as she sounds, while the quiet but violent Lassie follows in the beloved tradition of lethal school girls.  However, the guys in the gang tend to blend together.  (You can tell this will be a problem when the film feels compelled to use on-screen graphics to introduce them to viewers by name.)

Regardless, Yang, the self-taught crash-the-party filmmaker, blows stuff up quite nicely.  Character development may not be his strong suit, but he helms some inventive action sequences and pays proper homage to the Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven/Dirty Dozen tradition, in which a pack of scraggly ruffians ultimately embrace and one-by-one die for a righteous cause.

Huang Xiaoming certainly looks the part of roguish Fang, but Zhang Yi’s Gao is a more multi-faceted character.  Still, Zhang Xinyi, Ni Jingyang, and Zhang Yue often steal the show as Jen, Lady Dagger, and Lassie.

Yang gets a big assist from his production and set designers, who created a richly appointed subterranean hideout.  The film’s eccentric vibe helps soften the requisite Chinese nationalism and anti-Japanese sentiments.  (However, the sheer volume of recent releases waving the bloody WWII shirt could lead to long term image problems for Chinese cinema in the international market place.)  Shrewdly, Yang always keeps the mayhem entertaining.  Recommended for fans of war movies with an eastern western sensibility, An Inaccurate Memoir screens this afternoon (7/7) at the Walter Reade, as part of the Well Go USA spotlight at this year’s New York Asian Film Festival.

NYAFFF ’13: One Perfect Day (short)

Let’s review.  If the characters are on a blind date, it’s a rom-com, but if they are internet dating, it’s a horror movie.  Yes, Korean horror master Kim Jee-woon indeed crosses over to the sunnier side of the street (let’s hope temporarily) with his pleasant short film One Perfect Day (trailer here), which screens today as part of the mighty 2013 New York Asian Film Festival.

Woon-chul badly wants to meet Ms. Right, so he gamely accepts a series of blind dates.  Unfortunately, that is really not a good forum for him.  Nonetheless, he makes a spectacularly counterproductive effort with Yoo-jin.  She is clearly not a good fit for him, but he drags her into a large municipal park (in heels), hoping to win her over through a game of rock-paper-scissors.  It might seem like a dubious choice, but he has his reasons.  However, she still is not the one.  That might be Eun-hee, who appears when and where Woon-chul least expects to find her.

Commissioned by a Korean sporting goods firm to celebrate their fortieth anniversary, OPD is light years removed from Kim’s brilliantly disturbing I Saw the Devil and his underperforming Hollywood debut, The Last Stand (here’s a marketing tip: putting Johnny Knoxville in a hat with ear flaps on your one-sheet will not necessarily guarantee box office gold).  OPD has its charms though, especially when Korean superstar Park Shin-hye lights up the third act.  Still, Yoon Kye-sang’s Woon-chul is so manically keen, it is hard to blame Yoo-jin for wanting the heck out of there.  In fact, viewers might find themselves rooting for Park Soo-jin and her perfect WTF expressions.  Nonetheless, Kim brings it all together with a payoff that implies much, but is quite satisfying.

To serve its promotional function, OPD is findable on the internet, but cinematographer Kim Woo-hyung’s rich use of light and color should look fantastic on a big screen and Kim Jee-woon is definitely a big picture director.  In any event, it is an entertaining short film, making it a nice bonus for Korean rom-com fans when it screens with the feature How to Use Guys with Secret Tips tonight (7/7) and Thursday (7/11) at the Walter Reade Theater, as part of this year’s NYAFF.

NYAFF ’13: When a Wolf Falls in Love with a Sheep

So far, American teens have largely been spared the joys of cram school.  In Taiwan, they are a fact of life for those facing the highly competitive university entrance tests.  It does not leave students much time for romance, but there just might be something cooking between two young back office workers.  Modern love is decidedly confused in Hou Chi-jan’s When a Wolf Falls in Love with a Sheep (trailer here), which screens today during the 2013 New York Asian Film Festival.

After leaving a “back soon” sticky note on his sleeping forehead, Tung’s girlfriend walked out of his life and has yet to return.  Maybe it was because he dressed too much like “Where’s Waldo.” Emerging from a heartsick tailspin, the dopey kid takes a job at a copy shop in the Nanyang cram school district, because he can do the work on autopilot and live in the loft above the store.  Making deliveries to the Bisheng School, Tung meets the cute but artistically frustrated Yang, who draws little sheep cartoons on the bottom of the school’s test papers.  One day, he responds with his own big bad wolf character and a doodle flirtation starts to blossom, much to the amusement of the student body.

Wolf is compulsively sweet, but it has tons more style than your average rom-com.  Hou integrates little animated vignettes of the sheep and wolf, as well as some completely fresh and original sight gags.  It sometimes feels a bit prone to ADD, but Hou eventually loops every rangy subplot back into his main narrative quite cleverly.  Despite its frothy tone, Wolf has some rather smart stuff to it, particularly the manner it presents the pseudo-courtship between Tung and Yang.  It is a two-tiered relationship, playful on paper but much more reserved in person, which really rings true.

As Tung, Kai Ko is appropriately sad-eyed and sensitive, while Chien Man-shu gives refreshing depth to the more philosophical Yang.  Wolf is also loaded with colorful supporting players, most notably including Lin Ching-tai (the star of Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale), playing off his real life persona as a former Presbyterian minister with his turn as a priest moonlighting as a noodle-cart vendor, wisdom dispenser, and general jack-of-all-trades.

Energetic and winning, Wolf is the sort of rom-com where fate is not content to merely take a hand, but will go so far as to smack characters alongside the head and yell “go after her, you schmuck.”  If that is manipulative at times, Hou nicely compensates with the originality of his execution.  Highly recommended for anyone who appreciates a good date movie, When a Wolf Loves a Sheep screens today (7/6) and Tuesday afternoon (7/9) at the Walter Reade Theater, as part of this year’s New York Asian Film Festival.  Those who go should stay through the final credits for several reasons, including the attendance of director and festival special guest Hou Chi-jan.

NYAFF ’13: Drug War

Divide-and-conquer and playing one opponent against another might sound like shrewd Art of War strategies, but they can land you in the midst a crossfire.  Frankly, there is no safe place to be in Johnnie To’s Drug War (trailer here).  The HK action auteur’s lean, mean return to form screens today at the 2013 New York Asian Film Festival just ahead of its July 26^th New York opening, courtesy of Well Go USA, the intrepid distributor getting a special shout-out at this year’s festival with their own special programming spotlight.

“I’m cop—I didn’t betray you, I busted you.”  Captain Zhang Lei’s choice words for the somewhat disappointed drug courier he just collared will echo throughout To’s first gangster throwdown set and co-produced in Mainland China.  Zhang also reeled in a bigger fish: Timmy Choi, a meth lab proprietor and trusted liaison between various criminal factions.

Facing the death penalty, Choi agrees to play ball with Zhang.  He will introduce Zhang to Brother Haha, a distribution kingpin looking for product and the representative of a shadowy supply consortium.  At each meeting, Zhang pretends to be the opposite gangster, in hopes of taking down both operations simultaneously.  He is not absolutely, positively sure he can trust Choi, but it is too good an opportunity to pass up.

Unusually gritty compared to the operatic Vengeance and Exiled, the first two acts of Drug War are essentially street-level procedurals, but darn good ones.  To shows us the nuts and bolts of the Tianjin drug squad at work, as well as the extreme lengths Zhang will go to take down his targets.  However, when it is finally go time, Drug War erupts into cold, hard, violent bedlam.

As Zhang, Sun Honglei is the absolute essence of hard-nosed steeliness.  Initially, it is rather jarring to hear him giggling in the guise of Haha, put he pulls that off too.  Likewise, Louis Koo will make viewers forget all about his recent leading man rom-com roles in his coldest, weasliest performance in years, even if he was dubbed for Mandarin speaking audiences.  His Choi is truly a survivor, like a cockroach. 

To fans will also being relieved to hear Lam Suet eventually turns up, as a criminal mastermind, no less.  Aside from a bit of comic relief here and there, the soldier-like supporting cast sets the right tone, particularly the glammed-down, nonsense Crystal Huang as Zhang’s colleague, Yang Xiabei.

The massively cool Drug War does not just pack a punch.  It is more like a body slam.  Critics and fans were concerned whether To’s hardboiled brand of crime drama would fly in China, but somehow he slipped this pitch black gem past the Party goalie.  A case of a master filmmaker and an all-star cast working at the tops of their respective games, Drug War is very highly recommended for action and gangster movie enthusiasts.  It screens today (7/5) at the Walter Reade Theater as part of this year’s NYAFF and opens its regular IFC Center engagement for the Fest feted Well Go USA on Friday the 26^th.

NYAFF ’13: Comrade Kim Goes Flying

The North Korean film authorities must love training montages.  You will find conspicuous examples in Pak Chong-song’s Centre Forward as well as this strange new North Korean-European co-production.  Granted, that is not a very large sampling, but it is not like there is room for much aesthetic diversity with the powers-that-be.  The production values have improved, but the dialogue is as stilted as ever in Kim Gwang-hun, Nicholas Bonner, and Anja Daelemans’ Comrade Kim Goes Flying (trailer here), which screens today during the 2013 New York Asian Film Festival.

Viewers will quickly realize Flying is a fantasy because characters constantly sit down to big traditional meals.  In between smashing daily production quotas, coalminer Kim Yong-mi dreams of being an acrobat in the Pyongyang Circus.  Her gruff father sounds a little like Casey Kasem, telling her to “keep her feet on the ground and her head out of the clouds.”  However, when Comrade Kim is temporarily transferred to the Pyongyang construction brigade, she jumps at a chance to audition for the Circus School.

Unfortunately, the circus elites do not appreciate her raw talent and enthusiasm.  Initially deflated, her spirit rebounds when Commander Sok Gun, the kindly foreman, enlists her to train a troupe of construction worker-acrobats.  Witnessing the salt-of-the-earth workers’ performance, Pak Jang-phil, the stuck-up trapeze strongman, realizes how much he and the circus need her.  When she finally gets her shot, will Comrade Kim be able to endure the rigorous training and make the final cut?

Obviously, Flying is an odd film, particularly given the open portrayal of class conflict between the scrappy workers and the snobby circus performers.  You might have thought the DPRK was a unified workers’ paradise, but evidently not.  In that case, just what have the Great Leader, the Dear Leader, and the Great Successor been doing all this time?

On the plus side, Flying is a much more polished film than Centre Forward.  Hwang Jin-sok’s candy-colored cinematography is rather appealing and the battery of co-directors keeps the action moving along quite spritely.  The brief animated sequences, adapted from old school North Korean socialist realist wood-cuts (of which co-director Bonner is considered the world’s leading collector) are also quite striking.  Nevertheless, the propaganda-laden dialogue, brimming with worker solidarity rhetoric and praise for the Party, just clunks along like an old jalopy.

Having recently reviewed Marc Wiese’s harrowing Camp 14—Total Control Zone, one hesitates to single out any of the cast for praise, in the fear it might somehow be used against them.  After all, any bourgeoisie association can be lethal in the DPRK police state.  In general terms, many of the cast members are veterans of the Pyongyang Circus, who have real credibility in their acrobatic scenes and transition fairly well into dramatic acting.  Those who really must be charming for the film to work are indeed quite winning and attractive.  One of several cast and crew members officially designated a “People’s Artist,” Ri Yong-ho is a particularly strong and engaging presence as the sensitive hardhat, Sok Gun.

Evidently, women’s stories are largely under-represented in North Korean cinema, so Comrade Kim can be considered progressive on that front.  It is always nice to see an underdog triumph over adversity, especially when it is rendered with energy and bright colors. 

Indeed, it is good for North Korea watchers to get a gander at the film, like old Kremlinologists leafing through an issue of Soviet Life.  However, presenting it without a reality check is a tad problematic.  In contrast, the 2011 Korean American Film Festival offered a more robust and informed picture of the notoriously closed country by programming Centre Forward on a double bill with Mads Brügger’s mid-blowing comedic expose Red Chapel.  Comrade Kim Goes Flying boasts a fresh-faced, highly likable cast, but the didactic script often undermines their efforts.  Recommended for curious audiences experienced in parsing propaganda, it screens this afternoon (7/5) at the Walter Reade, as part of this year’s NYAFF.

NYAFF ’13: The Fridge

Somebody get this woman a box of industrial strength Arm & Hammer.  She just can’t get that musty malevolent spirit out of her refrigerator.  Yes, she has a demonic appliance.  Evil takes many forms, so just go with it when Rico Maria Ilarde’s The Fridge (trailer here) screens tonight during the 2013 New York Asian Film Festival.

After years in America, Tina has returned to her old family home in the Philippines, hoping to discover what happened to her parents.  Nobody wants to talk about, so it must have been awful.  The house looks spooky from the street, but it is pretty cozy on the inside, aside from that hulking, ugly-looking refrigerator.  Turns out the appliance has an attitude to match.

Trying to start a new life, Tina crosses paths with James, an old torch-carrying elementary school friend at the grocery store and asks the electrician to come check out her buggy wiring shortly thereafter.  If that sounds like a way too convenient coincidence, bear in mind this is a film about a killer refrigerator.  Your pedantry is neither useful nor welcome here.

Of course, the fridge with its supernatural tentacles (sort of a cross between Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors and Cthulhu) starts racking up a respectable body count, in spectacularly bloody fashion.  However, most of its victims sort of have it coming, E.C. Comics style.  (Maybe not the neighbor’s cat, but it was disposable anyway.)

One of the crazier things about Fridge is its horror movie mechanics are way better than one would expect.  Sure, on some level it is cognizant how ludicrous the story truly is.  Nonetheless, Ilarde sets the mood nicely and Andi Eigenmann and JM de Guzman play it scrupulously straight as Tina and James.  Never winking at the camera, they act like it is pretty dreadful to have a possessed refrigerator in your kitchen, as it most certainly would be.

But wait, there’s more—two of the country’s top actors lend their prestige to the picture.  Joel Torre soldiers through like a good sport as Tina’s long suffering father and Ronnie Lazaro delivers a stiff shot of badassery as retired Det. Albay, styling an eye-patch and a triple-barreled shotgun.

Seriously, how can you go wrong with a killer refrigerator movie?  Executed with earnest confidence, this one will likely exceed audience expectations by a healthy margin.  While there is clearly a generous element of camp to it, Fridge holds together surprisingly well.  Horror movie fans really have to check it out when it screens tonight (7/5) at the Beale Theater and Wednesday afternoon (7/10) at the Walter Reade as part of this year’s New York Asian Film Festival.

NYAFF ’13: The Last Tycoon

There are explosions, talk of independence, and a villain named Mao.  What more could you ask for in a Fourth of July screening?  Shanghai’s most prominent gangster and his two very different mentors will choose up sides amid the turmoil of Republican era China in Wong Jing’s The Last Tycoon (trailer here) which screens today during the 2013 New York Asian Film Festival.

Cheng Daqi is very loosely based on the real life historical figure, Du Yuesheng, a high-ranking Shanghai mobster, who supported the Nationalists out of anti-Communist and anti-Japanese sentiments.  As a young man, Cheng always intended to make a name for himself in the big city, but a scrape with a corrupt cop forced his hand.  It also introduced him to his temporary cellmate, Mao Zai, an army officer serving as an unofficial liaison to the underworld.  When Mao’s men spring them from prison, Cheng follows them to Shanghai.

Cheng quickly raises through the ranks, apprenticing under the top gangster, Hong Shouting.  However, he still remembers his great love, Ye Zhiqui.  She has also fulfilled her ambition to become the toast of Beijing’s opera, eventually marrying Cheng Zhaimei, a scholar and clandestine operative in the revolutionary underground.  Of all the nightclubs in Shanghai, Ye and her husband walk into Cheng Daqi’s, because it is the biggest and most ostentatious.

There are echoes of Casablanca throughout Tycoon, but Wong never slavishly parallels the Bogart classic.  He also departs considerably from the established facts of Du’s life.  However, he clearly plays to the strengths of his star, Chow Yun-fat, giving him plenty of opportunity to blast away two-handed while dressed to the nines.  Although The Assassins was pretty good, Tycoon is really the sort of film his fans have been waiting years for.

Chow does his stone cold cool thing and it still works like a charm.  Sammo Hung also brings all kinds of gravitas and good karma as his patriotic master, Hong.  Clearly enjoying the heavy role, Francis Ng is charismatically villainous as the turncoat Mao Zai (not Zedong, but close enough for the 4^th).  While his Mao is not exactly analogous to Claude Rains’ Captain Renault, Monica Mok really throws a wrench in the Casablanca works as Cheng Daqi’s wife, Bao.  Sensitive but strong and resilient, she rather walks away with the audience’s sympathies.

Produced by special festival guest Andrew Lau, Tycoon is the sort of sprawling gangster/war epic that HK cinema does so well.  It is a quality period production, boasting quite a few get-your-money’s-worth action sequences.  Sure to satisfy fans of the all-star cast and martial arts shoot-outs, The Last Tycoon screens tonight (7/4) at the Walter Reade Theater, as part of the 2013 New York Asian Film Festival.  Happy 4^th of July.