Fantasia ’17: Highheels (short)

It sounds like a Cosmo punchline, but it is acutely human. For millennia, mankind has only survived as remnants within androids. Yet, by the year 4015 that little piece of humanity has started to covet luxuries again. Designer shoes are in particular demand among fashion-conscious androids, but Kai is one of the few artisans capable of crafting something worth obsessing over. Her perfectionism also manifests itself through obsessive behavior in Inchul Lee’s darkly beautiful science fiction short film, Highheels (trailer here), which screens during the 2017 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Highheels must be the most fashionably fabbest science fiction since Luc Besson and Jean Paul Gaultier collaborated on The Fifth Element. For proof, check out the ensembles donned by Blue, Yellow, and Red, three customers of Kai’s retro-retro showroom (you should be able to tell which is which). When Blue commissions Kai to make a custom-made shoe, the android-shoemaker produces something so elegant, it catches the eyes of both Yellow and Red. Of course, Kai will keep faith with her original customer, so she’d better appreciate it.

This is a terrific speculative short that takes a rather dark turn, but that is what you get when human nature reasserts itself. Frankly, this would have been a great selection for MoMA’s current Future Imperfect series, because it is very definitely an example of science fiction exploring the question of what it means to be human. Plus, it has the star-power of Rinko Kikuchi, who amazes as the increasingly driven (and perhaps consequently human) Kai.

Highheels also looks incredible thanks to Remi Yanai’s eye-popping, runway-worthy costumes and producer Mutsumi Lee’s carefully crafted art direction. This is a triumph of mise-en-scene that might be described as Fifth Element with dashes of Bladerunner and Black Swan, but the action is entirely confined to the carefully controlled environment of Kai’s boutique.

Very highly recommended, Highheels screens today (7/30), as part of the Fragments of Asia shorts block at this year’s Fantasia. There are several great shorts in that block, but Chai Siris’s 500,000 Years is somewhat disappointing. The hybrid-documentary shows an itinerant projectionist showing a lurid 1970s Thai horror film at a forgotten shrine, but it really just makes us want to watch the film they are screening instead. However, Highheels and Matasaburo of the Wind make Fragments a can’t-miss ticket.

Slamdance ’16: Last Summer

Plenty of divorcing couples have used their kids to inflict pain on each other, but this entitled princeling has been weaponized particularly cruelly. His Japanese mother has lost all custody and visitation rights to her well-heeled western ex-husband. Franky, the helplessly spoiled Kenzaburo (Ken) does not seem like much of a prize, but his mother’s love remains unabated. Unfortunately, she only has four days to say her goodbyes for the next eleven years in Leonardo Guerra Seràgnoli’s Last Summer (trailer here), which screened during the 2016 Slamdance Film Festival.

Although the precise details are never revealed, it is strongly implied mental health struggles and her ex-husband’s wealth brought Naomi to this point. Presumably, those pills she pops in the morning are not vitamins. Clearly, her history was used against her in court and with the four man crew of the luxury yacht provided for Naomi’s farewell visit. Although Alex the captain remains rather open-minded, Eva the steward and Rebecca the surrogate nanny are clearly looking to undermine any last hopes Naomi might have of forging a connection with Ken.

This could have easily been the stuff of Lifetime channel melodrama, but Seràgnoli goes for broke with his rarified art cinema approach and largely pulls it off. Gianfilippo Cortelli’s cinematography has the lush glossiness of a fashion magazine spread that perfectly suits the graceful simplicity of Milena Canonero’s frocks. Canonero’s production design team perfectly conveys the ironically austere vibe of the ultra-chic trappings. (Indeed, the yacht is a trap, for both the aching mother and the problematically passive son).

As stylishly produced as Summer is, the key that makes it work is Rinko Kikuchi’s quiet but violently powerful performance as Naomi. The one-two punch of her vulnerability and beauty is absolutely heart-stopping. This is not a dialogue-heavy film, but you can read it all in her eyes.

Kikuchi also develops some wonderfully ambiguous chemistry with Yorik van Wageningen’s increasingly sympathetic Captain Alex. In fact, the shifting crew dynamics are quite subtly rendered, adding further layers to the hothouse atmosphere. Initially, young Ken Brady does not make much of an impression, but he duly comes out of his shell when Naomi starts to reach his privileged character.

Can you imagine how much this kid will hate his father when he turns eighteen and discovers the old man has been keeping him from his elegant and soulful mother? Seràgnoli and his celebrated co-scripters, Banana Yoshimoto and Italian graphic novelist Igort give us hope it just might come to that eventually, while scrupulously avoiding any phony sentimental cop-outs. Thanks to Kikuchi, it is a lovely little chamber drama. Recommended as a satisfying indulgence for sophisticated audiences, Last Summer screened at this year’s Slamdance, but it is sure to turn up at subsequent festivals given the talent involved.

Shanghai: Gong Li Lights Up the Foreign Concessions

We tend to forget Japan fought with the Allies in WWI. Afterward, British and American interests were just as determined to exploit the Foreign Concession system as their Japanese counterparts. Yet, Shanghai’s complicated and contradictory multinational governance made it one of only two completely open safe harbors for Jewish refugees during the so-called “Solitary Island” period. Obviously, the city is the perfect place to conduct espionage. Unfortunately, one of America’s best agents has just been murdered, but his friend and colleague intends is out to find the killer and make him pay in Mikael Håfström’s Shanghai (trailer here), which opens this Friday in select theaters.

Paul Soames has assumed the cover of a National Socialist-sympathizing journalist, but he is really a democracy and freedom loving Naval Intelligence officer. However, his friend Conner was the true idealist. Yet, his prescient warnings about National Socialist and Imperial Japanese aggression were routinely ignored. Soames soon deduces Conner seduced Sumiko, the opium-addicted mistress of Tanaka, the police captain of the Japanese Concession and more importantly the local intelligence chief. Now suspiciously missing, Tanaka is turning the city inside out looking for her.

Soames’ search for Sumiko brings him into the orbit of gentleman gangster Anthony Lan-Ting and his society wife Anna. Lan-Ting has accepted an alliance with the Japanese for the sake of business, but his wife has secretly risen through the ranks of the resistance. Soames ingratiates himself with both Lan-Tings when he saves Anthony from an attack on Japanese officers organized by his wife, but executed without the surgical precision she had expected. She genuinely loves Lan-Ting, but like the wife of the local German military contractor, she finds Soames jolly fun to flirt with. Yet, as Tanaka cranks up the pressure, the attraction shared by her and Soames becomes more seriously ambiguous.

If you watch Shanghai soon after Zhang Yimou’s Coming Home, you will be astonished by Gong Li’s range. While she just rips viewers’ hearts out as the achingly tragic mother in Zhang’s literary masterwork, she plays Håfström’s noir heroine with all the va-va-voom you could ever hope for. She makes the screen smolder, even opposite a little twerp like John Cusack. Yet, she also compellingly projects the inner turmoil of a woman whose loyalties are divided between her husband and her country. It is a big, juicy, psychologically complex role, but Gong has the skills to pull it off.

Cusack just is not right for a Rick Blaine-ish romantic role, but fortunately, his gee whiz, fish-out-of-water persona works well enough for most of his solo scenes navigating the various intrigues. Jeffrey Dean Morgan plays Conner with characteristic intensity in his flashbacks (too bad he wasn’t the one paired up with Gong), but the ever-reliable David Morse is grossly under-employed as Soames’ embassy contact.

Of course, Gong owns the film, but Ken Watanabe basically walks away with every scene she is not in. He is hardly another Captain Renault, but he is no Maj. Strasser either. Watanabe rather keeps us guessing, humanizing Tanaka, while playing his extremes to the hilt. Strangely, Chow Yun-fat is the one most conspicuously short-changed for screen time, but you can rectify that by watching The Last Tycoon, a natural companion film that focuses on a similar gangster-turned reluctant patriot. Unfortunately, Rinko Kikuchi is just squandered as the seldom seen Sumiko.

Attentive eyes will also spot future-star-in-the-making Andy On as one of Anna Lan-Ting’s comrades-in-arms. His appearances are brief, but his screen presence and action chops still come through loud-and-clear. Also look for Benedict Wong, who is quite good in the small but significant role of Juso Kita, Soames’ informer.

Håfström shifts gears from big historical set pieces to noir intimacy relatively adroitly. Hossein Amini’s screenplay intelligently incorporates the circumstances of the Foreign Concessions, as well as the events leading up to Pearl Harbor. Although he is clearly riffing on Casablanca, he wisely avoids paralleling the Bogart classic beat-for-beat. As a result, it all works quite well, in a pleasingly old fashioned kind of way.

Frankly, it is rather baffling why Shanghai’s release has been so long-deferred. In the intervening time, On’s star has risen, but Cusack’s has fallen, yet Gong remains on top of her game. She is more than enough reason to see Shanghai, along with Julie Weiss’s elegant costuming, Watanabe’s slyly villainous turn, and an unusual deep and accomplished supporting cast (blink and you miss Downton’s Hugh Bonneville). Recommended for fans of historical espionage thrillers, Shanghai opens this Friday (10/2) in key markets.

Kumiko the Treasure Hunter: Gone to Fargo

Something about the Minnesota accent must get lost when translated into Japanese, at least judging from one unhappy office worker’s strange obsession. She is convinced the briefcase full of cash buried in final scenes of the Coen Brothers’ Fargo is really out there, waiting to be discovered. Her strange delusion will eventually take her to the fateful North Dakota border in the Zellner Brothers’ Kumiko the Treasure Hunter (trailer here), which opens this Wednesday in New York.

It is not clear whether Kumiko’s mania has crowded out other aspects of her life or whether it has grown to fill the pre-existing void in her gloomy existence.  Regardless, her work as an “Office Lady” (fetching coffee and dry cleaning for her boss) remains profoundly unfulfilling. That she is conspicuously older than her bimbo colleagues is a fact not lost on her, either. Her only solace comes from her pet rabbit Bunzo and watching a well-worn VHS copy of Fargo, constantly scribbling notes that only make sense to her

When Kumiko finally reaches her breaking point at work, she absconds with the corporate card and books a flight to Minneapolis. This is not a well planned trip. Kumiko carefully collects all her Fargo material, but neglects to consider adequate winter gear. Yet, as she makes her way north, several locals will try to look out for her, as best they can. The wider world is not really such a cold place in Treasure. Kumiko just has trouble fitting into it. That forgiving spirit is one reason why it is such an oddly moving film.

Unfortunately, Treasure is releasing too early in the year for short attention span Academy members, because Rinko Kikuchi seriously merits consideration for her second Oscar nomination playing Kumiko. It is quiet work, but absolutely devastating in its power. She vividly projects the acute sensitivity and compulsive focus that make Kumiko more closely akin to outsider artists than any routine nutter. David Zellner (the director and co-writer half of the Zellner filmmaking tandem) is also quite funny yet also rather touching, in an admirably understated way, as the sheriff’s deputy who tries to help Kumiko. Bunzo is cute too.

It is too bad nobody from Fargo signed on for a cameo, because there is an obvious place where the Zellners could have put them. Evidently, when you land a hit HBO series, you quit caring about independent film. Still, fans of the Coen Brothers’ film will appreciate all the references.

Whether or not it qualifies as a “co-production,” Treasure is certainly the product of extensive American and Japanese collaboration, shot entirely on location in either Tokyo or Fargo country. Representing delicately accomplished work from the Zellners and a deeply poignant lead performance, the resulting film has a sweetly sad vibe that really distinguishes from the field. Recommended with considerable affection, Kumiko the Treasure Hunter opens this Wednesday (3/18) in New York, at the IFC Center.

Sundance ’14: Kumiko the Treasure Hunter

Something about the Minnesota accent must get lost when translated into Japanese, at least judging from one unhappy office worker’s strange obsession.  She is convinced the briefcase full of cash buried in final scenes of the Coen Brothers’ Fargo is really out there, waiting to be discovered. Her strange delusion will eventually take her to the fateful North Dakota border in the Zellner Brothers’ Kumiko the Treasure Hunter, which screens today at the Sundance Film Festival.

It is not clear whether Kumiko’s obsession has crowded out other aspects of her life or whether it has grown to fill the pre-existing void in her gloomy existence.  Regardless, her work as an “Office Lady” (fetching coffee and dry cleaning for her boss) remains profoundly unfulfilling. That she is conspicuously older than her bimbo colleagues is a fact not lost on her, either. Her only solace comes from her pet rabbit Bunzo and watching a well worn VHS copy of Fargo, constantly scribbling notes that only make sense to her

When Kumiko finally reaches her breaking point at work, she absconds with the corporate card and books a flight to Minneapolis.  This is not a well planned trip. Kumiko carefully collects all her Fargo material, but neglects to consider adequate winter gear. Yet, as she makes her way north, several locals will try to look out for her, as best they can. The wider world is not really such a cold place in Treasure. Kumiko just has trouble fitting into it. That forgiving spirit is one reason why it is such an oddly moving film.

With the right distributor behind her, Rinko Kikuchi might stand a chance of landing her second Oscar nomination for Kumiko. It is a quiet performance, but absolutely devastating in its power. She vividly projects the acute sensitivity and compulsive focus that make Kumiko more closely akin to outsider artists than routine nutters. David Zellner (the director and co-writer half of the Zellner filmmaking tandem) is also quite funny yet also rather touching, in an admirably understated way, as the sheriff’s deputy who tries to help Kumiko.  Bunzo is cute too.

It is too bad nobody from Fargo signed on for a cameo, because there is an obvious place where the Fellners could have put them. Evidently, when you land a hit HBO series, you quit caring about independent film.  Still, fans of the Coen Brothers’ film will appreciate all the references. Ironically, Alexander Payne recently signed on as an executive producer, just before he was nominated for Nebraska and the Coens were snubbed for Llewyn Davis (none of which he could control).

Whether or not it qualifies as a “co-production,” Treasure certainly represent extensive American and Japanese collaboration, shot entirely on location in either Tokyo or Fargo country. Surprisingly accomplished work from the Zellners, it has sweetly sad vibe that really distinguishes from the rest of the field. Recommended with considerable affection, Kumiko the Treasure Hunter screens again this morning (1/25) in Park City, as the 2014 Sundance Film Festival comes to a close.

Pacific Rim: Kaiju vs. Jaegers

At least, they do not destroy New York City.  For an apocalyptic film that constitutes real restraint.  The bad news is it is only a matter of time before all of mankind finds itself on the business end of the next major extinction event in Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim (trailer here), which opens today nationwide.

In the not too distant future, way down in Deep Thirteen . . . a mysterious alien race has begun rising through a breach in the Earth crust, sending gigantic monsters up to ravage Pacific coastal population centers.  They become known as “Kaiju” in honor of the great Japanese genre monster movies.  To combat this threat, the frontline nations joined forces to create giant Iron Man-like fighter-crafts they call “Jaegers” (the German word for hunters).  For a while, the Jaegers were taking care of business, but the Kaiju evolved, becoming bigger, stronger, and harder to kill.

Nobody understands this better than Raleigh Beckett.  Siblings like Beckett and his brother Yancey were often recruited as Jaeger pilots, because they are highly “drift compatible,” meaning they can form a strong neural bond with each other to control their massive fighting machines.  Unfortunately, when Yancey dies in battle his surviving brother shares the experience.  Shortsightedly, the Jaeger Project is discontinued in favor of a public works boondoggle of a barrier wall.  When that predictably fails, Beckett’s former commanding officer Stacker Pentecost rounds up all the mouth-balled Jaegers and a motley crew of pilots for a last stand.

There are the odd environmental implications to Rim, but frankly the film only mentions the ozone depletion mumbo-jumbo explanation in passing.  Of course, in old school Kaiju movies, the atomic bomb was always responsible for creating the monsters.  Ironically, a nuclear warhead might represent humanity’s salvation in Rim, if Pentecost’s team can slip one past the goalie, deep enough down the breach.

Even if it is an effects driven tent-pole, most cineastes will be interested in any film starring Idris Elba and Oscar nominee Rinko Kikuchi.  As one would expect, Elba is one of the very few name actors who has sufficient presence and masculinity to pull off the gruff on the outside, but slightly less gruff on the inside Stacker Pentecost (by the way, is del Toro’s Ronco character name-generating machine still under warranty?). 

Yet, the real breakout star is Kikuchi, who exhibits both acute sensitivity and legit action cred as rookie Jaeger pilot Mako Mori.  Charlie Hunnam is basically adequate as the out-for-redemption Raleigh Beckett, but that constitutes a significant improvement from his embarrassing turn in the laughable atheism advocacy potboiler, The Ledge.  Mana Ashida also deserves great credit for her tremendous green screen work as the young Mori, but viewers will start to absolutely despise del Toro for making her look so terrified.

Obviously, Pacific Rim is inspired by Kaiju classics, like the Godzilla and Daimajin franchises, but in terms of tone, the film feels more closely akin to anime, with its battling bots and angst-ridden crews.  In fact, the Jaegers bear a distinct resemblance to the Eva units in the Evangelion series. Frankly, a cheesy j-pop theme song would have come as a welcome relief from Ramin Djawadi’s ridiculously ominous score.

The visual effects are suitably impressive, particularly when rendering a sense of the enormous mass and scale of the Jaegers and creatures.  Still, it is too dark overall, never really giving viewers a good daytime shot of the Kaiju.  You start to wonder if they are allergic to Vitamin D.  As usual, the 3D adds little to the experience.

Frankly, the 3D surcharge might just price Rim out of a recommendation.  Kikuchi and Elba are excellent and the concept of a big budget, updated take on the Kaiju genre is pretty cool.  However, the script is rather workaday and a little of the bickering scientists’ comic relief goes a long, long way.  For Kaiju fans looking to beat the heat, Pacific Rim opens today (7/12) nationwide, including the Regal Union Square in New York (screening both the 3D and glorious 2D versions).

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.