Philip K. Dick ’17: The Ningyo (pilot)

According to legend, the ningyo is sort of like a Japanese mermaid, but if true, the lore surrounding the mythical beast holds much more dramatic implications. Supposedly, those who eat ningyo flesh will extend their longevity by centuries. However, the death of a ningyo will raise great storms and natural disasters to plague the nation of Japan. Therefore, it logically follows some people will be desperately looking for the ningyo, while others are determined to keep them undiscovered. A crypto-zoologist finds himself caught between two such factions in Miguel Ortega & Tran Ma’s independent pilot, The Ningyo (trailer here), which screens during this year’s Philip K. Dick Film Festival.

In this steampunky alternate 1911, Prof. C. Marlowe discovered the okapi in Africa, but his obsessive quest for the ningyo does not sit well with his museum or their donors. Even though the ancient map he recovered could be considered evidence, they just want Marlowe to shut up and go away. Yet, that map must be legit, because both the Bikuni clan and the shadowy H. Prestor Sealous want it, for very different reasons. Spurned by his colleagues, Marlowe agrees to a face-to-face with the latter, but there is no guarantee he will survive the trek to the creature-collector’s subterranean lair.

It is really amazing how fully Ortega and Ma realize the feeling and texture of a steampunk world, relying more on inspiration and creativity than things like cash. In contrast, hundreds of millions of dollars were spent on films like The Wild, Wild West and The Golden Compass that look flat and pale in comparison.

Ortega and Ma also clearly know their ningyo lore, as well as their late Nineteenth Century/early Twentieth Century science fiction and adventure literature, visual allusions to which are sprinkled throughout the pilot/proof-of-concept short. Yet, we feel safe in assuming their first love is creating creatures, because there are a bunch of them in The Ningyo. Arguably, Sealous’s secret showroom ranks up there with Mos Eisley in the original Star Wars for the high number of invented species per capita.

As if that were not enough, cult film and television fans will definitely dig the cast, which includes Tamlyn Tomita (from The Karate Kid II and Awesome Asian Bad Guys) lending her elegant gravitas to the project as mysterious matriarch Kiyohime Bikuni, Louis Ozawa Changchien (recurring on The Man in the High Castle) personifying steeliness as the enforcer, Hatori Bikuni, and Jerry Lacy (from the original Dark Shadows) reveling in villainy as the evil Sealous. As Marlowe, Rodrigo Lopresti (a.k.a. The Hermit) also has a firm handle on brooding and scientific mumbo jumbo.

The Ningyo looks amazing and it is wildly fun to watch. However, since Marlowe is essentially a Gilded Age Indiana Jones, it should come as no surprise the pilot ends with a cliffhanger. Presumably, that will be true for all subsequent episodes, which just feels right for this kind of steampunk adventure genre. Anyone who sees the Ningyo pilot will hope to see the full series get produced soon. (Is anyone from Netflix or Amazon Studios free Sunday morning?) Regardless, it is just invigorating for genre fans to dive into such a richly crafted world. Very highly recommended, The Ningyo screens this Sunday (5/28) at the Soho Playhouse, as part of the Philip K. Dick Film Festival’s Fantasy and the Fantastic shorts block.

Cinequest ’17: Real Artists (short)

Are all the screenplays slavishly written according to a pre-conceived “beat sheet” really so different from what the storied Semaphore animation studio practices? It certainly has produced hits, but it might be a bit much for aspiring animator Sophia Baker to take in when she interviews with the accomplished chief animator in Cameo Wood’s short film Real Artists (trailer here), which screens during the 2017 Cinequest Film & VR Festival.

Baker has always wanted to make movies—preferably for Semaphore. Anne Palladon appears to be willing to give her that chance, but she will have to do it the Semaphore way. What is the secret of their success? You will have to sign a NDA before she can tell you about it. Apparently, Semaphore is more “security-conscious” than Amazon, Google, and the now bankrupt Solyndra combined. It is safe to say their techniques are speculative, but not to a very great extent.

Real Artists is the second short adapted from a story by science fiction writer and translator Ken Liu, following last year’s Beautiful Dreamer. It is also one of several recent shorts using genre premises to explore big picture ideas, starring Tamlyn Tomita (from The Joy Luck Club amongst numerous other credits), like Seppuku. Frankly, she makes Palladon look like a tough boss, but perhaps a corporate leader you can believe in.

Neither the near-future technology nor the final twist are hugely shocking, but Real Artists comes in a super slick package and it really invites us to question the nature of the films we see. Arguably, in the focus-grouped world we live in, film production is already not so far removed from the techniques of Semaphore. It is also rather refreshing to watch Tomita and Tiffany Hines verbally circle each other as the co-leads.

For a short film, Real Artists boasts an impressive cast, along with Liu’s Hugo-winning pedigree. It also represents a lot of encouraging trends, particularly the adaptation of literate science fiction short stories that require little or no special effects. Recommended for sf fans and those who recognize any of the personnel involved, Real Artists screens this Thursday (3/2), Saturday (3/4) next Monday (3/6), and the following Friday (3/10), as part of this year’s Cinequest in San Jose and Redwood City.

Hollywood Reel Independent ’17: Seppuku (short)

She goes by Marie, but her parents call her Mari. That gives you an idea of the generational divide separating them. Frankly, the prospective Olympian is not inclined to deal with her family or her heritage, but a possibly career-ending injury sparks a fantastically-charged journey into her subconscious that may very well change everything (one way or another) in Daryn Wakasa’s short film Seppuku, which screens as part of the Shorts 18g program at this year’s Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival.

Mari/Marie holds the record for the 400 meter, but she will probably miss the Olympics due to a torn hamstring. Surgery would be the logical course of action, but Mari is acting on emotion, lashing out at her parents and defiantly training anyway. Her workout looks painful even before she crashes and blackouts.

Suddenly, Mari finds herself in the desert, accompanied by Bettari, a Ghost of Christmas Future-like figure, who also bears some resemblance to the nurse she encountered earlier in the day. Mari will dutifully follow Bettari (presumably a reference to the bridal kimono-wearing “nothing but blackened teeth” Ohaguro Bettari Yokai spirits) to the Manzanar internment camp, where she will face an increasingly strange series of challenges.

Seppuku was shot on-location at Manzanar and a medical office, both of which look like really depressing places to spend Purgatory. However, Seppuku boasts an impressive, feature worthy cast, including emerging star Akemi Look, a former member of the U.S. Rhythmic Gymnastics team, who has the appropriate athleticism and stubborn intensity to convincingly portray Mari.

Tamlyn Tomita (Look’s co-star in the ridiculously underseen Unbidden) is totally believable and ultimately quite touching as Mari’s long-suffering mother Linda and Tomita’s Karate Kid II co-star Yuji Okumoto buttresses the film with his solid, dignified presence as her father, Thomas. It is always great to see them, but in this case, their grounded performances really help anchor the symbolically-charged Seppuku.

Short film-making is usually an adventure in scarce resource allocation, but cinematographer Ernesto Lomeli really makes the desert scenes look cinematically surreal. This is definitely a feature-quality short and the twenty-five-minute running time should be sufficiently long enough for most viewers to emotionally engage with it. Recommended for psychologically expressive, socially-conscious cinema, Seppuku screens this Saturday (2/18) during the 2017 Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival.

SDAFF ’16: The Unbidden

They say a friend will help you move, but a real friend will help you move a body. In that case, Lauren Lee has three real friends. Twenty years after her husband’s “mysterious disappearance,” the four women hold a séance to exorcise his spirit, but the ceremony will expose a lot of messy secrets in Quentin Lee’s The Unbidden (trailer here), which screens as part of this year’s San Diego Asian Film Festival.

The four friends should well complement each other when it comes to spirit rousting. Lee is a successful mystery novelist, Rachel is a medium (or whatever), Kat is a doctor (plastic surgeon, but it still counts), and Anna was a tiger-mother before the term was stereotyped in the media. Jake was a bad husband, but not always. Initially, it looked like he and Lee would be happy together, until his bottled-up demons reasserted themselves. He really forced Lee to supply the killing he was asking for, but the circumstances were awkward. That is where Lee’s friends came in.

Of course, Jake’s spirit has been restless ever since. As the fateful date approaches (fittingly Halloween), the hauntings have dramatically increased in their invasiveness, taking a pronounced toll on Lee’s mental state. Unfortunately, the ritual will be interrupted by a mysterious stranger, who has a personal stake in their drama.

Get ready for a barrage of revelations and recriminations. Unbidden is one of the least gory horror films you will see all year, but the fab four still draw plenty of blood. Being such close friends, they know exactly where to slip the knives in. In many ways, Unbidden represents the road too often not taken when it comes to horror films. This is a character-driven, dialogue-rich film featuring an overwhelmingly female cast, covering the full moral-ethical spectrum.

There are also some reasonably clever twists down the stretch, but for many the 1980s nostalgia will be the real attraction. Notably, Unbidden stars fan-favorite Tamlyn Tomita (Karate Kid II) as Lee and co-stars Julia Nickson (freedom fighter Co Bao in Rambo: First Blood Part II, one of three women to exchange dialogue with Stallone throughout the entire franchise) as the boozy and cynical Dr. Kat.

Tomita is terrific as the literally haunted and guilt-ridden Lee. It is also pretty remarkable how well her performance meshes with that of Michelle Krusiec as the flashback Lee. Nickson and Elizabeth Sung both have great fun chewing the scenery as the contemporary Kat and Anna, while Akemi Look vamps it up something fierce as flashback Kat. As Jake (flashbacks only for him), former champion kickboxer Jason Yee vividly conveys a sense of sexualized danger and slow-burning angst.

Indeed, Unbidden is a great ensemble piece. Quentin Lee’s handle on horror movie mechanics is just okay, but he gets some wonderfully acid-tongued exchanges from the first class cast. Recommended for supernatural horror fans with a mature sensibility, The Unbidden screens tomorrow (11/4), during the 2016 SDAFF.

AAIFF ’14: Awesome Asian Bad Guys

You will definitely recognize Al Leong. He was the henchman Sgt. Riggs strangled with his legs while he was administering electroshock torture in the original Lethal Weapon. That is a typical day at the office for Leong. PBS’s National Film Society set out to pay tribute to Leong and his fellow character actors with a web-series that turned into a festival film. Prepare to show all due respect when Stephen Dypiangco & Patrick Epino’s Awesome Asian Bad Guys (trailer here) screens during the 2014 Asian American International Film Festival in New York.

Internet video producers Dypiangco and Epino are on a mission to assemble an Expendables-like team of Asian action movie heavies, who will finally have the chance to be the good guys. They have two good reasons: they must protect Tamlyn Tomita (from the Karate Kid 2) and prevent commercial actor Aaron Takahasi from trying to permanently eliminate all his casting call competition.

The cool thing about AABG is how it deftly satirizes Hollywood’s Asian stereotyping while still lovingly honoring actors like Leong and George Cheung (Rambo II, Rush Hour) for making the best of a less than optimal job market. It is also mind-blowing to hear Tomita plays somebody’s mom on Glee (is that show still on?). Naturally, she makes a great damsel-in-distress and/or femme fatale. 

However, there is just too much of Dypiangco and Epino shticking it up as themselves. Frankly, there probably ought to be more action and less comedy, because that is what an Al Leong fan would want to see. Nevertheless, it is entertaining to watch the Awesome Asian Bad Guys finally get a curtain call.

Since AABG clocks in just under an hour, the AAIFF has paired it with a short featuring two fairly awesome bad guys. A pair of Yakuza are driving deep into the Mojave Desert to bury a body in Robbie Ikegami’s Pull Over to Kill. This will be the final errand for Watanabe, the soon to be retired strawberry farmer, but hot-headed Yasumoto is just starting out as a retainer. Needless to say complications ensue.

Viewers might predict the general trajectory of this two-hander, but Ikegami and cinematographer Alan Vidali make it look awfully stylish. Nor can anyone argue with Tatsuya Ito’s world weary steeliness, as Watanabe. The use of Michiko Hamamura’s “Tabu” and Saori Yuki’s “Yoaki No Scat” also vividly evoke the 1960’s vibe of many classic Yakuza pictures. In fact, POTK could even serve as an effective music video for them, inspiring post-screening downloads. It is a satisfying short that nicely fits with AABG. Recommended as a good festival package, Awesome Asian Bad Guys and Pull Over to Kill screen together tomorrow (7/25) at the Village East and Saturday at the Made in NY Media Center, as part of this year’s AAIFF.