The lost dreams of Past Lives

Posted on May 30, 2023 by admin

Quietly devastating, Past Lives follows two childhood friends as they face the paths their choices have left them. Made with remarkable skill and precision, it is a wrenching account of how dreams die.

Childhood friends in Seoul, Nora and Hae Sung separate when Nora’s parents emigrate to Canada. Twelve years later they reconnect over the internet, Nora pursuing a career as a playwright, Hae Sung studying engineering after compulsory military service.

It takes another twelve years for the two to meet in person, when Hae Sung (now played by Teo Yoo) visits Nora (Greta Lee) in New York City. By now Nora has married Arthur (John Magaro), who is understandably anxious about his wife seeing her childhood sweetheart.

Writer and director Celine Song’s screenplay strips the film’s plot down to narrative basics. Romance in movies is built around delay, the inability of its leads to find happiness together. Song mines this element expertly (24 years is a long time to wait), building plausible reasons for Nora and Hae Sung to separate and reunite.

But Past Lives is more than a romance, it is a clear-eyed examination of how two characters (and by extension, a third) turn into people they never expected. Headstrong, impetuous, Nora finds her way changing as the world constricts around her. Stalwart, patient, Hae Sung must accept how his choices have shaped him. And Arthur learns that he can never truly know his wife, no matter how long they are together.

Song’s background in theater is clear in her  elisions. The script glides from moment to moment, condensing and expanding time. Nora’s affair with Arthur unfolds in a few, brief scenes that stretch across years. Song isolates key moments between young Nora and Hae Sung, holding on situations that will reverberate throughout their lives.

Nora and Hae Sung are searching for a past that may never have existed, at least not the way they understand it. “This is where I ended up,” Nora admits to herself as one point.

Cinematographer Shabier Kirchner singles out these two characters in a teeming world. He frames Nora so that her memories become our memories. A tilt down from the Seoul skyline finds two young children climbing stairs. Years later, a similar tilt from the Manhattan Bridge finds two old friends walking along an East River path. Precise but unassuming, Kirchner continues a string of excellent work that includes Bull and Small Axe.

Keith Fraase’s editing is key to the movie’s success, never more so than during the final scenes. And the music by Christopher Bear & Daniel Rossen maintains Song’s elemental style.

In a story about choices, Song has made all the right ones. No movie this year shows the hurt of lost dreams like Past Lives.

Written & Directed by Celine Song. Produced by David Hinojosa, p.g.a., Christine Vachon, p.g.a., Pamela Koffler, p.g.a. Executive Producers: Miky Lee, Hosung Kang, Jerry Kyoungboum Ko, Celine Song, Taylor Shung, Christine D’Souza Gelb. Director of photography: Shabier Kirchner. Production designer: Grace Yun. Edited by Keith Fraase. Music by Christopher Bear & Daniel Rossen.

Cast: Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, John Magaro, Seung Ah Moon, Seung Min Yim.

Photo courtesy A24.

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Palmanova and Aquileia: touring two UNESCO sites in Friuli

Posted on May 28, 2023 by admin

This year the Far East Film Festival celebrated its twenty-fifth year in Udine, Italy. A medieval town about an hour northeast of Venice, Udine offers theaters, shops, and an array of restaurants and cafés. It is the largest town in Friuli, part of an autonomous region known as Friuli Venezia Giulia.

Famous for its white wines and cured hams, Friuli borders Austria, Slovenia, and the Adriatic. From Alpine mountains to Adriatic lagoons, it is an area of distinctive beauty and history.

Most visitors to FEFF find their day filled with screenings, master classes, talks, concerts, and networking parties. But for those with extra time, Friuli offers a wide variety of touring possibilities.

Excellent roads, buses, and trains connect Udine with the rest of Friuli. You can visit vineyards, take a prosciutto tour, or wander through estates in nearby towns like Cividale.

This year I was fortunate enough to visit Palmanova and Aquileia, two UNESCO sites close by Udine. Either or both would be excellent destinations for tourists. The tour was arranged by OpusLoci, a project of the Chamber of Commerce of Pordenone-Udine that connects artisans, restaurateurs, hoteliers and local producers along UNESCO Heritage sites in Friuli Venezia Giulia.

About a half-hour away from Udine is Palmanova, a striking fortress town that dates back to the 16th century. Because of its strategic importance, straddling the mountains to the north and the Adriatic to the east, Friuli was occupied again and again over the years. Romans, Huns, Lombards, Franks, Venetians, Hapsburgs, and Napoleon Bonaparte all took part in ruling the area.

Designed in the shape of a nine-pointed star, Palmanova was built to defend against attacks on the Venetian Republic. Construction continued over many decades, with Bonaparte adding exterior lunettes in the early nineteenth century.

Palmanova’s unusual shape made it difficult for armies to attack. The city was additionally guarded by three double-gates (the only entryways) and a surrounding moat. The waters are largely gone, although some streams have been reintroduced. The massive gates, with their two sets of doors operated by wheels, are intact. They remain impressive, especially contrasted with the fields surrounding them.

The star shape makes driving through Palmanova a real challenge, as you often have to take a direction opposite to what you want in order to navigate the one-way streets and sharp corners.

On the other hand, it’s a wonderful town for walking. Stores and cafés are scattered along many of the streets, which lead pedestrians to a remarkable square in the center of town. Palmanova originally garrisoned as many as 5,000 soldiers at a time, but leaders built the square large enough to hold 20,000.

If you stand in the center of the square, you can see all three of the ancient gates leading to Cividale, Aquileia, and Udine. Stores and restaurants line the square, which is dominated by Duomo, completed in 1636. (Its bell tower is conspicuously low so it couldn’t be spotted by enemies outside the city walls.) Tucked away next to the Duomo is Hotel Ai Dogi, a cunningly renovated collection of buildings holding some 33 rooms. Compact but comfortable, some rooms look out onto the sun-drenched square.

The owner met us with coffee and aqua frizzante. Warm and friendly, she told us of her plans to renovate a building across the street and add another café to the hotel.

The hotel sits next to the award-winning Caffetteria Torinese, a restaurant listed in the prestigious Gambero Rosso Bar d’Italia. A glance at the menu convinced me I had to return when it was open.

Our tour guide told us that some guests stop in Palmanova while completing the Alpe Adria Cycle Route, a bike path that runs from Salzburg in Austria to Grado on the Adriatic. (The Friulian portion starts at Taraviso near the Austrian border.) If you start from the north, your route is mostly downhill. When you are done, you can take your bike on a train back to your starting point.

The Italians have worked out a superb infrastructure for bikers, with well-marked routes, staged resting areas, and restaurants and hotels geared towards bikers. Just like the rifugios that dot mountain trails, the bike paths were designed for comfort as well as exercise.

History buffs have a lot to explore in Palmanova. Museums, barracks, and tunnels show how the city evolved. On weekends it’s possible to walk through the Rivellino tunnels underneath the city’s walls. You can purchase tickets at the entrance to the gallery or at an Infopoint off the central square. Audioguides are also available.

QR codes can be found at key spots throughout the town to aid visitors. Scan the codes at the ramparts, and you can experience a 360-degree VR video through time. A different QR code will take you on a tour of the entire fortress, including the Duomo cathedral, the three city gates, a Napoleonic lunette outside the walls, and a Venetian aqueduct restored in 2015.

If you plan to visit, be aware that Palmanova hosts a UNESCO Cities Marathon in March, a comics and movie festival in June, historical reenactments in September, and Christmas events throughout December.

Not too many miles further towards the Adriatic you find Aquileia, another UNESCO site. It’s a small town of about 2,000, but it packs a powerful historical punch. Established by the Romans by 181 B.C. as a garrison for some 3000 foot soldiers, it was intended to be a storage and transportation hub with easy access to the nearby Adriatic. Local farmers supplied wine and grain. (An indigenous settlement predates the city.)

Estates, workshops, cemeteries, and a forum are scattered throughout the area, some still in the process of restoration. Our focus on this trip was one of the most important churches in early Christianity, the Basilica of Aquileia.

Built over the remains of a fourth-century church, the Basilica was enlarged in the 11th and 13th centuries. Its central floor is covered in mosaics, an art form perfected over the centuries by Aquileia artisans. At over 8000 square feet, it is the largest mosaic floor in western Christianity.

Biblical scenes like Jonah in the whale are depicted, as are a wealth of fish and fowl.  Geometric patterns symbolize fundamental Christian beliefs. It is a remarkable achievement that becomes even more astonishing as you make your way further into the church.

Ninth-century frescoes in a crypt under the main altar of the basilica detail the story of St. Mark the Evangelist, including the beheading of his followers Fortunatus and Hermagoras. After this we entered a crypt where even earlier mosaics are being excavated. And it turns out that more mosaics are being discovered throughout the town.

After our tour we emerged from ancient Roman times into a blindingly bright present. A block or two away from the church we found Vini Donda, a comfortable restaurant spread over several rooms. Local wines and liqueurs line the walls. The attentive staff makes you feel as if you are the only guests.

We had what was called a “light lunch,” starting with a plate of fresh, herbed croccante, thinly sliced and fried. Asparagus with a creamy egg sauce was followed by ravioli stuffed with local bruscandoli and served with a butter sage sauce. Strawberry tiramisu with a golden custard topped off the meal.

On the ride back to Udine, we passed small hamlets surrounded by fields and vineyards, snowcapped mountains in the distance. The sense of traveling through time, of experiencing so many cultures, was both dizzying and rewarding.

What remain with me are startlingly blue skies, endless horizons, the comfortable cafes with their smiling customers, and a sense of serenity that is hard to find in modern times. You not only feel connected to the past, you begin to understand what life was like for those who came before.

Photos: 1) Aquileia Gate entering Palmanova; 2) the Duomo, or cathedral, off the Parade Ground; 3) Basilica at Aquileia; 4) interior of the Basilica; 5) fresco in Basilica crypt of Fortunatus and Hermagoras; 6) mosaic depicting a basket of snails; 7) fresh croccante at Vini Donda. All rights reserved.

Links — https://www.opusloci.it/en/ : a wealth of information on history, artisinal goods, cuisine, and hospitality for Palmanova, Aquileia, and other Friulian sites. https://www.turismofvg.it/en : How to plan your visit to Friuli Venezia Giulia, with guides for biking, boating, mountaineering, culture, and cuisine. https://www.visitpalmanova.it/en/home-english/ : maps, guides, and photos for visiting Palmanova. https://www.fondazioneaquileia.it/en : The official website for Aquileia.

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You Hurt My Feelings: frustration for laughs

Posted on May 25, 2023 by admin

The title is as generic as the humor in You Hurt My Feelings, the latest feature from writer and director Nicole Holofcener. Once again a set of privileged folks teetering between middle and upper class deal with minor slights and aggravations that more or less work out as they (and you) think. It screened at this year’s Sundance Film Festival prior to a theatrical release on May 26.

Holofcener has an unerring eye for foibles of the aggrieved privileged: their sense that they are not receiving the respect they deserve, that rivals are somehow gettting better treatment, that the obstacles they face are unfair. “I grew up with this strange feeling that I’m better than anyone else” is a characteristic admission.

So don’t expect narrative or thematic surprises. Instead, you get expertly drawn sketches about the travails of modern life. No one likes where they are, what they’re doing, who they are. A client complains that her interior designer is pushing the wrong sconce, for example. People end up with the wrong earrings, wrong V-neck sweater, wrong coffee. We see a creative writing class from hell, a husband and wife in couples’ therapy from hell.

Holofcener’s characters put up with things until they snap. In Friends with Money, a sexy maid outfit is the turning point for Olivia, Jennifer Anniston’s character. Here, Beth (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) overhears her husband Don (Tobias Menzies) saying that he doesn’t like the novel she wrote.

Beth harbors her little secret until she blurts it out in a moment of pique. That unleashes a flood of other revelations. Her son is still angry about swimming lessons years earlier. Her husband resents his clients, her sister is angry about her job, her students haven’t bothered to read her work. Louis-Dreyfus been perfecting her tone deaf shtick for decades, and nothing here is a stretch for her. It’s like watching a vastly overqualified classical or jazz pianist play “Heart and Soul.”

Contrast Louis-Dreyfus here with her performance in the middling Netflix comedy You People. She had funnier lines there, but her performances was broader, more frantic. Here she’s tamped down, repressed, perfectly in keeping with Holofcener’s tone.

Holfencencer is working well-plowed but still fertile ground. Her script is at its best when it spins off on tangents. In her few moments, the wonderful Jeannie Berlin is brilliant as an elderly mother with possible memory problems. (Berlin has a small but telling bit in The Fablemans.) David Cross and Amber Tamblyn nail their passive-aggressive couple, and the cringes are delightful in Beth’s writing class.

The director knows where her characters shop, what they wear, what kinds of dispiriting jobs they endure. Is that enough? Does You Hurt My Feelings move beyond observation to reach genuine insights? Can a well-crafted, pleasant, undemanding find a receptive audience outside the Sundance universe?

Written & Directed by Nicole Holofcener. Produced by Stefanie Azpiazu, Anthony Bregman, Nicole Holofcener, Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Executive Producers: Johnny Holland, Gregory Zuk. Director of Photography: Jeffrey Waldron. Production Designer: Sally Levi. Edited by Alisa Lepselter.

Cast: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tobias Menzies, Michaela Watkins, Owen Teague, Arian Moayed, Jeannie Berlin.

Photo of Julia Louis-Dreyfus courtesy A24.

Posted in Comedy, Film Festivals | Leave a comment

Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant: a war story with consequences

Posted on April 21, 2023 by admin

It makes sense to approach Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant cautiously. The execrable Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre is a glaring example of how lazy and listless the director’s output can be. Don’t worry. GRTC is worth your time.

It’s another in a long-running cycle of war movies about US guilt, aiming for something along the lines of American Sniper but slipping closer to the Rambo franchise. Here US Army Sergeant John Kinley (Jake Gyllenhaal) is rescued from certain death at the hands of the Taliban by his Afghan interpretor Ahmed (Dar Salim). When Ahmed’s visa to the US is ensnared in bureaucracy, Kinley returns to Afghanistan to retrieve Ahmed and his family.

Gung ho in the extreme, GRTC is more than a genre exercise thanks to committed acting, a stripped-down screenplay (by Ritchie and his usual cohorts Ivan Atkinson & Marn Davies), and Ritchie’s outstanding filmmaking. He’s rarely this energized, or this careful.

Gyllenhaal gives a wonderful performance, fleshing out Kinley’s character even if it means showing the sergeant’s failings. You can see the soldier’s response to the violence he encounters in the actor’s face. Kinley is reluctant to give Ahmed any credit, in part because he’s suspicious of all Afghans. A former heroin dealer, Ahmed has a much deeper understanding of Afghanistan than Kinley will ever achieve. He’s also far more brutal.

Ritchie depicts their relationship efficiently, without forcing an emotional connection between the two and minimizing details about their private lives. Then the director stages a superb firefight between American troops and Taliban bombmakers in an abandoned mine. Tense, precise, convincing, the battle makes clear everything that’s at stake for Kinley and Ahmed.

The two go on the run across some seventy miles of hostile terrain, pursued by replenished Taliban fighters. When Kinley is wounded, it’s up to Ahmed to drag him across mountain passes to safety.

Shipped back to the States, Kinley spends weeks trying to secure visas for Ahmed, now on the Taliban’s most wanted list. It’s the weakest section of the film because it shifts the focus to military bungling rather that concentrating on Ahmed’s efforts to survive.

Kinley mortgages his business to return to Afghanistan and find Ahmed. Here Ritchie regains his footing, building first-rate sequences that unfold from three separate points-of-view. The ending is especially satisfying, even with a title reminding us that too many interpreters remained trapped and in hiding from the Taliban.

Ed Wild’s cinematography brings out the scope of Ritchie’s movie. He builds excellent extended takes while helping the director keep a firm grasp on the geography of the action. James Herbert’s editing is also very good, although the score by Christopher Benstead can be too on-the-nose.

Do we need another fictional account of a real-life incident from the Afghan war? Maybe not, but Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant is so well executed that it rises above most of its competition.

An MGM release opening theatrically April 21, 2023. Photo: Dar Salim (left) as Ahmed and Jake Gyllenhaal (right) as Sgt. John Kinley. Credit: Christopher Raphael / Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures© 2023 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Starring | Jake Gyllenhaal, Dar Salim, Antony Starr, Alexander Ludwig, Bobby Schofield with Emily Beecham and Jonny Lee Miller
Directed by | Guy Ritchie
Written by | Guy Ritchie and Ivan Atkinson & Marn Davies

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Donnie Yen’s Sakra: a wuxia epic

Posted on April 17, 2023 by admin

A passion project from one of cinema’s greatest martial artists, Sakra is a wuxia of epic proportions. Adapted from Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, the film unfolds on a tremendous scale, with towering sets, scores of extras, and phenomenal action set pieces.

Donnie Yen stars at Qiao Feng, as orphan who develops exceptional powers in the Song dynasty, a period marked by wars among several tribes. A leader of the Beggars’ Gang, Qiao is exiled after being accused of murdering his parents, teacher, and others.

To clear his name, Qiao teams up with Azhu (Chen Yuqi), unaware that she is the daughter of another martial arts hero, Duan Zhengchun (Cheung Siu Fai). When Azhu is wounded, Qiao brings her to the heroes’ gathering manor, a fortress filled with his sworn enemies, to save her life. The ensuing battle leaves both Qiao and Azhu gravely wounded.

Rescued by a mysterious hero, Qiao will be betrayed by friend and foe alike as he searches for the answers to his tangled past. Along the way he will reach a new appreciation of his true heritage.

Keeping track of the sprawling narrative, with its competing tribes and crossed family lines, is close to impossible, especially if you’re unfamiliar with the source novel. The large cast is similarly confusing, with many characters appearing and disappearing at little notice. Wong Kwan-Hing as the widowed Mrs. Ma makes a strong impression. Chen Yuqi and Cya Liu (who plays Azhu’s sister Azi) are both excellent.

The real reason to watch Sakra is Donnie Yen, whose moves here are extraordinary. The opening scene, where he battles a villainous monk in a classic restaurant confrontation, sets a high standard. Stretching throughout rooms and floors, it unleashes wire work, undercranking, vfx, and even diopters in a blur of action that’s amazing.

If there is a fault to Yen’s character, his Qiao is too perfect. He can overhear everything, runs over rooftops, survives falls and stabbings. Nothing can stop him, not even a spear in the back. For story purposes his powers are necessary; in a movie they seem too convenient at times.

This isn’t the first feature Yen’s directed, but it’s the best by far. Serious wuxia films are hard to find, at least those that aren’t satires or reworkings or combined with steampunk. In fact, you’d have to go back to Peter Chan’s Wuxia (also starring Yen) to find one as committed as Sakra.

Which isn’t to say Yen doesn’t bring a modern sensibility to the production. The cinematography and production design are both first-rate, with appropriately moody lighting and breathtaking locations and sets. Action directors are Kenji Tanigaki and Yan Hua, while Donnie Yen’s Action Team takes care of the stunts.

Sakra sometimes grinds to a halt while characters spit exposition at each other. At times the film looks too dark and gloomy. Whole stretches could be dropped without damaging the story. But even with its drawbacks, Sakra is a stunning achievement. If you have any interest in wuxia, it is a must-see. And for John Wick Chapter Four fans, it is icing on the cake.

Producers: Donnie Yen, Wong Jing

Director: Donnie Yen

Executive Director: Kam Ka Wai

Screenwriters: Sheng Lingzhi，Zhu Wei , He Ben, Chen Li, Shen Lejing, Xu Yifan

Stars: Donnie Yen, Chen Yuqi, Cya Liu

Special Star: Wai Ying Hung

Special Appearance: Wu Yue

Stars: Cheung Siu Fai, Wong Kwan Hing, Du Yuming

Special Guest Appearance: Lui Leung Wai, Tsui Siu Ming

Action Directed: Kenji Tanigaki, Yan Hua

Stunt Team: Donnie Yen’s Action Team

Photos courtesy Well Go Entertainment USA. Available in select theaters and on demand. https://wellgousa.com/films/sakra

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The Tank review: haunting on the Oregon coast

Posted on April 17, 2023 by admin

A haunted house thriller set on the coast of Oregon, The Tank raises expectations it never quite delivers. Carefully written and shot, the movie features great production values and a strong performance by New Zealand-born Luciane Buchanan. It’s also slow, obvious, and almost completely devoid of genuine thrills.

Buchanan plays Jules, a wife, mother, and pet-shop owner who travels with husband Ben (Matt Whelan) and daughter Reia (Zara Nausbaum) to investigate a mysterious inheritance. Turns out Ben’s mother was institutionalized before she could let him know about a house and several oceanfront acres that his father purchased long ago.

The dank, boarded-up house is isolated from roads and overgrown with weeds. Despite the lack of electricity and running water, Ben decides to fix up the property with the hopes of selling it. To do so requires ignoring a plethora of clues to run away as fast as possible.

Locked doors leading to rickety basement stairs; bedroom windows nailed shut; a manilla envelope of newspaper clippings about earthquakes and unexplained deaths; sheds filled with rusty cans of bomb mixings; and most of all a concrete water tank whose lid keeps popping open — the omens pile up as Jules and Ben pretend nothing is wrong.

Writer, producer and director Scott Walker throws in overexposed, blue-tinted 1940s flashbacks that spell out in greater detail the dangers facing Jules and her family. Plus Jules starts reading diary entries that describe in guarded detail what actually happened those decades earlier.

I’m circling around The Tank the same way Walker’s script does. Everything is drawn out far too long: the stairway descents, the midnight forest walks, following the track of wet footprints across a hallway. It’s almost an hour into the movie before we get a good glance at what’s happening in the tank.

Until then Walker does a pretty good job evoking a sense of Oregon woods and beaches. The swaying pines, crashing surf, endless vistas of green are beautiful, but also help convey the family’s isolation and peril. You can imagine many different causes and reasons for the mysteries afflicting Jules and her family, that is until the monsters arrive.

Wētā Workshop co-founder, CEO and creative director Richard Taylor takes credit as creative lead on The Tank, but the film’s effects are surprisingly derivative and disappointing. Alien-like creatures attack from the water tank,  so slow and lumbering it takes seriously bad choices to get caught by them. Fire and bleach seem to be strong deterrents, so the only way Walker can build suspense is to have the characters run out of same and return to a creature-infested spot to get more.

On the positive side, The Tank does what it sets out to do, so if you’re looking for a haunted house with monsters this will fit the bill. Just don’t expect much more. The surprise will be an extremely appealing turn by Luciane Buchanan.

Directed by: Scott Walker
Written by: Scott Walker
Produced by: Scott Walker
Creature Effects by: Wētā Workshop – Richard Taylor
Cast: Luciane Buchanan, Matt Whelan, Zara Nausbaum, Regina Hegemann, Jack Barry, Holly Shervey 

Well Go USA opens The Tank in select theaters on April 21 and digitally on April 25. https://wellgousa.com/films/tank

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Ride On: a new Jackie Chan film

Posted on April 13, 2023 by admin

Thirty years ago Jackie Chan was the biggest movie star in the world. Films like Police Story, Project A, and Supercop were international blockbusters. They changed the face of action films everywhere.

Now pushing 69 (I only know because we were born days apart), Chan is no longer the daredevil hero of his youth. Stunt doubles, wires, and special effects figure heavily into his current work, which you detect during the traditional closing credits outtakes of Ride On.

Chan’s recent films like Railroad Tigers and Kung Fu Yoga were essentially “greatest hits” vehicles that repackaged situations and stunts from earlier movies. Chan admitted his age, letting younger performers carry most of the dramatic and physical weight. They were uneasy hybrids at best, especially since Chan insisted on a brightly lit, antiseptic production design.

Which leads to Ride On, a highly sentimental tale of an aging stuntman and his best friend, a horse named Red Hare. Chan is back in Miracles territory, milking his soap opera encounters with estranged daughter Bao (Liu Haocun), former costars, the billionaire who wants his horse, the hapless crooks he owes money.

Every now and then some action erupts, mostly comical. A fight in a street market. A fight on a restaurant balcony. (How many of these has he done over the years?) A fight on the balcony of the stable where he lives. Ride On unfolds in a soft, easygoing, artificial world that never tries to approach reality.

The plot has Jackie (as stuntman Luo) train Red Hare to perform in movies. Because he’s so driven, he could injure the horse and sever new ties with Bao. “Real stunt men never say no,” he tells Bao (in English no less), even though that life’s led him to penury and eight months in a coma.

Approached by an old-time friend to appear in a prestigious production, Luo insists on doing stunts the old-fashioned way, in person and without help. “Do it for real,” as he says, a false argument as Chan has been using tech for years. When it time to shoot, Luo changes his mind, saving his life and that of Red Hare.

One of the hallmarks of a Chan film was his closing action scene, usually a chase with tremendous and frightening stunts. Here Luo won’t do action, and then cries for 20 minutes while the plot works out behind him.

I don’t want to harp on one of cinema’s great figures, or bring up his increasingly problematic politics, or ask him to endanger himself. What I would like is a film with some bite, a story that actually addresses something concrete, and a style that realizes that filmmaking has changed since 1992.

There’s a moment when Bao and Luo watch clips from Chan’s old movies. In a blurry background we see bits from Police Story and First Strike and Rumble in the Bronx, those unbelievable, death-defying stunts that place him with Keaton and Canutt and cinema’s other great action stars. Chan watches with tears in his eyes, earned from decades of devotion to his craft. If only the rest of Ride On reached that level.

Written and directed by Larry Yang. Released theatrically by Well Go USA April 7. Soon to be streaming. Photos of Chan, Liu Haocun and Red Hare courtesy Well Go USA.

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Kill Boksoon: Jeon Do-yeon showcase treads familiar territory

Posted on April 13, 2023 by admin
Jeon Do-yeon. Photo © No Ju-han | Netflix. From Berlinale Special 2023

Style trumps substance in Kill Boksoon, a thriller set in a John Wick universe of corporate killers. Jeon Do-yeon stars as Boksoon, at home a single mom struggling to connect with her teen daughter Gae-yon. On the job she’s a world-class assassin competing with rivals for top billing with MK Enterprises.

An opening scene set on a rainswept city street pits Boksoon, dressed in a manga-fantasy pink outfit, against a triad swordsman. It’s a cunning sequence with good stunts and a smattering of humor, and it sets the tone for the rest of the film: satire mixed with blood, death as a joke.

Director Byun Sung-hyun raises good points about a pitiless social system that grinds up workers while offering them the illusion of security. Corporate killers meet in a dingy bar for fast food and beer; their overlords plot cutting their pay or pitting them against each other in lavish office headquarters. Each side worries about ratings for their “shows,” or killings.

Byun also zeroes in on teen issues, notably bullying, gender awareness, and the inability of teachers to do anything but spout platitudes. Boksoon’s family life seems to be taking place in a different movie, one with small goals and real emotions. My favorite shot in the film (Byun told me it was his too) finds Boksoon sitting on the left of a couch; her daughter Gil Jae-young (played by Kim Si-A) faces the other way. As the camera pushes in, they remain set in their poses, with no way of connecting.

Byun cleverly lets Boksoon imagine different outcomes to situations, like when she finds cigarettes in her daughter’s things. Should she be a “good” mom and ground her? Boksoon’s plays out a scenario that’s just as bad and ineffective as if she were a “bad” mom. In fact, none of Boksoon’s visions end well.

Meanwhile the action increases in violence and intimacy. Bystanders are killed, friends are killed, even lovers as Boksoon sustains her standing as the corporation’s top gun. The stunts get wilder and more complicated, but they fail to build the narrative drive and logic of a Plan 47 film. We’re left judging Kill Boksoon against Atomic Blonde, Gunpowder Milkshake, Kate, Ava and all the other attempts to depict women killers.

Other cast members perform well, with Esom a real standout as Cha Min-hee, a heartless MK leader. Jeon remains a delight throughout the film, whether executing stunts or coping with her daughter or dissing her encounter with ladies who lunch. She deserves better than an action vehicle made up of stolen parts.

Kill Boksoon screened in the Special section of this year’s Berlinale and streams on Netflix. My interview with Jeon and Byun: https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/k-pop/k-movies/article/3215057/netflixs-kill-boksoon-star-jeon-do-yeon-huge-pressure-carrying-action-thriller-which-she-plays

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Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything: sexual politics behind a falling Iron Curtain

Posted on April 13, 2023 by admin

Marlene Burow in Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything, in Competition at the 2023 Berlinale.
© Pandora Film / Row Pictures

The fall of the Iron Curtain is the backdrop for romance in Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything / Irgendwann werden wir uns alles Erzaehlen. Set in a rural village near the border between East and West Germany, the movie tackles politics, class, and family dynamcs, all cloaked in exceptional period detail and shot with a golden glow by cinematographer Armin Dierolf.

Harvesting grain, swimming in rivers, bopping to music on back roads: Someday is an exercise in nostalgia for the 1990s, told from a 1950s perspective (which East Germany at the fall resembled). Working from a screenplay with Daniela Krien, who wrote the source novel, Emily Atef lays out themes and symbols like chess pieces. East Germany represents honest labor, tight-knit families, open relationships. The West? DVD players, expensive cameras, clothes, restaurants, cars that don’t flip over in a strong wind.

Mostly Someday focuses on sex, the hot and heavy illicit kind that was a fixture of late-night cable back in the 1980s. L’amour fou with a Teutonic bent. Parents Siegfried (Florian Panzer) and Marianne (Silke Bodenbender) have accepted 19-year-old Maria (Marlene Burow) into their family. Enticed by her skimpy sundresses, son Johannes (Cedric Eich) welcomes Maria into bed.

But Maria is drawn to the msyterious, moody Henner (Felix Kramer), a farmer twice her age who harbors secrets.

Repulsed but attracted, Maria flirts with Henner until he forces himself on her. Shocked, Maria runs home, only to realize that Johannes can no longer compete.

Does that mean the stronger, earthier East satisfies more than the effete, consumerist West? If only Someday were that interesting. Atef doesn’t show much interest in any of the story’s elements apart from couplings. Frankly, the sexual politics here seem dated, to put it kindly. Old guy does it to teen until she likes it is more porn than politics.

Perhaps familiar with the novel, viewers at a press screening in Berlin’s Palast theater seemed more attuned to the movie’s take on a turning point in German history. Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything / Irgendwann werden wir uns alles Erzaehlen screened in competition at this year’s Berlinale.

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OKO Film Festival at the 2022 Camerimage

Posted on April 13, 2023 by admin

Tetiana Stanieva and Elena Rubashevska at the 2022 EnergaCAMERIMAGE opening night. Photo: Witek Szydłowski.

Opening night ceremonies in the Jordanki Hall at EnergaCAMERIMAGE in Toruń, Poland, are generally upbeat, but those in November, 2022, took a somber turn due to the war in Ukraine. In his introductory remarks, festival director Marek Zydowicz said, “Since February 24th, we stand with Ukraine.” Several other speakers brought up solidarity with the Ukrainian cause.

After listing the nominees up for competition, the hosts introduced two speakers from Ukraine, Tetiana Stanieva and Elena Rubashevska.

Stanieva began by screening a short documentary from Ukraine. It showed wartime conditions in Kyiv and other cities, with sobering visual evidence of atrocities.

What really struck viewers watching the film was a list of Ukrainian filmmakers who have joined the military. Writers, directors, cinematographers, grips, composers — a score of artists were seen first on the job and then in military uniform. Some have been injured or died since the war began. As the film put it, they risked their lives to bring back “svitlo,” or “light.”

“Since February 24, we do not live,” Stanieva said. “Mankind has rarely seen this kind of injustice.”

Stanieva told the audience that a cinematography festival in Kyiv had to be cancelled. Her own festival, the third OKO International Ethnographic Film Festival, moved from Bessarabia, Ukraine, to Torun. Stanieva is the festival director; Rubashevska, the program coordinator.

“We have a dream to invite you all to next year’s festival,” Stanieva said. “If I don’t see you again, I leave you one wish: to help Ukraine in every way possible.”

2022 EnergaCAMERIMAGE opening night. Photo: Pawel Skraba.

Rubashevska fled with no money or documents from the Donbas region to Poland. Three days later she received an invitation to Camerimage, which sponsored the OKO festival. Camerimage provided venues and helped with guests and participants.”Our hope is to promote peace, tolerance, and mutual respect towards each other,” Rubashevska said, before inviting attendees to come celebrate OKO screenings.

The OKO schedule included eight feature documentaries and sixteen documentary shorts, as well as a four-film tribute to Ukrainian cinema.

“I don’t know if Camerimage understands what they did for us,” Stanieva said in an interview at OKO’s awards ceremonies. “Their support gave us wings, gave us hope. We are. We exist. For us, this is so inspiring. I still don’t believe it happened.”

“Let me add some practical details,” Rubashevska said. “We are a very ambitious but young festival. Being here at Camerimage, we could observe how they handled logistics, how they administrate duties, how they connect with guests. That was so valuable for us.

“Also, this was our first full-scale edition where we could invite directors from all over the world, literally all the continents. Being able to meet them was indescribably great.”

OKO’s features included Yonaguni, which followed three Japanese teenagers on the verge of leaving their island home forever; A Portrait on the Search for Happiness, a German film about South Africans who dig for diamonds; and The Chinese Will Come, a Serbian film about the treatment of Chinese migrant workers struggling in a foreign country.

The winning film, I Am Chance, came from Belgium and was directed by Wajnberg Marc-Henri. It followed teenaged girls in the Congo struggling to survive on the streets of Kinshasa.

OKO screening at the Muzeum Etnoraficzne. Photo: Ewelina Kamińska.

Stanieva admitted that some audience members couldn’t make it all the way through I Am Chance. “The film was so shocking and provocative, but I think in a good way because it challenges our beliefs. It made us confront something we prefer to turn a blind eye to. When the director showed the film in Kinshasa, people there said they had never noticed all the beggars in the streets.”

The director of I Am Chance has created a fund to help the subjects of the film, while also giving them some money each month out of his own pocket. In fact, he donated OKO’s prize winnings to them.

“That happened with a number of films on our program,” Rubashevska said. “Most of the directors who attended told us they have engaged in social projects, formed media platforms, initiated educational programs. Because we learn from each other, this festival is a great place to start future collaboration.”

“All of our films shine a light on some problem,” Stanieva said. “Ethnography is about people. Elena and I agreed from the beginning that we would focus on positive films that can influence people and hopefully make a difference. The purpose of these films, and I believe all art, is to let us reflect, to provide a kind of therapy, to form some reaction.”

Ukrainians are facing a tough, bitter future without enough fuel or food. The one question everyone asked: what is the best way to help Ukraine?

“I think other countries can help by educating, and by promoting Ukrainian culture,” Stanieva said. “Because once the war is over, we will need to reaffirm our backgrounds. That’s why we created OKO Travels.”

The OKO Travels program brings Ukrainian films from the festival to countries like Finland and Bulgaria.

“Invite OKO Travels to your country,” Stanieva said. “We’re open to visit. We just need tickets and we will do the rest, for free if necessary. Just give us a platform where we can talk. Let us prove our motto, ‘Your culture is your weapon.'”

More information about the OKO festival is available here: https://www.okofilmfest.com.ua/

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