Subtitles & Sensibility

Subtitles & Sensibility: Seattle International Film Festival 2012, Part One

June 7, 2012 by Jaci Dahlvang 4 Comments

The Seattle International Film Festival is my favorite time of year, and by far the best opprotunity to see Asian film in Seattle. In fact, within the festival there is a dedicated program, titled Asian Crossroads, which this year contains 24 features from 13 countries. I am seeing as many as humanly possible, and am excited to share them all with you!

Here are the first four, from South Korea, Cambodia, Japan, and Hong Kong.

* Countdown is the strong first feature from Huh Jung-ho. It’s a character-driven classic action film, starring Jeong Jae-young as a debt collector who learns that he has liver cancer and ten days to live. Naturally, he brings all the skills that make him an excellent debt collector to the task of finding and securing a liver donor. And when he finds her, of course she has ties to gangsters.

Throw in some drama in his past that he can’t or won’t remember, and you have the formula for a well-paced, slick & snappy feature. A side note: if you’ve never seen a South Korean action film before, don’t be surprised at the lack of gun violence. It’s realistic, due to the country’s firearm regulations, and it’s frankly refreshing for characters to have to take each other on one-on-one rather than mowing down rivals in a spray of bullets.

* Golden Slumbers is a documentary on the golden age of Cambodian cinema, which is a challenge because virtually nothing remains of the actual films. Instead, director Davy Chou (grandson of film producer Van Chann) relies on the memories of those who directed, starred in, and watched the films. Together they visit the sites where films were shot and the cinemas they were projected in, which adds another layer to the piece: life in Cambodia today.

The interview subjects are upfront about the quality of the films (or the lack thereof!)pointing out that each had essentially the same melodramatic plot. However, what I found incredibly powerful was the impact they had on the collective memory. Even though the films no longer exist, the songs are still sung and the plotlines are effortlessly recited by people who saw them over 40 years ago. Destruction of art is heartbreaking, but to be so warmly and fully remembered is beautiful.

* Rent-a-Cat is easily the most charming film I’ve seen at the festival this year, and I am not even a cat person. I am assured that if you are a cat person, this film will make you explode with glee. If you are not a cat person, it just might turn you into one.

Rent-a-Cat stars Mikako Ichikawa (who has the best face at SIFF this year) as Sayoko, a lonely young woman who, you guessed it, rents out cats. Seriously. She walks along the river calling “rentaneko neko neko” through a megaphone, and rents cats to other lonely people. As it turns out, a lot of people are in the market for a low-commitment pet.

It’s hard to not watch a movie about what is essentially a crazy cat lady without being at least a little bit concerned. Will it judge her harshly? Will it devolve into a pat romance? Luckily, Rent-a-Cat ends not too cruel, not too sweet, but just right. Don’t forget to stick with it through the ridiculously cute illustrated end credits!

* I wanted to like Romancing in Thin Air, but I found it overwrought & sentimental. The latest from Johnnie To is not his first romantic film, though he is better known for his thrillers. I do remember loving his unconventional romance Turn Left, Turn Right at a previous festival, so this was a disappointment.

It opens with film star Michael (Louis Koo) being left at the altar. He decides to drink himself to oblivion, which turns out to be the Deep Woods Hotel. There he shouts a lot and smashes things, until he slowly begins to heal with the help of the mournful proprietor Sue (Sammi Cheng). She is in pain herself over the loss of her husband Tian, who went missing in the woods seven years ago.

The film does contain some nice ideas. I liked the metaphor of Tian’s piano, which had broken keys when he disappeared that Sue still refuses to fix, plus the whole image of the quiet danger of a forest where compasses do not work is lovely. The scene where locals are creating noise to help people find their way out of the forest is beautiful and will stay with me.

Overall the high drama and the too-pat meta ending outweighed the pretty cast and the even prettier scenery.

Subtitles & Sensibility: Sequel time with Death Note & Gantz

May 1, 2012 by Jaci Dahlvang 7 Comments

Back in February I shared my thoughts on the first live action Death Note & Gantz films, and honestly, not a lot has changed since I watched the sequels. (If you haven’t seen either, that post should be sufficient. This post assumes franchise knowledge for both.)

I did find the overall experience surprising. My snap judgment was that I would really enjoy Death Note, but I would find Gantz a little too dry & sci -fi for my taste. Instead, I frequently disliked Death Note, but I thoroughly enjoyed Gantz. There were two key differences for me between the two.

First, in Death Note, we are watching the manipulators from their areas of power, whereas in Gantz we are with the manipulated, watching these ordinary people trying to do their best in an extraordinary world. Second, the respective morality of the films was very different. In Death Note, even though Light is being pursued by authorities, the film accepts his decisions to kill in a way that I was uncomfortable with. Plus, an element of the Death Note is that the holder can kill from afar, so he doesn’t have to get his hands dirty. In Gantz, however, the characters brought back from death to fight are conflicted about killing, and when they choose to follow the instructions of Gantz it is for a clear goal: to earn enough points to either bring back someone else who has died, or so they might free themselves from the program. And even with this, in the second Gantz film, they are questioned outright about why they’re fighting, and it is clear that they question this themselves.

As for particulars of the films themselves….

In Death Note: The Last Name, the production value runs the gamut from soap opera to video game. Story-wise a few new complications are added to the rules of the Death Note (and a second Death Note is introduced), though none of this really challenges L, who works intuitively. The story tension is meant to come not from whether or not L will know that Light is Kira, but whether or not he will be able to prove it. However, Light and his various associates, be they gods of death or devoted fans, continue to remain one contrived step ahead of L’s ability to discover hard evidence.

As for Gantz: The Perfect Answer, it was a satisfying conclusion to the story. New elements were brought in, like people who are investigating the rumors of Gantz and the possibility that these dead people are still alive, and as aforementioned, the fighters deal with some heavy questions about who they are fighting and why.

There are a number of excellent action sequences involving a subway car, though there were definitely some moments where I wished I was watching it in the theater. Action on DVD frequently goes on too long to hold my interest, but that’s a personal thing. Overall, I enjoyed both Gantz films, and they’ve got me interested in the anime and manga, which is a huge success.

On a whim I picked up L: Change the World at the library, and to my surprise, very much enjoyed it. It’s an L-specific spin-off of the Death Note live action films, and opens just before the Kira story begins. It starts with L working with Naomi on a case, and I actually really wished we could have had more of that. Naomi is a fun, capable character, and I enjoyed the taste we got of their relationship. If anyone could tell me if that is expanded on in the anime or manga I would really appreciate it.

The film quickly leaps through the timeline of the first two films, and the bulk of it takes place after. L takes some time finishing off odds and ends of cases, and this is his last big case before his chosen death comes. Essentially it’s a completely unoriginal bioterrorism-type outbreak story, but I enjoyed getting to know more about L outside of his entanglement with Light, especially insofar as it gave us a better look at the system L works within. The villains have a pretty traditional plan to destroy the world so they can remake it, but at least in the process they have to engage with the world, which makes them much more interesting than Light, hiding behind his notebook.

It’s a testament to the work Matsuyama had done with the character of L over the prior two films that when he engages in simple human behaviors it’s incredibly strange to watch. When he’s simply being outside in the world, it made me nervous. I wanted to encase him in bubble wrap & return him to his hermetically sealed chamber, full of sweets & computer monitors. In the course of fighting the virus, he has to interact with children, and it’s a great twist to watch this child-like character struggle to connect. As a bonus, children are the perfect people to ask L all the questions we’ve had through the prior two films. Why does he eat so much sugar? Is he even capable of standing up straight?

In the end, L: Change the World was a treat for me for making it through the other two Death Note films. It wasn’t great, and it certainly wouldn’t stand on its own, but if you really wanted more L, it’s a fun little diversion.

Review copies of Death Note: The Last Name and Gantz: The Perfect Answer provided by New People Entertainment.

Subtitles & Sensibility: Let the Bullets Fly & K-20

March 26, 2012 by Jaci Dahlvang 5 Comments

Let the Bullets Fly is currently the highest-grossing Chinese-language film ever. Essentially a western, it opens with a classic bandit attack on a train. Said train is carrying a new mayor (You Ge) to Goose Town, but since his motives were none-too-pure to start with, he and his wife (Carina Lau) cut a deal with the bandit chief (Wen Jiang, also the director & screenwriter), and off they go to profit.

Profiting turns out to be not that simple, because there’s already a gang in charge and they’re in no hurry to give up their power, let alone their money. Thus we begin with a game of many wits and surprisingly few bullets, double crossing and triple crossing, and hardly a lady in sight beyond the sadly underused Lau, now posing as the wife of the bandit chief.

I was excited to see it because I have been known to enjoy ridiculous, over-the-top action movies, and because, like everyone, I am a fan of Yun-Fat Chow. Unfortunately, the film is over-long, often confusing, and not nearly as funny as it thought it was.

For example, in theory I like the idea of subverting expectations by casting Yun-Fat Chow as the villain gang leader, but in practice, it would have been nice if he had been given something more to do than laugh uproariously at his own cleverness and mug a bit as his own double.

Tonally, it doesn’t work. Obviously a film can be both violent and funny, but it is a delicate balance. A drawn-out scene where a character was manipulated into slicing open his own stomach and a (mercifully offscreen) gang rape were probably intended as further indications of just how bad our bad guy was, but they were also played for laughs, taking me right out of the film.

Let the Bullets Fly does offer lush cinematography and great images (particularly the horse-drawn train, even if the attack effect itself was lacking), and it references everything from Red Cliff to Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid with the broadest of winks, but in the end it isn’t universal enough to work.

Since seeing the film I’ve read in a few places that the humor in particular requires a deeper knowledge of Chinese culture than I have personally, and that it has political undertones (or even overtones) which were largely lost on me. Nonetheless, a better film would have worked on multiple levels.

In contrast, K-20: The Fiend with 20 Faces was wicked fun both times I saw it: first at a packed film festival screening and later at home. It’s also an over-the-top, vaguely historical action film. The set-up with K-20 is that WWII never happened, the aristocracy still controls the vast majority of the wealth in Japan, and there is no class mobility.

Against this backdrop swoops K-20, a failed Robin Hood who steals from the rich and keeps it all for himself. He sets up Heikichi Endo (the always-charming Takeshi Kaneshiro), a circus acrobat & illusionist, to take the fall for him.

Since K-20‘s genre of choice is the superhero movie, this injustice sets up Endo to become the hero. With the help of a band of thieves and a band of orphans, he launches into the obligatory training montage. It’s parkour and disguise training rather than the traditional swordsmanship or the like, which is a lot of fun, and Endo’s goal is simple: to clear his name so he can return to the circus.

Along the way he encounters the baron-slash-detective (Tôru Nakamura) who is hunting K-20, as well as the detective’s fiancée (Takako Matsu). She’s a delight, a duchess who considers self-defense “just part of being a lady”.

The film is a little long, but the plot keeps moving at a decent pace, hitting all the points of the classic origin story and a villain off to steal some massive technological weapon. Character-wise I am a big fan of Yoko, the fiancée, who is clever and resourceful, rescuing others far more often than she is rescued.

Visually the movie is pure eye-candy, from the wild steampunk world of the upper class to the dense maze of Thieves’ Alley. And sure, we’ve seen it all before, but it’s still a great ride through all of the best bits stolen from the golden age of comics, with an acrobat and a duchess fighting crime.

All in all K-20 is an absurd movie, but it knows that full well that it’s absurd, and it doesn’t take that as an excuse to sacrifice character development. We care about these people even as we’re suspending our disbelief from here to Japan, and as the end credits rolled (both times!) I wished I knew when I could queue for a sequel.

Review copy of K-20: The Fiend with 20 Faces provided by New People Entertainment.

Subtitles & Sensibility: Three with Ken’ichi Matsuyama

February 22, 2012 by Jaci Dahlvang 4 Comments

Last spring at the Seattle International Film Festival, I discovered Ken’ichi Matsuyama through a sold-out screening of Norwegian Wood. The film came back to Seattle this winter, so I took the opportunity to see it again and then decided to check out a few other Matsuyama films.

An adaptation of the popular Haruki Murakami novel, Norwegian Wood is an overwhelmingly sad picture which played better the second time through.

The film centers on Toru (Matsuyama), a university student who is torn between the tragedy of his past and the possibilities for his future. The past is represented by Naoko, the longtime girlfriend of his best friend Kizuki. After his inexplicable suicide, Naoko and Toru try to process the devastation together. For Naoko, it is impossible to deal with, and as she sinks into depression she threatens to pull Toru down with her.

However, at university Toru meets Midori (the utterly charming Kiko Mizuhara), who gives him the opportunity to choose life.

The first time around I found the film very heavy, unsurprisingly! It is more emotionally intense than the novel, partially because the film is more present, whereas the novel was reflective. The novel left space for humor, like expanding the character of Toru’s roommate Storm Trooper, and it took us out of the potentially-claustrophobic triangle of Toru, Naoko, and Midori by allowing more space for characters like Naoko’s eventual roommate Reiko to develop.

However, I am nothing if not understanding of the limits of adaptation. Tonal departures or character embellishments which work in a novel can easily feel out of place in a film.

More importantly, Norwegian Wood is a gorgeous piece of cinema. I was better able appreciate the unique textures, both visual and aural, when I saw it the second time. Overall the film is very lush, and it was easy for me to get lost in the visuals of everything from the gorgeous landscapes of the countryside to the patterning of fabric, and the excellent sound design between the university and the woods. Toru is swept through the film on waves—waves of sorrow, waves of protesters, and waves of wind through the long grasses on his long walks with Naoko—and I was willing to be swept along with him.

I followed it up with another, rather different adaptation. Death Note, based on the manga of the same name, is the story of Light, a college student with dubious ethics who discovers a notebook. It’s the death note of the title, and it is quite a find. If you write someone’s name in it, they die.

Of course, it isn’t quite that simple. We quickly learn the many rules of the death note, and to the credit of the plot, the rules appear perfectly timed to answer audience questions.

Light (Tatsuya Fujiwara, devilishly creepy) uses the notebook to become a sort of Dexter Morgan from afar, causing the deaths of people who he thinks truly deserve it. However, he quickly begins using it in his own self-interest, killing the innocent, and manipulating the rules to manipulate people. Having not read the manga yet, I don’t know if Light is so unapologetically unpleasant in that as well. I hope so! I like the idea of a main character that the audience is so quickly turns against.

Light is accompanied in his adventures by a Shinigami named Ryuk, a sort of death god who owned the notebook before, dropped it in hopes someone interesting would pick it up, and now is just curious what shenanigans Light might get up to. Ryuk is essentially the world’s worst imaginary friend. The character, delivered via cartoonish CGI, resembles nothing so much a death metal version of the Joker, if the Joker was addicted to apples.

Ken’ichi Matsuyama, offscreen for over half of the film, plays the mysterious L, a reclusive genius detective. He’s an almost-otherworldly character, pale and compact, locked away in a hotel room and outsmarting criminals from afar. He steals the movie with his physicality alone, nearly unrecognizable between this and his role as Toru. Shoulders hunched, he hides behind eye makeup & shaggy hair, living off of sweets.

Both L and Light are childlike, existing very little in the real world and instead hiding away in their respective rooms, playing out a high-stakes game of strategy virtually. With all of the screens (television news, security footage, and the like) it’s almost a video game with real-world consequences.

Speaking of consequences, ladies do not fare well in Death Note despite my early hopes, particularly for Naomi Misora, a stellar FBI agent. One is introduced solely as a set-up for the second film, and others exist to be manipulated by Light via the notebook.

The whole structure of Death Note is frustrating because Light has absolute power with the book. He kills from afar, and after the deaths have been played out we take no pleasure in learning how the manipulations work. We’re seeing the strings of a show we didn’t enjoy the first time around, and as the film progresses and the deaths become more elaborate, I started to despair that anything will stop Light.

Thanks to the cliffhanger ending, I’m going to have to check out the second film to see if it ever happens. I’ll be sure to report back.

In contrast, Gantz was also a film based on a manga series and split into two parts, but the first film worked as a complete story on its own. Though clearly there are many unanswered questions regarding the mechanics of the plot and the fate of secondary characters, Kurono undergoes a satisfying character arc. There’s an emotional conclusion if not a technical one.

Gantz is strange, the sort of picture that would play really well with a midnight, cult-film crowd. It opens with the accidental death of two high school students, Kurono (Kazunari Ninomiya) and Kato (Matsuyama). Rather than moving on to any traditional afterlife, they find themselves in an unfurnished apartment along with a few other people and a large black sphere.

The sphere has brought them here to participate in a life-or-death game, fighting against aliens who have been living on Earth. There are some rules to the game, though it seems fewer rules than were involved in Death Note.

Gantz features nice effects, great character design on the aliens, and very stylish cinematography by Taro Kawazu.

The film definitely raised a lot of questions. Are they really dead? Are they in limbo? How are they able to return to their old lives after missions? I have a lot of questions, so I’ll definitely be checking out the second film here as well!

Review copies of Death Note and Gantz provided by New People Entertainment.