[DVD] The ESP Couple (2008)

Can You Read My Mind?

At first glance some halfway through to the film, I'd thought the pairing of the couple was something like that of the Condor Heroes of Huang Rong and Guo Jing, where the lady relies on her street smarts to get them out of difficult situations, and the guy relying on his brawn. Here, Su Min (Jin Goo) and Hyun Jin (Park Bo Young) play a couple where the former becomes incessant in finding out the ESP abilities of the latter, and conjures up some scenarios where he has no choice but to employ his abilities to bail them out of. Until of course it's put to better use in trying to assist in solving a kidnapping case, to which there's a slight twist to it all.

If not for that little sleight of hand at the last act, this would be your typical pilot episode of a television series, and in fact, the look and feel was one that fit right in. The little anime segment in the last act served up some nice, differing visuals from the rest of the narrative. If this was to be made into a television series, I would be curious enough to give it a chance to see how it develops further.

You can read my DVD review of The ESP Couple at movieXclusive.com by clicking on the logo below.

[EU Film Fest] Playing Solo (Sooloilua)

Bonding

The debut feature film of Finnish director Lauri Nurkse, Playing Solo tells the story of three individuals who are just that - selfish people who have to learn how to change themselves in order to live with one another. Based on the novel by Katja Kallio, it brings to mind the constant tussle in the modern world of how one can be so easily caught up with work, that relationships often take a back seat, for better or worse.

We have Emma Huilu (Saija Lentonen), a reporter in a long distance relationship that recently ended, and in a stroke of luck from an occupational hazard, gets to meet possibly the sexiest orchestra conductor alive in Joel Abrahamsson (Lari-Pekka Toivonen) to conduct a last minute interview. Needless to say, sparks fly immediately, they go on a whirlwind romance, and before you know it, he soon loads her up with his personal problem - that of taking care of his aged mom Lea (Kristiina Elstela) who is beyond control in the nursing home's she put up in.

The character of Joel is your typical alpha-male type whose jet-setting career and reputation puts him in the clear path of temptation, and how he battles that would naturally have repercussions in his relationship with Emma. Toivonen plays this role with ease because of his stature and good looks, and exudes enough pathos given the frustrations of his childhood and his difficult mom. We think that he's the poor victim here when we see how he gets dumped by a pregnant ex-girlfriend, but there's more than meets the eye to this handsome man.

Saija Lentonen on the other hand had a deeper role to play, though nothing unexpected since we see a strong, independent woman succumb to being needy, and you're likely to feel that she had made a number of missteps and was being blatantly silly. But then love is blind, and you would like to trust the best in your partner, though ultimately I still think that the finale didn't do the story, and her character, justice at all.

Stealing the show every step of the way is of course Kristiina Elstela as the strong-willed mom who doesn't accept any nonsense from anyone. Clearly missing her son who's never emotionally there for her, much of the comedy stems from her razor sharp wit. With Joel being out of the picture for the most part, the story then takes on the spin of bonding amongst women, who between them at first was full of animosity, but nothing beats some earnestness in holding out that olive leaf. Both have lessons for each other, and their dynamics brought to life by the actresses are one of the key highlights of the film.

And there's a particular scene which I enjoyed, as it dealt with the notion of time, devotion and returns. It brought about the thought of having to understand someone, a stranger perhaps, in order to have some form of meaningful conversation. But like in many scenes which involve Joel, life in itself is one where it's easy to take things for granted, and usually we devote time to pursuits which translate to economic gains, rather than to spend that same amount of time, or even a quality fraction of it, with the people we love, just to understand them a little bit more, and to spend time because we simply want to.

Playing Solo reinforces the reminder that there should always be time to stop and smell the roses, and that family should always come first. It's true that we sometimes cannot stand the little idiosyncrasies of loved ones, but ultimately we should never take things for granted, and nobody should be flying solo in his or her lifetime. This comedy-romance comes recommended for that theme alone, despite an ending that I just couldn't agree with completely.

***

Playing Solo plays on 13 May 09 1900hrs at GV Vivocity. Click on the image below for more details, or here directly to book your tickets.

The Horsemen

Kuah Simi?

I was gearing up for a good serial killer movie given the premise of having the four horsemen of the apocalypse, with the trailer piquing my interest from its fair share of unflinching blood and gore. Sad to say though that the distributors preferred to appeal to a wider audience for this, and some scenes were clearly butchered for its language, conversational content as well as snipping off some of the more gory moments of annihilation. I guess even the horsemen themselves are powerless when up against the censors' scissors, which is the more potent weapon here.

Dennis Quaid plays a pained cop Aidan Breslin, who has recently lost his wife and is growing increasingly distant from his kids Alex (Lou Taylor Pucci) and Sean (Liam James), burying himself in and using work as an emotional crutch, never being there for family because work often calls out for his attention. And as the trailers would have pretty much revealed, the serial killer victims are all tortured with meat hooks of sorts, and he's faced with more than 1 killer who model themselves after the biblical Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Sounds like your average detective movie right? I guess a memorable film from the genre like Se7en will only come once in a blue moon. This film by Jonas Akerlund tries to elicit similar moods devoid of humour and is all seriousness in tone, but its plot turned out to be quite flimsy thin, and those who have experienced enough of the genre, would have guessed the culprit for the last act somewhere by the mid-way point. No, it's not Ziyi Zhang (as she is credited), and despite a major billing in the credits, her character Kristen turned out to be spoiled by the trailer already, coupled with the fact that she doesn't have more than 15 minutes worth of screen time in total.

While this is one of her rare villainous outing with dialogue (back in Rush Hour 2 she was struggling with English), I would have supposed that opposition to her character here as a villain was unfounded, given that they should have been more concerned with her sleepwalking through the role, and could have been replaced by any other lesser actresses since at best it's only a supporting role. Dennis Quaid however shows how he ages well into delivering stellar, lead performances, and makes it believable he's a man constantly struggling with a work-life balance.

Ultimately, the message here is how important parents play in nurturing their children, and should be very much involved in their development, rather than thinking that cash would be a sufficient substitute and settle everything. The film does suggest, and probably had a subplot going for it, something like Japan's suicide pact clubs online, something which I thought could have been given an additional focus instead of leaving it open ended at that, just to show the extent of the “apocalypse” as being delivered by its messengers.

Technically, one aspect which irked me, was how low the cropping turned out to be. I have read that there were constant boom mikes spotted in shots, so it could be a bad by-product of having to address that problem, in addition to ensuring that the printed Chinese subtitles are visible for the audience. So there were a lot of heads cut off at the foreheads during shot-reverse-shot conversational pieces, and various other medium to close up shots, that irritated the hell out of me.

Horsemen had an interesting premise working for it, but alas didn't fulfill its potential in having to drop deeper themes for that frantic pace to the finishing line - which comparing to the run time at IMDb.com, we had 20 minutes shorn off here.

Kabei - Our Mother (Kaabee)

Joy

My introduction into Yoji Yamada's cinematic world is through his famed and recent Samurai Trilogy with The Twilight Samurai, The Hidden Blade and Love and Honor. I had enjoyed all three films, and looking at the prolific, veteran director's filmography, I think it'll take me a very long while to watch all his films, especially the Tora-san series. Needless to say when Kabei Our Mother has finally reached our shores, I jumped at the chance to watch what would be an ode to Mothers everywhere, celebrating their innate love for their children.

Based on the autobiography of Teruyo Nogami, Kabei - Our Mother tells of a close knit family of four – Mother Kayo “Kabei” (Sayuri Yoshinaga), Father Shigeru “Tobei” (Mitsugoro Bando), eldest daughter Hatsu (Mirai Shida) and youngest child Teru (Miku Sato). From the get go their lives would be changed forever, when Shigeru gets arrested under the Peace Preservation Law for his morally controversial writings against the nation, set in the late 30s where Japan had begun their “crusade” in China, and thereafter their participation in WWII.

So begins Kabei's struggle to hold down jobs to feed her family, and the frequent, difficult meetings with her husband behind bars. Help comes from relatives, especially on Shigeru's side, since Kabei's own dad had adopted an "I told you so" attitude with her choice of spouse. Shigeru's one time student Yama (arthouse buffs should recognize Tadanobu Asano here) provides laughter as a bumbling man who slowly becomes confidante and surrogate guardian to the children, and Kabei's sister in law Hisako (Rei Dan) from Hiroshima, which I believe would have sounded some hindsight alarm bells as to her unfortunate fate as the film progresses through its timeline.

While the film centers primarily on how the kids are growing up under the presence of their mom, and in a distant relationship with their dad, what I enjoyed is how the microscopic family events unfold under the macroscopic worldwide events that have impacted on the common folk in Japan. It's against the historical backdrop of Japan's push to regional dominance, and there are characters here that don't mask those ambitions, even discussing what the country would eventually do should it be successful in holding onto conquered lands. This is something I rarely see in Japanese films, being that frank in their discussion of that era, and also to get a glimpse of how the common man have to struggle against domestic issues made all the more difficult with resources channeled toward the war effort.

The actresses casted here are pitch perfect in their delivery and roles, be they the veterans or the child actors. Actress Sayuri Yoshinaga deserves special mention for her role as the motherly figure who has to dig deep and find that inner strength to carry the household through under trying circumstances, while Mirai Shida and Miku Sato are lovable as the understanding children who have to learn to make do and compromise. Each scene with the three of them together just makes it heart wrenching when the going gets tough, or fill your heart with Joy should they be celebrating. Before long you'll soon find yourself being attracted to want to be part of this family, thanks to the primary cast's powerful performances, with Yoji Yamada coaxing some really natural performances from the kids.

Kabei - Our Mother boasts some stunningly beautiful art direction, and is classy in its delivery of both happy and sad moments without going over the top, or relying on cheap melodrama to cheapen the emotions it seeks from the audience. There are plenty of little things here done right which makes it pitch perfect, with every scene not being wasted, and with every nuance very meaningful in conveying its message across, be it compassion or love.

Aside from the very abrupt ending (I had hoped that it could have continued for a lot more, despite its more than 2 hours runtime), Kabei Our Mother comes highly recommended, and you'll find it difficult to be holding back either your tears, or that thought about your own mom and her sacrifices she makes for you on an everyday basis. Just what those sacrifices are should you need another reminder, then the scene during the end credits roll will remind you of the stuff that you'd probably have taken for granted.

The Meerkats

Standing Tall

Let the wildlife documentaries roll in. I suppose it's lucrative enough to make a film based on animals both in wildlife, or in captivity, protecting them from the threat of extinction. You can name such films with ease, starting from the award winning March of the Penguins, to the fictional story The Fox & the Child and to the latest screened here in Panda Diary. The Meerkats took a bow at last year's Tokyo International Film Festival, and while we may not be that familiar with this species, the story weaved into this documentary has universal themes going back to basics on survival.

The filmmakers had spent some 6 months to observe the meerkats' breeding period in their natural environment in the Kalahari desert, and the footage they obtained is nothing less than stunning, though I suspect for certain shots they had recycled perhaps from some earlier moments, and juxtaposed them in place to make a more logical narrative. Still, it's no mean feat deserving of kudos for Alexander McCall Smith because it certainly takes tremendous man-hours to craft a drama narratively from what is essentially footage of animals going about their own thing.

Narrated by the late Paul Newman, The Meerkats have all the ingredients necessary to engage an audience throughout its brisk 83 minutes. We have an identified flawed hero Meerkat, Kolo, from whose eyes we will witness events from. And it's like a life-cycle, coming of age tale, with Kolo's birth, the life lessons he has got to learn fast if he's to survival in a harsh habitat with predators and the environment both threatening his family's very survival, a tragedy, an accidental exile and the return of the prodigal son.

For the uninitiated, we get to learn a little more about the meerkats just as how one watching a nature documentary would pick up from, such as their diet, their underground abode, as well as their chief enemies, and director James Honeybornes ensures we get ringside seats in the thick of the action whether it's the battling against swooping eagles, cunning snakes, or even against fellow meerkats of a different tribe. Personallly I dislike snakes, and watching one slither about onscreen and up close, isn't really my cup of tea. But the “action sequences” were an eye-opener, with a very natural and real sense of danger because it's not crafted, but is exactly as what nature intended – the laws of the food chain amongst the vast African plains.

So for documentary lovers out there who are on the bandwagon for more wildlife films, then The Meerkats would be your automatic choice. Recommended.

Gu Gu The Cat (Gou-Gou Datte Neko De Aru)

Cat Tales

I guess we've seen enough canine movies coming out from Japan, that it's now the turn for felines to get the spotlight. I would have half expected the plot to follow the usual formula, if not for the fact that Gu Gu the Cat actually became the side show of the plot, despite being the titular character, and worse, a replacement cat in fact.

Based on the novel by Yumiko Oshima, the story centers on Kojima (Kyoko Koizumi), a successful manga storyteller who suffers from a dearth of inspiration when her pet cat Ce Va dies of an illness suddenly, upon completion of her special edition masterpiece. Kojima lapses into depression, but she has her assistants and pals like Naomi (Juri Ueno) to thank in keeping her spirits up, especially when Kojima herself starts to find parallels between her own life, and that of her pet Ce Va. Then comes Gu Gu whom she adopts, and life may seem a little better given the antics of this cute cat.

However, this cat film, unlike the many dog ones out there, doesn't focus too much on the cat itself, unlike the love that man's best friend often get on screen. Perhaps cats find it unnatural to be performing in front of the camera unlike the dogs, though you can hear audible adoration of cuteness each time they turn on the charm in front of the camera. The filmmakers here know just what the best angles are, and the perfect situations to put the cats in for that all-too-familiar poses to have kids go into a frenzy harbouring hopes to get their own pet cat after the movie. But such scenes are few and far between.

I'm not too sure about the film being touted as a comedy, because I found it to be very much a tragedy for the most parts of the film. Losing one's inspirational compass in life is nothing to laugh about, or worse, choosing not to do anything about it. The mood is constantly morose, with Kojima brooding most of the time, and Naomi getting herself into some relationship complications. It's the story about these lead two characters and their friends (see if you can spot Miyuki Oshima from Handsome Suit), and less so about the cat, nor adopting the cat's point of view of events unravelling.

What I found a little irritating were the moments when this American English teacher Paul Weinberg (Marty Friedman) who appears as the narrator of sorts, breaking the fourth wall and goes into explanation mode, or even documentary styled prose, such as introducing some of the hot spots to visit in the city of Tokyo. The narrative thus became jarring each time he comes on, and while he has an important role to play given some revelation in the last act, it was still a little peculiar why that scene was included, because it gave the story an additional, needless direction into the third world, and was a little cheesy too in seeking some closure.

I suppose this film would only appeal to cat lovers, because for a dog person like me, this film didn't manage to convince me that a cat movie will work, nor did it raise my appreciation for the felines. If only a more compelling story would win me over otherwise, but perhaps it's more to do with the issues that the female of the species would be able to identify with a lot more, since the prerequisite illness in the tale was geared toward that.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

More X-Men

I guess the major news items coming out from this movie, are its infamous internet leak where the only consolation are some few minutes of missing footage, plus some unfinished special effects, and its rumoured six different codas after the end credits roll. I won't know what the illegal downloadable version looks like, and neither am I interested to find out, but the six codas reek of the time of how the comic book industry shot itself in the foot with the variant covers just to get the fanboys to buy them all. I don't suppose this will cause anyone to want to sit through this bland and mediocre film so many times just for a few extra seconds as well.

One can just see this film coming, because of how popular the Wolverine character is amongst the X-Men titles, and having its own standalone title in the comics is the stamp of approval from fans. They too took to Hugh Jackman's portrayal like fish to water, and what better than to reward the loyal fanbase by digging into Wolverine's troubled past, which has plenty of richness for a cinematic outing, if distilled right. As for the other rumoured Origin film focused on Magneto, I won't be holding my breath waiting for that to happen.

While Hugh Jackman continues his angst-ridden portrayal of the beloved character, he's ultimately let down by a terribly uninteresting spin and weak direction by Gavin Hood. Hood is no Bryan Singer or even Brett Ratner for juicing up the last installment of the X-franchise into an all-out whackfest, choosing instead to straddle the line between character drama and action, both at which he fails. The drama just drags on seemingly like forever with pretty much boring dialogue, while the action sequences are cliché, bland and everything you would have seen before already, what with military vehicles, snipers, sword-fights, guns, and those claws. In fact, the trailer pretty much spoils it for you, save for one climatic fight sequence which I admit to being nothing short of exciting, and thankfully kept under wraps.

But it's an incredibly long crawl to that, which scribes David Benioff and Skip Woods would have to take responsibility for. Memorable scenes are terribly few, though the opening montage was a nice spin on trying to establish the brotherly bonds between Jackman's Logan and Liev Schreiber's Victor Creed aka Sabretooth. Choosing to make them half-brothers was a nice attempt at some mature, dramatic exploration into Cain and Abel, brothers turned enemies dilemma, but what it degenerated into was some weak excuse just to pit those two same-type fighters together.

Then there's the subscription to the mantra of loading the film with more mutants to automatically mean a better movie. Not. Granted that the dwelling on the backstory with his involvement in Team X led by William Stryker (Danny Huston), which gives rise to an opportunity to showcase The Blob (Kevin Durand), Bolt (Dominic Monaghan), Agent Zero (Daniel Henny), but only done so rather haphazardly, and there's nothing in the “Team” about the way they operate – just one demonstration of their powers after another. Having Ryan Reynolds play Deadpool was an excellent choice I feel, but the character's only inserted, like the other fan idol Gambit (Taylor Kitsch), just because the filmmakers can as a one-up against the X-men film franchise, and they suffer from cardboard characterization. Too many characters not handled deftly, only equates to mediocre posers who look the part, exhibit the inherent powers, but serve no purpose.

Which led me to feel that the filmmakers had little love for the character Wolverine as well. That all important Weapon X sequence where he gets intimately acquainted with the adamantium element, was done double quick time, and you wonder if it's a mockery of the immense pain, both physical and emotional, that Logan had to go through, character-wise. As already mentioned in so many instances, characterization goes down the drain in this film, as you can tell Hood just can't wait to get all characters onto the next bland action sequence.

For those new to the Wolverine character, or didn't know much about his history, then this film will serve up some questions that may pique interest to dig up those back issue comics. At most, this film serves up to be an introduction to the X-Men film franchise, with again, some key characters in their youthful stage introduced here (keep your eyes open now). There is plenty of room left open for a Wolverine sequel given one of the end codas here with Logan being in Japan (in a scene very meaningless if you have absolutely no background knowledge) that serves to be yet another important milestone in his life, but hopefully, the mistakes learnt here won't get repeated in any potential sequels.

Star Trek

The New Old Enterprise

This is what GV's Blockbuster Surprise Screening turned out to be!

My adventures with the original William Shatner-led Enterprise crew had been confined to the cinematic movies of Star Trek, plus sporadic episodes from the original television series. I grew up more with Patrick Stewart's Captain Jean-Luc Picard commanding the Next Generation on board the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D in exploring strange new worlds and civilizations, as well as every movie made following that crew. It's quite unfortunate that Nemesis didn't fare too well at the box office, and hence it took this long (some 7 years!) before another Star Trek movie got made.

In between we had other spin off series like Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise, all which somehow didn't appeal to me, and their ability to cross over to the cinematic screen was, I guess, suspect. Then the question of how and where does one even begin in making another mass appeal movie, which by now has a whole wealth of content, and canonical ones at that. Imagine an established franchise with fans worldwide, some practically religious followers, and convince them that what you're making, and a reboot at that (horrors!) would be the right way forward?

But I got to take my hat off to J.J. Abrams, and especially to the scribes of Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman for really having the balls, and the smarts, to do what they did. It's a reboot all right, but a really clever way to jump-start a legacy without making a mockery of its rich history, providing an acceptable (though not never seen before) method relying on stuff that science fiction is made up of. Of course I won't tell you what it is, you'll have to find out yourself, suffice to say that it made everything fall in place, with the involvement of Leonard Nimoy, and the background of the Romulan villain played to stereotypical perfection by Eric Bana.

At its core, with this reboot, it allowed for the film to establish the paralleled and troubled background of the ship's Captain and First Officer, James Tiberius Kirk (Chris Pine) and Vulcan Mr. Spock (Zachary Quinto), and with all solid partnerships and friendships, they too don't begin seeing eye to eye. It's a little bit curious though that this version of Star Trek has forgone its television roots for the cinematic debut first, and even though both Pine and Quinto came from TV, I don't expect to see this particular film spin off a television franchise of its own (though I'm secretly hoping so!). If anything, there should be an ongoing series (if box office receipts permit) for the cinema instead of the gogglebox.

It takes a while to showcase these individual characters at the top of the Enterprise command, before we get to see the rest of the familiar crew, now replaced with fresh faces, like John Cho as Sulu, Karl Urban as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy, Anton Yelchin as Mr Chekov, Zoe Saldana as Uhura, and Simon Pegg as Scotty, whom fans will have to wait until the mid way point to see his very limited, though memorable appearance on the deck of the ship. Since it's an "origin" film of sorts, we get more acquainted to Spock, who now demonstrates more emotions rather than cold logic from the Nimoy era, and Kirk still rolling with the punches as the action-hero man, still defiant and often unorthodox in his approach to the mission at hand. Fans itching to witness what James T. Kirk is reputedly famous for, you'll finally get to see that in his Starfleet Academy days here.

The pacing of the film was as energetic as that of its younger cast, and what is a 126 minutes movie did feel as if it's under 90 minutes, where it begins with a bang from the get go, and never decelerated from its warp speed. Abrams kept the pace very fluid, balancing emotional scenes with the more action-packed ones, though I feel there would be some passing pre-mature judgement that Star Trek is never about the action. That's true here as well (except probably when you're faced with Kirk hanging on a ledge of some sorts no less than 3 times), in case you're wondering about the trailer's bells and whistles. The sound design was excellent as well, as you really get to experience that silence of space each time the vast void comes to fill up the entire screen.

Non-fans might find some reason to scoff at Star Trek being a bit stiff, but this version makes it all sexy again. There's a wonderful story that doesn't pander to the audience nor disrespect its rich history, perfectly fused moments of humour, adequate action, and that core story of how the Enterprise crew got together for its maiden mission, and primed for more when the end credits roll. It's just nostalgic to see the good 'ol USS Enterprise NCC-1701 given a facelift by Industrial Light and Magic, and taking flight under maximum warp again!

Definitely highly recommended, for fans who will be smiling from ear to ear when spotting little gizmos and easter eggs from knowledge of hindsight, and non-fans alike, who would likely be converted and inspired to go dig through the video archives for the original missions. If I may have the audacity of saying so, Gene Roddenberry might have been mighty proud with this effort!

See You Again!

The Ramen Girl

Go Away

Just like how Brittany Murphy's Abby finds it almost impossible to make that perfect bowl of ramen because her lack of heart translated to a bland broth, so too does the film suffer from the same lack of feeling in order to transcend yet another Westernized production of Eastern exoticness, this time in the form of food. Murphy tried her best to become adorable, but I would like to think that feminist everywhere would likely be up in arms against her whiny character whose life had fallen apart just because her boyfriend had dumped her in one of the most happening capital cities in the world, Japan.

It's quite random for her to find her calling in learning to make ramen from master chef Maezumi (played by Toshiyuki Nishida), who is playing his role according to formula as the mean-spirited man who can't understand his new protege. It's a little bit bewildered in the sense that the film made a conscious decision not to allow proper communication between master and student, thereby leaving some room for chicken-and-duck-talk gags which run out of steam midway.

Many subplots get thrown around like crowding your bowl of noodle with too much unnecessary ingredients, The Ramen Girl has a number of characters, most notable being the short appearance of Tsutomu Yamazaki of the recent Departures and The Climber's High fame, whose sheer presence lifts the movie up a little bit. Otherwise, you're more than likely to endure this mess for the real deal at a Japanese restaurant near you.

You can read my review of The Ramen Girl at movieXclusive.com by clicking on the logo below.

Traitor

Blind Men Shooting

It sure took a long time for this film to debut here, and if memory serves me right, it took almost a year, and the DVD has already been released. If not for a press screening already held, I would have thought that the film would be one of those that are difficult to pass by the censors and required some lengthy debate as to the merits for its theatrical release. That's because it deals with the current topic of terrorism in an unflinching manner, with the hijacking of religion to further the terrorists' extremist and violent ends being told in a style yet unseen from films such as The Kingdom, Syriana, The Siege and Body of Lies, to name but a few films dealing with the topic.

I am a keen admirer of Don Cheadle's film performance, especially in dramatic roles, and here he plays Samir Horn, a devout Muslim and US citizen caught up in a web of intrigue and international terrorism acts. We see how he employs his skills of bomb-making, honed from his US Special Operations days as an officer, and seemingly looks like a rogue, US domestic terrorist aiding foreign groups in their operations to harm the world. But there's more than meets the eye to Samir, and here's where Cheadle excels in putting that level of ambiguity into a role that raises moral questions about doing something for the “greater good”, no matter the costs.

Chasing him around the world are FBI counter-terrorism agents Roy Clayton (Guy Pearce) and Max Archer (Neal McDonough), who are clearly like fish out of water when operating outside their legal jurisdictions. Unfortunately for the two actors, their roles here as the downright good guys are always a step or two behind the terrorist cells, which in some ways mirror that in real life. Without good intelligence, you're always reactive, and it takes a lot to be on top of the game, especially when tactics employed are normally innovatively discharged. We get to see a number of “no-brainer” tactics that the cells employ which are effective if you think about it, which makes it all the more dangerous should they be used because they actually can be.

But the most dangerous game to be playing from the side of the good guys, is the refusal to share intelligence or to combine resource, drawing lines in the sand and setting up turfs. The bickering between agencies all point to missing out on the bigger picture on one hand, while on the other the need for confidentiality also brings up operational sensitivity in order not to jeopardise any current missions, and this need to know service also stems from being overly cautious of any internal moles that would betray efforts in progress. In some ways, this is like Infernal Affairs being played all over again.

I suppose that without the balanced view and very verbatim statements made toward the end renouncing violence and misguided teachings, this film would probably not be given the green light. But it did, and presented a very though provoking thinking man's action thriller set in this age of cloak and dagger terrorism. Sure it has some loopholes and the unnecessary (and unavoidable) collateral damage, but watch this for the performance all round and an engaging storyline that might not keep you guessing all the way once the cat is out of the bag, but does enough.

17 Again

Basketball Again

The plot element is nothing new, and we've seen enough of body swaps, or younger folks wishing they can't grow up fast enough, or older ones reminiscing the old days, wondering if a change in decisions then would have resulted in a different life, hopefully for the better, now. However, such formula makes for a good box office reason to continue production, especially when you get to cast the “It” person of the moment (think Jennnifer Garner with 13 Going on 30), hitting the new generation with a star from their cohort. So it's yet another Zac Efron vehicle for him to shine in, and he's actually quite good at it, outside of the High School Musical series, about time now.

While Efron's star is shining brightly, being able to marquee this film on his own with a relatively low key cast, if you're from my generation then you can't help but to notice how fickle fame can be, and how Matthew Perry, once an integral part of the Friends team, has faded away since the television series bowed out of the tube. He shares the same role of Mike O'Donnell with Efron, playing the older version who's a little grouchier, a tad fatter and was just hoping to relive his past glory days. As proverbial Fate would have it, his wishes are heard, confirmed, and granted.

Now most films in the same genre would find the character either doing things they've missed out on, or to make grave changes so that it would impact their personal lives for the better. What I enjoyed about this film was its conscious departure from such a formula after the transformation took place, with an emphasis more on the family rather than the self, that ultimately Mike still has to answer to his estranged wife Scarlett (Leslie Mann), and kids Alex (Sterling Knight) and Maggie (Michelle Trachtenberg). Being his kids age again allows for some bonding at their level, with comedic doses coming from forgetting his secret identity and crossing the line in “nagging” mode, or seemingly trying to reinforce the notion of his preference for MILFs, and force his daughter's raging hormones off him (he's Zac Efron for crying out loud!)

More comedy comes courtesy of Mike's best friend and total nerd Ned Gold (Thomas Lennon), whose unlimited bankroll allows Mike to become the coolest kid on the block with some outrageous toys, and living in a house befitting a nerd king, being littered with collectibles, notably Star Wars. Fanboys will probably have a field day here with multiple instances of Lucas-worship, and especially with the subplot of Ned trying his very best to woo principal Jane Masterson (Melora Hardin) who finds it increasingly hard to stick to her mantra of not dating her student's parents.

17 Again is a surprisingly decent flick which has an excellent pop soundtrack to go along. And without a doubt it benefitted from the casting of Efron, who will ensure that his legion of female fans will continue to flock to the theatres in show of their support for their idol. They should collectively hope that he will mature with his pretty boy looks and not grow up to look like Chandler Bing (sorry Matt!)

The International

Here's How You Stab Someone

The trailer had set up The International as some big-bang espionage thriller, made all the more sexier since it's released in the middle of this financial meltdown we're all experiencing, asking where have all the money gone, with banks collapsing left, right and centre, or on the brink of doing so if tons of public funds are not injected into the rabbit hole of the system that hasn't really bottomed out yet. But then again, watching or theorizing if the premise is remotely possible, since it involves a corrupt bank gone rogue in some misguided vision to make more profits, or to gain control of debt in third world economies, might not sit well with an audience already in doom and gloom, given some moral ambiguity all around, and the half-baked ending too.

I have enjoyed a number of Clive Owen films, especially those that he's the smarty-pants, able to whip up roadblocks for his adversary. It's a departure for him here, and for fans I guess as well, with his Louis Salinger, an ex-Scotland Yard and current US Department of Justice agent, being quite the loser and always one step behind the bad guys. He can operate an Uzi, but needs more practice at a target range. Investigations wise, he's as frustrated as anyone caught up in office politics and the drawing of jurisdictions, and has a shady past he's not proud of.

Which somehow adds to the credibility of the character. A super-agent would have spotted the assassin based on simple memory recollection, but here, he's flawed, which makes him all the more believable. Naomi Watts too as his tag-team partner Eleanor Whitman seems more at home behind the office desk, though sad enough her character's the proverbial Flower Vase, decorative and nice to look at, but offering nothing much in terms of character and story development, other than to cover the rear of Salinger in the office boardroom.

Basically the film offered some thinking points, and makes you wonder if any large corporations, if without proper governance, could be susceptible to a moral rot from within, controlled by the few at the apex of the organization, making dubious decisions to proliferate arms and motivate political takeovers – with coups and assassinations being but tools of the trade, and all these need money, which banks have loads of in their vaults. And bringing down banks isn't easy because of the multiple stakeholders being involved, from the humble depositors, to states and nations.

In terms of production values, this Tom Tykwer film doesn't scrimp, jet-setting the cast throughout Europe – Italy, Luxembourg, Germany and Turkey – in living up to its namesake. The musical score is also notable for its perfectly crafted tune to keep you at the edge of your seat, only for the narrative to fizzle out unfortunately.

The International had an intriguing premise, but failed to live up to it. The ending too was a letdown, despite the realization that things must happen outside the established system, almost suggesting vigilantism, but alas something more pragmatic was presented, and running out of steam, the film just abruptly aborts itself. Too bad for local audiences as well, because we've traded one intense shootout sequence at the famed Guggenheim Museum for the censored version to cater for a PG audience. Clive Owen movies got no respect these days by distributors here.

Singapore International Film Festival 2009 Coverage Index Page

Reviews
$9.99
Beetle, The
Breathless
Call If You Need Me
Dada's Dance
Letters to the President
Malaysian Gods
Sell Out!
Story of Mr Sorry, The
Wackness, The
Xiao Shu's Going Home

Amos Gitai Retrospect
Disengagement
Free Zone
Kippur
One Day, You'll Understand
Promised Land

Singapore Panorama
Big Road, A
Brother No. 2
This Too Shall Pass
White Days

Q&A Sessions
Brother No. 2 with director Jason Lai and producer Eunice Lau. Moderated by Leonard Lai.
Call Me If You Need Me with director James Lee, Lead Actor Sunny Pang. Moderated by Tan Pin Pin.
Dada's Dance with director Zhang Yuan and Lead actress Li Xinyun. (Audio Only)
Promised Land with Amos Gitai. Moderated by Tan Pin Pin. (Audio only)
This Too Shall Pass with director Ang Aik Heng and documentary subject's daughter Ellen Lee. Moderated by Leonard Lai.
Sell Out! with director Yeo Joon Han and Cast members Peter Davis, Jerrica Lai and Lee Szu Hung. Moderated by Zhang Wenjie.
White Days with director Looi Wan Ping and Cast members Chris Yeo, Vel Ng and Daniel Hui. Moderated by Zhang Wenjie.
Xiao Shu's Going Home with director Hao Yifeng.

In Conversation With
Amir Muhammad
Amos Gitai, moderated by Ben Slater.

[SIFF09] The Wackness

BFF

One of the films that have gotten the “festival rating” for a one-off screening, it's easy to see why The Wackness would not have normally passed the censors who are likely to say No for the heavy drug use throughout the film, as is the language, and perhaps one line that might have gravely, though implied and indirectly insulted a religious figure too. After all, it's set in 1994 New York City, and has a teenage drug peddler being the central figure in which the story unfolds around.

In this coming-of-age film written and directed by Jonathan Levine (who gave us Mandy Lane), Josh Peck stars as Luke Shapiro, a drug dealer who distributes his stash through an ingenious method of pretending to sell “fesh and delcious ice” around his neighbourhood. We learn that he's a little “wack”, and nobody could blame him, coming from a home where his parents bicker everyday, ,and facing the possibility of being evicted from their apartment too. With the world on his shoulders and his wait to graduate into college, he seeks help from psychotherapist Dr. Jeffrey Squires, played by Ben Kingsley.

It's a very strange relationship that these two have forged. For starters, they are doctor and patient, and because of Squires' willingness to accept payment in drugs to feed his addiction, they become businessman and client. And from their hanging out with each other, they too become friends outside the treatment room. And to complicate matters, Luke starts to develop an infatuation with Squire's step-daughter Stephanie (Olivia Thirlby), with Squires being really against it because of Luke's summer occupation of choice, and Luke's mission (with Squires' encouragement and direction) to get laid in order to lift up his depressing spirits.

Thematically, I'd like to look at the exploration of romantic love between the couples in the film, where it looks at a new, budding romance between Luke and Stephanie, and maturing ones such as that between Luke's parents which is fraught with quarrels and disagreements, and the one between Squires and his wife Kristin (Famke Janssen), which suffers from indifference. Each couple has their unique problems to deal with, and I suppose those who are unmarried will identify the puppy love easily, while keeping an eye for potential problems in the future facing older couples should that spark between them be lost.

Levine fuses a number of comedic situations effortlessly into the film, and has a respectable selection of classic hip-hop tunes from the 90s era such as those by the Notorious B.I.G. even. Josh Peck and Ben Kingsley share some superb chemistry together on screen that makes their character interaction a joy to pay attention to, and veteran Kingsley often steals the thunder from his younger co-star for that boundless energy given to his character, and it's quite unlike any other role that I've seen him in before. Fans of Mary-Kate Olsen would be disappointed though with a very limited screen time from their idol, but it's not as if her druggie hippie character was anything worthwhile to sit up and take note.

As a coming of age story, this film works thanks primarily to its casting, and the hallucinatory-like quality that Levine had employed to push the narrative forward. Humour as always, never fails to make the right connections with the audience, especially if effectively done and delivered.

[SIFF09] Call If You Need Me Q&A

Here's the complete Q&A Session after the screening, with (from Left to Right) lead actor Sunny Pang, director James Lee, and moderated by Tan Pin Pin.


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Part 2 of 3


Part 3 of 3

[SIFF09] Call If You Need Me

Goodfellas

It's an open secret that James Lee gets a lot of love from the Singapore International Film Festival, having almost all, if not all I believe, of his works screened at past editions. Last year we had a rare glimpse of a commercial horror project, Histeria, and this year Lee goes back to his festival art house roots with Call If You Need Me, a gangster based film tackling the usual themes of Brotherhood and Loyalty that are staple of Hong Kong crime dramas, but without much blazing shootout action.

It's an atmospheric family piece if you will, where blood runs thicker than water in episodes that we'll see unfold in Or Kia (played by Singapore's indie hero Sunny Pang) leaving his village for the big city of Kuala Lumpur, where he looks up his cousin Ah Soon (played by Malaysian musician Pete Teo) who runs a local racket of profit sharing from debt collecting from the bigger fish. In fact, what seemed like a family gathering of relatives soon pave way toward something more sinister, where underlings form part of the family table, and cocktail drugs get passed around as recreational dessert.

Watching the first act, I can't help but to think of Tarantino's Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield talking about Royale with Cheese and foot massages whilst on their way to a hit job. Here, Lee has his characters talking like your everyday Joe with everyday worries, hopes and their hobbies, bitching about how comic book creators sell out by prolonging their material through the stuffing their stories with incredible characters. Or characters breaking out into talking about boxing, or even football betting odds. Curiously enough, Lee also put in a lot of hungry people in the film, probably as a metaphor that they're craving something in life, but are not going to get it as easy as a 2-minute instant noodle, or to buy it off the streets from hawkers.

Between the 2 acts, I very much prefer the first half to the second, because the second departed from the warm and cozy environment that the cousins are used to, and propel them forward given that their racket together had yielded results, and results meant promotions. Since it's family, Ah Soon hands over his operations to Or Kia, and we see a development of their characters for the worst, and not having both on screen together meant some of the fun dissipating, especially when Ah Soon starts to mope, brood and become exasperated because of his missing wife. And like all gangster movies, personal and business doesn't mix, and a handful of characters had made the business component very clear.

It's nice to see how James Lee tackles the issues of corruption in the city indirectly. One scene I thought which was brilliant, was how he confirms a cafe meeting with a high-ranking police officer and the hoodlums. The bribery taking place is not so subtle, yet enough to bring out awareness that the man hiding behind the shades was an officer of the law, through an implied remark of a game found in an iPhone. Folks arrested are also easily let off the hook through the usage of an underaged fall guy, with the corrupt contacts fully condoning such practice. I guess there would be some reference of such practices that Lee would probably be aware of, to have incorporated this in the film.

Those looking for a violent, action-packed movie need be reminded that this is a James Lee movie. Guns are brandied around, but rarely used. Instead, the characters rely heavily on a lot of swearing in a myriad of languages, and plenty of cigarette smoke to get their points across. Violence happens off screen, so you don't get to see much. But that's not what you should be looking out for in the movie. The key component that worked is the excellent chemistry that Sunny Pang and Pete Teo share in the movie, as cousins who are more like brothers, and lighting up the screen each time they share the same frame. There is word that James will be working with Sunny again, this time in a commercial action film, and I secretly wish that Pang and Teo could be reunited again for the big screen.

[SIFF09] $9.99

Polling Life

Personally I dig stop-motion animation, for the simple conscious fact that there's a lot of blood and sweat going on behind the scenes just to get an object to move. You can imagine what it takes to get a character to move an arm, and you extrapolate that effort into a feature length film with a lot more things happening concurrently on screen, and you're likely to appreciate this artform a lot more, with new found respect for it.

$9.99 is an amazing piece of stop-motion animation coupled with a tremendously engaging story made up of multiple narrative threads, and a myriad of characters attempting to tackle their respective problems in life. It begins with a bang literally, where a homeless man (Geoffrey Rush) with a gun in hand, asks Jim Peck (Anthony LaPaglia) for a cigarette and a light, before launching into some really clever moments about manipulation. It's an excellent start to jolt you into realizing that this film isn't just another walk in the park, and as it plays on, you'd discover its brilliance in its commentary about life, as seen from the experiences of the residents in an apartment block.

We have a family of three, with Jim who might just need his karma checked for encountering really antagonizing moments involving death, and his two sons Dave (Samuel Johnson) and Lenny (Ben Mendelsohn), the former being unemployed and is found to be central to the narrative, and the latter being a Repo-man finding himself falling, and obsessing over the love by new neighbour and supermodel Tanita (Leeanna Walsman), who has a fetish for a hairless body. Then there's a lonely old man who finds the world constantly passing him by with nobody interested in hearing him talk a bit (well, because he's long-winded as well), finding a companion in an angel, whom he asks incessantly about Heaven. Then there's a boy who has a friend in his piggy bank, and a couple on the verge of being married having to fall out because one of them refuses to grow up.

The “$9.99” comes from the price of a catalog of books, one of which touts to hold The Meaning of Life which Dave buys. Unfortunately, the characters here seem to be caught up in living their own lives and falling victim to respective challenges life presents itself, and so every effort that Dave wants to share gets spurned, and we the audience, unfortunately, don't get to hear if there are any insights to that. But of course we all know that there's no silver bullet, and the characters here, though the course of this emotionally moving film, learn of that meaning as it applies in their own, with the old man determined to take a more proactive approach, to a connection between a father and a son, to love found and running parallel to that, a love broken because of sacrifices that one has to make, or the lack thereof, and the maturing of a young child.

I guess nobody scoffs at animation, especially one that targets the mature audience – check out that Dr Manhattan moment. I've new found respect for stop-motion animation, and for the filmmakers involved in producing this fine piece of work. The attention to detail is incredible, never at any moment hinting that they had cut some corners and compromised quality. The score too is as beautiful as it is memorable. Definitely highly recommended, and easily one of the few films I thoroughly enjoyed in the festival lineup.

[SIFF09] Amos Gitai Retrospect: Kippur (Asian Premiere)

Rag-Tag Team

While it's easy to set expectations and think that this could be a Saving Private Ryan / Black Hawk Down type of film (since the synopsis does reveal a chopper going down), this is after all an Amos Gitai film, and I feel this is more Apocalypse Now with The Thin Red Line sensibilities, though with none of Terrence Malick's visual poetry.

Based on Gitai's own experience of joining a helicopter rescue crew during the war of Kippur in 1967, he creates the character of Sergeant Weinraub (Liron Levo, also seen in Amos Gitai's Disengagement) and it's through his eyes that the story unfolds. The film is curiously bookend by some graphic, artistic (literally, since it involves an incredibly huge canvas and lots of paint) sex, where Weinraub pounds his girlfriend in an extended scene in the beginning, before the outbreak of war with the attack by Egypt and Syria interrupting his moment of passion, and he picks up friend and officer Lt Ruso (Tomer Russo) as they drive back to camp to join their unit.

Along the way they meet a number of characters who flit into and out of the story, and soon find themselves in a camp that they could get to, and volunteering to join a makeshift, hastily assembled helicopter unit to fly to the warzone in order to pick up wounded survivors, kind of like a flying ambulance tasked for rescue missions. We learn a thing or two about emergency evacuations, as well as the policy of not transporting the dead in time-critical missions as these, taking only survivors and sticking to their mission objectives.

If one does not know that Gitai is at the helm of the film, one could expect an out-and-out war movie, since the scenario painted provides plenty of avenue for such. There are flights into the frontline, and in carrying out their mission, Getai litters the screen with plenty of dismembered bodies up close enough to churn your stomach. There are moments where some action is called for, but these are few and far between since our soldiers are unarmed. For those with Gitai sensibilities, then you'll probably note his preference for long takes, and there was one incredibly long sequence involving a traffic jam and narrow roads, when Weinraub and Ruso are rushing back en route to their camp. Otherwise, most of the shots during war involve tight helicopter interiors, or helicopter overhead views, but through narrow windows, capturing scores of tanks in vast, muddy landscapes ravaged by tracks that had gone past, that you can imagine the scale of the invasion with.

Unlike other war films that preach the negative aspects of war, this felt more of a documentary of sorts, since after all it's based upon the director's own experience. Scenes are delivered as a matter-of-fact, sometimes devoid of emotion too as the soldiers go about doing the business, and the plenty of landscape shots are just that and could easily have been representative of news reels back then. Not your conventional war movie, and definitely worthwhile only when the troops hit the ground, and not flying high and far away from the action.

[SIFF09] This Too Shall Pass Q&A

Here's the complete Q&A session with (Left to Right) Ellen Lee (daughter of documentary subject Uncle Lee) and director Ang Aik Heng, moderated by Leonard Lai.


Part 1 of 5


Part 2 of 5


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Part 4 of 5


Part 5 of 5

[SIFF09] This Too Shall Pass (World Premiere)

Uncle Lee

While Sell Out! had comedic segments on death, dealing with the desire to film those whose life is about to expire for a reality show, This Too Shall Pass was quite uncanny in that it resembled that kind of film being made, albeit for different reasons, and minus the outright comedy.

It takes a more sombre look at death, and the preparation for the inevitable that will one day involve ourselves, and how we deal with it becomes one of the themes of this 61 minute documentary. The original rationale for such a documentary to be made, never mind if it involves the unabashed airing of dirty family linen in public, actually stemmed from a more personal and selfish grounds if you will, with the subject, an elderly man suffering from nose cancer, with support from his daughters, decided to record down his last wishes, especially when it comes to the distribution of his assets and his estate.

This only because of the wanting to avoid any arguments with his estranged son whom he pre-empts might create a fuss in the future, hence the need to document and film down his wishes. Uncle Lee, whom we will follow all the way to his deathbed, through director Ang Aik Heng's lens, has some words of wisdom to impart, as does his eldest daughter subsequently in deciding and revealing why they had sought help to have this documentary of their family's private moments recorded.

Filmed from October 2006 to January 2007, Ang transforms himself from stranger of the family to a valued member of sorts, having to gain the trust of all the family members, especially Uncle Lee's, to speak to him, and into the camera. Slowly but surely we observe how little nuggets of information by Uncle Lee, some even privy from his own family, get told quite candidly. We follow him through his 2nd round of radio therapy treatment, which takes some 35 days and comes with some jarring side effects, and for those who have no knowledge of the pain one goes through as a cancer patient, then this film would serve to open your eyes.

I suppose there will always be someone amongst the audience who would be in the shoes of a family member being tasked to become the primary caregiver of an elderly in the family. With our aging population, problems that come with it become very real, and will strike close to home, and I can't help but to wonder, quite morbidly, how I would have to make major adjustments should such a time come. These are some real societal problems that could happen to any household, especially when it boils down to the ugly scenario of squabbling over monetary issues.

You'll feel some emotional pangs when watching the film, especially toward the end, and I'm sure you would also have a mental run down of the decision you will make should you be in the same shoes some time, especially when it deals with the dilemma of debating whether it be best to pull the plug to end the suffering, or to persevere on in artificially prolonging one's life, even though you're somewhat certain of the immense physical pain that comes with it. And I admire how Ang stays a respectable distance when the situation calls for it, preferring not to intrude further into personal space as already graciously granted by the family.

It's a heartfelt local documentary that I recommend, and going by the lineup at the Singapore Panorama during this year's SIFF, it seems the documentaries are the ones that are blazing a trail for local film offerings.