Love Cuts (割爱)

Family Blues

It's indeed a blue moon when we have two Singapore films hitting the big screens here at almost the same time. Haunted Changi is now playing, but if family drama is more your cup of tea, then Clover Films' Love Cuts, starring the Queen of Caldecott Hill Zoe Tay, will be your choice as it sneaks this weekend. While we have a number of film production and distribution companies in Singapore, Clover Films is one of the rare few that does both, and being the relative new entrant (though founded by industry veteran Lim Teck, who also provided the story), its two mass appeal films made to date in the same year – comedy Old Cow Versus Tender Grass, and now with Love Cuts, prove that it's quite the force to be reckoned with, teaming up with production houses in Malaysia, as well as having clout to rope in regional stars for its films.

Love Cuts happens to be sort of the public service announcement type of film, with an undoubtedly clear cautionary message for all womanfolk out there to go for regular mammogram checks, lest there's something suspicious detected that can be treated early, rather than to discover a fourth stage cancer out of the blue. And the fact is that breast cancer doesn't come with a pre-warning, unless a checkup is done. With the support of the Health Promotion Board and the various cancer centres here, Love Cuts demonstrates how the public service do tap on the power of film now and then to drive their message through, and if you remember, Jack Neo's One More Chance also fell into the same genre to remind society to give ex-convicts another chance in life.

And such genre films somehow cannot escape the formulaic way its story gets told, relying heavily on melodrama, and this being a film that deals with an illness, hospitals, medicine, caregiving and the likes are only less than a stone throw's away. In essence it deals with how a terminal illness affects loved ones around, which will likely effect lifestyle changes to centre around the patient, and usually effect a positive mindset and character change for the better. Here, Sissy (Zoe Tay) the seamstress is the all round do-gooder, who finds her life turn topsy turvy with her discovery of fourth stage breast cancer, which effectively had dealt her a death hand. When her condition is revealed to family, husband Wai Mun (Kenny Ho) the restaurant manager shelves plans to return to Hong Kong to start up his own business, and turns into a full time caregiver rather than to OT at work (yeah, the condominium mortgage is expensive, you know?), while children Mabel (Regene Lim) and Howard (Edwin Goh) find that they have to grow up, fast, with the biggest change seen in the son, turning from the indifferent brat, to the filial young adult.

One story cannot keep an audience engaged for two hours, so a companion tale comes in the form of lingerie model Kristie Kong (Christy Yow, whom I think had her voice unceremoniously dubbed), who suffers from the same condition, only at the earlier stage where she can give up one breast to save her life. Of course this will mean an end to her career that's going to take off with being a brand ambassador for some overseas lingerie chain, and her fear of losing her filthy rich boyfriend Timothy (Allan Wu) since she thinks she'll be less of a woman. The two women meet and their stories interlock, which I find it to be stretching credibility (and thus dragging the narrative) since Sissy's friendliness extends to her family's acceptance of Kristie almost like one of their own (not that the rest know of her condition). Perhaps lingerie models do get a lot of doors open to them?

I've always been curious how the Singapore film industry always seem to not tap on the talent of its television actors. Granted not all are suited to make the jump to the big screen, but there are a few success stories, such as Qi Yuwu (881, 12 Lotus, Home Song Stories, 14 Blades, Painted Skin, The Leap Years) and Fann Wong (Shanghai Knights, The Wedding Game, Ah Long Pte Ltd, Just Follow Law, Happy Go Lucky), the latter who seem to be going overboard with her cutesy, kitschy antics in a series of comedies. Zoe Tay surprisingly, being one of the top stars of local television, only has one feature film under her belt (The Tree), but Love Cuts showcases her versatility, and this film doesn't play her as some femme fatale, but a regular middle aged mom who befits the “auntie” moniker. She carries her role with finesse and grace, being the perfect mom for her children, and juggling career and family which tells of the modern day family pressures in Singapore, necessitating a dual income in order to sustain that comfortable lifestyle as seen in the film.

Other television stars who got cameo appearances include Huang Shinan as a disgruntled restaurant patron, and Zhu Houren as a doctor, and I'm really beginning to wonder if we could adopt what Hong Kong has with its plethora of stars given the opportunity to make films and for production companies here to hire our own without costing an arm or a leg. But the top draw here will be Kenny Ho, a star who hasn't been seen for quite some time already (and not seemed to have aged!), making a big screen come back with Love Cuts which naturally is a casting coup for the fledging production company. We're heading in the right direction to not dub Kenny because that will be massively disrespectful (the trailer, with a dubbed Mandarin voice, was plain awful) and his character is allowed to straddle between Cantonese and Mandarin (in his own voice), alongside Zoe's Sissy when they communicate with each other. While this is more natural, I am hoping that a change can be effected in my lifetime that we do away with the ratio-rule, and allow for characters in film to speak in whatever language that brings a keen sense of reality, especially the Chinese ones such as Hokkien (for Taiwanese films) and Cantonese (for Hong Kong ones).

You can tell that the film has a limited budget to work with which translated to only modest production values, since Sissy's Seamstress shopfront rarely has anyone walking into it – it's an excellent business model she has in giving generous discounts yet having extremely limited walk-in customers – and the shopping mall seem to have nobody patronizing it. Kristie Kong's modelling shoots by her photographer (played by real life photographer Anthony Levi Kho who also had a role in The Days) also seem to revolve around the same locale (unless that swanky sea-facing glass house is his photo studio, then wow), and the cruise they take on board a ship, doesn't seem to be moving at all. The theme song however got played ad-nauseam, while its presentation seemed more suited to direct-to-video productions.

But of course, Love Cuts got made with an objective in spreading the message and awareness about breast cancer, and nothing more. If a narrative film cannot move you to get yourself a mammogram, then perhaps Jasmine Ng's Pink Paddlers, a documentary done three years back on the sufferers and survivors of breast cancer, may more successfully spur you to have those checks done.

Girl$ (Nam Nam / 囡囡)

Superficial BFFs


Similar to the issues raised in Japanese film My Rainy Days starring Nozomi Sasaki, Kenneth Bi's Girl$ tackles teenage prostitution in Hong Kong which proliferated with the internet chat rooms, affording materialistic girls to live a lifestyle of luxury if they decide to trade their bodies for it. But unlike its Japanese counterpart, this one is without the fairy tale romance, and rooted itself to the common issues that girls in the trade face, much like what Herman Yau tackled in his Whispers and Moans (which got credited with a direct reference), only with a lot more grit, gloom and in more laissez-faire structure. Think of it like a companion piece to Yau's film, only that it involves teenagers and outside of the brothel/karaoke system.

Girl$ serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of the flesh trade outside a regulated structure, where girls on paid dates make themselves susceptible to various crime and threats, ranging from psycho killers to that of unseen diseases. Like My Rainy Days, the modus operandi of these girls are to pimp themselves on the internet as dates for lonely men, where the usual shopping, dining and outings could make way for more intimate pleasures, only if the price for everything is right. You don't need a lot of talent to ply in a sub-genre of the world's oldest profession, and with youth as an advantage, each make quite a bit to fulfill that materialistic lifestyle and urge, without doing much work (ok, that's subjective).

Bi's film, written by no less than four scribes, puts the four leading characters through the paces, having each personality deal with a certain aspect and area of their chosen lifestyle and profession, while having them group together only solely for protection, companionship and to hang out and do girlie things when not busy with their schedules. Their friendship is really superficial, as toward the end you'd notice that they're more individuals than a group of tightly-knitted BFFs, where only one consoled the other who will be facing an eventuality, while the other two were celebrating with glee behind their backs, because they're joyful to have averted short term disaster.

Frankly I'm interested to know if such a film can be done without any pretty lass in it. Una Lin stars as Lin the nymphomaniac out for physical pleasure in the hope of finding true love, whose gratuitous nudity in the film is what made this R21 (though passed with cuts) here. Bonnie Xian plays Ronnie the bored rich girl who is extremely selective in her dates because she can afford to, and crafts a notorious reputation for herself when she rejects payment but instead pays for what she gets. Michelle Wai tackles Icy, the unofficial leader of the group who's their online agent and broker, who herself for some strange reason is keeping and sustaining a lifestyle for her good for nothing gamer boyfriend in her dingy apartment room. Then there's Gucci (Venus Wong), the schoolgirl whose interest in branded goods led her to decide to pop her cherry for cash, in order to pay for a limited edition bag she haggled online for.

Draped with plenty of shots of urban Hong Kong and Kowloon in both day and night time (play spot the landmarks, people!), the film peppers itself with cautionary statements at every opportunity against what the girls are doing, most times with newsreels. Scenes involving rape, romantic love gone awry, and even a psycho killer on the loose all play a part in padding the film, with the killer being introduced very early during the opening credits when he dismembers a teenage paid date, but sadly served no other purpose other than to have that threat hanging around each time the girls go about their business.

Ultimately Girl$ offer little depth into the issues it raised, serving only as a very broad narrative and offers little insights into this phenomenon. Take some plot points already touched upon by various films through the times, set it into today's context and the problems with young girls knowingly entering into such a trade, and you get a film that could have potentially done a lot more to raise awareness, rather than to be easily dismissed as another exploitative flick.

Haunted Changi (幽灵樟宜)

Ready Steady Go!

During the time when I first wrote about the film here and on Twitch, I was intrigued by the premise alone, given that it's about time some filmmaker took a camera and shot within the confines of one of Singapore's most haunted locations, the Old Changi Hospital, or more commonly referred to as OCH. Having followed its production blog and Facebook updates, I was made curious enough to contact Sheena Chung, producer of the film and was told that crew members got sick, and they weren't really quite decided whether to make this a documentary, or a narrative feature from the footage that they obtained, though the director Andrew Lau and her team had managed to capture some inexplicable footage.

But of course she had stayed firmly in character (pretty cool, I was interacting with Sheena the producer character) at the height of their film's viral marketing campaign, unknowest to me at the point, and frankly there were some quarters who got equally interested to want to know more about the "truth" and got excited about the film, and on the flip side, the skeptical camp which grew because a local press paper picked up on an unfortunate leaked movie still, did some probing around - it's Singapore, unnatural deaths are well publicised - and pretty much threw a spanner in the outcome of marketing efforts to keep people guessing. That said, I still think the filmmakers did a great job as far as local film marketing is concerned, to try and maximise returns from a limited marketing budget, and probably one of the longest running one as well. Not forgetting that Haunted Changi could be one of, if not the first, local film to harness social media networks to keep up a parallel storyline outside of film.

For the uninitiated, the introduction of this mockumentary gives a solid broad background on the history behind OCH, where being used by the Japanese occupiers in WWII meant the whispers of the existence of the legendary underground torture chambers, a war hospital, and a public hospital that saw its fair share of deaths like any other. The Changi area was also notorious for massacres carried out by the Japanese soldiers during WWII, and all the reported history of gruesome deaths at that time just added to the spooky aura surrounding the location. For one, the hair on my back still stands each time I pass by the area, and no, it's quite insane to want to enter the premises during the night time.

OK so I'm a scaredy cat, but the footage you see here is probably the next best thing to understanding why, without having the need to walk in yourself. The filmmakers here captured tons of footage, be it within the heavily graffitied premises, or cameras placed around the perimeter to serve as surveillance time lapsed cameras (some reportedly stolen). Now as far as the first-person, found footage horror subgenre goes, Haunted Chani shares some of the common traits such as shaky camera shots, staying credits-free for that sense of reality, being relatively low budget and on track for a sizeable box office return (the receipts on opening day already surpassed mainstream and Hollywood productions, which is extremely rare for an indie Singapore made film), piquing the interest of markets overseas because a horror film can travel.

But if what's captured is to be believed, the team (or what remains of the team) needed someone else from the outside to put it all together, so enter American writer-director-producer Tony Kern, who made a local feature documentary A Month of Hungry Ghosts in 2008, during which he had claimed some personal spooky encounters of the supernatural in the making of that film. It's a standard documentary about the current Lunar Seventh Month, where the gates of Hell opens for ghosts to walk the Earth, and Haunted Changi's release during this period is not uncanny to say the least. Responsible for editing and the pick up shots in Haunted Changi, Tony's involvement will undoubtedly skew the blur between reality and fantasy quite toward the latter, so we can all rest a little easy.

Those expecting a spook fest from the onset will be a litle disappointed though. Running about 80 minutes, Haunted Changi spends considerable time setting up the characters of director Andrew Lau, producer Sheena Chung, soundman Farid Azlam and cameraman Audi Khalis as a close knit quartet out to make a standard documentary about OCH, complete with exploration footage, and interviews with the man on the street. If there's a flaw, the interviewees all seemed a little too polished, and had taken this aspect too seriously, especially with the interview with an unnamed, sihoulletted old man in the 80s whose account got cut off halfway. Being young adults their mood is by nature playful, their day time visits to OCH and time spent in the editing room naturally don't reveal much, and conversational noises, scary shadows of a hand lingering in the frame, and sudden movements all got explained away quite logically with reasons of wind and lighting angles during their shoot.

Things start to pick up only when the team goes for their night shoot, and when Andrew Lau recounts his lone encounter with a Chinese prostitute "Xiao Juan" who had sought refuge in OCH, you know things aren't quite what they seem. While I can sit through the likes of Cloverfield and the REC movies (and American remake) without issue, the dizzying camerawork here is nauseating, coupled with quick edits that makes it an unpleasant experience to sit through, working of course to the film's favour of sustaining the mood, when all we get to see through the first person camera is via night vision, or illumination from a lone light source. There's also a fair bit of shots along claustropobiic, dank corridors that provides that level of suspense during the film's climax, where the power of your imagination and expectations run into overdrive to fill in gaps you don't get to see. In fact, the film's structure is pretty much like Paranormal Activity given that you get repetitive shots from the same location and angle, coupled with no major "action" which were all reserved for the last 10 minutes.

The verdict by Singapore critics for this film has thus far been mixed, but I'm throwing my weight behind this one because it gooes to show that an indie Singapore film can garner an audience here. Without a doubt the primary draw here is that of OCH as a horror institution in itself, but it does take some balls to shoot from within, then come up with an engaging storyline aligned to flavours of the moment in cinematic horror, spend enormous time working to crank its modest marketing machinery, and getting results when it spooks people. Having watched this film with a regular audience, it's quite indicative that the filmmakers succeeded in making them squirm in their seats, seeing people around the hall covering their faces and peeking through fingers, engaging in nervous whispers and some even looking away from the screen when things are building into a climax.

If only they can modify that tacky poster design and title font which does look a litle too cheesy for a found-footage mockumentary, the film is nothing but a worthy entry Singapore's limited, though growing, horror filmography. It does go to show there is enough in the tank to go up against the best in tne world in this sub-genre.


Related Links
Production Blog - http://hauntedchangi.blogspot.com
Official Film Website - http://hauntedchangi.com
Facebook Page - http://www.facebook.com/hauntedchangi
My discovery of the film - http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2010/02/coming-soon-haunted-changi.html
Production Talk @ SINdie - http://sindieonly.blogspot.com/2010/05/production-talk-haunted-changi-by.html

Vampires Suck

Hey It's the Black Eyed Peas!

I wouldn't have watched this if not for a friend who wanted to catch a comedy together, though I must admit I'm still pretty intrigued and amazed at how writer-directors Jason Friedberg and Adam Seltzer managed to continue get money thrown at them to make terrible, unfunny comedies such as sub par works like Meet the Spartans, Disaster Movie, Epic Movie and Date Movie, the last which to me was mildly amusing. Gone are the days of the Zucker brothers, and now we're stuck with low-brow efforts like what Friedberg and Seltzer continuously dish out, setting their sights at whatever's popular genre at the moment.

And that of course is the phenomenon we call Twilight, where it's already three films old, and taking its cue from the Harry Potter franchise, decided to split its last book into two films, done squarely for profits. Poking fun at something popular is expected, but to do so in the Friedberg-Seltzer fashion just reeks of desperation. They seem to throw anything and everything into the film, without even due consideration if it's funny, or not. There are plenty of sight gags, innuendos, and just plain badly designed scenes that don't flow from one to another, making it look like a series of school children skits that got strung together, hammering wooden pegs into rounded holes, and jokes that's 99% bad, you'll find more pleasure from experiencing long nails clawed against a chalkboard.

Even more curious is the demographics out to support / watch this film. As I was understandably surrounded by women of all ages who turn out in droves to watch the Twilight movies, I was again equally surrounded by the same demographics for this one in a near full house. Clearly, I don't think they're that vacuous to, for a moment, think that their highly anticipated sequel film had arrived, or even remotely suspect that this is a companion film. I suspect though that for all the spoof movies out there, there's always a great chance that the impersonators of their favourite yummy characters will look equally yummy. Sorry to burst your bubble, but Matt Lanter as Edward Sullen is miles away from Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen even though both cannot act, and Chris Riggi as Jacob White is not Taylor Lautner as Jacob Black even though both share equal number of pronounced abs (hmm... maybe this could be a reason, Team Jacob was actually out supporting this?).

The only thing that was the rare shining light in this film, happens to be Jenn Proske as Becca Crane, who did an awesome job impersonating how Kristen Stewart would play Bella Swan, down to all the subtle nuances that if Stewart decides to leave her role, then the Twilight producers can plonk Proske right in. It's really uncanny watching her ham up the Bella spoof, but do note that I'm not praising her performance either as she's just carbon-copying what another actress had done, although pitch perfect.

I did laugh out loud here and there, but it's laughing at the film in how it got away with the stupidest of jokes and the absurdity at who this project could have been green lit by a Hollywood studio (says a lot, doesn't it?) I hope Friedberg and Seltzer either learn from the best in the comedic business, or quit filmmaking altogether. Vampires Suck sucks. Period. And I'm just feeling dirty having to recount what I had watched, and to craft a review for it.

Step Up 3

The New Crew

So I have two left feet, but that doesn't mean I can't get to enjoy contemporary dance movies centered on the street dance variety, where groups or crews battle it out with moves that's a pretty mix of breakdancing, and just about anything that allows one to express aggression quite keenly in dance battles. But if I recall correctly, the first Step Up, which launched Channing Tatum to some prominence, didn't begin like that, instead it focused on the usual storyline of a clash of philosophies that ultimately led to an amalgamation with romance thrown in for good measure.

But with Step Up 2 the Streets, and other films such as Make It Happen, it seems like the global influence of street dancing has found its way to film, and while it's getting increasingly difficult to keep churning out films involving such dances (let's get real, the storylines cannot be anything that different) its popularity meant that it has a ready target audience eager to lap up and appreciate the innovativeness of any newly created dance moves or their variations. What more, with 3D technology becoming a recent trend (and also making a huge dent on box office receipts), Street Dance 3D had fired the first salvo, which the Americans have responded with the third film aptly titled Step Up 3D, if you chose the 3D version.

I must admit I'm getting sick of all the 3D hype, so have opted to watch this in 2D instead, which was equally entertaining. Of course you can see the specially crafted moments designed specifically for the 3D viewers, such as Icee (yeah, remember that drink?) becomes beautifully wasted over an air vent, and the many dance moves that start to become more in your face, with kicks aimed towards the camera, and so do various hand movements. Inter-titles that can be done without also found its way into the film with 3D effects written all over it.

The worst part with 3D ironically turns out to be the rather flat presentation, with the camera aimed squarely at the performers and rarely fluidly moving to capture the best angles of an ensemble dance performance. It stays in front so that the dancers can inch slowly toward the camera, and I think director Jon Chu (who also did the second Step Up film) really had little idea how to best utilize technology available, and found himself constraint and restricted during the major dance sequences, which is a pity. Some moments of dancing brilliance got captured right, such as when two characters dance down a busy street in one continuous take, and that one I salute the performers Adam G Sevani (reprising his role from Step Up 2) and Alyson Stoner (reprising her role from Step Up) in executing a playfully perfect routine involving detailed choreography utilizing common objects around them.

As mentioned, don't expect too much from a storyline involving a struggling filmmaker cum dancer whose inheritance of an old warehouse serves to be a refuge for his crew of down and out dancing talent who call themselves the Pirates. Luke (Rick Malambri) believes that there are those who can dance, and those born to dance, and he's out recruiting the latter group to join him and fulfill their dreams. Of course there are rival crews with dastardly rich boys out to destroy Luke's ideals and demolish that bastion of United Nations friendliness, and it is up to Moose (Adam G Sevani) from the previous Step Up film, to provide that extra oomph in the Pirates' dance battle with arch enemies the Samurais.

It doesn't take too long for the first dance sequence to break out, and some of the best bits involve the impromptu challenges, character introductory montages and the training montages as the Pirates undergo rehearsals of their own. In some ways though the dance battles in the films do seem like a let down when compared to other dance movies, but thankfully the final battle, the creme de la creme, prove to be more than worthwhile for its very creative blend of the young and old, and a laser light show that seems to be inspired by Tron. It's not something other films managed to do, and if this was a battle between the dance films, then Step Up 3 gets my clear vote.

Don't expect any great acting here, but great dancing, which will inevitably bring fans to the cinemas in droves. Keep any eye out if the leads here do make it big, such as Malambri who does seem to be like a Channing Tatum clone, and Adam G Sevani does look like a dead ringer to, albeit an even younger version, of Michael Cera, but perhaps with a more talented potential.

Going the Distance

What the *

The draw of Going the Distance will undoubtedly be its leading stars of Justin Long and Drew Barrymore, being an on-off-on real life couple and the premise of a long distance relationship will likely not be lost on these two. I'm not sure how many of you will subscribe to or are currently in a relationship where the distance put between you and your loved one means a meet up only once in a few months, whether that initial affection felt will be sufficient to sustain a commitment after the novelty wears off.

And in this film, Geoff LaTulippe's story outlines most of the immediate pitfalls and concerns about long distance relationships that it'll likely scare you off from one anyhow. The perils here translate to not being able to enjoy what other couples in a "normal" relationship do, having to rely on technology to bridge that distance, and the raking up of phone bills to engage in decent conversation, or something kinkier. Then there's the fear of someone else cheating on you, since you're out of sight hence out of mind. I suppose love requires nurturing, and without being able to do so on a fairly constant basis, means an extraordinary amount of effort to make things work.

But that's only the first part. See, I told you Going the Distance casts doubts despite its comedy at the right places to lift the film from its doom and gloom, nevermind if director Nanette Burstein manages to hook you in and convince you to root for the leads Erin (Barrymore) a soon to graduate journalist intern, and Garrett (Long) the record label employee told to babysit and promote some young kids band whom the record company is hoping to be the next Jonah Brothers. The bigger question here when the relationship stables and matures, is who's going to make the move to be with the other, permanently, as a sign of commitment.

Ah, that C word. Moving means uprooting your life, forgoing your friends, family and frankly, career as well as you choose to be with someone who stands a significant place in your heart. Like Erin, this represents a risky leap of faith, albeit confusing too when the head and heart battles it out for rationality, that may end up with losing out on everything when the relationship sours, as Eric had experienced before, thus losing a part of her life as an undergraduate that she now has to play catch up. Somehow the premise of the film makes you contemplate whether you're likely to plunge into something like this, or if you're already in one, take stock at where you're at now.

The film has Barrymore and Long to thank for, because when they're on song, and I suspect some scenes here inevitably has real emotions being expressed especially in many off the cuff banter that seems too natural to be staged or scripted. They make a cute couple, and play off each other really well in both scenes intended to tickle your funny bone, and the emotionally dramatic ones that call on them digging a little deeper to express their fears and desires. Co-stars Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis as best friends of Garrett also help to provide plenty of comic relief. Unfortunately with this film being the typical Hollywood rom-com means the sticking to an expected feel good formula, as well as just scratching the surface of the issues it raises for the most parts.

Such as the deliberate crafting of their occupations, where making fleeting and sweeping statements of the state of the music and newspaper industry wasn't minced, and you get periodic reminders of it. It makes passing remarks on the eventual demise of newspapers (and hence the massive layoffs) due to the advent of the blog, and how record labels lament not making a lot of money, when they're heavily investing in crap that can be manufactured off an assembly line, rather than to put their weight behind more worthy, talented acts. The Boxer Rebellion, featured in the film, will be a band that I will checking out real soon as part of the movie's eclectic soundtrack.

[Japanese Film Festival] Sweet Little Lies (Suîto Ritoru Raizu)

Should We Tell?

You see it happen all the time, where it's usually the guy having a good time at the arcade, or engrossed in a portable video game, and you wonder just what's going across their other half's mind – are they just going to sit/stand around and do nothing or peer into what the bells and whistles of the game is? I'd always thought that it's advantageous to spend quality time together, and if you have someone else distracted for the most parts when going out, one might as well head home. This is just relationships but what if it's crept into a marriage?

Sweet Little Lies is this year's Closing Film for the Japanese Film Festival, and it's a relatively new film, with the JFF/Singapore being the 4th country in the world to screen it. Based on the novel by Kaori Eguni and directed by Hitoshi Yazaki, it is not an easy film to sit through, and by that I mean that it's an excellent, engaging film, but poses a lot of real world questions that it'll probably take you a lifetime to figure out, if at all, and depending on which set of values you're subscribing at any point in time.

We see the house of married couple husband Satoshi (Nao Omori, whom I last saw in person at the gala premiere of The Laughing Policeman at TIFF last year) and Kuriko (Miki Nakatani), which to me is quite the life for the husband as the wife wakes up early to ready everything for him (OK, perhaps a compromise is made since she works from home making teddy bears), and then lovingly calls him up through gentle knocks on the bedroom window. On the surface it seemed like the perfect married life in a perfect little house, but for all the chic and functional furniture within, one can feel that the relationship has gone a little bit stale, but with nobody daring to rock the boat and communicate desires. The traditional roles of husband and wife are extremely well defined and dutifully executed as we bear witness to their painful routine, but we slowly see the cracks surfacing through instances like the calling of each other at home having to resort to the use of cellphones.

The film sets you thinking from the onset, and you'll be wondering whether it is a requisite for couples to share common interests in order to bind them together and sustain a relationship. Obviously both Satoshi and Kuriko share very little interests together, which makes it baffling how they managed to hook up in the first place, and staying married without a single quarrel over 3 years and counting. Some of us subscribe to that being a little bit fantastical, and are more convinced that arguments are inevitable and sometimes do lead to a better understanding. You'll also start to wonder if rising costs of living meant a child is out of the picture now, and whether physical intimacy does play that big a role as the glue, here one being unwilling to initiate, and the other being more interested in video games and music and secretly I think yearning the singlehood life where you have the liberty to do what you want, when you want, without consulting anyone else.

Both leads Omori and Nakatani present their stark differences in characters really well, having to sit on the fence in preferring the status quo, yet being unable and unwilling to assert for something more as we can observe from their nuanced performance. As the film alludes to, no relationship can survive without passion nor truth, which the narrative takes this litmus test on. It's different interests in each other in contrast to that of their respective stalkers (at the early point when they come into the picture) who shower their mark with plenty of much needed attention, like Miura (Chizuru Ikewaki) planting ideas onto Satochi with lunches every Wednesdays on her off days to meetings at nights, and Haruo (Junichi Kobayashi) increasingly bumping into Kuriko out of sheer coincidence, attending her bear product show versus her husband's absence which translates to not giving two hoots about supporting his wife, preferring to spend time in a virtual video game world. It's a marriage, or any relationship for that matter, doomed to failure with the writing already on the wall.

Yazaki's film challenges you to pass judgement, and it is this challenge that's not easy to do. You'll be confronted with a very wide incident base and scenes that knock on your beliefs, deciding how guilty is the guilty, and who's to blame in any expected fallout should it happen. On one hand you're provoked to point fingers, yet on the other you're rooting for the couple to somehow work out their differences or face utter destruction in their 3 years of spending their lives together, but despite knowing if it ends it should end, rather than to drag it out. With infidelity being cited as a key reason why couples separate, you want to get in on laying the blame, but only through careful thought as it's easy to point fingers on either, yet it takes two hands to clap.

It confronts your fundamental beliefs in the institution of marriage, especially what constitutes cheating - the desire, of not telling the other if something is not quite what it seems, or the deed itself? Which is more severe, cheating involving the body, mind or both? How do you draw the line, especially if I'm coming from the husband being quite the selfish chauvinist in not wanting to give up a little bit of time off his pursuits to help or support his wife. This in itself could be used as justification why someone will want to stray, then again, if the fundamentals are strong, who would? See the dilemma, which Yazaki continues to present throughout the film. We even hear a warning shot early in the film given by Kuriko, together with plenty of red herring moments, but we again see the double standards practiced.

As the adage goes there's no smoke without fire, and if not kept under control, it'll soon spiral all directions, like an addiction that has to be satiated, and looking at the characters, they're only momentarily happy but beneath are quite rotten to the core with guilt. Everything continues to be smooth sailing and only the audience is let in on who's doing what, and put in a position to reflect upon how one will handle similar situations, depending on where and how you draw the line.

One of the key questions as the film inches its way to the finale, will be whether the couple can maintain status quo as per the title in keeping their sweet little lies to themselves, or as part of matrimony decide to tell each other the truth. Will they be better off in doing so and living up to an honest relationship, or will ignorance still continue to provide that bliss? We learn guilt has already set in, yet didn't see whether both Satochi and Kuriko will be learning from their lessons. The film raises questions, but you're left on your own devices to provide the answer, which is never immediate. For those in relationships, this film plants that fear factor into you, questioning how much you know and trust someone else, and for those who are not, well, did this film set in motion that a trustworthy relationship is something of a pipe dream?

I'd like to reckon this film like an anti-thesis and companion piece to Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love, where a couple meets and contemplates a relationship because their spouses are cheating on them with each other. In this one, we go over to the other side and observe what happens when both spouses cheat, yet remain quite ambivalent about it all, each keeping their own titular sweet little lies. One film is steep in romanticism, while this one presents a frightfully possible reality through its cast performances and composition - cinematography under Isao Ishii is beautiful - that masks the underlying currents and trappings of a troubled relationship/marriage. Definitely one of the best films I've seen this year!

[Japanese Film Festival] Lala Pipo: A Lot of People (Lalapipo)

Toward a Greater Future!

It sure is a lala pipo (a lot of people) in this film, and it is this kaleidoscope of quirky characters that makes it a winner with its comedy. The opening cheekily deals with those who have, and the have nots, where the ying-yang opposites clash, and in this film presents characters on opposite sides of the spectrum of those who get to exercise their desires, and those who struggle in much desperate, mirth inducing fashion where different points of view get put across.

And it is the characters that make this a fun romp. We have Hiroshi (Sarutoki Minagawa) the freelance writer, whose physical size makes him the butt of the jokes in the first act, having no luck and quite down and out in the love department. He pleasures himself so often that he begins to hallucinate that his bro down below morphs into a cynical, sarcastic furry green puppet, who pops up every now and then to pass a remark or two, and complaint about being touched too often. I think this arc got the most laughs, whether politically correct, or not!

Then we have the flower of the story, Tomoko (Yuri Nakamura) who goes from office lady to progress into various levels of the adult entertainment industry, starting from the relatively benign karaoke bars, to private bars that require the exercise of hands and mouths, before ultimately making her debut as an adult video star. Perhaps it is this arc that is pretty compelling to watch, as an innocent girl unknowingly becomes smitten with her pimp-boyfriend that she willingly enters the industry, but hey, the money's really obscene to begin with.

Tying very closely to her it that of her pimp/scout Kenji (Hiroki Narimiya), who is constantly on the prowl for fresh meat. After all, he gets a first hand cut at all the perks and not to mention the commissions for every assignment that he progresses his recruit into. With his charismatic smile and non-threatening demeanour, it's really no wonder how many are taken into such modus operandi, through the provision of that emotional attachment, before it becomes all purely business. But of course this is someone with a heart of gold as it turns out, and comedy comes in large doses when he's assigned a matured AV star (Mari Hamada) to manage, who comes with a little twist in the story as well in bringing along her emotional baggage.

There are other characters and subplots which pad the film aside from these main characters, such as a k-box employee who's quite the delusional chap and imagines himself to be Captain Bonita (complete with, erm, large phallic protection and a suspiciously familiar looking mothership rivaling that from Austin Powers) whose mission is to save the world from smut that's even infecting him, and a chubby AV actress (Tomoko Murakami) who's actually quite the shrewd lady in know what she wants, and how to get her objectives fulfilled.

Ultimately, Lalapipo is just that, about people, whose lives all intertwine in ways you may deem too coincidental and befitting of only a film, but frankly, you'd never know how serendipitous things can actually be. It also provided quite the holistic, though comedic look at the entire adult industry in Japan and its pop and cultural influences on people and their attitudes toward it. It's light-hearted, yet if you sit back and think about it, it's almost a means to an end for most of these characters with a dream to fulfill, and perhaps a reflection of ours as well, be it for love, acceptance, or even a career.

[Japanese Film Festival] Directions - NDJC 2008

I had originally intended to skip this session to get much needed rest, but watching the great selection of films from NDJC 2007 graduates convinced me that this morning's session from the graduates of 2008 was worth the getting up early for. Again a mixed bag of films that do their best to appeal to a wide spectrum of audience, one thing you cannot deny is the fact that they are all crafted with technical and storytelling skills.

A Lying Woman's Daybreak
Yuriko the piano teacher is going about her usual classes from the confines of her home studio, until a loud banging sound of nails on her main door interrupts her ongoing class, together with the loud chants of impolite words cursing at her for being the other woman in another marriage. Disgraced, she goes from teacher to becoming a bento preparer/packer, working in a shop until her past accidentally catches up with her.

With the cover of a new life blow, the film moves at a more frenetic pace with the introduction of subplots that make you wonder, here's a film that actually puts the character through the pain of what others have felt before, and the going through of that guilt trip. And the pain Yuriko feels won't be lost on one because it deals with how others will look at and perceive you should there be any whisper of moral wrongdoing, and how at times others will take advantage of situations.

What I thought was poignant in the story was how Yuriko was able to take an objective look from the outside at a predicament similar to what she has gone through, seeing first hand the extremes of a wrath from the side of the wife, and how another is made miserable and to suffer for it, with family members also affected inevitably. Sometimes being embroiled with someone else's problems provide an opportunity to take stock of ours, and the finale, let's just say that it's a life goes on approach, with a long road ahead that requires courage to deal with issues head on.

Bloom
Urara is a geeky female whose lack of fashion sense and dull attitude makes her the ripe target for bullying by her office colleagues, and even at home, where she suffers in silence since her mom and sister offer her no reprieve from the constant jibes, and worst, contribute some of their own. Then all of a sudden, every repressed feeling has got to be released, and Urara goes through a bizzare and massive transformation from geek to hot chick, like something inside her head finally snapping, and suddenly in her new found confidence, able to take on challenges and succeed.

Perhaps this is a reminder to all out there that the key to a more interesting, fulfilling and colourful life, is courage and confidence to be who you really are, and to be comfortable in one's skin, rather than to force a disguise and then puppet play through your life. You may be geeky and timid, but that doesn't mean continuously taking the shit from everyone around you. One tip though in the film, Smile! It's really totally different if you beam wide with pride and genuine happiness, and seriously, I'm in love with Urara's smile that in a single scene just assures you that all is going to be well.

Curiously though, this film ended in almost similarly uncanny ways as the earlier short, as it had the protagonist on a mounted vehicle riding toward a seemingly endless road ahead, which promises of a better life since they are headlong toward a destination far away.

The Sparkling Amber
I had thought the first short would likely be a firm favourite, until this one came along that justified the 2.5 hours put into watching the class of 2008. Ryoko lives with her widower dad and twice a week his new girlfriend Michiko will come visit. It's still new into their relationship and understandably Ryoko is apprehensive about the intents of Michiko like all daughters would when there's an appearance of another woman perhaps competing for her dad's affections. But the outcome of this film after its set up for something big with a urine test and Ryoko's dad becoming a substitute, makes this an interesting tale on a rather dysfunctional family trying hard to be normal, and what comes out of it is an episode that reinforces family ties and love.

It's a fine family drama that deals with the dread of loss, with the audience in on it with additional knowledge of how it's going to develop, only for the director to pull the rug from under our feet in a way we'd appreciate that it's done.This interesting twist compensates for the downcast feelings of unnecessary distress since you're likely to feel for the characters thanks in large parts to the actors' performances, and has enough bittersweet moments in it. They inevitably engage and draw you into their family. Film also highlights the power of close family ties and love within those who share the same blood (and the wannabes) although I was a little bit let down by the final revelation on the outcome of this unique family unit that shared a memorable event together.

There's a small scene which was quite morbid, and frankly I thought that if a lot would be loss if this scene was snipped. Thankfully good senses prevailed and it was't a hasty decision made without seeing the whole film in context.

Kudan
This edition is like a pendulum swing, where the previous was something satisfying and touching, but this particular one being quite baffling. Michiyo and her mom relocates to the countryside, and en route to and from her new school, Michiyo passes by a mysterious looking well in the middle of a sprawling field. For some reason, she enjoys standing on it, deciding to live dangerously. You'd come half expecting something to jump out from the well and scare the living daylights out of her. But no, and instead, you get a mysterious old man popping up, someone who deems himself a demon of sorts predicting Michiyo's death in 3 days. What happens will tread the realm of the fantastical, and frankly, not a favourite of mind although like the previous edition you got to tip your hat to the director's bold vision and idea in willingness to try something challenging.

A Third Skin
And to round things up is a musical piece that's touching yet sad at the same time. We follow the routine of a young homeless pianist who plays for his passion, which is to spread the love through free music, playing in a park for all and sundry to enjoy the simple pleasures of listening to an aurally pleasing tune. At the end of a session he'll wrap everything up and push his piano to a corner, waking up the next day to perform again. Alas a group of violent teenage ruffians decide to change all that, and through their inexplicable and destructive ways, burn the piano.

Help comes in the form of another homeless lady who lives in an abandoned tunnel, where she has amongst her found possessions, an old piano that needed some serious tuning. Through the repairing of an instrument comes a story of friendship, and the give and take of one, where a shared connection doesn't always mean taking and not giving, which is clearly meted out here with invaluable gifts that friends bring to the table. Like the films before it, the film also opts for a rather bittersweet ending since a piece of unfinished business gets completed, but at what a price. You'd definitely wonder why the need to end it the way that it did, although it certainly steered clear from the usual conventions.

Perhaps that's how the group of filmmakers were chosen each year, for that extra something that they bring and contribute, rather than to rely on the same old without the courage to challenge conventions and tell bold, original stories.

[Japanese Film Festival] Live Tape (Raibu Têpu)

Like A Busker

As the festival started for some reason I took note that there were a number of great musical pieces in most of the films presented, but I suppose Live Tape is a different ballgame altogether, with music almost end to end of its 74 minute duration, following the musician Kenta Maeno as we walk in and around Kichijoji, Tokyo in what would be one continuous take involving 15 different songs being performed live on the streets.

Opening with following a cute looking girl (Tsugumi Nagasawa) in a demure pink kimono at the Musashino Hachimangu Shrine, we soon meet up with Kenta Maeno for that extraordinary journey that will keep you guessing whether it was improvised, or staged. It's a musical-documentary film of sorts that defies convention, but you won't have time to dwell on the many questions as your attention will soon be arrested by the more than interesting background happenings. With people obviously conscious that a film is being made and they stand around to stare, it is in the audience's looking back at what's captured, and the little human background interactions at times, that makes this film a delight to sit through.

Director Matsue was a director-in-attendance guest at the Japanese Film Festival before, and local audiences will be no stranger to him and his films. Here we do hear and then see him appear in front of the camera to perform a quick chat with his subject, the musician Kenta Maeno, and through this moment that a lot more was revealed as to why and how the film was made. It is through interruptions such as these that allow Maeno to interact with the public, and even take a breather and drink, since this was shot under cold weather conditions.

There's a good mix of slow and fast numbers, all of which were excellent to sit through even though I had to rely on subtitles to understand what was being sung, some of it really being hilarious lyrics to read off the subtitles. In any case, music cuts through language barriers, and even without reading what it means, feeling the rhythm as Kenta Maeno moves through the streets of Tokyo, already makes this musical-documentary a winner. It's no wonder why it was awarded the Best Picture Award under the Japanese Eyes section of the Tokyo International Film Festival last year.

For those interested to know the full set list of what's being performed, here it is: Summer at 18, Tofu, Fat on My Heart, 100 Years From Now, The Living Me, Fat on My Heart, Mansion, This Body, Romance Car (with Er Hu), Can't Be Just Friends, The Message, Dance (with Saxophone), Sad Song, The Blue Room, Weather Forecast (with The David Bowies band) and Tokyo Story.

*****

There was a short video clip screened at the end of Live Tape which had director Tetsuaki Matsue recount his days when he was in Singapore, and the message to all fans here was to explain some of the technicalities such as being filmed on a small miniDV camera on 1 Jan 2009 around the area of Kichijoji where he was brought up. He also hoped that the film will be able to resonate with the audience here, since there would be some similarities with Singapore that the local audience can hopefully take away.

I had missed the gala premiere of Live Tape when at the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) last year, and festival director Gavin Liu, who was there, shared in a post screening discussion that he had met director Tetsuaki Matsue and Kenta Maeno as well. He also revealed *spoilers* "... even though the route was rehearsed, this film captured a 74 min moment in which anything that happened would have been shown as it is, which is itself is a beauty as it captured the spontaneous decisions to react to the policemen and at the park", the former because permits had to be obtained to shoot where they wanted/had to, and the latter with getting away for performing at the venue by saying that they were rehearsing, as the venue only has 12 scheduled performances per year.

Here are the interview clips conducted with the TIFF winners, where Tetsuaki Matsue was sharing the stage / panel with Ounie Lecomte, who directed A Brand New Life.

The Stool Pigeon (铫人 / Sin Yan)

I'm Cool Like That

This is the stuff of what Hong Kong action crime thrillers are made of, with the sets being the real streets of the city upon which a high intense cop and robbers drama unfolds, and engaging characters that you actually care about. Already having given us Fire of Conscience earlier this year, it seems that there is nothing stopping hot property of the moment Dante Lam, who had helmed hard hitting same genre movies such as Sniper and Beast Stalker, which starred Liu Kai Chi, Nicholas Tse and Nick Cheung in leading roles reuniting for Stool Pigeon, looking set to have been improving film by film, and frankly is fast becoming a firm favourite storyteller of mine for Asian crime thrillers after Johnnie To with his consistency for gripping edge of your seat material.

Thanks to the success of Infernal Affairs, we've seen in recent years a fair share of police dramas that deal with that of an undercover cop either battling his loyalty and allegiance, his return to a life of normalcy, or even have his persona spill over to real life through immense popularity in the cult character, like Laughing Gor. We know that the police have as part of their investigative arsenal the infiltration of undercover cops, but what's often overlooked is the role of the police informant in a leading role, until now.

Dante Lam's story is extremely engaging in its examination of this peculiar outsourced role, where one is backed by the formalities of contract to define a relationship of transactional nature – material wealth in exchange for critical information, with bonuses to come with milestones achieved too! But such dangerous work close to where the action is with risks involved doesn't impact a police personnel, and this is clearly a win situation for the cops because this risk of being caught and maimed/killed in the course of an accidental discovery is transferred to a non-uniformed person, often someone desperate enough and comfortable to be living on the fringes of society, such as an ex-criminal. But being human, the cops have to learn to not become closer than necessary to their informants, so as to minimize guilty pangs should there be a need to no longer support them, and literally to throw them to the sharks for the greater good – the tragic irony of it all.

Nicholas Tse and Nick Cheung swap sides now from Beast Stalker, and Tse plays the role of Ghost Jr, an ex-convict released only to find his sister being pimped by the underworld to pay off their dead father's gambling debt. After some deliberation he takes on the offer by Cheung's inspector Don, and officially in the eyes of the law Ghost becomes Don's informant, with a direct line to his handler and if necessary being able to waiver any arrest if made during the course of his work as an informant. His role is to infiltrate and report back on the gang activities of Barbarian (Chinese actor Lu Yi) and his wife (played by Kwai Lun-Mei), who are planning a jewellery shop heist, and are in need of a driver, where Ghost's skills will come into handy.

Just like how Donnie Yen is discovering a new lease of life in his career as an action hero, Nick Cheung, once overlooked as leading man material, now finds new ground in crime thrillers, and being equally adept at both positive and negative roles just brings out the wide spectrum of his acting abilities. Dante Lam's cop character so far have always been flawed and pained, and being dedicated time meant a subplot involving his wife and relatives, which serve to deepen the character's backstory. In fact, the many human drama that Lam injects into his characters all provide them a lot of depth rather than to be just that one-dimensional role most cops and robbers story tend to trap themselves into .

For instance, Kwai Lun-Mei's gangster moll role is something that's totally different from her usual sweetie pie ones, and she has enough of what it takes to pack a punch in this genre, which is surprising to say the least, in both delivery and providing to be the wildcard in Stool Pigeon. Boldly casting her against type is what I felt showed the courage of Lam and team to explore new ground (including Stool Pigeon's premise) and having seasoned actors, each of whom have won acting awards in recent years, also serves as an indicator that you're getting powerful performances all round.

Action-wise, Stool Pigeon is no sitting duck. While time is devoted to the human drama, action is not just left to plain boring gunfights, as there are a lot more moments here involving chases from vehicles to foot and hide and seek that provides most of the thrills with its superb editing and execution, either in a crowded market evading a swarm of cops, or between apartment units to avoid detection. Like most Dante Lam films, the finale provides that bang for the buck, and Stool Pigeon has one of the most intense sequences he had come up with thus far, set in an abandoned school where the set design provides a visually arresting feast for the eyes, while your heart feels and roots for characters going all out for each other's throats.

I'd prefer this over Fire of Conscience, and easily is a contender for one of the best films this year! Highly recommended, and I'll be more than keen to watch this in its original Cantonese language track.

[Japanese Film Festival] Mime-Mime

World At Her Feet

So far we've been treated to 35mm prints of classics filmed the traditional way, but advances in camera technology means we'll begin to see a proliferation of consumer grade handheld DV cameras being used to make feature films of reasonable quality. Mime-Mime is one such film where writer-director Yukiko Sode has a story to get off her chest, so why not do so given the means readily available?

Mime-Mime opens with the audience staring at a bobbing female head. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what's going on when she emerges after a while, wet around her mouth. Then it's the post-coitus smoke where we see Makato (Niijima Ayaco) in the room of her high school teacher, much to the disgust of visiting female students when they see the lovers in positions enough to suggest what's going on behind closed doors.

As with the theme of Youth this year, Mime-Mime follows the confused ordeals of an indifferently cool teenage girl who can't hold down a permanent job, and like most young adults, are finding and groping around their way in the dark to try and discover their calling. Meanwhile, Makato has to satisfy her desires, and so explains her weekly counselling and release sessions with her high-school teacher-lover, who's obviously in it as a no-strings attached F-buddy. Makato lives in a messy bachelorette pad, is disorganized and frankly living a very lonely and emotionally empty urban lifestyle where getting trashed in a pub is the best she could do. She has no objectives in life and is emotionally unstable, so it does get a wee bit difficult to try and identify with her predicament since she hardly takes any positive steps forward.

But the film is not about the constant moping and whining Makato finds herself in, even though her exterior can hardly betray what she's running away from, but just not aware yet. It's about breaking out of our boxed shells, and for Makato it's from the lifestyle she's most comfortable with, to in her own words, wanting to lead a decent life from a life of decadence thus far. The most symbolic gesture she will ultimately do, will be to break her own taboo of cutting the hair of friends and acquaintances, and to do so on her own. Trust me I know of folks who do that, where it's akin to a vow of trying to get themselves into a new life, a breakaway from troubles created by and to disassociate with the old facade, and to give themselves an opportunity to start afresh.

And the journey to achieve that comes with enough drama and comedy, courtesy of a series of events such as her mom remarrying, and various testy relationships blowing both hot and cold. The one major impact will be her childhood friend Nakaji coming back into her life, for some reason ended up being her roommate, and a budding romance that seems to be more platonic as he helps to provide that pillar of strength and geeky courage to encourage her to move forward rather than to be stuck in a rut, and best of all his intention of bringing her out for camping, is one of those quirky ideas that will elicit some comedic disbelief into his level of geekiness. The other highlight would be the dreadfully awkward conversions around the dinner table early in the film, and amongst all films that have dinner table conversations, this one stood out amongst the best.

It was the wonderful contemporary soundtrack that kept this film from sinking into pessimism and the drone of negativity (I for one am hardly a fan of such a mood), with some nice cinematographic moments that I'd thought would have looked absolutely gorgeous if captured on traditional 35mm film.

[Japanese Film Festival] Directions - NDJC 2007

This weekend's installment consists of another section that the Festival is focusing on in alignment with its theme of Youth, and that's the New Directions in Japanese Cinema, selecting short films that are part of the yearly 5 shorts output under VIPO (Visual Industry Promotion Organization) where film-making skills are imparted to young creative talents, and they're put through the paces to make 30 minute films on 35mm. The goal of course is to discover the next generation of Japanese feature film directors, and looking at the varied works of what's in store, you'd never know if one of them will make the jump to the feature real soon. Today's session is taken from the 2007 graduates, and tomorrow's will be from the 2008 batch.

A Bus To Heaven
Amongst all the shorts today, this remained my firm favourite, perhaps because I have a soft spot for romantic tales. We see two friends Yuzo and Tora celebrating the former's birthday in a restaurant, although it was supposed to be Yuzo celebrating with his girlfriend Miki, if not for an argument arising from Armageddon (Bruce Virus and Liv Lighter, ha!) - another reference to this Michael Bay film from the Festival selection - and the discovery that Miki is actually a hostess aspiring to be an actress. Yuzo is unable to accept this deception and her choice of a career, hence their separation.

The second act takes place on a "party bus", so deemed by Tora as a birthday gift to Yuzo because it is the public bus ride from Shibuya via Roppongi to Shinbashi that is packed with hostesses seated at the back of the bus, and Tora being prepared to let out the secret of his picking up of women that involves being the livewire in a makeshift party atmosphere onboard. I really wonder if this can happen in Singapore! It is through this act that we see how Yuzo has his mind broadened, that we should not judge a person by their occupation - it's still an honest means of living, and they are human too with dreams of their own.

The last part is of course having everything pan out as intended, focused on reconciliation and frankly, here's where the saccharine sweet moments come in when a man with his mind open can start to humble himself and take the initiative to pursue his path to happiness, with a little help from the outside from friends who care, and bother to make things happen. Comes complete with generous doses of comedy!


Good Bye, George Adamski
And yet we begin the film set in another bus! We see a man with a pacemaker at the priority seat creating a scene with every passenger who sits beside him and whipping out their mobile phone. In what would be a case of serendipity, this man Sadayuki, turns out to be the childhood friend of Haruo, whom Sadayuki had chased away from the seat earlier. We then learn from Haruo's flashback about Sadayuki back during their school days, where the latter was obsessed with UFOs, and tragedy struck him when they were en route to a forested mountaintop.

Now having to bump into Haruo again, Sadayuki managed to convince Haruo into following him to meet up with Nagasawa the UFOlogist, and that forms the basis of this story about friendship, and how no matter how crazy it may be or sound, friends when we bump into each other, almost always continue where we last left off. Some light comedy found itself through to the delusions of Sadayuki who adamantly believes he and his friends have been inserted by alien microchips, as well as his perverted pranks played on unsuspecting females by the lifting of their skirts, which will prove to be his downfall.

It's a little bittersweet because as a friend, you do no know whether to walk away from someone who behaves so irrationally, or to stick to him thin and thick because after all, that's what friends are for.


Seismic Girl
If delusional characters aren't enough in the previous film, then Seismic Girl will more than compensate that for you. Here, Mitsuko brandishes a knife from he onset, and we here her state her fears of having Satoshi to pursue his earthquake research dream in the USA, because his ex-girlfriend Yuri will be in tow as a fellow roommate. I suppose it boils down to trust, though understandably for someone like Mitsuko, she fears the threat posed by Yuri, who comes from a pedigree family.

Hearing about the legend of the Catfish Stone, said to have prevented earthquakes from being felt in the town of Miyama, Mitsuko makes plans to get rid of this stone because if quakes existed in their town, then her boyfriend will find no reason to go overseas since they happen at their doorstep. This leads to a catfight between two women out to ensure that their beloved man chooses them over the other, and what happens in the end seemed like a karmic wheel of transformation because one has defiled an artifact out of sheer frustration. Moral of the story - never step on two boats with one leg.


Babin
This is perhaps the most ambitious short of the lot presented today, consisting of only 1 leading actor and 2 support ones, in what would be an unconventional tale told in a fairly abstract fashion that dwells on the notion of what if a plant or tree, being living things, can talk, and what they will feel about and talk about on a daily basis. We see a man in a hole in the ground, but this man is no man, and his monologue is not about escape, but rather an observation on the things that he saw while being rooted to the ground. It's a talking, singing man-plant, specimen 4923!

It's almost as if it's a one man monologue throughout if not for a little boy who comes round to play with whatever's available, symbolizing how the young can embrace nature, and an older man who is the tree doctor, ensuring all tree samplings have the opportunity to grow big and strong... unless Nature has other plans such as the threat of a lighting strike. It's a nature story, and it is to the actor's credit that he is able to keep us engaged with his tree-like antics.

Restaurant UFO
This is my second favourite short this morning, set in a town famous for its UFO sightings, so much so that all businesses will declare a 50% off on days when a UFO is sighted. But of course the story tells more of this, and at one point talks about its low birthrates, as all the girls in the town are moving to the bigger cities for a chance at better opportunities in life. Schoolgirl Yu also harbours the same hopes, and is contemplating delivering newspapers to get a scholarship to enter a university in Tokyo.

But of course this migration will mean to leave her dad's restaurant, much to her dad's displeasure. We see how Yu is a critical resource to his business since her mom had walked out on them for another man. And we know how busy business can be when UFO sightings are reported and the business has to honour its discounts, made worse when unscrupulous business people take advantage of such clauses to help boost sales when more people hit the shops to enjoy up to 50% off. Talk about exploitation, and the calling in of fake sightings.

For a film that's 30 minutes long, it sure packed a couple of subplots, including Yu's conversations with Takeshi, a boy who had chosen to abandon Tokyo to return home to help out in his dad's business, as well as the reappearance of Yu's mom to seek her family's forgiveness. In some ways the film talks about how any youth will want to take advantage of their natural desire to want to seek flight from home to journey the world in search of their oyster, and yet how at the end there is almost always no place like home. It's incredibly moving toward the end even though it started off with a quirky premise, and has its beautiful snowing landscape at one point to thank for that made this film a beauty to look at.

[Japanese Film Festival] Bare Essence of Life Ultra-Miracle Love Story (Urutora Mirakuru Rabu Sutôrî)

Deep Breath

As festival director Gavin Liu mentioned, the selection thus far and for films to come are from directors who are either starting out with their rookie feature film effort, or into their second film. I suppose this clearly ties in with the theme of Youth as well, and not to mention that Bare Essence of Life stars one of teenage fandom's most versatile actors Ken'ichi Matsumaya. After all, he starred in the very popular Death Note series, as well as its spin off L: Change The World, and I believe his films thus far had always been relatively successful at the box office in Singapore, which accounted for the full house in today's screening.

But this film isn't the usual popcorn blockbuster that we normally associate Ken'ichi Matsumaya with, and through his performance here my respect for his spectrum of emotions got bumped up a notch. Ken'ichi plays Yojin, an eccentric organic farmer boy who stays with his grandmother and picked up his green thumbing skills through taped recordings of his grandfather, to varying degrees of success. If there was any movie character seen this year that exhibited similar behavioural traits, then it will be Shah Rukh Khan's Rizwan who suffers from Asperger's Disease. Yojin is equally impulsive, and possess this man-child quality that only Ken'ichi can make it both equally irritable, and lovable at the same time.

He's the ultimate unpredictable live-wire, and can invoke a vege-war should his ego be bruised. Being very popular with children especially when they play at his exasperated expense, Yojin's very routine nine to five life got disrupted by the introduction of a new kindergarten teacher Michiko (Kumiko Aso) into their town of Aomori. Yoji's heart stirs for Michiko, who had escaped from Tokyo to start life afresh, since her fiance and his secret lover had died in a fatal car accident, with the former having his head sliced off an never found. Talk about the bizzare that will be more bizzare as the tale gone on.

But not before seemingly looking like an against the odds romance story with two individuals brought together with the promise of a big scaled Potato Festival, having to spend quality time through their walks home, with one being infatuated with the other, and the other being nonchalant about the affections shown. A major incident then happens involving being buried in soil and sprayed with pesticide, where Yojin changes and becomes a more serious man with only traces of his child like demeanour left. The supporting characters of the limping principal, a psychic consultant and her gossipy grandchildren, Yojin's grandma and the doctor he frequents who has an estranged son, all make for small distractions from what's to come eventually.

I can't quite put my finger on the intent of the message in this film, nor the themes it wanted to touch on since the last hour became totally surreal and fantastical, and had this ominous air to it yet laced with a tinge of light black comedy. Yojin fuels his change with continued dousing of home-made pesticide which he believes will make him more normal for continued acceptance by Michiko, and seriously I wonder the lengths anyone would go to induce change just to be with somebody.

But that's not all. We see Yojin's interaction with a walking dead man (Arata from Air Doll, unrecognizable without his head). Then Yojin suffers from intense vomiting before turning into a walking zombie (no, it's not of the George A Romero variety that craves human flesh), and I thought it tried to talk about the evolution of life, since Yojin had broached the topic of evolution and the necessity for change if he was to continue in his relentless pursuit of his lady love.

But the final shot is the one that took the cake, involving the consumption of brain matter! It's insanely outrageous and will likely make you squirm from the morbidity of it all, even if the prop looked more plasticky-jello like and doused with generous doses of strawberry to make it more palatable. The tired mind of mine preferred to call it quits then and fully agree that it's indeed an Ultra-Miracle Love Story alright, written and directed by Satoko Yokohama.

[Japanese Film Festival] Water Flower (Mizu No Hana)

Lonely

For some reason unexplained the thought of Yasmin Ahmad's Muallaf came to mind when I read the premise of this film. The only remote connection these two films shared, is how a pair of siblings are on the run from their parents, with one parent thinking that the older sister had abducted the younger one. In Water Flower, Minako (Saki Terashima) does just that, but on her seven year old half-sister Yu (Himawari Ono) when she enticed the latter to escape with her to Aihama with the promise of toys and an ocean view.

I suppose once you strike that emotional connection with a small kid, they're more than likely to follow you especially when you deliver promise after promise of a fun time. More so when both Minako and Yu share some common DNA coming from the same mother Shiori, who had separated from Minako's dad, and forming a new family nucleus with Yu, and in some ways abandoning the teenage Minako. The introduction dwells on establishing this fractured family dynamics and challenges to livelihood, setting the narrative for that chance meeting and encounter between the two half sisters at an arcade, where one is frustrated by the mom's inability to send her to ballet lessons, and the other running away from a dad who made sexual advances in a drunken stupor.

From then on the story focused on the serendipituous manner in which the parents come together to look for their children, who spend their days in play at the house of their grandparents. Nothing much happens as the narrative stepped aside for aesthetics to take over, where every shot is nicely framed, and brings a sense of peace and quiet to two girls who find solace in each other's company from their respective topsy-turvy lives, with Minako inevitably serving as the surrogate mother to Yu.

Written and directed by Yusuke Kinoshita, when compared to the films in this year's lineup so far, this is probably the quietest of them all, especially when contrasted against the black and white classics which each had an agenda to push through to the masses. Water Flower is paced leisurely, and personally I still felt it had pulled its punches at the finale, where it opted to be open ended when there was no real need to. Still, it was probably the only way to end the film without condemning one of the protagonist as irresponsible and reckless in thw way things get developed.

[Japanese Film Festival] A Stranger of Mine (Unmei Janai Hito)

So What's For Dessert?

Today marks the start of a series of paid screenings of the Japanese Film Festival, which if you do not already know comes in two parts, the first being the free ones that celebrate the classics and masters of Japanese cinema. The contemporary offerings get its air time now, and in this year's selection comes a number of films programmed from Japan's oldest film festival, the PIA Film Fest. I haven't seen a film coming out of that festival till now, and if this film is any indication on the kind of quality we could be expecting over the next few days, then I can't wait!

Written and directed by Kenji Uchida, A Stranger of Mine begins with what I thought would have made it a fine romantic film. Maki (Reika Kirishima) decides to leave her cheating fiance, and pawns her engagement ring for 3500 Yen. Literally packing up all her troubles in an old kit bag, she wonders about town alone and dejected, wallowing in self pity before finally ending up in a restaurant where Kanda (So Yamanaka) is reminding Miyata (Yasuhi Nakamura) that age is catching up on the latter and that he should forget about Ayumi (Yuka Itaya) the girl who had dumped him. A coincidental meeting of someone from the opposite sex is just about never going to happen to people over 30 years of age and to create an opportunity for his friend, Kanda gets Maki to sit with them before he disappears, leaving the two strangers to sink or swim with their new found acquaintance.

So begins what would be an episode of emotional connection through awkward conversations going nowhere before some certainty in a friendship emerges, and from then on I thought it's about two broken, lonely souls connecting and rediscovering the beauty of being in a relationship should they take the leap of faith together. In some ways their conversations around town hints at Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise/Sunset, and some of the most beautiful love stories can actually happen in the simplest fashion with two interacting lead characters when their conversational pieces strike a chord emotionally between themselves and with an audience who identify with the topics at hand.

Hold you horses, buster, it is not this film! Uchida throws all that romanticism out of the window, and opts for a filmic romanticism of the non-linear narrative, where this film is not about two lonely, broken souls, but about 5 persons in total, offering a lot more to the entire story with the respective character arcs that enriches the entire story unfolding a series of events in 24 hours, giving us the expose on who the characters actually are, probing their intent and providing a multi-faceted look at their motivations, some uncanny, mostly comedic, some hopeful, while others scheming.

I'm all for non-linear narrative films, and am a sucker for them actually because of the way the filmmaker keeps you in suspense for the most parts, before slowly revealing the plot in a way that adds a little something to the film. This revelation doesn't need to be linear as well, and has to be done with skill so that the individual segments still made sense, is self-contained to tell a sub-story, and yet easy enough for an audience to pick up on certain cues meant to glue the rest of the segments together. Uchida succeeds on all counts, and what finally got delivered is a romantic comedy with characters we care for, even if they are fearsome gangsters, scheming fatales or wimpy nerds.

Just what about happens in the rest of the film best remains to be experienced yourself, so I'm going to keep mum about it. But I assure you that after Fish Story, this merits itself as one of the highlights of the festival experience thus far, and I'd enjoy a good madcap caper or two that demonstrated how the most innocuous of intent, with that proverbial suitcase of money and the necessity of Asian society and in general people across the board, to place a premium on face, and the saving of it. Certainly these were elements enough for Uchida to imaginatively craft a tale out of, and out came this superb film as a result.

As a character mentioned early in the film that nothing is coincidental, take it as a cue of what is on offer in the film, where you'd come to appreciate the intricacies of the storyline where every incident happens with purpose, makes sense and provides a lot of fun when the cat is let out of the bag, right up until the end credits, and more. It worked perfectly when a friend quipped “like that only ah”” and the end credit surprise came up for that coda. Made his day, and mine definitely.