[SIFF11] I Have Loved Q&A

Although the main cast did not manage to turn up for the Q&A, the writing-directing-producing partners of Elizabeth Wijaya and Lai Weijie did. Here's the entire Q&A session as it happened this evening post-screening:


Part 1 of 2


Part 2 of 2

[SIFF11] I Have Loved (World Premiere)

In The Mood For...

If memory serves me right, the films produced by 13 Little Pictures have so far made their World Premieres in festival overseas, so there's something different and special this year to have not one but two of their films make their worldwide debut at the Singapore International Film Festival, both directed by first time feature filmmakers. I Have Loved marks the feature film debut of Elizabeth Wijaya and Lai Weijie sharing writing, directing and producing responsibilities, weaving a tale about loss and memory shot entirely in the city of Siem Reap, Cambodia.

There are many aspects here all primed to make this a crowd pleaser, from the exotic locations available in Cambodia to be put on film, and of course what would be filmmaker Glen Goei's starring role in film that's a treat, since you would have seen him in a stage performance before, but besides making cameo appearances in his own films, filmgoers haven't seen him flex his acting muscles on film before, at least I haven't. But somehow the story, that may be deceptively simple about a woman going through a rather depressive period to battle her sense of loss, and to deal with flitting memories of a city in which happier times were spent in, didn't really quite gel when it got deliberately fragmented into a non-linear presentation in an attempt to transcend time and space, and leaves more questions than answers that makes it simple to be waved away as just tough luck and harsh realities.

Granted that any narrative dealing with memory will allow for repetition, a theme that recurs explicitly, and random access into timelines that have past, but somehow this was done at the expense of crafting characters that an audience will care for. Instead we have a woman whom we find tough to connect to since she doesn't really engage, and Eryn Tett playing her with marked aloofness half the time when opposite Thai actor Amarin Cholvibul as an acquaintance she meets, whose mannerisms and characteristics are in obvious stark contrast to Harold's, didn't really cut it when she's supposed to mourn about loss. Scenes opposite Glen's Harold, a writer who's almost always decked out impeccably, were woefully short, as I felt the best scenes in the film are when these two performers grace the screen.

Lingering shots in which the camera doesn't move is fast becoming the choice de rigueur, and cinematography is undoubtedly superb thanks to the many picturesque capture of landscapes both urban and rural that makes it difficult not to be distracted from the characters, allowing one's gaze to focus on the background instead. Watching this film and not having been to the Angkor temples nor Cambodia herself before just strengthens the resolve to get there, and if more in the audience share the same sentiments then perhaps the Cambodia Film Commission would be pleased with the effort brought about by this film to boost tourism numbers.

Without a doubt it's a tough film to sit through, one that will challenge and keep you constantly working to piece together scenes and fragments of memories belonging to different characters who take turns to narrate, or sing even. You'll try to feel for the film and its characters, but unfortunately I came up against an emotional void. Interestingly the filmmakers did mention during the post screening Q&A session of a more conventional, linear version that they had originally conceived before allowing their editor free rein to craft the film which resulted in this cut. I would love to see the original directors' cut should it exist one day, and see how different it could have evoked emotions on the characters that perhaps we would have really cared for.

[SIFF11] Salvation Boulevard

I am the Prophet!

I suppose the programmers at SIFF had thought this film, with its star power in Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Connelly and Marisa Tomei could probably pull in the crowds, but it was a bet got wrong with only a handful turning up for the screening at Lido 4, which seats hundreds. Maybe it's also because of the subject matter in its handling of religion, since the principal antagonist happens to be a man of religion, that may have detracted believers. Whatever the case is, it's a film to be seen if only to watch how director George Ratliff, whose previous film was about the devil in a child Joshua, tackles a similar theme this time with the wolf in sheep's clothing, but laced with plenty of black humour.

Greg Kinnear stars as Carl Venderveer, a born again Christian thanks to his fanatically religious wife Gwen (Connelly) and her dad Joe (Ciaran Hinds), congregation of the charismatic evangelist Dan Day (Brosnan), a renowned preacher with many bestsellers to his name, though with followers like that it's not hard to not understand why his books shoot to the top of the bestsellers chart. We first meet Dan in a public debate with another bestselling author, atheist Dr Paul Blaylock (Ed Harris), where the first few minutes were engaging stuff, the kind where you put a cat and a dog in a room, and wait to observe massive fireworks due to differing beliefs.

Invited by the Professor to have a bonding session after their public debate, Dan brings along Carl since he had used the latter to resounding success as an example during one of his rebuttals, and here's where motivations are clearly peeled away to show one's inner, rotten core. There's nothing like profits to line their pockets, especially when Blaylock proposes that he and Dan join forces to write the mother of all books, if not for Dan to accidentally shoot Blaylock in the head from a pistol, thereby making him a killer, with Carl as the unwitting witness. That is of course until Dan Day starts to use his street smarts, his crookedness and basically kneeling down before the devil to pin everything on Carl, with help coming from blind faith believer Jerry Hobson (Jim Gaffigan) to do his dirty work.

There's clearly no mincing of the words here when in George Ratliff (also the director) and Douglas Stone's screenplay, based on the novel by Larry Beinhart, where Dan Day is truly the false prophet and wolf in sheep's clothing, almost always ready to pounce on opportunities for money, flesh, and to keep his reputation pristine. Getting rid of Carl serves many points, which for starters means a chance to get close to Carl's wife Gwen whom he clearly has the hots for, if not for her father to continuously pester him to implement an idea in his up and coming faith-based real estate community (ka-ching the cash registers go). Pierce Brosnan plays this role with aplomb, and with his suave good looks it's easy to understand why his female congregation will all go crazy for him.

It's a tale of what anyone would do in order to ensure self-preservation, and Greg Kinnear's role as Carl, the man on the run as he's being accused and character assassinated, making it worst with family not believing him save for his daughter Angie (Isabelle Fuhrman of Orphan fame). In a way what happens to Carl en route to clearly his name is nothing more than a higher supreme being protecting him at every step of his misadventures, and having a sense of humour while protecting him, such as putting Marisa Tomei's bit role of a hippie security guard in his way and clearly nursing a crush from a long time ago.

Mistakes get made, more supporting characters get thrown in the mix especially when a Mexican mobster sees Carl as a conduit to blackmail Dan Day, and everything just leads to a mess, though narratively George Ratcliff has a clear, precise handling of situations that just makes this one fine, entertaining film even though it does get a little heavy in the opening debate (best scene of the film) as it draws some parallels to real life situations where those in power and commanding an audience, should they be crooked, will spell the doom and gloom for their followers if only the latter can open their eyes and minds and not believe everything verbatim and blindly. But I guess that's why it's called Faith. Recommended!

[SIFF11] Elite Squad 2: The Enemy Within (Tropa de Elite 2 - O Inimigo Agora É Outro)

You Can't Handle This!

I was hoping that Elite Squad 2 would get a commercial screening in Singapore, but if not then it made a welcome appearance during this year's SIFF, and while it can be watched as a standalone film, you'll appreciate the challenges faced by the principal characters a lot more if you've watched the original, where BOPE leader Nascimento (Wagner Moura) and his squad got introduced with the primary plot revolving around his tough training of two up and coming proteges in the squad which had powers to eliminate enemies of the drug trade with deadly force. It became one of my favourite shows that year and of its genre, and I'm glad that the sequel went one up without repeating itself, tackling problems in Rio De Janeiro that are of a wider scale, exploring just how deep the rabbit hole of corruption in the city goes.

Starting with a cliffhanger where Nascimento, now Lt Colonel with added years to his age with a hint of grey at the sides of his head, got caught up between a rock and a hard place, we then journey some months back which writer-director Jose Padilha, returning for this film, outdid himself with tightly choreographed, intensely shot action sequences within a high security prison where inmates took over with force and are out to eradicate enemies within the prison where enclaves sprung up. You'll notice that the shaky cam cinematography in its predecessor got toned down a lot in this follow up film, which is nice. From that botched attempt of now Captain Andre Matias (Andre Ramiro) disobeying orders from the top but with public sentiments on a high for the no-nonsense approach by the BOPE, Nascimento got moved out of the Skulls and into politics, becoming under-secretary of Intelligence in charge of all wire-tapping activities by the authorities, while Andre himself got moved back to becoming a lowly beat cop.

It's a very major departure from the premise of the first film, if you've come with expectations that you'll get to see action sequence after action sequence punctuated by violence, because this installment is a more cerebral take on the problems plaguing the city, and a more macro-level approach as well involving crooked politicians and their support system beneath them that fuels a very symbiotic relationship between the corrupt leaders and their underlings, moving away from drug cartels, to wider and ruthlessly effective organized crime involving what some say are the largest gangsters around, the police force, in far more lucrative illegal trade fueled by the slums they're supposed to protect. And these problems go to show that if a system is corrupt it'll take some humongous effort to clean it up, if one can find a foothold to begin from that is, which is what Elite Squad 2 is mostly about, the few and rare good men who are willing to step out and stand up to be counted, even though they're battling on different fronts and may not share the same belief system.

Jose Padilha balanced political intrigue, crime and action without forgetting the emotional core that had also level-set the first film. Nascimento's son is all grown up now but remains estranged from his dad because he cannot comprehend why Nascimento had to kill in his line of duty. And as if that's not enough, his wife is now romantically linked with his professional nemesis Fraga (Irandir Santos), who with his non-government organization championing human rights, becomes the thorn in his side for frequently undermining BOPE's tactics and strategy that you would have seen from the first film, and in a way something like how director Padilha seeks to address detractors of that film. Things also get patchy between mentor and mentee especially when Andre sees Nascimento being unable to reinstate his position back in BOPE, but others working through a network of connections are able to, which sort of brings forth a moral dilemma of being beholden to someone, especially when links to the mob comes into play.

Wagner Moura keeps up his charismatic performance as the one man tour de force with a riveting performance as a leader anyone will want to follow, with courage and sometimes obsessed conviction in being married to his job and taking it upon himself as the city's saviour and scourge of the city's criminals, even if they happen to be white collared and in positions of power. Granted you'll miss watching him in action leading his men on raids as he becomes assigned to a desk job, but there's no lack of intensity in his newly minted career path, seeing it as opportunity to resource load his old unit to do a lot more than he imagined, though indirectly responsible for slicing off the head of a hydra he had yet to fully understand.

While action sequences are limited, there is no lack of excitement and edge of your seat moments where everything kicks into high gear, best played out in a hall with a properly tuned sound system that puts you in the thick of all the action. One can only hope for a follow up film if there's another strong story to be told given that loose ends still exist, the problems in the real world never actually going away and the system is one big monster that is constantly evolving and evading eradication, which will probably take generations to effect real change, but for action junkies and fans of police films, having Nascimento back for another film will indeed be a welcome treat. I can actually listen to an audio book narrated by Wagner Moura and not get bored at all, since it is his narration that fills in the blanks in this film and moves it forward. Highly recommended!

P.S. Unfortunately this screening got interrupted twice at Lido 2, which seriously needs to take a good hard look at root causes to marred screening experiences yesterday and today.

[SIFF11] Armadillo

As Real As Can Be

Premiering at Cannes 2010 and winning the Critics Week Grand Prize, Armadillo is a documentary that's surprising hard to be treated like one, with its picturesque cinematography of an ongoing warzone in Afghanistan from the titular forward operating base that's home to almost 300 British and Danish troops, and with a host of character soldiers that boggle the mind to know that they are not scripted, because in many scenes the narrative does look as if there's someone who had put in a lot of work with the devil in the details. Which is what makes it a startling film to sit through from start to finish, especially if one had served in the armed forces before.

We follow a platoon of Danish troops who get sent to Armadillo for their 6 months tour of duty, beginning with the sending off from their hometown, where it's natural for friends and especially family to struggle in coming to terms with their loved ones leaving home to fight another man's war in a faraway land, especially so when the threat is very real and the soldiers are headed for the frontline. From then on it's getting acquainted with a number of characters especially that of Mads Mini, a Nicklas Bendtner lookalike, and an Asian medic, amongst others such as the fearless platoon commander.

As mentioned, this documentary is so expertly filmed that it looks very much a fictional narrative, which it isn't. For instance, to the viewer it's hard to reconcile, not that it's a bad thing of course, how the troopers here seem more like characters rather than real people (kudos to the editing), and constantly brings to mind whether director Janus Metz Pedersen and his camera crew had to be embedded with the soldiers constantly during their dangerous missions in order to get the footage they obtained so up close, with the obvious element and sense of danger, exactly how and where they had to be around and yet not getting in the way should the soldiers get engaged by enemy gunfire, and not to forget that bullet rounds cannot differentiate film crew from soldiers.

We get to go behind the scenes of this high-tech army (which I think SAF is trying to emulate with the 3G capabilities on display here), their professionalism even when the call of duty means mundane, incident free patrols of the surrounding areas of their camps, getting acquainted with their rules of engagement, and being very much in tune to life in a secured barracks, with their involvement pretty much in defensive ops to try and win over the hearts and minds of the local Afghan community. It isn't easy since they're being viewed as the enemy still, and more so when they go about their burly ways of trampling onto crops, or worse, to cough up compensation when things go awry, from the destruction of crops, livestock and property, to the more serious loss of innocent lives by way of being collateral damage in any offensive operations.

It opens up insights as to how tense a situation can be when one is out there in the field where anyone, by way of the people's dressing, could be more than meets the eye, weapons properly hidden away, not knowing who's friend and who's foe since everyone's intent is pretty much walled away through the inability to communicate directly without an interpreter, and where loyalties still lie with the Taliban otherwise the villagers will be subjected to cruel torture once the Danish troopers leave. Improvised Explosive Devices also litter the landscape, and can be planted easily overnight by the enemy such that no trodden path can always be absolutely safe. All these play a part in the mental well-being of anyone having to live it up on a high alert status, with most events being much ado about nothing. Think of Jarhead, and you'd come to understand better what life on site would be like.

You get to learn things as well from a soldiering standpoint with the experience these troops undergo, besides rushing to wait and waiting to rush, understanding how important or more significant the success of diplomacy is on the ground, and to read tell tale signs of enemy presence when civilians start to abandon their land to get out of the way of a major fire fight. Those worried that there are no action in this film can be rest assured, although the gun fights are never as glorified as what you've seen in war films, with the great unknown on enemy identities and locations being a constant pain, and a pivotal moment in this film involved conquering the enemy, but in the real world rarely does one get to walk into the sunset. It's a little controversial since the filmmakers captured an aftermath that won't go down well with any civilian, but for those who have been in those uniformed shoes before, it's nothing that far fetched when one gets caught up in euphoria (stemming from being alive or dead).

In every theatre of war we get to know how soldiers who return never really go back to their selves before their tour of duty, and looking at the group in focus, that again is quite true with perspectives being changed from harrowing experiences gained, epitomized by Mads Mini who started off looking for adventure, but probably got more than he bargained for, returning a more sombre person than one seeking thrills. If it's an up close and personal look at a modern day active warfront, you can't get any closer with a more nuanced feel of being there and having done that, with Armadillo. Highly recommended!

[SIFF11] Echoing Love (World Premiere)

It's a Friends and Family Affair

An anthology of love stories is what kickstarts the Singapore Panorama in this year's SIFF, with the world premiere of a series of shorts produced by 20 year veteran (who doesn't look his age at all) actor turned project director Edmund Chen's Mission Easy intiative which gives opportunities to budding talent who wish to make inroads in the local film community, mentored by experienced professionals who also serve up the star power to help boost market acceptance and open doors. Some 30 rookies get to try their hand at making a series of 6 shorts all strung together by a common theme of love, think of it as Paris Je T'aime and a whole host of other similarly popular projects around various film industries and you get the drift, with the difference being a relatively rawer output since most are first timers.

Conceptualized as a series of 10 short stories initially, only 6 have made the grade to be compiled for this screening, which boasted a rather lengthy post screening lineup of activities such as certificate of participation/completion/appreciation to almost everyone involved in the making of each filmlet, an awards ceremony of sorts (yes, there's a competition amongst the participants) plus a lucky draw with fabulous prizes given away by sponsors of the project as well. Each short consists of a handful of not more than 2 to 3 leading characters, with a rookie director assisted by a more experienced veteran (although not necessary holding the same capacity in the industry) to come up with stories that are simple, and brought to life with remarkably reasonable production values despite obviously being modestly budgeted.

And with all anthologies, it's a sort of a mix bag of results, some which worked, some which didn't, some containing ambitious potential, while others made bearable or got broke because of its raw acting. Using the theme of Love was ideal to enable a flurry of story ideas that span a wide emotional spectrum, but I had hoped that these ideas stayed within the different stories, instead of interludes of filler scenes ranging from single scenes to single lines, coming in between the shorts to not only add some glamour since they're starring recognizable stars, but in some ways backfiring when they look as if they become lessons and declarations on love done in very preachy, talking heads documentary style.

Love Touch
Stars Gerald Chew and Jessica Tan as James and Amy, a customer and a massuer respectively, where the guy obviously falls for a pretty lady and making small talk throughout their session, and the latter being all the more wary of advances from customers since she's in this line, and being pretty means no lack of advances. But James is adamant in furthering their friendship although sometimes things get doomed due to exaggeration and worst if it's build on a foundation of lies. Staying within PG guidelines, this is a tale about pretence and fear, and how in Hollywood and Taiwanese melodramatic fashion comes closure that's a little bit convenient.

(2nd Short Title Eludes Me)
The second short film in my opinion was the best of the lot, setting the bar of expectations high for the films that follow and don't reach its heights. Starring television veteran Kwan Sek Mui as a grandmother tasked with looking after her grandchildren, played by Edmund Chen's own children no less, the real life family ties stretches a little further when wife Xiang Yun helms this segment as its celebrity director. What made this short film excel is its excellent performances all round – take note of the Chen children, they have it in them as natural performers – and a story that's comedic, romantic and dwells on family relationships, care and concern despite generation gaps that exist. And to top it all off, it revolves around a single event with a playful take on the different perspectives of its characters.

Love Resort
This film had big shoes to fill coming in the aftermath of the best in the series, and a comedic filler by actor Vaidi. In a stark contrast from the previous short, the story here was pencil thin sketchy at best, revolving around a love resort that the broken hearted escape to and find solace in the activities organized, and with constant goading and encouragement from friends and family, everyone gets a second stab at a relationship. Pryanka meets hunky fitness instructor Nick and the two hit it off, is as bland as the story can get.

(4th Short Title Eludes Me)
Keeping it within the family extends to the fourth short film, with Ericia Lee directing her sister Ezanne as a woman stuck in a relationship with a married man (just what she sees in him baffles me) who makes the decision to break up. For quite noble reasons too if I may add, urging her lover to go back to his estranged wife and cancer-stricken child who need them more than she does. It's a tale about selfless sacrifice where the monologue narrative never fail to remind you that love is never about possession, and how ugly love triangles can get. Probably tells about how one's love for another is best exemplified by actions rather than words, with a narrative that tangents off into two separate threads as the couple splits up, with a twist at the end. Strong ideas with potential if not for a rather choppy delivery in its finale.

Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps
Twists in this anthology seemed to be the norm, although in this case it was rather obvious when Chekov's gun got cocked so early and loudly, you're just expecting it to turn up when the time is ripe for the big reveal. Alaric Tay is the celebrity director of this film with Amy Cheng starring as a cougar (very popular character archetype of late) out on the prowl for younger, fresher meat, and her obvious come-hither tones finds a suitable prey from a bar's hot musician who's about the age of her son. Two stories in one here with the other dwelling on a boy's fear of declaring his affections for the girl that he's been infatuated with for years, although this arc obviously takes a backseat and got left hanging for the main act.

(6th Short Title Eludes Me)
The last short film in Echoing Love had a decent story and I would have rate it highly if not for shades of the Korean weepy Il Mare found in its basis and premise. Vincent Ng is the celebrity director of this film starring Tomato Lee (who won an acting award for her role here) and Edwin Goh as unlikely lovers who find each other transcending time and space thanks to a fortune gemstone. One can see the other it's kept one way for the most parts in this inexplicable science fiction romance that brought out many whimsical, romantic moments befitting of any love story, although succumbing needlessly to melodrama for its finale that isn't unexpected, but could have been avoided for a more chirpier finish since it's the concluding episode.

Echoing Love is ambitious when you think about the conceptualization of the project and how it gathered a whole network of people coming together with a single objective to fulfill their film production dreams in various capacities from acting to screenwriting to directing. Hopefully this becomes but a catalyst to kick off more projects from Mission Easy, and for those who had missed tonight's screening, keep your eyes peeled as there are plans to have the films screened at places such as malls, theatres, public spaces all free of charge, as well as on ECTV's internet platform at http://www.ectv.sg

[SIFF11] Echoing Love Introduction

Actor turned project director Edmund Chen unveils his team's labour of love today, an anthology consisting of 6 love stories. Hear what he has to say during the film's world premiere this evening!

[SIFF11] The Forbidden Door

I Need To Know Who's Sleeping With My Wife

I would have loved to write a review on this, but no thanks to the botched screening at Lido 2 which was played off a DVD that got scratchy twice, even after an attempt at restarting from the previous chapter which replayed what was about 10 minutes of what the audience had already seen.

Just when it got climatic with the aforementioned revelation.

The lights came on, and we were told the film would be rescheduled. Erm, hello, you think festival goers only watch one film during the period (maybe some do, but going by this audience tonight, most, if not all, weren't and some came from overseas too!) Moreover, there are films screened back to back to back, how can an empty hall be gotten at the last minute will be a sheer logistical nightmare, unless you're asking everyone to return on a weekday morning, say 9am?

I'm asking for my refund. Period.

Sorry Joko Anwar, I and many others tonight, couldn't finish your film.

[SIFF11] The Selling Q&A

Writer-Actor Gabriel Diani and actress Etta Devine were in town to represent The Selling in a post-screening Q&A at Lido Hall 2 this evening, so hear what they have to say about this horror-comedy! And who would have expected that the Q&A would be interrupted by inexplicable white noise from the sound system, and more! Could the hall be haunted? Check it out yourself!

[SIFF11] The Selling (International Premiere)

Ask anyone if real estate agents have ethics, and you're bound to get a fair share of horror stories about those who don't, for the sake of sales revenue and to line their own pockets with fat commissions, who can sell just about any property by glossing over pertinent details and avoiding taboo ones so that some sucker out there would lay down some hard earned capital. For Richard Scarry (Gabriel Diani), he's a down to earth, all round nice guy who just couldn't lie, and finds himself in a fix when he and his business partner Dave Ross (Jonathan Klein) got duped by a rival agent Mary (Janet Verney) in getting a haunted house (along Elm Street no less) on their portfolio, only to find that getting rid of it isn't exactly a walk in the park.

Gabriel Diani, who also wrote the story, had crafted a fine, independent film that's essentially a horror-comedy treatment sorely missed these days, where its intend to scare is light, and balanced with a good dose of comedy and wit as it pays homage to a number of horror classics that genre fans will not fail to identify. What's more, there's a fair bit of narrative going on with a piece of mystery woven in, since it involves no less than 12 ghosts, where their unfinished business gets in the way of our real estate agents who try their best to auction the house, only to have their efforts thwarted since nobody in the right frame of mind will want to get something alive like Hausu.

If I can draw some parallels, it's story-telling is along the same vein as Ghostbusters as well as The Frighteners, with the ghouls are none too threatening, and despite it being modestly budgeted, have enough special effects magic in it to juice the film up, while not forsaking what's primarily essential in any film, a solid storyline. It's almost like a tale of two halves, where we get to see indirect references to recent housing woes in the USA and the comedic bantering between man and spirit as Richard and Dave try to find a compromise with the inherent occupants of the property, and montages used as set pieces for comedy when all things are light and dandy. The later half though progressively got a bit more sinister with intent and objectives being revealed, though again fit for young ones as events were kept deliberately light for broad based appeal.

What worked in its favour is the strength of the characters that Diani created, although some may argue that they're pretty much one-dimensional, such as Dave as the partner whose nature and mannerisms never fail to become punchlines, or how Mary as their nemesis they love to hate remains pretty much consistent throughout, each character has enough quirks to make them uniquely appealing. Gabriel Diani himself probably plays the most complex amongst all since he's the leading man undergoing profound experiences, while real life partner Etta Devine stars as the ghostly expert/blogger who lends a helping hand. Nancy Lenehan plays Richard's cancer-suffering mom who still has a degree of spunk for life and attitude, and the banter between mother and son as mentioned by Diani during the Q&A, is based very much with his own late mother.

The Selling scores in it not trying too hard, and has many endearing elements that demands a second viewing. I know it's still early in the festival, but this will probably end up as one of the most entertaining that packs a solid narrative punch despite its compact 90 minutes. Highly recommended so make sure you do get to watch it if you can as it does its festival rounds. Stay tuned throughout the end credits as well for a number of comedic stingers.

[SIFF11] Revenge of the Electric Car

That's How You Build Them

I've only managed to watch Who Killed The Electric Car? on DVD since it didn't manage to get a theatrical release here, and I was intrigued at how director Chris Paine managed to weave his documentary into a sort of murder-mystery that exposes how the environmentally friendly car EV1 got systematically canned despite it being a relatively superior product with advantageous to be reaped against the more conventional motor vehicle, even though it showed so much potential in being environmentally friendly. But profits and strange bedfellows meant an early death for the electric car, until now.

It's a known fact that fossil fuels are finite, and the day will come when we no longer have them in abundance to supply our energy needs. Alternative fuels are slowly becoming a necessity, and with the shifts in mindsets come the shift in business propositions, forcing a relook into the viability of the electric vehicle, which Paine now revisits through a number of years spanning 2007 until today, where once opponents to the electric car such as GM's Bob Lutz have now become proponents as they realize the competitiveness, or the lack thereof, of the automobile industry in the USA will severely lack behind rivals from overseas as they look to the creation of electric vehicles.

Paine's documentary narrated by Tim Robbins takes on a distinct and different look and feel from its predecessor, opting to go with personalities to fuel the film forward, and to be honest it's a real treat to be going behind the scenes to the boardrooms where decisions get made and the factory design and assembly areas to see first hand how prototypes get made, tested, approved or rejected. From big players like General Motors to Nissan in Japan, to smaller upstarts such as Tesla Motors in Palo Alto, we get to listen in to the various woes faced by players in the industry as they struggle through diminishing cash flows no thanks to the financial institutions meltdown in recent years, and how that impacted their staying afloat, what more trying to come out with a vehicle that has to boast respectible outputs compared to conventional vehicles, and the challenges faced with battery life.

It also had star power, albeit used ever so briefly from Danny DeVito to Jon Favreau as talking heads, although Bob Lutz and even Carlos Ghosn of Nissan became unlikely engrossing personalities where we get a peek into their work ethics. Elon Musk of Tesla was particularly engaging, of someone who had earned his fortune being the founder of Paypal, entering cutting edge companies such as SpaceX and Tesla to try and make the world a better and more interesting place, but being cut down to size for what would be entrepreneurs not being second time lucky with their ventures. In fact, Musk got made to look somewhat vulnerable for a CEO, as well as dodgy at times due to failure to deliver as promised, and shockingly admitting to baiting and switching. Captured on video.

Making its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year on April 22 to coincide with Earth Day to lend it some street cred gravitas, Revenge of the Electric Car doesn't really explore the comeback of the vehicle much less than it being a film about the possible powerhouses and decision makers in a position to bring about major changes to the industry. It isn't easy, and if I take a look at our own backyard the infrastructure isn't there yet to make it easy nor mass market, but I suppose that day will come one day, and hopefully within my lifetime where I can get to own something affordable that takes me from Point A to B with zero pollution.

Johnny English Reborn

Master of Disguise

Silly spies and comical cops are always a welcome treat to chase those blues away as far as my record goes, from the likes of Frank Drebin to Austin Powers , perhaps there is none other than Rowan Atkinson's Johnny English, a misfit of British Intelligence, that was much maligned when first unleashed into the world back in 2003. Atkinson is better known throughout the world as Mr Bean, his most successful creation to date, but his Johnny English didn't receive as much love, so a sequel to the film is somewhat surprising, yet anticipated because of Atkinson's prolonged absence from the big screen.

This of course gets explained in Johnny English Reborn, who had spent the last five years in a monastery after being dismissed for embarrassing MI7 in a mission failure at Mozambique, learning new skills such as mind over matter, training the weakest part of the body (his head actually, if you get the meaning), and strengthening parts of the body which got abused to slapstick perfection. And when all else fails, experience is something to put into good use to compensate for whatever's lacking when up against opponents. What you see in the trailer, forms the new, upgraded version of the British superspy, now recalled and reinstated, but not without his boss Pamela (Gillian Anderson) providing him with sidekick Agent Tucker (Daniel Kaluuya), and the usual host of wonderful spy toys.

As if to spoof the very obvious James Bond further which got reboot through Casino Royale, English begins his first mission at Casino Lisboa in Macau before jet setting back to Kowloon, Hong Kong, and back to Britain. And to add the feather in the cap, Rosamund Pike, who was a one time Bond Girl in Die Another Day, joins the cast as a typical Bond girl role as Kate Sumner the psycho-analyst, who reads body language for a living, recruited so as to assist in a diplomatic mission of helping the British Prime Minister react and respond to a one on one meeting with the Chinese premier, which a secret assassin organization known as Vortex is trying to disrupt.

Most of the time the story involves English and team running around trying to solve who the three key persons in Vortex are in an attempt to avoid a grave diplomatic row, so the scenarios painted contain plenty of slapstick laughs, and repetition at times when carrying on a joke for far too long, such as the cleaning lady gag. Toilet humour are part and parcel of its arsenal, although it goes to show how receptive audiences here can be whenever it involves a good dose of kicking the nuts (to rapturous applause I must add). It's an exercise of expectations and anticipation with spy movies like these, where every single gadget and skill introduced are a cocked Chekov's gun waiting to be unleashed at least once when the time is opportune, and always coincidentally, everything has its place in good time.

It's likely Rowan Atkinson's absence on the big and small screen contributed to the enthusiastic turn out as well as response to the gags he pulled, which is reminiscence of his abilities to perform facial gymnastics to pull a funny face, be it a twitch of the eye, or full blown rubbery effect. In some ways his Johnny English character has now aged like fine wine, being mellower yet no less bumbling in his tasks, being silly yet endearing, knowing that he'll pull out safely from any ordeal he finds himself in, from being chased by hordes of agents, to one on one fisticuffs. Daniel Kaluuya is also a wonderful addition in becoming the intelligence rudder for Team English, funny in his own right, although being a rookie character is hardly ever taken seriously, much less by his partner. Gillian Anderson doesn't do much with her M inspired role, while Dominic West had considerably greater screen time as the alpha spy and long time friend of English.

Should anyone be searching for a clear message or moral of the story, I'd say you're barking up the wrong tree. Surely there are elements of "brotherhood" and trust issues strewn around, but look no further than this film providing sheer entertainment while you're at it, since you're likely to forget what had exactly transpired or the jokes told in detail. If you haven't had enough of Atkinson and his Johnny English persona, then stay behind when the end credits roll for a short scene where he struts his stuff in the kitchen preparing a meal for two, synchronized to classical music. Welcome back, Rowan Atkinson!

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

Come Out Wherever You Are

A precocious kid, a big mansion, and mean little creatures that go bump in the night. Essential ingredients for a typical horror film, if only the pacing was done right so that it won't be that much of a chore to sit through what was overly dramatic family relationship matters for the first half, where young Sally (Bailee Madison) is sent packing to stay with her dad Alex (Guy Pearce) and his new girlfriend Kim (Katie Holmes) in their new mansion in the middle of nowhere, one that has a gruesome past (as with almost all mansions) involving minute goblins with an appetite for children's teeth.

With Guillermo del Toro lending his name to the production, one would have set expectations that it'll reach the dizzying heights of his films such as Helboy and Pan's Labyrinth, but first time director Troy Nixey allowed the focus to be put on the estranged relationship between Sally and the adult folks in the new chapter of her life, battling plenty of deep resentment especially with Kim who would be her step-mom sometime soon. Tantrums get thrown around, gifts and little nice gestures get ignored, and when she starts to hear whispers from the shadows who want to befriend her, it gets brushed aside as a relocation problem that with settling down will go away.

As mentioned it gets a little tiring trying to keep up with the family drama of the usual fears when dealing with a potential step-mom, though I would say to hold on to your horses since it is precisely this aspect that packs its emotional punch when it mattered. What didn't work was Guy Pearce seemingly like fish out of water, being out of place and uncomfortable as the dad now thrust with the responsibility of a young daughter, when all he wants out of life at this stage is a hot wife who's also his business partner in their joint-renovation of the mansion to be sold for a handsome profit, if only they can get Sally to play ball and not spook everyone out of the house. It's money first, safety and sanity second. Not exactly what one would expect a parent to behave.

The narrative only picked up from the midway point when the creatures come out of the closet, well, basement sinkhole, and appear in full glory, no longer playing peekaboo with the audience and characters. Creature design is excellent though, where like little gremlins the creatures may seem easy fodder to be stomped on, and with their inherent weakness for light make them easy targets so long as one is carrying a large flashlight. Thankfully these get compensated through swarming large numbers in highly organized fashion, and being ultra fast and cruel, sparing no thought at utilizing many household items from screwdrivers to boxcutters to inflict maximum damage and pain to the larger human opponents, and opens the door for some degree of gore on screen.

Still, this bunch of critters took a little too long to make their unholy appearance, which in the meantime you'd have to contend with an overly long lesson on how not to behave as a parent, with upbringing methods on display both good and bad. There are clear plot loopholes that stem from goalposts being shifted to make way for a more emotional, touching ending, as well as inexplicable behaviour of seemingly rationale people, and if the pace had been tightened and unwanted scenes canned, this could have been a very taut thriller indeed.

The Tree of Life

Let's Go

A film by the reclusive auteur Terrence Malick rarely comes by, with this being only his fifth film in a career spanning decades, and picking up the coveted Palme d'Or at Cannes this year, albeit to a polarizing response from screenings during the festival. Slated to also make its bow at this year's Singapore International Film Festival before its theatrical run, this advance screening today too saw its own share of detractors, with many walking out before the last reel unspooled. This is a Terrence Malick film after all, so it's an acquired taste to say the least.

I dare not say I've seen nor understood all of his works, but from whatever I've watched thus far, you'll come to expect a certain quality that comes with a Malick film, such as how fragmented its narrative can be, if it has a coherent one to begin with. There are plenty of moments in the film that he simply allows you to fill in the blanks yourself, providing bookends to scenes, and never shoving details down your throat. The details however comes through in the more technical aspects of the film. Rarely will you find a shot being misplaced or not serving a purpose, and watching a Malick film is observing a beautiful, artistic masterpiece come alive. It's almost postcard picturesque in each frame, that it's a visual treat whichever way you look at them, in alarmingly mesmerizing fashion that screams for your attention and lulls you into an optic trance.

It's also an understatement to say this film is ambitious. After all, a good portion of the first half dealt with Creation itself, how life evolved into what it is today, with scenes of nebulas, organisms, and even a moment where dinosaurs roamed the screen which I thought was a surprising move with compassion being showed by predator to prey. The visuals treats continued with the final scenes depicting the end of the world as we know it, as everything freezes over given the sun finally burning its last, and in ways reminded me of how grandeur its visuals are in similar fashion to how Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain had set out to be, only that Malick's film did it the more old school way through practical effects rather than to go it the computerized way.

The story sprawls in two uneven timelines, one the present where Sean Penn's character Jack still nurses a heartache with the loss of his brother during the war, and this, together with reminiscence of his memory of childhood both good, bad and confusing through the growing up years, form the bulk of the stories in Tree of Life. Here's where we get transported back to the 50s USA, where Brad Pitt plays the authoritative head of the O'Brien household, ruling his family with such an iron fist that his kids celebrate with enthusiasm the minute he steps out of the house, and go buck crazy when his job requires him to travel abroad. The perspectives as with a typical Malick film, cycles through each of the characters, from Pitt's Mr O'Brien, to his wife played by Jessica Chastain who has this angelic presence in a fiery household, and that of young Jack (Hunter McCracken)

While it depicts what would be suburban life in 50s Texas, it is the very human tales that get presented which you will likely be able to identify with, if you feel for it, and give this film a chance rather than to walk straight out when it gets perplexing. Like Life itself, things rarely occur in a linear, sequential fashion, and episodes here get played out in rather choppy fashion, sometimes repetitive through shots at different angles. The neighbours also get put under the spotlight occasionally with their very audible quarrels heard from outside their houses, in contrast to the O'Brien's, and that of their household's upbringing, with its stricter house rules always threatening to boil over and undo everything that's working for it.

Stealing the show from under the veteran casts' noses - Brad Pitt in what would be his most humble role in a long while as the typical strict paternal figure, and Sean Penn in a very underused, supporting role - was Hunter McCracken, with his intense gaze toward the screen ever so often, and looking dead ringer for a kid sized Sean Penn. He owned the role as a young boy turning rebellious as he stifles from being under a domineering dad, wait, father who doesn't mince his words when getting spoken back to, or to throw anyone out of the house for talking back. That gaze is worth the price of an admission ticket alone, as he struggles to escape from what he deemed as favouritism shown by his parents toward his siblings, seeking acceptance and love as he vents his frustrations through acts of vandalism, and theft too, in a scene that I felt was sexually charged though with nothing to see save for a lingerie being released into a running stream. Such is the brilliance of a Terrence Malick film, although there will be others who beg to differ.

Dialogue is kept minimal, and the soundtrack while awesome with its fair share of classical tunes, can be largely absent to a deafening silence. It may be jarring to sit through with character voiceovers shifting with nary a prompt, and images that come and go in a seemingly incoherent manner, but Tree of Life is still something to be experienced with an open mind given the instances of self-indulgence by the filmmaker, and to throw one's conventions of a film right out of the window in order to enjoy this sprawling effort, hopefully.

Tatsumi

Inspiration

Singapore's track record with animation has been admirable but poor, with the earliest foray being production houses plunging headlong thinking computer generated graphics was the way to go, undoubtedly fueled by Pixar's success with the medium. But what was keenly forgotten, was that story remained king, which films like Zodiac: The Race Begins, Legend of the Sea and surprisingly Sing to the Dawn, based upon an acclaimed book, all failed to come out with narratives to engage, passing off as really childish attempts with laughable artwork that paled in comparison to what it wanted to emulate.

I suppose if Eric Khoo had opened the doors for the Singapore film community once before in generating buzz in the earlier days of our film renaissance (if I can call it that), then he's clearly doing that again by showing that animated films can be done by Singapore production teams, if done properly. Some may quibble with the fact that Tatsumi is an animated film done by animators who are largely based offshore, but I'd say to give credit when credit is due, especially when there's a significant, marked improvement from their animated film, without a doubt having found a project comfortable enough to play to the strengths of a small team.

You would have known the background to how this film came about already, from the various press releases, interviews and articles ever since the film was slated to make its world premiere in Cannes earlier this year. In what would be a tribute to one of his idols, Eric Khoo had decided to venture into making not a live action film, but an animated one, adapting from the autobiography of Gekiga master Yoshihiro Tatsumi and his short stories, with the artist's blessings of course, and furthermore having to involve Tatsumi himself in providing additional inputs to bringing his creations to life on the big screen, especially helping to fill in the blanks behind where once were bubble speeches from his comic books, as well as imparting what would be key to the authenticity of the film - the keen eye for detail, so much so that this film is truly Japanese in spirit.

For those uninitiated with Tatsumi's works, then this film will serve as that quick start guide to his visual style and the stories that he's told through the graphic medium, and in many ways you'd see why they are so appealing to filmmaker Eric Khoo, drawing (pardon the unintentional pun) parallels with the filmmaker and the artist since the former was also once a cartoonist himself, and the darker content, more adult tales that Tatsumi draws about. In some ways the narrative structure is similar to Khoo's earlier film Be With Me, where it tells the biographical tale of a remarkable individual, interspersed between other stories. Here the film adapts from Tatsumi's autobiographical manga A Drifting Life, an astounding 800+ pages worth that chronicles the artist's struggles and inspiration.

One can imagine the sheer effort it took to condense that amount of material spanning decades of the master's life up (it was mentioned that he's working on the next volume that will culminate in his attendance at Cannes this year for the film's opening), and clearly that arc forms the core that engages, especially for anyone wanting to know more about the artist himself since major milestones are covered. But the short stories - Hell, Beloved Monkey, Just a Man, Good-Bye and Occupied - all provided that glimpse into the type of tales his art accompanied that he had pioneered, suited more for the adult with its darker tones and themes, graphic in nature too. And kudos to the director in knowing just when to make the transition between biography, and short story, at moments most apt that do not seem too jarring, nor confusing.

The animation style, which looked a lot like simple cut out animation, played to the production house's strengths, where things are kept simple based on the artistry of Tatsumi himself, therefore having his books serving as natural storyboards, with the obvious understanding that the look and feel of the film cannot and should not venture too far that it doesn't look like what had been designed by its creator. It's a limitation and constraint that worked wonders for Infinite Frameworks Studios, and should go about exorcising the demons from its earlier animated film effort.

Personally I would have loved to see more of Tatsumi's struggles in this movie, but the best way to do that is to go back to the source material. Hopefully this animated film will pique your interest in the master artist and his works, and if this film helps the casual viewer to pick up any of Tatsumi's books, and from there turn some into fans, then this film homage would have successfully done its job. Recommended! And yes do pick up the book as well!

Tatsumi Gala Premiere

The second gala premiere evening held at GV Grand for the release of Eric Khoo's Tatsumi right after an appearance at Books Kinokuniya for a film talk and book autographing session, here's the opening address by director Eric Khoo, producer Tan Fong Cheng, actor Tetsuya Bessho who provided the voices for at least six characters, and of course the man himself, Yoshihiro Tatsumi speaking through an interpreter.


Part 1 of 2


Part 2 of 2

Tatsumi opens this Thursday exclusively at GV Plaza and GV Vivocity.

Mere Brother Ki Dulhan (मेरे ब्रदर की दुल्हन)

Don't Drop Me!

Yash Raj Films had with this production released two films in a row that are directorial debuts for assistant directors. Talk about a promotion of sorts for writer-director Ali Abbas Zafar who had to suffer a little bit of flak with calls from various quarters that his maiden effort had taken a leaf out of Peter Hedges' Dan in Real Life starring Steve Carell, but the truth is while the premise may be slightly similar with a man falling for his soon-to-be sister-in-law, I suppose that's generic enough as a formula, and its execution is anything but, done to typical Masala style in two halves.

Boasting the first time pairing of Imran Khan and Katrina Kaif, Mere Brother Ki Dulhan will probably set the stage for more pairings to come as both shared incredible, exuberant chemistry as friends turned lovers, radiating youthful energy and being in the same age group worked wonders since the big three Khans, all in the 40s, get frequently paired with younger heroines. I suppose with Imran's career getting a boost thanks to the awesome Delhi Belly, he'll probably give Ranbir Kapoor a run for his money as the next big male Bollywood star, with good looks and acting chops to boot. For now he's probably still typecast as the laid back, easy going boy next door as Kush, who's been tasked by his brother Luv (Pakistani actor Ali Zafar, not the director and of no relation) to help him find a wife, given a bad breakup which opens the film, and in some ways the writing was on the whole when Luv tells Kush they share the same taste, and whoever Kush finds, his brother will likely give the thumbs up.

It's a huge responsibility, so much so that in a film like this, it calls for a song and dance in the opening credits, spoofing some of the largest shows in recent years such as Dabangg making more than one reference throughout the film, Dil Se... in recreating the dance atop a train, and Jodhaa Akbar played more for laughs in a later song segment given Imran's less imposing presence compared to Hrithik Roshan in the Ashutosh Gowariker film. What you see in the trailer with Kush going around to meet up with various girls are just about what's included in the film, wasting no time before he gets a call from a diplomat asking for Kush and family to go over to meet his daughter Dimple Dixhit (Katrina Kaif), and in an instant when they meet we get transported back to some 5 years ago when they were still students, and living the crazy, carefree life.

If anyone remains unconvinced of Katrina's acting range, perhaps this role may change their minds a little, where her Dimple takes on the more carefree, cool as ice attitude in her earlier years as a rock chick, before deciding now to settle down, more for a package deal of something quite similar to the 5 Cs which is what Luv can provide, given the large ads Kush and friends had taken out in advertisements. Can't blame a woman for wanting to have it all, especially since coming from a physical pedigree as embodied by Kaif.

Director Ali Abbas Zafar utilizes the two halves structure well, with the first getting the leading characters to inevitably fall in love, rekindled from their strong friendship from the past, and the later half to try and untangle the mess they find themselves in, since the impending wedding between Dimple and Luv is moving at breakneck speed over the course of one weekend, and having to solution something that will leave no broken hearts, as well as in the Asian or Indian context, having to keep the honour on both sides of the family intact without a tinge of something scandalous as the cancellation of a wedding, or worst, the ideas of eloping which almost came to fruition.

While the romance were left to the many beautiful song and dance sequences to move that emotion forward, comedy comes in the form of the schemes being hatched and executed, and especially with Ali Zafar playing Luv as the typical himbo who has absolutely no idea that the rug was going to be pulled under his feet. While Dan in Real Life had a more emotional, dramatic core, Mere Brother Ki Dulhan played its events out in a very breezy fashion especially when Luv's ex Piali (Tara D'Souza) start to play a bigger role in what would be a win win situation.

I had enjoyed the dance scene in Dan in Real Life where Steve Carell took to the dance floor to battle his envy with the rest of the characters, and here that pivotal scene got naturally translated into a large item number. And unique to India and maybe even Asia perhaps, is how parents play such a huge role in weddings, and have significant say whether a union can happen since family honour is still something much to be defended by the clan. This gets played out enough times to hammer home the point, and the older generation's priority in the saving of face every step of the way, while serious in nature, do add some comedy on top of cultural differences to be aware of for someone watching this from a different country.

Hollywood romantic comedies don't possess as much spiritedness as the ones from Bollywood if the latter are done right, and in this case, Mere Brother Ki Dulhan scores in all aspects of romance and comedy, being a sheer delight to sit through, with adequate eye candy to boot. Recommended!

I Saw The Devil (악마를 보았다 / Akmareul Boattda)

Look Behind You!

Finally one of Korea's cinematic gems over the last year has made it to our shores, and it's better late than never to experience it on the big screen no less. For fans of gritty cop thrillers in the same vein as Se7en and Memories of Murder, I Saw The Devil serves up an engaging, disturbing narrative in similar veins, but surpasses with its intensity, characterization, and shocking imagery that even made me squirm in my seat (and I pride myself at not squirming easily). Some may dismiss it as shock jock tactics, but director Kim Jo-woon's film is anything but, paring down emotions to its rawest when dealing with a tale of vengeance.

Heartthrob Lee Byung-hun (who was here in June recently for ScreenSingapore) plays Soo-hyun, an elite secret agent whose wife suffered the misfortune of being under the crosshair of serial killer Kyung-chul (Choi Min-sik of Oldboy fame), who brutally assaults and hacks her up. Promising that her killer will suffer an equally unsurmountable amount of pain, he embarks on a one man vigilante mission, with the help of his father-in-law, an ex police chief, to narrow down the list of suspects upon whom he delivers punishment without remorse, even for those who were not the culprits, but nasty people nonetheless.

It's plays on the notion of how it takes a thief to catch a thief, and here, just what would one do when you have someone who has done you great wrong and caused unforgivable pain, in your sights and in your captivity. In most revenge flicks, the score's settled in one scene. Here, there's allowance like the monologue of any villain of a B-movie, where it's allowed to continue repeatedly, just so that one can dish out punishment repeatedly as well, thinking it can help to ease the pain, or does it? Maybe Batman fans will come to appreciate Soo-hyun's behaviour, and understand the thin line that the hero treads on, vying dangerously close to the tipping point where it's so easy to become the monster one is set out to capture, and how the act of vengeance alone cannot change anything.

And what more when the villain is a sick psychopath with absolutely no morals, values, nor remorse felt, taking pride in taunting and boasting the sick things he had done. Choi Min-sik plays his character Kyung-chul to perfection, a live wire that can become explosive at any minute, armed to the teeth with weapons he doesn't wait to utilize, and a modus operandi that's effectively simple to execute, preying on beautiful nubile women just because he can. Choi Min-sik succeeds in making you hate the character, yet cringe in fear each time he appears on screen. It's the suspense built by the director which is top notch, allowing plenty of riveting moments where you'll be secretly hoping for Soo-hyun to show up each time, and save the day, only that Soo-hyun has his own hidden agenda to let the sickness continue, in order to deny the killer (just who is the killer and the devil here?) the pleasure that he seeks to gain.

Which is what made this film pretty amazing in my books, as it explores how one doesn't necessarily get to win outright in this brilliant cat and mouse setup, where one doesn't know when to stop and let up, of getting into the kick of being in power and calling the shots. It presents this moral dilemma of how overconfidence and underestimation sets someone up for a fall, of trying to go one up against the other that nobody wins in the end, with what I felt was a terrible lose-lose situation either character suffered because they got in each other's way through fate, degenerating into the final act in pretty much tit for tat fashion. It's never conventional the way things develop in this story with its fair share of collateral damage in the story, which allowed for a number of side and supporting characters to extend the narrative a little bit longer, such as Kyung-chul's cannibal buddy entering the picture.

Some may take a little offense at how indulgent this film can be with its violent scenes, since there are lingering, unflinching shots at some of the most gruesome ways one can violently pummel another human being in very direct methods which you'll rarely see on screen, and makes the Saw series look tame in comparison. Take a long a barf bag if you must, since there are many scenes of mutilation, bashing ins, dismemberment and the likes that will make you feel terribly uncomfortable, enough to put you into the shoes of the victims and feeling the kind of pain that is inexplicably caused, all just because you happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, and trusting a stranger all too easily sometimes no thanks to circumstances.

The edition shown here is the Director's Cut, or the International Version which is a lot more gorier than the Korean theatrical release which had to be tapered down, although the latter version did have a sex scene (which is one of the primary reasons for its longer run time) that added a litle dimension as to the allegiance and clarity of a small supporting character who pops up midway through the film. It's a complete package of thrills and spills, with excellent production values all round and some of the best character actors in Lee Byung-hun and Choi Min-sik going up against each other already making the ticket price worthwhile, especially with Choi Min-sik coming out of self imposed exile from films will tell you something unique he sees in this film to want to do it.

I Saw The Devil opens here on 15 September. Do not miss this, even if you have watched it somehow before, nothing beats experiencing it on a big screen. Definitely highly recommended as it goes into my books as one of the best in its genre, and of this year.

Contagion

Singapore, Represent!

Probably Steven Soderbergh's final film for now as he embarks onto a new artistic career, but as with all things, never say never to a medium he's so masterful in, balancing art and commercial sensibilities in most of his films. It's been a long time since I've seen a bona fide disaster like movie that dealt with a pandemic (although there's a recent Japanese film that didn't make it here), and most virus-like attacks on cinematic Earth coming more from out and out science fiction films.

The last film I remember was Wolfgang Petersen's Outbreak way back in 1995, but that was more action-adventure with its principal cast involved in almost every step of the way from outbreak to containment to cure. Here, Soderbergh orchestrates his ensemble of stars in a very well-oiled fashion, compartmentalizing as would be in real life, each of the characters to their respective areas of responsibility, so that the film felt its scale and magnitude, and hammers home how so well connected we are these days that transmission methods whether airborne or through close proximity, will still spread like wildfire before we know it, geographical boundaries and constraints notwithstanding.

It's a more documentary like approach starting from Day 2 of a fresh outbreak of a disease that we know inflicts death at the extreme and most unfortunate, that gathers momentum with the passing of each day, stressing upon the urgency to identify, classify then nullify the cause and effects. In the last decade we've lived through the SARS period as well as the H1N1 pandemic outbreak, so the issues thet underline the film will not get lost with any modern audience, since the film chronicles in almost similar terms how one would follow a newsreel in getting to know about the disease, the steps taken to combat it from extending distances right dwwn to full quarantines, and especially the fears faced when mortality enters the picture.

From the get go the film promises proceedings to move at a punchy pace, with the opening montage being a very sly approach in highlighting the various ways to transmit any contagious illness, such as the common touchpoints that exist which we take for granted and nary bat an eyelid. This will open one's eyes and serve as a reminder again just how easy it is for anything to be psased on from one body to another. In some ways it's educational, yet chilling when you witness and agree with what's being played out on screen,

Written by Scott Z. Burns, Contagion doesn't mince its messages about social and new media's power and reach when they go up against establishment, especially when establishment here is seen to be slow, bureaucratic even, when it lumbers along trying to combat something small, nimble and generally unknown in the earlier stages. It's also very pointed politically about things like morals and the pharmaceutical companies, and how certain countries utilize different unorthodox techniques to force and outcome, all these while under the same breath demonstrating through the different story arcs the workings of respective CDCs, how health experts go about their job scopes in the WHO, providing a macro as well as a micro look at the issues at hand to save mankind from eradication.

Most will be drawn by the trailer or poster which have boasted an A-list star-studded turnout, with the likes of Marion Cotillard, Laurence Fishburne, Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law and even cameos by Josei Ho and a supporting role with Ng Chin Han of Singapore who seems to be going places these days in Hollywood, though if one compares his outing here and in The Dark Knight, he may be getting stereotyped with the roles being offered. But we'll see.

And with some remote experience with dealing with the unknown during H1N1, it's fairly accurate in its portrayal of how humans react in self-preservation mode, where only a select few will step forward and be counted, with many others preferring to take care of their own first, which is perfectly understandable, such as how a father forbids his daughter to interact with friends, or how healthcare workers start to dwindle and refuse to carry on with their duties. The authenticity of human behaviour and reaction to the big unknown, some opportunistic with its unrelated looting, is something that will strike you and make you think about, since they're not as far fetched as you might think, or maybe even succumb to!

Those in power too will also have within them influence to ensure survivability through some leeway in the system of a ballot and luck, and leaves some room to ponder over how those high up in the echelons of society and the system would act as well when faced with moral decisions. It is not really stranger than fiction, and totally believable in our real world, which is what makes Contagion stand out if not for Soderbergh's hand to avoid the pitfalls into making this something like an all out action flick like what Outbreak had become.

Some may find issues with how neatly this all wraps up, but seriously if you use recent incidents as benchmarks, it's not quite far off in how things tend to taper down whether with or without the absence of a cure if we reference both SARS and H1N1. Its shades of real world sensibilities is what makes this something highly recommended, and especially relevant in our world today.

Love in Space (全球熱戀 / Quan Qiu Re Lian)

Sharing is Caring

You have to give the filmmakers credit for trying as hard as they can to simulate weightlessness in one of the film's three major story arcs, where Aaron Kwok and Rene Liu play astronauts in their space craft, floating around through the use of visual and practical effects. It's a shoestring way of movie magic coming alive, but drawn too much attention to itself to detract from its aspect of romantic love with the inevitable clashing of the ego of an estranged couple who find it hard to find common ground for reconciliation. Why Mission Control chose to put these two together in the same spacecraft alone is beyond scientific sense, but they're stuck many miles away from the earth, and enjoy all the privacy afforded to get back together again.

So there goes the other interpretation of the word space, where a relationship should be given room to breathe, and in the other two story arcs, we see how a girl suffering from OCD (Kwai Lun Mei) tries to keep a distance from potential beau played by Eason Chan, a garbage collector who has experienced his fair share of rejection for being in a job that's modest in wages, and notches below in the rungs of a materialistic society. And in the final arc, Angelababy plays a terrible actress Peony who recently won the equivalent of the Razzie, and in her preparation for her new role which requires her to play a waitress, her research through working in a cafe introduced her to a down an out writer (Jing Boran) who found employment in the same cafe, only for the budding relationship to spell doom despite plenty of formulaic cinematic courtship routine making their motions felt, since it's built on a foundation of a lie that Peony concocts to be someone else instead, nerdier looking to be able to hangout without fans and the paparazzi following.

Directors Tony Chan and Wing Shya followed up on their Hot Summer Days with this film, but this installment, while boasting an ensemble cast in itself, lacked an important ingredient and that's heart to unify the stories in stronger fashion, without which any romantic film wannabe will find it a challenge to connect with the viewer since there's no believable mutual ground established. Trying to repeat a formula is one thing, but overly relying on an effect or gimmick, is another. Perhaps my expectations were raised with its predecessor, but the stories here could have gotten a little boost with more work done on its romance best kept simple and sincere.

You can read my review of Love in Space at movieXclusive.com by clicking on the logo below.