September 22nd, 2009 by Crap
Lets face it, Korean cinema has been far from impressive of late. Especially when we put things in contrast to earlier this very same decade that saw an emerging new generation that inventively crafted genre films capable of drawing huge international markets. Whether it was Park Chan Wook, Bong Joon Ho, or Kim Ki Duk, it was obvious that there was a shifting paradigm away from the more classical mentalities of old blood like Im Kwon-taek or even the monotonous flood of mainstream romance comedies or period films on the other side of the spectrum.
Overall, films that were both commercially viable and critically successful on a global scale were becoming increasingly more likely. This was in direct contrast and often times in conflict with a parallel trend that was heavily aimed at drawing in domestic tween markets, with embarrassingly sappy melodramatic fare that was often times both formulaic and utterly mindless. Unsurprisingly, this latter trend won out and the emergence of this domestic innovation seemed to disappear altogether. Park Chan Wook and his contemporaries were still pumping out yearly works for the festival circuit, but it didn’t appear that anyone new was entering the limelight.
Its quite a sad affair and one that has honestly decreased my personal attentions to Korean film making on the whole. Thus I watch less films as years pass and pay increasingly less attention to industry developments. This isn’t to say I’ve completely given up on them but merely that my attentions are focused elsewhere on the globe. I still catch the new Kim Ki Duk or Park film when the opportunity presents itself. And on some rare occasions, still catch that oddball film that may have peaked my interest via a blog post or blind rental. Castaway on the Moon is such a film and one that I viewed wholly by accident.
Tags: bamseom, hikikomori, indepth, jeong jae yeong, jeong ryeo won, korea, lee hae joon, review
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September 9th, 2009 by Crap
In the tradition of both cinéma vérité and Italian neorealist style, it seems that the central image of the bicycle within a bleak urbanized environment has become somewhat of a motif. Dating back to De Sica’s classic Bicycle Thieves and popping up more recently in Sixth Generation director Wang Xiaoshuai’s Beijing Bicycle, it has once again seemingly appeared in Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou’s social realist work, Take Out.
To not rely heavily upon comparative analysis, I’ll be brief. The continuing motif is obvious but probably irrelevant for the most part. Take Out has little to nothing to do with De Sica’s earlier work aside from genre and narrative similarities. If anything, it bears more in common with its Sixth Generation contemporaries across the globe such as Li Yang’s Blind Shaft or possibly Lou Ye’s Suzhou River.
In this manner there is a deep interest in its almost transnational cinematic relationship that seemingly parallels the subject matter of the film. Ming Ding, an illegal Chinese immigrant like most of the characters on screen, is struggling to not only earn a living, but save enough money to send back home to his awaiting family. His supposed frustration over this difficulty leads to borrowing money from a loan shark that he simply can’t pay back.
Tags: 6th generation, china, cinema verite, indepth, neorealism, review, sean baker, shih-ching tsou, social realism
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August 29th, 2009 by Crap
On The Last Lullaby, Jeffrey Goodman in a manifesto-like statement expressed his desires to stray away from modern cinematic norms and trends. He called for a seemingly nostalgic return to when film actually mirrored its society in a relevant fashion. Its an honest sentiment and one that I find both intriguing and troubling. On the one hand, looking back through the eyes of history one can easily associate periods of time with cultural artifacts such as film in this context. But the trouble I see is whether or not this is indeed simply “nostalgia” at work or possibly the presence of a larger historical scope to look back on.
Its hard to say whether or not cinema for better or worse, does or does not mirror our own contemporary society today. Surely film has indeed become somehow more rapid, sporadic, and pointlessly styled with little forethought. But it is hard to state whether this is not somehow indicative of our modern perceptions in a more holistic context. Life and temporal perception have indeed become more rushed, mechanized, and rather chaotic thus possibly for better or worse, film has still retained a certain accuracy in social reflection.
Regardless, Goodman does indeed make a great effort to stray away from huge Box office hitters like 300 or Crank which literally bombarded the viewer with an almost orgy-astic attack of excess. The Last Lullaby is anything but, and is indeed a refreshing diversion away from the over stimulation of these recent films. Goodman’s debut is if anything, a refreshing break from the quite literally tiresome fare at the box office of recent years characterized largely by senseless visual style.
Tags: indepth, jeffrey goodman, max allan collins, noir, review, sasha alexander, the last lullaby, tom sizemore
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August 21st, 2009 by Crap
Au Revoir, Les Enfants is a semi-autobiographical, fictionalized account of Malle’s own childhood experiences during Nazi occupation. The title translated into English, “Goodbye Children” refers both to the tragic departing at narrative’s end, as well as the general loss of innocence that accompanies an adolescent’s transition into adulthood. Overall its quite a beautiful yet heartbreaking piece of cinema. Dealing largely with the war yet almost ignoring its presence onscreen, it instead utilizes the microcosm of a small boys Catholic school to showcase the grander effects of the miserable conflict outside.
The film focuses largely on Julien Quentin, Malle’s own surrogate whom is often set in moral ambiguity among his peers. Opposite him is the seemingly mysterious newcomer Bonnet, later revealed to be a Jew in hiding. While one could easily spend a good deal of time discussing the emotional and humanistic impact of Malle’s personal work, I find that this would be quite redundant. For one, its a given and has been contextualized by many sources to death. Instead I will focus on a particular visual motif that caught my interest and was cleverly utilized cinematically, to add depth to this already impressive film.
Tags: france, germany, indepth, louis malle, motif, opacity, the cineastes
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July 15th, 2009 by Crap
John Carpenter has been and always will be a familiar name to cinephiles and even the casual movie-goer. Often times he has been conveniently placed into the confining label of a cult director who gets his chops from making senseless B-grade entertainment. Films known more for their outlandish style, one-liners, and quirky characters more so then any semblance of artistic merit, auteurship, or clever commentary.
Though for any individual with half a brain, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Films such as Halloween or The Thing held such artistry and weight behind them, that even today they have been burned into the cultural psyche as everlasting memes. Even cult favorites such as They Live abundant with its nonsensical one liners like “I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass… and I’m all out of bubblegum” are still popularly remembered for its blatant social commentaries.
Regardless, there has always been one film that stood out in Carpenter’s prolific filmography, and the very one that established the man as a true auteur in my book but has often been sadly misrepresented. Big Trouble In Little China has if anything, remained as a cultural meme more for its laughable absurdity and seemingly offensive portrayal of Chinese culture. The sad fact of the matter is, I found myself confronted more then once in college by scholarship that hammered in the idea that Big Trouble was part of a huge consortium or succession of film that relegated Asian culture to mere exoticism. Films like The Golden Child, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and First Yank into Tokyo for example, made liberal use of this orientalism and a tradition of yellowface.
Big Trouble In Little China on the other hand, could arguably be one of the greatest films to confront this misrepresentation of Asian culture and provide highly relevant criticism of US policies in context to an ever increasing transnationalist playing field. A sense of globalism and border breakdown which is ever so present today, especially in the face of a dwindling US economy, and an ever increasing China superpower.
Tags: china, indepth, john carpenter, kurt russell, the cineastes, transnationalism, united states
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March 11th, 2009 by Crap
Last night, I finally got around to viewing Let The Right One In, a Swedish film that got hugely popularized around the time of the larger global release of Twilight. While its fairly safe to say both works can be placed on opposite sides of a particular spectrum, both works indeed center around vampirism, a subsequent adolescent romance, and a release in the Fall of last year. Many critics cited the former Swedish release in retaliation to the overly promoted Twilight based upon a generic young adult novel series as well as starring some teen heart-throbs. While the latter work focuses more on a simple teen romance and the element of supernatural fantasy as spectacle, Let The Right One In merely uses vampirism as a narrative device to elicit questions of morality, violence, and androgynous identity.
A large portion of the viewers criticized the film for its seemingly pastiche “underdog getting bullied” setup that finds resolution through romance, or physical retaliation. While on the surface this seems valid, when one realizes the obvious moral ambiguity surrounding the main character dynamic, it seems somewhat illogical. If anything, it seems the pastiche is being used purposely to offer a critique or satire. By film’s end, both Oskar and Eli have committed violent acts that are ethically wrong but seem to go ignored. Eli kills countless victims and Oskar assists in this outcome several times. What is interesting is how the film successfully sets up the characters in a way in which the audience comes to naturally associate with Oskar and Eli on an emotional level. Their romance is childlike and seemingly innocent but presents a moral dilemma. Viewers easily ignore the violence in the narrative because they sympathize with Oskar and Eli almost wanting them to succeed. The way in which the violence is portrayed on screen parallels this notion, almost all the violent acts happen off screen or in the shadows. The viewer knows the extent of the gruesome acts yet is allowed to keep a distance.
Tags: horror, indepth, let the right one in, review, sweden, tomas alfredson, trailer, vampire
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March 5th, 2009 by Crap
Adam Cook over on
The Auteurs and his blog
The Bronze was kind enough to run a poll similar to the one ran by
BFI’s Sight & Sound, only for
The Auteurs community. Basically, about 100 of us participated in sending in lists of our top ten films, and then Adam proceeded to make sense of the data. What the top ten films of the community holistically were, regional breakdowns, directors, and even by decade. The results are quite interesting to look at and are linked below, as well as the individual participant’s lists.
Also below, is my own list which I submitted to this poll but is somewhat illogical in its picking. I would have to admit many of these were picked under the context that the results would be aggregated in a certain way. Unsurprisingly, I seem to be the only person to have included King Hu on their list. But quite shocking is the fact that no one else included Seijun Suzuki. I also seem to only share two with the top ten, Citizen Kane and Rashomon. I would have bet Bicycle Thieves would have made it on there but I guess not.
Anyways, heres my list ordered alphabetically by title:
1. Bicycle Thieves – Vittorio De Sica (1948) Italy
2. Citizen Kane – Orson Welles (1941) USA
3. Gate Of Flesh – Seijun Suzuki (1964) Japan
4. Rashomon – Akira Kurosawa (1950) Japan
5. Shoot The Piano Player – François Truffaut (1960) France
6. Strike – Sergei Eisenstein (1925) Russia
7. Terrorizers – Edward Yang (1986) Taiwan
8. Touch Of Zen – King Hu (1969) Taiwan
9. Videodrome – David Cronenberg (1983) Canada
10. Wild Strawberries – Ingmar Bergman (1957) Sweden
The Auteurs “Sight & Sound” Poll Results
The Auteurs “Sight & Sound” Individual Lists
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