Day: July 8, 2013

By Joe Bendel. The Biblical echoes are slightly misleading, but not wholly inappropriate. For those present, the notorious Hongmen Banquet is the betrayal that keeps on betraying. The murky events in question will continue to haunt the first Han Emperor until his final tormented moments in Lu Chuan’s The Last Supper (trailer here), which screens Wednesday during the 2013 New York Asian Film Festival.

Everyone realizes Emperor Gaozu, a.k.a. Liu Bang, is not long for this earth, including the common-born emperor from Pei County. However, he is not going out gracefully. Haunted by nightmares and visions of his past, Liu Bang sees conspiracies in every shadow. He ought to know. He reached the throne through some shrewdly timed treachery. Once sworn allies with Lord Yu and General Xin, he has killed the former and imprisoned the latter to solidify his hold on the throne.

Liu Bang has not exactly been scrupulously faithful to his wife, the Empress Lü Zhi, either. Regardless, she will act ruthlessly to protect his legacy. The empress decides it is time to be well rid of Xin once and for all, but his prominence and his highly placed friends in court provide him a slim measure of protection.

Frankly, we are quite fortunate to have Last Supper screening at NYAFF, considering its release was held up for four months by government censors. It is not hard to see what troubled the obedient apparatchiks. Even a bureaucrat could pick up on the film’s “absolute power corrupts absolutely” implications. This is the high tragedy of a man who gains an empire but loses his humanity (a point that also emerges, albeit somewhat less forcefully, in Daniel Lee’s White Vengeance, which also dramatizes the circumstances surrounding the Hongmen Banquet.)

For Lu, this represents a dramatic change of pace from his stark portrayal of Japanese war crimes in City of Life and Death. Obviously less politically correct for the powers that be, Supper is further differentiated by a feverish atmosphere that often approaches the outright demonic. Yet, it is also a grand period production, with enough imposing sets and palace guard extras to satisfy Cecil B. DeMille.

Supper is also notable for the geographically diverse casting of the main triumvirate that surely ought to pay dividends at the respective box offices. Mainlander Liu Ye nicely portrays the raging paranoia of Liu Bang’s twilight years without descending to shtick or gimmicks. Hong Kong super-star Daniel Wu captures the nobility of the tragic Lord Yu, while Taiwanese Chang Chen is impressively steely as General Xin. Nonetheless, Qin Lan (Lu’s wife and frequent collaborator) dominates the film with her spellbinding Lady Macbeth-like portrayal of Lü Zhi.

The strangely timely Supper comes as a welcome rebuttal to Chinese films like Hero or The Guillotines that celebrate or at least excuse strong centralized authority. Lu’s vision of Liu Bang clearly suggests the emperor’s madness and absolute power are two sides of the same coin. In addition to its challenging subtext, The Last Supper also happens to be an excellent film, well worth seeing for its striking look and Qin Lan’s commanding performance. Highly recommended, it screens Wednesday afternoon (7/10) at the Walter Reade as part of this year’s New York Asian Film Festival.

LFM GRADE: A-

Posted on July 8th, 2013 at 1:08pm.

By Joe Bendel. Bet you didn’t know Dodge City was once occupied by the Japanese. Evidently they took it from the Chinese, but one undercover freedom fighter is determined to take it back in Leon Yang Shu-peng’s An Inaccurate Memoir, which screened yesterday as part of the Well Go USA spotlight at the 2013 New York Asian Film Festival.

Ambushed by the Japanese, the wounded Gao Dong-liang lies low in Taiping, a Northern Chinese city that mostly consists of jails and brothels. After watching Fang You-wang’s gang break their ringleader out of prison with lickety-split efficiency, he starts hatching ideas. Masquerading as a tempting rich twit, Gao gets himself kidnapped by the Fang gang, subsequently insinuating himself into the gang, after they tire of beating and torturing his uncooperative hide.

Fang’s younger sister Jen takes a particular shine to him, which the outlaw is not exactly thrilled about. Aside from Gao, the gang is not keen to tangle with the Japanese, but the Imperial Army forces their hands when they raid the hideout. Suddenly Fang is down with Gao’s crazy plan, but he gives it a distinctly bandito spin.

Inaccurate Memoir has already been widely compared to Jiang Wen’s Let the Bullets Fly, but it is less shticky, with more Spaghetti western grit to it. Yang gets a bit bogged down with Gao’s first act abduction scenes, but once the soldier is part of the gang, Memoir settles down to business with commendable energy.

To its credit, the Fang Gang also boasts an unusually number of strong women members. Working as a “professional” in town, Lady Dagger is as dangerous as she sounds, while the quiet but violent Lassie follows in the beloved tradition of lethal school girls. However, the guys in the gang tend to blend together. (You can tell this will be a problem when the film feels compelled to use on-screen graphics to introduce them to viewers by name.)

Regardless, Yang, the self-taught crash-the-party filmmaker, blows stuff up quite nicely. Character development may not be his strong suit, but he helms some inventive action sequences and pays proper homage to the Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven/Dirty Dozen tradition, in which a pack of scraggly ruffians ultimately embrace and one-by-one die for a righteous cause.

Huang Xiaoming certainly looks the part of roguish Fang, but Zhang Yi’s Gao is a more multi-faceted character. Still, Zhang Xinyi, Ni Jingyang, and Zhang Yue often steal the show as Jen, Lady Dagger, and Lassie.

Yang gets a big assist from his production and set designers, who created a richly appointed subterranean hideout. The film’s eccentric vibe helps soften the requisite Chinese nationalism and anti-Japanese sentiments. (However, the sheer volume of recent releases waving the bloody WWII shirt could lead to long term image problems for Chinese cinema in the international market place.) Shrewdly, Yang always keeps the mayhem entertaining. Recommended for fans of war movies with an eastern western sensibility, An Inaccurate Memoir screened yesterday afternoon (7/7) at the Walter Reade, as part of the Well Go USA spotlight at this year’s New York Asian Film Festival.

LFM GRADE: B-

Posted on July 8th, 2013 at 1:07pm.

By Joe Bendel. Technology has been a blessing to historians, resulting in an explosion of primary sources. This is particularly so in a country as small as Israel, where great historical events often intrude on personal day-to-day life. Assembling a collage of amateur video, director Eliav Lilti and project creator-producer Arik Bernstein create a fragmentary portrait of the Middle East’s only democracy in Israel: a Home Movie (clip here), which opens this Wednesday in New York at Film Forum.

Bernstein’s team is blessed with a wealth of source material, dating back to the 1930’s well before the formal establishment of the State of Israel. There are weddings, celebrations, and people just fooling around with their cameras. Yet the resulting footage serves as a time capsule of each era. In some cases, the informal videographers documented undeniable history as it happened. Easily the most dramatic example is the footage shot by beach partiers of Egyptian MiGs shot of the sky by pursuing Israeli fighter pilots after executing the sneak attack that launched the Yom Kippur War.

A film like Home Movies arguably says more about the editorial hand shaping it than those who originally shot the constituent videos. In this case, Bernstein and Lilti’s team clearly reflects the inclination of liberal humanism (broadly defined) to hold one’s self or one’s country to a higher standard than those who inveigh against us. It is a noble, forgiving instinct, but it is often misplaced. Time and again, the disembodied narrators bemoan Israel’s inability to make peace with the Arab populations, asking what they could have done differently.

In contrast, little attention is paid to the terrorism Israel has faced since her inception—just the occasional ghostly picture of a relative cut down before she reached thirty. Still, the rockstar treatment afforded to journalist Dan Shilon at a swinging 1970’s wedding after his uncompromising reporting on the murder of the Israeli Olympians is certainly a telling moment. Yet, the resilient hope that peace might finally follow each successive war is a refrain heard from Israelis throughout Home Movies, speaking volumes about the inherent difference in values held by Israel and its haters.

Indeed, Home Movies is a deliberate and knowing exercise in subjectivity, in which truth seeps in through the conspicuous margins. It should therefore neither be the first nor the last word on the Israeli experience. (Viewers looking for a quick primer should check out the lucid and comprehensive The Case for Israel featuring Prof. Alan Dershowitz.)

There are many striking (though grainy) images and several intriguing anecdotes in Home Movies. Where else will you see such candid footage of Moshe Dayan (courtesy of his son)? Nonetheless, it is important to understand that it is a product of an Israeli film establishment not so very different from our own. Recommended for history buffs, but with reservations, Israel: a Home Movie opens this Wednesday (7/10) at New York’s Film Forum.

LFM GRADE: B-/C+

Posted on July 8th, 2013 at 1:05pm.

By Joe Bendel. It seems like everybody picks on Anina Yatay Salas. She’s a kid, you see. She’s a good kid though, who will be getting the sort of lessons that will make her a good grown-up in Alfredo Soderguit’s animated feature, AninA (trailer here), which screens this weekend during the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s 2013 Latinbeat.

The Spanish word for palindrome is capicúa, a fact young Anina knows only too well. She has three of them in her name, which she finds rather excessive. Her Ned Flanders-ish father thought it was delightful, but the bratty kids at school delight in taunting her with the word “capicúa.” Still, she has good friends, like Florencia, but certainly not Yisel. During one fateful recess, an innocent stumble leads to a playground dust-up and a mutual trip to the principal’s office. As punishment, both she and Yisel receive mysterious sealed envelopes only to be opened in the principal’s presence, the following week.

Obsessing over her scarlet envelope, Anina and Florencia start following Yisel, in hopes of sneaking a peek inside hers. However, to her considerable surprise, Anina starts sharing strange bonding moments with her nemesis at school, stemming from their gossip-spawning punishment.

AninA is a wonderfully innocent and endearing film with absolutely no objectionable material whatsoever. Adults will probably have a good idea of where it is headed, but they will approve every step of the way. Adapting Sergio López Suárez’s book for young readers (which he illustrated), Soderguit maintains a similarly gentle style. His simple figures are rather soothing, evoking nostalgia for the old fashioned children’s books of eras gone by.

There are thoughtful bits of adolescent experience throughout AninA, but it is the title character (sensitively voiced by Federica Lacaño) that makes it such a winner. Boys of a certain age and immaturity level might grow restless during the film, but girls and adults of all varieties will find it completely charming. Recommended with enthusiasm, AninA screens this coming Saturday (7/13) and Sunday (7/14) afternoons at the Beale Theatre, as part of Latinbeat ’13.

LFM GRADE: A-

Posted on July 8th, 2013 at 1:04pm.