Day: January 7, 2014

Amnesiac Hitmen in Love: LFM Reviews Key of Life, Now on DVD

By Joe Bendel. All movie lovers know amnesia and romance go together like fish and chips. Yakuza not so much, but they are all part of the mix in screenwriter-director Kenji Uchida’s understated rom-com, Key of Life, which releases today on DVD from Film Movement.

The mysterious Shinichiro Yamazaki (professional handle: Kondo) has just taken out an unfortunate businessman. Despite his protective garb, the hitman has a discrete dab of blood on him. He is also somewhat sweaty, so he heads for a public bath, where he promptly slips on a bar of soap and cracks his head. Seizing the opportunity, suicidal loser-actor Takeshi Sakurai grabs his keys and clothes, while an ambulance whisks him off to the hospital. When Sakurai finally resolves to face up to the well heeled Yamazaki, he finds the man has no memory of his past life. Although he still feels a tiny bit guilty, Sakurai continues impersonating Yamazaki, blissfully unaware of the man’s dangerous line of work.

Meanwhile, book publishing executive Kanae Mizushima gives herself a short deadline to find and marry a reasonably respectable man. She has her reasons. Sakurai, as Yamazaki erroneously presumes himself to be, seems like a poor prospect. Yet a chance encounter leads to possible romance for the two meticulous souls. Of course, all sorts of complications are lurking around the corner, many of them involving the Yakuza who has a rather distasteful follow-up gig for Kondo.

From "Key of Life."

On paper, Key sounds like a whizbang screwball comedy, but Uchida’s execution is surprisingly quiet, laidback, and mature. Recognizing a good thing going on, he allows plenty of time for the ambiguously romantic relationship between Mizushima and the real Yamazaki to unfold. He juggles a gracious plenty plot points, yet Key is first and foremost a rom-com that excels at the rom.

Prolific character actor Teruyuki Kagawa is absolutely pitch-perfect as Yamazaki (assuming Sakurai’s identity), conveying all his world weary soulfulness, while still springing all his character’s revelations like the crafty pro he is. Likewise, Ryoko Hirosue (sort of the Japanese Sandra Bullock, probably still best known internationally for her supporting turn in the Oscar winning Departures) is exquisitely demur and sensitive as the reserved Mizushima. Together, they develop some unusually fresh and deep screen chemistry. Unfortunately, Masato Sakai’s real Sakurai looks like quite the weak link in comparison, but at least he delivers one memorable extra-base hit late in the third act.

Even though Uchida maintains an appealingly light and easy-going vibe, Key has far more heft than the average comedy of any sub-genre. It is a film that appreciates the awkward ways people relate to each other. Witty, romantic, and greatly satisfying, Key of Life is highly recommended for general audiences. It is now available on standard DVD from Film Movement.

LFM GRADE: A

Posted on January 7th, 2014 at 8:20pm.

Jet Li Supervises: LFM Reviews Badges of Fury, Now on DVD/Blu-ray

By Joe Bendel. Jet Li’s Huang Fei Hong is sort of the Sergeant Murtaugh of the Hong Kong police. He is definitely getting too old for this sort of thing, but unlike his Lethal Weapon counterpart, he always punches out promptly at 5:00 and disappears for long stretches. That leaves most of the slapstick to his younger colleagues. Seniority has its privileges. Still, whenever Huang returns for a throw down, things perk up dramatically in Wong Tsz-ming’s Badges of Fury, which releases today on DVD and Blu-ray from Well Go USA.

Huang is a crafty old salt who is more interested in his retirement portfolio than office politics. Wang Bu-er thinks he’s all that, but has an uncanny talent for self-sabotage. Their young, insecure team leader has paired them together in the hope some of Huang’s mature risk-aversion will rub off on Wang. So far, it is not taking. Wang just keeps blundering ahead, inadvertently aiding the escape of the wanted criminal Huang nearly captures in the spectacular opening action sequence.

However, Badges is not really about the fugitive Chen Hu. Frankly, it keeps changing its mind, but the preponderance of the narrative involves the investigation of the so-called “Smile Murders.” Each of the victims died with a strange smile plastered across their faces. It turns out they were also all once engaged to low budget starlet Liu Jinshui. Quickly, Liu falls under suspicion, but her half-sister Dai Yiyi appears far more dangerous, given her obvious va-va-voom.

From "Badges of Fury."

When Badges goes for laughs, it can be painful. However, action director Corey Yuen embraces the film’s cartooniness, unleashing his inner Itchy and Scratchy for some absolutely off-the-wall fight scenes. In the big opener and closer, Jet Li shows he still has his mojo. It is too bad there isn’t more of him as the steely Huang. Unfortunately, his Ocean Heaven co-star Wen Zhang kind of stinks up the joint with his shtick. Rising star Michelle Chen (so memorable in Ripples of Desire) is also clearly out of her element as their exasperated superior. At least, Ada Liu vamps it up with gusto as the femme fatale sister.

As if Badges were not inconsistent enough, it also shoehorns in more cameos than the director’s cut of It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Sometimes it works great, as when action star Wu Jing shows up to rumble as an insurance investigator. Other times, it can be a rather head-scratching distraction for viewers not up on their Hong Kong reality television. Still, it is always pleasant to see Lam Suet, Stephy Tang, Josie Ho, and Grace Huang on-screen.

When it clicks, Badges is a martial arts machine. When it doesn’t, it is usually dabbling in romantic comedy. Still, Jet Li and Wu Jing’s chops, Yuen’s gravity-defying fight choreography, and Liu’s sex appeal should be enough to hold HK action junkies’ interest on DVD. Recommended for fans, but not as a Jet Li entry point, Badges of Fury is now available for home viewing from Well Go USA.

LFM GRADE: C+

Posted on January 7th, 2014 at 8:18pm.

LFM Reviews Rohmer in Paris @ First Look 2014

By Joe Bendel. His professional pseudonym was derived from Sax Rohmer, but Éric Rohmer is not known for genre pictures. Aside from the occasional well regarded period piece, he remains most celebrated for work within the comedy of manners rubric and his intimately observed relationship dramas. This hardly seems the stuff to inspire obsessive analysis in the tradition of Room 237, but Richard Misek proves the Rohmer canon rewards such close critical scrutiny in his docu-essay Rohmer in Paris, which has its American premiere this Saturday as part of the Museum of the Moving Image’s annual First Look.

The epicenter of Misek’s film is the Tim Hotel in Paris. It was there the potentially adulterous lovers in Rohmer’s Rendezvous in Paris were to have their assignation, only to spy their respective spouses arriving together on a similar mission. As fate would dictate, Misek was also at the Tim Hotel that day and inadvertently found his way into a few frames of Rohmer’s film. Realizing his presence in Rendezvous years after the fact, Misek began binge viewing Rohmer’s filmography.

Obvious commonalities are immediately apparent. Rohmer’s characters are largely Parisians, either in Paris proper or on holiday in the countryside. Chance meetings are commonplace and everybody walks incessantly. As a result, Rohmer’s films document the development of modern Paris, particularly his beloved Left Bank. Considered collectively, his work becomes something of a Möbius strip of characters in motion, crossing over but not interacting with their counterparts from other films.

Eric Rohmer.

Cleverly edited by Misek, RIP largely (but not quite entirely) consists of clips from Rohmer films that vividly illustrate his points. While Misek’s commentary is clearly informed by Post-Structuralist critical theory, he never loses sight of the exquisite human dimension to Rohmer’s film. Indeed, he is absolutely brimming over with compassion for the enigmatic subject of Rohmer’s short documentary Nadja in Paris.

RIP probably sounds like indulgent film geekery and perhaps it is, but it is also unfailingly pleasant, conscientiously respectful of Rohmer (and the legacy of classic film in general), and weirdly touching. Misek even wraps things up in a Rohmer-esque ending, which is quite a trick for a documentary.

There is no getting around RIP’s scholarly roots, but it is still easily accessible to anyone interested in Eric Rohmer. It might not hold mass market appeal, but it is a very good film. Most importantly, Misek leaves viewers wanting to re/watch Rohmer’s remarkably accomplished oeuvre, which is always the acid test for a film like this. It also happens to be relatively concise (under seventy minutes), so MoMI will screen it with The Bakery Girl of Monceau, one of Rohmer’s shorts discussed in detail during RIP. Recommended rather enthusiastically to Rohmer fans and postmodernist film students, Rohmer in Paris screens this Saturday (1/11) as part of MoMI’s First Look in Astoria, Queens.

LFM GRADE: A-

Posted on January 7th, 2014 at 8:15pm.