Month: July 2014

By Joe Bendel. How does this sound to you? “Sure, there were human rights abuses in Hitler’s Germany, but they produced some really entertaining propaganda films.” Absolutely unacceptable, right? Yet, Australian filmmaker Anna Broinowski essentially makes the equivalent argument for North Korea, except she never really acknowledges the Kim dynasty’s appalling oppression of its own people. Instead, she happily heads to the DPRK for pointers on how to make an anti-fracking propaganda film in Aim High in Creation, which screens during the 2014 New York Asian Film Festival.

According to Frontline, it is estimated that one out every one hundred North Koreans is a political prisoner. In that Orwellian state, it is not just perceived thought criminals who are purged, but also two generations of their families, in both directions. Apparently, Broinowski has no real problem with what she euphemistically calls North Korea’s “closed society,” but “fracking” generates no end of moral indignation.

After assembling her annoying hipster cast, Broinowski jets off to North Korea to get tips from the propaganda masters. She sees all the monumental sites, hanging on her minders’ every word. Not once does she challenge anything said to her, passively accepting their charges of American war crimes. She also readily agrees her native Australia is a country of drunks.

Perhaps the idea was to simply record the state of affairs in North Korea and let the surreal images speak for themselves. However, that approach still requires Broinowski to ask the blindingly obvious questions, to cue the resulting dissembling. That never happens. Instead, she obsequiously sucks up to the propaganda filmmakers, like a star-struck teenager.

Yes, it takes courage to speak truth to the apparatus of control in a “closed society.” Few will ever live up to the gold standard set by Mads Brügger in Red Chapel, but those filmmakers fortunate enough to gain access to the rogue state have to at least try. If Broinowski lost her nerve when faced with the regime’s everyday pervasiveness, she should have scrapped the film and preserved her dignity. Instead, her brown-nosing is just embarrassing.

At times, Broinowski’s own images contradict her words, as when she claims there are no advertisements to be seen in North Korean. We can see this is patently false. Pyongyang is covered in propaganda posters and murals, which are indeed advertisements selling blind obedience to the state. She simply finds their aesthetic consistency pleasing, which is what happens when the state exercises absolute control over all means of expression.

Great value seems to be placed on Broinowski’s “just folks” interactions with her propaganda colleagues, as if the audience will be shocked when they do not immediately throw the thumb screws on her, while singing the Internationale, but of course they are carefully crafting their image. These are propagandists, after all.

Not surprisingly, the resulting anti-fracking propaganda short is utterly unwatchable. However, if enough people see it, The Gardener should secure the safe and profitable production of coal seam gas for many generations to come, which is exactly the legacy Aim High deserves. To return to the original question, National Socialism boasted a stable of world renowned filmmakers that included Leni Riefenstahl and the now discredited Viet Harlan. Arguably, one could learn something from their work, whereas their North Korean counterparts are literally following the Great Leader’s formula.

Either Aim High represents a massive editing room meltdown, or it is a profound failure to document the reality of one of the most oppressive regimes in the world. In any event, it is not worthy of your ticket dollars, especially when there are so many great films still to come at this year’s NYAFF, including the bizarrely heartbreaking Miss Zombie and the deeply moving Great Passage. Both are highly recommended, but Aim High in Creation is definitely not. It screened yesterday (7/10).

LFM GRADE: D-

Posted on July 11th, 2014 at 11:25am.

By Joe Bendel. Evidently, the Chinese legal system is not overly concerned with potential conflicts of interest. For instance, nobody objects to a hotshot state’s attorney prosecuting the daughter of his longtime nemesis, even though she is also the beloved pupil of his art teacher wife. His integrity may very well be above reproach, but the defense attorney will possibly cut a few ethical corners that would be spoilery to address in detail. However, it is safe to say the media-frenzy trial is never headed exactly where the opposing counsels assume in Fei Xing’s Silent Witness, which screened during the 2014 New York Asian Film Festival.

About the only cases Tong Tao has lost were his white collar prosecutions of slippery financier Lin Tai. Despite his history with her father, Lin Mengmeng still knows him as “Uncle,” but the evidence that she murdered her father’s pop idol fiancée is so overwhelming, he must prosecute her anyway. Indeed, it is all so open-and-shut that her defense attorney Zhou Li passively sits on her hands, apparently resigned to defeat, until she suddenly obliterates a key prosecution witness. It seems to be more of a game-ender than a game-changer, but there are several more stunning revelations coming down the pike.

Given the title, one might assume somebody out there saw something important. However, Silent Witness is rather more complicated than that. It is a direct descendant of Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution, but it clearly depends on the “flexibility” of the Chinese legal system to revise charges on the fly. A case like this would have probably taken decades to unfold in American courts, but it feels like Fei’s characters wrap it up in about a week.

Regardless, the series of shoes he drops are invariably clever. Yet, there is real drama at the heart of the picture. Considering his work in Silent Witness, viewers are strongly advised not to play poker with Sun Honglei. Even though we can tell his Lin Tai is nursing a secret, he still successfully pulls the rug completely out from under the audiences feet. It is a wickedly subtle slow build that completely upends viewers’ responses.

Yu Nan and HK superstar Aaron Kwok nicely anchor the film as the legal eagles navigating the schemes within schemes. Deng Jiajia is also quite compelling as the emotionally stunted Mengmeng. In a smaller but critical role, Zhao Lixin perfectly sells the first reversal as the unreliable witness, Sun Wei. In fact, Silent Witness boasts an unusually deep bench of intriguing supporting players, such as NYAFF special guest Zishuo Ding, who brings verve and energy to the film as Zhou’s associate, Meizi.

Silent Witness presents a nifty series of twists and turns that take on real emotional stakes thanks to the fine work of Sun and the accomplished below-the-titles ensemble. It is such an effective thriller, it would not be surprising if Hollywood started sniffing around the remake rights. Highly recommended for fans of courtroom dramas, Silent Witness screened this week as part of this year’s NYAFF.

LFM GRADE: A

Posted on July 9th, 2014 at 12:02am.

By Joe Bendel. Who knew kung fu was so bureaucratic? Not surprisingly, the Chinese Kung Fu Association is all about keeping up appearances and closing ranks. Unfortunately, Master Lau finds himself effectively black-balled when his son and a fellow student are humiliated in Thailand by Muay Thai fighters. However, he also has a daughter. There will be some avenging to do in Feng Huang’s The Tournament, which is included in The Angela Mao Ying Collection now available from Shout Factory.

Fighters are not legally responsible for deaths in the ring during Thailand’s mixed martial arts matches. Nevertheless, Pepsi evidently signed on as a sponsor. Eager to showcase Muay Thai’s dominance, agents regularly try to recruit Chinese Kung Fu practitioners, offering them large sums just to participate. When loan sharks kidnap the sister of one of Master Lau’s students, he and Lau’s son Hong reluctantly accept. Hong loses badly, but at least he survives. His friend is not so lucky. The shame wrought by the scandalized Kung Fu Association effectively kills Master Lau as well.

Despite their denigration of Lau’s Kung Fu, nobody can best his daughter, Siu Fung. Yet, she only outrages the provincial fools further when she vows to study Muay Thai, in order to develop tactics to beat it. The Association’s decent but ineffectual director has a colleague in Thailand who can help. Under his tutelage, Hong and Siu Fung (with a new boyish coif) will win some redemption in the ring, but this earns them further enemies amongst their mobbed-up opponents.

Arguably, Tournament is a sort of MMA movie-forerunner, in which Kung Fu, Muay Thai, and karate all face each other at some point. It also offers a rare look at Mao without her trademark braids. However, Sammo Hung’s presence as co-action director and one of Lau’s pig-headed colleagues is a welcome guarantee of quality control. He deals with the gloves and pads well enough, but the action in the ring pales in comparison to Mao’s three major throw-downs, including an Odysseus-like coda in which the returning Siu Fu and Hong must eject an interloping Japanese karate dojo from their father’s studio.

Of course, Mao is in her element as the disciplined, outside-the-box Siu Fu. Her frequent co-star Carter Huang is reasonably serviceable (again) as Hong. Hung also gets a chance to show some of the charisma that would be apparent in later films. However, the villains are a rather interchangeable lot of moustache-twisting types.

The Tournament might be a bit programmatic (in a Golden Harvest sort of way), but it is a fine example of Mao and Hung doing their thing, which is also worth seeing. Frankly, it would be nice to have a few more like this. Easily recommended for Mao fans and martial arts connoisseurs, The Tournament is now available on DVD as part of Shout Factory’s Angela Mao Ying Collection.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on July 9th, 2014 at 11:59pm.