Day: July 17, 2015

By Joe Bendel. By the standards of the Seoul police force, Det. Go Gun-soo is only moderately corrupt—a few minor payoffs here and there, no big deal. He is also a reasonably decent father, so we can root for him with a clear conscience while also enjoying every one-darned-thing-after-another that falls on his thoroughly compromised head in Kim Seong-hun’s A Hard Day, which opens Friday in New York.

This day has already been one Go would prefer to forget. He has just been served divorce papers from his soon-to-be ex-wife while preparing for his mother’s funeral. It is an especially inconvenient time for the service, considering Internal Affairs is breathing down his neck. In his rush to cover up some incriminating evidence, Go apparently runs over some mysterious derelict with his car. He feels real bad about it, but what’s done is done. To save his neck (or so he thinks), Go manages to stash the body in his mother’s casket just before the burial.

Of course, Go soon figures out that was no vagrant; that was a prime suspect, who was somehow in league with the crooked Lt. Park Chang-min. Park is not simply a little bent like Go. He is a full blown gangster and he makes it his business to torment Go.

Kim visits more trouble upon poor, meatheaded Go than Job himself endured, but his wickedly black humor makes it all sadistically fun to watch. Somehow he keeps topping himself with clever plot twists and super-charged fight scenes. It is slick, tense, and loaded with cynical attitude. Yet, it is the “gee-whiz-now-what?” face of Lee Sun-kyun (better known for Hong Sang-soo dramedies) that really sells the bedlam.

This is definitely a testosterone driven film, featuring a hardnosed ensemble that really looks like a shady police precinct, especially Jeong Man-sik and Shin Jung-kuen as Go’s exasperated colleague and his world weary squad chief, respectively. Cho Jin-woong is also just flamboyantly evil enough as Lt. Park, without ever going excessively over the top.

It is just impressive to see A Hard Day careen about at such a deliriously breakneck speed. The energy and the humor never flag, while it ends on a rather ironic but wholly satisfying note. For fans of action movies and police corruption thrillers, A Hard Day is indeed the real deal. Highly recommended, it opens tomorrow (7/17) in New York, at the Village East.

LFM GRADE: A

Posted on July 17th, 2015 at 6:35pm.

By Joe Bendel. There is nothing more tiring than depression. Nobody illustrates that better than Terako. She sleeps away most of her days, waiting to act cute and shallow when she meets her married lover. That is how he wants things to be. It is most definitely problematic, but it is hard to judge him or her too harshly in Shingo Wakagi’s Asleep, which screened as a selection of this year’s Japan Cuts, the Festival of New Japanese Film in New York.

Terako has good reason to be depressed. Her best friend Shiori recently committed suicide and her lover will probably never be fully emotionally available to her. That is because she met Iwanaga after his irreversibly comatose wife’s accident. Clearly, he is still coming to terms with his wife’s state, but enough time has elapsed for him to seek companionship or whatever.

These are the sort of things Shiori always understood better than Terako. She was natural empathetic, yet it was she who took her own life. Ironically, her exotic line of work may have somehow taxed her psyche. Somewhat like the characters in Julia Leigh’s Sleeping Beauty, she would sleep beside wealthy men in a non-sexual manner, to console them when they woke in the night. That meant unlike Terako, she had to force herself to remain conscious throughout the long dark hours of the soul.

Banana Yoshimoto’s source novel and Wakagi & co-screenwriter Kai Suzumoto’s adaptation are not called Asleep for metaphorical reasons. It is a languorous film that shows its star, Sakura Ando, in many states of repose and partial undress. Frankly, there is probably a little too much of that. Granted, Wakagi is trying to instill a sense of inertia, but the first two acts definitely have a vibe of stifling uniformity. However, when Terako engages with Shiori in flashbacks and tentatively challenges Iwanaga, the film is quite compelling. In fact, Wakagi more-or-less pays off all our waiting with a terrific borderline magically real confrontation in the third act. You just have to get that far.

Ando’s performance is rather gutsy, considering how strictly she closes off her emotions. Nevertheless, she vividly conveys all sorts of issues undermining the young sort-of mistress. Arata Iura is just as restrained as Iwanaga. When you see him walking with Terako, he looks like he might shatter if he tipped over. However, the expressive Mitsuki Tanimura truly haunts viewers as the doomed Shiori.

Wakagi’s disciplined aesthetic approach is impressive, but its lethargy is contagious. There are just a handful of moments that carry the film, but they are honest and deep. Respectfully recommended for those who with a taste for intimately raw relationship dramas, Asleep screened at the Japan Society, as part of the 2015 Japan Cuts.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on July 17th, 2015 at 6:35pm.

By Joe Bendel. L. Ron Hubbard would be impressed. The leaders of the God’s Water cult come from the advertising industry and they explicitly refer to the “religion industry.” They make no secret of their commercial ambitions, even when in the presence of cult members. Business is on the upswing thanks to their charismatic priestess, but her family issues will engulf the entire cult in screenwriter-director Masashi Yamamoto’s The Voice of Water, which screens as a selection of this year’s Japan Cuts, the Festival of New Japanese Film in New York.

Lovely and serene-looking, the Zainichi Min-jung is a natural fronting God’s Water. You could say it is in her blood. She hails from a long line of shimbang, women who practice a regional form of shamanism on Jeju Island. Everyone knows she is faking it, even their core followers, but there is something reassuring about her presence. However, Min-jung starts to maybe-sort of believe in her hereditary powers at an inopportune time. Internal dissension is on the rise and her own lowlife father Mikio/Mickey might pull the entire group into his chaos. To avoid his Yakuza loan shark, Mikio has been crashing in the God’s Water headquarters. He has even won over some of the office staff, despite her protests.

Arguably, Voice is the greatest, under-heralded find at this year’s Japan Cuts. You will be hard-pressed to find a similarly matter-of-fact, cynically business-oriented perspective on cults and their followers in a year of film festivals. It is particularly damning when showing how the need to belong trumps all common sense, keeping members blindly devoted even when they know full well it is all just a racket. The specifics of the Korean-Japanese Zainichi experience and the Korean shamanic tradition further enrich the film, grounding it in a very distinctive cultural context.

As a result, Voice could well be the definitive cultist film of the decade, but it is also a Yakuza film. In fact, sensitive viewers should be warned, there is at least one tough to watch scene involving Mikio’s nemesis. Yet, it makes the uni-named Hyunri’s lead performance even braver. She is absolutely riveting and acutely human (in every messy way possible) as the inspiring Min-jung. As Mikio, Akio Kamataki is also achingly tragic, while Kei Oda is unsettlingly sinister as Takazawa, the gangster.

Yamamoto draws out the punishing third act just a tad too long, but his patience and attention to detail creating the God’s Water universe is completely fascinating to behold. It is very different from Sion Sono’s Love Exposure, but it is just as powerful in its own way. Very highly recommended, The Voice of Water screens tomorrow night (7/17) at the Japan Society, as part of the 2015 Japan Cuts.

LFM GRADE: A

Posted on July 17th, 2015 at 6:34pm.

By Joe Bendel. Think of it as a hikikomori Rocky, but we are definitely talking about the original, gritty and down-to-earth film—not the flashier sequels. Ichiko is a woman in need of empowerment, who looks for it in the boxing ring during Masaharu Take’s 100 Yen Love, which screened as a selection of this year’s Japan Cuts, the Festival of New Japanese Film in New York.

Ichiko is a drop-out/near-shut-in who is content to live off her bento box-making mother. Unfortunately, when her divorced younger sister moves in with her young son, the cramped and increasingly tense environment forces Ichiko to move out. To her credit, she also takes a job at the local convenience store. An excessively high self-image has never been her problem. Unfortunately, that also makes relationships difficult – but again, she gives it a good try with Yuji Kano, a thirty seven year-old boxer about to age out of the sport, who is almost as socially clueless as she is.

When Kano eventually dumps Ichiko, she finds solace training in his former gym. For the first time, she develops a real goal: attaining professional status and having an official bout before she in turn ages out (thirty-two being the magic number for female boxers in Japan). As is often the case, that drive helps her become more confident in other spheres of life. Does 100 Yen end with a climatic fight? You bet, but it still largely avoids most of the boxing movie clichés.

Watching 100 Yen back-to-back with Asleep really proves how chameleon-like festival special guest Sakura Ando truly is. In both films she is on-screen carrying the dramatic load nearly every second. They are each highly damaged characters, but in radically different ways, yet she is completely convincing in the two parts. Viewers should be warned, 100 Yen might sound like a quirky woman finding herself story, but Ichiko has to deal with some rough stuff, including a sexual assault. However, there is also real growth and unusual honesty baked into the mix.

Ando is rather extraordinary portraying Ichiko’s transformation. It is a quiet but violent performance. She also has impressive chops in the ring. It is her show and don’t you forget it, but she gets tons of support from a first class supporting ensemble. Saori Koide, Osamu Shigematsu, and Yozaburo Ito all have powerful moments as Ichiko’s sister, her boxing manager, and her father, respectively.

100 Yen is not a showy film, but periodically screenwriter Shin Adachi drops a line that will knock you back on your heels. It also features an awesomely funky soundtrack composed by Shogo Kaida with enough heavy drums to power several movies. Frankly, this film is nothing like what it probably sounds like. Recommended for fans of realistic underdog dramas, 100 Yen Love screens tonight (7/16) at the Japan Society, as part of the 2015 Japan Cuts.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on July 17th, 2015 at 6:34pm.