Day: August 4, 2015

LFM Reviews Remake, Remix, Rip-Off @ Fantasia Fest 2015

By Joe Bendel. The nation of Turkey probably owes Nino Rota nearly its entire GDP in unpaid royalties. During the 1960s and 1970s there was no copyright law in Turkey, so the rough and tumble film industry based on Istanbul’s Yeşilçam Street “borrowed” liberally, but nothing was as frequently “re-purposed” as Rota’s “Love Theme from The Godfather.” Cem Kaya surveys the resulting knock-off films and the filmmakers who cobbled them together in the awkwardly titled Remake, Remix, Rip-Off: About Copy Culture and Turkish Pop Cinema, which screens today during the 2015 Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal.

Turkish filmmakers ripped off just about every popular Hollywood film, including John Ford westerns, even though they made no sense in a Turkish cultural context. Easily the most notorious are the riffs on Stars Wars and E.T. that lifted extensive scenes from the original films—naturally, without prior permission. Yes, they look absolutely crazy, but in a dingy, decidedly un-fun kind of way. Even the most adventurous midnight movie patrons are unlikely to be tempted by Omer the Tourist Travels to Space, a rather sad looking shadow of Star Trek.

Frankly, the problem with Re-Re is that it is neither fish nor fowl. It invites us to gawk at the cheesy clips on display, yet is laboriously struggles to find some higher meaning in the phenomenon than the obvious quick cash-ins. Unfortunately, Kaya completely lacks the self-aware attitude that makes sly, thematically related documentaries like Mark Hartley’s Not Quite Hollywood and Mike Malloy’s Eurocrime! so raucously entertaining. To make matters worse, the film often veers off on unrelated tangents, filming leftist trade unions as they protest the current state of things in the moderately reformed Turkish film industry.

Arguably, there is something embarrassing about the Turkish film industry’s crass compulsion to copy. While interview subject Centin Inanc was recycling Hollywood films in ostensibly Turkish packages, the Japanese and Hong Kong film industries were producing iconic works inspired by their national history and folklore. Even Cambodia was regularly producing original fantastical Angkor epics, which sadly did not survive the Communist Khmer Rouge insanity.

Re-Re should have been considerably more fun, but it just takes itself too seriously. Yet, its attempts to valorize the knock-off industry are undermined by its deliberately kitschy selection of clips. The result is an intermittently provocative film that is largely at odds with itself. Of passing interest to cult film fans, Remake, Remix, Rip-Off screens tonight (8/4), as part of this year’s Fantasia.

LFM GRADE: C

Posted on August 4th, 2015 at 4:44pm.

LFM Reviews Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal

By Joe Bendel. Zhong Kui was celebrated for his ugliness. It was all part of his demon-hunting mystique. Perhaps that explains why there have been relatively few media appearances for the proto-exorcist, despite his huge importance in Chinese folklore. Finally, a big name star places a choice role above the concerns of vanity. However, a few liberties were taken with the legend in Peter Pau & co-director Zhao Tianyu’s big-screen CGI epic, Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal, which releases today on DVD and Blu-ray, from Well Go USA.

Xueqing (a.k.a. Snow Girl, a.k.a. Little Snow) literally lives in the corner of Hell that is frozen over. “Lives” isn’t the right word, but so be it. Years ago, she bewitched the earnest young scholar Zhong Kui, only to mysteriously vanish. The Demon King has held her in reserve for precisely this rainy day, so to speak.

Under the tutelage of the demigod Zhang Daoxian, Zhong has become a scourge of the supernatural capable of harnessing his inner demon. Against all odds, Zhong has pulled off a daring raid into Hell to steal the Dark Crystal. Every millennium, the anti-Henson Crystal allows the demons of Hell to crossover in the world of men en mass. Of course, Zhong’s provincial Hu City stands right at the cusp of that doorway. With the millennial date fast approaching, Zhong can establish Hu City’s lasting security if he can maintain control of the Crystal for seven days. Of course, Hell will not go quietly. In fact, they send their A-team: a dozen lady-demons disguised as exotic dancers, led by Xueqing herself. The former lovers will soon pick up where they left off, but Zhong will have bigger problems to face than the equally love-struck Xueqing.

From "Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal."

Billed as one of the most expensive Chinese films ever, Crystal is heavy on the CGI. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. However, Zhao’s screenplay, co-written with the battery of Shen Shiqi, Li Jie, Raymond Lei Jin, and Eric Zhang is the real spectacle to behold. In a strange twist, the more familiar viewers are with the Zhong Kui legend, the more they will anticipate the third act revelations. Yet, the weirdest aspect is just how Milton-esque the film gets, as in the tradition of Paradise Lost.

As Zhong, Chen Kun glowers and grimaces with appropriate ferocity, while Li Bingbing is so willowy looking, you would think she came from the Faerie Kingdom rather than H, E, double hockey sticks. However, (Summer) Jike Junyi looks plenty ready for sin, which suits Xueqing’s sidekick Yi Wei just fine. Still, Winston Chao’s Lord Zhang is second to none when it comes to feasting on the scenery.

Crystal has some wildly cinematic action scenes that essentially combine the martial arts and kaiju genres. Even with all the large scale transformations and mythic beasts, Pau and Zhao maintain a connection to the underlying human element. The real problem is that some of the spectacle is not as spectacular as it should be. Nevertheless, nobody can accuse the film of timidity with respect to its ancient archetypes. Recommended for fans of Li and wuxia monsters, Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal is now available on DVD and Blu-ray, from Well Go USA.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on August 4th, 2015 at 4:43pm.

LFM Reviews Black & White: Dawn of Assault

By Joe Bendel. Harbour City looks Taiwan’s Kaohsiung City, but its governance probably more closely resembles Singapore. Maverickery is not encouraged, especially amongst the police, so it is not surprising “Hero” Wu has been suspended. Of course, that means he is about to stumble across a massive terrorist plot with only a miserable gangster for back-up in Black & White: Dawn of Assault, Tsai Yueh-hsun’s big screen prequel to the eponymous 2009 Taiwanese TV series, which releases today on DVD and Blu-ray from Shout Factory.

Wu might be suspended, but he still can sense when things are not on the up and up. In contrast, lower mid-level Triad Xu Ta-fu has the intuition of burnt toast. When his boss entrusts him for a week with a suitcase full of cash, Xu tries to make a quick score flipping some smuggled diamonds. Unfortunately, his deal goes up in smoke when heavily armed paramilitaries crash the exchange. He survives only due to Wu’s chance intervention. However, the lone wolf cop soon realizes the national SIS (SWAT) team are part of the conspiracy.

It turns out Xu was not merely trafficking in diamonds. The now missing briefcase also contains information necessary for constructing an anti-matter bomb (seriously). Fortunately, computer genius Fan Ning can explain to them the dangerous implications of the weapon devised by her father’s recently deceased protégé.

It is a minor miracle if the paragraph above makes any sense at all. Narrative logic is not B&W’s strength but thanks to Tsai’s breakneck pacing, one hardly notices how preposterous it all is while you are on the ride. Shrewdly, he does not allow his cast a lot of time to chill out and talk. This also limits the opportunities for schtick from Huang Bo, the Mainland star of the Lost in franchise. In fact, he gets downright medieval facing off against Tung, the Triad’s designated psycho killer.

From "Black & White: Dawn of Assault."

Mark Chao has done some nicely understated work in the past, particularly in Chen Kaige’s Caught in the Web, but he only uses his action chops in B&W, which are pretty convincing. Unfortunately, Angelababy, who was so awesome in Tai Chi Zero, is ridiculously under-employed as Fan Ning, who is too often stuck saying things like “let me email my friends at MIT for help with the decryption.” Terri Kwan has even less to do as the hostess Xu is besotted with, but the NYU grad and model-turned thesp still looks fantastically elegant. However, actor-director Leon Dai steps up and decisively chews the scenery as the shadowy underworld figure, Jabar.

There is one reason to watch B&W—for the action, but at one hundred forty-two minutes (the cut released in Mainland theaters), there is certainly plenty of it. Some of the third act revelations will even baffle fans of the original series (just who are the Pandawa nationalists again?), but there is plenty of hard-charging meathead fun to be had. Recommended for fans of the big name cast and Asian action movies in general, Black & White: the Dawn of Assault is now available on Blu-ray and DVD, from Shout Factory.

LFM GRADE: B-

Posted on August 4th, 2015 at 4:43pm.