Month: August 2015

By Joe Bendel. Gansu lies in the crossroads between the countries of Tibet, Mongolia, and Mainland China’s Muslim provinces. You will find more spiritualism than commercialism there. Like many young Chinese citizens, Ga Gui left home in search of greener economic pastures in the city. However, a premonition of her father’s death brings her home in Chai Chunya’s hallucinatory Four Ways to Die in My Hometown, which screens as part of Cinema on the Edge, a retrospective tribute to the Beijing Independent Film Festival now playing in New York at Anthology Film Archives.

Despite Ga Gui’s sudden sense of urgency, her father has been dying for years—and he certainly has not been graceful about it. Increasingly senile, the old man raves against the world from the apparent comfort of his coffin, which he has not left for seven years. Understandably, her little sister is delighted to see Ga Gui, especially since she has just had her own encounter with some sort of holy fool in the mountains.

Although she lives in the city, Ga Gui is highly attuned to nature and animals. She can whisper sense into the family’s errant camel, but her powers are earthly in nature. Seeing the spirit world is the purview of others, who have much around them to see. This village is profoundly haunted, by ghosts of both the supernatural and metaphorical kind. Two old puppeteers are determined to exercise some of the latter through a performance, but their third colleague refuses to participate, perhaps because they were never very good at their craft. They started performing during the Cultural Revolution, after the fevered state had rounded up all the great masters.

Hometown is inspired by the four Tibetan elements, but Chai is not exactly slavish about underscoring the given themes in each part of his tetraptych. In fact, the narrative is definitely rather loose, safely fitting under the experimental rubric. Instead of delving into melodrama or teachable moments, Hometown serves as the ghost at the banquet—the gibbering reminder of all the dark secrets China has chained up in its rural attics. Sometimes it really makes no sense, but it is always primal.

Fortunately, Chai has a painter’s eye for visual composition, because he does not give the audience much else to latch onto. Granted, the soundtrack is truly hypnotic, but the trance-like state it helps induce is almost counter-productive. This is a deliberately disorienting film that is in no hurry to reveal its deeper meanings. Yet, there are moments here and there that resonate with clarity. Chai’s casting instincts are also rock solid, starting with the earthy yet otherworldly Ga Gui.

The sprits are angry in Hometown, but fortunately they are also tired. They too are not immune from the film’s lulling effect. Nevertheless, Hometown is densely packed with folkloric references. Indeed, it is the sort of film that cries out for thesis treatment, but there is still no getting around the laborious pacing. Recommended for experienced patrons of avant-garde cinema only, Four Ways to Die in My Hometown screens tomorrow (7/8) and next Wednesday (7/12) as part of Cinema on the Edge at Anthology Film Archives.

LFM GRADE: B-

Posted on August 7th, 2015 at 2:53pm.

By Joe Bendel. Judging from Ahn Okyun’s experiences, the Korean resistance was a lot like the French underground. Traitors from within were a far greater threat than efforts to root them out. In fact, the greatest threat to her mission comes from the turncoat who recruited her in the first place in Choi Dong-hoon’s Assassination, which opens this Friday in New York.

Ahn was born in Korea, but she never lived there. Her nanny managed to save her when her collaborating dog of a father had her loyalist mother killed. She grew up as part of the free Korean diaspora, becoming a sniper in the Korean Independence Army, despite her spectacles. In contrast, her twin sister lived a life of luxury bought and paid for with blood money. Never really knowing her father, she has no reservations about assassinating him. Hopefully, she will also be able to take out Kawaguchi, the local Japanese commander, who happens to be responsible for the death of her adopted mother.

To complicate matters, Captain Yem, the supposed hero of the provisional government is actually working with the Japanese to undermine the plot he was ordered to launch. Initially, he entrusts the job to a notorious outlaw known as Hawaii Pistol, but the gun-for-hire is about to have his Casablanca moment. Remember that bit about Ahn being a twin? It will be significant.

Fifty-one different flavors of vintage firearms were used in the making of Assassination, which should instill confidence in its action scenes—and rightly so. Even though Choi’s screenplay is chocked full of Shakespearean elements—betrayal, grudges, twins separated by circumstances—the action quota and body count are closer to old school John Woo. It is sort of like Melville’s Army of Night, but with all the existential angst replaced with adrenaline-charged shootouts.

Action director Yu Sang-seop pulls out all the stops down the stretch, delivering a centerpiece spectacle that is truly a thing of beautiful carnage. The entire third act is a non-stop ballet of gunfire, but Choi ends it with some stone cold operatic payback. This is the kind of film that turns fans onto Asian action movies in the first place.

Lee Jung-jae is terrifically loathsome as Yem and Ha Jung-woo’s Hawaii Pistol certainly holds up his end during the action sequences, but Gianna Jun commands the film from start to finish. She was great in Choi’s The Thieves, but this is another level up for her as an action lead. She looks like a natural firing the Mosin-Nagant sniper rifle, but she also expresses the sort emotional turmoil you would expect from an orphan, whose family relationships are about to get considerably more complicated.

Assassination somehow runs a robust one hundred thirty-nine minutes, but they are a lean, mean one hundred thirty-nine minutes. It feels drastically shorter, because most of the time is devoted to action and the relatively quiet moments are used for some pretty effective intrigue. For action fans, this is the good stuff. Very highly recommended, Assassination opens this Friday (8/7) in New York, at the AMC Empire.

LFM GRADE: A

Posted on August 6th, 2015 at 5:38pm.

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.

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.

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.

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.