Luke C on Film.

Dance of the Dead (Gregg Bishop, 2008)

For those who have overdosed on zombie comedies, Dance of the Dead should prove to be a real breath of fresh air. Despite it’s independent budget (which often shows), it manages to nail so many essential elements of the genre. It’s consistently funny, fast-paced, and genuinely moving at times. This is in part thanks to the brilliant cast, with there not being a weak link amongst them. As a result you’ll be praying that every character pulls through, which is a very rare thing. If your a fan of the undead then you owe to yourself to skip Zombieland and check this out instead, as it should have you smiling throughout.

March 27, 2010, 8:16pm  Comments

Bad Blood (Dennis Law, 2010)

This is a pretty crappy experience. The linear and predictable story bore you from beginning to end. The gimmicky characters are annoying, especially Bernice Liu’s with her sudden descent into absolute madness, as it simply isn’t justified. Add to that the decidedly “flashy” editing, which just feels low-grade, and you have an increasingly tedious film on your hands. Needless to say, I’m no longer in a hurry to catch up on Law’s last few films. The most important thing to note here is how much Jiang Lu-Xia looks like a young Yukari Ōshima (here’s an example), it’s actually a little eery. On top of that, her fights are pretty good, so chances are I’ll be checking out Coweb sometime soon.

March 27, 2010, 2:04pm  Comments

Review by Luke Carberry

Everyone loves a good mystery, which is why it’s such a pleasant surprise to find that Baoping Cao’s The Equation of Love & Death holds you in a tight a grip from the outset. Unfortunately, not even the wonderful Xun Zhao can maintain the tension for the entire length of the film and it’s only a matter of time before Cao’s latest effort drops the ball.

Xun Zhao plays Li-Mi, a cab driver who has been searching for her missing boyfriend for the past four years. One day she unknowingly picks up two small-time crooks in the back of her cab. As she runs off to fetch their change the two men become impatient and find a magazine in the back seat which Li-Mi has been using to store photos of her lost love. They take it as payment and run off to find their contact who happens to be sitting on a busy overpass. After delivering a poetic monologue the man falls and lands on a car below. The driver immediately leaves his vehicle to check on the man, when he finds Li-Mi’s stolen magazine lying next to him. To his surprise the photos inside appear to be of himself, and in turn this leads to a connected series of events unfolding.

The Equation of Love & Death opens with such cryptic and alluring dynamism, as the charismatic Zhou puffs on a cigarette and hints at what’s to come. The script instantly has you second-guessing it, and thanks to some fast cuts and kinetic editing it’s not an easy job. You’re given very little to work with as the initial characters aren’t instantly equipped with a back story, which only adds to the increasing level of wonder. It’s fortunate that the film opens with such promise as it just about guarantees you’ll be watching until the end.

This is of great importance, because as the film reaches the second act things start to change quite drastically. As the opening trail which revolves around two criminals gets ditched in order to attach a stronger tether to Zhou’s character it seems as though Cao becomes determined in making this a personal tale, rather than sticking to the path he chose at the beginning which encompassed a fair number of characters with strong narrative potential. As a result Zhou is left to carry the film almost single-handedly; a task she’s more than capable of, but it’s a some what bad move on the director’s part. Centering the story around Zhou alone makes things far more linear, as the complexity of the early storytelling is lost and Cao struggles to keep the twists exciting and unpredictable. Therefore the final revelations aren’t nearly as shocking as you might expect.

Despite this, Zhou manages to hold the audience’s attention throughout and is pretty much a life saver as far as the film is concerned. Supplying the rest of the cast with stony-faced and uncommunicative roles only helps to amplify Zhou‘s electric presence. Her determination and constant energy carry the deteriorating plot and sub-par emotional elements to new heights. In fact it seems as though this is where the problem truly lies - in having these two key values evenly severed. Cao sacrifices the story in order to support the drama and vice versa. Leaving the whole thing on a level playing field, meaning there is nothing left to push the film other than Zhou’s huge performance.

The Equation of Love & Death is at times an admirable little thriller, but Cao’s lack of focus cripples the pace and hinders the intensity you get to sample early on. Having said that, thanks to the always committed and ever surprising Xun Zhou the film offers an enjoyable ninety minutes despite its many shortcomings. Keeping in mind that this is only Cao’s second solo feature it’s definitely fair to say that there’s a lot of potential on display.

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Director: Baoping Cao

Writer: Baoping Cao

Producers: Siu Ming Tsui, Zhongjun Wang

Starring: Xun Zhao, Chao Deng, Hanyu Zhang, Baoqiang Wang, Yanhui Wang, Ning Wang

Year of Release: 2008

Country: China

September 13, 2009, 8:48pm   Comments

Review by Luke Carberry

Indie director Yoon-ki Lee returns after the critically acclaimed Ad Lib Night with former Cannes winner (Best Actress) Do-yeon Jeon and rising star Jung-woo Ha (The Chaser). With two of South Korea’s most talented performers in his hands, Yoon-ki Lee sets about creating a drama driven road movie in the simplest of forms, in My Dear Enemy.

One day Byoung-woon (Jung-woo Ha) is approached by Hee-soo (Do-yeon Jeon), a woman from his past who has shown up to retrieve $3,500 he still owes her. Claiming he doesn’t have the money on him and excited by the opportunity to catch up with a past flame, Byoung-woon asks Hee-soo to accompany him as he travels around Seoul borrowing more money in order to pay her back. Reluctant but determined, Hee-soo agrees, and as they begin to spend their day together old wounds are reopened.

My Dear Enemy is a film which attempts the always difficult - proving that less is more. Having said that, based on the success of his previous work it’s fair to say that Yoon-Ki Lee has a knack for this style of filmmaking. With that being the case, it’s no surprise that the film is another effective stab from the director at bringing a simple premise to life.

On the surface My Dear Enemy may appear to be yet another South Korean drama dealing with power struggles between men and women in a slightly hip and blasé manner. However, what bubbles deep beneath is a stark and frank look at the human psyche, and how it deals with aspirations which may not always be in reach. While the dialogue itself might not always lead to this topic being broached directly by the characters, the long gaps and awkward silences allow the viewer to fill in the intentional blanks. It’s all about subtext and reading between the lines, just like real life, and it’s in being constantly reserved that My Dear Enemy’s realism truly shines through.

My Dear Enemy is essentially a road movie, be it on a rather small scale. It’s by no means epic, as there aren’t any long highways, the leads aren’t hopping from city to city, and there isn’t an ever increasing number of eccentric characters being introduced in order to lighten things up. Hee-soo and Byoung-woon never plan on spending the entire day together, but as they go from person to person borrowing money the time inevitably ticks away. Because of this you might expect a film in which two people simply drive around asking for favours to become repetitive or stilted, especially seeing as there are no out of the blue shenanigans or surreal occurrences thrown in, but it’s because of the film’s essential lead performances that this never becomes the case. Both Do-yeon Jeon and Jung-woo Ha are on top form. Do-yeon Jeon’s cold exterior and tight lipped presence lends itself perfectly to the film’s many quiet moments, in which Jung-woo Ha excels at bringing up past tiffs between the couple, in turn producing more arguments which help to gradually develop character and reveal intricacies between them. The slow pace at which both of the stars operate lends a sense of intrigue to the proceedings and means there is a reason to continue following these two along their journey, as you are forever wondering where they will end up.

My Dear Enemy has an open beginning and an open ending, between those two points lies a puzzle waiting to be pieced together. Who are these people? How do they know each other? What will happen once the day ends? The film won’t answer these questions for you, you’ll be left to draw your own conclusions instead. That’s what makes Yoon-ki Lee’s latest picture worthwhile - it’s never black or white, unpredictability is the name of the game, which makes it both a challenging and rewarding experience.

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Director: Yoon-ki Lee

Writer: Asuko Taira

Producers: Seong-kyu Jo, Kwang-hee Jo, Jeong-wan Oh, Dong-ho Lee

Starring: Do-yeon Jeon, Jung-woo Ha

Year of Release: 2008

Country: South Korea

September 12, 2009, 7:16pm   Comments

Review by Luke Carberry

It seems as though there are very few competent crime based thrillers being released today. Viewers are constantly holding out for the next stylised, exciting, and profound genre staple, in the vein of David Fincher’s Seven. More often than not they’re left with something lacking originality, simply piggybacking off the success of a thirteen-year-old film. In one way The Horsemen is different, in that it seems content with piggybacking off the success of an eight-year-old TV franchise instead.

Dennis Quaid plays Aidan Breslin, a detective devoted to his work, who has recently lost his wife, and is growing distant from his two sons as a result. When a series of gruesome murders take place, Quaid’s character is assigned to the case. Due to the nature of the killings, he soon discovers that the culprits have been inspired by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Jonas Åkerlund is primarily a director of music videos, but you wouldn’t be surprised having watched The Horsemen. The film posses the main attribute of something shot for VH1, in that it looks like it was intended for TV. Åkerlund’s visual style is bland to say the least, with long lingering shots and predictably drab lighting not doing nearly enough to support the scenes of supposed tension. The film’s opening credits reveal that Michael Bay was in fact one of the producers, and despite his recent Transformers adaptations being big, loud special effects spectacles with nothing more to offer, one can’t help but think that if he was helming this project there would at least be some sort of visual panache. Other cinematic elements; such as the score, don’t even deserve a mention, being made up of nothing more than a constant hum of violins, with the odd bit of piano thrown in as a weak attempt at variety.

On the plus side, the film boasts some very capable actors at its forefront. Both Dennis Quaid and Zhang Ziyi (who plays a suspected killer) are seasoned pros, who have demonstrated great range in the past. Unfortunately Quaid isn’t given much to do other than mope about and stumble upon leads. As for Zhang, this is her second fully English role, and she’s been unfairly burdened with some lengthy monologues, try as she might to deliver them.

Dave Callaham’s script about a group of Bible obsessed killers might sound exciting on paper, but the link between the Four Horsemen is barely explored, and is merely used as a thin veil to reveal some inept social commentary towards the end of the film, usually spewed out by the presenter of a daytime chat show. It’s brash, insensitive, and used to drum up unnecessary fear. However; fear not, as the ending is your usual Hollywood cop out, which renders any point the film was trying to make lifeless.

The Horsemen has been made multiple times before, with far more successful results. I‘m not actually referring to other films here, but to numerous episodes of CSI. It’s not a bad film, but when you can switch on your TV at any time of the day, and catch a forty minute episode of a crime drama which does exactly the same thing, what’s the point in wasting your time elsewhere?

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Director: Jonas Åkerlund

Writer: Dave Callaham

Producers: Brad Fuller, Andrew Form, Michael Bay

Starring: Dennis Quaid, Zhang Ziyi, Clifton Collins Jr., Lou Taylor Pucci

Year of Release: 2009

Country: USA

September 10, 2009, 12:17pm   Comments

Review by Luke Carberry

Keisuke Yoshida’s Café Isobe seems innocent enough from the outset, its promotional campaign might have you believing that it’s simply a light hearted comedy about a family run café, and in many regards you’d be absolutely right. However, it quickly becomes apparent that this is a film which holds no fears when it comes to playing with viewers’ expectations, and as a result it ends up being something quite special.

Sakiko (Riisa Naka) lives with her divorced father Yuziro (Hiroyuki Miyasako), who is unemployed and spends most of his time sleeping. When Sakiko’s Grandfather dies, Yuziro inherits a substantial sum of money. In an attempt to get his daughter off his back, he decides to open a small café with the money, and asks Sakiko to help run it in her spare time. She’s a little reluctant at first, what with her father’s track record, and cheesy attempts at advertising the café, but she eventually caves in. When a young and attractive lady named Motoko (Kumiko Aso) shows up on the scene, the relationship between the three becomes complicated, and as a result the café begins to experience a series of ups and down.

The film starts out like any other quiet indie comedy, by playing it safe. It follows a relatively standard narrative path, pausing only to inject moments of reserved humour at some what unexpected points. While it’s perfectly viewable, it’s a pretty standard affair to begin with. It’s not until half way through the film, that things start to become truly interesting. The plot takes a slightly darker turn, and comedy takes a backseat, as Yoshida puts the focus on drama, and the three main characters take centre stage.

For that reason it’s definitely a film of two halves, but it’s not jarring in a unintentional sense, in fact one might argue that it’s totally necessary. The first half of the film works hard at forming bonds between characters through short bursts of witty dialogue and awkward one on ones. Without this gentle first half, what follows wouldn’t really be justified. It’s a brave move on the director’s part, but it almost certainly pays off.

Café Isobe eventually evolves into a very honest study of a single parent family, and reveals how outsiders can shake such relationships to the very core, but it’s overriding message is that a strong family unit will overcome all. It’s not done in a heavy handed manner, it’s not pandering for your sympathy, and there are no overtly sentimental moments or soapy clichés. Apart from the comedy, it’s played entirely straight, which is a difficult thing to pull off, and for that not only does the director deserve credit, but also the brilliant cast. Most noteworthy would be newcomer Riisa Naka who plays young Sakiko. At only nineteen years of age she’s already in her element, and quickly proves that she’s a master of both body language and facial expression. On many an occasion, one turning up of the lip or slow but piercing move of the eyes is all she needs to steal a scene. Yoshida hit the jackpot with her, and I’m sure she has a very bright future ahead of her. Veterans Hiroyuki Miyasako and Kimiko Aso shouldn’t be overlooked either, with their brilliant onscreen chemistry forming the backbone for the plot.

Café Isobe is a very pleasant surprise. With only one other film under his belt (Raw Summer), director Keisuke Yoshida shows a lot of promise. As a film which isn’t afraid to take risks and unwilling to water down the drama in order to offer more laughs, it’s more than commendable. Best of all is that Yoshida wrote it himself, which means that as long as he’s granted such freedom in the future, I’m hopeful we can expect exciting things from him. Café Isobe is a great sophomore effort, it’s funny, warm, meaningful, and most importantly it’s uncompromising. Something which is all too rare nowadays.

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Director: Keisuke Yoshida

Writer: Keisuke Yoshida

Producers: Yumiko Takebe, Kazumasa Watanabe

Starring: Riisa Naka, Hiroyuki Miyasako, Kimiko Aso

Year of Release: 2008

Country: Japan

September 10, 2009, 11:33am   Comments