The greatness of a place like Cocktail Hawaii when you visit a city likke Montreal really cannot be overstated. Say you've been up past midnight watching movies and the quick bits of drifting off during the bus ride and Seven Swords didn't help make up for the four hours of sleep you got the previous night. You don't wake up until eight or nine, spend another hour and a half assuring the family via IM that you made it to Canada safely while trying to finish writing your first reviews, and then walk to Concordia. It's noon. But that's okay; you can still order a "Sacramento" - a thick waffle topped with a banana and a half, strawberries and Nutella chocolate syrup - and a big ol' fresh-squeezed OJ without an issue. It's a breakfast place that doesn't even open until nine (and also serves wraps and ice cream). I would be there every Saturday and Sunday if somplace like this opened in Cambridge.
Next up on the day was the CCA (Centre Canadian d'Architecture), a spiffy little museum in the same area. I'm sorry I missed it last year; the nifty "sculpture garden" is a nice place to sit and relax.
After which, it was time to hit the movies, grabbing a snack because the options were "popcorn for supper" and missing the last film of the night in order to grab something. I went with the latter, skipping Art of the Devil 2 for a hot roast beef sandwhich at Ben's at 12.30.
Six films on the line-up today: Monarch of the Moon, Exodus, The Maid, Citizen Dog, Behind the Mask, and either Die You Zombie Bastards! or She-Demons of the Black Sun. A tough choice, those midnights are.
Dirty Ho (Lan tou He)
* * * (out of four) (incomplete)
Seen 7 July 2006 at Salle J.A. de Sève (Fantasia Festival 2006)
Since this film was originally released in 1979, the title probably didn't have quite the same idiomatic meaning it does now. Said title was actually meant to cash in on the popularity of Dirty Harry. And it's not as if the original title, "Rotten-Headed Ho", would be much better.
The Ho of the title is Ho Chen (Yue Wong), a small-time crook who has a brief competition with a travelling merchant, Mr. Wang (Gordon Liu), for the attentions of a pair of girls at a brothel (it's one of those kung fu movie brothels where people don't seem to come for sex). Ho loses his gold, attempts to get it back, and finds his kung fu doesn't compare to that of Wang, who is secretly a martial arts master. Ho sustains a nasty head wound that must be treated every three days with medicine only Wang has, and Wang insists Ho act as his disciple. Ho doesn't immediately see that Wang is being dogged by assassins, and is hiding more than just a mastery of the martial arts.
If you've seen a 1970s Shaw Brothers movie, you've got some idea of what you're in for - intrigues involving rogue generals and princes, groups of fighters united by a common theme and unorthodox fighting styles, fights with the sound effects cranked up and a tendency to fight one at a time. And, of course, training scenes. You've got to have the eccentric master putting his impatient disciple through some kind of improvised workout using unconventional equipment - Mr. Miyagi learned everything he knew from these guys. It's tradition, darn it, and fun until it reaches the level of self-parody.
Part of the reason that this movie isn't laughable is the genuine chemistry between Gordon Liu and Yue Wong as Wang and Ho. There's nothing particularly subtle going on - Wang is trying to get Ho to be a better man (and says as much), and rather envies Ho's lack of obligations. Ho, of course, responds to the genuine respect versus goodwill he purchases at the brothel. Their complimentary personalities, Ho crass and pretty much illiterate, Wang intellectual and absorbed by his beloved antiques and wine tastings. Both have strong screen presences, doing a much better job of selling us these characters as having individual personalities rather than a defining quirk or characteristic better than most Shaw Brothers characters. This is, I think, in part because Dirty Ho is a buddy film, rather than one which focuses on a large number of martial artists in identical haircuts - Liu and Wong actually have room to act, as well as fight.
Besides, without Dirty Ho, we might never see a martial-arts wine tasting. That sequence, and the similarly staged visit to the antique shop that follows it are two of the film's most delightful surprises, subtle martial arts tangos that go on beneath tables or just out of Ho's sight as Gordon Liu quickly counters his opponents' attacks with small movements of the hand or foot, all the while continuing to exchange pleasantries with his attackers who respond in kind because they just want Wang dead, not noticed. Many films from this period use big, screen-filling moves that are announced by name; these zippy little scenes almost succeed in convincing the audience that there's something else going on.
Of course, the bigger fights are fun too. Some are kind of silly - like the one featuring a guy known as "the biter" - but most are fast and athletic. Director Chia-Liang Liu also handled the martial arts instruction, and though this is relatively early in his career, he's the same guy that would later choreograph Drunken Master II and keep him working today, as the fight choreographer for Tsui Hark's recent Seven Swords. Yue Wong has much of the heavy lifting in those scenes, but he's more than capable. Wong and Liu also work great as a unit, so that the later scenes where Ho and Wang fight of assassins as if having one mind between them are smooth as can be.
The movie ends rather abruptly (another characteristic of the genre at the time), but what more does it need? They fight, we laugh, and that's how it should be.
(Formerly at HBS/EFC)
Princess Aurora (Orora Gongju)
* * ¾ (out of four)
Seen 7 July 2006 at Salle J.A. de Sève (Fantasia Festival 2006)
The name suggests a fun family adventure, and within the world of the movie, there is a TV show called "Princess Aurora" that's popular with young children. What the film actually delivers, though, is the hunt for a serial killer whose motives initially baffle the police and the audience, even as we follow her closely.
This film is a "howgetum" rather than a whodunit; we see who the killer is right off. It's Jung Soon-jung (Eom Jeong-hwa), an attractive Porsche salesperson in her early thirties who just seems to flip out when confronted by a pretty young trophy wife hitting her seven-year-old step-daughter, escorting the girl out of the ladies' room before brutally stabbing the woman to death. It's then we meet the detectives called to the scene, Jung (Gweon Oh-jung) and Oh Sung-soo (Mun Seong-Geun). Oh intends to leave the force to become a Christian pastor. This case will speed his exit from the force, though, once he pieces enough together to figure out that Soon-jung is involved; a scene that jumps from him making a phone call to her ignoring one suggests that they have a past connection. He's the one who recognizes the significance of the "Princess Aurora" stickers left at each crime scene.
As a standard-issue cops hunting a serial killer movie, this has a number of fun elements. Most of Soon-jung's victims are callous enough that we think she may be killing them just because they rubbed her the wrong way, and some of her murders are creative in a nasty way: There's a certain perverse delight to seeing a vain, bitchy woman suffocated during her spa treatment. The characters at the police station would be well-suited to a continuing series: The bespectacled, devout Oh is a skilled and observant detective, who works well with his younger, scruffy-but-capable partner. The captain (Choi Jong-weon) is a fun supporting character.
The trouble is that once things come together, things don't step up to the next level. The same incident set both Soon-jung and Sung-soo on their respective and opposite paths, but once what's going on becomes clear, the characters get less interesting: Oh really should be more troubled by what he's seeing from Soon-jung, but he's got no outlet with which to communicate that. Similarly, Soon-jung develops a somewhat standard crazy serial-killer tic which we've seen countless times before, and though it pays off nicely in the film's last sequence, the part of the film that stretches from Oh telling his colleagues what he knows about Soon-jung and that last part is disappointing - we've seen this sort of stuff before, and the film just seems to be going through the motions.
This doesn't reflect poorly on the cast; the two principles are very good individually, enough that we'd kind of like to see them play off each other more. Mun Seong-Geun is particularly strong in the procedural scenes, inhabiting his character to make us believe in his day-to-day life, and putting across that he's probably trying to use his newfound religion to dodge the uglier aspects of his life. Eom Jeong-hwa is apparently best known for light romantic comedies, and if so, the way she plays against type here is double effective - she makes Soon-jung able to turn her charm on easily, but also completely sells her shocking brutality and rage; she goes from two kinds of hot to cold without a hitch, which is why we might like to see a little more intensity when just how nuts her character is is revealed; it's a little flat compared to the rest. Gweon Oh-jung sort of recedes to the background as the movie goes on; he's a steady presence, but it's not his story.
The film is directed by Bang Eun-jin, who also worked on the screenplay. Ms. Bang makes her feature directing debut, and does fairly well with it; she's got a good eye for the camera. The pacing could use a little bit of work, but she does a great job with her actors. I'd like a little more attention paid the the procedural details, since having Oh remain on the case after a certain point is kind of ridiculous, but the snappiness of the dialogue manages to penetrate the subtitles, and she gets good performances out of her entire cast.
It is a relatively unique premise - comparing it to American films, I can't really imagine Ashley Judd in the villain role - and the film shows promise. For the work of a first-time director, it's pretty solid work, even if there's enough good genre movies coming out of Korea that this doesn't quite stand out that far from the crowd.
(Formerly at HBS/EFC)
A Bittersweet Life (Dalkomhan Insaeng)
* * * ¾ (out of four)
Seen 7 July 2006 at Théâtre Hall Concordia (Fantasia Festival 2006)
A Bittersweet Life is big, hard-boiled action just like John Woo used to make. Kim Ji-woon isn't necessarily the guy I'd expect to see make this sort of film, but he proves darn good at it, delivering a shot of high-testosterone adrenaline from start to finish.
Kim Sun-woo (Lee Byung-hun) is an enforcer for "President" Kang (Kim Young-Chul), and he's good at it: When called down to handle a situation in a restaurant's back room, the staff jumps at his glance and the hoods are quickly dispatched. It's a situation created by Kang's lieutenant, Mun-suk (Kim Roe-ha), who lacks Sun-woo's icy professionalism and is quickly falling out of favor with Kang, at least relative to Sun-woo. While away in Shanghai on business, Kang gives Sun-woo an extra job - watch his young girlfriend Hee-soo (Shin Min-a), make sure she's not cheating on him, and if she is, kill her and her lover. When the time comes, though, Sun-woo has a twinge of conscience, earning him Kang's wrath. It doesn't help that Sun-woo's cocky attitude has offended another underworld kingpin, "President" Baek (Hwang Jeong-min), who's sending his own killer to take Sun-woo out.
Some guys just have movie star written all over them, and Lee Byung-hun is one of them. He's a good-looking guy who fills out a suit nicely, of course, but he's got the knack for carrying himself with authority and when he bursts into action, delivering his punches and kicks with savage authority. He earns his character's tendency to be a prick by projecting that much more cool than everyone else on screen, and similarly can sell the amount of punishment his body takes while other characters go down. He's good when the veneer of cool is peeled back a little, too, whether it be feeling something when he's around Hee-soo, betrayed and beaten later in the movie, or aware that he might, just this once, be in a situation he can't escape. If he looks familiar to North American audiences, it's probably from a couple of Park Chan-wook pictures: He played the South Korean NCO who made friends with his enemies in JSA, and was the film director victimized in Park's segment of Three...Extremes, "Cut".
Here, though, he's working with Kim Ji-woon, whose previous film was the stylish horror picture A Tale of Two Sisters. He retains his knack for creating dazzling visuals, from the slick interior of the restaurant Kang and company use as a front to the sleazy mess where some lowlife arms dealers do their work. Check out the difference between where Sun-woo and Hee-soo live: The girl's home is cluttered with colorful objects, particularly lamps, whereas Sun-woo sleeps on a couch in a spartan apartment only illuminated by a single lamp whose simple push-button switch rests in his hand while he sleeps. He and cinematographer Kim Ji-yong always seem to have the right angle and distance during the action scenes - far enough back to give us a clear view of what's going on and close enough to rub our noses in the destructive violence. And the man bursting out of a shallow grave has been done before, but seldom this well. They also know how to flatter Ms. Shin, although she doesn't need a lot of help in that department.
Kim's script is a blast, filled with bloody action, memorable supporting characters, and philosophical monologues that don't outlast their welcome. It refrains from giving us an obvious and unlikely romance, so I'll forgive it if it maybe piles a little too much gangland intrigue on us without much explanation. It's also fiercely funny without undercutting the tension or resorting to lame one-liners: A scene where two characters have their guns disassembled when they realize that they really need their weapons in one piece before the other guy has his together got a chuckle even while kick-starting the pulse, and the line from one of the guys digging a second, deeper grave as he sees Sun-woo escape brought the house down. Kim keeps this movie going relentlessly forward, making its two hours pass in a breeze.
As good as Lee Byung-hun is, the rest of the cast hold their own with him. Shin Min-a is a young beauty who invests her character with such spontaneity and warmth that the audience easily believes that she throws these killers' priorities all out of whack. Kim Roe-ha is great contrast to the lead, making Mun-suk as talkative and flamboyant as Sun-woo is cold and reserved. Kim Young-chul and Hwang Jeong-min are both prideful types as mob bosses whose feud doesn't quite go away as the focus on stomping out Sun-woo, and Lee Gi-yeong has a nice supporting role as a killer who may be Sun-woo's equal, if only because he's not burdened with Sun-woo's arrogance.
Many bullets are shot and punches are thrown over the course of this movie, in a way that reminded me that I haven't really seen a flat-out action movie this good in a while. Kim Ji-woon and Lee Byung-hun are the best pairing of actor and director for this kind of film since John Woo and Chow Yun-fat, and definitely worth checking out.
(Formerly at EFC/HBS)
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