As I mentioned back on the day in question, there was a lot of good introduction and Q&A on the 18th, good enough that some pretty distinct impressions are left about a month later:
The Hard Revenge, Milly double feature had writer/director Takanori Tsujimoto and special effects maestro Yoshihiro Nishimura, and that was fun, in large part because Nishimura, whom I'm pretty sure has been to the festival before, was running around like a tourist with a camcorder, as effusive with his praise for Tusjimoto as anyone in the audience, gladly hyping Tsujimoto's films at the expense of his own Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl. I'd agree with him on this point; his movie was OK, but the Milly movies were extremely impressive examples of low-budget action cinema done well. Tsujimoto talked about having ideas for several more in the series, although he's still looking for sponsors. I hope he finds them; Bloody Battle had the rare but impressive trait of telling a story that felt reasonably complete but whetted the appetite for more.
A good chunk of the cast and crew showed up for Yesterday, telling stories of their adventures in extremely low-budget horror filmmaking. It's amazing that they were able to put something as good as Yesterday together, as they wound up funding it on a car insurance payout, did it during a summer vacation between semesters (with the director being the one who, IIRC, was not going to film school in the fall), and had to go through five cameras to shoot it, as the ones they were able to get access to kept falling apart. It's stories like that which really drive home both how movies can get made on little more than blood, sweat, and tears, but it's still not cheap even when those are your main ingredients. Playing Fantasia and Fantastic Fest is success for a movie like Yesterday; paying back their investors someday is likely gravy.
Smash Cut had the writer, director, and several members of the cast in attendance, including stars David Hess and Sasha Grey. From the sound of it, plenty of folks made the trek from director Lee Demarbre's hometown of Ottawa (where he operates a repertory theater in addition to shooting the occasional movie) to be there, and there were large contingents with great appreciation for Hess's early work in Last House on the Left and Grey's work in the adult film business.
I must admit that after Smash Cut and The Girlfriend Experience, and more importantly, things like her Q&As and interviews promoting them, Sasha Grey is someone I find myself really wanting to like more. She comes off as tremendously good-natured and personable in those appearances. She wears her love of movies on her sleeve more than just about any actor you'll see her age, and talks with equal, genuine enthusiasm about horror and art-house. And yet, in both her non-porn roles, she's really had no luck forming that sort of connection with the audience. Soderbergh got more out of her, but she seems to be in an odd position right now: Too good an actor for the porn, not quite good enough for the mainstream. Here's hoping she can work her way upward.
"Hâdo ribenji, Mirî" ("Hard Revenge, Milly")
* * * ¾ (out of four)
Seen 18 July 2009 at Concordia Theatre Hall (Fantasia Festival)
"Hard Revenge, Milly" is as lean and mean a revenge tale as they come: At 44 minutes, many of them filled with bloody action, it knows what the audience wants and delivers the goods without screwing around. Because it's so tight, it probably won't see the light of day in the U.S. except as a special feature when and if its longer sequel hits home video, but it stands alone very well - you won't do much better looking for a quick action hit.
The future's a rough time; Tokyo is a wasteland being swallowed by the desert, but there's still some life in Yokohama. Unfortunately, the city is dominated by the Jack gang, who brutally murdered Milly's husband and daughter a year ago, leaving her to die. Now, Milly (Miki Mizuno) has returned, she's out for blood, and has both the skills and the cyborg parts to help her extract it from Jack (Mitsuki Koga) and the rest of his gang.
As Japanese action-gore movies go, that's not especially far-out, and the production values don't initially hint at anything special: It's a fairly empty-looking world that does very little to even attempt to look like the future, other than be full of rusty metal and relatively devoid of people. Filmmaker Takanori Tsujimoto is clever with his small budget, though, and there's a sensible if gruesome practicality to what he does manage. He'll put a shotgun inside of one of Milly's limbs, but it won't be a shiny work of destructive art; it'll jam, get beat up, and run out of ammunition.
Full review at EFC.
Hâdo Ribenji, Mirî: Buraddi Batoru (Hard Revenge, Milly: Bloody Battle)
* * * ¾ (out of four)
Seen 18 July 2009 at Concordia Theatre Hall (Fantasia Festival)
As the colon and subtitle in its name might indicate, Hard Revenge, Milly: Bloody Battle is a sequel, but that's no reason that anyone who likes a good, bloody action movie should pass it up: Not only was its predecessor well under an hour long and recapped succinctly as the new one starts, but Bloody Battle plays more as the start of something good than a continuation.
Milly (Miki Mizuno) killed Jack (Mitsuki Koga) and his gang, avenging the murder of her family, and now finds herself at something of a loose end. She won't be for long, though: A trip into town to sell the guns she recovered from a gang foolish enough to attack her (apparently not realizing she has weapon-filled artificial limbs) reveals that she's not the only person interested in revenge in this violent world: Escaped killer Ikki (Kazuki Tsujimoto) was a big admirer of Jack as a ruthless criminal (and sexy man), and has his brother Hyuma (Ray Fujita) as an accomplice; Haru (Nao Nagasawa) wants Milly's help in finding and killing the person who killed her boyfriend.
Filmmaker Takanori Tsujimoto has the audience covered whether they've seen "Hard Revenge, Milly" or not; flashbacks are used judiciously enough that the new audience never feels like they are behind, although the film feels very much like a continuation for the rest. He doesn't repeat the set pieces and crazy weapons from the original, but doesn't forget them, either. The story itself is pretty straightforward, but features enough turns to keep things interesting. He's good at giving the audience what they want, carnage-wise, but not using that as an excuse to slack off. A lot of these low-budget Japanese action movies are flimsy excuses to throw a few crazy bits of gore together; Tsujimoto is telling a story while bringing the bloodshed.
Full review at EFC.
Yesterday
* * * (out of four)
Seen 18 July 2009 at Concordia Theatre de Seve (Fantasia Festival)
As with many festival films, there's very little chance that most reading this review will ever see Yesterday. It was made by a group of college students, on a tiny budget, and, objectively, doesn't do a whole lot that more polished zombie movies don't, even if it does on several occasions do it better. It's an achievement that the folks involved can be proud of, but which will likely get little attention or distribution unless someone involved gets famous for something else.
Yesterday was nothing special, which was a blessing when compared to today, when a nasty virus has popped up. You know the sort: The type that turns people all feral, with an undeniable hunger for human flesh that kicks in within hours of infection, allows them to shrug off what should really be crippling - or lethal - injuries, such that they can only be dispatched by causing massive trauma to the brain. It's just popped up in a small Canadian city, and there's only one thing to do: Find some supplies, check on your loved ones, and get to a less crowded, more defensible position. That applies to everybody, whether it be office drones Dave (Mike Fenske), Graham (Jesse Wheeler), and Spence; bullied high-schooler kid Andrew (John Fitzgerald), pro shooting champion Mike (Mike Kovac); Chris (Graham Wardle), about to propose to his girlfriend Sarah (Naomi Inglis); or small-time crooks Rob (Justin Sproule) and Lewis (Scott Wallis).
Six of these characters are thrown together by chance, in circumstances that are sure to cause trouble even before they get out of the city, much less when they have a little breathing room to consider who they're going to be sharing their campsite with. That's one of the basic engines which drives most zombie movies - or horror movies of any type - not knowing for sure whether the monster out there is worse than the bastard in here. Writer/director Rob Grant gets a lot of mileage out of this threat, to the point where the ghouls can become rather peripheral without the story or the tension suffering much at all.
Full review at EFC.
Misseu Hongdangmu (Crush and Blush)
* * * ¼ (out of four)
Seen 18 July 2009 at Concordia Theatre Hall (Fantasia Festival)
There's a lesson to be learned from Crush and Blush, perhaps several. The first is that if you had a rough time in high school, it might not be a great idea to go back there unless you are absolutely 100% sure that you've put all those issues behind you. The second is that everything which women do to drive men crazy is only a small fraction of what they do to each other.
Take Yang Me-sook (Kong Hyo-jin). This plain-looking woman of 29 is teaching Russian at her old high school, still nursing a crush on fellow teacher Suh Jong-chul (Lee Jong-hyeok) that carries over from her own days there. He doesn't return those feelings, but he's no saint; gallingly, he's got eyes for Lee Yu-ri (Hwang Woo-seul-hye), a prettier, younger, sweeter girl who also teaches Russian. The school doesn't actually need two Russian teachers, so Me-sook is reassigned to teaching English (which she doesn't know) in the Junior High. This does allow her to befriend Jong-chul's daughter Jong-hee (Seo Woo), and they resolve to work together to break Jong-chul and Yu-ri up - though Me-sook is not nearly as interested in saving Jong-chul's marriage as Jong-hee is.
Crush and Blush is very funny - frequently hilarious - but it is seldom a good-natured sort of humor. Instead, it's often flat-out mean, wringing comedy from nasty things happening to good people. It mocks the delusions of the less-popular underdogs. The movie often plays like a screwball comedy where the characters have malicious intent, and the victims are, for all their innocence, a little hard to feel for. Writer/director Lee Kyoung-mi walks a very thin line, creating just enough motivation that her characters don't come off as monsters, but doing so in a ways as to give them only the slightest bits of sympathy.
Full review at EFC.
Orochi
* * * (out of four)
Seen 18 July 2009 at Concordia Theatre de Seve (Fantasia Festival)
Atmosphere can get you pretty far in horror, and it doesn't even have to be overtly dark or gothic. Orochi, for instance, is about as good-looking and glossy as they come, but still manages to send the occasional chill down the spine. It needs all the atmosphere it can get, because its story doesn't have the great, visceral hook needed for true thrills.
It starts with Orochi (Mitsuki Tanimura) telling us about herself - she's a supernatural entity that looks like a young girl that passes through the world to observe humanity. On this night, she comes to the house of movie star Aoi Monzen (Yoshino Kimura) for shelter from the rain, and observes some strange things: Tensions between children Kazuza and Risa, noises from a locked attic, creep and grim-faced servant Saijo (Kyusaku Shimada). After she leaves, finds herself entering hibernation years early. When she awakes, she returns to the Monzen house, where Kazuza (Kimura again) has followed in her mother's footsteps, while Risa (Noriko Nakagoshi) tends to her needs and that of Aoi, who is now the one hidden in the attic, as the women in the family suffer under a curse. Orochi takes a job as a maid under the name Yoshiko, and soon comes to think of that human guise as her actual self...
The Orochi character comes from a series by famed horror-comic creator Kazuo Umezu, and that may be why she serves as our narrator even though seems to alien and unearthly to be the obvious choice for the job - if that's how the comics went, then screenwriter Hiroshi Takahashi's hands are somewhat tied. The story it is adapted from, "Blood" (the film's title is given as "Orochi - Blood" in some places), is apparently the final entry in the "Orochi cycle", meaning that fans of the source material would know Orochi's powers and characteristics before she becomes directly involved in the story. Takahashi and director Norio Tsuruta take this familiarity somewhat for granted, although Umezu is popular enough in Japan that this may not be an issue there.
Full review at EFC.
Smash Cut
* * * (out of four)
Seen 18 July 2009 at Concordia Theatre Hall (Fantasia Festival)
The appeal of the deliberately shoddy homage continues to elude me, even when I find something to enjoy in one, as I did with Smash Cut. Wouldn't it be a finer tribute to take what you learned from, and loved about, those films and make something great, rather than so carefully preserving their flaws? Making a movie takes too much time and money, and the finished product lasts too long, to give it less than a full effort. At its best, the people making Smash Cut realize this.
Making bad movies is what Smash Cut is about, of course. We start with Able Whitman (David Hess), who makes comically bad horror movies in Ottawa. He doesn't seem to realize just how bad they are until he's sitting in a theater as the audience openly mocks the terrible special effects. Producer Philip Farnsworth Jr. (Michael Berryman) is thinking of letting Able go. And he's just accidentally killed his stripper girlfriend. But from difficulty comes opportunity - he can use his girlfriend's corpse to bring some added realism to his movies! Of course, he's going to need more than one body, and said girlfriend has a sister, April Carson (Sasha Grey), a reporter who convinces her editor to let her hire P.I. Isaac Beaumonde (Jesse Buck) and go undercover in Whitman's new movie when clues start to point in that direction.
Director Lee Demarbre and writer Ian Driscoll - whose credits together include films with titles such as "Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter" - have made no secret of the fact that they are making this film as a tribute to Herschell Gordon Lewis (who appears as April's editor). They double up on the homage - not only is it made in the style of an old-school HGL movie, but Whitman is pretty clearly created in Lewis's image, though he's more a hired hand than Lewis ever was. It's a fun idea for a tribute to an exploitation filmmaker, as it's a chance to strike back at anyone who has ever called him sick or otherwise made a director's life difficult - film makers and film lovers will probably get a kick out of the revenge fantasy aspects.
Full review at EFC.
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