Hey folks, Harry here... Yesterday in Toronto the first public screening for a film called CABIN FEVER by an Eli Roth played. It was a distributor screening. They've added additional screenings at Toronto because people went too crazy for it. Phrases like, "Best horror film to play Toronto since DEAD ALIVE!" were heard. Reportedly, that came from the New York Times critic present for the screening. Now there is a bidding war for this deviant horror flick. Watch them lose their minds... ain't it cute? I can't wait to see this one and to hear all you readers and writers in Toronto's point of view when it finally plays!
Day Five
Damn this has been a good festival.
At the halfway point I've already seen Bowling for Columbine, Dolls, Spirited Away (twice), Heaven, City of God, Shaolin Soccer... wow. And for the most part I anticipated those being good to great, just as I expect stuff like Punch-Drunk Love and Irreversible and Lost in La Mancha and Sweatbox and the MC5 doc to kick ass, and I have yet to stumble across my annual tiny little film that blows me away. Dear Goddess am I going to have a tough time doing a top ten list.
My interview with Elijah Wood is scheduled for tomorrow (Tuesday), so if this somehow gets up on the site in time send me your questions at AntonSirius@HotMale.Com. I'm also trying to get Gaspar Noé, assuming I'm not thoroughly repulsed by Irreversible the way a goodly number of French critics were at Cannes. Of course French critics are always looking for an excuse to riot, so that doesn't really tell me much. If I book any others (c'mon, PTA) I'll try to give you a heads-up.
Anton
* * * * *
Champion (2002, directed by Kwak Kyeung-Taek)
A biopic on the life of Kim Deuk-Ku, the South Korean fighter killed in the ring by Ray 'Boom Boom' Mancini in 1982, Champion has the look and feel of an Asian Rocky, all gritty filmstock and nostalgia.
(For non-boxing fans- the Mancini-Kim fight is easily one of the three most historic fights of the last half-century. Kim was essentially an unknown in North America when he was named #1 contender to Mancini's crown, and even the 'official' South Korean rankings didn't have him that high, but Kim proved in the fight that he belonged in the same ring as Boom Boom, going toe to toe with him for 12 rounds before tiring in the 13th and then being knocked out and into a coma in the 14th. He died in hospital a few days later. Principally as a result of this fight, sanctioned title bouts are now 12 rounds at most. The era of the 15 round title fight died with Kim.)
For two-thirds of its running time Champion is pretty good. The humor is low-key and thoroughly grounded in the characters, and while Kim's story is nothing new (wild young lad finds some discipline and direction in the boxing gym) it is told well. The fight choreography is fairly solid too, given the status of the fighters that are involved (low-level light and welterweight boxers).
Once Kim gets good in the ring, though, and the film starts building to the fight with Mancini it turns to crap. The humor disappears, and the story doesn't so much foreshadow the ending as try to brand it onto your forehead. To give the filmmakers the benefit of the doubt part of the Kim legend is that he wrote 'Kill or be killed' on a lampshade in his hotel room just before the fight, but even that (which they didn't show) is more believable than having him tell his fiancée "One of us must die in the ring." Well, maybe it lost something in the translation.
Those of you expecting Tokyo Fist or Somebody Up There Likes Me-style Asian boxing mayhem will be sorely, sorely disappointed. The rest of you... eh, hard to say. Champion isn't a bad film, but in the middle of what is shaping up to be an unbelievably good festival it pales in comparison.
* * * * *
Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2002, directed by Hayao Miyazaki)
Wait a minute, I can hear you say- didn't Anton already review Spirited Away? Well, yeah, I did. But here's the thing. For the first time since, um... well, let's come back to that one... Disney have done something nice. Each film in Toronto gets two public screenings- with Spirited Away they showed the dubbed version at one and the subtitled version at the other. Clever me managed to see both, just so I could compare the two. Well that and I got to see it a second time, to confirm that there will be a third and fourth and fifth and sixth and more coming in the future. Goddess I love this film!
The subtitled version is extremely close to the dub, with only a few subtle differences. The dub is dumbed down a bit (unnecessarily if you ask me) for North American audiences, but very slightly. For instance in the dub Yubaba and Zeniba are simply twins; in the subtitled version Zeniba describes them as 'two halves of a whole'. Like I said, slight and subtle.
The film is even better the second time too, and I'm not just saying that because I'm biased against dubs, entirely. The level of detail in the visuals is such that multiple viewings gets rewarded, and the story is still sweet and timeless. I saw it twice in three days and wasn't even remotely bored.
Props to Disney for not watering the film down, and quadruple props if they do release both versions theatrically. After all, they've gone to the trouble of making a subtitled print... why not throw it out there and see what happens?
* * * * *
Royal Bonbon (2002, directed by Charles Najman)
You know it's a bad sign when people flee en masse from the Q&A.
Royal Bonbon is the story of a crazy guy who thinks he is Haiti's King Christophe, the slave who led the revolt that freed the island and the country's first ruler. Driven out of the city by mockery and ridicule he takes up residence in Christophe's ruined palace. Surrounded by a 'court' of doddering senior citizens who have been waiting for Christophe's prophesized return and play along with his delusion, and a young boy desperate to find his father, the faux-Christophe... well, he doesn't do much of anything really. The set-up isn't terrible, but the film seems to expect to be able to coast on that set-up without bothering with a plot. There is some sort of nonsense with a cult who are expecting a resurrection of a different kind, but what the director was aiming for with that sub-plot missed me. I can't say the movie gave me incentive to try very hard to figure it out.
Royal Bonbon seems to want to capture some of the magic of Haitian culture, but instead loses itself in pointless symbolism and mysticism.
* * * * *
The Eye (2002, directed by the Pang Brothers)
A niftily spooky addition to the 'I see dead people' genre, The Eye is the latest feature from Hong Kong's answer to the Wachowskis, Oxide and Danny Pang. Mun is a young woman, blinded when she was little, who receives a cornea transplant. She gets more than she bargained for, however, when she gains not just her sight but also the ability the see the restless dead.
Although it doesn't have the gotcha that propelled the Sixth Sense to a triple digit box office, The Eye is actually a much scarier film. The Pang brothers don't skimp on the make-up the way M. Night did- their spirits are often horrific, their movements and actions grotesque. The elevator scene alone is creepier than everything in the Sixth Sense combined. But in place of the big twist ending The Eye offers up a tension-filled climax that falls more in the realm of bitter irony than the final puzzle piece territory of MNS.
In addition the look of the film is incredible. The Pangs do an amazing job of putting you in Mun's shoes (and lenses), using focusing tricks, overexposures, and other toys to portray her return to the world of the sighted. This gives the early shocks even more power, as neither her nor we are really sure exactly what it we're seeing out of the corner of our eyes.
In short, The Eye kicked butt. If you get a chance to see it, do so. And if you do manage to see it on the big screen, under no circumstances miss the opening credits. Trust me on this one.
