Harry here, and I have to say I love these reports that Marshy is doing out of the Hong Kong Film Festival. I've seen Tsukamoto's A SNAKE OF JUNE, and got to meet him at Sitges last year. The film is absolutely intoxicating. This film is beautiful and haunting. If you love risquee material, it is for you. As for the other film... BLIND SHAFT, that sounds like a great movie too. I hope it does get seen over here, though just because it got banned in China doesn't mean we'll get it. We've got a heaping load of economic and self-imposed censorship issues here to deal with too. Here ya go...
Hey Harry,
The party never stops at the HK Film Festival - here's another couple of good 'uns for you.
Tsukamoto Shinya's A Snake of June
"Traditionally the woman is virtuous, but during the rainy season their sexuality is stimulated by the environment. You can sense this oozing feeling inside, which is like the movements of a snake."
So Tsukamoto "TETSUO" Shinya explains the title of his latest exploration into the human body.
When Tatsumi, a young, yet reserved woman (Kurosawa Asuka) receives photos through the mail of her masturbating she is understandably distressed. Even more so when the mobile phone that came with the photos rings and the voice on the other end tells her to go out and buy a miniskirt and a vibrator if she doesn't want her husband to see the pictures.
The voice belongs to reclusive photographer Iguchi (Tsukamoto) whom Tatsumi managed to successfully counsel out of killing himself and what follows is his way of saying thank you. Iguchi blackmails Tatsumi into realising her most intimate fantasies, things she could not bear her fat, balding, cleaning-obsessed husband to find out about. But of course, he does.
The film covers all of Japanese cinema's favourite subjects: misogyny, voyeurism, perversion and photography as Tsukamoto examines the fetishistic side of Japanese culture as well as how the hot, wet summer months can severely alter people's behaviour.
This film is downright weird, there are no two ways about it but there are some very cool things going on at times. The photography, shot in black and white (or to be more precise, metallic blue and white) adds to the visceral sexuality of the subject matter - which although not especially graphic is very much at the centre of this film. Tsukamoto's message seems to be that all Japanese women get hot and horny during the monsoon season, and this is how they all want to behave, if only they just had a stalker to egg them on a bit.
Isn't Japan great?! That's why I'm off there next week!!
Li Yang's Blind Shaft
This is a great movie that will definitely get a US release very soon, if nothing else, because it has been deemed "an illegal film" by the Chinese government.
It premiered a couple of months ago at the Berlin Film Festival where it understandably whipped up plenty of attention. Li has written a great script and filmed it with style and panache.
Song and Tang are a couple of chancers, some-time coal miners who have developed a pretty foolproof scam. They recruit some young, wet-behind-the-ears sap to come along with them to one of the many local coalmines and they all enroll together, making sure that the young guy states that he's their brother. A couple of days later, deep down in the depths of the mine they bludgeon the poor fellow to death and then squeeze the mine bosses for as much compensation as possible.
The reason that this has pissed off the Chinese so much is that, not only is this based on a true story, but also this is turning out to be a major problem throughout the country. Private companies are being allowed to open up their own mines that are being shamelessly un-regulated by the government. Nothing like enough money is being spent on safety measures to protect the workers, but rather greasing the palms of locals government officials to keep the mines open. As a result, miners are dying on a daily basis because of poor working conditions and complaining relatives are simply being paid off.
Song and Tang's characters are merely taking advantage of this situation for their own benefit. After all, both of them send most of what they make back home to their families for food and education.
This is a wonderful examination of modern day China, far removed from the boom going on in Beijing, Shanghai and down in the south near Hong Kong. This is the grim north east, the industrial back waters of a country the size of Europe and the film shows us the lengths even the most honest of people have to go to, to get a day's work.
It's spelt out best by one of the mine bosses to a complaining new recruit:
"In China we've got a shortage of everything except people!!"
Still seven more days of movies to go, I'll stay in touch.
Marshy
