Hey folks, Harry here with the latest from Secret Asian Anne and the Seattle International Film Festival. Today she sent in reports on a Hong Kong flick called SO CLOSE which sounds groovy, a BUKOWSKI documentary which at least sounds interesting, and a Korean Serial Killer flick which, though she wasn't into sounds worth checking out, as it seems she isn't into those types of movies, so we'll have to see. So without any more hub bub bub, here she is....
Hey Harry,
Secret Asian Anne here with my third report from SIFF
- days 6, 7, 8. Now that the shackles of the day job
have resumed, I've just been catching one film per day
so far this week. I gotta admit those marathon 3+
film days are kinda draining... altho I do look
forward to resuming that hefty viewing schedule come
this wknd...! So, on to da stuff...
SO CLOSE
I expected this to be some taut action thriller but it turned out to be more along the lines of -- and I know this comparison is inevitable and I'm sure I've already seen it somewhere tho I can't remember where at the moment -- Charlie's Angels. 'cept in So Close, the chicks are working for themselves, there's quite a bit o' bloodshed, and **pseudo spoiler** it gets all Hard Boiled at one point, which is quite a contrast from the tone of the rest of the film, that being big time cheesefest, hilarious technology and computer "hacking" displays, and completely over the top action scenes. So, if you dig this sort of thing, particularly the physics-defying gun-fu in fashionable clothing on cool sets stuff, then this film is definitely for you.
I personally dig flicks like this, just purely on the mindless eye-candy level. ItÃs just plain fun and I don't mind so much that most of it just doesn't make sense. You've got your cute girls on both sides of the law TOTALLY kicking ass, the romance subplot (eh, I can pretty much always do without those though), and the main characters running around just lookin' really good. Basic premise: the parents of two sisters were killed by a corporation looking to steal the invention of their father, the World Panorama, which is basically a big network of GPS/computerized blueprints of buildings, and access to every surveillance camera on the entire planet-- all accessible from the unabashedly Matrix-esque wall of flat-panel monitors and keyboards located in the sisters' super posh house, somewhere (I'm guessing) around Hong Kong's Victoria Peak. Think the technology in Enemy Of The State taken to the next exponential level.
I guess I should mention that this film is listed as being produced in Hong Kong, but everybody (minus the GQ-lookin', suit-wearin' white boy "hacker consultant")was speaking Mandarin, not Cantonese, like people in HK are supposed to speak! WTF?
Anyway, I
guess all I have left to say about this flick is, if
you're in the mood for something that has a lot of
cool fashion, crisp shiny sets, hot babes, and you
don't mind gigantic plot holes, and you enjoy crazy
action that make the stunts in the Matrix and
Crouching Tiger appear attainable to the average human
being without wires, then this is the flick for you.
Go forth. Enjoy.
BUKOWSKI: BORN INTO THIS
I just completed reading my first Bukowski's novel,
Women, a couple of weeks ago, but I don't think you
would necessarily have to know much about Bukowski to
find this an interesting documentary. Women was at
times sadly hilarious, but being a chick myself, kind
of difficult to read sometimes, just 'cuz it's kinda
hard to grasp how somebody that treated women, shall
we say, not optimally, still managed to have a bunch
of them chasing after him constantly. By the time
Bukowski came into fame as a writer, he was basically
a big old fat ugly guy, but (or should I say
therefore?) the chicks flocked to him in droves.
Fascinating? Yeah. But of course there's way more to
his deal than that. The film included clips and
photographs of Bukowski at various readings throughout
the years (never without a beverage of some sort by
his side, of course) and interviews with friends, his
former wives and girlfriends, and his daughter. I
enjoyed the film but I did find it lacking much of a
cohesive structure or line... it seemed to jump kind
of randomly from subject to subject, and back again.
There were several points at which it felt like the
film was going to end, but then it would go back and
further visit a subject that had already been
explored. Overall though, I am glad that I saw this
film and would definitely recommend any Bukowski fans
to check it out.
H
Korean cinema seems to be pretty big right now, so I was really hoping this one would be good, but aiee... where do I begin. Five minutes into it I decided I would probably have to stray from my "only review flicks that I would recommend" stipulation, just because I found so many things wrong with this one. And really, to me it was just that a bunch of the details were wrong. The basic story is ... well, I was going to paraphrase from the SIFF guide description but how *I* would describe it is, Silence of the Lambs in Korea. Unfortunately I don't mean that as a compliment. My friend who I saw it with said it was also like Se7en, but I never did get around to seeing that so I can't really comment on it.
So it isn't entirely Silence of the Lambs - replace Hannibal with a serial killer fixated on murdering and mutilating women; there are two main detectives, male and female, and it's actually the male detective who goes in for the first Interview With Big Bad Serial Killer Who's In Prison To Find Answers About The New Crop Of Similar Murders Taking Place. One big thing that disappointed me was that the woman detective seemed REALLY cool... stoic and cold, a little bit like the D.I. Susan Taylor character in the PBS/Mystery Touching Evil series (random reference maybe, but how many truly hard core, stone cold, no-nonsense women detectives are there in TV and film? right.). But I knew starting with that first Interview w/ Serial Killer that it was probably downhill from there. Like I said, the details were all wrong. No prison guards in sight. The Serial Killer Prisoner Dude comes into the interrogation room alone, barely restrained in some roomy-looking handcuffs. He comes in BEHIND the detective, who is just sitting mellowly at the table looking through some files. When the interview is over, Serial Killer boy just gets up and strolls out. Then later, when the cops are going out with the SWAT team (I know they probably don't call it that in Korea but bear with me stealthy guys in all black w/ bulletproof vests, helmets, and lots of firearms) to bust into a suspected killer's house, they come driving down the street with sirens blaring. They might as well have given the suspect a call first before popping over.
And then, SWAT team makes their way through large apartment building, turns off the power so it's dark ya see, so the suspect can't see them coming, right, but wait, are they wearing night vision goggles? Nope. I could go on and on but I really don't like trashing movies to begin with so I should probably just stop! I didn't want to not like this movie! I guess if you really really dig serial killer movies and aren't too picky about details that donÃt make sense then... er, ok.
Ok, that's it fer now. Take it easy...
ta,
Secret Asian Anne
