SIFF: Secret Asian Anne On THE TURNING GATE, HUKKLE, UNPRECEDENTED & More!!

Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...

We’ve got Mark Pollard and Harold Hellman reporting in this morning, so why not the equally excellent Secret Asian Anne? She’s got a ton of stuff to work through, too, so dig in!

Hey Harry,

Secret Asian Anne here, with another report from SIFF.

Stumbled upon a few duds last wknd... I didn’t want to write a bunch of bad reviews, so I’ve been waiting to see a few more things that I can at least recommend ‘fore writing in again. I started the festival intending to only review stuff that I thought was good, but alas, sometimes y’know, you see something soooo bad, you just gotta put the word out so that others may avoid the pain! However, I really don’t like to bash on films, so I’ll keep the ah, sub-optimal reviews short...

The Turning Gate

I’m sure somebody worked really hard to put this film together, so I hate to diss, but man, did this movie feel long. In a nutshell, well, nothing happens. Ok, well, stuff sorta happens, but ultimately it was just several characters going around in circles with each other, and so yeah, there are little events, but they didn’t amount to anything at all in the end. I considered leaving part way through the film, something which I don’t think I’ve ever done before, but I kept hoping SOMETHING interesting would happen, and it never did. Basically, an actor/playwright visits his friend who lives out on a farm. While there, actor dude sort of hooks up with this dancer chick, but not really... She likes him a lot, but he’s like whatever buh bye. Later, he gets on the train to go back to the city, and sits next to a chick who seems to recognize him. He doesn’t know who she is but is intrigued, so he gets off the train at her stop and follows her home. What followed was actually a BRILLIANT scene involving the actor showing up at her house and trying to have a brief conversation with the girl, but her family keeps barging in and won’t let them have any privacy at all. Unfortunately, everything that happens after that scene completely negated the whole overbearing family thing. I should probably mention that this film is South Korean, so that intrusive/overprotective Asian family thing totally rung true, but then when actor dude and chick from the train start having a fling and she’s suddenly spending nights away from home, her family doesn’t play into it at all. That totally didn’t make sense. Overall, the story just sort of meanders around and was for the most part, not very interesting. There are a couple of really weak sex scenes, and some conversations that are probably meant to be profound, but perhaps something was just lost in the translation. I wouldn’t go so far as to disrecommend this film, but I feel that anyone considering seeing should be aware that it’s pretty slow, and there isn’t really any payoff at the end.

Hukkle

This visually meandering (but in a good way), dialogue-free Hungarian film might not be for everyone, but I found it fairly intriguing, and if nothing else, it has some pretty cool cinematography. It starts out wanting to be Microcosmos, with lots of close-ups on insects running around, and then moves on to having a Koyaanisqatsi feel to it, highlighting sounds and rhythms of people and machines falling in and out of sync. Is there a plot? Sort of, but you really have to be paying attention to the details that you see throughout the film, and when you hear/see the lyrics of a song show up at the end of the film... you do the math, and then it’s like OH, so THAT’S what was going on! I came out of the film initially not having quite... done the math yet, and I just thought, eh, ok, so nothing really happened, it was just a movie about a day in a rural village, various people hangin’ n’ chillin’, animals running around, etc... it was interesting enough to look at, although I didn’t realize until discussing the subject of the song with my friend who saw it with me, how things were tied together in the end. And then I liked the film a lot more.

Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election

I was really looking forward to this documentary about the, um, arrangements that were made in Florida so that the last presidential election could, ahem, turn out the way that it did. And I was not disappointed in this film. This documentary was really well put together, presenting a host of riveting information about the election debacle. From the faulty ballot issue to the overly-inclusive convicted felon lists that prevented hundreds of legitimate voters from making it to the polls, watching this film made my blood boil more and more with each passing minute. I think it’s a film that’s definitely worth seeing if you get the chance. I have to say that I missed the last 10 minutes of this film because I was running to catch another screening, but hopefully nothing happened in those last 10 minutes that will cause me to have to retract this review at some point! Definitely seek this film out, it’s worth it.

Direct Order

This documentary addressed an important issue, which is why I am mentioning it. Thousands of US Military personnel have been given the controversial Anthrax vaccine without their knowledge and/or permission. The vaccine has caused countless numbers of health problems in those who have received it. So, these are the things to remember:

1) When you volunteer to be in the military, you sign your body over to the US government.

2) Is it ok for the government to experiment on you because you because you now belong to them? Well, of course not.

3) But don’t be surprised if the government which you are serving doesn’t take the best possible care of you. Remember this, when you consider signing up for the military.

Direct Order focused more on the effects the vaccine has had upon its recipients, rather than the other two things I’ve listed above. But basically, that’s what i took away from this film. Technically, this documentary wasn’t assembled very well... Stock footage of planes taking off, tanks rolling around, and other random military actions, as well as micro-clips lifted from Aim High/Be All You Can Be commercials interspersed in between interviews was more of a distraction and didn’t really have anything to do with the subjects being discussed. There was much mention of “squalene” in the anthrax vaccine, which apparently is a very bad thing, but I’m guessing that the majority of the audience didn’t know exactly what “squalene” is, so it would have been good for the film to at least spend 15 seconds elaborating a little bit more on that. Overall, I would say that this is an issue worth knowing about, but I think you would probably do better to look up some articles online and in books and magazines if you want to learn about the issue.

Jail Breakers

OK, again, sorry to whoever made this film, but it was soooo not good, I must warn all others who may come across it. I won’t go into the gory details but basically, this film started off ok, but then degenerated quickly. The basic premise: two prisoners bust out of the pen and are merrily on their way, albeit as fugitives, when the next morning they discover that their names are on the list of prisoners to be pardoned the next day. Whoops! If only they’d waited another day, they would be legitimately free! Time to break back INto prison before anybody notices! Hijinks ensue, yada yada, it was sort of amusing at first but about 40 minutes into it, the film just turned into nothing but people yelling at each other and flailing around a lot. It was supposed to be funny, but it just wasn’t. And clocking in at almost two hours, it just went on for way too long. Sigh.

23

German film based on a true story about a couple of hackers in the mid-80’s who started out white hat, but got pulled into the crime world, with some international espionage mixed in. This flick was taught and engaging, the acting was good, and I was pleased to see the Commodores and Atari’s busted out for some good ol’ command line hacking (none of that fancy GUI crap in so many flicks nowadayz...), complete with the modems that you actually connected to the handset of your phone. The “23” of the title refers to the significance of the number 23 in writings on anarchy and conspiracy theories, with which the main character is somewhat obsessed, sparking his intense interest finding out everything he can about the Illuminati. Thumbs up on this one, check it out if you get the chance.

11’09”01

Eleven short films by eleven directors from all over the world, given complete artistic freedom to express their respective viewpoints on September 11th. Each film is 11 minutes, 9 seconds, and 1 frame long. I was pleasantly surprised to find all eleven films to be really well done and totally engaging, all in various different ways. There are a few that stand out in my mind, most notably the film directed by Innaritu, which consisted almost entirely of no visual but lots of sound-- clips of actual dialogue, news reports, phone messages, recorded as the attack on the Twin Towers was taking place. One of the few things that were shown on-screen during this film were really REALLY quick shots of the people who jumped from the towers, falling... these went by so quickly that I couldn’t figure out what was being shown until the third time it flashed by. But when you realize what it is that you’re looking at, combined with the chaotic mix of sounds that is engulfing you, it’s quite a shock, and definitely something that burned into my mind. The first film, directed by Samira Makhmalbaf, was also very striking, with beautiful cinematography, and an excellent cast of curious children and their teacher who ardently works to help them understand the significance a distant tragedy and the roots of the attitudes that cause such discord among people. The September 11th subject was an interesting focus around which to base this set of films... I basically just found each film to be fascinating because I got to see viewpoints from people all over the world both directly and indirectly relating to the tragedy. Highly worth checking out.

Vertical Frontier

A documentary about rock climbing! Vertical Frontier details the history of the sport at Yosemite National Park, centering on the climbers who were instrumental in developing the sport there since the 50’s. I started learning to climb about a year ago and I really dig it, so I was pretty excited to see this documentary. There were lots of great interviews with climbers telling some cool anecdotes, and quite a bit of footage showing climbs from back in the day, as well as climbs from the newer generations. Just watching people hit two-finger holds and scrambling up rock faces made my palms sweat. It was fun to see the progression and development of climbing gear and shoes from being makeshift, homemade, and clunky, to the more streamlined gear that we have now. This doc was thoroughly engaging and fun, and very well-edited. I don’t think you have to be into climbing to dig this film, but if you ARE into climbing at all, definitely check this one out.

Well, that’s ‘bout it for now. OH, I saw that Mr. Pollard wrote in with the reviews of Vengeance! And Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan, and I just wanted to say, right on, man. Intimate Confessions has been one of the funnest flicks i’ve seen at the fest this year, and Vengeance! was also excellent in all of its red paint blood glory. For anybody who’s interesting in finding out more ‘bout Tarantino’s influences, especially for his upcoming Kill Bill, then you’ll definitely want to check out these two Shaw Bros classics.

Ok, now that’s REALLY it for now. Take it easy...

ta,

Secret Asian Anne

Lovely work, miss. Thanks.

"Moriarty" out.