Ahoy, squirts! Quint here, safely tucked away in my little hobbit-hole in Wellington, New Zealand. This is the first story I'm posting from half the world away from my usual updating location (not to mention this being the first time I've used dial-up as my main means of using the internet for a few years), but goddamn do I have a great view overlooking Seatoun's bay... I've got pics, which I'll share with you later, but for now... let's get to a couple of reports from Toronto.
First up is one of a few looks at Takashi Miike's weirdo-fucked-up kids flick ZEBRAMAN. I saw this earlier this year at the American Film Market (review here!!!) and it's totally what I'd expect from a Takashi Miike directed POWER RANGERS movie... It's not Power Rangers, but damned if it isn't what a Miike Power Rangers flick would look like, including giant CGI Fetus Aliens. The second flick, KONTROLL, I know absolutely nothing about, so read on!!!
Hey Harry et al
This is a first time review from me so everyone be kind. I attended the Toronto International Film Festival and I was thrilled to see so many good movies. Movies like I Heart Huckabees, Sideways, Phil the Alien, Childstar, Haven and the Machinist are sure to win critical praise, but there were two movies that really blew my ass off. They were Kung Fu Hustle and Zebraman. Since Kung Fu Hustle has been reviewed craploads already I will just talk about Takashi Miike’s masterpiece.
Now I am a newbie to Miike’s work the only other film of his I have seen is Gozu and that confused the hell out of me. Zebraman is the story of a mild mannered teacher who becomes a legendary superhero while fighting off an alien invasion. The story starts off with the teacher taking crap from everyone while he secretly builds his own Zebraman costume which is based on a TV show he used to watch as a kid.
The teacher starts coming out of his shell when a boy in a wheelchair is transferred to his school and shares the teacher’s love of Zebraman. The funniest scenes are when the teacher is just learning about what he can do in costume like copying moves from the TV show. His first encounter is with a man who wears a crab on his head and kills people with scissors. This man is possessed by an alien and is eventually defeated by a Zebraman who with every venture grows stronger and stronger. The rest of the movie is Zebraman gaining confidence in his powers and hilariously battling more aliens.
Shô Aikawa’s performance as Zebraman is amazing and the supporting cast perform admirably as well. There is a subplot about a secret government agency chasing the aliens with one agent who keeps itching his balls because he has crabs which although funny is just filler for the exploits of Zebraman. This is a must see film and the Midnight Madness crowd was extremely receptive and laughing throughout the film.
On a related note Colin Geddes the programmer for Midnight in his intro said that Miike has been given permission to do a stage play involving Gogo Yubari’s sister, should be interesting.
If you use this call me D-Wreck.
See ya
Now on with another weirdo flick from Toronto!!!
Good day, all!
A few words on "Kontroll", a hungarian film that was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival's 'Midnight Madness' line-up (being a selection of films deemed to be particularly crazy or creepy - "Bubba-Hotep" played at 'Midnight Madness', as did the Japanese version of 'The Grudge'. There ya go.)
First, the plot. Kontroll is the story of the Hungarian underground - a subway system designed by the Communists and thus feels about as warm and comfortably as a walk through a high-speed blender. This is not a happy land - vast, inhuman halls leading down into darkness, trains rusting and smeared with graffiti, the constant hum of vast unseen generators, the clomp-clomp-clomp of the eternal lines of weary red-eyed commuters. Now, it seems that in Hungary the subway system is run on an honour system. There are no gates, no toll booths - passengers are simply expected to pay honestly for their subway fare. This does not happen. So, ticket collectors are hired to wander around the trains and collect fares. Sounds reasonable enough, hmm? A pity that hungarians loath on sight these fellows and treat them like dirt, a pity that most of the ticket collectors are overworked, overstressed,&nbs! p;paranoid and twitchy examples of humanity. A pity that every other encountern between ticket collector and commuter ends in a knife fight, a savage beating, or even murder. Our hero is Bulcsu...pronounced 'Boo-choo', and he is one of these men, and he may be the most peculiar of the bunch. He has a something scratching in his memory - something that haunts him. He's young, smiles often but there's a sadness in his eyes - something strong enough to make him sleep in the underground - he's never seen to leave the complex. Something strong enough to make working as a hated and rejected figure in society a haven...because whatever came before was worse.
Oh, and there's a hooded serial killer wandering around pushing passengers in front of trains. Now...the good. The film is very well shot, finely acted, and has a very krazy kool soundtrack. The DP and director obviously knew the underground well because they find the most amazing, insane pieces of architecture to show-off - one moment has Bulcsu resting atop a vast ventilator shaft, at least twenty feet tall, casually smoking a cigarrette as blades the size of men spin beneath him. This Underground is a veritable labyrinth, it is the dark place, the land where lost men go. The direction invests it all with an allegorical significance...ah, but a bit more on that later. The acting? Marvelous. The actor, Sándor Csányi, who plays Bulcsu is a find. It's damn hard to find someone who can play a character who is essentially a mystery - he never speaks about his past, and keeps his thought to himself - and keep him intriguing. There's a quiet charasima at work here that is enviable. The supporting cast is quit! e good too - Bulcsu's crewmates are an eccentric, mad bunch all played with with suitable zest and cynicism. My favourite was 'The Professor' - an older man whose seen so much that he doesn't even flinch when he's vomited on by a workmate. He just shrugs, "You can piss on me later." Ah, such stoicism. The soundtrack is rotsa run as well; energetic and exciting for a techno beat. At times perhaps it becomes a little too strong too quickly (none of the Bernard Hermann - style slow wringing of the soul through careful orchestral build...sigh). But it sounds good and usually compliments the action well.
Now...the downside. The acting is great but...most of the characters are a bit shallow. All of the side characters are unique and mad, but there's rarely any sense of who they are, where they come from, motivation, internal working and etc. They are a few steps above caricatures...there's the disgusting, lasviscious slob, the hyper-excitable narcoleptic, the bitter older man...again, all acted well enough to remain interesting, but the MEAT is THIN, while tasty. Once the characters are off screen, their rarely missed. The structure of the film can be a tad wearisome as well - the beginning features a few killings by the mysterious serial killer, and much discussion about the deaths of the commuters but...then about an hour of no mention of the killer, little talk on the deaths, only a series of near-vignettes on the activities of these ticket collectors. Now, that's all fun, but it does seem as if a major plot line is left to atrophy for a while and when it do! es reappear at the end...it's almost too late.
And the ending...let it be enough to say that much is left in the air. The direction and tone of the film becomes increaingly allegorical in the last act, and there are many hints that there is more to the killer than him being a slavering random psycopath. A lot of ambiguity, which is usually great but here...well, it seemed ambiguity light. I was not overwhelmed by the implications of the unanswered questions here...Who is the killer? Who is the girl in the teddy bear outfit? What does it all mean? Perhaps because Bulcsu was such a mystery, and his inner world kept hidden from the audience it was hard for me to really empathise with his dilemma, or what he faces. As I never really KNEW him, the fate of his character was never a high stake for me. I was left curious but...dispassionate. Ah, well.
And finally...considering that the film was shown under the Midnight Madness banner, it seemed a little lacking in...madness. The direction, editing style and general FEEL of the film was quite good, and at times almost inspired, but never seemed like anything radically different than most american films. There was not that charge, that excitement of seeing something new, something bizarre, something daring...there was not even much gore to it! No, it was a good little film with some horror elements. A midnight madness film is an ERASERHEAD, a TWILIGHT OF THE COCKROACHES, a LIQUID SKY, a REPO MAN, a ZOMBIE. (Speaking of Repo Man, this film feels like a bit of a Repo Man retread - quiky characters in a hated profession encountering something out of the ordinairy...Repo Man isn't for me a classic, but it does have a low-budget enthusiasm and verve that wasn't quite here with this move.) This film just didn't quite reach those height! s/depths, and I left the theatre feeling as if I hadn't really seen...MIDNIGHT MADNESS.
Still, it's got some cool performances, a neat little story and a woman in a bear suit (did I mention her before? She's beautiful). It's not a bad watch, and the director, Nimrod Antal, appeared and seemed like a nice sort. Apparently the film was a huge hit in Hungary - good for him.
call me Rudolphus the Sage
