Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here. I think the headline sort of says it all, don’t you?
Aloha, Moon Yun signing in… When the lava flow takes the homes of the old time residents of the Big Island – what we call the largest island of the Hawaiian Island chains, we say the volcanic goddess Pele wants her land back. If that’s what she wants then we gladly hand it back to her. For our Southern Pacific island cousins of Tuvalu , the sea is taking their islands. However, it is not at the whim of any ancient Polynesian gods. It is man made and it is called global warming. This horrific depiction of how we’re losing one small, island nation by our consumption is captured in the documentary TIME & TIDE (60 minute, in color). TIME & TIDE is directed and produced by Julie Bayer and Josh Salzman. It had such an impact at the Hawaii International Film Festival that they won the Halekulani Golden Orchid for Best Documentary. Bayer was so stunned that she was wiping away tears during her acceptance speech. They spent five years making this documentary. That’s a long time, but I’m so glad they did because now I know about what global warming is doing to Tuvalu and I can write about. “ Tuvalu truly is a microcosm of what is going on around the world today. We have strived to give a kind of voice to the Tuvaluan community – the human voice – one that we can connect to, no matter how geographically distant they are from us,” – Bayer and Salzman. The documentary starts in 2002 when a group of sixty expatriates living in New Zealand make their way back home to Tuvalu for a two-month visit. Some hadn’t been home in twenty years so they were in for a shock when an entire village had been washed out, there were piles of garbage on their once pristine beaches, and the capitol, Funafuti , is overpopulated and out of whacked. Making up of nine islands, Tuvalu stretches across 700 miles of the South Pacific. 10,600 citizens inhabit 10 square miles of land. In 2000, the Tuvalu government sold the rights to its .tv web address to the Dot TV Corporation for fifty million dollars over ten years. Unfortunately, the Tuvaluans are losing land because the sea level is rising. And on top of that, the salt water intrusion is destroying the crops. People are becoming displaced from their homes. Can you imagine if that was happening in our own backyards? “What is so distressing about Tuvalu is that it is the most concrete example of how Western industrialized society is having an impact on the entire planet. Those people are essentially victims of the profligate use of fossil use by the Industrialized North,” said Dr. Eric Chivian, Harvard University . At the end of the documentary, we find the Tuvalu used a portion of its DOT TV earnings to join the United Nations. The Tuvaluan delegation is urging all industrialized nations to reduce global warming. For view a trailer, log on to www.wavecrestfilms.com. Moon Yun signing out… THE BANQUET: SURPRISINGLY STRONG CHINESE VARIANT OF HAMLET by Albert Lanier There is a scene In director Feng Xiaogang's THE BANQUET that reveals the essence of the film. In 10th century China, Crown Prince Wu is visiting an apothecary-type shop to investigate a poison that may have led to the death of his father, the former Emperor. Out of curiosity, Wu asks the shop owner what the most deadly poison is. "The Human heart" the man replies. Indeed, THE BANQUET-which had its U.S.Premiere at the 2006 Hawaii International Film Festival- is in many respects about the manifestations of the human heart, the desire and lust for power and the human wreckage that results when power is fought for and grabbed. THE BANQUET was all the more interesting to watch since it was touted as an adaptation of William Shakespeare's "Hamlet" told as a costumed Chinese drama. In 10th century China, in a time when several fiefdoms have stood up against central authority, the country's Emperor has died leading his brother Li to assume the throne by marrying the former Emperor's young wife Wan. The deceased Emperor's son, Prince Wu, has retreated from the Imperial Court to a residence in the woods-which looks like the Globe theatre in Elizabethan England built out of bamboo-partly because his uncle has been trying to assassinate him in effort to prevent any contenders to the throne. Of course, there are some romantic complications. Empress Wan had eyes for Prince Wu before she married his father and ascended the throne. The prince has eyes for Qing, the daughter of one of the Emperor's ministers. Emperor Li sends troops to kill the Prince at his sprawling theater-like home and the troops-in exquisite slo-mo-proceed to slaughter a good number of performers clad in white masks and garb right out of Japanese Butoh. Wu survives the massacre and makes his way to the Imperial Court where he takes a couple of minutes to get choked up over a suit of armor once worn by his father which is hanging in a room in the palace. The Prince also catches with his former paramour Empress Wan while his uncle, Emperor Li is biding his time until he can finally vanquish his nephew. Of course , it is while living in the Royal Palace that the Prince finds out that his father was poisoned. THE BANQUET also begins to gather steam as the Crown Prince resides in court and a number schemes and plans are hatched. Much like "Hamlet", THE BANQUET ends in death or as Shakespeare put in "Hamlet": "Murder most Foul, as in the best it is/ But this most foul, strange and unnatural." "I could a tale unfold whose lightest word/ would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood," says the ghost of Hamlet's father in "Hamlet" and to a certain extent that describes THE BANQUET. However, THE BANQUET turned out to be quite a surprise for me. By the time I saw the film near the end of HIFF last month, I heard a number of mixed reviews from filmgoers who had seen it. I was just hoping the film wouldn't turn out to be "Hamlet" with wire work. Actually, THE BANQUET did turn out to be "Hamlet" with wire work but the film also turned out to be a strong melodrama as well. Part of the film's success lies in how director Feng Xiaogang fleshes the script by writers Sheng Heyu and Qiu Gangjian for the screen. Instead of just playing up the average textual and subtextual elements of "Hamlet"-madness, boiling rage, a hint of incest, familial relationships-THE BANQUET's script injects strong doses of ambition, ego and deception. Feng does a skillful job of emphasizing the ceremonial nature of court life and its formalism with the intrigue and plotting being carried out the the Court's varied personages. Feng also brings a new energy and feeling to material that could have been adapted largely by rote and slavish imitation but makes it vital and fascinating. Feng is helped by the fine performances of his cast including Daniel Wu as Crown Prince Wu, Ge You as Emperor Li and Zhou Xun as Qing. However, the film's standout performance comes the incomparable Zhang ZiYi as Empress Wan. In THE BANQUET, Zhang gives one of her best performances as the scheming, power hungry Wan who wants power for herself no matter who she has to marry or have murdered. Zhang is so effective here because she is playing against type: instead of portraying the plucky but preserving princess or geisha- an object of beauty who is moved about like a chess piece- Zhang gets to move the pieces here and effectively demonstrate that she can play ruthless and power-hungry with the best of them. THE BANQUET is a film that honors Shakespeare's classic work while making salient though universal points about power and ambition in a Chinese historical setting. THE BANQUET also has a terrific final shot in which Empress Wan finds that the best laid plans of mice and women can also go awry as well. END MEMORIES OF MATSUKO-A BRILLIANT MIXTURE OF MUSIC AND EMOTION by Albert Lanier Being a film critic is often like playing quarterback in the NFL. Most of the time, you can pick up any "blitz" that filmmakers send your way and beat them at their own game by making sure you get your "passes' off in time for completions and either pan their films or give them modest praise. Sometimes though, your offensive line doesn't pick up a lone defender who sails through the line and smashes you hard down to the Astroturf covered ground. MEMORIES OF MATSUKO was just such a film for me. A hybrid of powerful melodrama and garishly colored musical sequences, MEMORIES OF MATSUKO grabs the viewer and drags him through more than 2 hours of powerful scenes and sequences that move and delight the filmgoer until the credits and roll and you either love or hate this film. Moviegoers who saw MEMORIES OF MATSUKO at its premiere the Hawaii International Film Festival this past October basically fell into that love/hate continuum. As for me, I loved the film. MEMORIES came out of nowhere and knocked me on my ass. MEMORIES begins with death. The body of an overweight woman identified as Matsuko Kawajiri is found in park in 2001. Sho, Matsuko's ne'er-do-well nephew is told by his father to clean his late aunt's apartment. Sho never knew Matsuko and so, while going through her remains in her apartment or as I like to call it, an indoor landfill, Sho begins to get curious about his mystery aunt. Who was she really? What's her life like? How did she end up dead? The answers to these questions comprise the bulk of MEMORIES OF MATSUKO as Sho serves as our guide of sorts into terribly sad but oftentimes cheerful life of Matsuko Kawajiri. The films rifles throughout time, the structure like CITIZEN KANE in terms of its often linear tower of cascading flashbacks. We begin in 1971 as Matsuko, then a Music teacher at Junior high school thinks she has done the right thing by taking money from one teacher to make up for a theft committed by a student of hers (who doesn't admit to it but lyingly accuses her of setting her up). Matsuko is fired from her teaching job and takes up with a scraggly-looking would- be writer who smacks her around from time to time. Matsuko's wanna-be writer lover ends up committing suicide by purposely standing in the middle of a train track as a locomotive runs over him. Matsuko witnesses this and screams "Why?" Why indeed. In fact, that one word-Why-is heard all throughout MEMORIES. Matsuko keeps asking why as relationships crumble, as lovers leave her, as people reject her. The rest of the film witnesses Matsuko as she becomes the happy mistress of a married man, a bar hostess and prostitute and a convicted murderer who serves several years in prison. Admittedly, the aforementioned plot points sound grim and tough, something out of a Dardenne brothers movie than an entertaining Japanese film. Yet, MEMORIES OF MATSUKO is an amalgam of hurt and happiness, pain and pure joy, uplift and depression. It is because of this swirl of differing emotions and feelings engendered by the film's story that will I not discuss the film's plot any further. MEMORIES OF MATSUKO is a difficult film to digest especially for Western audiences who have been raised on intellectually sugarcoated-though foul-mouthed-excuses for cinematic entertainment created by the major Hollywood studios. In America, people are taught to separate tragedy from light entertainment, the serious from the hilarious when they watch motion pictures. But life as we know it is filled with sad moments that are often funny as hell, of tragedies created from the stupidity and hilarious recklessness of individuals. MEMORIES OF MATSUKO shows both peaks and the valleys of life and largely succeeds because it knows how to merge its poignant tale in a filmic package of beautiful colors and riveting musical sequences. MEMORIES is the brainchild of director Nakashima Tetsuya who has previously directed such films as KAMIKAZE GIRLS in 2004. I missed KAMIKAZE GIRLS when it played at HIFF but on the basis of MEMORIES OF MATSUKO, Nakashima demonstrates a prodigious talent as a director and a very strong skill as an overall storyteller. Nakashima takes a generally simple though overused format-the examination of a life lived and died as seen in flashblack-and infuses with uncommon power and energy. Part of the appeal of MEMORIES is its look. The colors pop out at you like a well-linked comic book or an intensely shot magazine ad (not surprising since Nakashima spent a number of years directing commercials before moving into features). Another key to the film's success is the central performance of actress Nakatani Miki as Matsuko. Nakatani pulls off a first-rate performance as Matsuko in what would be a difficult part for any actress to master. The part of Matsuko requires a sunny disposition, a zest for life and capacity for love in spite of the anger and abuse that inflicted upon the character and without making her seem unrealistic or fantastical. Nakatani succeeds because she aims for consistency and emphasizes the attributes of pluck and persistence which-though seemingly foolish-are the hallmarks of Matsuko. Nakatani's performance allied with Nakashima's script and direction make it plain that Matsuko is a woman who's heart is filled with love but who receives very little in return. Finally, the film's musical sequences (this is a musical after all) are powerful and well-crafted. Two of my favorite are the "Happy Wednesday" number in which Matsuko looks forward to the day her married lover calls on her apartment and a sequence set to hip-hop type music showing Matsuko keeping herself fit in prison. MEMORIES OF MATSUKO is one of those films I will probably never forget. I saw it early enough in the festival to have the memory of the film envelop me like a large insulated jacket on a cold day. Throughout HIFF this year, people asked me what I thought of MATSUKO and I replied it was like a Japanese version of Daniel Defoe's MOLL FLANDERS done as an MGM Technicolor musical. A bit verbose perhaps but you get the point. Like other great films I have seen at film festivals- Park Chan Wook's OLDBOY, Christopher Nolan's MEMENTO, Wong Kar Wai's IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE, Ang Lee's CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON-MEMORIES OF MATSUKO is a film that impresses us with its technical skill and storytelling bravura and forces the viewer to take a stand pro or con, right or wrong. MEMORIES OF MATSUKO is both deliriously entertaining yet powerfully moving at the same time. It is the rare film that had me walking out of theater with not only a feeling of giddy excitement but with a sense of profound sadness as well. END CONFESSIONS OF AN EX-CLERK: AN INTERVIEW WITH KEVIN SMITH PART 1 by Albert Lanier In 1994 when I first started attending film festivals as a reporter and began my career as a journalist and freelancer, I heard about a low-budgeted indie film called CLERKS that was collecting critical raves and bucks at box office. Back then, Indie filmmakers were like ice cream-you had a flavor every week and most of them tasted good. Nowadays, the ice cream can mostly be found in chain-owned stores-the major film studios and their indie releasing arms-and their Chocolate tastes like any other Chocolate. It makes you want to swear off ice cream altogether. Fortunately for us, writer/director Kevin Smith is still around and he know how to make a Rocky Road ice cream cone that will knock people on their ass. Okay, so I extended the Indie-film-as-Ice Cream simile too far but you get the point. Since 1994, Smith has been bringing his skewed view of life to appreciative (and in the case of JERSEY GIRL unappreciative) audiences in movie theaters across the country. This year, Smith came to Hawaii to accept the relatively new MAVERICK award (Sonny Chiba was the first recipient of the honor in 2005)from the Hawaii International Film Festival which is given to actors and filmmakers who's body of work reside outside the parameters of mainstream cinema. Smith formally received the award at HIFF's awards ceremony on Thursday, October 26th. Earlier that day, Smith fielded questions from the media at a press conference held at the Halekulani Hotel in Waikiki. I got to sit down and chat one-on-one with Smith after the press conference had concluded. ALBERT LANIER: Do you see yourself as a Maverick? KEVIN SMITH: Do I see myself as a maverick? When they told me, I was like "Iam aint I?" Up until then, I hadn't really thought about it. I have made some stuff that falls outside the mainstream so I guess that counts. AL: Have you seen yourself as someone who is non-mainstream as a filmmaker? KS: Is that how I see myself? Very much so but the times I've tried to be mainstream-like with JERSEY GIRL-doesn't pan out. AL: Why do you think that's the case? KS: I just don't know how to tell a story for an audience that large. Like basically, I like to write about things that don't interest everybody, they interest a few. AL: See, that's one of the things I find interesting is the fact that you not only know your audience but you know how to relate to your audience through your films and you don't want to take projects- KS: I can't even say that's an innate talent. Basically, I write for me and there are people who share my point of view and they become the audience. So, its not me going "I'm going to write for those guys." So, I just kind of like to continue to write what I want to write about and thankfully, that audience seems to come with us each time. AL: One of things in the press conference that you said that I find interesting is that you've been offered some of these bigger-budgeted films but you've declined-I guess-because you feel you have to do films your way-(like) talky films. Is that because you've been burned on some of these projects? KS: I mean a little bit but the biggest burn I got was on JERSEY GIRL and even that wasn't that expensive a movie. It was expensive for me at $35 million but that's not even that much as far as studio filmmaking goes these days but I felt a little burned but that doesn't infringe on making a big- budget comic book movie. What makes me not want to do that is in realizing "Shit, I don't have it in me." I just don't have that mindset to spend like a week on a 2 minute action sequence and just sit there shooting day after day of pieces that will go into a scene. Its just not what I'm good at and not what I have much interest in doing. So, generally, I stay away from that stuff not because I've been burned but I just can't do it-its not my thing. It would be like if someone said to me "Why don't you get into cancer research?" I'm no good at that-I know nothing about cancer research. AL: That's interesting because you seem very truthful and honest about admitting your range of talent. So that's not a problem with you but that seems to be a big problem in Hollywood. KS: Or the internet. People will tell you "Well, you're not pushing yourself hard enough" or "You should try other films" or "He keeps making the same movies" and its just like "Dude, I'm making movies. What do you want from me? If you don't like seeing them-don't go!" This is what I do. Why would you want to do something else? Because of the persona, because I was the dude from nowhere whose movie got picked up and I suddenly had a job in film, people look at you as a proxy of sorts. Well, they're like "Shit, you're just like me except the only difference is you did it." That is true to a degree: I was very much like them and I'm still very much like them but at the same time, maybe their aspirations are greater than mine. I had no aspirations beyond the first CLERKS and then suddenly people were like "What do you want to do next?" and I said "All right, how about this? How about this?" I didn't have a 5, 10, 15 year plan. So, I don't know-for me-I don't have a problem going "This is what I do and I'm happy with it." I make a nice living off of what I do and I've got an audience. Why do I need more beyond that? AL: One of the things I was also interested in asking about was -as a director-Do you basically like to keep your shots and your set-ups very simple in regards to your films? KS: Yeah, for me, I like to shoot based on what the stories require. I tend not to overshoot and I tend not to get all tricky with camera work because I'm telling very simple stories so, I don't need all that to buffer it. I don't begrudge people who go the other way. Like you look at something like BOOGIE NIGHTS-pretty simple story-yet Paul Thomas Anderson shot the shit out of that movie. That's the kind of filmmaker he is-he's a filmmaker. I'm just a writer who gets to direct his own flicks and by virtue of that, I'm labeled a filmmaker but I'm a writer first and foremost and in terms of how the movie looks and does it need to be visually dazzling, I feel personally for my stuff? No. But it would be an interesting experiment to see someone take one of my scripts and shoot the shit out of it and do something with it that I never thought of but so far, I haven't seen that happen. AL: Do you like to pre-plan your films or do you like to go in with a more spontaneous approach in terms of directing? KS: I mean, we always go in with some sort of plan and we always shot list. It always makes the DP more comfortable if you kind of sit down and shot list ahead of time. That being said-once that's done-you don't show up on the set and say "We're sticking to this because this what we said we were going to do a month ago." You have to leave yourself open for improvising a bit or kind of shooting on the fly but its a good blueprint to work from but even when we sit down to blueprint, its never all that complex because generally, my films are full of people talking to each other and it doesn't call for a swooping crane move with two dude having a conversation. AL: I don't recall a crane shot in any of your films. KS: I had a few but never in the midst of conversation. END PITTSBURGH: JEFF GOLDBLUM, 76 TROMBONES AND A WHOLE LOT OF LAUGHS by Albert Lanier The very idea of Jeff Goldblum playing "Professor" Harold Hill in the legendary musical "The Music Man" would be like Woody Allen deciding to play the title role of "King Lear" on Broadway: an interesting casting idea but a joke in actual execution. And yet while it is highly unlikely that the auteur who wrote and directed ANNIE HALL and MANHATTAN will be portraying "Lear" any time soon, we know as a fact that Jeff Goldblum did play Harold Hill in a production of "The Music Man" thanks to the wonderfully funny documentary PITTSBURGH. Screened only once at this year's Hawaii International Film Festival as art of HIFF's special Comedy Focus, PITTSBURGH turned out to be-along with the Chinese caper comedy CRAZY STONE-one of the funniest films of a generally lackluster comedy section. PITTSBURGH opens with Goldblum freaking out in his dressing room as the orchestra is playing the overture and the opening night show is about to begin. We then jump back several months in time. Goldblum is visiting the house of his good friend actor Ed Begley Jr. Goldblum tells Begley and his wife that he may be in love. The object of his amorous affections? A Canadian actress and dancer named Catherine Wreford. Admittedly, Catherine is much younger than Goldblum. Begley's wife is a little worried. She's not 18 is she? she asks Goldblum. No, Catherine's 23 years old replies Goldblum. Well, that's different, notes both Begley and his wife. There is a bit of a problem though. Catherine's work visa is due to run out in a matter of weeks. Goldblum obviously wants her to stay in the states. So, what to do? Marriage is an option and Goldblum does take that option under consideration. Ultimately, Goldblum decides not to marry Catherine but to find her a gig which will keep her working as extending her residency in the U.S. Of course, the gig is a regional production of "Music Man" in-of all places- Goldblum's home town of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Goldblum tells his manager Keith all about his plans to star as Harold Hill in Pittsburgh. Keith is less than thrilled. He's got a hot new movie prospect lined up-a Michael Bay studio project about cloning- which might net Goldblum a few million bucks in salary. However, Goldblum's fire for starring in "The Music Man" has been stoked and is burning as brightly as a four-alarm conflagration. Goldblum doesn't want to keep these fires burning within but see the flames spread and engulf others notably his pals Ed Begley and Illeana Douglas who are talked into starring in the production as well. Rehearsals begin for "The Music Man" and the show's director is less than impressed with Goldblum telling him at one point that he has 100 percent potential but is only showing 25 percent at present. I couldn't blame the director for being wary of Goldblum's ability to pull off the lead role in "Music Man." Just looking at Goldblum sing and move about in rehearsal, I felt I was looking at Harry Potter not Harold Hill. So, Does Jeff Goldbum finally pull off the role of Harold Hill? My answer is to see PITTSBURGH to find out because the climax of the film isn't anywhere as interesting as the journey along the way. And what a funny journey that is! We see Ed Begley tout his invention "The Solar Man 2000" and enlist Goldblum to star in an infomercial for the product. We listen in as music star Moby-Illeana Douglas' boyfriend at the time-hilariously talks about porn. We observe Goldblum and Conan O'Brien talk about appearing in a lower-tier slot on Conan's show. In essence what we have here is not so much a mere-fly-on-the-wall documentary but a doc with straight lines and punch lines, set-ups and pay-offs. In PITTSBURGH, the documentary becomes a stand-up comic/ improvisational actor in its own right. Goldblum, Begley, Douglas and company are essentially melding conversation with performance so that we get a documentary that is a comedic mobius strip. PITTSBURGH was directed by Chris Bradley and Kyle LaBrache who had previously helmed the doc JON. E. EDWARDS IS IN LOVE. I haven't seen JON E. EDWARDS but on the basis of PITTSBURGH, it is clear that Bradley and LaBrache have a talent for making entertaining documentaries. Both directors wisely give their subject the space and room necessary to vent, to be enthused, to chat amiably and essentially to act on-camera without seeming a conscious presence influencing the actions of the doc's participants. Credit should be given to the film's subject-Jeff Goldblum-for opening himself up a bit and taking a chance on a project that could have made him look silly. Actually,now that I think about it, PITTSBURGH does make Goldblum look silly but that's okay because Goldblum is clearly going with the flow and parodying his own quirks and affectations. PITTSBURGH is great fun, the kind of film you look forward to after you've seen a day full of depressing dramas or inept horror films at a film festival. I wish I could write more but I have a regional production of GUYS AND DOLLS to prepare for. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for a hit!
