Entertainment Maven

Shinsedai Cinema Festival – End of the Night Review (Kirk Haviland)

Shinsedai Film Festival 2012 (Toronto)

End of the Night

Starring Kuniaki Nakamura, Nami Komiyama, Masayuki Shionoya

Written and Directed by Daisuke Miyazaki

When it came time for Daisuke Miyazaki to make his directorial debut, after directing second unit for director Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Tokyo Sonata, he decided to look to the past. Inspired by the rich history of yakuza/hit man films from Japan, especially the works of the great Takeshi Kitano, Miyazaki has created a hit man saga of his own.

Hit man Tamegoro (Shionoya) is sent to kill a young couple. After performing the deed Tamegoro discovers a young baby in a crib. After calling his mother, Tamegoro decides to bring the baby home and raise him as his own. We flash forward to the now teenaged Akira out on his first assignment with his “father” Tamegoro in which they are assigned to take out a family, much like his own, who have a daughter whose eventual death becomes a fixation for him. Ten years later Akira (Nakamura) is a fully accomplished hit man, living the solitary life most hit men do, Tamegoro has retired to run a comforter shop but still sets up all of Akira’s contracts (along with those of his “brothers”). But one day Akira encounters someone who will change the course of his destiny forever, the grown up version of Yukine (Komiyama), a girl who he thought his father had killed 10 years ago. Just as fascinated as he was ten years prior, Akira sets out to help Yukine, to his own detriment, which causes a familial rift and has professional consequences.

Miyazaki has crafted an extremely successful little noir film filled with homages to films from the past, both Japanese and Hollywood alike. Nakamura’s performance is engaging and accomplished as Akira. He brings a stoic calm to the character with an underlying sense of danger and volatility that constantly keeps him aware and on edge. The rest of the performances here are strong as well, especially Shionoya’s Tamegoro as the father figure with a special relationship with his own mother. As a first feature Miyazaki delivers an extremely accomplished piece of cinema, his future is indeed bright.

End of the Night was the runner up for the Best Film Audience award for Shinsedai, a very deserving recipient if you ask me. End of the Night is a definite recommend, try to catch up with it as it continues its festival run across the globe.

Till Next Time,

Movie Junkie TO

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Shinsedai Cinema Festival – Zero Man vs. the Half-Virgin Review (Kirk Haviland)

Shinsedai Film Festival 2012 (Toronto)

Zero Man vs. the Half-Virgin

Starring Chihiro Itakura, Miho Hoshino, Hiroshi Yamamoto, Hideo Tsubota, Don Brown and Sakichi Sato

Written and Directed by Sakichi Sato

Preceeded by Dark on Dark

Directed by Makato Ohtake

Sakichi Sato is a master of oddball cinema. The mastermind behind the scripts for Takeshi Miike’s Ichi the Killer and Gozu and writer/director of his own Tokyo Zombie; Sakichi has shown that no subject is too taboo or bizarre for him to tackle. So naturally a story where a policeman can see numbers on people’s foreheads, but only when his is sporting a full erection, is something that should surprise none of Sato’s fans.

First some words on the odd and entertaining short film Dark on Dark. The film starts a simple scheme, as a man and enormously endowed woman gain money by charging money to men who subsequently have one of the woman’s breasts placed on their heads. Bald men are objects of jealousy as they “get skin on skin contact” and the men squeal delight. But this comedy also features a fight between school girls and a faction of what appears to be transvestites and a randy hot tub sequence amongst its goofiness. A very fun watch and perfect primer for the feature following it.

Zero Man begins when Sakuragi wakes up with total amnesia in a community police outpost, he’s also in uniform. When his partner returns he asks him a myriad of questions in an effort to discover who he truly is. Still hazy on his whereabouts and history Sakuragi discovers his amnesia has also come with another interesting twist, when he is erect and aroused he sees numbers on people’s foreheads. What do the numbers mean? Is the zero emblazoned on his forehead a reference to his virginity, if so then his partner has had 3 partners which makes sense but what about the American tourist with a 55 on his forehead? How about the young kid running around with a 13, or the mysterious woman who comes and stares at Sakuragi every day who has a 0.5? In an effort to discover the answers for all these questions Sakuragi embarks on a series of misadventures, mostly with his hand firmly down his pants, that lead to a startling discovery and near death situations along the way to his ultimate answer.

Sakichi Sato manages to imbue his crazy, insane dark comedy with a lot of laughs and some endearing performances, especially from our lead. The premise does lose some steam by the end of the movie, but the true revelation of the meaning of the numbers pulls the film together. The female lead does a fine job with what turns into a very challenging role by the time we find out everything. Long in parts, the film could have been edited a little more tightly. Sato still manages to put forth an entertaining experience.

Not of the level of his previous work, Zero Man does manage to work more than it doesn’t. Zero Man vs. the Half Virgin is a mild recommend.

Till Next Time,

Movie Junkie TO

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Shinsedai Cinema Fesival 2012 – Ringing in Their Ears Review (Kirk Haviland)

Shinsedai Cinema Festival 2012 (Toronto)

Ringing in their Ears

Starring – Fumi Nikaido, Kurumi Morishita, Tatsuya Sakamoto and Shinsei Kamattechan

Written and Directed by Yu Irie

The group Shinsei Kamattechan has become a formidable force to be dealt with in the Korean music scene its inception in 2007. Composed of members Noko (lead singer, guitar and keyboards, who also happens to be a shut-in), Mono (keyboards and guitar), Misako (Drums), and Chibagin (Bass), Shinsei grew a rabid fan-base by way of online videos and message boards as they are completely internet driven, including webcasting their live shows. Inspired by their story director Irie has crafted a fictional story set in the world of the band.

The characters of Ringing in their Ears are comprised of a single mom and her son. The mom works two jobs, cleaner by day/exotic dancer by night, to support herself and her young son. Her son is an avid Shinsei Kamattechan fan, to the point where he is constantly getting in trouble for watching videos at school, and is constantly glued to his laptop at home, most nights having to put himself to sleep. We are also introduced to a female high school student who happens to be a top Shogi (a game similar to chess) player in the final stages of a tournament she is excelling in. She is turned on to Shinsei by her boyfriend, who dumps her for her best friend when she can’t go to the Shinsei concert which is the same night as her tournament finals, and immediately connects with them. Her brother himself has become a complete shut-in after teaching her how to play Shogi and she has started to lash out and pull away from her parents who are determined she go to university instead of becoming a ‘pro’ shogi player. We are also given a band related story as their manager is pressured to change the lyrics for a song to make it more marketable and his grappling with the decision to support the label or the band.

The film builds as it goes towards the climatic live show which really delivers. All the performances for Shinsei Kamattechan are electric in the film and really deliver. Apparently they are even much better than their real live performances. The Shogi playing High School girl (Nikaido) really is endearing and fascinating in a great performance. The child obsessed with Shinsei also performs admirably. The band comes off fairly well, but there isn’t a lot of their acting in the film which works well to hide their limitations. As I’ve stated the music really does soar on-screen and Director Irie really capture the frenetic essence of the band’s stage show well here.

Ringing in their ears may be a very good introduction to the world of J-Pop and Japanese music for the uninitiated and still manages to tell a good story in the process. Ringing in their ears is a recommend.

Till Next Time,

Movie Junkie TO

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Contact me at moviejunkieto@gmail.com

Fantasia 2012 – Festival Preview (Matt Hodgson)

Fantasia 2012 Website and Tickets

As I write this I’m sitting in the home of a good friend who has been kind enough to let me sleep on his couch in Montreal. He’s a few years younger than I am and I imagine he is still accustomed to the life of a young bachelor. He has a couple of roommates and it certainly looks like the guys are getting their money’s worth out of their apartment. But I’m grateful, the living conditions don’t…sorry I had to shake a splinter cell of ants off of my arm. I was saying that the living conditions don’t bother me. Having spent the previous six months in Europe I have discovered a new realm of brokeness. I spent nearly the last of my funds on a duty-free box of Earl Grey Tea at Heathrow airport. The Earl on my empty paper tea package (at least I assume he’s an Earl) is looking up at me with a mixture of admiration and disdain. If he could talk I’m sure he would say ‘Jolly good show…wanker’. But how can he hold these contrasting opinions of me? I’ll tell you why: because despite my severely limited funds I am about to cover Fantasia Film Festival for the very first time. For those of you not familiar with this name, it means that I will be watching 3 – 4 movies a day for the next three weeks. Horror movies, action movies, martial arts, sci-fi, anime, thrillers…the possibilities seem endless! Who needs luxuries? With over 160 films screening from July 19^th – August 9^th, I have everything I need. Maybe I’ll bring the Earl and the ants along to one of the shows.

Here are some great reasons to check out the fest (descriptions and tickets at the links):

Frightening Horror

Horror is a staple for any genre-based film festival and Fantasia is no different. It seems like previous years have had more horror films screening at Fantasia, but this year still has more than enough to satisfy any horror afficiando looking for scares, gore, atmosphere, or just a horror/comedy to have a good laugh.

A Night of Nightmares

Gorgeous Animation

At any festival some of my favourite screenings always turn out to be animated movies aimed at adults. So as you can imagine I will be losing sleep over this year’s offerings as some seriously dark and mature titles round out Fantasia’s animated line-up.

Blood-C: The Last Dark

Gyo: Tokyo Fish Attack

The King of Pigs

Asura

Asian Cinema

It would be a tall task to put together a longer list of new Asian films than Fantasia has done in 2012. It seems like the festival has always had a great relationship with many Japanese filmmakers, and don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of intriguing Japanese films in the line-up, but also films from the Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, continental China, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines and India. Fantasia does not take the ‘International Film Festival’ label lightly!

Dragon

Reign of Assassins

Blood Letter

The Wild, Wacky, and Weird

Looking through the program I’ve read about multiple movies that I cannot even begin to imagine on-screen. Zombie pieces of nigiri? Really? An ultra-violent musical? An action-packed courtroom battle? A feature length film seemingly centred around a zombie ass? They may sound like jokes, but many of these completely bonkers concept will probably be some of the best movies at the fest.

World Premieres

Finally, reviews like myself enjoy nothing more than attending world premieres. Being in the audience for the first public screening of a film can be a very special experience. The anticipation, the energy in the crowd, and the responsibility that comes with being one of the first to write a review for a film. Fantasia has no shortage of World Premieres this year.

See you at the festival!

At Entertainment Maven we are also very happy to announce that the short film Familiar, previously covered by Kirk at Little Terrors will also be screening Fantasia. Congrats guys!

Fantasia 2012 Website and Tickets

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The Collapsed DVD Review (Kirk Haviland)

The Collapsed DVD review

Starring – John Fantasia, Steve Vieira, Anna Ross and Lise Moule

Written by Justin McConnell and Kevin Hutchinson

Directed by Justin McConnell

The world of low budget genre films seems proliferated by three different types of films, zombie films, one room/house supernatural thrillers, and apocalyptic end of the world set pieces. With so many out there it truly is difficult to make something original and enticing for fans of the genre. Canadian Filmmaker Justin McConnell brings us his take on the apocalypse with The Collapsed, released on DVD from Anchor Bay entertainment.

The Collapsed is the story of a family after a mysterious infection has turned most of the world against each other. Trying to stay together and lie low while cannibals/murders roam the streets the Weaver family, consisting of Father Scott (Fantasia), Son Aaron (Vieira), Mother Emily (Moule) and Daughter Rebecca (Ross), decide to head north out of the city back to Dover’s Bend, the country home where they used to live, to find out if the missing member of the family Daniel is still alive. One sleepless night spent in an abandoned subway station later the family finds a car and takes off for Dover’s Bend. An altercation in a gas station which sends the family scrambling to the woods for refuge, which ends up costing them dearly. As the intrepid survivors soldier on the lines between reality and fiction blur as we get closer to discovering the truth behind everything.

As a film The Collapsed is a bit of a mixed bag. Clearly there is talent behind the camera with Justin McConnell as the film looks way better than the $40,000 budget would allow you to think it should be. Not every performance works, I feel the mother and daughter do not come off as strong with Moule’s performance striking as very wooden in moments, but Fantasia’s lead performance is quite strong and keeps the film together. The material isn’t anything we haven’t seen before and thus sometimes seems derivative, but it also has sequences that are extremely effective. Not a genre defining film by any means, The Collapsed still delivers enough to place it above a lot of the dreck that can come from the genre.

The DVD is technically sound with an excellent sound mix and crisp picture. The one thing that pushes the DVD over the top, maybe even into the “must buy” category is the superb hour long making of documentary included on the disc. This is an excellent documentary of how a low budget indie gets made in little to no time and is something that aspiring filmmakers should benefit from viewing. The disc also features two commentary tracks with a director/producer track and another track featuring lead actor Fantasia. A series of television interviews from Space, G4 and Naked News, a music video and the traditional trailer gallery are also included.

While The Collapsed would have teetered around the mild recommend level if this were a theatrical review, the hour long documentary really does push this firmly into the recommend category as a DVD purchase. The Collapsed is available now at most retailers.

Till Next Time,

Movie Junkie TO

Follow me on twitter @moviejunkieto

Contact me at moviejunkieto@gmail.com