Reel Asian Film Festival 2019

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Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Tuesday, 05 November 2019 21:47

Written by Gilbert Seah

The Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival 2019

The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival® is a unique showcase of contemporary Asian cinema and work from the Asian diaspora. Works include films and videos by East, South and Southeast Asian artists in Canada, the U.S., Asia and all over the world. As Canada’s largest Asian film festival, Reel Asian® provides a public forum for Asian media artists and their work, and fuels the growing appreciation for Asian cinema in Canada.

The (23rd) Reel Asian International Film Festival runs from November the 7th to the 15th, 2019 in downtown Toronto. 

Capsule reviews of selected films (as recommended by the ReelAsian publicist) follows below this article.

For more information and a full schedule of screenings, please check its website at:

http://www.reelasian.com/festival/

Capsule Reviews of Selected Films

COME DRINK WITH ME (Hong Kong 1966) ****
Directed by King Hu

Undeniably the best film to be shown at the Asian Film Festival this year and free as well, COME DRINK WITH ME a must-see if you have not already seen it.  This is the film that sprouted the wuxia swords sagas and the film that catapulted its director King Hu to fame.  King Hu went on to make DRAGON INN and A TOUCH OF ZEN followed by classics like the stunning RAINING IN THE MOUNTAIN and THE LEGEND OF THE MOUNTAIN.  COME DRNIK WITH ME,a Shaw Brothers production stars starlet Cheng Pei-pei as Golden Swallow, 20 at the time of the making of the film, as the swords lady extraordinaire.  Golden Swallow’s task is to free her captive brother from bandits led by an evil Abbott.  It all sounds terribly delicious.  All the elements of a classic sworsdsaga are present, including a fight at an inn, unparalleled sword fights and incredible acrobatics.  COME DRINK WITH ME influenced Ang Lee’s CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN TIGER that also featured Cheng as an elderly fighter named Jade Fox.  Free screening November 1st at the Innis Town Hall at 8 pm.

Trailer: (unavailable)

GYOPO (South Korea/Canada 2019) **

Directed by Samuel Keehoon Lee

GYOPOS is abut gyopos.  A “gyopo” is someone of Korean descent who has been raised abroad.  The film opens impressively in black and white, probably because director Lee draws his inspiration from Jacques Tati’s black and white comedies like PLAYTIME.  Samuel Kiehoon Lee’s first feature tells the intimate stories of gyopos who have made a journey to Korea, only to find themselves outsiders in the country that gave birth to their parents.  Lee weaves together vignettes from a diverse band of well-educated 20 and 30-somethings as they get drunk, laugh, fall in love, and get into fistfights over a 24-hour period in Seoul.  sounds better than it is!  Instead of nuance, heart, humour, and snark, Gyopo’s portrait of the gyopo experience is misguided, non-directional confusing and eventually disorienting.  Lee could have down a much better job with fewer characters and concentrate n maybe just one or two and tacked their passage of coming-of-age.  Lee shows potential but it is wasted potential in the case of this film.

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/282166133

LOVE BOAT TAIWAN (Canada/Taiwan 2019) ***
Directed by Valerie Soe

Thee is no boat in LOVE BOAT TAIWAN.  That is the nickname given to the Taiwanese program designed to attract young Taiwanese and Chinese visitors from abroad to spend a few weeks in Taiwan to be immersed in Taiwanese culture.  A typical daily routine involves a flag raising ceremony, Mandarin language lessons, Chinese brush painting and martial-arts training before being taken on a bus for an afternoon excursion, often to visit Chang-Lei Check monuments.  The program is not totally successful as the young ones , being youthful are rebellious are out for a good time, often breaking curfew to go partying.  The film is comprised of interviews of past visitors who lend both their humour and points-of-view on what they experienced.  Director Soe knows that her doc is to be taken in with a grain of salt, resulting in an entraining while enlightening documentary on her bananas.  These visitors are called bananas as they are yellow on the outside and white on the inside. 

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzEZ1glkebo

THE MIRACLE OF CRYBABY SHOTTAN (Japan 2019) ***

Directed by Toshiaki Toyoda

Shogi is the name of Japanese chess.  This film tells the true story of shogi (Japanese chess) player, Shoji “Shottan” Segawa. Despite consistent dedication, Shottan (Ryuhei Matsuda) fails to go professional by the time he turns 26, permanently forfeiting his chance according to the game’s strict rules. Shottan does not abandon his dream and continues as a top amateur until, at 35, he makes an unprecedented bid to go professional.  MIRACLE is a feel good crowd pleaser that works best when the unexpected occurs - showing that life can dish up unexpected twists.  And that is the miracle and wonder of it all.  The film is inspired by the director’s

personal shogi experience (he trained to go professional as an adolescent).   This tale of late-blooming self-realization is an inspirational study of perseverance against all odds.  Both a sensitive character study a fascinating glimpse into the closed world of shogi, director Toyoda’s film though based on the chess player’s biography does not feel like one.  A bit lengthy at over 2 hours, the film could be improved if edited more tightly.   Excellent camerawork too!                                                                                                                          

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=X_lJlO172zc

WE ARE LITTLE ZOMBIES (Japan 2019) **

Directed by Makakoto Nagahisa

WE ARE LITTLE ZOMBIES is a bad and boring film but at least off to a promising start for a while before unfortunately fizzling out.  This is not a film about zombies though a few references are made to them.  It is a story of 4 children Hikari, Ikuko, Ishi and Takemura with bad parents.  The parents have died in different ways but the four orphaned children who meet in a Tokyo crematorium relate their stories under the narration of the first boy.  The first story is the most interesting.  Before one can get attached to this child, the film shifts to the next.  The disorientation is only matched by another less interesting tale of childhood angst.  The film, a long haul, is deliberately made to feel like a video game (with fast edits, fast motion and jump cuts) which soon loses its lacklustre.  The kids (three assorted boys and a girl) deliberately made to be un-cute by Nagahisa eventually form a band and sing mediocre songs.  The point to all this is that it is better to stay alive but there are better ways to get this message across.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_-9wNeRLSs

YELLOW ROSE (Philippines/USA 2019) **
Directed by Diane Paragas

Rose Garcia (Eva Noblezada) is a young Filipino teen going to school with dreams of becoming a country singer.  She is quite good, evident from the songs that she sings, and she goes under the wings of famous country singer Dale Watson (playing himself).  But trouble brews when her mother, Priscilla (Princess Punzala) gets arrested and faces deportation back to the Philippines for being an illegal alien.  The lazy script fails to explain how they got to the U.S. and why Rose’s aunt and husband is wealthy (supposedly legal) American citizens.  What is most corny is the use of songs to to state the heroine’s current emotional state.  When Rose is down, for example, she croons the lyrics: “You can take the roof from above my head, but you can’t take my freedom away…”  For lack of a credible happy ending, the film does best with Rose performing one of her songs on stage, again with the corny lyrics telling the audience of Rose’ s new state of affairs:  “You can’t get the best of me.  I ain’t going down.’ I’ll be standing tall’.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTEGWKFO9Jk

Film Review: Grace A Dieu

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Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Tuesday, 15 October 2019 20:21

Written by Gilbert Seah

GRACE A DIEU (By the Grace of God) (France 2018) ****
Directed by Francois Ozon

French veteran director Francois Ozon has made his name with upbeat comedic drama like SITCOM, LES AMANTS CRIMINELS (The Criminal Lovers), SWIMMING POOL and others.  His mood takes in turn to sombreness in his latest offering GRACE A DIEU (By the Grace of God).  The film is a fictional account inspired by the real life and trials Father Preynat, implicated for acts of pedophilia dating back to 1986.  With a case still then pending before the French courts, the film created an unprecedented controversy and the Father Preynat's lawyer even asked for the postponement of its release.  At present, French justice has ruled and authorized the film’s release in France in February.  Since then, Father Bernard Preynat has been found guilty of sex abuse of minors and defrocked.

This film tells the moving incredible story.

The film first centres on Alexandre (Melvil Poupaud of Xavier Dolan’s LAURENCE ANYWAYS) living in Lyon with his wife and children. One day he learns by chance that the priest who abused him, Father Preynat when he was in scouts is still working with children.  

The consequences are deeply rooted in Alexandre’s life.  He confronts Preynat who admits the deed but does not ask for forgiveness.  The important moment is examined in the film when Alexandre tells his wife that if Preynat went on bended knee to ask for his forgiveness, he would not know what to do.  The wife replies that if Alexandre forgave him, he would be Preynat’s victim forever.  The film also debates the fact that the church’s aim is forgiveness and redemption at the expense of the victim.  “I don’t want forgiveness,” says Alexandre. “I want Other Preynat sanctioned.  He is a danger to children.”

Alexandre decides to take action and is soon joined by two other victims of the priest, François and Emmanuel. They band together to "lift the burden of silence" surrounding their ordeal. But the repercussions and consequences will leave no one unscathed.  Based on events from the 2019 conviction of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon for concealing the conduct of Father Bernard Preynat, the film  compassionately illustrates the varying effects of trauma on survivors and their families in this urgent portrait of resistance, the power of mobilization, and the mysteries of faith. 

Ozon’s film might not stop child abuse in the Catholic Church forever but his heavy guilt-laden film will almost certainly make the guilty ashamed.

Ozon is known for his twisted sense of humour as evident in his breakthrough film SITCOM or his gay re-telling of the Hansel and Gretel story in LES AMANTS CRIMINELS.  Not much humour can be found in GRACE A DIEU, but he includes one quote of Father Preynat’s victims: “In my life, I have only made love to 3 people - me , my wife and Father Preynat”

The film finally gets a release in Canada on October 18th after official selection at the Halifax, Cinefest Sudbury and Vancouver Film Festival. Grand Jury Prize winner at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, BY THE GRACE OF GOD is a film, told as it is in all its sensitivity and dead seriousness and should be seen for its subject of pedophilia in the Catholic church to be revealed.

Trailer: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8095860/videoplayer/vi2285091353?ref_=tt_pv_vi_aiv_1

Film Review: Synonymes (Synonyms)

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Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Monday, 28 October 2019 22:11

Written by Gilbert Seah

SYNONYMES (SYNONYMS) (France/Israel 2019) ****

Directed by Nadav Lapid

SYNONYMS is director Nadav Lapid’s new film after THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHER which to me was mediocre but there are segments in SYNONYMES, supposedly based on the director’s own experiences that blew me away.  I describe two in the following paragraphs that absolutely blew me away.

The film follows young Israeli ex-soldier Yoav (played by newcomer Tom Mercier, in an incredible performance), who moves to Paris hoping to escape his national identity.  This where the film opens.  After his first night, Yoav wakes up naked in an empty apartment with all of his belongings gone, and is soon taken in by a neighbouring, young, wealthy couple.  Armed with a pocket-sized French dictionary, Yoav refuses to speak his native Hebrew as he desperately tries to immerse himself in French society.  Living on only a few francs a day, he bounces from job to job on a wildly erratic journey, attempting to assimilate into a seemingly impenetrable culture. 

SYNONYMS plays occasionally like a French version of Martin Scorsese’s TAXI DRIVER.  Yoav's character is incredibly vague and the film hints of his possible outbursts just as they occurred in the Robert De Niro taxi driver character. 

The strength of Lapid’s film lies in its unpredictability, in Yoav’s character in particular.  Does Yoav’s character end up violent and fucked up as in TAXI DRIVER?  Or is he something else.  In one of the film’s best moments set in a bar, Yoav witnesses Jewish abuse at a stranger but says nothing.  He then relates the story of his hero Hector of Troy and his battle against Achilles when Hector ran around nine days before facing Achilles.  Then you are a coward, retorts his friend.

The film’s other best scene is the seductive sexual scene between Yoav and Emile.   Director Lapid also blurs Yoav's sexual preferences.  Yoav is already shown at the film's start to be an incredibly sexy ex-soldier as depicted in full frontal nude scenes in the empty apartment where he douches.  They almost indulge in an erotic embrace while listening to classical music.  The beauty of it all is that the music is inaudible to the audience as the scene has Yoav and Emile wearing headphones.  But they moan in ecstasy for hearing the beautiful classics music which sounds also like two men having a sexual encounter.  Before anything can really happen. Caroline calls out to Emile.

Director Lapid realizes the power of musical numbers in film.  This he demonstrates in  two of the film’s energetic moments.  One is the rendering of the song by two women of “Hallelujah”  during  military funeral and the other, a hilarious segment (great camera work and editing by the director's mother here) where Yoav steals food in a club amidst beautiful ladies dancing to “Pump Up the Jam”.

SYNONYMS is one of the most spirited films of the year - never mind the theme or message, and a great pleasure to watch!

Trailer: https://cineuropa.org/fr/video/369704/rdid/365712/#cm (en franca is sans sous-titres anglaises)

Toronto International Film Festival TIFF 2019 Capsule Reviews

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Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Wednesday, 04 September 2019 10:06

Written by Gilbert Seah

Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2019 Capsule Reviews of French Films

The Toronto International Film Festival 2019 version runs from Thursday 5th September for 11 days till the 16th with the whole list of Gala Presentations and smaller films to whet very moviegoer’s appetite.  Stars will line the red carpet following their films.  

Ticket pricing is getting more complicated with a different tier in prices depending on whether a screening is evening or day or rush or for a regular or e capsule reviewed.premium feature.  Best to check the website at:

tiff.net

Below are capsule reviews of selected Frenchfilms that are screened at this year’s TIFF.  This article will be updated daily as new films are capsule reviewed.

French films are those shot wholly or paryially in French or films with France listed with a co-production credit. 

For a more complete set of capsule reviews inclduing non-Frecnh films, please chck our sister website at:https://afrotoronto.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1893&catid=67

CAPSULE REVIEWS:

THE AUDITION (Das Vorspiel) (GERMANY/FRANCE 2019) ****

Directed by Ina Weisse

An intense study of how obsession can not only destroy the person concerned but those around the person.  A stern, particular violin teacher, Anna (Nina Hoss) becomes fixated on the success of one of her pupils at the expense of her family life,  from acclaimed German actor Ina Weisse who co-wrote the script with Daphné Charizan.   It all starts at the school's annual entrance exam, and despite the opposition of the other teachers, Anna promotes the admission of Alexander (Ilja Monti), a boy in whom she detects a remarkable talent.  Her relationship with Philippe (Simon Abkarian), her charming, violinmaking French husband, with whom she has a 10-year-old son Jonas (Serafin Mishiev), is in slow decline.  Besides the brilliantly acted drama, the violin concertos are extremely well orchestrated.  Hoss carries the film just as well as a violin virtuoso captures an audience.  Director Weisse steers the intensity a terrifying climax.  Shot in German and French.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCGuMKbrASw

ATLANTIQUE (ATLANTICS) (France/Senegal/Belgium 2019) ***
Directed by Mati Diop

Fleeing across the sea from Africa as refugees to Spain.  Things are hard for the young as director Diop tackles current problems like unemployment, abuse of local workers (unpaid wages by the exploiting rich) and arranged marriages.  The protagonist is a young girl who is in love with a local but forced to marry a rich man she does not love.  Trouble is that the one she loves takes off in a raft for Spain leaving her to her own devices.  Director Diop paints a bleak bleak future for everyone.  The addition of the supernatural - the dead of the exploited workers that return from their graves does not really work into the story.  Neither does the sick cop who threatens the young bride for burning her groom’s bed on the wedding night.  But the film came away wit a Grand Prix Winner at Cannes.

Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZuaXBQqFC4

LA BELLE EPOQUE (France 2019) ***

Directed by Nicolas Bedos

A high concept comedy that turns out to smart for its execution, This French comedy follows an old fashioned cartoonist, Victor (Daniel Auteuil) no out of work as print makes way to  websites that do not favour cartoons.  To make matters worse, his wife, Marianne (Fanny Ardant) is totally modern with her self driving Tesla, virtual reality and artificial intelligence and bored with him.  Victor engages in a service called ‘Time Travellers’ that take client their past historical moments.  Victor hicks 1974 where he meets and falls in love with his wife when they first met.  Writer/director Bedos (MR. & MRS ADELMAN) creates an original premise blending modern technology with old-fashioned French romance.  Bedos edits his film really  quickly at quite the manic pace so that the audience has hardly any time to breathe, often forgetting the simplicity of comedy.  Still this is Bedos’ unique style that is still entertaining with this film demanding a Hollywood remake int he future.  Auteuil and Ardant are a delight to watch on screen,

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0mF-ORDp7I

LE DAIM (DEERSKIN (France 2019) ****
Directed by Quentin Dupieux 

DEERSKIN (LE DAIM) is off kilter comedy best described as humour that is a cross between Jacques Tati and Yorgos Lanthimos.  The film is irrelevant and features comedic set-ups like a talking deerskin jacket and a killing fan blade.  The protagonist of the story is an odd enough character, Georges (Oscar Winner Jean Dujardin of THE ARTIST) that goes mental with his ultimate goal in life to be the only one to be wearing a jacket.  To achieve this aim, he has to kill of or steal from anyone with a jacket.  In addition, with a gift of a video camera, he poses as a filmmaker.  When staying at a hotel after his wife leaves him, he meets an equally weird bartender, Denise (Adele Haenel0 who ends up being his film editor.  Director Dupieux (the little seen RUBBER) has the talent of observing the simple hilarity from everyday human behaviour.  And like the Jacques Tati comedies, LE DAIM can be watched again and again.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQQmm2tvJ9A

A GIRL MISSING (Japan/France 2019) **

Directed by Koji Fukada

A nurse, Ichiko (Mariko Tsutsui) goes to a hair salon and asks for a particular Kazumichi Yoneda (Sosuke Ikematsu) to cut her hair, while introducing herself using a different name.  He asks her if it is her first time and she says that he had never cut her hair before.  The explanation she tells him later on in the film is ‘revenge’  an act thought out similar to Lina Wertmuller’s 1972 excellent satire THE SEDUCTION OF MIMI.  But this film has none of the wit or bite of Wertmuller’s film.  Instead of being suspenseful and mysterious, Fukada only bores and confuses with its dual time-line story.  It takes a while before the audience can figure out what is really going on.  The story and message is how an incident in the past - a child kidnapping can affect ones future.  But isn’t this not the case for most incidents?  Ichiko also has a romance and an engagement with a doctor but this is one relationship that is the most unaffectionate in any film I have seen this year.  Apparently director Kukada has his heart missing in the making of this film.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzaXgx2tVuY

MARTIN EDEN (Italy/France 2019) ***
Directed by Pietro Marcello

Based on the Jack London novel of the same name, Pietro Marcello’s latest film follows a sailor, MARTIN EDEN (Luca Marinelli) trying to remake himself as a writer, in this passionate and timeless story of class consciousness and failed ideals.  The story is reset to a port town in Italy.  Eden has two things going against him in life.  The first is his falling in love with Elena (Jessia Cressy) who s wealthy and upper-class and way over his social standing.  This second is his desire to succeed and make his living as a writer that is as difficult a vocation as his survival in poverty.  Worst still, his ideals in socialism makes him extremely unpopular with Elena’s family while getting him into trouble with the locals.  Does Martin Eden survive?  Hardly as displayed in a rigorous telling of a tale of hardship and perseverance.  The period piece is beautifully shot by cinematographers Francesco Di Giacomo and Alessandro Abate.  Actor Marinelli, who has been playing everything from a doomed lover to a drug pusher in the past few years (THEY CALL ME JEEG) has finally got a role to be reckoned with. 

Trailer: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4516162/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_3 (in Italian)

PORTRAIT DE LA JUENE FILLE EN FEU (PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE)

 (France 2019) **** Directed by Céline Sciamma

Set in 18th-century Brittany, Portrait of a Lady on Fire follows Marianne (Noémie Merlant), an artist commissioned by an Italian noblewoman (Valeria Golino) to paint a portrait of her reclusive daughter Héloïse (Adèle Haenel), who is soon to be married. The peculiar conditions of this assignment, however, require that Marianne never  announce to Héloïse the objective of her visit.  Instead, Marianne is to escort Héloïse on walks, posing as a hired companion while closely observing her subject so as to render her likeness on canvas in secret.  Though nothing much happens, the film includes scenes of exquisite beauty courtesy of the cinematographer  Claire Mathon who did STRANGER BYTHE LAKE back in 2013.  The shot of the facial expressions of the three women playing cards and the one with the household breaking into a chorus of song are incredibly moving.  It takes 3/4 of the film before the two women embrace, and the segments are executed with grace and erotic taste.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64QcwARoZAM

WASP NETWORK (France/Belgium/Spain/Brazil 2019) ***
Directed by Olivier Assayas

WASP NETWORK is a multi-level political thriller that tells the story of numerous characters set in the Cuban American cold war.  Director Assayas did CARLOS which spanned a 181-minute lengthy running time.  WASP NETWORK has more stories to tell and it seems really rushed in Assayas’ storytelling in this 2-hour film.  The primary story is set in December 1990. Airline pilot René González (Edgar Ramírez) steals a plane and flees Cuba, which is about to topple into an economic crisis precipitated by the collapse of the Soviet Union. Having abandoned his wife (Oscar winner Penelope Cruz) and daughter, René, now based in Miami, is regarded as a coward and a traitor, though in letters home he explains that he is fighting for a more just and prosperous Cuba as a member of the activist organization Brothers to the Rescue.  Another character is fellow exile and pilot Juan Pablo Roque (Wagner Moura). René gradually becomes more aware of the moral compromises the Brothers make to do their work — and the degree to which the CIA is involved in supporting anti-Castro activities.  Director Assayas makes the CIA the story’s chief villain.

Trailer: https://www.cineuropa.org/en/video/rdID/375491/f/t/

LA VERITE (THE TRUTH) (France/Japan 2019) **
Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda

Japanese director Kore-eda’s (AFTER LIFE, THE SHOPLIFTERS. LIKE FATHER LIKE SON) first foray into a film shooting France in French with French stars outside his homeland of Japan sees mother and daughter played by Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche.  The pair come together after the mum, an actress of many films has written her memoirs in whcih she is the ideal mother.  Daughter comes to town with husband played by Ethan Hawke and daughter in tow.  Family resentments and the past re-surfaces.  The film also comments on art imitating life.  The film feels and comes off as total fluff with a few amusing lines, particularly those written for Deneuve.  Hawke is not given much to do and it shows.  Kore-eda looks totally out of place in this really mediocre work from an artist who can do much. much better.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEVedePfqlY

ZOMBI CHILD (France 2019) ***
Directed by Bertrand Bonello

Accomplished film shot and set in Haiti based on local voodoo practices and folklore.  It is the 1960s Haiti as well as a boarding school in France where a schoolgirl, Fanny (Louise Labeque) dabbles in voodoo to settle her problems.  The film begins with what is supposedly based on the real-life story of a Haitian who suddenly collapses on the street and turns into zombie when buried.  He is dug up and forced to work in a sugar cane plantation.  There is a preachy and lengthy segment at the start regarding colonialism and cultural mis-appropriation.  It is a slow burn but director Bonello (born in Nice who also directed SAINT LAURENT) captures the atmosphere and superstition of the locals.  A sort of coming-of-age story mixed with a little horror and suspense that occasionally works.  A minot hit when the film premiered in Cannes this year.

Trailer: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7gnky2