Tak Sakaguchi has been a busy man in 2008. In addition to choreographing fights for Tokyo Gore Police and serving as action director for High School Girl Rika: Zombie Hunter, he directed two features this year: Be a Man! Samurai School and Samurai Zombie (Yoroi) . Twitch sat down with him in Dallas, Texas on Wednesday, August 20, 2008 in order to gain some insight into his current and future projects. The discussion, which was conducted with translation assistance by Chiho Mori, focused on his most recent output, including United Red Army, Samurai Zombie (Yoroi), and the rumored Versus sequel. He also provided some information about a new project he has in development. As usual, details are contained beneath the fold.
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The Asian Film Festival of Dallas (AFFD) concludes on Thursday, August 21, 2008 with a screening of Tak Sakaguchi’s directorial debut Be A Man! Samurai School. Sakaguchi is the festival’s 2008 special guest, and has flown into Dallas, Texas exclusively for the screening. Tak kindly provided us with the latest demo reel for his Zero’s action team, which is to say the least, completely on fire. Anyone even reasonably close to the Dallas area should seriously consider making the screening as Sakaguchi has brought Isao Karasawa, who is one of his lead stuntmen, and there will be a live demonstration before the event. The demo reel is contained beneath the fold.
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Something strange is afoot in Joko Anwar’s supernatural noir Kala , which takes place in an unnamed city in an unnamed nation. Eros is a detective who investigates the murder of a group of men killed by a mob operating freely under a new morality law. Janus, a narcoleptic journalist, is pursued by mysterious men after surreptitiously recording a conversation involving the wife of the murdered man. These two people’s lives are further entangled after one of Janus’s friends is killed, and Eros is put on the case. As time progresses, it is revealed that these separate threads are all linked through both supernatural and human mechanisms.
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If for no other reason, The Rebel should be applauded for how tightly the fight scenes are integrated into the story. Superbly choreographed and executed, the eye-defying twists, turns, kicks, and punches are delivered with brutal force and deadly intent. The characters are literally fighting for their lives, and we can almost believe that they are reenactments of true events.
On second thought, belief would have to be stretched beyond credulity to think that any of the fight scenes could really have happened. But within the universe that has been created for the film, the action sequences feel authentic. Sure, the performers are glamorized and the choreography comes across very much as an extended showcase for them, but what a showcase!
What enables the film to transcend the appearance of a show reel? Clearly this was a passion project for everyone involved, but rather than be satisfied with churning out a modern action spectacle featuring Vietnamese talent, director Charlie Nguyen and his filmmaking partners decided to cast a spotlight on a lesser-known era in Vietnam’s history. So even though the film falls victim to most of the cliches associated with “war-torn action adventures,” the setting helps distinguish it, as does the filmmakers’ determination not to pull any punches with the vision they had for the project.
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Feng Xiaogang’s Assembly (Ji jie hao) is a war film with an epic sweep. Assembly , which tells the true story of an infantry commander during the Chinese Civil War, presents both the intensity of battle and the quest for peace and recognition by those who give their lives in times of war.
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Comedies inevitably lose some of their spark the second time around, so I was curious to see how Maiko Haaaan!!! would play for me when it screened at the Asian Film Festival of Dallas (AFFD) this weekend. I first encountered it at Fantastic Fest last year with zero expectations; I instantly connected with the zany sense of humor and broadly-played characters and had a blast, as did the audience.
Any concerns I had were laid to rest in the first scene. The Dallas audience was ready for a little craziness and responded enthusiastically. The contagious laughter made it easy to enjoy a second time through, and I also picked up on more of the subtle humor that I’d missed the first time.
As I wrote previously, Maiko Haaaan!!! lives up to expectations as a “crazy Japanese comedy,” but it actually has much more to offer.
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Hideo Nakata’s L: Change the World has had a healthy life on the festival circuit, and has recently been released on Region 3 DVD. L is a sequel to the popular Death Note series, which explains why the film might be a popular programming choice. On an overall level, however, it is somewhat difficult to see the appeal of L: Change the World to anyone beyond young people, and hardcore fans of the original films and the manga upon which it is based.
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Given the amount of coverage that Tokyo Gore Police (Tôkyô zankoku keisatsu) gets on Twitch, it is easy to forget that the film has not been released on DVD and has only screened a few times in the United States. The latest U.S. screening of Yoshihiro Nishimura’s film occurred on August 15, 2008 at the Asian Film Festival of Dallas (AFFD). Tokyo Gore Police deserves the attention its been getting because it is a great riff on films such as Robo-Cop but with a unique Japanese flavor.
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