That Japanese college students donning wrestling masks and tights to try their hand at flamboyant professional style wrestling would prove entertaining came as no surprise.  That it could be as touching, heartfelt and emotionally satisfying as it is in Gachi Boy - a very deserving winner of the Audience Award at the Udine Far East Film Festival 2008 – came as a shock of the highest order.  Sure to be a huge crowd pleaser as it rolls out on the festival circuit Gachi Boy is a remarkably piece of work that fully exploits its sublimely ridiculous premise for comic effect while also finding a deeply human heart to the proceedings.

Continue Reading "FANTASIA: GACHI BOY Review"...

Long time Twitch readers may well remember us talking about Filipino horror film Sigaw a couple years back.  Written and directed by Yam Laranas it came late enough in the run of Asian horror films – and in some ways played to the standard conventions of the genre enough - that many overlooked it but Sigaw was such a well crafted little gem of a film that introduced some subtle changes to the genre that I truly believe it is one of the last truly important films to come out of that initial Asian horror boom.

And so I have been tracking with great interest the development of the English language version of the film.  Titled The Echo it again puts Laranas at the controls shooting a script adapted from his own by the writing duo of Eric Bernt and Shintaro Shimosawa.  The result feels more like a riff on the themes that drove the original film than a straight up remake and it is arguably the most art house oriented picture to come out of Roy Lee’s very commercially minded – in a good way – Vertigo Entertainment.

Continue Reading "FANTASIA: THE ECHO Review"...

Now is as good a time as any to take a poll of the Twitch readership on whether or not they’ve had a chance to catch Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza’s verité horror flick [●REC] which has been circulating festivals for many a month, but more or less buried in North America, outside the fest circuit, due to the impending release of the English language remake of the film (Quarantine).  The DVD is now available with English Subs, and while we don’t condone it around these parts, I think it is safe to say that one person or another may have rode the torrent of anticipation due to lack of availability.  After shopping around the sequel to the original [●REC] around Cannes this year, it looks like a One Sheet has found its way online, a typical teaser style one sheet that provides a handy excuse for this impromtu little poll. 

Have you seen [●REC] yet?  Think the nature and story of the film even warrants a sequel? 

The list of Cannes prize winners was released yesterday and at the top of the pile was Laurent Cantat’s Entre les murs with Gomorrah taking the Grand Prix.  Also scoring a major nod was Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Tokyo Sonata - taking the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize - which makes Todd a happy boy.  You’ll find the complete list below the break.

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The latest from hugely acclaimed Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa has been hailed as a major departure for the man behind existential horror gems such as Cure and Kairo (Pulse).  And in most ways it is, Kurosawa seeming to have wrapped up the horror phase of his career with Sakebi (Retribution).  Tokyo Sonata leaves the genre trappings behind entirely, operating instead as a low key family drama but if you leave the genre issue aside it is pure, one hundred percent recognizable Kurosawa and a sort of spiritual successor to Bright Future - a more mature, farther down the road of life look at the same issues of identity and purpose (or lack thereof) that drove his earlier hit film.

Continue Reading "TOKYO SONATA Review"...

Yes, it is my fifth day here in Cannes a day which henceforth shall be referred to as the day with the worst screening karma known to man.  My success rate getting to see the film sthat I planned to see?  One for four, and neither Tokyo nor Ashes of Time Redux were that one.  Sigh.  I feel like I can legitimately blame Harrison Ford for making me miss Tokyo ... it was a bad day to try and move around the Croisette ...

Anyway, there were still good things to be had.  Such as?  The promo for Ip Man, the Wilson Yip directed, Donnie Yen starring bio pic of Bruce Lee’s mentor.  The current promo is largely behind the scenes footage but also includes some final work and it all looks very, very impressive.  Donnie looks strong - you’d expect a strong effort from him considering how highly he regards Bruce Lee - as do the production values and the supporting cast. Fans of Fan Siu Wong - who we talked about a little while back thanks to his part in The Moss - will be glad to know it looks as though his role is pretty significant.

From there it was over to Russia’s Art Pictures to take a look at the eleven minute promo reel from Fyodor Bondarchuk’s upcoming scifi epic Inhabited Island.  What they’ve got is clearly designed to showcase the scope and action of the film and it thoroughly succeeds on that level.  This is a true epic, the world created for the film simply massive and - most importantly to me - seems to have a legitimate sense of history and culture built into it.  There’s no getting a sense of the film’s story from this reel and it was presented without any of the CG work done and with a temp score but the level of detail, intricacy of the action scenes and quality of the camera work is every bit as high as you’d expect from the director of the stellar 9th Company.

The one full screening of the day was four part horror anthology 4bia.  I expected the segments from the Shutter and Alone directorial duo Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom - making their solo debuts here - to be strong and both were - with Pisanthanakun’s entry showcasing a very strong sense of humor - but the best of the lot, in my opinion, came surprisingly from Iron Ladies director Yongyoot Thongkongtoon who puts together a remarkably effective and impeccably shot little piece of work.

Wrapping the day up was the Fantastic Fest karaoke extravaganza which climaxed with festival director Tim League trying to bully Troma founder Lloyd Kauffman into performing My Way shortly before the show was shut down by police thanks to noise complaints.  Those Texans ... they’re wacky ...

“Animated documentary”.

That’s two words you don’t often see combined, at least not when it’s about a full-length feature film. “Persepolis” would be the closest example, the only one I could mention. Yet there is currently another one of these gunning for the main prize in this year’s Cannes Gold Palm competition.

Yesterday the Dutch television networks showed some clips from the Cannes festival, including an interview with director Ari Folman who just finished “Waltz With Bashir”. It’s an animated documentary from Israel, and when some clips of it were shown my jaw hit the floor. This thing looks absolutely stunning. It consists mostly of real footage drawn over (rotoscoped, you might say), but the artists have allowed themselves much liberty with colors, lighting and the way faces are shown.

The end result is mesmerizing, and falls somewhere between “Renaissance” and the Charles Burns segment of “Fear(s) of the Dark”.

In the film, the director tries to answer the question why he cannot remember much from his military service days in Lebanon, back in the early eighties. When he starts investigating what it was he exactly did, visiting old friends and places, his memories come flooding back to him but to say they’re not pretty is the understatement of the year…

Already called one of the best war movies ever, “Waltz With Bashir” premiers in Cannes. Only time will tell if this praise is correct but DAMN I’m stoked to see this.

You can find trailers at the (beautiful) Waltz With Bashir website, and you should check them out.
Seriously, you should! 

I’ve been running in to Pete Tombs and Andy Starke of Mondo Macabro on a regular basis here in the Cannes Market and yesterday the duo were good enough to slip me a little something special to share with you, the Twitch faithful:  the brand new promotional spot for Rico Maria Ilarde’s upcoming Filipino b-flick Killdroid. The story of a high school girl who becomes the lover of an abandoned killer android - part of an abandoned military project - this one looks to pack as much camp value into every frame as humanly possible.

Before moving on to the promo itself it’s worth noting that this was shot in a single day to sell the concept of the film to potential investors.  The concepts are all in place and looking like good, trashy fun but these are not necessarily the final actors or representative of the final effects.  Got that?  Okay, you’ll find the promo below the break.

Continue Reading "An Exclusive Look At The Cannes Promo For Rico Ilarde’s KILLDROID!"...

Good news for cult film and zombie fans with word that Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Underground imprint has picked up recent Twitch fave Dance of the Dead for release in North America.  You’ll find the complete press release below the break and you can hit the link below for Collin’s review of the film.

Continue Reading "Cannes: DANCE OF THE DEAD Picked Up By Raimi’s Ghost House Underground"...

The screening burn out is starting to set in kids, but not to fear:  today saw the arrival of the best film of my Cannes experience so far.  But before I get to that I shall begin with notes on a few promos in the market.

First, as stated yesterday, I made checking out Painted Skin a priority today.  Now, when this was first announced there was mixed in with a good amount of excitement also a certain amount of sighing and wondering why the world needs another glossy neo-wuxia film.  Well, let me say this.  After watching the promo I immediately turned to the man with me from the production company and said, “Wow.  They haven’t made a film like this in Hong Kong for a long time.” To which he simply smiled and said, “I know.” This one’s way more Bride With White Hair than Hero and it looks very promising.

Also up on the Hong Kong action tip, I got to check out a promo made up of completely raw footage for Wu Jing’s Legendary Assassin.  Beyond the fact that it was still in very rough form and graced with one of the most hilariously over the top bits of English narration ever – apparently done a bit tongue in cheek – it looks decently well shot and there is certainly no shortage of action in this movie.  Nope.  And it’s all old fashioned Hong Kong ass whuppin – fists and feet meeting faces.  Wu must’ve been tired. 

The surprising promo of the day came at the Monte Cristo booth – where J-horror flick End Call is looking remarkably well shot and effective despite coming so late in that particular game – with Quick Gun Murugan.  I have no idea where to even begin with this.  It’s an Indian live action adaptation of a popular children’s cartoon about a garishly dressed, gun slinging vegetarian activist cowboy who guns down the enemies of cattle everywhere.  This looks daft beyond words and quite possibly in a very good way.  The scene where Murugan sprouts the eight arms of Shiva to gun down his opponents faster is just priceless …

High on the promo list tomorrow:  Yip Man and Inhabited Island.

Okay … full length screenings:  Som Tum also daft beyond words and pretty inconsistent but Nathan Jones actually makes for a decently charming lunk and one of the young female leads is clearly being groomed as another female action star for the studio following the success of Chocolate.  There are a number of good background fighters as well.

Nightmare Detective 2 is a good bit more experimental than the initial installment and is much more an exploration of the character than the sort of good guy / bad guy pursuit that the first film was – there’s not a true villain in the film per se – which will frustrate some fans of Tsukamoto and thrill others.  I’m definitely on the positive side.  Loads of impressive visuals, Matsuda brings some new layers to the part and nobody understands the bizarre logic of dreams better than Tsukamoto.

The big winner, however, was clearly JCVD which not only won the day but is far and away the best of the fifteen films I’ve seen here so far and I seriously doubt anything will knock it off its perch.  It’s less laugh-out-loud funny than it is very, very clever – which I think will be a big positive in terms of staying power and is certainly not to say that you won’t laugh a good bit during it – and is notably absent some scenes that were included in the early promos but this thing is just plain great on every level.  If Van Dammes’ goal was to recreate himself with this film than you can declare that mission a complete and total success.  He not only shows that he’s still got the action star goods but he also turns in – gasp! – a dramatic performance with some serious depth and proves himself a natural comic who doesn’t need to rely on cheap punch lines.  Beautifully shot and edited with a kick ass soundtrack and did I mention that it’s very, very smart?  Because it is.  And as an added – and very unexpected and unannounced surprise – Van Damme himself was in the room for the screening and seemed rather surprised and embarrassed, though still very gracious, when spotted.  He gave a wave and shook a few hands before hustling down to a rear exit once things wrapped.  And in response to the lady-friend’s repeated “queries” about why I don’t take more pictures when traveling, I proudly present this photograph of Jean Claude Van Damme’s left ear.

Right … the third full day at Cannes was once again dominated by screenings and the delivery of real Canadian maple syrup to a foolish LA dweller who believes that the US stuff is up to snuff.  Silly American.  What was good?

I began with a ten minute promo for Inju, the new French film based on a novel by Edogawa Rampo.  Now, I’m not a Rampo expert by any means and haven’t read the story this is sourced from but what I saw looked very, very good and seemed to accurately catch the stew of gothic terror, violence and sexual depravity that makes Rampo tick.  That most of the cast and crew are Japanese also means that the cultural issues should be handled reasonably well.  My hopes are rising for this one.

Also on the promo front, Shochiku showed off a reel of their newest stuff, including a lengthy spot of new footage from their upcoming Guilala revival from director Minoru Kawasaki.  Between the surprise box office success of Everything But Japan Sinks and the casting of Takeshi Kitano in the film I’d thought that maybe Kawasaki would push for a higher budget than he normally has to gloss things up a bit but nope … this is vintage stuff for him - very raw, very goofy and very fun.

Beyond that there were also three full screenings on the docket, all of them successful to various degrees.  Thai horror Art of the Devil 3 brings the gore in copious amounts and will please fans of the last film, Koki Mitani’s The Magic Hour seems to run a touch long but is absolutely golden for the bulk of its running time, and while Japanese actioner Chameleon is significantly less action-y than the trailers would have you believe – there are only two significant action sequences in the film – what action there is is spectacular and the dramatic work is also more than solid which makes this a promising start to what I assume is going to become a franchise character.  It should, anyway, there’s plenty more to do with him.

Also heard some rumblings today that there’s a promo for Painted Skin at its booth and that it’s looking good so that’ll be a high priority for tomorrow …

Day two!  Five screenings!  And I can’t talk about any of them!  Heh … such is life in the market – the trade off for seeing things early is that sales agents and producers want to maintain control over when the press comes out.  I think I can safely say, however, that Fumihiko Sori’s Ichi is much more a serious chanbara film – and a very well made one, at that – than expected and it was great fun to see the Ping Pong director reunited with two of the stars of that film with both Shido Nakamura and Yosuke Kubozuka playing key roles.  Danish WWII drama Flame and Citron was also a very well made piece of work but beyond that I cannot say …

What can I say?  The trailer for Tsui Hark’s She Aint Mean - a collaboration with My Sassy Girl’s Kwak Jae-Yong – looks surprisingly light and airy and fun.  It’s a change of pace for Hark and it suits him, the film playing like a sort of smart but not too smart for it’s own good post-feminism sex comedy.  Suddenly my interest level for this one is way up.

Also on the trailer front, Showbox have a new promo for Kim Ki-Duk’s Dream - it appears the title has been formally shortened from the earlier Sad Dream - and while this was clearly cut from raw footage it gives more than enough to show that whoever dreamt up the idea of putting Japanese star Joe Odagiri into a Kim Ki-Duk film is very clever indeed.  Odagiri fits perfectly with the Kim aesthetic.  And for those curious about such things apparently the film will be released with all of its stars speaking their native languages.

The big winner of the day also belongs to Showbox in the form of a new trailer Ryoo Seung-Wan’s Dachimawa Lee.  This thing looks like just buckets of fun - incredibly inventive and playful on the visual level, loaded with snappy dialogue and chock full of clever action sequences.  Sure, sure, the buzzed Korean period action pic is still The Good, The Bad and The Weird but this one might very well be just as good if not better.  Korea’s back!

Well, this is a handy coincidence.  Filipino director Yam Laranas finished work on his upcoming film The Echo - an English language remake of his own earlier film Sigaw - just a couple weeks back and the film itself was my first screening upon arriving in Cannes.  And mere hours after leaving the theater some kind soul passed along the first official still to appear from the film.

The film itself?  It maintains the tone of the first while also making enough significant changes to plot and character that it plays more like a somewhat darker riff on the same themes that drove the original than a straight up remake.  You can find the still at the link below.

Title says it all, really.  Uh, er, the post title, not the poster title for those Francais speaking types.  Thanks to Raku for the heads up on the One Sheets for the upcoming (Cannes Premiering) triptych anthology of films, Tokyo! One for each of the short films (Bong Joon-Ho’s Shaking Tokyo, Leos Carax’s Merde and Michel Gondry’s Interior Design), the other two minimally designed sheets can be found in the gallery below.  Originally posted here, along with some text; but my Kanji is not so hot (as in non-existent), so if someone wants to translate the rest of the page, be my guest.

So it’s the morning after the night before and things are slowly perking up thanks to some quality Finnish hospitality - I’m typing this while tapping into the Bronson Club’s wifi with a larger than life image from AJ Annila’s Sauna looming over me - as I gear up for my first full day at Cannes 2008 and a slate of five screenings.  But even though yesterday was only a partial day there’s still lots worth mentioning ...

I arrived a few hours late thanks to a missed connection in Zurich - and this was after being shoe-horned into literally the worst seat on the entire plane on the first leg of the flight making this far from my finest flying day - but a quick tour through the market and environs turned up lots of the good stuff. 

The big gun?  A new promo for Ong Bak 2.  I’ll happily confess to being skeptical about this one since it was announced that Tony Jaa would be stepping into the directors chair himself for it and the length of the production has not inspired confidence but on a purely technical and martial arts level - the promo shows nothing of the story at all, so I can’t comment there - I am quite happy to say that Jaa has proven me wrong.  Production values are fantastic, both in terms of set design and cinematography, and Jaa has obviously been paying attention when it comes to where the camera needs to be to shoot action.  Heck, I’ll go as far as to say that the footage from this looks better by far than the latest efforts from original Ong Bak director Prachya Pinkaew.  This one’s a period piece featuring a long haired Jaa scrapping it out in a remote village and the attention to detail is excellent.  Also excellent?  The martial arts, which are surprisingly bloody and feature a HUGE range of styles.  If Tom Yum Goong was all about Jaa preaching the value of Thai culture - which it was - then this one is all about Jaa beating the crap out of all comers and proving that he can take you down in any style there is and not just muay thai.  The weapons work - there are spears, poles, a three part staff, ball and chain, and swords in the promo - is particularly good.  Yum.

The promos for Mondo Macabro’s upcoming pair of projects - Filthy and Killdroid - are strong in very different ways.  Karim Hussein’s Filthy is going to cause a sensation among a niche of cine-cultists while repulsing just about everyone else and Ilarde’s Killdroid looks to be a good old fashioned pulpy exploiter that’ll get all the fan boys buzzed over The Machine Girl buzzing again.

There’s a new promo reel for the aforementioned Sauna which looks spectacular, and the chance to see the previously released Iron Sky promo on a big screen should not be missed.

And I know I’m missing some things but time is tight and the last top of mind title belongs to David Morley’s feature debut Mutants.  We’ve linked to a trailer for Morley’s Bitten in the past - and Toronto readers should be keeping that one in mind, though I can’t say more about it at the moment - and Mutants looks to build on the strengths of his previous short film work.  Very, very well shot with nasty creature effects, what really makes Morley’s work shine is the way he balances out tension and gore with strong character work, this one revolving around a couple faced with the reality of one of them slowly devolving into a bloodthirsty creature.  Very nice ...