SDAFF Report: Reviews of THE REBEL and TAZZA: THE HIGH ROLLERS

Posted by Peter Martin at 2:24pm.

Posted in Film News , Martial Arts, Drama, Action, Asia, Random Festival News, indiefilmcafe.

In his latest report from the San Diego Asian Film Festival, which runs through tomorrow, October 18, Wells Dunbar offers another perspective on films we’ve covered from Vietnam and South Korea, as well his views on a city by the sea.

Much like the city itself, the San Diego Asian Film Festival is, in one sense, deceptively conservative.

You won’t find the latest Miike provocation – or really much in the realm of Asian horror – as you would at any genre festival. But, again, like San Diego itself – a sun-kissed, moneyed place where a dumpy house on a corner lot sets you back $750,000, post-bubble – the festival can afford to be discriminating. You won’t find major coups at the SDAFF; taking place in the fall, it transpires well after influential fests like Sundance and the San Francisco Asian Film Fest, where several SDAFF flicks screened. Here, however, you’re assured everything’s of a certain quality.

Two of the bigger films to screen here – The Rebel and Tazza: The High Rollers, both blockbusters in their home countries – are indicative of that taste.

While action-packed, The Rebel (Dòng Máu Anh Hùng) unfolds in the shadow of colonial rule. Transpiring in the late 1920s, with Vietnam under the yoke of French rule, The Rebel traces the evolution of Levan Cuong (Johnny Nguyen) from French-aligned special agent, to insurgent-sympathizer, to the titular ass-kicker. While the film hues closely to its dark subject matter – it’s jarring violent, and drained of color to almost sepia levels in parts – it’s still foremost a rousing actioneer; not content to be the lead, actor and stunt man Nguyen also served as producer and choreographer, resulting in some spectacular set-pieces filled with high-flying, neck-snapping gymnastics. Most notable are his rebel ally cum love interest Vo Thanh Thuy’s (Thanh Van Ngo) escape from jail, and the backbreaking final battle between Nguyen and former partner Sy (Dustin Nguyen), a practically-invincible badass with mommy issues dead-set on demolition.

Unencumbered by the weight of history was Tazza: The High Rollers, an edgy yet confectionary, post-Scorsese caper concoction. Modeled largely off The Grifters, its attractive cast of young Korean talent (lead Cho Seung-woo, and the breathtaking Kim Hye-su), ballasted by the inimitable character actor Baek Yun-shik, is, as noted previously, largely in the line with Tarantino/Richie/Oceans-mode Soderbergh school: a rapid, careening camera, split-screen effects, and non-linear storytelling, accompanied here by episodic title-cards. But, as often the case in films like this, what about the story? It’s a largely engaging thing; scruffy, handsome Goni – after squandering his sister’s alimony on cards – studies under Hwatu card master Pyoung, becoming a Tazza (or, high roller) himself in the process. (That Hwatu, with its miniscule, matchbook-sized cards, seems tailor-made for cheating, helps.) Add in the alluring femme fatale, a swelling body-count, and high stakes games where dismemberment’s the penalty for losing or cheating, and you’ve got the sprawling crime drama that is Tazza. Perhaps a little too sprawling; while the final card showdown is satisfying, at close to 140 minutes, the movie lags a little towards the last round. But with the door open to a sequel – and Tazza a bona fide blockbuster in Korea – this won’t be the last you hear of it.

Report by Wells Dunbar.

Reader Comments

JRS3 10/18/2007 @ 7:54am

Outside of the Asian blockbusters that you can find on DVD if you hunt them down, the SDAFF doesn’t have much to offer. They usually just regurgitate what was successful in other festivals. The rest of the stuff is mostly thematic filler.