Todd’s Cannes Diary: Day Three

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 …