#57. A Better Tomorrow & #58. The Killer - Review

The Killer film posterA Better Tomorrow is melodrama in its purest, most violent exemplification. Far from being a great film, John Woo’s tale of two brothers on opposite sides of the law reeks of the 1980’s, but that is probably why I loved it so much. It has heart like very few action movies have the nerve to show. Underneath all the blood and slow-motion shootouts, is a love story between two best friends (Chow Yun-Fat and Lung Ti) willing to kill and die for each other, and it is their plot line that is most intriguing. These men are so completely devoted to each other, have such affection for one another, that although not homosexual, these vicious gangsters are very much in love.

A brother’s love does not come so easy it seems. With family comes history and baggage. Unlike friends, brothers do not have the privilege of choice. A blood tie cannot be undone, no matter how much hate and judgment poisons the relationship. Themes of responsibility to family and friend alike run on the surface of this film, and are successful at making its point.

Woo’s 1989 film The Killer again puts Chow Yun-Fat in the shoes of Ah Jong, a charismatic and sincere murderer. Covering many of the same beats as Tomorrow, The Killer abandons the familiar family scenario and just focuses on the friendship between an assassin and the detective ordered to bring him down. What I find so fascinating about both of Woo’s films is the director’s ability to successfully construct his brutal protagonists in such a way as to inspire empathy in the audience. In The Killer, we watch Jong blind a woman, put a bullet in the forehead of a politician with a sniper rifle, and callously murder countless henchmen on both sides of the law, and still we not only care for him but actually root for him. “Woo also picks up on recent Hollywood films which feature male protagonists who are both violent and sensitive, who perform their own contradictions, and who struggle with themselves as much as with evil.” (Hanke, 39) After blinding the lounge singer with the muzzle of his revolver, Jong seeks the young girl out and promises to pay for a surgery to repair her eyesight; a selfless act inspired by the killer’s own conscience. This conscience it seems is a universal trait in all of the protagonists in Woo’s Hong Kong films that I have seen. Chow Yun-Fat’s sensitivity, loyalty, and devotion is beautifully contrasted by Woo’s excessive violence. The bullets fly, blood splatters, and bodies fall, but Woo sets-up each highly choreographed shootout with a scene of intense drama, usually between two friends trying to remain faithful to each other, so when the guns go off the viewer is completely invested in the protagonist’s survival and intentions.

A Better Tomorrow film posterIt is this steadfast devotion between friends that may easily be construed as homosexual or even erotic. Masculinity and calm-bravery are motifs in all of Woo’s films. When they are combined with the camaraderie usually only found on a battlefield or a gangster film, the audience can easily misinterpret the emotions on screen. While male relationships in western cinema rarely take the time to investigate the emotions behind the couplings on screen, Woo’s protagonists are distinctly different. Passionate and sentimental, Woo’s leading men wear their heart on their sleeves. Jillian Sandell goes discusses this difference in masculinity in her essay The Specatacle of Male Intimacy in the Films of John Woo: “Woo’s films, by contrast, suggest a cultural fantasy about gender and sexuality in which intimacy is valorized and celebrated as an important and necessary aspect to all relationships – both sexual and platonic.” (24)

Although I am ignorant to Woo’s American made films, I would doubtful of their allegorical and emotionally masculine hybridism between the two cultures within the films. While women only served to advance the plot in both A Better Tomorrow and The Killer, most American action blockbusters require an equally fleshed out female protagonist. This leading lady would most certainly distract and take away from the protagonist’s growing relationship with his comrades on screen. I understand the differences in the two cultures, but I must admit I do find this lack of vulnerability in American heroes disappointing. I am excited to study more John Woo’s earlier Hong Kong films, his unique style of contrasting conflicted characters and their emotionally complicated relationships with intense and over-the-top action sequences is fascinating. 

#55. Close-Up & #56. ABC Africa - Review

Close-Up film Abbas Kiarostami’s ABC Africa is the Iranian director’s documentary chronicling the thousands of children left parentless by the AIDS virus in Uganda. Just as he opens the film with an obvious reenactment of receiving a fax from the United Nations, Kiarostami gives little attempt at injecting ABC Africa with any reality or sincerity. What he does create is a self-reflex bore, proving once again that Kiarostami is far more interested in himself and his own urges than the tragic African children he lazily documents in this film.

ABC Africa posterSimilar to his 1990 film Close-Up, ABC Africa only perpetuates my opinion that the director is completely egomaniacal, willing to take advantage of the weak and the desperate to fulfill whatever odd meta-reality he is interested in creating. The film Close-Up deals with the real life fraud committed by Hossain Sabzian. A man so desperate for not only success, but also simple appreciation and admiration, he was willing to pretend to be the famous director Mohsen Makhmalbaf and take advantage of the Ahankhah family. The sons were college graduates but unable to secure gainful employment and were more than willing to delude themselves into believing Sabzian was the real Makhmalbaf, and that he would make them famous and wealthy. Sadly this story is true, and in my opinion rather heartbreaking. Kiarostami hears of this crime and decides to make a movie about the tragic events, having the actual victims and the conman play themselves. How was Kiarostami’s con any different than Sabzian’s? Just like the poor fraud, Kiarostami unfairly takes advantage of all involved. Still just as desperate for notoriety and what could only be a considered a sick type of fame, Kiarostami successfully transforms everyone into a victim. He manipulates the weak and derives a pleasure and fascination from it that I do not share.Close-Up film

During his 10-day trip in Kampala, Uganda Kiarostami and a second man filmed what had to have been dozens of hours of footage. Hundreds of beautiful children consistently run up and greet the filmmakers throughout their trip. Covered in filth and what we would consider rags for clothes, these kids are as interested in the director and his camera as he is supposed to be in them and their plight. Unfortunately, Kiarostami is not willing to dedicate much screen time to the reasons behind the orphans’ misfortunes. Instead ABC Africa is yet another opportunity for Kiarostami to use his stature as a film director to film the desperate. More enamored by the spirit of the parentless boys and girls than the horrible AIDS epidemic that swept their mothers and fathers away, far too much time is wasted documenting their smiles. There are more scenes of African villagers listening to music and dancing in unpaved streets than the director interviewing doctors, politicians, or even the victims currently battling the awful virus. In the essay Taste of Kiarostami author David Sterritt writes, “…the cultivation of a deeply poetic cinema has been a driving force behind kiarostami’s career.” (2) It is obvious that the Iranian director was able to find the poetic beauty in Uganda, even underneath all of the death and sorrow. Still, like Close-Up, this film is again unashamedly self-reflexive when it should be educational and informative. There is a very emotional scene in ABC Africa when a child, having just passed away, is delicately wrapped in a white blanket and strapped onto the back a man’s bicycle; Uganda’s makeshift version of a hearse. In what may have been the film’s most heart wrenching moment is utterly destroyed by the directors own inability to deny his self-reflexive urges. As the body is being placed onto the bicycle the camera pulls away and documents Kiarostami documenting the terrible incident, presumably showing the irony of the situation.

In both of his films, Abbas Kiarostami is comfortable putting the wretched and hopeless in front of his lenses, under the guise that he is only interested in telling their story. Reprehensibly this is not true. Kiarostami speaks of art and poetry, but is not concerned with humanity or the responsibility of a filmmaker. In Close-Up he used real life victims to re-live their own hardships and despair for the sake of his art. Even worse in ABC Africa, the director tells the Uganda Women’s Effort to Save Orphans (UWESO) that he will document the children of Africa and show the world what horrible conditions they live in. Instead the director spends the majority of the 83-minute long film letting his camera aimlessly wonder, and I cannot find the poetry in that. 

#54. Cop-Out - Review

Cop Out film bannerCop-Out is all right. It’s not great, but who thought it would be? I am a giant Tracy Morgan fan, I love his style of humor and this film doesn’t ask very much from the comedian. Bruce Willis seems kind of lost… or pissed off, I couldn’t tell. I don’t think he knew just how stupid and silly this film was going to be. Directed by Kevin Smith, Cop-Out is definitely a step down from the brilliant Zack and Miri Make a Porno. This latest buddy flick has all the familiar set-ups and trappings of a CBS sitcom, without the funny commercial breaks to make you laugh. If you like Morgan or Smith then give this flick a chance. But if you do miss it, don’t worry about it because you’re really not missing anything. 

Also, Tracy Morgan told my favorite insult joke of all time, here it is:

“You are so ugly, I could put your face in dough, and make monster cookies.”

 … You’re welcome!

#53. No Country for Old Men - Review

No Country for Old Men artMan, what else could be said about No Country for Old Men? Although it was not my favorite movie of 2007 (There Will Be Blood), this is an absolutely perfect film. People love to harp on the last scene, but I think it sums up the picture beautifully. I feel ridiculous even writing about this film. Its only three years old and has already been deconstructed and studied, and the book goes even deeper into the themes found in the movie. Fate; inexplicable and inescapable, the dark cloud of fate is manifested in this film as a lumbering sociopath with a funny haircut. Make sure you don't miss this flick... Friendo.

#51. Happiness of the Katakuris & #52. Three...Extremes - Review

The Happiness of the Katakuris posterIn class we discussed Takashi Miike’s film The Happiness of the Katakuris; exploring the film’s violence and surrealist nature, and to what purpose Miike was trying to make such ridiculous cinema. We spoke a lot on violence, specifically the violence found in Asian “extreme” films, and fetishistic undertones found within this brand or genre that so fascinates the west.  Oddly enough, the word “horror” was never mentioned throughout the lecture and subsequent group discussion. I found that odd, not because violence is so closely connected to the genre, but because I considered so many of these films we discussed to be horror movies. Audition (Miike, 1999), One Missed Call (Miike, 2003), The Isle (Kim Ki-duk, 2001), Battle Royal (Fukasaku, 2001), A Tale of Two Sisters (Kim Ji-woon, 2003), The Host (Bong Jun-ho, 2006), and many more films can only be classified as “horror” and yet no one uttered the word. As if the word itself is pejorative. I wonder how many of Asia’s biggest blockbusters over the last decade or so have been horror films? With the obvious influx of American remakes being churned out by Hollywood on a regular basis, it is hard to argue these films offer what western horror films lack; atmospheric volatility.

When I think of Asian horror films I immediately consider what sets them apart from American horror films. Where American directors continually debase the genre with needless gore, excessive nudity, and vacantly engrossed violence; Asian directors approach their films more philosophically. Of course not all Asian extreme films are philosophical, or even good films for that matter, but there is an obvious difference between the east and the west. Mood and tone are delicately set early on in films like 1998’s Ringu. Thoughtfully directed, this film takes its time and quietly prepares each frightening sequence with the build-up needed to secure the screams it desires. Not relying on blood or gore, Ringu solidified American audiences expectations for what Japanese and Asian horror films were capable of.  Interestingly enough many Americans would have never heard of Ringu if not for its Hollywood remake in 2002. Simply titled The Ring, the remake was a surprising success and remained mostly faithful to its original source material. After The Ring there was an influx of American remakes of Asian horror films. Ju-on was made into The Grudge, while Dark Water, Shutter, and many more East Asian films were being converted into digestible American movies. In his essay Remaking East Asia, Outsourcing Hollywood writer Gang Gary Xu explains Ringu’s success: “…What makes Ringu adaptable is its already Americanized features: American suburb life style, and thrilling yet non-threatening horror.” I assume what he means by “threatening horror” is the stereotypical American slasher. Freddy Kreuger, Jason Vorhees, Michael Meyers, and countless more angry males have butchered thousands of people in both expensive blockbuster pictures and independently financed B-horror films.3 Extremes Poster

However, not all Asian films are as easily transferable across the Pacific Ocean. An anthology picture emulating the classic Twilight Zone (1983) and Creepshow (1982) structures, Three…Extremes offers three different 40-minute short films directed by some of the most acclaimed (and notorious) Asian directors. Each with its own unique atmosphere and story, this single film serves as a great exhibit defending the stylistic differences found not only between the east and the west, but of also Japan (Miike), South Korea (Park), and Honk Kong (Chan). Chan’s Dumplings is an excellent example of the shock horror found in Hong Kong. Its disturbing plotline follows an aging actress so desperate for youth and beauty that she willingly digest dumplings filled with crushed human fetuses with supposed de-aging effects. With ultimate gross-outs and humorous undertones, Dumplings is a modern day fable warning us against greed and vanity. Park Chan-wook’s segment plainly titled Cut at first seems like a prime candidate for the American remake treatment. A successful director comes home to find his wife tied up with piano wire by a crazed extra that is angry over the fact that the man is talented and wealthy, while at the same time is also a good man. Following more in the ultraviolent methods like 2004’s Saw, Cut has no problem showing fingers being cut off, young children being strangled to death, and pools of blood slowly building throughout the short film. The South Korean segment is content with this brutality because it is mostly concerned with its philosophical dilemmas about man and the importance of success; issues, which I can safely say, are cross-cultural in today’s male society. Takashi Miike’s The Box is by far the hardest to dissect, and seemingly impossible to remake into an American horror film. Its surrealistic style only helps to blur the director’s intentions. The Japanese segment of Three…Extremes is perhaps the best example of what Gang Gary Xu defined as “aura.” He explains, “Without ambiguity, be it psychological or sexual, there would not have been aura… aura is something that you can vaguely feel but can hardly locate or identify.”

            It is with this “aura” that Miike’s The Box and many other East Asian horror films so quintessentially embody. This terrible, almost palpable feeling of dread that goes past frightening and is able to physically effect your body. It is with the subtle visuals and precise editing style many of these films succeed as horror films, but I believe it is because of these directors’ incubation in East Asia philosophies and filmic traditions that they so effectively titillate and frighten the viewer from any country. 

Pixar's It Gets Better

I love this new "It Gets Better" movement. Please watch this video to the end, and if effects you please pass it on...

#50. Best Worst Movie - Review

Best Worst Movie poster artBest Worst Movie is a documentary that chronicles the unexpected cult status of the awesomely bad Troll 2. Considered by many, including at one time IMDB.com, to be the worst film ever made, Troll 2 has slowly crept into the pop-culture zeitgeist. I have seen and enjoyed the film, both as a kid when it would come on HBO and later on dvd. It is pretty awful, but it has the same watchable charm that films like Basket Case and The Room share. This doc is pretty great, mostly in part to George Hardy and his amazingly sincere smile and personality. To describe him would be to spoil a great surprise, so just take my word for it and watch this film.

Also, there are certain characters from the original film that have basically been M.I.A. for the last 20-years that the director is able to dig up and put in front of the camera. Let me just say those scenes transcend entertainment and really come close to being fascinating character studies. Check it out if you have scene Troll 2 or not, either way you should enjoy it.