LFF 2010: Winter Vacation

Craig here with more from the LFF 2010


Winter Vacation (Han jia), the acclaimed new film from writer-poet Li Hongqi, arrives at the LFF with prizes from both the Seoul and Locarno film festivals. It languorously tracks the existence of a community of mostly-related residents, chiefly a gang of teens awaiting their return to school,  during the last days of a particularly desolate and weather-soured holiday in a Chinese housing complex. It’s visually chilly, but, despite the intriguing barrage of listlessly austere long takes, its tone is markedly light – but deceptively, drably so (yet it still manages to arouse pertinent issues about contemporary China with sly craft). We’re in the kind of film territory usually dominated by the likes of Aki Kaurismäki and Jim Jarmusch – although neither of those bastions of the brazenly bizarre could have shaped as film as dry and droll as this.

The film is loosely structured as a series of interconnected vignettes: a grandfather and grandson verbally spar in a front room; a couple get a divorce; a vegetable market opens to a few frugally-minded customers; a group of youths squabble and loaf around on discarded sofas or stand comically inert amid the bleak industrial surroundings. Humorous banter is frequent, and is on the whole very funny. These exchanges and the lengthy silences between them create some inspired moments of comic interaction. It’s also beautifully edited by Li: he’s very much the auteur on the film, and he shows considerable directorial style and a great knack for pace. Also worth mention is the film’s alluring, off-kilter soundtrack (courtesy of Zuoxiao Zuzhou and The Top Floor Circus): onscreen noises, both diegetic and non-, and odd acapella voices-off enhance the strange, plaintive rhythm of Li’s direction. Winter Vacation is a minor treat – not solely for those with acquired arthouse tastes – to seek out if and when it gets a theatrical release. B

Winter Vacation is at the LFF on Friday 22nd & Saturday 23rd October

NYFF Finale: 7 Word Reviews (Meek's Cutoff, Another Year, Hereafter, More...)

Oh readers. What to do with me? I'm always falling behind. In an effort to acknowledge that NYFF ended this weekend, and fall prestige/early campaign season is already upon us (Toy Story 3 event tonight!), here's everything I saw at the NYFF. I got sick right in the middle so I missed a handful I wanted to see. The films are presented in the order I saw with a brief description and a 7 Word Review. For now.  Surely I'll find time to say something more about two or three of these later. If you've wondered why I've been posting 2 grades for each movie I see lately, it's because it's my current grade (bold) plus the grade I could be talked into / might end up with when all is said and done.

Poetry & Oki's Movie (South Korea) |  Tuesday After Christmas (Romania)

Poetry full review A-/A 

Oki's Movie
A filmmaker recounts a romantic affair and professional entanglements.
7WR: Funny. Repetitive. Aggressively unwilling to engage visually. C/C-



Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives full review B+/B

Tuesday After Christmas
A Romanian man loves two women. Must choose.
7WR: Love Wrecked! Incisive, naturalistic gem. Pitch-perfect ending. B/B+

 The Robber (Germany/Austria) | My Joy (Ukraine) | Certified Copy (Various)

The Robber & My Joy
The Robber: an ex-con trains for long distance runs but continues his life of crime.
My Joy: a truck driver gets lost on dangerous allegorical roads.
7WR (x2): Virtuosic filmmaking but autistic experience. Couldn't connect.
Grade? Depends on what we're grading. This is when Nick's VOR would come in handy as both films strike me as worthy sees for commited cinephiles. But they're almost impossible to enjoy because they're so emotionally deficient or at least tonally limited to entirely nihilistic worldviews.

 Certified Copy
The English author of a book on the worth of artistic forgeries, tours Italy with a beautiful married French stranger (Binoche!).
7WR: Transcends its fun intellectual gimmick. Beautifully acted. B+/A-

Of Gods and Men
French monks living peacefully in a Muslim village are warned to leave when terrorists arrive.
7WR: Despite vibrant emotional pulses, touch too sedate. B/B+

The Social Network previous articles A-/A

 We Are What We Are (Mexico) | Another Year (UK) | Meek's Cutoff (USA)

We Are What We Are
A poor Mexican family struggles to keep their "rituals" alive after the father dies in this gruesome horror film.
7WR: Thematically obvious/clumsy but compulsively, masochistically watchable B-/C+

Tempest
Julie Taymor adapts Shakespeare's shipwrecks & sorcery play.
7WR: Muddy everything: ideas, sound, performance. Visual tourettes. D-/F

Another Year
Mike Leigh! A long married couple in England are surrounded by needy friends in four seasonal vignettes.
7WR: Blissful troupe rapport, comic beats. Weirdly judgmental. B+/B

Meek's Cutoff
Three families in covered wagons get lost in Indian country. They're running out of water.
7WR: Western From Another Planet but mysteriously confident. B/B+

Hereafter
A French woman experiences near death. A British boy copes with grief. An American psychic resists his gift.
7WR: Mawkishly moving but stiff, disjointed, weak storytelling. C-/D+


The Social Network used the fest as its world premiere and then promptly opened to great acclaim and presumptively leggy box office. Otherwise you're going to have to wait until 2011 for these films, apart from two: Hereafter (Oct 22nd) and The Tempest (Dec 10th)... unless you want to count Another Year but New Year's Eve releases are soooo next year if you ask us.

Disastrous Javier and Disaster Epic Compete For Foreign-Language Oscar

Fifty countries have now announced their Oscar submissions. We usually end with sixty-plus competitors so there's a dozen movies (approximately) left unannounced. The big question marks are Spain (we're guessing Celda 211 nope, Spain chose Even the Rain starring Gael García Bernal) and Italy (we're guessing The Man Who Will Come) since both countries are favorites of Academy voters. We'll know the "official" official list in early October. I've updated all the pages.

• Afghanistan to France
• Germany to The Netherlands
• Norway to Venezuela (plus finalist list for Uruguay)

Two biggies recently announced are Mexico's choice Biutiful which won admirers and haters at Cannes --for the same reasons as director Alejandro González Iñárritu's past efforts have divided -- and China's Aftershock (2010), the country's first homegrown IMAX epic that was a huge hit this summer.

Biutiful is a drama about a man who is dying and his life is falling apart on his way to the grave. Javier Bardem won Best Actor at Cannes so it's definitely One to Watch as it were. Plus, we know AMPAS voters respond well to Iñárritu's specific brand of miserabilism since they've handed nominations to all three of his previous feature films: Amores Perros (Best Foreign Language Film) 21 Grams (acting nominations) and Babel (several nods including Best Picture).

China's submission is inspired by a 1976 earthquake that killed nearly a quarter of a million people. I assumed it's fictionally dramatized (like Titanic for example) as the main plot apparently revolves around a woman who must face her own Sophie's Choice when her twins are buried alive and the rescue team can only save one of them.

The unusual trailer takes us backwards in time. I'm personally not much of a fan of disaster epics -- if I see New York City or Paris destroyed one more time in a movie. Grrrrr -- but will Oscar be? I mean, this won't have the science fiction silliness of something like 2012 and they do like a good historical epic.

At any rate, it's important to remember that no film is ever a safe bet in this particular derby since there are so many options and the voters actually have to watch the films (unlike other races where you can theoretically be nominated on goodwill and campaigning alone, no screenings necessary)



Have any of our international readers seen either of these films? Speak up if you have. Or prognosticate blindly in the comments. You know how we do.

Nathaniel's Oscar-Submission Reviews Thus Far
Peru's Undertow
Thailand's Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
More soon...

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NYFF: "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives"

*slight spoilers ahead but this is not a "plot" film.*

Uncle Boonmee can recall his past lives. My memory is hardly as uncanny. Recalling or describing Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, the Cannes Palme D'Or winner and Thailand's Oscar submission, even a few days after the screening is mysteriously challenging. Even your notes won't help you.

This is not to say that the movie isn't memorable, rather that its most memorable images and stories refuse direct interpretation or cloud the edges of your vision, making it as hazy as the lovely cinematography. You can recall the skeletal story these images drift towards like moths and you can try to get to know the opaque characters that see them with you but these efforts have a low return on investment. What's important is the seeing.

What's wrong with my eyes? They are open but I can't see a thing.

Most synopses of the movie will only embellish on the film's title. And while Uncle Boonmee does reflect on past lives, he only does so directly in the pre-title sequence as we follow him in ox form through an attempted escape from his farmer master, who will eventually rope him back in. The bulk of the film is not a recollection -- at least not from Boonmee himself, but a slow march towards his death while he meditates on life and the film meditates on animal and human relations. His nephew and sister in law, who objects to his immigrant nurse, visit him. So too does his dead wife and another ghostly visitor on the same night, in a bravura early sequence that as incongruously relaxed as it is eery and startling.

The film peaks well before its wrap with the story of a scarred princess and a lustful talking catfish and then we begin the march towards Boonmee's death, perhaps the most literal moment in the movie. And then curiously, the movie continues on once he's gone. If it loses much of its potency after Boonmee has departed, there are still a few fascinating images to scratch your head over when he's gone.

The bifurcated structure that Weerathesakul has employed in the past is less prevalent this time.  Uncle Boonmee plays out not so much like two mysteriously reflective halves (see the haunting Tropical Malady which I find less accessible but actually stronger), but rather like a series of short films that all belong to the same continuous chronological movie, give or take that gifted horny catfish.

Surely a google search, press notes, academic analysis or listening to the celebrated director Apichatpong "Joe" Weerathesakul speak (as I did after the screening) would and can provide direct meaning to indirect cinema. But what's important is the seeing.

Vision is frequently mentioned and referenced in Uncle Boonmee, whether it's mechanical -- as in a preoccupation with photography which peaks in a late film sequence composed of still images -- or organic. But like the ghost monkey with glowing red eyes (the film's signature image) says to Uncle Boonmee early in the film, "I can't see well in the bright light." It's the one exchange in the film that I wholly related to and understood. I'm not sure I need or want to understand, to attach specific meaning to these confounding stories and images. I only want to see them. Weerasethakul's movie is best experienced in the dark, with the images as spiritual guides. They fall around you like mosquito netting as you walk slowly through the Thai jungle. B+/B

NYFF: "Poetry"

Nathaniel, reporting from the New York Film Festival

In the first shots of Poetry, the latest film from gifted director Lee Chang-dong (Secret Sunshine) an idyllic moment of little kids playing by a river is interrupted by a floating object in the water. The corpse of a middle school student is floating their way. This nonsensational but horrific reveal will soon intersect with the story of Mija (Jeong-hee Yoon), a sixty-six year old maid. She happens to be exiting the hospital from a worrisome test (her arm has been tingling), when she is startled by the chaos of the body's arrival and the grieving mother of the middle-schooler.

Mija is quick with smiles and laughter, but as the camera intimately follows her about her daily life it starts to look suspiciously empty and full of loneliness and drudgery. She cleans, she cooks, she care-takes, and she has conversations with just about everyone, though those are often one-sided. Her grandson, who went to school with the suicide victim, treats her like the help, spending all of his time with his friends. Her cheerfulness starts to feel like a saving grace. She's a good soul but she's basically fading away without close friends or family members or anyone taking notice of her. Impulsively she starts attending a poetry class, eager to experience more beauty and do something creative.

Lee Chang-dong, who coaxed such a wondrous performance out of his lead actress in Secret Sunshine, performs similar magic again. Jeong-hee Yoon, who came out of retirement after 16 years for this role, is a wonder as Mija, beautifully fleshing out this woman's high spirits, kindness, and fears. Yoon's nuanced performance manages to reflect all of this within Mija's ever present curiousity. Mija seems to instinctively understand that her endless curiousity will fill her life with both more beauty and more sadness.

Actress and Director, basking in well earned praise.

Watching the old woman deal with neighbors, grandson, doctors, employers, and fellow would-be poets, Poetry finds pockets of both humor and tragedy in its detailed observations of her character and the patriarchal town she lives in. Two things continually occupy her: the poetry class and the teen suicide. The poetry fills her days and the dead girl hovers on the periphery of her thoughts... sometimes taking over completely. In one fascinating scene that's exquisitely shot and performed, Mija impulsively steals a photo of the dead girl from her memorial service.

So Poetry begins, as many movies do, with a shot of a dead body. But it ends so very differently. What sets this beautiful character study apart from so many movies, is the reanimation of the young girl's corpse -- not literally, of course. It's not accomplished through cheap flashbacks (the story is told chronologically) but it happens spiritually and, well, poetically. This movie's magic is a spell cast through the genuine empathy of the writer/director and the inquisitive humanity of the protagonist, who can't let the girl, a complete stranger, go. Mija wants to write poetry, to commemorate the beauty in life. She knows its fragility, at any moment it can slip away. A-

Poetry won Best Screenplay at Cannes. Unfortunately it was not submitted by South Korea for the Oscars. Kino International will distribute the film in the States. Release date TBA.

The Foreign Film Oscar Race: So Much (International) Drama

But first things first. If German's popular drama When We Leave is nominated and wins, can the actress Sibel Kekilli please -- pretty pretty please -- repeat her barefoot acceptance/sit- in from Germany's Film Awards this past April? That'd be so sweet.


Oscar night thrives on weird surprises and they get so few. Sibel to the rescue. (I'm aware that Actresses don't accept Best Foreign Film Statues but let me dream!) I've only seen her in Head On but found her just riveting to watch onscreen and I've heard only good things about her performance in this particular movie. Will it be a nominee?

[tangent] Helpful hint: If you ever search for pictures of her online, makes sure to have you "safesearch" filters on though. I'm just saying. Is she now, quite literally, the best/most acclaimed actress to have ever started in the most disreputable form of acting? She was once Amber Waves and now she's Julianne Moore if you catch my drift. I'm trying to avoid spelling it out because I woke up this morning with an intense fear of spambot comments. But my point is this: Well done! She's now a two-time German Oscar winner. [/tangent]


Good luck to Sibel this season.

Click on the links below to go to pages with lots of info about the submitted films. And a big round of applause to The Film Experience's faithful international readership who have been helping track this journey each year since long before every movie site regurgitated each announcement in the 24 hour news cycle. Cinema is a global language and you rock.

Algeria to France

• Algeria. Outside the Law
• Austria. La Pivellina
• Azerbaijan. The Precinct
• Brazil
• Croatia. The Blacks
• Estonia. The Temptation of St. Tony
• Finland. Steam of Life (there's always at least one documentary submitted though none have ever been nominated)
  
• France. Of Gods and Men
  ...and let us break here for a moment to enjoy the beauty of silver fox Lambert Wilson, an actor/model/singer who we've always loved to look at whether that was in French movies, Calvin Klein Eternity ads or even during his stint as Evil Eurotrash Baddie in terrible Hollywood movies (Catwoman, The Matrix Revolution, etcetera)
  
  
  You're welcome.
  
  Oh and here he is with one of his Of Gods and Men co-star and his director. He's as kissy as Jeremy Renner is huggy!
  
  
  

We wish Lambert and especially France luck. Even though French cinema is the most frequently nominated, they haven't won the Foreign Language Oscar since Indochine (1992). Isn't that crazy? Major players Argentina, Denmark and The Czech Republic --countries that have won multiple times -- have yet to announce.

Germany to The Netherlands

• Greece. Dogtooth
• Hungary. Bibliothèque Pascal
• Iraq. Son of Babylon
• Israel. (The Ophir awards are almost here so we'll know soon. They'll send the Best Picture winner which we suspect will be Intimate Grammar)
  
• Japan. Confessions by Tetsuya Nakashima.
  ...and let us break here for a moment to watch the unsettling operatic trailer. I can't imagine Oscar voters responding to something this stylized but you never know. And I do respect the countries that just submit what they love most / deem best rather than worrying about Oscar's particular and sometimes disappointingly narrow aesthetic.
  
  
  
  Creepy odd and loud but doesn't it look highly watchable?
  
  
• Mexico - long list announced. We suspect they'll choose Biutiful on account of the Oscar pull of its team (Gonzalez Innaritu + Bardem). That said, countries don't always choose in a Bait-focused way so we can't guarantee it.
  
• The Netherlands. Tirza
  

Frequently nominated players Italy and Israel have yet to announce. Hong Kong is also up in the air. What will they choose?

Norway to Venezuela

• Peru. Undertow (Contracorriente) my review
• Poland. All That I Love
• Romania. If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle
• Russia. The Edge
  ...and let us break here for a moment to ponder how much Vladimir Mashkov looks like a superhero on his movie poster. Actually the movie poster itself suggests a steampunk adventure or maybe a sci-fi superhero movie. What powers does "The Edge" have?
  
  
  Actually it's a post World War II drama (as in immediately following the war) about a man who loves speeding locomotives or some such. I can't find an official site though, damnit. Readers outside of Russia, might recognize Vladimir from films like Behind Enemy Lines (2001) or TV series like Alias.
  
  
• Slovakia. The Border
• South Africa. Life, Above All
• South Korea. A Barefoot Dream
  
• Spain. They've narrowed it down to three films. I suspect it'll be prison drama Celda 211 which was big at the Goyas.
• Switzerland. La Petite Chambre
• Sweden. Simple Simon (previously discussed)
  
• Taiwan. Monga (previously discussed)
• Thailand. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
• Turkey. Honey (Bal)
• Venezuela. Hermano
  

As always your input and comments are welcome. Which of these films are you most curious about? Have you seen any of the films. Do you like your countries choice?

Oscar Nomination Prediction Index

Links: Glenn Shadix (RIP). Plus Jones, Cronenberg, Captain America

/Film first set photos of January Jones as Emma Frost in X-Men: First Class. As I believe I've stated before I love this casting. But it does seem wierd that she is already pigeonholed as "sixties girl". Will this be our first true period piece superhero flick or am I forgetting something? At least they're trying something slightly different with this one.
All Things Fangirl relives the glory of (500) Days of Summer last year with summer concerts in the now featuring JGL and Zooey Deschanel.
Cinema Viewfinder There's a Cronenberg blog-a-thon going on that I didn't know about. Shame. I don't really understand the format to get to the article contributions but I'm certain there's good things to read there. I shall investigate further. Love that David Cronenberg.
/Film long interview with Never Let Me Go director Mark Romanek.
Film Business Asia the upcoming London Film Festival (we'll be covering it again) has a healthy selection of Asian films.
Sina Andy Lau. Let him eat cake (for an early birthday celebration)
Topless Robot would like you to calm the f*** down about that picture from the set of Captain America.
DListed Henry Cavill on the set of The Cold Light of the Day

Finally, in my weekly column over @ Towleroad I've got a brief bit about The Romantics and yet more links including the sad news that character actor Glenn Shadix passed away two days ago. He's best known as "Otho" from Beetlejuice but when I think of him I nearly always think of that funeral scene in Heathers..."ESK-I-MO!!!" I also lovelovelovelove the two-faced Mayor from The Nightmare Before Christmas which he voiced. He hadn't been seen on the screen much lately but he was actually blogging just last week.He will be missed but he sure will live on through those comedy classics.

Foreign Film Oscar Submissions: Juvenile Delinquents and Missing Persons

I've updated the foreign film pages to reflect some of our now known contenders: Iraq (Son of Babylon), The Netherlands (Tirza), Romania (If I Want to Whistle, I'll Whistle) and Taiwan (Monga) have all announced. South Korea has narrowed their list down to six films, though most suspect it'll be Lee Chang-Dong's Poetry in the end. Many countries have yet to announce but there's still time. We generally don't know the full list until sometime in October. And some of the submissions won't have even opened in their home countries yet. (Foreign language submissions have to have been released in their home countries between October 1st, 2009 through Sept 30th, 2010 to compete in this category for the 2010 film year.) UPDATE: if you're looking for the current race (2011) that's here.

Romania: if he wants to whistle, he'll whistle, okay?

Taiwan: if he wants to shoot, he'll shoot.

Many countries have yet to announce but there's still time. We generally don't know the full list until sometime in October. And some of the submissions won't have even opened in their home countries yet. (Foreign language submissions have to have been released in their home countries between October 1st, 2009 through Sept 30th, 2010 to be eligible in this category for the 2010 film year.)

So far in the competitive lineups we have two rough sets of twins: two dramas about young male criminals (Taiwan & Romania) and two journey films wherein an older person searches for their adult child with a young child helping them (Iran & The Netherlands). And yes, "Oscar already loves the Iran and Dutch entries sight unseen," he said sarcastically. This AMPAS branch just digs cross generational journeys. A lot. You know they do.

I wrote about the Taiwanese submission Monga very briefly over at Towleroad earlier this year because of some talk show incident wherein they asked the 20something leads, Mark Zhao and Ethan Ruan, to kiss. I can't imagine an American talk show asking Young Hollywood co-stars to kiss. Could you imagine the ruckus if the ladies from The View asked the Twilight boys to lip lock in order to get their trailer shown?

To quote Nomi Malone... "different places!"

Here are the popular boys singing "Tonight Tonight" from Monga (with clips from the movie). It appears to be the theme song though Wikipedia states differently saying that this cover of "Making Love Out of Nothing At All," the Air Supply classic, has that honor. ("!!!" and also "???")



I'll update more Oscar pages tomorrow. In the meantime, if you need more Oscar speculation check out All These Wonderful Things' list of documentary hopefuls.
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Venice Red Carpet: Somewhere, Norwegian Wood, Miral, Reign of Assassins

The Venice Film Festival progresses. Day 4 of 11 today. So let's pretend we're there for a moment and check in. You can't have a good glitzy A list international film festival without immortals like Catherine Deneuve showing up (pictured left). Why is she shielding her eyes for she is brighter than the sun. All in all things seem to be going well. Take the premiere of Black Swan for example. Opening films don't often make that much of a splash, divisive or otherwise.

Another big question mark film of the 2010 film season is Sofia Coppola's Somewhere (trailer discussion). It's her follow up to the poorly received but delicious Marie Antoinette (2006). She's back to the present day for this film about an actor (Stephen Dorff) visited by his daughter (Elle Fanning) at the Chateau Marmont.

The reviews have been mixed but more than most filmmakers I trust not any reviews about her work. Her girlish dreamy haze tends to cloud judgment. But here are a few...

• In Contention "thoroughly beguiling"
• Evening Standard "no big dramatic moments, just a series of sequences"
• Obsessed With Film "ever bit as poignant as Lost in Translation, if not as fresh."
• Thompson on Hollywood "should play well for the young smart-house set."
  

Somewhere premiere: Sofia Coppola, Stephen Dorff, Laura Chiatta, Elle Fanning

Italian actress Laura Chiatta (The Family Friend) is also in Somewhere's cast which is why I included her here. Mostly because her lipstick is transporting me back to the early Aughts. It's all I can see. Is she wearing anything else?

I don't expect that the film will win Oscar traction (low key efforts rarely do and a late December release for a contemplative film won't help. Coppola whispers and Oscar hears only Oscar-bait shouting in the holiday months) but I'm still so excited to see it. Coppola is three for three in my book. Will this make four for four?

On to other films...

International Divas: Yeoh, Abbas, Kikuchi, Campbell

Michelle Yeoh, in town for Reign of Assassins, is a goddess. You knew that already. Her latest star vehicle was bought earlier this summer by the Weinstein Co which probably means we'll never see it (you know how they do). But since we can't look at the film, let's look at those shoes. The shoes... Gah! They're probably worth more than most people make in a year and she can probably kill those multiple assassins tailing her with them. Incidentally, Yeoh is also an assassin in the movie. What is with the cinema's complete fixation on assassins as protagonists? It's easy to understand them as villains but so many of them are actually the heroes of their movies. I shutter to think what this means about the human condition.

• Hollywood Reporter "lush visual treat... with crossover potential."
• Film Biz Asia "a rich gallery of characters
  
• Screen Daily "absorbing and entertaining."
• MovieWeb (the trailer... note: you have to watch an ad first)
  

Hiam Abbas was in Venice for the premiere of Julian Schnabel's Miral but curiously Freida Pinto, "Miral" herself, was not. Maybe she saw some unflattering reviews coming.

• Obsessed with Film "cravenly seeking approval"
• Telegraph "It’s terribly earnest, and characters often speak dialogue that resembles a history lecture"
• Thompson on Hollywood "Pinto, while gorgeous is not an expressive actress."
  

I should note here that none of the negatives lobbed Miral's way in reviews tend to be awards season negatives with Oscar, given that earnest lectures and films which needily cry for approval are fixtures of every awards season. And nobody seemed to have a problem with Freida Pinto's inexpressiveness as an actress in Slumdog Millionaire -- don't try to tell me that's a new development.We just barely dodged that supporting actress nomination I think. And it would have been one of those semi-regular headscratchers for being "the girlfriend."

Norwegian Wood, another prestige adaptation of a novel, also premiered. Rinko Kikuchi, the most famous member of its ensemble cast (credit that Babel Oscar nomination), hit the red carpet. I don't understand this look at all. But it definitely reminds me of a expensive monochromatic version of that awful ruffled confusing short skirted thing Peach turned out on Project Runway two nights back. Oh, Peach... wwyt?

• Variety "lovely but listless"
• Indie Movies Online "the story is not quite as peerlessly handled by Tran as the aesthetic presentation"

Finally, I included Naomi Campbell in this roundup because I cannot for the life of me, imagine her actually sitting down to watch movies, only strutting through flashbulbs towards them. I know she's been in a few movies but has she actually ever seen one?

Action auteur John Woo (pictured left) received the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement and was also there as co-director of Reign of Assassins (with Chao-Bin Su, who also wrote the film).

Quentin Tarantino is the head of the Venice jury so we'll see what his jury does with their cups and statues next weekend. Stay tuned.

Tang & Takeshi Together? Excitement Meter Off the Charts

Behold this paparazzi shot of Tang Wei and Takeshi Kaneshiro together. [Thanks Tony!] Be still my heart. It appears they may be co-stars in Peter Chan's (The Warlords) next project which is titled, simply, Wuxia.

Tang, Donnie Yen (in sunglasses) and Takeshi.

... isn't that like calling a film Horror or Period Epic or Musical or Action or some such? Though supposedly Wuxia is a remake of The One Armed Swordsman (or maybe a reboot of that 70s franchise in general?)

Anywei... since that sexist ban on the Lust Caution hussy* lifted, she's been busy. (As well she should be given how tremendous that performance was, truly one of the most confident and complex movie acting debuts ever.) Tang Wei has had one new film released in Hong Kong (Crossing Hennessy). Her new film Late Autumn will be at TIFF (pictured left) and now, there's this. No word yet on her connection to Takeshi in the movie but she'll be married to Yen onscreen.

Peter Chan had apparently been hush hush about the female leads of Wuxia -- even denying Tang Wei was involved at all -- but this photo may say otherwise. Last I heard was an offer going out to Gong Li. This report, though, is semi-confusing about which movie is actually shooting, calling this movie Wu Xia or Jincheng Wu and then later implying that The Swordsmen is a different and second film project for 2010. Though it could be a case of the writing just not being totally clear else why do the earlier reports list the same cast members for the remake of the One Armed Swordsman? Here's a couple more pics of Tang & Takeshi at a nearby restaurant.

*sarcasm. be not offended
Wei Tang

Ang Lee and Tang Wei Reuniting?

I've been hearing Ang Lee's next project The Life of Pi mentioned everywhere lately. When I attended the premiere of MicMacs at the Tribeca Film Festival, Jean-Pierre Jeunet even referenced the cinematic adaptation (his own that is, long abandoned due to budgetary problems). But today I'm hearing about another new Lee project that's also enticing even though it's a biopic. The masterful director has been given the right's to Teresa Teng's life and -- here's the enticing part -- Tang Wei may be playing the singer.

Ang Lee and Tang Wei during the Lust Caution brouhaha

Their previous collaboration Lust Caution was a triumph as a film (ignore the way it was brushed aside -- it's marvelous) and especially as a star-making performance so any reunion between the two is fully warranted.

I had never heard of Teresa Teng (sometimes spelled Teresa Tang to confuse us) so I had to look her up. Turns out I had heard both her name and her music. And as ever it's the cinema that teaches me. She's the pop star that Maggie Cheung and Leon Lai obsess over frequently in a movie I have seen (and quite enjoyed) called Comrades Almost A Love Story (1996).

Teng was a massive figure in Asian pop where she reigned during the 80s. She died suddenly in the mid-90s from asthma complications. You know how early deaths tend to cement celebrity legends.

This is one of her biggest hits "The Moon Represents My Heart" and a Teresa Teng moment lifted directly from Comrades. (Argh! Now I miss Maggie Cheung.)



Do you look forward to a Lust Caution reunion? (If you haven't seen it yet, what's your excuse? Get on that.) Can we a get a cameo from Tony Leung in this reunion? No? How about Lee-Hom Wang?

Hong Kong Film Awards: Bodyguards, Assassins, Bishonen

The Hong Kong Film Awards which honor film productions from, you guessed it, Hong Kong were held this week. I preface this post that way because there are other major Asian awards, most notably the Golden Horse which includes all Chinese language cinema rather than just Hong Kong productions. The Golden Horse nominations are announced in the fall I believe and we may see some of the same films honored. The big winner for HK was the action extravaganza Bodyguards and Assassins (Shi Yue Wei Chang) which took home eight prizes including Best Picture. It was nominated for 19 awards. Can you imagine?! I am a sucker for movie advertisements that introduce the cast of characters and both the posters and the trailer here label their characters. Is the movie worthy of this major a statue grab? Readers who've seen it, speak up! The film apparently has a Canadian/UK distributor but nothing here in the US.


Four of many character posters for the film. The trailer (at about the 1:30 mark) gives you the full rundown of characters



The other major prize winner was the 1960s era family film Echoes of the Rainbow (Sui Yuet San Tau) Both films were large box office successes at home.

• Picture: Bodyguards and Assassins
• Director: Teddy Chen, Bodyguards and Assassins
• Actor: Simon Yam, Echoes of the Rainbow
• <--- Actress: Kara Hui, At the End of the Rainbow
  This actress is also referred to in some reports as Wai Ying-Hung which makes things confusing. Hui plays the struggling mother of a young man accused of rape. This performance was a major comeback for the 50 year old actress, who first won the HK Film Award almost 30 years go. The performance has been a sweeper on the Asian awards circuit (this is her third major prize) so it's a pity that we don't get to see it here in the US.
  
• Supporting Actor: Nicholas Tse, Bodyguards and Assassins
  He plays "The Rickshaw Man"
• Supporting Actress. Michelle Ye, Accident
  
  
• New Director: Cheung King-wai, KJ
• New Performer: Aarif Lee, Echoes of the Rainbow
  (Pictured right, the new "it" boy I'm told. He also sings the film's winning theme song)
  
• Asian Film: Departures
  (This award honors Asian cinema produced outside of Hong Kong. Last year's Japanese Foreign Film Oscar winner took the prize)
• Screenplay: Alex Law, Echoes of the Rainbow
• Cinematography: Bodyguards and Assassins
• Editing: Overheard
• Costume Design: Bodyguards and Assassins
• Art Direction: Bodyguards and Assassins
• Action Choreography: Bodyguards and Assassins
• Visual Effects: The Storm Warriors
• Sound Effects: Red Cliff 2
• Original Song: Echoes of the Rainbow
• Original Score: Bodyguards and Assassins

Celebrity!
Awards shows, whether they take place in the Kodak Theater or all the way around the world, are often just as much about the red carpet and the celebrities walking them as whatever is being celebrating inside. I watched a bit of news coverage that I didn't understand and they were very excited about these two (pictured below). I approve.

Shu Qi and Chang Chen... sometimes referred to as Qi Shu and Zhang Chen

We don't get enough Asian films in the States but we have seen Chang Chen (Crouching Tiger, Happy Together, Red Cliff) and Qi Shu (So Close, The Transporter, New York I Love You) several times and I've even written about their onscreen partnership before. Their combined presence definitely sucks up the most coverage time from the entertainment news report I watched. I didn't realize they were a couple offscreen but if you've ever seen Hsiao-Hsien Hou's Three Times, you will most heartily approve.

It wasn't up for awards but as I was watching that same news bit online I couldn't help noticing that the young stars of Monga, Ethan Ruan and Mark Chao (who are very popular at the moment) were quite affectionate on the red carpet. Monga is another in a long long line of movies from all over the world in which young men form deep brotherly and eventually bloody bonds as they enter the gangster life. I'm not sure if there's a gay subplot but there's something going on between Ruan and Chao's characters. A bit of web searching led me to this unfortunate headline.

clockwise from top: Ruan and Chao at the HK Film Awards, on a talk
show promoting the film and onscreen in the drama Monga (2010)

Talk shows where male stars are asked to make out with each other? Nobody asked Heath and Jake to do this back in the day!

Here's the trailer to Monga which TFE reader Tony tells me I should look out for at the Golden Horse Awards this fall...



Have you seen any of these pictures? If not, what's the last Asian film you saw?