Kinji Fukasaku Spotlight, Part II

This is a follow-up post to the previous Kinji Fukasaku spotlight which focused on 7 of his Yakuza films. Previously, I associated Kinji Fukasaku’s name with Yakuza films. However, he worked on a diverse range of genres, from monster movies (The Green Slime) to police dramas, war films (Tora! Tora! Tora!, Under the Flag of the Rising Sun), political thrillers, sci-fi (Virus) to even comedy (Fall Guy). This part II looks at the following five films, with 3 non Yakuza films:

Hokori takaki chosen / The Proud Challenge (1962)

Sympathy for the Underdog (1971)

Under the Flag of the Rising Sun (1972)

Yakuza Graveyard (1976)

Fall Guy (1982)

Seeking the Truth

Hokori takaki chosen (The Proud Challenge) is a stellar noir film which depicts a journalist’s attempt to uncover an illegal arms trade racket in Southeast Asia. Kuroki (Kôji Tsuruta) works for a small newspaper Tekko Shinpo and we gather from snippets of dialogue that he once worked for a larger newspaper. The reason he isn’t with that larger newspaper is because of Kuroki’s investigation related to a story about the murder of a young woman, a case that has haunted him since then. As it turns out, his investigation of the arms sales finds him crossing path with that old murder case from almost a decade ago. 

The film has a thrilling energy akin to Yasuzô Masumura’s Black Test Car (1962), Black Report (1963), two films released around the same time. Interestingly, Kurosawa’s High and Low (1963) was released in 1963 as well marking a fascinating noir spell in Japanese cinema. However, since The Proud Challenge is a Kinji Fukasaku film, there is a political layer to the film (involving the Americans and an unnamed nation’s forces) and presence of criminal gangs, including both local and international.

Brutalities of War

Under the Flag of the Rising Sun depicts the brutality of war with unflinching honesty. The film centres around Sakie Togash (Sachiko Hidari), a widow, who would like to know the truth around her husband Sergeant Katsuo Togashi’s death during the end of World War II and why she still hasn’t received the pension owed to widows of fallen soldiers. She has spent the better part of 26 years in trying to find an answer but other than visiting the same offices and being the told the same things, she is nowhere near the truth. Her persistence finally rubs off on someone in the Welfare ministry who asks her to track down four comrades of her husband who are still alive. Sakie is told that if any of those 4 men can recount the truth and provide official testimony, then she may finally get the pension.

As Sakie tracks down the men, each of them has a different version of the story. The men don’t even reveal the full story at once but only give her snippets. She has no choice but to pay multiple visits to each person so that she can fact check the stories. What she finds out is beyond her imagination. The men talk of the brutal violence, starvation and deplorable conditions the soldiers found themselves in. They were forced to turn on each other, do whatever it took to stay alive including resorting to eating the flesh of dead soldiers. It turns out that Katsuo did his best to keep soldiers in his group alive, including turning on his superior, defying orders and saving the lives of his fellow soldiers at the cost of his own.

Fukasaku has included historical photographs of these savage wars fought in New Guinea, similar to actual images he used in the Battles Without Honor and Humanity series, which lends an air of realism to proceedings. History books in the West have no mention of these incident in New Guinea and the conditions that Japanese soldiers faced. Why would they? For the west, Japan was an advisory and as we know that history is written by the victors. Fukasaku, working from Yūki Shōji's stories of the same name, has made one of the best anti-war films ever yet it is a film that is hardly ever mentioned in the War Genre.

Lights, Camera, Action, Comedy, Death

Kinji Fukasaku’s Fall Guy has a completely different tone and feel from his other films and features a lot more comedic elements that seen in his other films. The film’s title is both a literal and figurative reference as it refers to Yasu (Mitsuru Hirata), a stunt actor, taking a death-defying fall in the film and also cleaning up the mess for his main actor, Ginshiro (Morio Kazama). When Ginshiro’s mistress Konatsu (Keiko Matsuzaka) is pregnant, he asks Yasu to marry her so that Ginshiro is not dragged into any controversy. Yasu agrees and goes out of his way to provide for Konatsu, including taking on more and more dangerous stunts to pay for Konatsu and their child’s future. This eventually leads to Yasu agreeing to fall down the largest stairs constructed in a Japanese film studio’s history so that Konatsu can live off his death insurance.

Of all the Kinji Fukasaku films, this one feels the most like a studio film, not only because of the studio setting but also because of the presence of the various characters who don’t add anything to the plot except comedic relief or an emotional impact. Yet, even in this studio framework, Fukasaku still shows a creative hand including the finale which is worthy wink to the audience. The film doesn’t have any reference to the US TV series The Fall Guy (1981-86) and in a way Yasu’s main character is a polar opposite to Lee Majors’ Colt Seavers character in the US TV show. Seavers character goes on regular death-defying adventures while Yasu struggles to stand up for himself. Eventually driven by the need to provide for Konatsu, Yasu starts getting braver leading to his legendary finale.

Gangs and Turf Wars

Gangsters released from prison are a common sight in many films. Sympathy for  the Underdog starts with that aspect and elevates depicting the gangster release with a Western genre touch. As Masuo Gunji (Kōji Tsuruta) is released after serving a 10 year sentence, the rustling of the leaves via the wind announces the arrival of a major outlaw who is not wearing a black hat but instead black shades. Gunji indeed fits the bill as a no-nonsense gangster who is willing to go to any lengths to claim what he believes is his right. However, he finds a different Yokohama than the one he left when we went to prison. Gunji’s old turf is taken over by a gang from Tokyo and his men are all split up. He gathers a few of his loyal men and decides to go to Okinawa, the remote Japanese island he believes resembles what Yokohama once was. Once they land in Okinawa, Gunji and his men gets a lay of the land and indeed find that they can easily wedge their way into the mix.

Kinji Fukasaku taps into historical elements in depicting a post WWII Okinawa, one where the US presence was still strong (US only returned Okinawa to Japan in 1972). This is depicted in the film via multiple shots of the American flag, heavy presence of American soldiers at night clubs and the multiple Jazz clubs. The Americans are also involved in the local alcohol business and have their armed men to take care of troublesome characters such as Gunji’s men. Similar to his other Yakuza films, Sympathy for the Underdog has a frantic energy to events and uses Dutch (slanted) camera angles at key moments to propel the action. The film also goes into detail about the logistics needed to run a criminal operation and how to carve out one’s own turf. Gunji is ruthless and doesn’t fear anyone yet he still operates via an unwritten honour code like the Yakuza characters in other Fukasaku films.

Cops vs Yakuza and Brotherhood

Yakuza Graveyard compliments Fukasaku’s other Yakuza films and the title of his 1975 film Cops vs Thugs could easily have applied to this film as well. In addition to showing the cops vs gangs rivalry, Yakuza Graveyard also shows how the two groups work together unofficially via sharing of information and in some cases via bribery/corruption. The Yakuza reward the police through money, alcohol and women but the line is drawn at an official brotherhood between the two. This is what both Kuroiwa (Tetsuya Watari), the tough as nails cop, and Iwata (Tatsuo Umemiya), the hot boiled Yakuza, form much to the shock of their respective bosses. At first, both Kuroiwa and Iwata are enemies and beat the heck out of each other. However, Iwata sees their similarity and starts to respect Kuroiwa. The two officially take a brotherhood pact which puts both of them in hot water, leading to both the cops and Yakuza wanting to put away the two men. 

Yakuza Graveyard is a brilliant film and stands out from Fukasaku’s other stellar Yakuza films. The film emphasizes the honour and trust code that exist between men and despite all the fighting and blood spilled, the film has an emotional beating heart. This is easily one of the best Yakuza films out there and that is not an easy feat in a very crowded yakuza film market. The film also has a key acting role by legendary Japanese director Nagisa Ôshima.

Part II conclusion

My admiration for Fukasaku has gone up via the 5 films seen in this spotlight. His yakuza films are not just pure violence but instead he uses historical incidents and characters (films have actual photographs inserted) as the basis for his films. In this regard, he is documenting Japanese society post WWII especially that of Hiroshima in the Battles Without Honor and Humanity series, Okinawa in Sympathy for the Underdog. Fukasaku documents the plight of Japanese soldiers in New Guinea Under the Flag of the Rising Sun.

There is a planned Part III Kinji Fukasaku spotlight, one which will focus on his other key Yakuza films while highlighting some more non-Yakuza movies.

Ranking Godzilla movies

Ranking the best Gojira/Godzilla films isn’t an easy task, both from a quantity and quality perspective. There are 38 films noted in the Godzilla franchise with the original film released in 1954 and the latest edition in 2024, a span of 70 years. If one excludes the 3 Animation films, then that total drops to 35. The production quality varies a lot among these films not only due to differences in production between Japanese and American studios but also due to multiple reboot/reset of the franchise. There are some films that stand-out while others have substandard production quality and are just derivative, reheated attempts of the original film. It is not a series that one can binge watch as some films in the franchise are unwatchable and after a while, many of them start appearing to be the same. There are some exceptions and it is those films that linger long in the memory.

There are 33 Gojira films from Japan divided in the Shōwa era (1954–1975), Heisei era (1984–1995), Millennium era (1999–2004), Reiwa era (2016–present) and 5 that are part of the American series. This total doesn’t include four films released in US that were re-edited versions of the original Japanese films. In addition, there is a recent spin-off series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters which is part of the American Monsterverse, a series that includes the Hollywood films from 2014 onwards.

Listing of all 38 films

Shōwa era (1954–1975)
 

1. Godzilla (1954, Ishirō Honda)
2. Godzilla Raids Again (1955, Motoyoshi Oda)
3. King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962, Ishirō Honda)
4. Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964, Ishirō Honda)
5. Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964, Ishirō Honda)
6. Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965, Ishirō Honda)
7. Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966, Jun Fukuda)
8. Son of Godzilla (1967, Jun Fukuda)
9. Destroy All Monsters (1968, Ishirō Honda)
10. All Monsters Attack (1969, Ishirō Honda)
11. Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971, Yoshimitsu Ban)
12. Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972, Jun Fukuda)
13. Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973, Jun Fukuda)
14. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974, Jun Fukuda)
15. Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975, Ishirō Honda)

Heisei era (1989–1995) 

16. The Return of Godzilla (1984, Kōji Hashimoto)
17. Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989, Kazuki Ōmori)
18. Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991, Kazuki Ōmori)
19. Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992, Takao Ōkawara)
20. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993, Takao Ōkawara)
21. Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994, Kenshō Yamashita)
22. Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995, Takao Ōkawara)

Millennium era (1999–2004) 

23. Godzilla 2000: Millennium (1999, Takao Ōkawara)
24. Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000, Masaaki Tezuka)
25. Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001, Shūsuke Kaneko)
26. Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002, Masaaki Tezuka)
27. Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003, Masaaki Tezuka)
28. Godzilla: Final Wars (2004, Ryūhei Kitamura)

Reiwa era (2016–present) 

29. Shin Godzilla (2016, Hideaki Anno, Shinji Higuchi)
30. Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters (2017, Kōbun Shizuno, Hiroyuki Seshita)
31. Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle (2018, Kōbun Shizuno, Hiroyuki Seshita)
32. Godzilla: The Planet Eater (2018, Kōbun Shizuno, Hiroyuki Seshita)
33. Godzilla Minus One (2023, Takashi Yamazaki)

Note: films 30, 31, 32 are all animation films.

Hollywood films 

1. Godzilla (1998, Roland Emmerich)
2. Godzilla (2014, Gareth Edwards)
3. Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019, Michael Dougherty)   
4. Godzilla vs. Kong (2021, Adam Wingard)
5. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024, Adam Wingard)

Re-edited films for US market, not included in the 38 film total 

Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956)
King Kong vs. Godzilla (1963)
Godzilla (1977)
Godzilla 1985 (1985)

Top 5 Godzilla Films

1. Godzilla (1954)

The original is still the template for all subsequent Godzilla films as elements in Ishirō Honda’s films are revisited, updated and even slightly improved in other films.
 
2. Shin Godzilla (2016)

An absolutely brilliant reboot that cleverly uses Gojira as a lens to demonstrate human logistics and problem solving.

3. Godzilla Minus One (2023)

If Shin Godzilla was about logistics and problem solving, Godzilla Minus One is using engineering to solve the very large Godzilla problem. In addition, the film also highlights the human impact on post WWII Japan in the aftermath of America’s atomic bomb drops.

4. Mothra vs Godzilla (1964)

Mothra is a key kaiju in Godzilla movies and her first appearance in the series also happens to be one of the most worthy films in the franchise.

5. Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965)

Combines many components of the franchise with aliens, Ghidorah, Rodan.

Most family friendly Godzilla: Son of Godzilla

The franchise clearly was trying to make Godzilla appealing for younger kids by introducing a very cute young Baby Godzilla.

Most environmentally conscious film: Godzilla vs. Hedorah 

Godzilla films contain political and social messaging but nowhere is that hit on the head as much as Godzilla vs Hedorah where Hedorah is a monster who grows by feeding off the industrial waste dumped in oceans. Only Godzilla can save us from our destructive polluting ways! If dumping of chemicals and industrial waste in oceans led to the creation of a monster, then perhaps humans may have done more to protect our environment. Unfortunately, life isn’t a Godzilla movie!

The Films of Kôji Fukada

Hospitalité (2010)
Harmonium (2016)
A Girl Missing (2019)
The Real Thing (2020)

Harmonium is Kôji Fukada’s fifth film but one that thrust him in the spotlight after it won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes 2016. Prior to that, Fukada’s films were often found at Film Festivals around the world so his name wasn’t unknown. Yet, Harmonium showed a distinct change and ruthlessness that wasn’t the case with his earlier films especially Hospitalité which has some common elements.

Hospitalité

 

In both Harmonium and Hospitalité, a stranger arrives to live in a household and ends up upending the family dynamics of that household. One reason that the stranger is able to impact the family is because he is able to exploit vulnerabilities which highlight that the family is one in name only but otherwise a collection of individuals.

In Hospitalité, the stranger is Kagawa (Kanji Furutachi) who arrives to a house where a couple run a printing press owned by Kobayashi (Kenji Yamauchi) and his wife Nitsuki (Kiki Sugino). Kagawa first manages to get a job at the printing press, then manages to stay at the house before eventually taking things over like a gangster.

Kôji Fukada's smart inspired bit of casting is highlighted by Kanji Furutachi who played the stranger in Hospitalité but plays the house owner in Harmonium.

 

Harmonium

In Harmonium, Toshio (Furutachi) offers Yasaka (Tadanobu Asano) a job and accommodation in his house without telling his wife Akie (Mariko Tsutsui). The difference is that unlike Hospitalité, Yasaka isn’t a complete stranger. He and Toshio shared a past which is something that Toshio neglects to inform Akie about. At first, Akie isn’t comfortable with Yasaka’s presence but gradually warms up, especially after Yasaka teaches Akie’s daughter how to play the harmonium. However, Yasaka starts making too many inroads in Toshio’s family, an act that threatens to derail Toshio’s perfect family.

The two films may share a common key element of a disruptive stranger but they are vastly different in tone and execution. The tone in Hospitalité is uneven, a mix of absurd comedy and drama. After Kagawa takes over the house and printing press, things get comical even though the inclusion of a few scenes and glances indicate a calculated plan. On the other hand, Harmonium removes any humour and ventures into a darker territory. The film is packed with plenty of jaw-dropping scenarios which question the complex relationships each family member shares with another. The film’s original title Fuchi ni tatsu translates to “on the brink”, words that perfectly describe the mental state of the characters as they navigate through their daily lives.

Harmonium is a kick in the guts, sharp, relentless and is an ingenious twist on the traditional Japanese family drama. Naturally, after a film like Harmonium, my expectations were high from Fukada’s next film. As it turns out, it wasn’t one film but two that arrived in quick succession.

A Girl Missing

As the title indicates, A Girl Missing is about a kidnapping. But unlike other movies that deal with such topics, the movie isn’t about the kidnapper or victim but instead about a character (Ichiko played brilliantly by Mariko Tsutsui) who chooses not to act. In the film, Ichiko recognizes the kidnapper but doesn’t divulge that information to the police as she fears it might implicate her. However, Ichiko’s secret is revealed and unravels her reputation and relationship. She is angered and driven to thoughts of revenge. The film falls a few steps short of what Harmonium shows. While Harmonium shows the execution of dangerous thoughts, A Girl Missing shows how such thoughts can simmer inside a character and force them to take matters in their own hands. The film can be considered the idea that is realized in action by Harmonium.

The Real Thing

 

On the other hand, The Real Thing is a reset, a reset of themes and ideas. Based on a manga, the film is about two characters who are clearly wrong for each other. When the two are together, bad things happen. Yet, they can’t stay away or instead the universe can’t keep them away. The Real Thing is 3 hours 52 minutes long but it originally ran as a 10 part mini-TV series. The TV series format is apparent even in the almost 4 hour film as events repeat, progress in a predictable format. The tone of the film is devoid of any melodrama which results in the material presented with a dryness that mixes absurd, comedic and dark scenarios.  The almost 4 hour version was supposed to play at Cannes 2020 but since the Festival was postponed due to the Pandemic, the film was announced as an Official Cannes Selection. The film did have a festival run in Fall of 2020 including showing at the Tokyo International Film Festival.

 

Overall, even though there are elements to admire in A Girl Missing and The Real Thing, neither film can match the heights of Harmonium which feels like a perfect calibration of all the elements found in his movies. Still, there is no doubt about Kôji Fukada's stellar credentials as a director. The varying treatment between Hospitalité and Harmonium shows the evolution of a filmmaker from a good director into a great one. It is still early to know if the adaptation of a manga will be a new direction for Fukada or how it fits in his filmography. Oddly, there is a quote from Fukada that the Japanese film industry needs to stop depending on manga adaptions which feels ironic given that he has done one himself. So this adaptation may be a one-off only but I am looking forward to see what he does next.

Fantasia 2021

Fantasia 2021 runs from Aug 5 - 25th in a hybrid format. Unlike last year’s virtual edition, this year’s edition is showing films in cinemas along with a few on-demand.

The following are comments on five films seen virtually. Three films are refreshing upgrades on genre films while the main highlight was screening of a two decade old Uruguayan cult film!

King Car (2021, Brazil, Renata Pinheiro)

A few years ago, Bacurau showed the power of using genre (Spaghetti Westerns, John Carpenter’s films) to create a smart multi-layered political allegory. Renata Pinheiro taps into the same energy albeit via a different set of genre films, the Hollywood car horror movie from late 1970s-80s such as The Car (1977) and John Carpenter’s Christine. He also incorporates a few more car centric elements such as the talking car of Knight Rider with a fetish touch of David Cronberg’s Crash (difference is that the pleasure isn’t only one way). If that wasn’t enough, the film is layered with some social, environmental and political messaging. The overall mood and tone of film also reminded me a bit of Adirley Queirós’ Once There was Brasilia.

Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (2021, Japan, Junta Yamaguchi)

The time loop movie has become a sub-genre within sci-fi films and its depiction has taken on many forms ranging from comedy (Groundhog Day), dark comedy (the recent Palm Springs) to action/thriller (Edge of Tomorrow) and even horror (Timecrimes). A majority of the films revolve around characters going back to a key event in their lives to save the world, save a loved one or even saving themselves. Unfortunately, a majority of these films get caught in their own repetitive loop and lose momentum after the nth repetitive scene. Therefore, it is such a joy to discover Junta Yamaguchi’s Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes, a charming, creative take on the time loop movie. In the film, the main character can only see 2 minutes into the future and this discovery happens when he leaves the cafe to go to his apartment upstairs. 

The 2 minute concept is lovingly expanded with plenty of humour and even though there is some saving involved, it is nowhere near as dramatic as most of the Hollywood repetitions. Also, the film shows that a talented filmmaker can add a loving dimension to this sub-genre with a limited budget. No need of millions for pointless explosions and car crashes.

Tiong Bahru Social Club (2020, Singapore, Tan Bee Thiam)

The happy peaceful suburbia concept has proved to be fodder for horror and dramatic films which have shown the darkness that hides behind the curtains of those oh so perfect looking white picket fences. David Lynch’s Blue Velvet is just one example but there have been many other films which have gone the full body horror route while some have gone the satire way (The Stepford Wives). The recent Vivarium combined satire, horror and sci-fi. Tiong Bahru Social Club shows that there is another possible way. The setting of Singapore adds a much needed splash of colour and the suburban houses are replaced with an apartment like community. The satire is quite visible and the location of Singapore ensures a clean sanitized version on screen at all times. There is a hint of an evil scheming plot that is turning the wheels in the background but even that is presented in the film’s overall pleasant tone. The end result is a film that shows it is possible to tackle existential ideas in a humorous manner without resorting to blood, gore and orgies.

Act of Violence in a Young Journalist (1988, Uruguay, Manuel Lamas)
Straight to VHS (2021, Uruguay, Emilio Silva Torres)

 

The highlight of the festival so far has been the double bill of Act of Violence in a Young Journalist and Straight to VHS. Manuel Lamas’ 1988 film Act of Violence in a Young Journalist is a curious beast. The low budget video production gives the film a grainy look which at times indicates an old fashioned B-grade film but that is doing the film a huge disservice. In some aspects, the film is well ahead of its time by mixing documentary style footage with some fictional aspects and having these two threads come together in a creative manner. The main character Blanca (Blanca Gimenez) is a journalist doing a thesis into what violence means and she goes about interviewing various subjects on the nature of violence. These interviews lead to some of the film’s best moments including a segment where a subject links the violence in Uruguayan society to that which takes place on-field in Uruguayan soccer games. This subject’s observations in a way predict the evolution of Uruguayan soccer over the last 2 decades and how the team has formalized violence in a formal framework within their game. Even today, the Uruguayan team of Oscar Tabárez is known for its grit, tough tackling physical side rather than a creative flair. Blanca’s work attracts the attention of a person who believes that the only way Blanca can learn about violence is experiencing it first hand. So he starts a series of killing with the intent of killing Blanca last. There are some creative camera movements that are often hidden by the film’s low budget production (editing, sound) but it is easy to see why this film became a cult phenomena.

Emilio Silva Torres tries to decipher this cult nature in his smart documentary Straight to VHS that also uses a creative touch of fiction to walk through the Lamas labyrinth.

The Films of Yasuzô Masumura

Black Test Car (1962, Japan)
Black Report / Black Statement Book (1963, Japan)

Over the last year, streaming and online movie viewing has become a lot more common for a lot of people around the world. However, many of these streaming options only show new content, including movies which were planned to show in a physical cinema but transitioned online (VOD, virtual film festivals) due to cinema closures. There are few legal streaming options for older cinema and black and white movies,   many of which could have been rented from independent video stores back in the day. Unfortunately a decade ago, these independent video shops disappeared along with the entire video rental industry. Only a few lamented the loss of physical video stores because a majority of the people only cared to see new movies which were readily available online. Yet, it still remains true that many films I could have rented from a video store back in the day can’t be seen via legal streaming options.

This was again emphasized recently when I went searching for older films of Yasuzô Masumura. A few decades ago, I could rent a few of his movies from a local video store including his 1966 movie Irezumi. Yet, that film and others aren’t available to see legally online. I thought of Yasuzô Masumura’s films recently when I came across two new Arrow editions of Black Test Car and Black Report, films I had not seen previously.

Black Test Car is a brilliant film about industrial spying, morality/ethics and boundaries people are willing to cross. The film’s content is utterly relevant to our current times when industrial espionage has increased substantially as has the pressure to be the first to the market with one’s product regardless of the ethics or product’s quality.

There are a lot of memorable lines from the film including:
"You can’t get hung up on morals, you’ll just feel remorse”

The words regarding the car being developed are simple but perfect:

That car’s dirty.
It’s dirty..black as pitch

The words convey the dirty dealings in the development of the car, the marketing which includes sabotage and stealing data from competitors and the bribing of people involved. The usage of the word 'dirty' to describe the car made me think of Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive when Driver and Bernie have their meeting:

Driver: my hands are a little dirty

To which Bernie replies: so are mine

 

Black Report (or Black Statement Book, 1963) is a riveting murder mystery that shares some aspects with Kurosawa’s High and Low, a film that also came out in 1963.

If I had seen Black Test Car and Black Report without knowing the director’s name, I wouldn’t have been able to guess they were from Masumura as they are different from his later films. Although, some aspects of the marketing competition shown in  Black Test Car were first covered in his Giants and Toys (1958). This clip from Giants and Toys echoes our world today, how products are marketed and the discussion of morality.

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Relevant reading:

1. Jonathan Rosenbaum: What Masumura Does with Our Madness

2. Rosenbaum again: Discovery Yasuzô Masumura

3. Frédéric St-Hilaire: Individualism in the Land of the Rising Sun: Youth and Rebellion on the Cusp of the Japanese New Wave

The Bad Sleep Well

The Bad Sleep Well (1960, Japan, Akira Kurosawa)

“This was the first film of Kurosawa Productions, my own unit which I run and finance myself. From this film on, I was responsible for everything. Consequently, when I began, I wondered what kind of film to make. A film made only to make money did not appeal to me - one should not take advantage of an audience. Instead, I wanted to make a movie of some social significance. At last I decided to something about corruption, because it has always seemed to me that graft, bribery, etc., at the public level, is one of the worst crimes that there is. These people hide behind the facade of some great company or corporation and consequently no one knows how dreadful they really are, what awful things they do. Exposing them was, I thought, a socially significant act - and so I started the film.” — The Films of Akira Kurosawa by Donald Richie, page 140

The Bad Sleep Well is an extraordinary film that covers corruption from two aspects, one from inside the depths and the other from the newspaper reporting angle. Modern day news reporting isn’t what it once used to be and the distortion of facts in news reports has gotten worse in the six decades since this movie came out. Kurosawa covers the celebrity gossip aspect in Scandal and some of that gossip media coverage is covered in The Bad Sleep Well, especially the opening moments, but the film is highly relevant from a journalistic aspect because it shows how news can be distorted. Getting to the facts requires a reporter to probe deep beneath the surface and get past the news conferences that companies hold.

In discussing the film’s treatment, Donald Richie mentions that “..Kurosawa wanted to expose the corruption of those in the highest places in Japan.” In Kurosawa’s own words: “As early as Drunken Angel “the critics had started calling me a ‘journalistic’ director, meaning that I interested myself in ‘timely themes’. Actually, I have always thought of film as a kind of journalism if journalism means a series of happenings, usually contemporary, which can be shaped into a film. At the same time, I know that a timely subject does not make an interesting film, if that is all that it has. One ought to make a film in such a way that the original idea, no matter where it comes from, remains the most important thing, and the feeling that one felt at that moment of having the idea is important. Timely, then, in my sense, is the opposite of sensational.” — The Films of Akira Kurosawa by Donald Richie, page 140

There is also a Shakespearean reading on the film with parallels to that of Hamlet that Richie discusses and reading those elements in Richie’s book helps see the film with a fresh angle.

The Bad Sleep Well was released 3 years before High and Low and the two films are opposite sides of the same coin shown from a different perspective: The Bad Sleep Well is the inside view that shows us the kidnapper’s thinking and reasons while in High and Low, the audience is always on the outside until the film’s final moments when we get an insight into the kidnapper’s rationale. Both films are also variations on the rich-poor class divide approached from different angles but in both, it is the rich that get their way and can dictate the media coverage. However, The Bad Sleep Well is far more brutal and has no shades of happiness because it aligns itself with a character who never gets justice. There is some playful music in the final 30 minutes in the interaction between Takashi Shimura’s Moriyama character and Toshirô Mifune’s Nishi. But that playful music gives us false hope because shortly after that music, any hope is extinguished and the film dives into a dark territory. Of course, any other ending would not do justice to the film’s title.

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A ranking change in the recent viewing of Kurosawa’s films:

1. Seven Samurai (1954)
2. The Bad Sleep Well (1960)
3. Ikiru (1952)
4. High and Low (1963)
5. Rashomon (1950)
6. Red Beard (1965)
7. Scandal (1950)
8. Stray Dog (1949)
9. Yojimbo (1961)
10. Drunken Angel (1948)

Kinji Fukasaku's Films

As opposed to starting at the beginning, I started at the end. The first Kinji Fukasaku film I saw was Battle Royale (2000), the last one he directed. He started work on the sequel Battle Royale II (2003) but passed away before it was completed so his son Kenta Fukasaku completed it. After that, I only saw a few of his films but not enough for a proper spotlight. So a correction was in order.

A mini-spotlight of 7 of his films, 5 of which constitute the Battles Without Honor and Humanity or the Yakuza Papers series.

Street Mobster (1972)
Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1973) / Yakuza Papers, vol. 1


Hiroshima Death Match (1973) / Yakuza Papers, vol. 2
Proxy War (1973) / Yakuza Papers, vol. 3
Police Tactics (1974) / Yakuza Papers, vol. 4
Final Episode (1974) / Yakuza Papers, vol. 5
Cops vs Thugs (1975)

All 7 films were released over a quick 3 year span. The prolific Fukasaku also did a New Battles Without Honor and Humanity trilogy (1974-76) but those films were not seen as part of this spotlight.

The 5 film Battles Without Honor and Humanity series is an absolutely incredible epic series unlike any other in cinema. The Godfather (1972) came out just a year before Battles Without Honor and Humanity and there are some overlapping aspects regarding the thirst for power and hierarchy of gangs but both films are cut from different cloth. Instead, I thought of Johnnie To’s Election (2005) and Election 2 (2006) and Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) as distant cinematic offsprings of Fukasaku due to the usage of historical references and cyclic nature of events. However, those films still don’t have the scope of Kinji Fukasaku’s movies and methods. One differentiating method is that Fukasaku states historical events and dates up front, introducing characters by their real names and stating dates of their death. In addition, there is a documentary style narration to place the movie’s real life events and meetings. This includes starting all the films with historical reference to Hiroshima and the chaotic post-WWII world that allowed gangs to prosper via the black market. Even though the 5 films came out in a two-year span, they cover almost 25 years in scope. The films also highlight the changing political climate brought by the Korean War and the Cold War that further impacted the Yakuza gangs’ style in Hiroshima and Kure City, an aspect covered by the third film Proxy War.

The scope of the films increases in the series starting with individuals to gang battles to cross-city rivalries as the yakuza go from street-level activity to political and company businesses impacting regular citizens. Despite the changing scope of the films, all 5 are united by some common elements related to the gang’s methodologies, rituals and mannerism. The films show repeated cycles of men drinking, eating, planning and then killing, not always in that order. When the men are not looking behind them, there is always some young person lurking behind to kill them and take their place. The young men collect kills and move up the yakuza leader before they are in turn themselves killed. This killing doesn’t only take place at the lowest level of the hierarchy but also takes place at the top, between bosses of the rival yakuza gangs. Boss vs boss, company vs company. Each man wants to be the boss and set up his own company, which results in more violence. This violent cycle continues throughout the 5 film series.

The common rituals shown in the Battles Without Honor and Humanity/Yakuza Papers films follow strict ceremonies some of which are brotherhood vows, loyalty tests or peace offerings. The loyalty tests or peace offering are first shown in Street Mobster and brutally depict a member chopping off a finger to make things right. The subsequent bandaged hand, dripping with blood, is like a badge of honor which lets others know of the true character of the injured man.

Hirono (a remarkable Bunta Sugawara, present in all 7 films) is the beating heart of multiple Yakuza Papers films but he is not always the main focus. As Hirono serves his multiple jail sentences, other characters take centre stage and often Hirono drifts into the background due to the larger scope that Kinji Fukasaku is covering regarding the structure of the gangs. Women are an afterthought in the 5 films and mostly make an appearance when a gangster wants to have a good time with a prostitute. The wives and girlfriends are sometimes shown but even then, they have no say in events. Instead, some examples show that a woman is waiting to be taken over by another man when her male partner is killed or jailed. The one exception is Mrs. Yamamori (Toshie Kimura) who is an equal accomplice in the plans and schemes of Yamamori (Nobuo Kaneko), one of the prominent bosses in the series.

Majority of the characters in the films are caught in cycles they can’t break out of. The only escape for some bosses or senior gang members comes when they either retire or are forced to retire and give control to someone else. These retirements are either mandated or reactionary due to circumstances. They don’t result from soul-searching. However, Hirono is the one exception whose uses his 7 year prison sentence to change himself. He also wants to give advice to young men so that they don’t repeat his errors. During his 7 year prison sentence, Hirono is showing writing about his experiences and this phrase from him illustrates the situation of the gangs but also our current world:

“When foolish men stand at the top, the men under them suffer and shed blood needlessly.”

These words still ring true. Our present world is full of foolish men standing at the top and causing others to suffer needlessly. The closing words at the end of the 5th film are even more relevant today.

“Quarter of a century had passed since he’d [refers to Hirono] cast his lot with the yakuza amidst the post-war turbulence.

With the passage of time, one group begat another, and with each new group came new seeds of conflict.Thus, much young blood had been shed.

Will the bitter battles that arise from the strong preying upon the weak ever be banished from this earth?”

Those words were spoken in a 1974 film but almost 5 decades later, we are now living in a world where the battles are fiercely bitter with no honor and humanity. The strong are still preying on the weak.

Starting this spotlight with Street Mobster was a good decision as the film lays out the gritty realistic yakuza style and template of Fukasaku’s subsequent films. All these 7 films depict the endless violent cycle and lay out the hierarchy that the gangs follow and their rituals. The rituals also include peace making deals between gangs including the brotherhood vows that the members take. It is also clear that Fukasaku’s style and films influenced numerous other directors including Takashi Kitano and Takashi Miike.

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Reading material:

From the Taschen book Japanese Cinema, Stuart Galbraith IV writes of Battles Without Honor and Humanity:

The picture is a slap in the face to the romanticized nostalgia of 1960s ninkyo eiga (“chivalry movies”) that had come before. Instead, Battles Without Honor and Humanity exposes the hypocrisy and emptiness of criminal codes of honor while creating new myths with its fatalistic, disillusioned, and ultimately existential antihero (Bunta Sugawara), a man only too aware of his dead-end lifestyle.

Often likened to Sam Peckinpah, Fukasaku exerts the same unflinching brutality and ambiguous use of violent expression, which has likewise polarized critics. Indeed, Fukasaku’s last completed film, Battle Royale (Batoru rowaiaru, 2000) has come the Straw Dog of its day. Unlike Peckinpah, however, Fukasaku had a markedly left-of-center cynicism born out of his terrifying teens, when he witnessed the deaths of countless friends and neighbors in Allied bombing raids. Immersed in postwar chaos and its thriving black market, Fukasaku was also strongly influenced by the Italian neorealist films he saw during the Allied Occupation. Fukasaku brought these experiences to his genre films, endowing them with an uncanny verisimilitude previously absent in such films. -- Japanese Cinema, page 112

Grady Hendrix on Battles Without Honor and Humanity.

Elaine Woo on Fukasaku’s life.

James Kirkup on Fukasaku's life.

Akira Kurosawa Films

“The film is the same….It’s your eyes that have changed.” — Pain and Glory (Pedro Almodóvar)

The above words could not have been more true in my recent revisit of a dozen Akira Kurosawa films, many seen for the first time in almost two decades. With the continued pause in contemporary films, I am enjoying revisiting many classic films which feel fresh seen after a long time. This revisit highlighted my own changed perspectives especially regarding an increased appreciation towards Kurosawa’s non-samurai films. 11 of these films are Kurosawa’s collaborations with the remarkable Toshiro Mifune who acted in 16 of Kurosawa’s films. Ikiru is the the only non-Mifune film in this list but Ikiru stars the impressive Takashi Shimura who acted in 21 of Kurosawa’s 30 features.

The following dozen films are arranged in order of preference:

1. Seven Samurai (1954)

Still my favourite Kurosawa.

2. Ikiru (1952)

Takashi Shimura brings grace and dignity to all his roles in Kurosawa’s films but he truly shines here. Previously, this film was not in my top 5 of Kurosawa’s films but I am absolutely a big fan of this film. I wouldn’t be surprised if in a few years this film ends up being my favourite Kurosawa film.

3. High and Low (1963)

I always loved this film and it was originally in my top 5 Kurosawa films but this film moved up a few spots. This brilliant multilayered film holds the tension throughout and the police procedural sequences are especially ahead of its time and clearly have influenced many other films. Also, the class depiction of the rich living at top of the hill and the poor at the bottom was mirrored in Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite.

Some quick thoughts on the stunning “drug alley” sequence depicting zombie like drug addicts with a silent hushed background musical score. This detailed depiction takes time to highlight the suffering of the addicts and is a stylistic directorial departure for Kurosawa. These moments also show the vices of a modern city which feels a distance away from the rural side shown in many of Kurosawa’s films.

4. Rashomon (1950)
5. Red Beard (1965)
 
6. Scandal (1950)

Another film ahead of its time in the depiction of a gossip magazine and its celebrity chasing photographers and sleazy editor/owner. The term Paparazzi didn’t come about until Fellini’s La Dolce Vita in 1960 but clearly applies here. Even though Takashi Shimura’s character isn’t the core of the main story, he takes the spotlight with his morally conflicted lawyer character of Hiruta.

7. Stray Dog (1949)
 
8. Yojimbo (1961) 

Yojimbo is pure fun and takes a Western genre framework and replaces with samurai and swords. Although, the presence of a gun nods towards its Western genre source material. The genre cycle was completed by Sergio Leone who remade this for A Fistful of Dollars (1964), the first of his Spaghetti Westerns.

9. Drunken Angel (1948)
10. Throne of Blood (1957)
11. Sanjuro (1962)
12. The Hidden Fortress (1958)

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Kurosawa and Mifune collaborated on 16 films together:

Drunken Angel (1948), The Quiet Duel (1949), Stray Dog (1949), Scandal (1950), Rashomon (1950), The Idiot (1951), Seven Samurai (1954), I Live in Fear (1955), Throne of Blood (1957), The Lower Depths (1957), The Hidden Fortress (1958), The Bad Sleep Well (1960), Yojimbo (1961), Sanjuro (1962), High and Low (1963), Red Beard (1965)

Takashi Shimura acted in 21 of Kurosawa’s films:

Sanshiro Sugata (1943), The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail (1945), No Regrets for Our Youth (1946), Drunken Angel (1948), The Quiet Duel (1949), Stray Dog (1949), Scandal (1950), Rashomon (1950), The Idiot (1951), Ikiru (1952), Seven Samurai (1954), I Live in Fear (1955), Throne of Blood (1957), The Lower Depths (1957), The Hidden Fortress (1958), The Bad Sleep Well (1960), Yojimbo (1961), Sanjuro (1962), High and Low (1963), Red Beard (1965), Kagemusha (1980)

Reading material:

James Quandt on Kurosawa and Mifune.
Moeko Fujii on Mifune at 100.
Donald Ritchie on Remembering Kurosawa.

CIFF 2013

Every year I look forward to the Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF) in order to catch-up with some of the best Canadian & foreign films from around the world. However, this year due to unforeseen events I missed almost half the festival. Thankfully, the damage was not that bad as most films had multiple screenings which allowed me to catch an excellent crop of films.

Here are my top 10:

1. Like Father, Like Son (2013, Japan, Hirokazu Kore-eda)

A beautiful and quietly devastating film that shows the two-way impact parents and children have in evolving each other’s personalities. It is well known that children absorb what they observe from their parents but very few films show how parents are often forced to change, for the better, because of their children. Hirokazu Kore-eda has continued the cinematic tradition of Yasujirô Ozu but has also managed to carve out his own style. One of the year’s best films!

2. Vic + Flo Saw a Bear (2013, Canada, Denis Côté)

Denis Côté toys with the audience by making a specific genre film under the cover of another genre. I am not going to reveal what the specific genre is because it is worth seeing this film cold without any prior knowledge. Côté clearly alerts the audience what to expect but his alarms are mistaken for humor which is why when the film does eventually reveal its true nature, it jolts the senses.

3. The Fifth Season (2012, Belgium/Holland/France, Peter Brosens/Jessica Woodworth) 

The two directors earlier work Khadak was infused with color but all color is mostly drained out of The Fifth Season in order to depict a bleak winter like feeling. Such a depiction works because this transmits the desperation and misery that hangs over the village. At times, the film hinges on dark comedy mostly associated with the cinema of Roy Andersson while some of the bar/tavern scenes and apocalyptic dread evokes Béla Tarr.

4. The Past (2013, France/Italy, Asghar Farhadi)

Examines the complicated and messy aftermath of a separation. As the film shows, a separation does not guarantee a better future but instead can lead one down a never-ending hole of misery.

5. Thou Gild’st the Even (2013, Turkey, Onur Ünlü)

This gorgeous black and white surrealist love story is unlike any film released in the last few years. It is packed with surrealist images that are seamlessly integrated within the ordinary fabric of town life. As a result, the film's blend of humor and shock results in a darker blend of comedy that most palates have not yet encountered.

6. Borgman (2013, Holland, Alex van Warmerdam)

The initial premise appears to be taking a page out of Haneke’s Funny Games but that is a red herring as Borgman takes multiple unexpected turns resulting in a remarkably unpredictable film.

7. Antarctica: A Year on Ice (2013, New Zealand, Anthony Powell)

A stunning and gorgeous film that covers a year long working assignment in Antarctica, capturing the tasks that are required for the workers, including their living quarters and various experiences. The end result is a perfect travelogue for a region which most people will never get a chance to visit. Essential viewing!

The film won both Best Documentary and Discovery Documentary Awards at CIFF 2013, with the two categories voted by the audience.

8. OXV: The Manual (2013, UK/Australia, Darren Paul Fisher)

A mathematical metaphysical coming of age film that incorporates romantic and apocalyptic notes. The underlying layer of science means this films forms a worthy companion piece to Upstream Color. OXV also shows that with some creativity, it is possible to create an engaging sci-fi world without any special effects or a large budget.

9. The Missing Picture (2013, Cambodia/France, Rithy Panh)

Rithy Panh has used a very creative method of mixing archival footage with clay figures to recount a painful and devastating moment in history, not only of his family, but of Cambodia. Such is the smart usage of Panh’s direction that after a while, the clay figures seem to be alive, inviting us to into their lives. Along with The Act of Killing, The Missing Picture shows the power of cinema to preserve history for generations to come.

10. The Tears (2013, Mexico, Pablo Delgado Sanchez)

Pablo Delgado Sanchez’s graduate film shows all the signs of a director whose work belongs to Contemporary Contemplative Cinema (CCC). The initial setting inside a Mexican apartment recalls Nicolás Pereda's Juntos but once the two brothers leave for camping to the countryside, the film recalls the earlier works of Lisandro Alonso. While Alonso’s film are about a solitary figure, the presence of two brothers creates a different dynamic in The Tears.

Strong & worthy viewings

Even though I missed a handful of films, 2013 proved to be an excellent balanced program for CIFF. All the 26 films I saw were worthy of inclusion and enriched the overall festival.

Here are some brief notes on a few of those other films, in no particular order:

The Grand Seduction (2013, Canada, Don McKellar)

A perfect opening gala film which uses a beautiful Canadian setting with an excellent cast to generate plenty of humor. The incorporation of Cricket & Lamb Dhansak enhances the film greatly.

In the Name of (2013, Poland, Malgorzata Szumowska)

At first, the film feels like an examination of a priest's challenge to balance his faith and inner desires. But there are two sequences which transform the film from a singular perspective to a larger examination of the religious establishment. The film starts off by showing that a rotten apple can spoil the barrel while the ending indicates that perhaps the whole barrel is now rotten.

Goltzius and the Pelican Company (2012, UK/Holland/France/Croatia, Peter Greenaway) 

Peter Greenaway's visual tour de force manages to creatively fuse theatre, literature & art thereby creating a feast for the senses.

Pandi (2012, Canada/India, Maria Saroja Ponnambalam)

The film takes us on an emotional ride with the director and her family as they put together the pieces surrounding her uncle Pandi’s death. Even though this is a personal tale, there are some universal themes the film explores, such as the desire to make movies. However, a significant aspect this film depicts is regarding mental health which is not openly discussed in some ethnic communities. The treatment of such a sensitive manner is handled in a dignified manner by the director.

After Tiller (2013, USA, Martha Shane/Lana Wilson)

A gut-wrenching film about people who seek abortion at a late stage (third-trimester) in their pregnancy and the doctors that help carry out such a procedure. The reasons some people go down this path are shown and their opinion is placed against those who call such an act murder. It is not an easy film to watch given the material. However, it is a well made documentary that tries to give multiple points of view, including the moral and ethical issues involved.

The Rocket (2013, Australia, Kim Mordaunt)

Set entirely in the beautiful locales of Laos, The Rocket is a heartwarming film that bursts with life. For people who rarely see foreign films, The Rocket is a perfect way to win them over and show the vibrant cinema that exists in other parts of the world.

The film won the audience narrative award at CIFF 2013 and should be a strong candidate to win the foreign film Academy Award in 2014.

Lily (2013, USA, Matt Creed) 

Takes a page out of the French New Wave as the mostly singular focus on Lily as she wanders the streets of New York evokes Varda’s Cleo from 5 to 7. Matt Creed has done a very good job of drawing audience into Lily’s world and the film always maintains a positive hopeful tone throughout.

The Samurai Trilogy

Criterion's release of Hiroshi Inagaki's The Samurai Trilogy this past summer is certainly a worthy event. While there have been many Samurai films, Inagaki's films stand out because of Toshiro Mifune's performance and the source material of the films. The films are based on Musashi Miyamoto's highly influential The Book of Five Rings. William Scott Wilson, who has written a biography of Miyamoto Musashi, sums up the interest in the book:

Since Musashi engaged in more than sixty duels during his lifetime and was never defeated, it may not be surprising that The Book of Five Rings is fundamentally a book about conflict and victory. It has long been revered not only by swordsmen but also by practitioners of karate, aikido, and other martial arts. However, The Book of Five Rings has found a much broader readership in recent years. Since its first English translation, its study has been touted as the equivalent of an MBA in Japanese business strategy—a competitive art, to be sure. At least one Japanese major-league pitcher keeps the book by his bedside for constant reference. Anyone whose life involves conflict may benefit from studying the techniques laid out in this slender volume.

Wilson also outlines some of the key principles in the book.

At the end of the first chapter of The Book of Five Rings, Musashi sums up his rules for understanding his style and putting it into practice:

1. Think in honest and direct terms.
2. Forge yourself in the Way.
3. Touch upon all the arts.
4. Know the Ways of all occupations.
5. Know the advantages and disadvantages of everything.
6. Develop a discerning eye in all matters.
7. Understand what cannot be seen by the eye.
8. Pay attention even to small things.
9. Do not involve yourself with the impractical.

Four other key points Musashi emphasizes in the book are as follows.
.....
The Way of Swordsmanship Is to Win
Fluidity of Mind
Psychology
The Everyday Mind

The films shown the spiritual growth in Musashi Miyamoto from a strong fighter to a pure samurai, a warrior who does not merely use his sword as a “murderous weapon” as referred to early in the second film in the trilogy. Along the way, Musashi also sheds some of his arrogance and his violent nature to adopt a more thoughtful approach in life and also towards his opponents. At the start of the trilogy, he would never back down from a fight but by the third film, he has become wiser and even instructs that sometimes it is better to run away so that one can win in the future “Lose today, win tomorrow.” The films do not show any blood but spend more time looking at characters' lives and their preparations leading to a climatic battle, which is over in a flash. As a result, the films don't glorify violence and are instead engaging character studies.

Fantasia 2011

Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival is in a class of its own. It is one of the best genre film festivals in the world and as such entertains, thrills, chills and jolts its audience with fascinating films from all corners of the globe. The festival has gone from strength to strength in its 15 years of existence under the magnificent direction of Mitch Davis. Fantasia runs for a staggering 3.5 weeks (24 days) and is a film festival truly for the fans. When it comes to film festivals, one hardly talks about the atmosphere generated by film fans but in the case of Fantasia, for years I had heard about the rocking atmosphere that took place in the Concordia Hall theater when 700 fans brought the cinema down. Attending Fantasia was on my wish list for a long time so this year, in the 15th anniversary of the Festival, I decided to finally take the plunge.

8 in 3 days

I attended 8 films during my first trip to the Vancouver Film Festival in 2006, the same number as I did at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. The common number was just a coincidence but in both cases this total allowed me to enjoy a decent selection of films, spend time with family/friends, get some rest while taking in some of the best the cities had to offer. So this time around, I decided to go with the number 8 again, but the overall breakdown ended up being different. In Vancouver, I had a 3-4-1 tally with 3 films on a Friday, 4 on a Saturday and a single film on sunday while in Toronto I registered 4-3-0-1 with 4 films on a Thursday and a single one again on the sunday. For Montreal, the number ended being 2-5-1, starting with 2 on a friday. I could have packed in more films at Fantasia but I also wanted to spend some time visiting the city’s numerous brewpubs and third-wave cafes.

So the lucky 8 films in order of viewing:

Blackthorn (2011, Spain/USA/Bolivia/France, Mateo Gil)
Beyond the Black Rainbow (2011, Canada, Panos Cosmatos)
Gantz (2010, Japan, Shinsuke Sato)
Gantz: Perfect Answer (2011, Japan, Shinsuke Sato)
Article 12 (2010, UK/Argentina, Juan Manuel Biaiñ)
Dharma Guns (2010, France/Portugal, F.J. Ossang)
Morituris (2011, Italy, Raffaele Picchio)
Redline (2009, Japan, Takeshi Koike)

I had planned my trip long before the final film schedule was released so it turned out many of the films from my wish list were not playing during my visit but I still had plenty of hope from my picks. On paper, Blackthorn appeared enticing. It marked the English language directional debut of Mateo Gil, a writer I held in high regard because of his excellent writing for Thesis, Open Your Eyes, The Sea Inside and The Method. The cast of Sam Shepard, Eduardo Noriega, Stephen Rea and Magaly Solier (she stole the show in both Claudia Llosa features Madeinusa and The Milk of Sorrow) was equally tantalizing. Plus, the fictional account of Butch Cassidy’s apparent survival and secret life in South America (Bolivia) had all the making of a cult film. Unfortunately, the film is a disappointment. Even though Blackthorn contains many memorable sequences, good acting and some picturesque shoot-outs, the good individual parts never add up to a complete whole. The film does contain some memorable lines especially regarding how three different characters curse Bolivia because they were ultimately defeated there. Interestingly, Che Guevera was also defeated in Bolivia, so there is certainly a cinematic possibility in exploring the political games played out in Bolivia.

Beyond the Black Rainbow had plenty of buzz around it and Todd Brown’s excellent write-up was certainly inviting:

Born of the pre-teen fantasies of writer-director Panos Cosmatos as he browsed the selection of early 1980s Canadian science fiction and horror VHS tapes that he would never be allowed to rent, BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW is a psychedelic head trip of the highest order. Cosmatos captures the aesthetics of an era effortlessly while fusing those influences into something bold and visionary and entirely his own. The accomplished music video director — he’s done work for the Handsome Furs, among others — plunges the audience into a sort of sensory overload as he fuses elements of Reagan-era paranoia, social engineering run amok and a drug-fuelled step up the evolutionary ladder to create a hypnotic experience that plays out like a Tarkovsky-style science fiction picture as filtered through the visual style of LOGAN’S RUN. Michael Rogers delivers a mesmerizing performance as Barry Nyle, his cold and clinical exterior concealing a layer of obsession and... something else. But as gripping as Rogers is, it’s the world that Cosmatos creates that is the real star, the visuals providing a truly immersive experience matched by the original score, composed by Black Mountain’s Jeremy Schmidt entirely on vintage analog synthesizers. Just let it all wash over you.

Panos Cosmatos has indeed done an excellent job in recreating the 1980’s feel and I felt I was watching a horror/thriller from that era on a VHS tape. On top of that, the film’s bright neon tinged palette leads viewers on a tipsy hallucinatory psychedelic ride. Unfortunately, when the stylistic layers are peeled off, there is very little depth in the film. There are plenty of references to conspiracy theories/experiments but those references appear to be elements inserted in the film to allow audience to draw their own interpretations and add more meaning to the film than there really is. For majority of the film, the style dominates but once the bright lights are turned out, the film comfortably settles into B-grade mode.

Gantz came in second place for the Audience Awards at the New York Asian Film Festival and was one of the films I was most looking forward to. So were about 699 other people. Only in Fantasia can 700 people be packed in a theater at 11:25 am on Saturday morning and be in amazing spirits. Each frame of the film was cheered on until the opening credits and after that, the film’s key scenes elicited huge roars of approval. Gantz has an incredible opening sequence, perfectly outlined by Rupert Bottenberg in the Fantasia film guide:

Two young men wait among the crowd on a subway platform, a flicker of recognition passing between them. Before they can speak, a man falls, helpless, on the tracks. One youth jumps down to save him. The other reaches down to help, and falls himself. The train is coming, fast, and they don’t have time to climb back up out of its way. The train slams into them — and they find themselves, from one split second to the next, in a clean yet unfurnished apartment overlooking Tokyo. In the room with them are several other men — a gangster, a slacker, a pair of nervous salarymen — who seem just as confused and disoriented as they are. Also in the room is a sphere. A large, smooth, hard black sphere, which quickly reveals itself to have strange and amazing powers. Text scrolls across the sphere, explaining that the old lives of all in the room are now over. Their new lives belong to the sphere. That’s when the weapons come out, and the players’ first target for extermination revealed.

The mysterious black orb is naturally Gantz and it controls all the players lives and wants them to fight aliens that are living among humans on Earth. It scores the players based on their performances in exterminating the aliens. If a player reaches 100 points then they can either use the points to return to their lives or use the points to resurrect another player but be stuck in the game themselves. The first Gantz film spends time developing the characters and lays the foundation for how the players learn to use their new found powers. The second film Gantz: Perfect Answer promises to answer everything but instead it creates more subplots and weaves an even bigger web of mystery around Gantz. The film introduces a palm sized black orb which is instructing a former Gantz player to kill other people to introduce them in the game. On one hand, Gantz is getting people killed and introduced in the game while on the other hand, players are on the verge of returning to their former lives. Eventually, the mystery around the two black orbs are tied and the film offers many answers but still many things are left untied, presumably for a future sequel or even a prequel. Put together the two films are very entertaining but each film contains many disposable sequences that simply draw out the plot longer than needed. The first film is a better overall work than the second film which spends a generous amount of time on players vs alien fight sequences. Still, Gantz is worth watching and will certainly create a huge fan base.

Article 12 explores how modern technology is reducing people’s right to privacy without people’s awareness. The film features prominent speakers, including Noam Chomsky, and echoes George Orwell in exploring the eroding private/public boundaries in modern Western society. However, the 75 minute film basically contains 10-15 minutes of interesting ideas and spends the rest of the time repeating the same messages over and over. As a result, the film easily wears
out its welcome and ends up being quite tiresome.

F.J Ossang’s Dharma Guns is a film with great potential and incredible style. The first image in the film is in color but the rest of the film is in black and white and features a possible end of the world scenario where a mysterious drug is turning people into zombies. The key to save the world lies in an unfinished script that Stan Van Der Decken cannot complete because of his memory loss. On top of that, he cannot get a hold of his mysterious agent and is hounded by an underground group called Dharma Guns. No zombie is ever shown on screen and that gives the film an air of mystery and doubt. Plus, there are many engaging ideas presented in Dharma Guns but unfortunately, the end result is a lackluster film that cannot thread all the elements together.

One of the things I was most looking forward to in Fantasia was seeing a midnight feature in the Hall theater. The opportunity to witness a packed audience elevate the thrills of a horror feature was one I did not want to miss. So I was surprized when the midnight feature Morituris was not even half full. The feature prior to Morituris was jam-packed and had an after-party around midnight so maybe that drew some people away. Or people were more interested in the International Fireworks competition taking place in Montreal that night. Whatever the reasons, it turned out the audience was smart enough in staying away. However, the lack of crowd did not deter director Raffaele Picchio who was in great spirits because this screening marked the international premier of his film. He told the audience that they would witness a "nasty" film and he was right. Although before the nastiness started, Morituris starts off in a flashback mode with found camera footage showing a family’s picnic going horribly wrong when the family is killed by a mysterious evil force from within the forest. The film then cuts to the present when a speeding car packed with five people, three men and two women, is en route to the same forest for a rave party. The conversations flow naturally among the five in the film’s best segment. However, once the five enter the forest, things go wrong as expected. In keeping with the horror film template, the nasty things happen to the women first. The suffering of the men is not far away but when the evil finds the men, it is in the form of men in body paint and gladiator attire, looking more comical than scary. There are some torture segments in the finale but the film ends up being an awful viewing, mostly due to uninspired direction in the final third. As an aside, one would think that in this day and age needless abuse of female characters in horror films would stop but directors keep thinking of new ways to inflict pain to female characters, all for the sake of shock.

Redline, the eight film, was pure fun. Once again, it was incredible to see a packed hall at 11 am on sunday morning, this time cheering on a Japanese anime. The story of the film features incredible car-racing sequences in a futuristic Japan where races take place on various planets between aliens and humans alike. The cars of Speed Racer have nothing on Redline which feature nitro-powered cars flying at unimaginable speeds. The high speeds led to the racers eyes on the verge of popping out and eventually result in complete breakdown of the cars. One incredible sequence in the film features a disintegration of a car but the human drivers fly across the track to still finish the race.

Ratings & Overall comments

A rough ratings of the films out of 10:

Blackthorn: 5.5
Beyond the Black Rainbow: 6.5
Gantz: 8
Gantz: Perfect Answer: 7
Article 12: 5
Dharma Guns: 6
Morituris: 2
Redline: 8

Unfortunately, my picks may not have resulted in too many stellar films but overall, Fantasia was the best film festival experience of my life. As diverse as the films were, they still demonstrated purposeful programming and each film fit perfectly within the festival’s desire to hunt the world for genre films which push the envelope and are not afraid to take risks. Plus, the framework around the festival ensures a great experience. The two main theaters, Hall (capacity 700) and J.A. De Seve Theater (capacity 173), are not only across the road from each other but are connected by an underground tunnel. The tunnel also leads to the Metro, the most efficient metro system in Canada, which ensures one can get to most spots around Montreal in minutes. Also, there is an excellent selection of restaurants, cafes and brewpubs around the two theaters which means a person is always well nourished in between the films.

The timing of the film festival in summer also means that one can enjoy the great weather of Montreal which makes for relaxing walks in-between destinations even late at night (say 2 am after a midnight feature) when downtown is still bursting with life. Given that that film festival lasts 24 days means a minimum of a one week trip is required to properly assess the films and soak in the best that Montreal has to offer.

Note: some of the brewpubs and cafes I sampled during Fantasia are listed in a separate post.