I have been so busy in every front over the past couple weeks. Let me just post my writings over YNOT at the Movies to welcome the opening of the 53rd San Francisco International Film Festival tomorrow. Oh, also, two other reviews I wrote recently.
The festival opens with a comical "Micmacs" (Micmacs à tire-larigot | France 2009 | in French | 105 min.) and closes with a new documentary "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work" (USA 2010 | 84 min.). In between, the festival screens 177 films including 69 narrative features, 28 documentary features, and 80 shorts. SFiFF truly lives up to the word "international" in its title—this year’s program presents 46 countries and is in 31 languages.
Besides a great selection of films, the festival also gives numerous awards to distinguished individuals to recognize their contributions in cinema art. This year’s awardees include Walter Salles, Robert Duvall, James Schamus, and Roger Ebert.
Like tens of thousands of festival film-goers, I am looking forward to many films at this year’s SFiFF. Based on what I have seen and learned at this moment, I will highlight a few films at this year’s festival.
I already hear the organ playing in the Castro Theater. Please turn off your cell phone, and anything makes noise or light. Let’s watch some films.
Ang Lee‘s Civil War film "Ride with the Devil" was originally released in 1999. Over a decade later, a new director’s cut with great details will be re-released on DVD. This is a rare chance to see this director’s cut on a big screen, with its writer James Schamus appearing in person at Castro Theater.
Director Hirokazu Kore-eda is a master of story telling and he has created a few great films such as "After Life" (ワンダフルライフ | Japan 1998), "Nobody Knows" (誰も知らない | Japan 2004), and "Still Walking" (歩いても 歩いても | Japan 2008). I am intrigured by his newest creation based on a manga: "Air Doll" and I want to know how an air doll can fall in love.
Johnnie To: Vengeance (復仇 | Hong Kong/China/France 2009 | in English/Cantonese/French | 108 min.)
Johnnie To is one of the most amazing filmmakers whose surreal productivity would make him a superman in cinema. I am sure his signature glorious slow-motioned blood shedding action sequences will fill the big screen in this "Vengeance" about, well, vengeance.
Turkish-German director Fatih Akın is known for his terrific dramatic features such as "The Edge of Heaven" (Auf der anderen Seite | Germany 2007). His new film "Soul Kitchen" is a surprise to those who are familiar with his work—it is an over the top light hearted goofball comedy about a Turkish immigrant brothers who try to run a restaurant.
Here are are a few films I think you should not miss at this year’s SFiFF, even it means to stand in the rush line for a long time to score a ticket.
The White Meadows (کشتزارهای سپید | Iran 2009 | in Persian | 92 min.)
Visually stunning "The White Meadows" tells an unforgettable tale about an old man’s journey traveling around the small islands in Lake Urmia, the third largest salt water lake on earth. His job is to collect tears from people and listen to their sorrows. The film will bring you to a place that you have never traveled before.
Set in 1944 in South Italy, through the eyes of a mute eight-year-old girl, "The Man Who Will Come" is an plaintive yet poetic recounting of massacres by German soldiers who accuse the local villagers of helping the partisans. This beautiful film tells a gripping and tragic story with fantastic cinematography and an operatic music score.
Winning the top award Golden Lion (Il Leone d’Oro) at last year’s Venice International Film Festival, Israel’s "Lebanon" gives us the most astonishing up-close and personal war experience. It tells the story from a gun viewer inside a tank on the first day of The First Lenanon War in 1982. You will not be watching a film, but literally you will be sit in that tank during a bloody ugly war.
In 1905, exiled "Father of the Nation" Sun Yat-sen returns to Hong Kong to discuss the plan to overthrow the Qing Dynasty. "Bodyguards and Assassins" tells a story about protecting him from being assassinated during this visit. The film is a melting pot of sentimental melodrama, fantastic martial art sequences, suspensive thriller, and an all-star cast.
Loosely based on personal life, Ounie Lecomte‘s directorial debut "A Brand New Life" tells the stories about South Korean orphaned children who are waiting for adoption.
Empire of Silver (白银帝国 | China/Taiwan/Hong Kong 2009 | in Chinese | 113 min.)
Another period drama at this year’s festival is also set at the end of Qing Dynasty. Theatre director Christina Yao‘s directorial debut film "Empire of Silver" tells an epic story about a banker’s heir (Aaron Kwok 郭富城) who must choose between love and his family business.
Last Train Home (归途列车 | China/Canada 2009 | in Chinese | 87 min.)
China’s booming economy brings millions of peasants into the city to work, and they leave their families behind. Fan Lixin‘s superb and poignant documentary "Last Train Home" takes a closer look at these workers’ struggle using the massive Chinese New Year transit madness as the backdrop—coming home for Chinese New Year is normally the only chance they can reunite with their families.
Malaysia director Woo Ming-jin‘s "Woman on Fire Looks for Water" is a story about the love affairs of a father and his son who live in a small fishing village. With a title like Hong Sang-soo would have picked, and with inspiration in filmmaking from Jia Zhangke, Woo Ming-jin surely offers a delicious treat to his audience.
Moscow (양 한 마리 양 두 마리 | South Korea 2009 | in Korean | 104 min.)
"Moscow" depicts how two innocent childhood friends are placed in opposite social domains once they grow up. They used to share the same dream when they were innocent children. However, the new reality is one is a labor activitist and the other works for a big corporation. Will they still be able to resume the old friendship?
Indeed with 31 languages in this year’s San Francisco International Film Festival, there are many lines of subtitles to read in theaters, unless you are a truly multilingual or you are watch the following foreign films.
The gorgeous images in this documentary show the landscape and the life in Yellow Sheep River (黃羊川) area situated in Gulang (古浪) county in Gansu (甘肃) Province in China. Any word will be redundant.
Way of Nature (Naturens gång | Sweden 2008 | 107 min.)
Is it the time for us to move out the cities and return to the "Way of Nature"? The chickens are calling.
Can you imagine how James Bond looks like when he grieves? Certainly it is not pretty judging from how Pierce Brosnan cries in a sappy melodrama "The Greatest" (USA 2009 | 99 min.) about grieving and healing.
While Allen Brewer (Pierce Brosnan) and Grace (Susan Sarandon) cope with the tragic death of their well-liked (hence the title "The Greatest") son Bennett (Aaron Johnson), Bennett’s girlfriend Rose (Carey Mulligan) shows up at their door steps, and she is pregnant. Grace blames on Grace for Bennett’s death and resents her; Allen tries to hold the family together; and Bennett’s brother Ryan (Johnny Simmons) escapes the reality by getting high with drugs. Would anybody doubt that this unhappy bunch will eventually come out of the grief and live happily ever after? That is the formula like every chicken dumpling soup.
This film tries hard to move the audience with a sentimental subject matter and mostly unconvincing performance. Unfortunately, the film only triggers a few chuckles in the audience by its absurdity, instead of invoking any sympathetic feelings toward these characters.
I am detached from these awkwardly written characters as if I am watching a daytime soap opera. Seeing Pierce Brosnan on the screen, I wonder what his next James Bond assignment might be. His sadness is insincere, and certainly laughable. On the other hand, Susan Sarandon does look sad, but I am not sure whether it is due to her character Grace’s loss, or it is due to her recent breakup with Tim Robbins. The only credible moment that actually moves me is when Ryan finally speaks out about his brother, in which Johnny Simmons gives a brilliant and memorable performance.
The plot is also confusing from time to time. For instance, it is unclear why Grace keeps going back to a hospital to read a book to a person in coma. Then that bedridden guy is suddenly taken to a jail, wakes up, and talks articulately as if he were a video camera when describing Bennett’s last moment. Apparently, his words are very crucial for the family to heal and to be able to love again.
Everybody should drive safely, so the film’s cruel opening will not repeat. Perhaps we can all be spared from going through a nagging healing process like the Brewer family in this film.
Want some Italian for lunch? It will be hard if you happen to be in Rome in mid-August, during the Italy’s biggest holiday FerragostoAssunzione—almost everybody leave the town on vacation and many shops are closed, unless you are a tourist or you cannot go anywhere like those ladies in Gianni Di Gregorio‘s charming directorial debut "Mid-August Lunch" (Pranzo di ferragosto | Italy 2008 | in Italian | 75 min.).
Bachelor Gregorio (Gianni Di Gregorio) is a devoted son living with his 93-year-old mother in an old apartment building in Trastevere, rione XIII of Rome. He is broke and owns money to the building manager, as well as local shops. The building manager makes a deal with Gregorio: if Gregorio can take care his mother when he is on mid-August vacation, he will reduce the debt. Gregorio reluctantly takes manager’s mom in, as well as manager’s aunt who comes along, and as well as his doctor friend’s mom. Gregorio miraculously juggles around these difficult ladies with his culinary skills, his patience, and his alcohol beverage.
The film does not have any dramatic event, yet, it elegantly unfolds a simple story and keeps us completely captivated and delighted. We get first hand experience about how the slow life during the national holiday and how difficult to babysit these ladies who have strong personalities on a hot summer day.
The terrific performance by the ensemble cast is like an authentic Italian home cooking meal—hearty, flavorful, and satisfying. Good-natured gentle humor fills the screen throughout, and just when we crave for more, the credit begins to roll.
Although the film does not show much detail about the food Gregorio cooks and how he cooks, from how those ladies bribe him in order to stay for another meal, the food must be delicious.
Silky Tofu, 味道好极了! 