Fantastic Fest 2010 – Live Action Shorts/The Housemaid (1960/2010)/Bunraku/Summer Wars
There’s always someone more powerful than you.
The live action shorts program this year was much better than the animated program. There really wasn’t a loser in the bunch!
5 MINUTE DATING (2010)
Directed by: Peter Hatch
A really funny short about a young man who is just looking for love at speed dating. Unfortunately, he’s a bit of a monster
This one was great with a hilarious lead character and a pretty unexpected ending. Check it out.
DEUS IRAE (2010)
Directed by: Pedro Cristiani
Exorcism takes a special breed. These guys are that special breed. They’re the tough priests who will do anything to fend off the devil, even if it means beating the shit out of a little girl. Great special effects and some cool characters make me really hope that they’re trying to make this into a feature.
THE LEGEND OF BEAVER DAM (2010)
Directed by: Jerome Sable
A slasher short that Joss Whedon would love. A group of young campers are being told a slasher story by the douchebag camp master. One kid, in particular, is catching the brunt of his douchebaggery. But will Stumpy Sam help the kid get his revenge? And will there be singing?
Oh, yes. There will be singing…and gore. This is another one that I could almost see being a feature, but it might be best as a short. Seek it out. It’s funny AND catchy.
INTERVIEW (2010)
Directed by: Sebastian Marka
A reporter is trying to find out why a serial killer does what he does. He is interviewing him with an open mind. But is the killer trying to give him first hand experience?
This one was really intense. I never really knew what to think about what was going on and really couldn’t wait to find out. Maybe a bit too Seven, but whatever. Great short.
NINJAS (2010)
Directed by: Dennison Ramalho
This was actually my least favorite, but that was more for the absolute discomfort factor than anything else. It’s about cops in Brazil. A newbie accidentally shoots a kid thinking he’s a drug mule. When the other cops make him “go ninja,” he finds out just how corrupt and cruel his co-workers can be…and so do we. Jesus Christ (who makes a rather gory appearance), this one is painful to watch. Very good, maybe even one of the best. But I never need to see it again. Funny, because the director was a pretty jovial (and possibly drunk) guy.
OFF SEASON (2009)
Directed by: Jacob Jaffke
A cat burglar and his dog go from house to house in a resort town during the winter months, mainly to get alcohol. Things get freaky when he finds the wrong house…and a frozen body.
I don’t know what resort town has THIS much snow and frozen bodies of water, but whatever. It made for a really intense and creepy short that almost seemed to be inspired by the Genesis song “Home By The Sea.” Or maybe I’m a total geek.
LA PETIT MORT (2010)
Directed by: Jan Gallasch
A nurse pays a visit to a young man in her hospital. But she has deadly intentions…sexy, sexy deadly intentions.
Even with the title, I wasn’t sure where this one was going until it got there. When it finally did, it was pretty awesome. Maybe one of the lesser shorts but, in the group, that still means that it’s pretty damn good.
ROSENHILL (2010)
Directed by: Johan Lundborg/Johan Storm
Certainly one of the longest shorts of the festival, this one is about an old woman being admitted to an old folks’ home. She makes a friend, but then sees the craziest of the old men murdered in the night by two of the attendants. Who will believe her, though.
Really good, creepy stuff that makes me not want to get old. I guess it’s better than the alternative, but at some point it becomes less appealing.
TO MY MOTHER AND FATHER (2010)
Directed by: Can Evrenol
A young boy sees his dad and pregnant mom having sex. He gives them more than they bargained for.
A gore-filled back half and a disturbing sex scene made this one of the more viscerally disturbing of the program, but not the best. Still very good, though, and worth checking out if you don’t mind baby trauma. (There’s a LOT of that in this festival. Just about every one of the bumpers has a horrible abortion/baby killing scene. What’s up?)
THE UNITED MONSTER TALENT AGENCY (2010)
Directed by: Greg Nicotero
Nicotero is mainly known for his gore effects, but there’s no gore in this light-hearted short. It’s a newsreel telling us about the talent agency that handled all of the classic monsters of the 40s and 50s. (It even showed some of the monsters that were in development!)
Fun stuff from Nicotero. Definitely check it out.
Directed by: Ki-young Kim
Written by: Ki-young Kim
Apparently, music teachers were a hot commodity in 1960 Korea.
A middle aged music teacher (who also apparently works at a mill, although I never really saw him work there) is trying to build a bigger house as he builds up his family. He has two kids and a third on the way and his wife is weak from the pregnancy and working constantly at home as a seamstress. He has had one girl in his class fall in love with him and try to ruin his career. He takes on another one as a piano student and has her find a housemaid for his family. Both girls fall for him. Chaos ensues.
This is an incredibly complex and kind of disturbing look at infidelity. The “hero” is not a particularly nice guy, although he is a good father and, for the most part, a good husband. One little thing, though, can set him off and make him slip up. When the housemaid gets pregnant, things get worse. As he is building his new house, his family starts to fall apart.
I can understand why this is one of Martin Scorsese’s favorite films. It may be steeped in Korean culture, but the affairs of men and women are universal. (So, apparently, is the Mike Hammer theme (aka, “Harlem Nocturne”). It was used in a pivotal scene. Other than that, the original music by Sang-gi Han was very good.) There is really no reason that this movie couldn’t find a new audience in the US.
And then there’s the last 30 seconds. Um….what? I know this is a morality play, but seriously? I won’t give it away, but the very end just kind of comes out of nowhere.
I’m not sure how you will be able to see this film as it has not been released in the US on DVD. This annoys me, actually, but I have a feeling that Scorsese (who was involved in the restoration) will rectify that soon. It was released in Korea in 2008, so maybe we’ll get it here soon. And, with the remake out now, it shouldn’t be long.
Speaking of the remake….
Directed by: Sang-soo Im
Written by: Sang-soo Im
Based on characters by: Ki-young Kim
I have an idea. Let’s remake a classic film, but take out all sense and make it about the insanities of the rich instead of the roles of men and women.
A young poor woman gets a job as a nanny/housemaid for a super-rich family. They get whatever they want and have a head maid who rules the house. The young woman starts an affair with the man, loves their little girl and has almost no interaction with the woman, who is pregnant with twins. She gets pregnant, wants to keep the baby and ruins her life. For the last ten minutes, she decides that she wants revenge.
This was like a Korean episode of Dallas. Pretty pointless stuff. It starts off with a young woman jumping to her death in the market. She has nothing to do with the rest of the film. The last scene, which is all in broken English, I think was supposed to be a nod to the original’s strange ending, was completely nonsensical.
Skip this bullshit and see the original, if you can.
Directed by: Guy Moshe
Written by: Guy Moshe
Absolutely the best art-deco impressionistic post-apocalyptic spaghetti western samurai comic book movie I’ve ever seen.
A young drifter (Josh Hartnett) floats into a gunless world ruled by a sadistic woodcutter named Nicola (Ron Perlman). He meets a bartender with a past (Woody Harrelson) and kid from Japan named Yoshi (Gackt, who is apparently a HUGE star in Japan). The three of them take it upon themselves to take down the regime, which is enforced by Killer #2 (Kevin McKidd) and seven other killers of varying skills.
Demi Moore also appears briefly as a prostitute with ties to Nicola and a certain ex co-star of hers.
The story is really nothing new. Drifter comes to town and, although he has no ties to anyone, he tries to take down the regime…often for selfish reasons at first. But maybe he grows a heart as time goes on. And the dialogue could be a little clunky at times.
That really didn’t matter to me, though. The visual style was so engaging and the performances so cool that I was fully involved the entire time. (It helps that I like all of these actors.)
The style is pretty hard to describe. Woody’s character makes pop-up books, so it’s a little bit like that, but there’s a lot of Dick Tracy-esque primary colors and crazy CGI stuff going on. The fight scenes are done in the same style. I’m not sure if Josh Hartnett is a great fighter, but this movie sure made him seem pretty awesome.
It doesn’t hurt that the world of the movie has abolished guns. Sure, gunfights can be cool. But sword and stick fights are a LOT more fun to watch.
It’s not a perfect film by any means, but I had a lot of fun with it. And, for this kind of movie, that’s all that matters. It wasn’t just another dumb-ass action flick.
Directed by: Mamoru Hosoda
Written by: Satoko Okudera
Kenji is one of those kids that you would never notice in school. He’s super smart and plays with computers all the time. He and his buddy work for a social networking website called OZ. They’re kind of junior tech support kids.
That’s why when popular girl Natsuki shows up at their office at the school asking one of them to come with her and do a job, they’re both pretty surprised. Kenji ends up going and finds out that the job involves telling her extended family that he is her future husband and that he’s a college boy with a really good background. (He’s actually a high school student with a normal, everyday, absentee family.)
Natsuki’s family is crazy and huge. Her great-grandmother rules the roost, but everyone else is even more bossy. When they find out that he’s NOT her fiancee and isn’t what she said he was, they immediately want to kick him out.
Which, of course, involves OZ. You see, OZ isn’t just a social networking site. It’s kind of a stand-in for the entire internet. Everything in the world is basically run on this network. When Kenji breaks a random code that sent to him on his cell phone, everything shuts down. Is it his fault? How can he fix it? CAN he fix it at all?!
This is one of those movies that starts out going exactly where you think it’s going to go and then takes a left turn at some point to become something much bigger and better than it ever should have been. In this case, it works nearly perfectly. The family is the thing here and, even with the bigger story of OZ and a possible nuclear accident, the family remains front and center of the story. Each member has their own personality and is integral to the outcome. It’s the kind of family that you actually want to spend more time with. And before you run off and say that they’re not realistic, bite your tongue. They reminded me a LOT of a family that I have been lucky enough to be enveloped into for the last 10 years or so. So many disparate people who have almost nothing in common but blood. But that’s enough to keep them together through good times and bad.
And that really is what the movie is all about: family. Keep them close no matter what happens. They may just help you prevent the end of the world.
Not bad for a movie directed by a guy who started out with Digimon.
