As one of the most significant film festivals in Asia the Busan International film Festival which was previously known as the Pusan International Film Festival is held annually in Haeundae-gu Busan in South Korea.
The very first was held way back in September of 1996 and this year (2018) will be the 23rd Busan International Film Festival taking place on the 4th October through to the 13th. In all 401 projects applied for APM (Asian Project Market) 2018 which is approximately a 30% increase over the previous year and those 401-project covered 69 countries.
The successful newly selected 29 projects include Asian directors and producers who are currently working in the industry as well as those filmmakers that are thought talented enough to attract positive attention.
Directors like Zhang Lu who gained an international reputation with the award-winning film Grain in Ear and whose film A Quiet Dream was the one selected to be the opening film of the Busan International Film Festival 2016 as well as the director Kim Ulseok who was the winner of last year’s New Currents Award winning film After My Death are both to visit APM 2018 with their projects The Martyrdom and Yanagawa.
Other new Asian projects that can be seen at this year’s Busan International Film Festival include; The Final Print by director Jang Woo-jn who is the winner of Vision-Directors Award 2016 with the film Autumn, Autumn and In the Water by director Shin Dongseok whose film Last Child was selected by New Currents 2017 and Berlin International film Festival 2018.
Other projects have been selected from China and Japan as well as new projects from the southwest of Asia where the Busan International Film Festival still provides support to directors like Antoinette Jadaone and director Dechen Roder from Bhutan who have had success with their films Fan Girl and I, the Song.
The Busan International Film Festival specialises in introducing and promoting new films and up-coming first-time directors attracting a great number of young people, especially in the audiences as well as its efforts to develop young talent.
Interestingly, it was in an inconspicuous picture house tucked away at the back of a south Korean shopping mall that saw Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese’s film The Audition shown for the first time after it was pulled from the programme in Venice due to complaints about it be too commercial.
Starring performances by Robert De Niro, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio made sure that there was a full house at the 10am screening of the Busan International Film Festivals short film showcases programme, especially after all of the mystery that has surrounded the project due to the rumours that circulated about it origins.
The whole idea for the film was conceived by the billionaire, James Packer along with his partner in business Larence Ho, and the concept was to promote Studio City which is a $3.2 billion Hollywood-inspired casino which is being built within the Chinese enclave of Macau.
Unfortunately, a visit to Macau is simply not on the cards for many of us who instead turn to online games and gaming to get our casino thrills. Today online gambling is a multi-billion industry in its own right with all forms of casino games, slots and bingo sites that accept PayPal proving to be popular with all ages and cultures.
We love to gamble, we enjoy everything to do with gambling, the glitz and glamour and the high life associated with casinos has always drawn us, and film-makers to the whole casino environment and The Audition was included in the Busan International Film Festival on its merits, and not surprisingly so when you consider what talent was packed into those 16 minutes of film.
David Leitch (John Wick, Atomic Blonde) is in early talks to direct a remake of Enter the Dragon, the 1973 kung fu classic about a martial artist (Bruce Lee) who agrees to spy on a reclusive crime lord (Shih Kien) using his invitation to a tournament there as cover.
Brett Ratner (Rush Hour 1-3) was originally attached to the remake, but producers most likely distanced themselves from the director due to sexual misconduct allegations against him.
What do you think of this news? Who would you like to see play Bruce, Shih, John Saxon, Jim Kelly, Bob Wall, Angela Mao and Bolo’s role? Share your thoughts in the comments section! Also, don’t forget to read why Enter the Dragon may be the most overrated kung fu movie ever.
More “woman” than Gal Gadot. As much Filipino firepower as BuyBust. On August 28, 2018, Vinegar Syndrome is releasing the Blu-ray/DVD for Robert Vincent O’Neill’s Wonder Women, a 1973 Filipino exploitation flick starring Nancy Kwan (The World of Suzie Wong), Ross Hagen (Angel), and Maria De Aragon (Blood Mania).
Martial arts madness, dangerous chase scenes, insult-heavy dialogue, vague sci-fi twists, and a whole lot more nudity and violence than its very misleading PG rating would imply. Wonder Women is a quintessential slice of early 70s drive-in craziness, featuring supporting performances from Roberta Collins (Death Race 2000), Sid Haig (The Devil’s Rejects) and Filipino exploitation stalwart Vic Diaz (Bloodfist).
Region free Blu-ray/DVD combo
Newly scanned and restored in 2k from 35mm camera negative
Commentary track with director Robert Vincent O’Neill
Extended European version (90min)
Q&A from a 2007 screening at The New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles with Robert Vincent O’Neill, Nancy Kwan, Ross Hagen, Roberta Collins and Sid Haig.
Zatoichi: Darkness is His Ally | Blu-ray (Tokyo Shock)
RELEASE DATE: August 28, 2018
On August 28, 2018, Tokyo Shock will be releasing the Blu-ray & DVD for 1989’s Zatoichi: Darkness is His Ally (known in Japan as Zatoichi 26 or Zatoichi ’89) directed by and starring Shintaro Katsu.
Zatoichi: Darkness is His Ally is the twenty-sixth and final chapter in the iconic samurai film franchise that starred Katsu and spanned nearly three decades. This lavish production was the last to star Katsu, who originated the title role of “the Blind Swordsman” in 1962 and the only entry where he served as writer and director.
Older, wiser but still a wandering loner, the blind, peace-loving masseur Ichi seeks a peaceful life in a rural village. When he’s caught in the middle of a power struggle between two rival Yakuza clans, his reputation as a deadly defender of the innocent is put to the ultimate test in a series of sword-slashing showdowns.
For those who’ve become jaded when faced with the endless superhero franchises that have come to dominate Hollywood in recent years, then chances are they haven’t had to suffer through any of Japan’s big screen manga adaptations. While such adaptations have occasionally brought to the surface the odd gem (I Am a Hero), more often than not the usual form they take are money spinning 2-part ‘events’, frequently with all the fun crammed into the first (Attack on Titan: Part 1). More broadly speaking, manga’s in general tend to be adapted until they can be bled dry no more. The standard routine will usually follow an anime adaptation coming first (sometimes both an anime movie and TV series), and then a live action adaptation arrives to top things off.
This is the exact format Japan’s latest manga adaptation has followed to a T. Ajin: Demi Human was a 2013 manga, that eventually spawned a trilogy of anime movies which hit screens between November 2015 and September 2016. The movies were, in turn, complimented by an anime TV series which ran for 2 seasons, airing in April and October 2016 respectively. You’d think that the intensive bombardment of Ajin antics on both the big and small screen would be enough for most audiences, but we’re talking mainstream Japanese cinema here. Who needs creativity when there’s money to be made? So, less than one year after the second season hit TV screens, a big screen live action adaptation was released in September 2017.
The title refers to the name given to people who are, knowingly or not, immortal. Although frankly, if we now assume that the source material has been milked dry as much as it can, I doubt even the strongest of them would have much will to keep on living. The plot focuses on one particular Ajin, a medical student played by Rurouni Kenshin lead Takeru Satoh, who realises he’s one after miraculously surviving being hit by a truck. The Japanese government are keen to learn more about these Ajin, so while they insist their facilities provide a safe haven for the immortals, in reality Satoh finds himself being subjected to a never-ending cycle of being killed and regenerated, as the authorities look to figure out the secret to their powers.
Eventually Satoh is rescued by another Ajin, played by Go Ayano (Lupin the Third), and his wingman, played by Yu Shirota (Black Butler), who themselves were once also held captive in the same facility. Initially thankful to the pair, when Ayano reveals his plan to cover Tokyo in nerve gas unless it’s declared an autonomous area for Ajin (despite there being, you know, only 3 of them in Japan), Satoh begins to realise just how dangerous Ayano really is. Unable to accept his rescuers extreme views that Ajin have a right to mass murder, as revenge for the experiments that humanity inflicted upon them, ultimately the showdown is set for some immortal vs. immortal action.
While I’m sure many of the audience for Ajin: Demi Human will be those who are fans of either the original manga, its anime adaptation, or both, for myself the live action version is my first exposure to the tale. From the perspective of a newcomer, many of the themes being explored are reminiscent of the X-Men franchise (the irony isn’t lost that they’re also based on a comic). Satoh comes to represent the ideals embodied by Charles Xavier, only instead of mutants and humans peacefully co-existing together, its Ajin and humans. Then on the flip side of the coin you have Ayano in the role of Magneto, who believes that Ajin are genetically superior to humans, and feels no remorse at wiping out large swathes of them as revenge for the how he was treated by them in the past.
The live action adaptation is helmed by director Katsuyuki Motohiro, whose work is perhaps representative of just how nondescript and visionless it is to be a part of Japan’s mainstream film industry. The man behind the Bayside Shakedown series of movies, as well as the ill-conceived Shaolin Girl, a Stephen Chow produced spin-off of his own Shaolin Soccer, Motohiro’s output is defined by its unremarkable and pedestrian approach. The ace up his sleeve for Ajin: Demi Human comes in the form of Takahito Ouchi, the stunt coordinator on the Rurouni Kenshin trilogy, who’s worked with both Satoh and Ayano (who has a role in the first Rurouni Kenshin) before.
It is indeed the action that serves as the saving grace of Ajin: Demi Human, which thankfully comes at frequent enough intervals to forget about everything else (which we’ll get to later). The opening 20 minutes are essentially one extended action sequence, which shows just how much fun it’s possible to have with protagonists that can’t be killed. Ayano’s raid on the government facility is particularly entertaining. If you’re an Ajin and find yourself shot in the arm with a tranquilizer, what do you do? Simply lop it off with a machete, it’s going to grow back. Severed limbs are also amusingly used as bait to misdirect and ambush groups of attackers, and if an Ajin finds themselves riddled with bullets, there’s no need to think twice about raising a gun to your head and pulling the trigger. You’ll be back in a few seconds.
With that being said, there’s at least one scene in Ajin: Demi Human that stands out as an “only in Japan” moment. When Ayano threatens to take over a government building at a specific date and time, a media frenzy (as well as the Japanese Defence Force) gathers outside to witness how he’s going to do it. Expecting him to show up as some sort of one-man army, instead it’s revealed that he’s commandeered a plane, to which he flies straight into the side of the building. Indeed it may be almost 15 years since the controversial twin tower bombings witnessed in 2003’s Battle Royale 2: Requiem, but the thought of such a scene ever appearing in a Hollywood movie is still one that seems very far away. Whether it would still be considered controversial for an American audience is a question I can’t answer, but it will raise a few eyebrows I’m sure.
Outside of the action, there are several instances where the strain of attempting to compress a 50+ part series into 110 minutes shows through. What I assume to be developed plot threads in the manga, in live action form come across as bewildering and nonsensical. A kind old lady takes Satoh in when he first escapes from the facility with no reason or explanation (other than, well, she’s kind and old). When Ayano looks for other Ajin to join him in his cause, the only recruits he attracts are a small bunch of emo-looking teens, and their base (and home?) appears to consist of hanging out on a series of elevated walkways in an old factory. Most head scratching for newcomers though, will be the oversized humanoid figures that Ajin are able to call from their body, seemingly made up of black particles, which are able to fight on behalf of their host. They’re given zero explanation, although in all fairness, they are kind of cool.
Other parts simply feel derivative of more original works. We get a floor by floor assault of a building that displays the progress onscreen a la The Raid, cutaways to news footage like Paul Verhoeven-lite, and even a nod to Demolition Man. Despite its many detractors though, Ajin: Demi Human moves along at a quick pace, and never feels like its straying from its colourful manga roots. Every action scene is kicked off by a techno track that energetically announces “3 2 1 go!” (you’ll either be annoyed or become numb to it), and Ayano makes for a suitably ruthless villain in a genre that’s known for not having any teeth. There’s also former AKB48 member Rina Kawaei, who will no doubt be a plus for some (I decline to comment). For everyone else, Ajin: Demi Human is a pleasantly diverting but quickly forgettable slice of manga inspired action.
Filmmaker/actor Jiang Wen (Let the Bullets Fly, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) is currently prepping his latest actioner, Hidden Man(read our review), which he’ll also star in.
According to Variety, Hidden Man is pitched as the third element in a loose trilogy that stared with Let The Bullets Fly and continued with Gone With The Bullets. Both mix up old time gangsters, decadent high life, and power grabs, throwing up political analogies that Chinese censors were expected to OK and audiences were supposed to read between the lines.
Director: Erik Matti Cast: Anne Curtis, Brandon Vera, Victor Neri, Arjo Atayde, Levi Ignacio, Nonie Buencamino, Lao Rodriguez, Joross Gamboa, Sheenly Gener, Mara Lopez, AJ Muhlach, Tarek El Tayech, Maddie Martinez, Ricky Pascua Running Time: 126 min.
By Samson Kwok
Even though the year is only half way over, I already know that there is a very good chance that Filipino director Erik Matti’s BuyBust will be my favorite action film of 2018. Watching this film, I got the same sense of excitement as when I first saw Thailand’s Ong Bak, Indonesia’s The Raid and more recently, Cambodia’s Jailbreak. It features the same kind of crazy, real and dangerous action that is hard to find in Hollywood productions, where CGI can make anything seem possible but everything feels fake.
The story is simple: an anti-drug squad carries out a raid with the intention of capturing a notorious drug lord. If you think it sounds just like The Raid, you are right. However, while the basic premise of the story is very similar to the 2011 Indonesian hit, there are quite a lot of differences in the details; and instead of a rundown apartment, the drug boss here is ruling over a heavily populated slum. The battlefield is therefore larger, more chaotic and much more dangerous.
The lead character is drug enforcement agent Nina Manigan, played by actress Anne Curtis. She is part of the squad headed by Bernie Lacson (Victor Neri). There are a number of fellow team members and one of them is Rico, played by mixed martial artist Brandon Vera. The police have captured a lower level drug dealer Teban (Alex Calleja) and with his help, the squad set out to capture drug lord Biggie Chen (Arjo Atayde). Of course, things do not go as planned and soon the team is trapped inside the slum that resembles a maze and the members come under attack by hundreds of criminals headed by Chen’s right-hand man Boss Chongki (Levi Ignacio, The Hunted Hunter) and a group of angry civilians led by Solomon (Ricky Pascua), who has decided enough is enough. Soon the slum becomes a place of anarchy and the goal for the squad shifts from catching the bad guys to getting out of the place alive.
The action scenes in BuyBust are jaw-breaking for the cast and jaw-dropping for the audience. There are some inventive sequences that prove that when the situation is desperate, really anything could be used as a weapon. Reportedly, there were over 300 people in the stunt team and judging by the scale of some of the scenes, that does not come as a surprise at all. The main action sequences include the fights against Chongki’s gang, Biggie’s guards and Cocky’s crew, the tree ambush, the lightning fight, the war on Widow’s Alley and the rooftop battle. They are all superbly choreographed (by action director Sonny Sison), lensed (by cinematographer Neil Derrick Bion), edited (by editor Jay Halili) and scored (by composers Erwin Romilo and Malek Lopez). Stars Curtis and Vera both shine in the complex action scenes. I think the Widow’s Alley and rooftop mob fights will become classic fight scenes that generations of action fans will be talking about for years to come.
As usual, director Matti has a lot to say about corrupt cops and the government’s war on drugs and is not afraid to express his opinions here. All the anti-drug campaigns seem futile because at the end of the day, it is still the drug dealers who are running the country. It is the poor civilians who have to suffer at the hands of both the criminals and the police, and the film suggests that it is common for innocent people to lose their loved ones and their own lives. One particularly memorable scene shows a good man who wants to help but decides to hide behind closed doors when the law enforcement officials cannot guarantee his and his family’s safety.
BuyBust, which recently screened as the Closing Night Film at the popular and influential New York Asian Film Festival, will without a doubt turn Erik Matti into the best known Filipino filmmaker in the world. It is a mesmerizing piece of cinema that features brilliant action, crazy stunts and top-notch production values. This is action cinema at its very best and a must-see for every fan of the genre.
Today’s Deal on Fire is the Blu-ray for Wolf Warrior an action/martial arts flick directed by, and starring Wu Jing (SPL,SPL 2).
Sergeant Leng Feng (Wu), top marksman of the Chinese Special Forces, is jailed under court martial for disobeying orders. But he’s just the kind of fighter the Wolf Warriors are looking for. Silent. Stealthy. Deadly. The Wolves bring Feng into their pack, honing his skills to a knife’s edge. But another team has Feng on their radar: a group of corrupt blades-for-hire, seeking revenge for the drug lord’s murder.
Cannes Palme d’Or winner Hirokazu Koreeda (Third Murder) will be directing The Truth (aka La Vérité), which will be his first film outside of Japan.
The Truth (short for its original title, The Truth About Catherine) will star Ethan Hawke, Juliette Binoche and Catherine Deneuve.
The French-backed production involves a stormy reunion between a daughter and her actress mother, Catherine, against the backdrop of Catherine’s latest role in a sci-fi picture as a mother who never grows old.
According to Deadline, production for The Truth starts this October in France. For now, we leave you with the Trailer for Koreeda’s Third Murder:
On September 4, 2018, Well Go USA will be releasing the DVD for 2016’s Brothers, a war actioner written and directed by Ah Gan (Don Quixote).
The film centers on the relationship between two brothers who used to have a bond for life but it is ripped apart through a civil war in 1936.
Brothers stars Peter Ho Yun-Tung (Sword Master), Ethan Li Dong-Xue (Brotherhood of Blades), Xia Zi-Tong (The Monkey King), Yang Qi-Ming (Another You), Tian Yuan (City of Trance) and He Zi-Ming (Cold Steel).
Like most people, my first Seijun Suzuki film was the infamous Branded to Kill. It was unlike any crime movie I’d seen before; weird, visually inventive, playful, and shocking. Jo Shishido got off on the smell of rice, there were all these damn butterflies everywhere, and the plot sounded a bit like a videogame. It was nuts and I loved it. I then continued through Criterion’s offering of Suzuki titles (which sadly has not expanded much since that time about a decade ago), watching Tokyo Drifter, Gate of Flesh, Fighting Elegy, Story of a Prostitute, and Youth of the Beast, and loving each to varying degrees. I think Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell, Bastards! was the first Suzuki film I watched when I branched out beyond Criterion’s wacky C branding. I remember liking it but thinking it was decidedly less gonzo than the Suzuki films I’d seen before it.
I revisited the movie last night to watch the new Arrow Blu-ray. In the seven or so years in between the first time I saw it and last night, I’ve seen many more Suzuki films, and have come to understand that his filmography was far more varied than the weird art film action movies he’s best known for. He was very much a studio director and he shot whatever they handed him. It was only later, when resentment for the studio grind grew parallel with Suzuki’s skills as an artist that we got to see him truly let it all out and make some remarkably original genre entertainment with more regularity.
After having seen films like The Incorrigible, Teenage Yakuza, and a few others from Arrow’s Suzuki Early Years box sets, Go to Hell, Bastards! doesn’t seem like such an oddball anymore. It’s like the halfway meeting between his grittier action pictures and his goofier mainstream fluff. Sometimes these two competing tones don’t always blend as well as they should – one wishes some of the comic relief performers hadn’t played their parts quite so broadly – but Suzuki gives the film this breakneck, high tension, straight-faced lunacy that serves the story well.
Go to Hell, Bastards! opens with the most violent scene in the movie. An American military truck hands over the keys to some gangsters, who then begin unloading weapons into a new vehicle. They are ambushed by a Pepsi truck drive-by shooting. It’s chaos. Pepsi bottles shatter, the gangsters are slaughtered in the street, and the goods are stolen. It looks like the thieves are all about to get away with it, but one vehicle is struck by a bullet and breaks down on the road, leaving the driver Manabe (Tamio Kawaji) to be picked up by police.
It seems that Manabe’s gang has been ripping off the yakuza for weeks now. But nobody knows who they are or who they answer to. Manabe represents the first good clue to figuring it out, but the police can’t break him. Meanwhile, all the city’s rival yakuza clans wait outside the police station ready to gun down Manabe as soon as he’s released. They’re all armed to the teeth with swords and guns. At one point, we are forced to ask the question, hey is it legal for all of them to have guns? To which one police character explains away, saying that all the yakuza have hunting licenses and the right to carry their rifles if they wish. A news reporter covering the scene exclaims, “Can this really happen in Japan?!” And the answer is, of course, no. Only in America… It’s an early hint that the movie’s not really playing by the rules of gritty reality.
Puffy cheeked badass Jo Shishido plays private detective/information peddler Tajima. The P.I., who operates out of the Detective Bureau 2-3 office with two annoying assistants, smells an opportunity and introduces himself into the situation. He suggests to Chief Inspector Kumagai (Nobuo Kaneko) that only he, an unknown variant in the situation, can get what the cops are after. He offers to rescue Manabe upon his release, thus gaining his trust and an invite to meet the gang. All the while the police follow at a distance and try to keep the yakuza off their trail.
It’s a cool, not too simple/not too complicated plot of deception as Tajima goes undercover in the new gang. And these guys do not trust easy. They overturn every rock they can in order to look into his cover story. The police, meanwhile, try to keep up by planting actors in the right places to sell the lies. But Tajima is always on edge, fearful that the crooks may go one level deeper into the story than the police, thus blowing his cover.
Before the end, we get at least two more massive shootouts. Suzuki doesn’t film these as he normally would. He keeps the camera at a distance and just lets things go bang. It’s like we’re watching the action from across the street. Rarely during these sequences do we get a close-up on any of the actors, not even the leads. It’s chaotic and noisy. I’m not sure it’s particularly exciting, but it does fit the vein bulging, teeth gritting, wide-eyed mania of the movie.
This is an action movie where Jo Shishido has a song and dance number, shoots a machine gun through the street pavement to send a signal, and uses some very aggressive unwanted kissing to get information. Other strange parts include the undercover priests, the impotent bad guy, and the lesbian and nerd comic relief. One can sense the film tearing at the seams a bit, not because it is overstuffed but because every subplot/supporting character is trying so desperately to eclipse the other.
I like Shishido a lot here. He’s charming, cool, and funny. He has great chemistry with Nobuo Kaneko. The film’s title and ending suggest that Nikkatsu saw this as the start of a potential new series. It was not to be. I feel some sadness at that, because I would’ve loved to have seen some of these characters again. I say ‘some’ and not ‘all,’ because if the film has a major failing it’s that a few of its supporting roles are either weak or troubling. I did not like the way they wrote the leading lady, Chiaki (Reiko Sassamori), as a victim of abuse who then becomes a willing conspirator in crime only to be rescued by the film’s hero who then proceeds to abuse her, too. It’s discomforting. I also did not like Tajima’s comic relief P.I. partners played by Hiroshi Hijikata and Kotoe Hatsui. They simply are not very funny.
The film looks and sounds good on the new Arrow Video Blu-ray. The only new special feature is a 30-minute interview with film historian Tony Rayns, who gives us some context about how the film fit into the careers of Suzuki and Shishido. It’s a great extra for fans wanting to know more.
Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell, Bastards! is not one of Suzuki’s most iconic films. Not by a long shot. But I quite like it. I like it more today than I did when I first saw it many years back. It holds together better on second viewing and I was no longer struck by how ‘normal’ it was compared to the likes of Branded to Kill. It’s a high-strung action comedy with a great lead performance from Jo Shishido and one of the best titles in all of film history.
Director: Matt Palmer Writer: Matt Palmer Cast: Jack Lowden, Martin McCann, Tony Curran, Ian Pirie, George Anton, Kate Bracken, Therese Bradley, Joe Cassidy, Cameron Jack, Kitty Lovett, Cal MacAninch Running Time: 101 min.
By Martin Sandison
There are two films everyone remembers when discussing my homeland, Scotland; Mel Gibson’s historically inaccurate but entertaining Braveheart, and Danny Boyle’s masterful junkie odyssey Trainspotting – two films that could not be more oppositional in their approach. The humble genre of the thriller is not one you would associate; that’s where Calibre comes in. Securing financing for a feature film in Scotland is difficult; most have to look elsewhere for a company big enough to do the job. Matt Palmer’s directorial debut Calibre is one of that kind, with the ubiquitous Netflix producing the film. What’s great, and gives me hope for the future of Scottish film making, is that most of the cast and crew are Scottish. And… the film is great. I mean, like, actually great. I went in to the screening knowing nothing about the film, and not realising I knew the director, who I will always be grateful to for putting on a Japanese cult film season many years ago, introducing me to two of my favourite films House and Sword of Doom. Calibre is nothing new as a thriller, but its execution is near flawless.
Vaughn (Jack Lowden, Dunkirk) and Marcus (Martin McCann, The Frankenstein Chronicles) are two old friends who go on a hunting trip to the Scottish Highlands, a last hurrah for their friendship as Vaughn will soon have a newborn. Everything is going well until they accidentally murder a pair of hill walkers, and Marcus makes the decision to hide the bodies. The two are in deep water, and so begins a deadly game between the two and the locals, led by Logan (Tony Curran, Underworld: Evolution).
The best thrillers (such as Deliverance, to which Calibre owes a massive debt) make the viewer feel as of they are right there with the characters. Calibre succeeds in this unbelievably well; I was gripped from start to finish, and all of the aspects combine to take you on a tense and anguished journey. The unobtrusive filmmaking and minimalist approach frames the narrative beautifully, and not a second is wasted. I’m not usually one to question how realistic a film is, I always suspend my disbelief, but Calibre looks, feels, and is acted like it could really happen.
Which brings me to the performances. Lowden and McCann are both fantastic. The former plays the role of passivity but strong-heartedness, caught in a web of deadly lies brilliantly. McCann as the alpha male, loud braggart whose one decision destroys the mens lives (for his own selfish ends) with an edge and cocaine fuelled paranoia that sets the screen alight. Curran, the veteran actor in a youngish cast, is superb as the world weary Logan whose sleepy village is decimated by the two leads. Peripheral characters such as Logan’s brother, the intimidating Brian McClay (Ian Pirie, Gangs of New York) and Iona (Kate Bracken, Being Human) are well drawn and have real depth.
Pivotal scenes such as the initial incident that leads the men down a dark path and the nail biting climax are handled with real assuredness and belie the fact that it’s Palmer’s first film. There is a consistency of tone that draws the viewer in despite a shaky opening, once this movie gets going it won’t stop for no one, like a freight train off the tracks.
The biggest faults come in when realising that the film is slightly derivative; Deliverance in idea and execution, Straw Dogs in feel and tone. This does not detract from a riveting tale well told with a moralistic ending, and a beacon of hope for Scottish film talent. I look forward to Palmer’s next project, and with the might of Netflix behind him there’s no stopping him.
“Thousand Faces of Dunjia” Chinese Theatrical Poster
Director: Yuen Woo-ping Writer: Tsui Hark Cast: Da Peng, Ni Ni, Aarif Lee Chi-Ting, Zhou Dong-Yu, Wu Bai, Ada Liu Yan, Tiger Xu, Yang Yiwei, Mo Tse, Xu Ming-Hu, Sun Mingming, Zhang Yiqian Running Time: 110 min.
By Paul Bramhall
In 2015 it was announced that master choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping would be teaming up with visionary auteur Tsui Hark to remake The Miracle Fighters, Woo-Ping’s madcap fantasy from 1982, that featured most of the Yuen Clan either in-front or behind the camera. Understandably, the reaction was mixed. Most of the charm of The Miracle Fighters came from the low-brow, but always creative, special effects, an element which many feared would be drowned out by CGI if it was to be remade for a modern audience. Then you have the collaboration itself. While both Woo-Ping and Hark are instantly recognizable names, both in Hong Kong cinema and the action genre overall, the fact is that the last time they worked with each other was on Black Mask 2: City of Masks. I’ll just leave that there.
While their previous collaboration saw Hark in the director’s chair and Woo-Ping on action choreography duties, when the remake finally hit screens in 2017, their roles were somewhat reversed. Going under the title The Thousand Faces of Dunjia, Woo-Ping maintains his director role from the original, while Hark is credited as writing and producing. Perhaps most tellingly though, it’s oddly Hark’s name that gets splattered across the screen during the opening of TTFOD (as I’ll refer to it from here on in), with Woo-Ping’s director credit receiving second billing. The reasoning behind this becomes increasingly clear as proceedings progress, as the influence of Hark is far more prominent than that of Woo-Ping. Those who felt Woo-Ping’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny lacked his distinctive style, will likely feel it’s disappeared all-together in his latest directorial effort.
If anything, TTFOD feels like Hark is revisiting the world he created in his seminal Zu: Warriors from Magic Mountain, or more specifically, its more recent sequel The Legend of Zu. We have an embattled clan, called Wuyin, who have been defending the earth from aliens (because, you know, creatures from Chinese folklore are off the cards in today’s Mainland friendly climate), one of which has been kept prisoner in a heavily chained piece of rock within a mountain. The aliens are after a device called the Destroyer of Worlds, the only defence against which is to activate the Dunjia, a kind of astrological force which is believed to be dormant in a frail young girl (Zhou Dong-yu) with a unique birthmark on her arm, one which indicates her as the Wuyin clans destined leader.
When the imprisoned alien is set free by a red tentacled alien (you’re going to have to bear with me here), and events are further confounded by five power greedy clan heads activating the Destroyer of Worlds, the good guys realise they’ll need to fight back. The Wuyin clan, headed by Taiwanese rocker Wu Bai (the lead from Hark’s Time and Tide) and consisting of, amongst others, a fiery tempered Ni Ni (The Warriors Gate) and noble hearted Da Peng (Jian Bing Man), ultimately end up joined by a fresh-faced constable in the form of Aarif Lee (Kung Fu Yoga), essentially playing Yuen Biao’s character from Zu: Warriors from Magic Mountain. Can our heroes keep the constable safe, activate the Dunjia, convince their new leader to accept their destiny, fight the evil clan heads, stop the Destroyer of Worlds, and defeat the aliens!? Perhaps a more appropriate question to ask is, will you care? To which I can safely say, probably not.
Despite structuring itself into 6 chapters, TTFOD quickly turns into an unwieldy mess of a movie, with so much going on that audiences are likely to need a reminder of exactly what’s at stake more than once. It’s also guilty of being completely derivative of more recent (and more entertaining) blockbusters. The opening scene is practically identical to that of Stephen Chow’s Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons, as Aarif Lee attempts to chase down an oversized fish demon through a village. While I confess that it’s the first time to witness a rooftop chase sequence involving Lee, a three-eyed fish, and a sheet (don’t ask), it’s such a blatant rip-off that it’s impossible to enjoy. The chase is eventually interrupted by Ni Ni, who captures the demon and stomps the living daylights out of it, as Lee looks on, wide eyed at how Woo-Ping could so unashamedly cast her as an exact clone of Shu Qi’s character in Chow’s 2013 hit.
The biggest issue with TTFOD though is that it’s an eyesore. A garish, incredibly messy eyesore. What exactly the level of collaboration was between Woo-Ping and Hark would be interesting to understand, as the highly creative CGI action found in the latter’s Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back and Detective Dee series, is here nowhere to be found. Instead, there’s an almost tireless bombardment of sub-par CGI bursting out of the screen every few moments. The main alien looks like a mix of a low budget 90’s PC fantasy game, and Sulley from Monsters, Inc. (not to mention its dialogue fails to match its mouth movements), characters frequently stare past the CGI rather than at it, and there wasn’t one scene when it felt integrated with its surroundings. Oh, and the hero of TTFOD is actually a gigantic fluorescent peacock thing which looks like it swallowed a bunch of glow sticks. I wish I was kidding.
In fact the only real trace of Woo-Ping could be said to come from the characters. The clan members appearances could well have seen them just walk off the set of the 1982 original, with hunchbacks, one-eyed warriors, buck-toothed swordsmen, and wild-haired bandits all populating TTFOD’s scenery. The evil clan heads also show traces of Woo-Ping’s influence, with names like the Eight Armed Ape and Lord of Hell, they resemble distant relatives of some of the Shaolin Drunkard cast. While the hark (pardon the pun) back to the period of Yuen Clan craziness was nice to see, they’re too often drowned out in the swathes of CGI nonsense that accompany the majority of scenes. In particular, the water effects are so bad they drew a wince out of me.
However with any Yuen Woo-Ping movie, there should be at least some saving grace in the form of the action. Here his fellow Yuen Clan luminaries Yuen Cheung-Yan (the director of Taoism Drunkard) and Yuen Shun-Yi are on action duties, and what little on display is sadly an embarrassment to their legacy. Indeed, apart from a brief showdown at the 80 minute mark, there is in-fact no action at all involving the cast themselves squaring off against each other. We get aliens flapping about and causing mildly engaging chaos, there’s plenty of jumping around, and there’s even some heroic posing, but actual choreographed action scenes? Forget it. Regardless of all the above criticisms, having practically zero choreographed action scenes, in a production with 3 members of the Yuen Clan at the helm, is TTFOD’s most heinous crime.
I can only guess that having 2 creative forces as stylistically distinctive as Woo-Ping and Hark come together, in this case resulted in them cancelling each other out. It wouldn’t be the first time. Sammo Hung and Ringo Lam came together for Touch and Go in 1991 with similar results, and who can forget Wong Jing and Jackie Chan’s differences on 1993’s City Hunter (though I have to confess, I kind of like that one). Sometimes when a filmmaker has such a defined style, mixing it with another filmmaker with a similar disposition doesn’t always create the dream results that everyone expects. This seems to very much be the case here, but still I can’t help but feel that if Hark was in the director’s chair, and Woo-Ping on action choreography duty, we would have at least got a slightly better end product than what we’re left with here.
With a surprising absence of humor (and what there is of it in Hark’s script, is painfully misinterpreted for the screen), zero characterisation, and one of the most anticlimactic cliff-hanger endings ever committed to film, TTFOD is a tragic waste of talent for all involved. 25 years later, we’re still waiting for a sequel to Jet Li’s Kung Fu Cult Master, hopefully in the case of Woo-Ping’s latest, we’ll have to wait even longer.
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