SFIFF55: Target (Mishen)

 

Courtesy of San Francisco Film Society

In 2020, the upper-class citizens in Target (Russian title Mishen) are obsessed with youth. Looking youthful and staying youthful. Not an incredibly unbelievable obsession for upper class citizens to have, or any citizen really, as we have always been constantly bombarded with miracle creams and surgical procedures to stay looking young.

We first meet Viktor, the Russian Federation's minister of natural resources, and his wife Zoya (Justine Waddell). Our first glimpse of Zoya is startling as her face is hidden behind a disturbing yet beautiful looking mask - a mask that we assume features special anti-aging technology when Viktor comments that in the two years she has used it, she hasn't aged a day.

 

Courtesy of San Francisco Film Society

Hints of advances in the future continue to be given in a variety of ways, from ads posted around Russia and topics that are discussed among the characters. Viktor use special glasses that measure the amount of good and evil in any inanimate object or even in a person. We also meet Zoya's brother, Mitya (Danila Kozlovsky), a TV host of a strange and over-the-top reality contest show that comes off as reality TV from today but on steroids.

Viktor reveals to his wife Zoya that he has a special trip planned for them. The trip and what it entails is kept a secret from Zoya and even the viewers as we only learn the details as she does. Mitya joins them on this trip and they first arrive to an isolated small town of 50 people not far from an abandoned astrophysics complex. Joining them is Nikolai (Vitaly Kishchenko), a customs official, and Anna (Daniela Stoyanovich), host of Mitya's favorite radio program Chinese for Dummies.

The group takes a private plane with guides from the town to the astrophysics complex. Upon entering it is explained that the radiation well - the Target - is a fountain of youth. That one night spent in the well will result in stop the process of ageing.

From there the film explores the changes in demeanor in each character and how their relationships change. Disposable income and the prospect of never ageing and thus the potential to never die is examined. Concepts pertaining to government, ethics, and the privileged also come into play, but with the film clocking in near 154 minutes it becomes difficult for the average film viewer to follow and stay engaged with the various splinters the plot decides to explore. At times it seemed even the film forgot where it was going with a plot line before jumping to another interesting plot line, and then the film would become unfocused yet again.

With mindful editing, Target would be one of the best films that utilizes sci-fi to examine the various concepts and drama it touches upon. It'll likely find at least a small following amongst art house film fans that can stick with the film despite the length - its exploration of how people react to "living forever" is indeed intriguing. Unfortunately, for most movie-goers, there are far too many moments in the film that drag on for too long, causing the film to flounder and ultimately making it difficult to stay interested.


This post was written by:
Crystal
 

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SFIFF55: Wu Xia Attacks from Many Angles

Photo by We Pictures Limited. Courtesy of San Francisco Film Society.

Plot? Who needs plot?

Nearly all the great kung-fu flicks of the '70s and '80s featured thin plots revolving around revenge. Cast a charismatic hero with fists of fury and a villain with evil written all over his face, then hire a great choreographer: you had yourself a possible classic on your hands.

Now that the "advancement" of technology and special effects are such a crutch, the audience needs more. Your shaky cam makes us sick. Your CGI-assisted stunts make us yawn. Unless you're really raising the action bar (everyone take a moment to salute The Raid: Redemption), plot is a must. So thank god for director Peter Chan and screenwriter Aubrey Lam, who delivered the excellently layered Wu Xia to the San Francisco International Film Festival for Friday and Monday screenings.

Synopsis time: Liu Jinxi (Donnie Yen) is a man living a modest life in 1917 China with his family of four. After Liu heroically thwarts a robbery by one of China's most wanted criminals, a particularly astute private investigator named Xu Baijiu (Takeshi Kaneshiro) starts checking into Liu's past.

Like any good cop, Xu must deal with his deep-seeded quandaries about the philosophies of law and justice while pursuing information about Liu. His investigation mimics the audience's viewing experience – he picks away the petals of Liu just as we slowly figure out what this film is really about. As a result, Wu Xia remains unpredictable without resorting to a series of forced red herrings.

Final verdict: It's not scheduled for any more SFIFF screenings, but you should definitely see it if it pops back up in U.S. theaters or DVD/blu-ray.

This post was written by:
Trey

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SFIFF55: Choked

With the start of Spring comes one of my fave times to chillout for days in a filmhouse thanks to the oh-so-glorious SFIFF, known to the masses as The San Francisco International Film Festival. In their 55th year they bring more of what you would expect in what has become one of the biggest draws on the Int'l Filmfest circuit. After bruising through the program guide-- circling the must-see flicks to the ones that pique my curiosity and even marking up the more obscure to get out of my normal tasting menu-- I went with Choked as my first go see of the Fest.

Courtesy of San Francisco Film Society

What got me hyped about Choked, the first feature film of writer/director- Joong Kim-hyun was that at first I thought this was a product of the K-pop sensation from Shinee.

Yeah, so I was wrong about that.  After watching the trailer and then reading the press kit I was hooked on the intimate words of the Director:

“Is being poor the saddest thing in the world?
Do not say it isn’t so. You’ll turn to stone as soon you say so.
I hoped it wasn’t so. I wanted to believe that poverty wasn’t the origin of such sadness.
Yet…
Is it capable to hurt for someone else? Is condolence even possible?
Hold on. Do not lose hope.
I could not bring myself to say these words.
But I still want to hurt instead and console.
I want to do the impossible.
I want to tell all the stories I’ve heard and the stories I believe everyone already knows.
Stories that are all about me and all about you.

Straight up I connected with what this film could be and as I walked through the doors, jumped in the nice, comfy plush seat in one of the screening rooms and watched on.  Being a major fan of Korean films I was anticipating a lot of drama for your mama, hopefully some tasty scenes of dripping sex and of course some blood-splat violence.  Again, I was wrong at least for the most part.

Choked opens with the protaganist Youn-ho (Um Tae-goo) who plays the role of a struggling lower-level salaryman looking to earn his keep for his family and future in a recession-ridden Seoul.  Thanks to his swindling mother, Hee-su (Kil Hae-yeon) and horrible selection in a gold-digging, fiancee-- we are taken on a depressed ride of Youn attempting to arise from his own personal Hell. 

Kim in true Ozu (that reference is for you Bucky!) fashion gets you hooked into the emotional turmoil that is played out between Youn, his mother, his fiancee and another woman- Seo-hee (Park Se-jin) that claims to have been scammed by Youn's mother.

Mid-way through Choked I was reflecting on my own family history and struggles with poverty-- on different occasions thinking about how difficult it is to do the right thing with so few resources. That genuine feel of being devoid of rationale and pure desperation is what made a few filmgoers in the crowd cringe, myself included and not have the strength to bear as Youn fell deeper and deeper in his storm of bad judgements.  Kim pulls this off without the physical violence and shock factor that I have been programmed into thinking is Korean cinema. 

Through the story we are treated to Seo-hee and Hee-su's deep connection that shows how we make family when we are let down by our own blood.  Choked is a riveting, emotional blackhole that will suck you up dry of any goodness you are feeling.  Be warned.

Two more showings that will be played during the SFIFF55, hope to see you out!


This post was written by:
big O

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SFIFF54: "Stake Land" Post-apocalyptic Vampires and Scares

Zombies and vampires are booming genres for entertainment. Both genres offer their fair share of film classics, solid entertainment and bandwagon jumping trendy disappointments. In the case of Stake Land the two genres are fused together as the vampires that threaten the last living humans have zombie inspired origins.

Stake Land follows a teenage boy named Martin (Connor Paolo of Gossip Girl fame) and the mysterious Mister (writer and actor Nick Damici) through a post-apocalyptic world. A plague swept over the earth and left it filled with ghoulish vamps and only a few small pockets of survivors. Martin's family is brutally attacked by one of these vamps and before it can get to him, Mister saves Martin and has Martin help him kill the creature.

From there Martin and Mister stick together, Mister helps train Martin on how to properly kill the creatures with a stake to the heart. They both make there way north in hopes of reaching New Eden, a supposed safe haven.

As in most post-apocalyptic stories, it's really the other survivors, not the creatures, that are the most terrifying of all. Martin and Mister hear about the threat of the Brotherhood, an ever growing and powerful Aryan cult led by insane Jebediah who believes that the plague is Gods way of purifying the land.

En route to New Eden Martin and Mister also meet some friendly survivors a few even join them on their journey: Sister (a nun played by Kelly McGillis of Top Gun), pregnant Belle (Danielle Harris) and Willie (Sean Nelson), a marine who was tied up by the Brotherhood and left to die.

There are some points in the film become where things become a little slow and the constant narration by Martin is a bit trite. On the flip side we receive very little information about the plague or Mister which I found much more successful. It was when the film let the audience watch, rather than listen to Martin's verbal explanation, that it really excelled. Seeing the characters fight and suffer through the seemingly hopeless situation brought about a more intense atmosphere that ached with desperation, suspense and fear.

There are several stand out moments in the film as well: an infant being fed on by a vamp, special types of vamps that require a stake in the base of the skull rather than in the chest (due to the breast plate being too thick to penetrate), when Mister saves Sister, Willie's projectile in the film and the Brotherhood trying to break apart a larger group of friendly survivors with a surprise attack.

Stake Land does not quite reach classic horror proportions but it's definitely worth the watch. It's a solid entry to the horror genre and will win audiences over with scares and it's depiction of humanity as it fights against the vampires, and itself, to survive.

Check out the trailer:



Fun facts from the Q&A with Director Jim Mickle:

• Stake Land was originally pitches as a web series. There are however a web series of 5 minute character prequels lined up. The Jebediah and Willie prequel are already out.
• The visual style of the film was influenced by The Grapes of Wrath and era films. Jim emphasized that there is a "naturalistic look that is underdone in horror films".
• Writer and actor Nick Damici made his own weapons and costume for the character Mister.

This post was written by:
Crystal

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SFIFF54: "The Troll Hunter" Not Just a Fairy Tale

Trolls only exist in fairy tales. Or do they?

Norwegian Writer and Director André Øvredal brings us The Troll Hunter, a mockumentary told from the perspective of college students Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen), Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud), and Johanna (Johanna Mørckwho). The students are investigating a string of strange bear killings and following the story, the students interview bear hunters who angrily claim that there is an unlicensed hunter, a "poacher", getting to the bears before they can.

The students decide to start following the poacher only to find that he has no interest in speaking to them. They persist and continuously follow the poacher until finally following him in to the dark woods and have a brush with some kind of creature. Between Thomas being bitten and the poacher telling "TROLL!" their interest and persistence only grow and the poacher finally gives in to being filmed.

It's then that we find out that there are no bears causing a ruckus, it’s the trolls. And Hans is no poacher, he's a troll hunter. Hans (Otto Jespersen) is part of the secret Troll Security Service hired and hidden by the government to keep the troll situation under control. When the students ask why he finally gave in to being filmed, Hans cites the long hours, lack of nuisance compensation, and so on.

The trolls are large, loud and intimidating but just like in the fairy tale they're also smelly, dim-witted, large-nosed, sometimes hairy and always ugly. Despite being in CGI, the trolls are still very believable, menacing and blend in to the surroundings of the film.

Much of the folklore about trolls also applies in the film: trolls turn to stone or explode in the sunlight (or when exposed to a UV ray light), they hide under bridges, goats are used as bait, and things are hilariously literal as trolls do indeed smell the blood of Christian men. There are some exceptions however. When Thomas jokingly asks Hans what happens if they challenge the troll to an eating contest however, Hans deadpans “Not everything matches fairy tales”.

The film even touches on the morality of killing trolls. When the students hail Hans as a hero he immediately refuses the title and painfully recounts a story about how a development project was planned in a troll territory and he was ordered to kill all the trolls, including the women and children.

The cinematic style of The Troll Hunter will no doubt brings to mind several other mockumentaries and creature movies from the past few decades: Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, Jurassic Park just to name a few. Initially this style made me a bit dubious about the film as audiences have been bombarded with the style as of late, but I was pleasantly proved wrong.

The film is suspenseful, charming and is a fun, fresh spin on fairy tale monsters. Of the movies I viewed, it was definitely my favorite film of SFIFF54.

Here's the preview but I strongly recommended skipping it if you plan on seeing the film. It's worth not knowing some of the details that get revealed in the trailer.



Fun facts from the Director Q&A for The Troll Hunter:

• Most of the troll sounds was done by one man.
  
• The Director has never seen Troll 2 or Best Worst Movie.
• The Troll Hunter is described as “Blair Witch meets Jurassic Park” in the SFIFF54 publications. The Director noted that Jurassic Park was an influence, but the biggest influence for the film is a Belgian film called Man Bites Dog.
• Despite playing a somewhat quiet, serious character, Otto Jespersen who plays the troll hunter is a famous comedian in Norway. The Director also noted that in fact Otto is quite talkative.

This post was written by:
Crystal

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SFIFF54: 13 Assassins Journeys into the Mind of a Maniac

It slices! It dices! 13 Assassins is a post-millennium samurai film and, like any such film worth its weight in celluloid (or bandwidth, since it's currently available on demand from your cable company), it has plenty of severed limbs and splatters of blood. But what sets iconic director Takashi Miike's take apart from the rest (and the looming shadow of Kurusawa) is a really mean villain.

Seriously, this guy is one hugely demented asshole.

More about him later. First, the pretty straight-forward plot: Set in 19th Century Japan, peace reigns and the country's samurai are either rusty or inexperienced in real combat. One character even comments that "Swords are only good for cutting radishes." Of course there's one guy who can't be happy with all this peace and happiness, the aforementioned villain Lord Naritsugu (Gorô Inagaki). His whole life is a one-man campaign to make enemies and bring back an era of war. Unfortunately, as the Shogun's adopted brother, no one is in a position to challenge him.

Seeing disaster in the country's future, one of the shogun's advisors secretly hires bad-ass old samurai Shinzaemon (Kôji Yakusho) to assassinate the rogue lord. Shinzaemon finds 12 other warriors to join him and sets a trap for Lord Naritsugu and his 200-guard traveling party for a Seven Samurai-like grand finale.

There are a lot of cool things going on here, like the strategic chess match between Shinzaemon and Naritsugu's right-hand man Hanbei and the principled battle between protecting the greater good and protecting one's master. But what makes this film memorable is the unflinching treachery of Naritsugu. Free to do as he pleases, all his actions are based on one-upping the heinousness of his previous act. A guest at a wealthy man's home, Naritsugu decides to rape his hosts daughter-in-law then murder her husband, hacking away at his neck until the head chops off. Later we find out that he murdered a woman's entire family, then turned her into his personal plaything. I'll avoid the spoiler here, but let's just say that "cruel" doesn't do him justice. As viewers, we're clearly supposed to hate this guy, but deep down you have to appreciate that level of evil.


This post was written by:
Trey

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SFIFF54: "Hahaha" An Ode to Family, Friends and Soju

The highly celebrated, Korean auteur filmmaker- Hong Sangsoo(writer/director) bears a voyeuristic-story into two friends each sharing their Summer getaway over soju in this gem of a SFIFF pick-- that was awarded the Un Certain Regard at Cannes last year.

Hahaha works like a story told amongst close friends with pictures, as Hong uses black & white stills of the two main characters-- Munkyung (Kim Sangkyung) and Jungshik (Yu Junsang)-- as they drink soju and with every geon-bae (cheers!) we are taken into their vacation experiences. Munkyung is a somewhat awkward, aspiring filmmaker who goes back to his hometown to visit his mom, while Jungshik is hooking up with his mistress. Both men are visiting the same town, around the same people and at the same places though they never realize it.

This isn't your average K-drama filled with hawt actors, fights and gratuitous sex scenes so you need to flip the switch off on your assumptions...something I failed to do that prevented me from fully appreciating the slow-pace and grounded, realistic direction.

Sure, there is a fight, a whole lot of drinking and serious sexual tension-- this is a Korean film afterall people!



The acting performances are steeped in a way that each character will probably remind you of someone you know-- whether it be the dashing boy-toy, creepy stalker, non-chalant adulterer and of course the classic, drunken mess.

Where other films go out of their way to make a big emotional splash with the viewer, Hong prefers that you catch some of the slight of hand nuances that more, appropriately connect back to the experiences that are of our own. Loved how there was so many instances where the two friends could have bumped into eachother, like being in the same restaurant but separated by one room-- the difference between laughing at the pathetic old guy getting spanked by his mom to reaching out and saying man that girl is playing you son!

A smart, laid-back flick that will make you rush to hang with some friends/fam and grub over a few bottles of soju.

This post was written by:
big O

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SFIFF54: "Microphone" Check on Arab Underground Art Scene

Writer/Director Ahmad Abdalla plunges onto the SFIFF circuit this year with Microphone-- his deeply intimate, love story of a young man that returns back to his coastal, hometown of Alexandria (Egypt) and while soul-searching on his life-- discovers the diverse, rich and intertwined urban arts community. 

Khaled (Khaled Abol Naga) comes home from living abroad and hopes to reconnect with his ex-girlfriend and instead finds her ready to move on from the confines that bind her in the repressive, Arab culture.

Segmented cut-scenes are played through the film of the reunited Hadeer (his ex-GF) and Khaled at a beautiful cafe and works to frame narratives of many challenges from homelife with his recently widowed father, the struggles of starting a new business with a friend and re-discovering Alexandrian-lifestyle.   At first he seems less attracted by the youth-inspired street expressions of skateboarding, graffiti and other westernized artforms but as Khaled becomes more centered, at peace with some failed expectations and takes off his headphones-- this acts as a signal of him being more plugged in-- Khaled then begins to observe

and find more interest in the vibrant urban culture that he is in the center of.

Through a chance encounter with an adolescent skater, Khaled begins to meet many of the undiscovered talent of Alexandria from a group of street rappers, documentary film-students, graffiti artists and numerous other music acts.

The diverse music arrangement (indie-pop, Arab, rock and hip-hop) puzzles in nicely with the talented ensemble cast that for the most part are actual artists and creators from Alexandria, giving Microphone even more street cred and a deeply entrenched soul.  Khaled eventually finds himself looking to create a concert and space to showcase all of the underground music and art culture, but faces the same challenges of all the artists-- a strictly governed society that doesn't care to push forward the liberating expressions of music and art.



Abdalla weaves together a film that sucks you in from start to finish with its captivating depiction of Alexandria's gorgeous scenery, the endless struggle between generational norms and thoughtfully acts as the final stage for the Arab underground arts scene.

Microphone has a final screening at the Sundance Kabuki this Wednesday at 130pm -- check it out. 


This post was written by:
big O

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