Reel Asian 2010

The 14th Reel Asian Film Festival runs from Nov 9th to Nov 15th at various cinemas downtown.  Films arrive from the Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea and other parts of Asia.

Highlights include the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival Best Picture BI, DON’T BE AFRAID from Vietnam.  Also screening is IP MAN 2, the follow-up to the successful IP MAN and my favourite of the festival, the closing night film AU REVOIR TAIWAN.

Workshops and music presentations are also open to the public.

For the complete program, check the website at:-
http://www.reelasian.com/

Capsule reviews are provided for key films at the festival.

AU REVOIR TAIPEI (Taiwan 2010) *****
Directed by Arvin Cheng

AU REVOIR TAIPEI begins with 3 shots, one of a busy lit night street of the city, one of a group doing tai-chi and the other of a train making a curve on a monorail.  These are beautiful shots of the city of Taipei and as the film goes on, it is clear that director Cheng has a particular love for this city.  The story concerns a nerdy youth who pines after his girl who has moved to Paris at the start of the film.  In his effort to learn French, he meets up with a girl at the bookstore and the two take on an adventure that takes them into the Taipei night where they encounter hoods in orange suits, a cocky cop in a leather jacket and the delivery of a McGuffin (Hitchcock style) which propels the plot.  The film has the freshness of Godard’s A BOUT DE SOUFFLE as the two young lovers escape cops and hoods.  Cheng uses music and movement to great effect with his film feeling fresh, light and totally enjoyable.  Chen was Edward Yang’s apprentice and with this film executively produced by Wim Wenders, this must say something of the talent of director/writer Arvin Cheng.  But see this film for yourself to find out the pleasures of Taipei and of this film about Taipei.

BI, DON’T BE AFRAID (Vietnam, France, Germany 2010) ***
Directed by Dang Di Phan

This slow moving but effective art-house piece is set in an old house in Hanoi, where the main lead, Bi lives with his parents, his aunt and their cook. His favorite playgrounds are an ice factory and the wild grass along the river. After being absent for years, his grandfather, seriously ill, reappears and settles at their house. While Bi gets closer to his grandfather, his father tries to avoid any contact with his family. Every night, he gets drunk and goes and see his masseuse, for whom he feels a quiet strong desire. Bi’s mother turns a blind eye on it. The aunt, still single, meets a 16-year-old young boy in the bus. Her attraction to him moves her deeply.  The goings-on are seen largely from the point of view of Bi, but it is the cook who knows what is going on.  There are lots of nasties that occur in what apparently appears to be a normal family.  Aunt masturbates with the ice with her sex craving eventually settled by a youth she meets on the bus.  There is no climax to the story except to emphasize the fact that life goes on.  An interesting and original piece!

DOOMAN RIVER (South Korea/France 2010) ***
Directed by Lu Zhang

Heavily patrolled by armed soldiers, the Dooman is a frigid river on the border of North Korea and China. More than 400,000 Koreans have risked their lives to cross the river in order to reach China.  The story highlights the friendship between two 12-year-olds: Chang-Ho, a Chinese-born Korean living in a poor border town in China with his grandfather and mute sister; and a starving Korean boy who crosses the river in search of food for his sick sister. Sharing what little his family has, Chang-Ho welcomes the Korean boy and invites him to play soccer with his friends.  But animosity exists between the Koreans an the Chinese as is eminent in the state announcements encouraging the Chinese to report illegal immigrants.  Violence erupts at tomes in the borer village.  The situation makes interesting film material.  Director Zhang often film his action with a stationary camera with the subjects moving in and out of the frame but occasionally also follows his subjects as they move out of frame as in a football segment.  Zhang loves to tease with his camera.  The first scene shows what might appear to be solid ground then revealed to be a desolate frozen river.  The camera moves back a bit to reveal a boy lying on the frozen river.  Zhang repeats this tactic often with an empty scene followed by characters moving into the frame from behind the camera.  Though slow moving, DOOMAN RIVER is never boring and quite a lot happens in this film.

GALLANTS (HK 2010) ***
Directed by Derek Kwok and Clement Cheng

What looks like a silly martial-arts comedy has much, much more in it than what appears on the outside.  The characters in the film are mostly ageing kung-fu fighters but they are in reality heroes of the old Shaw Brothers alumni.  I have seen especially the diminutive Teddy Robin in countless Hong Kong features and it is absolute delight to see him here as a crazed kung-fu Master Law who awakes after a 30-year coma to teach his disciples how to fight and live again.  Other well knowns include including Leung Siu Lung, Chan Koon Ti, Chan Wai Man and Lo Meng.  The story concerns nerdy office worker Cheung (Wong You Nam) sent to a remote village to secure property rights for his real estate company. Two martial artists run the village’s teahouse, which was once the kung-fu school of their teacher Master Law. Law is in fact lying unconscious upstairs in a three decades-long coma, but he awakes when gym boss and local landlord Pong attempts to secure the teahouse for redevelopment.  More comedy than action, but the fights are choreographed well enough to satisfy action fans.  Watch for the important and abs unbelievably hilarious message that comes at the end of the film.

GOLDEN SLUMBER (Japan 2010) ***1/2
Directed by Nakamura Yoshihiro

GOLDEN SUMMER (the title is derived from the old Beatles hit that is brought up half way through the movie) is likely the quirkiest film to be screened at the festival.  For example, when the girl wants to identify a car model, she remembers and hums the ad tune for the Toyota Corolla instead of mentioning the car name.  Quirky is good!  Director Yoshihiro’s film is never boring and always ingenious in the way it tells the story of a deliveryman, framed Lee Oswald style for the assassination of the Japanese Prime Minister.  He runs away from the car that just blown up after the PM is killed, in disbelief that all this is happening to him for no reason.  The killer has his face after going through plastic surgery.  Even the character admits it is unbelievable.  The film goes on to show how he saves himself with the help of old college friends and a wanted killer.  All this is good clean fun, with zero violence proving that an entertaining film is best made with wit and humor.

IP MAN 2 (Hong Kong 2010) ***
Directed by Wilson Yip

IP is the initials for the Chinese term of ‘master’.  In IP MAN 2, the sequel of the very successful IP MAN, the hero IP MAN (Donnie Yen) moves to Hong Kong to begin a martial-arts school.  But he has to deal with the locals before dealing with the whites.  The film is in two parts – one with him and his disciple fighting, and then befriending the other local martial-arts groups before tackling a really nasty western boxer (Darren Shahlavi).  Shahlavi must surely deserve the award for the best hamming and overacting!  Thought he film claims that it is based on a true story, the film plays it goofy with authenticity given to the dogs.  Director Yip hams it up as well.  During the fight scene when IP MAN is knocked down to the floor, he cuts to his wife carrying their baby in her arms.  The subtitles are atrocious!  Sample:  Do you know if you have no interest to see western boxing?  But veteran actor Summon Hung does a marvelous turn as an evil foe turned over a new leaf by IP MAN’s goodness.  The fight choreography is one of the best I have seen in films this year, and this saves the show from all its flaws.  IP MAN was Bruce Lee’s teacher but the last bit with a young Bruce Lee (Jiang Dai-Yan) appearing in front of IP MAN appearing is just plain hilarious.