USA, 2003
Director: Mark Decena
Score: **

Is love chemical?  Can love be analyzed?  Did nature plan it that way?  These are a few of the questions co-writer and director Mark Decena attempts to answer in his romantic comedy feature debut.  Computer animator Rand (John Livingston) and Sarah (Sabrina Lloyd) initially meet at a bar and date when they meet again at the kindergarten where animated Koy Koy is tested.  An impressive scientific start, set in San Francisco with a few token references to the gay community, but the film ultimately falls into clichéd territory where the couple eventually quarrel and then get back together again. 

Dopamine is one of the chemicals reportedly responsible for the euphoria of love.  Decena also studies the emotions deriving from human loss as experienced both by Rand for the inability to communicate with his mother suffering from Alzheimer’s and for Sarah for the loss of the child.  A few segments are shot in fast motion as if the characters are inanimate objects puppeteered by chemicals.  That is as far as variation of the romantic theme goes and Decena’s story eventually loses whatever interest he created at the start.

Review by Gilbert Seah.

USA, 2004
Director: Michel Gondry
Score: ***1/2

Midway during the film, receptionist Kirsten Dunst attempts to impress her boss Tom Wilkinson by quoting a segment from Alexander Pope which contains the lines “eternal sunshine of the spotless mind.” The words fly past fast and the viewer has to be quick to catch the significance of the quotation.  Such is director Michel Gondry (the unfortunate HUMAN NATURE) and writer Charlie Kaufman’s (who scripted ADAPTATION and BEING JOHN MALKOVICH) latest effort – a layered, complex, intriguing yet another story of an ardent journey into the human mind.  Kaufman’s previous works wowed critics and his name alone is enough to make this film worth a look.

Gondry’s film jumps all over in time.  Also filmed with jittery hand held camera most of the time, the viewer is left often uneasy, irritant and anxious – pretty much the way protagonist Joel feels throughout the film.  ETERNAL SUNSHINE begins with the breaking up of lovers Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine (Kate Winslet).  When Joel discovers that she had him erased from his memory, he attempts the same with disaster following after technicians Mark Ruffalo and Elijah Wood screw up the procedure.  When Joel’s mind undergoes changes, Gondry presents Joel’s views of his childhood, longings, fears and desires before and after the break-up.

Gondry fills his films with amazing images – an overhead shot of the lovers lying on a cracked frozen pond, the two again struggling in a sink of dishwater and the most spectacular the pair again as they runabout a crumbling beach house in the dark of night.

Carrey gives a performance restrained by Gondry as observed by the low key score and blurry images whenever Carrey starts hamming it up.  Winslet, however, is allowed freer reign over her spirit.  The younger supporting cast of Dunst, Wood and the unrecognizable Ruffalo (IN THE CUT) complement the pair with equal craziness and idiocy.

ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND can be considered a puzzled romantic comedy with a bizarre sci-fi twist.  Not for everyone, but writers, film buffs and those who wish to be psychologically challenged will definitely be amused if not fascinated.

Review by Gilbert Seah.

Norway/Sweden 2003
Director: Bent Hamer
Score: ***

The image of a character placing the just torn and neatly folded toilet paper - ready for use - beside the roll in Bent Hamer’s first film EGGS (1995) still registers clearly in my mind. Such is Hamer’s attention to the quirks of his actors and to the household items surrounding them. Hamer’s latest outing, KITCHEN STORIES, set during the post-war period offers him more chances to showcase his talent for observing the idiosyncrasies of human beings. The scenario concerns experts of house and home re-organizing the kitchen so that the average housewife can work most efficiently. Having already mapped out the ideal Swedish kitchen, scientists now move to northern Norway as they send researchers to observe single men.

KITCHEN STORIES is much better than it sounds. To achieve the above task, one observer, Folke (Tomas Norstrom) is placed atop a high stool to observe the daily movements of farmer Isak (Joachim Calmeyer).  There are rules: Observer and observant are barred from conversation and have to stay distant and a supervisor arrives occasionally to check up on the two men.  Naturally, these rules are next to impossible to follow and eventually, Folke’s co-worker and his bachelor take to the drink together. At the same time, Folke and Isak slowly become friends. This is Hamer’s humor, sometimes very dry (so dry that often no laughs are heard at all during the screening I went to) but often quite funny and satirical on issues such as bureaucracy and human behavior like friendship, masculinity and loneliness. 

At the same time, Hamer’s camera focuses on some marvelously striking images, like the egg-shaped caravans filling a desolate landscape or ladders placed on the walls of a farmhouse. 

KITCHEN STORIES is entertaining and easy to watch.  It also reminds one of the essentials of cinema, how so much can be achieved using basic techniques and camerawork, without reliance on highly paid actors or special effects.

Review by Gilbert Seah.

It doesn’t happen all that often in Hollywood, but occasionally a horror remake can be respectful to the original while still driving its own course, often armed with a wicked sense of humor. It happened with John Carpenter’s The Thing, David Cronenberg’s The Fly and Chuck Russell’s The Blob. Heck, it even happened with Tom Savini’s underrated remake of George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, so it’s only fitting that a remake of that original film’s sequel join the club.

Hardcore Romero fans and uptight horror traditionalists may not want to agree, but Dawn of the Dead is an unqualified success – a gory, nerve-racking and often hilarious reimagining of the 1978 zombies-at-the-mall classic. The original is arguably Romero’s best film, but the 2004 version is its own blood-spilling beast, taking little more than the basic premise of its source material and running – and we do mean running – with it.

Go’s funky-teethed beauty Sarah Polley stars an overworked nurse and simple suburban housewife who awakes one morning just in time to see her husband gnawed to death by the neighbor girl. And then miraculously, he comes back to life, albeit a changed man who wants to eat her. She quickly escapes her home, only to find the outside world a living nightmare, erupted in chaos. Buildings are on fire, bodies are everywhere, cars are colliding with one another and – oh, yes – there are flesh-hungry zombies sprinting about the streets as if at a track meet. And this is just the first10 minutes.

After running off the road, Polley finds comfort and help with armed cop Ving Rhames and a few other hangers-on, and together they hightail it to the nearby mall. Unoccupied (well, mostly), it serves as a safe haven from the teeming swarms of the undead while they await rescue. More survivors appear, but the bloodthirsty crowd outside threatens to penetrate the retail mecca’s doors and tear them all to shreds, so they start to take matters into their own hands, some more successfully than others.

If you’re the kind of moviegoer who appreciates fireplace-poker impalings, accidental chainsaw dismemberment and zombie newborn babies, this is the movie for you. I’m surprised at how much bloodletting they were able to get away with in the constraints of an R rating, and yet, despite all the violence, I never got the bad-taste feeling of nihilism that I did with last year’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake.

Part of that has to be due to the humor. Romero’s version is well-known for its satirical look at consumerism. Satire is here, too, but not as a social statement; it functions on a more pop-culture level, which is a nice dose of levity given the film’s end-times backdrop. I’ve got to give credit to screenwriter James Gunn – here he’s working on full-throttle (like he did on The Specials) and not watered-down (like he did on Scooby-Doo). His constant use of the mall’s Muzak system to provide ironic comment – via tunes like “Don’t Worry Be Happy” and “Alone Again” – is a nice device.

First-time director Zak Snyder comes from commercial land, but refreshingly, isn’t as much of a fan of the rapid-fire, quick-cut show-off school as his peers. At the start, he gets right down to business, establishing a pervading sense of dread and spends the next hour and half paying it off.

Polley, Rhames and company all do fine in their thinly drawn roles as human bait; you feel empathy for the nice guys and loathing for the bad ones. And then there’s the zombies – as in 28 Days Later, they run. Fast. Which certainly will ***censored*** off the purists, who prefer their zombies to move at a snail’s pace. The decision to have them run only heightens the tension, in my estimation; the fact that they are your physical equal simply raises the stakes.

And Dawn does that as a remake, too. There are nods to the fans – with cameos from Savini and ’78 Dead star Ken Foree – but the movie is different enough that it can’t rightly be accused of laziness or as a cheap cash-in. It’s pure fun from start to finish. And be sure to stick around for the end credits.

Review by Rod Lott.

China/HK 2002
Director: Zhang Yimou
Cast: Jet Li, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung
Score: ***

One of the most eagerly awaited martial-arts films, HERO arrives in North America first in DVD form rather than on movie theatre screens.  Miramax has picked up distribution rights and left it collecting dust on the shelves for their own selfish reasons.  Finally this April, HERO will apprear in screens across North America.

What is intriguing about HERO is the fact that it is director Zhang Yimou’s first venture into martial-arts/swordsmanship territory though the director is no stranger to the Chinese period piece having made RED SORGHUM, RAISE THE RED LANTERN and JU DOU. The meager plot, set in 3 B.C. when China was split into many kingdoms, concerns a nameless hero (Jet Li) given audience to the king (Chen Dao Ming) of the Qin Kingdom, having thwarted the previous attempts of three assassins, Sky (Donnie Yen) and lovers Broken Sword (Tony Leung) and Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung).  As Nameless relates his questionable heroic exploits, it becomes apparent that it is he that is now out to do the deed, being granted the privilege of approaching less than 100 paces from the king.  As far as Yimou’s storytelling abilities go, HERO diverts into separate segments, the number equaling the frequency of costume changes (from red, green to white and so on).

HERO is full of luscious colour, a trademark of the director, an ex-cinematographer himself, as he pushes the film to excess, thanks to Chris Doyle’s (Wong Kar-Wei’s CHUNGKING EXPRESS and Van Sant’s PSYCHO) cinematography and the award winning costumer designer Emi Wada.  This is therefore no CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON.  Action and excitement are surely replaced here by movement and grace.  The fight scenes are done mostly in slow motion, from extreme attention to detail to broad spectacle like the blood that drips down from the blade of a sword to the thousands of arrows shot by the archers who storm the calligraphy school.  Yimou and scriptwriters Li Feng and Wang Bi are unashamed to douse the film with Chinese culture, so unfamiliar to western audiences. Lovers argue more about right and wrong than declare their love with sacrifice, honour and duty rising in importance over sacrifice, honour and dignity.  Even the beauty of China’s scenery is given a further lift by Doyle’s favored use of reflections.  Interiors are handsome shot as well, like the rows of candle lit flames that flicker gloriously in the palace giving the film a mythical sense.  Tan Dun’s musical score, comprising largely of violin and drums further enhances the gothic feel.

But viewers should be forewarned that story and narrative, normally strong in Yimou’s previous films are noticeably weak here, the frequent shift from action to love story being noticeably unsettling.  The ambiguous characterizations, whether intentional or not, are at times confusing because of the different segments and version of stories that unfold.  Realism is thrown out the window, the spotless costumes and the fight scenes that take place only by waterfalls, lakes or forests being cases in point.  Vengeance, a strong element in most Chinese swashbucklers is replaced here by the search for fulfillment.  The film turns out to be a little too preachy at the end.  The final result is that HERO evolves more into an opera than an action flick.  Viewers will either be amazed or disappointed depending on their expectations.  But whatever outcome, HERO is still a feast to the eyes and perhaps the prettiest film to emerge this year.

Review by Gilbert Seah.