Plot: One snowy night, a girl was born in prison, and mother named her Yuki. Her mother had deliberately become pregnant by doing the wardens and guards of the prison, with the intention of having a kid who would grow up to pursue a mission of bloodthirsty vengeance. She had been a happily married with a young son, until one day when she and her family arrived in a village only for her hubby and son to be murdered, while she was raped. Four people were responsible for this crime, and they will all pay when Yuki (Meiko Kaji) reaches her adulthood, and sets off to hunt down those mothaf#####...

Here it is… the film that strongly influenced Quentin Tarantino more than anything to create the great KILL BILL. I have been viewing all the samurai films that AnimEigo has been releasing on DVD lately (LONE WOLF AND CUB and ZATOICHI series). Those early ‘70s genre films from Japan of the extreme blood thirst have an impressive visual style and uncompromising exploration of vengeance. LADY SNOWBLOOD is all about one woman on a determined mission of avenge. What makes this film so exciting and cool is that the film never loses its stride on subplot like romance or anything else for that matter. It walks straight line from the beginning to the end. Kill, kill, and kill. As the title character, actress Kaji Meiko is mesmerizing in this role. Every time her sword strikes, it causes blood to erupt like it is a final showdown of the film.  Hands and arms fly off, a woman is lopped in half at the mid part of her body. Everything you want to see in an action/swordplay film is here and so much more. The violence is extremely exaggerated by today’s standards. It is so exaggerated it makes you want to scream with joy.

As mentioned above, if you have seen KILL BILL, comparisons are impossible to ignore. Storytelling is the same non-linear narrative with multi-flashbacks filling out the back-story. The use of chapters for each story, the showdown at snow-covered ground, the exaggerated violence, the manga/anime sequences, and above all, the use of the song “The Flower of Carnage” which was written for Lady Snowblood and sang by Meiko Kaji.  There are more. But I don’t want to spoil your fun when you view this film.

LADY SNOWBLOOD is a classic by every standard of filmmaking and a must see for fans of exploitation films. Films like this dark, but stylishly directed story of revenge and nothing but revenge are really hard to come by nowadays.

Review by Shogo!

Buy it now at Amazon.com!

Canada, 2003
Director: Jacob Tierney
Score: **

TWIST centres on a teenager known to all his buddies as the Dodger (Nick Stahl).  Hooked on heroin and leading a meaningless life, he picks up a stranger, Oliver (Joshua King) newly arrived to the Canadian city of Kingston, then showing him the ropes for his pimp, Fagin (Gary Farmer).  Yes, TWIST is an updated, seedier version of Charles Dickens’ OLIVER TWIST set in the Canadian ugly mall city-world of male prostitution, drugs and sex.  The hustlers work on the strip and hang out by the Three Cripples Diner where good-hearted Nancy works.

One wonders what motivated director Tierney (who also wrote the script) to execute this exercise in nastiness.  The atmosphere of claustrophobia and loneliness are effectively created, performances are faultless (especially Stahl’s, who has proved his acting mettle in other more dramatic works like BULLY and IN THE BEDROOM) but just a matter of time before poor Nancy gets murdered and Fagin suffers his come-uppance.  One wishes Tierry would have taken more liberties or at least inserted more variations on the Dickens’ story to invoke more uncertainty, and interest.  In one scene where Oliver asks the dodger where the other guys are, the reply ‘out partying’ stands only to remind the viewer that more fun and humour are essentially missing in Tierry’s monotonous adapted tale.

Review by Gilbert Seah.

USA, 2004
Director: Roland Emmerich
Score: *
THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW is sure proof that Hollywood has perfected the technique of filmmaking by the numbers.  You would swear that there must be a computer in every major studio that upon pressing certain keys would produce sequences like natural disaster, love interest, father/son conflict, hero with ***censored*** superior dispute et al.  Not only is it used here but without any thought given towards any climax, suspense or audience anticipation.

The plot concerns global warming resulting in another ice age.  How this comes about is explained with fervor by Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid).  Quaid plays some scientist – but at this point in the film, the theory is muddled, as this reviewer has already dozed off one of the many dozen times.  Before you can yell tornado, two have hit L.A., and a blizzard has swept New York.  So, father Jack has to make it down on foot with his sidekicks (though not given much is given to them to do in the film but die) to be with his son Sam in New York to prove that he is a good dad!  Mother, Lucy (Sela Ward), meanwhile, has to content with an inane sub-plot of having to wait for an ambulance to save a cancer patient.

Dennis Quaid, really good in FAR FROM HEAVEN and Jake Gyllenhaal, even better in DONNIE DARKO and LOVELY AND AMAZING go through the motions of playing father and son.  Even British veteran Ian Holm looks hopelessly lost with his last glass of scotch.

If there is any saving grace in the movie, it would have to be the entertaining ridiculous dialogue.  Take these three lines (uttered in sequence): “The glass is going to break.” “There is too much weight.” “It is not going to hold!” The filmmakers must be thoughtful of their blind audiences as well.

The special effects?  Every summer movie has its share.  I would rather not have mine mostly generated using CGI.

The Americans have to head south to avoid the big chill.  Rushing illegally to Mexico, the Americans now become the undesired aliens.  But this nice touch is worked to the bone. The U.S. vice-president (played by Canadian Kenneth Welsh) undergoing a change of heart – he was the ***censored*** in the movie - is a bit far-fetched but what else in this movie isn’t? The last act of the film reveals an awful side of the script’s peachiness. Be good to the environment, love and forgive thy neighbor (U.S. forgiving Mexico) and love one other for all that it is worth.

It could be argued that creating real suspense for a disaster film is no easy task. But one can learn from classic films like Alfred Hitchcock’s THE BIRDS (with a similar destruction of mankind theme) or Cameron’s TITANIC (another disaster epic). Anticipation of what might happen next and a strong narrative (the love interest in TITANIC) are a few of the answers. But THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW succeeds in getting its name down in the film annals as the truly disastrous movie of this decade.

Review by Gilbert Seah.

Australia, 2003
Director: Tony McNamara
Score: ****
The title THE RAGE IN PLACID LAKE sounds like a horror movie about a monster lurking in a vacationing spot.  But this bright, quirky and inventive new movie from Australia is about the demons that have to be purged out of a mild mannered boy by the name of Placid Lake (Ben Lee).  Initially forced by mum (Miranda Richardson) and dad (Garry McDonald) to wear a dress at school at the age of 5 to dispel his classmates preconceived notions of sexuality, Placid soon finds that fitting in is next to impossible.  Bullied from then to the present, Placid actually doesn’t care about being different in the sea of mediocrity around him.

The theme of remaining positive and true to oneself holds strong in what essentially is McNamara’s tale of growing up.  Life is already full of problems but McNamara dumps even more on unsuspecting Placid.  From his abnormal, hippie spineless parents, to his frigid book-wormish girlfriend to his weird school life and later office as Placid grows up, the viewer has to figure out which are the real factors affecting the protagonist.  As the story unfolds, it is revealed that a large portion of the problem comes from Placid himself – him not knowing what he wants nor accepting the goodness that surrounds him.  It is only when he starts taking matters into his own hands, like discovering his inability to fly or attempting to become normal in the insurance company where he works that the film begins to take flight to unfold and affect the audience.  But once, the viewer realizes what is happening on screen, the film overflows in humour, insight and eventually grand entertainment.

McNamara’s film is very optimistic, despite its occasional vulgarity and sexual connotations.  Even Placid’s first video entry to the local contest is entitled ‘Life is Super Dooper’.  When he switches the film to depict the underside of the college, his friends and parents, the humour in adversity is hilarious.  McNamara moves the events at a rapid pace as fast as Placid whizzes about on his motorbike, allowing lines that do not work to fall unnoticed.  He extracts exact performances from Brit Miranda Richardson but the relative unknown Ben Lee is a real find.  Lee is resourceful, donning the many varied aspects of Placid’s character while bouncing about from one mishap to another.  McNamara tactfully spends just enough time on the love affair between Placid and Gemma (Rose Byrne from “Troy”) before any monotony sets in.

If there is any message in this film it would be to never underestimate the evil of banality - and in the same manner never to think little of small movies like this one.  The black, comic and highly entertaining RAGE IN PLACID LAKE deservedly won the audience award in the 2003 Melbourne film festival.  A wonderful little gem!

Review by Gilbert Seah.

Iran, 2002
Director: Jafar Panahi
Score: ***

Iranian films are intriguing for the reason that much can be learnt about their society and culture that often exits behind the country’s closed doors.  Samira Makhmalbaf’s BLACKBOARDS illustrated the problem of education in the remote villages of Iranian Kurdistan with a group of male teachers scurrying around with blackboards on their backs searching for students.  In the upcoming SILENCE BETWEEN TWO THOUGHTS, dealing with religious tolerance, female persecution and summary execution, director Babak Payami showed a digital copy of his film at last year’s Venice Film Festival after the negative was confiscated in Teheran. 

CRIMSON GOLD is a more personal and intimate film.  The screenplay is by Iran’s most respected filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami.  It tells the tale of a pizza delivery man, Hussein disenchanted with the wealthy and the resulting injustices and prejudices that exist as a result.  Played by Hussein Madden, a pizza delivery man in real life who himself suffers from schizophrenia; the character has a definite realistic feel when he wheels his bike all around the city from the dirty ‘souk’ neighborhood to the wealthier uptown enclaves of the city.

Director Jafar Panahi’s (THE CIRCLE) story is based on a newspaper article of a thief trapped by a security system in a jewelry store.  He then killed the store manager before shooting himself.  The film begins with this 4 minute scene, shot in shadows so that only the dark silhouettes of the two characters (Hussein and the manager) can be seen.  A flashback starts with the back of a man riding his motorcycle.  Done without titles, the viewer is aware that the film relates to the events occurring some time back.  It is interesting to note that the man on the bike (Panahi at play here) is not Hussein but a cousin traveling to meet him.  The next scene in a restaurant triggers off the events that eventually push Hussein towards the edge.  Director Panahi tells his story through the eyes of Hussein as he delivers his pizzas around the city of Teheran, revealing an Iranian society seldom seen by western audiences.

Panahi never goes into detail of what Hussein wants.  When his fiancée repeatedly questions Hussein on why he is upset, he refuses to offer her an explanation, only politely asking her to remain silent.  Nor is his schizophrenic condition explained.  The viewer is left to come up with his or her own conclusions.

Panahi refused to enter the U.S. when CRIMSON GOLD was selected for the New York Film Festival.  He did not want to subject himself to any humiliating treatment upon arriving, stating that he refuses to compromise his beliefs inside or outside Iran.  In Iran, he is labeled as an enemy and mercenary as a result of crossing the red line of filmmaking.  The film won the Un Certain Regard Jury Award at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.  Panahi is one director who demands our respect. 

Review by Gilbert Seah.