Night and Fog

WHERE ARE YOU? (Kobayashi Masahiro, 2009) If one ever needed proof that art cinema can be as uninteresting as the dullest Hollywood blockbuster, here it a good example. In this drama of a poverty stricken teenager, director Kobayashi lethally combines a glacial narrative pace with a cliched, handheld realist style. The result lacks any kind of narrative urgency or formal sophistication. It also deadens the social environment in which this downtrodden tale take place. The few moments that work in the film are when Kobayashi abandons this shaky cam aesthetic, but they are not enough to recommend this work. For a much better take on a similar story, and even one done in a similar style, track down the Dardennes Brothers ROSETTA (1999) on DVD. (more…)

Brilliante Mendoza’s “Kinatay“, winner of the Best Director Award at Cannes this year, is relentless in its iniquitous tone. From the very beginning we are given a view of modern Manila as a squalid corrupt city filled with urban chaos and its people hacking out a living from on the decaying streets. A police academy classroom looks like an inner city high school filled taught by a teacher who is more concerned with getting the students to listen than with real police work. From there the film takes us on a long journey into the dark heart of The Philippians with a young recruit held hostage by his higher-ups and made to participate in one of the most gruesome and chilling scene of violence I have ever seen on film. (more…)

Where Are You?

Tomorrow at PIFF, I am going to see three films: At 13:30 at the Centrum City CGV, the latest from Japanese director Kobayashi Masahiro, WHERE ARE YOU?,  a drama about a teenager who loses his mother, turns to crime, and then tries to reconcile with his estranged father. (more…)

Tomorrow marks the official opening of this years public screenings at the Pusan International Film Festival and The One One Four is on the scene blogging live from Pusan all week long. Each day we will be posting highlights of the most promising films and reviews of the ones we have seen. Here are the most promising films screening tomorrow. (more…)

Since the beginnings of narrative cinema, the genre of melodrama has held an important place in popular movies. In American cinema, the melodramas of D.W. Griffith helped establish film as a powerful medium. Since then, they have provided the framework for many of the most popular films around the world, from GONE WITH THE WIND (1939) to TITANIC (1997). This form proved so popular that many of the best loved movies of other nations also called on a version of melodrama, including the Korean industry. From the post-Korean War period to the present, melodrama has continued to be a major draw at the box office. (more…)

Sept. 23 to Oct. 6th the Daegu Art Cinema will be screening the critically acclaimed “Sunshine Cleaning” that premiered at Sundance in 2008. Also added to the schedule is “One Week” a Canadian film starring Joshua Jackson that debuted last year at the Toronto International Film Festival. Both films are scheduled everyday at varying times. Check the website for show times. In Busan, the Eric Rohmer programme continues until the end of the month with subtitled screening everyday. (more…)

As a national cinema, Korea is generally thought to comprise two main branches: (1) mainstream movies done in a style close to the international popular cinema norm (i.e. Hollywood);and (2) art cinema films made by auteurs who avoid the conventions of genre entertainment. In this way, it is not much different than other national industries. But, Korean cinema does have a number of crossovers between these two poles, especially within the domestic market itself. So while there are festival directors like Hong Sang-soo and Kim Ki-duk who do not gain a large following within the country, there are filmmakers like Park Chan-wook, Bong Joon-ho and even Lee Chang-dong who are able to achieve domestic success and international critical praise. This occurs on a smaller scale as well. Just as Hollywood has a number of independent films that bridge the gap between the popular and the esoteric, so does Korea have films that are mixed or hybrid in their approach. One such film is THIS CHARMING GIRL, the feature debut of Lee Yoon-ki. Although relatively unknown as an art cinema director, Lee has made films that have all found critical favour by critics focused on Korean cinema: LOVE TALK (2005), AD LIB NIGHT (2006), and MY DEAR ENEMY (2008). (more…)

Isabel Coixet’s “The Secret Life of Words” will be showing at the Daegu Art Cinema this Saturday (Sept. 19) at 6:30pm and Tuesday (Sept. 22) at 8:30pm. Other new additions to the line-up include Silent Wedding, Chaotic Ana and 5 films from the Spanish Cinema Now Programme. Check the website for showtimes. (more…)