10th Annual Korean FIlm Festival at BAM February 24-26

Mr C has posted a piece at Planet Chocko Zine about the Korean Film festival that's playing at BAM at the end of the month.

There is one film I know is great, Moss, and a couple of others that I have in my pile to watch, Hindsight and Quick. If you're interested either follow the link to Planet Chocko or jump to the Korea Society website

Giant Gila Monster (1959)

Giant Gila Monster is frequently paired with The Killer Shrews on various drive in double bills and home video releases so I’m going to do a quick write up of the film as the Wednesday matinee film today.

The story of a small Texas town that has to deal with a giant Gila monster is an uneasy mix of teen drama and monster movie. It’s a film that hits all the typical teen is misunderstood by adults while driving around in his hot rod notes. Things get complicated when several of the kids go missing and the sheriff has to turn to the ones still around to help him find out what’s going on.

A good but kind of draggy horror film it’s the sort of film that never manages to mesh the two genres its combining. The teen drama is cliché and unremarkable while the giant monster stuff is well done but never seems to integrate with the rest of the film. The problem with the monster stuff is that the model/live lizard stuff is so beautifully shot that it never works when you cut to the actors and the shoddy special effects that don’t full match the model work. The clash breaks the spell.

To me this is a good… well its an okay but unremarkable little film. I don’t think you shouldn’t see it, rather I think that if you do see it you try to rent or borrow a double feature disc or watch it another movie or two since it’s not the sort of thing to stand on it’s own.

Killer Shrews (1959)

What is it about mad scientists and deserted islands? Apparently it’s a prerequisite to not only be not only mad but also antisocial- or maybe that should be considerate since if you stay on a deserted island you’re less likely to have your stupid experiment injure someone... As a safety warning I’m going to tell you why you shouldn’t get off any boat that lands on a desert island inhabited by collies with fangs.

The Killer Shrews is a drive in classic. Its an utterly preposterous film (it was on MST3K) about scientists who take tiny shrews and grow them to the size of large dogs (they are played by collies with fright masks) which then get loose and then try to eat everyone and everything that gets in their way.

It’s a film that is stupid as a stick and a great deal of fun.

The reason the film works is that the cast plays it painfully straight. There is no hint that they are finding it anything other then deadly serious which somehow manages to make the proceedings work.

As I frequently say this ain’t high art- which means we are oh so much better for it.

What I like is that the serious tone mixes with some moody black and photography in order to make a slightly creepy, tense on it’s own terms film. There is no denying that the film generates a certain amount of suspense since the filmmakers kind of plot themselves into a corner which they some how manage to get themselves out of.

A neat little movie perfect for a Saturday night on the couch with popcorn, soda and stack of Drive In movie sort of titles.

New York International Children's Film Festival tickets are on sale

Go here now.

Thats the link to the schedule for this years NYICFF. It will also allow you to buy tickets. I know the website says in some places February 1 but it says on sale now on the top of the front page. I also just got the schedule in the mail, so I'm guessing the big reveal has come early.

This is great news and you really want to get tickets.

DO NOT LET THE CHILDREN IN THE TITLE FOOL YOU, THIS IS A GREAT FILM FESTIVAL FOR ADULTS. I mean that with all sincerity and seriousness. Randi and I have had tickets for every festival since they started, so if there is one thing I know, without a doubt, the festival is all about good films, not kids films. Yes, the films are geared for families, but at the same time that doesn't mean they are just for kids. How else do you explain films like 5 Centimeters a Second from a couple years back, which works as both a kids film and as an aching look back at paths not chosen that rocks a adults.

This year the selections are killer. Its full of great films across the board so you really need to make an effort to see as much of the good stuff as possible. Take a look at the schedule and I'm sure you'll find something you want to see since it's the best programmed festival yet.

You want highlights? Here are some of the films that I'm looking forward to:

The Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Below, the newest film from Makoto Shinkai the director of the masterpiece films 5 Centimeters a Second and Voices From a Distant Star. A chance to see any film by this director is a treat.

The Beatles in both Yellow Submarine (sadly only one showing) and Hard Days Night. Yellow Submarine has always been a huge favorite of mine and the chance to see it big is a treat.

They are running Toys in the Attic, the English dubbed version of In the Attic or Who Has A Birthday which was one of the first films reviewed here at Unseen. It blew me away and is proof that sometimes treasures lie in unexpected places. My original review is here, Simply put this is one of the best animated films you'll ever see, and three years on the film is still with me. The chance to see it again is an absolute unexpected pleasure. Believe me you DO want to see this, even if you think you don't.

They are running Ninja Kids!!! which played last years NYAFF. Mondocurry and myself both reviewed it. Mondocurry's review can be found here, while my review (which was buried in a review of 22 NYAFF films) can be read below:

Takashi Miike's adaptation of the anime series is one of the best anime to live action films as you'll ever see. Keeping the weird designs of characters (many have distorted facial features) the film has the feeling of a cartoon come to life. The film follows Rantaro, the son of an ex-ninja now farmer as he goes to the ninja academy.

Its a kids film for real kids since it's full of jokes about farts, snot and dog poop...

Not only one of the best film of the festival it is easily one of my favorites of the whole year. Mondocurry said to me after the screening that if I said anything other than I loved the film he would have called me a liar. I loved the film. If you can, score tickets to see this.

As I said in the NYAFF review, I'm trying to figure out how I can see both of the screenings and still have time to eat.

Again don't take my word for it read Mondocurry's piece as well.

The opening night film is A Monster in Paris. I've heard the film is good, and I'll be there simply because it's the opening night and those are always a blast.

The special events are not to be missed especially the chance to see Aardman's The Pirates!Band of Misfits in 3D as well as Michael Ocelot's Tales of the Night.

Frequently and very mistakenly overlooked are the short film collections. GO SEE THESE. Oscar winners come out of them, not only that there are great films hidden in them that you might never get to see. The shorts are always fantastic.

As always get your tickets sooner than later- the screenings almost always sell out WAY in advance.

Lastly don't get upset if you can't see everything. Its not physically possible. Not only do some screenings over lap, the locations are all over Manhattan so you may very well end up not being able to get from one place to another. (The geographical diversity of the festival is the one thing that makes me crazy)

Look, choose, go and see.

Going in this seems like it's going to be the best year yet.

Club Paradise

Robin Williams and Jimmy Cliff star in a film is another one of those films I stop to watch when I run across it on TV.

The plot has injured Chicago fire fighter Robin Williams heading off to the islands to recover. Finding he likes the warm weather and the location he along with buddy Cliff decide to open a resort. As the tourists arrive and try to deal with the misleading accommodations, developers wanting to take over the island arrive and begin to bribe the local officials to get there way.

Ruckus but gentle comedy kind of went nowhere when it played in theaters. However on home video, where I first discovered this gem of a film, it was a hit Back in my video store days this was a perennial renter with the film going in and out even when the film hit cable and went into it’s time on eternal rotation.

For me the film works not so much because the script is good, it’s only okay, rather the film works because the cast lead by Williams and Cliff and including Rick Moranis, Peter O’Toole, Twiggy, Adolph Cesar, Brian Doyle Murray,Eugene Levy, Robin Duke and Andrea Martin sell the nonsense. Its clear that the cast is having a blast so it translates into we the audience having a similar good time.

As I will say about many of the films this week, they aren’t high art, but they are good fun. Actually the best thing I can say about this film is that its so non-taxing that it makes you forget your worries like a great vacation will…however unlike a trip to the islands this vacation can be repeated as often as you want just by hitting the start button to replay the film.

High Risk (1981)

We begin this week of atypical vacation films with one of the first films I ever recorded when I got a VCR. I discovered this neat little film thanks to it being a Siskel and Ebert pick of the week way back when they were first doing their TV show.

The plot of this film has James Brolin and his friends deciding to go on a little hunting trip down to South America where they will rob a drug lord of his money and then go home. The idea is that it’s going to be a quick in and out. As you might expect things go sideways from the get go and they are soon running for their lives from everyone who wants the money for themselves.

Played for some laughs as well as suspense the film is a grand romp that will leave you smiling when it finishes running out its breezy 90 minutes. One of the huge pluses in the film is that the film doesn’t have a nasty edge that many other directors would have used. The film is light and bright and not what you think of when you think of an action film.

Also helping the film immensely is the cast- Brolin, Clevon Little, Lindsey Wagner, Bruce Davidson, Anthony Quinn, James Coburn, Ernest Borgnine, and Chick Vennera who sell every minute of the film and make you feel that they were doing this for more than a pay check.

High art it’s not. It is a great little film that is perfect for a rainy Saturday on the couch with a bowl of popcorn and a soda

Sunday Nightcap 1/29/12 Joann Sfar, Adele Blanc-sec, Patton Oswalt and gushing on things I love

Time for our typical Sunday night ramble...

Wednesday night Randi and I attended the penultimate night of the New York Jewish Film Festival and their screening of Joann Sfar Draws From Memory (it was paired with the Silent Historian but because of car problems I had to bail before that or else miss my train home). The film is 49 minutes of artist and film director Sfar talking about drawing. Its Sfar in cafes, cabs and at home talking about what he draws and why.

I’m very mixed on the film.

The problems with the film are both technical and organizational.

Organizationally the film tells you very little about Sfar and his work other than how he does it and in a few cases what he’s drawn. We only know what he tells up and outside of some of his work it’s eye droppered out. There is no context, there is no attempt at organizing anything it’s Sfar just talking. Yes its interesting, but since I only learned of him from his film Gainsbourg I have no context to his life and art. Worse he mentions that he’s done 150 books, and we only see a few of his stories, and only those that are tied to his life and heritage.

But even his heritage isn't really explained. Outside of being from Algerian father, an Eastern European Mother, and a coquettish grandmother his life and family, which influences his work, isn't really explained. There is a comment that the Rabbi’s Cat is him poking fun at his father's religion but then it doesn’t explain his feelings or what that entails. Ultimately if you don’t know him you’re SOL. (In it's defense since looking on line I find that Sfar's background is not well explained anywhere in at least in English).

Technically the film suffers from horrible subtitling. Randi and I don’t speak French and we could tell some of what was subtitled wasn’t what was said. Worse the subtitling is incomplete with Sfar talking talking talking and only part of it being subtitled.

Carrying that theme further the film is full of Sfar’s comics, all of it in French, but only a few lines are translated. How can we understand what people see in Sfar’s work when we don’t know what he’s written? As with the translation of Sfars words, the written text frequently caused laughter and a reaction in some members of the audience who understood French, but blank stares from those of use who had to rely on the subtitles.

To me the film is a draft. It needs a good going over by someone who isn’t so close to its subject.

Onward and upward...

For those looking for another reason to track down The Adventures of Adele Blanc Sec which I reviewed back in January of last year, sans subtitles, Eden has reviewed the film at her own blog, Comicsgirl. The piece can be found here.

I was going write up the Oscar nominations but for the most part there wasn’t anything too exciting. Outside of Chico and Rita and the Cat in Paris getting nominations I really not that that excited by any of them.

There are however two things that I do want to mention.

First off Steven Spielberg’s War Horse should, must… win for best cinematography. This is one of the best looking films you’ll ever see. It raises it all to a high art. England, Europe and World War One never looked so lovely. I just wish the rest of the film was as good as it looks.

The other bit of business is that Patton Oswalt got robbed by not getting at least an Oscar nom for Young Adult. I’m not a fan of Oswalt’s but he hits it out of the box and then some with one of the best performances of the last five years. He is the reason I stayed with the film to the end.

Don’t get me wrong Charlize Theron is equally wonderful but her ex-girlfriend from hell is the sort of unpleasant person you don’t want to spend a minute with let alone 100. On some level. While the fact that she doesn’t learn and stays the same jerk through out the film may strike some as a brilliant move on the part of the filmmakers, to me it made the film an exercise in diminishing returns- except for Patton Oswalt who kept me watching despite wanting to abandon ship. (hopefully the revenge will be a long career that doesn’t end in the obscurity that many supporting actors and actresses end up with)

I’ll say it again, it’s one of the best, most heart breaking performances from the last five years.


Its been remarked that I get gushy when I talk about certain film festivals and film events, and I can’t lie, I do. We all have our passions and I wear my heart on my sleeve.

Despite what some people may think I am not trying to butter anyone up or to get anything from anyone, I’m simply trying to spread the love. I genuinely love The New York Asian Film Festival, The New York International Children’s Film Festival, The New York Film Festival and Tribeca, and the others I talk about here.

How do you know?

You know because I go to many of the the screenings on my dime. Yes, I do get invited to some press screenings but I also go to as many screenings as I can afford and that I can attend. I go to the events and the films that I want to see and not what have been picked out for me.

Do I gush? Hell yea, because things like the chance to see Yellow Submarine on a big screen gets me all fired up.

Trust me, if I say I like or love something, I do.

Speaking of which tickets for the New York International Children's Film Festival go on sale Wednesday. I don't want to say too much right now, but this looks like the best year yet, which is saying a great deal.

Before I go I want to share a quick film watching story.

I saw a Korean film Monday night. It had no English on the cover, but it had a picture of a man shooting, so figured what the hell, I'll find out what it was once the film started. The trouble while it was subtitled in English, nothing written was so I had no idea what the film was. All was fine until I realized that the subtitles, which seemed quite good, were in fact for some other film entirely. The film seemed to be about the Japanese occupation and an effort to hide children. The subtitles sometimes were about that, but mostly seemed to be from some sort of gangster film or perhaps a supernatural one... Talk about surreal...

That's it for this tonight.

(This week we spotlight a few films where people try to get away from it all...)

I Love Hong Kong (2011) - Celebrating Chinese New Year!

Director: Eric Tsang
Producer: Eric Tsang/Shaw Brothers Studio
Stars: Eric Tsang, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Sandra Ng, Aarif Lee, Stanley Fung, Fala Chen, Mag Lam, Anita Yuen, & more!!
Genre: Comedy-lunar new year

Watching I Love Hong Kong the 2nd time around brought back some great memories! My first go around with this film was last year in February while on vacation in Hong Kong during chinese new year. This film was one of a few that was slated specifically to help RING in the new year at the theater box offices. If I can remember correctly, I watched this film at the Grand Cinema in the swanky Elements shopping mall in Kowloon! The Grand Cinema housed 12 screens with very comfortable seats & a monster sound system! For all that don’t know, when you buy movie tickets in HK, you have to pick a specific seat in the theater prior to purchase. It sounded very formal at first but it does create order & an advanced shot to choose the best seats to your liking without last second bum rushes.

Lunar New Year films usually boasts an all star cast and this movie was no different. Led by the very talented, diminutive, & lovable Eric Tsang who acted in, directed, & produced I Love HK!



The focal point of the film centered around the close knit relationships that were developed in the past as well as ongoing in the present tense between tenants of a typical low income housing complex in hong kong. Financial hardships and fate would bring some of these friends & families back together again to live in this tight community! Ng Shun (Tony Leung Ka Fei), his wife (Sandra Ng), and their two kids played by Aarif Lee, & Mag Lam will move back into Ng Shun’s father’s apartment where he grew up unbeknownst to the grandfather until the surprise visit. Ng Shun & his wife were doing quite well on their own until their Toy manufacturing company filed for bankruptcy. A reality check for the Ng family would ensue when they discover that the living style & comforts of this housing complex is not quite as endearing to what they were used to. One by one, old childhood friends from the past including ‘water dragon’ (Eric Tsang) & Ng Shun’s 1st girlfriend (Anita Yuen) would resurface back into their lives making for a sticky, uncomfortable, but hilarious situations! The character that stole the show with her performance in my opinion was Ng Shun’s wife played by Sandra Ng. She had the hardest adjustments to make dealing with her new employment, the low income housing, husband’s ex-girlfriend, & fitting in socially amongst the working class! The 2nd major character that peeks its ‘Chiao Chow’ head back into the Ng family was childhood friend ‘water dragon’ who has become a successful real estate/renovations mogul in the United States. Misunderstandings, flashbacks, and a before & after look of twin sisters will definitely be in order!

No doubt, I Love Hong Kong is filled with off the wall silly skits that manages to play homage to Hong Kong lifestyle and/or poke fun at it. Mentions of the iconic fast food eats like “Cafe de Coral” seen as Cafe de Oral in the movie, as well as some rumblings from the high end gourmet supermarket, "C!tysuper" seen as CCsuper in the movie is either adored or hated by the locals depending on their financial situation, I would guess. The evil in the story will reap its ugly head when the Tung Wah housing project intends to wipe out the mom & pop shops located in their complex in favor of opening up international chain stores.



The dialogue in the film is full of wit and play on words--all the way down to the Ng families first names such as Ng Shun (can’t trust), Ng Tung (can’t connect), Ng Ming (don’t understand), & Ng Chi (don’t know). Some funny scenes in the movie include Sandra Ng trying to imitate being a working class country mom trying to get the deals at the grocery stand and the slow motion gangster leans in the lobby. I also can’t leave out the beautiful twins!?

In the end, I Love Hong Kong took us onto a family journey of hardships & bad luck that turned into good fortune & prosperity with a little patience, trust, humor, & unity!

This film is definitely worth your time! You will get a insightful glimpse of the day in the life of a Hongkie!

0506HK (2007) Celebrating Chinese New Year!

Filmmaker Quentin Lee explores whether he wants to move back to Hong Kong or whether he should stay in the US.

Lee and his family moved to Canada when he was 12, during the period where Hong Kong was a tizzy about what was going to happen in in 1997 when the city was returned to China. About the time that he went to Berkley his parents split up and his mother moved back to the city. The result was that he ended up splitting his time between his Dad in Canada and his mom in Hong Kong.

Framed as a trip to see his mom for Christmas the film is an examination of what it means to leave the place you're born and return. Its a search for culture, and how the people who stay in a place all their life (as some of Lee's friends had) and how others who left and return see the same place. Over the course of the the hour long film Lee talks to friends, family and a few people he meets along along the way to get their view of Hong Kong, culture and where they belong.

As some one who knows Hong Kong from the movies and from the stories of friends this is a kick in the head. Its a look at what it means to live in the city. It's so nice to see the city as more than just a movie location, now it's a place that people really live and work.

More interesting it's a film about what it means to be strung between places and cultures. Lee's heart is very much in China...but it's also very much in Los Angeles, the first place he ever chose to call home after growing up in places chosen for him by his family. It's a choice I've never had to make myself.

It was great to see many of people like Kam, Teddy Chan,Raman Hui and other people who are only names in film credits as people.

I really liked this film. Its a great little film that raises some interesting questions and manages to make a mythic place and and some of the people who live there something more real.

Available on DVD and on You Tube.

Wind Blast (2010) Celebrating Chinese New Year!

From Qunshu Gao, the director of The Message and Old Fish, comes a film that almost no one has seen or knows exists...at least with in my small cadre of Asian film loving friends. Whats worse is that if you look at IMDB the rating is around 4 out of 10. What film did they see?

This is an impossible to classify homage, satire, action, crime, western, form over content film. This is a film that you're either going to accept for it's off base self or hate for it's eclectic nature.

The plot has some cops chasing a hit man and his girlfriend into the desert. The pair are also being chased by people sent by a former employer who is unhappy with how a previous job turned out. Everyone chases and fights each other over and over again.

I don't think it makes a great deal of sense. I'm sure it does to the characters on screen but something has gotten lost on the cutting room floor. With the result we in the audience have to take things on faith since things are only half heartedly explained. I've seen the film one and half times now and quite frankly I still don't completely understand it.

What I do understand is that this film is a series of stunning set pieces. These are all high octane action sequences involving guns and fists and horses and cars and dump trucks. Its a mixture of realistic action and your typical "over the top" Hong Kong style action. You know some of this couldn't happen, some of the moves would kill the people involved or could only happen if you have wires and special effects. Its all so well done that you simply accept it. Believe me the dump truck chase and the final ghost town sequences are going to get your blood pumping (and the other ones aren't bad either)

In a weird way this is one of the most action packed westerns you'll ever see.

Make no mistake, despite being set now as evidenced by GPS, computers, land rovers and automatic weapons this film is a western. If you stripped away all of the modern trappings this film would easily work as a gritty film from Europe.(I say Europe because American Westerns are rarely this cynical). It also has a good many of the Western cliches worked in (cowboy hats, chases on horse back, ghost town, stampede, the desert setting...) that you'd have to be blind not to catch what it's striving to be.

The problem with the film is that the story is so slender and the details are so off-handedly given that it's kind of hard to fully give yourself over to it. It can be tough going outside of the motion simply because we're essentially flying blind or watching a slice of violent life. It's a flaw, if you want to call it that, that I find in many martial arts films from the 1970's and 80's where they simply want give us a slender plot because they need to have something to hang the action sequences from. The most extreme notion of this are some the recent Thai action films such a BKO Bangkok Knockout which dispenses with plot after the first 15 minutes for a 90 minute fight scene.

I really do like the film, but I'll be the first to admit that the film made better sense the second time since I could rely on having all the plot in my head already. This is a film I can easily recommend to anyone who likes action films because this film is full of it.

Currently out on DVD around the world but not officially in the US.