In the time since my last FFW review, I've seen at least a couple dozen films, mostly from Asia and Europe, quite a few of them in the last few weeks as the All-region, and region-3 DVD editions of the Asian holiday season releases finally became available here in the states. Below I've summarized my response to the six new films: dramas, horror movies and fantasy-action-comedy hybrids, that made the strongest positive impression on me. I've also added my 'second thoughts' on two action films I gave a second viewing.

Without question the strongest foreign films I’ve seen over the last three months are, The Duelist, Election and Head On.

The Korean novel Damo is a complex, multi-faceted tale of a highly skilled 17th century undercover policewoman who, while investigating an widespread counterfeiting conspiracy finds herself caught between her loyalty to her adopted brother and commanding officer, and a charismatic revolutionary who might just be her real, flesh and blood brother. The story features a large supporting cast, much intrigue and the occasionally, huge battle scenes. It was adapted for television a couple of years ago, and became one of the most widely seen miniseries (14 episodes) in Asia a couple of years back.

Director Lee Myung-Se wisely pares down the complex story of Damo for Duelist (Korea, 2005) placing the emphasis on the doomed attraction between the two young people, whose only common ground, is their incomparable skills at knife, sword and staff fighting. For them, it’s virtually a language of lethal movement. In Lee's version of the tale, a crude, tomboyish 17th Century policewoman finds herself unaccountably attracted to an elfin assassin at the center of a grand conspiracy to destabilize the economy. As the two are near polar opposites, as well as being on opposing sides of a lethal conflict, their infatuation with one another is sure-fire recipe for tragedy.

However, Lee Myung-Se surprises with his daring and inventive use of color and light use and startling changes in tone and tempo. You really do have to leave your preconceptions and expectations at the door before watching this film. Duelist mixes elements of lowbrow comedy, lethal martial arts action, a complex conspiracy and romantic fantasy adventure. Far more tightly paced than the director’s previous film, the self-indulgent but highly influential Nowhere to Hide, Duelist is also a rare visual treat. The compositions, color, use of lighting, martial arts and dance choreography are simply stunning. Empty your head and Duelist will transport you. If you must, think of it as a great big live-action anime epic and you'll enjoy it just fine. Despite a tendency to polarize audiences, Duelist comes highly recommended. Region-3 editions are available.

Turkish director Faith Akin’s Head-On, (Germany, 2004) won a well-deserved Golden Bear at the 2004 Berlin Film Festival, and this engrossing drama is a gift to anyone who’s grown up in an immigrant household that followed different, much more constraining, rules than the rest of the world outside. As such, this intense story won my heart hands down. The film opens on the 40-year-old Cahit (Birol Unel) who is utterly convincing as a Turkish immigrant who long ago rejected his own culture, became a small time punk rocker.

His “moment” having long passed him by, Cahit ekes out a living collecting bottles and busing at a bar, and seems intent on killing himself slowly with alcohol. One night Cahit smashes his car into a brick wall and he winds up in a state-run mental hospital for observation. While the in-house counselors decide whether or not he’s too self-destructive for unsupervised existence, another patient, a failed suicide Sibel (and earnest, clear-eyed and sympathetic Sibel Kekilli) approaches him with a daring proposal. Desperate to escape the suffocating code of behavior that her immigrant parents insist she lives by as a young Muslim woman, Sibel proposes she and Cahit enter into a marriage of convenience. In her parents’ old world way of thinking, a woman is essentially chattel, and once married her parents will butt out of her life, leaving her free to party and generally find her own wild way in life. In return Sibel promises to keep Cahit in soaked in booze. He refuses, but Sibel persists, and eventually, she wears him down.

After a tense interlude where Sibel and Cahit struggle to convince her family that his proposal is sincere, they marry, and for a time the arrangement works. Sibel goes dancing every night, and beds a series of young men. In the distance, Cahit watches in amusement, drinks himself into happy stupors, and on occasion sleeps with another aging veteran of the German punk scene, Maren (Catrin Striebeck), a rather burnt out looking hairdresser. In time room mates Sibel and Cahit become loyal, if unlikely friends, but not before the contradictions of their arrangement catch up with them, making for riveting drama in the latter half of the film.

Available in a region-1 DVD edition, Head-On is highly recommended, especially for anyone who has grown up trapped between two cultures.

Election (Hong Kong, 2005) is an excellent ensemble drama set in the tradition bound world of an old and powerful triad organization, the 50,000-member strong Woo Shing Society. Periodically, respected elders, "Uncles", led by Teng (Wong Tim Lam) elect an executive director, a Chairman, who leads the triad for limited terms. The current Chairman, "Whistle" (Wang Chung), is due to step down, and two high ranking capos, the calm, collected politician, Lok (Simon Yam) and an aggressive fire-brand "Big D" (Tony Leung Ka-Fai) are vying to become the next Chairman.

The story takes us up and down the ranks of the organization. We witness Lok and Big D's political maneuvering before the "Uncles' vote, followed by a proxy war for possession of a physical token of triad leadership, the Dragon Head Baton, hidden away in Mainland China. This race involves and consumes soldiers from all levels of the organization: an intelligent and slick capo (Lous Koo), the pathological Jet (Nick Cheung), the hard core Kun (Lam Ka-Tung) and the righteous, if dim, Big Head (Lam Suet).

Reportedly To's depiction of the rules and customs governing triad life is based on extensive research. If so, it makes fascinating viewing. To manages a great balance between tense debates and negotiations involving Uncles, under-bosses and pragmatic high ranking police officers, and shocking bursts of violence between the foot soldiers, where knives, sticks, cars and pieces of broken furniture, and not words, are the elements of daily "discourse". Ironies and absurdities abound, as the conflict between triad "righteousness" and machiavellian maneuvering keeps coming to the fore.

To’s multi-level, realistic approach is refreshing and exciting, and the acting is uniformly excellent. (In comparison, John Woo's similarly themed Just Heroes (1987) plods in comparison.) Stylistically, the only recent Hong Kong drama that compares is Derek Yee's true-life urban drama One Nite in Mongkok (2004). To's Election is just as uncompromising, and ultimately, even more nihilistic: it's also more entertaining, and in some ways much more satisfying. Highly recommended. Available in 2-disc and single disc HK all-region DVD editions. A sequel just wrapped in Hong Kong.

Of Current Interest:

I had to watch the first two films in Park Chan Wook’s trilogy on the theme of revenge, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Oldboy twice over, to get over the shocks, before I could appreciate the films for what they are: black comedies based on a pitliless view of life. I had no such problems with Park’s newest film, the last in the trilogy: Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (South Korea, 2005).

Shot with the same “diamond cutters eye” for precise, sharp-edged, striking composition, Lady Vengeance (the international release title), is the story of a woman, Geum-Ja, who confesses to kidnapping and murder. Thirteen years later, she emerges from prison complete with a network of eager ex-cons and methodically begins working toward her revenge. Though a few surreal shots and quick cuts caught me by surprise, I found “Lady Vengeance” to be a twisted joy (repeat viewings of the earlier films have had an effect: I can apprehend Park’s dark sense of humor). Ultimately, Geum-Ja’s story celebrates both the strangely life-affirming and communal possibilities of revenge, as well as the outer limits of the therapeutic function of the quest. Be forewarned however. While “Lady Vengeance” has it’s share of surprises, visual and otherwise, it’s also far more evenly paced than the jolting Oldboy. It’s also brighter (if that is the right word) than the bleak, but funny “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance.” Presently available in Region 3 DVD, I expect Lady Vengeance and region-1 dvd before the end of the year. Those jones-ing for Oldboy old boy shocks, are advised to check out Save the Green Planet (Korea, 2003) which recently came out in a Region-1 DVD edition.

Based on the novel Shimotsuma Story by the cult writer Novala Takemoto, the surprisingly successful Kamikaze Girls is a frenetic, and surprisingly entertaining journey through two clashing sub-cultures at the center of the wacked out media bath that comprises contemporary Japanese pop culture.

The film opens on Momoko (played by J-pop star Kyoko Fukada), a 17-year old devotee of the “Lolita Look”, wherein young women dress themselves in designer fashions based on the dress of the 18th Century French Court. Trapped in an isolated rural town some sixty miles outside metropolitan Tokyo, with her “useless” father, a former low-level yakuza, and her grandmother, Momoko retreats into her own (CGI-enhanced) fantasy world, an impregnable fortress where she idealizes the late Roccoco ethic of cultured hedonism and worships her favored fashion designers from afar. That’s when she isn’t scamming money from her idiotic father, or bilking people who buy his cheap second-rate knock offs of designer labels. Momoko needs a lot of clothing and accessories to buttress her rich internal fantasy world, and the “baby doll” look doesn’t come cheap.

Momoko’s glorious isolation is punctured when, answering one of her ads on the net, a snarling, foul-mouthed Ichiko (rocker Anna Tsuchiya) a young biker partial to heavy-metal hair, supe-ed up mopeds (complete with samurai-style cavalry banners) and embroidered dusters, comes charging up the dirt road to Momoko’s house, initiating one of the most unlikely partnerships I’ve ever seen on film. Momoko initially wants nothing to do with righteous, loud and obnoxious wild-child Ichiko, who worships a peculiar and storied variant of the ideology shared by yakuza and triad gangsters all over Asia (illustrated by animated sequences that recall the look of Samurai Jack).

Yet all- to-well aware on the essential fakery of such ideals, Ichiko instinctively admires Momoko’s stubborn insistence on living according to her own strange, if isolating rules. Another biker broad’s attempt to unify the local girl gangs, leads to a challenge being laid down that Ichiko cannot ignore, and this speeds the films resolution.

Refreshing and fun, Kamikaze Girls is available in both Region-1 and Region-3 DVD editions.

The Red Shoes (Korea, 2005) is a gorgeous, inventively shot drama about a truly put upon woman (Kim Hye Su) who gets NO breaks, whatsoever. Her husband despises and cheats on her, her child hates her, and her best friend is a obnoxious boor. Finally breaking with her husband, she tries to start her life over, opening up her own eye care business and making a new home for herself and her daughter when she stumbles upon a pair of irresistible high heel shoes which bring gruesome ends to some (but not all) of the women who wear them. While the plot rehashes elements from popular Japanese horror films from Asia Dark Water and The Ring, the film is redeemed by it’s fine cinematography and a the tour de force performance by Kim Hye Su in the leading role. Comparable to Isabelle Huppert’s star turn in The Piano Teacher Kim is amazing as a woman whose mind is cracking under the strain of trying to control her own long suppressed passion and emotions.

Outside of festival screenings, the film is currently available in a two disc region-3 DVD edition, which includes an English-subtitled theatrical cut and an unrated directors cut with an alternate (and to my mind, far superior) ending. Unfortunately the directors cut isn’t subtitled. If you've seen the first version, you can follow the unrated version fine: you don’t necessarily need subtitles to enjoy the cinematography, Kim Hye Su’s amazing performance, and the alternate ending. For those willing to spend the extra time and money, I think it’s worth it. Still, when a Region-1 edition of this film comes out, I hope they simply add subtitles to the unrated directors cut version instead. It's definitely the more satisfying version. (Why the Korean distributor didn’t just release a subtitled version of the director’s cut is utterly beyond me.)

Second Looks: Action Films.

Hailed as a throwback to the glory days of the early 90’s Hong Kong action cinema, a stylistic trend best exemplified by John Woo’s ‘bullet ballets’ like A Better Tommorrow 2, The Killer, Bullet in the Head and Hard Boiled, Sha Po Lang (Hong Kong, 2005) was one of the most anticipated films to come out of the former colony this year. I got to see it the first time a few months ago at the AFI Los Angeles Film Festival. (An uncut theatrical release version is now available in a Hong Kong all-region edition.) Then as now, I feel obliged to pass along a warning. SPL's spare script and the directors shooting style really calls for more nuanced talents like Tony Leung (either one), Andy Lau and Chow Yun-Fat in the three leading roles to really work. As it is, Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung, two great kung fu action stars and fight choreographers, don’t have the range as actors to really pull off their roles successfully, something made all the more apparent by the films relatively high production values. The exception here is Simon Yam, who plays a terminally ill but nevertheless hard charging and police commander. The character actors filling the secondary roles are fine, but aren’t given enough to do to compensate for the lack of completely compelling performances in two of the three principal roles.

The films saving grace are two well staged and lengthy fight scenes in the last third of the film: a savage fight between an assassin, played by a great Jackie Wu Jing, who wields a wicked looking knife, and Donnie Yen making skilled use of a collapsible steel police baton. This fight is followed by a brutal close quarter battle between Yen and Sammo Hung integrating ju-jitsu throws with intense ‘70’s old school’ hand-to-hand, and foot-to-head, blows. Alone these two scenes should satisfy, if not gratify, the fight scene-starved HK kung-fu movie fans out there. The fights are so well choreographed that I wish the filmmakers’ had chosen to develop three earlier scenes into full blown set peices: one where Donnie Yen knocks a suspect into an altered state of consciousness, a scene where Jacky Wu Jing takes out three cops in a row, and where Sammo Hung’s triad boss fights his way through a lobby full of cops. Personally I'm amazed they didn't.

A martial arts action-comedy Arahan (2004) is set in contemporary Seoul, where an ineffective rookie cop Sang Hwan (Ryu Seong-Beum) gets his ass kicked by low-level thugs. A chance meeting with an easily irritated young Taoist super-woman Wi-jin (Yoon So-Yi), leads to the discovery by her father, Ja-Woon (Ahn Sung-Ki), an acupuncturist and one of the most powerful Taoist martial arts masters alive, that Ryu has superhuman potential. Not that such powers and abilities counts for a lot in contemporary Seoul. Constricted by an ethical code, the other Taoist super-humans are reduced to telling fortunes and other demeaning uses of their abilities to make a living. For his part, Sang Hwan just wants to be able to fight effectively, and has to be dragged kicking and screaming into adopting the spare regimen of super-humans-in-training, a lifestyle utterly divorced from life in contemporary Seoul. However when a dangerous Taoist master (martial arts director Jeon Du-Hong), is freed from his tomb (where the other Taoist masters locked him away decades ago) rejuvenates himself, and starts knocking off the other Taoist adepts, looking for a key to even greater power, ready or not, the next generation, Wijin and the hapless Sang Hwan, have to step up and face the ultimate badass, to prevent him from becoming a cross between Superman and Stalin.

The sequence where the Sang-Hwan slowly adapts to his new lifestyle could have been more tightly edited, and the scenes where Ja Woon and Wijin bicker get a bit tiring (after a while, I wanted to tell the bitch to give the poor schmuck a break.) Otherwise, production values are high and the actors are uniformly good in their roles. (As ever Ahn Sung-Ki and Jeon Du-Hong are excellent). Comic relief comes courtesy Sang-Hwan and the other Taoist Elders, and Jeon Du-Hong’s action scenes (which are concentrated in the latter half of the film) are fun and exciting. Available in Region 3 (Asia) and Region 2 (UK) editions.

Won Kim's Foreign Film Watch: Lethal Loves

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