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For those who may not read Japanese, that means: “I’m home!” Now that SFIFF 2008 is over (as of last Thursday—more on this in a minute), and I’ve spent a couple of days recovering, you’ll be seeing more of me. Aren’t you excited?
About the festival. In direct contrast with SFIAAFF, my happiness quotient with SFIFF has been going down in recent years. I wasn’t sure why, until my friend Jieun hit the nail on the head a little while ago: the festival takes itself entirely too seriously. It’s pretentious, even more than most, which are snooty almost by definition. SFIFF tends to pick films rather than movies, “important” films (a description that makes me want to run in the other direction), serious films, films that are about art almost to the exclusion of entertainment…but isn’t that what movies are about, in the end?
And when they do show movies that are so crass as to be entertaining, they apologize for it beforehand. I mean, come on. 9_9
Anyway. That said, this year was better, mathematically speaking, than last year, and I’ll let you judge for yourself based on my descriptions of each movie:
The Anglo-Saxons, a small, uncultured group of people from a place no longer identifiable, went to Britain, replaced the existing population, and, within 300 years, gave us the English language.
This gives rise to three possibilities:
These “Anglo-Saxons” are a very remarkable people.
History is full of surprises.
Historians have got it completely wrong.
This book advances the third possibility.
As delightfully snarky as this suggests, the book is learned, well-written, and quietly revolutionary. As much a manifesto urging us to overthrow our academic oppressors as a refutation of some downright silly conventional wisdom, this book asks some hard questions about academia and education today. Harper gleefully picks apart the foundation of much of what we think we know, with the eventual goal of making the whole house of cards collapse in on itself.
He is an applied epistemologist, or a member of the school of thought that “believes that everybody gets everything wrong.” From the afterword of the book:
Anybody who finds the material in The Secret History of the English Language interesting enough to wish to follow things up should head for
where they will find a whole bunch of people following up this and various other strands of organized human thought that require radical revision. However, you are strongly advised not to Google “Applied Epistemology”, because there you will be greeted by thousands of entries from and about people who claim to be involved in Applied Epistemology but who in fact have hijacked this very useful term to open yet another interminable branch in that utterly useless area of academic endeavor, Philosophy. Real Applied Epistemology deals with real trees in real forests that exist, so far as we know, whether we are observing them or not. Yes, yes, you believe that “so far as we know” is a frightfully important qualification. On second thoughts, don’t bother to join us.
Still not as charming as Ocean’s Eleven, this one was nevertheless much better than Ocean’s Twelve; it was smarter, tighter, and didn’t try to recreate the first movie, which was a large part of its success. The second movie, by contrast, was predictable, and a bit smug, and entirely too Hollywood. Instead, this movie franchise matured and struck out in a new direction; it was slick and fun, yes, but it was more serious, and had more heart than either of the two previous movies. I’m having a hard time deciding which one of the first and third movies I liked better. Recommended.
Oh, and please be sure to check out the cool mini-documentary about Vegas among the extras.
Kurenai – I’ve seen the first episode of this, and it’s looking promising. Interesting teases of a plot, very high production value, very good voice acting.
Itazurana Kiss – Seen the first two episodes of this one, and it’s OK, and not looking to get any better. Not nearly as interesting or well-produced as Love*Com. Also, I’m not a fan of the old-fashioned art. In a word: meh.
Allison & Lillia – Haven’t seen this one yet, but the ANN reviewers say it looks good.
Bus Gamer – Haven’t seen this one, either, but I’m not expecting too much besides nice animation.
Oh, and speaking of animes I’m watching, here are a couple from the past couple seasons that I either just finished or am still watching:
Based on the popular game series, this one is quite good. I’m about halfway through the series, but so far it’s interesting, well-plotted, and has a high production value, though it’s not among the best I’ve seen in any of those respects. Quite good, but not awesome.
Just got finished watching this one (and am hoping that there will be more), and I have to say, I really liked it. Based on a popular seinen manga, this show is light-hearted and heartwarming. Also very funny, though not as hilarious as Ouran or Love*Com.
This documentary is not, as I originally thought, about the Helvetica typeface, or at least not entirely; it’s more about the evolution of typography and visual design in the last half-century, centered around the huge role Helvetica had to play in both, as the standard bearer, at different times, of both revolution and conformity.
Fascinating (even to those who aren’t design wonks like I am) and beautifully put together, this is a must-see for anyone who has ever wondered what design is all about.
I had heard both good and bad things about this movie prior to seeing it, the bad being chiefly that it didn’t live up to the hype, nor deserve the Oscar nomination. Not having seen the other movies or acting performances up as contenders at this year’s Oscars, I can’t really make a statement regarding that one way or another, but I will say that I liked this movie quite a bit.
It was an understated thriller that demonstrates how they should be made; the skillful layering of story elements and Clooney’s quietly intense performance deftly raise the tension without ever lapsing into histrionics or preachiness, a common pitfall with this type of story. In tone, it reminded me a bit of Dirty Pretty Things.
Writer/director Tony Gilroy executed this film with a low-key grace; the filmmaking, quite rightly, never overwhelms the story, and the final product is a powerful drama that never hits you over the head or insults your intelligence. Very nice work.
The festival is now over, and overall was one of the best ones I’ve seen.
Desert Dream – 3 stars
Low 3. At first I thought I liked this movie better than director Zhang Lu’s previous offering, Grain in Ear, but now I’m not so sure. I wasn’t a big fan of that movie, and I wasn’t a big fan of this one, and I think it’s to do with Lu’s directorial style.
He has his actors deliver their lines with almost no expression or inflection, preferring to let the viewer guess at the undertones through the context. In that sense, Dream did a better job than Grain, was in fact more engaging overall, but some confusing plotting and some incomprehensible (well, at least to someone who is not Chinese or Mongolian) symbology just left me cold.
In general, while what Lu attempts could potentially be very successful and is certainly intriguing, I don’t really think he’s gotten there yet; in order for his methodology to work, I think that the situation the characters are in needs to be so emotionally fraught, so distressing, that the deadpan actors serve as a soothing counterpoint as well as adding a fine tension to the story, of control barely leashed over powerful emotions. Far better than Grain in Ear, this film shows that potential, but as I said, I don’t think Lu’s there yet.
What a great way to end the festival! Acclaimed Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao Hsien’s latest offering, this movie was beautifully realized, with the gratifyingly high production value I’ve come to expect from him.
Hou is a master of light, and this movie was the fruition of the potential in 2003′s Café Lumière, capturing the warm, magical quality of afternoon light in Paris. Lead actress and French cinematic darling Juliette Binoche acted the quietly emotional storyline (Hou’s tensest by far) with typical aplomb and undeniable skill; she is a master in her own right. Hou and Binoche together are a formidable combination, and the result is a gorgeous, warm film that I will definitely be looking for on DVD when it is released. Very highly recommended.
This is probably my favorite movie of the festival thus far, though it wasn’t quite as tightly produced as Planet B-Boy. A dreamy and contemplative look at the inner life of acclaimed artist Yoshitomo Nara, this documentary followed him to his exhibitions in various cities around the world, culminating in the magical AtoZ exhibit in Hirosaki, Japan, his hometown. Tragically, the exhibit is now closed, preventing me from ever exploring it in person, which saddens me more than I can say.
The movie was bittersweet and beautiful, and gave me a deep appreciation for an artist whom I might never otherwise have taken the time to notice. Wonderful.
I probably would have been—a bit, though not much—more sympathetic to this movie had I not seen it so very soon after Planet B-Boy, to which it paled in comparison. While I will grant that the acting and script weren’t actually that bad (a hell of a lot better than the similarly pop-culture-underworld-themed Quattro Noza, heretofore the third worst film festival movie I’ve ever seen, after Sorry, Haters and Blackout), infantile plotting, extremely low production value (think Powerpoint-style transitions and iMovie effects, not to mention the use of the abominable Comic Sans as the subtitle font) and severe projection problems (the sound kept cutting out; I can’t tell whether this was the fault of a bad DVD print or the projectionist at theater itself) fairly ruined this movie experience for me.
If you really want to learn about Korean b-boy culture, watch Planet B-Boy instead; it has more intelligence, drama and pathos than this fictional drama ever could.
I will admit I was expecting a lot from this movie, considering it was directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita, the same man who directed Linda Linda Linda, one of my favorite movies of the last few years. I will also admit that I was a bit disappointed; it’s not as good as Linda3, but has its own charm.
Gently humorous and relaxingly paced, this movie was strongly reminiscent of Shunji Iwai’s Hana and Alice, though not ultimately as good. Yamashita possesses a measure of Iwai’s skill at working with young actors, and it shows in this movie, but while it possessed charm in abundance, it lacked the brilliant hilarity of its predecessor. Very good, but not awesome.
This documentary was by far the most thought-provoking one of the festival, exposing as it did the festering wound under Japan’s serene exterior, centered at Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo, the simultaneous symbol of the nation’s pride and its shame. Director Li Ying took a very interesting approach to this film, using long, unedited takes that started out serene and almost boring (I fell asleep a couple of times), and then exploded into conflict.
The film was profoundly disturbing, and had the most impact of any movie I’ve seen in a good long while, but had two big drawbacks for me: the cheesily-scored montage of Japanese wartime brutality near the end of the film, and the unnecessarily shaky camerawork (I had to look away to keep from losing my dinner more than once).
This is the best Indian movie I’ve seen in the last 5 years, and it was directed by an Indian who was born and raised in Canada (Richie Mehta, whose brother, Shaun, wrote the short story upon which it was based). Astonishingly well made for a debut film, if a trifle predictable, Amal boasted some powerhouse acting talent, including Naseeruddin Shah and Roshan Seth, and painted a sympathetic and painfully accurate picture of modern India.
You may have heard me say before that I generally am disappointed by director Q&As at film festivals, because the directors are invariably less interesting than their films, and tend to express themselves best in that medium rather than in speech, which has the unfortunate effect of removing some of the lustre from the film itself. Not so with Amal. Mehta is intelligent and well-spoken, and his commentary about the film and its production really enhanced the experience for me; I look forward to the extras on the DVD. He is definitely a director to watch.
It has begun. SFIAAFF 2008 has gotten off to an excellent but at the same time rocky start; excellent because each of the three features I’ve seen so far has been better than the last, and rocky because they just don’t seem to be very organized.
We’re seeing an unprecedented number of documentaries—almost half of our planned 12 showings—this year, and this was the first. A documentary about the Japanese kamikaze pilots in WWII, as told by those of them still living, the subject matter was fascinating and given a delicate, sure-handed treatment by filmmakers Risa Morimoto and Linda Hoaglund. Employing a scrupulously nonjudgmental stance and skillful filmmaking, this documentary struck just the right chord in telling the story without any of the histrionics that could so easily have accompanied the emotionally-fraught narrative.
So why didn’t I give this movie a higher rating? The first half was a bit weak, frankly a trifle boring—I fell asleep through some of it—and the narration was poorly scripted. The highlight of the experience? Three of the WWII vets interviewed in the film—two former Kamikaze pilots and one survivor of the sinking of the USS Drexler—came to the Q&A following the screening and showed every evidence of a lovely camaraderie.
One word: meh. This shorts program was aggressively mediocre, with me not liking 3 of the 4 selections very much at all. The one I did like, about a North Korean boy who defects to the South in order to pursue his dream of being a rock musician, was very good until about the last 30 seconds, and then it got stupid.
This documentary about the history of the fortune cookie was magnificently entertaining and at times flat-out hilarious. Some simply masterful editing and an at-first confusing but ultimately well-executed narrative structure really made this documentary stand out. The tongue-firmly-in-cheek sensibility of the story made for an interesting, informative experience. The only drawback was that they used some unnecessary footage that was, though entertaining, not really relevant to the story, and which made the focus meander a bit.
This movie was awesome, just about the perfect documentary: a interesting, little-known subject—B-boying, more commonly known as breakdancing (but don’t call it that; they don’t like it)—portrayed flawlessly. And I mean flawlessly. Director Benson Lee did a wonderful job of selecting and cutting together 102 minutes of his 400+ hours of source footage, constructing a tightly woven narrative around the Battle of the Year, the annual international B-boy competition held in Germany.
As engaging as Air Guitar Nation and as beautifully put together as Tales of an Osaka Love Thief, this movie is one of the best documentaries I’ve seen, put together with energy, pathos and style. Bravo!
About the rocky start: starting with them sending our tickets to the wrong address, the festival staff just seems to be amateurish and disorganized this year. Their crowd control, never very skillful, has broken down altogether, and though each volunteer is sporting a Secret Service-style headset and walkie-talkie kit, they seem, if it’s possible, to be less informed and more confused than if they weren’t talking to each other at all. Yeesh.
This book is a strong follow-up to the previous two novels in this series (Resenting the Hero and The Hero Strikes Back), as engaging and unpretentious as its predecessors, though not, in the end, as good as either. I have to say, though, now that we’ve hit the third novel in the series, that it feels like the story is floundering a bit. Or maybe that’s my frustration talking.
I say that because the author is letting several tantalizing hints of a potential overarching plot slip in every novel, and it feels like they’re either coming to nothing, or she’s just teasing us in preparation for a big reveal later on. I sincerely hope it’s the latter.
If it was possible to give Iron Kissed higher than the highest rating, I would have. I loved this book. As one reviewer said, this series just keeps getting better and better. Before reading this series, I wouldn’t have counted Briggs among my favorite authors, but her masterful execution of this novel has ensconced her firmly within the upper echelons of my personal hall of fame.
This book has it all: fiercely engaging characters, tight, tight plotting, and a breakneck, hold-your-breath-till-the-last-page pace. What I love best of all is the way she is weaving the complicated tapestry of a bigger story from seemingly disparate threads without ever letting up on the tension of the immediate narrative (something the Heroes series does not do nearly as well, though it has the potential to). This kind of skill is something I had previously only associated with epic fantasy, with authors like Michelle West and Guy Gavriel Kay and George R.R. Martin, and this series of books is not only the best example of urban fantasy I’ve ever read, it’s rapidly becoming one of my favorite series ever. It’s that good.
Yeah, yeah, I know. Big surprise here. But what can I say? Huston is scarily perfect and delivers again. He aims for the jugular and never misses.
Had I ever harbored any doubt that the Joe Pitt casebooks were horror stories, those doubts have been laid to rest: Half the Blood of Brooklyn is violent, bloody and glorious. Huston ratchets the tension impossibly higher—never forgetting to give the story as much heart as it has pyrotechnics—and by the end of the book you’re all wound up waiting for the shitstorm that will descend in the next installment. So good!