Mamet was at the Egyptian a couple of weeks ago showing this movie and doing a talk. Could not free myself from Demands Elsewhere to go. Still pissed about that, let me tell you...
As of right now , meaning my ability to hit up the 24th Annual Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival will probably mirror my inability to hit up this year's PAFF or adequately attend either of the documentary fests. But hope springs eternal, this looks like yet another strong AAPFF lineup, and since the fest opens eight days from now that's a good enough excuse to point out the movies that jumped out for me. Maybe I can hunt some of them down on dvd later. Whenever possible the links below go to a site related to the movie, some of them with trailers!
Chances are real good this entry will have to hold for the week, as I'm busy elsewhere.
WINGS OF DEFEAT
(United States/Japan, 2007) Dir.: Risa Morimoto; Wtr.: Linda Hoaglund
Video, 89 min., Color, Documentary, in English and Japanese w/E.S.
Internationally, kamikaze pilots remain a potent metaphor for fanaticism. In Japan, they are largely revered for their selfless sacrifice. Yet few outside Japan know that hundreds of kamikaze pilots survived the war. Through rare interviews with surviving kamikaze pilots, we learn that the military demanded pilots volunteer to give up their lives. Retracing their journeys from teenagers to doomed pilots, a complex history of brutal training and ambivalent sacrifice is revealed. Sixty years later, survivors in their eighties tell us about their training, their mindsets, their experiences in a kamikaze cockpit and what it meant to survive when thousands of their fellow pilots had died. Ultimately, they help us question what responsibilities a government at war has to its soldiers and to its people.
MAMO'S WEEDS
(USA, 2007) Dir.: Akira Boch; Scr.: Naomi Hirahara
Mamo
Ikeda, an elderly Japanese American gardener, is besieged with weeds.
And these are no ordinary weeds-they are the same type that Mamo was
accused of inadvertently spreading twenty years earlier. If this isn't
bad enough, Mamo also begins to receive a series of strange phone calls
from a mysterious woman who seems to know personal things about him.
Going from the gardeners' federation office to a retro chop suey house
in Little Tokyo to the lawns of Japanese American neighborhoods, Mamo
is in search of the truth-only to discover that the weeds are keys to
both his past and his future.
BLOOD BROTHERS
(Hong Kong/Taiwan/People's Republic of China, 2007) Dir./Scr.: Alexi Tan
BLOOD
BROTHERS is set in 1930s Shanghai, a flourishing modern-day Babylon,
replete with warlords, politicians, wealthy industrialists, courtesans
and gangsters. Three innocent young brothers, Kang (Liu Ye, CURSE OF
THE GOLDEN FLOWER), Fung (Daniel Wu, BISHONEN: BEAUTY; AROUND THE WORLD
IN 80 DAYS) and Xiao Hu (Tony Yang), arrive in this seeming paradise in
search of a better life. Enticed by the rich and powerful world of
organized crime, the three brothers are hired to do the bidding for one
of the city’s largest mob syndicate. However, as friends turn against
friends and brother against brother, the days of innocence have passed,
and the three brothers must stand up as men and make their choices.
I think this is a remake of the damn-near masterful Bullet in the Head. If it is, I'm not sure I entirely Approve, even though Woo is involved. But I would go see it anyway.
UP THE YANGTZE
(Canada, 2007) Dir./Wtr.: Yung Chang
In
China, it is simply known as "The River." But the Yangtze-and the life
that surrounds it-is undergoing a truly spectacular transformation
wrought by the biggest hydroelectric dam in history, the Three Gorges.
From the vantage point of a luxury "farewell cruise" that wends its way
up the River, we witness the dramatic shift: peasant families are
forced to relocate their entire lives as floodwaters steadily engulf
their villages, young tour-boat employees warily grasp at a more
prosperous future, and Western tourists catch a final glimpse of a
disappearing culture. Returning to the scene of his grandfather's
riverbank youth, Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Yung Chang has crafted a
singularly moving and cinematically breathtaking depiction of
contemporary China and a disquieting glance into a future that awaits
us all.
OUR PRIDE: THE SPIRIT OF BLACK JAPANESE IN GEORGIA
(USA, 2006) Dir./Wtr.: Yohei Suzuki
Video, 28 mins, Color, Documentary, English
OUR PRIDE foregrounds the experiences of mixed-race individuals of Japanese and African American descent who live in Georgia. Wanting to identify themselves as African American, they sometimes face criticism from African American friends who sometimes do not consider them as African Americans. The documentary raises social awareness of biracial and bicultural individuals and encourages those people to be themselves, urging the audience to accept different cultures, different races, and different ethnicities.
Here's another site related to this filmmaker.
S/HE
(Canada, 2007) Dir./Scr.: Gina Pei Chi Chen
S/HE deftly illuminates the struggle of one 12-year-old girl to follow her expected gender and cultural roles while at the same time exploring an emerging masculine nature.
WARRIOR BOYZ
(Canada, 2008) Dir./Wtr.: Baljit Sangra
WARRIOR BOYZ tells the story of a long-running gang scene that has claimed over 100 young lives in Greater Vancouver's South Asian community since the late 1980s. Surprisingly, many of these young gang members come from tight knit families in middle class neighborhoods. Filmmaker, Baljit Sangra, herself of South Asian descent, focuses on the often troubled and touching daily lives of two teenagers in danger of crossing the line from detention at school to confinement in jail; and on a scarred ex-gangster who shares his story of escaping the gang life. The film also spotlights an outspoken high school vice principal who has witnessed many young lives end tragically. This interconnected cast of real people provides an in-depth look at a disturbing trend within the urban immigrant landscape. WARRIOR BOYZ provides an insightful, ground-level exploration of the warrior/gangsta juxtaposition, which has become a part of the Indo-Canadian experience.
SF SHORTS.
All of the sf shorts, except for maybe the one that sounds boring, but they're shorts so it wouldn't be too painful to sit through.
Per request.
Update! Sorry. The image is from The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the Eighth Dimension, one of the greatest movies ever in the history of the known universe. More info at the rarely updated site. I still have the one sheet given to me by the manager at the local mall at the end of the theatrical run; half the time I was the only person in the theater, and when it was pulled he let me have the poster. It's in terrible shape now, being over 20-years old and the survivor of several moves, but it is much treasured. Many years later, via one of the Exes, I got to hold one of the oscillation overthruster prototype props, which he had in a box in his garage. When he handed it to me I was like I am never leaving you unless you monumentally piss me off or dump me.
BBI Zulu out. (heh)
No, seriously. So very much better ending.
Update! Yes, it's still not the book, and not as powerful as the ending that's in the book. But it's probably hard to adapt the second greatest vampire book ever written. Still, it's tons better ending than the crapola that was on the screen in the movie that was released. This one was kind of like The Mist. 1/2 to 2/3rds of the movie was a solid working of spiritual essence of the source material. And then it all went to shit at the end...
This is even funnier than the helicopter one!
Because I haven't gotten around to writing up Douglas & Nicole's performance at the RedCat, you don't know why this is particularly funny. You will once I get to it. Meanwhile, must send this to them!
"Best" in visual fx, sound fx and sound editing. TOTALLY. *Especially* visual fx! Nothing released this year came close to what the visual fx team pulled off with this movie. Every single one of them deserves cupcakes with sprinkles.
Unfortunately the link will only take you to the static studio site. Here, in the upper right corner, for how long I don't know, you can see a little video from the VFX guy talking about how they pulled off one of the really cool sequences. Much better link is here. Click on "lighting and visual effects".
Ooo. I gotta talk about The! Best! Shirt! Ever! I'll do that before this place goes into blackout mode. I'll get that and Rev. Billy down.
Meanwhile: "We used seven helicopters."
Blog's on autopilot for most of this month while I'm busy elsewhere,
giving me an opportunity to clear out posts that have been held hostage
in the drafts bin for one reason or another. This post was supposed to be the follow-up to this one. It reminds me that I eventually recovered the lost WeHo pictures. I should finish posting the rest of them..I can't remember where I left off.
----
We'll start the WeHo book fair stuff on Monday. Truly. When I realized that was going to start on Friday, and since I don't blog on weekends, it seemed best to throw in something else. So, let's take another look at this visually wonderful yet tragically unreleased poster for the 2007 edition of 3:10 to Yuma, a lovely example of Tell The Story In A Glimpse.
A good movie poster tells a story in a glimpse, which the poster that you've probably seen attached to this movie does not. With that poster, where Bale and Crow are mugshots with guns with the image laid out so that they seem to be facing each other, is so generic as to be meaningless. *That* poster is selling the pretty men who are the stars, and it is boring. *This* poster is selling the story. When I saw the other poster it took me a while to get around to finding out what the movie was about because nothing in the poster encouraged me to do so. It wasn't until the pre-release publicity kicked into high gear and stories landed in the press describing the movie that I decided to check it out. Had this poster been the main one used instead, I would have immediately gone searching for information.
This guy is standing in front of a moving train, so whoever he is he's seriously intent on stopping that train. He's probably insane or really pissed off. When you see the movie, you realize he's both, but at this point you don't know that. At this point you're wondering (okay, *I'm* wondering) why is he standing on the tracks to stop this particular train?
He has two guns. He also has two holsters, so both of these guns are his. While the one in his right hand is held as if ready to bring up for action, the one in his left? It's weird. He's holding that one up as if in offering. That gun in his left hand is not for the train, his enemy. It's for somebody else, someone he trusts. Who is it? Is that person on the train?
Okay, technically it's possible (probable) that the gun in left hand is up because they knew they needed to put words in that space, and with his arm down would be in the way. Even so, they could have had him holding that gun in a more traditional way, pointing it at the train or perhaps up at the sky. But they didn't, which makes me think the designer has him holding the gun that way for a reason.
To me, besides that fantastic jacket, the biggest thing that jumped out when I saw this poster was that gun in his left hand. It's an emotional cue. It said there's something bigger going on than crazy man in classic cowboy stance planted in front of a moving train.
A really good movie poster tells you a critical bit of the story, or the emotional vibe of the story, in a glimpse. I say glimpse because most of the time that's all you get. You're walking past a row of them in the theater, you're driving past them on bus stops, billboards and construction sites, you're seeing it whip past you on the side of a bus. That's not a lot of time for the marketing people to imprint *something* in the head of we the potential movie consumers, so it's gotta rock out of the gate. Most of them don't. Most movie posters are lazy crap.
I can't remember if I talked about the John: 3:16 ads that were rolled out for the latest Die Hard? Those were great from an imprinting standpoint, even though they were in no way an obvious approach. Let's assume I have talked about that already, and an move on. (If it turns out I didn't, I'll come back to that one down the road.)
Most movie posters, like most book covers, are common. They just throw tons of stuff up - faces of the stars, a junky collage of elements, a woman's butt. Several women's butts. A poster pitching a topic or property that's a given, such as Transformers, King Kong, Batman or the like, in a way it doesn't really mater what they put on those posters because those are eternal pop culture properties people are going to go see anyway. Perhaps that's why the mostly sucky, cluttered posters for the Lord of the Rings series were were fine, ultimately, because even normal people were going to go see those movies anyway.
My guess it's probably harder to make a movie poster pop, to tell the story in a glimpse, especially when you factor in the competing demands the designer has to deal with when putting something like this together. So when an effort is made to go beyond, and when that effort works, that's a nifty bonus.
Back to 3:10, a couple of folks pointed out that entire costume of the guy in the poster is fabulous, not just the jacket. This is a true statement and it was a failure on my part to not mention it. It's just that I completely lust after that jacket. The chaps have very nice studs on them, which you can't tell in the poster. This character's entire look rocks in 3:10, starting with the unusual color combo. The chaps/pants are a rust brown suede, and the jacket a barely off-white. Those pants must have been shrunk wrapped to his frame, and the way the jacket falls, it lengthens him. I have no idea if in real life this actor is short or tall, but the costumers made him look stretched, whippet lean, dangerous. The costumers gave him the look and he took it from there. This guy is just incredible in the movie, pretty much the best thing in it, and everyone in it is pretty damn good.
If there's a misstep in the 3:10 poster, I'd say it's too much text. Practically speaking, you understand why 'from the creator of Walk the Line' is in there, but truthfully, nobody cares. That movie was neither outstanding nor horrid enough to draw attention to it in this poster. Plus that Walk the Line's vibe was completely different from 3:10. There's no real connection to make between the two works. Maybe it would have been better to get rid of that text all together and leave that side blank, or perhaps to replace the WtL text with the fab "time waits for no man" tag. But that's a minor quibble. This really is a great movie poster.
So, that's the kind of thing that goes through my head when I look at a movie poster.
