Review: The Whole Hog Theatre’s「もののけ姫」(Princess Mononoke) Stage Adaptation

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adaptation, London, Miyazaki Hayao, Studio Ghibli, Tokyo, Whole Hog Theatre

All images © Polly Clare Boone of Whole Hog Theatre.

Year: 2013
Country: UK
Language: English
Director: Alexandra Rutter
Company: Whole Hog Theatre
Adaptation from:「もののけ姫」(Mononoke Hime/Princess Mononoke, Japan, 1997)
Screenplay: not specified on programme or website
Concept arts and set design: Polly Clare Boon
Puppet design: Charlie Hoare
Soundscore: Hisaishi Joe, arranged by Kerrin Tatman for the play
Cast: James Blake-Butler, Lilith Brew, Adam Cridland, Oliver Davis, Andy Elkington, Jack Gyll, Jackie Lam, Amelie Leroy, Mei Mac, Miyake Yuriko, Jess Neale, Maximilian Troy Tyler, Victoria Watson, Samuel Wightman, Elizabeth Mary Williams
Runtime: approx. 130 min (including 20 min intermission)
Official website: http://www.wholehogtheatre.com (London performances),
http://www.princess-mononoke.jp (Tokyo performances – 日本語)

Teaser (16 sec, for Tokyo performances):

Seen during the play’s first run at the New Diorama Theatre in London. I attended the Friday evening performance. Further Princess Mononoke performances are scheduled for Tokyo (April 29 – May 6, 2013) and London (June 18-29, 2013). London tickets are sold out. 

Note: I provide no synopsis of the story here – this review presumes you are familiar with Miyazaki Hayao’s film already and hence is also full of spoilers.

How does one even begin to imagine a stage adaptation of an animated film of the calibre of「もののけ姫」(Mononoke Hime/Princess Mononoke, Japan, 1997), made by the masters of Studio Ghibli and well loved the world round? It is not a challenge that most – even those with plenty of experience and unlimited budgets – would want to take on, but the Whole Hog Theatre, a young performance company from Leamington Spa, England, with only a handful productions (Dangerous Liaisons, Constanzo and Five Kinds of Silence) to their name, was undaunted by the task and simply went ahead anyway.

Review: 「ももいろそらを」 (Momoiro Sora wo/About the Pink Sky)

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London, Raindance Film Festival

Year: 2011
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Director: Kobayashi Keiichi
Screenplay: Kobayashi Keiichi
Cinematography: Kobayashi Keiichi
Soundscore: No soundscore.
Cast: Ikeda Ai, Koshino Ena, Fujiwara Reiko, Takayama Tsubasa, Togetsuan Hakuysu
Runtime: 117 min
Distribution: Uzumasa
Official webpage: http://www.momoirosora.jp (日本語/English)
Official FB page: https://www.facebook.com/thePinkSky?fref=ts
Twitter: @momoirosorawo

Trailer (subtitled):

Seen at the Raindance Film Festival in London, where Momoira Sora wo had its UK premiere and screened twice.

The heroine of Momoiro Sora wo is called Kawashima Izumi (Ikeda Ai). Izumi has no superpowers – she is not that kind of heroine, but rather an ordinary seventeen year-old girl. Izumi is gutsy and frank. She reacts impulsively – whipping water with a fishing rod a gazillion times in a sudden and extended explosion of frustration – and gives a wide, sheepish smile when she is fibbing, which happens on a regular basis. Although she doesn’t always know what she actually wants, she stays true to herself even if her sense of fairness is a little warped, at least from the point of view of others.

Review:「桐島、部活やめるってよ」(Kirishima, Bukatsu Yamerutteyo/The Kirishima Thing)

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Hashimoto Ai, Higashide Masahiro, Kamiki Ryunosuke

Year: 2012
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Director: Yoshida Daihachi
Studio: NTV, Showgate
Adaptation from: Asai Ryo’s 2010 novel of the same title
Screenplay: Kiyasu Kohei, Yoshida Daihachi
Cinematography: Kondo Ryoto
Soundscore: Kondo Tatsuro
Cast: Kamiki Ryunosuke, Hashimoto Ai, Higashide Masahiro, Ohgo Suzuka, Shimiza Kurumi, Yamamoto Kizuki, Matsuoka Mayu, Ochiai Motoki, Maeno Tomoya, Kurihara Goro & others
Runtime: 103 min
Distribution: Showgate
Film’s official website: http://www.kirishima-movie.com/index.html
Twitter: @kirishima_movie

Trailer: 

Kirishima, the titular hero of the Japan Academy’s Best Picture of the Year, is rather like Godot: although everyone is waiting for him to appear, he never actually shows up. Different from Godot, however, we can be fairly certain that the character – a teenage boy and star athlete at his school – does exist, it’s just that he seems to have literally vanished off the face of the earth after suddenly quitting the volleyball team he previously captained. His resignation is, for a long time, pretty much the most eventful thing that happens in this tale, but takes place not just off-screen but also before the narrative begins, the film itself concerning itself only with the aftermath of the event.

Leesong Hee-il Trilogy Review: 백야 (White Night), 지난여름, 갑자기 (Suddenly, Last Summer) & 남쪽으로 간다 (Going South)

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BFI, Film Festival, LLGFF, London, London Lesbian Gay Film Festival

Year: 2012
Country: South Korea
Language: Korean
Director: Leesong Hee-il
Screenplay:  Leesong Hee-il
Cinematography: Yoon Ji-Yoon (Baekya)
Cast: Won Tae-hee, Li Yi-kyung (Baekya); Kim Young-jae, Han Joo-wan (Jinanyeoreum, Gapjagi); Kim Jae-heung, Chun Shin-hwan (Namjjokeuro Ganda)
Runtime: 75 min, 37 min, 45 min
Distribution: CinemaDal

Trailers: see below

Seen at the 27th London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival at two separate screenings.

Although there was not all that much on offer from South East Asia at this year’s London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, the BFI did do a mini-feature on Leesong Hee-il, whom they called “one of the most exciting contemporary gay Asian directors” in their festival programme. Leesong has, by now, quite a number of films to his name, all featuring a gay storyline in one way or another. His cinematic debut came in 2004 with a short featured in 동백꽃 (Dongbaegkkoch/ Camellia Project, 2004), but he is probably better known for his 2006 film 후회하지 않아 (Huhoehaji Anha/No Regret). In 2009 the director contributed to the 황금시대 (Hwang-geumsidae/Short! Short! Short!) omnibus project and also made the feature-length 탈주 (Talju/Break Away, 2009), finally following up in 2012 with the ‘One Night and Two Days’ trilogy of 백야 (Baekya/White Night), 지난여름, 갑자기 (Jinanyeoreum, Gapjagi/Suddenly, Last Summer) and 남쪽으로 간다 (Namjjokeuro Ganda/Going South), three unconnected stories which all began as shorts but the first of which was later extended into a 75-minute movie.

Review: 「夢売るふたり」 (Yume Uru Futari/Dreams for Sale)

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BFI, BFI Film Festival, Film Festival, London

Year: 2012
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Director: Nishikawa Miwa
Screenplay: Nishikawa Miwa
Cinematography: Yanagishima Katsumi
Soundscore: more rhythm
Cast: Matsu Takako, Abe Sadao, Tanaka Rena, Kimura Tae, Suzuki Sawa, Ando Tamae, Ebara Yuka
Runtime: 137 min

Trailer:

Seen at the film’s UK premiere at the 56th BFI London International Film Festival.

Yume Uru Futari appeared on quite a number of Top 10 Films of 2012 lists. Tom Mes, Catherine Munroe Hotes and Eija Niskanen all counted it among their favourites in a Midnight Eye feature and Jason Grey (Loaded Films) included it as part of the “10% goodness” of cinema of the past year over at Wildgrounds, to name some examples.

Review: 2012 Hong Kong Fresh Wave Shorts

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Film Festival, London, Pan Asia Film Festival

Seen at the ICA as part of the Pan-Asia Film Festival. A special Thank you! goes to the Coventry University East Asia Film Society (CUEAFS) for two free tickets.

Although I watch quite a lot of films, there are generally few shorts among them. I like to be entertained for an hour or two because it’s a length that allows a decent amount of development in a story and characters. When there is a film festival, it is for this reason that when I have to choose between seeing a feature film or multiple 5-, 10-, 20-minute clips, I’ll habitually always go for the former and leave the latter as an afterthought – as also happened when the Pan-Asia Film Festival rolled around. Then CUEAFS had a ticket competition for the HK Fresh Wave Shorts screening on Twitter and somehow I got lucky (and I didn’t even mean to… only retweeted to spread the news about the competition).

Review:《女朋友。男朋友》(Nyeobungu. Nambungu/GF*BF) and Q&A

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Film Festival, London, Pan Asia Film Festival

Year: 2012
Country: Taiwan
Language: Mandarin, Min Nan
Director: Yang Ya-che
Screenplay: Yang Ya-che
Cinematography: Jake Pollock
Soundscore: Baby C.
Cast: Chang Hsiao-chuan (Joseph), Gwai Lunmei, Rhydian Vaughan
Runtime: 105 min
Distribution: Atom Cinema
Trailer:

Seen at the film’s European Premiere and the Opening Night Gala of the Pan Asia Film Festival. It will also be shown on March 17, 2013 in Glasgow.

Note: This review is a little spoilerish – somehow I ended up detailing quite a bit of what happens.

It is a little strange to watch a film and realise that you were in the middle of some of the history playing out on the screen, but, having been a child, you never noticed any of it all. If someone had asked me before the Nyeobungu. Nambungu screening if Taiwan ever had martial law, I would have shrugged; if someone had inquired whether anything much exciting was going on in the Taipei of the early 1990s, I would have said “not really”, for the most historically significant event I remember from one summer in 1989 (when I lived there for three months) and from a year and half between 1990 and 1991 (when I lived there again) is the breakout of the Gulf War because it meant that the guards at my USAmerican school started checking everyone’s IDs in fear of a potential retributory attack.

K-Anime Review: 돼지의 왕 (Daegieui wang/The King of Pigs)

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K-Anime Season, Terracotta

Year: 2011
Country: South Korea
Language: Korean
Director: Yeun Sang-Ho
Studio: Studio Dadashow, KT&G Sangsangmadang
Screenplay: Yeun Sang-Ho
Art Direction: N/A
Animation Direction: N/A
Soundscore: Eom Been
Voice Cast: Yang Ik-joon, Oh Jung-se, Kim Hye-na, Kim Kkobbi, Park Hee-von
Runtime: 97 min
Distribution: Terracotta (UK)
Trailer (subtitled):

Seen at the Terracotta on Tour screening at the Genesis Cinema thanks to winning tickets from Eastern Kicks. Special thanks also go to the Korean Film Council, which provided me with online access to the film. The King of Pigs will screen in London on March 8, 2013 as part of the Pan-Asia Film Festival and will be released on DVD by Terracotta on March 11, 2013.

This review is part of the K-Animation Season on Otherwhere.

Dark themes in Hakkyo 2013: Best enemies (top row); parental neglect & abuse (bottom left); driven to suicide (bottom right).

학교 2013 (Hakkyo 2013/School 2013, South Korea, 2013), a television drama that recently aired on KBS2, explores the life and struggles of high school students on a number of levels, tackling issues such as the pressure of academic achievement, strained relationships with parents and suicide, but also the hierarchical structures of classrooms and bullying, breaking with the silence that still surrounds many of these problems in Korean society. Hakkyo 2013 deserves praise for the candid as well as sensitive portrayal of these issues, but it does not go all the way, for although the picture it presents is surprisingly dark, it is not one entirely without hope. Indeed, as television productions face the judgment of a media regulation agency and weekly viewing figures from an audience that remains hesitant about open conversations on such issues, it is left to a few, audacious films to play out the worst scenarios imaginable until the very end. One of these films – in animated form – is 돼지의 왕 (Daegieui wang/The King of Pigs, 2011).

Review: 「ライク・サムワン・イン・ラブ」 (Raiku Samuwan in Rabu/Like Someone in Love)

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BFI, BFI Film Festival, Film Festival, London, trailers

Year: 2012
Country: France/Japan
Language: Japanese
Director: Abbas Kiarostami
Screenplay: Abbas Kiarostami
Cinematography: Yanagijima Katsumi
Soundscore: Mohamadrez Delpak, Kikuchi Nobuyuki
Cast: Takanashi Rin, Okuno Tadashi, Kase Ryō, Denden
Runtime: 109 min

Trailer:

Seen at the film’s UK premiere at the 56th BFI London International Film Festival. Like Someone in Love will be released in select British cinemas via New Wave Films on June 21, 2013.

Like Someone in Love premiered in Cannes last year, where it sharply divided the critics, leaving some rather disenchanted, if not highly irritated, in particular with its rather abrupt ending. “[T]he curtain comes down with an arbitrary crash” noted Peter Bradshaw, resident film critic for The Guardian, while Mike D’Angelo (A.V. Club) gave it a “WTF” rating, declaring the final scene “a startling, truncated conclusion that seems completely out of proportion with the lazy, anti-urgent meandering that precedes it”, ending with the words ”I know there’s something happening here, but I don’t know what it is”.

Review:「ゼロの焦点」(Zero no Shōten/Zero Focus) and Q&A

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adaptation, Film Festival, ICA, Japan Foundation, London

Year: 2009
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Director: Inudo Isshin
Adaptation from: Matsumoto Seicho’s bestselling novel of the same title (1959)
Screenplay:  Inudo Isshin, Nakazono Kenji
Cinematography: Takahiro Tsutai
Soundscore: Ueno Koji (Theme song: Nakajima Miyuki)
Cast: Hirosue Ryoko, Nakatani Miki, Kimura Tae, Nishijima Hidetoshi, Kaga Takeshi, Nomaguchi Tori, Sugimoto Tetta, Kuroda Fukumi, Honda Hirotarō
Runtime: 131 min
Distribution: Toho (Japan)

Trailer:

Seen at the ICA as part of the Japan Foundation’s 10th Touring Film Programme “Once Upon a Time in Japan”. The film screened February 3 (sold out) and 5 (nearly sold out), with a Q&A with the director following on both days. The JPF also organised a Director’s Talk with Inudo on February 6. For further screenings in the UK see Bonus Bits below.

To make an author’s most popular bestseller into a successful film can never be easy, but imagine the challenge if that the story has already been told on the screen multiple times – once as a film (1961, dir. by Nomura Yoshitaru), sixfold as a TV dorama (1961, Fuji TV; 1971, NKH; 1976, Nippon Television; 1983, TBS; 1991, again Nippon Television and 1994, NKH Nagoya). It also doesn’t help if the tale in question is a mystery drama and everyone, thanks to the original’s and the numerous screen adaptations’ popularity, already knows whodunnit. Yet this is the challenge that Inudo Isshin, commissioned by the production studio, took on when setting out to make another Zero no Shōten film in time for the 100th anniversary of the novelist’s birthdate.

Review: 와이키키 브라더스 (Waikiki Beuradeoseu/Waikiki Brothers)

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KCCUK, Korean Film Night, Year of 12 Directors

Year: 2001
Country: South Korea
Language: Korean
Director: Lim Soon-rye
Screenplay: Lim Soon-rye
Cinematography: Choi Jee-Yul
Soundscore: N/a
Cast: Lee Eol, Park Won-sang, Hwang Jung-min, Oh Gwang-rok, Ryoo Seung-bum, Oh Ji-hye, Park Hae-il, Kim Jong-eon, Jeong Dae-yong, Moon Hye-won
Runtime: 109 min

Trailer (in Korean):

Seen at the Korean Cultural Centre (KCCUK) during the Lim Soon-rye (임순례) month of KCCUK’s Korean Film Night programme “2012: Year of the 12 Directors”.

Waikiki Beuradeoseu begins, somewhat aimlessly, with a band of musicians, middle-aged and in a sort of midlife crisis. The four members of the Waikiki Brothers play songs they don’t like at events and places (small weddings, third-rate clubs) where they do not wish to be. The gigs are underpaid, barely allowing them to scrape by, and audiences could not care less about the group performing on the stage. It is far from the dream that the (original) Brothers had in mind twenty, thirty years ago when they first screamed their voices hoarse at school assemblies, trying to impress teenage girls.

Review: 무적자 (Moojeokja/A Better Tomorrow)

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KCCUK, Korean Film Night, London, Year of 12 Directors

Year: 2010
Country: South Korea/Japan/China
Language: Korean
Director: Song Hae-seong
Remake of: John Woo’s 英雄本色 (Yīngxióng běnsè/A Better Tomorrow, Hong Kong, 1986)
Screenplay: Kim Hyo-Seok, Choi Keun-Mo, Lee Taek-Kyung, Kim Hae-Gon
Cinematography: Kang Seung-Ki
Soundscore: Lee Jae-jin
Cast: Joo Jin-Mo, Song Seung-Heon, Kim Kang-Woo, Jo Han-Seon
Runtime: 124 min

Trailer:

Seen at the Korean Cultural Centre (KCCUK) during the Song Hae-seong (송해성) month of KCCUK’s Korean Film Night programme “2012: Year of the 12 Directors”.

There is one particular problem with Moojeokja, a remake of John Woo’s 英雄本色  (Yīngxióng běnsè/A Better Tomorrow, Hong Kong, 1986): it is an action film made by a director that is in reality only interested in sentimental melodramas.

Review:「生きてるものはいないのか」(Ikiteru Mono Wa Inai No Ka/Isn’t Anyone Alive?)

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Asian Movies Meetup, London

Year: 2012
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Director: Ishii Gakuryu (Ishii Sogo)
Adaptation from: an absurd play of the same title by Maeda Shirō (前田司郎)
Screenplay: Maeda Shirō, Ishii Gakuryu
Cinematography: Matsumoto Yoshiyuki
Cast: Sometani Shota and others (see below)
Runtime: 113 min
Trailer: on YouTube
Film’s official website: Ikiteru.jp (in Japanese)

Seen at the pre-DVD release preview screening organised by the Asian Movies Meetup Group at the Roxy Bar & Screen in London. Ikiteru Mono Wa Inai No Ka is next screening, in London, as part of the Terracotta Touring Programme on October 9, 2012. DVD release (UK) via Third Window Films will follow on October 22, 2012.

Adam Torel, the managing director of UK Asian film distributor Third Window Films, introduced Ishii Gakuryu’s latest work with the words that Ikiteru Mono Wa Inai No Ka sharply divides its viewers: they either love or hate the film. This may generally be so, but I found myself somewhere in between these two camps – I like the film, but I certainly don’t love it.

Review: 바라나시 (Varanasi/From Seoul to Varanasi) and Q&A

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KCCUK, Korean Film Night, London, Year of 12 Directors

Year: 2011
Country: South Korea
Language: Korean, some English
Director: Jeon Kyu-hwan (전규환)
Screenplay: Jeon Kyu-hwan (전규환)
Cinematography: Choi Jung Soon
Cast: Yoon Dong-Hwan, Choi Won-jung, Shin Ye-an, Nollaig Chandra Vedan Walsh, Cassandra Holmes
Runtime: 96 min
Trailer: on YouTube

Seen at the VUE cinema as part of the  Jeon Kyu-hwan (전규환) month of the KCCUK’s Korean Film Night programme “2012: Year of the 12 Directors”.

Note: This film is rated R and contains graphic imagery.

In the post-screening Q&A the film’s director, Jeon Kyu-hwan, noted that what lies at the heart of Varanasi is a wish to expose hypocrisy, the hypocrisy in human behaviour that permeates our realities. Hypocrisy it is indeed when a married man that has been having an affair with one of his protégées at work for months reprimands his wife after she miscarries the child she was pregnant with in a terrorist attack committed by her own lover.

Review: 「夢みるように眠りたい」 (Yume Miruyoni Nemuritai/To Sleep So As to Dream)

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Film Festival, London, Zipangu

Year: 1986
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Director: Hayashi Kaizo
Screenplay: Hayashi Kaizo
Cinematography: Nagata Yuichi
Cast: Sano Shiro, Kamura Moe, Fukamizu Fujiko, Otake Koji
Runtime: 80 min
Trailer: on YouTube

Seen at the third Zipangu Fest at the Cinema Museum in London.

Long before Hazanavicius’s L’artiste (The Artist, France, 2011) came Hayashi Kaizo’s 「夢みるように眠りたい」 (Yume Miruyoni Nemuritai/To Sleep So As to Dream), which was made in 1986 as a homage to the era of silent film in Japanese cinema. Although some VHS copies of Yume Miruyoni Nemuritai were apparently floating around for a while, it is nowadays one of those creations that has been forgotten – a real loss, because between the two, Yume Miruyoni Nemuritai is, in my (very biased) opinion, the better film – featuring a story that’s more original and a style that takes more risks.

Review:「放課後ミッドナイターズ」 (Hōkago Middonaitāzu/After School Midnighters)

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Edinburgh, Film Festival, London, Raindance, Scotland Loves Anime

Year: 2012
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Director: Takekiyo Hitoshi
Animation Studio: Koo-Ki
Screenplay: Takekiyo Hitoshi, Komori Yōichi
CGI Direction: Tanaka Kenichiro
Soundscore: Kitazato Reiji
Runtime: 95 min
Trailer: on YouTube
Film’s official website: After School Midnighters

Preview of a festival screener courtesy of the Raindance Film Festival, which will be showing Hōkago Middonaitāzu on October 5 and 7, 2012. The film will also screen at Scotland Loves Anime on October 13 (Glasgow) and October 19 (Edinburgh).

At the elite St. Claire’s Elementary School it’s day 1 of term, with a whole lot of new students entering through the gates for the first time ever. Among them are Mako, Mi and Mu, three little girls who wander through the vast corridors of the school – though “wander” may not so aptly describe their doings.

Review: 大藍湖 (Da lag hu/Big Blue Lake) and Q&A

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Film Festival, London

Year: 2011
Country: Hong Kong
Language: Cantonese
Director: Jessie Tsang Tsui-Shan
Screenplay: Luk Bo-Bo, Jessie Tsang Tsui-Shan
Cinematography: Chung-yip Yau
Soundscore: Masamichi Shigeno
Runtime: 98 min
Cast: Leila Tong, Amey Chum, Lawrence Chou
Trailer: on YouTube

Seen at the film’s UK premiere at the Hong Kong 15 Film Festival organised by Terracotta Distribution. The screening was followed by a Q&A with director Jessie Tsang. The film also screened at the Cornerhouse in Manchester.

Celluloid Hong Kong normally signifies genre films – that is, action flicks either of the martial arts or the cops & criminals variety. Hong Kong on film also normally means a glimpse of the pulsating, high-rise city. The Hong Kong 15 Film Festival, organised to commemorate the 15 years since the territory became a special administrative region of China and intended to celebrate the best of all of Hong Kong cinema, past and present, made a much laudable effort to offer a diverse selection of films, including dramas about growing up, such as 當碧咸遇上奧雲 (Dong Pek Ham yu sheung O Wan/When Beckham Met Owen, 2004), and growing old, such as 桃姐 (Táo Jiě/A Simple Life, 2011), which I also reviewed. Jessie Tsang’s 大藍湖 (Da lag hu/Big Blue Lake, 2011) was another ‘different kind’ of offering, not only falling outside of the action genre, but showing a Hong Kong that most are completely unaware of: rural Hong Kong.

Review: 사랑한다, 사랑하지 않는다 (Saranghanda, Saranghaji Anhneunda/Come Rain Come Shine) and Q&A

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KCCUK, Korean Film Night, London, Q&A, Year of 12 Directors

Year: 2011
Country: South Korea
Language: Korean
Director: Lee Yoon-ki
Adaptation from:  Areno Inoue’s 2003 short story「 帰れない猫」 (Kaerenai Neko/The Cat that Can Never Come Back)
Screenplay: Lee Yoon-ki
Cinematography: Jang Young-Ok
Cast: Hyon Bin, Im Soo-jeong
Runtime: 105 min
Trailer: on YouTube

Seen at the Apollo Cinema (Picadilly Circus) as part of the Lee Yoon-ki (이준익) month of the KCCUK’s Korean Film Night programme “2012: Year of the 12 Directors”.

Ever so often when I watch a film, the narrative unfolding on the screen skips a beat: something is hushed over or ignored in a way that doesn’t realistically reflect life. Characters, for example, end up confined in some space for days but somehow the issue that there is no toilet never seems to come up. Or certain moments – like the moment after a couple has sex – are glossed over. Gaps of this sort may be to trim off bits that are not essential and to keep a tight storyline, however, too often it simply feels that directors take the easy way out, omitting what is too awkward or simply too mundane to show, leading, in the worst of cases, to lapses in the film’s narrative logic.

Review: 여자, 정혜 (Yeoja, Jeonghye/This Charming Girl)

Year: 2004
Country: South Korea
Language: Korean
Director: Lee Yoon-ki
Adaptation from: 우애령 (Woo Ae-Ryung)’s novel 정혜 (Jung-Hye)
Screenplay: Lee Yoon-ki
Director of Photography: Choi Jin-Woong (최진웅)
Soundscore: Lee Young-Ho (이영호), Lee So-Yoon (이소윤)
Cast: Kim Ji-soo, Hwang Jung-min
Runtime: 98 min
Trailer: on YouTube

Yoeja, Jeonghye screened in London as part of the KCCUK’s Year of 12 Directors during the Lee Yoon-ki month. I was unable to attend the screening, but Hangul Celluloid kindly lent me his DVD.

A common word in reviews for Yeoja, Jeonghye, Lee Yoon-ki’s gentle and slow-paced debut feature film, is “character study”. A character study it is indeed, for plot and events are minimal. The cinematic sketch is of a young woman, Jeong-hye¹, who lives in a small apartment by herself and works as a clerk in a post office a bus ride away. There is little to her life other than a mundane routine of tasks and some slightly puzzling habits.

Review: 「ライアーゲーム -再生-」 (Raia Gemu – Saisei /Liar Game – Reborn)

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adaptation

Year: 2012
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Director: Matsuyama Hiroaki
Adaptation from: Shinobu Kaitani’s manga「ライアーゲーム」(Raia Gemu/Liar Game)
Screenplay: not credited
Cinematography: Miyata Nobu
Soundscore: not credited
Cast: Matsuda Shota, Tabe Mikako
Runtime: 131 min
Trailer: on YouTube
Film’s official website: in Japanese only

Seen on a British Airways flight from London to New Delhi (August 2012). The theatrical and/or DVD versions may differ slightly.

As you might guess from a title like Raia Gemu – Saisei, there is a lot that precedes this film. It all starts with a manga,「ライアーゲーム」(Raia Gemu/Liar Game, 2005 – ongoing), which went on to inspire two seasons of a TV drama (2007, 2009), a first film (「ライアーゲーム　ザ・ファイナルステージ」/Raia Gemu za Fainaru Suteji/Liar Game – The Final Stage, 2010), a spin-off drama series  「アリス　イン　ライアーゲーム」 (Arisu in Raiagemu/Alice in Liar Game, 2012) and of course Raia Gemu – Saisei itself.

Review: 桃姐 (Táo Jiě/A Simple Life) and Q&A

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Film Festival, Hong Kong, London

Year: 2011
Country: Hong Kong
Language: Cantonese
Director: Ann Hui
Screenplay: Roger Lee
Cinematography: Yu Lik-wai
Soundscore: 罗永晖
Cast: Deanie Ip, Andy Lau
Runtime: 118 min
Trailer: on YouTube
Film’s official website: www.asimplelifemovie.com (in Chinese and English)

Seen at the sold out opening event of the Hong Kong 15 Film Festival organised by Terracotta Distribution. The film was released in UK cinemas on August 3, 2012 – you can find the screen closest to you here.

Note: I first featured the film on Trailer Weekly #4 a gazillion years ago!

There are two scenes in Táo Jiě that encapsulate nearly everything one needs to know about the film.

Review: রানওয়ে (Rāna’ōẏē/Runway)

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Film Festival, ICA, London

Year: 2011
Country: Bangladesh
Language: Bengali
Director: Tareque Masud
Screenplay: Tareque Masud and Catherine Masud
Cast: Fazlul Haque, Rabeya Akta-Moni, Ali Ahsan, Nazmul Huda Bachchu, Nasrin Akter
Runtime: 90 min
Trailer: on YouTube
Film’s official website: Runway

Seen at a screening at the ICA as part of the London Indian Film Festival. The film also recently screened at London’s East End Film Festival.

Tareque Masud’s final feature film – the director tragically died in a car accident last year - opens with thematic shots, introducing viewers, before any words are uttered, to a number of key subjects in Rāna’ōẏē. The poverty that the main family of Rāna’ōẏē lives in is immediately obvious, their shabby little hut by the side of the Dhaka airport heavily shaking as the first plane takes off before the sun has yet risen, interrupting the morning peace with thunderous noise. Soon after, Rahima (Rabeya Akta-Moni), the mother, tends to the family cow whose milk earns them some money, and Fatima, the daughter (Nasrin Akter), sets off to work in a garment factory – the two women are the breadwinners of the family. And then there is an old man, the grandfather (Nazmul Huda Bachchu), who lowers his head in devout respect to Allah as he performs his morning prayers, hinting at the role of religion in the film. Only the son, Ruhul (Fazlul Haque), has no real part to play, he is unemployed and without having completed his education has lost any hope in finding a job.

Review: 그대안의 블루 (Geudaeanui Beulru/The Blue in You)

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KCCUK, Korean Film Night, London, Year of 12 Directors

Year: 1992
Country: South Korea
Language: Korean
Director: Lee Hyun-seung (이현승)
Screenplay:  Lee Hyun-seung (이현승)
Cast: Ahn Seong-gi, Kang Soo-yeon, Choi Yu-ra
Runtime: 115 min
Trailer: no trailer available

Seen at the Korean Cultural Centre (KCCUK) during the Lee Hyun-seung (이현승) month of KCCUK’s Korean Film Night programme “2012: Year of the 12 Directors”.

Geudaeanui Beulru isn’t the kind of film that is instantly likeable. You will most probably find yourself feeling lost in its first 15-20 minutes, which are a fast-paced flash of bright images, often oddly monochrome – not, as one might initially presume, because the film’s physical quality has decayed over time. As little is explained and no narrative thread is yet obvious (even if the same faces repeat on the screen), what is happening – and where it is all going – is not clear at all. Only when Yurim (Kang Soo-yeon) moves in with Hoseok (Ahn Seong-gi), does a storyline begin to emerge.

Review:「アイキ」 (Aiki/Aiki)

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Japanese Embassy London, London

Year: 2002
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Director: Tengan Daisuke
Screenplay: Tengan Daisuke
Cinematography: Yi Yi-shu
Soundscore: Kumagai Yoko, Urayama Hidehiko
Cast: Kato Haruhiko, Tomosaka Rie, Ishibashi Ryo
Runtime: 118 min
Trailer: on YouTube

Seen at a screening as part of the Films at the Embassy of Japan programme.

The Olympics are nearly upon London and it is becoming more obvious every day. The fact that the monthly film screening at the Embassy of Japan took place a week earlier than normally – presumably to avoid the chaos of the Olympics’ opening days – was one indicator, but so was the choice of film screened: Aiki, after all, is a tale of the powerful spirit of sport.

Review: Die Vaterlosen (The Fatherless)

Year: 2011
Country: Austria
Language: German
Director: Marie Kreutzer
Screenplay: Marie Kreutzer
Cinematography: Leena Koppe
Soundscore: David Hebenstreit
Cast: Andrea Wenzel, Andreas Kiendl, Emily Cox, Philipp Hochmair, Sami Loris, Marion Mitterhammer, Johannes Krisch, Pia Hierzegger
Runtime: 105 min
Trailer: on YouTube (not subtitled)
Film’s official website: Die Vaterlosen (in German)

Seen at a screening at the Austrian Cultural Forum London organised as part of the Cine Club platform (free showings, but films screen fairly irregularly). 

If I had to sum up Die Vaterlosen, Marie Kreutzer’s debut feature film, in a single metaphor only, I would compare it to a heap of yarn that has become incredibly tangled – so tangled that for the longest while it is impossible to see how one length of string connects to another. Only very slowly is the yarn undone, only very slowly are the knots loosened, until we finally reach a point where we can see the web dissolve as we pull the strings back and forth through loops. And then, when we have nearly done it, when we are nearly there, we hit a snag – that one knot that resists the nimblest of fingers and can only be undone with scissors.