Samaritan Girl (Samaria) [2004]

Samaritan Girl, the third movie I watched at this year’s Kolkata Film Festival, is a somber and serious drama directed by Kim Ki-Duk. Even though this is my first experience of the South Korean director, it wasn’t hard to understand why he wins appraisals at international film circuits and courts controversy at his country in the same breath – his nonchalance in tackling subjects that most would want to carefully avoid. Told in three chapters, the movie tells the tale of a young, sensitive girl who leaves aside scruples to earn a quick buck with her close friend, he strange U-turn on her friend’s tragic death, and her final confrontation (a subtle psychological) one with her loving father when her dark secret gets accidentally revealed. The subject has been sensitively handled, and has been infused with a sad, morose tone that acts as a means of juxtaposition for the girl’s existence. However, what could have been a very dark and troubling film, didn’t really have that extra bite to really move or disturb us. This strange tale of lost innocence, redemption, two lonely souls’ attempts at connection with each other and with strangers which were destined to fail from the beginning, and a father’s desperate attempts to come to terms with the shocking revelations about her daughter, is saddening though lacking in profundity.








Director: Kim Ki-Duk
Genre: Drama/Psychological Drama/Coming of Age
Language: Korean
Country: South Korea

I Served the King of England [2007]

There were two principal reasons for deciding to catch a movie (at the ongoing Kolkata Film Festival) with as unattractive a title as I Served the King of England – the movie has been directed by the Czech master Jiri Menzel, and the huge buzz it had generated here at the festival circuit. This is a pitch black comedy and a socio-political satire marvelously disguised by its bright picturization and infectious narrative. Covering genres that range from bittersweet fable to slapstick and vaudeville, this picaresque tale managed to make me laugh and think in equal measures. Told in elaborate flashbacks by a diminutive old man recently released from prison (having served only 14 years and 9 months of his 15 year sentence), the movie follows the meteoric rise of an ambitious waiter whose sole dream is to be a millionaire. Told in the form of a farcical comedy, and punctuated with heavy doses of absurdism, wry humour and bleak ironies, but with strong overtones of pathos and humanism, the movie succeeded in painting a rich and vivid picture of the troubled history of the erstwhile Czechoslovakia. The two things that especially stood out were the director’s audacity to tackle this extremely tricky subject with such bravado, and the high-voltage performances by the two actors who essayed the gleefully amoral and dangerously detached protagonist in his younger days, and the reminiscing, introspective and strangely captivating older patron representing the present, respectively.








Director: Jiri Menzel
Genre: Comedy/Political Satire/Absurdist Comedy/Period Film
Language: Czech
Country: Czech Republic

A Lost Man (Un Homme Perdue) [2007]

A Lost Man is the kind of movie the only way of viewing which is at film festivals, where one often ends up watching movies which are stranger than what one might have bargained for. Ditto for this French movie; this was the first film that I saw at this year's Kolkata Film Festival. The movie, in the form of a loose travelogue, follows two protagonists – a trigger-happy French photographer with a lewd fetish for ‘live’ photography (if you know what I mean), and a mysterious, laconic and world-weary Middle-Eastern wanderlust who is running away from one thing that no one can ever escape – past. The movie is unabashedly artsy in nature, but hopelessly hollow in its intellectual content. The biggest failure of the movie is that it fails to add layers of these two otherwise enigmatic and deeply existential characters; in other words, the director, by stubbornly refusing to delve into their pasts and their thought processes, ends up presenting two characters who remain as two-dimensional and unknown to us during the end credits as they were when the movie began. And what happen in between seem inconsequential in hindsight.








Director: Danielle Arbid
Genre: Drama/Road Movie/Existential Drama/Psychological Drama
Language: French/Lebanese
Country: Lebanon/France

Quantum of Solace [2008]

Based on a little known short story by Ian Fleming, Quantum of Solace could have easily become a great spy movie – what with the inner turmoil of an otherwise brilliant agent, and a fair share of megalomaniacs and red hot damsels in distress. Unfortunately, while what the director perhaps wanted to make was an unglamourized spy thriller in the same veins of maybe something like Munich or The Conversation, where the human story is more important than spectacular car chases, the money-crazy monster of Hollywood and big production houses refused to bulge. So instead what we have is a bit of hotch-potch – a little of this and a little of that without one complementing the other. Thankfully, the day was rescued to some extent by Daniel Craig, in his follow-up to Casino Royale. I won’t go into the longest running debate among the aficionados of Double-O-Seven regarding the greatest Bond ever, but suffice it to say that what Craig has managed in accomplishing is quite exceptional. Bond still loves his Martinis, babes and fast cars all right; but in place of the suave, wise-cracking gentleman-agent who could beat all those goons without having a crease develop in his dinner jacket, what we instead have is a bruised and battered spy who’d rather avenge the death of his love than follow procedures in the line of duty.

   

 

 

 

Director: Marc Forster

Genre: Spy Thriller/Action

Language: English

Country: UK

Little Children [2006]

Little Children, adopted from a novel of the same name, is an intense psychological exploration of the residents of an upwardly mobile Boston suburbia inflicted with issues ranging from paranoia and prejudice to downright hypocrisy. On the surface they look just as any other rich and ostensibly cultured society; but scratch a little and you realize absolutely no one is perfect, rather far from it. The principal protagonist is an educated woman (played with incisive wit, remarkable confidence and a very palpable undercurrent of repressed sexuality and rebelliousness by Kate Winslet), trapped in an eventless marriage to a man with an addiction to web porn, who gets drawn into an adulterous affair with a married man whose life is overshadowed by his successful and extremely attractive alpha-female wife. A parallel (extremely disturbing and brilliantly enacted) subplot involves the personal crusade of an ex-cop against a recently released convicted pedophile. This is an exceedingly dark but gracefully executed movie, unsettling in its frank depiction of what actually happens inside the houses and minds of people who all revel in their otherwise perfectly manicured picture-perfect façades.








Director: Todd Field
Genre: Drama/Psychological Drama/Ensemble Film/Slice of Life
Language: English
Country: US

Masculin Feminin [1966]

Made during the end of what is now considered the First Phase of French intellectual and iconoclast Jean Luc-Godard’s filmmaking career, Masculin Feminin lies just within the borders insofar as accessibility is concerned. An impressionistic, freewheeling, and wildly satirical take on the Parisian youth culture of 1960’s France, Masculin Feminin, as Godard so brilliantly put it, “is a film on the Children of Marx and Coca Cola”. The movie comprises of a series of disjointed, free form abstracts on a world where the young people participate in discussions and dialogues ranging from Bob Dylan and anti-Vietnam War protests, to love and the Pill. Devoid of any intellectual confines, formal technicalities and linear thought processes, the movie is as nonconforming in its digressions, non sequiturs and formless construction (the memorable acting, for instance, is unrehearsed), as it is in its avalanche of ideas and opinionated musings. The movie is as much a diary of ideologies presented in the form of casual banter, as it is a pointed jab at a society where only a few dare to live while others just continue existing. 

p.s. This is an earlier review. My latest review can be found here.

 

 

 

 

Director: Jean-Luc Godard 

Genre: Urban Drama/Social Satire/Avant-Garde/Experimental/Romantic Comedy/Existential Drama

Language: French 

Country: France

Hellboy II: The Golden Army [2008]

-->Dear Mr. Guillermo Del Toro,

It seems you truly have the Midas touch. Doesn’t matter if you are composing a profoundly haunting poetry in motion like The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth, or a fun summer blockbuster like the Hellboy series or Blade Trinity. I know everyone needs a break once in a while. And one also needs to be practical; after all Hollywood is where the money is. But c’mon, if Scorsese decides to make a sex comedy or Tarantino a romantic tearjerker, wouldn’t that be unnecessary even though we know, with their colossal skills, they would still find a way to make a decent movie at the end? For Hellboy II: The Golden Army is exactly that – I agree it is a fun watch with its deadpan comedy, well orchestrated action sequences and impressive CG; but it also is a no-brainer assembly-line popcorn stuff that surely doesn’t need an enormously talented auteur like you taking orders from producers who can't think beyond dollars and dimes. Further, where the first part was at least unique in its ideation and had some psychological stuff like the horned red superhero’s struggle against his dark alter-ego, the sequel is a film that wouldn’t linger in one’s mind beyond its run time. Guillermo, kindly reconsider your choice of films, as the cinephiles really want more of the visionary Mexican genius than the fun Hollywood popstar.

Sincerely,
A Concerned Admirer.





Director: Guillermo Del Toro
Genre: Action/Comedy/Superhero Film/Comic Book Film/Fantasy
Language: English
Country: US

Days of Being Wild [1990]

Hong Kong New Wave maestro Wong kar-Wai may easily be called the unofficial spokesperson for the lonely hearts of the world, thanks largely to his staggering trilogy on unrequited love and broken hearts (the brilliant Chungking Express, the psychedelic Fallen Angels, and the poignant In the Mood for Love). But before them, he made this largely unknown but aesthetically beautiful semi-autobiographical film Days of Being Wild – a tale of loss, missed moments, unreciprocated emotions, failed attempts to connect, and loneliness. No one gets what he/she yearns for and ends up with regret, disillusionment, and finally, acceptance. It is marvelously enacted by the protagonists, especially by Leslie Cheung as the severely detached and existentialist protagonist, Maggie Cheung as a soft spoken regular girl, and Carina Lau as a wild, boyish and vibrant dancer. Further, Kar-Wai joined forces for the first time with his famous collaborator, cinematographer Christopher Doyle, and the result isn’t just visually engrossing in its imagery, but also nuanced and haunting in its understated beauty.








Director: Wong Kar-Wai
Genre: Drama/Psychological Drama/Existentialist Drama/Ensemble Film
Language: Chinese (Cantonese/Mandarin)
Country: China (Hong Kong)

Fashion [2008]

Fashion, the latest outing from Madhur Bhandarkar, the self-proclaimed maker of “realistic cinema”, is a behind the scene look at the glitz and glamour of the high-flying fashion world. The grimy, ultra-competitive, and at times ugly dog-eat-dog world presented with unflinching honesty is commendable. Even though the time-line seems disjointed at times, the dialogues in a few scenes borders on the clichéd and formulaic tracks, and the character developments and transitions aren’t always smooth, Bhandarkar deserves kudos for holding his own against Bollywood’s dream factory by not sugar-coating the uncomfortable elements and the dark underbelly of life on the fast lane which comes tagged with the industry of size-zero figures, mercurial fame and quick buck. Priyanka Chopra has given a sterling and extremely believable performance as Meghna, an ambitious small town girl who experiences a meteoric rise to fame and an equally spectacular fall from it. Kangana Ranaut (Woh Lamhe) is alluring, though a bit over-the-top, as a coke-snorting, emotionally fragile queen of the ramp, whose complex by-the-sword life is a sort of déjà vu for the audience vis-à-vis Meghna; however, her denouement is far more brutal and sad. The theme tune of the movie, too, strikes a chord.








Director: Madhur Bhandarkar
Genre: Drama/Showbiz Drama/Psychological Drama
Language: Hindi
Country: India

Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno) [2006]

-->Directed by the maverick New Age Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro, Pan’s Labyrinth is a surreal, sweeping, visually stunning and emotionally enthralling pseudo-fantasy fable set in the backdrop of the turbulent post-civil war Spain. The theme propounded by his previous film The Devil’s Backbone, viz. the juxtaposition of the real world horrors vis-à-vis the fantasy world ones, attained mind-numbing and spectacular proportions in Pan’s Labyrinth. The tale of a young innocent girl Ofelia, who is given three dangerous tasks by a mythical faun Pan to prove that she is indeed a princess of the magical world, is told alongside the violent and profoundly distressing war between Franco’s brutal army and the guerrilla rebels. The movie is as arresting for its astonishing cinematography and the director’s incredible eye for the detail, as it is heart-rending for its delicate poetry and lyricism that manages to affect the viewer’s sense of being. Though universally praised on its release, its graphic violence and disturbing plot developments have ensured that it is not for the squeamish. Stirring score, outstanding special effects, and stellar performance by the cast including the young protagonist, have made this refreshingly unique and absolutely brilliant movie one for the ages.
Note: My recent review of the film can be found here.






Director: Guillermo Del Toro
Genre: Drama/Fantasy Fable/War Drama/Epic
Language: Spanish
Country: Mexico

Body of Lies [2008]

Ridley Scott’s latest outing after American Gangster, Body of Lies is a Hollywood blockbuster in the truest sense insofar as its connotation goes – it is entertaining, it has the ability to keep the viewers hooked onto the movie and the popcorn baskets in their hands in equal measures, it is more interested with the broader picture than the subtleties or nuances, and it is completely bound by the confines of the genre of spy thrillers. Leonardo Di Caprio, as an arrogant yet sensitive CIA field-man, based in the hostile and unforgiving terrain of the Middle-East (a favourite place for spy thrillers these days), is extremely effective (and at times brilliant) as he usually always is; Russel Crowe, as an obese, cocky bureaucrat, who “knows the worth of everything, but the value of nothing” is also his impressive self. The camera work and post production values are top-notch and clinical, but largely assembly-line driven. The editing is crisp, thus giving the movie a taut, tension-filled atmosphere. This is one of those movie which will never adorn your mantelpiece, but is an engaging watch nonetheless.









Director: Ridley Scott
Genre: Thriller/Spy Thriller/Espionage
Language: English
Country: US

Hero (Ying Xiong) [2002]

-->It would be very easy to say something like I’ve never seen anything like Hero, and leave it at that. But let me elaborate. First of all, Hero, at only around 90 minutes, is perhaps the crispest epic you’ll ever see. It has a wonderfully nuanced and extremely engaging narrative. Through the conversation between a nameless Hero (Jet Li) and an all-conquering emperor of the Qin Dynasty, regarding the former’s alleged assassination of three feared assassins – Broken Sword, Flying Snow and Sky, where each of the two strives to attain psychological one-upmanship, and through elaborate flashbacks (each being a different version of what might have transpired), the movie unfolds like an elegant seven course meal. But the striking feature of the movie, its USP, is its electrifying and you’ve-got-to-see-to-believe cinematography by the maverick Christopher Doyle, where every frame enthralled me and left me completely speechless. Using shades of an array of colours, each signifying distinct situations and highlighting specific moods, and forming a vital aspect of the story-telling, the visual opulence and beautiful poetry that Doyle has managed to achieve is overwhelming even by his vaunted standards (and that includes his arresting work in Chungking Express). The martial arts and swordplay, freely employing the iconic Wuxia genre, is stunning. And the remarkable chemistry between Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung is truly one for old times’ sake; they managed to take off from where they left off at In the Mood for Love with near flawless ease and grace. If only its length had been what is generally associated with a historical epic movie…!






Director: Zhang Yimou
Genre: Historical Epic/Adventure/Martial Arts Movie/Romance
Language: Chinese (Mandarin)
Country: China

A Bittersweet Life [2005]

A Bittersweet Life, life Park Chan-Wook’s Oldboy, is a lyrical ode, a bittersweet poetry and a mesmerizing study on brutal, nerve-wracking violence and mayhem. In fact the movie is so good that at time, despite the clinical (and at times unforgettable) display of onscreen fury, my heart swelled with pain and empathy. Sun-Woo (brilliantly portrayed by Lee Byung-heon with astonishing ease), is a taciturn and nattily dressed enforcer for a gang-leader who he has been serving for seven years with deadly effectiveness. But then in a momentary lapse of judgment he lets the heart cloud his brain by developing feelings for his boss’ unfaithful girlfriend. And this sets in motion an irreversible course of action. The onscreen violence might be a tad too difficult to watch for the faint-hearted; for me, however, watching this incredibly choreographed, gorgeously photographed and magnificently directed movie (with a haunting soundtrack as an added feature) was an extremely exhilarating experience. The director’s ability to pay singular attention to the minutest details and drench the movie with a scintillating dose of nihilism and understated emotions, have made this otherwise straightforward plot attain an operatic quality with philosophical overtones. Sun-Woo’s realization that he had a sweet dream which unfortunately can’t ever come true provided the movie with an ending that I won’t forget anytime soon.








Director: Kim Jee-woon
Genre: Action/Gangster Drama/Crime Thriller/Revenge Movie
Country: South Korea
Language: Korean

Miller's Crossing [1990]

The Coen Brothers revel in the genre of crime movies. But Miller’s Crossing was their most formal gangster movie; prohibition, Mafiosi,bootleggers, Tommy guns, impeccably dressed gangsters and henchmen – that’s quintessential gangster cinema for you. Gabriel Byrne stars as an intelligent right-hand man of a volatile Irish gang leader, who upon being thrown out, plays his former boss against an equally volatile (and brilliantly enacted) Italian gangster in a manner reminiscent of the Kurosawa masterpiece Yojimbo. Throw in a dangerously cunning bookmaker (John Turturro), and a troubled lady capable of igniting the sparks, and what you get is a rounded story with enough angles, allusions and evocative character plays to engage the discerning viewers. Shorn completely of the dark humour or quirky iconoclasm generally associated with the Coens’ movies, Miller’s Crossing is a heartfelt homage to one of America’s greatest film genres. Filmed mostly using brown filters to present a somber world of crime and retribution, and aided by a well-etched narrative with some well-devised plot developments, this is a finely executed movie where, what in lesser hands might have appeared clichéd or dated, work very well.









Director: Ethan & Joel Coen
Genre: Drama/Gangster Drama/Crime Drama
Language: English
Country: US

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind [2004]

-->This is one love story that is so unique in its content, so irreverent in its ideation and metaphors, and so transcendental in its approach, that it can be safely stated that there has never been concocted a piece on romance like this one. A surreal, phantasmagoric tale of two individuals, once deeply in love with each other, who have decided to be part of a revolutionary programme to erase each other’s presence from their respective memories to be relieved of the pain of heartbreak and separation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is an intellectually invigorating, albeit complex, movie. The brilliant, quirky Jim Carrey (cast against his type) and the marvelous, vivacious Kate Winslet, who mistakenly feel that they have wiped out the requisite memory cells from their respective brains, share hauntingly beautiful screen chemistry. Confident direction, cinematography laced with vivid realism yet a dream-like quality, and the iconoclastic Charlie Kaufman’s utterly unconventional and magnificently eccentric script have ensured that the viewers will remember this funny, weird and unsettling movie as a mesmeric human drama, rather than as just an innovative sci-fi flick or a mind boggling psycho-analytical thesis, or for that matter, an audacious experimental venture.

Director: Michel Gondry
Genre: Comedy Drama/Fantasy/Romantic Comedy/Avant-Garde/Experimental
Language: English
Country: US

Three... Extemes [2004]

Three…Extremes is a unique omnibus of short films in the genre of psychological terror – unique because three reputed directors, one each from Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan, combined forces in order to scare the viewers. The first one, Dumplings, directed by Fruit Chan (of Made in Hong Kong fame), is a well-made and marvelously eerie tale of a beautiful lady going to a mysterious maker of home-made dumplings, eating which would improve her fertility. The second film, Cut (undoubtedly the best of the trio), directed by the inimitable Park Chan-Wook, is a near poetic execution of a tale of extreme violence. The short, involving a vicious psychological tussle between a famous filmmaker and psychopath, is brilliantly conceptualized and extremely well enacted. The finale, Takashi Mike’s Box, unfortunately, is a complete letdown. The tale of a lonely writer harboring a dark secret from her childhood days, by simultaneously being too surreal and bizarre, fails to either terrify or engage the viewers. Though episodic shorts can be disorienting and/or disengaging for viewers at times, Three… Extremes, on the whole, is a decent watch – if not anything, for Chan-Wook’s enthralling piece. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Directors: Fruit Chan, Park Chan-Wook, Takashi Mike

Genre: Horror/Psychological Thriller/Anthology Film

Language: Chinese/Korean/Japanese 

Country: China (Hong Kong)/South Korea/Japan

Made in Hong Kong [1997]

Made in Hong Kong, directed by Fruit Chan, is perhaps the archetypal art-house indie movie. In many ways it is similar to Tsai Ming-Liang’s Rebels of the Neon God – it is an ultra-low budget movie with a very minimalist approach, it relies as much on stark realism as it does on surrealism and psychedelic feel, and it is unabashed in its depiction of the crime-ridden, amoral and socially disillusioned underbelly of Hong Kong (as the Ming-Liang movie was where Taiwan was concerned). However, where the Taiwanese movie was exceedingly harrowing, this one (though still disorienting) is a tad more lyrical and evocative. The acting is good, the camerawork is fluid, and the chemistry between the three protagonists and the dead fourth character managed to present a semblance of hope in an otherwise exceedingly unforgiving and brutally lonely urban milieu. The extreme low-budget approach might be jarring at times, but the director’s intimate and personal style has ensured that the movie manages to disturb and engross in equal measures.









Director: Fruit Chan
Genre: Drama/Urban Drama/Crime Drama/Coming of Age
Language: Chinese (Cantonese/Mandarin)
Country: China (Hong Kong)

Being John Malkovich [1999]

Spike Jonze’s remarkable directorial debut, Being John Malkovich, would rank among the most irreverent, whimsical and weird movies of recent years, along with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and could easily be clubbed along with such classics as 8 ½ - movies which revel in deliberately distorting human perception to incredible levels, and achieve a surreal impact in the process. Parallels to such movies in literature would be nonsense verses of Louis Carroll and Sukumar Ray. John Cusack (I hardly remember having ever seen a bad movie starring him) is exceptional as a semi-crazy puppeteer, who along with a fellow employee (he’s thoroughly smitten with) of the seventh and half floor of the building he’s working at, chance upon a portal that leads to the mind of John Malkovich (played by Malkovich himself with astonishing quirkiness). In fact every actor has done commendable jobs here, including Cameron Diaz (in a weird hairdo) as Cusack’s wife confused with her sexuality. Charlie Kauffman’s brilliant, heavily satirical and absolutely bonkers of a script, with subtle injections of pathos, humanism and existentialism, is a near flawless work on absurdism.









Director: Spike Jonze
Genre: Black Comedy/Social Satire/Fantasy/Existentialist Drama/Avant-Garde/Experimental
Language: English
Country: US

Kidnap [2008]

Kidnap – the tale of a mysterious young man kidnapping a wealthy guy’s daughter to exact a very personal revenge – has the kind of plot that had a dark, moody, psychologically stimulating thriller written all over it. Unfortunately director Sanjay Gadhvi messed up beyond salvage point; hence what we have is nothing more than a formulaic, song-and-dance, run-of-the-mill Bollywood thriller more intent on pleasing the audience than disturbing them. Sanjay Dutt, as a hulking but sensitive alpha-man, is good; Imran Khan as the brooding kidnapper is still not ready to play a role as challenging as this; Manisha Lamba as a silly, perpetually midriff exposing, fashion-obsessed nymphet cum hostage (whose mother looks same age as her with slightly lesser cleavage to offer), is truly terrible. And if, like me, you have watched Park Chan-Wook’s acclaimed Vengeance Trilogy, you’ll indeed do well to keep away from this one and save yourself the blushes.









Director: Sanjay Gadhvi
Genre: Thriller/Psychological Thriller/Revenge Movie
Language: Hindi
Country: India