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White Vengeance (2011)
A mysterious man tells a group of scholars at a remote historical site the story of two generals, once friends and allies, who wrestled for control of the throne in a long and bloody game of chess — literally and figuratively — during the last days of the Qin Dynasty.
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Bleak Night (2011)
For the KOFFIA festival I was given two films to review. Both films deal with young people. The other film, Silenced, dealt with the way adults can abuse the rights of the very young, in ways horrific and saddening. Here, in Bleak Night, it is the young people, mostly, whose own dealings with each other propel the tragic events at the film’s core.… (read more)
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Silenced (2011)
This is not a film that is easily reviewed. Dealing with an explosive topic — the physical and sexual abuse of children — and based on true events, it is one that cannot easily break the divide between the viewer’s own emotional response and a critical one. It’s fortunate, then, that Hwang Dong-hyuk’s direction is both thoughtful and forceful, worthy of the film’s text.… (read more)
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War of the Arrows (2011)
War of the Arrows opens with a chase. Armed men bear down upon a teenager dragging a little girl who stumbles and falls. Before they are brought down, their pursuers are taken down by their father. Given that moment of relief, they are ordered to flee before seeing their father cut down by the attacking forces. Now orphans, they find themselves at a friend of their father’s where they are fostered.
Such a tragic opening lends itself to a revenge … (read more)
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The Client (2011)
The Client begins with an oddly blank-faced young man clutching a bouquet of flowers, walking slowly through a crowded parking lot into an apartment crawling with police. It’s his anniversary, but his wife’s not there: instead, there’s a blood-soaked mattress and a police officer holding out a pair of handcuffs. … (read more)
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Revenge: A Love Story (2010)
Revenge: A Love Story from director Wong Ching Po (Jiang Hu, Mob Sister) reaches back into the past to Hong Kong’s grisly Cat-III action pics, where buckets of blood and more than a touch of sadism were de rigueur. Wong adds a modern sensibility to the mix, though, bringing good production values and some technical sophistication to the picture… but is that enough to elevate it beyond exploitation territory?… (read more)
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Motorway (2012)
Car movies are hot right now. We’ve had more Fast and the Furious films than really ought to exist (believe it or not, the sixth is in production) and Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive won over last year’s Cannes audiences and critics; there’s an undeniable appeal to these stories, whether they’re about gangs of thrill-seeking speedsters or the archetypal getaway driver on a job gone wrong.
The latter in particular is a great fit for the Milkyway Image house style, actually. … (read more)
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Gangs of Wasseypur (2012)
Gangs of Wasseypur, from Indian director Anurag Kashyap (Black Friday) was the first Indian film to screen in official competition at the Sydney Film Festival, and a serious commitment for festival moviegoers. It’s an epic in two 160-minute parts, scheduled back-to-back on the last Sunday of the festival, and SFF director Nashen Moodley greeted the audience as ‘the bravest of the brave’ with a smile when he came out to introduce the film.… (read more)
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