Fantasia 2009: Week One Standouts
Meghan Hicks
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Takashi Miike's Yatterman: More Yokai War than Visitor Q, but still awesome
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In its 10th year, the Fantasia film fest shows it's still got guts (and blood, and boobs, and Nazi zombies)
It's been approximately 11 months, two-and-a-half weeks, but now it's finally time to love the summer sun from the inside and join the celluloid celebration of the fest's lucky 13th year.Here are some highlights during Week One:
The 2009 festival commences with Yatterman, a kaleidoscopic extravaganza from director Takashi Miike. This adaptation of the '70s cartoon of the same name is more in line with The Great Yokai War than Visitor Q, though with no shortness of weirdness. We follow Gai and assistant Ai, who clash against sexy villain Doronjo and her band of "imbefools" for possession of a magical skull. Complete with robots of all imaginable forms, Miike manages to inject more hi-res colours and CGI than most animé could dream of. Probably most enjoyed by fans of the series, but for big kids too.
Speaking of Visitor Q, this year's award for most the grotesque breastfeeding scenes goes to Grace. Even if you're someone who considers children as little beings that pretty much suck the life out of their parents, you're probably not quite ready for the likes of Paul Solet's first feature.
The Hong Kong kung fu flick Ip Man (on cover) is an action movie with a subdued colour pallette and straight-up martial arts set during the Second Sino-Japanese War. A loose biopic, Ip Man focuses on a town's pride and one man's willingness to fight back. Melodrama aside, lead man Donnie Yen (seen in last year's An Empress and the Warriors) moves swiftly
through amazingly choreographed fight sequences that would have made the real Wing Chun devotee and disciple Bruce Lee very proud.Have you ever wondered when someone was going to bring Nazi zombies back? After several decades, they've reappear in the glacial Norwegian landscape in comedy/horror offering Dead Snow. It's the age-old setup involving a group of people on an isolated vacation - throw in a stash of gold and Nazi zombies who really want it back, and you've got mass carnage on a snowy white canvas (complete with impressive use of stomach contents).
The French film Mutants is in the same genre, but more seriously "artistic." Clearly evoking 28 Days Later, the film follows Sonia and Marco as they are pitted against virus-infected cannibals, and, of course, equally vicious humans.
Dream is the latest film from Korean director Kim Ki-duk (3-Iron), in which strangers Jin (Adrift in Tokyo's Jo Odagiri) and Ran are fatefully linked through each other's dreams. This time around Kim treats his subjects a little more brutally than usual, allowing the characters few moments of pleasure -though as in his other work, the film's themes end up taking the lead.
Finally, writer/director Mark Lebenon will be in attendance for the world premiere of Slam-Bang, a story of a bad day gone violently worse for IT guy George who must retrieve and deliver stolen data on a USB key. Maybe not the most original premise, and there are a few lose ends, but it still delivers. Not too shabby for a low budget film shot with a P2 camera.
Fantasia International Film Festival
At Concordia University and Cinémathèque québécoise, July 9-29
See www.fantasiafestival.com for full schedule
It is said that it is not about how you begin or where you end up but the journey itself that matters. By that count, thank heaven that this year's Fantasia won't be measured against Takashi Miike's Yatterman, which is equally as infantile and over the top as last year's Tokyo Gore Police--just without the gore or ultraviolence. No, you want to talk about the opening week's solid players then you need look no further than the triple threat of Thirst, Hell and Love Exposure. Ip Man was solid and impressive but it did not set any new benchmarks by playing well within the margins of this traditional feature. Dead Snow was a letdown but a respectable one at that. Zombies. Nazis. These were two surefire ingredients that should have payed off greatly but the direction of the story just kept it from really exploding into new territory.
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People, if you missed the first screening of the animated madness that was Hells I suggest that you score tickets to the second showing because just short of watching Legend of the Overfiend on acid you will not see another animated film this year with as many demented and hysterical plot twists that will just blow your mind away.
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Pedro Eggers
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