Bangkok cyberpunk

She has done it

This is Kylie Minogue’s 25th year in show business. So far, to celebrate she has undertaken a fan-favourite “anti tour” of Australia and the UK. She will release a surprise new single next week (to be called “Timebomb”) and perhaps most impressively – she has finally made a great movie. At least according to many. What a coup.

“Holy Motors” is a bizarre new film from French cult director Leos Carax, in which the singer features (together with Eva Mendes). It got a stunned five star review in Britain’s Guardian and rousing applause at the Cannes Film Festival and is now considered by many to be a leading contender for the festival’s top prize.

Others were not so kind though, declaring the movie confusing. Even its supporters have used adjectives like “bonkers”, “insane” and “balls-to-the-wall crazy, beautiful and undeniably strange”.

The only thing tempering my excitement at this point is that is by the same director – and seems to feature the same annoying character – as one part of the disappointing “Tokyo!” film omnibus. I frankly hated that.

Still, Kylie as a depressive flight attendant – and the few seconds of the lovely song she sings – is enough to raise my hopes again!

I can’t wait to see it and decide for myself.

Coriolanus: Super Butch

When I was teaching high school in Australia, I went to a two day workshop entitled “Shakespeare for Boys”. At the conference, much was made of the strong resistance boys typically show towards studying Shakespeare. The school I was at had chosen Macbeth (wisely, I think) as its Shakespearean text on the grounds that it had more to appeal to male teenagers – with its darkness and blood – than, say “A Midsummer Nights Dream”.

For some of these educators, “Coriolanus” will come as a godsend – except that it is probably too violent to be shown in schools anyway.

Ralph Fienne’s directorial debut sees an obscure Shakespeare tragedy brought to the modern age, pumped full of testosterone and shot in Belgrade for added ugliness. Its a gritty and stark exploration of mob violence and dirty politics which could hardly be better timed, given the current mood in Europe. The film comes complete with grim-looking unshaven Slavic men in wifebeaters, crappy apartment blocks, explosions, lots of regional accents and angular grafitti. Its compelling stuff, even if self-indulgent for its director and star. There are numerous opportunities for Ralph to launch into wild-eyed monologues, spitting into the camera at close range, his face covered theatrically in blood. He also participates with Gerard Butler in the most homoerotic stabbing scene ever.

Vanessa Redgrave has fun too, in an against-type role as a warlike harpie.

The Strange Case of Hong Kong Amoy Cinema

Currently on at the Hong Kong Film Archives, and entering its last few weeks, is this interesting programme. Titled “the strange case of Hong Kong Amoy Cinema” it explores a little-known genre of 1950s films made in Hong Kong and shot in the “Amoy” dialect, one of the Minnan languages of China’s Fujian province.

The reason the films were so little known is that few in Hong Kong speak the language and the movies were not screened here, yet they were also banned in the PRC so few Fujianese could see them either. A film industry without an audience; so how did they survive?

The answer: they were devoured by a scattered Southeast Asian diaspora numbering in its millions, before largely dying off in the 1960s. An odd little cul de sac of Asian cinema history.

Movie magic: a roundup

“Once Upon A Time In Anatolia” is the movie that I saw at the recent Turkish Film Festival, screening at the drowsiness-inducing 9.30pm slot on a midweek night. Although the first half of the slow, mysterious film is undoubtedly beautiful – thanks to moodily lit shots of the ravishing Turkish countryside, the meandering second half lost me a bit.

“Cabin in the Woods” is, pardon the pun, an absolute killer. Considerably more than the sum of its spunky parts, this is a smart, funny, scary satire on our perverse  need to be scared. Win-win-win. Chris Hemsworthy (Home and Away-cum-Thor) makes an appealing dumb American jock and the dialogue sparkles.

To the surprise of some perhaps – including frankly, myself – I had never watched “Clockwork Orange” until this week. And it was, indeed, pretty amazing. The Russian-peppered dialogue and mishmash of period clothing made me oddly uneasy, and the sex/violence scenes still have the power to shock (me at least), forty years after they were filmed. But it was also a beautiful, fascinating movie (although Malcom McDowell got cruelly typecast, moving on to Caligula). In fact it was interesting to see the myriad of references  that have come from the film in their original forms: Moloko, knives and mascara, ultra-violence… I’m looking forward to watching it again. And can I just say – the set design is superb. The “writer’s house”, scene of the infamous assault and revenge scenes is my dream home, in terms of the interior alone.  I’ve been convinced; I think I’ll give “Space Oddyssey” a go next week.

Bangkok: headshot, part two

Finally released – to mixed reviews – Pen-ek Rataruang’s head-trauma, upside-down, noir spiritual thriller, “Head Shot”. The film features a widely-praised star turn by actor Nopachai Chaiyanam, plus Bangkok sexpot Cris Horwang in  a supporting role.

…do as the Romans do.

I recently discovered this camp spectacular featuring Helen Mirren (of all people) as “the most promiscuous woman in Rome” and directed by Penthouse magazine’s Bob Guccione! Made in the 1970s, and utterly of its time, it has endless gratuitous banquet orgy scenes and blonde nymphets in graphically-too-short togas (but also, a surprising amount of male nudity). The film’s lingering gaze on the most grotesque and decadent Roman pasttimes pretends to condemn- before going in for the closeup.

While its bombast comes as no surprise, its touches of class do: the film is full of classically trained upper crust British actors with plummy accents. These include Sir John Gielgud and Peter O’Toole, who endow the screenplay (by Gore Vidal!) with a mounting sense of  Shakespearean tragedy. Even when star Malcom Macdowell is shimmying around in a drapey, gauzy cloak and (clearly) no underwear he sounds Macbeth.

It is, in other words, pretentious, prurient, transparent and I have to say, wildly entertaining.

They don’t make ‘em like this anymore….

Breath taking

This week Thailand breathed a sigh of relief as an earthquake hit off Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. Fears of a repeat of the devastating 2004 tsunami however were luckily not realised.

Just as well for this event, particularly.

“Film on the Rocks” is a spectacular-looking film festival held in one of the most beautiful places in the world, amid the limestone pinnacles and lagoons of Yao Noi, near Phuket. Tilda Swindon and Apichatpong Weerasethakul curated a selection of films for a specially invited VIP audience which included Chloe Sevigny and Sikh fashionista-actor Waris. The films were shown on a floating screen, to an audience on a wooden pontoon.

I can hardly imagine anything more glamorous.

A sister event for the general public is planned for Bangkok soon. If it has anything like the imagination and ambition of this one, get yourself a ticket.

Turkish Film Festival 2012

The Turkish Film Festival is on in Hong Kong next week (as in, incidentally a free Mexican film festival). I just got my ticket to see “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia” (above) but another movie I would like to see is not screening. That is “Fetih 1453″, an impressive CGI swords and sandals epic about the fall of Constantinople to Muslim forces. The historically loaded subject matter was the matter of a recent, interesting article at the Guardian here:

Shame

There has been much talk about Michael Fassbender’s performance in this exploration of sex addiction. But the revelation for me was Nicole Beharie in a supporting role. I had never seen her before but she has such charisma! I could not keep my eyes off her.

Hungry?

Its great when a worldwide pop culture phemonenon comes around that I can get on board with. With the kids at school going crazy over the book, I decided to give “Hunger Games ” a read. Yes, its derivative but I loved it, and admired the skill of the author tapping into her readership’s desires so expertly ( tragic but noble teenage girl at centre of steamy love triangle, forced to become a glamourous celebrity against her will, now out to kill!)

Now I’d really like to see those retro-dandyish “Capitol” fashions take the world by storm…

A movie with heart

“Love in the Buff” follows on from 2011′s Hong Kong hit “Love in a Puff“, a bitingly sarcastic but big hearted romantic comedy about two Hong Kong workers united on their illicit smoking breaks. Surprisingly, director Pang Ho-Cheung’s (“Dream Home”) latest installment is even better.

And its not just the eery parallels to my own life that made me like it (Hong Kong love story transplanted to Bejing.) The film sees the “…Puff” couple broken up and moved to Beijing where they stumble back together, behind the backs of the new respective partners. It is interesting that I cannot recall many rom-coms where the audience is invited to sympathise with the ‘adulterers’. Also very matter-of-fact is the character’s reliance on texting and computers – so often badly portrayed on screen but here absolutely authentic, as well as the spiky, sarcastic conversations between the two lovers and some well-observed moments leading to highly relateable squabbles. It has an honesty that I have never seen in American films of the genre.

Pop star Miriam Yeung puts in a great performance as the hard-faced, likeable but slightly bitchy main female protagonist, a role that could easily have become a cheap cariacature while former teen pretty boy Shawn Yue plays the male lead.

The bilingual (Mandarin/Cantonese) film is funny, sweet and insightful. Recommended.

New Favourite Movie: Harper

I watched this movie on cable the other day and its the first time in ages I have “discovered” an old movie that I have enjoyed so much. The 1966 Paul Newman detective flick is the height of Cold War kitsch; a purring Lauren Bacall as an ageing belle, dancing in mambo clubs, chicks in bikinis doing the bus stop, tiki-style hotel rooms….

Every time Paul Newman walks into a new room the audience is treated to a new eye-bleeding interior with a funky midcentury soundtrack. Recommended.

Days of being wild

With Wong Kar Wai still mysteriously absent from the HK cultural landscape (his latest film was supposed to be out last year) its a good time for a reminder of his talent. So much has changed since he reigned over Cannes as a critic’s darling, and his influence has faded. But living here in Hong Kong has made me appreciate him all the more. In a very conventional city, I can appreciate his raw off-the-wall talent and unconventional style even more. To see it in action, head down to the Yau Ma Tei Broadway Cinemathique tomorrow for a screening of his dreamy, bittersweet “Days of Being Wild”.

They don’t make ‘em like that anymore.

Persian angst

Ironically given the recent Iranian-backed bomb attack on the city, I picked up this movie in a Bangkok street market. It its great – truly worthy of all the Oscars hype. The beauty of the film is that every character is flawed. Everyone is wrong – and you can sympathize with everyone of them.

Recommended.

Bangkok Primitive

Although he stands out for his unpronounceable name, director Apichatpong Weerasethakul makes movies that are just as unwieldy. Not that he is wilfully “confrontational” though . Anything but. He eschews flashy shock tactics  for slow, gentle meditations on life where little happens and when it does, it rarely seems to make much immediate sense.

Yet there are those who consider him a visionary, a cinematic genius even. Among them was the jury of the 2010 Cannes film festival, who awarded him their highest prize.  The decision was greeted with surprise in Thailand where the director is (or was, at least) little known, his films struggling to find an audience.

Now Weerasethakul is bringing his non-linear vision back to Bangkok for another try. Fresh from his showing at the New Museum in New York, the director has unveiled a “multimedia installation” in Bangkok titled Primitive.

The videos in the installation show slow, dreamy sequences of teenagers in the small Thai town of Nabua. They skim rocks over rivers, tease each other homoerotically and construct a space ship. This is intercut with images of soldiers and war.

The show is – apparently – a commentary on the buried history of Nabua, a site of massacres and actrocities by the Thai army during a 1960s anti-Communist drive.  These events are little remembered now, but the exhibition aims to trace the way that recollections of them doin fact linger on in the town, under the surface.

Or something.

“Primitive” is on show until February 29th at the Jim Thompson House. Admission is free.

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Remember His Past Lives

Terrible Beauty

It is not yet the end of January, but Melancholia has already blown everything I saw last year out of the water. True to form, miserabalist Lars Von Trier has made a bleak film (life is pointless, then we all die) which would be easy to dismiss – were it not so heartbreakingly beautiful. And despite the fabulous leap of imagination in the film’s premise- a depressed bride ponders the impending end of the world due to a collision with newly discovered planet, “Melancholia”- so much of the film rings so true. The details are so finely observed and the acting so realistic, it took my breath away.

Kirsten Dunst’s performance is startling, and so is Charlotte Gainsbourg as her sister. Exuding a casual elegance, Gainsbourg makes being a tired-looking fortysomething French woman the coolest thing in the world.

And the end of life as we know it here is so different from every other “Independence Day”, “2012″ or “War of the Worlds”. There are no rousing speeches, no hysterical crowds, just a couple of sisters on a country estate, sinking into the realisation that it is all about to end, and there is nowhere to run, gazing up fearfully at the strangely beautiful new world that is about to annihilate them.

Its an intimate armaggedon.

The movie is harsh, elegant, depressing and weirdly…wonderful. It stayed with me for days. Recommended.

The Viral Factor

“The Viral Factor” is one of this year’s big Chinese New Year box office releases. The action flick has received blanket pre-publicity in Hong Kong with billboards on the subway and the sides of buses. This due to the film’s two high profile stars, playing estranged brothers, one a cop and one a maniacal criminal. Nicholas Tse (who was filming in Kuala Lumpur during his recent marriage crisis) plays the crim with Taiwanese pop star and Hollywood starlet Jay Chou as the “good guy”.

He looks hot with a scruffy beard in the promos.

I’m looking forward to seeing it.

Kohaku (Confession)

When I lived in Japan there was something that used to bother me about the country. It took me a long time to figure out what that was, but it finally dawned on me – it was the complete lack of cynicism. Japan is the least cynical country on earth. What did it say about me, I wondered,  that I judged this a fault?? But perhaps if I had seen “Kohaku (The Confession”) then, I would have changed my mind.

This is one dark film, especially as a teacher. I was actually quite depressed after watching it. In the film, educators are depicted uniformly as hopelessly naive and ineffectual,while the school students – cynically -are all callous, indifferent or downright cruel.

Nonetheless it is beautifully filmed. This, and the Radiohead score, give it a cinematic quality sorely missing from the bulk of Japanese films.

The Housemaid

Remake of the classic – and fabulous – 1960s Korean psychological thriller of the same name. Completely changed the ending though.