Well, we're midway through FantasiaFest, 2007 edition and already I have used up most of my tickets. I have three movies left to see and what about the ones I have seen already, one might say, hm?
Well, I was very well pleased by the Kim Ki-Duk film Shigan (Time), about a woman who decides to undergo plastic surgery so that she can "start anew" with a boyfriend with which she maintains a relationship permeated with extreme jealousy from her part.
As usual, Kim Ki-Duk shows his significant doses of misogyny, dark humor, sarcasm, criticism of the modern world, and an uncanny ability to disturb the viewers while keeping them riveted to their seat. Granted, Shigan may not be his best film, but in the context of FantasiaFest it rates pretty high. It was preceded by an excellent short film centered on human/android relationships. Thanks to naff for coning to see this one on such short notice.
Then I saw The Restless, which was a big disappointment. The beginning was promising, with the Vagabond figure battling demons and then a comical representation of MidHeavean, with attention to details, but halfway it got muddled in bad acting, sappy love stories and repetitive action scenes... This could have been much better if they had cut the crap (a third of the movie) and... what was with the tranvestite character? The outside scenes were breathtaking though.
Saturday eve I saw Adams æbler with croustine; it's a Danish flick by none other than Anders Thomas Jensen, the same guy who shot In China They Eat Dogs , Mørke and Old Men in New Cars and a few Dogmas (see Lars Von Trier for that). Adams æbler is definitely one of his best, and one of the best movies I have seen at FantasiaFest. It follows the story of an unlucky priest and a Neo-Nazi ex-convict as well as a few outcast characters and their road to Redemption. Brutally funny and well-played, I would have enjoyed it more were it not for the bumbling projecting staff at De Sève cinema room.
Sunday I saw Volkodav iz roda serykh psov (Wolfhound) with my good friend Penchi; it's a big-budget fantasy film, to which I laughed pretty hard or the almost three hours it lasted. It was not THAT bad but some scenes were just too much, especially when the hero's pet fruitbat decides to join in the fighting and the racist overtones of the meeting with the "Karyok" a backward tribe in the middle of the taiga. Some scenes were vaguely reminiscent of "Lord of The Rings". I'm curious as to what the novels that this movie is based on look like...
Monday was the late night screening of Aachi wa Ssipak which was also plagued with techical fumbles from the part of the projecting staff. It was at the very end, at an especially climactic scene. The animation made me think about an old cartoon I saw in the seventies, and some of the scenes were of a violence that would make South Park's duo cringe. Mostly, it was very inventive but I would not brand it a masterpiece. Entertaining, yes. Groundbreaking, no.
At least it was different from the Japanese manga crap we usually get served at this festival.
Last Tuesday I finally saw Jadesoturi (Jade Warrior) with Tower, Oktobre, and Anne. I was not disappointed. The slow pace, verbosity and subtle visuals were in total phase with the Finnish sensibility, placing itself on the same typw of narrative structure of the Kalevala, from which it is in the most part inspired. Thankfully, there were no flurry of "jump in the sky" martial arts, and the main actor did not massacre his Chinese too much. I think most people in the audience didn't get the movie, but, hey, that's Finland : very difficult to grasp and mostly incomprehensible to people who are not used to listening.
This was definitely a good movie and I was pleasantly surprised to hear one of my favorite musicians in the soundtrack, accordeon player extraordinaire Kimmo Pohjonen. Jade Warrior and Adam's Apples are decidedly going to be in my DVD collection.