Old School HK gangster action - The Exiled

Johnny To continues to deliver, on a high level. The Exiled takes place in Macau, in 1998 before the handover to China (a topic similarly used as a backdrop in Isabella) where a triad leader, Boss Fay (Simon Yam), wants a hit on a hitman Wo (Nick Cheung). To his house comes two paris of hitmen -- one, led by Blaze (Anthony Wong), and the other led by Tai (Francis Ng). Observing this is a policeman who is hours away from retirement, and Wo's wife, Jin (Josie Ho). Tai wants to let Wo live, as he did him a favor some time ago, and there is a job that Wo has to finish. Blaze though has his orders, and there is a terrific gunfight in the apartment, though amazingly, no one is hurt. Even more amazingly, all of them proceed to clean up the place, repair the damaged doors and furniture, cook a meal and sit down together! As hitmen they all have a common background, and we see a sense of comraderie that separate themselves from the triad. They head on over to a contact man, in a hotel/brothel where he gives them possible work for assassinating various figures. But they want something local, quick and big. He has a job for them: stealing a gold shipment from the government. Meanwhile, Boss Fay is angry that Blaze has not yet killed Wo, and goes to confront them. A shootout ensues, and both Fay and Wo are injured. The others manage to escape and take Wo to a private doctor, who attends to his wound. But Boss Fay and his men come, seeking the same medical treatment! The others hide while the gang is in the same room, although it is not long before Wo is discovered. Another shootout ensues, and Wo is killed. They escape and tell Jin, who is distraught. As they leave she takes one of the guns and straps her child to her back, seeking vengeance. The others go out into the countryside to do the ambush on the armored truck; however, their car beaks down. They fall upon a bit of luck when after a long hike they come across a main road where the truck is driving down. They ambush the truck, and not wanting to hurt any one, split the money among everyone present. Returning back to the hotel, they produce the money. Boss Fay is there with his men, as is Jin. Realizing that they are trapped, they engage in one final shootout in which all are killed, except Jin and her child.

Exiled is another standout film by Johnny To. It recalls the glory years of the late 80's and early 90's gangster films, but with a much more mature and highly skilled sensibility, that all those years of directing have provided. The fight scenes recall John Woo with the slow motion balladry. The acting is cool and reserved, except for the Jin character. For those seeking HK action, this is a well worth pick up.

Mitchum and Takakura - The Yakuza

The Yakuza is a 70's classic. A hybrid of Eastern and Western genres, the hard boiled mystery and the yakuza film, director Sydney Pollock created a film that shows the similarities and differences between the cultures. Robert Mitchum and Ken Takakura star in the best roles of either man's careers as surviving ex-World War II soldiers from opposite side. Harry once saved the life of Ken's sister Eiko, for that he owes the American an obligation, one that tears him apart for twenty years, for he served on the losing side. Harry receives a call from an old war buddy, Tanner, who runs an import/export shipping business. Apparently he had been dealing with Japanese yakuza for gun running, and they thought he welched on their deal, as he had not supplied them with arms. So they went and kidnapped his daughter. Not wanting to deal with the police, Tanner wants Harry to go to Japan and recover his daughter, using some of his old connections. Harry goes, along with his Tanner's son who will provide backup, and they stay at a mutual friend's house. Before anything can start, Harry pays a call to Eiko, his old flame from when he was stationed in Japan. She was still running the bar that Harry had raised the money to start for her. In spite of the years, there is still a love for each other. Her daughter, now grown to a beautiful young woman, is reunited with him as well. Harry asks Eiko where her brother is, and she tells him that he is no longer in the gangster world, having withdrawn from it and is now a martial arts teacher in Kyoto. He goes there and meets Ken at his school. Harry calls in on the old obligation, and along with Tanner's son, they find out where the daughter is and rescue her. Unfortunately, they kill two men in the process, and the boss of that gang wants retribution. Ken goes into hiding. Harry, having done his job, says goodbye to Eiko and is about to leave the country, but realizes that he has left Ken in a tough position. He feels that he has an obligation to Ken to help him out. Meanwhile, the yakuza boss and Tanner have a meeting. The boss wants to know what happened to the money, and Tanner admits to stealing it and using it for his own personal interests. The funds were invested and wasted. As both sides still need each other to do business, the yakuza boss decides that he is willing to overlook the matter if only Tanner can do one thing: eliminate his friend Harry. Gangsters storm the house where Harry is staying, and Tanner's son and Eiko's daughter are killed. Ken and Harry flee. They find out that Tanner and the yakuza have made an arrangement, and they decide to take action. Harry finds Tanner at his foreign office branch and kills him and a bunch of his men. Ken, armed with a sword, along with Harry, invade the yakuza boss' den and proceed to wipe out the whole gang, in a long fierce fight scene. The men survive, debts paid, grudges dissolved, and they part with a new found friendship and respect for one another.

Mitchum enjoyed a resurgence in his career in the 70's. Films like The Long Goodbye and this one brought Mitchum back to the screen as an older, wiser, and more explosive hard boiled actor than in the 40's and 50's. Good scripts helped, and Paul Schraeder (who did the screenplay for Taxi Driver) wrote a fine tale of an older generation still struggling to survive their past. Pollock used a Japanese cast and crew to do the movie, with only a few American actors, and the result was a finely crafted, meditative work that delivered punches at all the right moments. The two major fight scenes -- one at the guest house, where the children of the main characters are killed, and the final battle at the yakuza house -- are excellent, with fast cuts and lots of movement. Ken Takakura was a major star in Japan, a la Clint Eastwood, and here you can see why -- he is Mitchum's equal in screen presence and acting, a tough, brooding, silent man who as the character Ken is still after 20 year past the war tormented by obligations that conflict with his values. Apparently there is a longer version that came out (though not on dvd), but really, this 114 minute edition is tight. I don't see how the 123 minute version could be better, but of course, in this day of restoration and completeness, there are a few who are disappointed in the release. I believe Pollock must have had some say in this version -- he gave the audio commentary. This may be one of those times where less is more -- there are a few films where I wish they left well enough alone. A great 70's film, one that finally is released on dvd. Highly recommended!

Remastered Kurosawa samurai dvds

I'm not going to do a full review of these two Japanese classics; a lot has been written about them and more in depth than I could ever do. But I will say that having owned the original Criterion dvds, these are superior quality prints. I could never figure out what happened on the original dvds -- for instance, on the original Sanjuro dvd, there were artifacts, pinholes and damage to the print, making it even worse than the VHS release. The sound was murky as well. Here, we get the original 3 channel stereo that was used for both films, and the image quality is far superior. And the extras include the episodes of It's Wonderful to Create, a good documentary about Akira Kurosawa and the making of his films -- of course the episodes here deal with the mentioned films. Copious notes abound in the booklets. If you have been on the fence about upgrading, jump off and buy these. You won't be disappointed.

For Horowitz

For Horowitz is about a woman (Ji-Su, played by Uhm Jung-Hwa) whose family sacrificed everything to put her into music school. However talented she was, she could not attain the next essential step to developing her career: studying abroad. Ji-Su ended up becoming a woman in her thirties, still single, and her career on hold. To regain some control and direction, she moves to a small city and takes over an old studio where she plans to give lessons to those who are serious about music. But she finds out that teaching in a less populated area means less talent. Mothers bring in their sons or daughters who are mediocre at best. There is a boy (Gyung-Min, played by Shin Eui-Jae) that she has run in with, a troublemaker who causes havoc around him, especially the pizza place below her studio. He steals her posters advertising her studio, breaks windows, just causes a general mess. Ji-Su finds the boy's grandmother -- his only family member and guardian -- and finds that she is no better at controlling her grandson. On top of everything else, while attending a piano recital by an old mentor, she encounters her fellow classmates, all of whom are having various degrees of success, and who are still trying to compete against each other to succeed. She finds it demeaning and distasteful. One day, she is trying to deal with Gyung-Min -- in an arguement with the grandmother she boasted that she could do a better job feeding him, and the grandmother took her up on it -- and discovers that he has a talent for playing the piano, having the ear to reproduce notes perfectly. She decides to teach him, and he becomes a willing pupil. Gyung-Min's talent is such that she begins to dream fame and fortune for the both of them -- in reality, she is happy to take him to a department store, where they find a piano, and he in effect becomes an advertisement for her studio. Soon she is swamped with children, including the pizza man downstairs, who has become smitten with her beauty and her playing, and has decided to take lessons to be near her. But Gyung-Min becomes jealous at the lack of attention that she now gives him, and starts trouble by picking fights with the kids. Horrified mothers take their children out of class, and soon she is down a handful of students. The relationship between Ji-Su and Gyung-Min become closer to mother and son, yet there are still some barriers -- he has flashbacks to a car accident that killed his parents, and is afraid of bright light. And she is living though him in music success. At his first competition, he is nervous but prepared, yet becomes paralyzed by the spotlights that turn on in his face. Gyung-Min never competes, and embarrassed, Ji-Su refuses to teach him anymore. Their separation causes anxiety for both, and she eventually finds him and reconcile. One evening they meet the teacher's old classmate, who invites them to a house where a visiting music teacher and his wife are staying. After Gyung-Min does an impromptu recital, he gains their favor, and afterwords is invited to study under the professor overseas. This is the opportunity that Ji-Su never had, and she has mixed feelings about it, thinking that she can do just as good a job. After the boy's grandmother dies in the hospital, she plans on adopting the boy. Her family though does not think she is up to the task, especially as a single woman. Her brother thinks that he is better off overseas, under the professor's tutelage. Confronted with the fact that she was never given this opportunity, and that she still hasn't progressed much in her social life, she concedes. They have a tearful departure. Years later, she and the pizza man are a couple, and attend a piano recital by a new prominent pianist. It is Gyung-Min, now grown to be a masterful musician. He dedicates a piece to her, and it is a tune that he made up one day in class.

This is an enjoyable film, even though it has a by the book plot. Uhm Jung-Hwa and Shin Eui-Jae give solid performances that show depth and complexity that makes their on screen relationship so moving. The music, so often annoying or generic background noise in many Korean melodramas, is excellent in this film, as it should be. The direction is excellent, conveying emotion without hysterics, effectively telling the story, giving flashbacks and revealing dreams that add to the story and not be a distraction. Recommended.

Mikio Naruse's Sound of the Mountain

Eureka's Masters of Cinema series is a great source for the dvd foreign film junkie. Based in England, this label has quietly built a fine catalogue of old movies, most of which have never been available for home release, let alone dvd. Over the holidays I ordered the anticipated 3 dvd set of Mikio Naruse's films, and received it around the New Year. The quality, annotation and commendary rival Criterion -- the only caveat is that their releases are PAL, so you need a universal dvd player with a good built in PAL converter to see these. Sound of the Mountain is one of the three films offered in the box set, based on the novel by Yasunari Kawabata. It is a story of a loveless marriage, the husband (played by Ken Uehara, a major male lead) not caring for his wife (played by legendary actress Setsuko Hara), and her growing relationship between her and her father in law (played by Yamamura). The marriage is in name only; and both have learned to hide their disgust towards each other. When her husband's sister suddenly moves into the family home, child in tow, the wife's self made world slowly crumbles as she sees in her sister in law the possible outcome of her own marriage. On top of that, she is also pregnant, and struggles with the concept of bearing her husband's child. The only meaningful person in her life is her father in law, who tries to rectify his son's bad behavior by investigating the son's adulterous relationship with a mistress, and trying to reform his bad ways, but it is too late. The wife decides to have an abortion. The final scene of the film, a famous walk in the park sequence, shows the wife (who has now left the house) and the father in law in a state of resignation as to their lot in life, a note of fondness between the two and a goodbye. It is one of the most lyrical and moving scenes in cinema.

Silent film obsession - Piccadilly

One of the pinnacles of British silent cinema, Piccadilly is a sumptuous showbiz melodrama seething with sexual and racial tension. The Chinese-American screen goddess Anna May Wong stars as Shosho, a scullery maid in a fashionable London nightclub whose sensuous tabletop dance catches the eye of suave club owner Valentine Wilmot. She rises to become the toast of London and the object of his erotic obsession - to the bitter jealousy of Mabel, his former lover and star dancer (played by Ziegfeld Follies star Gilda Gray).
-BFI review

Piccadilly is a remarkable silent film that is more memorable for the charismatic screen presence of Anna May Wong, than its melodramatic plot. Pandora's Box, which came out the same year, has a more powerful story, but Piccadilly touches upon the then taboo relationship between races. Forbidden desire toward those not like ourselves seemed daring, romantic and exotic, but they could never be consummated on film. The lover, whether male or female, always returned to white society, while the other fell victim to self sacrifice. Anna May Wong complained that for most of her career her characters always died at the end. Here is no exception. But Piccadilly offers her the best screen role of her career. As a dishwash girl in a fancy nightclub, she as Shosho is discovered as a hidden talent to the club owner, who is not happy with the draw of his current star, Mabel, who was a former lover. She is discovered because he goes down to the washroom to fire someone for not properly cleaning a dish, which was served to a customer. Shosho was dancing on the countertop, and was reprimanded. But Wilmot, the club owner, saw potential, and later takes her under his wing and grooms her to be the next star of the club. Shosho is no starry eyed neophyte; she is smart enough to demand control over her look and to hire a family member to play the music. Her performance is a hit. Mabel is jealous of her success, and of Wilmot's increasing ardor for her. An argument follows, and Shosho is killed. A twisting courtroom trial follows, and the killer is sentanced.

While having notable parts in the silent Thief of Bagdad and Peter Pan, Anna May Wong captured worldwide notice with her role in Piccadilly. She was perfect for silent film -- her eyes and body language oozed sensuality and expression. This is one of the only films where she is allowed to kiss a white man. The director, E.A. DuPont captures the feel of 1920's jazz age London as well as the grimy underworld that barely separated the two. The overall acting of the cast is good, probably above average for it's day, but for modern viewers it will seem a little stiff. Recommended to silent film lovers and those with an interest in the screen legend of Ann May Wong.

Creature Feature or Social Commentary? The Host

Sorry for the delay. I was in a car accident the first weekend of the New Year, where my vehicle was totalled. Fortunately, everyone was all right. Dealing with paperwork and getting a new car has preoccupied my time, but don't think I haven't been watching movies. No siree!

We'll start off with what was the top box office draw in South Korea in 2006, a film called The Host. It's a difficult movie to label -- it isn't a horror film, nor, in spite the cover shot, is it a monster movie. It does share many traits of a classic film, Godzilla, in that the focus is not on the beast but what created it, the victims, and the society it affects. The Host is without a doubt one of the more unique cinema offerings that South Korea has produced in a few years. The story begins with a look inside a US military lab in Seoul, where an assistant is ordered to dump vast amounts of formadelyde into the sink, which is eventually emptied into the Han River. A couple of years later some fishermen come across a weird species of reptile, and disgusted, toss it back into the sea. Later, a man commits suicide by diving into the river from a bridge. We then focus on a man and his father who work a vending house along the Han River, selling food to people who come to picnic or for lunches. Song Kang Ho plays Gang-du, the vender's son who seems to be a good for nothing slacker who sleeps all the time. He is divorced, and has a thirteen year old daughter who returns from school, disgusted that for parent's day her drunken uncle was the only family member who could attend. The daughter has an aunt who is a professional sportsman, an archer who wins bronze in a televised championship. While correcting a botched order, Gang-du goes to the riverside, where he finds the people staring at something underneath the bridge. To his astonishment, it is a huge mammal hanging upside down like a bat, which then dives into the river. It takes some food tossed to it in the river, then comes out of the water and begins to devour the people. Chaos ensues, and Gang-du rushes back to the vending house, and grabs his daughter as she comes out to see what is going on. In the frenzy, they fall and lose contact. She is taken by the monster and dragged into the sea. The survivors of the incident are later gathered at city hall, in disbelief and grieving for their lost loved ones. There Gang-du's family come together and grieve over his daughter's death. A man in a yellow protective suit comes in, and warns that they are all going to be decontaminated and placed under examination, as the creature apparently infected a US soldier who was at the scene. While at the hospital, Gang-du receives a garbled cell phone call from his daughter -- somehow she survived, and was at the bottom of a huge sewer. The family, while each having personal difficulties in the past, band together and escape from the hospital, and head for the Han River. With the help of some local gangsters they get some weapons and a sewer map, and they head into the vast sewer system, looking for the daughter. They find the creature and attack it, but they only manage to annoy it, and in the fight the father is killed. Gang-du is captured again by the military, but his brother and sister escape. The brother finds out the location of the phone call, with the aid of a friend who turns around and betrays him by informing the officials, but he escapes. The sister, armed with her crossbow, is given the daughter's coordinates and goes into the tunnel to find her. She immediately runs into the creature, and is knocked unconscious. Gang-du, after a terrifying series of examinations, takes a nurse hostage and flees the holding area, which happens to be near the river. He steals a car and heads off to the sewers, where he runs into his family again. The daughter, realizing that she is in a repository for the creature's victims, is searching for a way out. A boy who was part of a recent deposit, survives. She takes care of him, and makes a rope out of the victims' clothes to try to escape. But the creature appears, and they hide in a little hole that the creature can't get into. Later it sleeps, and the daughter is determined to get out, but climbng on the creature to the rope and to safety. She almost makes it, but the creature awakes, and devours the children. It confronts the family later on, but Gang-du and his siblings are ready: the sister fires a Molotov cocktail arrow and sears the creature, Gang-du himself delivers the death blow with a metal pole. The children are coughed up; however, only the boy survives. The virus is later admitted to be a hoax, and political apologies are made. The boy ends up living with Gang-du at the vending house.

What makes The Host a unique and refreshing film for me is that there are no clichés, no familiar elements that one would expect. It is a well thought out film. Perhaps we are to infer that formaldehyde, when dumped in large quantities, will make monsters, or maybe not. But the idea is that of careless waste (in particular by a foreign element, the US military) of toxic substances could affect out natural resources. There is a lot of political stuff going on, but it is all in the background. What is more unnerving is the handling of a major disaster by the authorities, in managing and containing exposure to prevent outbreak. The military is shown but not as integral to the plot as the doctors and disease control agents who create chaos of their own. I think more than any other film from South Korea do I get some sense of the American presence in their culture, and how they can be perceived as both ally and a friend who has long outstayed his welcome. Gang-du and his dysfunctional family make for unique heroes in a movie -- they all have their problems, and at times don't get a long with each other, but in the end they work together to avenge the daughter's death. The direction is terrific -- direct, even paced and providing unusual twists. It clocks in at just under two hours. The Host lives up to its hype -- there has been tremendous interest in the film festivals and on the internet -- a well done film. Check it out!