Have you ever thought to yourself that while you were watching the sublime Coen Brothers film “Blood Simple” that there would be a different take on the film? Maybe wondering what it would look like if say a famous international director decided to pay tribute to the movie with his/her vision of the story line? Well folks your prayers are answered as Zhagng Yimou decided that Blood Simple needed to be remade with some Asian period piece flair and today I will talk about the exciting and wonderful remake, A Woman, A Gun and A Noodle Shop.
A horror suspense film that spans 88 minutes and is done in one continuous take. If that doesn’t get you the least bit curious then I don’t know what will. Now I want people to realize that this is for the Uruguayan original movie, not for the recent remake with Elizabeth Olsen entitled “Silent House”. Hollywood is so creative these days. While the remake is interesting in it’s own right, I definitely want to touch on the original movie since I got a hold of a copy of this movie and well, I was incredibly drawn into the movie and premise that is supposedly based on real events in a small village. I am not certain if that is true or not, but I was more impressed by witnessing a continuous, one take horror movie.
Through my time of watching countless movies, you can get a little bit of tunnel vision so to speak. Genres tend to run together, particular films look like the other and you can get a bit burned out of watching movies again and again. Variety is the only thing that can break you out of the slump of blurred film lines, hopefully punching up a particular genre to get you excited about watching another zombie film or superhero movie. One genre in particular that I can’t only watch a few of before it gets stale are Gangster films. If you have seen one gritty, gangster film, you have probably seen them all. But the same could be said for any genre, so take it for what you will. Thankfully though, there are gangster films that don’t follow the same formula of the underling making his way to the top or the typical mafia don commanding the loyalty his group to rule for generations. Take the Infernal Affairs trilogy for example, it managed to offer and thrilling take on the mob genre by looking at both the law side of taking down mobs and the side in which the mob deals with law enforcements efforts to stop them. So I decided on a little International flavor this time around with a look at the Korean gangster film, A Dirty Carnival.
Now pick your jaw off the floor and get ready for this review. We as a film audience have been spoiled and lied to time and time again. Action movies are about as common as the air we breathe so we almost become numb to the sort of whiz bang effect that these types of movies can have on us. You can go to any rental store or even check out Netflix and realize that the action genre is over bloated with bad action movies. Stuff with too much shaky cam or crappy fight scenes or hell, not enough action to sate the lust that we have for bone crunching punches and unlimited ammo usage. I am not knocking all action films, just the bad ones that we pass for entertainment. There is one thing that amazes me though and that is the international film market for action movies.
Hong Kong hit the scenes with the John Woo classics that look like American films pumped up on the juice and it showed. It set the standard for duel wielding guns with an almost ballet like style to the gun fights. Then for those kung fu enthusiasts, look no further to Thailand that reinvigorate the fight genre with Ong Bak and making Tony Jaa a household name. But for the ultimate in cinematic satisfaction, we look to Welsh director Gareth Evans and his Indonesian film, The Raid: Redemption.
Not really the sort of film to follow up my previous Movie of the Day, but one that can’t be ignored either because of the subject matter. I can’t begin to state that I am not fully into Geo-political conflicts, so my knowledge of the depiction of the Algerian War is a bit fractured, but make no mistake that the subject matter depicted in the film is a stark reminder of the current situation that we face during our military campaigns. Whenever I hear about certain world conflicts in the news, my mind wanders towards this film. It isn’t because of some knee-jerk reaction, but because the film itself is an important piece of cinema that managed to capture the spirit and impact of the beginning of a revolution.
Keeping this Scandinavian film train running, this time we head to Norway for some troll hunting. Much like the previous movie of the day, I enjoy a good twisted take on certain established folklore or stories. This time, it is all about trolls and not like the one that Ernest fought in that movie “Ernest Scared Stupid”. These trolls are the thing of legend from Mountain trolls and Forrest Trolls, this is pretty much the best thing in the world. I have been to Norway and was sadden by the lack of trolls that I saw and since this is a found footage film, they exist cause Hollywood wouldn’t lie to me and show fictitious things. Would they?
Time for sexy spy, thriller, Asian film, which I am certain that statement has filled some niche fetish out there, but I am talking about a classy sexy spy thriller. Lust, Caution is another phenomenal from Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) that is both a historical, period piece and also a finely tuned spy thriller. The film though is more so remembered for the controversy that it courted as it was rated NC-17 for explicit sex scenes. Sadly this movie will be remembered for that fact rather than the beautiful acting and engaging story. It’s weird that if you bring up this film, the sex scenes are probably the only thing that people will recall if they have heard of the movie. What the fuck is the deal with people being hung up about a little acrobatic sex in movies? Well I want to do this film justice and also talk about the sex scenes for some additional page views.
Voyeurs, watchers, peeping toms, whatever the terms you want to attribute to yourself, we all partake in this activity in some fashion or another. I hope not the peeping tom one cause that is just weird and probably illegal. Anyways, when we watch films or television, we all engage in the act of voyeurism. While the term itself has more of a negative connotation, a sexual one if you will, we all watching movies to get a glimpse into something that we aren’t generally exposed to. It’s the dirty little secret that we all have, wanting to uncover something about someone through the act of looking into their lives. Films makes this a safe activity for us to engage in, but some films take the aspect of voyeurism and expand upon it. Instead of watching people’s lives through a particular looking glass, films like American Beauty and The Truman Show, are more of the safe versions of storytelling that utilize voyeurism to its advantage. We peer into one’s life, without ever really getting any secrets, just surface information. The personalized nature of the film means we care just a bit more and are wrapped up in the characters ongoing dilemmas.
There are films though that take the voyeur angle and weaves a story that eventually unravels before your eyes. Secrets, intimacy, and hidden pasts all come out just by the act of watching someone. Caché is a French film that hides in plain sight, watching, waiting and uncovering truths and secrets about a particular family that starts to tear apart the protagonists, all from an unflinching point of view.
Time for a little international flavor in today’s post and I decided to hit upon a film that I completely took a chance on one day at the local (no longer there) Blockbuster. I don’t have a lot of experience with Dutch cinema or any cinema that resides near the Nordic crust of the world, so the only thing that I had to go off of for this movie was that it dealt with an aging assassin who is slowly losing his mind and taking on the traditional, “one last job”. Billed as a police procedural thriller, with some elements of Memento, I must admit that I was hooked and glad that I decided to spend the 5 bucks to buy the movie. I wouldn’t say this is my first foray into watching Dutch films, but in all honesty, this is a compelling story, even with the paint by numbers structure.
So at first glance this might seem like a trailer for a 16 and Pregnant or Teen Mom MTV made movie. Then you realize it’s in French and that immediately means MTV has nothing to do with it as I assume their demographic isn’t French savvy and will watch Dancing with the Stars once they realize what they are watching. So now that I have insulted MTV viewers (don’t care), L’Enfant or The Child is really about the pangs of teenage life and the complicated decisions that surround the circumstances of having a child. The film is a quiet one, catching you off guard with the simple premise and the heartfelt story. While it didn’t strike a nerve with me since I am not a teen nor do I have a kid, but the earnest portrayal of two down on their luck teens really put things into perspective.
