Hey folks, Harry here... Seems like Champagne 2000 has LOST HIS MIND over this mysterious film that just played at the FANTASTIC FILM FESTIVAL OF GERARDMER in France! Ya see folks, sometimes the great ones play at the festivals that you may have never heard of. The big fests tend to have a snobbery against cool film that prevents something like this playing... BUT all I know is I'm more excited about this than anything I read about at Sundance this year. Read on...
Hi folks... Edgard here with a special report from Champagne 2000... Champagne 2000 who will never be the same again after seeing a mysterious film during the Fantastic Film Festival of Gerardmer in France... Champagne 2000 who warns us about "it"... cult film ahead...
Hello everyone... Champagne 2000 reports...
This year it seems Sundance didn't offer to the moviegeeks hungry for adrenalin THE film that would be at the center of all discussions in the upcoming months... That's bad news... hopefully Champagne 2000 and the army of European scouts (as in scouting not as in "boy scout") kept their position during Sundance and guess what ?? They saw THE thing...
Forget about all the little wonders discovered in Sundance. Forget about all the films seen since the beginning of the year. Forget about everything.
It was night. We were in the middle of the French region of the Vosges during the Festival of the Film Fantastic of Gérardmer. The camp was set; men were resting and nothing seemed to come from the horizon. But suddenly THE thing appeared to our eyes. No noise; no one heard it coming. IT showed itself only twice before, during two festivals in Japan. It was huge. From a very very rare breed. The kind of breed to traumatize any normally constitued moviefan, the kind of breed to provoke standing ovations and hysteria during the showing.
IT is from the same breed as BRAINDEAD (Peter Jackson) or THE BLADE (Tsui Hark). IT is a futur revolutionnary cult film. If I am waiting before mentionning its title it's because once I will write it down it will haunt you... This year its reputation will grow and the shockwave will be huge.
THE thing is Japanese, directed by RyuheiKitamura and last 2 hours. To make it simple, let's just say it takes place in a forest and follows a man and a woman hunted down by a group of bad guys.
Then what ?
Then there're zombies.
Then there're revolutionnary sabre fights.
Then they're discreet references but well inserted (BABY CART, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, EVIL DEAD,...)
Then there's a lot of humour.
When Americans and Europeans are desesperatly trying to make action scenes as good as they make it in Hong Kong (good luck guys !), a Japanese director decided to do better... and he made it !
The sabre fights are as original and new as were the ones from ASHES OF TIME (from Wong Kar Wai) or THE BLADE (from Tsui Hark) in their time.
But there's more... added to the incredible action scenes, there're also beautiful romantic scenes between the two heroes (with also a great soundtrack... as I said EVERYTHING is a dream for moviefan in this film !).
A little message for our friends the producers who will bring us their big boring blockbusters next summer : the budget of this film is 400,000 $. Yes... that's about the cost of coffee breaks of your next blockbuster. Hey Michael B., do you want to know how many steadycam Ryuhei Kitamura used in his film ? Just one day of louma and one day of Steadycam !! (when you'll see this wonderful film you will wonder how they did it).
This film was presented during the night from Saturday to Sunday in this Gerardmer Festival. At the end of the show, around 3.00 am, when lights came back on, Bill Pullman (member of the Jury) went straight to the staff of the film (8 very cool Japanese guys were there to present the film) to tell them how amazing was what he just saw.
For us lovers of Sam Raimi, Peter Jackson, Tsui Hark... we were traumatized...
Get ready...
Get ready for...
VERSUS
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CHAMPAGNE 2000
