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Christmas Eve's INTERNATIONAL EYE CANDY Column: Miike, IMAGO MORTIS, MUTANTS and other Holiday fares!
International Eye Candy December 24th, 2008 Yes, boys and girls, it's Christmas Eve and I'm spending my evening writing another edition of the ol' International Eye Candy. And why? Because I love you all, that's why, and dammit I'm gonna give you the best present I can. And you know what? BLACK DYNAMITE loves you all, too, and offers you all this charming holiday greeting. I'd caution that it's not work safe but that kind of goes without saying with a cat as virile as BLACK DYNAMITE and nobody in their right mind is at work right now anyway. One other thing before we get on with the Eye Candy ... Last time out I had a few requests for a year end wrap up and I have obliged. I started out aiming for a Top Ten list but couldn't bear to whittle it down below twenty five and then promptly realized I'd missed one that probably would've made the Top Ten had I done it that way and so I added it in and ended up with the 2008 list of Films What Todd Likes. Peruse, enjoy and take a minute to tell me what an asshole I am for including Film A while overlooking the obviously superior Film B. Because if you can't swear at a Best Of list then what can you swear at, really? But enough of that! What lies within this edition of the International Eye Candy? Takashi Miike's swarm of skinheads! Stunning Czech noir! A complete short film from the writer of Del Toro's DEVIL'S BACKBONE! French spies! MEMENTO done Bollywood style! And more, more, more! It's a jam packed column this week and here it comes!
We begin in Italy, sort of, with the first trailer for Stefano Bessoni's IMAGO MORTIS, the story of a university student who stumbles across a bizarre death cult within the school faculty. I say this is sort of Italian because while Bessoni is very much Italian and this features a lot of Italian backing the primary producers are the outfit behind PAN'S LABYRINTH and THE ORPHANAGE, an early draft of the script was penned by DUST DEVIL director Richard Stanley, and the final script came from Luis Berdejo - the writer of hit Spanish zombie picture [REC] who is currently wrapping up post on his own directorial debut, THE NEW DAUGHTER, starring Kevin Costner. Yep, safe to say this one's got a sterling pedigree.
From Italy, kind of, we head to France and David Morley's MUTANTS. It's a zombie picture and while I'm as burned out on the whole zombie thing as the next guy I'm very excited about this for a couple reasons. Reason number one is Morley's were-beast short MORSURE, which I programmed at a few festivals last year and absolutely kicks ass. This guy has talent to burn and a gift for finding new angles to make familiar material fresh again. Reason number two is the angle Morley's taking with the zombie mythos. He's stripped the action down to two primary characters - lovers, no less - and made the infection progress slooooooowly, forcing his heroine to watch her lover slowly change into a hostile force, unable to do anything to stop it. Clever boy, that Morley, and he's got a very enticing teaser for the film now available.
So, in MACHINE GIRL director Noboru Iguchi attached a giant gun to the stump of a teenaged girl's severed arm. In his previous film - SUKEBAN BOY - he hid guns in breasts and the stumps of severed legs. So the question is, where's he gonna put the gun in HAJIRAI MACHINE GIRL? Yep, it's a sequel, this one an ultra low budget short film shot as a bonus feature for the Japanese DVD release of the first MACHINE GIRL and I don't think I'm going to say any more than that.
Bollywood has a long, well documented history of unauthorized remakes of Hollywood films and it appears we can add MEMENTO to the list of films receiving the Bollywood treatment. Bollywood star Aamir Khan buffed up big time to take the lead in GHAJINI, a film based on an earlier Tamil film which was itself based on MEMENTO so while it may not be a shot for shot version as several of these things have been there are certainly some obvious shared elements. But beyond the MEMENTO thing this is more notable to me because in the trailer, at least, Khan comes across as on of the first truly believably Bollywood action heroes I've ever seen. This thing is intense and violent and Khan looks to be causing some pain when he takes people down. My only unanswered question: does he sing?
Okay, Guillermo Del Toro fans, here's the one you've been waiting for. A great many people still consider THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE and a big part of why is writer Antonio Trashorras. Well Trashorras isn't just a writer, he directs as well, and we've got a brand new short film from him. Shot as a tribute to classic giallos the film has a ridiculously long Spanish title - as befits a giallo - but goes by the much shorter English title of BREED. The less you know going in, the better so I'll simply put the NSFW warning on it - it's got boy parts - and leave it at that.
< A HREF=http://twitchfilm.net/site/view/antonio-trashorras-goes-giallo-with-breed/>Watch BREED here
Indonesian martial arts film MERANTAU is one that has appeared in this space before thanks to our excitement over the chance to see rarely featured fight discipline silat put up on the big screen. That it looks to be remarkably well put together doesn't hurt, either. Still deep into production the film doesn't have a proper trailer yet but director Gareth Evans has been releasing regular behind the scenes reels and this week offered up a detailed look at the creation of the film's final fight sequence. They're keeping the money shots close to the vest but there's plenty of good stuff to find in there.
The first part of John Woo's two film war epic RED CLIFF dominated the box office all across Asia and with the release of Part Two coming up soon a variety of trailers are now sweeping the continent. One trailer could never be enough to contain the biggest film ever made in Chinese history so we've gathered 'em all together in one place.
Want an Asian epic of an entirely different sort? How about some fresh footage from the Pang Brothers' STORM WARRIORS, the big budget digital backlot sequel to hit martial arts fantasy STORM RIDERS. The film is being shot entirely in front of green screen a la SIN CITY or 300 and while it's still more than a year from release that isn't stopping the producers from teasing with the first bits of footage. We had the first teaser last time around and now we follow that with a large scale battle sequence.
It aint just Asia making martial arts films these days. The French are in on the act, too, and coming soon is BANLIEUE 13: ULTIMATUM, the sequel to the hugely successful original film - available here as DISTRICT B13 - that blended kung fu with parkour. The original stars are back and the first teaser proves they know enough to follow the first rule for successful sequels: keep everything that made the original great but make it bigger.
How's about a bit of animation? If the casting of Vincent Gallo and Juliette Lewis isn't enough to tip you off to the fact that upcoming Swedish feature METROPIA aint your standard kiddy fare then perhaps the first footage - released as part of a Swedish news report on the film - will be. This is truly striking stuff made all the moreso by how dark and Kafka-esque it looks to be. A proper trailer will come soon but these scenes are more than enough to raise interest.
How's about another bit of animation? This one's from the more traditional animation hotbed of Japan and while Mizuho Nishikubo may be the actual director of upcoming feature MIYAMOTO MUSASHI - a bio-pic about the life of the legendary swordsman - but the real draw comes in the form of writer Mamoru Oshii. Yep, that would be GHOST IN THE SHELL director Mamoru Oshii and when he writes for other people films like JIN ROH: THE WOLF BRIGADE and BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE tend to result. This immediately ranks as one of the top animated features of 2009.
Want something a little longer than a trailer? Ah, heck, we're in a giving mood and so here comes our second complete short film of the column. Like BREED this one is again from Spain and boasts a favored writer. The writer in this case is TIMECRIMES director Nacho Vigalondo, the film EL ENCARGANDO or THE ONE IN CHARGE - the story of a bullied schoolboy and what happens when his teacher leaves him temporarily in charge of the classroom.
Any fans of Kaz Kiriya's CASSHERN out there? Kiriya's debut film was a hugely divisive one - one that I am very much on the positive side for, believing that it immediately establish Kiriya as one of the world's most distinctive visual talents. And now Kaz is back with his new medieval fantasy GOEMON. Built around a legendary robber-hero - sort of a Japanese Robin Hood - the film is, like CASSHERN, shot largely on green screen and hugely augmented with CGI work and, also like CASSHERN, the first proper teaser looks fantastic. Yum.
And now for something completely different ... Norwegian comedy-drama NORD comes from the writer of last year's Norwegian Oscar submission GONE WITH THE WOMAN so expectations are running high. And if the trailer is any indication those expectations are about to be met. The film is a sort of far north road movie, it's hero a washed out former athlete on the rebound from a mental breakdown riding his snowmobile across remote regions with only a vat of moonshine to keep him company while on his way to meet the daughter he never knew he had. I'm a total sucker for these sorts of off-beat road movies and this looks like a good one.
Okay, I'm going to be honest here and say right up front that there's no way that this one would have made the list if not for the fact that it's directed by Tak Sakaguchi. But it IS directed by Sakaguchi and I just find something charming about the star of VERSUS and DEATH TRANCE and harbor a weak spot for his films. YOROI: THE SAMURAI ZOMBIE is Sakaguchi's second directorial effort and boasts VERSUS director Ryuhei Kitamura as a producer. It also has, surprisingly enough, a samurai zombie and lots of blood.
And now for something that I like because it looks good - nay, fantastic - rather than because of who made it. OSS 117: RIO NE REPOND PLUS is the second installment in the current revival of the 1960s French spy films of the same name, with comedian Jean Dujardin taking the lead. The first of these films absolutely blew my mind - production design is so spot on that it could easily be a lost film from the era it is set in and Dujardin is hysterical in the lead - and based on the extended promo for this one that I caught at the American Film Market outing number two is going to be every bit as strong. Dujardin is brilliant in these, the writing is sharp, production values stunning. The first entry is available on DVD across North America and I can't recommend it highly enough.
Czech film may not get a lot of play here in these parts but the industry there is a strong one and every now and then they turn out something that just refuses be ignored, something like Julius Sevcik's NORMAL. If you've got a hankering for noir, this one's going to scratch that particular itch with it's story of a depression-era lawyer assigned to defend a vicious serial killer. This thing just looks to get everything right ...
Okay, Takashi Miike fans, here we go. Miike's CROWS ZERO was a huge hit in Japan - where it became the maverick's first ever number one hit - and the sequel hits next year. Miike and high school violence, it's got a certain ring to it don't you think? In the lead up to production the film put out a casting call looking for teens willing to go skin head and, yep, the swarm of skins has made it into the first proper teaser ...
We're nearing the end now and we hand the penultimate spot in this edition of International Eye Candy to Carlos Cuaron's Sundance flick RUDO Y CURSI. Yep, Carlos is the brother of CHILDREN OF MEN director Alfonso Cuaron - Alfonso's son is also a director - and the writer of Alfonso's breakout hit Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN. For this one he reunites Y TU MAMA's young stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna - both of them now HUGE stars thoughout the Spanish speaking world - in a story of feuding brothers from rural Mexico who dream of stardom via soccer and song. Yes, Bernal sings in this. And, yes, he wears a sparkly cowboy outfit while doing so. Silly? You betcha.
How to finish an edition of International Eye Candy as chock full o goodness as this one has been? How about with something you might actually have a chance of seeing on the big screen soon? Yep, India's got this global releasing thing down pat and they'll be rolling out upcoming kung fu-musical-comedy CHANDNI CHOWK TO CHINA on screens in major cities worldwide starting January 16th. We've written about this one before, struck by the genius of whoever it is that realized Bollywood musicals and classic Shaw Brothers kung fu could be long lost cousins and then had the good sense to fuse them into a single film while casting the legendary Gordon Liu as the lead villain, and it makes the list again thanks to some new music promos that show off a good amount of new footage. I'm there opening night.
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