Nordling here.
It's early Friday morning and I'm preparing another go-round at Fantastic Fest. Everyone's been amazingly friendly and cool, and so far things are going perfectly. I just wanted to drop a brief line about some of the experiences and films I've seen so far; it's been crazy and I don't know how much time I'll have to write so I'm making the most of it now.
First off, it's nice that Alejandro Brugues (JUAN OF THE DEAD) is an awesome guy, very disarming and friendly, and with a sincere humble grace that is very charming and I can't wait to see his film today. That's my not-miss film of today for sure.
LET THE BULLETS FLY
I love Hong Kong cinema as much as the next person, and I have the feeling that I'm a minority on this one, but LET THE BULLETS FLY didn't click with me the way I'd hoped it would. The film is very much reminiscent of THE STING as a rival bandit lord and a rival crime lord, played by Wen Jiang and Chow Yun-Fat, respectively. The action is cool but it's nowhere as realistic as, say, THE KILLER - it plays very cartoonish but it's effective. The plot is labyrinthine and it's fun to watch the film bob and weave through the twists.
My beef with it is mostly due to the fact that the film, as with many Hong Kong comedies, relies on the language and the translation. Just listening to the dialogue and the actors diving into the phrases, I could tell that most of the jokes were probably not going to be as effective unless the people watching knew the language. It's a light film, fun to watch, especially Chow Yun-Fat who plays the villain of the piece and seems to be having a really fun time of it. It's a good movie, like I said, I'm probably in the minority on this, but it just didn't take with me.
HAUNTERS
This one, however, kicked my ass utterly. It's come to the point now that most every experience with Korean cinema that I have just utterly works, and HAUNTERS is no exception. I loved this take on superhero films, where an ordinary guy (Soo Go) discovers that he can do something that no one else can - he is immune to the powers of Cho-In (Dong-Won Kang) who can utterly control any person who he can see. This film, the directorial debut of Min-Suk Kim, was the highlight of my moviegoing day. Full of action, great setpieces, and most importantly, rich characterization, this film plays like UNBREAKABLE's much more kickass brother.
Sure, it has a fat middle act, but the stakes escalate and the hero and the villain are given rich stories and both actors play them perfectly. In its way, HAUNTERS was a very much like Dan Simmons' CARRION COMFORT, especially when it came to the antagonist and how he functioned in society. What would your morality be like when you can make anyone you see do anything you want?
HAUNTERS is the kind of film that an American movie studio would grab as soon as they saw it, and probably gut the best stuff about it in the process. It's not really a horror film, it's a genuine superhero thriller that has incredible moments and thrills. I loved HAUNTERS, flaws and all (it's a bit long, and sometimes feels it), and thoroughly recommend it.
THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE PART 2 (FULL SEQUENCE)
Tom Six's original film is a model of restraint in comparison to the sequel, which has Martin (Lawrence Harvey) as a barely functional human being who is so taken by the original film that he decides to reenact it, but on a much bigger scale. The movie has logic flaws all over the place (Martin's Crowbar of Anesthesia + 4 seems to just knock out every person it touches when they should be feasibly dead) but obviously you're not looking for logic in a film where 10+ people are connected ass-to-mouth.
Is it good? I don't think words like good or bad really apply here. I laughed a lot, but mostly at how much the film tried to shock. I get the feeling that Six responded to critics of the first film by upping the ante on every level - on gore, on horror, and on the ridiculousness of the premise. I'd like to think that Six's film is a take on the moral police who judged the first film without really seeing it, in that he pretty much made the film that they imagined the first one to be. It has no morality in it at all, and even though the film suggests that much of the action is taking place in Martin's head, which may provide an out for some in the audience, the imagery is pretty much what you'd expect - explosive bowels, gore (although again, here's more suggested than shown - it just shows a lot as well), clearly insane characters, and while the first film is antiseptic and even clean in its way, HUMAN CENTIPEDE 2 is about as filthy as it gets.
The first film, curiously, was asexual, but not this one, boy. There's rape, sexual mutilation, and suggested incest and pedophilia. Tom Six didn't hold back with this one, and the idea that Six suggested in the Q&A afterwards that the inevitable third film has something of a happy ending may be enough for "fans" of this series to give this a go. As a film, it's a bit exasperating, but as an experience, especially with that crowd, I couldn't deny that it was... fun? I'm glad I wasn't alone in witnessing it, at least.
Today's lineup includes JUAN OF THE DEAD, THE YELLOW SEA, and hopefully more - playing today very much by ear (or would that be eye). So far it's been a blast, and hope to see more people today!
Nordling, out.
