Hey folks, Harry here with the latest edition of the INTERNATIONAL EYE CANDY - done in conjunction with my favorite non-AICN site, TwitchFilm.Net - so check it out and take note - here's the latest...
International Eye Candy
November 14, 2007
Okay, boys and girls, here we go with the third installment of International Eye Candy – a selection of the best and / or just plain strangest international films to cross my desk over at Twitch over the past couple weeks. Last column’s strange quotient was filled with a live action movie from Japan featuring a businessman who was a giant bunny. How to top that this week? How about – again, from Japan, they’re wacky – a teen romantic drama featuring a giant man with a chainsaw for a hand? Not good enough? How’s about Jean Claude Van Damme auditioning to play himself in a bio-pic about himself? Off we go!
We’re actually going to start in Malaysia with JOHNNY BIKIN FILEM, a film in development for over fifteen years now. It’s a crime drama by noted Malaysian critic Dr Anuar Nor Arai who reportedly turned in a cut that ran more than five and a half hours more than a decade ago. Despite the run time it’s apparently quite good, but despite being quite good it was apparently shelved due to the run time and has been in limbo ever since … or, at least, it was until a website suddenly appeared without notice a couple weeks ago announcing that the film would be arriving in Malaysian cinemas in January. A proper trailer has been promised soon but a pair of very rough trailers have arrived on YouTube, looking as though they may be the original ones cut fifteen years ago and sourced from video tape. Which means the video quality is crappy but this is far too fascinating a story to pass up.
Information and trailer links here
You’ll have to pardon me for repeating a film that has already appeared once in this column but I am an absolutely raging fan of CITY OF LOST CHILDREN and DELICATESSEN and have been awaiting a return of co-director Marc Caro to the big screen for years now, watching anxiously as projects were announced only to collapse. Well, he’s finally gone and finished one – and it’s just been picked up by the Weinsteins – titled DANTE 01. Jeunet-Caro regular Dominique Pinon co-stars alongside the MATRIX sequels’ Mirovingian (which I have no idea how to spell) in a sci-fi epic set on a prison ship. The first teaser was tasty enough but a full trailer has just arrived that blows that first one away. Yummy.
Details and trailer links here.
You may have noticed that Korean film has generally kind of sucked recently. After a meteoric rise that peaked with Park Chan Wook’s vengeance trilogy things plateaued badly before sliding back into steady mediocrity broken only by the occasional bright spot – a la THE HOST – here and there. Well, get ready for the renaissance. Park’s doing his vampire film, Ryoo is doing a martial arts zombie epic, Bong’s doing big time sci fi, and here comes the fourth giant of current Korean film with a full on spaghetti western.
The film is THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE WEIRD, from director Kim Ji-Woon, whose previous credits include A BITTERSWEET LIFE – still, bizarrely, unavailable on these shores – and A TALE OF TWO SISTERS, and starring two of Korea’s finest in Song Kang-Ho and Lee Byung-Hyun. Trust me when I say that if you’ve seen any recent Korean film you’ve seen these two. Just the talent involved is enough to guarantee that this will not suck and the footage released to Korean television recently more than backs that up.
Details and footage links here
Yeah, I’m totally biased on this one since one of the writers is also a writer for Twitch, but what the hell … if you can’t enjoy a bit of nepotism from time to time then life just aint worth living. Plus, it looks really damn good.
The basic message of UNHOLY NIGHT? Don’t spend Christmas in Iceland. Not only do I hear it smells like sulfur over there but let’s just say they have a rather different relationship with ol’ Santa Claus than do most nations. They’ve got lots of Santa legends in Iceland, and lots of Santas for that matter, but they’re all Bad. So Bad it needs to be capitalized. And yes, this is a Santa gone Bad movie.
Details and trailer here.
Okay, time to tap into the b-movie glory with Richard Clabaugh’s EYEBORGS. The basic concept of omnipresent surveillance robots unleashed by Homeland Security going rogue and killing off the general populace is fun enough but throw in Danny Trejo as one of the leaders of the anti-robot revolt and have him shout lines like “Silicone psychos!” while beating them off and you have a recipe for instant cult gold. Seriously, when was the last time you saw a movie like this? THEY LIVE, maybe? The producers are seriously hoping for a theatrical release in advance of the coming presidential election but whether that happens or not the trailers are available for your pleasure and enjoyment.
Details and trailer here
Hey, look! It’s Dominique Pinon again! This time the diminutive Frenchman stars in a Spanish fantasy tinged comedy from single named writer-director Grojo. Pinon is the owner of a Spanish café frequented by a young writer hired to ghost write the new novel by a famous author plagued by writers block, in exchange for his own novel being published shortly after his work is done. With only a month to turn in a completed work the author draws on the strange characters at the café for inspiration. The basic elements of the story have been done before but Grojo’s got a fun cast and a good eye and, also, the good sense to have hired SANDMAN illustrator and MIRROR MASK director Dave McKean to do some design and artwork for the film. McKean and Pinon in the same place? Makes it instantly worthwhile in my book.
Details and trailer link here
Okay, you want star power, here’s some serious star power of the Asian variety: Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro all starring in Peter Chan’s upcoming period war epic THE WARLORDS. This is, without doubt, the big boy of upcoming Chinese language film in every way possible. The budget is as epic as the cast and while I have to say that I have a strong dislike for Chan’s previous film – PERHAPS LOVE – there’s no denying the man knows how to shoot some gorgeous film and every scrap of footage released from this one so far is absolutely stunning.
It’s worth noting here, too, that the film marks Jet Li’s first purely dramatic role. No kung fu for Li in this one, despite it being a war film – all the battle scenes are played for realism and Li reportedly keeps his feet on the ground throughout.
Details and trailer links here
Adam Mason first turned heads around the world with a vicious little horror picture titled BROKEN that he shot for no money with his long time friend and collaborator Simon Boyes a few years back. His next film, THE DEVIL’S CHAIR just premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival – a very bloody screening that Mason brought his parents to – and he’s already hard at work editing his third film. Titled BLOOD RIVER this one reunites Mason with DEVIL’S CHAIR star Andrew Howard in what promises to be, once again, one nasty and claustrophobic piece of work.
Though Mason just finished shooting this thing about three weeks ago he’s already cut a trailer together. The footage is still raw but you’d never know it if you weren’t told so up front … the guy’s cinematographer on this one is just stellar …
Details and trailer here
Right. You want the Van Damme and here it is. The less you know going in to this the better but the film is titled JCVD and it continues the string of odd – in the best possible way – choices Van Damme has been making since his North American career imploded under the weight of his own ego, bad acting and drug use. He’s gone to great lengths to put himself back together in recent years and what do you know? The guy’s got a great sense of humor, he’s not at all afraid to laugh at himself and, dammit, he should have started acting in his native language AGES ago. No, I’m not going to say any more than that, just check it out.
Details and trailer link here
Right, closing off with the Japanese weirdness. It’s titled NEGATIVE HAPPY, CHAINSAW EDGE. It’s based on a hugely popular novel. And, despite the very large man wielding the very large chainsaw who turns up all throughout the film – yes, I’ve seen it and yes, it’s fun – this is actually far more a teen romance than it is an action film. Only in Japan. Only in Japan.
Details and trailer here
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