International Eye Candy
April 16, 2008
Yes, boys and girls, once again it is Todd from Twitch here with our bi-weekly spin through the world of international film goodness. You like a bit of anime? We got you covered. An intelligent crime thriller? Got that too. Chilean puppets battling space aliens and giant robots? Damn skippy. Nazi sexploitation? But of course. And,hell, for those who like their world wanderings to have a touch of the familiar we’ve even got Josh Hartnett co-starring with two of the biggest stars in Asia for what looks like one powerhouse of a supernatural crime thriller. The only question is do I lead off with the big gun or hold it back for the grand finale?
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I present to you one hell of a great movie poster. The film it comes attached to is 31 MINUTES, the big screen adaptation of a popular Chilean children’s television show revolving around a puppet-run TV station. They get out of the station for the film, obviously, and what they find are giant robots and assorted aliens. This thing just opened in the top spot of the Chilean box office which says volumes about the quality of recreational substances available along the Andes.
You’ll find details and the trailer here
From Chile we head to Japan where we stay on the scifi tip but in a rather different way. TIME OF EVE is the new animated feature from Yasuhiro Yoshiura. Yoshiura’s never made much of a splash on these shores but if the trailer for this thing is any indication that could very well change soon. It’s a slice of life drama set in a near-future world where androids and humanoid robots are commonplace that drew comparisons to the work of Satoshi (PAPRIKA) Kon from a reader over at Twitch. Personally I think Mokoto (5CM PER SECOND) Shinkai is closer in style but whoever you want to compare him to there’s no doubting that this is one remarkable bit of work.
You’ll find details and trailer links here
We head southwest now to visit Thailand, where we find PHOBIA. A four part horror anthology PHOBIA features the solo directorial debuts from the duo behind major Thai hits SHUTTER and ALONE, a talented young pair who are arguably the hottest things going in Asian horror today. Based on the trailer the cream of the four belongs to Parkpoom Wongpoom who turns in the story of a young stewardess forced to accompany the body of a freshly-dead Thai princess home after she died while on vacation. A fear of the dead packed into a confined space and combined with a fear of flying? Yeah, that’ll work.
You’ll find details and a trailer here
Nazis. Torture. Sex. Some of you are shaking your head wondering why these sorts of films exist. The rest of you have already hit the link. Such is the way of these things. The film is BLITZKRIEG: ESCAPE FROM STALAG 69 and, yes, it’s every bit as lurid as you might think. Whether that’s a good or bad thing is entirely for you to decide.
Details and trailer here
We head to Spain now to cleanse the palette with something a little more, erm, palatable. Albert Arizza has won a lot of love around the globe for his music video work and he turns in his first feature with RAMIREZ, a serial killer picture that looks to mine a surprisingly atmospheric and jazzy vibe. No trailer for this one yet but the first two minutes have appeared online and it’s impressively atmospheric stuff.
Details and the clip here
You want a little more anime? Well, it doesn’t get much better than the upcoming anthology project GENIUS PARTY BEYOND from Studio 4C. The little studio that could, Studio 4C supervised the animation on the ANIMATRIX project and were heavily involved in the upcoming BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHT project but the studio’s original output – with the exception of TEKKON KINKREET – has been frustratingly hard to get hold of. This is the second volume in the aptly titled GENIUS PARTY series, each a collection of shorts from a who’s who of the anime world. This one includes work by Koji Morimoto, Mahiro Maeda, Tatsuyuki Tanaka, Shinya Ohira, and Kazuto Nakazawa and every moment of the trailer looks positively inspired. Basically, if you don’t know Studio 4C then you don’t know anime.
Details and trailer here
To stick with the Studio 4C tip a bit longer, we move now to the complete opening sequence of Masaaki Yuasa’s new television series KAIBA. Now, Yuasa didn’t produce this one with Studio 4C – it was done at Madhouse – but he first made a name for himself directing 4C’s brilliant feature MIND GAME and also appears on the first GENIUS PARTY film and he’s one of the hottest directors affiliated with the company. Hell, he’s one of the hottest directors working on anything anywhere and it makes me a little bit crazy that people here neither know nor care who he is. Yuasa’s style changes radically from project to project and this one is a simply drawn, brightly colored scifi romance.
Find details and the opening here
Oh, what the hell, let’s finish up with the anime. This one’s another title, like KAIBA, produced by Madhouse, but the content should be a fair bit more familiar. It’s titled ULTRAVIOLET CODE 044 and, yep, it’s an animated adaptation of the Milla Jovovich starring scifi action flick from Kurt Wimmer.
You’ll find details and the trailer here
Hey now, it wouldn’t be an International Eye Cancy column without a little something from Takashi Miike, now would it? Hell, the guy makes enough films that we could hit a new one every time out without any danger of running short of material. GOD’S PUZZLE is one of Miike’s more mainstream focused projects, a science fiction romantic comedy about a slacker kid and science prodigy teaming up to create a new universe. And also play rock and roll music. And also fall in love. Awww. Trailer’s in a lousy format, but it’s out there.
Details and trailer here
And now for something completely different, this coming in the form of Omar Shargawi’s GO WITH PEACE, JAMIL, a gritty crime drama that has been turning heads and winning raves everywhere it has played around the world. Shargawi is a Dane of Arabic descent – a politically touchy thing to be, given the state of race relations in Denmark – and he dives headlong into the politics of his birth in this one, taking people behind closed doors into a world that most of us will never see and he makes one gut wrenching film in the process. Denmark doesn’t make a ton of crime movies but when they do – anybody out there seen the brilliant PUSHER films? – they make really, really good ones and this looks to be one of the best.
Details and trailer here
What’s that? You want more Danish crime? Okay then, you got it in the form of Soren Kragh Jacobsen’s WHAT NO ONE KNOWS. Jacobsen is best known as being one of the co-founders – along with Lars Von Trier – of the Dogme 95 movement but a Dogme movie this aint. What it is is a full blooded film noir with Anders Berthelsen caught up in a military conspiracy. I’ve been hearing rumblings about this one for months, the rumblings are all good, and the trailer bears that out.
Details and trailer here
Tom Savini co-starring with Hammer star Ingrid Pitt in a comedy laced horror picture loaded with old school gore effects? Yes, please. The picture is SEA OF DUST from writer-director Scott Bunt and it’s just released one beaten up gem of a teaser that evokes classic low budget horror from the seventies and eighties while showing off Josh Turi’s fantastically bloody effects.
You’ll find details and the trailer here
One more from the good ol’ U.S. of A here in the form of Chris Lamont’s indie scifi horror hybrid QUALITY TIME. Imagine if Richard Linklater were the bastard love child of Franz Kafka and Philip K Dick and you’re getting into the right neighborhood for this one, the story of a young man in a future dystopia having relationship problems as his mind slowly crumbles. And, hey, it’s got Q from STAR TREK!
You’ll find details and trailer here
Ask anybody in the know on international horror film right now and they’ll all tell you the same thing: France is where it’s at. INSIDE and FRONTIERE(S) killed ‘em on the international festival circuit last year, Alexandre Aja remains shock horror’s reigning enfant terrible and there’s yet another crop of young directors wrapping up their nasty little debut pictures as I type this. One of those directors is David Morley, who is currently in post production on his debut feature MUTANTS. But before MUTANTS Morley made one nasty little creature feature titled BITTEN that features effects and post work from the same outfit that was behind both INSIDE and FRONTIERE(S) and it’s one lean, nasty piece of work.
You’ll find details and a trailer here
And now the grand finale, in the form of Tran Ahn Hung’s I COME WITH THE RAIN. Tran is best known as the director of acclaimed arthouse hits such as CYCLO, THE SCENE OF GREEN PAPAYA and A VERTICAL RAY OF THE SUN but for his latest he wanted to do something a little different. Okay, he wanted to do something a LOT different and the result is a supernaturally tinged, blood and violence laced noir thriller that sends star Josh Hartnett around the world in search of a rich man’s missing son with the help of Hong Kong star Shawn Yue with Korean superstar Lee Byung Hyun (JSA, A BITTERSWEET LIFE) playing the villain’s role. This thing just looks stellar … Hartnett was born to play noir, Lee and Yue both look compelling performing for the first time in English, and the overall look and feel of this thing is just hypnotic and deeply disturbing. Watch for this one, people, it’s going to be a powerhouse.
Details and a five minute promo here
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