Perhaps in this day and age of blog and forum discussion, the word Auteur is thrown around a little too lightly. Nevertheless, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s work of the 1990s and early 2000s has lifted the prolific filmmaker into auteur territory by the benchmark that one can simply tell you are watching one of his films with only a few frames. It is fair to consider his latest work, the J-Horror police procedural whodunit Retribution, both a primer for and a culmination of his work.

Continue reading "Toronto After Dark Review: RETRIBUTION"

CJ Entertainment, the largest entertainment company in South Korea, and one of the largest film companies in the country, is being taken to task for bungling the shipment of The King and the Clown to a major film festival in London. Organizers of the London Film Festival had no choice but to cancel two screenings of the Korean blockbuster, which was to have been shown October 19, when it became apparent that the film wouldn’t arrive in time for the event. The distributors initially insisted that the film had been delivered as promised on the evening of the 19th, and blamed festival organizers for the mix-up. But when the Yonhap News Agency reported that the film they had received was a version without subtitles, the subtitled version not arriving until the following day, officials at CJ Entertainment replied that the courier must have misreported the delivery date. The UK’s biggest film festival, The London Film Festival is sponsored by The Times newspaper and the British Film Institute. Running from October 18 thru November 2, and screening 300 films from 60 countries, the festival is in the midst of celebrating its 50th anniversary.

Source

Distribution rights for Hernán Findling's English-language horrAR (i.e., Argentine horror) movie Director's Cut will be offered for sale by FilmSharks International at this year's American Film Market (AFM) in Santa Monica, California. FilmSharks International will be in office #214 at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel.

As was previously reported here on Twitch, the screenplay for Director's Cut was written by Findling and Pablo Monlezun. The movie apparently stars Andres Bagg, Daniel Young, Rosario Mejia, Ginger Gentile, Javier Gorleri, Ezequiel Campa, Mariana Levy, Maxime Segué, Verónica Mari, Pablo Guelli Saavedra, Paula Marcenado, and Federico Ali.

Here's a synopsis for Director's Cut from the website of the WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival: "Matt's crew attends the first viewing of his horror film excited by his capacity to frighten the audience. Yet, as the film has scenes they never shot, deaths they never filmed, they begin to realize what they are seeing is not a movie but reality. They have 90 minutes to escape or they will be as dead as the cast of the film."

Those who are interested in Director's Cut may also wish to read the Twitch articles on Daniel de la Vega's Death Knows Your Name, Demián Rugna's The Last Gateway, Damián Adalberto Leibovich and Juan Cruz Varela's Los inquilinos del infierno, and Sergio Esquenazi's Visitante de invierno.

Director's Cut official subsite
GOMORRAHY.com: Director's Cut

Four films in one day is a busy day for any writer, critic, or journalist. It is with a grateful heart that I report my audience vote for the day started with a 3 (out of 5) a four out of five and a five only to end on a solid 3- a good day by anyone’s estimation.

Continue reading "Toronto After Dark Diary Day 2: Frostbite, Shinobi, Retribution, Beach Party at the Threshold of Hell"

Day 2 of the Toronto After Dark Film Festival has come and gone. Four films back to back. It's a bit harder on the bum than I remember. With TIFF we had time to run around and stretch our legs. TAD is jammed with so much goodness you're out the doors and back in line chatting it up with other festival patrons, interviewing with puppets and embracing the mint chocolaty goodness of Girl Guide cookies. Yesterday was another excellent day of genre goodness. It started slow with Frostbite but then things got rolling with Shinobi, which I had wanted to see on the big screen since seeing it on DVD, then Kiyoshi Kurosawa's next brilliant film Retribution further established him as a horror/suspense icon, and then the dizzying madness of The Beach Party at the Threshold of Hell capped off the evening with absolute hysterical post apocalyptic political madness.

Read on minions...

Continue reading "Toronto After Dark Diary: Day 2 - 'Frostbite', 'Shinobi', 'Retribution' and 'The Beach Party at the Threshold of Hell'"

FOR TRAILER, SEE THE BOTTOM OF THIS ARTICLE

Distribution rights for the anthology horror movie Unholy Women (Kowai onna) will be offered for sale by Micott & Basara Inc. (Mikotto endo Basara K.K.) at this year's American Film Market (AFM) in Santa Monica, California. Micott & Basara will be in office #434 at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel. (It and Eleven Arts Inc. apparently are sharing that office.)

Unholy Women is comprised of three stories; they are as follows:

"Rattle Rattle" ("Katakata"): Directed by Keita Amemiya. Screenplay by Keita Amemiya. Story by Keita Amemiya. Starring Noriko Nakagoshi (she's also in Ataru Oikawa's Apartment 1303), Yûko Kobayashi, and Kôsuke Toyohara. Synopsis: "One day, Kanako hears a rattling sound in front of the red building while walking back to her house. The moment she looks up to check, something very strong hits her hard. She loses her consciousness for a brief period of time, but unhurt, she continues to walk back. As soon as she arrives home, she starts seeing deformed woman, and is haunted by her. Who is this woman persistently chasing her?"

Continue reading "AFM: UNHOLY WOMEN (KOWAI ONNA) - an anthology horror movie directed by Keita Amemiya, Takuji Suzuki, and Keisuke Toyoshima"

Çağan Irmak could easily be called “the next best thing” for popular Turkish cinema. He was first known for his hit TV drama series “Asmalı Konak” in 2002. The series was so popular that news about it’s upcoming episodes would find place on the front pages of major newspapers. Irmak created another hit TV series in 2004, “Çemberimde Gül Oya”, and his feature debut “Mustafa Hakkında Her Şey” (All About Mustafa) hit the big screens the same year. It was a failure at the box-office and the critics weren’t that favorable towards Irmak’s thriller either, but he managed to come out fine.

It was only last year that he won the hearts of millions with his tear-drawing family drama “Babam ve Oğlum” (My Father and My Son). The film opened to modest numbers but became such a phenomenon that it stayed at the top of the box office list for weeks, in the end becoming the third biggest grossing film ever in Turkey behind “Kurtlar Vadisi: Irak” (Valley of Wolves: Iraq) and “G.O.R.A.”. Irmak received the nod from the Film Critics Association of Turkey this time and the film won many of the top awards including Best Film and Best Director.

Continue reading "New Turkish Horror Series: "Kabuslar Evi" (The House of Nightmares)"

In with the few things that particularly catch my eye in the latest 'Total Film' issue here in the U.K, Andrea's dark crime comedy movie with Simon Pegg, David Schwimmer, and Alive Eve. for now, although I am finding it hard to easily place my hands on information online, there's a trailer. That's probably best for now... opens start of December over here.[Source : Solace in Cinema].

'Big Nothing' Embedded Trailer in Flash at Pathe Films.

[I'm just taking a brief moment to check my email before heading off for another full day at Toronto After Dark - expect full reports on yesterday's happenings from Mack and Canfield soon - and what should I find but the first report from our man on the scene at the Hawaii International Film Festival, James Maruyama. Here's James with his take on one of our most anticipated films around here, Memories of Matsuko.]

Aloha from the Hawaii International Film Festival! With each passing year I am continually impressed by the scope, quality and variety of the films shown at the annual festival. In years past, HIFF has hosted and screened an amazing range of films with a particular emphasis on Asia's beautiful and eclectic cinema. In fact, I can safely say that HIFF is probably the premiere venue in the U.S. for showcasing the best in Asian Movies.

This year is no exception. One of the movies I've was lucky enough to watch was director Nakashima Tetsuya's "Kiraware Matsuko No Issho" (The Life of Hateful Matsuko AKA Memories of Matsuko). Nakashima is quickly becoming one of my favorite up-and-coming Japanese directors. His sleeper hit "Shimotsuma Monogatari" (AKA Kamikaze Girls) was a crowd favorite at last year’s HIFF and his sophomore project is sure to become another festival hit.

Continue reading "HIFF Report: Memories of Matsuko Review"

I thought I'll start off the coverage for Singapore with a link to a recent film seminar featuring a joint interview by two of our more prominent local filmmakers, Royston Tan and Kelvin Tong, where they candidly shared their thoughts on the filmmaking scene here.

Some of you would already know them through their works - 15 and 4:30 (Royston), and The Maid (Kelvin).

Film Seminar Coverage at movieXclusive.com

Both Koreanfilm.org and the Korea Herald praised Yu Ha's latest film. Calling Yu Ha's A Dirty Carnival the best gangster film since Friend, Variety's Derek Elley writes that this picture "[...] establishes the essayist-writer as the biggest undiscovered talent (at least, offshore) in South Korea's industry, with a career arc that seems to have led inexorably to this first masterwork. Comparisons on many levels with Michael Mann's "Heat" are not out of order here." Readers who have seen Marriage is a Crazy Thing (simply the best Korean romance/drama around) or Once Upon a Time in High School need no further proof of Yu Ha's credentials. The 2-DVD Special Limited Edition is slated for a November 9 release.

Pre-order A Dirty Carnival

Derek Elley Review at Variety

Photos, Posters, etc.

Thanks to Douglas Roy for pointing out the review in Variety

Dog Bite Dog grabs you by the back of the neck and body slams you into the mud. Before you can catch your breath, your face is scraped along a broken concrete highway, leaving a long, bloody trail. All that's left is for a speeding truck to crush your head like a grape.

Dog Bite Dog assaults your senses and threatens to flat-line your emotions for most of its running time. The trip is so grueling you begin to feel your soul rip apart even as all empathetic feelings slowly depart. It's suffused with so much gloom that you dread the next minute.

It's actually almost a relief when the very talented director Soi Cheang guides it right off the rails, because it comes at a point when the accumulation of overwhelming despair might induce a few to consider self-immolation to stop the pain.

Continue reading "Dog Bite Dog Review"

Our friend Wells Dunbar covered the San Diego Asian Film Festival for us, and now that he's back home in Austin, Texas, USA, he's all set to take in some more films at the Austin Film Festival. Here are his comments on a film that was programmed at both festivals.

Watching a DVD screener of Colma: The Musical under the covers on a Friday night can't possibly do it justice - the same jokes that killed in a crowded theater fall flat.

I first laid eyes on Colma at the San Diego Asian Film Festival, catching the first 45 minutes or so between screenings, and was flattened by the waves of laughter rolling over the audience. And that was in a cavernous, semi-nameless octoplex; its screening tonight in the decidedly more intimate Landmark Dobie Theater, as part of the Austin Film Festival, will no doubt engender more collective yucks. [It plays again on Sunday, October 22, at the Regal Arbor Theater.]

Continue reading "Austin FF Report: Colma: The Musical"

Been anticipating the release of this film, which was to have been in the cinemas this week. Unfortunately, Exiled has been confirmed as banned, with excessive violence cited as the reason.

Both Election and Election 2 were passed for general release, although the version of Election we got was the China one with the "crime does not pay" ending.

Although in the past year, the censors have been a little more relaxed about these things, it appears that Exiled left the censors displeased enough to have it completely banned.

The Star report

When a movie is every bit as good as you hoped it would be what else is there to say. Now the only question is how soon you’ll be able to see it. While stateside distribution is set for next year the deal still could fall through. But even if it does I predict this film will become a cult hit on DVD.

Continue reading "Toronto After Dark Report: Special Review"

I'm not all that knowledgeable about anime, but last year I watched Satoshi Kon's Paranoia Agent, my very first exposure to the genre. I was impressed with the talent behind the images, but the story went off into weird territory that lost me entirely. Just the same, when I read the reports here of Paprika, Kon's latest work, and when I saw the phenomenal images, I was fully prepared to give him another shot. The following is from an interview with Satoshi Kon at DVDrama.

Continue reading "PAPRIKA: Interview with Satoshi Kon"

A trailer for Derek Yee's Protoge has surfaced.

Flash Embedded trailer here

Thanks to the ever diligant Mary and Kaijushakedown

Thanks to Mary for the pointer to KaijuShakedown where Grady reports that Dog Bite Dog director, Soi Cheang, is shooting his next film based on a Japanese manga titled Shamo. Reportedly starring Shawn Yue and maybe, Francis Ng there are some photos from the set here, here, here and here. Seemingly not content with the current state of HK film Soi Cheang appears to be set on continuing to bring ferocity and a visceral edge to his films. Todd and I have both gone on record to say that we liked DBD. Please, please, please avoid using a crap song at the end though Cheang.

Paraphrased from Wikipedia - Ryo, a talented high-schooler on the verge of entering Tokyo University stabs his father and mother to death with a short knife repeatedly before his successful life could begin. He is convicted and sent to a reformatory where he is gang raped by other boys.

Kenji Kurokawa was sent to the reformatory to teach the youngsters karate every week. He uncovers Ryo's talent and teaches him self-defense. Ryo survives the duration of his stay. Thanks to a law that protects minors, he is released two years later.

Alone he tries to find his lost beautiful sister who became a homeless drug-abusing prostitute after the double murders. Ryo fights for his life to defeat his enemy. He also dishes out vigilante justice by ambushing gangsters in dark alleys to perfect his fighting skill. On top of that he is also working as a gigolo.

If you're interested here are a couple sites where you can download the manga and have a read... here and here.

One opening film and a couple drinks at the opening night party later I have embraced the cruel light of morning and am getting ready for the first full day of genre giddines at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival. There was a good crowd at the Bloor Cinema last night and there were only Rush tickets left for the opening screening of Special. So there are good things to come. Saturday is going to be a full day with Frostbite, Shinobi, Retribution and The Beach Party At The Threshold Of Hell.

But I shall delay no further. Read on for my thoughts on last night's screening of Special...

Les Franken is a content meter maid. He doesn’t think that he is depressed or full of angst. He’s just… Les. But when he partakes in a clinical study of a new pharmaceutical anti-depressant drug, Special, he steadily develops super powers. There is only one thing to do. Les must quit his job and embrace the life of a super hero and defend justice in the city.

Continue reading "Toronto After Dark Diary: Day 1 'Special'"

I got some E-mail asking me why Thailand has produced only few films a year. Actually is, we already released more than 30 films this year. But It's too difficult for me to show you all of them so I better get start with the film that on the top of Thailand box office. For today let's see which movies are on the top 5.

Continue reading "Top 10 Thai Films Box Office 2006 [Part 1]"

I realize that Twitch has covered the foreign-language official Oscar submissions previously this month but since five of them are from Arab countries, I thought I'd take this opportunity to examine those more closely. For the record, five films may not seem like a big accomplishment to you, since this represents only about 25% of all Arab countries, but when you take into account countries like Saudi Arabia, that have zero movie theatres, this feels really big. Good job guys!

Of the five that have been submitted, I've already discussed Egypt's The Yacoubian Building and Algeria's Indigenes.

From Lebanon is Bosta by Philippe Aractingi. Lebanese people LOVE this movie. It's a crowd-pleasing dance/road-trip story. Think The Muppet Movie meets Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights. (That's a complete lie. But, seriously, how incredible would that be!?) Watch the trailer. There are no subtitles, but who needs words when you have the language of dance and heavy make-up? A useful fun fact: This was the first Lebanese film entirely financed by Lebanese money. Be sure to drop that at your next dinner party and you're sure to win new friends.

Website and trailer here.

From Iraq is Dreams (Ahlaam) by Mohamed Al-Daradji. They're claiming this is the first feature shot in Iraq since the fall of Saddam. That's not entirely true considering Oday Rasheed's Underexposure took that prize in 2003. Either way, Ahlaam has gotten some good reviews from international press.

Website, trailer and press found here.

From Morocco is The Moroccan Symphony by Kamal Kamal. Not much online besides a synopsis. I'll keep looking.

Three blind men rob a bank in broad daylight.

That outrageous premise serves as the driving force behind an elaborate revenge fantasy put into play by Rajput, a vengeful bank manager (the great and glowering Amitabh Bachchan). He blackmails Neha (Sushmita Sen), an instructor for the blind, into training his hand-picked, motley crew.

YouTube (Embedded Trailer 1)
YouTube (Embedded Trailer 2)

Planet Bollywood review
BBC Shropshire review
Variety review

A few more comments -- and a question about DVD availability -- after the jump.

Continue reading "Blast From the Past: Aankhen (2002)"

When I was 7 years old, I performed one disastrously bad magic trick at a party for my parents, and promptly retired from the business. Nevertheless, I still find myself intrigued, entranced, and hopeful about Christopher Nolan's The Prestige, which opens in wide release in the US today.

Part of my interest is Nolan, part is the cast (Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman - so good in The Fountain, Michael Caine, David Bowie, and that Scarlett girl), and part is the dark gaslight look of the trailers I've seen.

Reviews are more positive than negative so far. Here's a 70 second clip from the flick to watch if you'll still stuck at work like me:

Quicktime 7 - High
Quicktime 7 - Medium
Quicktime 7 - Low
Flash 8 - High
Flash 8 - Medium
Flash 8 - Low
Windows Media Player 9 - High
Windows Media Player 9 - Low

Official US Site (Trailer)

Chris Hegedus and Nick Doob have been partnering with documentary legend D.A. Pennebaker (Don't Look Back, Monterey Pop) since the 1970s, turning their handheld cameras on diverse subjects ranging from politics to rock and roll. The trio recently codirected HBO's Elaine Stritch at Liberty, winning two Emmy awards for their work. Hegedus was awarded the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentaries for Startup.com (2001). Doob has shot a number of Pennebaker-Hegedus films including Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1973), The War Room (1993) and Only the Strong Survive (2002). Earlier, in 1979, he traveled with Murray Lerner to China and shot the Oscar-winning documentary From Mao to Mozart.

Al Franken: God Spoke screened earlier this year at the 49th San Francisco International Film Festival. During its recent commercial run in the Bay Area, I had the opportunity to meet up with Hegedus and Doob at the Chancellor Hotel to discuss their profile of the obstreperous Al Franken, commencing with his highly-publicized feud with Bill O'Reilly to his relentless campaign against George Bush and the Right Wing in the 2004 election. Doob and Hegedus were granted entré to Al Franken's world as he fearlessly confronts pundits and politicians, blurring the boundaries between political satire and impassioned citizenry.

Continue reading "AL FRANKEN: GOD SPOKE—Interview With Chris Hegedus and Nick Doob"

Let me introduce you to the world of Kenny Hotz and Spencer Rice. Best known here in Canada simply as Kenny and Spenny the duo are childhood friends who spun a well received independent film into a thriving cult television hit that revolves around an ongoing series of competitions and public humiliations. For those unfamiliar with Kenny Vs Spenny here's the skinny:

The duo have challenged each other to an ongoing series of competitions ranging from the relatively gentle - Who's A Better Chef - to the significantly less safe for children - Who Can Drink the Most Beer. Each competition runs the span of a single show with the loser of each forced to perform some sort of public humiliation at the whim of the winner.

The temptation with something like this is to throw it in a big pot with the likes of Jackass but what seperates it from the crowd is the simple fact that this is an actual relationship unfolding before our eyes, these are real people who have known each other from their earliest days. On screen and in person they come across much like an elderly married couple: they stay together because they love each other but it's been a long long time since they could remember why they love each other in the first place.

The new season of Kenny Vs Spenny began airing this week, you can find video clips here and Kenny's website here - let the entire intro play - then read on.

Continue reading "Kenny Talks. Spenny Tries To Slip The Occassional Word In From Time To Time And Gets Very Frustrated In The Process. Twitch Interviews Kenny and Spenny."

The official website for Silvana Zancolò's La radice del male is online, and on that site is a downloadable trailer for the movie.

The screenplay for La radice del male was written by Giovanni Eccher. The movie stars Zora Kerova (a.k.a. Zora Ulla Keslerová) as Andrea Spiegelman, Giancarlo Previati as Valerio Spiegelman, Peter Shepherd as Andrea's uncle, Luca Elmi as Germano, Petra Keslerová as Sabina, and Lionello Gennero as the doctor.

D.N.C. S.p.A. is scheduled to release La radice del male on DVD in Italy on November 8th. According to the page on D.N.C.'s website for that release, the DVD will include English subtitles.

La radice del male HQ trailer (downloadable 29.7 MB MOV file)
La radice del male LQ trailer (downloadable 8.7 MB MOV file)
La radice del male official website
D.N.C.: La radice del male DVD