A Coventry University society exceeds expectations
*This article is published on iCov here and on CUEAFS's website here
Since it's foundation in September 2009, the Coventry University East Asian Film Society (CUEAFS) has gone quite a long way. The small society started with the aim of raising awareness of Asian cinema through weekly film screenings, went on to cover national and international festivals and last month organised an Asian symposium and festival in the Midlands in collaboration with Third Window Films.
Founder Spencer Murphy, who has a Ph.D. in the area of Hong Kong films, describes the area of Asian cinema as 'my passion in life'.
“When I was at university, being in a society is something I would've liked to have the opportunity to do”, Murphy said. “Because of my research background, I thought it was better to try something for a broader audience and give an opportunity for professional experience, as well.”
Last year, the society landed two official sponsors in the distribution companies Terracotta, run by Joey Leung, and Third Window Films with Managing Director Adam Torel. Along with Torel and Leung, other guest speakers who held lectures in Coventry University through the initiative of CUEAFS included film writers and journalists Colette Balmain, Jasper Sharp and John Berra.
Shelly Stevenson, associate lecturer in Coventry University, has an ongoing partnership with the society through her website, www.ICov.co.uk.
“I think that the society has been both an amazing idea and a real eye opener”, she commented. “I would not have seen some of the interesting films that have been screened if they had not been in the building - mainly because I had never thought of it. It's so nice to see things from another viewpoint, and the East Asian films have that.”
Outside the university, CUEAFS was involved in the London première of Momoko Ando's 'Kakera – A Piece of Our Lives', where the members took part in the official Q&A with the director for the DVD extras. The society was also part of the Terracotta Film Festival in London, the Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy, the Zipangu Fest in London and the organisation of East Winds: A Third Window Film Festival in Coventry.
“It's one of the best things I've done while at university”, said Elena Rapondzhieva, a member of the society since 2009. “I've had a great number of such wonderful and unforgettable experiences. “I can only see CUEAFS achieving greater and greater things. If the society's been afloat only for a year and a half and yet has done so much – I can only imagine what it will have in it's portfolio in 5 years.”
CUEAFS has around 15 active members who are enthusiastic about their involvement in the society. Dr John Berra of Nanjing University said: “The members of the society have demonstrated a genuine commitment to achieving the aims of the society. They are also intelligent, open-minded and hard-working, with the necessary positive attitude, and this has obviously inspired the academics, film-makers and journalists that have visited the society since 2009 to become more involved in its various initiatives. “CUEAFS has expanded the parameters for what a ‘student film society’ can achieve, and has done so within a relatively short space of time.”
Spencer Murphy expressed his pride of the enthusiasm of everyone involved in the society and the time and passion they have dedicated to it.
“Of course, I'm very proud of everyone involved and it's a privilege to see people develop over the course of their degrees and it's nice to see this in an environment where students don't do it because they have to, but because they want to and that's what I enjoy about it. It only works when we work together and that's a key to being a society.”
Along with more film screenings and events such as the Chinese Spring Festival Gala and Japanese Halloween Party which CUEAFS organised last year, the society will also take part in 'Raising and Giving' fund-raising week for the victims of Japan's earthquake at the end of this month and it will make an appearance at the Far East Film Festival in Italy once again in April. The future plans for the society also include the launch of a TV channel and the development of their website.
“I'd really like to launch next year a TV channel where we can do more substantial things”, said Murphy. “I'd like to see the website become a platform for Asian cinema in the UK. We can hopefully secure more relationships externally and I think we can expand upon that.”
*This article is published on iCov here and on CUEAFS's website here
The Coventry University East Asian Film Society (CUEAFS) is heading to Udine, Italy in the end of April to cover the 13th edition of the Far East Film Festival. The 2011 edition will be inaugurated on Friday 29th April, with a presentation of over sixty of the latest titles from the Extreme Orient. The event is curated by the Centro Espressioni Cinematografiche and will take place in Teatro Nuovo Giovanni di Udine.
CUEAFS will attend all nine days of the festival with the purpose of producing video material, interviews and reviews both internally and for their external partnerships. The society will have the chance to see international premières and conduct interviews with actors and directors from the industry for a second year in a row.
Michelle Bailey, outgoing president of the society, was part of the production team on the festival last year. This year, she will be heading the production on set during the second part of the event and will prepare the first team for the experience.
“The festival was one of the best experiences in my life. The interaction with directors and guests was casual and the atmosphere was lovely. I'm really looking forward to this year, it will hopefully be bigger and better.”
For Mariya Kamarashka, one of the later members, this will be the first opportunity to cover the festival. She will take up the role of photographer and will be in charge of the online media.
“I am very excited about this trip. It's going to be an amazing experience, being in one place with so many people sharing the same interest. It's going to be a lot of work, but I think at the end of the day it will be very rewarding.”
Last year, the society sent nine members to Italy to cover the last five days of the festival. CUEAFS attended film panels and conducted interviews with directors and producers, among which Derek Kwok, Clement Cheng, Chapman To, Lee Yong-Ju and Erik Matti and produced written material for its partnership with Cine-Vue.
The society had the chance to see the international premieres of Asian films, including 'The Message' – a film picked by CUEAFS's sponsor for distribution, which the society featured in their own festival, sharing their experience with Coventry and Warwick University students.
*This article has been produced for CUEAFS and it is published here
Zipangu Fest has joined the Play for Japan fund-raising movement to support the victims of the recent earthquake. The project, led by the Japan Society in London, is aiming to round up fund-raisers among the UK through music and live performances. Zipangu Fest will be doing its share with a re-screening of the CALF Animation Programme in the Roxy in London Bridge on April 3rd.
The programme is a selection of innovative and uplifting short films from young award-winning animators Atsushi Wada, Mirai Mizue, Kei Oyama and TOCHKA (Takeshi Nagata and Kazue Monno).
“I’m really excited to be a part of this, I think it’s going to be a great fun event and I hope we can raise a decent amount”, said Jasper Sharp, curator of Zipangu Fest. “I know it will be a drop in the ocean compared with what Japan needs, but at the same time, I hope its sending out some sort of message of solidarity from us to the people of Japan, that we’re thinking of them and trying to do what we can.”
Zipangu Fest launched its first ever edition in November last year in the Cafe 1001 in London with a selection of UK and world film premieres and a few music events. Among the celebrity guests was director Tetsuaki Matsue, whose documentary “Live Tape” depicted the life of the “Bob Dylan of Japan” - a Japanese street musician Kenta Maeno. The film was an unconventional approach in documentary film-making and was a one tape/one take piece of filming.
Following the film, musician Kenta Maeno entered the venue and began his live set of vibrant rock and folk songs with an accompaniment of the haunting melody of an erhu – a Chinese harp, played by Yuki Yoshida.
“The event was a good opportunity to see recent work and people that are still very much a niche over here in the UK”, said Oliver Sharpe, one of the photographers at the scene.
In April, Zipangu will be travelling to Newcastle in collaboration with the Star and Shadow cinema, where the programme will show a Japanese Film Season programme selected from the festival's first year.
“We’re going to show some of the programme at an event in Tallinn in Estonia this Summer. But really we’re mainly focussing on finding some good films and events for this year”, added Jasper Sharp.
*This article is published on iCov here and on CUEAFS's website here
Last night, the Coventry University East Asian Film Society (CUEAFS) in collaboration with Third Window Films closed the first ever issue of East Winds: A Third Window Film Festival which took place in the Warwick Arts Centre. The three day event was held in the memory of Journalism and Media colleague and friend Nadia Baird, who passed away earlier this week. The closing film of the festival, 'The Message', was a special commemorative screening in celebration of the life and work of Nadia, who had been a member of CUEAFS since 2009.
The festival opened on Friday, February 11, with the première of Japan's entry to the Oscars, 'Confessions' by director Tetsuya Nakashima. Other films from the programme included 'Memories of Matsuko' by the same director, Gen Takahashi's 'Confessions of a Dog', 'Cold Fish' by director of CUEAFS's screened 'Love Exposure' Sion Sono and the UK première of 'The Message' by Qunshu Gao and Kuo-Fu Chen.
CUEAFS's founder Spencer Murphy collaborated heavily with Third Window Film's Managing Director Adam Torel and John Gore from the Warwick Arts Centre in the weeks leading to the event.
“East Winds was very successful this year and I'm very pleased”, commented Mr Murphy. “Getting this festival established is a very important and very difficult task and to be able to do it this and next year will be a great accomplishment.”
Members of the society were the driving force behind the realisation of East Winds. This was the first event on such a grand scale that was partially organised by them, along with the Asia Exposure Symposium earlier this weekend.
Diana Stefanescu, current treasurer of CUEAFS, said she is very proud to have been involved in the festival, especially as this is her final year in Coventry. Stanley Lau, another member of CUEAFS, shared: “It was an amazing experience to be part of a festival that could match the big boys in the industry."
Among the guests to the event were Japanese director Gen Takahashi and Italian composer Gabriele Roberto, both of whom held Q&A sessions with the festival guests. Other attendees were writers and journalists from the industry, such as Colette Balmain, John Berra, Jasper Sharp, Martin Cleary and Daniel Green.
Interview with Adam Torel on East Winds: A Third Window Film Festival
*This interview has been produced for CUEAFS and it is published here
Adam Torel is the owner of Third Window Films – one of the largest distributors of contemporary East Asian Cinema, whose main aim is to raise awareness of the Asian film industry in the UK. Adam started the company five years ago after leaving Tartan Films, as he wanted to explore 'a full spectrum of genres' rather than mainstream Asian productions.
This year, Third Window Films with the help of Coventry University East Asian Film Society (CUEAFS) and the Warwick Arts Centre organised the East Winds: A Third Window Film Festival, which was held in the Warwick Arts Centre from February 11 to February 13. The idea for the event came about as Adam wanted to explore the UK outside of London and raise awareness in places where Asian film is not widely seen or talked about.
“I feel that it's better to reach out in such places instead of 'preaching to the converted' in larger areas”, he said.
Adam and CUEAFS's founder Spencer Murphy had talked about the concept of preparing a larger event where the students could have a more active participation.
“We thought about a film festival 'by the students and for the students'”, Adam commented. “In this way I could better reach my goal of trying to spread the word of Asian cinema (as well as my company) to a Midlands student population, and the students could take a real-life experience to accompany their studies.”
Selection of the films for the festival programme was based on 'keeping costs low' as Mr Torel said that “staying within budget is the most important skill when organising a festival”. The films featured came from Third Window Films' catalogue, including the Japanese entry to the Oscars, 'Confessions' by Tetsuya Nakashima and 'The Message' by Qunshu Gao and Kuo-Fu Chen, premiering in the UK.
“I wanted to show a wide spectrum of Asian film from the decade as a sort of 'beginners guide to Asian cinema' which focused on all genres across Asian, and initially wanted to play a few more 'art house' titles such as 'Oasis' or 'Peppermint Candy', but thought it best to keep things a little more simple and 'friendlier' to a lesser experienced (in terms of Asian film watching) crowd.”
Adam had worked closely with Spencer Murphy on organising the pre-festival work in regards to the selection of films and organising guests. In the meantime, CUEAFS handled the majority of marketing and also played a role in the day-to-day activity of the festival, which Adam said he 'wanted them to do'.
“I was really busy with a few other film releases that week so I had hoped that the society would take up the mantle of making sure everything went smoothly throughout the festival and I'm very happy with the work they did”, he added. “I hope in the future they can also take over the role of planning so that they can learn the whole experience from start-to-finish of organising a festival”.
Adam became one of the official sponsors of the Coventry University East Asian Film Society (CUEAFS) last year and donated a few titles to the society, including Momoko Ando's 'Kakera' and Sion Sono's 'Love Exposure'. Due to the collaboration, the society was also invited to the official premiere of 'Kakera' in London, where the members got a chance to participate in a Q&A session with the director, which was part of the official DVD extras.
*Memories of Matsuko is part of East Winds: A Third Window Film Festival. This review has been produced for CUEAFS and is published on iCov here
Alternative title: Kiraware Matsuko no issho Written and directed by: Tetsuya Nakashima Starring: Miki Nakatani, Eita and Yusuke Iseya
A visually and cinematographically captivating enchanted world of music and joy, love, pain and fundamental values is what Tetsuya Nakashima delivers to the viewer with his 'Memories of Matsuko'. The 'Kamikaze Girls' director takes 'Amelie' a step further and his magic exceeds even the screen splendour of 'Avatar', while the combination of drama and comedy fascinates the audience and turns them into a dedicated fan of this tragically everlasting hopeless hopefulness.
Narrated through the eyes of young Shou, entangled in his late aunt's garbage, trying to put together the pieces of her life, the film is a touching tale about Matsuko and her undying faith in the good of people. Matsuko's quest for happy endings is born through her desperate efforts to receive attention and affection from her father, who rarely spares a smile for her in his care for her chronically ill sister Kumi. Tainted with the burden of her pointless attempts to receive a manifestation of love, which inevitably contaminates all her relationships with men, Matsuko goes on a quest to find an ultimate meaning, and despite her downfalls, to learn to pick the pieces and turn them into beautiful songs that become her life-support machine.
Director Nakashima, who has proven his visual brilliance with his previous 'Kamikaze Girls' and 'Paco and the Magical Book', creates yet another simply absurd, imaginative and unreal fabulous world. The different periods of Matsuko's life follow their own colour scale and paint the screen with everything from warm bright pink under the joyful sounds of optimistic songs to the dark and depressing notes with splashes of crimson blood. From the beginning to the end, the audience is thrown into a surreal mixture of colours and sounds, set as a background to a very real and tangible drama and plausible life experience, which is where the actual sadness of the film lies.
From her desire to be a perfect daughter and sibling, perfect girlfriend, wife and bar hostess, to being a perfect prostitute, Yakuza girl or prisoner, Matsuko's failures build one atop the other and Nakashima depicts a heart-twisting journey that is beautiful and tearful at the same time. Her character's drama lies in her utmost desire to find stability and success and the almost tangible emptiness of the search for happiness taints her existence. Matsuko's tragedy is evident in her inability to accept her fate and in her dedication to finding the impossible perfect happiness with utmost efforts, and set on the downward spiral of her life, she becomes victim of the attempt to unlock the undecipherable secrets of life, love and the meaning of it all.
Miki Nakatani is simply brilliant in portraying the fragile human being desperate to fit in a world of porn stars, pop and Yakuza gang members and to find a path to happiness. Her portrayal of a hopelessly hopeful romantic whose attempts at perfection break so easily and leave her life fractured and bruised, only to ignite her dedication even more, is simply flawless. Nakatani's transformation into the dispirited broken girl whose heart still holds the painful particles of a hope long lost, is the final drop of true emotion that is delivered to the audience to turn this beautiful magical world of Nakashima's into a tragedy about the fundamental existential truths. Combined with the heart-melting score by Italian composer Gabriele Roberto, Memories of Matsuko turns into a refined visual and musical masterpiece with a meaningful tragicomic beautiful story underneath; a film that leaves a long-lasting aftertaste in one's mind, having touched the boundaries of human emotion.
Alternative title: Kawa no soko kara konnichi wa Written and directed by: Yuya Ishii Starring: Hikari Mitsushima, Kotaro Shiga and Masashi Endo
The newest Japanese film picked up for international release by distribution company Third Window Films, official sponsor of Coventry University East Asian Film Society (CUEAFS), ‘Sawako Decides’ by director Yuya Ishii portrays something different than what Western audiences would classify as ‘comedy’. The film deals with complicated emotions and personalities, and tells a universally true message about life and the will to live it.
Hikari Mitsushima (‘Kakera’, ‘Love Exposure’) portrays a spiritless girl during her fifth year in Tokyo, a ‘middle’ woman in a ‘middle’ job with a ‘middle’ boyfriend, who uses the phrase ‘it cannot be helped’ as an excuse for her apathy towards her own existence. At her meaningless and humiliating job at a toy company, she passively listens to two co-workers talk about men and the global economic crisis. Her free time she spends drinking beer alone or in the company of her boyfriend Kenichi and his daugher Kayoko, unable to connect with either of them in any significant way. With the news of her father being desperately ill, Kenichi persuades Sawako to move back to her home town and take over the clam-packing company her father used to run. Faced with the strong personalities of the factory women and the townspeople accuing her of deserting her father, Sawako slowly sinks into her ordinary life until one day she decides that it’s time her life changed.
Despite its slow pace , the film picks up speed towards the end, where the ‘metamorphosis’ of Sawako takes place. In that last part isn’t short of a few laughs and, perhaps, a few tears. Hikari shows her more active side which is visible in her performance in ‘Love Exposure’ and wins hearts with Sawako’s innocent eyes filled with childlike optimism, based on a depressing middle-class opinion of her own life. The music score debut by Chiaki Nomura and Samon Imamura is absolutely brilliant at closely following the pace of the film and intensifying the hidden emotions of the unsuspecting audience.
Hikari Mitsushima received Best Actress awards for her unforgettable performances in ‘Love Exposure’ and ‘Kakera’, and here gives a memorable impression of a spiritless middle-class girl, undergoing metamorphosis. Her portrayal of Sawako is very similar to the personality of Haru from ‘Kakera’ although directors Momoko Ando and Yuya Ishii created two completely different films in nature, storyline and message. Hollywood audiences might find a recent role undergoing the same metamorphosis in Darren Aronofsky’s ‘Black Swan’, where Natalie Portman’s character fights a similar battle with her own mind, although the film is again very different in nature and ideology. Although Sawako’s metamorphosis might seem a bit sudden and unrealistic and her character might be one that’s difficult to identify oneself with, Hikari Mitsushima’s performance in both parts of the film is truly believable and the audience can’t help but sympathise and want more for this middle-class girl leading a middle-class life.
With the only criticism as to running time, which could be slightly edited due to the film’s pace, ‘Sawako Decides’ is pleasant to watch and even though a little different from what is usually called a comedy, able to create a few laughs and leave the audience with perhaps a little more optimism as to their own lives. Although at times the characters might not be easy to identify with and their seemingly numb and meaningless lives might be somewhat unbelievable, the actors are convincing in their performances and with the help of the brilliant soundtrack are able to transcend the audience into the ‘middle’ world, where no-one is special, but life is still worth living.
*This review has been produced for CUEAFS and our partners Cine-Vue
The review has been submitted to Cine-Vue; still unpublished
Alternative title: Ajeossi Written and directed by: Leong-beom Lee Starring: Bin Won, Sae-ron Kim and Thanayong Wongtrakul
What starts out as a slow-paced ordinary story with not much to put one's finger on, besides the obvious appealing coolness and charm of the lead character, turns into a dramatic combination of drama, exhilarating fight sequences and multi-layered character development in the South Korean action thriller “The Man from Nowhere”. Director Jeong-beom Lee uses a well-known story of a skilled man on a journey to rescue a loved one, supplementing the storyline with a few side elements and intricate camera movements that add colour to the plot and tincture to the characters.
The film begins with the depiction of the main characters, leading seemingly unconnected lives. Cha Tae-Sik (Bin Won, “Mother”) is a quiet pawnshop owner who has withdrawn himself from society after a personal tragedy has struck him, whose only link to the outside world is the little girl next door, So-Mi. When the girl is kidnapped, her mother is murdered and her organs are harvested, Cha sets on a bloody journey that will lead him out of the shadows and will turn him into a dark knight who will fight all evil in his quest to rescue the child, finding unknown love in his heart for his 'next door neighbour'.
One might see in this film the shades of other productions such as Tony Scott's “Man on Fire” or Luc Besson's “Leon: The Professional”, with fight sequences similar to the Bourne trilogy and a man's determination to take justice in one's own hands which reminds of “Law Abiding Citizen”. However, “The Man from Nowhere” does not fall under the shadow of those films, but builds its own identity and convinces with its dark gloomy mood and believable characters. With the addition of the one-dimensionally evil gangsters, a sometimes cheesy dialogue and a happy ending, the film is truly a two-hour delight entrenched within the action thriller genre.
Bin Won is incredible in his performance, exhibiting his wonderful array of acting talents in the portrayal of a character so deeply different from Yoon Do-joon in “Mother”. His exquisite display of a range of emotions is absolutely beautiful – from downfall and devastation to ruthlessness and mercilessness and sympathy and affection. His posture and the way his seemingly untouchable coolness breaks down so easily and unexpectedly from the pain he feels, is admirably portrayed by Bin Won, and even more so impressive are his too-quick-for-the-eye-to-see fighting techniques.
Sae-ron Kim who plays So-Mi does not fail to carry her role charmingly well and compliments the brilliance of Bin Won. She adds youthful energy to the plot and a type of dramatic compassion that only a child could provoke. Her character is not overly emotion-tinted, but believable and genuine, and her presence sheds light on a different layer of Cha's character, whose affection for the girl is spectacularly made obvious even before he sets on his revengeful journey in the name of her rescue.
What starts out as a medium to unnoticeable performance by Thanayong Wongtrakul, who plays Ramrowan, turns into an impressive side story that interweaves with the main plot in an unforced natural way. Ramrowan's only lines in the film refer to his admiration of the lead character, and Thanayong does a beautiful job expressing his awe for a worthy adversary throughout the rest of the film without saying a word. The final fight is a battle of honour between two matching opponents to determine superiority, which has its roots in a deeply Oriental and traditionalist understanding of honour and excellence. His emotional transformation adds a different shade to the story, with his sympathy and sadness for the little girl bringing him to oppose his anti-hero statute and be human.
Beautifully scripted and beautifully executed, “The Man from Nowhere” is a delightful symbiosis of delicate threads of different stories that flow alongside one another and interweave in an genuine and believable manner. There is not one place in the film where the action or dialogue is unnecessary, over-acted or cheap, and the amazing score builds onto the drama and adds intensity to the scenes. A revenge film, which is not mean-spirited, an exhilarating action film with fragments of moderate drama and a familiar story with a softer flow and multi-layered characters – these are the elements of “The Man from Nowhere” that set it far apart from other similar productions and turn it into a splendid depiction of fighting excellence and emotional devastation with character and story development that does not fail to impress and touch one's mind and heart.
*This review has been produced for CUEAFS and our partners Cine-Vue
The review has been submitted to Cine-Vue; still unpublished
Directed by: Wilson Yip Written by: Edmong Wong Starring: Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung and Simon Yam
Master of the Chinese martial arts and Hong Kong action star Donnie Yen delivers another incredible performance in this sequel to the biopic “Ip Man” from 2008. Wilson Yip returns in the director's chair to continue the story of Ip Man's life from where the previous film ended and tell the story of the martial arts teacher's struggles in a post-war world.
Following his assault on the Japanese Army, Ip Man moves to Hong Kong in 1949. Because of his financial troubles, he tries to open his own martial arts school, only to encounter more problems along the way. After competing with the other masters to 'deserve' his right to teach kung fu, Ip Man comes face to face with the foreign culture of the British, who have no respect for anything that martial arts teach. Integrating loosely the story of Ip Man's relationship with his first Hong Kong pupil, Leung Sheung, or even arguably with Bruce Lee, the film's plot is a little too similar to the original, where Ip Man's patriotism against the invading Japanese is replaced by a not-subtle-enough nationalism against the foreign culture of the West.
Beyond the surface, however, “Ip Man 2” tells a deeper story that is left painfully unexplored. The story about human relationships and the goodness of a man towards others, despite his own struggles, and the biggest enemy of all – poverty, takes a back seat to the nationalistic resistance against the Western culture in the second half and leaves the audience with a shallow story with much more to be desired. Huang Xiaoming delivers a nice youthful warmth to the film and allows for Ip Man's character to be represented more deeply through his personal relationship with his disciple. However, this relationship and Ip Man's relationship with his family and his rivals could have been explored in much more depth, as the supporting cast and returning characters remain awkwardly one-layered and underused and don't deliver any real substance to the story.
Sammo Hung returns as action director and does a good job in the fighting scenes, although their unrealistic quality takes away from the experience of the original. It is also pleasing to see Hung occupy one of the rival masters' roles, delivering a great performance in the most memorable fighting scene from the film, which is an impressive demonstration of the different kung fu styles in Hong Kong. Another highlight of the sequel is the original soundtrack by Japanese composer Kenji Kawai (“Death Note”, “Ghost in the Shell”) which paints a painful picture of Hong Kong reality during the 50s and represents perfectly the struggles of a man to build life for himself and his family.
It is not exactly clear when the film turns into a parody of a kung fu film filled with stereotypes and bad acting, especially on the part of the British actors, but there is a painfully obvious transition between the first and second half. The strongly infiltrated nationalism makes Yen's character seem completely out of place and it disrupts the image of Ip Man with his dignity and humility and turns him into a 'magical' kung fu hero who can fight off twenty men armed with swords but not an English boxer. His character becomes tragically comic during his final speech which is badly scripted and it serves as an unnecessary lesson that is supposed to create peace where there was no war to begin with.
No match for the first film, “Ip Man 2” still manages to entertain, as it is easy to enjoy Donnie Yen's incredible representation of Ip Man's self-control, dignity and humility, as well as his martial arts skills. However, the badly scripted and acted second half and the awkward presence of the dozen sidekick characters that could have been better utilised, turn the film into a bad remake of the first, rather than a sequel, and deliver no depth to the story, but overused and worn-out stereotypes and misplaced nationalism.
*Confessions was part of East Winds: A Third Window Film Festival, curated by Third Window Films. This review has been produced for CUEAFS and our partners Cine-Vue
The review is published on iCov here and on Cine-Vue here
Alternative title: Kokuhaku Written and directed by: Tetsuya Nakashima Starring: Takako Matsu, Yukito Nishii and Kaoru Fujiwara
Issues of the violent human nature and the influence of the media on the social order of the world are brilliantly interwoven in the new film by Tetsuya Nakashima, the deep and disturbing psychological thriller “Confessions”. Based on a book by the same title by author Kanae Minato, the film is a series of confessions by different people, struck by the same tragedy – the murder of a child. When the police declares the death of Manami an accident, her mother Yuko Moriguchi (played brilliantly by Takako Matsu) promises not to pursue the two students involved. However, when it is revealed that the death of Manami was a meaningless event to students A and B, whose narcissistic need for attention replaced their guilt with pride, Yuko embarks on a dark revengeful journey in order to punish the murderers and through their suffering to teach them the value of the human life.
“Confessions” does not comment on the deep disturbances of personalities, just states them as inevitable outcomes of the existing social media world. Nakashima seems less interested in exploring the psychological problems of the arrogant violent teenagers and more inclined to discuss Japan's current social state as a tool in the process of abusing the darkest human instincts. From his point of view, the reasons are trite and unimportant, which is why the film does not look at them in particular depth. What is important is the chaos and malaise of today's apathetic and narcissistic youth, where fear is buried under the layers of overprotective parents, loneliness, alienation, abandonment issues and mania for glory, and the poetic notion of the child protection act is a defence mechanism in the face of immoral actions.
Innocence and rationality have no place in this world and there is a high price to pay for naivety, which is represented in the characters of Manami, Mizuho and Student B's mother. These are the beautifully innocent souls unsoiled by the evil darkness of the world and there is no place for them within the existing social order. They are not victims of murder, but the victims of the chain of evil that exists where there are no consequences for wrong deeds. From this point of view, Nakashima still has belief in the goodness of human nature, represented in the scene where a child gives Yuko a small strawberry candy. However, that pure and innocent goodness is caught in a world where there is no mercy and is powerless before the ruthlessness of the chaotic social order.
Perhaps a bit graphic at times, the film is beautifully scripted and unravels the story piece by piece, keeping the audience on its toes. There is a sense of sadness and heaviness that lingers in the haunting soundtrack, which combined with the dark blue colour of the whole film and the contrasting imagery of blood, milk and fire turns into a painful mysterious tale about the value of human life.
“Confessions” is heavily disturbing, revealing the root of serious teenage problems and the dark side of human nature. The film is bold in its dealings with delicate topics such as discrimination and AIDS. The story is set to challenge the audience's morality – somehow the emotionless and cruel teacher Yuko is subconsciously sympathised with, while the culprits A and B are pitied as the victims of the existing social order, not as creators of their own lives. The violence and the idea of bloody cold-hearted revenge are somehow not the focus of the story. The blue-black-silver palette of emotions is what is left after seeing “Confessions”, along with Radiohead's “Last Flowers” lingering in one's head, while a feeling of the wrongfulness of the social order and the challenged morality of the world weigh on the audience's mind.
“Confessions” is violent, serious, depressing, disturbing and emotionally draining. But ultimately hauntingly beautiful, which is a trade mark of Nakashima's films.
*The Message is part of CUEAFS's Udine Far East Film Festival 12 and East Winds: A Third Window Film Festival coverage. The review has been produced for CUEAFS and our partners Cine-Vue
Alternative title:Feng Sheng Written by Chen Kuofu; directed by Chen Kuofu and Gao Qunshu Starring Xiaoming Huang, Hanyu Zhang, Li BingBing and Xu Zhou
From directors Chen Kuofu and Gao Qunshu comes the thriller 'The Message', based on Jia Mai’s novel of the same name. The Hitchcock style thriller with an encapturing storyline in the spirit of Agatha Christie’s novels reminds of the popular Cluedo board game by being an impressive tale of espionage where mystery and intensity are the main ingredients of an inquest to discover the guilty persona among the suspects.
The plot tells the story of the events during the Sino-Japanese war under the Chinese puppet government, where five people are suspected of being involved in conspiracy for the Chinese resistance. After the Japanese intelligence captures a spy and channels of communication is revealed, incorrect information is transmitted to the Counter-Insurgency office in expectation this will lead to the discovery of the ‘broken link’. Japanese colonel Takeda is determined to find the infiltrating undercover through a process of elimination by putting the five people who came in contact with the message through a series of violent torturous interrogations in an attempt to discover who among them is the resistance agent Phantom.
From the very opening sequence of the film, the audience is thrown into a world of visual effects and breath-taking cinematography, much similar to the world envisaged in 'Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow'. The world is submerged in the fantasy historical scene of the 1940s, which is achieved by the thoughtful use of the steampunk camera style to portray that particular era. In addition, the sophisticated storyline adds up to an intense experience in anticipation for the discovery of the truth. The pulsating musical score fits perfectly with the tone of the film and quite reminds of Hitchcocks’ films’ musical accompaniment – the powerful work of Bernand Herrmann – in this case, the masterpiece of Japanese composer Michiru Oshima.
As the characters are scripted in a way that reveals early on which suspect is the guilty spy, proven easily true by the continuous outgoing messages for help, despite the death of a few of the characters, the film transforms from a spy thriller to something a lot more surprising. Although the viewer might put the pieces of the puzzle together during the first hour of the film, the suspense of whether or not the Phantom will be successful in their attempt to send a rescuing message and with what means remains. Moreover, events get more complicated and pressure escalates, while the turning point of 'The Message' is condensed with meaningful ideology about the value of a human's life in the face of a greater cause – an ideal not unfamiliar to Chinese productions, similarly to 'Lust, Caution' where the main character sacrifices her life and honour for her country.
Xun Zhou is a wonderful actress that never seizes to prove her talents and delivers an absolutely convincing performance, through a weave of guilt and innocence and truly incredible power of will and bravery. Li BingBing, despite receiving much less of the screen time, also delivers a powerful performance with her portrayal of a woman torn between her loyalty and friendship, her fear for her own life and her desire to be a part of something greater. The two actresses interact great with one another and deliver some of the best scenes in the film by depicting their multi-layered, multi-facet relationship. Huang Xiaoming glues the film together being the one who delivers all the suspense and painful expectation of violence to the screen, depicting perfectly a Japanese warrior determined to gain his honour back through whatever means necessary.
'The Message' is not entirely a conspiracy thriller, nor it is a historical film, although it does hold in itself a depiction of a dark part of Chinese history. Violence is interwoven with the plot, sometimes rather graphic, but the film is not gory or horror-styled. As the end reveals the events and ideals behind the conspiracy, the audience is presented with an ultimate fundamental 'message' – the human connection in the quest for a greater cause is worth more than the insignificant human life and there is immeasurable nobility in sacrificing one's life for the good of their country.
