It has almost been a month since the conclusion of the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival but I have continued to review the 9 films I watched through written and video form. With the help of friends who came to watch the films with me, and some Q&A footage of the screenings, I have compiled 3 video reviews on our Banana Times youtube channel. Enjoy:

Banana Reviews – TIFF 2010 – Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen (with Dexter Chu):

Banana Reviews – TIFF 2010 – Late Autumn (with Alison Chan):

Banana Reviews – TIFF 2010 – 127 Hours (with Lester Calleja):

I will probably make at least one more video review before the month goes out so stay tuned! And for those of you who want to read what I had to say about the 9 films I watched at TIFF, here they are:

Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen
Late Autumn
Break Up Club
127 Hours
I Saw The Devil
Red Nights
Bunraku
Poetry
Black Swan

Until next time!

-phibz.

In light of David Fincher’s latest film The Social Network (if you haven’t seen it, watch it, trailer here), we here at The Banana Times would like to re-introduce a short film we made even before The Banana Times started, Book Of A Million Faces. This 9-minute piece is a mockumentary reflecting on the global Internet phenomenon of Facebook. But in this parody the social network is called “FaceNovel”, and the narrative plays out like a public service announcement spliced with real and scripted interviews to illustrate the addiction users have with this online service. Please direct your attention to the Book Of A Million Faces below!!

The Banana Times presents:
Book Of A Million Faces

This short was made in 2007 as a final film project in my sophomore year. Having made an experimental car-exploitation short and a documentary portraying our friend Dexter Chu earlier that year, I intended to simply join a project and get a decent mark as a crew mate. But succumbing to my desperate need for attention, I threw together a pitch in one day and decided to make something that makes fun of Facebook. And thus, Book Of A Million Faces was born! I talk a bit more about this old project in the video blog below:

The reason why we decided to re-release this old flick of ours was to pay tribute to the ever-expanding phenomena of Facebook, the drama that the creators had to endure in its creation, and ultimately David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin’s recent masterpiece in The Social Network. Even though Book Of A Million Faces pokes fun at Facebook, we only do it out of understanding and respect for what Mark Zuckerberg has done. In the end, we make fun of what we like and what’s important (:

Enjoy!

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The Social Network – A Banana Review:

David Fincher and Aaron Sorkins’ The Social Network is one for the books. If this film was part of the Toronto International Film Festival lineup this year, it would have rivaled 127 Hours and Black Swan. Many would object to making a film based on the lives of people who are still under 30 years old and so soon after the creation of Facebook. Less than a decade after the fact a film was already made. But due to the subject matter, I believe it was necessary to make a film this swiftly. Considering the exponential rate the cyber world is growing, in comparison to the real world, a biopic based on the lives on Mark Zuckerberg and his peers would soon become irrelevant if left untouched.

With the trending curve of Internet phenomena these days, maybe the film should have been made even sooner than it did. But having this story come out of the godly hands of Aaron Sorkin and the brilliant vision of David Fincher, The Social Network was more than anyone could have imagined. An impeccably written screenplay that drove the story with hypnotizingly great dialogue between strong yet fragile leading characters. The verdict? I’m going to watch it again. Keep in mind Inception was the only other film I watched twice in the theaters this year. Look out Oscars, we got another contender.

Banana Rating

/10

-phibz.

PS: The Social Network raked in 45.9 million dollars at the box office in its 10 days in cinemas. Chyeah.

After an exhausting 3-movie day (followed by an ill advised trip to a club) on Friday September 17^th, my ninth and last TIFF film of 2010 was Daron Aronofsky’s highly anticipated Black Swan. Being a fan of Aronofsky’s work, I was particularly looking forward to his return in the exploration and exploitation of the human mind in which he briefly stepped away from with The Wrestler. In other words, he’s back to mind f*** us, and we love it.

Throughout Aronofsky’s career, he has brilliantly revealed the captivating psychosis of his characters from drugs, love, fantasy to time-travel, but no one would even fathom exploring the dark psychology of ballet to the extent of Black Swan. For those who know about being a devoted ballet dancer is that it comes hand in hand with a tremendous amount of stress and strain to both the body and the mind. Black Swan takes the difficulties of this strenuous art form and emphasizes them with beauty, pain and anxiety.

Black Swan revolves around the production of Swan Lake by the New York City Ballet Company. Director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) decides to replace veteran ballerina Beth MacIntyre (Winona Ryder) with Nina (Natalie Portman). Wanting to make a unique version of Swan Lake, Leroy decides to cast the White Swan and Black Swan to be played by one person. Nina gets the part and goes through psychological, physical and emotional trauma in order to embody both the innocent and the aggressive personalities of both swans. On top of that, Lily (Mila Kunis), a new ballerina joining the company threatens Nina’s role as the Black Swan.

Black Swan blends the psychological thriller with hints of the horror genre and beautiful dance sequences. The total emersion of the characters and the audience into a narrative that is constantly parrying between illusion and reality while revolving around excellently choreographed ballet leaves you breathless and continuously questioning the tangibility of many scenes. Many argue that this is Aronofsky’s best film but it is hard to say with The Wrestler and more notably Requiem of a Dream hanging on his resume. But what I can say is that this may be Natalie Portman’s best dramatic performance to date. I definitely will not be surprised to see both their names up on nomination ballets come January.

Banana Rating:

/10

-phibz.

PS: I would have thought that the TIFF People’s Choice Award would either go to Black Swan or 127 Hours, but it was awarded to The King’s Speech. If both Black Swan and 127 Hours are Oscar-caliber in my eyes, I wonder what The King’s Speech would be? A must-see it seems.

Eye candy:

Ending Friday September 17^th on a good note with the last of three films, Lee Chang-dong’s Poetry was an exceptional life drama. Poetry won Lee the Best Screenplay Award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Much like the its title, the narrative of the film was very poetic on many levels beyond the fact that the lead character Yang Mija (played by veteran Yong Jeong-hee) enrolls in a poetry class at the beginning of the story.

WARNING: The following review may contain spoilers to Lee Chang-dong’s Poetry.

The film begins and ends as a giant poem, but is seamless throughout as if peering into a chapter of someone’s life. Although categorizing Poetry as a slice-of-life movie does not do it any justice, because what you take from it is much more than a story of a cheerful elderly woman. The film revolves around Yang Mija, an elder Korean woman who lives in a small town with her teenage grandson and is financially supported by the government and a part-time maid to an old man who suffered from a stroke. The usually cheerful Yang is dragged into dramatic affairs that leave her lost and broken. A young girl commits suicide as a result of being raped by a group of schoolmates one of whom is Yang’s grandson, and she has to pay the consequences.

I said the film can be poetic on many levels beyond its title because even amongst the endless struggle of the rape incident, Yang’s inability to pay off the girl’s mother, and the questionable relationship between her and the older man he works for, the film remained untouched and not overly dramatic. Even in situations where other films would use excess tension to exaggerate the drama, Poetry kept its calm to match the serenity of the small town and to remain tied to the unrelenting reality of life. Simply put, even when the world seemed the darkest in the eyes of the characters, it was still beautiful to watch.

After watching Poetry, I have seen a total of three Korean films at the Toronto International Film Festival and they all did not disappoint. Late Autumn was a unique international banana tale, I Saw The Devil was a gruesomely awesome revenge flick, and Poetry is poetry itself personified as a film. I am probably extremely late in realizing this, but Korean cinema is very, very powerful in every way. I think China, Hong Kong and Japan may need to lookout because here comes a new contender as Asia’s powerhouse national cinema. In the coming awards season, I won’t be too surprised if South Korea chose Poetry as their frontrunner for Best Foreign Language Film. Stay tuned.

Banana Rating:

/10

-phibz.

Next and last, TIFF review on Daron Aronofsky’s Black Swan!

The second of three movies on Friday September 17^th, Bunraku on the surface gave vibes of Kill Bill, Sin City and other highly stylized dystopian revenge films of our generation. A concept fantasy film that has a gunslinger/boxer (Josh Hartnett) and a samurai (Gackt) as partnering heroes both seeking vengeance on the same man, what can possibly go wrong? Well, let me enlighten you.

WARNING: The following review may contain spoilers for Guy Moshe’s Bunraku.

Bunraku is Guy Moshe’s first big budget film and he chose an attractive story that has potential to be great and very entertaining. Unlike The Return of Chen Zhen, in which its style is grounded by world history, iconic martial arts, and most importantly reality, Bunraku is based in an alternate universe that is filled with fantasy. Not to say that highly stylized films based in alternate worlds are all lackluster, as mentioned before, Kill Bill, Sin City, and more recently Scott Pilgrim VS The World did very well.

Stemming from the traditional Japanese puppet theater called Bunraku, the film’s central motif was to have the narrative unfold like a pop-up book, which is very apparent in the transitions, or a puppet theater. However this key motif that’s supposed to ground even the most stylized, superhuman, fantastical stories, begins to shift and deteriorate as the film went on. Comic book, video game, and other cinematic styles began to creep up and take over this “bunraku” theme at certain short periods of the film. Tarantino’s Kill Bill managed to contain the many national cinematic traits in his revenge tale through clear structure and strong characters. Bunraku on the other hand was a little messy, and long.

When the film is meant to a high-action, highly styled vengeance flick, I was already losing interest halfway through. However, I do look forward to its December theatrical release to watch it again, because with better concise editing, Bunraku could possibly achieve its intended high action, highly violent, and highly stylized vibe.

Banana Rating:

/10

-phibz.

Next up, review on Lee Chang-dong’s Poetry!

First off, I would like to say that Red Nights broke my 5-film streak of great TIFF films this year. It was the first of three films I watched on Friday September 17^th and it did not give a good start to the day. Directors of the film, Julien Carbon and Laurent Courtiaud, was previously most well-known for writing Johnnie To’s classic Running Out Of Time, and Red Nights was their directorial debut. Knowing only that it was a French thriller drama based in Hong Kong, I thought this sort of hybrid film would be an interesting surprise. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

WARNING: The following review may contain spoilers to Julien Carbon and Laurent Courtiaud’s Red Nights.

Carbon and Courtiaud mentioned before the film that they lived and worked in Hong Kong for 15 years prior to making their directorial debut. And with Red Nights, they said that not only did the film embody French and Hong Kong cinema, but other genres as well stemming from Italian and Japanese filmmaking. While it is great to incorporate and mash-up various national cinema styles, you risk your film appearing messy and uncoordinated.

Red Nights served as a weak comeback film for veteran Hong Kong actress Carrie Ng, after spending over 7 years away from the entertainment business. Carrie, played by Carrie Ng (originality at its best), plays a cross between a seductress and a killer who is obsessed with finding an ancient poison that both paralyzes and enhances the victim’s senses at the same time used by The Jade Emperor, a Chinese opera in which Carrie manages. Her excitement grows as she discovers that a French mistress, Catherine, has smuggled a valuable artifact belonging to China’s first Emperor into Hong Kong containing this legendary poison. As the film’s narrative unfolds, the lines between pleasure and pain are twisted.

Although the plot might sound intriguing, Carbon and Courtiaud still has a lot of room to grow and a lot to learn in their newfound directorial position. As said before, the attempt of blending over four different national cinemas into one movie became less stylistic and even more unrealistic. Where narrow gritty Hong Kong buildings winded into spacious Japanese-styled paper rooms, contradicted the city in which the film was based on. The multilingual nature of the film seemed fresh at first but became dull and unreliable as the film progressed as characters would have long conversations speaking their respective languages and seemingly have full understanding of what the other is talking about.

Overall, this was not the most ideal story for a directorial debut. But seeing Carbon and Courtiaud’s body of written work, the directing and managing part can only improve from this point. I definitely look forward to their next project.

Banana Rating:

/10

-phibz.

Next TIFF review, Guy Moshe’s Bunraku!

In preparation to watch Kim Ji-woon’s I Saw The Devil at the Toronto International Film Festival, I watched his previous films A Bittersweet Life and The Good, The Bad, The Weird just to get to know the director a little better. His unique style for violence and revenge were portrayed beautifully across a palette of original characters across his recent three films. However, I was a little disheartened discovering that Kim did not write the screenplay for I Saw The Devil, raising unneeded presumptions leading up to the screening. But it mattered very little that he did not write it. Did not matter at all.

WARNING: The following review may contain spoilers for Kim Ji-woon’s I Saw The Devil.

Kim Ji-woon came on stage before the film and referenced his previous film at the TIFF (The Good, The Bad, The Weird) stating that he labeled it as a “Kimchi Western”. He then introduced I Saw The Devil saying that we should view it as a “Kimchi Revenge Film”, as it contains all the spiciness the staple Korean dish also has. Little did we know that this spiciness director Kim referred to was a whole lot of gore and blood.

I Saw The Devil is essentially an animalistic narrative of predator and prey embodied into a modern Korean context but the roles are interchangeable. Choi Min-sik (known for his role in Old Boy) plays a Kyung-chul, a violent and dangerous psychopathic killer whose prey consists of young females. One night the daughter of a former police chief became his victim and was consequently the fiancé for the film’s protagonist Dae-hoon played by Lee Byun-hun, whom Kim worked with in previous films. After days of grief and sadness, Dae-hoon sets off to execute his revenge on the killer. He would viciously wound Kyung-chul but keep him alive just to find him using a tracking device and hurt him again. What he thought was a perfect plan of retribution backfired on him in painful ways he thought could never happen again.

This epic story of a revenge film is essentially Kill Bill meets Hostel meets Silence Of The Lambs packaged into the undyingly entertaining style of Kim Ji-woon. The Korea Media Rating Board forced Kim to re-edit the film due to its violent content. But luckily for the TIFF audience, we were able to see the extended version with all the violent bloody scenes intact. Director Kim stated after the screening that although he is not a violent person, his vision for the film was mainly fueled by what he would do if he were put in the same situation. He would become a monster himself in order to take revenge on a real monster.

I think overall that’s what myself and most people took away from the film. When your whole world comes crashing down because of a lunatic, would you risk it all in order to deliver the most unimaginable, gruesome and cruel pain to that person responsible?

I would, so be careful (:

Banana Rating:

/10

-phibz.

Next, Julien Carbon and Laurent Courtiaud’s Red Nights.

Many thought director Danny Boyle wouldn’t be able to top his Academy Award-winning Slumdog Millionaire (actually I did, after a second viewing, it wasn’t as great), but he definitely proved the strength and diversity of his filmmaking palette in 127 Hours. Based on the true story of avid canyoneer and climber Aron Ralston, this film displayed more than anything the resilience of a man who willed himself to live on and stay alive to tell this tale of perseverance.

WARNING: The following review may contain spoilers to Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours.

What seemed on the surface as just a one man performance powering the film of an acclaimed director, became a telling of a story that entranced the audience to see, feel, and experience beyond just one person. Although the majority of the film situated itself within the confined and claustrophobic space of Aron Ralston played by James Franco, what the audience saw and learnt from it was so much more than a singular realization. Through the performance of James Franco and the unyielding direction of Danny Boyle, we were able to see one man’s brightest and darkest hours, 127 of them. The basis of the movie revolves around Alston’s adventure into a Utah canyon range which was stopped abruptly by a loose boulder between a large earthly crevice, where he was trapped for the better part of 5 days.

The combination of a narrative or third-person camera and a digital camcorder belonging to Alston, told his story from a very personal and raw perspective. His realizations became our realizations and projected us into the spiritual, mental and astral experiences that he went through so vividly. It is true that it is a story that happened to one person, but what came out of it was a connection beyond that for Alston and the audience, from reality to hallucinatory. Being the second screening in the word for 127 Hours, both Danny Boyle and James Franco were present as well as Aron Ralston himself at the Toronto International Film Festival. Seeing him and hearing his thoughts after the film during the Q&A session made the film more amazing than it already was on its own. The first question he was asked was simple, “what did you think of the film’s portrayal of you and your experiences?”. But this simple question was enough to bring tears to Alston’s eyes saying that it was definitely hard to watch, but what was even more emotional was to look to his left and right where his wife and sister and family were sitting.

I have seen 5 films at the TIFF and this one was by far the most eye-opening and captivating of all. Most of the films you watch won’t have you guaranteeing major award nominations for, but this certainly was. This was James Franco’s best performance yet and one of Danny Boyle’s best film if not the best. The sound design and editing enhanced the film to have the audience physically feel the movement, pain and overall sensory experience. In March of 2011, if I don’t see Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Director, Actor, Editing, Screenwriting and Sound for this film, I will pick up hiking myself.

Banana Rating:

/10

-phibz.

Next up, TIFF review on Kin Ji-woon’s I Saw The Devil!

I would like to start off by saying that watching Break Up Club at the Toronto International Film Festival was a very proud and special movie-going experience for me. Not only did I watch it with the good company of my friends, also that many things about the film can be felt at a universal level, but because I met the director Barbara Wong earlier this year. She enlightened me with much needed knowledge, stories, and advice regarding the Hong Kong film industry in contrast to the Hollywood or rather Western film industry. Now she is representing a new wave of worthy Hong Kong cinema in the internationally-acclaimed TIFF. Along with the evident number of Cantonese people in the theater, it was a very proud and noteworthy experience.

WARNING: The following review may contain spoilers to Barbara Wong’s Break Up Club!

Before the film was screened, Barbara Wong informed us that it was difficult to find investors to finance the film because they deemed the script was too complicated. This goes to show that many people in Hong Kong are not ready for this type of genre-merging and convention-breaking film. The narrative of the Break Up Club was in no way complicated in the eyes of TIFF nor the viewers in the theater. Normally I speak with a bias in these matters considering my background in film, but this film was relatable on many levels not only for me but for my fellow movie-goers. We have all experienced heartbreak and love, what is there not to get? Love is complicated, we already know that, and this film explains it better than most.

Continuing this fairly personal review, I felt that I especially related to Break Up Club due to its style and structure. The film blended characteristics of documentary, mockumentary, DIY video, all to illustrate the complexity of this love story. The film revolves around Joe (Jaycee Chan) and his journey to win back his lost love Flora (Fiona Sit) by utilizing a website called “breakupclub.asia” that requires the user to break up a couple he or she knows by typing their names into the website. This act sparks off a long series of events that challenges the foundation of Joe and Flora’s relationship. Through the use of a digital camcorder, Joe documents many special moments between him and Flora, some of which were heartwarming, while others were the opposite.

Reuniting after working together on 2 Young, Jaycee Chan and Fiona Sit have grown exponentially as actors. Under the direction and vision of Barbara Wong, I believe this was their best work yet, as actors and filmmakers. With the trend that began with Daniel Wu’s acclaimed Four Heavenly Kings, I hope the documentary/mockumentary style develops into a much more prominent genre in coming years of Hong Kong cinema. We could use a little more realism and a little less superficiality.

Banana Rating:

/10

phibz.

Next up, TIFF review on Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours!

Kim Tae-yong’s Late Autumn was my second TIFF film this year and also second on Friday the 10th. It was only my first day at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival and I already learned a valuable lesson – don’t judge a film by its online synopsis. This was the first paragraph of the film’s official description on the TIFF website:

Late Autumn is an enchanting tale of two unlikely misfits who fall in love, despite all odds. Director Kim Tae-Yong’s subtle and nuanced direction elicits wonderful performances from his lead actors, crafting a lyrical and captivating love story.

Hoping to catch another Korean film at the festival other than Kim Ji-woon’s I Saw The Devil (to be seen on Tuesday) I landed on Late Autumn. I was also hoping to watch a South Korean romance flick, something I have not done in a while, and the first paragraph told me enough to expect as such. I expected the usual stereotypes of Korean romantic flicks, for example a couple meets, one of them encounters terminal illness, liters of tears ensue.. What also drew me to this film was that it had the same name as the legendary Yasujiro Ozu’s 1960 classic, Late Autumn. Needless to say, all my expectations and presumptions of the film were based on shallow pretences. Luckily, I could not have been more wrong.

WARNING: The following review may contain spoilers to Kim Tae-yong’s Late Autumn!!

Just the first day into the festival and I was already surprised and very much entertained. The experience was extra special because it was the world premiere of the film, even the director himself has not seen a full cut until this TIFF screening. Kim Tae-yong’s Late Autumn was a definite step out of the stereotypical unnecessarily depressing Korean romance film. A huge step at that.  First off, over half of the movie was not spoken in Korean. The dialogue between characters, although limited, were spoken in predominantly Mandarin and accented English. Tang Wei was the lead in the film who gave an exceptional performance as a young wife who was in a physically abusive marriage in which she ended up killing her husband in self-defence. She ended up in prison but was given a two day parole to attend her mother’s funeral. On the busride back to the city of Seattle, she meets a witty and flirty Korean man running from something played by Bin Hyeon. You may remember Tang Wei from her debut performance in Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution, in which she also gave an amazing performance.

Anna (Tang Wei) and Hoon (Bin Hyeon) only spoke English to each other with their respective accents (Chinese and Korean), but it did not take away from the chemistry they sustained throughout the film. Due to the nature of language of Late, Autumn, many of the most informative and captivating scenes were performed without dialogue. It was this non-dialogue that made the film as beautiful as it was. The emotion derived from such silence, particularly between the two leads, that conveyed the transcendence of language especially when it comes to such an unconventional love between Anna and Hoon. Both characters have dark pasts that wished to be forgotten but they still thrive in each other’s presence in what little time they had. Ultimately, this film was great without needing much dialogue. The expressionistic and emotion-filled air that conquered language barriers was evident between the characters and also between the screen and the audience. We felt the body language and unvoiced signals sent between Anna and Hoon, and from them to us, making it all the more impressive.

This is a film based in the American city of Seattle, with an up and coming Korean director, Chinese lead actress, Korean lead, who only conversed with each other in accented but captivating English. I think this is the beginning of an orgasmic recipe for Banana cinema (:

Banana Rating:

/10

phibz.

TIFF review on Barbara Wong’s wonderful Break Up Club next!!