It’s that time of year! Time for Kollaboration Toronto auditions. What’s Kollaboration Toronto? It’s an annual talent show that began in Los Angeles in 2000 and now has different shows in over twelve cities across North America with Toronto being the sole Canadian city.

But it’s not just a talent show! Kollaboration Toronto provides an outlet for local artists of Asian descent to showcase their talent. It is a great opportunity for artists to break into the entertainment industry in Canada, the United States, Asia and beyond. Their simple and strong mission statement, “Empowerment Through Entertainment” resounds in many. It gives Asian-Canadians the opportunity to break through stereotypes and showcase their talent, whatever it may be.

Are you an Asian-Canadian with talent? Do you have a beautiful voice? Do you wow your friends with your smooth dancing moves? Do you have a hidden talent that’s just waiting to break out?

Head on over to Kollaboration Toronto’s website and fill in the online audition application. But don’t delay, you only have until Sunday April 29th to fill out the application. There will be two audition dates to choose from – Saturday May 5th and Saturday May 19th.

Stand out, Toronto!

Just the facts:

• What: Kollaboration Toronto Auditions
• When: Saturday May 5th or Saturday May 19^th, 8:00am-5:00pm
• Where: Hart House, University of Toronto
• Deadline to register: Sunday April 29th
• How to register: Online at http://www.kollaborationto.org/audition.php

Kollaboration Toronto is entering its 6th year and I am proud to be a big part of it. This is a video I made to highlight the lineup of this year’s show:’

If you didn’t notice, you may remember Ally & Kevin from several Heroic Melon productions such as expert.ordinary and the second season of the Awkward Compilation. Please support this global movement of “Empowerment Through Entertainment”! Save the date! March 12th 2011 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

The finalists are: AJ Libramonte, Ally & Kevin, I Rock With The One, Patrick Simeon and Piano With A Beat

Featuring special guests: Boombox Saints, Esly, krNfx, J Reyez and Clara C as the headliner.

Tickets are available here!

www.kollaborationTO.org

-phibz.

Its been a little dry on the blog side of The Banana Times as of late, but I assure you its for good reason. Just bask yourselves on poster above and you’ll know its for good reason. Before I get into what I’ve been working on in the past 2 weeks, I first want to promise I will write reviews on all the amazing films I watched at the Reel Asian International Film Festival, just as soon as things ease up a little.

Now, I am happy to say that I am once again part of the amazing movement of Kollaboration Toronto for their upcoming 6th annual show in March 2011. This year I will reprise my duties in producing videos for Kollaboration Toronto as well as being part of the marketing team. I can already FEEL the excitement of this year’s show, because I know it will be awesome. Here are the two videos I’ve proudly done for them so far. Pump. It. UP!

Kollaboration Toronto 2011 Volunteer Video
A mash-up and montage of sorts, highlighting the success of the Kollaboration movement across 11 North American cities (the video is missing Boston, I sincerely apologize..). Did you know Far East Movement was a winner at one of the Kollaborations in LA? Yes. The guys who brought you LIKE A G6 and ROCKETEER (:

An Interview with ESLY – Winner of Kollaboration Toronto 2010
A short interview with last year’s champion of Kollaboration Toronto 2010. She shares her relationship with Kollaboration, what it has done for her, and her overall musical background.

So what are you waiting for? Log on to the Kollaboration Toronto website and get your friends, families, foes to audition! Keep this movement alive! Empowerment through Entertainment. This year’s gonna be huge. 100% guarantee. Stay tuned!

-phibz.

PS: It’s not to say that I didn’t have some time to myself. I carved for American Thanksgiving (:

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.

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!