Frenchy’s Fracas

Movie: WWW - What a Wonderful World (Faouzi Bensaïdi, Frankrijk, Marokko, Duitsland , 2006 - 99 ‘ )

Date: Feb 1, 2007

Rating: (a very pleasant surprise!)

Plot: A dark and mysterious gun-for-hire falls in love with a traffic cop. A second storyline is about a young man dreaming of crossing the seas to Europe.

Cast: Hey, I’m in love with Nezha Rahile, nuff said.. And director/writer/main lead Faouzi Bensaïdi as the weird and cool Kamel is another treat.

Visuals: WOW! There are so many things being visually presented to the audience, it’s incredible. I have to see this one again, just to take in the visual data that’s being served. Great scenes include our female lead directing traffic, the girls learning their dance steps, the recurring walks to the photo lab and many, many more.

Conclusion: The story gets a bit weak at some points in time, but the ending is classic Greek tragedy. It was definitely a stronger in visuals than in plot handling, so if you’re not enjoying the visuals you’ll probably be a bit less enthused by this movie, butI was thoroughly entertained by this movie from Morocco!

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Movie: Running Out of Time (Johnnie To, Hongkong , 1999 - 90 ‘ )

Date: Feb 1, 2007

Rating: (cat and mouse game extraordinaire!)

Plot: A hostage negotiator gets taken on a chase by a criminal who’s terminally ill.

Cast: Usual suspects: Andy Lau and Ching Wan Lau

Visuals: Great chase scenes and action choreography

Conclusion: The chemistry between the main characters keeps you amused and excited during the whole movie - a great action movie! I saw the sequel later in the evening, but that just didn’t cut it, it had some nice elements, but overall way too weak.
Well, that’s it for my Johnnie To movies for this festival. I’ve discovered a new director with interesting ideas and styles, nice!

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Movie: I Want to Dance (Hu Shu, China , 2007 - 85 ‘ )

Date: Feb 1, 2007

Rating: (brought to you by the Guizhou Tourist Board?)

Plot: In a village in the Guizhou region in China, a girl is fighting to get admitted to a dance group. She’s been told that she’s not skinny enough to join the group, but that’s not an acceptable option for this teenager.

Cast: All-round solid performances

Visuals: Never was interested in visiting China before, that is, until I saw the beautiful shots of the mountain scenery and the great traditional dresses and such.

Conclusion: No real surprises plot-wise, it’s a nice and clean production, a great location, and an OK cast. Even the themes concerning aesthetics and the position of women in certain cultures doesn’t get a real in-depth treatment, it’s easily digested. This is a real feelgood arthouse movie, where there aren’t any big things to shake up your world.

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Movie: The Host (Bong Joon-Ho, Zuid-Korea , 2006 - 119 ‘ )

Date: Jan 31, 2007

Rating: (happy action/horror)

Plot: The dumping of hazardous materials in the Seoul’s Han river triggers the creation of a murdering fish monster that starts taking (no) prisoners including the daughter of the dim-witted Park Kang-du. The whole Park family is on a desperate mission to save the little girl while the government and the military are shutting down the city in fear of an unknown deadly virus that’s connected to the emergence of the fish monster.

Cast: First time I saw Kang-ho Song was in the excellent Memories of Murder. I saw his face in the promo picture for this movie and I immediately put this film on my list. He doesn’t disappoint me in this movie either, showing more of his comedic talents.
The rest of the cast did a great job too.

Visuals: Great special effects, the computer generated monster was a visual treat. Also, the scenes in the monster’s hideout were very scary.

Conclusion: Funfunfun! I felt sorry for the people sitting next to me, having to suffer and endure my girlie-like shrieking whenever another surprise shock moment happened. Horror-action-comedy, first class, a must see pop corn movie!

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Movie: The Bet Collector (Jeffrey Jeturian, Philippines , 2006 - 101 ‘ )

Date: Jan 31, 2007

Rating: (unfinished business)

Plot: People in the Philippines are crazy about an illegal betting game, jueteng, that’s so widespread and corrupting that even governments are toppled by jueteng related scandals.
This movie, Kubrador, focusses on one woman’s daily routing as a bet collector, taking people’s jueteng bets. In the mean time she’s still grieving her son’s death, something that still holds an uncanny influence on her life.

Cast: The lead character, Amy, is very well handled by Gina Pareño. You get a sense of desperation when you see how she manipulates people into placing bets, how she grovels to the people higher up in the hierarchy but also how she’s totally blown away by the death of somebody else’s son.

Visuals: The street scenes are great, you really get the feeling you’re walking along with this woman through the streets of Quezon City.

Conclusion: Hmm.. Quite a lot of plot lines were set up but left unfinished or even unattended and that left you with a weird feeling at the end of the movie. It didn’t make a lot of sense. I liked how the son was shown in the story and I enjoyed watching the lead character getting through a very complicated life. Still, too many unanswered questions, questions that were almost all raised by the storyteller himself.

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