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Hi
people! We’re glad to be here once again, with
all you KFCC folks. Another year has passed, and another
Sitges Festival came and went...and of course, we’re
here to give you a glimpse of all we could see in
this year’s edition. On its 37th edition, the
festival has established itself as one of the biggest
genre festivals in the world, focusing on fantastic
and horror movies. In past editions, the festival
started introducing more and more Asian films (one
of the last year’s highlights were the presence
of Takashi Miike and Tadanobu Asano, among many others
Asian actors and directors), and now the fans can
enjoy a great selection of the best Asian cinema every
year. So let’s get down to work!
The first day arrived, and once we were armed with
our press accreditation, we were ready for action.
And the first shot couldn’t be any better: Howl’s
Moving Castle, the latest masterpiece from the one
and only Hayao Miyazaki and his Ghibli team, this
time adapting the novel from Diana Wynne Jones. An
eighteen-year-old girl, trapped in the body of an
old woman through a curse, asks for help from a fearful
warlock who lives in a moving castle guarded by a
demon. Once again, Miyazaki delivers a truly brilliant
piece of animation, with action, romance and sensibility,
all mixed together with the fantastic score of Joe
Hisaishi. If I was to make some criticism, I’d
say it was too much alike with Spirited Away in the
terms of characters and storyline, but anyway...Miyazaki
will always be Miyazaki.
And
if you think you’ve had enough Hong Kong cinema...here
comes another one! This time it was Breaking News,
one of the latest films from the cult director Johnnie
To. Five bank robbers make hundreds of policemen looks
like fools, while a TV station broadcast it all on
prime-time television. Now it’s the time for
the police force to clean up its image, beginning
a (dis)informative war while officers equipped with
mini-cameras bursts into the criminal-occupied building.
Starting with a brilliant sequence-shot, this film
offers the best of To’s style in editing and
camera work. A high energy action thriller that will
keep you on your seat ‘till the end.
An
average man, married and father of a girl, is kidnapped,
and wakes up in an airtight room. Fifteen years later,
the man is released with a briefcase full of money
and a cell phone, and only five days to get all the
answers. Starting from this intriguing premise, Park
delivers cinematic entertainment at its best: a very
good and solid script, wonderful performances and
amazing camera and editing work, and of course, breathtaking
photography and production design. Just in case you
haven’t guessed yet, this is one of the best
films of 2004 and an absolutely must-see. Ops! I almost
forgot...Oldboy won the Best Movie award.
Thanks God we’ve got Miike to save the day!
Zebraman tells the story of Shinichi, a professor
who’s life is a real mess (his students laugh
him at school, his wife has a lover and his daughter
prostitutes herself after school). Shinichi’s
only relief comes when he puts on his Zebraman costume,
the star of an old TV series. Everything starts to
change when one night he discovers some human-looking
beings that turn into jelly when hit. Giving another
turn of screw in his career, Miike delivers this wonderful
piece of entertainment, some kind of tribute to Ultraman
and the Power Rangers, mixing all the elements together
with the charisma of Sho Aikawa in the leading role.
A funny and bizarre film gem that once again proves
the shape-shifting ability of Miike’s work.
Finally
the time came: the chance to see two of the biggest
talents from modern Japanese cinema together for the
first time, Takashi Miike and Takeshi Kitano, united
in Izô. The story goes like this: a legendary
samurai killer, crucified by his enemies in 1864,
survives over space and time murdering everyone that
crosses this path (hundreds of warriors, mercenaries,
vampires, school kids, monks, yakuzas and even the
gods themselves!). At this point you’ll probably
be thinking how cool it may be, right? Well...though
it’s not as bad as some people says, it isn’t
certainly what we expected. The plot is almost non-existant,
and the running time is clearly excessive. At the
end we got tired of seeing Izô slashing people
(I’ve never thought I’d say something
like that in a movie with Kitano and Miike on it),
jumping over space and time without any sense. But
it surely can be an entertaining movie to watch with
the friends.
Does
that plot ring a bell to you? We’re talking
of Appleseed, the new movie version of the Shirow
Masamune manga, this time entirely computer animated
and directed by Shinji Aramaki. A good adaptation
of the original manga, with an interesting new look
(using the technique of cell shading for simulating
2D feel over 3D models), that surely won’t disapoint
the anime fans, despite sometimes looks like a Playstation
game.
We’ve
been waiting since 1995, such a long time, but finally
the time has come: Katsuhiro Otomo’s back on
the directing chair, with the long awaited Steamboy.
Set in London during the Industrial Revolution, Otomo
returns with a spectacular steampunk proposal full
of retro machines, an epic adventure where the forces
of good and evil struggle for the possession of one
of the most powerful energy sources in the universe:
the Steamball. With astonishing visuals, the film
delivers an amazing animated setting, where two and
three dimension computer graphics merge perfectly.
An absolutely new masterpiece from Otomo, a wonderful
film that will take you on a thrilling ride ‘till
the very end, proving once more the genious that Otomo
is.
An
introvert young man loses his memory as a result of
a serious car accident. Spurred on by who knows what,
he resumes his medical studies and becomes obsessed
with dissection practicals. The body of a tatooed
girl brings back memories of his last love. Tsukamoto,
loyal to Sitges since 1991, returns with a story that
combines personal psychic matters. The superstar of
young Japanese cinema, Tadanobu Asano, who we saw
last year in Zatoichi, shares the head of the bill
with ballet dancer Nami Tsukamoto and avant-garde
top-model Kiki (an authentic beauty that doesn’t
go unnoticed). In short: romantic feelings in an insane
atmosphere make romanticism even more accentuated,
a film not suitable for all audiences, and another
twist in the always interesting career of Tsukamoto.
Ryu
is a rookie cop with a great sense of justice, who
attracts the atention of a group of Taoists masters
with superpowers that decide to train him. Together
with Eui-jin, the daughter of one of the masters,
they’ll end fighting against the forces of evil.
Inspired by a 70’s animated series, this is
an “urban martial arts movie”, filled
with large doses of humor and incredible action scenes.
A very fun and entertaining movie, with a good chemistry
between the two main players, that once again demonstrates
that entertainment movies doesn’t have to be
as dumb as Hollywood wants us to believe.
Just
in case we didn’t have enough after Miyazaki
and Otomo...here comes Mamoru Oshii, with Innocence:
Ghost in the Shell 2, the sequel to one of the last
decade’s most influential movies. In 2032, the
differences between men and robots are barely perceptible.
The cyborgs, with a metal inner structure but a human
soul, become unaware they are machines and coexist
with men, who also have doubts about their human condition.
Oshii delivers a visual fest, where cybernetics and
philosophy are joined once again, and spiced with
little bits of action, in a film which will surely
become a new cult piece. An absolutely must-see for
all animation fans, and a chance for everyone to enter
to Oshii’s very own world. 
Full
of expectations after his previous Shark Skin Man
and Peach Hip Girl, we decided to take a close look
to the career of this young filmmaker. Definitely,
our feeling wasn’t wrong, and we could enjoy
a refreshing film full of charming characters: the
Harunos, a family who lives in a mountanious area
on the outskirts of Tokyo, in a peaceful, natural
environment. The members of this unconventional family
are an eccentric grandfather, a hypnotist father,
a manga cartoonist mother, a hormonally unstable teenage
son and a little daughter harassed by her own giant-sized
double. These five people’s lifes are changed
by the visit of a mysterious uncle, played by the
star of new Japanese cinema, Tadanobu Asano. A wonderful
tale combining family chronicle and surrealistic experimentation.
Never seen before (literally).
What’s
the recipe for Three...Extremes? A former star married
to a rich man willing to do anything to preserve her
beauty and youth, including cannibalism for gourmets.
A fabulous film director being visited by a psycopathic
movie extra threatening to slowly mutilate his wife.
A successful novelist facing a traumatic past marked
by incest and envy between twin sisters. Three hardly
everyday stories, three extreme situations, three
miniature horrors by three of the most savage directors
in all Asia. Chan’s sight into the darkness
of cotidianity, Park’s obssesion with revenge
and Miike’s weird style; three ingredients that
make this film become a tasty dish for palates hardened
in West rareness.
50
years after leveling his first city on the big screen,
Godzilla is still alive and kicking. To celebrate
it, Sitges ’proposed two marathon nights with
the screening of productions from five different decades.
Among them, we will remark Godzilla, the all-time
classic by Ishiro Honda (1954), for being the pioneer
of kaiju-eiga and an excellent film which succeeds
in fascinating the 21st century audiences with the
means and style from the 50’s, and Godzilla,
Mothra and King Gidora: Giant Monsters all out Attack
(Shusuke Kaneko, 2001), one of Godzilla’s latest
incarnations, very entertaining, with all the spirit
from kaiju films and full of tragicomic details that
made us enjoy it as real kids.
We
were eager to see the thai film that everybody was
talking about, Tropical Malady, from Apichatpong Weerasethakul,
to see what’s all that buzz about. Soldier Keng
is assigned to a village in the middle of the jungle
to carry out forest ranger tasks. There he feels attached
to a young villager named Tong, with whom he mantains
a close relationship. The sudden appearance of a murderous
monster causes confusion among the locals, who are
unable to tell myth from reality. Weerasethakul moves
away from traditional narrative to make a film with
avant-garde aesthetics and structure, which draws
the spectator into a double journey through a human
being’s basest passions. We think that we couldn’t
say nothing to prepare yourself for the experience
of watching Tropical Malady; a film that it’s
not similar to anything we had ever seen before. You’ll
have to keep your mind open wide!
