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Toronto Film Fest, Day Nine
Second last day of the fest! I'll be both sad and, frankly, relieved when it's all over tonight.
Title: Vers le sud
Director: Laurent Cantet
Country: France
P's Rating: Okay
Set in Haiti during the late '70s, when the country was run by dictator Baby Doc Duvalier and his infamous Tonton Macoutes, this film follows a group of middle-aged, white women who've taken their vacations at a Haitian resort with the express purpose of having sex with young, black men. The film is an interesting look at the collision of race and desire, of rich and poor, but I ultimately found it difficult to connect with. Charlotte Rampling, however, is quite magnificent as the ringleader of the women, haught, bossy and willing to take no prisoners in her quest to get what she wants.
Title: The Myth
Director: Stanley Tong
Country: Hong Kong
P's Rating: Okay
Though hampered by the naffest exposition and plotting I've seen in a long time and an inconsistency in tone--is it a serious historical epic or a modern day goofy action fest? oh wait, it's both!--Jackie Chan's latest is still a lot of fun, mostly due to some seriously inventive stunt work. Chan plays both a modern archaeologist and an ancient Chinese general who may, or may not, be the same person. The film flits between the time periods, giving Jackie opportunity to kick butt in both the modern day and the Qin dynasty. The fight on the conveyor belt of a glue rat trap factory is worth the price of admission.
Title: The Wayward Cloud
Director: Tsai Ming Liang
Country: Taiwan
P's Rating: Highly Recommended
I've never been a huge fan of Tsai Ming Liang. To me, he's always seemed to take 30 minutes of material and stretch it out to 90 excruciating minutes. There's always enough in his films that I can't write him off, but the pacing is so tedious that I can't fully embrace them. With The Wayward Cloud, that's finally changed for the better. Set in Taiwan during a severe water shortage, the film follows a porn actor and a young woman who live in the same apartment building as they indulge in a delicate but increasingly heated flirtation. There's almost no dialogue, but there are a series of crazy, choreographed musical numbers, set to Chinese pop songs from the '60s. And the film is seriously funny--an opening sex scene involving a watermelon has to be seen to be believed--up until the end when it delivers a visceral gut punch to your emotions.
Title: SPL
Director: Wilson Yip
Country: Hong Kong
P's Rating: Recommended
A welcome throw back to the Hong Kong cop and gangster cycle of the late '80s and early '90s. Simon Yam plays a cop obsessed with bringing down gangster Sammo Hung. But he's only got a few days left before he retires and his team is taken over by Donnie Yen. Yip directs the whole with incomparable style, and the action scenes, directed by Yen, are outstanding. An alley fight between Yen and newcomer Wu Jing is unbelievably vicious and beautiful, while the final fight between Yen and Sammo has at least five or six "oh!"moments. (You know, those times in a martial arts movie when the entire audience goes "oh!" because they can't believe what they've just seen.) As a bonus, Sammo Hung was at the screening, along with director Yip and Wu Jing, and was as funny and charming as you'd expect.
Title: Vers le sud
Director: Laurent Cantet
Country: France
P's Rating: Okay
Set in Haiti during the late '70s, when the country was run by dictator Baby Doc Duvalier and his infamous Tonton Macoutes, this film follows a group of middle-aged, white women who've taken their vacations at a Haitian resort with the express purpose of having sex with young, black men. The film is an interesting look at the collision of race and desire, of rich and poor, but I ultimately found it difficult to connect with. Charlotte Rampling, however, is quite magnificent as the ringleader of the women, haught, bossy and willing to take no prisoners in her quest to get what she wants.
Title: The Myth
Director: Stanley Tong
Country: Hong Kong
P's Rating: Okay
Though hampered by the naffest exposition and plotting I've seen in a long time and an inconsistency in tone--is it a serious historical epic or a modern day goofy action fest? oh wait, it's both!--Jackie Chan's latest is still a lot of fun, mostly due to some seriously inventive stunt work. Chan plays both a modern archaeologist and an ancient Chinese general who may, or may not, be the same person. The film flits between the time periods, giving Jackie opportunity to kick butt in both the modern day and the Qin dynasty. The fight on the conveyor belt of a glue rat trap factory is worth the price of admission.
Title: The Wayward Cloud
Director: Tsai Ming Liang
Country: Taiwan
P's Rating: Highly Recommended
I've never been a huge fan of Tsai Ming Liang. To me, he's always seemed to take 30 minutes of material and stretch it out to 90 excruciating minutes. There's always enough in his films that I can't write him off, but the pacing is so tedious that I can't fully embrace them. With The Wayward Cloud, that's finally changed for the better. Set in Taiwan during a severe water shortage, the film follows a porn actor and a young woman who live in the same apartment building as they indulge in a delicate but increasingly heated flirtation. There's almost no dialogue, but there are a series of crazy, choreographed musical numbers, set to Chinese pop songs from the '60s. And the film is seriously funny--an opening sex scene involving a watermelon has to be seen to be believed--up until the end when it delivers a visceral gut punch to your emotions.
Title: SPL
Director: Wilson Yip
Country: Hong Kong
P's Rating: Recommended
A welcome throw back to the Hong Kong cop and gangster cycle of the late '80s and early '90s. Simon Yam plays a cop obsessed with bringing down gangster Sammo Hung. But he's only got a few days left before he retires and his team is taken over by Donnie Yen. Yip directs the whole with incomparable style, and the action scenes, directed by Yen, are outstanding. An alley fight between Yen and newcomer Wu Jing is unbelievably vicious and beautiful, while the final fight between Yen and Sammo has at least five or six "oh!"moments. (You know, those times in a martial arts movie when the entire audience goes "oh!" because they can't believe what they've just seen.) As a bonus, Sammo Hung was at the screening, along with director Yip and Wu Jing, and was as funny and charming as you'd expect.
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Oh and if you find "One Night in Mongkok" Watch it!
Must ..get.. jackie.... mmmmmm historical kit.... mmmm
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And yeah, you totally have to see SPL.
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You'll know what I mean when you watch the film....
And it has Chin Kar Lok... TASTY
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