Cinema is Dope

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One of Simon Yam’s finest performances is in the latest film from Johnnie To, Sparrow. I caught this at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year. It was an instantly jarring To film because you realize very early on it’s a G rated To crime film. What it doesn’t have in violence and bullet mayhem it makes for with charm so catchy it resonates like a free flowing and upbeat Coltrane solo.

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Sweet yet deadly is Yanin Vismitananda as Zen in the latest from Prachya Pinkaew, Chocolate. Read my previous take on the film (read here).

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Of all the amazing film talent I had never met before this years Berlinale 2008 (Anders Thomas Jensen, Simon Yam, Tadanobu Asano, etc.,), I can easily saying meeting Wakamatsu Koji was the rarest treat. A living legend in the flesh that you just aren’t going to find at many festivals or really anywhere. Everyone else I met for the first time I’m bound to meet again. Doubtful I’ll ever cross paths with Wakamatsu Koji and I really was quite humbled, honored and blown away at the opportunity. One of those experiences I’ll always remember.

Making the experience take on a journey feel to it was the fact I had to travel way out to the Zoo stop in Berlin to see an incredibly rare screening of his 1965 film Secrets Behind the Wall. It was several stops away from the main festival activities and I had absolutely no idea where I was going or how I was going to find the theater. Luckily after 20 minutes of being lost I came across the movie theater.

With the film, Wakamatsu Koji proves you can make and craft an amazing movie with the barest of sets/locations and actors/actresses. I’ve rarely seen a director make this great of film with such little to work with, which is an amazing treat in and of itself and a film that any future filmmaker out there or established could watch for ideas and sparks. Powerful direction and some really incredible dialogue and one of the best anti-war films I’ve ever seen. There is a sheer beauty, rebellion and bravo to this film that is sorely lacking in indie cinema today.

After the film Wakamatsu Koji took part in a roughly 35 minute Q&A. I have videotaped this entire Q&A and will post it at a later date!

Wakamatsu Koji although soft spoken, is quite full of energy and a lightning fast and highly colorful wit. He seems to really enjoy what he is doing and perhaps might be incredibly humble over such an amazing amount of great lasting work in cinema.

Japanese Cinema:
::: Jason Gray
::: Mark Schilling’s Tokyo Ramen
::: Midnight Eye
::: Outcast Cinema
::: Ryuganji

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Next month I head out to the Berlin International Film Festival/European Film Market with others from Fantastic Fest to get started scouting for Fantastic Fest 2008. Fantastic Fest in 2007 had nearly someone at every major film fest and genre fest around the world, which was nonetheless one hell of an amazing feet. For 2008 I think it’s safe to say we will be casting an even larger net to scour the world and find great new films to show.

For those at the past Fantastic Fest be sure and get out and support and spread the word that The Orphanage which is currently playing at Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar. I’ve already made one trip to see it there, which was an absolute blast and one of the few films I’ve ever attended where a female got so scared in a place in the film she literally screamed bloody murder. I’m surprised her hysterical scream didn’t break every glass in the theater.

Fantastic Fest in the Blogosphere:
::: 2008 rolls in not with a bang, but with a whimper (Nothing Clears the Mind)
* Lots of Fantastic Fest titles in their 2008 best of!

::: MAJOR UPDATE. BE PREPARED. (Shiny Kid)
* For those wondering what the Fantastic Fester “The Girl with Gold Shoes” has been up to.

ps - If your on Facebook you can find some Fantastic Fest coolness going down there - just lurk around.

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