FORT90

Time for a second look at this year’s NYAFF 2013 offerings. I’ve got the lowdown on two additional movies, and both are behind the scenes look at entertainment: the world of fashion and the world of filmmaking to be precise…

Helter Skelter

Not based upon the Beatles song, nor the book about Charlie Manson, Helter Skelter in this case is inspired by a manga that details the rise and fall of Lilico. She’s Japan’s top model, whose face and body graces every magazine cover, and which every young woman across the land gobbles up. Lilico’s also the star of both the small screen and large, and as such, is the object of affection of her perverted old directors. Whom she’s more than happy to oblige, despite having a very handsome male mode/actor as a fiancée. On that note, and not surprisingly, behind the pretty smile and flawless skin is an extremely petty, vain woman who lacks a shred of humanity. One who treats everyone around her like total dogsh*t, primarily her personal assistant Michiko (who greatly admires and loves Lilico). Like the time Lilico decided to come onto Michiko’s bf right in front of his gf, and also has sex with him, again right in front of Michiko (and not long up after she was asked to go down on Lilico, who wondered if it was indicative of deeper feelings, but was later made fun of, which already wrecked Michiko’s mind). Just for shits and giggles.

Helter Skelter spares no expense in showing what a worthless individual Lilico is, one who is not the least bit sympathetic, though it also casts her as a victim of sorts. The film is mostly a criticism of the Japanese entertainment industry as a whole, which she’s ultimately just a cog of. It’s also an indictment of the general public and how they consume their idols, only to immediately spit them out. Speaking of, Lilico’s inevitable downfall comes in two forms. First is the crazy amount of upkeep she must endure, via experimental plastic surgery that taps into “baby parts” and other highly illegal material (according to Lilico’s manager, who also acts the role of surrogate mom, the only thing that is real about her star client are “her eyeballs, her ears, her nails, and her pussy”). The primary subplot concerns a detective’s mission to crack down on the plastic surgeon Lilico turns to, and whose attention eventually focuses upon the star patient. He’s also super philosophical and ends up saying a lot of existential mumbo jumbo (re: all the weird blemishes that Lilico gets, which necessitates the constant trips to the clinic: “she’s like a succulent looking fruit, one that is rotten on the inside” and the like), to remind the viewer that you’re watching a movie from Japan.

Lilico’s second major undoing is the emergence of a younger, prettier, model, one whose beauty also happens to be all-natural. Inevitably, our star is no longer the most sought after woman in Japan, so she commands Michiko to go cut the pretty new face up. Previously Michiko had been an accomplice in the throwing of acid onto the face of Lilico’s fiancee’s new girlfriend (a new gal pal was obtained once the old one was no longer the hottest model), and is at this point essentially being blackmailed, less she wants Lilico to rat her out to the cops. The entire film is a train-wreck, one designed to make Lilico’s eventual and total meltdown as glorious as possible, which it is. On that note, the movie as a whole is flat out gorgeous; the director, Mika Ninagawa, is a former fashion photographer herself, and is not only intimately familiar with the subject material, but simply knows to how to handle a camera. Unfortunately, she could use a few more lessons when it comes to editing, cuz Helter Skelter is a bit on the long side, and at times tries way too hard to remind us the viewer what a monstrosity Lilico is and how we’re also culpable for creating her in the first place. But hey, that’s most Japanese movies in general. Long story short: if you like Lady Gaga and kinda hate yourself for it, this movie might be a good way to funnel those conflicted feelings. Helter Skelter has two screenings: the first is on Tuesday July 2, 9:15PM, at Lincoln Center, and the second is on Saturday July 13, 9:30PM, at Japan Society.

Behind The Camera: Why Mr. E Went To Hollywood

Described as the most “meta” movie of this year’s offerings, which is fact, Behind The Camera: Why Mr. E Went To Hollywood is about E J-Yong (the director of Dasepo Naughty Girls from a new NYAFFs back, which I was a big fan of), who was asked by Samsung to produce a 10 minute long short movie using nothing but Galaxy Android devices. So that’s what he did, but E J-Yong also decided to produce a “making of” documentary, which is what Behind The Camera ultimately is. Makes sense thus far, right? Well, what’s this movie that E J-Yong is trying to film with just cell phones all about? Why, it’s about E J-Yong and his attempt at producing a 10 minute long short movie using nothing by Galaxy Android devices. One key detail is how the fake E J-Yong decides to direct the entire production off cite, in Hawaii, as an experiment. As for the “real” E J-Yong, he does the same, except in the real world, he’s in Los Angeles. Maybe. One more time: it’s about a director who is off site and making a movie using cell phones, about a director who is off site and making a movie using cell phones.

The fake “making of” movie is primarily about how confused and flustered the cast and crew is, about having to deal with a director who is only present on the set in the form of a laptop via Skype. As for the actual “making of”, it’s mostly about how confused and flustered the cast and crew is, about having to deal with a director who is only present on the set in the form of a large screen TV, which is also powered by Skype. But when I say actual, that’s not to say Behind The Camera is a real documentary, because it is not. Some elements are real, with other parts are fictionalized, though E J-Yong refused to say which was which in the Q&A after the screening I attended. Adding to the confusion is how Behind The Camera contains an all-star cast, who play roles in the movie within the movie, or in some cases the movie within the movie within the movie, and are also supposed to be themselves in just the movie, but again are not who they really are.

Example: when Kim Ok-bin (who was the main reason why I enjoyed Dasepo Naughty Girls so much in the first place; she’s seriously the cutest Korean actress alive) has a freak out at and starts yelling at E J-Yong (this is the “real” one, btw, on the big screen in LA, again supposedly), it initially appears to be an act. But then it gets to a certain point in which you begin to wonder “oh man, I think this is really happening?” Then later on, when another actor walks off the stage, it too looks authentic, though it’s established almost immediately afterward that this is part of a prank among the actors that are pissed and want to let off some steam. E J-Yong, when being interviewed afterward, stated that there was a basic framework for everyone to work with, but almost all of the dialogue and action was improvised, and was shocked by some of things that was said about him (again, much of it is about all these people, colleagues of his, making fun of the guy), some of which is pretty mean spirited. Apparently, Dasepo Naughty Girls was a huge bomb at the box office, which is brought up time and time again. E J-Yong also didn’t expect the main storyline hook of the fictionalized flick, that being how the no one believes their director is actually far away, and is in fact super close by, to also play out in reality.

Despite being a who’s who of K-cinema, with a ton of insider references being tossed about, you don’t have to be a total Korean movie expert to watch the film. Though one does need a healthy love for movie as a whole. It’s filled everyone single stereotype you can think of: the director that can’t keep anything under control, the producer who tries his best to keep everything in order, the old time-y actress that constantly tells stories about the good old days, wide eyed young actresses that hang on every word of the aforementioned diva, etc. Though even my patience started to wear thin by the end; the constant complaining about the director not being there and how the production was a mess ends up making everyone look like a total prima donna cry babies. Anyhow, Behind The Camera: Why Mr. E Went To Hollywood plays one more time: tomorrow 1:00PM, at Lincoln Center.

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So, how was E3 and LA? Great! Unfortunately, the details will have to wait. And not just because I should honestly talk about PAX East, No Quarter, and Comics Vs. Games 2 first. Well, there’s that. Instead, it’s time once again to talk about…

The New York Asian Film Festival is GO. Today was the first day, of the 12th edition no less, though it’s actually been kinda/sorta going on for the past week. In the form of the pre-NYAFF, “Jackie Chan Experience”. And because the NYAFF 2013 trailer has yet to hit YouTube or Vimeo, here’s the sizzle reel for that instead!

It was pretty rad; got to see Drunken Master 2 on the big screen! We’re talking about the uncut ORIGINAL Hong Kong version, with the unmodified audio and aspect ration, all in glorious 35mm. Along with a back-to-back viewing of Project A and Project A2. Both are also Jackie Chan’s absolute best and total must-sees.

But I’m here to detail the NYAFF proper, and there’s a LOT to go over. Starting with…

The Bullet Vanishes

The Bullet Vanishes opens in a Chinese munitions factory, circa the mid-1920s. A young factory girl has been accused of stealing a box of bullets, and the guy who runs the place has gathered everyone else to watch her fate be decided “by the heavens”, which in this case is Russian Roulette. She dies. Two weeks later, bodies starting piling up at the factory left and right, but the bullets responsible cannot be found. How come? Some say it’s the spirit of the deal girl, out for revenge. Enter Inspector Song Dalu, played by Lau Ching-wan (without question one of the greatest HK actors of all time, FYI), who has developed a serious knack for getting to the truth; to determine if an inmate was indeed falsely accused of murdering her husband and that he actually committed suicide she said, Song Dalu hangs himself to re-create the crime, almost killing himself in order to uncover the truth (turns out she’s innocent after all). He gets reassigned to the big city, where he encounters Captain Guo Zhui, aka the fastest gun in town. And these two guys, whose only common strand is the desire for justice, have been given the duty to uncover the truth by the “Phantom Bullet” mystery.

What follows is a whoduntit told with breakneck pacing, brilliant acting, and a level of craftsmanship that is second to none. Which, to be honest, was hardly a shocker; The Bullet Vanishes is yet another reminder that, when it comes to Asian cinema, absolutely no one does it better than Hong Kong (sorry Japan and Korea). It delivers exactly what one might hope for, at least to those of us who love movies from HK to death: a super stylish and turbo charged take on Western film conventions, which in this case are Sherlock Holmes-esque capers, along with 80s buddy cop flicks. On that note, the thing I love about Hong Kong movies the most is how it doesn’t try to deconstruct Western tropes, but instead builds upon them, to make them anew with zest and vigor. Much of the cynicism you find elsewhere gets tossed to the wayside, and the attitude transfers to the viewer; you root for the good guys, not because you’re supposed to, but because you want to. The movie does throw you curve balls, as it’s supposed to; it’s a murder mystery after-all, but not the stupid kind you find in most Western fare. Admittedly the ending is a bit predictable, but once again, the whole point is to follow the numbers, to empower the movie’s underlying subtext. Which in The Bullet Vanishes is echoed by Lau Ching-wan’s examination of why good people do bad things.

I can’t recommend The Bullet Vanishes enough, but unfortunately, the screening I attended was its one and only. And that’s my biggest complaint about this year’s NYAFF; most movies are only shown once. There are 60 films this year, the most ever, so showing everything twice in the allotted amount of time would perhaps been impossible. Still sucks nonetheless. Anyhow, I wouldn’t hold my breathe over the possibility of an international distributor, though the chances of coming across The Bullet Vanishes in the wild is still far greater than coming across…

The Lady Avenger

One major focus of this year’s NYAFF is Taiwan Black Movies, a completely forgotten genre until recent years (in which examples on VHS tapes were found literally in a garbage bag in the Taipei Film Archives). And the very first offering was The Lady Avenger, which was banned in Taiwan, like every other examples of the genre, so pretty much all prints were seized and destroyed by the government. Hence why the copy we watched was shown on Betamax. Good luck trying to find a copy yourself!

The Lady Avenger is your prototypical Taiwan Black Movie. It reminds the audience that its a man’s world and women are nothing more than hunks of meat to be used and abused, until one says enough is enough, and at that point, get the hell out of the way. Things kick off with a woman, Chu, running for life in the middle of the wilderness. Eventually she’s shot in the back, and with her dying breath, she reaches out for… cosmetics? It’s actually a commercial shoot, and a very strange one at that, which ends up with the actress walking off set. She then decides to hitchhike back into town, and is picked up by some playboy in his sports car. Who, surprise, turns out to be a rapist piece of sh*t. Thankfully none of the sexual assaults in the movie are shown, but we do get the lead up and it’s painfully uncomfortable. It’s debatable if the wonky translated dialogue (“I’m going to sample your sex appeal”) lessens the edge or just makes it worse.

Chu decides to go after the rapist, Li, via legal channels. Unfortunately he’s super rich, and also a guy. Chu’s lawyer advises her client to not even bother, cuz she has no chance in hell of winning the case, plus Li’s influence will make sure the media paints him out to be the victim. Chu refuses to back down, but unfortunately, she does end up being humiliated on the stand and Li is set free. This causes Chu to completely lose it, and she attempts to kill Li, but that ends up not working, so she then kills herself. Wan-ching, who is the only reporter to see through Li’s bullsh*t decides to go after the jerk-off even more so and pays the price. She too is raped, by a bunch of Li’s cronies (who at one point swings Wan-ching around like a human jump rope, for whatever reason). Even worse is how she’s dumped by her fiancee immediately afterwards, who becomes embarrassed to be associated with a woman who has been dirtied (when his gal pal was trying to expose Li, he often cited that maybe Chu deserved to be assaulted; the dude’s a real winner for sure).

With every facet of her life destroyed, Wan-ching becomes the Lady Avenger and extracts revenge on Li and his thugs, using meat hooks, blowtorches, plus bear traps. Unfortunately, the version of the movie I saw was disjointed to put it mildly; before getting killed, each victim gets a box containing something, but due to government censorship (I’m assuming), I have no idea what the hell was inside. Our hero is also not quite the bad ass one might have hoped or expected, though it’s perhaps foolish to think that she would have become some kind of bad ass fighting machine overnight. The Lady Avenger is one of the few examples of the genre that is helmed by a woman, so maybe I should appreciate the slight semblance of realism that the film has. Anyhow, like how The Bullet Vanishes, there was just one screening, but there’s several other Taiwanese Black Movies to be found on this year’s schedule, like the somewhat similarly titled Woman Revenger.

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