All articles by Dan Fainaru – Page 32
-
Reviews
Ad Lib Night (Aju Teukbyeolhan Sonnim)
Dir: Lee Yoon-ki. S Kor. 2006. 99mins. Korean film-maker Lee Yoon-ki seems obsessed with female solitude and dysfunctional families. After This Charming Girl and Love Talk, he revisists the theme with Ad Lib Night, a film shot so much in close-ups that it could have been made anywhere, so little ...
-
Reviews
Opium: Diary Of A Madwoman (Opium: Egy Elmebeteg No Naploja)
Dir. Janos Szasz. Hung-Ger. 2007. 108mins. A decade after the adaptation of The Wittman Boys (1997) which delved with a vengeance into the evil lurking behind childhood innocence, Janos Szasz goes back to the diaries of same writer, Geza Csath, and comes up with the cinematic equivalent of an Edgar ...
-
Reviews
Sakuran
Dir: Mika Ninagawa. Jap. 2007. 111mins. Call it lush, sumptuous, a symphony of colours, a cinematographer's cherry blossom dream: Mika Ninagawa's directorial debut Sakuran leaves no doubt about her background. An enormously successful photographer, her first film looks exactly like something she would have concocted in the privacy of her ...
-
Reviews
Armin
Dir/scr: Ognjen Svilicic. Cro-Ger-Bos. 2007. 82mins.A low-key Balkan film may seem like a contradiction in terms, given the ebullient energy of the cinema produced in that part of the world, but there is no better way to describe Ognjen Svilicic's second feature. Something of a surprise after his raucous debut ...
-
Reviews
Lost In Beijing (Ping Guo)
Dir. Li Yu. China. 2007. 112mins. A social satire with strong sexual undertones in its early reels, which switches as it progresses into a darker melodrama, Li Yu's new film offers another variant on the surrogate mother dilemma. Despite some hesitancies in the second half, it pulls through thanks to ...
-
Reviews
Desert Dream (Hyazgar)
Dir. Zhang Lu. Kor-Fr. 2007. 123mins. The joint efforts of a Chinese director, a Franco-Korean production team and Mongolian locations results in Desert Dream, a kindly, well intentioned but over-extended allegory which spreads itself thinly over slightly more than two hours. Zhang Lu's follow-up to his festival hit Grain In ...
-
Reviews
Beaufort
Dir: Joseph Cedar. Is. 2007. 120mins Based on an award-winning, best selling documentary book by journalist Ron Leshem about the last stand of an Israeli unit in Southern Lebanon before their retreat in 2000, Joseph Cedar's painful and highly relevant film adaptation, while not addressing directly last summer's renewed outbreak ...
-
Reviews
I Have Never Forgotten You ' The Life And Legacy Of Simon Wiesenthal
Dir: Richard Trank. US. 2007. 103mins.A worthy memorial to Simon Wiesenthal, a man who had become a legend in his own lifetime, the documentary I Have Never Forgotten You... displays all the admiration, affection and love be expected from a film produced by the centre bearing his name. Some revered ...
-
Reviews
Getting Home (Luo Ye Gui Gen)
Dir. Khang Yang. China, 2007. 97 min.A road movie is by definition a mixed bag of goods. It can be funny one minute and trite the next, alternately brilliant and awkward, changing nature and tone as it goes along. Zhang Yang's new film may not be an exception to this ...
-
Reviews
Eye In The Sky (Gen Zong)
Former Johnny To writer Yau Nai Hoi makes an astonishing genre film debut with Eye In The Sky. Slick, fast and at times even furious, it introduces a new directorial talent with considerable mastery of film language who should go far, even if his first work bears his master's imprint. ...
-
Reviews
The Counterfeiters (Die Falscher)
Dir: Stefan Ruzowitzky. Aust-Ger. 2007. 98mins. A serious contender for one of this year's Bears, even a Golden one, Stefan Ruzowitzky's The Counterfeiters retells the Nazi attempt to sink the Allied economy by flooding it with counterfeit money. The film successfully tackles two issues. The first is whether concentration camp ...
-
Reviews
Jade Warrior (Jadesoturi)
Dir: Antti-Jussi Annila. Fin-Neth-Chi-Est.2006. 100mins.Making a kung fu film in Finland sounds so bizarrethat it might just work, especially when it combines the Scandinavian epic taleKalevala, about valiant warriors unhappy in love, withChinese mythology. But expecting a first-time film-maker to tackle such a task isasking too much - and certainly ...
-
Reviews
Tazza: The High Rollers (Tajja)
Dir/scr: Choi Dong-hoon. S Kor. 2006. 139mins.The undisputed homegrown box-office champion of late inSouth Korea - where it took some three million admissions in its first fortnight- Tazza: The High Rollers is a gambling caper thatraces off from the word go and doesn't slow down for the next 139 minutes.Choi ...
-
Reviews
Turtle Family (Familia Tortuga)
Dir/scr: Ruben Imaz Castro. Mex. 2006. 130mins.Turtle Family heralds Ruben Imaz Castro as the next voice from theMexican counter-current, as unconventional and challenging in his own way aspredecessors like Carlos Reygadas or Amat Escalante, if not as brazenly outrageous. His operaprima lasts 130 minutes, during which very little actually happens ...
-
Reviews
A Dirty Carnival (Biyeolhan Geori)
Dir/scr: Ha Yu. S Kor. 2006. 141mins.Updating the theory that war is politics pursued byother means, A Dirty Carnival arguesthat the criminal underworld is simply corporate business employing differenttools. Tracing the rise and fall of an ambitious but insufficiently ruthless Seoulthug, Ha Yu's new feature is reminiscent of Friend,Korea's best ...
-
Reviews
Half Moon (Niwemang)
Dir/scr: Bahman Ghobadi. Ir-Aust-Fr.2006. 107mins.Bahman Ghobadi's Half Moon, one of seven features producedas part of the Mozart's Visionary Cinema: New Crowned Hope season, is moreambitious but not as tightly knit as some of the Iranian film-maker's bestwork. A road movie, whose real theme is the unifying spirit of the defiant ...
-
Reviews
Crossing The Line
Dir. Daniel Gordon. UK. 2006. 91mins.Perfectly timed to reach Pusanjust as current tensions with North Korean increase once more, Crossing The Linepromises more than it can deliver. The story of former US soldier James Joseph Dresnok, 44 years after he left the American dream andsettled in Pyongyang, DanielGordon's documentary fails ...
-
Reviews
Boys Of Tomorrow (Woori-Ege Nae-Ileun Eobda)
Dir/scr. Noh Dong-seok. S Kor. 2006. 93mins.Pursuing similar themes to those covered in his debutfeature Generation, which screened acouple of years ago in Pusan, Noh Dong-seok's Boys OfTomorrow again takes up the cause of lost youth whose hopes and dreams aretrampled by the slum misery into which they are born.Shot ...
-
Reviews
Woman On The Beach (Haebyuneui Yeoin)
Dir/scr: Hong Sangsoo. S Kor. 2006. 128mins.Owing more to French cinema of the 1960s thancontemporary Korean film-making, Hong Sansoo'sromantic comedy Woman OnThe Beach is as intimate, laid back and low-key as his previousefforts. As such it will have a good following among critics and do well with thirtysomething arthouse audienceswho ...
-
Reviews
After This Our Exile (After This Our Exile)
Dir: Patrick Tam. Hong Kong, 2006.158mins.Excruciatingly long and exceedingly over-sentimental,Patrick Tam's After This, Our Exilelooks like a daytime soap, save for a couple of torrid love scenes which may beits best achievement.Tam's tear-jerking dramaabout a cook whose family is torn apart by his inveterate gambling and unpaiddebts displays great technical ...