Movie Madness: Toronto International Film Festival 2012

TIFF is now in full swing, and film fanatics everywhere are delighted.  Here's a quick rundown of the movies foreign, Canadian, and American that are buzzing with Oscar bait and big names like king of the universe Joss Whedon, "Sexiest Man Alive" Bradley Cooper, and ridiculously beautiful Canadian native son Ryan Gosling.  UPDATE: LOL!

3 Movies and Only 3 Movies

If you could choose only 3 movies from the entire history of cinema, which would you pick?  This sounds like an impossible question, but some cinephiles over at Ricochet are having a go at it.  I don't even know where to start.  Maybe I could do it if I could choose 3 movies from each genre.

Film Culture Commentary: Virtue and Violence

Interesting, via gentle reader Pseudo-Polymath (who always has fascinating links).

Cartoon Fun + Film Culture Commentary: the Japanese Homeland Security Advisory System

But where's Hello Kitty on that scale of fear?!

I suggest she goes above Godzilla as a warning of imminent apocalypse.

(via Neatorama)

The Cinema-Mad Sibling Recommends: "Blood: The Last Vampire"

Here is an overview. The film stars a whole cadre of Asian film stars, including the South Korean actress Jeon Ji-hyeon.

The flick is about vampires, demons, violent action scenes, monster-hunting, and swordfights. That should be enough to get a certain demographic flocking to the cinema. Oh, plus the flick contains Japanese schoolgirls in uniform. (The demographic now starts sprinting to the cinema.)

Actually, the movie seems to be to be a kind of Asian Buffy the Vampire Slayer, since -- of course -- it's the cute Japanese schoolgirl who's the one with the sword! Plus a dash of "Blade."

Here is the movie website.

The film is scheduled for release in the UK in June; I'm not sure about the US release (though I'm sure the Cine-Sib is eagerly researching that).

I give you the Japanese teaser trailer:

Aaaand, if your Japanese is a little rusty, here is a full-length English trailer:

(Oh, and if you need another cool foreign film about vampires right now, try the Kamikaze Editor's recommendation of the Swedish "Let the Right One In." On no account whatsoever should you resort to "Twilight.")

Foreign Films and Film Culture Commentary: The Ladies in the Taiwanese Directors' Chairs

You know, this summer here at MM Blog, we've been talking a lot about the ladies and the cinema. Now here's a look at it from a Taiwanese angle.

Taiwanese moviemaking isn't completely a boys' club -- check out Taiwan's "Women Make Waves Film Festival" and the work of four women directors.

Here's a blurb about the founder:

Professor Yu Shan Huang founded Taiwan's Women Make Waves Film Festival to give female directors a platform to showcase their work. Her The Song of Chatain Mountain forms part of the festival. The film depicts the intellectual tyranny of Taiwan's Japanese occupiers before and during World War 2.

Summer Movie Retrospective, Part One: Review Round-Up

Pass the popcorn, movie mavens and film fans!

I promised a huge summer movie retrospective, and here is Part One. I've made a link-list of all the movie reviews that the Cinema-Mad Sibling and I produced over Summer 2008 (May to August, "Iron Man" to "Tropic Thunder," aka The Reign of Robert Downey Jr.).

The Cine-Sib and I didn't get around to seeing or reviewing every single flick that we wanted to, but still, the sheer amount that we do have is rather impressive. (Too bad I can't seem to be so enthusiastically productive with nerd-work. Oh, well!)

Here are all our reviews, large and small, in chronological order:

• "Iron Man" -- starting the season with a splash (first impressions), it was the flick that we loved so much that we reviewed it twice (Sib review attached)
  
• "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" -- first impressions and full review
• "Kung Fu Panda"
  
• "The Incredible Hulk" -- first impressions, my review, and Sib haiku
  
• "Wanted"
  
• "Wall-E" -- first impressions and Sib haiku
  
• "The Dark Knight" -- my review and the Cine-Sib's
  
• "Mongol"
  
• "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor"
  
• "Tropic Thunder" -- ending the summer with a bang (and a laugh)
• "Death Race" -- the Cine-Sib refuses to consider the summer season over just yet

I saw but never got around to reviewing "Hellboy 2: the Golden Army." Do I really need to go on? It's Hellboy. WYSIWYG.

I guess I should note the flicks that I meant to see but never got around to, the flicks I'll catch on DVD: "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian," "Get Smart," "Hancock,""X-Files: I Want to Believe," that Mummy flick that the Cine-Sib saw, "Journey to the Center of the Earth."

Movies I didn't see and had NO INTENTION of paying my good money to see: "Speed Racer," "Sex and the City, " "The Love Guru," "You Don't Mess With the Zohan," "The Happening," "Stepbrothers," "Mamma Mia," "Meet Dave," "Pineapple Express," "Space Chimps," "Star Wars" The Clone Wars."

So, a fond farewell to the summer movie season. Thanks for the memories . . . and the popcorny pleasures!

UPDATE: Forgot to add this. After all the reviews, what are MM's top flicks of Summer 2008? In alphabetical order, here they are: "The Dark Knight," "Iron Man," and "Tropic Thunder." They're all on my DVD list. And as you know, the Cine-Sib and I only get the DVD if we really love the movie.

Movie News: Yakuza-Flavored Brazil Nuts

And by Brazil nuts, I don't mean the tasty snacks.

I'm taking about this goofy premise for a new movie project: a Brazilian company wants to make an English-language movie set in Tokyo, with a story about the Yakuza, a Brazilian girl, and an American boy. Confused yet? The kitchen sink makes a cameo appearance.

Confucius Say: "Watch My Biopic!"

A biopic of Confucius is now in the works.

Hm, film biographies of ancient Asians seem to be "in" right now. While you're waiting for Confucius to hit the big screen, you can entertain yourself with Genghis Khan in "Mongol."

Now I'm thinking that maybe a big fat epic biopic of Sun Yat-sen might be an intriguing idea. After all, as my sage old grandpa told me once, Sun is the only fellow that everyone agrees was a good guy. Grandpa used to bow respectfully to Sun's statue whenever he found one. Plus, a Sun biopic would be full of action and intrigue since he did live in -- what's that phrase? ah, yes -- "interesting times."

Mini Foreign Movie Review: "Mongol"

Temujin prepares to unleash some 12th-century wrath of Khan

I'm trying something new here on the blog -- inserting a category just for foreign films in my film-centered posts. This is the inaugural entry. I've spent a lot of time enjoying and sharing American movies on this blog this summer; let's broaden our horizons a little and try some foreign flicks too, shall we?

Last night the Cine-Sib (who is here for a visit, hooray!) and I went to a screening of the well-reviewed film "Mongol" by Russian director Sergei Bodrov (nominated for the foreign film Oscar, winner of numerous other film prizes, and rated 88% at Rotten Tomatoes). It was an interesting and beautiful attempt to portray Genghis Khan before he was Genghis Khan -- when he was first a child and then the nobody named Temujin.

Nerd Note: A long, looooooong time ago, I had to write a paper on the early years of Genghis for a seminar in Chinese history, so I was happy to see a film on the subject -- if only because it brought a little cinematic flair and color to the evil memories of haunting the library.

Geek Note: Yes, Trek fans, the Cine-Sib could not resist yelling "KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!"

I'm a hurry today, so here are a few scattered thoughts and a tiny review of "Mongol" in haiku -- an idea I have shamelessly lifted from better haiku poets than I, the Cine-Sib and Christian Toto.

• Cine-Sib and I both thought the movie was often slow and plodding; at one point I had to elbow him to wake him up (!). The total run time is 126 minutes, but sometimes it felt very long.
  
• There weren't as many battle scenes as I thought there would be, though the film is still ared R for bloody violence and the final action sequence is eye-poppingly fantastic. The Cine-Sib commented approvingly it's the equal of battle scenes in "Braveheart."
  
• Lead actor Tadanobu Asano (he is Japanese) does a great job embodying Temujin. Same for the Chinese actor Honglei Sun, who plays the warlord Jamukha.
• Gorgeous sweeping panoramas of the steppes and mountains of central Asia make up a sustained pattern of excellent cinematography. The landscapes are one of the best features of the film, capturing some small hint of the harsh life of Mongolian nomadic tribes. (Plus I had a chance to explain to the Sibling what a yurt is!)
  
• Production values are sky-high, and the film is polished, detailed, and very evocative.
• This is a huge international effort, including the Russian director, Chinese and Japanese actors, locations in Kazakhstan, and the use of the Mongolian language throughout the film (yes, there are English subtitles). There's a smile-inducing bit in the film when Temujin cheerfully tells his son that everyone should learn Mongolian because it's such a beautiful language; it seems like a self-referential moment too. I admit I'd never really heard much Mongolian before, and it's very intriguing.
• I won't bother you with nerdy babbling about historical revisionism, romanticizing Genghis Khan, and such. This movie is a work of art and entertainment. Try to enjoy it as such. We actually don't have a lot of solid evidence for the earliest years of Temujin anyway. And we can argue later about the man who conquered huge swathes of central Asia with the edge of his bloody sword, created the Mongolian empire, and became a figure who terrified his enemies from China to the Black Sea.
  
• Here is the promised haiku:
  

Epic biopic
Genghis Khan rides to conquer
Learn Mongolian.