Death Education (2025) Sundance 2025

Every March a teacher holds a death education  class by taking them to help lay to rest the unknown people of their town. The idea is to help his students come to terms with death.

Deeply moving and incredibly moving film is less a  straight on documentary and more a meditation on death an how we view it. Little is said. There are long silences. However the images are haunting and they pull us into the events on screen. We are quietly give much to thin about.

I can not image what this film is going to do to any film that follows it in a festival. This is a film I'm glad I saw divorced of a shorts collection because when it was done I just sat quietly and contemplated life. If I had seen this in a shorts collection I probably would have gotten up and walked out  and done something similar. Quite honestly this film kicks up way too much to the point that nothing can follow it closely.

It is certain to stay with you until year's end.

One of the great films of Sundance. 

A LEGEND, debuting on Digital, Blu-ray & DVD January 21

Billed as a sequel to the 2005 film THE MYTH, A LEGEND is really closer to a remake (though don't quote me it's been long enough since I saw THE MYTH that I could be overstating it) . The film is the story of a professor, played by Jackie Chan, finding some ancient relics that mirror ones in his dreams. His dreams tell the story of the battle between the Huns and the Hans and a beautiful woman tasked with keeping the land safe.

I know a lot of people are getting upset that they used AI  to make Jackie tat look younger, but the truth of the matter is that the film has a more serious problem and that is a wildly uneven script. Drifting erratically from grand action to soap opera and back again the film feels like it doesn't now what it want to be. The film feels like it is trying to make a point about the glory of China instead of being an entertaining action film.

I know I have been admonished by some of my friends for covering films from China owing to their crack down on artists and dissenters, but the truth is the Chinese government intervention in the making of films is going to do more damage faster simply because no one is going to want to see the films or the art produced. A LEGEND, like several recent other films from China, has the feel of a film that had the government crawling all over it, making it less enjoyable because the plot feels contrived and the film praises the glory of a mythical China that exists only in legend.

While the action is very good (if incredibly slick) I'm not sure it's quite up to the task of making the film  worth seeing. The problem is there is too much blah around it.

Black Dog (2024) is playing in LA- go see it

Guan Hu returns with a great little gem of a film that I completely failed to notice on the release calendar.

The film follows a man who has just gotten out of prison going to his home, a village near the edge of the desert in order to take care of the dog population. Along the way he becomes friends with a black dog and it changes him for the better.

This is a nice little film that is just as good as Hu's earlier films (COW, DESIGN OF DEATH or MR SIX) in other words the film is going to kick the legs out from under you and leave you wondering why more people aren't talking about this film.

This is a great film and you need to track it down ASAP.

Random thoughts on Mistress Dispeller (2024) DOC NYC

A woman hires a woman to break up her husbands affair 

This plays less like a documentary then a formal narrative which messes with your head because the film doesn't play as a documentary. This plays more like an art house film. I'm not certain that's a good thing because the film's formal structure keeps us distant.

My one question with this film is how did they get the husband to agree to being filmed?

To be honest this didn't really work for me.

100 Yards (2024) opens Friday

When you see 100 YARDS just go with it. Give it time to set the table and get going. I say this because the plot, about the son of the head of a martial arts school battling the first apprentice who now runs the school for control of it has been done to death in martial arts films and other genres as well. You've seen this a thousand times before. However the setting in 1920 Tianjin city and the vast array of characters are something new.

Playing at times as a jazz age western in modern dress 100 YARDS is truly something special. A one of a kind film that takes a well worn plot and makes it into something you've not really seen before. I say this because despite the film having a plot line I knew, I had no idea where this was going to go. I mean I really had no idea where this was going because the film is so filled with characters I've never seen before that I couldn't make a guess what was going to happen.

If you need an example of how different this film is consider the women in this film. There are four vitally important roles for women in the film and every one is not what you expect. One is the cross dressing spokesman for the The Circle, the martial arts group controlling the city's schools, whose back story is unexpected. Another is another member of the the Circle and while seemingly minor plays a key role several times. As for the two romantic partners for the men at the center of the tale... let's just say you aren't ready for who they are, so don't even try to guess. The women are seemingly not important but the truth is not for them most of the story wouldn't happen.

The action sequences are wonderfully atypical. The fights are compelling and culminate in a battle that runs the better part of the last 45 minutes. Amazingly it also advances the plot because of the things that happen during it. While a couple of people do die over the course of the film, their deaths are not the result of the fights.

To be honest I was ready to hang it up ten minutes in,certain this was a form over content film with a plot I'd seen before, and five minutes later I was staring at the screen gob smacked because I had no idea where this was going. Characters and situations were changing before my eyes.

I need to see this film again.

If you can give yourself over to the film and let it work its magic I think you are going to have a great time.

Highly recommended.

Caught By The Tides (2024) NYFF 2024

Jia Zhangke’s CAUGHT BY THE TIDES should not work, and even if it did work it shouldn’t work as well as it does.. The film was cut together from “mountains” of footage shot randomly over a 21 year period. During the lockdown Zhangke and his team went through the footage and found things they could tie together. They then shot some new footage to tie it all up together. It may take a while to click, but there is a point where it suddenly just comes together.

Beginning with some documentary footage of some women singing on Women’s Day, the film jumps around for a bit between documentary pieces and then a man and a woman who are in a relationship. They break apart and then going looking for each other over time. Before meeting again in the days of covid.

It’s not giving anything away because what makes this film special is the performances. Watching the actors age over time, in clips that were never meant to go together is something special. Somehow the ravages of time makes what we see even more special. There are nuances that we would never have seen otherwise.

What blows me away is that there is very little dialog. Everything is expressed in the physical performances. And then in the final section, set during covid, everyone is largely masked. The result is a couple of towering performances being given with only part of the face. If Oscar and other awards were truly based the best performances then the ones in this film would clean up.

Watching the film I wasn’t sure what I was watching. Some of this is as I said documentary footage, some of it is just staged bits. A bunch of it doesn’t seem to hang together. Yes the travelogue like footage is amazing  but there were times when I wasn’t sure that Zhangke was making his point…and then suddenly it clicked. Suddenly I was there. Suddenly the pain and loneliness crashed into the audience. Suddenly you realized that this seemingly imperfect experiment was going to break your heart.

I was moved.

Seeing this and taking the ride was one of the coolest things experiences of the year.

I think based on the reaction of the screening at NYFF, where no one seemed to walk out and everyone stayed for the Q&A I think the rest of the audience was too. ( do see the  NYFF Q&A where Zhangke explains in detail how he made the movie)

And if you don’t like it, that’s okay, this is a one of a kind movie.  But if you see it  don’t give up on it until the film ends.

Recommended

WHO’S AFRAID OF NATHAN LAW? (2023)

The answer to the title question is the government of China. They fear the young man and his friends as if he were the boogeyman. There is a very good chance that if the Chinese could remove him and other pro-democracy protesters with out it causing an uproar, they would do so in an instant. 

This is the story of Law and his fellow protesters who decided to fight the Chinese draconian rule of Hong Kong.  They didn't want to live in a city where dictators ruled with an iron hand.

This is one of the best docs I've seen on the uprising in Hong Kong. While there have been many others, some being biographies of people involved, some filled with on the ground footage, this is the first one that I've run across that has managed to be both in the moment and a step back. Its a film that puts us in the fight and gives us a bit of context so that we can understand what happened and what is happening and why. 

This film is so good that even if you've seen other films on the Hong Kong Uprising you need to see this one.

Recommended.

100 Yards (2023) Big Bad Film Festival

When you see 100 YARDS just go with it. Give it time to set the table and get going. I say this because the plot, about the son of the head of a martial arts school battling the first apprentice who now runs the school for control of it has been done to death in martial arts films and other genres as well. You've seen this a thousand times before. However the setting in 1920 Tianjin city and the vast array of characters are something new.

Playing at times as a jazz age western in modern dress 100 YARDS is truly something special. A one of a kind film that takes a well worn plot and makes it into something you've not really seen before. I say this because despite the film having a plot line I knew, I had no idea where this was going to go. I mean I really had no idea where this was going because the film is so filled with characters I've never seen before that I couldn't make a guess what was going to happen.

If you need an example of how different this film is consider the women in this film. There are four vitally important roles for women in the film and every one is not what you expect. One is the cross dressing spokesman for the The Circle, the martial arts group controlling the city's schools, whose back story is unexpected. Another is another member of the the Circle and while seemingly minor plays a key role several times. As for the two romantic partners for the men at the center of the tale... let's just say you aren't ready for who they are, so don't even try to guess. The women are seemingly not important but the truth is not for them most of the story wouldn't happen.

The action sequences are wonderfully atypical. The fights are compelling and culminate in a battle that runs the better part of the last 45 minutes. Amazingly it also advances the plot because of the things that happen during it. While a couple of people do die over the course of the film, their deaths are not the result of the fights.

To be honest I was ready to hang it up ten minutes in,certain this was a form over content film with a plot I'd seen before, and five minutes later I was staring at the screen gob smacked because I had no idea where this was going. Characters and situations were changing before my eyes.

I need to see this film again.

If you can give yourself over to the film and let it work its magic I think you are going to have a great time.

Highly recommended.

EYE FOR AN EYE 2 (2023) Big Bad Film Festival

After her brother is trampled to death by some very bad men a young girl gets hooked up with a blind bounty hunter and asks him to get revenge for her.  

When you go into EYE FOR AN EYE 2 you have to understand a couple of things. First is that while there is a bunch of action, the film is largely about the relationship between the two main characters. Things are focused on the two characters interacting. Yes some of it is expected, but some of it is not. And even the expected stuff some times has a sting in the tail.  As a result the plot line is related to the pair interacting and getting to the point where the final show down with the bad guy happens...

...and about that bad guy, he's fricking evil. Not only does he trample a young boy to death (graphically),  he kills a dog by kicking it to death (mostly off screen). Since he isn't on screen much the filmmakers want you  hate him and you do. You will be chomping to see him die.

The action is stunning. Yes, its stylized, but it works. I love that is not rapid-fire close ups but full figure clashes. Sure, there are cuts, but it's not rapid-fire pieces of action. You feel everyone is actually engaging and not just fighting for that one shot.

And that's another thing I love about the film- the use of the frame. The images are both natural and deliberate. You can see how they the framing gives you more information. I didn't realize it at first but there was a moment where suddenly the Lieutenant literally went over to the girls side and I realized the film had been doing it all along. The film also uses split screen to great effect a couple of time.

How is the film over all? I really liked it. To be certain it does play as a kind of Zatoichi meets Lone Wolf and Cub at times, but you really won't care because the the two leads are so strong. It's absolutely a variation on a theme, but its so well done you won't care. I think this is going to play best on a second and third viewing when you see the film for itself and not what you think it should be.

One of the great finds of 2024

THE UMBRELLA FAIRY (2024) Fantasia 2024

Qingdai a spirit of  an umbrella made from the same black stone as an infamous sword wants to reunite with Wanggui, her sister and the spirit of the black sword. Wanggui has gone off to get get revenge for the death of the sword's owner.

A mix of Japanese style imagery and Chinese ideas THE UMBRELLA FAIRY is film of visual overload. So few films are this jam packed with images that watching the film I wanted to stop the film every couple of minutes just to explore what was hiding in the backgrounds.  So much of what we are seeing is in motion that I can’t imagine what it was like to animate this. As a piece of art this film is a staggering achievement. I was blown away as my eyes melted in delight.

The dramatically I’m not certain the film works, or works according to Western sensibilities. There are lots of plot threads and little bits drifting through the film and I’m not certain it all comes together.  Yes there is an emotional pay off, but there are still some threads I would have like resolved. (One note my feelings may change on a second viewing may change. I say this because  while the film was subtitled nothing that was written was translated so things like the final image were not translated)

Slight reservations aside this is a stunning piece of animation that demands to be seen.

The Escaping Man (2023) NYAFF 2023

Wang Yichun returns to NYAFF with a film where pretty much everyone is morally compromised.

The film has Sheng Li getting out of prison after serving two decades on trumped up charges. Seeing out the person who accused him he ends up getting talked into kidnapping the woman's boss' son. Complications arise.

This is a good, if a bit rambling, comedy. Everyone in it has a wonky sense of morality to the point that the kid who gets kidnapped is taken to a doctor because he has a good heart. 

As with Yinchun's earlier film WHAT'S IN THE DARK the film is trying to juggle too many balls. Yinchun is trying to do a bit too much there seem to be all sorts of thematic threads involving class, morals, father son relationships and other things running through it that seem to be highlighted as if they mean something, but a bunch are never dealt with. As with the earlier film I find I had a good time taking the journey, but the ending left me wondering if that was all.

Worth a look but I'm not sure it'll hang with you. 

Wolf Hiding (2024) NYAFF 2024

Action star Eric Ma's debut debut is a mixed bag. Containing some staggering fight sequences with a plot that is bizarrely over the top and dialog that borders on nonsensical.

In an unnamed country, the head of a criminal organization that specializes in the kidnapping and trafficking of women and children is going to make a play and run for political office. In order to achieve this he has his stooges crush protests.  As he moves toward taking power his daughter is kidnapped and this sets off a cat and mouse game as he tries to get her back-and his minions make other deals.

Great looking film with some truly eye popping fight sequences is a must see for action lovers. The fights and other action sequences kick serious ass to the point you are going to want to replay them over and over again to see how some of it was done. I was in awe.

That the same time the plotting is a real mess with turns making no sense what so ever. Why do somethings happen? Your guess is as good as mine. I just threw up my hands and waited for the knives or fists to come out.

A big part of the problem is that a lot of the dialog doesn't seem to make sense. I would like to hope that it was simply the subtitles but portions of the film are in English and it left me scratching my head.

Then again you aren't going to ever thing about the plot  because the fights are so good.

Highly recommended for action fans for the action.

A Long Shot (2024) NYAFF 2024

This is an under the radar thriller that may very well end up on my end of year best list.

Gu, a former professional sharpshooter is forced to take a security job at a factory. Things become complicated when a tensions in the factory, hurt by the Chinese financial reforms, turn things into powder keg. At the same time his girlfriends son is close to going off the rails.

Social commentary collides with slow burn thriller in a film that slowly builds suspense until it’s almost unbearable. Credit the films low key gritty presentation  and the films take no prisoners attitude that makes up fear for the safety of everyone on screen.  It’s a hell of a ride that had me wondering where it was going to at the start and then staring blankly at the screen in fear for the characters I had come to love.

This is a great thriller of the sort that we only get from China.

Highly recommended for anyone willing to wait for the slow burn to pay off in spades.

Carefree Days (2023) NYAFF 2024

Gut punch film concerns a young woman dealing with her parents, friends and her illness. Its a film focused on the changing nature of life with sequences that will kick you in your knees and others that will make you feel wondrous.

While I am not certain the film pulls it all together, the film is very much about something and filled with not wholly likable characters and it's hard to know why we should be watching, CAREFREE DAYS still manages to move us repeatedly. I suspect that's a success in away since the film is about how nothing stays the same and it clicking and stepping away is a perfect example of that. 

As a film geek the craft of the film delighted me. Images made me audibly gasp. How sequences were put together amazed the hell out of me. While I came and went in and out of the story I was always locked and loaded watching the craft.

While I am mixed on the film as a drama, it is a delight for anyone who wants to see an expertly crafted film and doesn't mind crying a little.

CAREFREE DAYS plays at NYAFF again on 7/21. Tickets here.

WHEN A ROCKET SITS ON THE LAUNCH PAD (2023) NYAFF 2024

Portrait of a girl named Fang who wants to play basketball and continue with her education however her parents have other ideas.

Despite looking like a documentary this is a short narrative. Containing enough material for a feature film it doesn't know what it wants to be as it raises thread after thread and then goes nowhere with it. This feels like a feature film with 90 minutes chopped out.

Shot in a style where every image is a close up of a face, usually Fang's, there is no sense of place or even what we are watching. What is this and why are we being told this? I don't know since as I said this goes nowhere.

To be fair there is a hint of something greater, but the smothering images, the lack of place and missing footage to make this a feature left me wondering how this got programmed.

This is a rocket that exploded on the launch pad

MADE IN ETHIOPIA (2024) Tribeca 2024

I look at the Chinese run Eastern Industrial Park in Ethiopia as it attempts to start to build it's second phase. The park attracted thousands of people to the factories situated there, However as stage two begins complications arise as prices rise, people who were promised compensation grumble and life has other plans. 

Focusing on several people, a Chinese Desuty director in the park, two women working in the factories and their families and a government official, the film gives us good over view of the complicated situation. The way things go isn't really happy for anyone with one of the women remarking late n the film that they no longer dream but simply go where life takes them. It's a sad moment that breaks our hearts.

This is a film you have to belt in and go with. I initially, and wrongly, thought that this was was going to be a rah rah film about Chinese coming in and doing wonderful things. It seemed that way because at the start the film shows us how "great" things are thanks to Deputy Director Motto's enthusiasm.  That slowly turns into something less happy, there are troubles all around, all of them unforeseen.

This is a great film. In an age where we are told about Chinese investment in Africa, this film shows us what that entails on some level. We see the good and the bad of it, and of corporate control in general. Its a film that beautifully tells it's story  opening our eyes and making us wonder what is going to happen next. Yes, the film ends but the story isn't over which keeps us thinking.

Recommended.

Art College 1994 (2023) opens Friday

Liu Jian's follow up to the animated neon noir HAVE A NICE DAY is going to either thrill you or bore you to tears. Based on the director's time at China's Southern Academy of Arts the film follows a number of students as they create their art and ponder the universe.

One of my must see films of last year's NYAFF disappointed me. Having loved the director's previous film, this follow up  bored me silly.  

While part of the problem is the film's over length, the real problem is that the self absorption of the characters got to be too much. The film is full of deep discussions of art, of meaning and subjects that drunk students in a philosophical mood might talk about, and not much beyond that. While I'm certain this is what is was probably like at the Academy it's all so one note that after awhile I was talking to the screen asking it to get on with it. At times this feels like a social media post you can't scroll past.

It doesn't help that the fragmented nature of the narrative and multiple characters never allows things to build. Too much is thrown at us that doesn't go anywhere. The result, unlike the director's previous controversial film ART COLLEGE 1994 just sort of is. The final sequence about a painting a professor doesn't approve of should have played like a played like a poke in the eye to authorities who tried to ban Jian's earlier film, and instead it was a sequence that didn't go anywhere or have emotional power. It should have been an exclamation point and instead it just was.

While not bad, it never soars and worse, it never justifies it's two hour running time.

Avoid Donnie Yen in Polar Rescue (2022) (Some Rambling thoughts)

While on a winter vacation with his family Donnie Yen's son acts up. Fed up, Yen drives off without him in the hope of teaching the kid a lesson. When he goes back five minutes later the kid is missing. A manhunt results.

This is hands down the worst Donnie Yen film I've ever seen. I hope never to see it again. (It's even worse than the film Donnie Yen personally apologized to me and Hubert about before we saw it)

The film begins by giving us a family unit we instantly don't like, the filmmakers then up the ante by having them behave badly. Not only don't we like them we kind of want them to die. I truly hated the son. As  the film shifts into the rescue mode the film things go farther off the rails as the narrative has Daddy Yen do things that make zero sense. He's just wandering randomly in the wilderness. Worse Yen is required to do things that no one who has ever had even the slightest contact with snow and ice would ever do. I mean he walks across cracking ice, jumps into a frozen river.

I've never seen a Yen film where I simply said "and then he dies" every three or four minutes.

Who wrote this? 

Actually I want to know why Yen and his family are so badly written, but all of the other characters, all the police and rescuers, are so well written. Sure they have have to do movie sort of stuff, but they actually seem like real people. 

This movie is terrible. It's so bad that it may make you rethink what you feel about Donnie Yen.  I wouldn't care, but he produced this film. WHY? What do the other producers have on him? 

No. you do not want to see this. This isn't a so bad it's fun film, this is just a bad film.

Born To Fly (2023)

After realizing that their planes aren't as good as those made in America, the Chinese Military decides to develop the  best fighter aircraft in the world tested by the best pilots China can muster.

This is a jingoistic rah rah Chinese piece of propaganda that is their answer to TOP GUN MAVERICK.  It is a 100% hooray for our side film that is their version of the Tom Cruise films. It's just as macho and over the top as the American counterpart. It is also has 100 times more soap opera with the narrative sequences taking turns that you only see in over done pot boilers.  I laughed myself silly with some of the turns (one characters meaningful death speech and later, a control room full of teary eyed pilots). The plotting is so boiler plate that you can't help but know how this is going to go.

The plotting doesn't matter, what matters here are the the action sequence and they are quite good. While the CGI is uneven, especially early on, flying sequence still grab us and hold our attention. There are some great aerial sequences here, with the final test flight a nail biter, even if the shots of the crying pilots make it seem less serious than intended.

To be certain the over the top anti-American stance is a bit much and similar to the anti Russian stances many Hollywood films took in the 50's, but it really doesn't matter since this is a film about manly men trying to do something heroic in ways that they only do it in the movies. Because the film is supposed to be silly macho BS you can't take it too much to heart. (Besides in many ways we earned the ribbing by sending our jingoistic nonsense out into the world).

To be certain BORN TO FLY isn't high art but it entertains enough that it's worth a look.

DEEP SEA (2023) opens Friday

This is the greatest use of 3D I have ever seen.

This is one of the most amazing 3D films I have ever seen.

The 2D version looks amazing but the 3D version is something else entirely. This film is cinematic art of the highest order.

This is the story Shenxiu, who is traveling with her father and step mother on a cruise. She desperately wants to reconnect with he mother who never seems to want to take her phone calls. When she falls overboard during a story she ends up in a crazy undersea restaurant that is staffed by otters and serves the various people of the ocean. 

I am not going to lie to you, there is a point where the narrative stops making sense, the reason for it is explained at the end, but until that reveal the last portion of the film kind of feels fractured, even if it isn't.  While I was disappointed about the narrative, it's far from fatal, and besides it gives us an excuse for some more crazy visuals.

The visuals are the film. There is a level of detail here that is truly fightening. Even knowing that this was done  with computers it's still a frightening thought to realize all the things that had to be animated. I mean the camera is in constant motion so perspectives are never static. Plus director Xiaopeng Tian gives everything at every level in the frame weight. Nothing is half assed, its a real place. I was talking to the sales agent for the film and was told that there is so much in every image it will take more that seven or eight viewings to catch everything going on.

I was floored. I have never seen anything like this before. This is like being trapped in a living breathing painting. Think the visuals in WHAT DREAMS MAY COME but on steroids to some maximum degree.

It's not a lie when I say this is one of the greatest motion pictures I've ever seen. Yes it's not perfect but it is such a visceral and visual gut punch it moved me to tears at the sheer beauty of it all.

Highly recommended.