Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (2024) NYAFF 2024 Fantasia 2024

 

In the 1980’s Lok,a refugee from elsewhere in Asia, arrives in Hong Kong looking to make enough money to buy an identity card. Fighting in an underground match he is propositioned for a job by Mr Big (Sammo Hung) . He declines and Big said that he will use his winning to get him a card. When Big scams him he steals a bag of drugs and flees ending up in Kowloon the walled city.  Finding a home in the dark corridors and watched ober by Cyclone (Louis Koo)  he plans on staying. However Hong Kong wants to tear Kowloon down, Lok's hidden past comes to light and bad guys want to use both to their advantage to take over the walled city.

There is way more to the story but that’s enough to get you going. The only other thing you need to know is that the film is filled with bone crushing action. From start to finish heads are being broken in some of the most amazing ways. Sure it’s all classic Hong Kong wire work, but it’s spectacular and makes you sit up and take notice.

The reason that the film works so well is that the film largely focuses on the characters. We have real people fighting to stay alive and forming  friendships based on mutual respect. As Nate Hood said to me after the film the character relationships are such that you want to see the them and life in the walled city more than the fights. (Could someone make a compelling film like this one minus the fights?)

I had a blast going along with Lok however I wish there was one thing I wish they could have done away with and that Mr Big's second in command, King (Philip Ng) is literally unkillable. King has an out of left field spiritual shield that makes him invincible. While it kind of fits with the fact that everyone gets the snot beaten out of them and still survives, the whole thing that King can’t be hurt is brought in so late into the film that it feels out of place. It feels like a cheat brought in so King could stand up to the heroes.  While I’m guessing it made more sense in the source comic, in the film it feels out of place and over the top, which is not something you want to hear in a film already over the top with it’s violence.

Quibble aside TWILIGHT OF THE WARRIORS is a spectacular action film and very highly recommended.

TWILIGHT OF THE WARRIORS plays Fantasia August 1 and opens August 9 in the US

BABY ASSASSINS: NICE DAYS (2024) NYAFF 2024 Fantasia 2024

The third in the Baby Assassins series world premiered at the New York Asian Film Festival.  For a while it didn't look like it was going to happen because the digital file had issues. After an hour they substituted a screener copy and held the event. They also managed to give the Daniel A Craft Award for Action to director Yugo Sakamoto, hold off the next screening long enough so that people who had tickets could go, and a 15 minute Q&A.

Bravo to the staff.

The plot of the film has Chisato and Mahiro sent to the city of Miyazaki on a hit. The pair are using the trip to site see and to celebrate Mahiro's birthday. The plan is to kill a nebish because he embellished a large sum of money. When they find their target they also find another hit man there about to kill him. A battle ensues... and when all is done the girls are in trouble because they didn't make the kill and because there is freelancer on the loose. Hooking up with another team, they now have to take out the freelancer and their target.

While this film isn't as good as the first film, it is light years ahead of the second. This is a film that's worth seeing, despite the fact that it is also a mess because the bits that work are great.

I'm not going to lie; the narrative is a wildly uneven. After an unfunny silly opening the film shifts into action mode when they go on the hit. This introduces the villain, a lone wolf killer who is looking for his 150th kill. He's a psychotic nutjob with near superhuman ability. He is a chilling foe... who quickly disappears for large chunks of the film. This would be fine if director Sakamoto managed to make him have a presence in the scenes he's not in, but it never happens. Even when he is spoken about, and even when the girls are going through his house, there is so sense of him hanging over the proceedings.  He is either a danger on screen when he is battling with the girls or gone from the film's memory. It's a disastrous move that leaves us with no one to fear. The film is so bad at making the villains menacing (there are other assassins) there is no sense of danger. Well, okay, in the fights there is a sense of danger because the girls get their asses kicked but when there is no action there is no suspense. Frankly there is a great villainous performance here looking for a script up to that level.

The plot also doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense. Plot threads jump. We often don't know how we get from one part to another. For example at the end everyone is fighting outside when suddenly the girls are in a building and battle their nemesis. How did they know he was there? More to the point how did the bad guy get from the cars to the building?  We don't know. The film looks like Sakamoto and his crew cut out all the connecting material.

You can't think about you just have to go with the action.

Speaking of action, I don't know why Sakamoto got the Daniel Craft Award for Action.  I say that in part because Sakamoto hasn't done enough careerwise to warrant it. Yea the fights in the first film are great but the rest of the films aren't that great. Here the fights are serviceable but not great. Part of the problem is that they are wickedly uneven. In some moments there is copious amounts of blood, and in other moments there is none. In some moments things have effects on the combatants there is none.  Worse a lot of the fights feel a half step slow. Yea there are some great moments, but mostly it's a lot of good. (Compare the action in this film with the action in TWILIGHTS OF THE HEROES: WALLED IN which closed the fest or WOLF HIDING which played earlier in the fest and you will be scratching your head about the award.)

What works and what makes the film worth seeing is the development of Chisato and Mahiro. The girls are arcing, as are the characters around them, with the result that this film sings despite its flaws and the Baby Assassin series is something you want to see. We are watching how the girls grow up. their relationship deepens. The characters around them are growing too. Even the assassins the girls work with in this film arc. It's fantastic- I mean truly fantastic to the point that you want them to lose the stupid humor and some of the action nonsense and instead give us more time with the characters caring for each other and being real people. It's this growth that makes this third film worth seeing not the okay action. 

While not as bad as the last film, and not the equal to the first, it's still worthy follow up to the first film.

Recommended for the fans of the series.

Salli (2023) NYAFF 2024

A woman who raises chickens wants to run off to meet her boyfriend who lives in Paris, except that she is uncertain if he is for real or not, a feeling that is made complicated because she hasn't been entirely honest with him.

Odd comedy is uniquely its own thing. Frequently charming thanks to some winning characters and solid performances, the film over comes it's problems.

The problem for me is that in a weird way the film feels like it's a couple of different films stuck together. It's not that what happens is wrong, it's that several sections feel like they are different movie. Yes I understand why that is, but at the same time it took me out of the film.

My problems aside, there is enough here to warrant a look.

Very Brief thoughts on SHANGHAI BLUES (1984) NYAFF 2024

Tsui Hark's classic film is getting a special screening in a super restored edition.

The plot has a a couple falling in love under a bridge during the Japanese occupation. They never learn each other's name. A decade later their paths cross and a love triangle is formed.

One part romance, one mart melodrama, one part comedy and with a dash of musical delight added in this is a film that transcends time in a way that few films ever manage. There is a reason that we are talking about the film four decades on.

If you've never seen it- you want to make an effort to do so. If you have seen it you'll want to see this newly restored edition.

A world cinema classic.

(I can't believe I never wrote this up until now.)

SUFFOCATING LOVE (2023) NYAFF 2024

Story of a young man who meets and falls for a girl with whom he is exchanging books as part of book exchange club.  As he falls for her she begins to make more demanding requests. Should he leave her even though he loves her?

The festival material calls this a riff on the film 500 DAYS OF SUMMER and in many ways that's true. It shares a certain quirky style with that earlier film even if it ends differently.

For me this was a nice little romance. While I doubt I will be hard pressed to remember it at years end, I had a good time while it was on.

Women from Rote Island (2024) NYAFF 2024

WARNING: This film contains scenes, both graphic and implied, of violence, sexual and other kinds, against women

I say that up front because I know several women who would have had to leave the theater had they watched the film unaware of what it's about.

This is a look at the treatment of women in Indonesia focused on the life of a recently widowed woman and her family.

One part art house film, one part domestic, several parts a long scream for people to understand what is happening and do something. WOMEN FROM ROTE ISLAND is a very difficult film to watch. It is a film that from the first frame to the last wants to make a statement and get women to stand up and make a stand.

As powerful as the sequences are I'm not certain the film works as more that agit prop.  The problem is that the film is so intent on making it's point that the film only fleetingly feels real and more often than not feel like something where the director is moving the pieces around. To me the hopeful ending felt more like manipulation than anything.

Is it a good film? I have no clue because it's screaming in pain much too loudly.

Brief thoughts on Trouble Girl (2024) NYAFF 2024

Xiao xiao is a young woman with ADHD (Attention deficit hyper activity disorder).  She is struggling to deal with what life is throwing at her including the cruelty of her schoolmates, the absence of her father, and the fact that her mother is having an affair with her teacher.

This is a good look at how ADHD effects a young kid and the people around her. It's a film that doesn't sugar coat the situation or give us easy answers. It's a film that affects us.

As good as I know the film is, I'm not sure I like it. I know the the film has won awards, in particular for  Audrey Lin as Xiao xiao, but there is something contrived about it. I can feel the hand of writer director Chia-Hua Chin moving things so that there would be some drama. I never fully connected.

Is the film worth seeing? If you are interested give it a shot.

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. 

Frankenstein Father (2023) NYAFF 2024

A successful and very OCD doctor is confronted by a young boy claiming to be his son from an illegal sperm donation years before. He wants compensation for the genetic defects he has. The doctor agrees to spend time with the boy to see if it could be true.

This is a cold and some what distant film, much like the character it its center. It is mannered  and calculated and it kept me at arms distance. I could never warm to either of the main characters because their largely unchanging expressions made them seem less than human.

I never cared.

 

A brief take on Ichiko (2023) NYAFF 2024

A woman hears a news story concerning an accident and decides to bolt from the apartment he lives in with he fiance. He is left to sort out what happened and why ala ROSHOMON or CITIZEN KANE.

I'm not sure if this films work. A good romantic drama is made convoluted by the addition of the elements of a mystery. Why the mystery is there is kind of a head scratcher to me since any themes related to that, such as we can never know anyone, kind of is obvious and doesn't need this sort of telling. I was with the film until almost the end when I suddenly realized no matter how it ended I wasn't going to be happy.

I think it's a miss.

Round Up Punishment (2024) plays NYAFF 2024 Saturday also Fantasia 2024

Detective Ma Seok-do (Don Lee) returns for the fourth time  in a bruising action film that takes us back to the darker edge of the first two films. It's an awesome film that will have you reacting to the  film out loud.

This time out Seok-do and his team end up chasing after the mad man behind a gambling syndicate. An expert with a knife  he cuts up anyone who stands in the way of  his making a buck. While the deep dive into the world of computers is not Seok-do's strong point, he manages to assemble a team to break heads and get him close to his target.

This film is an absolute blast. It's a film that has some of the best action sequences in the series. The final fight had me wincing. Full of the expected witty lines and great characters the film just delights us from start to finish. What raises it up from ROUND UP: NO WAY OUT is that there is a weight to the proceedings. Seok-do's promise to a mother to avenge the death of her son gives the film a weight the last film doesn't have. Additionally the bad guy here is so brutal in his attacks that he over comes the cartoony final boss  video game nature of his creation.

I know I could say more, but the truth is this film does what it is suppose so well that it doesn't need me to say anything other than "Go See This."

The Killers (2024) NYAFF 2024 Fantasia 2024

THE KILLERS is a very good multipart film that suffers the fate of any portmanteau or anthology film in that the parts are uneven with the best ones making the others seem less thrilling.  This is especially true of this film where two parts are among the best films you’ll see all year.

METAMORPHOSIS concerns a man who runs in to trouble with the mob. He stumbles into a bar with a knife in his back and that’s where things get interesting. It’s a fantastic film that sets the bar impossibly high. It’s so good and the set up makes me want to see a feature sequel- particularly with the bartender.

CONTRACTORS is the story of a woman who pays for a hit and how the contract gets farmed out and the payment to the actual killer ends up getting less and less, It’s a wicked tale with a great deal of social commentary going on. It suffers following the previous story, but is still good.

EVERYONE IS WAITING FOR THE MAN is the second stunner. It maybe better than the first story. It’s the story of a bunch of hit men looking for a psycho killer and what happens when they run into a restaurant. It’s an ever twisting perfectly written tale that will make you lean in and anxious to see where it goes. It’s magnificent

THE KILLERS is the weakest of the bunch. Coming after two classics and a good  story the film ends up seeming like a form over content exercise. While it isn’t bad, it really either should have started the film or been released as a stand alone.

Reservations aside, I still love this film with the great parts making it worth the price of admission

Let's Go Karaoke! (2024) NYAFF 2024

Manga based tale concerns a yakuza soldier who forms a friendship with high school boy whom he wants to teach him to sing.

Off kilter story never really worked for me. I shouldn't be asking questions  from the opening minutes when the yakuza essentially kidnaps the kid and takes him to sing karaoke. The kid was with a school group and no one says boo?  I was wondering why no one noticed the differences between the real world and the manga source.

It didn't help that the kid was rather uninteresting to be around and seems to mostly just be the excuse that we are seeing things happen.

I was disappointed

BRUSH OF THE GOD (2024) NYAFF 2024 Fantasia 2024

 

BRUSH OF THE GOD was written when director and special effects legend Keizo Murase​ was working on MIGHTY MIGHTY PEKING MAN back in the 70’s. The film  was worked on but never went anywhere until Muase published his memoirs and people started to say that he should make the film. Managing to pull together a willing team of people  the film went into production. It is billed as Muase's first and last directorial effort.

The film is the story of a young girl whose grandfather was a special effects wizard. After he passes she wants nothing really to do with him or his work. However a mysterious person appears and tells her and a friend that she must complete the quest and save the world from disappearing. The girl and her friend are then transported into the world of her grandfather’s passion project “Brush of the God”. While there they make friends with a rabbit like creature that uses it’s ears to fly and can make what we desire real, weird insects, a couple of outlaws and some giant monsters.

The film is a sweet little delight. Very much geared toward being family friendly the film is an unscary but smile producing romp where giant monsters of the practical effects variety battle and tear up some buildings.  It’s far from high art but it is damn entertaining especially if you like giant monster movies.

My brother Joe and I went to the NYAFF screening just to see the film on a big screen and we, along with the rest of the crowd, had a wonderful time.

The NYAFF Q&A was very good. Daisuke Sato, the producer spoke at length about his career, he is a director and special effects master in his own right, and how he became a producer when no one else was able to do it.

With BRUSH OF THE GOD done at NYAFF you should look to try to get to Fantasia to see it where it plays soon, it’s a lot of fun.

Director and Producer

Bushido(2024) NYAFF 2024

Don't go into BUSHIDO expecting clashing swords and a high body count, this is another sort of film.  Yea, swords are drawn but this is a film more about characters, and the game of Go, than it is about sword fights.

The basic plot has a samurai turned engraver getting into trouble again when some gold goes missing. He had been framed and sent off years earlier for theft and now everyone thinks he did it again.

This is a mannered tale focused on the characters and not an action film. I'm sure if you've seen films like AFTER THE RAIN, SWORD OF DESPERATION (2011), LAST RONIN, TATAR SAMURAI and others, you'll know what you are getting into.

I liked this film a great deal. I think I would have liked it away from the festival mix, where I could see the film on it's own terms and not as part of an endless line of films. 

It's a solid film that is worth a look.

Yin Yang Master Zero (2024) NYAFF 2024 Fantasia 2024

Abe no Seimei was an actual Yin Yang master. By the time he died he had become do famous all sorts of legends were written about him.  Those legends formed the source for a series of novels by Baku Yumemakura’s. Those novels were then turned into a couple of earlier films.

This time out we are going back to Seimei‘s days in the academy. He is learning to perform the rituals needed, as well as the psychological tricks that help him be the great wizard like master. He is of course much more advanced (even more than his teachers), the craft running in his family. Hooking up with a fellow student with whom he forms a Holmes and Watson like partnership, he gets involved with a princess in trouble and a series of murders taking out teachers in his school.

The film is a weird mix of magic and mystery, this feels like the set up for a period detective series. More focused on the characters then magical set pieces  the film makes us care about what happens and worry about what is going to happen next. While  there are some cool “magical” sequences they aren’t the film exists. There aren’t huge set pieces like in Hollywood film but something else, which actual makes the magic more magical. One I realized that I fell under the spell of the film and enjoyed myself that I am hoping for a series.

Recommended

FAQ (2024) NYAFF 2024 Fantasia 2024

Dong-chun is a feisty grade school kid who wants nothing to do with school or growing up, largely because she doesn't understand why she has to do all these things. While on a trip she ends up with a bottle of rice wine which begins to send her signals via Morse code.

This is a one of a kind film you must see. It's a look at growing up and life that goes into some really unexpected places. I'm serious about that, the denouncement was completely from out of left field. It works, I have no idea why, but it does.

I suspect that there are going to be a number of people who are going to wonder what is going on. I am intentionally not being specific about what happens because I haven't been able to make some of this sound less crazy.   I don't want to put you off the film, because this is something truly special. Its a film that has a story to tell and it does so wonderfully.

Trust me, this is a film that is just wonderfully it's own thing.

Highly recommended.

A pointer toward Reversi (2024) NYAFF 2024

A man who can jump back in time, uses his ability to keep his wife and son safe.

I'm not going to  review REVERSI. It's not that it's a bad film, rather it isn't my type of film. The film is basically a thriller remake or riff of the 2013 film ABOUT TIME which was made as a kind of romantic film from Richard Curtis, except that each time our hero jumps he shortens his life.

My issue with the basic story is that the constant jumping back in time raises all sorts of questions that distract me.  Additionally it results in a narrative that cheats it's audience by making it so it can undo what has been  done. Sometimes it works like in TIME CRIMES or the films of Junta Yamaguchi, but mostly the trope collapses at a certain point because it becomes a story in search of an ending. I had issues.

On the other hand, some people are not as picky as me so it you like constant time travel films give it a shot.

KINGDOM:RETURN OF THE GENERAL (2024) NYAFF 2024

Before we start you don't need to have seen the first three films. The brief piece to get you up to speed at the start is enough. I say this because I haven't seen parts 2 and 3 and I have no memory of the first part. 

Set during the wars that unified China, this manga based film is the story of a young man named Shin who is working to be the greatest general ever. As this film begins Shin and his men are waiting to battle the enemy. One of the enemy generals, known as the God of War, appears and decimates the band. Shin is wounded and is carried off by his friends. They are fleeing into the night because Shin lead is small force to victory and the enemy fear them. Re joining the main force the Shin and his men end up in a huge battle.

Trust me it's infinitely better than it sounds. This is a film of grand spectacle and perfect performances. For all the war this is a film about the characters. Seriously this is a film where we fall into the characters and are brought to tears by their trials. Unlike Hollywood and the Marvel films no one gets lost and everyone shines.

This is a staggering achievement. It's a film that moves our hearts. Details are filled in in such away that give new details to those  who know what went before and enough detail that new comers like me can follow along.

No film series with a continuing story ever has had a fourth film this readily accessible- nor has a fourth film been this good.

I need to go back and watch the earlier films.

This film is one of the best of 2024.

Highly recommended

THE GUEST (2023) NYAFF 2024 Asian Film Fest of Dallas 2024

A hot sheet hotel with the rooms bugged is  looked after by two young guys in hock to the mob. They need to pay off their debt or else they will harvest their organs and toss them into the ocean. If they can get a drive full of sick stuff from the guests they will be able to pay off their debt in one go.  On a rainy night a strange guy comes in carrying a woman on his back. The guys realize this guy maybe their savior...until they realize that the guy is even more dangerous then they could imagine.

A long slow set up (the whole first third) gives way to  a tense run to the end as the psycho begins to hunt his prey. It's a well made film that doesn't do anything new, it simply follows the well worn path you expect. While I enjoyed myself once it got going, I was disappointed that it was a bit too by the numbers.  I could live with it not being the next new thing, except that it' good enough that it could have and should have been more memorable than it is. Sadly I'm going to remember the film because I don't remember it.

If you like films that are a nameless psycho hunting people (ala the recent IN A VIOLENT NATURE) you will love this. If you want a bit more you can skip it.