The Films of 2006

[SalParadise]

Curiosity Kills the Cat (Hao qi hai xi mao)

Saw this two nights ago here in China. (The print had English subtitles).

This movie was quite good. It was shot entirely in Chongqing - where I live There should be a real (non-pirated) DVD of this in shops in only three weeks. That's been the standard for the last 3 months here.

I actually doubt this will ever be shown in the west. Maaayybe in some film fests.

If you're visiting China in the next month, check it out.

P.S. Despite what IMDb says, this is definitely not Sci-Fi.

[Michael Kerpan]

Saw this two nights ago here in China. (The print had English subtitles).

This movie was quite good. It was shot entirely in Chongqing - where I live There should be a real (non-pirated) DVD of this in shops in only three weeks. That's been the standard for the last 3 months here.

I actually doubt this will ever be shown in the west. Maaayybe in some film fests.

I enjoyed Spring Subway -- so I hope I get to see this.

Thanks for the report.

[SalParadise]

Battle of Wits

This movie was really disappointing. Oh, well.

The title on IMDb is Cantonese. In Mandarin, the 'native' language of this movie, it is 'Mo Gong'.

[JFarina]

I've been looking forward to this one since reading about it on Twitch. Where did you see it, and what was so disappointing?

[Michael Kerpan]

Zhang's second film builds on the promise of his first (Spring Subway). Set in Chongqing,it tells the story primarily of a man who married into a well-off family (HU Jun), his wife (Carinna Lau) and his mistress (a manicurist -- played by SONG Jia). Also entangled in this story, a somewhat snoopy young photoshop girl (17 year old LIN Yuan) and a not very worldly-wise security guard (LIAO Fan), who Lin seems to have a crush on. The story in shown from four perspectives in turn -- each moiving the story further ahead and filling in undisclosed information. Generally this works well (but there is one nagging seeming-inconsistency that still bothers me). Good (understated) performances.

Definitely worthwhile -- though the mainland DVD is not a state of the art one (but does at least have passable subtitles). Maybe, someday, we''ll get to see a superior HK release.

[Grimfarrow]

Just saw it. It's not bad. Why is it disappointing? It's MILES better than POS like House of Flying Daggers or The Promise. At least it has some intelligence. Of course, the English subtitles were shit and a lot of subtleties were lost. And Fan Bingbing has to be one of the worst actresses ever. The black "slave" was also just plain embarrassing. But overall it turned out much better than my (lowered) expectations. And the acting was surprisingly solid from the emperor, the commander (Ahn Sung-yi) and even Andy Lau.

[miless]

Fabian Bielinsky's second (and sadly last) film looks quite intriguing. the visuals, as well, look quite bizarre (with florescent lighting in the woods?)

it's coming to theatres soon. Fabian Bielinsky's previous film, Nine Queens, was a great film... and this one looks to be in line with that one. too bad Fabian Bielinsky died of a heart attack so soon.

[milk114]

I just saw this at the Newport Beach Film Festival, which apparently no one cared about.

Someone was snorting comet while huffing lysol, eating peyote and smoking banana peels and licking toads when they envisioned this anime.

I know this was released in Japan in November and will be in the States over summer. Anyone seen it? Please go see it. You really should see it.

The plot runs along the lines of a detective story but it's really about the power of dreams: how dreams are created and shaped by our psychoses and how dreams can be either uplifting or devastating.

I haven't seen more than bits of Satoshi Kon's other films but Paprika seems to share their distinctive style.

Anyway, that's it really. I hope others have seen this film or get a chance to. I had some minor problems with it, like not knowing what the hell was going on some of the time plot-wise, but it only added to the dream quality. And it gave my friend crazy-ass dreams.

[toiletduck!]

Right this way...

-Toilet Dcuk

[milk114]

Saw Death Note at Newport Beach Film Festival last night.

Was this a big hit in Japan? I can't seem to find anything that outright stated so.

I really enjoyed it. I like how amoral the protagonist and antagonist are. I have nothing to say of this film other than praise for making a movie that is entertaining but creepy at the same time.

I took a look at the manga (the source material) and the anime (came out after this movie) and it seems they got Ryuk, the god of death, spot on. At first he seemed a little too cgi, but he grew on me to the point of missing him when he wasn't on screen.

If you get a chance to see this I'd highly recommend it. It really defies description.

[milk114]

sorry I did a search. it seems i still lack basic search functions. feel free to do whatever you want with this thread, folks-in-charge. thanks. oh, but I am glad others are excited.

[Michael Kerpan]

My Death Note review.

As I recall, this did reasonably well in Japan. You might be able to find out how exactly how well by checking Box Office Mojo.

I didn't think this was quite as good as other recent mass market films such as "Nana" and "Japan Sinks".

[ltfontaine]

The Aura, recently released on DVD, delivers on the promise of Bielinsky's debut, Nine Queens, but his second and final film also suggests that we lost a developing major talent when the director died of a heart attack last year at age 47. Nine Queens was a sharp, wry caper film with crackling performances from its three leads, including Ricardo Darin, who stars in the film that followed. The Aura is also nominally a crime film, but here Bielinsky is more interested in the psychology of Darin's epileptic taxidermist protagonist as he plays out a treacherous, labyrinthine noir fantasy in an Argentine forest. It's about a man compelled by loneliness and despair to test the limits of free will—he explains that the moments before his seizures are “perfectâ€

[domino harvey]

Finally came out on DVD today. The board briefly touched on this in the Walk Hard thread, but I know there's a lot of Zero Effect fans here who have been waiting for Jake Kasdan to follow through on the promise of his first feature. Keep waiting. The film is tragically a second-rate Network riff, with Sigorney Weaver doing a really bad Faye Dunaway (exactly one of her "outrageous" lines is actually funny, and I've taken the liberty of writing it down: "We have studies that show that suicide is depressing to like 82% of all people!") and Duchovny doing his best with a vanilla protagonist. The subplot with the British studio exec goes absolutely nowhere and even the film's aspect ratio of 2.35 is wasted. There are a few original and compelling ideas sprinkled throughout, like the actress who sets up a date with a fellow actor after a really good rehearsal but then cancels the date after he bombs while filming, and Matt Besser has a pretty good cameo, but the film simply wasn't as good as it should have been.

[Magic Hate Ball]

...which is really too bad, because with a name and theme like that it should be the stuff of Oscars. I am sad.

[Belmondo]

A couple of years ago, many of us were disappointed when Christopher Guest and crew failed to hit the target with "For Your Consideration". This one scores a bullseye; even though it is something of a minor movie.
Never underestimate the ability of Hollywood to mis-market a witty satire by claiming it is a "hilarious comedy" and thereby raising false expectations when the laughs don't come fast enough.

This is a smart movie; so smart that it can be accepted on an almost completely realistic and believable basis. I don't doubt for a minute that the Sigourney Weaver exec would say something like "originality scares me", and we can believe the slow forced acceptance of writer David Duchovny because of nicely developed surrounding characters and personal issues which force him to blur his "vision" for the show.

No, it ain't "Network", but it'll do.

[Antoine Doinel]

Ebert goes to great lengths to champion the film here.

Tom DiCillo blogs extensively about the film's release and press here.

[montgomery]

I had no idea this film did so badly. I saw it in (in what was apparently one of the two venues at which it screened), and while I can't say I loved the film, it certainly deserved to perform better than it did.

[flyonthewall2983]

Wasn't there a John Candy vehicle with the same title?

[Marcel Gioberti]

The Living and the Dead

Has anybody seen this? I remember being intrigued by the title and synopsis over a year ago. The film subsequently dropped off the radar entirely.

328 IMDB voters don't seem to fond of it, but I don't put too much stock into that.

[jesus the mexican boi]

This is a very compelling recommendation, of sorts.

[Gregory]

Has anyone seen this by any chance? I don't think it was ever shown in the U.S., but according to IMDB's listing it did get some limited distribution in Europe. I wonder if there is a chance of a DVD for this. I recently saw the director's previous film, "La Chatte Andalouse," and his name quickly shot to the top of my list of filmmakers to watch.

[souvenir]

There's a DVD in R2 that came out in May. Here's a link to the Amazon page.

[Gregory]

Thanks. I think I had jumped to the conclusion that there was no British DVD after clicking on the little Amazon UK link at IMDB did not yield any links. I guess I won't assume that in the future.
If anyone has seen this and wants to comment, I'd be interested. I probably will blind-buy this, though, just to see how my appreciation for his work holds out.

[tavernier]

A.O. Scott's review.