RAFF 2012 Film Review - Cold Steel

Mu Lianfeng ( Peter Ho) is a hunter in a small Chinese village. He is camped out in a tree on a boar hunt when a American fighter crashes directly overhead. Mu rescues the American pilot and brings him back to their village. This is the opening sequence of David Wu's Sino- Japanese war film Cold Steel. Wu a long time John Woo collaborator who cut his teeth as an editor knows how to keep the action
moving.

The Yank teaches Liangfeng how to shoot before he heals up from his wounds and heads back to his unit.

A Chinese platoon comes to the local tea house and are rough with the clientele and the owner Liu Yan ( Jai Song).  Mu a friend of the owner takes exception and takes on the unit.  Mu is defeated and taken to the platoon leader for punishment. Along the way The soldiers are pinned down by a Japanese sniper  Liangfeng using his hunting skills takes out the sniper.

When Mu is brought before the platoon leader he is given the choice of death or joining the army.
Mu joins the sniper group for an undercover mission to take out a group of Japanese Generals behind enemy lines. Mu fails to follow orders and the mission does not go completely as planned.

Still Mui returns to his village as a hero and is now on the watch list for his opposite number Commander of the Japanese forces. All the while Lianfengs feelings continue to develop for Lin Yan leading to the inevitable choice between duty and his feelings. His platoon leader exalts that duty is the only option Liangfeng must complete his mission.

The group's next plan is to hit a Japanese Base at the same time the Japanese are planning to go to Mu's village in search of the new Chinese Sniper hero. The sniper group makes it into the base and escape  kidnapping a nurse who turns out to be fiancé of the Japanese commander.

The final showdown occurs in Liangfengs village where Liangfeng is blinded at one point and the action and explosions are cranked up to eleven.

Drawing elements from his favourite directors and films Wu brings the action from the opening reel to the last scene including scenes that pay tribute to the Bourne Ultimatum and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The film stumbles in the dialogue, character development and drama departments However if an action film fits your fancy then Cold Steel fits the bill.

*** out of 4

Cold Steel | David Wu | China | 2011| 94 Minutes.

Reel Asian Film Festival 2012.

RAFF 2012 Film Review - Wolf Children

Mamoru Hosada main character Hanna (voiced by Aoi Miyazaki) meets a boy at college that appears to be on is own and does not speak to anyone else. Hanna starts to study with the mysterious student and a romance begins between the two.

Hanna learns her new friend's secret before they get two serious and she still wants to continue their relationship. They move into an apartment and soon Hanna is pregnant with her fist child a daughter Yuki followed shortly by a son Ame.

A rainy night hunting expedition produces a tragic accident that leaves Hanna on her own to raise two infants. The two kids show their fathers traits when angry, neighbours complain about the noise and social services come  around to see why the children have not had their shots. Hanna shows the frustration of any parent left to fend with two children without the proper tools or knowledge to deal with their mods or illnesses.   Hanna decides to move to the country so her children can determine how they want to live in their lives.

Hanna buys a run down home and tries to grow her own food. She is not successful at first but with the help of the initially reluctant neighbours her crops flourish. Yuki takes to the country and is very rambunctious and out going.  Meanwhile Ame is sickly and sticks close to his mother most of the time. He is troubled by the portrayal of his other side in books and the media. He does not want to be portrayed as the bad guy.

The new life finally comes together with the first snowfall and a carefree run by all three through the forest.

Yuki reaches school age and decides that she wants to attend school but can only go if she promises to keep the other side of her personality in  check. Hanna starts a job as a forest ranger she Ame spends time with her amongst the animals and takes special interest in the wolf.

Eventually Ame goes to school but is not popular while Yuki is a class standout. She does have some differences with the other girls due to the other side of her nature.

One year a new boy comes in the middle of the year.  He teases and pushes Yuki. She breaks her nature and attacks him. Yuki is ready to face the consequences but the boy does not blame her for his injury.

Meanwhile Ami spends less time at school and more in the mountains amongst the animals.

When a storm comes to the area Ame goes into the woods. Hanna is asked to pick up Yuki at school
but goes after Ame instead. Each child has made their decision on which side of their nature they will embrace and it's not the choice one would have expected during their early development.

Wolf Children is an excellently fable that is very funny in the most unexpected places. Hosoda weaves a film that is very strong on story and high on character development.  This film clearly establishes Hosoda as a director to watch.

A film that I would definitely recommend.

*** 1/2 out of 4

Wolf Children

RAFF 2012 Film Review - Dal Puri Diaspora

Canadian Director Richard Fung brings a history of Roti to the screen.  Fung who is of Chinese Trinidadian heritage touches on the beginnings of the dish brought to Trinidad by East Indian Indentured servants.

The Story starts in Toronto in the dead of winter and discusses the current day city tradition of wrapped Roti.

Next stop Trinidad and a detailed discussion of the make up of the country. The African slaves that were brought to the Island to work in the cotton and sugar cane fields. The Indentured workers who followed after the slaves gained their freedom and demanded pay for their work.

The film looks at the different types of Roti including the Buss Up Shut named because it looks like a busted up shirt. Roti was considered the food of the poor descendants of the indentured workers. Interviews with their descendants revealed that they were laughed at when the broth Roti for lunch to school. The other students ate sandwiches but eventually they would trade and try a bit of everything.

 Next to the motherland India. Fung could find nothing similar to Trinidadian roti in New Deli. Their version was based on a different type of flower. The search moved to East India where the tradition is to fry when they have the means to do so.

The history of East India used to be rich with a variety of crops. They began to grow the opium poppy crop and became dependant on that one crop which when it failed led to the exodus to the Caribbean.

Dal Puri Diaspora is a good history lesson of food, Trinidad, African Canadians and East India.

The story comes back to Canada for a history of Caribbean Canadians and their arrival in the late 50's through the start of a thriving community the mid 60's.

The director takes a turn at making Roti himself toward the end of the film with comical results.  The constant cooking and recipe talk will leave the viewer salivating. Not a film to see on an empty stomach.

*** out of 4

Audience Award Winner 2012 Reel Asian Film Festival.

Dal Puri Diaspora | Richard Fung | Canada 2012 | 80:00 Minutes

RAFF Film Festival 2012 - A Fish

Professor Lee is not going to class and its not the first time he has let his students down. He is in his car driving and picks up a dishevelled fellow to whom he has a connection.

A young and old fisherman are in a boat telling stories and discussing what species are found in salt water.

The professor and his travel partner go to a small town where they hire a boat to go to Jindo Island a even more remote area.  It is in this remote area that they find the subject of the professor's search. His target has left everything in the world behind to become a shaman.

The fisherman catch an unusual fish that brings a lot of questions. The Fishermen turn on each other with severe  consequences.

It turns out that the companion is a private detective hired to find the target for the professor and the professor and the target have a relationship that spans two worlds.

Shot in 3d  A Fish delves into the relationship between this world and the next focusing on one soul that spans between both worlds and not able to realize that they should be headed to the next.

After a good start  A Fish does not work out in the end. Ho-min Park fails to develop his characters and the film comes across as wallowing in a disjointed haze.

This is a film that I cannot recommend.

** out of 4

2011 South Korea 97 minutes

RAFF 2012 Film Review - Tatsumi

A series of short animated stories interwoven with snippets of the life story of Yoshiro Tatsumi. The biopic is based Tatsumi's  manga autobiography A Drifting Life.  The story starts at the aftermath of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima when Tatsumi was 10 years old.

The short focuses on a photographer that goes to Hiroshima to report on the state of the city and takes an iconic photo. Tatsumi's first writings as a teenager and his first pay check is discussed. His unemployed father is jealous and Yoshiro leaves home.

The next highlight centres around an older man near retirement and how he feels increasingly marginalized by his co workers, family and his pan to gain his revenge on everyone. In this time period we see Yoshiro Tatsumi as a youth living with two other cartoonists.

Another top short tells the store of a cartoonist who's weekly strip in a daily newspaper comes to an end. He wonders into a bathroom stall that is filled with pornography. At first the cartoonist is discussed but at the same time continually drawn back to the stall. He eventually is offered a job at an adult magazine but his obsession with bathroom pornography leads to his downfall.

The best story is based on a factory worker that has a pet monkey. The owner is ignored by the monkey  who will not look at him at any time.  The factory worker suffers an accident with one of the machines on the factory floor. He is given a severance package but is let go due to the damage he has caused the company. The factory worker now without a job decides to give the monkey to a zoo. However the monkey troop at the zoo attack the unknown simian producing horrifying results.

The story shifts to Tasumi in his later years and centres on the awards and recognition he has received over his life.

The last story reverts to world war two era. A young women is taking in US soldiers for sex.  She spends a lot of time with one named Joe depicted as an oversized giant in animation. Joe leaves to go home to his wife and kids and the woman is distraught. She gets extremely inebriated as she would ted and takes out her frustration on her own father who is destitute and comes by on occasion to ask for some money treating him as she would any other man.

Lastly we shift to Tatsumi in live action at is desk then back to animation at a bookstore with the main characters from the movie reading Tatsumi short stories.


*** out of 4


Tatsumi  Eric Khoo  Singapore 94 minutes

Valley of Saints

Musa Syeed wrote and directed Valley of Saints featuring Gulzar Ahmed Bhat as a young boat taxi driver that lives on Dal Lake in Kashmir.

He lives with his aged uncle in a home with a leaky roof. The lake is a tourist attraction and its own self contained community. Travellers from the West come daily looking fir rides around the lake to see the attractions. Commerce takes place all over the lake with vendors selling their wares on long boats on the river wile visitors rent out houseboats from the locals.

Against this backdrop there are daily protests in the street by the youth for freedom and riot police armed to keep the peace. Gulzar plans to leave Kashmir with his best friend Adzal as soon as they have an opportunity.

Gulzar's Uncle goes away for Adzal comes by to put their escape in motion. However their plans are put on hold as the the police put a one week curfew in place which is the centrepiece of the film.

Gulzar is asked to look in on a residence of a houseboat by an owner who is trapped outside the city due to the violence and curfew. Gulzar discovers the resident is a female and starts to bring her food daily.

The friends spend most of their day goofing off and horsing around. They take on small jobs at night mainly stealing rice for resale as prices skyrocket during the curfew.

At first Adzal and Gulzar fight for Asifa's attention. They learn that she studies in the US and is conducting a project on the lake checking the pollution levels. Gulzar takes her around on his boat. Asifa takes water samples and readings. As they travel they view residences of the lake dumping plastic bottles directly into the lake and near the shore is a film of wrappers , plastics and other floating debris.

Sayers weaves a captivating tale mixing the old world and modern day. Dal lake is the lifeblood of the community that the residence do not protect but rather continue to build on the lake sneaking in illegal concrete and wood that is actually killing the lake.


*** 1/2 out of 4

Valley of Saints | Musa Syeed |  India /USA 2012 | 2012 Reel Asian Film Festival

Prison Dancer

Prison Dancer is an interactive web series film based on the viral video from the Philippines. The Prison  has a new warden from a military background that has the prisoners marching to show discipline.  One of the prisoners Ruperto Poblador aka Lola puts a dance step to the marching. Some of the tough guys Hookaps (Norman Alconel)  Christian (Mikey Bustos)  and Shakespeare ( Nicco Lorenzo ) like it and adapt it to boxing using moves from greatest boxer ever in their opinion Manny Paccao.

The interactive experience included the cast performing the songs from the screen at the side of the stage. The film is broken up into Episodes. Through simulation the viewer is invited to choose characters on the screen and the pick becomes the main character in the next scene.

We learn about new inmate Christian his girlfriend and the incident that led to his recent incarceration.  The story of long term inmate Shakespeare and his relationship with his wife and his 8 year daily letter writing to her.

At one point the crowd is asked to stand and do some boxing dance steps.

The interactive part of the documentary worked kept the action going and the crowd engaged.

Definitely a one of a kind event to be experienced.

Winner of the best Canadian feature for director Romeo Candido at reel Asian 2012.

*** out of 4