Chris Knipp Writing: Movies, Politics, Art


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PostPosted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 8:47 pm 
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Chris Knipp Festival coverage on Filmleaf.


Daniel Yu: All About Love (2005).


Andy Lau as two characters with a doppelgänger with a goatee and pretty ladies Charlie Young and Charlene Choi and Amber. A man falls in love with a woman who turns out to have his dead wife's heart. Her estranged husband looks just like him, and that's because he's Andy Lau too. This contains lots of cute Hong Kong romantic gimmicks from movies and novels, including ones that Wong Kar-wai has often used in his rapturously stylized reworkings. Here the style is conventional and the thinking trite. The only interest is to see the technical displays, split- up editing, superabundance of flashbacks and computer manipulations, which are extremely slick, without making the material convincing -- though at times it's good for a laugh. This should not be in a film festival, but China film students/fans might want to watch it for its mastery of current clichés and tricks.

SHOWTIMES
Sun, Apr 23 / 4:30 / Kabuki / ALL23K
Wed, Apr 26 / 5:15 / Kabuki / ALL26K

Koji Wakamatsu: Cycling Chronicles: Landscapes the Boy Saw (2005).

This by the pink film (pinku eiga) political radical softcore porn director of the past is a travelogue interspersed with dialogue and lovely images somewhat reminiscent of the "qatsi" trilogy of Godfrey Reggio. Chronicles follows a teenage boy on a bicycle through northern Japan in the wintertime. Wakamatsu gives away early on that the boy may have killed his mother and be running away (this is based on a true story of a boy who in fact did bludgeon his mother to death and then rode a bike in the north for sixteen days before he was apprehended). He has one or two interesting encounters with people who talk about World War II. This feels like a narrative that wasn't developed enough or a short that was carried too far.

SHOWTIMES
Thu, Apr 27 / 8:45 / Kabuki / CYCL27K
Tue, May 02 / 6:00 / Kabuki / CYCL02K

Kang Yi-Kwan: Sa-Kwa (2005)


A Korean relationship movie by a young director who lacks the style of Hong Sang-soo. Fashion business lady Hyun-jung (Moon So-ri) is dumped by her seven-year boyfriend (Lee Seon-gyun) and quickly dates and marries office mate Sangkoon (Kim Tae-woo). He seems to bore her and goes south to work when she's pregnant; she periodically encounters the old boyfriend and toys with a reunion and divorce. Convincing acting by the lovely and soulful Moon So-ri and specific details about families don't quite save this picture from seeming bland and overlong; Kang's writing confuses subtlety with aimlessness. Marginally worth inclusion in a festival; there are livelier, more able Korean films out there, but Kang may still be one to watch.

SHOWTIMES
Fri, Apr 21 / 4:45 / Kabuki / SAKW21K
Mon, May 01 / 8:45 / Kabuki / SAKW01K
Thu, May 04 / 4:30 / Kabuki / SAKW04K

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.


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