A Stranger of Mine – Unmei ja nai Hito
Director: Uchida Kenji
Synopsis:
The film begins with an unmistakable sense of drama between two strangers who had their share of misfortune. Maki (Kirishima Reika), an introverted woman who just decided to leave her fiancée when she found out about his infidelity and Miyata (Nakamura Yasuhi), a timid office worker who finds it hard to get his life back on track after being dumped by his fiancée. The character’s destinies become entwined when Kanda (Yamanaka So) – an unlucky detective and childhood friend of Miayata’s – makes them share a table in a restaurant.

A Stranger of Mine was ranked as the 5th best film at the 79th Kinema Junpo best ten of 2005, and is the feature debut of Uchida Kenji, one of the rare Japanese directors who studied abroad, namely at the San Francisco State University. He won several awards at the Pia Film Festival for his short film Weekend Blues (2001), which helped him get a PPF Scholarship to make this movie, which in turn earned several prizes at the Cannes Film Festival. Uchida is known as a director who emphasizes the script, and A Stranger of Mine features a quite complicated set of intricately interrelated stories that revolve around the axial restaurant scene that is shown several times from different perspectives. What functions as the real centre, however, is the relationship between men and women, contrasting the idealistic Takeshi with the realistic Yusuke and the cynical Ayumi. The title, which is better translated as “A Person Who Is Not My Fated Partner”, asks in a story full of coincidences, whether any of these chance encounters can be considered as fate, romantic or not.

Juvenile Jungle – Kurutta Kajitsu
Director: Nakahira Ko
Synopsis:
This film is about a bunch of young men who live the good life in post-war Japan. The film focuses on two brothers and their mutual affection for a beautiful young lady named Eri. First it’s the younger brother Haruji who is able to woo her. Then the older brother Natsuhisa goes for her, out of both desire and jealousy. Eri turns out to be married to an American who spends very little time with her thus enabling Eri to be involved with these affairs.

Kurutta Kajitsu is a story about two brothers competing for the affection of one woman. The brothers are part of a group of teenagers who congregate around their wealthy American friend. Things take a turn for the worse when each brother realizes that the object of their affection is not as innocent as she seems. The film is directed by Nakahira Ko and was adapted from the novel made by Ishihara Shintaro, a novelist and a politician.

We Shall Overcome Someday – Pacchigi
Director: Izutsu Kazuyuki
Synopsis:
This film takes place in 1968 in Kyoto, Japan. The background of it is the turmoil of the 1960’s and the relationship between Japanese and Koreans in Japan. The story begins when members of the karate group of a Kyoto high school insult two girls from a Korean high school. A war breaks out when the Korean girls get the boys from their school, led by a boy named Lee Ang-Son, to seek revenge. The Japanese boys are reprimanded by their teacher, and two boys, Kosuke and Norio, are told to go to the Korean high school and make a peace offering: to have the two schools play a friendly match of soccer. While they are at the school, Kosuke hears the sound of a beautiful song of Ang-Son’s little sister, Kyung-Ja, a non-violent, peaceful, 2nd year high school student who is part of a band. He finds himself drawn to the young girl and the sound of the Korean folk-song “Imjing River”. He steps over the ethnic divide and becomes friendly with Ang-Son and his rough-neck gang.

Kosuke now finds himself part of the gang until an accident kills one of the Korean boys and Kosuke bears the brunt of the family’s anger. He begins to fully understand the anger felt by the Korean community toward the Japanese community through the music and words of the folk song. On the other hand, Ang-Son finds he has unknowingly gotten his girlfriend pregnant. Ang-Son’s plans shifted now that he is going to be a father and realizes that he must grow up.

We Shall Overcome Someday was ranked the best Japanese film of 2005 by the Kinema Junpo. Izutsu Kayuzuki, the director, received two Japanese Academy Award nominations for writing and directing this film.

*more film synopsis to come. Click here for film schedules

EIGASAI 2008
SCREENING SCHEDULE

Shangri-la Plaza DATE TIME TITLE       July 8 (Tue) 7:00 PM We Shall Overcome Someday       July 9 (Wed) 2:00 PM Hanging Garden   4:00 PM Canary   6:00 PM A Stranger of Mine   8:00 PM Juvenile Jungle       July 10 (Thu) 2:00 PM Hanging Garden   4:00 PM Linda Linda Linda   6:00 PM Juvenile Jungle   8:00 PM A Stranger of Mine       July 11 (Fri) 2:00 PM Canary   4:00 PM Hanging Garden   6:00 PM Linda Linda Linda   8:00 PM We Shall Overcome Someday       July 12 (Sat) 2:00 PM Linda Linda Linda   4:00 PM Canary   6:00 PM We Shall Overcome Someday   8:00 PM A Stranger of Mine       July 13 (Sun) 2:00 PM A Stranger of Mine   4:00 PM We Shall Overcome Someday   6:00 PM Juvenile Jungle   8:00 PM Linda Linda Linda   J-POP ANIME MATSURI July 26 (Sat) 11:30 AM Doraemon   1:30 PM Doraemon   4:00 PM Chibi Maruko Chan (Movie)   6:00 PM The Girl Who Leapt Through Time   8:00 PM Chibi Maruko Chan (Movie)       July 27 (Sun) 11:30 AM Doraemon   2:00 PM The Girl Who Leapt Through Time   5:00 PM Chibi Maruko Chan (Movie)   8:00 PM The Girl Who Leapt Through Time Cultural Center of the Philippines Aug 7 (Thu) 2:00 PM Canary   5:00 PM Juvenile Jungle   7:00 PM Hanging Garden       Aug 8 (Fri) 2:00 PM A Stranger of Mine   5:00 PM Juvenile Jungle   7:00 PM Canary       Aug 9 (Sat) 2:00 PM Linda Linda Linda   5:00 PM We Shall Overcome Someday   7:00 PM A Stranger of Mine       Aug 10 (Sun) 2:00 PM Chibi Maruko Chan (Movie)   5:00 PM We Shall Overcome Someday   7:00 PM Linda Linda Linda UP Film Institute Aug 11 (Mon) 4:00 PM We Shall Overcome Someday   7:00 PM Linda Linda Linda       Aug 12 (Tue) 4:00 PM Juvenile Jungle   7:00 PM Hanging Garden       Aug 13 (Wed) 4:00 PM A Stranger of Mine   7:00 PM Canary       Aug 14 (Thu) 4:00 PM Canary   7:00 PM We Shall Overcome Someday       Aug 16 (Sat) 4:00 PM Chibi Maruko Chan (Movie)   7:00 PM A Stranger of Mine

]]> http://www.flickside.com/2008/07/08/41/feed/ http://www.flickside.com/2008/06/28/hancock/ http://www.flickside.com/2008/06/28/hancock/#comments Sat, 28 Jun 2008 10:45:47 +0000 Tristan http://www.flickside.com/2008/06/28/hancock/  

STARRING:

Will Smith
Jason Bateman
Eddie Marsan
Charlize Theron

DIRECTED BY:

Peter Berg

SYNOPSIS:

There are heroes… there are superheroes… and then there’s Hancock (Will Smith). With great power comes great responsibility — everyone knows that — everyone, that is, but Hancock. Edgy, conflicted, sarcastic, and misunderstood, Hancock’s well-intentioned heroics might get the job done and save countless lives, but always seem to leave jaw-dropping damage in their wake. The public has finally had enough — as grateful as they are to have their local hero, the good citizens of Los Angeles are wondering what they ever did to deserve this guy. Hancock isn’t the kind of man who cares what other people think — until the day that he saves the life of PR executive Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), and the sardonic superhero begins to realize that he may have a vulnerable side after all. Facing that will be Hancock’s greatest challenge yet — and a task that may prove impossible as Ray’s wife, Mary (Charlize Theron), insists that he’s a lost cause.

A Cannes Festival jury, wrote Brillante Mendoza a letter. As with what I can remember, it said something like this:

                                 Brillante,

 It was great to talk to you on Director’s Fortnight. You have an extraordinary film.

                                                                                                                            - Sean Penn

SERBIS created a sensation at the Festival de Cannes last month. Brillante Mendoza’s fifth film was only the third Filipino entry to make it to the competition category. A category only one director was able to be part of, the late Lino Brocka. Making it there was a feat in itself. Imagine your entry competing with Steven Sodebergh’s. For any independent filmmaker, this must be the thrill of a lifetime. Last night, I was able to catch SERBIS at the Robinson’s Movieworld and true to international raves, the film was no short of being brilliant.

Film is set in a run-down porn theater owned by the Pineda family. A day in the life, the opening scene acquaints the audience with the establishment as continuous hand-held camera movement follows Nayda (Jaclyn Jose) walking up and down dirty floors to reveal their actual residency. Then slowly we meet the rest of the characters. Alan (CocoMartin) tastfully paints lewd billboards while Ronald (Kristofer King) work the projector. Lando (Julio Diaz) cooks and serve food at their carinderia while Jewel (Roxanne Jordan) mans the ticket booth. Nanay Flor (Gina Pareno) strings the ensemble as the matriarchal figure.

As the day unfolds, so is the business. Inside this movie house, prostitution is a whole new industry in itself. Robust men buy tickets not to watch pornography but to actually do commerce. They offer sexual favors or “serbis” to the paying homosexual and oral sex is done right in front of the silverscreen. Giving life to the theatre, unsavory denizens flock and commune on and about.

But the Pinedas live a life impervious to the flesh trade. The whole family was put under an estranged situation upon the untimely passing of their father.  To add more demise, the family learned that their father had an affair which spawned another family. Nanay Flor filed for bigamy. Subsequently, Alan impregnated her girlfriend. Now amidst poverty and dilemma, we see how this family copes up. Apparent introspection and realism echo thru walls. And in the end there is only one thing that gave them refuge. The theatre itself.

SERBIS is Filipino Neo-Realism at its best. Direk Brillante made sure that he captured the noisy background of road traffic with tricycles and jeepneys blowing their horn. I could go visit the old movie houses in Cubao now and see the exact same thing. The Pinedas are familiar as well. As we speak, there is a struggling family out there who live the same struggles. There is truth in the prostitution too. In many ways, SERBIS pointed out many of our country’s issues by simply showing the grim reality of impoverishment that affects daily living. Perhaps that is the film’s greatest achievement.

The Verdict:

A film every Filipino should watch, SERBIS for me is the template all independent films must follow. None of that experimental bullshit. We as a people are sentimental and our lives alone have all the drama any filmmaker could ever put into film. On that, I’m sure Lino Brocka would agree.

Did you know that rats actually go for peanut butter and you can use them as weapons by strapping home-made Casio time bombs around their body? Yes, one could simply destroy the fortress of the world’s greatest assassins by simply letting these rats in thru the front door. Also, how does the idea of a fraternity of killers executing assassinations at the command of a weaver? A thread weaver. Figure that one out. I don’t even understand why the movie was entitled as WANTED.

But since this is a summer flick, we will ignore the substance part. Hey, it’s all about the action scenes right? The bullet-bending was entertaining and so is Morgan Freeman’s all too familiar character. The movie was a little off for me unfortunately. With Sin City and the Matrix on my DVD collection, WANTED looks shamefully amateur.

The Verdict:

WANTED is all out meth-induced action. Better watch this on a weekday because after all the action and violence, one may even be relieved of stress. The movie has no signs of it and neither does it have any sense.

So I just got in time to hear spy music on the background as I find the way to my seat. As soon as I saw Steve Carell as Maxwell Smart on the big screen, I burst into laughter even before I actually sat down. Steve Carell’s antics is dented so far deep into my funny bone that sheer sight alone of that familiar charismatic dork-face makes me hurl my guts out. Sadly, the same antics did not work for the remainder of the film. Well, it worked on and off. Mostly off.

Spy-goof films are supposed to be just about being goof. In Get Smart’s case, it tried to be goof scholar with Carell as Magna Cum. Get this, it’s an action/comedy with a twist of romance. A struggle of lame stunts ( burning rooftop with explosions, with the heroes to exit via cable swing to the other building), overboard slapsticks (the heroes swinging onto the building wall hitting face first instead ) and cheesy love interests (girl liking guy for saving the day) made this flick just another slapstick flop.

And wait, a lot of awful performances too. Masi Oka (the Heroes guy) made his presence known by being that unfunny Asian guy and Alan Larkin made known that he is now too slow to deliver punchlines. Good thing Dwayne Johnson was there to save the cast. Although I’m not much of a fan of “the Rock”, he did get to deliver what his character is supposed to be: cool, mean and villanious. There’s guest appearances here and there. Bill Murray made a brief cameo although I did not understand a word he said. James Caan was cast as President of the U.S., a profession that would be the last thing I would put Caan into. Oh before I forget, Anne Hathaway. She was pretty and sexy and she never missed a beat. Never mind that her character is so not in chemistry with Steve’s, she showed hinted a lot of skin. No rants about that whatsoever.

Not all parts of the movie were bad. There were bits that were funny. Funny to my seatmate, but not funny to me. The chase scene at the end part was great though. Kinda cool to see that secret agents fly planes over the city while some dangle on an SUV in a railroad below. Great stuff. Sheesh.

On the Side:

I’m growing tired of characters made for Steve Carell that involves awfull amounts of slapstick. Yes, it is fun to see him hit himself with darts and stuff and get hurt all the time (it did perfect for the 40-year Old Virgin, re: body hair), but that was so over-exploited. Even in Dr. Seuss’ adaptations he gets the same thing. Hear this, STEVE CARELL works the best with cerebral humor. That’s the main reason why he gets $175,000 for every episode of The Office. Get smart on that!

Here’s the verdict:

OLD PEOPLE SHOULD SEE THIS. In their condition, GET SMART is whole lotta fun and hooray. The movie may even be nostalgic, the spy thing could even remind them of the Pink Panther! Ah the good old days of espionage spoofs.

STARS:

James McAvoy - remember the first Chronicles of Narnia? He’s the half man half deer character. Or whatever that is. This time instead of hoofs, James plays lead role of “Wesley Gibson”, a simpleton who’s normal life is gonna be changed once he learned that he can bend gunshots.

Angelina Jolie - Meet your assassin/love interest. “Fox” is all about guns, tattoos, and a whole lotta bullet bending action. And oh, steamy scenes exist.

Morgan Freeman - plays “Sloan”, the head of the “fraternity” who would welcome Wesley to the true nature of his world. Mr. Freeman played God before, so being head of supersonic assassins is quite a spin-off from most of his recent roles.

Common -  rapper turned actor, this guy is everywhere. Most of his movie roles are astoundingly bad-ass, American Gangster, Street Kings and then this. “The Gunsmith” is a professional gunman who trains other to use high-caliber weapons.

Them, and a whole lotta bad-ass villains.

PREMISE:

25-year-old Wes was the most disaffected, cube-dwelling drone the planet had ever known. His boss chewed him out hourly, his girlfriend ignored him routinely and his life plodded on interminably. Everyone was certain this disengaged slacker would amount to nothing. There was little else for Wes to do but wile away the days and die in his slow, clock-punching rut. Until he met a woman named Fox. After his estranged father is murdered, the deadly sexy Fox recruits Wes into the Fraternity, a secret society that trains Wes to avenge his dad’s death by unlocking his dormant powers. As she teaches him how to develop lightning-quick reflexes and phenomenal agility, Wes discovers this team lives by an ancient, unbreakable code: carry out the death orders given by fate itself. With wickedly brilliant tutors–including the Fraternity’s enigmatic leader, Sloan–Wes grows to enjoy all the strength he ever wanted. But, slowly, he begins to realize there is more to his dangerous associates than meets the eye. And as he wavers between newfound heroism and vengeance, Wes will come to learn what no one could ever teach him: he alone controls his destiny.

REASONs TO WATCH:

First and foremost, the story is about assassins. And people, we all are in love with assassins. That’s why James Bond is still having his Martini shaken even up to this day when he should be in a retirement home stirring his cough syrup. Secondly, anybody seen Jumper? Or perhaps The Hitman? Those sci-fi assassin movies are so bad that Sarah Conner could give them whooping.  Where’s the Watchowski Brothers? Oh I see, they’re still dizzy from all that bloated animation in Speed Racer.

Point is, WANTED typically concocts the same recipe for the genre. But we have to look at the ingredients: movie based on a graphic novel, great cast, debut effort from a Russian director, Angelina. And based on the trailer alone, we know that movie is high-octane. So if what you need right now is a bad-ass film that’s just right on the mix, go see WANTED.

Movie out on JUNE 27

And there maybe a handful of upcoming movies that are must-see’s, FlickSide would rather announce on what is truly the most anticipated movie of the year.

THE DARK KNIGHT

showing JULY 17

Street Kings is all too familiar.Post-Neo Keanu Reeves stars in a film about the devoted cop getting screwed by the very system that he swore allegiance to. Tom Ludlow (Keanu) is a beleaguered veteran LAPD that is framed for a crime he didn’t commit. Worse, his long time friends and superiors in the “force” could be the very people who betrayed him. This typically goes the runaround with the mouse chasing the cat for retribution. Same old same old.But wait. Street Kings is directed by David Ayer, the man behind Training Day, and written by James Ellroy (the Black Dahlia, L.A Confidential). If the tandem could amass their past works into this one, Street Kings definitely would reach a higher level. It could even touch the toe of The Departed.Street Kings would be shown in Philippine Cinemas on April 16.

Making waves last year with two note worthy films, Emil Hirsch has been voted to the first ever FlickSide Spolight. Yes, he did justice giving screen life to Chris McCandless in the riveting, Sean Penn directed gem, Into the Wild. But more than that, Emil made his presence known as an actor with outstanding deliver and bankable promise.

Emil docking while Ledger is at center

We first noticed Emil as one of the skater-punks in the now occult Lords of Dogtown. It’s in this movie that acting skills were proven, as Emil played an emotionally tortured teen that resorted to punk music for comfort. His was the more memorable potrayal of the cast second only to, of course, Heath Ledger.

Next is Alpha Dog, a decent teen crime movie nobody watched mainly because of Justin Timberlake and a balding Bruce Willis on the poster. Couldn’t blame moviegoers for that.

Last year, Into the Wild was a breakthrough both for both Emil and director Sean Penn. Although the film was shunned in major awards, special thanks to the Coen brothers, Into the Wild was given raving reviews and proved to be critical work for both actor’s careers.

Enter 2008. Surrounding much hype and anticipation, the Wachowski brothers written and directed Speed Racer is definitely an impending blockbuster.

But what FlickSide is really excited about is the release of Milk! This movie will once again reunite Sean Penn and Emil in a biopic of American politician Harvey Milk, a gay civil rights activist that was assassinated in the 70’s. (You’re gasping for breath, I know). Hirsch here also plays an activist.

A well deserved spotlight for Emil. This guy is surely someone to look out for. And if his acting choices were to be carefully selected, we believe we got a future Oscar winner in our spotlight.