Month: March 2012

A View into Injustice in China: LFM Reviews Killing the Chickens to Scare the Monkeys

From"Killing the Chickens to Scare the Monkeys."

By Joe Bendel. Chinese dissidents are extraordinarily brave and thoughtful, but a Chinese Communist Party aphorism refers to them as chickens. Presumably said chickens are harder to kill than monkeys, which is why the reported saying advocates slaughtering the one to intimidate the other. Whether they are “guilty” or not, hardly matters. In this context, it is not great to be the latter, but even worse to be the former. Swedish filmmaker Jens Assur dramatizes a shocking everyday application of the pacifying policy in his short film Killing the Chickens to Scare the Monkeys, which somewhat recently screened at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival (and will be covered slightly after the fact now, thanks to the good graces of the Swedish Film Institute).

Though writer-director-producer Assur divides his time between Stockholm and Los Angeles, he filmed Chickens in Thailand, employing a style in keeping with the so-called Digital Genenration, or dGenerate, school of independent and largely underground filmmaking. It opens with an unbroken fifteen minute tracking shot more thoughtfully composed and rendered than Silent House in its entirety.

Given the title, it is not much of a spoiler to reveal that the first act recreates an execution. Yet, the circumstances surrounding it stand as a disturbing commentary on Chinese society. However, Chickens is just getting started, even though the story has ended. In subsequent scenes, Assur rewinds the narrative, showing viewers just how one school teacher came to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, as well as just what sort of person she was. While the tone is clinically detached, the sense of tragedy still compounds exponentially with each temporal shift.

From"Killing the Chickens to Scare the Monkeys."

Technically, Chickens is quite a polished work, conveying the sensation of observing China’s dirty “justice” system, Frederick Wiseman-style. Cinematographer Marek Septimus Wieser dramatically frames each sequence, most particularly the continuous opening shot. Although uncredited (for reasons one might easily speculate), the work of the lead protagonist is frighteningly convincing and ultimately quite poignant, in a realistically grounded way.

Forthrightly addressing some serious issues within its twenty-four minute running time, Chickens is definitely a fully realized and engaging work. Indeed, it should be thought of as a film in the fullest sense rather than a spec short or a sketch. Challenging and chilling, Chickens deserves a wide international audience following its screenings as part of this year’s Sundance Film Festival in Park City.

Posted on March 13th, 2012 at 1:26pm.

Hope and Healing One Year Later: LFM Reviews Pray for Japan

By Joe Bendel. The numbers are staggering: 319,000 individuals evacuated, at least 269,000 buildings destroyed, roughly $325 billion in damages, and over 20,000 souls missing or confirmed dead. It happened exactly one year ago yesterday, when the Tōhoku coast of Japan was devastated by a cruel earthquake-and-tsunami tandem. Yet the enormity of the tragedy was matched by the resiliency of the average Japanese citizenry. Tokyopop founder Stu Levy pays tribute to the heroes and victims of the 3/11 disaster throughout his documentary Pray for Japan, which screened yesterday in New York as part of the Japan Society’s anniversary programming, in advance of a special national screening this Wednesday at participating AMC Theaters, followed by a weeklong New York theatrical run starting this Friday.

Last year, 3/11 was a Friday. It happened to be the Ogatsu Middle School’s graduation day. As a result, their students had already gone home when the 2:46 earthquake hit. As they made their way to shelters, the Ogatsu faculty reconstructed their class rosters from scratch and set about verifying their students’ safety over the following hours and days. Miraculously, none had been killed. However, little else remained of their school.

In alternating segments, Levy focuses Pray on four groups dealing with the quake-tsunami’s impact: school, family, shelter, and volunteers. Each features inspirational and heartbreaking stories, but the rebirth of Ogatsu Middle School is truly emblematic of the courageous rebuilding process. What viewers do not hear is any finger-pointing or complaining. However, the grief remains raw and painful. Even the most jaded viewer will be deeply moved by one teenager’s koi-nobori tribute to his little brother on children’s day.

Indeed, Pray is a film that will make you cry repeatedly. Anyone of good will would be deeply moved by the stories Levy documents. To his credit, he has the good sense to stay out of the picture himself, letting the survivors tell their stories directly. Yet the evocative animated title sequence and Okuda Tamio’s theme song “jp” greatly contribute towards setting the elegiac but empowering tone right up front.

Unfortunately, the breadth and severity of the Japanese disaster seem lost on our media and elected leaders, who have generally failed in marking this solemn anniversary of our close friend and ally. That probably shows us all we need to know about them.

In contrast, Levy and a handful of filmmakers like Lucy Walker (whose Oscar nominated The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom also screens today at the Japan Society) recognized an important human story, which continues to develop. Unfortunately, the Japanese people’s fundamental decency and modesty works against them when it comes to grabbing the global media’s attention, yet seeing that spirit manifest itself in acts of compassion and volunteerism is not just inspiring, but ennobling. Both films capture that impulse, making them important and stirring works of cinematic reportage.

Highly recommended, Pray for Japan screens Wednesday (3/14) at select AMC Theaters nationwide, including the AMC Empire in New York and the AMC Cupertino in San Francisco, with a further weeklong theatrical engagement set for the Empire and the Burbank Town Center, starting this Friday (3/16).

Immediately following the events of 3/11, the Japan Society took the lead spearheading relief efforts in New York. You can learn how to support their laudable efforts here.

LFM GRADE: A

Posted on March 12th, 2012 at 12:28pm.

LFM Reviews Dear Pyongyang

By Joe Bendel. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, Japan’s Korean population sharply divided into camps aligned with the North or the South. At the time, the DPRK-supporting Chongryun ran circles around their counterparts, convincing many Koreans in Japan to “return” to the North. As a co-founder of Chongryun, Yang Yonghi’s father encouraged many such “returnees,” including her three older brothers. In retrospect, this was a mistake. Yang examines the disconnect between the ideology she was born into and the reality of life for her North Korean family in Dear Pyongyang, which screens this Sunday as part of Extreme Private Ethos, the Asia Society’s latest film series surveying provocatively intimate Japanese documentaries.

Yang was truly a red diaper baby, raised by her ardently Marxist father to revere the “fatherland” and the “Great Leader.” Although she attended one of the DPRK funded “Korean” schools in Japan, she was also a young person coming of age in an open society. As a result, she had some context to help her question the propaganda she was steadily fed in class. However, her first class trip to Pyongyang and her brief reunion with her brothers clearly began her ideologically questioning in earnest. As the years passed, her parents would ship more and more provisions to their sons, simply to keep them alive. Yet they never backed down from their allegiance to the rogue state.

Without question, Yang is profoundly disturbed by her parents’ apparent self deception, but she is rather circumspect in pressing the issue on-camera, for obvious reasons. Indeed, it is fascinating to read between the lines in Dear Pyongyang. She implies quite a bit about the miserable conditions there, but leaves much unspoken. After all, she has family in the North. On a more personal level, she also worries her father will consider any criticism of the DPRK as a rebuke of his life’s work. Just the same, she cannot ignore what she sees with her own eyes on each trip to Pyongyang.

Evidently, Yang successfully walked her tightrope, since she was able to make a follow-up film focusing on her niece Sona, whom she identifies with for living the life she might very well have led, had her parents also “returned.” She also was able to get her father to seriously take stock of many fateful decisions he made, on camera, before his health issues put an end to such discussions late in the documentary.

Understandably, an atmosphere of regret hangs heavily over the entire film. While Korea remains divided by circumstances beyond their control, Yang’s family is divided by choices they made. To her credit, she examines their implications as forthrightly as was prudent, given the nature of the Communist regime. Deeply personal but also highly relevant, it is an intriguing, frustrating, and forgiving film.  Definitely a highlight of Extreme Private Ethos, the respectfully recommended Dear Pyongyang screens this Sunday afternoon (3/11) at the Asia Society in New York.

Posted on March 9th, 2012 at 8:42am.

An Indie Darling Turns Scream Queen: LFM Reviews Silent House

By Joe Bendel. The multiplex kids probably have never seen Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope (let alone Alexander Sokurov’s Russian Ark), so the supposed single continuous “real-time” tracking shot making up the latest indyish-genre outing from Open Water directors Chris Kentis and Laura Lau might seem like a fresh gimmick to them. Remaking the recent Uruguayan horror movie (including the aforementioned uninterrupted take), they show fewer seams than Hitchcock but more distracting narrative issues come to the fore in their remake, Silent House, which opens this Friday in New York.

Sarah’s family had some good times in their lake house, but vandals and weather damage have taken a toll. Her father and Uncle Peter are trying to restore it, but their bickering makes the going slow. It looks peaceful outside, but with the windows boarded up and the power kaput, the house is pitch dark inside, even during high noon. It would be a scary place to be locked in with a psycho killer, which will be the case for Sarah. After she establishes the lack of phone lines and cell service with an old childhood chum she cannot remember, her menacing begins.

When it comes to the mechanics of skulking about the old dark house, Silent is more than competent. However, when it drops its clues, they clang like anvils. Frankly, anyone who isn’t on to the big twist by the half hour mark must be remarkably guileless, even if they have not seen the Uruguayan original. Unfortunately, this makes it devilishly difficult to buy into Silent as a funhouse ride. Instead, viewers will more likely feel as if they are watching the film play out the string.

Still the toast of the indie circuit for her work in Martha Marcy May Marlene, Elizabeth Olsen handles her scream queen duties rather capably. There is actually more to Sarah than the typical teens chased through slasher movies, which Olsen evokes quite convincingly. However, Adam Trese and Eric Sheffer Stevens are just glaringly miscast as Papa John and Uncle Peter respectively, looking more like aging hipsters on a photo shoot for Restoration Hardware than adults with any kind of connection to the real world.

Ironically, the one take device is the least distracting aspect of the film. Indeed, the filmmakers should avoid the game of poker, because they display all kinds of “tells.” As a result, the creepy vibe and some nice work from Olsen, duly framed to maximize viewer leering, largely go to waste. For the curious, Silent House opens today nationwide.

LFM GRADE: D

Posted on March 9th, 2012 at 8:41am.

YouTube Jukebox: Borges

By David Ross. YouTube is the most irresistible seduction of them all. Holding temptation at arm’s length, we say, “I’d like to, but I shouldn’t.” YouTube turns even our conscientiousness against us. In so many cases, we really should. Morally, spiritually, intellectually. A case in point is “The Riddle of Poetry,” a lecture delivered by Jorge Luis Borges at Harvard University in the fall of 1967 and spring of 1968. It’s so full of grave wisdom; its language, so austere and precise, is a moral lesson unto itself. Live in the spirit of Borges’ prose seems to me a reasonable credo. Among other things, “The Riddle of Poetry” conveys what it means to be a gentleman of the mind – or rather what it meant, for the type is extinct. Borges’ comportment – his code of intellectual order and etiquette – now seems as quaint and remote as bending at the waist to kiss a gloved hand.

The Riddle of Poetry: Part 1 (above), Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5.

Posted on March 9th, 2012 at 8:39am.

Israel’s Oscar Entry: LFM Reviews Footnote

By Joe Bendel. Eliezer Shkolnik might not look like a national treasure. According to his colleagues, the standoffish Talmudic scholar has a rather thin resume of accomplishments. Yet Shkolnik is about to learn that he will be awarded the Israel Prize, the country’s highest honor for scholarship. However, the circumstances surrounding his belated recognition are rather complicated in Joseph Cedar’s Oscar nominated Footnote, which opens this Friday in New York.

As Footnote commences, the senior Shkolnik must squirm in ill-concealed discomfort as his son Uriel receives another honor long denied to him. Eliezer Shkolnik is openly contemptuous of his son’s trendy work. He might regard it as rubbish, but Uriel Shkolnik publishes an awful lot of it. The same cannot be said of the father, whose life’s project was undermined by archaeological discoveries and the manipulations of a bitter academic rival. Every year, the elder Shkolnik is nominated for the Israel Prize – but to no avail, until now.

Unfortunately, Uriel Shkolnik has an awkward truth dumped on him by the Prize committee, including his father’s lifelong nemesis. That call was meant for him, not his father. Convinced the public humiliation would destroy what is left of his father’s psyche, the younger Shkolnik desperately negotiates to maintain the honors list as is, just as his father begins to vent his opinions about Uriel’s brand of scholarship in the media.

Though there is no violence on-screen, Cedar’s razor-sharp screenplay draws real blood. All the pettiness and jealousy of academia is on full display throughout Footnote, while the father-son contentions take on the dimensions of classical tragedy. Indeed, their research might only be of interest to a rarified circle of scholars, but they fight over it like a strategic hill on a blood-soaked battlefield.

Lior Ashkenazi (an Israeli Film Academy Award winner, whose credits include Israel’s first slasher film, Rabies) convincingly portrays the conflicted son, while Shlomo Bar Aba is maddeningly but effectively inscrutable as the reserved and rather squirrely father. Yet Israeli theater director Micah Lewesohn really makes it all crackle and spark as the senior (and eventually junior) Shkolnik’s foil, the Moriarty-like Prof. Yehuda Grossman.

Visually, Footnote is surprisingly dynamic, especially given the esoteric concerns of its characters. Cedar employs montages, sly captions, and rapid edits for shrewd comedic effect, in ways that support rather than overwhelm the central drama. Indeed, cinematographer Yaron Scharf and editor Einat Glaser-Zarhin were clearly key collaborators in stylishly rendering Footnote’s sophisticated look and acerbic vibe.

Part of a very strong field of foreign language Oscar nominees this year, Footnote was a worthy contender. Ironically, despite facing criticism from Islamist hardliners, the state media has trumpeted Asghar Farhadi’s Academy Award for A Separation as an Iranian triumph over Israel, cheapening his moment on the world stage as a result. In fact, while in no way a political film per se, the constant security checks Cedar’s characters go through serve as a grim reminder of the homicidal hatred average Israelis must defy just by going about their everyday lives. Intelligently written and executed, Footnote is highly recommended when it opens this Friday (3/9) in New York at the Angelika Film Center.

LFM GRADE: A

Posted on March 6th, 2012 at 4:31pm.