Category: Narrative

By Joe Bendel. Anna Li is a lady who lunches. She is not Marie Antoinette. She simply is unprepared for the speed at which fortunes can reverse in Hong Kong. Her Mainland chauffeur is not a revolutionary. He simply wants a safe delivery for his pregnant wife, but they cannot afford the punitive second child fee. Each will face an economic crisis, but Fai’s will be exacerbated by geography in Flora Lau’s Bends (more sensibly known as “Crossing the Border” in Chinese language territories), which launches the new season of ContemporAsian at MoMA.

Li organizes charity events and looks good on her husband’s arm at business functions. She seems quite satisfied with how things have turned out, even if her spouse is a bit of a shark and a player. The fact that he has not been home for several days does not seem to raise any red flags for her, but she definitely takes notice when her credit cards are declined. Finding their accounts drained or frozen, Li starts hocking the family art collection to keep up appearances in her social circle.

Meanwhile, Fai has his own problems. Although he has been granted HK citizenship, his wife Ting is still Mainland PRC. To hide her advanced pregnancy, she becomes a veritable prisoner in their Shenzhen flat. It is all very confusing for their little girl Haihai. Fai needs money to smuggle her across the border and a hospital admission letter to secure her a bed for delivery, but both are hard to come by for a man of his position.

Bends sounds about as hot-button as it gets, indicting HK’s laissez-faire economy on the right and the Communist Party’s unforgiving family planning on the left. Yet, the execution is decidedly quiet and intimate. Happily, Lau offers viewers character studies rather than white papers, but the first time director’s sense of pacing is still a bit flat. However, she gets a key assist from superstar cinematographer Christopher Doyle, who makes it all look coolly elegant.

Yet, it is unquestionably Carina Lau who makes the film. Approaching legendary status, Lau still makes a convincing trophy wife, but it is her chops that truly impress in Bends. Despite Li’s outward reserve, Lau clearly expresses her mounting confusion and anxiety. At the risk of belaboring the point, Lau brilliantly pulls viewers into Li’s inner turmoil rather than resorting to the sort of bug-eyed arm-flailing Meryl Streep over-indulged in throughout, for example, Osage. What else can we say? Lau is simply much better at her craft.

Understatement is all very well and good, but Chen Kun nearly wilts into the background as Fai. Nevertheless, a strong supporting cast keeps him propped up in key scenes. Even with limited screen time, Stephanie Che makes a lasting impression as Lulu, Fai’s old HK flame, who now works as a maternity nurse. As Ting and Haihai, Tian Yuan and young Tu Jiamen also humanize the story rather compellingly.

There is no denying the wider issues raised by Bends, but it is only zeitgeisty after the fact. In the moment, it is unflinchingly intimate in its focus. Recommended for fans of Lau and those who appreciate films helmed by women, with great roles for women, Bends screens tonight through Sunday (4/21-4/27) as part of MoMA’s regular ContemporAsian film series.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on April 21st, 2014 at 8:50pm.

By Joe Bendel. Driving is the American way to commute. It suddenly does not look so bad for a handful of Brits trapped on a runaway train. The end of the line looms ominously in Omid Nooshin’s surprisingly spry thriller Last Passenger, which opens this Friday in New York.

Lewis Shaler tries to be a conscientious single father, but the demands of his emergency room practice often tax his young son Max’s patience. They are headed home from London on a redeye express, so Dr. Shaler can perform an emergency operation. At least they have a volunteer to help them pass the time. There might even be a halting attraction brewing between Shaler and the charming Ms. Sarah Barwell.

Unfortunately, events will interrupt them when Shaler starts to suspect something is amiss. Initially, nobody wants to get involved in matters like the disappearance of the porter. However, when the train starts blowing through scheduled station stops they quickly start to care. It turns out a mystery man has barricaded himself in the control room and disabled the emergency brakes. Of course, the outside authorities are slow to react, but it hardly matters. This is a diesel train, so there is nothing they can do to cut the power.

Perhaps transportation safety engineers could poke dozens of holes in Nooshin and Andrew Love’s screenplay, but its internal logic holds together pretty well for mere mortals. Obviously, there is a massive ticking clock counting down in the background, but the quiet moments work just as well. Nooshin vividly captures the eerily detached vibe of a late night train whooshing through nocturnal blackness. The mix of personality types and tics amongst Shaler’s fellow passengers also nicely follows in the tradition of great train suspense stories, going all the back to Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes.

Dougray Scott has become something of an overlooked leading man since the days of Ever After and MI: 2, but he anchors the film with understated strength and sensitivity. He definitely comes across as the sort of surgeon who would inspire confidence in patients. He also develops some relaxed but convincing chemistry with Kara Tointon’s Barwell. The supporting cast also feels right, particularly Iddo Goldberg (in a complete change of pace from Kat Coiro’s And While We Were Here) as an Eastern European immigrant transit worker.

Obviously, the question of who would do such a thing is hard to ignore, despite the narrative’s considerable tension. Nooshin & Love suggest (and never refute) a hypothesis that evades hot button ideological issues, but might be even more disturbing for what it implies regarding human nature. Regardless, they keep the train hurtling down the track. Frankly, there is something refreshingly old school about the smaller scope and corresponding emphasis on character. Recommended with unexpected affection for general thriller audiences, Last Passenger opens this Friday (4/25) in New York.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on April 21st, 2014 at 8:42pm.

By Joe Bendel. Their motto is: “dance like drumming, drum like dancing.” Founded by Yako Miyamoto, the first Japanese cast-member of Stomp, the COBU dance troupe puts on an amazing live show combining Taiko drumming with tap and hip hop dancing. If they were not already extensively touring through South Korea, they probably soon will be. That is because reigning K-Pop diva of divas BoA plays a member of the COBU ensemble for her English language film debut. She learned her steps well. Viewers will come for the Taiko dancing and stay for the Taiko dancing when Duane Adler’s Make Your Move opens today nationwide.

Let’s admit right from the start that the screenplay from Adler, the Step Up scribe is pretty clunky. Whenever you hear the sound of grinding metal it is really just the dialogue. However, for dance movies that is just par for the course. What counts are the moves, which are hot, particularly the Taiko sequences choreographed by Miyamoto. The more traditional Dirty Dancing-esque numbers choreographed by Napoleon and Tabitha Dumo also smoke thanks to the agile footwork of BoA and Dancing with the Stars’ Derek Hough.

BoA plays Aya, the Japanese-born Korean leader of COBU, whose visa will expire in a matter of days. She needs confirmed gigs and a sponsor to stay in the country. Unfortunately her only volunteer so far is Michael Griffiths, her brother Kaz’s creepy majority partner in OTO, a swanky new Brooklyn dance club. He would be happy to feature COBU, but he requires exclusivity. Aya would rather be deported than be beholden to a stalker like him.

Kaz used to be partners in the underground hipster club Static with Nick, but they split on bad terms. Their feud threatens to get deadly when each sends thugs to disrupt each others’ businesses. It is an inconvenient time for Donny to leave New Orleans in violation of his parole, hoping to land a dancing gig in his foster brother Nick’s club. However, when Donny sees Aya launch into an unsanctioned impromptu performance in Static, all bets are off. Yes, it is West Side Story in BKLN, but when they are dancing, it all sort of works.

Although BoA is clearly still a bit uncomfortable with English, the camera absolutely loves her. Frankly, she handles her dramatic responsibilities rather well, thanks to a naturally warm screen presence. Hough is a different story, but at least he can dance. (Yet bafflingly, he sports a spit of peach-fizz so ridiculous looking, even the other characters bust on him for it.)

It is also nice to see Miyamoto get some screen time as Kaori, a COBU troupe member. She even gets to start the big climatic dance number with Hough, before BoA and the rest of COBU come in. It’s a show-stopper alright. Although he never shows any moves, Will Yun Lee also brings some professionalism to the proceedings as big brother Kaz.

To recap, the Taiko choreography and the partner dancing in MYM are rousingly entertaining. The plot and dialogue are what they are. Fans of BoA, COBU, Stomp, or the Step Up franchise will definitely dig it. Recommended for those looking for a dancing fix with a garnish of inconsequential romance, Make Your Move opens today (4/18) in New York at the AMC Empire.

LFM GRADE: B-

Posted on April 18th, 2014 at 10:46pm.