Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival
BUCHEON, South Korea -- Attending his Q&A session in an "Ichi the Killer" T-shirt, "The Butcher" director Kim Jin-won is a self-professed fan of Takashi Miike. Yet, far from imitating his idol's sophisticated sadism and elaborate film language, Kim's aesthetic of violence is as subtle as a sledgehammer. Underlying the splurging blood and dripping intestines however, is a rather cool observation of Human Nature, and sly manipulation of audience reaction.
While Korean filmmakers are known for their unique and powerful way of choreographing violence, "The Butcher" is altogether a different, mutant species from such stylish, studio-crafted gems as "Old Boy", "A Bitter Sweet Life" or "A Dirty Carnival". The self-financed film does not meet the national rating criterion, and due to its home-movie production values, will have difficulty getting commercial release. However, since blood lust is cross-cultural, the film is ensured a slot in midnight screenings at festivals around the world, and in underground or cult cinemas. Straight-to-video release is also a possibility. Given that the slasher genre has yet to take off in Korea, the film will have to start off on the underground or internet circuit, before it gains any following.
A self-confessed horror flick fan, the director has managed to distill all his influences into a linear, pared-to-the-bone narrative with a streak of black humor. "Butcher" is basically a "making-of" of a making of a snuff movie. Taking place mostly in a pig's barn, a film crew comprised of the director, his assistant and the butcher get straight down to business with the "cast" -- four people they've caught and hand-cuffed, with camcorders tied to the top of their heads. The first two are unceremoniously dispatched with hammer, knife and saw. Next turn is a married couple. To satisfy their American audiences' fastidious taste, the crew tries to come up with more gimmicks. The husband is given two alternative tests, one of which will set his wife free, while the other will set himself free. Like a "survivor" game show, the trial reveals the human instinct for self-preservation.
Two POVs -- of the crew and restricted vision from the camcorders tied to the captives' head, alternate with each other with dizzying, handheld effect. As a result, the audience also alternates between identifying with the victims' plight, and becoming an accomplice to the crew in meting out torture -- just as the captive is given the choice to endure or inflict pain. The DV camera is used to the film's advantage in generating images of a rough, fuzzy texture and washed out color that accentuates the bleakness of the mis en scene and the bestial, elemental universe it tries to depict.
THE BUTCHER
Devil Groove Pictures
Credits:
Screenwriter-director-producer-editor: Kim Jin-won
Director of photography: Lee Sang-hyun
Art director: Moon So-hyun
Cast:
Jaehyun: Yoo Dong-heun
Wife: Ha Yoo-hee
Director Kim: Kim Sung-il
Bongsik: Lee Moo-nyung
Butcher/Victim: Seo Myung-hyun
Running time -- 76 minutes
No MPAA rating...
BUCHEON, South Korea -- Attending his Q&A session in an "Ichi the Killer" T-shirt, "The Butcher" director Kim Jin-won is a self-professed fan of Takashi Miike. Yet, far from imitating his idol's sophisticated sadism and elaborate film language, Kim's aesthetic of violence is as subtle as a sledgehammer. Underlying the splurging blood and dripping intestines however, is a rather cool observation of Human Nature, and sly manipulation of audience reaction.
While Korean filmmakers are known for their unique and powerful way of choreographing violence, "The Butcher" is altogether a different, mutant species from such stylish, studio-crafted gems as "Old Boy", "A Bitter Sweet Life" or "A Dirty Carnival". The self-financed film does not meet the national rating criterion, and due to its home-movie production values, will have difficulty getting commercial release. However, since blood lust is cross-cultural, the film is ensured a slot in midnight screenings at festivals around the world, and in underground or cult cinemas. Straight-to-video release is also a possibility. Given that the slasher genre has yet to take off in Korea, the film will have to start off on the underground or internet circuit, before it gains any following.
A self-confessed horror flick fan, the director has managed to distill all his influences into a linear, pared-to-the-bone narrative with a streak of black humor. "Butcher" is basically a "making-of" of a making of a snuff movie. Taking place mostly in a pig's barn, a film crew comprised of the director, his assistant and the butcher get straight down to business with the "cast" -- four people they've caught and hand-cuffed, with camcorders tied to the top of their heads. The first two are unceremoniously dispatched with hammer, knife and saw. Next turn is a married couple. To satisfy their American audiences' fastidious taste, the crew tries to come up with more gimmicks. The husband is given two alternative tests, one of which will set his wife free, while the other will set himself free. Like a "survivor" game show, the trial reveals the human instinct for self-preservation.
Two POVs -- of the crew and restricted vision from the camcorders tied to the captives' head, alternate with each other with dizzying, handheld effect. As a result, the audience also alternates between identifying with the victims' plight, and becoming an accomplice to the crew in meting out torture -- just as the captive is given the choice to endure or inflict pain. The DV camera is used to the film's advantage in generating images of a rough, fuzzy texture and washed out color that accentuates the bleakness of the mis en scene and the bestial, elemental universe it tries to depict.
THE BUTCHER
Devil Groove Pictures
Credits:
Screenwriter-director-producer-editor: Kim Jin-won
Director of photography: Lee Sang-hyun
Art director: Moon So-hyun
Cast:
Jaehyun: Yoo Dong-heun
Wife: Ha Yoo-hee
Director Kim: Kim Sung-il
Bongsik: Lee Moo-nyung
Butcher/Victim: Seo Myung-hyun
Running time -- 76 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Palm Springs International Film Festival
Steps International
PALM SPRINGS -- Two men and a woman vie for office, indulging in low blows and spin, character assassination and gestures of goodwill, all the while gauging their standing with voters. The setting is not the Democratic presidential campaign trail but a third-grade class at Evergreen Primary School in Wuhan, China.
Please Vote for Me, which is on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' documentary feature shortlist and recently screened at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, packs its fleet hour with keen observations.
Chronicling a public school's first open elections -- at stake is the position of class monitor -- filmmaker Weijun Chen has crafted a witty, engaging macro-lens view of Human Nature, China's one-child policy and the democratic electoral process as the ultimate exercise in marketing.
The three candidates are chosen by their teachers, who might want to think about becoming casting directors. The ham in the bunch is Cheng Cheng, pudgy, charismatic and a born wheeler-dealer. Low-key Luo Lei, the incumbent, is known for his tough stance as a disciplinarian, no doubt learned from his police officer parents. Shy and sensitive, Xuxiao Fei enters the fray reluctantly, but she soon gets into the spirit of things, that being dirty tricks. With two campaign assistants each at their disposal, the candidates collect negative info on their opponents while their teacher strikes a somewhat laissez-faire approach to the proceedings.
Keeping the political machines running are the parents. Cheng Cheng stands in his underpants as his TV producer mother coaches him in the art of sound bites; Luo Lei's folks convince him of the importance of buying votes; and Xuxiao Fei's mother advises her to go for the jugular in the debates. Not only is the film a transparent look at electoral politics at their most basic, but it also provides a fascinating glimpse of a nation of only children. Without sibling dramas to play out, these 8-year-olds have in many ways adopted a practical, adult view of life.
Still, they're just kids. When smear tactics get the better of one contender, much of the class dissolves in sympathetic tears. Perhaps they've seen too deeply into adulthood. At the film's end, two defeated students stand before the class, sobbing, and you can only shudder as their teacher tells them, "I hope this experience will be useful in the future."...
Steps International
PALM SPRINGS -- Two men and a woman vie for office, indulging in low blows and spin, character assassination and gestures of goodwill, all the while gauging their standing with voters. The setting is not the Democratic presidential campaign trail but a third-grade class at Evergreen Primary School in Wuhan, China.
Please Vote for Me, which is on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' documentary feature shortlist and recently screened at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, packs its fleet hour with keen observations.
Chronicling a public school's first open elections -- at stake is the position of class monitor -- filmmaker Weijun Chen has crafted a witty, engaging macro-lens view of Human Nature, China's one-child policy and the democratic electoral process as the ultimate exercise in marketing.
The three candidates are chosen by their teachers, who might want to think about becoming casting directors. The ham in the bunch is Cheng Cheng, pudgy, charismatic and a born wheeler-dealer. Low-key Luo Lei, the incumbent, is known for his tough stance as a disciplinarian, no doubt learned from his police officer parents. Shy and sensitive, Xuxiao Fei enters the fray reluctantly, but she soon gets into the spirit of things, that being dirty tricks. With two campaign assistants each at their disposal, the candidates collect negative info on their opponents while their teacher strikes a somewhat laissez-faire approach to the proceedings.
Keeping the political machines running are the parents. Cheng Cheng stands in his underpants as his TV producer mother coaches him in the art of sound bites; Luo Lei's folks convince him of the importance of buying votes; and Xuxiao Fei's mother advises her to go for the jugular in the debates. Not only is the film a transparent look at electoral politics at their most basic, but it also provides a fascinating glimpse of a nation of only children. Without sibling dramas to play out, these 8-year-olds have in many ways adopted a practical, adult view of life.
Still, they're just kids. When smear tactics get the better of one contender, much of the class dissolves in sympathetic tears. Perhaps they've seen too deeply into adulthood. At the film's end, two defeated students stand before the class, sobbing, and you can only shudder as their teacher tells them, "I hope this experience will be useful in the future."...
New York Asian Film Festival/Japan Cuts Festival of New Films
NEW YORK -- Such works as the sci-fi classic Tetsuo: The Iron Man and the outlandish costume drama Gemini have established Shinya Tsukamoto as an auteur of the strange -- a kind of intellectual version of Takashi Miike. This riff on the J-horror genre certainly is imaginative, though it lacks the visual experimentation of his previous films. Nightmare Detective occasionally is effective but suffers because it relies more on gore and bloodshed than suspense for shocks.
There's a nastiness at the core of Nightmare that many will find off-putting. It has a sadistic approach to its characters, and the violence is often misogynistic. The film has more in common with the discomfiting Marebito -- in which Tsukamoto starred -- than standard J-horrors. But the Weinstein Co., which will release here on its Dragon Dynasty imprint, should find a willing audience of horror buffs looking for a different approach to what's now become an exhausted J-genre.
The story, by Tsukamoto, revolves around Keiko (pop star Hitomi), a yuppie cop who is investigating a series of gory suicides. Keiko realizes that the deaths may not actually be suicides at all, as they happen while the victims are asleep. It transpires that something or someone is entering their dreams and causing the violence. Keiko enlists Kyoichi (Ryuhei Matsuda), a reclusive young man who has the power to enter people's nightmares, to help her.
The narrative often is befuddling. The links between the real world and the nightmares aren't made sufficiently clear, even within the bizarre world of the script. The film's psychology is basic, and doesn't tell viewers much about the characters' actions. A fast-moving story line tries to mask this confusion but only ends up making it worse.
But the tone is consistent. It's a relentlessly grim view of Human Nature where people have no defense against those with baser, crueler instincts. Its aesthetic is even gloomier than David Fincher's Seven -- a hell on earth with no respite for the civilized. Tsukamoto is adept at taking viewers into this dark world, though they might find it's a place they don't care to visit.
Makeup, rather than computers, supplies most of the effects, and Tsukamoto relishes depicting nasty slashes on the bodies of the victims. This might be ugly, but it's not particularly scary, as the editing doesn't build up much suspense.
Tsukamoto seems to be trying to make an anti-suicide statement, as most of his characters change their minds about the act when it's too late. Suicide is ritualized in Japan with traditions like hari-kari, and it also has become a social problem there: Young students commit suicide because of bullying or exam pressure. Yet Tsukamoto has chosen a bizarre way to make his point.
Tsukamoto directed, wrote, produced, shot, edited and did the production design. He also plays Zero. Apparently, all this activity didn't tire him out. A sequel is on the way.
NIGHTMARE DETECTIVE
Dimension Extreme
A Movie-Eye Entertainment presentation of a Kaijyu Theater production
Credits:
Director/screenwriter/director of photography/production designer: Shinya Tsukamato
Producers: Shinya Tsukamato, Shinichi Kawahara, Yumiko Takebe
Executive producer: Taku Uhiyama
Music: Chu Ishikawa
Editor: Shinya Tsukamoto
Cast:
Kyoichi: Ryuhei Matsuda
Keiko: Hitomi
Wakayama: Masanobu Ando
Running time -- 105 minutes
No MPAA rating...
NEW YORK -- Such works as the sci-fi classic Tetsuo: The Iron Man and the outlandish costume drama Gemini have established Shinya Tsukamoto as an auteur of the strange -- a kind of intellectual version of Takashi Miike. This riff on the J-horror genre certainly is imaginative, though it lacks the visual experimentation of his previous films. Nightmare Detective occasionally is effective but suffers because it relies more on gore and bloodshed than suspense for shocks.
There's a nastiness at the core of Nightmare that many will find off-putting. It has a sadistic approach to its characters, and the violence is often misogynistic. The film has more in common with the discomfiting Marebito -- in which Tsukamoto starred -- than standard J-horrors. But the Weinstein Co., which will release here on its Dragon Dynasty imprint, should find a willing audience of horror buffs looking for a different approach to what's now become an exhausted J-genre.
The story, by Tsukamoto, revolves around Keiko (pop star Hitomi), a yuppie cop who is investigating a series of gory suicides. Keiko realizes that the deaths may not actually be suicides at all, as they happen while the victims are asleep. It transpires that something or someone is entering their dreams and causing the violence. Keiko enlists Kyoichi (Ryuhei Matsuda), a reclusive young man who has the power to enter people's nightmares, to help her.
The narrative often is befuddling. The links between the real world and the nightmares aren't made sufficiently clear, even within the bizarre world of the script. The film's psychology is basic, and doesn't tell viewers much about the characters' actions. A fast-moving story line tries to mask this confusion but only ends up making it worse.
But the tone is consistent. It's a relentlessly grim view of Human Nature where people have no defense against those with baser, crueler instincts. Its aesthetic is even gloomier than David Fincher's Seven -- a hell on earth with no respite for the civilized. Tsukamoto is adept at taking viewers into this dark world, though they might find it's a place they don't care to visit.
Makeup, rather than computers, supplies most of the effects, and Tsukamoto relishes depicting nasty slashes on the bodies of the victims. This might be ugly, but it's not particularly scary, as the editing doesn't build up much suspense.
Tsukamoto seems to be trying to make an anti-suicide statement, as most of his characters change their minds about the act when it's too late. Suicide is ritualized in Japan with traditions like hari-kari, and it also has become a social problem there: Young students commit suicide because of bullying or exam pressure. Yet Tsukamoto has chosen a bizarre way to make his point.
Tsukamoto directed, wrote, produced, shot, edited and did the production design. He also plays Zero. Apparently, all this activity didn't tire him out. A sequel is on the way.
NIGHTMARE DETECTIVE
Dimension Extreme
A Movie-Eye Entertainment presentation of a Kaijyu Theater production
Credits:
Director/screenwriter/director of photography/production designer: Shinya Tsukamato
Producers: Shinya Tsukamato, Shinichi Kawahara, Yumiko Takebe
Executive producer: Taku Uhiyama
Music: Chu Ishikawa
Editor: Shinya Tsukamoto
Cast:
Kyoichi: Ryuhei Matsuda
Keiko: Hitomi
Wakayama: Masanobu Ando
Running time -- 105 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 7/19/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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