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Fant-Asia diary >> Week three: Kung Fu TV, anime insanity and an apology to the Horror geeks by RUPERT BOTTENBERG
After hearing programmer/True Horror fan Mitch Davis' eloquent defence of his fanboy ilk, I realized that I owed the TH types an apology. It was not they who laughed at the horrors of Man Behind the Sun... In fact, it was precisely these guys who apologized to director T.F. Mou after the film. Thus, I humbly beg the forgiveness of the True Horror crowd. They may be unreasonable loudmouths, but they've got a moral code, I'll give 'em that. Last Monday, I had the good fortune of sharing a half-hour chat with Spain's Nacho Cerda, director of the sublime, poetic short film Genesis. Those who saw his clinically precise exploration of necrophilia, Aftermath, at the fest last year, will be surprised to know that Genesis--a haunting surrealist allegory about devotion and loss--is in fact a profoundly reversed take on very much the same theme. One way or another, Genesis cemented my feelings that Cerda is one of the most promising young directors out there today. If there's any justice in this world, he'll have a feature film to show off next year.
Think that's bad? Check this out: Stanley was the original director of The Island of Dr. Moreau... the version in which Marlon Brando played the island, that is. Remember that freaky, piano-playing midget who was Brando's little pal in that movie? It was Stanley who personally went out and found the little rascal. Needless to say, it's an affront that Stanley was unceremoniously deep-sixed from that flick. Also on hand in the coming week is Takashi Ishii, former cartoonist and pornographer, now the director of three definitive works of the new-jack Japanese yakuza thriller. He'll present Gonin, Gonin 2 and Black Angel, all three of which are masterpieces of Tokyo cool. Unlike the excessive drama and intense action of the HK crime flick, Ishii's films rely on subtle humour, unpredictability, understatement and stunning stylishness. Be smart, catch all three.
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Here's some cool news, courtesy of Fant-Asia programmer Martin Sauvageau. It seems that Hong Kong's chubby acrobat Sammo Hung, graduate of the same Peking Opera School as Jackie Chan, will be getting his own North American TV show in the fall. Called Martial Law, it'll star Hung, with Stanley Tong in the director's chair (Tong has directed many of Chan's films). The best part is, every episode will feature a cameo by an important HK star. Can't wait for this one! In the meantime, Hung fans can catch him in the Jet Li vehicle Kung Fu Cult Master, playing at Fant-Asia this Sunday. On the same tip, check out Martial Arts of Shaolin, on Friday night.
Richard Stanley is coming back to Montreal. Last year he presented Dust Devil, this year he brings us his director's cut of the 1990 film Hardware, one of the few good cyberpunk films. A hallucinatory, drug-fuelled blend of Terminator, Mad Max and Blade Runner (with a cameo by Motörhead's Lemmy Kilmeister!), Hardware suffered at the hands of those shadowy studio types who always manage to fuck things up for creative and ground-breaking filmmakers.
Attention, anime otaku (fans, that is): Lupin III is playing this week, and so is the anime of Black Jack, created by Osamu Tezuka, the dude responsible for Astro Boy. The real news, though, is the 16-minute short that precedes Black Jack, Noiseman Sound Insect. Damned if I can tell what's going on here (no subtitles), but who cares. This is simply the most inventive and energetic animation I've ever seen. Completely unbelievable.