THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS

THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS

USA 1993

Directed by Bille August

Jeremy Irons

Meryl Streep

Glenn Close

Winona Ryder

Antonio Banderas

Based on Isabel Allende's best seller epic novel, THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS follows the powerful Truebas family on an entrancing journey that begins in the tranquil days of the 1920s and ends in the modern turbulence of the 1970s. The tale begins in South America in 1926, when a young man, Esteban (Jermy Irons), falls in love with the daughter of a rich man, Rosa Del Valle (Teri Polo). He vows to become rich enough to make her his wife and spends months of toil in the gold fields to earn enough money to do just that. Before the two marry, however, Rosa is killed by poison meant for her father. After the tragedy, Esteban moves to Trés Marias, an abandoned ranch, and spends 20 years of his life turning the ranch into a thriving estate, exploiting the labor of the poor who live off the land.

When he returns to the city, he comes across Rosa's younger sister Clara (Meryl Streep), now a woman with telekinetic abilities. Clara took a vow of silence years before, but upon the arrival of Esteban, she speaks for the first time in years -- "You have come to propose marriage to me," she says. Esteban and Clara marry, and Esteban takes her back to the ranch, where they have a daughter, Blanca (Winona Ryder). Their daughter falls in love with the son of one of Esteban's foremen, a hot-headed revolutionary named Pedro (Antonio Banderas). Now, the country is in the throes of revolution. Esteban banishes his sister Ferula (Glenn Close) from the ranch, beats his wife, and rapes a peasant woman. The product of Esteban's rape (Joaquin Martinez) grows into an angry young man who convinces Esteban to send him away to military school. When there is a military coup, the illegitimate son returns to Trés Marias with revenge and torture on his mind.

Principal photography took place in Denmark, but some scenes were filmed in Lisbon and Alentejo, Portugal. It won awards at the Bavarian Film Awards, German Film Awards, Golden Screen (Germany), Havana Film Festival, and Robert Festival (Denmark), as well as from the German Phono Academy and the Guild of German Art House Cinemas

WILD SEARCH

WILD SEARCH
Hongkong, 1989

Directed by Ringo Lam

Chow Yun Fat
Cherie Chung

Ku Feng
Roy Cheung


Chow Yun Fat plays Hong Kong Police Sergeant Lau Chun Pong, nicknamed "Mew Mew". Mew Mew is a man on the ragged edge. He is, we learn a widower whose wife and child were killed by a robber, he is a man in a downward spiral. He seems numb to life that swirls around him--when he is first introduced, he's sitting in a car, chain smoking cigarettes and drinking from his flask, watching the drama of street life before him as he awaits the arrival of an informan. His expression is disinterested and weary--he pursues the arms dealers who are his prey with a curious detachment. He is going through the motions of being a policeman, yet one senses, that it is only his work that is keeping him going at all. He still commands the loyalty, respect and affection of his colleagues, including his supervisor. He's a good cop and a good man who has lost his way due to overwhelming grief.

Cherie Chung plays the sister of the murdered arms dealer--whose death sets the plot in motion. Chung's Cher Lee is a woman of quiet strength and dignity. Life has not been kind to her. Her husband betrayed her, leading a secret second life with a woman from the Chinese interior, fathering a son. During their marriage he berated her for being clumsy and stupid. Rather than continuing to suffer the humiliation, Cher has divorced him and lives quietly with her father, working along side him in the village fields, harvesting bamboo.

Her sister's death brings Mew Mew--pursuing the arms case--into her life in a dramatic fashion. Their relationship is at first contentious as he suspects her and her father of complicity in the dead sister's arms dealing. The relationship begins to transform as Mew Mew aids Cher in tracking down the father of her sister's illegitimate 4 year old daughter--who turns out to be the kingpin of the arms smuggling operation that the police are investigating.

Their bond is forged as the arms case heats up--thrown into each others company, facing adversity and danger, these two wounded souls begin to blossom. A tentative, tender relationship grows and is tested time and again through Mew Mew's suspension from the force (a result of threatening the powerful, rich arms kingpin); a domestic drama within Cher's family concerning her young niece and her father: the complication of Cher's ex-husband reentering the picture determined to win his wife back; and an assassination attempt on Mew Mew's life by one of the kingpin's henchman--the murderer of Cher's sister.

To be sure, these are restrained performances, yet one only has to watch Cherie Chung as Cher as she sits at the bedside of the wounded Mew Mew, not knowing if he will live or die, her worry, longing and love playing over her features, to appreciate her work in this film. Chow's Mew Mew may lack the flash and dazzle of some of his bullet ballet roles, but the transformation from grief stricken widower to a man being brought back to life by love is fascinating to watch. His scenes with the young actress playing the daughter of the murdered woman are especially touching and heartwarming.

Action fans and bullet ballet junkies will be disappointed by this film. But those of us who enjoy character driven drama will find much to enjoy in Wild Search.

MELODY

MELODY
UK, 1971

Mark Lester

Tracy Hyde

Jack Wild

Director: Waris Hussein

Producer: David Puttnam

Script: Alan Parker

Original Music: Barry Gibb, Maurice Gibb and Richard Hews

David Puttnam's first production and Alan Parker's first script meld together to create this delicate and sensitive story of pre-pubescent romance told from a child’s-eye viewpoint. Bearing a passing resemblance to both The Graduate and If..., this endearing story strains credibility at times but if you can withhold your disbelief this intriguing little film holds great appeal. An excellent musical score is provided by the Bee Gees. The film is alternatively known as SWALK (Sealed with a Loving Kiss), and reunites the youthful stars of Carol Reed’s Oliver; Jack Wild and Mark Lester.

Two lonely boys from opposite backgrounds, Daniel Latimer (Mark Lester), and Ornshaw (Jack Wild), become firm friends at a south London comprehensive school. Things change when Daniel notices ten-year old Melody Perkins (Tracy Hyde) in dancing class and falls in love. At first Melody rebuffs his advances, but gradually she reciprocates and returns his feelings. Despite initially aiding his friend, Ornshaw becomes bitter at being shoved aside and the two friends fight. Daniel and Melody announce to their perplexed parents, in all seriousness, that they intend to get married. This marriage is not planned for the distant future, but as soon as possible. Ornshaw performs a mock ‘marriage’ ceremony under a derelict railroad viaduct, and their rampaging classmates collude in helping them evade pursuing teachers and parents. Ultimately, the young ‘newlyweds’ escape into the sunset on a railroad handcar.

NEVER GIVE UP

NEVER GIVE UP/
PROOF OF THE WILD
(YASEI NO SHOMEI)
Japan, 1978

Ken Takakura
Ryoko Nakano
Hiroko Yakushimaru

Directed by Junya Sato

Ken Takakura stars in the Japanese action film NEVER GIVE UP (YASEI NO SHOMEI, aka PROOF OF THE WILD). He plays Ajisawa, who is part of a top-secret military organization trying to cover-up a series of accidental murders that occurred during a training exercise. The only survivor is a young boy whom Ajisawa adopts as his own. Years later, after his retirement from the military, he finds himself forced to return to the scene of the murders to investigate the disappearance of a journalist who was looking into them. He inadvertently reveals his part in the killings, leading to his arrest and the military's decision to eliminate him, placing his adopted son in danger as well. NEVER GIVE UP is an action film about finding redemption.

Ajisawa (Ken Takakura) is a mysterious warrior in a secret Japanese paramilitary group who, while on a training exercise in the woods, stumbles into a group of rural party-makers. In the ensuing conflict he kills everyone except one young teenaged boy. The boy was wounded in the conflict, but Ajisawa adopts him and nurses him back to health. A year later, he returns to the scene of the crime in his job as a claims adjuster, investigating the death of a newswoman who was digging into the story of the woodland killings.

Police detective Kitano (Isao Natsuki) has been looking into the killings also, as well as the death of the woman. He believes that these crimes have something to do with the gangster Ochi (Ryoko Nakano), and that Ajisawa is responsible. When he arrests Ajisawa, the paramilitary group decides to execute its own man because he showed "softness" in adopting the boy. The boy and the policeman also become targets, and the three become allies in their attempts to escape death.

A FISTFUL OF TALONS

A FISTFUL OF TALONS
Hongkong, 1983

Directed by Sun Chung

Willy Dozan
Pai Ying
Hwang In Shik

A FISTFUL OF TALONS is a classic kung fu gem featuring charismatic star Billy Chong (KUNG FU ZOMBIE), Hapkido expert Hwang In-shik from THE YOUNG MASTER as lead villain and the action choreography of Robert Tai (THE FIVE VENOMS). It possesses more than enough genre talent in front of and behind the camera to make it worth tracking down.

A hot-headed country bumpkin (Chong) encounters a kung fu master, played by Taiwanese wuxia film veteran Pai Ying, who is on the run from Qing loyalists. After getting into his own trouble with the Qing, Chong leaves his father’s restaurant to become Pai’s student and aid him in fighting the Qing and their fierce Manchurian leader (Hwang).

Where TALONS gets a little more interesting is in its time period which is shortly after the fall of the Qing Dynasty and during the Republican era. Hwang, is plotting to lead a revolt against the government yet first needs to claim an imperial seal from Pai. Thankfully, this overused plot device is given little further attention and instead the film focuses on the famous Manchurian queue (ponytail) that all Qing-era men were required by law to wear. With the dissolution of the Qing Dynasty, so went the queue, a sure sign of treasonous loyalty to the old regime.

Chong and his buddies initially make it their mission to cut off any queues they see on Qing loyalists. This leads to a frantic group fight within a grain barn involving scissors, sickles and lots of severed hair. It draws on a similar scene in Jackie Chan’s DRAGON LORD while displaying early, advanced elements of the dynamic rope and ladders scene that the Yuen Clan choreographed for ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA in 1991.

This scene, with its overhead camera sweeps and exaggerated wire-assisted leaps, sets the kinetic tone for all the action to come. Chong, a balanced screen fighter with strong sparring and leg fighting skills has no trouble leaping right into Tai’s action madness with an assured stance and cocksure attitude.

Chong’s mission is complicated when his efforts to bag a trio of petty thieves for the reward money catches the eye of a village elder and more importantly his spirited daughter (Liu Hao-yi). She ends up following Chong as he fights his way through more Qing fighters to catch up with Pai. Chong receives a rather bland and ill-defined kung fu training course from Pai. They come to her rescue towards the end in what becomes one of the most violent, dramatic and cruel uses of animals in a fight sequence.

(edited from Mark Pollard's review)

LE CERCLE ROUGE

LE CERCLE ROUGE (THE RED CIRCLE)

France/Italy, 1970

Directed by Jean Pierre Melville

Alain Delon

Yves Montand

Gian Maria Volonte

Corey (Alain Delon) is the young gun in the French underworld who has just been released from prison. Escaped convict Vogel (Gian-Maria Volonte) hides in the trunk of Corey's car. The two enlist the help of an alcoholic former cop (Yves Montand) for an elaborate jewelry-store robbery. Police inspector Mattei (Bourvil) whom Vogel escaped in the beginning of the film is on the case trying to recapture the criminals. He is not opposed to using blackmail techniques to get answers out of the unwilling witnesses and criminals brought in for questioning.

Part of the genius of Jean-Pierre Melville was that he was able to take the formal elements of the crime film and put a thoroughly individual stamp on them. His best films take the stuff of a thousand grade-B thrillers and invest them with a singular intelligence and quiet cool. On the surface, Le Cercle Rouge concerns two criminals thrown into a slightly uneasy alliance with a corrupt and alcoholic ex-cop to pull off a heist, but in Melville's hands this becomes a story about kindred spirits brought together through chance and unforeseen circumstance; their lives on the other side of the law have as much to do with their own personal sense of ethics and honor as those of the lawmen who struggle to track them down.

Melville's clean, elegant framing of shots and his appreciation of the value of silence gives this picture a spare but satisfying feel quite different from most European crime films, and the subtle but sharply etched performances of Alain Delon, Gian Maria Volonte, and Yves Montand are the ideal embodiment of Melville's notion that less is more.

In 1970, Le Cercle Rouge received a spotty release in the United States in a version cut by some 40 minutes; the uncut print finally received a belated American release in 2002, and in its fine form, Le Cercle Rouge reveals itself as a film whose subtle touch only adds to the tension and suspense it generates ? a valuable lesson for filmmakers who believe that the function of genre filmmaking is to slap the viewer about the face and neck.

THE PAINTED VEIL

THE PAINTED VEIL

USA/China 2006

Naomi Watts

Edward Norton

Liev Schreiber

Toby Jones

Diana Rigg

Anthony Wong Chau-Sang

Directed by: John Curran

Edward Norton, who has given two award-caliber performances this year, in Down in the Valley and The Illusionist, now delivers a third. He uncovers a beating heart in Walter Fane, a social misfit of a British bacteriologist, who manages to persuade headstrong Kitty (Naomi Watts, a seductively dangerous blend of fire and ice) to marry him, leave her London whirl and travel with him to a remote Chinese village beset by a cholera epidemic. When a stop in Shanghai results in Kitty's adulterous fling with a diplomat (Liev Schreiber), the plot suggests that the vengeful Walter may be hoping the cholera will kill his wife. If you're suspecting this third movie version of W. Somerset Maugham's 1925 novel may carry the infectious dullness of prestige filmmaking, rest easy. Norton, who worked for six years to get the film produced, is up to far livelier business. As directed by the gifted John Curran (We Don't Live Here Anymore), from a taut script by Ron Nyswaner (Philadelphia), the film is a period piece propelled by emotions accessible to a modern audience. Maugham never detailed Walter's work or Kitty's frustration; the film does. Maugham couldn't show us the China that opened Walter's and Kitty's eyes to a world beyond their own; the film does. And Maugham didn't have the benefit of two actors -- Norton and Watts nail every nuance in their roles -- who could show the romance inherent in mutual respect. The Painted Veil has the power and intimacy of a timeless love story. By all means, let it sweep you away. (Peter Travers / Rolling Stone)

EXILED

EXILED

Hongkong 2006

Drama/Action

Executive Producer: John Chong

Producer: Johnnie To

Screenplay: Yip Tin-shing, Szeto Kam-yuen

Cinematographer: Cheng Siu-keung

Editor: David Richardson

Production Designer: Tony Yu

Sound: May Mok, Charlie Lo

Music: Guy Zerafa

Principal Cast:

Francis Ng

Anthony Wong

Nick Cheung

Simon Yam

Josie Ho

Roy Cheung

Lam Suet

Directed by: Johnnie To

Bullet-ridden and star-studded, Exiled - the latest action-packed film from Johnnie To - sheds a dusky light on the melancholic end of an era. The 1999 turnover of the Portuguese colony of Macau to China is investigated here through the unique rites of passage of a group of cold-blooded hit men as they wonder what the future has in store for them, try to make quick money or simply hope to retire.

Gathering some of his regular actors - including Roy Cheung, Lam Suet and Simon Yam - and pairing them with Anthony Wong and Francis Ng (from the Infernal Affairs films), To creates an exquisite ensemble piece in which the borders between tragedy and deadpan comedy blur, resulting in a highly entertaining, black-comic thrill.

Directing the viewer to understand and sympathize with each of the characters, To spins the tale of the traitor Wo (Nick Cheung), who has decided to quit his criminal life and wants to live quietly with his family. His story is tied to that of the other hit men - and former buddies - who have come to Macau to kill him. Resolved to take him down, but also willing to negotiate a sort of gentlemen's agreement, they grant Wo another day of life and help him find one last job to provide for his future widow and newborn baby.

Enigmatic yet visually eloquent, Exiled seems to follow a fleeting code of honour in its compelling articulation of situations and moods. As various contract killers crop up on the small island to stalk each other, To's slow-burning storytelling builds a strong narrative tension and unveils the inner rhythm of his characters' emotions. The film's aesthetic mixes gangster iconography, languid atmospheres and stylized Macau sets with superb cinematography, recalling the baroque intensity of Caravaggio's paintings. The blazing trajectories of bullets cross paths with the men's desires and palpable anxieties about their uncertain futures in this brilliantly choreographed ballet.

ROCCO & HIS BROTHERS

ROCCO & HIS BROTHERS

Italy 1960

Directed by Luchino Visconti

Alain Delon

Renato Salvatori

Claudia Cardinale

Luchino Visconti's operatic masterpiece tells the story of the Parondis, a poor family from a village in southern Italy who come to Milan seeking a better life. Following the death of her husband, proud Rosaria (Katina Paxinou) picks up stakes and moves to the city with her four sons: Simone (Renato Salvatori), Rocco (Alain Delon), Ciro (Max Cartier), and Luca (Rocco Vidolazzi). Awaiting them in Milan is her oldest son, Vincenzo (Spiros Focas), who himself is preoccupied with his impending nuptials to the beautiful Ginetta (Claudia Cardinale). Divided into chapters focused loosely on each brother, the movie chronicles the Parondis' struggle to get by, as the brothers take odd jobs and the family endures life in a cramped tenement. Much of the movie's second half deals largely with Simone and Rocco. The loutish Simone eventually finds success as a boxer, and the family soon moves to a better neighborhood. Meanwhile, Rocco gets drafted by the military, and becomes a successful boxer himself upon his return. Complications arise when Nadia (Annie Girardot), a prostitute, enters their lives. Simone falls in love with Nadia first; however, Rocco eventually becomes the object of her affection. Simone's obsession with Nadia and his rapidly deteriorating behavior ultimately threaten to bring the family to ruin, even as the saintly Rocco tries to save his brother. At the peak of Rocco's success, Simone commits a crime that cruelly dashes Rocco's hopes of keeping the family together.