The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft (2022) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Herzog’s tribute to the Kraffts

Posted on May 12, 2024 by kaist455

Werner Herzog’s documentary film “The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft” is another prime example showing how Herzog has always been fascinated with a certain type of human figures. Many of his movies and documentaries are about fascinating people who are willing to go to the extreme for whatever they cannot help but pursue with all their heart, and Katia and Maurice Kraffts are no exception at all.

As many of you know, their life and career were already presented well in Sara Dosa’s recent Oscar-nominated documentary film “Fire of Love” (2022), which is currently available on Disney+. Considering that both of them mainly consist of numerous archival footage clips from the Kraffts, “Fire of Love” and Herzog’s documentary naturally overlap a lot with each other, but the latter is equally engaging for also having a fair share of awe-inspiring images to watch just like the former, and Herzog’s narration surely brings some touch of class as it did before in many of his acclaimed documentaries including “Grizzly Man” (2005).

While “Fire of Love” is a bit more drawn to the human personality of the Kraffts, Herzog’s documentary is a little more drawn to their professional dedication. Since they met and then married in 1970, Maurice and Katia Krafft, who happened to be born in the same rural region of France, frequently went here and there for observing many different volcanic eruptions around the world, and Herzog cannot help but show some admiration on how this couple advanced more and more as filmmakers during next several years. At first, Katia and Maurice simply recorded their scientific research works with their movie cameras, and their initial outputs look rather amateurish, but then they gradually showed more visual finesse as focusing more and more on closely capturing that terrifying wonder of volcanic eruptions on their cameras.

Starting with a huge volcanic eruption in Japan which tragically led to Maurice and Katia’s demise in 1991, Herzog looks around some of their archival footage clips one by one, and each of them is quite compelling and stunning to say the least. In case of the volcanic eruption which occurred on one small island of Indonesia in the early 1980s, Katia and Maurice quickly went to that island shortly after the first eruption, and then they vividly recorded its devastating aftermath before they hurriedly left because another big eruption was about to happen within a few minutes.

While initially throwing a dryly humorous or reflective comment here and there as expected, Herzog wisely steps aside more, mainly because those epic images boldly captured by the Kraffts speak enough for themselves on the screen. As a number of various classic pieces are played on the soundtrack, the documentary simply throws one archival footage of volcanic eruption after another, but you will find yourself often overwhelmed a lot by the immense visual beauty of these amazing moments, which will remind you more of how we all look inconsequential compared to many grand wonders of our big planet.

However, our big planet can also be quite harsh and ruthless to its living inhabitants, and the Kraffts came to focus more on the devastating catastrophes from volcanic eruptions especially after they directly witnessed the Armero tragedy in Colombia, 1985. Although the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz stratovolcano was not that big compared to many other notable volcanic eruptions in the 1980s such as the eruption of Mount St. Helens of US in 1980, it was more than enough to melt a huge amount of glaciers on the top of the volcano, and this resulted in several enormous mudslides which quickly wiped out the surrounding area in addition to killing thousands of people living a small town named Armero. What the Kraffts closely recorded on their camera during that time was simply beyond words to say the least, and they naturally came to care more about how such catastrophes like that can be prevented.

Nevertheless, volcanic eruption is still an elusive and unpredictable subject even at this point, and that was one of the main reasons for the Kraffts’ endless fascination with volcanoes. When they went to that Japanese volcano in 1991, they were surely well aware of the possible risk and danger just like several others around them, but they still could not resist another good chance of capturing a volcano eruption on their camera.

As the documentary eventually focuses on several archival footage clips from the last several days of the Kraffts, Herzog sticks to his phlegmatic attitude as before while showing more respect and admiration toward their professional dedication. Yes, they could have avoided their death if they had been a bit more cautious, but they died while doing what they had been so passionate about for many years, and they also gave us something we can always behold with awe and wonder. Herzog has often said that our civilization has starved for new images, and we all can agree that the Kraffts thankfully nourish us with heaps of awesome visual stuffs we never saw before.

In conclusion, “The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft” is another terrific work from Herzog in addition to functioning as a sort of sibling piece to “Fire of Love”, which will certainly satisfy you if you want to know more about the Kraffts as human beings. I cannot decide now on which one is a better documentary, but I can tell you that both of them are very mesmerizing for their shared reasons, and I assure you that you will not waste your time at all if you decide to watch both of them.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America (2021) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): A passionate lecture on the American history of racism

Posted on May 12, 2024 by kaist455

Documentary film “Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America” is basically a two-hour lecture on the American history of racism, but it is a passionate and enlightening one to recommend. Yes, whenever I think I have learned a lot about the American history of racism via books, movies, and documentaries during last few decades, there always comes something to enlighten me more, and this is one of such excellent documentaries.

The center of the documentary is Jeffery Robinson, an African American lawyer who also produced the documentary with directors Emily and Sarah Kunstler. At the beginning of the documentary, he is about to give a lecture on the long history of American racism in front of many audiences, and the documentary alternates between his lecture and his visits to a number of historical sites connected with the main subject of his lecture.

Needless to say, what Robinson and the documentary are going to present is not so pretty to say the least. At one point early in the documentary, he approaches to some white dude proudly holding the Confederate flag at a public spot, and then he starts a brief argument on the Civil War with this white dude, who keeps insisting that slavery was not the main cause of the Civil War even though he gets cornered by Robinson’s arguments bit by bit.

In contrast, the audiences of Robinson’s lecture are much more open-minded as he makes a series of effective presentations based on a bunch of various historical documents and records. Since the first African slaves were sent to America in the early 17th century, racism began to slip more and more into the American society via its inhuman slavery system, and Robinson certainly points out that many of those founding fathers of the US government were actually slave owners and had no particular conflict about that.

Around the late 19th century, a number of Southern states benefited a lot from their growing plantation industry mainly driven by slavery, and the documentary and Robinson show us how the American slavery system heartlessly crushed the humanity of millions of African slaves before the Civil War. We see a Southern historical site which was once a market for slave trade, and then we see an old building in New York City where many local businessmen earned a lot from slave trade and cotton business in the 19th century. As a matter of fact, even the mayor of New York city during that time openly considered staying neutral between the Union and the Confederate just because of that.

Anyway, the eventual abolition of slavery around the end of the Civil War finally seemed to open the way to freedom for those many emancipated African slaves, but, as many of you know, there soon came a backlash once the US government unwisely withdrew the troops from those Southern states, which were surely ready to oppress African American by any means necessary. Besides that unfair suppression on African American voters which is insidiously being continued even at this point, there were lots of racial violence against African Americans during next several decades, and many white people did not have any problem with that at all. For example, D.W. Griffith’s infamously racist silent film “The Birth of a Nation” (1915) was wholeheartedly embraced by the white population of the American society in addition to contributing a lot to the rise of that notorious racist organization, and it was even openly praised by President Woodrow Wilson at that time.

One of the most tragic incidents of American racism during the early 20th century is the Tulsa Race Massacre in 1921, which belatedly drew more attention during last several years (Full disclosure: I came to learn about it only after watching the HBO TV miniseries “Watchmen”). Just because of one very trivial incident between a young African American man and some white lady, an economically flourishing African American neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma was completely wiped out along with most of its residents by those angry white mobs, and, not so surprisingly, none of the white perpetrators were arrested or punished.

Around the time when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and many other civil rights activists came forward for more freedom and equality during the 1950-60s, things looked more hopeful as more people demanded racial justice. However, even King himself admitted later that he and others should be more skeptical and realistic about their long fight against racism, and their righteous movement quickly came to lose its momentum after he was assassinated at a motel of Memphis, Tennessee in 1969.

What was logically followed after that was another backlash against racial equality, and the American society has surely suffered a series of consequences for that. Besides the ever-constant poverty and crime rate in the African American population, we have seen more and more cases of police brutality driven by racism and white supremacy, and the documentary surely mentions some of the recent notable victims including Eric Garner.

Although it understandably feels bitter and skeptical at times, “Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America” ends its lecture with some hope and optimism at least. Again, the American society is going through another social turbulence right now just like it did during the 1960s, and there have been some possibility for real social change despite that traumatic political rise of that orange-faced prick in 2016. I must confess that I am rather skeptical as your average cautious skeptic, but I sincerely hope that things will really get better for the American society and its people in the end.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg (2023) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): The ups and downs in her life

Posted on May 12, 2024 by kaist455

Documentary film “Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg” attempts to delve into the dramatic life story of Anita Pallenberg, a German-Italian model/actress who has mostly been known for her complicated personal relationship with the Rolling Stones. It is often fascinating for providing a close look into her tumultuous past mainly via her own words, but the documentary seems more interested in all those scandalous stuffs during her wild days than who she really was, and that is a shame in my humble opinion.

Mostly driven by the excerpts from Pallenberg’s unpublished memoir, which are narrated by Scarlett Johansson, the documentary tries to show us that Pallenberg was much more than the muse of the two key members of the Rolling Stones. Shortly after she was born into a sophisticated artist family in Italy, 1942, young Pallenberg went through a very hard time along with her family as the country and its people were frequently ravaged by the World War II, and that probably contributed to her wild temper and personality. As she admitted in her memoir, she was a frequent troublemaker during her childhood and adolescent years, and one of her old schoolmates gladly reminisces about their wild and reckless experiences during that period.

When she was only 19, Pallenberg decided to go to US for becoming an actress even though her parents were against her aspiration from the very beginning. Although she hardly could speak English, it did not take much time for her to draw more attention as a promising new European model to watch in New York City, and then she eventually appeared in several major films including “Barbarella” (1968), where she made a striking contrast with her co-star Jane Fonda.

Meanwhile, Pallenberg also got herself romantically involved with Brian Jones, who was one of the key members of the Rolling Stones during that time. While they seemed to click well with each other during next several years, things became quite troubling as they frequently abused alcohol and drugs just like the other members of the Rolling Stones. While they all simply wanted to have some fun and artistic inspiration, their substance abuse eventually became a very negative factor for all of them, and this surely affected Pallenberg’s relationship with Jones. As his substance abuse got worse and worse, Jones became quite estranged from not only Pallenberg but also his colleagues, and that consequently led to Pallenberg leaving him for one of his colleagues: Keith Richards.

In case of Richards, he looked like a more stable and suitable match for Pallenberg, but it turned out that he was just a little better than Jones, who subsequently died a few years later as continuing to struggle with his substance abuse problem. Along with Richards, Pallenberg kept going as before with their wild hedonistic lifestyle, and their substance abuse problem became worse and worse even as they came to have several kids between them.

Their eldest child Marlon Richards, who also serves as one of the executive producers of the documentary, willingly tells us about all those wild days of their parents during that time. Thanks to the immense success of the Rolling Stones, he and his younger sister Angela grew up in a fairly affluent environment where they could get whatever they wanted, but their parents were often not there for them as frequently being busy with their own matters including Richard’s band activities, and both of them naturally feel bitter about that even though they regard their parents with more understanding at present.

In the end, there eventually came a devastating personal incident which ultimately ended Pallenberg’s relationship with Richards and then drove her into more substance abuse during next several years. While it does not pull any punch at all in showing us how grim and gloomy her following downward spiral was, the documentary sadly does not show that much about how much she subsequently struggled to climb up from the bottom of her addiction problem. It just briefly shows how she eventually became much happier as getting more control on her own life, and this feels like a perfunctory footnote instead of illuminating her more as a survivor who deserves more interest and attention from us.

Needless to say, directors/producers Alexis Bloom and Sveltlana Zill clearly respect their human subject, and they did a fairly good job of mixing various archival elements along with a number of interview clips and Pallenberg’s words, but their result still cannot help but drawn more to how much she suffered than how she endured and prevailed in the end. As a result, we do not get to know Pallenberg that much as a person, and the documentary only ends up looking more like another typical cautionary entertainment business tale.

Overall, “Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg” enlightened me to some degree about what has been rather unfamiliar to me, but I wish the documentary showed more of why Pallenberg was too distinctive and talented to be merely remembered as a woman who just happened to be involved with one of the most famous bands in the 20th century. No, the documentary is not entirely pointless at least as revealing a lot about her personal involvement with the Rolling Stones, and you may have to check it out if you do not know much about Pallenberg like I did before watching it, but I still believe that there is a more insightful one somewhere in the documentary.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Laapataa Ladies (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): Two switched brides

Posted on May 12, 2024 by kaist455

Indian film “Laapataa Ladies”, which was recently shown at the Jeonju International Film Festival in South Korea, is an entertaining mix of comedy, drama, and a bit of wholesome feminist message. Starting from one absurd comic situation involved with mistaken identity, the movie deftly swings back and forth between humor and poignancy, and it surely earns its feel-good ending as making us like and care more about almost everyone in the story.

The movie, which happens to be set in 2001, opens with a little wedding ceremony being held in one small rural village. Although they got to know each other a bit only for a rather short time, Phool (Nitanshi Goel) and her groom Deepak (Sparsh Shrivastav) are hopeful about their married life, and we soon see this young married couple leaving her village and then traveling to Deepak’s hometown village by a train right after the end of their wedding ceremony.

Because it is incidentally some traditional holiday when a lot more couples marry than usual, Deepak and Phool happen to sit along with two other recently married couples, and we cannot help but notice how Phool and the two other brides do not look that different from each other as they are covering themselves with the same kind of veil. When the train arrives at his village at late night many hours later, Deepak hurriedly gets off from the train, but, alas, he wakes up one of those two other brides instead of Phool, and he belatedly comes to realize his mistake when she finally reveals herself in front of him and his family, who are all quite shocked and baffled to say the least.

Deepak and his friends naturally go to a local police inspector for requesting some help, but they do not have any clue about where the hell Phool is. Moreover, the inspector is not particularly eager to help them because the case does not seem to benefit him at any chance, though he senses something fishy about that other bride during their subsequent meeting.

That other bride, who says her name is Pushpa (Pratibha Ranta), simply decides to stay at Deepak’s family house for a while, and it gradually turns out that she does have some hidden purpose behind her back. While she pretends that she does not know how to contact with her family or her groom, she actually has a cellular phone, and we see how she prepares for her hidden plan step by step without telling anyone while also closely monitored by the aforementioned inspector.

Meanwhile, the movie shows us how the situation is equally baffling for Phool, who finds herself helplessly stranded alone in the train station of the village where that other bride was supposed to go. She could just simply go with that other bride’s groom, but it is quite apparent to her (and us) that he is not a very good person at all, and she has no choice but to stay alone at the station for a while at least.

While generating some suspense in the story at times, the movie leisurely rolls its plot and characters with genuine care and affection. While it pays some attention to Deepak’s earnest efforts for finding his bride, the movie also focuses on how Pushpa positively influences Deepak’s family members in one way or another, and there is a small touching moment when she sincerely encourages one certain female family member’s considerable artistic talent. In case of Phool, she comes to go through some substantial growth and maturation via several generous figures willing to help her more than expected, and it is poignant to observe how much she is changed in the end even though her affection toward her groom remains same as before.

Needless to say, the movie eventually shifts itself toward melodrama later in the story, but it thankfully avoids unnecessary sappiness while making a clear point on female rights. While Phool and Pushpa are quite different from each other in many aspects, they are all active and independent in their contrasting life choices nonetheless, and you will certainly root for them more around the end of their individual journeys. In addition, the movie surrounds them with a number of various colorful female characters to remember, and I particularly like Manju Maai (Chhaya Kadam), a no-nonsense street vendor lady who teaches a bit of self-taught feminism to Phool after reluctantly taking her under her wing.

The movie is often buoyed by the engaging performances from its several main cast members. While Nitanshi Goel and Pratibha Ranta ably support the film from their opposite positions, Sparsh Shrivastav is sympathetic as another crucial part of the story, Chhaya Kadam and Ravi Kishan delightfully steal the show during their respective key scenes. As the aforementioned inspector, Kishan is hilariously sleazy with a moustache to twirl, and he is also effective when his character unexpectedly shows some decency and principle around the end of the story.

“Laapataa Ladies” is the second feature film from director/co-producer Kiran Rao, who made a feature film debut with “Mumbai Diaries” (2011) and then has produced several successful commercial films including “Dangal” (2016) during next several years. I have not seen “Mumbai Diaries” yet, but I can tell you instead that “Laapataa Ladies” is a competent crowd-pleaser packed with enjoyable goodies including the good soundtrack by Ram Sampath, and I think you should give it a chance someday.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Hand (2023) ☆1/2(1.5/4): Stuck with an evil hand in the toilet

Posted on May 11, 2024 by kaist455

South Korean film “The Hand”, which is incidentally the last movie I happened to watch as a judge for one certain minor category of the upcoming Wildflower Film Awards ceremony of this year, starts with a supposedly intriguing horror story premise, but, to my big disappointment, it does not have much time or skill to develop that into something truly tense or frightening. Despite its rather short running time (58 minutes), the movie often feels like a short film extended too long, and this made me more aware of its many glaring flaws including its deficient storytelling and shallow characterization.

The movie is basically one extended situation unfolded inside a very limited space. After having a strange dream probably due to another night of heavy drinking, Bong-soo (Lea Jae-won) wakes up and then goes to the bathroom inside his apartment, but then he is caught off guard as encountering something very disturbing in the bathroom. For no apparent reason, a mysterious hand is being erected right from the inside of the toilet in the bathroom, and he is not hallucinating at all because his wife also sees the same thing after being awakened by him.

Quite baffled and disturbed, Bong-soo naturally makes an emergency call. He is subsequently told that a paramedic team will soon come to his apartment, but, of course, things quickly get weirder for Bong-soo and his wife. They are relieved to see the security guy of their apartment building coming to their apartment, but something scary happens to the security guy right before the paramedic team eventually arrives, and, what do you know, they and several others find themselves somehow locked inside the bathroom.

It becomes more evident to us that whatever is going on around them is clearly involved with that hand, but it takes some more time for them to grasp their increasingly risky circumstance. Some of them eventually do some idiotic things just like many other horror movie characters, and then, not so surprisingly, they all belatedly come to realize how evil and dangerous that hand really is.

Now this looks like a fairy good setup, but the screenplay by director Choi Yun-ho and his co-writer Jangjak, who has been known for several online graphic novels, does not advance much from that. For instance, it does not provide much explanation on that hand at all, and it is also rather vague about how the hell that hand ended up being in the bathroom of Bong-soo’s apartment. Later in the story, the lead of the paramedic team reveals one certain weird incident which occurred some time ago in Bong-soo’s neighborhood, but, to our frustration, the movie never makes any clear connection between that incident and the origin of that hand, and we come to observe the whole situation without much care or interest.

I guess the movie tries to generate more horror and terror from the chaos and confusion among its several main characters including Bong-soo, but, unfortunately, none of them is particularly developed well enough to engage us to the end. While some of them are more or less than cardboard figures to be eliminated by that hand along the story, the rest of them are no better than that, and that makes the film all the more tiresome. To make matters worse, the movie also resorts to a certain familiar genre convention without much success, and that may remind you that there have many better films which handle that genre convention much more skillfully.

Eventually, there comes an inevitable point where Bong-soo and a few other surviving characters stick together for getting out of the bathroom as soon as possible, but the movie remains as tepid and uninteresting as before. You may appreciate some influence from a certain striking moment from the finale of Roman Polanski’s “Repulsion” (1965), and the movie thankfully becomes a bit more fun around that point, but then it hurriedly moves forward to its finishing line where it clumsily tries to catch us off guard again.

Although they did not have much to do from the beginning, the few main cast members of the movie acquit themselves fairly well. While often limited by their superficial roles, Lee Jae-won and Park Sang-wook are convincing at least as their characters are cornered more and more by the supernatural force of that hand along the story, and Jeong Seo-ha manages to hold her own place well around them even though her character remains under-developed just like several other characters in the story.

Overall, “The Hand”, which is incidentally not associated at all with Oliver Stone’s early horror film “The Hand” (1981), is quite disappointing in many ways, and my only consolation is that its tedious impression on me is quickly faded after I watched it and then started to write this review. Sure, the movie is not exactly one of my worst movie experiences during several recent years, but it is still pretty lousy in my humble opinion, and I am depressed to see how it ends up being limited by not only its low production budget but also numerous incompetent aspects.

By the way, I must tell you that Cameron and Colin Cairnes’ recent horror film “Late Night with the Devil” (2024) is currently being shown in South Korean theaters, and I gladly recommend it instead if you want to be really scared and entertained. Believe me, you will have a much more productive time with that small but solid genre product, and you may thank me for that later.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Jango: Uncharged (2023) ☆☆(2/4): A merely goofy B-spoof

Posted on May 11, 2024 by kaist455

South Korean “Jango: Uncharged” is a merely goofy B-spoof which mildly amused me from time to time. While it is thoroughly silly and outrageous from the beginning to the end, the movie eventually goes nowhere as showing its many limits including the very limited production budget, and I came to wonder whether its production process is more interesting the film itself.

As reflected by its title, the movie is an apparent parody of Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchanged” (2012), and it even opens with a bunch of slaves being transported to somewhere by one vicious slave trader. Although the background is supposed to be somewhere in some southwestern region of US around the 19th century, it is very, very, very evident to us that the movie is shot in somewhere in South Korea instead, and you may get some small laugh from how it willingly sticks to its preposterous background setting.

By the way, this opening scene has the funniest thing in the film which is not so far from those hilarious moments associated with a pair of coconuts in Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones’ “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” (1975). Because they could not use real horses due to their limited production budget, director/writer Back Seung-kee and his crew members used something else for depicting horse riding, and I would not mind if they used this amusingly silly method more in the film.

Anyway, the evil slave owner and those unfortunate slaves soon encounter a figure who introduces himself as Dr. Salt (Seo Hyun-min), who surely reminds you of Christoph Waltz’s similar character in “Django Unchained”. Dr. Salt is particularly interested in one of those slaves, and he does not mind at all using some violence just for having that slave in question.

The name of slave is incidentally Jango (Jung Kwang-woo), which should be pronounced as “Jaan-go”. As the subsequent flashback sequence, which is incidentally shown in black and white silent film style, Jango was a poor lad who wanted to be a filmmaker someday while diligently working as a delivery guy, and he and his younger sister, Jan-di (Jung Soo-jin), support each other’s dream while living together in a cardboard box which seems bigger inside just like that telephone booth in British TV drama series “Dr. Who”. However, things became more difficult for Jango after he gave up most of his saved money for helping his younger sister fulfill her lifelong dream, and that was how he eventually tumbled into slavery.

After getting some help from Jango for finishing his latest job, Dr. Salt offers a partnership to Jango because he sees some potential from Jango, and that is followed by a montage sequence where they eliminate lots of targets including bad cats and dogs (Note: No animal was harmed during the production of the film). When he later comes to learn about what happened to his younger sister, Jango becomes determined to save her by any means necessary, and Dr. Salt is certainly willing to accompany his partner.

It turns out that Jango’s younger sister, who has always wanted to be a movie actress, has been a captive held by some powerful evil movie producer, who, as reflected by his silly name, is based on Leonard DiCaprio’s pompous villain character in “Django Unchained” (He even has a servant clearly inspired by Samuel L. Jackson’s character, by the way). During the introduction scene of this sleazy character, the movie has a bunch of performers appear as famous Hollywood stars, and I must confess that I chuckled a bit when I correctly guessed one of the names in advance.

However, the movie only ends up scratching the surface without much comic inspiration, and its middling result reminds me again that “Django Unchained” is parody-proof from the beginning. Just like Tarantino’s many other works, that movie frequently shows a sly sense of humor in addition to those witty dialogues. Compared to that, “Jango: Uncharged” seriously lacks wit and style, and it is not even that clear about what it is exactly poking fun at besides Tarantino’s film. At first, it seems to be a satire on the economic hardship of young poor people in debt, but then it also attempts to satirize movie business, but none of its comic attempts sticks that well on the wall.

Although they often suffer from the absence of any kind of acting chemistry between them, the main performers in the film sincerely stick to their straight acting despite delivering a lot of silly English dialogues mixed with some Korean elements, and they look as committed as I was on the stage for a little amateurish parody of Kang Je-gyu’s “Shiri” (1999) during my high school years. They actually show more spirit and energy during the behind-the-scene footage clip around the end of the film, and that naturally takes me back to late American critic Gene Siskel’s famous question: “Is this film more interesting than a documentary of the same actors having lunch?”

The answer for “Jango: Uncharged” is unfortunately no, and I must remind you that there are actually several better and more skillful South Korean parody films including Ryoo Seung-wan’s “Dachimawa Lee” (2008), which not only understands but also loves its numerous comic targets to be lampooned in one way or another. To be frank with you, I would rather recommend “Dachimawa Lee” instead, and I assure you that you will get much more laugh and entertainment once you get along with its free-for-all parody approach.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): Another story begins…

Posted on May 9, 2024 by kaist455

The recent three movies from the Planet of the Apes franchise were remarkable for a number of good reasons. Besides the first-rate special effects which vividly presented a bunch of various ape characters on the screen, these movies made us really care about these CGI characters, and their result was also even more interesting and compelling than the 1968 classic film and the following sequels.

Because of the considerable box office success of the trilogy, the production of a sequel was inevitable, and I doubted whether that was necessary, but, what do you know, “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” turns out to be another surprise. While it sometimes feels a bit redundant as another typical tale of hero’s journey, the movie brings out some new and fresh narrative ideas and potentials to be explored by whatever may follow next, and that is certainly promising to say the least.

The period background of the story is “many generations after” the heroic death of Caesar, the chimpanzee hero of the trilogy memorably played by Andy Serkis. As many of you remember, Caesar and his ape comrades became much more intelligent and communicative thanks to a genetically modified virus which also eliminated nearly all of the human population around the earth, and the trilogy was mainly about how they rose, struggle, and then won in the end despite many obstacles including those petty human survivors (Can humans really ever learn, I wonder?)

Anyway, our new ape hero is Noa (Owen Teague), a young chimpanzee who has lived peacefully along with many members of his ape clan inside one remote forest area. As observing how he and his two close friends prepare for the upcoming coming-of-age ceremony, the movie gradually establishes the details of the daily life of their ape clan, and it is sometimes amusing to observe the remaining ruins of the human civilization fully covered in the greenery of trees and bushes, which might come true around the end of this century if we remain unwise and arrogant as before.

Not long after Noa and his two close friends encounter a mysterious human figure, their clan and village are suddenly attacked by a group of vicious ape soldiers coming from the outside region. Fortunately, Noa manages to survive and avoid being taken to somewhere as most of his surviving clan members are, and he becomes determined to locate and then rescue his clan members even though there is no one around him for now.

Fortunately, Noa later comes across the two figures who may help him as accompanying him. One of them is a wise and eccentric orangutan named Raka (Peter Macon), who instantly reminded me of my favorite ape character in the trilogy. Raka gladly tells and teaches Noa everything he knows about Caesar and the old history between humans and apes, and Noa certainly becomes more aware of how he did not know many important things outside his little world.

The other figure is that elusive human figure, who turns out to be a young woman and called “Nova” (Freya Allan) by Noa and Raka. When she later approaches closer to Raka and Noa, Noa is naturally watchful about her as before, and, as Raka correctly perceived from his first encounter with her, Nova turns out to be very different from many of humans who came to lose their intelligence and communication skill due to that virus.

As these three figures go through a number of events during their joint journey, the movie doles out a series of entertaining moments clearly influenced by some of its predecessors. In case of one action sequence, this is clearly influenced by that striking hunt sequence in the 1968 classic film, and the score by John Paesano accordingly gives a respectful nod to Jerry Goldsmith’s Oscar-nominated score for that movie.

The second half of the film becomes a little less engaging during the expected climactic action sequence, but the screenplay by Josh Friedman keeps focusing on the characters at least. While the main villain of the story is rather broad and simple, Noa’s situation turns out to be more complicated than expected later in the story, and he surely comes to learn some bitter lessons about apes and humans just like Caesar did a long time ago.

While his character is relatively less compelling than Caesar, Owen Teague is believable in his character’s development along the story, and you may come to have more expectation on his character’s next adventure to come. While Kevin Durand and Peter Macon are effective as the two substantial simian figures in the story, Freya Allan is also solid in her crucial supporting part, and William H. Macy provides some humor during his brief appearance.

“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” directed by Wes Ball, who has mainly known for “The Maze Runners” (2014) and the two following sequels. While I did not like these movies enough for recommendation, Ball showed some competence at least, and he did a better job here in “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”. In short, this is a beginning as good as “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” (2011), and I am already ready for our new ape hero’s continuing journey.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The Fall Guy (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): The adventure of one stuntman

Posted on May 2, 2024 by kaist455

“The Fall Guy”, which is incidentally released as “The Stuntman” in South Korean theaters (I hope that local audiences will not mistake it for the remake of Richard Rush’s “The Stunt Man” (1979), by the way), has a lot of fun with its cheerful mix of comedy, action, and a bit of romance. Loosely based on the popular American TV series of the same name in the 1980s, the movie provides enough entertainment as its titular hero tumble into one risky moment after another, and the overall result is good enough to compensate for some glaring flaws including its occasionally uneven narrative.

Ryan Gosling, who demonstrated his considerable talent and presence again via his recent Oscar-nominated turn in Greta Gerwig’s enormous hit film “Barbie” (2023), plays Colt Seavers, a professional movie stuntman whose promising career was suddenly halted due to one unfortunate incident. At that time, he was participating in the shooting of a movie as the stunt double of its star lead actor Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), and everything looked fine as Seavers was about to do another take as requested by Ryder, but that regrettably led to a serious physical injury of his.

Several months later, Seavers is now working as a parking lot valet, and he is mostly fine with being away from his former career, but there comes a sudden call from Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham), the executive producer of that movie. Gail is making another movie starring Ryder in Australia, and she wants to hire Seavers as a new stunt double for Ryder. Although he is reluctant at first, Seavers eventually accepts the request mainly because this new movie happens to be the directorial debut work of Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), who was his girlfriend around the time of that unlucky incident.

When Seavers arrives at a location where Moreno and her crew members including a bunch of stuntmen led by Seavers’ old friend Dan Tucker (Winston Duke), the situation turns out to be a bit more complicated than he expected. Because Gail did not tell anything about him to Moreno, Moreno is not so pleased about encountering him again. While she keeps working as usual, she eventually comes to let out her feelings about him when they and others are making one brief but important shot, and it seems they can actually restart their relationship once his job is done.

However, there is another problem. Gail subsequently reveals to Seavers that Ryder, who is your typical spoiled movie star, was gone missing a few days ago, and she asks Seavers to find and bring back Ryder as soon as possible. Although he does not like Gail or Ryder that much, Seavers cannot say no again because he knows Ryder’s inexplicable disappearance can seriously jeopardize the production of his ex-girlfriend, so he quickly embarks on his little private investigation.

Of course, the situation turns out to be far less simple than it looks on the surface, and the screenplay by co-executive producer Drew Pearce, who previously wrote and directed “Hotel Artemis” (2018), naturally provides a series of plot turns and twists while maintaining a lightweight sense of humor throughout the story. In addition to having enough intrigue and suspense to hold our attention, it frequently throws some witty moments associated with filmmaking and stunt work, and you will be more amused if you are seasoned movie fans like me.

While he does more stunt work on the set, Seavers also goes through a series of perilous moments while doing the investigation, and his particular set of skills surely come handy whenever he gets cornered in one way or another. There are several big action scenes in the film as expected, and director/co-producer David Leitch, who has steadily built his action movie director career since he made “John Wick” (2014) with Chad Stahelski, does not disappoint us at all, though I must point out that the editing by Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir is a bit too choppy in case of one particular action sequence intercut with Moreno’s soulful karaoke moment.

Gosling and several other cast members willingly dive into their respective comic roles with gusto. Gosling, who was surely (and ironically) assisted a lot by his stunt doubles as reflected by what is shown during the end credits, balances his character well between humor and gravitas, and he and Emily Blunt effortlessly generate enough romantic heat during their several key scenes in the film. While Aaron Taylor-Johnson delightfully chews his every moment as demanded by his stereotype character, Hannah Waddingham deliberately goes much further than that, and Winston Duke, Teresa Palmer, and Stephanie Hsu are also solid in their crucial supporting parts.

On the whole, “The Fall Guy” is an entertaining product which is also a bit better than Leitch’s previous film “Bullet Train” (2022), and it is clear that Leitch, who incidentally worked as a stunt performer and coordinator before moving onto his directorial career, and his cast and crew members enjoyed making their film together. Considering how stunt work has been rather overlooked for many years in Hollywood (Will there ever be the Oscar category for that?), the movie may draw more attention to all those efforts of many hard-working stuntman out there, and I will certainly welcome that.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Squaring the Circle: The Story of Hipgnosis (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): The story of one album art design studio

Posted on May 1, 2024 by kaist455

Documentary film “Squaring the Circle: The Story of Hipgnonsis” presents the story of one British album art design studio which gave us some of the most iconic album covers of all time. Although I do not know that much about those music albums during the 1960-70s, many of the album covers shown in the documentary look familiar or recognizable to me at least, and that says a lot about how strikingly artistic they are.

The two central figures of the documentary are Aubrey Powell and Storm Thorgerson, who incidentally died in 2013 but is often shown to us via archival photograph and video clips throughout the documentary. When they were young and wild during the early 1960s, Powell and Thorgenson happened to befriend the nascent members of Pink Floyd, and then they found themselves assigned to designing the cover of the latest album from the band, even though they did not have much career or experience for that job at that time.

Nevertheless, as two young men full of artistic instinct and talent, Powell and Thorgerson decided to give a try on this challenging assignment, and the result was much more successful than they or the band could imagine. Following the ongoing psychedelic trend during the 1960s, they went all the way for bold surreal design, and they could actually get away with their unorthodox album cover design mainly because Pink Floyd was merely regarded as a minor pop band in UK around that time.

As the band gradually rose with more fame and popularity, Powell and Thorgerson got more albums to work on while also establishing their little company. On Thorgerson’s little inspired suggestion, he and Powell decided to name it “Hipgnosis” for making their company look a bit cooler on the surface, and their company soon began to draw many other musicians and bands besides Pink Floyd, who remained their No.1 client as before.

One of the biggest clients of Hipgnosis was Paul McCartney, who certainly has some interesting things to tell us as reminiscing about his collaborations with Powell and Thorgerson. Once he came with an idea to be developed for the cover of his new album, Powell and Thorgerson enthusiastically went all the way for getting what they and McCartney wanted, and there is an amusing episode about when Powell had to go to the top of one big snowy mountain just for getting a right photograph which would be the centerpiece of the cover design of McCartney’s latest album.

In case of Peter Gabriel, Powell vividly remembers how he and Thorgerson managed to shoot the photograph of Gabriel and then include it in the design of Gabriel’s latest album cover. Although Gabriel was often awkward in front of Powell’s camera, Thorgerson found a brilliant solution which would make the result all the more impressive, and Gabriel also willingly demonstrated a little private prank of his in front of the camera.

Whey they did the album design for Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon”. Powell and Thorgerson simply included the drawing of a prism effect in the black background. While it may look too simple at first, the result is undeniably memorable to say the least, and the documentary also shows us a bit about how influential this impressive album cover design has been for next several decades.

As bouncing after one memorable album cover design after another for more amusement and enlightenment for us, the documentary also pays some attention to how Powell and Thorgerson could complement each other despite their considerable personality difference. While Thorgerson was the one usually going wilder and bolder for any kind of spontaneous inspiration, Powell was the one who often keeping them on the ground, and that certainly made them into an almost perfect artistic duo during their prime period during the 1970s.

However, there also came burden and pressure as they had more and more success during next several years. While they surely enjoyed the taste of success, Powell and Thorgenson did not feel that comfortable with how they were pushed toward more success, and that naturally put more strain on their friendship/partnership at times.

As entering the 1980s, they came to see themselves and their company becoming less trendy than before. Like Pink Floyd was pushed back by new emerging rock bands such as Sex Pistols during that time, the works of Hipgnosis became less relevant as the era of music video and CD began, and Thorgerson and Powell eventually decided to move onto whatever might come next for them after shutting down their company, though what they tried to do next unfortunately led to the permanent end of their relationship.

In conclusion, “Squaring the Circle: The Story of Hipgnosis”, which belatedly comes to South Korea in this week, is engaging enough for recommendation, and director Anton Corbijn, who has been relatively less prominent after “A Most Wanted Man” (2014), handles its main subject with enough care and respect. It could show and tell more in my humble opinion, but the overall result is fairly satisfying, and you will appreciate more of the considerable artistic achievement and influence of Hipgnosis and those talented people behind it.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Tchaikovsky’s Wife (2022) ☆☆(2/4): The Passion of Tchaikovsky’s Wife

Posted on May 1, 2024 by kaist455

They say misery loves company, but, after watching Kirill Serebrennikov’s “Tchaikovsky’s Wife”, I am wondering whether Russians love misery more than it wants. Here is a relentlessly grim, solemn, and miserable film which does not have much sense of human passion or spirit to compensate for its increasingly tedious dirge, and we are left with growing emptiness while not getting much entertainment or enlightenment about Tchaikovsky or his very, very, very unhappy wife.

According to the movie, Antonina Miliukova (Alyona Mikhaylova) had no idea about her husband’s homosexuality when she approached to him like your average groupie girl not long after encountering him at a private meeting. While Tchaikovsky (Odin Biron) simply shows some courtesy during several following private meetings between them, Antonina becomes more determined to be the wife of a great composer, and she is not deterred at all even when he flatly tells her that he is not interested in women.

In the end, after agreeing with each other that their marital relationship will be mostly platonic, Antonina and Tchaikovsky get married, and she is certainly thrilled to become Mrs. Tchaikovsky in addition to finally getting away from her domineering mother, but we already begin to see bad signs here and around them. For example, after their little wedding ceremony, they go to a party where nearly all of the guests happen to be men, and the mood is not that jolly or vivacious to say the least, while Tchaikovsky becomes too drunk to do the consummation event of their wedding night.

And things only get worse and worse during next several months for both Antonina and her husband, who still seldom touches her while preferring to hang around with his certain male friends more. When he happens to get a new work to do outside Moscow, he gladly goes away from his wife, and Antonina remains baffled and frustrated as wondering more about what she should do for really being loved by her husband.

Yes, there eventually comes a point where Antonina comes to learn about her husband’s homosexuality from several people close to her husband, but she cannot accept this at all – even when she receives a fairly nice offer any sensible woman cannot refuse under her tricky situation. She adamantly refuses to let her husband go, and she firmly sticks to her position even while letting herself having an inappropriate relationship with a lawyer representing her.

As duly observing her following downward spiral, the movie does not go that deep into what makes its heroine tick, so we only come to observe her ongoing misery and despair from the distance without much care or understanding. Is she just delusional? Is she really clinging desperately on the hope of getting finally loved by the man she has worshipped no matter what? Alyona Mikhaylova brings some fire and passion to her character, but Serevrennikove’s screenplay sadly does not provide much insight on her character, and it is certainly daunting to see her fierce efforts getting wasted from time to time.

Furthermore, Tchaikovsky himself in the film is not particularly interesting to observe either. As often limited by the flat characterization of his role, Odin Bron, who is actually an American actor, does not have much to do here, and his character eventually becomes more distant to us as being all the more absent during the last act.

In case of the soundtrack of the film, I must tell you that you will not hear that much of Tchaikovsky’s works here in this film as it sticks so much to his wife’s gradually unhinged viewpoint. Filling the resulting empty space as much as possible, the score by Daniil Orlov is certainly quite melodramatic, but I doubt whether you remember the score as much as the brief humming of one of Tchaikovsky’s famous works in the middle of the film.

At least, the movie is fairly competent in technical aspects. Cinematographer Vladislav Opelyants, who previously worked with Serebrennikove in “Petrov’s Flu” (2021), serves us a number of skillful visual moments where the passage of time is deftly illustrated in unbroken shot, and the movie is surely packed with authentic period atmosphere as required. Around the end of the story, Serebrennikove and his crew members pull off all the stops at last for a dramatic moment to remember, but, alas, that comes too late in my inconsequential opinion, and it actually made me more depressed, considering that the movie would be much more interesting if it had more of such a bold moment like that.

In conclusion, “Tchaikovsky’s Wife” has some interesting potential at first, but it only ends up being a generic biopic lacking enough human interest to hold our eyes for its overlong running time (141 minutes). Although you may admire Serebrennikove’s attempt to give a female perspective to what can be regarded as your typical great male artist drama, you will probably be quite bored by its monotonously gloomy presentation of human misery and suffering, and you may become more interested in watching Ken Russell’s Tchaikovsky biopic “The Music Lover” (1971) later. No, I have not watched that cult film yet, but I heard from others that it is not boring at least regardless of whether you like it or not, and, as a matter of fact, I really want to check it out right now after regrettably wasting 141 minutes of my life today.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment