RVIFF Day 5: An Indonesian Middle School Weretiger, Mom Comes Back From the Dead, and the Hunt for an Iranian Serial Killer

September 10th, 2024 | Robin

A Ken and Robin Consume Media Special Feature

The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future (Chile, Francisca Alegría, 2023, 4) Controlling doctor (Leonor Varela) takes her kids back to the family dairy farm after her father suffers a health episode triggered by an encounter with her mother (Mia Maestro), whose suicide occurred decades ago. Eco-themed family drama places well-drawn characters in a magic realist situation.

At least one extremely long title is a must when simulating a film festival. Between this and the previously described Don’t Expect Too Much From the End of the World I feel this has been successfully covered this year.

Tiger Stripes (Indonesia, Amanda Nell Eu, 2023, 4) Hassled at school for being a little bit high-spirited, a girl who is the first in her cohort to get her period begins to turn into a tjindaku, the local version of the weretiger. Transforms from a naturalistic feminist coming of age drama into witty teen body horror.

If this was a conventional horror film there would be a bunch of exposition in which the words tjindaku and weretiger would be mentioned. Instead Tiger Stripes retains its realist observational detachment even after it crosses over into horror mode.

Peter von Kant (France, François Ozon, 2022, 4) In a typical act of romantic self-destruction, 70s filmmaker Peter von Kant (Denis Ménochet) courts a handsome young man with a tragic past (Khalil Ben Gharbia) by promising to make him a star. Billed as a remake of The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, to which it bears the sole resemblance of being set in an apartment, this is actually a rueful and funny highly theatrical chamber biopic of Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Isabelle Adjani plays Hanna Schygulla and Hanna Schygulla plays Fassbinder’s mother, who at one point has an impassioned speech defending Isabelle Adjani as Hanna Schygulla.

Ozon’s entire career has been in dialogue with Fassbinder and an exploration of cinematic game-playing, making his most directly Fassbinderian film also his most Ozonian.

Holy Spider (Denmark, Ali Abassi, 2022, 4) Risk-taking reporter defies authorities in the holy Iranian city of Mashhad as she tracks a serial killer preying on women in the sex trade. Gritty crime procedural where the social and political context throws additional obstacles into the manhunt and its aftermath.

Shot in Jordan.

For the third year running, my wife Valerie and I are attending our own at-home film festival. It takes the place in our hearts and vacation plans formerly reserved by the Toronto International Film Festival. The Robin and Valerie International Film Festival is the cinema event you can play along with at home, with a roster of streaming service and SVOD titles. Its roster includes the foreign, independent and cult titles we used to love to see at TIFF, but cheaper, hassle-free, and on the comfort of our own couch. Daily capsule reviews roll out throughout the festival, with a complete list in order of preference dropping a day or two afterwards. Review ratings are out of 5.

If you enjoy this special text feature of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff podcast and don’t already support our Patreon, consider tossing a few bucks in the tip jar. Or check out my book on action films and their roleplaying applications, Blowing Up the Movies. Or the roleplaying game inspired by the Hong Kong films I first encountered at TIFF, Feng Shui 2.

RVIFF Day 4: Adorable Killers, Soundstage Chaos, and a Courtroom Puzzle

September 9th, 2024 | Robin

A Ken and Robin Consume Media Special Feature

Before, Now & Then (Indonesia, Kamila Andini, 2022) Wife (Happy Salma) of a wealthy philanderer (Arswendy Bening Swara) strives to keep up appearances as her previous life, shattered by war, reasserts itself. Sinuous, compellingly acted drama parallels repressed domestic truths with the forgetting of the Suharto regime’s 65-66 mass killings.

From beautiful, multilayered dramas like this to its horror and action output, Indonesia is really establishing itself as a new fully emerged national cinema.

Saint Omer (France, Alice Diop, 2022,4)  Author (Kayije Kagame) covering the infanticide trial of a Senegalese philosophy student (Guslagie Malanda) finds uncomfortable resonances with her own life. Observational courtroom drama about the mystery of motivation uses its reporter character not as a narrative device but as a source of emotional connection.

I wonder how many French courtroom dramas I’m going to watch before I stop being boggled about the differences in their procedure compared to the Anglo-American one.

Cobweb (South Korea, Kim Jee-woon, 2024, 3.5) Convinced they will turn his latest project into a masterpiece and overturn his reputation as a perennial second-rater, an obsessive director (Song Kang-ho) connives his way to an unauthorized reshoot hidden from 70s censors. Broad soundstage satire offers a jaundiced take on creative ambition and is presumably funnier if you really know the Korean film industry.

A line from this film is going to rattle around in my head for a good while to come: “Believing in yourself is a talent.” Granted, it’s spoken by the hallucinated ghost of the protagonist’s mentor. But there is a big chunk of truth in that not necessarily encouraging thought.

Baby Assassins: 2 Babies (Japan, Yugo Sakamoto, 2023, 4) Adorably flaky teen girl killers (Akari Takaishi, Saori Izawa) get suspended from the Assassins Guild and are targeted by wannabes. This upgrade from the original boasts funnier off-kilter comedy, better fights and a more consistent tone.

For the third year running, my wife Valerie and I are attending our own at-home film festival. It takes the place in our hearts and vacation plans formerly reserved by the Toronto International Film Festival. The Robin and Valerie International Film Festival is the cinema event you can play along with at home, with a roster of streaming service and SVOD titles. Its roster includes the foreign, independent and cult titles we used to love to see at TIFF, but cheaper, hassle-free, and on the comfort of our own couch. Daily capsule reviews roll out throughout the festival, with a complete list in order of preference dropping a day or two afterwards. Review ratings are out of 5.

If you enjoy this special text feature of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff podcast and don’t already support our Patreon, consider tossing a few bucks in the tip jar. Or check out my book on action films and their roleplaying applications, Blowing Up the Movies. Or the roleplaying game inspired by the Hong Kong films I first encountered at TIFF, Feng Shui 2.

RVIFF Day 3: Geomancer vs. Evil Grave, Sea Priestesses vs. Corrupt Modernity, and Mads Mikkelsen vs. the Jutland Heath

September 8th, 2024 | Robin

A Ken and Robin Consume Media Special Feature

Mami Wata (Nigeria, C.J. ‘Fiery’ Obasi, 2023, 4) The adopted daughter (Evelyne Ily Juhen) of an untouched village’s intermediary to the sea goddess struggles to protect it from the encroach of corrupt modernity. Impassioned allegorical drama shot in a striking digital black and white that transforms the actor’s patterned costumes into stark graphic elements.

The Promised Land (Denmark, Nikolaj Arcel, 2023, 5) Stubbornly determined veteran 18th century officer (Mads Mikkelsen) vies for a noble title by promising to successfully cultivate the Jutland heath, gathering misfit allies and enraging a sniveling, murderous rival landowner (Simon Bennebjerg.) Thematically a western, but also in its emotional performances, narrative sweep, and depiction of landscape as divine antagonist, a drink from the well of David Lean.

As far as actual history is concerned, this turns out to be one of those “don’t look up the real guy” movies.

Scarlet (France, Pietro Marcello, 2022, 4) Girl grows from infant to young adult (Juliette Jouan) in an interwar French village whose churlish residents treat her talented woodworker father (Raphaël Thiéry) as an outcast. Lyrical, novelistic drama shows the difference between sincerity and sentimentality.

Cliff Walkers (China, Zhang Yimou, 2021, 4) Communist commandos paratroop into occupied Harbin to perform a mission, unaware that they’ve been betrayed to the puppet government’s secret police. Snowy period espionage action-thriller where nearly every character is engaged in at least a double game.

Exhuma (South Korea, Jang Jae-hyun, 2024) Hired to lift a curse afflicting a rich family, a team led by a mercenary geomancer (Choi Min-Sik) and a blunt shaman (Kim Go-eun) removes their grandfather’s coffin from his inauspicious grave,  digging up more than they expected. Investigative folk horror flick packed with scares, curveballs, and fun character moments.

Just when I thought the South Korean film industry had already laser-targeted my interests, it puts the star of Old Boy in a movie about a feng shui expert conducting an occult investigation. It even features creepy foxes, which by reality-shattering coincidence also appeared as an emergent recurring motif from my Yellow King playtest series.

However until James Gunn greenlights a Justice Society of America movie where the golden age heroes hang out with a disturbingly friendly blood robot, I assure you nothing weird is going on.

For the third year running, my wife Valerie and I are attending our own at-home film festival. It takes the place in our hearts and vacation plans formerly reserved by the Toronto International Film Festival. The Robin and Valerie International Film Festival is the cinema event you can play along with at home, with a roster of streaming service and SVOD titles. Its roster includes the foreign, independent and cult titles we used to love to see at TIFF, but cheaper, hassle-free, and on the comfort of our own couch. Daily capsule reviews roll out throughout the festival, with a complete list in order of preference dropping a day or two afterwards. Review ratings are out of 5.

If you enjoy this special text feature of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff podcast and don’t already support our Patreon, consider tossing a few bucks in the tip jar. Or check out my book on action films and their roleplaying applications, Blowing Up the Movies. Or the roleplaying game inspired by the Hong Kong films I first encountered at TIFF, Feng Shui 2.

RVIFF Days 1 & 2: Chinese Neo-Noir, Mongolian Indie Quirk, and a Miike Monster

September 7th, 2024 | Robin

A Ken and Robin Consume Media Special Feature

The film festival you can play along with at home, hitting the pause button whenever you need a nap, and no one in the line up has a loud dumb opinion about something you’re seeing later in the week, is off to another strong start.

The Sparring Partner (Hong Kong, Ho Cheuk-Tin, 2022, 4) A psychopathic loser (Yeung Wai Leung) and his questionably functionable roommate (Mak Pui Tung) go on trial for his parents, gruesome murders. Told in fragmented chronology and with quasi-surreal visual devices, this true crime docudrama probes the impossibility of reliably knowing the facts of a case or the motivations of its participants.

The Sales Girl (Mongolia, Janchivdorj Sengedorj, 2021, 4) When she subs for a classmate as a sex shop clerk, an unassuming physics student (Bayarjargal Bayartsetseg) bonds with the owner (Oidovjamts Enkhtuul), a former ballet star with lessons to impart on lust, life and loss. Straight from Ulaanbaatar, it’s a quirky, embracing indie comedy-drama with touches of Aki Kaurismaki deadpan.

The Conqueror: Hollywood Fallout (UK, William Nunez, 2023, 4) Documentary chronicles the production of the notoriously laughable, Howard Hughes-instigated 1956 Genghis Khan biopic, shot downwind from Nevada a-bomb tests many link to the cancer deaths of stars John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorhead, Pedro Armendariz and director Dick Powell. Grounds a real life story with a central metaphor too on-the-nose for fiction by also focusing on the huge number of non-celebrity fallout exposure victims.

Walk Up (South Korea, Hong Sang-soo, 2022, 4) Abrupt time jumps between scenes set in the same building reveal the shifting relationships between a successful, neurotic filmmaker, his daughter, a couple of girlfriends, and a neglected admirer. Formally disorienting, satirical character piece unnervingly suggests that people can change, but only to find new ways to disappoint, or be disappointed by, others.

Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World (Romania, Radu Jude, 2023, 4) Exhausted PA (Ilinca Manolache) fights brutal Bucharest traffic working on a worker safety video for a performatively concerned foreign manufacturer. Satirical portrait of a nation working itself with to death underpinned by such formal interventions as the heroine’s scabrous bro culture parody TikToks, extended drop-ins from an earlier, Ceaușescu-era film, and a run time that feels like an extra overtime shift.

Are You Lonesome Tonight? (China, Shipei Wen, 2021, 5) After running a man over, a redemption-seeking air conditioner repairman (Eddie Peng) contrives to meet his widow (Sylvia Chang), making a startling discovery about the case. Neo-noir thriller with an almost tangible feeling for the characters’ hot, humid environment and a bag full of narrative surprises.

Lumberjack the Monster (Japan, Takashi Miike, 2023, 4) Murderous lawyer (Kazuya Kamenashi) tries to figure out why a masked serial killer attacked him, as an obsessive profiler (Nanao) hunts them both. Thriller novel adaptation pays off after getting the complicated plot out of the way, with Miike in his relatively normal mainstream mode.

For the third year running, my wife Valerie and I are attending our own at-home film festival. It takes the place in our hearts and vacation plans formerly reserved by the Toronto International Film Festival. The Robin and Valerie International Film Festival is the cinema event you can play along with at home, with a roster of streaming service and SVOD titles. Its Blowing Up the Movies. Or the roleplaying game inspired by the Hong Kong films I first encountered at TIFF, Feng Shui 2.