Tag: Foreign Films

Fantastic Fest 2009: ‘Robo-Geisha’ Review

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Tonight I had the pleasure of being in the first audience in the world to see the new Japanese classic Robo Geisha, and I loved every second of it.

Robo Geisha is the story of dueling assassin geisha sisters, working for a large corporation that’s dedicated to wiping out Japan to create a new world order. One of their evil plots is to kidnap local women and brain wash them into being assassin geisha. The idea of the assassin geisha isn’t new but it’s execution here is what makes it’s stand out.

This movie is a comedy from start to finish. The director and crew behind it are known for doing a kind of cheesy gross out humor that’s just over the top. This film is over, the top but no where near as gory as the director’s other films like The Machine Girl.

Instead of fountains of blood flying from combatants we get slapstick humor, insane ideas on what body parts can be weaponized, and buildings that bleed when smashed to pieces. Yes, there are buildings that bleed when they’re punched or kicked. It’s hilarious and doesn’t make a lick of sense.

Filled with anime and manga style cliches, the movie is self aware of how goofy it is, and that’s part of it’s charm. It was only made in 2 weeks and has a very insane frenetic pace as a result. The opening of the film is an action sequence that leads to a narrated flash back. But when you finish the film, the opening sequence could never have possibly happened, making it just that much more insane.

It’s only faults are that it’s not a pretty looking film. It’s effects are limited by it’s almost nonexistent budget, but that’s not the point. The movie is meant to look the way it does, adding to it’s charm.

Review: ‘Beauty In Trouble’

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Melissa:

Along the way she meets an older, handsome, well off gentleman named Evzen Benes (Josef Abrhà ¡m). By meets, I mean that her husband and his friends steal Benes car. Lucky for him, he has a tracker in it that leads police to the thieves, one being Marcela’s husband. Benes is captured by Marcela’s beauty and really wants to help her out. Of course, he is also a genuine, helpful person. He and Marcela start a romance that leaves her with a beautiful place to live, trips to his vineyard, and romantic meals. She is completely taken care of. The only thing that is missing it seems is that she is still sexually attracted to her now ex-husband.

The movie seems to take after the Robert Graves poem “Beauty In Trouble”. It starts…

“Beauty in trouble flees to the good angel, on whom she can rely”

She cannot rely on her husband, or on her living situation with her mother, so she relies on the rich, handsome, worldly man that has come to sweep her and her children to a magical, safe land.

Benes is not just some ignorant man though. When his renters have a sick mother and cannot move, he lets them stay in the house. To repay him, they buy the front yard property that is up for grabs and try to bribe him to either buy it at an elevated rate or to sell the house for well below what it is worth. Once all of this happens, he stands up for himself and throws them out of the house. I think that it was important to have a moment like this so that Benes didn’t appear to be just a pushover.

Throughout the movie you tend to feel sorry for both her and her children, but towards the end you tend to question her. She is given so much, yet she is drawn to her ex husband. It is as if the beauty is drawn to the trouble like a moth to a flame. Instead of just showing the happy ending, they chose to show what can really happen… the reality of it. The only complaint that I have is that the subtitles at the begining are messed up between the credits and the dialogue. This needs some work.

[overall: 4 stars out of 5]

Academy Announces 9 Foreign Film Nominees

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has narrowed it’s list of films down from 65 to 9 in competition for the Best Foreign Film Award. I always find this to be such an interesting category because the range of films competing for a single golden naked dude is always so vast. Here’s the list…

  • Revanche (Austria; Gotz Spielmann, director)
  • The Necessities of Life (Canada; Benoit Pilon, director)
  • The Class (France; Laurent Cantet, director)
  • The Baader Meinhof Complex (Germany; Uli Edel, director
  • Waltz with Bashir (Israel; Ari Folman, director)
  • Departures (Japan; Yojiro Takita, director)
  • Tear This Heart Out (Mexico; Roberto Sneider, director)
  • Everlasting Moments (Sweden; Jan Troell, director)
  • 3 Monkeys (Turkey; Nuri Bilge Ceylan, director)

So, you may (or may not) be asking yourself “why does he have a photo from Let the Right One In attached to this post?” Here’s why… I think it thoroughly sucks that LTROI did not make the semi-final cut! Sure, I know it won’t win… I’m not THAT naive. But, it was a great film and original, but the Academy traditionally is not fond of “horror” movies. Of course, the award is likely to go to ‘Waltz With Bashir’ which is fine, because it’s apparently the coolest thing since sliced jalapenos. In fact, it would be really awesome if it raked in both the Best Foreign Film and Best Documentary Awards. With that said, I am still disappointed that it won’t get the glitz of being one of the five films listed before the big envelope opening occurs. What do you think? Do you like this list so far? Which foreign films did not make the list that you feel got the shaft? Let us know by leaving your comments.

[source: RottenTomatoes.com]