Now in its 23rd year, this epic festival features the glorious, the gaudy, the gorgeous and the good where talent galore imprisons your senses in gripping cinema created by directors from all over this hell-bent world. The maverick is now mainstream.
Expect a whirlwind of cinematic breakthroughs in all genres as international
directors and local ones spellbound audiences with exceptional plots,
effects and cultivated climaxes of the terrific and the terrible. Nothing is as it seems. The world is unpredictable and the films exploit this, turning the
ordinary into the extraordinary.
Kudos to Fantasia's directors, Mitch Davis and Marc Lamonte and the amazing programming team. Splendid choices!
Visit: https://fantasiafestival.com
Reviews
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MAGGIE (Directed by Yi Ok-seop) *
This existential absurdist film vaguely references believing in others. Maggie is a fish that narrates the obtuse events concerning a hospital where the x-ray room shows shots of sex and everyone thinks the bodies are themselves.
The plot is really no plot at all. A lazy boyfriend ends up falling in one of the sink holes that are appearing everywhere on streets; his job is to fix them. This film is Korea's nod to avant-garde cinema, but this piece moves too slowly, and despite the artsy shots, it lacks character vitality. It might end up falling in its own sink hole.
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THE
GANGSTER, THE COP, THE DEVIL (Directed by Lee Won-tae) *****
Murder
abounds in the city of Cheoman.
Tae-suk, a no-nonsense policeman knows these brutal killings are the work of a
serial killer. His force doesn’t buy it. The gangster, Dong-soo (marvellously
played by Don Lee) is himself attacked, but he survives the stab wounds. He
joins forces with Tae-suk, but both are extremely weary of the other. One wants
revenge for the stabbing in any horrid way he can conjure; the other wants to
find the killer and bring him to justice via the courts.
This action-packed
non-stop witty film is a plot pleaser that has all the twists and corrupt turns
one expects in Korea
these days. Dynamic in dialogue, character and crime, this film is a
blockbuster classic. This was my Fantasia thriller favourite. Interesting that Sylvester Stallone will be
playing the part of Dong-soo; also interesting that Dong-soo did not make it in
the United States, so he
returned to South Korea
where he made it big time. We're glad he did.
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KINGDOM (Directed by Shinhuko Sato) *****
In 255 B.C. China
was divided into seven kingdoms. One brother rules in Qin, a powerful kingdom, which he took illegally,
having mutinied against his own brother, Pio who was a young boy and was left
the kingdom. Pio goes in exile and ends up meeting Shin. Both are slaves to a
mean farm owner, but both train to become the best generals on earth to fulfil their dreams. Pio is taken away by a soldier to join the army. This is not-stop
adventure and fighting with revenge and rightful ownership of the throne. It is
wildly entertaining with a great plot, fabulous character acting and wit. This massively epic film is an all-round
thrill to watch. A must-see.
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THE DEEPER YOU DIG (Directed by Toby Poser)***
Echo, a teenager does not come home;it turns out the next door neighbour has a lot to do with it; he accidently ran over her on a country road at night while she was sleeping. Ivy, Echo’s
mother flirts with tarot cards to try to discover where her daughter is. She
knows she is dead, but where is she? The supernatural and all kinds of bloody
things come into play until death and character persons switch identity. Making
the feature was ingenious creativity. It is a real family in it. They live in
the Catskills, and on a budget of 11,000$ they conjured up brilliant ways to do
the horror scenes and in the dead of winter too.
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JUDY AND
PUNCH (Directed by Mirrah Foulkes)***
Set in Medieval
times, Seaside
town is now enjoying the violent shows of Puch and Judy. The puppeteer who
plays Punch is a drunken slob who is so keen on meeting talent scouts for his
show. He thinks he is wonderful. He not only has his puppet beat up Judy, but he
does it in real life to his wife, Judy. Revenge is a woman’s most effective tool, and used to right wrongs. This black comedy is entertaining and certainly timely for
the Our Time woman’s movement. Patriarchy is punched off it pedestal, and
replaced with powerful women, personified in Judy. A nice Australian film with
tricks up everyone’s sleeve where puppets can be replaced with practical plans.
The end shows clips from real Punch and Judy shows and the reaction of the kids
watching. Enlightening indeed.
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THE RELATIVE
WORLDS (Directed by Yuhei Sakuragi) ****
People are
dropping dead in Tokyo,
and that is because there are two Japans-- one desolate and ripe with poverty;
the other is normal thriving and urban. Shin witnessed and mother’s death, and
his best friend, Kotori tries to help him through his sadness.
Everyone has their
double in the not-so-nice Japan,
and the job of these two protagonists is to deal with the evil.
This anime
feature is rich in action and excellent motion-capture work. It’s an odd story
that sends a message of hope for a unified trouble-free Japan.
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STEAMPUNK CONNECTION (Directed by Anne Deniel) ***
All over the world a fascinating community is reviving Victorian costume, items and more, making it a part of their lives. The documentary follows a trio of devotees in five different countries. Wonderful eccentrics champion the cause of using technology to create all kinds of dress and accessories that conjure up past times. Imagination is key to what motivates them.
These people have formed a great community, and what better way to connect than to relive the past with a Victorian reference. I have to say that the people are so creative and superb in what they create. They want to live time travel in a most unique way, and they do it colourfully.
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HIS BAD
BLOOD (Directed by Koichiro Oyama) ***
An epic
family gang related saga and the biggest victim of the bad guys is Shinichi,
son of a psychopathic liar, killer who betrays everyone. He is a hypocrite,
pretends to be good when he join a church, and then rejects his son when he
finds out his son is working at the same church cleaning like him. Dramatic and
compelling, still this first feature for the director needs to run towards a
new editor. He hooks back and forth into the past and present and overlaps sub-stories
together than cause a level of frustration. It has great potential, especially
because the acting was super. Ikkei
Watanabe was super as the villain. Yu Toyamo carried the film with his acting, most notably his transformation to a
lazy detached boy to a man with integrity and deep emotions.
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SHOOTING
THE MAFIA (Directed by Kim Longinotto) *****
SHOOTING
THE MAFIA (Directed by Kim Longinotto) *****
This compelling documentary shines a great lens on Sicilian photojournalist, Letizia Battaglia. Once an actress, she marches to her own drum. She is fierce,
brave, honest and warm like the heat of Palermo
where she lives. A gifted photographer, Italy’s first female to hold the
lens up up, she tackles mafia crime, bringing murderous Mafia members to
justice. She left an oppressive marriage to begin her career in 1971 while
raising three daughters, she found herself in a swarm of machismo powerful men,
but never cowered, preferring to preserve her vibrant values to seek justice. It was very moving to
have archival testimony from two of Palermo’s
greatest brave judges, but one was gunned down: Giovanni Falcone; the other blown up: Paolo Borsellino.
She is really the first
female to fight against brutality in he country, using her lens. Viva the individualists
who put everything on the line for freedom and justice! Is it any wonder, her
lovers were young men!
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THE PREY
(Directed by Jimmy Henderson) ****
Chinese
cop, Xin is undercover working as one of the criminals carrying out phone scams.
They get busted, but he’s pulled in with the others and finds himself in a Cambodia prison --soon about to be released in the jungle, but not before he gets into a fight (not his fault), whereupon the brutal warden
strings him upside down.
But this prison is
carrying out a deadly game where prisoners are hunted down by those willing to
pay for the sport of it all. Xin is with a few others as they make their escape
into the jungle as the killing game begins. It’s a tense journey of bloodshed
and treachery. The tables turn in twisted ways and like Richard Connell’s
story, The Most Dangerous Game, upon which the film is based, no one knows for
sure how it will all end. A great suspense tightly crafted film with great
acting. Psychopaths and heroes make this film work. Awesome action!
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DAY AND
NIGHT (Directed by MichihitoFujii) ****
Koji
returns to his Japanese village to attend his father’s funeral. His father
owned a modest garage, paved with good intentions, but when his good father found
out that the bigger car manufacturing company in his village was selling him
cars with faulty wheel bearings, he blows the whistle on them.
Shamed by
villagers who are at the employ of the big car manufacturer, Koji is an outcast.
In fact, his father committed suicide after becoming bankrupt for his honesty.
Koji is welcoming
by Kitamura who has a clandestine auto theft ring going on and soon Koji joins
it. Kitamura is a kind of Robin Hood though. He runs an orphanage and the money
me makes from his criminal acts he puts into the orphanage. He also beats up on
drug dealers and the likes. Koji ends up being the cook for the orphanage and befriends
a special girl there whose true parentage has its own ironic and cruel twist of
fate. The film gets a tad confusing in plot and it seems to merge three into
three interconnected paths that somehow intertwine but with one of them having
the weakest link. Guilt, goodness and bad intentions coalesce in this
mesmerizing film that puts whistle blowing right into your ear. This is a deep
film where the lines of truth and fiction, good and evil are difficult to draw. Shinnosuke Abe as Koji is superb.
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DOOR LOCK
(Directed by Lee Kwon) ****
Wow, this is
a horror film that might make any woman living alone put tons of chairs against
her door. Someone is stalking Kyung-min, and despite her outside code lock on
her apartment door, she finds things are not right. Indeed someone is getting
into her apartment and spending the night with her as he drugs her before lying
with her.
She is not aware of this at all. One day a really mean guy shows up
at the bank where she works and insinuates aggressively on her. The cops think
this might be the guy they’re after. Females become toys for the psychopath to
play with, and males are to be discarded. The set up is ironic and confusing
for the cops and Kyung-min who is living in terror. The intense climax is like
none other. The acting is great.
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JADE’S ASYLUM (Directed by Alexandre Carrière ) bomb
This film simply rerolls over and over and over again scenes and dialogue
ad nauseum. The creatures that kill the gang of obnoxious people staying in a
mansion in Costa Rica
did a good thing getting rid of them. What an insufferable childish boring
attempt at a film. I laughed too at the straw-like creature monsters. Scary
thing was I was the only one in the audience who laughed at the monsters.
I actually think this film this
would make a great Halloween short restricted to about one minute of play time
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ASTRONAUT
(Directed by Shelagh Mcleod) *****
The best
film ever to grace Fantasia since its inception 23 years ago in its genre. It is so intelligent and sensitive.When an old retired geological engineer discovers there’s a contest
on inviting people ages 20 to 60, to go to space in the first ever commercial
launch, Angus is visually on board. His dream has been to go to space. He is obsessed
with it in fact.
This film is certainly about dreams, but it is also about transcending
family problems and never giving up on anything. Richard Dryfuss was brilliant
s Angus. I cried at the end. Touching, funny and oh so real, this is the film
that pretty makes all other films in this festival look like films. Astronaut overcame
any contrived look, pretensions and obstacles. and took us to the stars.
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AWAY (Directed by Gintis Zibilodis)****
An animation unusual feature without dialogue. A young boy on a motorcycle enters a land of so many different terrains in search of the ocean and the village beyond. Excellent graphics, superb lighting and music - all created by the director himself. A black silhouette monster always follows him keeping his distance.He is one talented dude! Too long though and the film was rather flat. The little yellow bird though brought a human connection to the film that technologically excelled but did not exude personal warmth.
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WHITE SNAKE (Directed by AmpWong and Ji Zhao)****
There are snake catchers who must abide by the evil General's lust to have them, and they bring him inner power. Demons are a foot and they like to destroy humans. Only thing is the two protagonists are like star-crossed loves: one is a demon and a snake; the other is human. Love beyond any obstacle, good versus evil and scary unknown lands, make this extraordinary Chinese animation film mesmerizing. Not a dull moment in this epic masterpiece. The effects are enchanting, often ferocious and always dazzling.
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SON OF A
WHITE MARE (Directed by Marcell Jankovics) ****
Rescuing
three princesses from the gates of the underworlds is no easy feat, but as Tree Shaker grows stronger by the day by nursing over and over again on his mother's milk, he exceeds expectations, but his mare mother grows weaker and weaker. Touching to see this in this now film. he meets two other strong men - each in their own way. They become his brothers.
Now technically improved by novel cinematic magic, this 1981 enchanting pseudo- psychedelic film is based on Hungarian folklore, this award-winning unique animation puts Hungarian mythology into
sight with imagination and plot trials. I found it the motifs very repetitive,
but scary.
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MONEY (Directed by Park Noo-ri) ***
It's not everyone who can do buys and sells correctly in the Seoul stock market, especially for ll-Hyun. He is a total failure until he is introduced to a hot shot expert named The Ticket whose acumen involved passing tips to the young stock broker about inside trading. Soon he is being seriously investigated and stock brokers are falling as fast as the market itself. An unusual fast-paced film that shows the money end of things.
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IDOL
(Directed by Lee Su-jin) *
Totally too
long and complicated, the plot centres around a hit-and-run accident covered up
by his father and mother and the victim’s
father trying to find the fiancée of his now dead son. No matter the emotions
the villain and the good guy show, we remain back in shot 25 trying to figure
out what is going on. Nothing can save this convoluted plot, not even the dead bodies and gory left- vers. Gratuitous
horror in need of an editor.
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THE FABLE (Directed by Kab Eguchi) **
The Fable, as he's called is a trained killer/assassin, and he's put to good use to rescue a friend who helped him once when he was pretending that a gang really was getting the upper hand while beating him up. The Fable finds a way to rescue her but not without hurting a whole lot of people. he is not supposed to kill people though; his boss has told him to lay low for a year.
He's got a tender sweet side; he loves his new bird, and he not only draws his gun, but cartoons too.
This slam-bang action thriller with yakuza melodrama hits the mark when it comes to confusing us, along with the characters in the film. But all the elements are there for high entertainment: a psychopath killer, lots of great super-charged fight scenes and character drama. Osaka's underworld is as tense as a den of vipers.
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RIDE YOUR
WAVE (Directed by Masaaki Yuasa) ****
An expressive
Japanese animation about finding oneself
and learning to be independent. Two lovely heroes in their own right find love;
one is born to save; he's a fireman (Minato); the other born to surf (Hinako). Each comes
together to share everything. Minato knows more than her, but she is a great
surfer. Sadly, in trying to rescue a drowning surfer the young hero who has
learned to surf -- thanks to Hinako -- drowns. Hinako is beside herself with
grief, but she soon discovers if she sings a certain song they both snag
together in the past, he appears. She learns to ride her own wave without him. It’s
a film about love, loss and moving forward while keeping the memory of your
beloved with you at all times.
The animation is charming, despite the quirky
focus on water and its romantic role to unite the lovers. This film has its own ironic plot twist.
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L’INTERVENTION
(Directed by Fred Grivois) **
Based on
true events that took place in 1976, the film is about the taking of a school
bus with 21 children held captive inside Three terrorists from the Front of the
Liberation from Somali overtake this bus wanting it to go to Somali, waiting for
their support arrives. This takes place in Djibouti,
the last French colony in Africa to be under France’s yoke.
Snipers are
hired to take the villains down but are only allowed to shoot if only one
terrorist is on the bus as the time of taking the shot. It’s a waiting game for
everyone. The real hero of this calamity is the teacher who arrives to go on
the bus to care for the children. She goes of her own free will. This film was
flat. The male cast part of this was lacklustre, and except for Olga
Kurylenko, who took her role most seriously, the cast was not believable.
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PROMARE
(Directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi) *****
Wow! A
knock-out fast action crazy hero film. Fire fighters led by Galo Thymos with
Lucia, Varys, Remi and Ignis are trying to stop the Burnish mad terrorists from destroying
the entire city. Villains and ways to fight them never end, producing armour that
makes Iron Man look like he’s in a fluffy costume. Good versus bad is the premise,
but who we think is bad ends up being good, and vice versa. Unification is the
answer here in more ways than one. This animation extravaganza colourful piece of work is a Fantasia favourite.
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THE PURITY OF VENGEANCE (Directed by Christoffer Boe) *****
A great plot based on one of the
worst moments in Danish history the sterilization of women considered to be troubled,
defective and then some. It happened in the early 20th- century and ended by government
decree in 1967. The plot puts two unlikely partners together, one Muslim – the other
born in Denmark.
The tall Muslim partner is about to be promoted and it would seem his partner
does not care. Their names are Carl and Assad. When they encounter a gruesome scene
of four skeletons, trapped behind a wall -- all seated at a table with jars holding some of their innards a huge can
of worms are opened and the story opens on past events
that slowly reveal the true story about how these skeletons got there. Based on the
best-selling novel this film, the highest-grossing in Denmark’s history shows an ugly side to the Scandinavian state hailed as a modern-day utopia by most. It’s a skeleton that
has come out of this country’s closet –so to speak.
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8 (Directed
by Harold Holscher) ***
Despite the dark mood and lighting that
certainly enhances the plot of this horror film, the South African folklore
rich story turns from gritty reality to child-like comic-book fiction. Sarah
and her husband William are now moving
to William’s father’s old farm. Sarah is unable to bear children, but the
couple have their neice, Mary whose parents were killed.
Lazarus, an old man who carries around a big with a demonic being in it, begins to befriend Mary, but his motive is self-serving. His wife died at
childbirth, and his daughter perished in a fire. Mary is a victim of demonism,
but the story ends on a throw-in happy event. Soweto-born actor Tshamano Sebe
is superb in his role as Lazarus. He carries the film. The sound is most
effective in this atmospheric film; the lighting is also a dreamy enhancement to this strange film.
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ODE TO
NOTHING (Directed by Dwein Ruedas) ****
Sonya is a
former maid who runs her family-owned funeral home. It is shabby and not enough
corpses are coming in to keep it afloat. The bailiff is after her. One day an unidentified
corpse is left in her hands, and she dresses it up and keeps her at the eating table
where she and her father can pretend it is his wife and Sonya’s mother. Morbid,
yet riveting, this film shows how desperate people can get when loneliness,
alienation from the outside world can drive one to madness. Can companionship only be had in a cadaver?
This film would say so.Marietta Subongi was fantastic in the lead. Her
emotional range is remarkable. Winner of many festivals, this film carried the signature intensity of many Philipino films.
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THE MIRACLE
OF THE SARGASSO SEA (Directed by Syllas Tzoumerkas *
The new
Weird Greek wave of cinema should drown itself , if any more films like this
are made.
A mishmash of aberrant perverts with Rita as the victim. Her brother is hung by her out of
revenge, and the head police woman solves the
crime. Remind me to never visit Messalongi in Greece,
which happens to be my
favourite country where I have worked as an actor, writer and journalist. No
one
cares about the eels, the murder and the sexual depravity in this really bad film.
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21st CENTURY GIRL (Directed by Yuka Eda) bom
A hodgepodge of sexual talk and lots of lesbian scenes.
Any emotional
outbursts go no further than the flat screen we are yawning at.
The last scene
of swirling girl resembles a Greek chorus paying tribute to mothers.
