MONTREAL MAYHEM AND MADNESS

 Looking at this city through a one-angled lens

                                                                          My Rant

Montréal streets look like war zones. The sidewalks are blocked off, up in pieces with rubble saddling bulldozers besides huge long tubing ready to be put underground. That’s been the eyesore for years now I’ve seen this in Verdun, downtown, Ville St laurnet, Everywhere!

Try driving anywhere, and enjoy cursing trying to get there.  Consider reaching your destination a total triumph. Thjs city is not what it used ot be.

 Moreover, smokers, cyclists and angry drivers feel no gumption about riding you over. And as for the song, smoke gets in your eyes, well, Montreal is the smoker’s capital of Canada.

Language: who cares any more? Bill 101, you’ve aged beyond your contextual historical provenance.  But try to speak English to those who work for the government, including the French schools, and you can end up in jail. It is an outcase situation here. Yes, Montreal is a fabulous festival city. There are over 500 of them in the summer, but most folk just want to leave the humidity at this time.

Snobbism, freaky-looking kids who are lost in their souls, smokers, sweaers and cell phone addicts – this is the city I now know. When I moved here in 1981, it was rather pleasant. People were civil, helpful, cordial, and the joie de vivre was wonderfully infectious. Business was booming and streets were intact.

 Immigrants now claim this place but the poor souls can’t even open up a business hanging out a street sing in their own language – unless they want to get smacked with a hefty fine from L’office québécois de la langue française. Did you know it’s illegal to show English on a sign alone  inside or outside. Oh sure you can have it, but make sure it’s smaller than the French.

Look, I moved here form stone cold Toronto, and Montreal is still a unique place but its corruption goes back too many decades, and even poutine can’t smother the fact that this city has to start educating its people, being honest and giving kids a global future.Of course secondary education wasn’t compulsory here until 1969.

Rock the boat and drown us all is Montreal’s now polluted St. Lawrence River into which  government leaders agreed to dump tons of waste material this year. Now that is a truly inspiring example of environmental leadership.

 There’s only thing la belle province won’t change is its nasty let’s hold a grudge license plate: “Je me souviens” (I remember wheat the English did to us on the plains of Montcalm). Fact is the British were fairly nice conquerors. They gave Quebec thousands and thousands of more hectares, expanding the territory to make it the largest province in Canada. They also let the French keep their language, their religion and lots more.

Trouble is, when I go to Ontario anglo-land like Ottawa and Merrickville, I miss the Quebec slantiness, the chaos and the anger that allows me to write this vitriolic piece in the first place.

You may get offended by this, but I'm allowed to offend you; I'm a Montrealer!  LOL!

The Bacchus Lady (Directed by E J-yong) *****

  A killer film delicately done with heavy truths

  

This South Korean film introduces sixty-five-year-old So-young who serviced Korean soldiers during the war. She had a baby and gave him up for adoption – told in the narrative – but this highly compassionate woman who hangs out in the park to earn money turning old tricks ends up being an angel of death.

 She also ends up taking care of a Philippine boy whose mother is in prison. It happens quickly that the boy falls into her hands literally, and her immediate care – for a time at least. 

 

The ugly truths about how South Korea more or less deletes elderly from its system offers a revealing look into a sorry situation that triumphs with character brilliance and the deeply touching plight of those who wish to die. 

They find their answer in the Bacchus lady. 

The ending is sad indeed.  The slow pace offers a compelling reality whose film finale is anything but predictable or uplifting.

Receiving many Official Selections at various prestigious film festivals, it won best film and best actress accolades at Montréal’s 2016 Fantasia Film Festival.

                                                   

Saving Mr Wu (Directed by Ding Sheng) **

A Hong Kong movie star is kidnapped by four explosive criminals. The events in the film actually happened. Mr Wu actually will give a lot more money to the kidnappers if they allow the second man kidnapped victim to live. (Mr Wu arrives to find another kidnapped victim). The low-life thugs are on the verge of strangling him. 

Pretty terrifying stuff. Time is of the essence, and scenes cross jump from the time just before the abduction to the event and the final arresting of the thugs.

Shoot-outs, face-to hand violence and some amusing black comedy moments that capitalize on Mr Wu’s clever acting acumen still can’t save this film from shoddy suspense tricks.

  

                                        

             We can all guess the predictable ending that gives away the title. 

              Maybe, this Chinese film needs some of its own saving. 

                (screened at the 2016 New York Asian Film Festival)

OPERATION CHROMITE (Directed by Lee Jae-han)****+

Heroism of the most dangerous kind in Korea

 

            

Completely true, this bilingual film in Korean and English with subtitles, brings to the screen the outstanding heroic plot where South Korean navy Lieutenant, Captain Jang Hak-soo leads 7 men into North Korea, disguising themselves as true Korean communists in order to complete a mission of inestimable danger of infiltration. 

                                  

 Receiving their directives from General McArthur, they are to secure the land mine chart from the Korean commander’s office in order to lead McArthur with his boats into the North Korean army command centre in Incheon Bay, thereby liberating  a great part of South Korea But things go terribly wrong. Still undaunted, Hak-soo devises a plan with his loyal followers to kidnap Ryu Jang Choon – the second in command at the well- armed centre where shocking unexpected events present yet another horrid hurdle for these brave band of men to overcome.

 This film is not only action packed, but moving for human reasons that few of us could dare to experience. 

McArthur said, "Ideals are thicker than blood", and for both opposing sides, this was true.

DONGJU: A PORTRAIT OF A POET (Directed by Li Joon-ik) ***

Why must the good die young?

In this incredibly tragic  biopic film about Yun Dong-ju (December 30, 1917 – February 16, 1945), a young man born to be a poet, we see the Japanese colonization of Korea. Dong-ju and his best friend, Song Mong-gyoo are swept up in the resistance which landed them both in prison in 1943. 

 

Both the poet and the fighter – two loyal leaders of their own talents end up dying from injections of seaweed into their blood.

Six months after Dong-ju died in Fukuoka Prison in Kyoto, - a hellish hole where 1800 young people were “injected” into their deaths, Japan lost the war.

  

                                                                                                                                                            

The film juxtaposes the young men’s lives with their interrogation – especially that of Dong-ju. Most of this black and white movie is a dramatic recounting of their fight for freedom in different ways – one with poetic thoughts in words – the other planning armed resistance. 

 Dong-ju’s poems are sparse; ironically, they resemble Haiku – a minimalist form poetry in three lines, originating in Japan – the country Korea hated. 
This film was screened at the 2016 New York Asian Film Festival.

THE SOUND OF A FLOWER (Directed by Lee Jong-pil) ****

Beautiful and Unusual

This incredibly moving film with  both amusing and heart-wrenching scenes retells the true story of the life of Jin Chae-seon who became Joseon’s – a centuries-old kingdom in South Korea – first female singer to perform pansori – a form of robust opera bellowing recounting love stories and fables. The time is 1875. It was illegal for any pansori performer to be female; punishment for doing this was death to the master, and the film does indeed tread on this terrifying track.

Still, this cinematic wonder reveals itself like a blossoming flower, and Jin is that flower. In following and growing under her tough teacher’s tutelage and rigorous vocal training, she willfully thrusts herself into uncharted storms to find her true voice and love. This is a case of teacher/student devotion.

Her pansori master, Shin Jae-hyo trained his singers. When the young woman tricks him into taking her on as a student - she disguises herself as a man during a small performance - both end up risking their lives to perform in a national competition. It would seem that the impossible is possible according to the sad beginnings of how Jin rose to be an iconic figure of royalty, but like the song she sings, her heart belongs elsewhere.

Lyrically stunning, and not without a painful denouement with an ambiguous romantic finale, this love story is as enduring as the art form it brought to the screen, as part of the 2016 New York Asian Film Festival.

BLOOD FATHER (Directed by Jean-François Richet) ***

                                Family Ties End In Disastrous Retribution

The film is pretty lame when it comes to the first 30 minutes, when John Link’s daughter, Lydia, reunites after 14 years with her ex-con dad.  She’s a run-away from mom, and ends up with a drug cartel guy who uses her in a way that only her father can explain. A tattooist with a lonely heart buried in the bottle, his desire to discover why his daughter is so deep in danger leads to a thriller that shows off Mel Gibson’s grit, muscles and daughter-devotion that has its own deadly if not religiously lethal ending.

What you do in life comes back to hit you hard, and in Link’s loser life, it does. 

Gibson is a staunch Catholic; there are obvious reasons he accepted this role, other than wanting to be the guy that takes on the Mexican Mafia.

This film was screened at Montreal's Fantasia Festival.