"Now to address what I actually did get to see!
MondayMy arrival in Montreal was particularly smooth this year. I was fortunate to book a package which included a room at the festival headquarters. My lodgings were going to be more upscale than what I have come to expect and my location was going to be better. This was an important consideration as I was to be on foot for the whole week and the festival had switched locations. The Parisien Cinema was abandoned for a new complex in the Latin Quartier. While I missed the Parisien, the new cinema was nice as well featuring stadium seating in a few auditoriums.
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My other surprise wasn't nearly as pleasant, my preliminary schedule was thrown into disarray because some of my screenings were sold out already. After making some quick corrections, I was ready for my walk to the Latin Quartier to begin festing.
The Forest Ranger Tian gou
Wounded during military service and now forced to walk with a limp, Li Tiangou finds work as a guard in a remote state-owned forest. When he first moves there with his wife and young son, Li is given a warm welcome. There is an elaborate welcoming ceremony and several villagers come to his house bearing gifts. But it doesn't take long for the welcome to grow cold. When Li looks out over the forests he is supposed to guard, he discovers that they have been ravaged by indiscriminate cutting. He understands the purpose of the gifts and accepts no more. Li's principled behaviour begins to upset some of the locals. In particular the three Kong brothers, who have gotten rich from years of illegal logging and from bullying anyone who opposed their methods. When their plan to buy Li off fails, the Kongs declare war on the new ranger, cutting off his supply of water and electricity. They humiliate Li's wife and abduct his son. But Li sticks to his guns. Literally. He guards the forest armed with an old weapon and a crippled leg. The nefarious brothers round up their henchmen and plot a showdown. Violence seems inevitable... A Chinese action-adventure hero pic. My notes say the film reminded me of Life is Beautiful in spots. I thought it also had elements of American westerns of years past. It certainly was a different kind of Chinese film than what I had seen before. Li's son, Yangzi, is given moderate screen time. There was also an appearance by a village boy Huzi whose problem with incontinence was dealt with in a sensitive manner by our hero. Only the ending disappointed with a final scene so mawkish it belonged in a Filippino or Korean movie instead.
Rating : 7/10
Boy Actors: Two, but will require someone's help (maybe Zork?) to identify
Content Alert: Violence
(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links) (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)Under the IceUnter dem eis
Jenny and Michael and their 7-year-old son Tim live in a house in the suburbs. When Sandra, her husband Günther and their small daughter Luzi move into the neighbourhood, Jenny helps them to settle in. One day, when Tim and Luzi are secretly playing in the woods, Luzi is killed. It is a tragic accident, but circumstances might lead others to conclude that Tim was somehow implicated, so Jenny covers it up. She pretends that Tim wasn't there and warns him not to tell anyone the truth. Not even to his own father, who, as a police detective, is in charge of the case. Tim obeys but hiding a secret of this enormity has consequences. On him, on his mother and on everyone in contact with them... This film was a tad disappointing. In it we watch the deterioration of Tim due to the manipulations of his mother. There is a suggestion here that Tim has been turned into a monster that society will have to deal with in the future due to the trauma of the cover up. Like many European films, this one failed to resolve the story; something that I think would have been helpful in this case. Adrian Wahlen, who plays Tim has a central role in the film. If I find better stills, this film will have a BA profile.
Rating : 6/10
Boy Actor: Adrian Wahlen
Content Alert: Nudity
(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links) (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links) (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links) (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)Shanghai RedZhu Meili, mother of an 8-year-old boy, is a widow who lives in a rapidly changing Shanghai. Her husband was killed and she feels guilty. When we first meet Meili, she is dressed in a red Qi-pao dress, a gift from her husband on their last night together. She is on her way to kill Li, one of the men she believes responsible for her husband's death. SHANGHAI RED follows Meili during the last days of her freedom, a traditional woman buffetted by the winds of modernization, conflicted by loyalty, love, guilt and motherhood. Recounting her story to her court-appointed lawyer, Meili explains that her acts were those of a mother and a wife, not a murderer. "I made one considerable mistake, then it was easy to make many more." The lawyer, struggling with his own social and domestic issues, advises Meili not to recount her personal story but to limit herself to the series of events that have led to her being charged with several counts of murder. Instead, Meili forces the lawyer to confront the reality of his failed marriage, his antipathy to his mother and his contempt for his father's personal weaknesses. The roles of men and women are changing very rapidly in contemporary China. A Chinese-American co-production this film was an interesting effort. It fell onto my schedule due to the film I wanted to see being sold out, but I'm glad I got to see it. Lu Yao, who plays the protagonist's son, has a fair amount of screen time and the story held my interest throughout.
While preachy in spots, the film made an interesting comment about the protagonist's devotion deriving from her guilt rather than from her love. A profound point which worked for me in this film, but destroyed my outlook on another film later in the fest.
Boy Actor : Lu Yao
Official Site :
(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)The Little FugitiveWith his father in prison and his mother working long hours at a nursing home, Lenny, age 11, is burdened with the responsibility of looking after his younger brother, Joey, age 7. Lenny and his friends plan to celebrate his 12th birthday at Coney Island on the Cyclone rollercoaster -- which Joey is too small to ride. When Joey defies Lenny's order to stay at home, Lenny devises a cruel joke, intending to teach his little brother a lesson. The joke goes too far. Believing that he has shot and killed his older brother, Joey runs away to Coney Island, thinking he can never go home again. As night falls and Joey does not return, Lenny fears the worst. He regrets his actions and becomes more and more desperate to find his little brother -- unharmed. My last screening of the night was going to be the time when josephk would be available to join me. He opted out of this screening however so I was left to endure this alone. This retelling of a true American classic joins the Bad News Bears as one of the worst remakes of the last few years. It takes all that was right with the original and craps all over it.
While a modern director may have felt that making the main cast Hispanic was more in keeping with the times, did she need to include prison scenes, perp walks, rampant foul language, a mother who abandoned her sons so she could go to Atlantic City and gamble, a father character who was a dwarf, and a pony man (Brendan Sexton III
) who was a child molester. All of the subtlety in the original film is gone here. With all of the hostility and negativity depicted, Lenny's attitudinal 180 into the caring brother who wouldn't be able to live if anything happened to Joey is completely unbelievable.
Another Zabladowski pet peeve, Lenny's two friends in the movie were approximately 18 years old - another deviation from the original story that was not welcomed by this reviewer at all.
Although I thought the screenplay was a complete failure, David Castro gives a reasonable performance as Joey.
This alone is responsible for me not rating this mess a zero.
Rating : 3/10
Boy Actors; David Castro, Nicolas Salgado
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Montreal World Film Festival 2006 (Read 4,996 times)
