Tartan Asia Extreme Tour 2005 Roundup.

[trevor826]

This years tour was pretty consistent with previous years, last year we had outstanding films like "The Isle" and the better than average "A Tale of Two Sisters" but also a few very weak ones like "Into the Mirror" and Hideo Nakata's "Chaos". I was really pleased to see that even though there was only one Japanese film, it was from a director who has a unique style and vision, Shinya Tsukamoto.

Korea may be the "latest thing" but Japan are still the leaders for innovation in Asian cinema.

As for this years films, these were my opinions:

Most entertaining – One Night in Mongkok (http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=13186&highlight=mongkok#post13186)
Most satisfying – Vital (http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=13223#post13223)
Most extreme and most wasteful – Ab-normal Beauty (http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=13266#post13266)
Most baffling (and not neccessarily in a positive way!) – Tell Me Something (http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=13180#post13180)
Most disappointing – R-Point (http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=13153#post13153)

My personal favourite – Vital

Since I didn’t see “Another Public Enemy” I’ll have to reserve judgement.

Cheers Trev.

[oscar jubis]

Thank you for your huge contributions to this site, particularly regarding Asian cinema. I've seen (often on import dvd) a substantial number of the films you have reviewed and consistently agree with your opinions. I'd like to take a couple of minutes (before Hurricane Wilma leaves me in the dark) to register a rare, contrasting point of view.

It concerns Yoon-Hyun Chang's Tell Me Something, a South Korean film I watched several years ago (the film is now available as a region 1 dvd for those interested).
As movies about serial murders go, it's as good as any I've seen. I might actually prefer it to both Se7en and The Silence of the Lambs, to mention 2 popular and well-received films. It's set during a steamy, rain-drenched summer as plastic bags containing limbs from more than one corpse are turning up around Seoul. Detective Jo, fresh from an Internal Affairs investigation, is told to set up a special unit to investigate. Reavealing more of its dense plot would only spoil the experience, as Chang invites the viewer along for the investigation.

I think I understand Trevor's characterization of Tell Me Something as baffling. The film demands one's undivided, focused attention for 118 minutes of complex plotting. The film eschews the story-so-far recap scenes commonly used to refresh audience's memories. The narrative is structured in a way that delays the viewer finding satisfaction in the piecing together of clues, although it proves entirely satisfying and resonant once it gets there. I'm referring to the exposition stage of storytelling, which is longer than usual here. Moreover, Tell Me Something features little dialogue (an asset for those adverse to subtitles) so the picture requires an unusual attention to visual information. Tell Me Something is very stylish without ever showing off, with low-key performances perfectly suited to its sense of horrific foreboding. It's the rare thriller that gets better the more you think about it, and repays repeat viewings handsomely.

[trevor826]

Thanks Oscar, I will see Tell Me Something again when it's finally released on dvd as it certainly deserves a second look.

Another problem with this and a couple of the other films that I failed to mention was the subtitles. Tartan slipped up pretty badly by not re-doing the subs, there were times when the audience were laughing during a couple of the films because the subs made little if any sense. I'm certainly not used to seeing a slip up like this from a company like Tartan and it hasn't happened before with their releases. Maybe that's why only one of the films has a dvd release date so far.

Cheers Trev.