Movie reviews

FIVE FLAVOURS FILM FESTIVAL

FRUIT CHAN MASTERCLASS

Many people left Hong Kong after the 1997 handover to China. He decided to stay for the film world. The director says Kieślowski had impact on him so in Poland he went to bow at the Polish director's grave.
Fruit Chan shot "香港製造" ("Made in Hong Kong") on tape so that no one would get interested in what he was doing. He used old tapes because of the cost. The film was successful all over Asia but was never shown in China. He has observed that young people always have a lot of emotions, at this age everything touches you. He's remarked that a reward in Locarno gives you more than Berlin or other. Hong Kong is home for many workers from the Philippines. Typhoons, SARS, demonstrations - something strikes Hong Kong every few years.
"榴槤飄飄" ("Durian Durian") title because it stinks but is nourishing. The shops which did mafia business had their little cameras so he was shooting hiding his movie camera. The children then acted more natural too. He always finds young actors through street castings which leads to conflicts with professional ones who have to work with them. The relationship of a child with a hooker in two of his films came from his imagination, not real life. After 1997 there was a wave of young girls coming to Hong Kong and Shenzhen, all of them have a history, most very sad. They all hope for a rich sponsor. They spend the money on family - in China women care about family more than men do. Queues of girls eager to act in the third part of the trilogy on prostitutes gathered in a few cities but he couldn't find the right one. 17 years later he decided: "Let's finally do it." and found a girl straightaway. She only had to put on weight so she ate hamburgers daily. He had told her she'd become famous but had asked if there would be no problem with her boss. Little nudity is displayed in Chinese movies. But in his third film there's lots of sex and nudity - by an actress cast in a supporting role. It was a bigger problem to make men undress. The director makes "more and more unabashed movies".
I asked about the inspiration for "餃子" ("Dumplings"). So, Chinese people believe that animal body parts cure their own respective body parts: chicken wings are supposed to be good for hands, chicken legs for people's legs and fish eye balls are to give you perfect vision even in water. That's why foetuses from abortions are believed to make you young. 
He's probably never met a woman using such a rejuvenating treatment. Probably, because he once had a meal cooked by an abortionist but he was warned by someone not to drink what she had prepared. He stopped seeing her after that.


ASS.DEATH.DICKS (PRONOUNCED: AESTHETICS) EP. 1

Watchable. While Horacy Muszyński's exhibition, dealing with competitiveness, the art world, people's personal boundaries and the waste be leave behind in a CSI-like scene, scared me and blew me away at the same time, the short film series is an interesting part of the artwork, though worse technically. Visually, it's a class B horror, yet with an artistic commentary. Vivid personalities made you curious. And when the first episode ends violently after just 15 minutes, you can't wait to see the next ones of the serial planned for 6 altogether. Still, it looks like the episodes will come up once every few months and will premiere in different cities.