Yes, kids, it’s Todd from a href="http://www.twitchfilm.net" target="_">Twitch here and after a week enjoying the sun, sand and insanely overpriced everything of the Cannes Film Festival I’m back with the latest installation of International Eye Candy – our regular look at cinematic goings on from around the globe. What have we got this week? The Korean spaghetti western THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE WEIRD! The latest from Johnnie To and Takashi Miike! A big ass Russian scifi epic! French gangsters and more!
This column composed to the sounds of Grinderman. I blame any spelling or grammatical errors on Nick Cave. All the smart bits are mine, though.
I’m freshly back from France so lets start there with L’INSTICT DU MORT – that’d be DEATH INSTINCT for the French impaired – starring Vincent Cassell. This is part one of a two part bio-pic with ol’ Vince starring as real life globe trotting gangster Jacques Mesrine, whose criminal ways spanned a number of continents. Cassell’s always good, the subject matter here is strong, the attention to detail just looks sterling … yep, this is a good one.
You’ll find the trailer here
From real life gangsters to severely disable serial killers … there’s a transition you’ll only get here. LATE BLOOMER is the name of the film, a hugely acclaimed picture out of Japan that won a fistful of international awards on the festival circuit a few years back before sitting on the shelf for a couple years due to music rights issues. Those are all cleared up now, though, and the film is coming to these shores soon enough. The big hook in this one is that the lead character – the aforementioned serial killer – is portrayed by a man who really is severely disabled in real life. There’s nothing fake about it and the end result is something startlingly intimate and truly disturbing. And it was worth the wait for the music … the soundtrack’s great.
You’ll find the trailer here
From Japan we head to Hong Kong where we find Johnnie To and his forever-in-production pickpocket drama SPARROW. It took years to make – To shot it while on breaks from other projects – but it’s finally done and dividing critics as it hits the major festivals. The Euro audiences – who generally know the breadth of To’s work better than audiences here – seem to love it while the American folks see Simon Yam in a Johnnie To picture, expect high octane action and leave disappointed. This aint ELECTION or EXILED, instead To’s made a lyrical little film that’ll reward those who come to it in the right frame of mind.
You’ll find the trailer here
Okay, I’ve kind of fallen in love with this one over the last week or so, but who can blame me? The film is QUICK GUN MURUGAN, a loopy Indian picture about a “Karmic Cowboy” sworn to uphold vegetarianism and protect cattle drawn into a six-guns-blazing battle with the head of an international restaurant chain intent on dominating the world market for beef filled dosas. It’s goofy beyond words and very stylish. There’s no proper trailer yet but the character has appeared in a series of television ads in India and we’ve got one of those for you.
Click here to get those guns blazing
Just a second! That’s Vin Diesel! Why is a Vin Diesel movie in an International Eye Candy column!?! Because the film in question is BABYLON AD, the new scifi epic from Mathieu Kassovitz – the director of LA HAINE and CRIMSON RIVERS. The production of this has been plagued with rumors of strife between Diesel and his director – the casting of Diesel definitely ended the friendship of Kassovitz and regular leading actor Vincent Cassell – and Fox has taken their scissors to it a bit but there are now a pair of teasers out and both look quite good.
You’ll find both teasers here
SHAOLIN GIRL – the officially sanctioned Japanese sequel to hit Hong Kong comedy SHAOLIN SOCCER – has appeared in this column before but it’s back again, this time with a full, English subtitled trailer. So now you can tell what Kou Shibasaki is actually saying rather than just eyeing her up. But you’ll keep doing that, too. The young BATTLE ROYALE actress stars here as a Japanese girl returning home after studying kung fu in the Shaolin temple and putting her skills to use on the lacrosse field.
You’ll find the trailer here
Time to change gears here with something a bit more serious, recent Cannes entry THREE MONKEYS. Turkey’s Nuri Bilge Ceylan has become one of that country’s best known exports despite not doing much business at all in his home nation, turning heads with intimate stories of broken down family life just impeccably well shot. If you ever get into an argument with a film purist who insists that digital can never look as good as analog film stock, Ceylan’s a good guy to use as a counter argument because this guy shoots brilliant stuff on HD.
You can check out the pretty pictures here
Aaaaaaaaand serious moment over.
KILLDROID. Filipino scifi sexploitation film about a school girl reviving a killer android abandoned in a forgotten military program. Do you need to know more? It’s from director Rico Maria Ilarde and Mondo Macabro – the same company that produced Pakistani splatter picture HELL’S GROUND – and though the film is not yet in production they did shoot a concept reel for it that certainly got my attention. This reel was done in a single day but, yeah, I want to see this movie …
Check the robotic sex and violence here
Okay, remember the title INHABITED ISLAND because you’re going to be hearing a lot of it. The film is a mammoth, two part affair that sports the largest budget in the history of Russian film; the director Fyodor Bondarchuk, who turned an awful lot of heads with his earlier war picture 9TH COMPANY; the source material a story by the Strugatsky Brothers, who also wrote what would become the classic scifi picture STALKER. Three tiny little teasers appeared a few months back but the first proper trailer has just arrived and the scope of what Bondarchuk is doing here is truly impressive.
Check the trailer and teasers out here
I say Takashi Miike and those of you out there who know his name are likely already sold. But GOD’S PUZZLE is a good bit different than his work on ICHI THE KILLER or AUDITION or the like. This one is a mainstream targeted scifi romance about a slacker guitar player forced into a working relationship with a physics prodigy so don’t expect buckets of blood and gore, though the trailers certainly say there’s some trademark Miike visual goofing around going on. Earlier trailers got this one mentioned in this column before and there’s a new one out now that makes it worth returning to.
Check out all the trailers here
Okay, we’re in the home stretch now but before we call it a day we must make a trip to Denmark for KANDIDATEN, a new thriller starring Nikolaj Lie Kaas – one of my very favorite actors in the world – and Kim Bodnia of PUSHER fame. Denmark’s got a bit of a noir boom on right now and it looks good on them, there have been a handful of really stellar entries in the genre over the past couple years. KANDIDATEN looks to be yet another stellar entry into the noir ledger with a potent brew of sex, violence, blackmail and a cast that just won’t quit. Very nice.
You’ll find the trailer here
And we finally arrive at the big gun for this entry in the ol’ IEC archives: the full trailer for Kim Ji Woon’s Korean spaghetti western THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE WEIRD. Kim’s one of the best things going in Korean film – he previously directed A BITTERSWEET LIFE, A TALE OF TWO SISTERS and THE FOUL KING – and expectations have been positively huge for this one thanks to his name and an absolutely spectacular cast anchored by Lee Byung Hyun (JSA, A BITTERSWEET LIFE, coming to America in GI JOE) and Song Kang Ho (THE HOST, MEMORIES OF MURDER). This one closed out Cannes after I’d already left, which hurt bad, and the trailer makes it clear that Kim’s visual skills are in full effect for this one. Tasty.
You’ll find the trailer here
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