The screening burn out is starting to set in kids, but not to fear: today saw the arrival of the best film of my Cannes experience so far. But before I get to that I shall begin with notes on a few promos in the market.
First, as stated yesterday, I made checking out Painted Skin a priority today. Now, when this was first announced there was mixed in with a good amount of excitement also a certain amount of sighing and wondering why the world needs another glossy neo-wuxia film. Well, let me say this. After watching the promo I immediately turned to the man with me from the production company and said, “Wow. They haven’t made a film like this in Hong Kong for a long time.” To which he simply smiled and said, “I know.” This one’s way more Bride With White Hair than Hero and it looks very promising.
Also up on the Hong Kong action tip, I got to check out a promo made up of completely raw footage for Wu Jing’s Legendary Assassin. Beyond the fact that it was still in very rough form and graced with one of the most hilariously over the top bits of English narration ever – apparently done a bit tongue in cheek – it looks decently well shot and there is certainly no shortage of action in this movie. Nope. And it’s all old fashioned Hong Kong ass whuppin – fists and feet meeting faces. Wu must’ve been tired.
The surprising promo of the day came at the Monte Cristo booth – where J-horror flick End Call is looking remarkably well shot and effective despite coming so late in that particular game – with Quick Gun Murugan. I have no idea where to even begin with this. It’s an Indian live action adaptation of a popular children’s cartoon about a garishly dressed, gun slinging vegetarian activist cowboy who guns down the enemies of cattle everywhere. This looks daft beyond words and quite possibly in a very good way. The scene where Murugan sprouts the eight arms of Shiva to gun down his opponents faster is just priceless …
High on the promo list tomorrow: Yip Man and Inhabited Island.
Okay … full length screenings: Som Tum also daft beyond words and pretty inconsistent but Nathan Jones actually makes for a decently charming lunk and one of the young female leads is clearly being groomed as another female action star for the studio following the success of Chocolate. There are a number of good background fighters as well.
Nightmare Detective 2 is a good bit more experimental than the initial installment and is much more an exploration of the character than the sort of good guy / bad guy pursuit that the first film was – there’s not a true villain in the film per se – which will frustrate some fans of Tsukamoto and thrill others. I’m definitely on the positive side. Loads of impressive visuals, Matsuda brings some new layers to the part and nobody understands the bizarre logic of dreams better than Tsukamoto.
The big winner, however, was clearly JCVD which not only won the day but is far and away the best of the fifteen films I’ve seen here so far and I seriously doubt anything will knock it off its perch. It’s less laugh-out-loud funny than it is very, very clever – which I think will be a big positive in terms of staying power and is certainly not to say that you won’t laugh a good bit during it – and is notably absent some scenes that were included in the early promos but this thing is just plain great on every level. If Van Dammes’ goal was to recreate himself with this film than you can declare that mission a complete and total success. He not only shows that he’s still got the action star goods but he also turns in – gasp! – a dramatic performance with some serious depth and proves himself a natural comic who doesn’t need to rely on cheap punch lines. Beautifully shot and edited with a kick ass soundtrack and did I mention that it’s very, very smart? Because it is. And as an added – and very unexpected and unannounced surprise – Van Damme himself was in the room for the screening and seemed rather surprised and embarrassed, though still very gracious, when spotted. He gave a wave and shook a few hands before hustling down to a rear exit once things wrapped. And in response to the lady-friend’s repeated “queries” about why I don’t take more pictures when traveling, I proudly present this photograph of Jean Claude Van Damme’s left ear.