Film Review : In Order of Disappearance (2014)

EIFF 2014 Review : Night Flight (2014, Ya-gan-bi-haeng)

EIFF 2014 Review : Honeymoon (2014)

Genre:
Horror
Distributor:
Arrow Films
Rating: 15
Screened:
27,28 June 2014 (EIFF)
12th September 2014 (UK Cinema)
Running Time:
87 Minutes
Director:
Leigh Jeniak
Cast:
Rose Leslie, Harry Treadaway, Ben Huber, Hanna Brown
For the most part, Leigh Janiak’s debut feature is a romantic melodrama in which its newlywed couple grapple with the overwhelming concept of what marriage really is.  It’s not long before things begin to go wrong; thin slivers of doubt creep in and the whole film’s central relationship seems hopelessly stranded on the shores of an isolated lake retreat. Of course none of this means anything unless we care, and thanks to the fantastic pacing of the mystery and the intimate portrayal of the couple, we are very much drawn into the atmosphere of romance way before any kind of horror catches our attention.

Even then, the horror of Honeymoon is creeping and quiet, lies and secrets pervade an initially honest portrayal of love. Janiak’s genius is in her ability to juggle the possible effects and sources of this doubt and anxiety. You’re never sure who’s flipped their lid since both of the sickeningly sweet lovers shows signs of stress. Bea (Rose Leslie) seems to feel the strain of marriage first, slipping into schizophrenia, whilst Paul’s attempts to hold things together reveal an uncomfortable and desperate love for his wife. Both are dangerous to some extent but neither see the real crunch coming. Maybe that’s why the last act seems to lose grip on that tension: the answer will never be as interesting as the mystery. The actual reveal is pretty well done, but still feels like a lesser answer to a far more intriguing set of questions. If the film had stayed on the straight and narrow, maintained a more psychological slant, then this would have maintained its air of disturbia right up until the bitter end.

In the end Honeymoon proves itself a despairingly pessimistic essay on the alienating effects of marriage. Janiak executes her horror drama with impressive gusto, orchestrating the collapse of this marriage with tension and terror. Placid camera work, startling night-time sequences, and two fantastic lead performances make this an incredibly uncomfortable yet totally impressive feature debut.

★★★★
Scott Clark

EIFF 2014 Film Review : Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case (2013)

Genre:
Documentary
Rating: 15
Running Time:
87 minutes
Screened:
24, 27th June 2014 (EIFF)
Director:
Andreas Johnsen
Cast:
Andreas Johnsen, Ai Weiwei
Last year I was lucky enough to catch the tale-end of a Toronto exhibit of Ai Weiwei’s work. It was the first time I’d laid eyes on the renowned Chinese artist’s stuff but even then you can see the acidic commentary on the Chinese government clean off the bat.  Andreas Johnsen’s insightful documentary proves an educational look at the inspirational man behind the work, but most of all a disturbing glimpse into what fuels his message.

From the beginning of The Fake Case, Weiwei is a picture of composure: dignified, friendly, wise, considerate, a family man. It is unsettling then to learn of his incarceration at the hands of a totalitarian government who kept him isolated for 80 days in a blank room with 3 guards, then released him unceremoniously to continue persecuting him. The intended message is clear: no one fucks with the Chinese government.

Yet, Weiwei does.

Struggling against the titanic force of a 1984 caricature, a party so villainous it’s a real life version of Orwell’s dystopian nightmare, Weiwei remains zen and considerate, even mischievous, finding a few opportunities to stand defiant in front of his persecutors. Johnsen’s camera shows much of the enigmatic artist, his family, his life post-prison, the ominous control the government still exerts on Weiwei and his supporters, but the overwhelming amount of support he garners from the world and his fellow countrymen alike. The sounds of the Hong Kong cityscape play loud and ominous through distressing segments of the film, most notably during a display of Weiwei’s work at the end of the film.

This is a film that has to be seen, not simply as a fantastic account of Weiwei and his methods, but as a frankly terrifying look at the corruption inherent in an empire and the potential turning of a tide against it.

★★★★☆
Scott Clark

EIFF 2014 Review : Aberdeen( Heung gong jai,2014)

Genre:
Drama, World Cinema
Rating: 15
Screened:
20, 22nd June 2014(EIFF)
Director:
Ho-Cheung Pang
Cast:
Miriam Yeung, Louis Koo, Gigi Leung, Eric Tsang, Ng Man-tat, Carrie Ng
Though Pang Ho-cheung’s Aberdeen is very much a Chinese film about Hong Kong, it refuses to alienate its audience by making its focus specific issues of Chinese life. Aberdeen is essentially a film about relationships in the contemporary world told through the parallel and intertwining lives of the people in one family. On each level of the family’s infrastructure the camera picks out key details: a lonesome daughter’s midnight snacks, a father’s gender-centric obsessing, an uncle’s indifferent cheating, and a grandfather’s bliss in later life. Here the family is its own source of anxiety and its own salvation.

Ho-cheung’s Hong Kong is one of colours and life, a buzzing hive of activity where events collide and erupt to produce new scenarios. Here, family life spirals out of control and is ,time and time again wrenched close to some kind of epiphany only for life to inevitably stumble in the way. All of this is shown in a gorgeous Technicolor palate which, along with the fantastic pace of the story, produces an odd travel documentary feel to some of the film. At other points the camera floats through a miniature of Hong Kong shot in hues of purple, red, orange and green, a weird dreamscape where the camera retreats at points of transition. As with most details in the film, even this space plays an important narrative role later in the film.  Ho-cheung utilizes a zany sense of fate to keep all events integral to the story at some point or another.

In the end the film proves it has some slightly backwards ideas about its resolution, yet overall it’s a heart-warming story of life, love, and family. Ho-cheung seems to want the audience, like the family, to understand that equilibrium is an impossibility but that’s not a bad thing at all.

A ponderous cross-section of life in contemporary Hong Kong, spinning through the realities of everyday life whilst tackling some hefty ideas on what family means. Aberdeen is clean and colourful, inquisitive, and honest to the end.

★★★1/2☆

Scott Clark