Category: Movies

Sadly, there was no day 7. Blame it on general inability to overcome obstacles in life. If I can get any more general and cryptic…

Der Aufenthalt
German Democratic Republic 1983, Frank Beyer, 102?

It is the summer of 1945. At a train station in Warsaw, literally moments before being loaded onto a train back to Germany, Mark Niebuhr, who has only been a German soldier for sixth months and is as innocent as you can be in this situation, gets falsely recognised by a Polish woman as the soldier who murdered her daughter. He is taken to a Polish prison where he is at first mistreated and made to do the most dangerous work around, but he tries to adapt to it and please his guards so his conditions slowly improve, but then he breaks his arm and is moved into a cell with other Germans. At first, this looks like an improvement, but in reality this is where his ordeal really starts.

I am highly impressed. With this kind of story it is very hard not to cross the thin line between presenting the reality of a deeply scarred and understandably resentful Polish people and self-pitying the Germans who got their more than fair share of hate and distrust after the war. Beyer and Kohlhaase, who wrote the script based on a POW’s novel about his own experience, succeed very well in showing the terror of being falsely accused by people who seemingly are only interested in indiscriminate vengeance, while still managing to show that these were normal people, even in their harsh reactions. Mark’s polish guard for example, treats him like a human being and while he is hard on him, he rewards Mark’s attempts at obeying him and treats him like a regular prisoner, the actual mistreatment is only done by the political officers.
Where the film really shines however, is the second part: The Germans in his new cell, ranging from a Wehrmacht general, Gestapo officer and regular criminals to a Dutch gardener who insists that while he was in Auschwitz he was only responsible for the tulips, are the really bad people. All of them deny that they did something wrong. The more prominent ones, with a law background even discuss how shooting hostages was a perfectly fine thing to do and are outraged how anyone could see this as a crime in times of war. The cell is basically fascist Germany en miniature and through this concentration it is even worse. A highly interesting movie on a very controversial time and subject, I heartily recommend it to anyone who knows at least a bit about the situation back then.

Fin (The End)
Spain 2010, Luis Sampieri, 89?

Three kids who met online get together to go on something that looks like a hiking trip. Of course we know it’s nothing like that…

Spanish-speaking films this year don’t like me. Or the other way round. I was so glad, when they finally died! This was such an unbelievably boring exercise in drawn-out, unnecessarily long mood shots that delivered no mood at all, so devoid af any action and just infuriating instead of creating understanding for the characters that I just don’t know how this could get invited to the Berlinale. It lacks everything a slow-paced mood-shot movie needs to have to make itself interesting. Even the cinematography was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, if it were you could at least call it an exercise in style. Right now it’s an exercise in wasting: Their money and my money, their time and my time.

First of all I’m terribly sorry for taking so long with these reviews. I really wasn’t in the mood to write anything and I’m still not, but I should get this written down, or I’ll forget too much of my impressions.

Kawa no Soko kara Konnichiwa (Sawako Decides, ??????????)
Japan 2009, Yuya Ishii, 112?

Sawako’s fifth year in Tokyo: Fifth job, fifth boyfriend and still no plans for the rest of her life. Locked in her apathy she somehow lives through her days, until her uncle calls to tell her that her father is terminally ill and wants her to come back. Hearing this, her boyfriend Kenichi, an untalented toy designer working at the same company who also wants her to become his daughter Kayoko’s new mother, decides for the three of them to move to Sawako’s hometown to take over the family business. Sawako and her patchwork family now have to face the village community that sees her as a traitor after running away five years ago with her then-boyfriend…

Yes, this is indeed the delightfully expressionless main girl from Ai no mukidashi. For the amazingly apathetic and aimless Sawako however, she is the perfect choice. While the average Asian actor is great at looking apathetic or disconnected she takes it to new levels, her “I guess it can’t be helped.” is the essence of apathy. On the other end, her eruption of decisiveness near the end is also done really well.
The movie is full of absurdly comical situations and while it is serious in its message it is incredibly entertaining at that with its many running gags and comical situations, like the unfaithful fisherman running away to Tokyo with the obese Tokyo student… Also, it succeeds in something quite unusual: While Sawako has serious flaws and really is the “lower-middle” character she states to be, she is easily the most likeable character (apart from Kyoko-chan maybe. :3 ), because of all the people she is the most true to herself and her change seems quite realistic in that she still retains many of her bad qualities at the end of the story, while coming to accept her limitations and really trying her best to live the best life possible for her with these faults.
In the end, the movie has a very simple message: Realise your limits, do your best within them and be proud of that. Surprisingly, this rather resigned-sounding message turns out to be really positive.

Caterpillar (??????)
Japan 2010, Kouji Wakamatsu, 85?

It is 1940 and Lieutenant Kurokawa comes back to his hometown, after earning three medals, while losing all of his extremities and becoming deaf for that. The whole family is shocked, especially his wife Shigeko, who is bullied into caring for him under the pretense of doing it “for the country” and to “serve as an example of a good soldier’s wife”. The story shows how deeply brainwashed people can become in times of war and how absurd the ensuing situations are.

Why, Kouji Wakamatsu, why? The movie starts with cheerful military music on a background of footage from the Japanese-Chinese war, which sets up a nice ironic mood. Then, we are presented with a group of Japanese soldiers burning and raping a Chinese village, which is quite brave for a Japanese movie, so we’re off to a good start. In the main part, the agony of our “War God” and his wife are shown with simple, yet very efficient and well-chosen pictures, with the sex scenes being intentionally repulsive and the general tone quite depressive and suffocating. Their feelings came out really well, although sometimes the rape flashbacks were a little obvious and unintentionally comic. Generally however, Kurokawa’s and Shigeko’s conflicts (with themselves and with each other) were fleshed out very well. Also, the absurdity of a community brainwashed by propaganda was depicted through the many rallies and simple things like fire drills which looked quite absurd as they only seemed to waste water.
So the first 80 minutes worked out great, then came the one thing that ruined the movie for me: Japanese self-pity. How can you state the number of people killed by the A-bombs without any commentary on why this happened? That’s like Germans saying: OMG, we lost so many people in the war, how could this happen? It’s not like you were a poor, peace-loving country invaded by evil Americans. You can debate whether the bombs were the best course of action, but you can not debate the fact that you started the war and that they came for a reason… And to top it off, he states that over a thousand war criminals were hanged “just for defending their country”. I don’t know how you define “defending” in this context, but I think conquering half of the Pacific and raping and killing millions of people does not count as “defending”.
If you want to watch this, go on. The Silver Bear for the main actress is fully deserved and it really is a great movie, just turn it off when you see the walls of text at the end…

En Ganske Snill Mann (A Somewhat Gentle Man)
Norway 2010, Hans Petter Moland, 90?

Ulrik is released from prison after spending twelve years for murder. He rents a room in a basement, his old gangster “friend” and boss welcomes him with a potted plant, he even finds work at a garage and learns that his son is doing well and tries to reconnect with him. Everyone around him says that he deserves a second chance and it looks like they mean it. But his old boss wants him to kill Kenny, the man who is supposed to be responsible for Ulriks time in prison and somehow it seems like he doesn’t really have Ulrik’s interest in mind. And all the people who seemingly wish him well and are supposed to give him a second chance somehow don’t live up to their own standards…

Aaaah, Scandinavian black humour comedy, how I love you! This movie es everything you would expect from its description and country of origin: it is packed with the usual absurdity and dead-pan humour we’re accustomed to and the execution of it is definitely one of the better ones in recent years. If you’re into this sort of movie, a definite recommendation!

I was supposed to watch three movies, but I didn’t dare to, because the first two were so good that the risk of “ruining” the day was too big. Besides, they were all films from the official competition, so I will be able to see them later on DVD.

OMG, the mashup-trailers, the things with the dancing people I was telling you about, you can stream them here!

Golden Slumber (??????????)
Japan 2010, Yoshihiro Nakamura, 139?

Aoyagi meets up with his old college buddy Morita. On the same day the new prime minister, the first from an opposing party, holds a parade thorugh the city streets. While they talk, Morita reveals to Aoyagi that he was set up to be framed for something and Morita was forced to be part of this. Seconds later, the prime minister’s car explodes and suddenly all police is closing in on Aoyagi. He manages to flee and tries to get help from his small circle of college friends and receives it also in quite unexpected places and situations…

OK, that will be a hard one. I know I wholeheartedly adore this movie, it put me in great mood afterwards and really moved me, but I can not exactly say why. Was it the unwavering solidarity between the four college friends? Was it the heartfelt sympathy from complete strangers? (I mean, come on, a serial killer?) The tragic of it all, mixed with so much humor? Was it the end? Either way, this was a very strong and fresh approach on the theme of a single fugitive man, fighting against the whole government. And while it had this genuinely American goverment-sceptic setup the whole execution made it something very uniquely Japanese. Also, the suspense was done just right and the soundtrack played a great part to enrich the flashbacks and some of the quieter scenes of his escape.
I may be wrong in seeing a trend, but this is the second Japanese movie this year that was political in its message. While Kanikousen was overtly hyperpolitical, this one did have no overt message, only a quite opinionated tone, it surprises me to see a movie targeting political issues so much. My special Japanese friend however told me that she was in Japan during the recent elections and there was quite a lot of optimism and a longing to discuss more and more (political) issues openly, because the long-ruling (not anymore) LDP is so fervently hated for its ties to business lobbies and big corporations.

You Yi Tian (One Day, ???)
Taiwan 2010, Hou Chi-jan, 93?

Sin’ging works on ferry from Kaohsiung to Kinmen, where one night she dreams about a young soldier who says he will meet her again and be her boyfriend. While she doesn’t believe him, he turns out to be right…

This is the cutest movie I’ve seen in a long time, awwwww! <3 Also: World premiere, I was there! Two rows behind the unbelievably cute main girl! <3 Some (not cute) girls sitting beside me were commenting on how the movie dragged out the scenes. Either I’m into slow movies far too much by now or they were stupid, because I couldn’t disagree more. While it was in fact anything than fast paced I didn’t think the scenes were unnecessary or dragged out. I guess they were just immune against the unbelievably cute atmosphere this unbelievably cute couple had… I’ll stop with the “unbelievably cute” now, although it is the truth! Honestly, 90 minutes felt like a good amount time of time to tell the story. Of course you could have left out about 10 minutes or so, but it really would have hurt the atmosphere. Those details and conversations were important to flesh out the relationship between the two, so you would feel more at the end. (Dear Argentinian director: please watch this movie to learn how out-of-focus is done right.) Speaking of style, I found it to be quite wongkarwai-ish in how it sometimes used shots with no clear focus that only served the purpose of delivering a certain emotion or mood. The director also succeeded quite admirably in blurring the line between reality and dream: It always took some time to see what was real and what was not, but it never let you hang there too long and those of the loose ends I felt needed to get tied up he tied up quite elegantly. Impressively, this was the director’s first feature film.

In fact, the movie is just a simple little love story with a simple message and a slightly surrealistic dream-layer, but in all this it creates such a warm, loving atmosphere that just moved me. The beauty of it is the tragedy of it all and that effectively prevents you from really being jealous of their love. (If you have reasons to do that, anyway…)

Today shall be forever remembered as the day where I finally stop saying this. Fitting the date I watched depressing movies. Unconciously, like totally. And stuff. Also, the Delphi is apparently not the only cinema with the wacky Berlinale-bear stand-ins. Today in the Cubix the dancing museum guard was doing his dance in a white room only furnished with a mattress and a wall full of Billy shelves with books and movies on them. <3

Kenta to Jun to Kayo-chan no Kuni (A Crowd of Three, ???????????????)
Japan 2009, Omori Tatsushi, 131?

Jun and Kenta grew up in the same orphanage and are like brothers. Now, they work at a demolition company and get mistreated and insulted by their drug-dealing foreman. One night they meet Kayo-chan, a somewhat slow, not really pretty girl, who would do it with anyone, as she just wants to feel loved. Shortly after, Kenta decides to get revenge on the foreman and then go to Hokkaido to visit his big brother in prison. Jun joins him and they take Kayo-chan with them on this dysfunctional group’s trip north.

Aaaah, Japanese movies about losers, I love them. Sakura Ando, main evil bitch from Ai no mukidashi is quite versatile, this time she played the stupid, “ugly” girl with the incredibly annoying voice. <3 Also, we have our staple minimalistic soundtrack, comprised mostly of the main theme, a slow, kind of sad, emotional e-guitar solo, did I already mention I’m a sucker for minimalist, single-instrument soundtracks? <3 There is really not much to say about the movie other than that it greatly succeeded in showing how broken the three main characters are and how hostile the whole environment is, it sucked me in, personally. So even though the boys do some terrible things on their way you sometimes really feel like they had no other choice in life than to become this way. Actually it made me feel quite depressed, out of empathy.
Interestingly, the director was asked why they went north, if they had the decision to either go north or south. Apart from the obvious reason in the script (the prison being in the north) which logically had to be made after the writing decision on which way to go, the director said that in Japanese movies this is the direction you take to search for yourself, that the (compared to the rest of Japan) vast, rugged landscape of Hokkaido emanates this feel to Japanese people.

From here on, five short films, from the Berlinale Shorts II collection:

Paradise Later
Austria/Germany 2009, Ascan Breuer, 13′
The camera rides on a boat through a Jakarta slum river awfully polluted and filled with waste. The narrator reads out a manager’s report to his shareholders, actually slightly altered lines from Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”

While the middle part was kind of dragging, the end had a nice punchline: (Narrator, while the picture shows laughing kids and other people waving to the camera:) “What earthly reason is there for these people to have any scruples towards us? Why haven’t they risen up against us yet?” after that, fade to black and the caption: Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1899)

Derby
Romania 2010, Paul Negoescu, 15′

Boyfriend comes over. Father hears daughter moaning silently in her room. Dinner. Turns out boyfriend is a big fan of the one football club he shouldn’t be fan of…

Delightful little family picture. An easygoing mother, a horribly jealous father trying to provoke the boyfriend, the annoyed daughter, aaaah! Also, the fridge was obviously stuffed with western brand products. Commentary on modern Romania?

Pama (A perm, ??)
Republic of Korea 2009, Lee Ran-hee, 19′

A young Vietnamese girl comes to Korea after being “bought” as a middle-aged plumber’s bride. The first thing her mother-in-law gets her is a perm. Of course she is evil and treats the poor girl, who can’t speak any Korean, like an object in one moment and like an unwanted child she has to waste money on, in the other.

The depressing, hostile atmosphere of the hair salon and all the people who make the classic mistake that their language will miraculously become comprehensible if they shout, was very well captured. The director says that she met several women with such backgrounds and took the story of one of them for the film and she stressed that this was far from the worst ones she’s heard…
Side note: OMG, they showed KBS World Talkshow in the film, I know that show. XD (It is quite fitting, because it’s a show where a group of non-Korean women meets different Korean celebrities every week. Then they play games and talk about stuff.)

Suhak Siheom (Math Test ?? ??)
Republic of Korea 2009, Jung Yu-mi, 2′

During the last minutes of a math test the little girl inside Yu-jin’s inflated head decides to trash the formulas and let the dog loose instead.

Delightful little animation piece with a punchline.

El Segundo Amanecer de la Ceguera (The Second Awakening of Blindness)
Peru 2009, Mauricio Franco Tosso, 10′

A middle-aged couple. He can’t sleep. She can’t stop thinking. He leaves. She cries.

This sounded more interesting than it actually was, as it was just boring couple talk about his infidelity and ensuing emo sex after that. The interesting thing was the 3:4 aspect ratio (common on mobile phones), in which it was shot. The director actually did not want to show it in cinemas and just have it for download to watch on mobiles instead, but got talked out of it. (By his girlfriend, obviously…)

Sadly, I could not watch the last short, as I had to run to the next cinema.

Neo-wa na-eui i-shib-il segi (Our fantastic 21st Century, ?? ?? 21??)
Republic of Korea 2009, someone, 83′

Soo-young is in her mid-twenties and wants to become a fashion designer but for that she’s supposed to get a liposuction, which she can’t afford. So while she badly needs the money her boyfriend just takes off with all of her savings. Shortly after she is finally caught rigging prices at the department store she works in and turns to Jae-beom, a loan shark for help and from there, things go further downhill…

This was the second Korean director in a row to state that the Korean premiere had notably less audience than here at the Berlinale… Stylistically it was nothing too impressive, more a solid job of typical „artsy“ Asian direction (the long-shots-variety, not the fast-cuts-variety) we’ve come to be accustomed to. Which is a compliment to the director, as it was his first full-length work and we know that so many things can and do go wrong with this style of movie. What it lacked was more of a justification why Soo-young was doing those unlawful things. I understand the reason, it just wasn’t really enough for me, it lacked a bit of pressure onto her to do something like that, so while I was, in general, sympathetic of her as a character I didn’t find the price rigging to be justified, especially because it could have meant trouble for her quite amiable boss, but that just may be the capitalist lawyer pig in me. What I did understand however, was the last of the morally questionable things she did. At that point there really was no reason not to do it.

It is a very interesting aspect of all those Asian movies about losers that the directors and actors perceive all the things these characters do as maybe not completely normal, but absolutely still in the range of acceptable reactions to the pressure and hostility they face, while most western viewers (judging from the questions) see them as extreme or exaggerated. Also, they were asking about the stoic, seemingly emotionless “reactions” of the characters. After that I really do wonder why this kind of movie is actually popular around here, as most people seem to neither understand the reactions nor recognize the feelings the characters have and actually do express, although much too subtle for most. But I always was and still am a nutcase for everything foreign, so I really can’t blame anyone!

Today shall be forever remembered as the day I got tickets for all three time slots! Also, the Delphi, our most hated Berlinale venue kind of made up for its ridiculously small entrance area and its general lack or organization with its take on the mandatory opening jingles: The piracy warning was not shown at all, which is highly unusual, only its soundtrack consisting of a three-tone gong could be heard. Also, the boring Berlinale fireworks jingle which has remained unchanged for a few years except for incrementing the festival edition number, got a special treatment: Instead of the fireworks, we were presented with a shot of a typical old and stuffy gallery/museum in which a middle-aged chubby museum guard was doing a dance vaguely symbolizing exploding fireworks and at the end, when the caption that’s part of the Berlinale logo came up, he suddenly shifted his hand and feet and posed as the bear from the logo, even including the bear’s slightly bulging belly! The whole cinema went wild.

Na-neun Gon-kyeong-e Cheo-haet-da! (I’m in trouble!, ?? ??? ???!)
Republic of Korea 2009, So Sang-min, 98?

Sun-woo is, despite winning a national award, a quite unsuccessful poet in Seoul, living off odd jobs and money borrowed from his college buddy Seung-gyu, an office worker. His only other support and connection to the “real” world is his down-to-earth, sweet long-time girlfriend Yun-ah, who inexplicably still really loves him, despite him being an irresponsible, fickle, instinct-led child of a man. Of course, she suffers quite a lot because of this, as “learning from experience” seems to be a completely foreign concept to Sun-woo and we are presented countless examples of that throughout the movie.

First of all, English is not suited for subtitling Korean or Japanese movies. I guess a language which has few formal levels of politeness fits a culture that wants to see itself as comprised of (relatively) equal people, but if you use it for subtitling a language which has mindbogglingly many grammatical forms reflecting the speakers’ hierarchy towards each other you can only fail. Many relationships and feelings between the characters were expressed through the level of (in)formality they used towards each other and I’m really lucky to have immersed myself in Korean TV shows through the last months as I was able to make out the differences in politeness at least, if not understanding the finer nuances of vocabulary.
While the movie had many comical, sometimes slightly slapstick moments, it really was quite a serious matter for Sun-woo and all the people around him who had to “suffer” because of his faults. And the strong point really was the portrayal of all the people around Sun-woo, how he acts towards them, how they react and why everyone does forgive him eventually…
Some woman described it as “aimless”, because on top if this subtlety it was using quite long, slow-paced scenes and shots only sometimes breaking this atmosphere for Sun-woo’s more extreme failures. Judging from the reaction of the audience it is fine to watch without the details, but I wouldn’t say it is a must-watch if you would only have english subtitles to rely on.

The Q&A afterwards was also quite insightful, despite being cut short cruelly by the following screening. One of the better questions was why the English title was “I’m in trouble!” and not “I’m sorry!” seeing as Sun-woo apologizes countless times through the movie. The director said that while it would not be a bad title at all, it wouldn’t really reflect Sun-woo’s childish character which causes him to be quite egocentric and so “I’m in trouble!” is more fitting of him and was therefore deemed more suitable. Another question was if and how the choice of main actor influenced the movie. To this he answered that originally Sun-woo was supposed to be more quiet and serious but then he realized that the playful, slightly slapsticky feel Sun-woo’s actor had was even better than what he had in mind. Also, said actor after being asked if he took the role because he saw it as a challenge or rather because he recognised something from himself in this character hastily exclaimed in english: “NONONO, not like him!”

Yeobaewoodeul (The Actresses, ????)
Republic of Korea 2009, Lee Jae-yong, 104?

Christmas Eve 2008: Vogue Korea decides to gather six top actresses for a photoshoot, something completely new for Korea, as everyone until then was scared of the actresses’ huge egos and how they would clash on set. As the women start competing for the prettiest dress and the best single shot, things start to become really tense, but as the shoot drags on and gets delayed they just decide t get wasted and have a quite manly, honest talk with each other…

Yeobaewoodeul heavily plays on the line between acting and reality: All of the actresses used their real names and real-life circumstances for this movie and while the director did lay out the setting and the conflicts the women should bring up among them he left them to ad-lib almost all of the dialogue and actually included all of them in the staff credits as scriptwriters. Naturally, all of the movie was hand-shot which I think wasn’t the best decision headache-wise, but I guess you have to emphasize the documentary feel. Part of the movie was great Diva Bitching™, part of it superficial women’s gossip and still another part was a quite honest discussion about the extremely high expectations people have of actresses in Korea. So it was enjoyable if you’re interested in this topic, but even more culturally specific than “I’m in trouble!”, because here it was in fact vital to catch the implied levels of respect and politeness among the actresses and if you don’t know a bit of the industry you can’t really enjoy Kim Ok-bin bragging about Song Kang-ho, or Go Hyun-jung, who looks remarkably like Lee Young-ae in some shots, complaining about her biggest rival Lee Young-ae!
Although I really enjoyed it, it has some flaws and I really wouldn’t recommend it to anyone not knowledgeable of Korean film industry, society and language (to some degree of course, you don’t have to get a PhD on it).

Fun Fact™: Just as I was writing the first review while sitting in a cinema and waiting for the next movie, an awfully (wannabe-)omniscient lady who presented herself as (as in: was not) knowledgeable of Asian cinema nagged quite a lot about both the Korean movies completely ignoring that they were quite culture-specific and someone who has no clue about Korea and more importantly doesn’t understand a bit of Korean naturally wouldn’t enjoy them half as much… Oh stupid people who think they’re hot shit, how they disgust me… (Yes, I am aware that some of the best movies tend to transcend cultural borders, but not every movie has to do that in order to achieve its goal and as an intelligent (film-)person you should be able to spot those movies…)

El recuento de los daños (The Counting of the Damages)
Argentina 2010, Inés de Oliveira Cézar, 80?

A young man visits some factory in provincial Argentina to inspect it and recommend improvements. The night before he arrived the manager died, so things are somewhat in disorder and soon he starts an affair with the widow, while things fall apart even more. From there on it’s good old Oedipus “killing” his father and “marrying” his mother…

I honestly did like only two things about this. First, I am a sucker for soundtracks consisting of a recurring main theme played on a single instrument. And if it’s minimalistic play on silence with few notes or chord progressions i get all hot and bothered… I also liked very much that this was integrated very Dogma-style, with the younger daughter sitting at the piano in the living room and (completely unfitting of a young teenager) playing the theme like she was improvising, it had a slightly surreal feel to it. The second thing were the black screens inserted throughout the movie, each containing a number starting at one and then counting up. They were displayed every time a “damage” directly caused by the inspector’s presence in their lives was revealed. Hence, the title of the movie. Quite nice and it was great to hear the queit knowing “Aaah”s from the audience after each number, while more and more people realised what the numbers were about.
Other than that: Pacing issues, revealing too much too early, giving ridiculously obvious clues and worst of all: frequent, long panning shots with out of focus camera. Out of focus (if it’s the whole picture) is tiring on the eyes in itself but at 24 frames this goddamn panning is giving me eye cancer! Commendable affort trying to reinterpret the legend of Oedipus, too bad the execution sucked so much.
Some random girl even shouted “La~ngweilig” (Bo~ring) as the credits started to roll. Also, on a very personal note the posture, voice and general negative aura of the directorwoman (how the hell are they called correctly) drove me out of the cinema before even the first question. I’m awful, I know.

Today shall be forever remembered as the day where demand ridiculously outnumbered supply, as the whole Capital Of The Jobless (Berlin) flocked into the few screenings available. From tomorrow on there will be more screenings and hopefully people will spread out a little, I did not get any tickets for two of my three time slots today!

Kanikousen (???)
Japan 2009, Sabu, 109?

Japan in the 1920s: In the Sea of Okhotsk Japan competes with Russia for fishing grounds, guarding their crab fishing trawlers with the help of the Imperial Navy. One of those trawlers, manned with ridiculously poor Japanese men is cruelly controlled by Tony Leung the handsome, sadistic foreman and his Yakuza underling. He works the men beyond their limits only having his own profit in mind, while trying to motivate them by stating that their fishing is like fighting in a war for the glory of Imperial Japan. Life is so hard the workers almost hang themselves one day, while fantasising about their next life. Then, two of the men accidentally get lost while and encounter a Soviet ship. Saved by the Soviets, they return to the trawler and start a revolution…

Before you ask: No, that man in the picture is not Tony Leung.
Kanikousen was apparently based on an 80-year-old novel by a communist writer which lately became quite popular with young Japanese. The movie is heavily stylised with slightly surrealist scenes, including short comic interjections and is generally extremely straightforward with simple characters and a message with the subtility of a sledgehammer. If you don’t have a knack for Sabu or dislike stylised movies without a really notable plot or message, this is definitely not for you.

This year I will help out again in blogging the Berlinale, especially as our Choco Parfait is on the wrong continent this time.
The Berlinale always has been, is and probably always will be a political festival: Founded in 1950 in a bombed-out West Berlin, surrounded by an increasingly hostile Soviet army, witnessing the 1953 Uprising being slain down one day before that year’s festival or having the Berlin Wall built shortly after the 1961 festival kinda does leave its mark. (That paragraph is shamelessly paraphrased from our dear gay, bearlike reigning mayor Klaus Wowereit’s speech at the Berlinale opening ceremony I watched minutes ago…) With that in mind it’s not a surprising move to choose Taiwan and the PRC as a topic for the opening movie.

Tuan Yuan (Apart Together, ??)
People’s Republic of China 2009, Wang Quan’an, 93?

Liu Yansheng, a Guomindang veteran soldier is finally able to visit Shanghai, after being forced in 1949 to leave behind his great love Qiao Yu’e who was pregnant with his child. He is greeted by the slightly hesitant Yu’e and the very outgoing and generous Lu Shenmin, her husband who ironically was a PLA soldier marching into Shanghai the same day Yansheng and the rest of the GMD had to retreat to Taiwan. He brought up Yansheng’s son as his own and had two more kids with Yu’e. Yansheng also remarried and had a child, but now that his wife has been dead for three years he decides to take Yu’e back with him. After Yu’e, who still loves Yansheng, warms up to the idea they bring it up to Shenmin who surprisingly agrees to let her go. Of course, things start to get ugly after confronting their children…

Interestingly, the title in the opening credits was written in traditional characters, even though it was a PRC-produced movie. Also, is this the start of a new trend? A Chinese movie, about one woman and two men, one of which (the present husband) has a heart too big for his own good. OK, that’s about all parallels I could find between this and Zuo You and I think my association was influenced by the fact that it was at the same place, I was similarly alone and it was the first movie of the respective Berlinale.
Surprisingly(?) the political dimension of the topic was almost completely left out. One moment where it came up, was during a guided tour for the veterans, where the guide was very quick to point out that construction was underway for a building 100 metres taller than the Taipei 101 (evoking a big laugh from the audience). Other than this kind of self-ironic scene, there really were no political commentaries, which greatly helped to focus on the interactions between the three main characters. The movie showed in great detail the dynamics between the suddenly reappearing lost love, the loyal good husband and the woman hopelessly torn between her first love and the man who gave up his promising political career and many other things out of unquestioning love towards her. The actors really captured the conflicting emotions of the three main characters and the strongest scenes are the ones in which one or more of them take the lead. In all this, again quite ironically, the funniest scene is about Yu’e and Shenmin struggling with the local bureaucrats to get their divorce which results in them actually getting married, because they had no marriage certificate and this was the only way to obtain one. At the same time, watching this unexpectedly funny scene plain hurts, for obvious reasons.
Unfortunately the story of Yansheng’s seemingly no-good son (in contrast to his Taiwanese son, who is a successful businessman) was not brought out more and the story of Na-na, the granddaughter of Yu’e and Shenmin who was in charge of showing Yansheng around as she was the only non-hostile family member also seemed kind of hollow and pointless to the movie. So while it had some really strong character interaction and great actors there were parts where it definitely didn’t live up to its potential.

PS: Please forgive this convoluted mess of a post. I didn’t write an English text for who knows how long and it’s almost 3AM right now…