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Berlinale 2011, closing comments and ranking

I am disgusted by the blatant political shuffling of Berlinale awards. I realise my argument is flawed, because I did not watch the movie that received the Golden Bear, but the fact that both Silver Bears got awarded to essentially the whole cast of the movie speaks a whole damn library about how much more this year’s awards are attributed to political relevance than to artistic merit. Even though the former doesn’t even have to exclude the latter: Remember Tropa de Elite? That was a great marriage of art and political relevance, one that deserved the Bear it got. It is a slap to the face of every honest filmmaker who is not from the Poor, Maltreated People du Jour.

Don’t get me wrong: my hypothetical ideal movie has a strong message, which may be political, philosophical, ethical, whatever really. But it wins awards on its own merits, not just because it is (mildly) related to a current theme. I acknowledge and even support that the Berlinale has always seen itself as a political festival, but does that need to overshadow artistic merit?

Angry ranting aside, here is my personal ranking of this year’s movies, as my commentary in the respective posts does not always offer a clear indication of how much I liked the movie.

  1. Saranghanda, Saranghaji Anneunda
  2. Dernier étage gauche gauche tied with The Guard
  3. Byakuyakou
  4. Daikon to Ninjin
  5. Tropa de Elite 2
  6. Bu-dang-geo-rae
  7. Chang-pi-hae
  8. Man Chu
  9. Kazoku X
  10. Dance Town
  11. Cheonggyecheon Medley
  12. Jagadangchak

Let me outline how I personally rate movies: The two main components, roughly equal, are style and message. For both, besides the fact that I should take a liking to or understanding of them, the execution is absolutely vital. Educational value i.e. helping my understanding of or knowledge about topics I am interested in is a bonus. Emotional connection, as can be seen in this year’s ranking is a big bonus. All this comes together to answer the most important question: How much did I enjoy spending time on this movie?

Also, I need to set the list into perspective a little. In almost any ranking I have a cut-off line below which I consider the time spent with every movie/book/opera/whatever as wasted, where the investment in time did not yield a sufficient reward in enjoyment to achieve a positive balance. This year, there is no cut-off line, in the last years there was always at least one movie below that line. On the other hand, this year was also without a flawless movie, as you can see that even for my number one movie I felt the need for a bit of criticism. All in all this year was above average in my experience.

Thank you for reading my sometimes less-than-coherent ramblings; I hope it helped to add at least one movie to your list of things to watch!

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Berlinale 2011, day 9 (fangirls encore)

Hyun Bin again. The Korean girl-mob was civil until, completely unannounced, the director was followed by Hyun Bin coming on stage for the Q&A. Girls of all ages went wild, even some non-Koreans in-the-know and the rest of the audience immediately applied their best WTF-face. The poor director stated that he’s quite nervous with so many people staring intently at him but then added that the vast majority is probably looking at Hyun Bin so he feels a little less burdened.

drrt

Man Chu (Late Autumn, ??)
South Korea, Hong Kong, China, USA 2010, Kim Tae-Yong, 113′

Anna, a foreign-born Chinese woman spending a term in prison for murdering her husband gets bailed out for three days to attend her mother’s funeral in Seattle. On the way, she meets Hoon, a Korean call-boy who immediately takes an interest in her and they end up spending her time in Seattle together.

Beautiful disconnected people, walking through beautiful shots in a beautiful scenery. This movie feels more western than any wannabe-American action blockbuster Asia ever produced. Nonetheless it is a very charming piece about two people aimlessly disconnected from the reality around them, walking around in a beautifully foggy Seattle (including a Farmer’s Market, ahaha…) Maybe not a big revelation as a movie, but I can think of hundreds of movies I would have been less inclined to watch.

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Berlinale 2011, day 8 (the one with no witty description)

Why do people applaud movies where the film team is either dead or absent, or both? (Just laughed at myself about the thought of a present-but-dead film crew…) Self-presentation is a disgustingly dominant human feature. (Cue the irony of me self-importantly pointing out my appearance on camera in yesterday’s post.)

drrt
Don’t let the picture fool you, the film was shot in very nice colour.

Daikon to Ninjin (Radish and Carrot, ?????)
Japan 1964, Shibuya Minoru, 107′

Tokichi Yamaki has loyally served his company for 30 years. Correct in every aspect of his life but having no real ambition he is still only section chief, which his wife and his four daughters like to point out. One day, after selling his stocks to help his irresponsible younger brother he suddenly vanishes.

What a delightful, funny Ozu movie, despite not being an Ozu movie! (side note: I discovered a totally awesome Ozu DVD collection in Poland (of all places!) recently) I guess it shows, when you do an hommage to Ozu, based on a script outline of his. It was the kind of playful, witty serious comedy I’d expect from Billy Wilder, only a little less wild and much more Japanese. The film was shot in the same year the Shinkansen started running, so we had many prominent shots with it. Disregarding its great entertainment value it was highly interesting to see that in 1964 Japan was on one side the classic wooden Ozu-Japan but on the other side things like the Shinkansen, love hotels and many typical features of modern Japan were already starting to show.

drrt

Tropa de Elite 2 – o inimigo agora é outro (Elite Squad 2 – The enemy within)
Brazil 2010, José Padilha, 116′

Ten years later, Nascimento has lost his marriage but is winning the war against the drug trade. Unfortunately, the drug trade is neither the biggest, nor the most dangerous enemy and now things “get personal”.

You could have tacked this onto Tropa de Elite and no one would be able to tell that this is not the same movie, Padilha managed to exactly copy style and feeling of the first movie while throwing a big helping of “dark” in there. Like the first movie, it carefully balances between admiring The Fist Of Brutal Righteousness that is BOPE and the grim consequences and collateral damage of cleaning up with no holding back. In fact, the educational twist that these methods may not be, at least to this degree of consequence, the best for all involved doesn’t happen until about 10-15 minutes before the end of the movie, which is quite a bit later than in its predecessor. Definitely a worthy successor although it doesn’t win points for originality; it really doesn’t have to anyway. It is however close to the perfect sequel and that alone is a big achievement.

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Berlinale 2011, day 7 (Korea is everywhere)

Go there, play the red carpet stream from 6:30 onwards, look for me. Nyahaha.
In other news: As can be seen in the aforementioned video, Berlin is actually a former German town, occupied by the fangirl battalion of South Korea. There were honestly more Koreans present than any other nationality. Two girls that stood in line before me and then sat next to me seemed to have come from Korea for this…

drrt

Saranghanda, saranghaji anneunda (Come Rain, Come Shine, ????, ???? ???)
South Korea 2011, Lee Yoon-ki, 105′

He drives her to the airport, she tells him it’s over, there’s another man. A few days later she is almost done packing, he helps her pack and invites her for a last dinner at their favourite restaurant. A lost cat breaks up the literally downcast day.

Lee Yoon-ki again (for the record: I disagree with the Queen’s review), with a breakup story! I did have high expectations for this, especially after loving My Dear Enemy even more after rewatching it. I wasn’t let down. Although the story wasn’t half as fun, it was in fact 95% pain, I enjoyed that pain very much. While I still enjoy slow movies, I have lost a lot of patience for seemingly pointless, overly long mood-making sequences, because in most cases I have the impression they are used to hide the scriptwriter’s or the director’s flaws. Not here, though: Saranghanda was easily the slowest movie I have watched this year and equally easily the one that made the best use of slow pacing. Most of the time they just shuffle about the house, doing nothing of value, saying nothing. The excellent choice of shots, the absolutely stylish house I totally fell in love with and the realisation that both Im Su-Jong and Hyun Bin are actually worthy actors made the movie a really great experience. Maybe I am connecting too much with the characters, pouring too much of my own feelings and interpretation into this, but I really felt the emotions inside them while they displayed an extremely subtle show, if at all. Also, the comparatively lively scenes with the neighbours produced a nice break of pace with great moments of Awkward. Oh facades, how great you are as a topic. On another note: I very much liked the first take of them driving to the airport, that must have been a bitch to film.
It was not perfect though: for some scenes I would have shaved a couple seconds off, or a minute here and there, asides from these very mild pacing issues however, I was thoroughly “pleased”, if you can call it that.

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Berlinale 2011, day 6 (the one without a single asian)

I did not watch an Asian movie today. I really didn’t, I swear!

drrt

The Guard
Ireland, United Kingdom 2010, John Michael McDonagh, 96?

Gerry Boyle is a Garda sergeant in Connemara, a small town on the Irish west coast. He’s everything but a model officer but he does his work and life is quiet until one day, the drug trade with the FBI in tow pay a visit to his town.

Did you watch In Bruges? Liked it? Watch this then, you will be absolutely in love. I first thought this was the same director, not just his brother. Amateur philosopher gangsters, racist village cops and a lot of witty dialogue all with great music and beautifully shot. Just like In Bruges, we see a delightfully funny Brendan Gleeson become the unexpected hero and the single best line to describe him comes from the black FBI agent: “I just can’t tell if you’re motherfuckin’ dumb or motherfuckin’ smart”.

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Dernier étage gauche gauche (Top Floor Left Wing)
France, Luxembourg 2010, Angelo Cianci, 93?

September 11th (not 2001): Francois leaves his suburban home to evict people from their homes, like every day. This time however he is taken hostage by a small time drug dealer and his father and the mayor, seeing an opportunity for publicity, sets the whole machinery of police and press in motion. This brings a lot of unprecedented attention to the typical banlieue neighbourhood and while the situation shifts and the mood gets more and more tense the dealer decides that the best way to get ouf this mess is to incite an uprising in the neighbourhood and disappear in the ensuing chaos.

This was an awesome mixture of unexpected amounts of witty fun, biting criticism and a lot plot twists and turns. What starts out as a seemingly predictable hostage movie with the young dealer as a testosterone-controlled primate you’d like to just shoot in the head, very quickly shifts into a great dissection of personal and general issues and motives with a cathartic end, that does not really offer a solution, but shows in a very charming way, that the truth is always infinitely more complex than you can see on the surface.

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Berlinale 2011, day 5 (drifting)

I have nothing to say about today. Like, really nothing besides the movie obviously.

drrt

Kazoku X (Family X, ??X)
Japan 2010, Yoshida Koki, 90′

A family: mother, father, young adult son, middle class, own house. The man commutes to work, doing nothing of value there. The woman a housewife, with no discernible interest or motivation in anything. The son, working part time, no steady job. Communication does not happen other than greetings and daily questions. Slowly, things spiral downwards.

Tripods and Steadycams seem to be ridiculously expensive in Asia, I have no other rational explanation for the completely uncalled for overusage of shaky hand cameras. Luckily the director had some interesting details like the water container (I am being vague on purpose) to make up for the shaking. Although this was another exercise in slow cuts and seemingly no story, it was very effective in showing the complete dysfunctionality of this family and more “action” might have overdramatised things. Interestingly, the director stated, that this was not about a specifically Japanese theme, even though the family behaved very stereotypically Japanese, but was more of an educational movie that was supposed to show how not to behave in a family and to motivate the viewers to not let their lives degenerate to a point like the one shown. If anything, the educational value was extremely subtle, I did however really catch myself thinking “No way am I going to live like that!”.

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Berlinale 2011, day 4 (self-referential lesbians)

Certain persons may feel joyful about the fact, that today I watched a lesbian manhwa. (Fun fact I just learned from a Korean variety show: Koreans call both anime and manga manhwa…) Also, I really did not conciously choose to watch that many Korean movies, at least not because of them being Korean.

drrt

Jagadangchak: shidaejeongshin kwa hyeonshilchamyeo (Self Referential Traverse: Zeitgeist and Engagement, ????: ???? ? ????)
South Korea 2011, Kim Sun, 73?

Korean police mascot Podori needs a pair of legs and will do everything to achieve his goal. A tale of sex, violence, rats and wet women. Screening precluded by Great Korean News of 2010!

People left in droves. This was the wildest, craziest piece of film I have seen at the Berlinale. IT HAD A BURNING PENIS ON A GIRL IN A POLICE UNIFORM! And rats, cryptocommunist rats. Also, Podori’s own dialogue consisted purely of samples from Korean, Japanese, Chinese or English movies, TV shows, or music. I will not be ashamed to admit, that I most probably didn’t get more than one third of the cultural and political references, but that’s fine really. The fact that almost nothing beyond the superficial craziness was accessible to the foreign audience was to be expected. Other than that it was an untamed display of craftiness and despite the cheap production it seemed like the work of a real professional. The structure of faux propaganda up front (a parody on the fact, that both the last dictator of South Korea and the hated-by-the-director democratically-elected president have used mandatory “news” shorts before film screenings), trailer next (a trailer to a movie the director and his buddies wanted to make but never got the possibility) and main feature after that was also quite handsomely done.

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Chang-Pi-Hae (Ashamed, ???)
South Korea 2010, Kim Soo-Hyun, 129?

I will shamelessly copy from the official Berlinale materials, I am somehow unable to come up with a proper description for this one:

Three women talk about love. Jung is preparing an art exhibition. After teaching an art class her attention is drawn to some nude drawings by one of her female students, the somewhat recal citrant Hee-jin. Yoon, the young woman depicted in the drawing, is not only extremely beautiful, there is also something mysterious about her, and one senses, in her presence, that she harbours a story. Jung asks Yoon to pose in the nude for her exhibition project; she agrees and shortly afterwards Jung, Yoon and Hee-jin set off to do some video filming at the beach. And so, by fate or coincidence, three women who couldn’t be more different from each other find themselves brought together on this particular evening. They sit by sea; they drink and they listen to Yoon, who tells them of her lost love. Two women encounter love. Fed up with her dreary, utterly boring life, Yoon decides one night to pretend to commit suicide. As luck would have it, she meets Kang, a young woman who drifts through life earning a living as a pickpocket. Yoon and Kang’s love story begins when the two women are handcuffed to each other. The women manage to escape and, once they have shaken off the police, they kiss for the first time. Shortly afterwards the women move in together and begin to enjoy a carefree life. But their blissful existence is not to last. Kang’s depressing lack of prospects and Yoon’s growing expectations prove too much of a burden for their relationship. Listening to Yoon, Jung and Hee-jin learn a completely different side of love.

Can the setup get even more manhwa? An elusive free-spirited woman roaming through other people’s lives? Long talks about love and stuff in beautifully framed shots? Even short blackouts only showing a novel/speech bubble-like line of text? Straight out of a Josei-manga, totally. That is a compliment, if you’re not sure.
On a technical note, I was thoroughly impressed by the digital equipment the movie was shot on and projected. While I generally like film grain (and dislike the unnatural-though-familiar effect of 24 frames per second), the absolute clarity, sharpness and color on the ridiculously big screen really blew me away. D-Cinema definitely is the future; I do not mourn 35mm if this is its successor.

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Berlinale 2011, day 3 (insert bad lolicon joke here)

Certain persons voiced the opinion, that a manga movie was needed at the Berlinale. They just got served (I mean, look at him: That character alone is pure manga!)

drrt

Byakuyakou (Into the White Night, ???)
Japan 2010, Fukagawa Yoshihiro, 149?

Japan, 1980. The owner of a pawnshop is found in an abandoned building on the poor side of the river. The widow and her lover (an employee) become the prime suspects but Ryouji, the eerily sad and adult son, provides them with an alibi. The police find the owner’s mistress in the same poor district and while they interview her, again an eerily adult kid, her daughter Yukiho, tells her to stop lying and contradicts her. Shortly after, one of the mistress’ other lovers dies with seemingly compromising evidence on him and then the mistress herself is found dead. Her death is declared a suicide, the case closed and everyone but detective Sasagaki, who was fascinated by the intelligent and sad Ryouji and Yukiho, moves on.
Nineteen years later, Yukiho has climbed to the top of the social ladder and even Ryouji seems to lead a relatively normal life. Sasagaki however can not forget about the case and as he stumbles upon a clue, that could bring light into the case he finds himself in great danger…

Where do we start? First, let me get off my chest that kid-Yukiho was the single cutest, most awesome loli in the history of Japanese cinema. Adult Yukiho (Horikita Maki) was also absolutely perfect(ly round face is round! <3 <3 <3) and actually much less of a horrible actress, than I expected. She pulled the character off quite well. I am thoroughly crushed that I did not go to the premiere where I could have seen her gorgeous awesomeness in real life…
I was not at all surprised to see “based on a novel […]” in the credits, because the minimal soundtrack, the gorgeous framing and the perfectly timed cuts together with the obscure/complex(?) story just screamed “Manga! Novel!” to me. Something about these aesthetics and style of story just pushes all the right buttons for me. Unfortunately, right at the end Sasagaki had a monologue that made me cringe a bit, because it delivered a very strong sentiment that was not really developed earlier on screen, even though there was enough time to do so. This however, was a minor gripe and all in all this was an extremely fun ride full of suspense. I am being vague on purpose because although the story is not that unpredictable it does have some twists I do not want to spoil for anyone. I guess you know what to expect when you have a sad little boy and a sad loli, but spelling it out would take some of the fun away.

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Berlinale 2011, day 2 (Irony)

Imagine a witty opening comment. I had one, I really did, but I completely forgot…

drrt

Cheonggyecheon Medley (??????)
South Korea 2010, Park Kelvin Kyung-Kun, 79?

Cheonggyecheon is a small stream and district in central Seoul. After the war, people salvaging scrap metal settled here and in the seventies the whole lifeless dirty stream was covered with an elevated freeway. A few years ago the freeway was torn down and the stream renaturalised, creating a new urban center with coffee shops, galleries and similar places, slowly driving out the small businesses. This documentary shows the daily life and people of a district that will soon completely vanish from the city center.

Machine porn! The beginning was quite slow, with lots of droning machines, a generous helping of digital effects and a voice-over about the director’s identity issues. Quite trippy actually, I know a certain person who would have covered her ears most of the time… From there, it slowly picked up, showing bits of the owners’ work, the generally warm bond between them, eating, drinking and worrying about the coming relocations together. There was also a part about one of the new residents of the area, an artist who needs various metal parts made for his installation, so he goes to the old shops seeking advice and meets competent and versatile shop owners who help him design the exact parts needed. Near the end, we witness the relocation of a shop owner from the old Cheonggyecheon to a new development that looks like a shopping center filled not with clothes or shoes, but the kind of craftsmen and small factories that inhabited old Cheonggyecheon.
Interestingly, while it was nostalgic there was no accusing political undertone, which kind of surprised me. Whether the surprise was positive or negative I have not been able to decide yet.

drrt

Bu-dang-geo-rae (????)
South Korea 2010, Ryoo Seung-Wan, 120?

A serial killer case puts the whole nation on edge to the point of the President intervening with police work. The main suspect gets shot which leaves the investigation in a dead end.
The police desperately needs a suspect, so Captain Choi, who’s efficient but less-than-delicate methods left him out of the promotion carousel, is told to produce one, whatever the cost. Unfortunately, prosecutor Joo learns of their plot and, while being even more corrupt than them, does everything to foil their plan as his benefactor and the police director’s benefactor are enemies. All this leads to more and more open and blatant violations of the law until everything spirals out of control.

“I know the comedy parts often rely on language, so for full enjoyment please look for a person in the audience who looks Korean and if they laugh, you can laugh too!” – The director, just before the screening…

This was the Gurren Lagann of live action films! Great, polished visuals, loud dramatic soundtrack, and an unprecedented level of badassness and incredibly typically Korean alpha male dickery. And because it was totally over the top, while pretending not to be ironic it was an incredibly fun ride. The director had the intention to show how power struggles in corrupt systems never play out without unexpected collateral damage and how much of a cancer this kind of dishonest behaviour is to society. To this end he had, quite realistically, the least experienced “players” receive the harshest punishment and there was not one clean character, everyone got their hands dirty with something at some point…
It is great to see how well the message came through in a movie with so much entertainment value.
On a side note: I have never, ever seen a movie that was not Polish but felt so much like one. Change the place, the names, the actors and you would’ve had one of the big Polish action thrillers of the 90s…

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Berlinale 2011, day 1 (Blood Alone)

Straying from my own principles I didn’t watch the opening movie, True Grit will be shown over here shortly after the Berlinale anyways.

drrt

Dance Town (????)
South Korea 2010, Jeon Kyu-Hwan, 95?

Jung-Min and her husband live a relatively privileged life in Pyeongyang, he travels to China regularly and brings back South Korean porn and cosmetics, they clearly love each other and even have a healthy sex life. One day, they get found out and Jung-Min has to flee alone, because her Husband only managed to arrange her escape while he himself gets arrested. In South Korea, Jung-Min is given an apartment after lengthy interrogation and is secretly being watched while she very slowly tries to adapt to the almost completely alien world around her. In a sub-plot, the situation of Ji-Na is shown; a girl in middle school who just found out she’s pregnant and now has to deal with the consequences without knowledge or support from others.

If you have an issue with bleeding girls and women, this movie is not for you. Funnystuff aside, here we have a quite typical example of asian-movie-for-western-festivals: long takes and slow story with heavy reliance on mood and atmosphere (of novelty to western audiences although we should all be experts on Asian cultures by now?). The execution however, is absolutely solid as Jung-Min’s and Ji-Na’s loneliness come through very well although the latter seems kind of tacked onto the main story, she deserves a movie of her own. Seeing as the director explicitly stated that his only goal was to show how lonely people can be although there so many others around them, the film thoroughly succeeds. If you like that kind of theme then do watch it, by all means. I definitely “enjoyed” it.

Blood Alone is a totally awesome vampire-loli-manga/novel about a vampire loli and her closet-lolicon guardian. It sounds stupid and perverted, but it’s actually quite d’awwwww.