Late review - London Film Fest Day 2010 Day 10 - POETRY

POETRY is a delicate, strange, captivating film about an old woman called Yang Mija, living in contemporary South Korea. Grandmother to a feckless grandson, exploited by the OAP she cares for, and generally invisible in modern society, she finds a kind of purpose and connection by attending a poetry writing class and making friends at poetry recitals. Through poetry, she moves from victim and martyr to agent and creator. Famous Korean actress Jeong-hee Yoon plays Mija as a meek, timid woman with inner strength. A woman who will do the unpalatable to protect her grandson, but who will, ultimately gather the strength to stop enabling him. It's a performance of great subtlety and nuance, and we see this quiet transformation over more than two hours. More than a month after the Film Festival, POETRY still resonates - both Chang-dong Lee's acutely observant direction and Jeong-hee Yoon's central performance. Here is a film about ageing, about reclaiming life, about callow youth, about sexual violence, guilty secrets and sexual desperation. And yet, and yet, it's also a film with flashes of comic brilliance - mostly related to the foul-mouthed, warm-hearted poet Mr Kang (Hira Kim). I can't recommend it highly enough.

POETRY played Cannes and Toronto 2010 and opened earlier this year in South Korea and France.

Late review - London Film Fest 2010 Day 5 - UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES

UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES is a much-feted Thai film that won the Palme d'Or at Cannes this year and has been almost-universally lauded as a kind of magical, whimsical, poetical take on love and death.

Uncle Boonmee is a humble man dying of kidney failure in a Thai village where he is cared for by his sister-in-law Jen and shiftless cousin Tong. One night, the ghost of Uncle Boonmee's dead wife fades into the picture, in an entirely unassuming, matter-of-fact way, and simply becomes part of the household. It's as though these characters, in this culture, live in a philosophical world where the separation between the living and the dead is miasmic and we shouldn't be at all surprised to see either side break through to the Other. Indeed, there is no Other - but rather different layers of reality for those that have the seeing of them. So, once you settle into this strange way of perceiving reality, it should come as no surprise to see Uncle Boonmee's son, who disappeared years ago, return as a Chewbacca-like Monkey Spirit with flashing red eyes, or for Cousin Tong to go on retreat and be in the same room with another version of himself. Nor should you be surprised to see a princess-spirit mate with a fish, or for the quixotic director decide to break off for a few minutes to make a political point by showing stills of guerilla fighters in the Thai jungle.

For many reviewers, this strange, exotic mix of magical realism and sheer left-field craziness casts a powerful spell. For then, UNCLE BOONMEE is that rare of rare things - a truly original and Fantastic movie. But for me, the whole thing was a case of the Emperor's New Clothes, where directorial self-indulgence and piss-poor special effects (still photos, Monkey Spirit) undermined the flashes of poetic brilliance (a intimate scene where Uncle Boonmee, on dialysis hugs his ex-wife, as though accepting death; the beatiful fish-fucking scene). It was a movie where individual scenes left me breathless at their audacity and beauty, but which frustrated me with its obliqueness and randomness. Ultimately, I'm glad I saw it for those flashes of brilliance, but god I wish I'd had a remote control fast forward button for the rest.

UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES played Cannes and Toronto 2010 and was released earlier this year in Thailand, Belgium, France, Canada and Germany. It is currently on release in the UK, Denmark, and Spain.  It won the Palme d'OR beating BIUTIFUL, ANOTHER YEAR, CERTIFIED COPY, POETRY, ROUTE IRISH....

DVD Release - ONG BAK 2 - THE BEGINNING

ONG BAK 2 is the much anticipated follow-up to the 2003 break-out film for Thai martial arts actor Tony Jaa, who went on to star in the ridonkulous flick THE WARRIOR, memorable principally for the fact that what inspired all the craziness was a stolen elephant.

The original ONG BAK film followed rural teen Ting on his quest to modern Bangkok to recover a stolen bust of Buddha. The narrative was pretty weak but there was awesome Muay Thai kickboxing fight scenes, and it was a all a nice change of pace from those CGI filled movies. ONG BAK 2 feels very different indeed. For a start, it's a very slick, high budget, lavish epic set in Ancient Thailand, and works less like a prequel as a primer for Western audiences as to what Muay Thai is all about. Tony Jaa plays a Tien. When he was a kid, bandits killed his family and threw him to the crocodiles. Tien's ability to survive impresses the local warlord so much that he adopted Tien and taught him how to fight. As an adult, Tien (Jaa) goes on the predictable revenge mission, which takes him through various fight scenes and sets up the inevitable ONG BAK 3.

Tony Jaa has clearly taken a lot of pains over the costumes, sets, photography and fight choreography. But a medieval forest is no match for the back-streets of Bangkok as a high-octane setting, and fans of the original flick might feel mis-sold. But, while the film seems less exciting than the original, it is certainly more technically impressive. The fight scenes - incorporating the best of Thai, Chinese, Japanese and European martial arts - are simply amazing. There's a scene where Tony Jaa is fighting while skipping over elephants and IT'S NOT CGI. What Jaa needs is to harness his slick moves to proper plots. And then we'd be in business.

Additional tags: Tony Jaa, Panna Rittikrai, Sorapong Chatree, Saruny Wongkrachang, Nirut Sirihanya, Nattawut Kittikhun,

ONG BAK 2 was released in 2009 and will be released on DVD on February 15th 2010.