FANTASIA 2013: SAVING GENERAL YANG / REWIND THIS / THE DIRTIES

Saving General Yang (Dir.: Ronny Yu, Hong Kong, 2013)—It is up to General Yang's seven sons—each a master of his own kung fu discipline—to rescue him from behind enemy lines. Ronny Yu (Fearless, The Bride With White Hair, Bride Of Chucky) revisits anew the oft-told tale of the Yang clan, legends of Chinese martial arts literature and film. Official Selection: Hong Kong International Film Festival 2013. North American premiere. IMDb. Wikipedia. Facebook.I’m the first to admit that I’m not necessarily a Hong Kong film enthusiast, and Saving General Yang ended up on my itinerary by default

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FANTASIA 2013: I'LL FOLLOW YOU DOWN / LOVE ETERNAL

I'll Follow You Down (Dir: Richie Mehta, Canada, 2012)—Richie Mehta, the Genie-nominated director of Amal, and producer Lee Kim hosted the world premiere of I'll Follow You Down, a time travel tale whose genre underpinnings serve an existential if overly-subdued meditation on whether or not the consequences of poor choices can (or even should) be corrected. Well-intentioned and adequately realized, the film nonetheless made me wish I could go back in time and recover the 90 minutes I had just spent. That’s possibly my failing, more than the film’s, as I was anticipating something quite diffe

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FANTASIA 2013: COMMANDO: A ONE-MAN ARMY / THE DEMON'S ROOK

Commando: A One Man Army (Dir: Dilip Ghosh, India, 2013)—Thrillingly virile, Vidyut Jamwal (Thuppakki) carries this Bollywood bauble with knockout looks, on-screen charisma, erotic choreography, and exciting stunt-packed combat sequences that had the film's Fantasia audience yelling for more at this North American premiere. The program capsule promised that—after seeing Commando—I'd become an instant Jamwal fanatic and they didn't lie! This dude made my eyes sweat! IMDb. Wikipedia.His love interest, relative newcomer Pooja Chopra, the chattering pea-hen to his strong

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FANTASIA 2013: BIG BAD WOLVES / ZOMBIE HUNTER

Big Bad Wolves (Dirs: Aharon Keshales & Navot Papushado, Israel, 2013)—It's an oft-stated supposition that one of the redeeming values of genre films—particularly horror, sci-fi, and thrillers—is the capacity to reflect the anxieties of the predominant culture. This cultural component is essential to framing an appreciation of Big Bad Wolves, the sophomore effort by Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado (Rabies, 2010), which seeks to introduce the violent revenge thriller to home turf audiences more accustomed to dysfunctional family dramas and war-torn narratives. Keshales and Papus

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FANTASIA 2013: THE WEIGHT / SZAMANKA

The Weight (Dir: Jeon Kyu-hwan, South Korea, 2012)—Described by Alix Wagner-Bernier as "a melodrama verging on the horror genre", The Weight feels miserably oppressive and morbid at first as we're introduced to a hunchbacked and tubercular mortician and his transsexual brother, both betrayed in their own ways by their individual bodies.  They suffer their wretched and marginalized lives in a nether world otherwise known as Seoul.  But what could have remained an unkind and grotesque indulgence of freaks and misfits at the edges of society subtly uplifts into a sibling love story ren

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FANTASIA 2013: UZUMASA JACOPETTI / BIG ASS SPIDER / BLACK OUT

Uzumasa Jacopetti (Dir.: Morirô Miyamoto, Japan, 2013)—"Taking some elements from the bizarre, unpredictable worlds of Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Michel Gondry by way of the blood-soaked, hyper-real, wholly subversive and violent video days of Takashi Miike," writes Ariel Esteban Cayer, Uzumasa Jacopetti chronicles a father's one-track-minded quest for his family's happiness as it warps into murderous, absurdist carnage; a uniquely mesmerizing, magical, magnetic mind-melt of a movie, heralding the return of true underground Japanese cinema. Cayer further characterizes Uzumasa Jacopetti as a

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SFSFF 2013—John Canemaker on Winsor McCay

To celebrate the centenary of Little Nemo, the boy dreamer whose fantastic adventures in Slumberland are chronicled in Winsor McCay's dazzling early-twentieth-century comic strip series, John Canemaker delivered a special presentation at Berkeley's Pacific Film Archives in August 2006 based on his critically acclaimed biography Winsor McCay: His Life and Art. Canemaker is bringing this remarkable lecture back to the Bay Area for this Summer's edition of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, co-presented by the Cartoon Art Museum and the Walt Disney Family Museum.His lecture will be illustr

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SFSFF 2013—Michael Hawley Previews the Line-up

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival (SFSFF) celebrates its 18th edition this year with a line-up more international in scope than ever before. Ten of its 14 feature films originate from outside Hollywood, with movies postmarked Russia, Japan, Sweden, Germany, France, Denmark, Bali and the UK. The festival, which is the largest and most prestigious silent fest outside of Pordenone, Italy opens this Thursday with Louise Brooks' last great film (Prix de Beauté) and closes on Sunday with Harold Lloyd's iconic Safety Last! In between there'll be such amazements as a tribute to animator Winso

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