Tribeca Film Festival: Capsule Reviews (Part Two)

A Tale of Two Sisters (Ji-woon Kim, 2003) Incredibly stylish Korean gothic horror tale that appears to be paying homage to Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. Asian psycho-thrillers are quite the rage (and have been for some time now) and this is one of the better ones. Given the intricacies of the plot, it's best to go into this film knowing as little as possible. A safe description would be -- Two sisters return to their family home after having been away for some time in a mental hospital -- that's it. Though it's clear something is amiss in the house, the film takes it time in revealing details and rather spends more time focusing on the characters themselves -- especially the two sisters. It's a beautifully crafted film, and the house itself is a wonder to behold. It's more New England gothic than Korean countryside, and it's filmed in such a way that it almost becomes a character itself. The attention to light, color and detail is remarkable, as is the lush score with its haunting waltz theme. Filmbrain would have liked the film much more had he not figured out the 'twist' early on. He hates when that happens -- it takes the fun away. The question remains -- did the director give too much away, or is Filmbrain just too damn smart? Hollywood is probably already planning a remake with the Olsen twins. Try to catch the original, if possible. (Available on DVD here, or at any other Asian-DVD eTailer.)

Navel (Mohammad Shirvani, 2004) Experimental Iranian film shot on video that focuses on three men and a woman sharing an apartment together in Tehran. Interesting in that the camera is itself part of the film -- most scenes have one of the four roommates holding the camera while filming the others -- and the end result looks appropriately amateurish -- extremely shaky, often out of focus, and excessive use of the sepia tone and night vision filters. This gives a certain vibrancy to the film, and we tend to forget that we are watching scripted characters. We are not told why they live together, nor do we ever really know who they are. Chista is an Iranian woman living in America who has returned to Iran to seek out an old boyfriend. Khosrow is a divorced man with a child. Mani does most of the filming, and very little is revealed about him. (He is attracted to Chista, but she is not interested.) Reza is a former cleric suffering from a religious-secular struggle. Their dialog is often frank, which is one of the reasons the film had to be made illegally. There was no way Shirvani was going to get a permit to make a film that shows a woman removing her veil in an apartment with three men. While Filmbrain was impressed with how the film was made, he was more than a bit confused at times, knowing next to nothing about the problems facing people in current-day Tehran. There were taboos broken that Filmbrain knew nothing of (i.e., showing a navel), thereby most likely missing a lot of what the director intended. Shirvani showed up at the end of the film, having literally just arrived after an 18-hour flight. Soft-spoken and humble, he seemed very pleased with the (mostly Iranian) audience and their appreciation of the film. Filmbrain truly felt like a dolt.

Choking Hazard (Marek Dobes, 2004) Clearly the most fun to be had at the festival. I mean, a campy, funny, philosophical zombie film from the Czech Republic, complete with speed-metal soundtrack -- who could ask for anything more? An odd mix of characters (including a porno star who's also a Jehovah's Witness) are spending a weekend at a remote hotel for a weekend philosophy course. For some unknown reason, dead woodsmen rise from their graves and prey upon the hotel. Being junior philosophers, the group agrees not to act as if they are in a zombie movie (no running and screaming). They are going to use their brains to get out of this one. Dobes' dialog is very witty at times, and the camp factor is high. A very funny film that could easily become a cult hit. Hopefully it will find a distributor in the states.