Quick Thoughts: Ringo Lam

I recently reviewed Hong Kong director Ringo Lam's latest Sky on Fire.

Many thoughts ran thru my head as I watched it. Way beyond the realm of which I would use in a Toronto Film Scene review.

While I was searching for Lam trademarks, and comparing this to all of his other films that I'd seen the entire time I was watching. My thoughts also strayed to how he's never received the same international acclaim as some of his peers, who together built the HK Action Genre from the ground up in the 80's and 90's.

I'm not fact checking here so hopefully my adolescent memories aren't way off, but masters such as John Woo, Tsui Hark, Johnnie To, and Ringo Lam made the genre what it was. So isn't it worth noting that Lam's name usually falls to the wayside as we discuss the waning genre?

The film I probably remember most as a child was Prison on Fire, which was I undoubtedly too young to be watching, but it was the 90's so such a notion didn't exist. (Yay!) I remember that while I comprehended what was happening on the screen, I was also looking to the adults in the room for reactionary cues.

Of course now City on Fire is the film in which I like to discuss at great length (despite not having seen it in some years now). Once the topic of hot debate whether it merely influenced Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs or whether QT blatantly ripped it off, even that's largely forgotten now.

I guess the bottom line is, I'm glad to see Ringo Lam still writing and directing, staying true to his tales and style, and overall staying in the game. Sky on Fire was nostalgic for me in some ways, not just by way of its title, and while his stories and films will never be flawless, I have a certain fondness for them.

Here's a pretty good bio of Ringo Lam including his Toronto connection: http://www.hkfilm.net/ringo.htm

Here's a more in-depth review of Sky on Fire than what I turned out for TFS, that largely arrives at the same opinion that I did: https://asianfilmstrike.wordpress.com/2016/11/20/sky-on-fire-2016-review/

Ada's Top 10 Films of 2015

Happy Oscar Day!

Once again I find myself in the ever familiar dilemma... not having posted my 10 Top Films of the previous year...

After last year's debacle in which I never even posted a Top films list, I'd drafted up this year's list before December was even through.  It was actually a nice tidy list, titles off the top of my head totaled 10 exactly and I thought I was off to the races. Then...

...I started reading everyone else's lists. I started making mental notes of which films I had not seen. The rash of Christmas/awards season releases.  The higher than normal amount of leaked screeners available online...

Ok, I'm being a tad dramatic. All these things happened, and I've squeezed in a lot of films between Christmas until now (thanks 30 Films in 31 Days!) but overall my initial top 10 has largely held fast.  The "honourable mentions" though... sit tight, that's grown a little in length.

While I had a couple top picks already for the year, it all came together on December 21, 2015, which I now refer to as the greatest day of cinematic viewing... possibly of my whole life.

Those who know me know that my day job has little to nothing to do with film, but it all fatefully started aligning when I was tasked to set up a special private screening of Star Wars for my team's holiday celebrations.  I was e-introduced to a gentleman named Aldo who explained to me that they've been booking these screenings for a year now, in other words, even though we knew a Cineplex Board member, we were damn lucky to score a 9am slot a mere three days after the film's opening date.

The early start proved to be handy when I was able to get a pass to the preview screening of the 70mm Roadshow Edition of The Hateful Eight :), which meant I wound up watching the two best films of 2016 on the same day.  Epic.

Enough pre-amble though, here we go:

Qualifying films for Ada's Top 10 Films of 2015:

• any film from a film festival that I attended in 2015
• any film with a Canadian theatrical release dated in 2015
• is listed on www.imdb.com as released in 2015

1. Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
2. The Hateful Eight
3. Northern Soul
4. Our Times
5. SPL 2
6. The Danish Girl
7. The Dressmaker
8. The Martian
9. Seoul Searching
10. Mad Max:: Fury Road

Honourable mentions:
Zoom
Port of Call
Obvious Child
Peggy Guggenheim
Women He's Undressed
Shooting the Musical
Seth's Dominion
Banksy Does New York

1. Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
Hopefully this one doesn't need explanation as to why it tops my list. Between the nostalgia, my love of Star Wars, and J.J. Abrams' respectful handling of the franchise, it all makes for a film most audiences can rally behind. I've had the argument that it's a rehashing of A New Hope, and I have some issues with the lastest (not greatest) supreme villain, but ultimately, it was still the film I was most anticipating in 2015 and it delivered. Top marks.

2. The Hateful Eight
Again, no surprises this is near the top of my list. I actually struggled to rank 1 & 2.  I've seen both films twice, I actually saw The Hateful Eight twice before it even opened in wide release, and despite the slow upstart (I had similar issues with Tarantino's Deathproof but that film grew exponentially on me as did Hateful Eight on the second go round) Ultimately tho, on a pure enjoyment level, Star Wars topped it. I'll reiterate I'm no fan of westerns, but QT's storytelling always gets me in such a way that it draws me in across genres.

3. Northern Soul

This one is a little more obscure, but it was one of my TIFF highlights that I wrote in a bit of detail about in a previous blog post. Like Eden of 2014, Northern Soul spoke to me on a personal level despite its central topic was one I had no previous knowledge of.  It's one of those films I wished had reached a wider audience because I think it deserves a cult following at the very least.

4. Our Times

Ok, this movie gives me all the feels. More than any other film I saw in 2015, and the crazy thing is... I almost didn't see it!  My friend and neighbor Ariane offered me tickets that she couldn't use, I read the corny romantic synopsis and wasn't overly excited. Teen romances are better than adult romances on the whole, but Asia usually does it in the cheesiest of ways.  So I was delighted to discover this was the best teen romantic comedy drama I've seen since the Korean film The Classic in 2003!  Now I didn't go to high school in Asia, but I was a teen of the 90's and spent a little time in the Hong Kong school system when I was 6 and 7.  It was enough to give me a cultural understanding, I knew who the superstars the girls were swooning about were, and the story was just darling. The film is in Mandarin, but between what's happening on screen, and a great job on the subtitles, the dialogue and story really come through.

5. SPL 2

2015 is really the return of Asian films to my top 10! Like the first one, I got asked repeatedly to attend the Midnight Madness screening at TIFF.  However this time I played it old and responsible and declined... and fully lived to regret it.  Now my TV is great, and my neighbors are saints because they didn't freak out when I had this blaring on my home theatre and started screaming at the events on the screen at midnight.  Yes, that's right, I yelled and cheered alone in my livingroom and exhibited behaviour that I normally reserve for MM.  I didn't think SPL 2 could be a fraction as good as the first one, and I was dead wrong.  The slightly less superb story is quickly made up for by stylish ultraviolence and kick ass fight choreography. (SPOILER: When dude's about to fire his gun and gets his trigger finger sliced clean off!  AMAZING!) What a great date movie SPL 2 would make...

6. The Danish Girl

Also previously discussed in my TIFF wrap-up blog. The performances are just that good, the costumes beautiful, and the story is meaningful even if it is a bit condensed. I rarely find myself saying "that film could have used an extra 30 mins" but I think if any film could have benefited from being longer, it'd be The Danish Girl.

7. The Dressmaker

This and not Steve Jobs was my favourite Kate Winslet film of the year.  Kate fully deserves her Oscar nomination, but this dark comedy is simply more to my tastes.  Hopefully we'll see it in theatres in North America soon and that they don't try to change the ending to make it more p.c. or moral (morality has no place dark comedy).

8. The Martian

Again, knowing my love for films like Sunshine and even Interstellar, it's not a stretch to see The Martian on this list. Especially given it's actually an acclaimed film.

9. Seoul Searching

The third Asian entry on my list this year, though this one is American-made. It's a nostalgic homage to director Benson Lee's Korean heritage, as well as John Hughes.  I saw this one at the Reel Asian Film Fest, just a few days after Our Times, which was going to be a hard film to top.  Top Our Times it did not, but a highly enjoyable film it was. I also have my own great memory of discovering Benson Lee, which was back in 2007 at the Tribeca Film Festival for Planet B-Boy. Seeing his b-boy subjects battle in the middle of Times Square on my first trip to NYC, followed by seeing his film with my dear friends Carrie & Adrian (ending with a Mena Suvari sighting lol).  Every time the topic of Benson Lee comes up, it conjures up happy memories.

10. Mad Max: Fury Road

Deciding on who got spot #10 on this list was not easy, but in the end Mad Max edged out Zoom. This was another film that many friends insisted I had to see in theatres and I paid them no mind, only to severely regret it later.  Like SPL 2, Mad Max: Fury Road just grips you with its action and doesn't let go for the full length of its running time. I don't even know how this is possible and I'm supposed to be a writer. As an audience member you don't have time to catch your breath, it's one intense scene after another brimming with action and violence. Mad Max has a simpler plot than SPL 2 but it is more than sufficient to drive the film, I'm not ashamed to admit I yelled and cheered at my TV a little bit during this film too.

Talking about the top 10 films are almost easy, compared to trying to justify why all these honourable mentions didn't make it... and yet I still feel the need to highlight them...

2015 was a good year in my books for documentaries.  I've never considered myself an authority but increasing over the past few years I find I've been watching more and more of them. The appeal of them still stems from the subject, but what's come to leave a lasting impression is how the material is presented.

Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict, Women He's Undressed, Seth's Dominion, and Banksy Does New York were among the best films I saw this year.  All based on topics that greatly interests me, but especially Women He's Undressed with its dramatizations and cheeky allusions, and Seth's Dominion mimicking its subjects art and style to showcase the person, here is where method of presentation really made the films. I got to watch the bulk of these in conjunction with my work at Toronto Film Scene, you can click on the titles for my TFS reviews.

Zoom was the third film I called out in the TIFF wrap-up, so maybe if you haven't clicked on the link above to see that post by now... you should ;) I almost awarded it a top spot because of it's originality and story. A story within a story within a story... but which is the reality from which it all stems? It's like a fractal, I love it.

Port of Call was another film from Reel Asian that I reviewed. I called it Asia's answer to Seven, but a worthy re-imagining.

Obvious Child is a feel good movie stemming from the decision to not have a kid. Moms of the world condemn me, but that last sentence there is a perfect example of Ada logic, so this movie just felt very genuine to me.  It's a breath of fresh air in stale saturation of rehashed rom-coms.

Shooting the Musical, which screened at the Can Film Fest, is probably the most obscure of this list. A black comedy absent of all morality, about a shotgun production in the filmmaker is trying capitalize on his best friend's passing. Sounds amazing doesn't it?

And there you have it, most of what I have to say about the year 2015 in film. Now I'm ready to sit back and watch the Oscars. Prepare yourselves for a barage of live tweets!