AsiaFilmFest 2008

[Tom]

From Oct 30th to Nov 9th, the AsiaFilmFest takes place here in Munich.
I will watch a few movies there (not as many as in the FantasyFilmFest though).

Does someone any recommendations for these?

[Jon]

Just picking out names I recognise...

I always think Wong Kar Wai is worth watching, but Ashes of Time looks overwrought and a bit odd.

CJ7 also looks odd, but in a wonderful way. Just what you expect from Chow.

Tokyo could be one of the most interesting because its Michael Gondry, but I haven't got a bloody clue what it is about!

Fatal Move looks suitably OTT and anything with Sammo Hung should always be considered.

Sukiyaki Western looks utterly bloody fantastic! I can't wait to see it, just going by the trailer. Takashi Miike seems to have been infected by Tarantino, who is in this, and made a bonkers exploitation movie modeled on Clint Eastwood and Kurosawa. Love it!

Speaking of which, Machine Girl looks like it should have been a fake trailer in Grindhouse. Looks nuts!

The Dream I bet will be beautiful, but a challenge. It's the same director as 3-Iron, which was enigmatic and brilliant, though I doubt I'll watch it again. Bound to be interesting and thought provoking.

[Tom]

A colleague of mine is pushing for "HANA-BI". Anyone know it?

Another one I am considering is "DER ROTE PUNKT - THE RED SPOT". Focus is the cultural differences between a Japanese woman and people from my part of Germany (Bavaria). Could be interesting.

[lovemunkey187]

If I was going then these would be the main ones I'd want to watch, but then again I am a big fan of R3 movies.
ASHES OF TIME REDUX
CJ7 - Not seen it or heard of until I read your link.
THE WARLORDS
THREE KINGDOMS: RESURRECTION OF THE DRAGON
AN EMPRESS AND THE WARRIORS
MAD DETECTIVE - Big fan of Johnnie To, so goes without saying.
SPARROW
SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO - Big fan of Takashi Miike, so goes without saying.
CROWS ZERO
THE MACHINE GIRL
TOKYO GORE POLICE
APPLESEED: EX MACHINA
SWORD OF THE STRANGER - Not seen it or heard of until I read your link.
THE CHASER
THE GUARD POST - Not seen it or heard of until I read your link.
CHOCOLATE - I keep adding this to baskets but never pull the trigger on it
Wong Kar Wai: AS TEARS GO BY - I consider this Wong Kar Wai film to be one of his best .
Wong Kar Wai: CHUNGKING EXPRESS - Hearing Faye Wong sing The Cranberries' "Zombie" in Cantonese is quiet something. The other of Wong Kar Wai's two best films.
GODZILLA - How can you pass up the opportunity to see this on the big screen?
TOKYO DRIFTER - 60's cool.
IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES - Curious what all the fuss is about with this one(it was banned for a very long time in the UK).
A CHINESE GHOST STORY
GHOST IN THE SHELL
HANA-BI
AUDITION
CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON - Even if you've seen this before, it can't compare to seeing it on a really big screen.
HERO - See above
APPLESEED

A colleague of mine is pushing for "HANA-BI". Anyone know it?

Hana-Bi is a really lovely film.

[Achim]

CJ7 - Not seen it or heard of until I read your link.

I have seen this in the cinema and even own the Blu-ray (it came with my Blu-ray drive). It's a cute film with an excellent balance between over the top comedy (Chow-style) and melodrama (some may take offence with this ). I loved it...

THE MACHINE GIRL
TOKYO GORE POLICE

These look deliciously gory. Machine Girl made it onto my Wish List for a while (heck, may even still be there).

APPLESEED: EX MACHINA

(Cool) Shite on the Tube gave this a good (but not excellent) review.

[Tom]

Dachimawa Lee

This is our first movie this year at the AsiaFilmFest. A colleague has chosen this one, because he had seen an earlier film by the same director, which he really liked. But on this one, we both agree: It was utter b**sh*t!
The announcer told us, that this movie is some kind of remake of the first amateur movie, the director did. This movie wants to be some kind of spy film parody.
It seems to be the purpose of this movie to have horribly bad over-the-top acting. The director thought it funny, to dub all the voices (even the female ones) with one bad male voice (at least I think it was all the same voice actor). As I understand it, it was to imitate Korean agent movies from the 60s and 70s, but it was simply annoying. I would have thought it okay when they would have done this only with the pre-opening title scene, but this torture lasted two and an half hour. You know the fan videos of guys, who dub over famous movie scenes with their own voice to supposely make a funny scene out of it? This movie is a 2.5 hour version of something like this.

Rating:

[Jimmy]

Now you can understand how I feel with some italian movie 

[Tom]

HANA-BI

This movie was okay. A high improvement over the movie I have seen on Saturday 
Director and star is Takeshi Kitano, who has played the character Kitano in Battle Royale. In my opinion he was like a Japanese version of Harvey Keitel in this movie. This movie is a little reminiscient of Tarantino (especially Jackie Brown), but much more subdued with sprouts of violence in-between.

Rating:

[Tom]

Der rote Punkt (The Red Spot)

Aki, whose parents died in a car accident in Germany when she was little, is searching for the spot where this happened. She is taken in by a German family which has some family problems.

A German/Japanese co-production with a Japanese director who has lived in Munich for the last 13 years.
I really enjoyed this movie. Also this showing had the nice benefit, that it was attended by most of the film's cast and crew. After the movie they had them all come forward. About ten actors (including almost all of the principal cast) and twenty crew members (director, screenwriter, composer, costume designer,...).

This movie was our last in this AsiaFilmFest. Incidentally it was the one I had chosen and I enjoyed it best of the three I had watched.

Rating:

[lovemunkey187]

This movie was our last in this AsiaFilmFest. Incidentally it was the one I had chosen and I enjoyed it best of the three I had watched.

So you only managed to watch three films out of all of those?

[Tom]

This movie was our last in this AsiaFilmFest. Incidentally it was the one I had chosen and I enjoyed it best of the three I had watched.

So you only managed to watch three films out of all of those?

Yes, time contraints. Also, unlike with the FantasyFilmFest, there was not so much interest from other parties.