I Come With The Rain: T
his is a very strange and haunting movie which has more ideas in two hours than most films released this summer have between them. It’s also one of those frustrating films that is less than the sum of its parts, so bursting with ideas that none of them quite gel into a satisfying whole. There are at least three separate films worth of material here that are shoehorned into one narrative. Having said that this is Josh Hartnett’s best ever performance and I say that as a big fan of The Faculty and 30 Days of Night. Somehow he has done his best work with a foreign director and the results have gone straight to DVD, which is a shame for the actor as he probably needs some theatrical acclaim. I heard about this film some time ago and it has sat on a shelf somewhere for a while and now appeared straight on DVD through a distribution label I have never heard of. Director Anh Hung Tran has had some acclaim recently with the film Norwegian Wood which may be why this has now limped on to rental shelves as some kind arty cash in. Hartnett plays Kline a broken former Los Angeles detective whose last case tracking down a vicious twisted serial killer leaves him a broken man. He takes a job from a mysterious wealthy man who wants him to track down his son Shitao who is missing in Hong Kong. Kline sets out for the city and meets up with his friend Meng Zi a HK police officer. They question various criminal elements and lean on the local scumbags including a mob boss Su Dongpo (played by Lee Byung Hun from I saw the devil) to try and track the missing man. Meanwhile in the shanty towns on the outskirts of Hong Kong a mysterious man uses healing powers to help the sick and wounded. These seemingly unrelated strands end up coming together in occasionally surprising ways. This is a film that is very much a ‘mood piece’. The closest comparison I can make is probably Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain, but don’t go in thinking its anywhere near as good as that because its not as accomplished a vision and is at least twenty minutes too long. The film looks tremendous, shot by Juan Ruiz Anchia who has a similar visual style to Michael Mann and adding to the mood; Radiohead provide much of the soundtrack. The problem is the film is so weighed down with different ideas and is such a schizophrenic piece that it fails to really work as a narrative. Take for instance the serial killer plotline, Elias Koteas plays the killer in flashback and is a scary bastard, what he does with his victims is also very disturbing.He twists and turns their corpses into grotesques pieces of art similar to the work of Gunter Von Hagen but more perverse. This alone would have made a good storyline but shoehorned into this film it doesn’t quite gel with the redemption and religious subtext that become apparent in the finale. The mid section sags a little and it really could have done with some more judicious editing. If anything this is an interesting failure that you should see and probably discuss with someone what it all means. Sometimes that is just enough. ***1/2
Dead Hooker in a Trunk:
The twin Soska sisters Sylvia and Jen are clearly insane and have surprised me that Canadian’s were capable this kind of thing, this is long way from the films of Guy Maddin. Dead Hooker in a Trunk is their directorial debut and is a low budget romp featuring the aforementioned crazy twins who with their friends end up with a dead woman in the trunk of their car. This leads to run ins with the type of scum not seen since Troma’s heyday and lots of consequence free violence against corrupt cops, pimps, serial killers, triads and members of the public. The lead sister and most violent of the two Sylvia plays a character named ‘The Cunt’ so you get a good idea of the kind of tone they are going for here. Despite very clearly being low budget and probably in need of better camera and sound people, the Soska’s debut has a tremendous energy to it and its quite possible with a bigger budget and professional actors these two babes could hit it out the park next time around. I can’t recall the specifics of the plot apart from when the hooker is discovered in the trunk everyone suddenly wants a piece, suffice to say it was never dull and must have been a blast to make which filters through to the viewer. Recently Vancouver was plagued by riots which were blamed on the fact they lost the Stanley Cup, I suspect the Soska sisters were involved somehow probably shooting their latest movie. ***
Confessions: Wow, just wow. I feel like I should be getting sick of Asian revenge sagas by now but each new one I watch offers me something fresh and exhilarating so bring it on. This is one hell of a good looking flick, each shot is a work of art and everything about it just screams class reminiscent of David Fincher’s best work. The plot concerns teacher Yuko who knows in her gut that one or two of her students were responsible for the death of her young daughter. The film begins with Yuko giving a final farewell speech to her class before making them feel sick and turn on the people she suspects of the murder. The film 
then continues afterwards telling the story from the point of view of each of the suspects and another girl in their class. There are twists and turns and revelations as the tension builds towards a gut punch finale where revenge is not only taken but lives are ruined forever. This movie feels dangerous, the teacher is trying to get savage psychological revenge on 13 year olds and with all the stories of students run amok in the press its easy to believe that the events here could actually happen. Most controversial of all is the fact that the opening scene has Yuko tell her students that the free cartons of milk she has just given out were infected with HIV. There again this film is Japanese and the culture there towards their kids seems to be completely different (Battle Royale?) The trick to the success of this film is that the characters are fully fleshed out and sympathetic and not just victims. Take Naoki the villain of the piece, we learn a lot about this character and that through circumstances beyond his control he has been twisted and molded into an evil little shit. Despite this come the climax you can’t help but feel sorry for the kid, Yuko uses the tragedies in his life against him, giving him false hope and ultimately devastating his very soul. Confessions is another successful example of an Asian revenge saga (if you read this blog you know the names of the others) that will stay with you for a long time and shows that envelope pushing can sometimes work in your favor. ****
Jackass 3.5: I watched this on a Friday and was thinking that Ryan Dunn was a actually the funniest of the crew and then he died the following Monday. I was bummed out as the guy is only a year older than me at this point. Jackass 3.5 is the straight to DVD 80 minute long movie made from outtakes from the recent 3D cinema release. Its almost impossible to review this in the traditional sense. If you are a fan then you will love this if you are a critic for the Evening Standard then don’t bother. Much of this movie involves skateboards, catapults, paintballs, radio controlled helicopters, wild animals and snowboards most of which are used to inflict pain and play pranks. You could do worse on a Friday night and I hope that Dunn’s death doesn’t prevent Johnny Knoxville and his crew returning to our screens soon. It feels like hanging with old friends who never grew up. ***
Mulberry Street: This was released in the UK in 2008 under the title ‘Zombie virus on Mulberry Street’. That title made me dismiss the film sight unseen but since Jim Mickle’s second movie Stakeland has made a splash recently I thought I would go back and check out his debut. Mulberry Street is very reminiscent of the REC films as well as 28 days later and The Signal. Some kind of viral infection that comes from rats starts to infect the residents of the lower east side of Manhattan and the infected become violent, dribbling lunatics and start to take on the characteristics of rodents. An ex Boxer, an immigrant woman, an elderly man 
and his carer are trapped in an apartment block whilst the boxer’s daughter travels home from military service abroad back to the quarantined section of the city. This is one of those great low budget movies that clearly had no money to realise fully the devastation they wished to convey but manages to do so just through clever use of locations and shooting at night, the budget was only $60k and you would never think so. The performances from the unknown cast are all very good and they are believable residents of New York, they nail the accent and the mannerism’s perfectly. The set pieces are all expertly staged here as well, you have the typical zombies dragging people through windows and breaking down doors scenes but they are done very well with handheld cameras that never give you motion sickness. There are no scenes of men with machine guns mowing down hordes of zombies just scenes of unarmed men and women trying their best to survive by using what they have and thats what makes this film so surprising. I really enjoyed this film, it was a genuine surprise that I enjoyed the hell out of. Don’t let the crappy UK title turn you off, Mulberry Street is a great little lo-fi shocker. ****
by Chris Holt
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