By Matthew Ishitani

After Spiderman 3, I thought I’d hate another densely packed, content-orgy, comic-book movie. The Dark Knight has about a dozen independent plots orbiting the villainous Joker’s master plan. Each of these little plots could serve as its own episode in the series (Batman going to Hong Kong, copycat vigilantes, etc.), which may be a little off-putting, even in a movie that’s two hours and forty minutes long. I pried myself away from the hype two weeks before the film opened with the understanding that I might hate it. Thankfully, it turned out to be the best superhero movie of all time.

With Batman (Christian Bale) established from the previous film, the way it should be, writer/director Christopher Nolan was able to develop the franchise’s recurring nemesis, Joker (Heath Ledger). Ledger’s performance is so aggressive and unpredictable that you forget it’s him. His voice shifts from high and sneaky to low and terrifying without warning. The prosthetic scarification enhances every emotion, even when Joker stops smiling and says, “I’m not crazy.” Hans Zimmer’s musical theme for the Joker is escalating chaos, complimenting every moment the Joker reveals a little more about his goals.

Nolan went through great lengths to perfect this version of the Joker. For instance, he’ll leave an ironic burning fire truck in the center of a street as a sign that he’s close. It doesn’t seem like anything could beat the razing of the city in Batman Begins, but the Joker’s twisted sense of chaos outdoes the previous film by staging large-scale “social experiments” with the citizens of Gotham. There are few echoes of Ra’s al-Ghul in Joker’s goals (looking to bring out the killer tendencies in Batman and the people of Gotham), but he gets to be much more dangerous. Joker also proves to be a physical match as well, discounting Batman’s indestructibility in the armored suit.

As much as the film concentrates on Joker, it pays more attention to the ill-fated Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). Eckhart’s performance leaves a shocking impact with every turn of the character. While it may be obvious where this path leads, the ending is still very surprising. I was not wholly satisfied with the span of the character, but I believe Nolan was attempting to foil our expectations of the ending. Taking this into account, the movie is more satisfying as a complete story. Sadly, there’s little to talk about Eckhart’s performance that won’t give away everything.

Ledger and Eckhart manage to eclipse the performances of both Christian Bale and Gary Oldman, who were the focal characters of Begins. The characterization of Batman gets to be intensely altered by the recent rise in violence, as more “freaks” and even copycat Batmen challenge his authority. Bale gives a sense of desperation to the role of Bruce Wayne, as both his finances and control over the city suffer from his incorruptibility. He’s driven to the edge by the Joker and comes to the realization that he may have to kill him. A common complaint fans will have is Bale’s Batman voice, which is a roar that should be a whisper.

Lt. Gordon (Oldman) remains the grounding character that must manage the relationship between Batman and the police. This time, Gordon starts bending the rules, teaming with Dent and Batman to destroy the mob. This control is compromised by the entrance of the Joker, who only perpetuates the cycle of chaos.

The social issues brought up by the heroic alliance come to question the ethics of the three, who have taken an almost fascist oath to take back the city. As such, Batman comes to lower his own standards, becoming much more violent and aggressive in order to piece together the Joker’s plans. This psychology of the character will no doubt have its fans clamoring over the message the movie sends about Batman’s political views. His existence as a vigilante contradicts his goals of peace– an irony the Joker obsesses about.

Christopher Nolan and his brother Jonathan seem to have cut the fat off what David Goyer has given them. The film is streamlined and isn’t dragged down by anything useless. Perhaps that could be deemed a flaw, as it spares no time for people to catch up. You can’t just leave to use the restroom while watching this film (there’s nothing after the credits; I learned that the hard way). Aside from that, The Dark Knight feels like an end-all Batman movie, changing anyone’s concept of the character and franchise, even the readers’.

The film is much darker compared to the other highest grossing movies (even Revenge of the Sith and Return of the King), because it sinks into this dark atmosphere of Gotham and falls deeper into it with no chance of turning back. The climax leaves a promise without a setup, leaving the next installment a mystery at best. Hopefully, he’ll do some detective work next time, but as it stands, The Dark Knight is the definitive story of the hero and the genre.

Poster image @ imdb.com.

By Matthew Ishitani

It’s hard to say that you’re disappointed in a really good movie. American Gangster wasn’t the classic everyone expected it to be, but it was still exceptional. David Mamet’s Redbelt falls under this category. The film’s plot is congruent with Twilight Samurai in that a humble, gifted warrior struggles through unfair adversity until his skills are recognized. That works for a samurai movie, but it comes off hammy in a modern-day context, especially when mixed martial arts are involved. It still kills this year’s earlier American MMA release, Never Back Down.

Brazilian jiujitsu instructor Mike Terry (Chiwetel Ejiofor) saves a burnt-out action star (Tim Allen) from a brutal bar fight. When things seem to be improving, the action star’s sleazy agent (Joe Montegna) steals Mike’s methods of practice while he and his wife (Alice Braga) go bankrupt. Mike has to win back his honor by entering the tournament that bastardized his training regiment. The film is host to an orgy of plot developments that make it hard to summarize.The best of these arbitrary developments is Emily Mortimer as paranoid attorney Laura Black. Mike empathizes with Laura and decides to teach her how to defend her self and conquer her fears, showing that the film is more than just a brawler’s movie.

Ejiofor is able to evoke the same pain as Hiroyuki Sanada in Twilight Samurai, as well as the beaten ego of Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven. He wears the signature scar on his forehead like the crest of a superhero as he charges through stadium security near the film’s climax. Montegna is well-suited as the villain of the story, while the collective group of evil businessmen also includes incomparable Mamet-staple Ricky Jay. Braga is fiery in all the wrong ways, but Mortimer remedies the absence of nurturing female roles in Mamet movies.

Unlike Heist, the tough guys of this movie don’t get the snappy dialogue. Mike is more philosophical than smart-mouthed, which makes sense but isn’t as entertaining. I was anticipating the hero/villain banter of kung fu movies to explode with Mamet’s writing, but that wasn’t the direction Mamet had intended. The fact that it starts out somberly realistic, then becomes hellishly realistic, and ends almost like a Mighty Ducks movie brings it down a few notches from being a classic.

Redbelt is a film that would probably baffle generations. My generation will expect it to be an exciting, nonstop action romp and older generations will try to fish out elements of a classic Sport movie, like Rocky. Never Back Down was able to make back its $21 million budget in its first three weeks, with Redbelt still $6 million below budget, because it had a generation to appeal to (while failing at everything else). I enjoyed the movie, but it probably comes down to being part of the two niches the film is associated with, fans of David Mamet’s films and fans of martial arts.

All images from www.imdb.com

By Matthew Ishitani

With the rise of Thai martial arts movies, there’s been a great deal of letdown as far as story lines. While Ong-Bak and Tom Yum Goong were both explosive in nature, their plots borrowed the same stencil. Chocolate, the latest from director Prachya Pinkaew and choreographer Panna Rittikrai (of the previously mentioned films), pays back these generic plots with a number of absurdities, ultimately culminating in the introduction of JeeJa Yanin, the proposed female counterpart of Tony Jaa.

The star-crossed romance of a chain-smoking Thai “Beatrix Kiddo” (Ammara Siripong) and an imported Yakuza boss (Hiroshi Abe) produces an autistic, martial arts-absorbing daughter Zen (Yanin) who craves chocolate candies and fears bugs. Zen’s mother undergoes brutal changes when her lover returns to Japan while her former boss (Pongpat Wachirabunjong), and his team of transgendered assassins abuse her. As Zen flourishes into a fighter, her mother succumbs to poverty and lung cancer. Zen decides to collect on her mother’s debts in order to pay for cancer treatment, eventually resorting to the killer instinct inherited from her parents.

Chocolate moves extremely fast, with most of its action reserved for the last forty-five minutes. The action sequences are memorable, the longest lasting over twenty minutes and with four-tier setup, and there are an adequate amount of guns this time around. The lighting dictates the general mood of every scene, with soft, sunlit mornings and drab, fluorescent nights reminiscent of a Wong Kar-Wai film. It should be comforting that Yanin’s first lead role is that of a mentally unstable person, since the audience won’t be expecting anything more than a physical performance. However, she does have her moments, howling like Bruce Lee and nudging her severely beaten enemies that owe her mother money.

Rittikrai’s choreography is as tight as ever, and Yanin is capable of keeping up. The acting is decent enough, but the stability of the plot is instead held together by its rich context. Pinkaew’s cinematography is as engaging as it was with Tom Yum Goong, hovering about large sets and even weaving through them. The stunts in this film border on the irresponsible, with crossfires of cleavers and people falling off buildings. While the film is advertised as another wireless martial arts film, I’m sure they had the decency to fit safety measures to the stuntman that fell thirty feet to the asphalt. I hope so, at least.

Chocolate seems more of a serious storytelling effort for Pinkaew and doesn’t go easy on the violence. Considering that Yanin performed all of her own stunts, the film is very engaging. There’s an intense sense of danger watching a young woman doing what Jackie Chan and Tony Jaa do, especially in her first big role. Chocolate has a bittersweet storyline with ultrarealistic action the likes of a Bourne movie. It’s definitely worth a look, if not a buy.

By Matthew Ishitani

The Forbidden Kingdom is like fan-fiction written by a newbie Wuxia film-junkie who just read Neil Gaiman’s Stardust. While I found the epic pairing of less popular masters Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung (in SPL) to be more intense, Jackie Chan and Jet Li were so monumental together that they actually deserve their own trilogy. It’s really a shame that Li wasn’t more strict and stoic to contrast Chan’s inebriated whimsy.

Directed by Rob Minkoff (Disney’s The Haunted Mansion) and written by John Fusco (Hidalgo), there doesn’t seem like much was going for the movie, as a transition between Chinese and American cinema. The initial storyline is played like Dragon Wars, wherein a white boy (Michael Angarano) must realize his connection to Asian mythology. The premise beyond Angarano’s introduction is much more adequate. An alleged drunken-scholar (Chan) and a Silent Monk (Li) help the accidental time-traveler return a sacred staff to the petrified Monkey King (also played by Li), while a puzzling rebel (Liu Yi Fei) assists them in order to assassinate the tyrannical Jade Warlord (Collin Chou), who has hired a white-haired bounty hunter (Li Bingbing) to stop them.

Martial arts choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping and cinematographer Peter Pau, who last collaborated on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, provided the necessary amount of skill to redeem the problematic premise. Yuen has worked extensively with both Chan and Li, making their first encounter of the film the most memorable scene in the movie. Thankfully, neither of them is untouchable, giving and receiving a fair amount of damage for at least seven minutes. A few of Yuen’s trademarks appear, such as the two masters arguing over superior animal-styles (“Praying Mantis, very good … for catching bugs”) as well as the mixture of wired and grounded fighting. The movie lacks a little beyond this, particularly to focus on the entry of vacantly written villains and Angarano’s transformation into some sort of Kung Fu Cinderella. Of course, without that, there’d be no story for the movie (which I’d still pay to see).

Chan and Li make an excellent odd-couple for Wuxia, able to banter well with words and fists. The only thing sad about this pairing is that it feels too much like an overly expensive “test” movie, experimenting with the chemistry between these two legends for future endeavors. Thankfully, they’re impressive together, but the movie would collapse miserably without them.

Poster image from www.imdb.com

By Matthew Ishitani

“Street Kings” is basically “Dark Blue” with a weak lead, a better villain, and predictable story-structure. I expected better from James Ellroy (“L.A. Confidential”), who wrote both movies, but he can’t be blamed since his original script was rewritten by director David Ayer (“Harsh Times”) and Kurt Wimmer (“Equilibrium”). Much like “Equilibrium,” the story is preposterously derivative, though somewhat intriguing and very entertaining.

The movie is wrought with one cliché after another. It starts with Detective Tom Ludlow (Keanu Reeves) waking up and looking at himself in a mirror. (When are they going to stop with the damn mirrors?) He deals with the now-fashionable Asian-American gangsters, who turn out to be child-rapists. We continue into this “complex” plot about police corruption, in which Captain Wander (Forest Whitaker) has to cover for Tom’s activities, which eventually involves the murder of Tom’s former partner (Terry Crews). Tom loses credibility as he hunts for the killers with the help of a rookie (Chris Evans), who hasn’t proven himself yet as a gunfighter. I’ve named at least five clichés so far.

Keanu Reeves is a puzzling actor. All the emotions are there, but his speech is perpetually corny. This makes it impossible to take him seriously as a detective. His unmistakable Asian-ancestry is also a factor, when he has to shake down Korean gangsters with bigotry. (They respond by calling him a “white boy.”) If the role didn’t require him to talk, Reeves would be fine. But this is a James Ellroy movie, and there’s no way around having the main character sum up everything at the end.

The bit parts from Common and the Game are surprisingly the most convincing while Tom’s corrupt sidekicks are played too obviously. Hugh Laurie’s role as Captain Biggs felt bland and lacking, as though he was originally written to be the main character, but was set aside for the purposes of action. He’s like Dr. House with two legs, a badge, and five minutes of screentime. Whitaker’s role is similar to Idi Amin with Denzel Washington’s accent from “Training Day.” He speaks with a sort of inspiring yet disillusioned superiority. “What ever happened to just putting away bad people?” asks Tom. Wander responds: “We’re all bad, Tom.”

Ironically, there is no real need for Ellroy’s trademark summations, since you can figure out where everything’s going five minutes in. The twists are digested with a sort of “duh” attitude. The sneaking suspicion that Captain Wander is behind everything persists throughout the experience. Characters are left without an encore, notably the women, and the ending hangs open like an exit-wound. The positives are in the action sequences and Whitaker’s sermons of corruption, though the latter doesn’t measure up to his Academy Award-Winning performance. It’s not worth $8 at the cinema, and you’re better off watching one of Ellroy’s other films.

All images © www.imdb.com

Written and photographed by Tracy Chan

Filmmaker speaks on meditation and the creative process.
Lynch, who developed a nightmarish and surreal film style now know as Lynchian, is also a coffee fanatic.

At times stern, at others jovial and animated, award-winning filmmaker David Lynch held a question-and-answer videoconference via iChat at the Center for Korean Studies on Wednesday, April 23rd. He was hosted by the Hawaii Center for Consciousness-Based Education. Lynch is best known for writing and directing films like Eraserhead (1977), Blue Velvet (1986), Lost Highway (1997) and Mulholland Drive (2001). What most people don’t know about Lynch is that he is a practitioner of Trancendental Meditation, a  Consciousness-based form of meditation introduced in the West about 50 years ago by  Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

So how did Lynch, known for his nightmarish, surreal images and mastery of sound in his films, get into meditation?
“Suddenly in my life I got interested in meditation, whereas before I couldn’t have cared less,” said Lynch. “Because it suddenly dawned on me that meditation was a way to go within. And I heard a phrase, ‘true happiness is not out there, true happiness lies within.’ But they don’t say where the within is, and they don’t say how to get there.” For him, he said, meditation is a way to dive within and find true happiness and ideas.

Lynch also spoke with audience members about his beginnings in the film industry and the process of ideas that inspire him.  “I get ideas sometimes, and sometimes I fall in love with them” he said. “As I always say, I don’t often get the whole film at one time. I get fragments of it…when you catch an idea, you see it, you hear it you feel it, and it tells you exactly the way it wants to be. Then, stay true to those ideas as you translate them to cinema.”

When asked about his diet or whether he uses any stimulants or drugs to drive his creativity, Lynch held up his coffee mug, to the delight of the audience.  “Caffeine is very good, but meditation is even better,” he said. No surprise for the man who has his own signature coffee blend, available in espresso, decaf, and house roast.

No matter where the questions were directed, Lynch kept returning to the topic of meditation with an unmistakable enthusiasm. Despite his affirmation that we live in a dark and troubled world, Lynch said that meditation births understanding and affects the collective consciousness in a positive way. “It’s the secret to world peace,” he said.

Dr. John Hagelin, a world-renowned quantum physicist, professor and peace advocate, joined the videoconference later to speak on the link between transcendental meditation and quantum concepts.

For more on David Lynch and his efforts to promote meditation in the educational system, please visit www.davidlynchfoundation.org.

by Matthew Ishitani

“Persepolis” is an animated French film in which a young, Iranian woman struggles with the shifting state of her identity. Adapted from the autobiographical, two-part graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, “Persepolis” (named after the ruins of the Persian Empire) follows Marjane’s (Chiara Mastroianni) impressionable childhood, teenage rebellion, and conflicted adult life during some of the worst times in modern Iran.

Animated in black and white, such events as the Iranian revolution and the Iraqi invasion add deep emotional impact to the movie. The story begins in 1978, when demonstrations against the Shah worsened to the point of violence. Uncle Anoush, a socialist once exiled to the Soviet Union, teaches Marjane the historical background of modern Iran. After years of rebelling as a teenager, her parents send her to France for her own safety, and she encounters 1980s nihilism. All the while, her worried parents (Catherine Devenue and Simon Abkarian) and grandmother (Danielle Darrieux) deal with the social changes under the hegemonic rule of the new Islamic republic.

This movie was protested and banned by the government of Iran for presenting “an unrealistic face of the achievements and results of the glorious Islamic Revolution in some parts.”

If “Persepolis” presents anything of that sort, it is only because the film strives to be honest about its own perspective. The film version of Afghan novelist Khaled Hosseini’s “Kite Runner” was attacked in the same way, only with the film’s “rape scene” used as an excuse. Satrapi, who co-wrote and co-directed the film with Vincent Paronnaud, is a responsible storyteller that not only expresses the faults in her home country, but her own flaws as well. However foreign the story may turn out, she is able to make it relatable.

Perhaps the best parts of the movie involve Danielle Darrieux, whose portrayal of Marjane’s grandmother can be both tender and authoritative. The interaction between Devenue and Mastroianni is incredibly believable, primarily because Devenue is her actual mother. The animation is simplistic, yet beautiful, with musical segues ranging from Iron Maiden to Survivor. “Perspolis” is an engaging drama about society and the individual, amounting to a Black-and-White feature with deeper colors than most films today.

All images © www.imdb.com

By Tracy Chan

In the slums of Sao Paulo, Brazil, a professional kidnapper coldly cuts off a woman’s ear and sends it to her family in exchange for ransom money, which he distributes to the neighborhood children so they can buy food. In a city not far away, where the rich drive bulletproof cars and politicians are immune to civilian courts, a rich man quietly buys powerful supporters in his bid for Congress. Down the street, a plastic surgeon artfully constructs a new, natural-looking ear from a portion of the kidnapped woman’s rib cartilage, and surgically attaches it—for a small fee.

This is Brazil, as described by Manda Bala (“Send a Bullet”) the explosive new documentary directed by New York native James Kohn. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary and Best Cinematography at the Sundance 2007 Film Festival, Manda Bala was screened to a packed house at the Island Independent Film Festival at Next Door in Chinatown on November 8.

The film opens unexpectedly on a frog farm which doubles as a money-laundering operation, and proceeds in a surprising, fast-paced, tersely brilliant manner. A colorful soundtrack emphasizes the tongue-in-cheek approach to its themes of corruption, kidnapping, and the interconnectedness of violent crime within society, Manda Bala takes an ironic and sometimes tragically humorous look at just how bad things have gotten in Brazil.

Manda Bala is a film that redefines the definition of “documentary”. At times, it feels more like an action movie, moving at a rapid pace that never lets up and introducing new revelations every minute. Somehow the producers arranged to set up interviews with a number of controversial characters including key politicians, kidnappers and their victims, a paranoid resident and an oversexed, machismo-driven detective from the anti-kidnapping division who comes off as a Brazilian Chow Yun-Fat. Without these inside looks into the world of organized crime and the prevalent mentality of city dwellers in Sao Paulo, viewers would not realize the gravity of the economic gap or the pattern created when individual elements are woven together.

More than just skillful composition, the film’s success is partially due to brilliant camera work that takes us from the favelas of Sao Paulo–one of the world’s largest slums– to the rainforests, and shows us both the ugly and the beautiful parts of Brazil. In one notable scene, the eyes of Jáder Barbalho, one of Brazil’s most prominent and reputedly one of its most corrupt politicians, are faded out to the eyes of the masked kidnapper in a not-so-subtle reminder that despite class differences, the two men live by similar principles and are more alike than one might think. In a society where survival depends on the acquisition of money, sometimes the only way to live is by the bullet.

For information on where this film was screened, check outhttp://www.mandabala.com/listings.html.

All images © www.mandabala.com

By Loraine Ho

Every lesbian in Honolulu may be in this audience, joked a speaker at the Itty Bitty Titty Committee screening. The film premiered in Hawaii last week Saturday at the Doris Duke Theatre, near the closing of the Girl Fest 2007 festivities.

Many recognize director Jaime Babbit from her 1999 claim-to-fame, But I’m a Cheerleader, which follows teenage misadventures in an ex-gay training camp. Babbit retires the coming-out theme with her newest film, Itty Bitty Titty Committee, which centers on an extreme feminist organization and the struggle to incite political change.

The openly gay Anna, played by Melonie Diaz, works as a receptionist at a breast-enhancement clinic. She’s going through some rough shit – she didn’t get into college, her girlfriend broke up with her, and her quiet personality invites people to step all over her.

This all changes when she falls for Sadie (Nicole Vicius), who vandalizes the window of Anna’s office. Sadie is a member of a radical feminist group, the Clits in Action, or C(i)A. Next thing we know, Anna is defacing the walls of her room and spouting off axioms like, “I no longer feel the need to surround myself with symbols of the misogynist tyranny.” She also participates in cheesy moments, when characters stare at each other and silently wish for those on-screen kisses to just happen.

Carly Pope radiates ferocious energy with her character, Shuli, the leader of the C(i)A. Shulamith Firestone, author of The Dialectic of Sex: A Case for Feminist Revolution, inspires her name. At first, Shuli seems to be the only character with any blatant political agenda – the remaining C(i)A members are plagued by a bad case of dyke drama. Empowered by spirited vitriol and bitterly chain-smoking her way through most of the film, Shuli reminds us that the 19th Amendment was just ratified in Mississippi in 1984, ensuring women’s rights to vote.

While IBTC presents itself as an intensely political film, the cast and crew are careful not to step on any toes. Daniela Sea of The L Word makes an appearance as Calvin, a thrill junkie who served in Iraq. When asked her opinion on the conflict, Calvin shrugs and explains that she likes to blow things up. Oddly enough, a sex scene ensues from there. If you’re searching for intense commentary, this isn’t the film for you.

Rather than forcing any ideological stances, IBTC provides blueprints on how to take action. The C(i)A offers refreshing feminist motivation for the digital age. Their online ‘zine is updated with their filmed exploits, and they head over to Sacramento for gay marriage demonstrations.

Their extreme methods contrast with the legit, academic approach upheld by Sadie’s girlfriend, Courtney (Melanie Mayron), who runs a progress group called Women for Change. IBTC questions whether social progress is too slow in safe legal channels, and if extremism is really necessary to make an impact.

“The film is very much inspired by the riot girl music of the early ‘90s,” explains producer Andrea Sperling. Bikini Kill, Heavens to Betsy, and Le Tigre provide an appropriate soundscape, lending megaphone-filtered yells, distorted guitars, and rapid drumming to the C(i)A missions.

Overall, IBTC pleases with its chaotic romps between sheets and picket lines. It’s also reassuring to see a feel-good movie that doesn’t resort to clichéd depictions of lesbians as evil, dead, or insane. (See list here.)

The movie is now being circulated through film festivals internationally. Take a look at www.power-up.net/nowplaying.php for the upcoming destinations.

Online voyeurs beware: Many of the film’s intro scenes are reproduced in the online theatrical trailer. So unless you want to experience an uncomfortable sense of déjà vu during a screening, stay away from those pesky You Tube sneak peeks.

All images © www.imdb.com