Kim Ki Duk

Cinefan screened one of Korean director Kim Ki Duk's initial films Bird Cage Inn. The auditorium was packed considering the man behind the film that was about to be screened. Kim Ki Duk has had a phenomenal rise in the world of cinema and is often considered to be one of the most interesting filmmaker operating out of Asia today. To say that his films have a very strong impact on your mind would be stating the obvious; his films have a strange haunting quality that lingers on your mind long after you have finished the film. He has a knack for picking up very basic ideas and adding layers to them; he once saiud that most of his ideas originate from 'hatered'.

Kim Ki Duk's breakthrough film, The Isle, was also the first film of the director that I saw. The film had a very simple premise- a mute girl works as a helper in a fishing resort way out in the Korean wilderness. She sells food, bait and some times herself to the tourists. In the course of the film she falls in love with a man after saving him with a fishing hook when he tries to commit suicide. The stark images, the rare dialogue and great production design were a few of the things that set The Isle apart.

The style of The Isle would became the directors trademark- little dialogue, striking images, interesting sequences and most importantly high original concepts. The other important films in his repertoire are Bad Guy, Address Unknown, Samaritan Girl but the two films that really stand out Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring and 3-Iron. The former is about the various stages in a humans life as well as the basic emotions that we live through. It deals with solitude, love, innocence, corruption and most importantly redemption. Kim Ki Duk uses a Buddhist monk's life as a metaphor; this monk lives on a floating house and it's through his eyes that we see the journey of a human life. The film has some stunning cinematography and lots of metaphors, the staple of any Kim Ki Duk film.

3-Iron has a young drifter who breaks into strangers' houses - and lives - while owners are away. He spends time by living it up and repaying their unknown hospitality by doing laundry or small repairs. The man bumps into a beautiful woman who's suffers at the hands of an abusive husband and a loveless marriage. The man is caught and jailed but when he comes back the women couldn't be happier. The film has a very metaphysical quality about it and meanders between the brilliant and the bizarre but is still beautiful.

Coming back to Bird Cage Inn, the running time seems too long and the long silences somehow don't convince. The film is about a family that takes in a prostitute and how her being there threatens to destroy the family. But more often than not things that break us are the very things that bind us as well but somehow the basic message is played for too long. There are almost 8 major characters and each has their moment so you can imagine the effect on the story. One can see many future Kim Ki Duk references and characters taking shape in Bird Cage Inn but that's not enough to enjoy the film. For some one who has seen better fare from Kim Ki Duk, Bird Cage Inn is only important for anthropological reasons.

Image Courtsey: www.horosheekino.ru

Cairo Station

Made in 1958, Cairo Station is considered to the first of cinematic masterpieces form Egypt and the beacon of Arab Cinema. Directed by Youssef Chahine, it is about sexually fueled insanity of Kenaoui, a newspaper vendor working in Cairo's railway station. He spends his time checking out women and pinning up pictures of bikini-clad women in his room. In addition to him the station has a whole lot of people representing sections of the working class people in the station- Abu Serib, the porter, wants to make a union and spends his time convincing others and trying to curb the free spirited Hanuma, the soft drink seller and his wife to be. Hanuma is like whiff of fresh air gone berserk and she is the eye sore of the station's authorized soft drink vendor. Hanuma is also the object of Kenaoui, the hobbling newspaper vendor's sexual fantasies. Hanuma's love for Abu Serib is something that is beyond Kenaoui's comprehension. He proposes to her but she keeps declining him and mocks him.

Hanuma and Abu decide to marry and Kenaoui is assigned the task of delivering Hanuma's trousseau to Abu who'd book it in the goods train. Kenaoui's frustration reaches a fever pitch and he decides to kill Hanuma. His plans are set in motion when Hanuma asks him to run off with her soft drink bucket so that the authorities can't catch her. Kenaoui asks her to come and collect it later. A tired Hamuma convinces her friend to fetch her bucket. Kenaoui ends up killing the friend thinking that she's Hanuma and delivers the body in a crate passed off as Hanuma's trousseau to Abu Serib.

What follows is how the entire station comes together and saves Hanuma from Kenaoui's evil plans. This remarkable film troubled the 1950's sensibilities of Egypt to such an extent that it was banned for almost 20 years. Set against the backdrop of a bustling railway station the director (doubling as Kenaoui as well) manages to depict the daily lives of those who work at the station as well as people who visit it using melodrama merging easily into documentary-style realism.

Over flowing with issues and thoughts, the screenplay keeps up the tone and pace all through the film's running time. Watching the film 50 years after it was made and still enjoying it proves that it has stood the test of time for it still looks fresh. The best thing in addition to the performances was the camerawork which oscillates between grand and gritty. Cairo Station's climax will stay in your mind of some time for it is tragic as well as scary.

Image Courtsey: Guardian

Tender Is The Wolf

It's Cinefan time again and I kicked off my film watching spree with an accidental choice. I reached two hours before the time for the film that I wanted to see and ended up viewing a Tunisian film called Tender Is The Wolf. What unfolded in the first few minutes of the film showed great promise but somehow failed to deliver. The story is set in some nameless city and shows the harsh realism of modern Tunisian life. There’s this woman who is getting ready for an evening on the town in a red dress. It fits like a dream.

That evening we see three young men fight for some dudes take off with the stuff one of them sold on the street. They are pissed and one of them is an albino who keeps dancing for no reason and when he has a reason, he dances then as well. One more guy, in his 30’s stays with his over protective mother and over bearing father, joins the three.

As the four dudes sit and drink and smoke up, the woman in the red dress comes from her flat to hitch the cab that has been sent by her date for the evening. One of them men makes fun of her and the fiery woman in that figure hugging fiery dress retorts. The men are pissed, the albino decides to teach her a lesson and the three gang rape her. The fourth dude, actually an over grown kid, tries stopping but fails. The woman is pissed at them for they have spoilt her dress. It’s a nightmare.

The girl asks her brother to get even and he bashes up the only guy who didn't do anything. The girl doesn't stop her brother and enjoys it. He is left to die butt naked on the streets but somehow manages to get home and get dressed to go out, find his friends and search the girl to teach her a lesson. The girl and the guy hook up, end up making love and discovering true love. The man proposes and the woman accepts even though she is sure that he'll walk out on her; the man assures her that he'll not for he's learnt a lot in the course of that one night.

Come morning and the woman walks out on the man and he is left licking his wounds. The build up of these two lead characters- Abdelmoumen Chouiette as the over grown kid and a beautiful looking Anissa Daoud as the woman in red- as two sides of the same coin worked for the few minutes but just looses it in between. The setting of the film is very realistic and gritty but it doesn't really take off. There are few shots which are in black and white, can’t figure out why? Barring a few sequences that stay in the mind for some time, it’s the lead wolves (didn’t know who was the real ‘wolf’ in the title) that stand out in the film. At 83 minutes director Jilani Saadi's vision felt a little long or have I gotten so used to non-sense that perhaps I'm not being able to see the good in it? That's my problem with these slice of life kind of films- there has to be a little something more that just a juicy looking chunk of meat.

Image Courtsey: Philadelphia Film Fest