It is two days into the 6th Annual Dallas Asian Film Festival Three if you count the VIP Preview receptions at Nobu, where, as you might suspect, the food was very good.
Here's what I've seen so far. (All films are at the Magnolia Theater.)
Hong Kong Hearthrob Daniel Wu
The opening night film was Finishing the Game, directed by Justin Lin. Lin made a name for himself on the indie circuit with Better Luck Tomorrow,
a hit at Sundance several years ago and widely considered a
breakthrough in Asian-American filmmaking. It's portrayal of
stereotypically over-acheiving Asian-american highschooler who discover
the pleasures of petty crime drew some knee jerk criticism reminiscent
of the type of comments leveled at black filmmakers forty years ago
when they began depicting characters not necessarily a “credit to their
race.” In any event, Better Luck Tomorrow got Lin the direcitor's gig
on Fast and Furious Three: Tokyo Slide, which maybe didn't garner the reviews of the previous film but did gross $150 million. Finishing the Game is a mockucumetary about the search for a Bruce Lee body double that took place after Lee died only a week or so into filming Game of Death.
Ir's often laugh-out-loud funny and featuring star turns by Roger Fan
and Sung Kang, and cameos by Sam Bottoms, M.C. Hammer and Ron Jeremy.
Expect to see it some night on IFC, Sundance, or AZN – or at a video
store near you.
Thursday night I made it more or
less through three films. Blackout was a relatively well-done, but
dreary little creepfest from the Philippines about an alcoholic who may
or may not have run over a little neighbor girl and walled her up in a
septic tank. It was actually pretty good, and also reminded one that
Asians do not share the American squeamishness when it comes to showing
the slightly decomposed bodies of pre-adolescents.
Heavenly Kings, directed by Daniel Wu,
in some ways seems like yet another mockumentary but its much more
complex than that. Wu, who was born in Oregon, is a huge star and
all-around heart throb in the Honk Kong film world. I think of myself
as a fan, or at least an informed diletttante of Asian cinema but he
has been below my radar. I just filled my Netlfix queue with his
titles, and I will check what's a Premiere as well. Rather than just
make a movie about a boy band. Wu and three of his actor films formed a
boy band and found bookings, based on their celebrity and despite their
remarkable lack of talent. They are too old, only one can sing, none
can dance, and actor Convoy Chan proudly introduces himself at every
opportunity at the only 200 lb member of a boy band on earth. I suspect
that the many of the send-ups of Hong Kong pop culture are lost on an
American audience, but the movie is great fun.
The very cool Tadanobu Asano
After that their were two horror films I really wanted to see, but after dozing through a goodportion of The Victim, I didn't pretend to stay for the midnight showing of The Dorm.
The
festival continues through Aug 30. I don't know how quickly the blogs
will run on Glasstire, but if I could recommend on film, it would be The Taste of Tea,
Tuesday, August 28, at 8:30. I saw if from Netflix several weeks ago
before I noticed it on the festival schedule. It's a languorous, dreamy
film about an eccentric family spending an important if relatively
uneventful summer in rural Japan. The cast includes Tadanobu Asano, an
actor so cool he makes Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, and their ilk seem like
dorks.
