It's what Showgirls should have been—women, dance, competition. Yes!
Last Night in Hong Kong
My last night in Hong Kong turned out to be an unexpected and sleelpess ponder on the state of independent films. My buddy Lawrence and I attended the closing night of Hong Kong Independent Film Festival, formerly Hong Kong Asian Independent Film Festival that was born out of the dramatic severance from Hong Kong Asian Film Festival in 2008. Read the Variety article for history.
The screening of Bill Yip's Cure was well-attended. Cure is a bit of an oddball indie picture straddling between commercial and independent cinema. A first feature, Cure is essentially a mixed-genre Thai movie directed by a Hong Kong filmmaker.
At the after party, I congratulated Bill on a glass of prosecco. We all know how hard it is to make an independent feature and then get it premiered at a festival. It's truly a feat in itself.
After the after party, a bunch of us went to Lawrence's apartment where we chatted till the weehours about the state of independent filmmaking. Vincent talked about how the "calling card" indie feature was no longer a valid option in Hong Kong. At the bust of Hong Kong film industry, no one is going to finance you even if you have a great first film. It's hopeless trying to make a film to please the industry in hope of getting a gig. Making an independent film cannot be a means to an end.
Making an independent film has to be an end in itself.
Before sunrise, we all agreed that we had to make the movies we wanted if we had the opportunity. We must please ourselves as independent filmmakers.
Amen.
10 Unusual Horror Movies for this Halloween
Here're my favorite ten unusual and rare horror movies for this Halloween. Three of them are ironically movies about Halloween or set on Halloween.
Blue Velvet
David Lynch's horror-borderline film noir is about a teenager discovering a severed human ear that draws him into an underworld of dark and bizarre characters including the drug-addicted sadist played by Dennis Hopper and a disturbed nightclub singer played by Isabella Rossellini. It's disturbing, mysterious and utterly beautiful—a genuine classic that put David Lynch on my fright map.
Fudoh: The New Generation
Here's a film I walked out on at the Toronto Film Festival in 1997 but enjoyed it a lot more on video much later. Directed by Takashi Miike, Fudoh tells a ragtag gang of children led by a handsome high school teenage boy who unleashes a purge against an older generation gangsters after witnessing his dad decapitating his brother. It's a galore of Japanese perversities including a transgender teenage girl, a dart-shooting vagina, a kimchi eating Korean bastard son, preteen assassins... you name it. It's fun, action-packed and very disturbing.
The Grudge II (Japanese Theatrical Version)
I have to admit that The Grudge I and II (the Japanese Theatrical versions) are the most creative horror movies I have seen in terms of the construction of the feature narrative. It's sort of Roshomon set in a haunted house where several victims' stories happen at different times come together to celebrate the evil and horror of the famed Kaiyako's curse. Grudge II is particularly fascinating because it's about a horror film crew filming in the haunted house. There are a lot of film-within-a-film moments. Totally postmodern and absolutely brilliant.
Halloween III: Season of the Witch
Halloween III is the only Halloween movie in the series that doesn't feature Michael Myers. In fact, it has nothing to do with Michael Myers. It stars Tom Atkins as a doctor investigating into an evil toy maker's wicked plot to be unleashed on children worldwide on Halloween. Complete with some gruesome murders, it's actually a memorable horror film that truly breaks the mold despite its initial commercial failure. It killed the franchise for awhile. But trust me, take a look!
Opera
Dario Argent's Opera is an uneven but beautiful and intriguing postmodern slasher film. A serial killer repeatedly forces the diva to watch brutal murders of her loved one by tying her up and taping pins underneath her eyes so she can't close them. How sickly self-reflexive of the genre is that? The finale involves unleashing a cage of crows that have witnessed the murder to catch the serial killer in the midst of ruined opera performance. It's both ludicrous and classy. Best of all, it features one of the coolest death sequences in horror movies I have seen.
Pumpkinhead
Stan Winston's tale of a troubled man who conjures up a gigantic vengeance demon, Pumpkinhead, to exact revenge against the teenagers who accidentally killed his son is a classic on my books. The titular Pumpkinhead is designed by the late prosthetics legend Stan Winston himself who also directed the movie as his feature debut. Topping it off, Lance Henriksen's compelling turn makes Pumpkinhead a must for creature features lovers.
Santa Sangre
Alejandro Jodorowsky's off-the-wall and disturbing masterpiece is a certainly not be missed if you have not seen it. It's a horror drama set in Mexico about a little boy who grows up in a circus. After witnessing a violent episode between his abusing father and religious fanatic mother, he is institutionalized. He escapes later and rejoins his mother in a violent rampage against those who wronged them. Santa Sangre is one of those rare, disturbing and magical films that must be seen to be believed.
Satan's Little Helper
Here's an highly curious but not totally successful horror film from Jeff Liberman who has made a slate of unusual horror films such as Blue Sunshine and Squirm. Set on Halloween, Satan's Little Helper is a gentle and quirky horror tale about a little boy, obsessed with video games, who unwittingly becomes the pawn of a masked serial killer. It stars the enormously talented Amanda Plummer and truly captures the spirit of Halloween in the American suburbs.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre II
Tobe Hooper's energetic sequel I would argue is even more fun and intense than its predecessor Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It's a nonstop bloodbath and thrill ride from the first frame to last starring your favorite cannibal family in Texas terrorizing a late-night female disc jockey who must rise to the occasion. Dare I mention Dennis Hopper plays a psychotic chainsaw-wielding sheriff trying to do the Chainsaw family in? I love the last shot of the film that would make Carol Clover proud—a roaring feminist moment in the splatter genre, unlike the last shot of its predecessor.
Trick or Treat (1986)
Charles Martin Smith's directorial debut Trick of Treat is an underrated horror film about an unpopular teenager finding a rare record. By playing it backwards, he ends up unleashing a Satanic rock star literally from hell. It's quite a fun horror picture and also a poignant teen drama. Highly recommended for reviewing or rediscovery.
Happy Halloween!
Allen Ginsberg vs. Mark Zuckerberg
Or it's Howl vs. The Social Network. As a filmmaker, I cannot resist looking at these biopics side-by-side in terms of the treatment and dramatization of our cultural icons. It's also interesting that both movies were released roughly in the same time frame—about a week apart.
First off, I was really excited to see Howl because Ginsberg was such a colorful artist. With elements such as sexuality, drama, drugs, and the obscenity trial, how could you go wrong making a movie about such a fascinating character?
On the other hand, I was dragging my feet to The Social Network because I really didn't want to see a movie about a Harvard-turned-Silicon-Valley-entrepreneur. It would be as exciting as going to watch a biopic on Thomas Edison or on Tom of Myspace. However, I was pleasantly surprised.
What's interesting about both movies was the attempt to portray intellectual life with moving images to varying degrees of success. How would one go about doing it? While Ginsberg was a more general intellectual of his times, Zuckerberg is a "particular" intellectual for our generation. According to Alvin Gouldner, the class of particular intellectuals has emerged at the height of technocracy and postmodern society whereby a figure like Noam Chomsky—a general intellect—has become an extinct phenonenon. That would be the 2 cents I got out of my "Intellectuals" graduate class at Yale comprised of 2 students—me and an undergraduate.
I really wanted to love Howl but I was surprised at the general dryness and lack of sensuality and drama in the approach of making the film. As we all know, it is incredibly difficult to interpret poetry. Literalism is the death of interpretation. As I was watching the animated sequences of Ginsberg poetry, I felt like watching an afterschool special.
It's also interesting to note that both movies were framed by a trial. Howl was framed by the obsenity trial of Ginsberg poetry in San Francisco, whereas The Social Network was framed by the intellectual property trial of Facebook. Dare I point out that both movies were kind of set in the bay area! I would have thought that the obscenity trial could have proved a more compelling and dramatic result, but ironically it was the intellectual property trial that excited me with Fincher smartly leveraging our emotions with money, friendship and betrayal. Good old-fashioned hollywood tactics worked.
I would say that Howl had all the potential to be The Social Network in terms of cast and budget with James Franco toplining as Allen Ginsberg. But...
In my canon, The Social Network is not as groundbreaking as Fight Club. I remember watching Fight Club with Peter Chan in 1999. Even though Peter admitted that it wasn't his genre of movies, he thought it was the perfectly entertaining deconstruction film. For me, Fight Club is the postmodern masterpiece that's fun, subversive and conceptually brilliant. Fincher's often cool and clinical style made Fight Club work. Heathers could have been Fight Club if only the school had blown up at the end.
The Social Network is entertaining and compelling. And at the same time, it is inspiring for me in the sense that the film has captured that spirit of a passionate intellectual who would stop at nothing to realize his idea, reminiscent of Coppola's portrayal of a passionate American entrepreneur in Tucker: The Man and His Dream.
Talking Back to a Critic
The past Friday, Andy Klein and Wade Major were on KPCC's FilmWeek reviewing The People I've Slept With. I typically don't talk back to critics, but I was rather struck when Andy Klein made the comment, "The characters are frequently clichés... and kind of stereotypes of eh... Asian... you know... the geeky guy... these different stereotypes even while it's trying not to have the stereotypes."
Does a straight white male critic claim to know better about "Asian stereotypes" than us? I definitely find his perspective problematic.
I left an initial comment saying "I just love it that white critics accuse us of perpetuating 'Asian stereotypes'" and it got erased. And then I left three more subsequent comments.
Particularly in the context of an independent film, perspective is crucial. As an independent filmmaker, it is important to stand up against vague and unfounded criticism. And here's my response:
I'm referring to Andy Klein's comment "The characters are frequently clichés... and kind of stereotypes of eh... Asian... you know... the geeky guy... these different stereotypes even while it's trying not to have the stereotypes."
First of all, we're all Asian Americans here. I'm not sure what the "foreign film of sorts" and "Asian Canadian" come from. The film was shot and made in Los Angeles.
There is a clear distinction between Asians (those who live in Asia) and Asian North Americans (those of us who immigrated here or are born in the United States and Canada).
Having said that, as an American, I'll defend your right to say the N word, make racist or racially biased comments, say anything or express any opinion you want per First Amendment.
However, I also reserve my liberty to criticize criticisms that sound as broad, vague and cliché as "The characters are clichés... and kind of stereotypes of eh... Asian..."
Here reminds me of the moment when Roger Ebert stood up in Sundance against a Caucasian guy who criticized BETTER LUCK TOMORROW and its filmmakers for perpetuating Asian stereotypes.
Ebert is not here.
I'm just an Asian American filmmaker standing up for myself.
Playing Sunset
To me, playing a movie at the Laemmle's Sunset 5 is reaching some level of independent filmmaking. Since I first started film school at UCLA in 1993, the Sunset 5 has played all the best and significant independent films. I remember in my film school years Justin and I would go to the Sunset 5 to watch the latest independent flicks. When Justin finished Better Luck Tomorrow, I passed my Honda Accord to him (after his Grand Am broke down) who later passed it onto another struggling filmmaker who was making her first feature. And I once bumped into my old Honda in the very parking structure below the Sunset 5 years after I gave it away... that's my old car!
The Virgin Megastore became CB2. Buzz Coffee became Starbucks. The Wolfgang Puck Cafe became Sushi Dan and Trader Joe's. Apart from Crunch (where I've never been), I feel like the Laemmle's Sunset 5 is last vestige of what I used to know from that plaza.
I am so excited that I'm playing The People I've Slept With at the Sunset 5 starting Friday 8/27. Isn't that crazy?
As a distributor, it's also my first time booking the Sunset 5. I came out to Los Angeles as an intern to Strand Releasing. I would deliver flyers and postcards to the Sunset 5 while working for Jon Gerrans in his Hollywood apartment.
When I started distributing in 1999, the Grande downtown was the only Laemmle theater that Greg would let me book. With Ethan Mao, I made my way uptown from the Grande to the Laemmle's Fairfax in 2004. In 2010, exactly 17 years after I arrived in Los Angeles, I booked my movie into the Sunset 5.
It's almost like Jude from Hardy's novel who would gawk at Christminster like the shiny Emerald City if he were a filmmaker.
So that's why I was so psyched this morning waking up in a world at the crossroads of film distribution. I had to test digital projection at the Sunset 5. Sipping a cup of coffee, I drove to 8000 W. Sunset Blvd., parked and browsed around CB2 for 10 minutes before my appointment.
At noon, I walked up up to the third level and set foot into the projection room overlooking all the five theaters of the Sunset 5. I stood speechless in awe. It was my first time there. I saw the large 35mm projectors and rewinders which dwarfed the two Blu-ray DVDs that I was carrying.
Honestly, I don't miss lugging those 35mm cans around.
The projectionist first tested them on one Blu-ray player that didn't quite work, but the other one played. I trotted down to the auditorium passing by the Crunch folks doing exotic workouts and checked the HD projection.
Standing before the screen, I felt psyched and game in a new age of independent filmmaking. I have come a long way since I made and distributed my first feature Shopping for Fangs in 1999.
I felt like Tilda Swinton's Orlando driving through modern London in the last scene of Orlando, which was ironically re-released this year.
Adventures in Self Distribution: NYC Opening Day
The opening day of a film in the first city is often the most stressful day for filmmakers because you have to wake up and face the reviews in the newspapers. I remember in 1999 when my first feature Shopping for Fangs opened in Los Angeles the first thing I got up was to go buy all the newspapers to check the reviews.
Thank God for the internet... most reviews got posted the night or a few days before nowadays. Just as I got off the plane last night night, I got an e-mail from Koji's wife Marcia saying that we got a decent New York Times review. I checked it and it was indeed not bad:
"Tales of a Trashy Bachelorette: A Raunchy Romantic Comedy... Amusing and Totally Ridiculous!"Although I am pretty immune to reviews (trust me, I have been trashed and stomped to the ground for Ethan Mao), I think the review actually sells the movie quite well.
http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/movies/13peopl.html
Nevertheless, I woke up this morning and trudged to the news stand to buy the paper and read it in a cafe sipping a cup of coffee with Equal and half-and-half.
I guess I'm old fashioned that way... I need to look at the review on print to believe that it was indeed printed.
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