Ping Pong

Dir: Sori Fumihiko
Starring: Yosuke Kubozuka, Arata
Year: 2002

Most sports films tell the story of a struggling underdog who makes it big (Rocky), or the high stakes of the pro leagues (Goal). Some even show sports as defeating war (Escape to Victory). Ping Pong, though, is the story of an inter-high school table tennis tournament. Does it get any more amateur?

For all that, it carries off a fair amount of tension and gets you wrapped up in the world of ping pong. It's a sport of ridiculously high speed and quick reactions. Fortunately, effective use of slo-mo and camera tricks help the viewer to keep up with what's going on. The direction is truly superb in this film and remains faithful to the manga roots.

The two main characters play off each other extremely well and ultimately push each other to new highs. Peco is a larger than life character who has all the confidence in the world until he loses. Smile plays to lose but has hidden talents that are waiting to be brought out. When they play each other in the final, one of them has to step up and be a hero.

Alongside them is a great supporting cast, including Butterfly Joe (Naoto Takenaka) who almost steals the show with his dodgy English and slightly disturbing personality (check out his role in Nodame Cantabile for another show-stealing performance).

As with many manga based films, you feel like there is quite a lot missing and some things in the plot seem to jump suddenly. Despite that, Ping Pong clocks in at 114 minutes - two hours of your life that will fly by thanks to the cheeky sense of humour, engaging story, and high-production values. Enjoy!

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Drillbit Taylor

Dir: Steven Brill
Starring: Owen Wilson and thee annoying kids
Year: 2008

I normally start my reviews with a lengthy story that is sometimes not even connected to the film, but for Drillbit Taylor I'll get straight to the point: it's unbelievably bad.

Owen Wilson is a funny guy, he's got funny in his bones. But he's used sparingly in Drillbit, and the lead roles actually go to three of the most annoying and unlikable young actors in cinema history. Not a good basis for a film. Not one of them can do comedy, and it actually just leaves you feeling a bit awkward.

There are three of my most hated cliches in this film:

1. Random violence is funny
2. Asian girls are desperate
3. There are rules to being cool in high school

Whoever wrote this script should stop. Just stop! Get another job where your cliches don't disturb Narry Borman, for he rejects your film from the pages of cinema history.

Bad!

Night of the Hunter

Dir: Charles Laughton
Starring: Robert Mitchum
Year: 1955

I've wanted to see this film for a few years now as I heard the main character was quite off-beat (especially so for a 50's film). He is indeed scarily abnormal - Mitchum plays a preacher who funds his work with various heinous crimes, but still maintains his good relationship with 'the Lord'.

As he goes in pursuit of two children who he believes have $10k hidden in a doll, Mitchum gradually gets more and more psychotic until there is no question of his insanity. It's acted and directed with incredible subtlety.

If this were a modern film, Mitchum's character would have been foaming at the mouth and screaming obscenities. Instead he eerily sits around singing hymns, playing with a flick-knife. That's why I say Night of the Hunter is well ahead of its time.

The director was Charles Laughton. You all know Charles Laughton. He was in Spartacus, Witness for the Prosecution and some other rather big films of the 30's-60's. Night of the Hunter is the only major film that he directed, though. And he does a swell job. In fact, the direction is quite modern, and it is imaginatively made. Narry particularly liked the scene where the children are floating down the river on the boat - reminded him of his own childhood.

Night of the Hunter is not without its flaws. It's somewhat prone to the kind of over-acting and under-acting that plagues a lot of older films, but the lead actors more than make up for that deficiency. The southern setting was quite brilliant, showing backwater US with its conservative and quite frankly crazy population (hope I don't alienate my Alabama audience with that comment). The accents were simply darling - "Go look in mirror over yonder".

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Once In A Lifetime

Film: Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos
Dir: Paul Crowder/John Dower
Starring: New York Cosmos
Year: 2007

Ah, America. Will you never learn? Throwing money at something doesn't make it work. I love US documentaries - everyone on them seems to fit right into some cliche. The nerdy guy with a head full of stats, the business tycoon with money on the mind, the journalist obsessed with his own status... it's hilarious!

Among the luminaries interviewed on this documentary, however, are the down-to-earth and very talented stars of the New York Cosmos football team, including Franz Beckenbauer, Giorgio Chinaglia, Rodney Marsh (not of NYC), Johan Cruyff and Carlos Alberto.

Hearing the conflicting sides of a story that people are quite passionate about makes for interesting watching. It makes you wonder what bizarre agendas these people have on their minds to create such fabrications.

The documentary perhaps overplays the importance of the NYC on world football, but you can't blame them for a bit of sensationalism. One thing in the favour of the NASL was the one-on-one, has to be a winner match ending mini game. I'd love to see that in the Premier League!

The documentary doesn't discover the truth, but it does tell an interesting story and shows some amazing footage of the world's greatest game being played by the then world's greatest players. If only Mexico 86 had gone to the US instead!

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The Conversation

Dir: F F Coppola
Starring: Gene Hackman
Year: 1974

In the hands of a lesser director than Coppola this would have a been boring film. But Coppola is a rare talent who makes complete films, sometimes seemingly out of nothing.

There are two big turning points in this film: 1. The crime is not what you think it is, and 2. The Conversation is not even about the crime - it's about the man. Both of these denouements (can you have two?) come within the last 10-15 minutes of the film, which, even after two hours of filmage, leaves you wanting more.

I was genuinely scared by this film - not that it's a horror film, or even scary, but it just has a certain tension that leaves you feeling chilled. The soundtrack has an off-beat jazz vibe that sits somewhere between The Sting and a Charlie Parker LP, creating the perfect background for the paranoia and intensity of Hackman's character and his disturbing world of surveillance.

Hackman + Coppola = Genius.

Genius!

Deathfix: Die and Let Live

Dir: Miki Satoshi
Starring: Iseya Yusuke
Year: 2007

Why are Japanese films so different to those of any other country? Bizarre, enjoyable, but purposeful comedy dramas are a mainstay of Japanese cinema - a far cry from the horror films and animations that are exported to the west.

These films can only be made in Japan. Japan has a unique sense of humour that is totally removed from America's more obvious comedy style, or Britain's sarcasm/cynicism. At the same time, Japanese people are renowned for showing incredible attention to minute details and being interested in the strangest things. Hence a film about an insect that can temporarily render a person... dead.

An unlikely ensemble - including a journalist, a hippy, a light-hearted suicidist, and an ex-yakuza - go searching for this insect and find a web (ba-dum-chi) of lies surrounding its existence. This premise gives director and script-writer Miki Satoshi free reign to include an array of unconnected comedy vignettes alongside a hilarious script that is supremely acted out.

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Marutai no Onna

Dir: Juzo Itami
Starring: Nobuko Miyamoto, Yuji Murata
Year: 1996

I've been going through a bit of a Juzo Itami season lately, mainly due to the fact that my local Tsutaya (the Japanese equivalent of Blockbuster, or Netflix) is promoting his films at the moment. There recommendations are normally quite strong, but I have to admit I didn't go along with the Michael Bay promotion.

Itami's Onna series has several incarnations, all with loosely the same cast. Miyamoto is cast as the Onna (or lady), this time playing an actress who witnesses a murder. Things turn nasty when the murder is connected to a cult, which soon targets her as their next hit.

It's a tried and tested formula for a film that doesn't have any major surprises, but works well thanks to a good sense of humour and a likable cast (although Tachibana, the chief detective, doesn't really have the charisma of a typical lead man).

Supa no Onne is still my favourite in this series as it is just plain fun and doesn't bother with the Yakuza-bashing of Mimbo no Onna or the anti-cult themes of Marutai. All the same, Marutai is...

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