Monday, October 2, 2008 - The Hollywood Reporter

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The Hollywood Reporter | Thursday, October 2, 2008 | reviews By Maggie Lee TOKYO, Japan — Charting the highs and lows of a 10year marriage is a film subject as prosaic as a TV ad for life insurance, but in the hands of Ryosuke Hashiguchi (“Hush”), it is nothing short of transcendent. “All Around Us” connects intense personal experiences with the troubled zeitgeist of Japan’s post-bubble ’90s. Despite taking characters to the emotional deep end, it offers optimism as precious and fragile as the human bonds it depicts. The film enjoyed an unexpectedly long run domestically, but its gently undulating rhythm and self-effacing style might not catch the eye of auteur-hungry viewers. Making its overseas debut at Toronto gives it the recognition it deserves. We enter the lives of Kanao (Lily Franky) and Shoko (Tae Kimura) in 1993 as the newlyweds strive to conceive. Subtitles indicate keystone years, such as Kanao’s new job as a court illustrator, Shoko’s descent into depression after their baby’s death and family gatherings that are by turns tense and tender. In the courtroom, (fact-based) trials of lurid ‘Nightmare 2’ continued from page 1 of the eponymous hero’s past like a detective thriller with rudimentary Freudian logic. Exploring the nature of fear, it probes into characters’ psyches to reveal vulnerability rather than evil, eliciting not fear but pity. The horror mas- > MIDNIGHT PASSION BOTTOM LINE Inward-looking horror film exploring the nature of fear. CAST: Ryuhei Matsuda, Yui Miura, Hanae Kan, Miwako Ichikawa. DIRECTOR: Shinya Tsukamoto. SCREENWRITER: Shinya Tsukamoto, Hisakatsu Kuroki. EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Kaz Tadshiki. PRO- DUCERS: Shinya Tsukamoto, Shinichi Kawahara, Takeshi Koide, Yumiko Takebe. SALES AGENT: Movie-Eye Entertainment. No rating, 97 minutes. ‘All Around Us’ > A WINDOW ON ASIAN CINEMA BOTTOM LINE A soul-stirring portrait of married life, for worse or better. CAST: Lily Franky, Tae Kimura, Mitsuko Baisyo, Susumu Terajima, Akira Emoto. DIRECTOR-SCREENWRITER-EDITOR: Ryosuke Hashiguchi. PRODUCERS: Eiji Watanabe, Tetsujiro Yamagami. SALES AGENT: Celluloid Dreams. No rating, 140 minutes. crimes and sordid corporate corruption form a grim undercurrent that accentuates the couple’s defeated morale, until a vow of committment heralds a ter of the “Tetsuo” series already has a collectivist fanbase that laps up whatever he makes, but this work has the emotional depth to move beyond such circles to a more mainstream market. Ryuhei Matsuda has perfected his art as grungy, Hamlet-like hero Kyoichi, who can read minds and enter people’s dreams. Yukie (Yui Miura), a high school girl, seeks his help because her classmate Kikukawa (Hanae Kan) has disappeared after Yukie and her friends played a prank on her. She thinks Kikukawa is invading their dreams to terrorize and kill them. Kyoichi becomes intrigued by Kikukawa’s resemblance to his mother, who’s abnormally high strung and attacks people when scared. The jumpy editing never shows a complete figure of moving transformation. Verbally, the film sustains a graceful, sometimes heartbreaking silence, but images orchestrate a symphony of feeling. Kanao’s mechanical sketches of intractable criminals and hysterical victims contrast starkly with Shoko’s exuberant drawings of flora and fauna. Both mirror their states of mind. Body motions become poetic tools of self-expression. In a scene denoting ineffable joy, a pregnant Shoko strokes Kanao’s back during a stroll. Toward the end, they lie on a temple tatami; close-ups of their feet entwined Kikukawa, and her face remains blurred until the denouement. Her elusiveness is the most unnerving element in the film. Although there is no orgy of Tsukamoto’s trademark body-mutation effects to blow one away, some inventive facial distortions playfully together evoke renewed love and desire. Celebrity artist Franky makes a startling screen debut. His awkwardness in front of the camera actually gives him authenticity as the homey, taciturn Kanao. Veteran Kimura conveys an unpredictable rawness beyond professional pitchperfection. Supporting performances also are as natural as breathing. The limpid cinematography has the fluidity of water colors, connecting changing moods like a ride through the tunnel into emerging light. ∂ occurring in timely moments imbue the atmosphere with the surreal color of Dali’s paintings. When tracing Kyoichi’s relationship with his mother, Tsukamoto uses the same flashbacks too many times. However, their accumulative effect is finally felt at the end, when the same scenes are suddenly given a new context with a moving resolution. Tsukamoto subverts the horror genre by making the ‘villain’ a timid creature terrified of everything rather than a demonized, vengeful power. He suggests that human nature is scarier than any supernatural being — the hyper-sensitive protagonists live in fear only because they read people’s minds and realize what monsters they are. Originally reviewed at the Festival de Cannes in May. Los Angeles 323.525.2000 | New York 646.654.5000 | London +44.207.420.6139 | Beijing +86.10.6512.5511 (ext. 121) | THR.com/pusan | day 1 18
The Hollywood Reporter | Thursday, October 2, 2008 | news East and West continued from page 1 want-to-see in China,” Hong Kong-based producer Andre Morgan said. “And the Chinese are also doing a better job of controlling DVD piracy.” But when films move from East to West, they don’t always meet the same reception. Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” a co-production between the China Film Co-Production Corp. and Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia — the Sony arm has a long-standing presence in the region — set the bar when it was released stateside in 2000. It made $128.1 million to become the high-grossing foreign-language film in America, a record no other film has since come close to challenging. This past year, for example, Stephen Chow’s “CJ7,” an effects-filled fantasy produced by Chow’s Star Overseas and Columbia Asia, was a hit in foreign markets, grossing more than $47 million and topping the 100 million yuan ($14.6 million) mark in China. But on U.S. shores, its limited release attracted a little more than $200,000. The U.S. market for foreignlanguage films is so depressed that distributors aren’t offering more than mid-six figures for North American rights. As a result, with no serious offers coming from buyers, such big Asian action movies as Peter Chan’s “The War Lords” and John Woo’s “Red Cliff” are currently without American distributors. The hard truth is that most of the Asian-produced films that will screen at the 13th Pusan International Film Festival will never win U.S. exposure. And even big-budget American movies can get lost in translation when they try to conquer Asian markets. Still, when Hollywood eyes Asia, it sees an enormous opportunity simply because there are so many ticket buyers lining up to see both locally produced product and American imports. In 2007, according to the MPA, Asia accounted for the “Forbidden Kingdom” largest number of ticket buyers in the world. While North American moviegoers racked up 1.4 billion admissions, the Asian Pacific region registered 4.17 billion. In terms of U.S. dollars, Asia Pacific rang up $6.92 billion, closing in on the $9.63 billion in North American boxoffice revenue. Given the size of the potential Asian audience, Hollywood is stepping up its efforts in some parts of Asia, looking to foster local productions that will play in their home markets as well as the occasional crossover hit that can travel to other territories. If in the process it further opens doors for the exhibition of Americanmade titles, all the better. Universal, which also has been ramping up its international production arm — Universal Pictures International Studios, led by Christian Grass — sees developing ongoing relationships in territories as part of its larger international strategy. “To be competitive overseas, it’s vital that we are also making movies for those international audiences,” Universal co-chairman David Linde said. In the case of China, Linde and James Schamus, who heads Uni’s Focus Features, have a long-standing relationship with Hong Kong producer Bill Kong, with whom they worked on “Crouching Tiger.” That has led to a multi-tiered partnership: His production services company paved the way for “Mummy” to film in China, he distributes Uni titles in both Hong Kong and mainland China through his company Edko, and the studio expects to make two or three local movies with him during the coming year. At the same time, in Japan, where it has one of its own execs in place, Uni has set up a couple of co-productions, “Dororo” and “Midnight Eagle.” And last month, Uni and Focus joined forces with Korean’s CJ Entertainment to co-produce director Park Chan-wook’s next film, “Thirst.” CJ will distribute in Korea and retain international sales rights, while Focus will handle the North American release of the vampire tale about a priest who volunteers for medical experiments. “Films like ‘Old Boy’ and ‘Sympathy for Lady Vengeance’ got sold internationally after their domestic release, but in the case of ‘Thirst,’ it is a first for a Korean film to get U.S. studio investment and distribution in North America before its domestic release,” said Park, acknowledging that the deal reflects his growing profile abroad. In May, Fox Filmed Entertainment launched Fox International Prods., headed by San- ford Panitch, and quickly became the latest studio to lay down a marker in Asia. At Hong Kong’s Asia Media Summit last month, Fox and satellite broadcaster Star, both units of News Corp., announced a new joint venture, Fox Star Studios, to develop local-language films. Beginning with a unit in India, under the direction of Vijay Singh, they’re also planning Greater China and Southeast Asia operations. “Outside of Japan, Star is the largest satellite provider in Asia, so for us, it felt like a natural partnership to take on an essential TV player,” Panitch said by phone during a stop in Tokyo on his way to Pusan. Since American films only command 5%- 7% of the market in India, the key to success there is developing local movies with appeal in their home territory. “As a global distribution company, if there is an opportunity to find a ‘Kung Fu Hustle’ or a ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ or a ‘La Vie en Rose,’ a movie that has the potential to cross over, that is great,” he added, “but our primary goal is for the movie to be successful in the market that it’s made for.” Fox also has turned its attention to Japan, where it is putting together a slate of Japanese-language movies. First up, in partnership with Fuji TV, is a theatrical remake of “Sideways.” Warners, where Richard Fox handles international production efforts, has been seeking local partners since 1999, producing and/or distributing more than 230 films outside the U.S. It recently scored in Japan with the two “Death Note” movies as well as Hideo Nakata’s thriller “L: Change the World.” “Many of these films may never be seen beyond their national borders, but they represent an important contribution to cultural diversity, entertainment and business sectors in their countries and help Warner Full story at THR.com/pusan Bros. to develop relationships with directors, producers and talent,” studio spokesman Scott Rowe said. ∂ Los Angeles 323.525.2000 | New York 646.654.5000 | London +44.207.420.6139 | Beijing +86.10.6512.5511 (ext. 121) | THR.com/pusan | day 1 19 “CJ7”
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Monday, October 2, 2008 - The Hollywood Reporter

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