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Things have gone rather quiet around director Sogo Ishii. His latest film dates from 2005 and didn't exactly enjoy a broad release (still eagerly waiting for the DVD myself). A terrible shame, though it does give one the chance to catch up on some of his older, lesser known films. And so I sat down in front of August In The Water, one of the hidden gems, yet to be discovered even by most fans.
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Together with The Lovely Bones and Gilliam's Imaginarium, Burton's Alice In Wonderland is one of the recent high profile films that submerges itself into an elaborately constructed fantasy world. The tale of Alice in Wonderland isn't exactly original material, but on paper Burton is the perfect director to tackle a project of this magnitude. The first reactions are quite mixed, but for me personally Burton succeeded with style.
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Looking back, 2009 was the year that stop-motion animation found its way back to the masses. Selick's Coraline and Elliot's Mary and Max paved the way, but it's probably Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox that holds the power to reach the biggest audience. Not my favorite of the three I mentioned here, but still a mighty fine film alright.
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Ever since the success of "Hero" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", China and Hong Kong have been upping the productions scales of their flagship films little by little. Over a period of 10 years time they've succeeded in producing subsequently bigger and more epic films. The latest to join the group is Bodyguards And Assassins, a welcome variation on the big budget martial arts film.
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When the dead roam the Earth once more ... the tagline of many a zombie flick out there. Usually a good indication that plenty of growling, lurching and brain eating will ensue in the coming 90 minutes. But some films dare to take a different approach. Some genre cinema is about breaking all the rules rather than following them. Les Revenants is exactly such a film.