Films for Saturday, 29th

A few films for saturday. Here they are:

9 square meters for two - This film is a documentary about prison life in France. This was quite interesting, as the inmates did their own filming, of stuff they wanted to film. It makes you not want to go to prison. The thought of doing what those guys do for years on end is probably enough to turn anyone insane. Sitting in a square box as much as they do would drive me nuts...

Tokyo Express '06 - This is, of course, Madman's oppertunity to show off its main anime wares for the next year. Now, its fair to say that Madman probably has distribution rights to a lot of the films at MIFF each year (I don't begrudge them that, Tim works his ass of and deserves the success he has gotten), but if this years Tokyo Express is anything to go by, its going to be a fairly quiet year as far as anime is concerned. The only one I was vaguely interested in was Naruto, which is a hugely popular anime about a ninja boy who is supposedly really talented, but is a smartass.. The rest weren't that good...

Sa-Kwa - Well, its fair to say I'm seeing a lot of South Korean cinema this year (don't I always?) so its no suprise I went to see this one. Its a story about a Korean woman who is trying to make her way through life. Her boyfriend dumps her, and at the behest of her mother and sister, starts dating a guy who tries really hard for her attention. She eventually marries him and the story follows her as she gradually becomes quite disallusioned with the whole life thing. She doesn't top herself or anything, but she does struggle to deal with some of the issues about her family, including her husbands drinking habits, his desire to work in a crappy small town, which of course forces her to move with him and give up everything she has. Its an OK film, but it kind of dragged on a bit.

Invisible Waves - Andrew couldn't see this one... Its done by the same director as the last life in the universe, a guy by the name Pen-Ek. Its a film set in Thailand, spoken in a mix of Japanese and English with a few other wierd karaoke moments thrown in for good measure. The story centers around a Japanese guy who is sent to Thailand to lay low for a while. He goes on a boat trip there to I guess be less conspicuous. And things of course inevitably go wrong for him with both humerous and serious consequences. Basically, Pen-Ek (who apparently has being at work drunk being written into his contracts) creates a fairly odd film (but then again, he does tend to do that). Its a bit slow in points, but its quite good.