A Korean film combination

As well as the recent Korean Film Festival in London, Film 4 have shown five Korean films possibly
in connection with the event.   Those on TV were 'In Another Country' (2012) starring Isabelle Huppert, 'Like You Know It All' (2009), 'The Day He Arrives' (2011), Oki's Movie (2010) and 'Hahaha' (2010).   Common to all is a connection with film - Huppert is an actress with a director lover and the others all included leading actors claiming to be directors though most of them looked
hardly out of their teens.   All were elliptical and rather opaque, wordy and lacking in any cinematic
flair though all are fairly highly rated - possibly Koreans look for other things.   The only comparison
that comes to mind is that with some of the lesser Nouvelle Vague efforts of the late 50s and 60s.
In the cinema, 'One on One' starts with a rape and murder in relative darkness and then switches to a
disparate bunch of vigilantes who have agree to punish the ones responsible for ordering and carrying
out the rape.   As the bunch of seven work their way through the perpetrators, the level of retributory
violence starts to increase which leads to a falling away of willing participation though the group leader who is older and responsible for both organising the capture of the criminals and their punishing remains constant and increasingly intense.   One of those caught early on decides to find out just who did take him and he is seen spying on them in later scenes.   As the climax approaches,
it turns out that the raped girl was the daughter of the leading vigilante whereas the others are there
just for the thrill.   Following the final capture and punishment (though events in this suggest there
are others higher up), the group disbands and the father is seen on a hilltop overlooking Seoul
mourning his daughter - with the film ending with his death at the hands of the one who was spying
on them.   Somewhat patchy but with an interesting story line and a strong central performance, the
film also gets across the seeming inviolability that can come with authority and power.
'Cold Eyes' is a fairly straightforward policier taking the work of a surveillance group in the Seoul
police whose only job is that - they are specifically ordered not to be involved but, when appropriate,
to let armed police take over.   The story is told by using a young female recruit and her mentor as the focus with the opening scenes being her observing him.   The eventual focus of their work is a killer
played by Jung Woo-sung, who seems to be the current Korean heart-throb (younger, taller and better
looking than Tom Cruise), and his presence at the cinema seemed to bring out the teenage population
of Koreans in London and further afield.   The film is mainly well-paced though the middle section
was a little flat (as it was in 'One on One') and enjoyable though far from being anything more than
average.   The director, Kim Ki-Duk, who was the featured director of the Festival (apparently the
largest outside Korean for their films) is something of an outsider to the Korean film industry as we
were told at length before the first of the films we saw though he is well-thought of internationally.

James, P.R.:Death Comes to Pemberley

I have somehow never taken to the novels of P.R. James whom many consider the queen of British
thriller writers though both Ruth Rendell and Val McDermid are likely to be considered her equal or
better by many others.   This book is a departure as it is neither contemporary nor a policier.   It is
possibly the forerunner of a recent trend to write sequels to classic novels although the most frequently adapted character is surely Sherlock Holmes.   James here essays a sequel to Pride and
Prejudice setting the book in the early years of the 19th century with Elizabeth Bennett happily married to Darcy and a proud mother and more than capable chatelaine of Pemberley.   The couple
are about to continue the tradition of Darcy's late mother by having an autumn ball but their intention
is thwarted when, the night before the ball, Captain Denny is murdered on the estate while riding with
George Wickham and Lydia to Pemberley where the two men were going to leave Lydia so that she
might be at the ball, uninvited though she was.   Wickham, having been found in an incriminating
position, is arrested and tried for murder.   Apart from a cursory search around the area of the crime,
no investigation takes place though the trial is delayed and moved to London to ensure fairness.   The
bulk of the novel is the reaction of the family members to the crime and how this might have some
effect on their social position.   The final outcome is a little hard to accept as it is firmly based in the
social mores of Jane Austen's England which are so different from the present day.   Well written with
no noticeable anachronisms, eschewing archaic language, it well deserves its critical acclaim.

58th London Film Festival: 8-19 October 2014

Having missed last year's Festival completely, we possibly saw one or two more films this year than
we would usually do.   The basic criterion remained - avoid films probably having a full release here.
Our first film on 9 October was 'Black Coal, Thin Ice', a Chinese murder mystery.   Body parts have
been found in a number of widespread locations leaving the police baffled;  one lead results in a
shoot-out leaving the lead character injured and a journey through a road tunnel elides to the present
day of the film where he is now a security guard.   The murders start up again and suspicion falls on
a widowed laundry worker whom the detective befriends even though she is not that attractive and
he is an unprepossessing heavy drinker.   Rather slow-moving but with some fine atmospheric shots
and a strong leading cast, unappealing though they area.
Next came 'French Riviera' on 11 October.   Based on a real-life event from the 1970s, it has Catherine Deneuve as a casino owner which she inherits on her husband's death, Guillaume Canet as
the lawyer she employs though they fall out when she does not appoint him as her general manager.
He has been going out with her recently divorced daughter, Adele Haenel, whom he then marries.
The daughter then vanishes but only after she has given her husband an irrevocable power of attorney
which allow him to force the sale of the now failing casino to her main, and shady, rival.   Deneueve
is convinced that he has murdered her daughter but has no proof.   Time passes and Canet goes to
live in Panama but 20 years later, Deneuve is able to get him accused of the murder.   He returns
willingly to clear his name which he does though, on a later appeal, he is finally convicted.   The
director, Andre Techine, has a glossy style which is well in evidence here with the naturally scenic
surroundings though the varying interplay between the three main leads does provide the meat - and
rather slowly cooked.
'Cub' on 14 October tells of a camping trip by a small troop whose expected site has been appropriated by two local louts so they end up deep in the woods.   The action centres around one of
the cubs who is something of an outcast.   On  their second day, their camp is ransacked and the local
gendarme is called in but finds nothing.   Meanwhile, our outcast cub has found a strange structure up
in the trees which he investigates to find many of the missing items and a wild incoherent young man
who had obviously taken them.   That night they are attacked by a man and mayhem occurs with most of the troop being killed.   On reflection, a muddled and rather unlikely sequence of events.
'The World of Kanako' finds a fired cop trying to work out what has happened to his daughter, the
Kanako of the title who seems to be a very attractive, polite model student.   The almost cartoon-
like efforts of the father to find out what happened with various youths being beaten up and then
returning the favour are intercut with what actually was happening.   Far from being a victim, the
daughter was the victimiser.   Flashy and not very good.
'Why Be Good' from 1929 was the first Colleen Moore film I have knowingly seen.   Very typical
of the time with a threadbare story and hammy acting, it is a curiosity and not the wonderful film
that the BFI curator responsible for the restoration claimed, as she would have to do.
'3 Hearts' directed by Benoit Jacquot has Benoit Poelvoorde as a tax inspector whomisses his train home.   He bumps into Charlotte Gainsbourg and, overnight, they fall in love arranging to meet in Paris a few days later but, following an odd scene between him and two Chinese who have no French, he gets to the rendezvous too late.   Gainsbourg, distressed, then goes off to the USA with
her boyfriends whom she had effectively dumped a day or so earlier.   This leaves her sister, played
by Chiara Mastroanni, to run their antique shop on her own.   Lo and behold, who should turn up at
the local tax office offering to help - Poelvoorde.   They get engaged and marry with, this time,
Gainsbourg, arriving too late and thus not seeing the groom.   Some years pass but she then comes
back again for her mother's (Catherine Deneuve) 60th and her 40th birthdaycelebrations where she
does at last discover that Poelvoorde has married her sister.   They keep quiet about it at first but the
attraction is still there and they have a surreptitious affair but everything comes apart with no one
ending up happy.
'The White-Haired With of the Lunar Kingdom' is a remaking of a classic Chinese novel which has
previously been made as 'The Bride with White Hair'.   Brilliant fight scenes recall the days of the
classic Hong Kong historical masterpieces and the films stands up well to the comparison with fine
performances in particular from the two female leads.   A change from the earlier films which were
very much studio based and limited to the territory of Hong Kong is the use of some magnificent
Chinese scenery as backdrop.  

Stross, Charles: Wireless

A collection of stories, some novella length, by an author whose novels featuring Bob Howard and his fights against the supernatural I have enjoyed and commented on previously.   The nature of the
stories is varied.   All are well written and I found most of them entertaining, especially the one with
another adventure of Bob Howard.   The P.G. Wodehouse science fiction did not really work for me
and "Palimpsest', the final and longest item in the collection, left me baffled - mind you, that is not
difficult to do as any formal scientific education finished some 60 years ago.

Carroll, Jonathan: White Apples

The main character is a philanderer who has died and come back to life.   He has an affair with a lovely shopkeeper who has the name of a dead colleague of his tattooed on the back of her neck.
He stops seeing her when the love of his life returns after their having argued over a trivial matter
some time earlier.   The novel continues with the two of them keeping ahead of Death which, or should it be who, wants to reclaim him.   A number of scenes are captivating - his seeing his parents
naked watching a dog and a deer play in a field outside the inn where they are staying, possibly on the
night he was conceived; his girlfriend spending time with her dead grandmother.   She, it turns out, is
the one who brought him back from the dead to be a father to their child which she is carrying.   I did
not quite follow the whys and wherefores of this even though the clarity of Carroll's writing is exemplary even at its most poetic.

Frightfest 2014: Monday 25 August

Alleluia is a Belgian take on 'The Honeymoon Killers' which had so little impact on me that I do not
now remember anything about it.
Nymph has some friends on holiday going to explore an abandoned military fortress on a nearby
uninhabited island.   There they find a Siren which leads to most of them being killed either by the
Siren or by a local fisherman who looks after it.   A second fisherman, played by Franco Nero, is
actually trying to avenge his son's death and succeeds in killing the Siren in the local harbour but
the ending shows more of them coming to wreak havoc on the community.   Attractive cast and
reasonably well done.
Extraterrestrial has a man and woman waking up together after a drunken one-night stand to
discover they are all but alone apart from a creepy neighbour who is infatuated with the woman.
Played out as a comedy, this was probably the most enjoyable of the ones we saw.
My overall reaction to the weekend was that it was rather less scary and more mainstream than
usual though this may reflect our choice rather than the full offering.   None of the ones we saw
stood out that much; while a review nearer the time of viewing might have varied in detail, I
think my summary of each day reflects a certain disappointment at our selection.

Frightfest 2014: Sunday 24 August

Faults is an unmemorable film about cult possession and the attempts to de-programme Mary
Elizabeth Winstead which has as its twist the corruption of the deprogrammer.   No comment.
The Samurai A German policeman takes a misdelivered package to an isolated cottage whose
occupant shows him the ancient samurai sword it contains.   The film then becomes a fight between
the policeman and the sword holder with the latter chased through the village where he kills a lot
of people before himself being killed by the policemen.   Quite an enjoyable romp.
Open Windows stars Elijah Wood who is in Austin, Texas, to receive an award which does not
happen as it is a hoax.   With elaborate use of modern technology - computers, tablets, smart phones
and the like - what follows is a high-speed chase with Wood tasked with saving Sasha Grey, playing
the movie star who was to have given him the award.   I do not much care for split-screen effects but
they were effectively done and the end result was moderately successful.

Frightfest 2014: Saturday 23 August 2014

The Harvest has a fine central performance by Samantha Morton who is trying to find a cure for a
dying son.   The film is seen through the eyes of a girl who has moved into the neighbouring house
whose curiosity leads her to find a house-bound youngster whom she befriends until warned off by
Morton.   She does not stop and eventually discovers a cellar and the secret it contains, Morton's
actual child.   The denouement is rather hurried but, as one would expect, youth comes out on top.
Starry Eyes is possibly meant as a satire on the film industry.   The lead actress is always going to
auditions without success while holding down a job in a fast food diner until she is offered a lead
role in a new film which involves her becoming involved in a cult.   Although at first repulsed, she
 acquiesces to the demands made of her with the final frame showing her transformed from a pretty
girl to a voluptuous beauty.   Tedious.
Life After Beth sees a young man devastated by the unexpected death of his girlfriend, Beth.   Her
father, played by John C Reilly, consoles him and he seems to spend more time with him than with
his own family until one day he is refused entry to the house - because his girlfriend has come back
to life.   She does, however, start to pong and behave oddly, not surprisingly as she is a zombie.
Very mildly amusing.

Frightfest 2014: Friday 22 August

Rather later than I had hoped, I am dealing with the films we saw at Frightfest this year.   Unlike
previous years, we did not buy a complete pass but saw only films selected in advance so it's our
own fault if we did not like them!
Late Phases tells of a blind war veteran moving into a gated retirement community where his
abrasive personality does not go down too well.   A series of deadly attacks go unsolved but he
becomes involved and uses his skills to kill what turn out to be werewolves though himself
dying.   Excellent central performance by Nick Damici does not outweigh the rather pedestrian
development of the rather hackneyed plot even with the unusual setting.
R100 is a Japanese wierdo of a film with a bored salaryman joining a club which promises
adventure, the only catch being that he cannot resign for a year.   He is then attacked by a
number of attractive females, dressed in fetish costumes, who periodically beat him up which
he seems to enjoy.  An uninspiring oddity.

Garnier, Pascal: The Front Seat Passenger

For once the reviews proved worthwhile.   This is the final novel of a French author whose work is
more than a little reminiscent of Simenon but with humour and surrealism added.   A man loses his
wife in a car crash driven by her lover, something he appears not to have suspected.   He decides to
track down the wife of the dead man, does so under an assume name and becomes involved with her and her best friend.   The latter was the first wife of the dead man but seems to exercise a strong control over the widow who is rather submissive.   She does not like the man but accepts him for her
friends' sake and invites them both to a weekend in the country where she reveals his real identity.
This is the point at which the plot turns into something else ( not revealed to avoid spoiling).   While
naturally read in translation which I am sure maintains both the feeling and meaning of the original, I
found the events believable, clearly expounded and the denouement, while unexpected, perfectly
plausible.

Gibson, William: Zero History

A fascinating story that, superficially, is the search for a very limited cult fashion production which uses pop-up stores, announced at short notice, for its sales.   A major ad-agency, Blue Ant, headed by
Hubertus Bigend hires Hollis Henry, an ex-musician, to track down the originator of the denim in
question.   She is not alone in the search and the book develops into a thriller with double-cross and
the use of much modern technology - the latter being what one expects from Gibson.   Set mainly in
London with an early excursion to Paris, the author makes excellent use of fictionalised locations that are definitely reality-based: none of this jumping in a cab at Hyde Park Corner for a five minute run to the Tower of London!   Clearly and simply written except when the technology demands the use of
specific words, I found it a stimulating and very enjoyable experience.   When the hugger-mugger is
over, the leading participants on the side of good are seen on an ekranoplan, a Russian ship/aircraft that skims the waves.   This is a real item and, co-incidentally, one appears in the book I am now
reading.

Leon, Donna: Death in a Strange Country

Yet another Commissario Brunetti investigation, this time taking him outside Venice to Vicenza and
the US base there.   A soldier visiting Venice is found murdered, apparently the result of a mugging;
a rich businessman disturbs burglars who escape the jewellery and three very expensive paintings.
The two events seem unconnected until the reason for the soldier's death and that of his lover, who
was an officer at the same base, is uncovered.   This involves the businessman through his connections.   By the end of the book, some of the bad guys are punished but most are not.   There
is somewhat more background of the political life of Italy, the continuing influence of the old aristocracy, such as Brunetti's father-in-law, and the Mafia.   The way in which Brunetti's home
life is woven into the novel is, as always, well done and numerous small aside about life in Venice
evoke a sense of that city without getting overly flowery.    Consistently good.

Carroll, Jonathan: Sleeping in Flame

Jonathan Carroll manages skilfully to combine the prosaic here and now with what can only be

called the supernatural.   On one level, the plot is straightforward - man meets woman, is instantly

smitten and falls in love which she reciprocates; after various adventures, they settle down together.

This completely ignores the supernatural elements which provide a multiple-layered environment

where past and present, reality and unreality all meet.   This book is now 26 years old and I recall

reading Carroll for the first time when the cover drawing of a Mont Blanc pen caught my eye at

least that long ago.   Since then I have read other of his books and have at least two unread ones -

a rare vintage that needs to be savoured sparingly.

Hitchman, Beatrice: Petite Mort

Set mainly in the years immediately before World War One, this is about the Parisian film industry of
the time and involvement of a young country girl in it when she is taken on as a seamstress and becomes the mistress of a famous director though her desire is to emulate the famous actress of the day, Terpsichore.   Told effectively in flashback, what happens is told to a journalist trying to find
out the trust behind the loss of the film 'Petite Mort' destroyed before ever being shown.   She has
traced the heroine of the film, the young country girl, who has agreed to tell her the story after many
decades of silence.   What follows is a description of film-making at that time, a love affair and its
convoluted development and a mystery which you will discover if you read the book for yourself.
Although the book is nicely written, I did find the characters a tad undeveloped with some of their
actions seeming to happen only for keeping things moving.

Gaiman, Neil: Neverwhere

I remember the TV serial and have the DVD (must play this some time) but the book is much better.

Set in a London which exists under its streets, this is a highly imaginative adventure story whose hero

finds himself in this alternative world because of a small act of kindness.   The use of existing (or

rather, above ground names) is skilfully used - as well as the obvious possible such as 'Knights' Bridge' and 'Earl's Court', there is the Angel of Islington and clever use of disused Underground

Stations like Down Street and the British Museum.   Obviously, the reader needs to suspend disbelief to enjoy the story but it is an exciting adventure tale in its own right with the locational disruptions of

one's knowledge addigint to the excitement.   Very good indeed.

Nelle Neuhaus: Snow White Must Die

Tobias Sartorius is released from prison after his conviction for the murder of two 17 year old girls

whose bodies have never been found.   Convicted on circumstantial evidence of killing them, he returns home to a hostile environment even though he has been befriended by the local major

landowner.   Two detectives from Frankfurt, the nearest large city, have the task of investigating

events which then become more serious with assaults and the disappearance of another young

woman, a recent newcomer to the village.   She has befriended Tobias and also been curious about

the past events.   The cover up which led to Tobias' conviction starts to unravel though the final

explanation is somewhat complex.   Parallel to this are the lives of the two detectives, the senior

female trying to save the home she has built from being destroyed and the aristocratic male with

a celebrated explorer wife finding his marriage disintegrating.   Again, a well-written novel which

deserves its best-seller status.

Nesser, Haken: Borkmann's Point

It has been some time since I read this addition to the Scandinavian crime novels, this one set in
Sweden with an Inspector Van Veeteren as the protagonist.   Less gloomy than the Wallander of
Henning Mankell's works, he is summoned from holiday to assist in a pair of brutal murders in
a nearby town.   The plot is acceptable and the characters well drawn with few cardboard ones
in view.   Borkmann's point is not a geographical feature but an aphorism that in every investigation there  comes a point beyond which more information is unnecessary.   At this point, enough is known to solve the crime by thinking.   An enjoyable novel.