High Noon

Showing at the New York Asian Film Festival: High Noon, directed by Mak Hei-Yan

Synopsis from the NYAFF website:

Eric Tsang produced the youth film project, Winds of September, which resulted in three feature films about kids coming of age, one set in Taiwan, one set in Mainland China and one set in Hong Kong. Each movie is based on the exact same screenplay, written by Tom Lin who directed the Taiwanese segment, and so you’d expect the same movie three times. Nope. Each movie reflects the film industry in which it’s been shot and audiences and critics agree that the one to see is High Noon. Sure it’s a teen angst movie and we’ve all seen plenty of those before, but few other movies capture the frenetic energy of Hong Kong and few other filmmakers are willing to push the youth movie as far as this flick’s 24-year-old director, Mak Hei-yan.

Set in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, Mak zooms in on seven high school students who spend their time screwing around, eating, playing video games and studying. Shot on DV, the visual style is what keeps things hopping early on, with Mak filling her frame with so much zippy visual panache that you begin to feel like you’re trapped inside a sixteen-year-old’s head while they IM their friends, scan Youtube, watch TV and talk on the phone all at the same time. But then things take a turn for the worse and the movie begins to live up to its tagline: “There’s one ridiculous event after another every day.”

Most Hong Kong movies aimed at the teen demographic are shallow sex comedies, sappy love stories or ponderous lectures about the dangers of one thing or another. Mak eschews all that guff and sprints into Category III territory (Hong Kong’s equivalent of the NC-17 rating) full speed ahead. As the movie turns darker and the unwanted pregnancies, drug addictions and murders pile up you realize that you’ve been tricked into lowering your guard just long enough for the director to get under your skin. Veering wildly between youth drama and exploitation picture, High Noon pulls itself together in the end to deliver a powerful punch. As Variety says, “Young Mak is one to watch.”

Showtime:
Tue June 23, 1:05pm at the IFC Center



Interview with Mak Hei-Yan:

Crush and Blush

Showing at the New York Asian Film Festival: Crush and Blush, directed by Lee Kyeong-Mi

Synopsis from the NYAFF website:

Me-Sook (Kong Hyo-Jin) is probably not the finest teacher that the South Korean educational system has to offer. A paranoid, ruddy-faced stick of dynamite, she lives in the faculty lounge, teaches middle school English without knowing the language, and has been in love with colleague Mr. Seo (Lee Jong-Hyeok) since she was his student. Mr. Seo has a family now, but as far as Me-Sook is concerned, they’re just temporary obstacles. When she learns that dizzy colleague Lee Yu-Ri (Hwangwoo Seul-Hye) has been carrying on an affair with Seo, Me-Sook goes thermonuclear, forming an unholy alliance with a student who's a born loser, just like her: Mr. Seo’s daughter. Imagine a movie based on a team-up by Glenn Close from Fatal Attraction and Reese Witherspoon from Election, and you’re just starting to understand the pathology on display here.

"People like us must work harder than everyone else," Me-Sook warns Jong-Hee, Mr. Seo’s daughter, at the start of their mission. And they do. In between rehearsals for their ill-advised performance of Waiting for Godot at the school talent festival, the girls spend their nights posing as Mr. Seo on the Net, luring the virginal Yu-Ri into cybersex trysts, but to their dismay, the more perverse the chats become the more aroused Yu-Ri gets. As their scheme expands and begins to collapse, comedy becomes dramedy, laying bare the fragile bonds not only between outcasts but between women. When Mrs. Seo (a magnificent Bang Eun-Jin) puts it all together, it's time to put on your headphones in the language lab, and choose your future through guided meditation and soul-shattering confessions.

Crush and Blush is helmed by first-time female director, Lee Kyeong-Mi, who splices thriller, satire and, yes, chick flick DNA to create a gorgeous monster. Upending all the tired "female stalker" cinema tropes, she places you in the headspace of the supposed “psychos” while the prey remains at a distance. Co-written and produced by Park Chan-Wook (Oldboy)—who cameos in the film along with Bong Joon-Ho (director of The Host)—the film took home "Best New Director" and "Best Screenplay" at the Blue Dragon Film Awards. Kong Hyo-Jin won "Best Actress" at the Korean Film Awards for her tour de force as the unstoppable Me-Sook, whom she transforms from an object of derision to one of shocking identification. These characters do horrible things, but for profoundly human reasons, and unlike Fatal Attraction, nobody gets stabbed, shot, or boils a bunny. Catharsis, when it comes, is both hysterical and heartbreaking. Crush and Blush is a subversion of the stalker picture, a love letter to the world's losers. "No one cares about people like us," Me-Sook tells Jong-hee late in the picture. "But I care," Jong-Hee replies. By the end of this film, so will you.

Showtimes:
Wed June 24, 9:15pm at the IFC Center (with actress Kong Hyo-jin in attendance)
Thu June 25, 5:00pm at the IFC center (with actress Kong Hyo-jin in attendance)