Fantasia Festival 2007 Archives

07/20/2007	Fantasia Dispatch - Right At Your Door [It has been over a week since I returned from Fantasia, but a few films caught in the flood of genre cinema goodness have continued to occupy some headspace. Not the least of which is Chris Gorak’s urban apocalypse drama... (2 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/20/2007	Website and Trailer for Ted Sikora's Hero Tomorrow One of the downsides of a festival the scale of Montreal's Fantasia is that it's just impossible to see everything that you want to see. It's physically not possible even if you're there for the entire duration and having only... (0 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/20/2007	Mirage Man Review I must start this review with a bit of a disclaimer. As the observant will know Mirage Man is a film I programmed for the Fantasia Festival, currently wrapping up in Montreal, and I have so far resisted writing any... (1 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/18/2007	Fantasia: Régis Wargnier's SEEDS OF DEATH (PARS VITE ET REVIENS TARD) FOR TRAILERS, SEE THE BOTTOM OF THIS ARTICLE Régis Wargnier's Seeds of Death (Pars vite et reviens tard) - a.k.a. "Have Mercy on Us All" (English working title) - is scheduled to have its North American première at this year's... (0 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/17/2007	Fantasia Dispatch - Diary (Mon Seung) Danny and Oxide Pang have been going backwards since their widely embraced two-punch of Bangkok Dangerous and The Eye. This is likely due to them churning out a film every year collectively as The Pang Brothers, and managing a solo... (4 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/17/2007	*Fantasia Report: The Sword Bearer* (Меченосец) Review** [Fantasia info page here.] Philip Yankovskiy's The Sword Bearer is a film unlike any other, one that takes a premise familiar from The Watchmen - what would it look like if an actual person in the real world were to... (14 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/17/2007	*Fantasia Report: City of Violence* Review** [Fantasia info page here.] The problem with big expectations is that they often lead to big disappointments and the sad reality is that Korea’s “action kid” Ryoo Seung Wan has followed the best film of his career – Crying Fist... (24 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/17/2007	*Fantasia Report:Dynamite Warrior* (Tabunfire, Kon Fai Bin, คนไฟบิน) Review** [Fantasia info page here.] Glory be, Dan Chupong is back! While he may not be quite as talented a pure martial artist as his compatriot, the ever-serious Tony Jaa, Born to Fight star Dan Chupong brings one important element to... (12 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/17/2007	*Fantasia Report: Exiled* Review** [Fantasia info page here.] While I hesitate to label Johnnie To’s Exiled - available on DVD here - a masterpiece I do so only because it is playing in this festival opposite his Election films, films which surpass this one... (13 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/16/2007	*Fantasia Roundup! Kiltro! Mirage Man!* Hey kids! Sunday was Marko Zaror day at Fantasia! The festival boasted both the international premiere of the Chilean martial artist's breakout film Kiltro and the world premiere of his follow up, the just-completed Mirage Man. Was a good time... (1 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/16/2007	*Fantasia Report: A Dirty Carnival* Review** [Fantasia info page here.] Clocking in at two hours and fiften minutes Yu Ha's A Dirty Carnival - available on DVD here - is perhaps a little over long but beyond that it's difficult to find anything negative to say... (6 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/16/2007	*Fantasia Report: Puritan* Review** [Fantasia info page here.] Once a staple of the film world the noir is becoming a lost art. Yes, the label still gets tossed around from time to time but the vast majority of modern noirs are dramatic re-imaginings of... (3 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/16/2007	*Fantasia Report: Kiltro* Review** [Fantasia info page here.] While it shows many of the growing pains that you would expect from the first ever martial arts film to emerge from Chile Ernesto Espinoza’s Kiltro also shows a great deal of promise. Blending typical South... (9 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/15/2007	*Fantasia Roundup! 13 Beloved!* Ah, the end has come for my time in Fantasia and I'm surrounded by packed suitcases here in my hotel room but before checking out, word on Thailand's 13 Beloved: It's good. Really, really good.... (2 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/15/2007	*Fantasia Report: Silk* Review** [Fantasia info page here.] To label Taiwanese ghost story Silk - available on DVD here - a horror film is a bit of a misnomer, albeit an understandable one. With a high energy story revolving around the supernatural the horror... (2 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/15/2007	*Fantasia Report: Special* Review** [Fantasia info page here.] Where to even begin with Special? An unconventional genre blender that absolutely defies easy classification Special is at once an incredibly realistic take on the super hero genre, a character study of a man descending into... (9 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/15/2007	Fantasia Report: Big Bang Love, Juvenile A Review [Fantasia info page here.] Japanese cult director Takashi Miike continues to amaze with his restless ability to continually re-invent himself. Though very different in terms of setting and degree of violence Big Bang Love, Juvenile A plays almost as a... (11 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/14/2007	*Fantasia Roundup! Ghosts of Cite Soleil! Midnight Balled For Ghost Theater! The Rage!* Egads! Day four of my Fantasia sojourn, aka Friday the 13th, aka my birthday, on which I gave myself the present of three films and the lady-friend followed me about singing my praises whilst strewing rose petals at my feet.... (2 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/14/2007	*Fantasia Report: Isabella* Review** [Fantasia info page here.] Macau, 1999. It’s the summer before Macau returns to Chinese control after centuries of Portugese rule and Shing’s life is in a shambles. A cop under suspension for corruption Shing is toying with the idea of... (9 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/14/2007	*Fantasia Report: Always: Sunset On Third Street* Review** [Fantasia info page here.] Call it the Titanic Syndrome but whenever word comes out of a film sweeping film awards the assumption tends to be that it has done so by playing to the lowest possible common denominator, by glossing... (3 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/14/2007	*Fantasia Report: Todd Eats Crow, Declares Uwe Boll's Postal* A Damn Good Movie. Really.** [Fantasia info page here.] Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, stop the presses! This is why, as tempting as it may be, you do not give up on a film maker. Uwe Boll has made a good movie. This is... (46 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/13/2007	*Fantasia Report: Exte: Hair Extensions* Review** Our thanks go to Marc-André Goulet who checks in here with his first report from the Fantasia Festival, a review of Sion Sono's Exte: Hair Extensions. One of the highlights of the first week of Fantasia's 11th edition was the... (2 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/13/2007	Fantasia Roundup! Small Gauge Trauma! On Evil Grounds Day three of my Fantasia sojourn! I've reached the half way point of my stay already, but what to do when the paying job and bill collectors back home are beckoning? And how did I begin my mid-point celebration? Shopping... (0 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/13/2007	*Fantasia Report: Tazza: The High Rollers* AKA War of Flowers Review** [Fantasia info page here.] There appears to be something of a new crime sub-genre on the rise in Korea. Too smooth and slick to fall into a class with the Godfather’s and Election’s of the world yet too serious minded... (0 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/13/2007	*Fantasia Report: Adam's Apples* Review** [Fantasia info page here.] As any regular reader of this site will know I am a big fan of Denmark’s Anders Thomas Jensen. The hugely prolific writer has been involved in most of the major Scandanavian films of the past... (6 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/12/2007	*Fantasia Roundup! KM 31!* So, day two of my 2007 Fantasia experience has come and gone and this was a quiet one for me, the result of the shows starting relatively late in the day and the earliest screening of interest for me being... (0 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/12/2007	*Fantasia Report: The Banquet* Review** [Fantasia info page here.] Forget everything you know about Feng Xiaogang. While Zhang Yimou, one of China's most revered arthouse directors, used the wuxia epic to make a move towards mainstream success director Feng, one of China's most successful commercial... (25 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/12/2007	*Fantasia Report: Dasepo Naughty Girls* (다세포 소녀) Review** [Fantasia info page here.] In the early going it appears likely that Lee Jae-Yong's adaptation of popular online comic Dasepo Naughty Girls - available on DVD here - might just do the impossible and dethrone Yudai Tamaguchi's Cromartie High School... (11 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/12/2007	*Fantasia Report: Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex: Solid State Society* Review** [Fantasia info page here.] Ghost in the Shell fans, rejoice for there is yet another worthwhile addition to the canon about to arrive on these shores. Following two hugely successful seasons of GitS television series Stand Alone Complex, a show... (2 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/11/2007	*Fantasia Report: Dog Bite Dog* Review** [Fantasia info page here] Dog Bite Dog - available on DVD here - grabs you by the back of the neck and body slams you into the mud. Before you can catch your breath, your face is scraped along a... (8 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/11/2007	*Fantasia Report: The Restless* Review** [Fantasia info page here] Cho Dong-Oh's The Restless - available on DVD here - has to stand as one of the most anticipated films to come out of Korea in recent years. The picture reunites star Jung Woo-Sung from the... (7 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/11/2007	Fantasia Report: Time Review [Fantasia info page here.] It's back to the bad old days for director Kim Ki-Duk. After a string of much loved films that broke with the harsh, ranting polemics of his older work in favor of gentler meditations on life... (5 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/11/2007	*Fantasia Roundup! Assmonster! Right At Your Door!* So, Kurt and i met last night to pass off the Fantasia coverage baton - he leaving, I arriving. This, of course, poses some interesting problems. Being a programmer at the festival puts me in a somewhat awkward position since... (0 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/10/2007	Fantasia Dispatch 5 - Hazard Drifting aimlessly through a foreign country is a time honoured tradition for college students in many cultures. In North America, the obligatory and much clichéd trip to Europe generally involves booze, museums, hostels and trains. There is a part of... (8 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/10/2007	Fantasia Dispatch 4 - The Show Must Go On [Originally intending to catch a 35mm print of Andrei Tarkovsky's Sci-Fi masterpiece Stalker, a delay of the print allowed me to head across the way and catch the Gangster Comedy/Drama from Rules of Dating director Han Jae-Rim] Glossy gangster films... (4 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/09/2007	Fantasia: François Miron's THE 4TH LIFE FOR TRAILERS, SEE THE BOTTOM OF THIS ARTICLE François Miron's The 4th Life is scheduled to have its Canadian première at this year's Fantasia Festival in Montréal, Canada on July 19th at 7:00 p.m.; Miron is expected to attend.... (0 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/08/2007	Fantasia Dispatch 3 - Hatchet vs. Zibahkhana (Hell’s Ground) [It was another full day spent with the enthusiastic crowds of cinemaphiles here in Montreal. For example, a thoroughly demolished print (apparently the only one in the world) of a 1981 Taiwanese revenge picture (Lady Avenger) complete with subtitles that... (5 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/07/2007	Fantasia Dispatch 2: The Signal Out of Atlanta comes an independent ‘Rage’-styled zombie film by way of the anthology film. The Signal unfolds in three ‘transmissions’ from three different writer/directors telling a continuous story with the same characters. An unexplained signal takes over the television,... (3 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us
07/06/2007	Fantasia Dispatch 1 - Tekkon Kinkreet [This is my first time attending Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival and I was struck by the excitement and enthusiasm vibrating Concordia’s Théâtre Hall just prior to the opening film. The 11th Edition of the festival boasts a massive line-up of... (1 Comments) / Digg This / Add To del.icio.us

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