Looking back 32nd HKIFF - It's a free world x soul of a demon x I just didn't do it
It's a free world
Ken Loach's latest tackle issues with UK illegal worker/immigation this time around. First time actress Kierston Wareing gives a excellent performance to her charcter, a single mother who try to set up her own business for sourcing people from Eastern Europe to UK for hard labour jobs. At first Warning's character was still able to hold up conscience and do the "right" thing for not employing any illegal workers. Yet, with pressure mounting pressure as well as personal desire, she decides to take the risky way by start "importing" illegal immigrant, and ulimately paying the price for doing so.
The sudden change of the charcter's mind was probably too dramatic for this otherwise fine film from Loach, which explode the difficulties of low working class and the loop hole in the system to allow such tragedy to happen. The realism is still there and Wareing performance, as compelling and forceful, does help the story quite a bit even with such a dramatic turn.
Soul of a demon
A mis-fire from talented young Taiwanese director Chang Tso-Ching, this is a story about a out-of-jail gang member who try to settle back into his small fishing villages and once again involve in his family, who had Japanese background and his father, who left the family to Japan to pursure a career as a yakuza. It is probably too ambitous to tackle so many issues at once and the story soon become a typical Asian style gangster genre film, which doesn't help much at all. The over use of scenery shots and perhaps the metaphor of using butterfly as demon rather than a beautiful creature was lack of punch and substance. At the end, the violent scene of the killing was the only thing to keep the audience interests in the film.
I just didn't do it
You can easily regard this as a semi-doco about the legal system in Japan, where conviction rate is extremely high for petty crime, like grouping. If so, this would be a very good documentary film from director Masayuki Suo, which last film was about 10 yrs ago, a smash hit called "Shall we dance". While portraying the holes and unfairness of the system well, it is the emphasis that he puts into his character's emotion that made this film an intriguing one to watch. Many court drama scenes were used but it doesn't feel if they are unncessary as the story unfold in such a detailed manner.
Ken Loach's latest tackle issues with UK illegal worker/immigation this time around. First time actress Kierston Wareing gives a excellent performance to her charcter, a single mother who try to set up her own business for sourcing people from Eastern Europe to UK for hard labour jobs. At first Warning's character was still able to hold up conscience and do the "right" thing for not employing any illegal workers. Yet, with pressure mounting pressure as well as personal desire, she decides to take the risky way by start "importing" illegal immigrant, and ulimately paying the price for doing so.
The sudden change of the charcter's mind was probably too dramatic for this otherwise fine film from Loach, which explode the difficulties of low working class and the loop hole in the system to allow such tragedy to happen. The realism is still there and Wareing performance, as compelling and forceful, does help the story quite a bit even with such a dramatic turn.
Soul of a demon
A mis-fire from talented young Taiwanese director Chang Tso-Ching, this is a story about a out-of-jail gang member who try to settle back into his small fishing villages and once again involve in his family, who had Japanese background and his father, who left the family to Japan to pursure a career as a yakuza. It is probably too ambitous to tackle so many issues at once and the story soon become a typical Asian style gangster genre film, which doesn't help much at all. The over use of scenery shots and perhaps the metaphor of using butterfly as demon rather than a beautiful creature was lack of punch and substance. At the end, the violent scene of the killing was the only thing to keep the audience interests in the film.
I just didn't do it
You can easily regard this as a semi-doco about the legal system in Japan, where conviction rate is extremely high for petty crime, like grouping. If so, this would be a very good documentary film from director Masayuki Suo, which last film was about 10 yrs ago, a smash hit called "Shall we dance". While portraying the holes and unfairness of the system well, it is the emphasis that he puts into his character's emotion that made this film an intriguing one to watch. Many court drama scenes were used but it doesn't feel if they are unncessary as the story unfold in such a detailed manner.
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