Pluto

When watching school teacher-turned-director Su Won Shin's 'Pluto', you feel like you have to account for some cultural differences. Watching it as a days of black and white British person, the film can feel a little too extreme and almost unbelievable at moments. But written and directed by a former school teacher, the high school drama serves as a social comment on school systems in South Korea whether accepting the way the plot unfolds or not.

Jun has transferred from a humble background to an elite school, where competition for school grades is of utmost importance in gaining both acceptance, respect and future prospects. If enough of a nerd to reach the school's top ten students, you get to sit in a 'special class' with additional privileges that come with it. In his jealousy of school top boy, the American-raised (though not fat) Yujin, June starts to take steps into the violent and dangerous world of achieving good grades at school.

To start the film is relatively black and white: with the murder of his classmate, of whom he is known to be jealous, Jun is questioned by the police as to his involvement in between flashbacks of his arrival and subsequent outcast status within the school. But as the film progresses, the motivations of the characters become more and more difficult to empathise with, being from a country where discussing your most recent hangover seems to dominate academic achievement in school.

The life and death nature of being part of the school's elite seems very alien, and the lengths that people will go to achieve and maintain it require some level of faith from the audience that this is the case, and not just shock tactics forming part of lazy film-making. But, with extracts form teenage student suicide notes and home videos of students featured, along with Su Won Shin's own admission that things can get much more severe, it's clear that 'Pluto' is borne out of a different society to my own.

More bombastic elements aside, 'Pluto' is a very solid work from a rather novice writer-director, exploring some interesting themes running throughout everyday life for students, the titular 'outsider' status one of them. In 'Pluto', pain and obsession reign, feeling 4.67 billion miles from Luton Sixth Form College. 

Terracotta Far East Film Festival 2014

Improving on last year's poor performance of making just one single screening at the Terracotta Far East Film Festival, I made it to a whopping two of the various offerings this year. Seeing a Korean film last year, this year I decided to complete the 'Holy Trinity' (not Browns, The Griffine and The Flying Scotsman), by seeing one Japanese and one Hong Kong/China production.

Avoiding convention and putting second things first, the closing film of the festival was 'Judge!' by debutant director Akira Nagai. Kiichiro, our undoubted hero, is a hapless employee at a Japanese advertising agency. Loathed by the majority of those he works with, the ad concepts he works on repeatedly fail to impress and his future with the company is endlessly in doubt. With pressure from a  major client to fix the voting at an international advertising grand prix, one of the agency chiefs decides to send Kiichiro the California, knowing his failure will justify his desired dismissal. Finding nothing but dishonesty and corruption (what?! in advertising?!) within the judging, Kiichiro is left disillusioned with the industry he chose as a career path.

But, this is a comedy, so everything works out well in the end...of course.

Nagai and script writer Yoshimitsu Sawamoto both work as advertising directors, with the vast majority of what happens claimed as being 'based on true events.' But on watching 'Judge!', it's clear that both exaggeration and artistic license are added to this reality. What this is is an enjoyable mainstream romp of a film: there is nothing here to be taken seriously, despite its attempts at moral messages, with a cast of big names and enough laughs throughout.

Perhaps the film's failings are in that it is a film about advertising, directed by an advertising director. Advertising relies on stereotypes and exaggeration, with which this film is chock-full. National stereotypes are played up, with manga-esque characters flirting with the farcical. But this isn't meant to be anything more than it is - it has Yoshiyoshi Arakawa and Lily Franky in it.

First things second, the other film viewed was poor-man's kung-fu megastar Donnie Yen's 'Special ID'. This is very much standard Donnie Yen fayre for me: a lot of action, little real need for plot and leaves you feeling entertained, not deep in contemplative thought.

Playing an undercover policeman who has been written by someone who has seen 'Infernal Affairs', Yen travels to the mainland from Hong Kong to track down an old acquaintance and essentially bring him down.  Cue some pretty impressive fight scenes (some interesting mixed-martial arts action) and some nicely filmed action scenes and you have your lot. Much like many action films you can watch these days, there is a sense that you can feel desensitised to what you see before you. But, every now and again, I do get the sense of having seen some well done stunt work that does need some applauding. This has that: while not exactly groundbreaking, it does deserve some recognition in parts. With Donnie Yen, you get what you pay for.

With the previous Terracotta Far East Film Festivals I've been to in the past, I know I've not exactly seen the best of the best of Asian cinema. The films are always entertaining, but never outstanding. But I never feel that's the aim of the festival. With emphasis on leading more mainstream offerings, director and actor Q&As and having a beer and some dim sum by the end of it, they are always as much about the gathering than the films themselves, with the chance to meet, greet and discuss and that's never a bad thing.