BFI 61st London Film Festival: The White Girl

Twenty years on since the hand-over of Hong Kong from British rule to China with a fifty year period of autonomy until 2047 and a number of films have been made regarding the anxieties faced by the natives, notably Wong Kar-wai's Cannes-winning "Happy Together". Recent times have seen a growing number of films along these lines - some subversive, others looking more at the practicalities - alongside periods of protest at the impending loss of a way of life.

Jenny Suen's debut feature is along the subversive lines, teaming-up with Wong's cinematographer on "Happy Together", Christopher Doyle. Set around the last fishing village in Hong Kong, to summarise the plot for "The White Girl" is difficult. The characters largely nameless, the titular "The White Girl" (Angela Yuen) is a student in a class of various ages. Living with her father, a fisherman, she is treated as his servant and told she is allergic to sunlight, like her estranged mother, whose whereabouts are unknown. A singer who made some recordings, she listens to her mother's songs, asking her father as to her story; something he's unwilling to discuss.

Wandering at night when she feels safer to go out, she spends her time at a bay in her underwear, where she meets an equally enigmatic Japanese man (Joe Odagiri), who is living in a watch tower above the village where he is able to project images from the village on to a wall. The Japanese himself befriends a local boy (Jeff Yiu) who helps him set-up his new home.

While these three loaners meet, the local "Village Chief" is making secret plans with a trio from mainland China to bulldoze and concrete the tiny fishing port and build new luxury apartments and entertainment complexes. However, only a limited amount of time is dedicated to the development of this story. Instead, the main focus is on the chance encounters between the three leads and their slow meanders around the village.

There are a number of problems with this film, but let's start with the positives. As you'd expect with cinematography from co-director Christopher Doyle, there are some very interesting shots of blurred focus against dilapidated backdrops. But herein lies a problem. Audiences will no doubt be attracted to Doyle as cinematographer, but working with a complex narrative with a novice director, these shots simply become a pretty visual to overall confusion.

Working with more established directors, Doyle's camerawork is an enhancement of well-constructed filmmaking and storytelling. But having less experience, Suen is unable to construct these shots into a cohesive narrative. Doyle himself a relative novice as a director - limited to documentary, segments and the challenging watches of "Away with Words" and "Warsaw Dark" - is unable to provide mentoring for cohesion either.

The emphasis seems to be on the cinematography over the storytelling: the two leads moving at a slow pace whenever on screen together; their communicating in broken English slow and awkward, with a script that offers few explanations either. As such, much of the film has the surface-level enigma of a fragrance commercial, with meaning left open and little in the way of depth within the characters, with only hints ever provided as to "The White Girl's" story.

Perhaps there are too many ideas working at once here, creating confusion, leaving the audience to wonder if this symbolises that, and that symbolises this. While open ends are always welcome, as there are many ideas, each not fully explored, there are simply too many things to consider, leaving little satisfaction by the film's conclusion. The "Village Chief" and his companions accompanied by music harking back to comedy from the Seventies and Eighties feels out-of-place alongside the slow nature of the rest of the film, and further this sense.

You can see some of the ideas at play here, but over-indulgence has hindered their impact. Perhaps working alongside other young directors, fully developing one of the concepts as a short, à la "Ten Years" would have been a better way to tell the story. As such, "The White Girl" will have limited appeal; something of a pretty mess.

Ruined Heart: Another Lover Story Between a Criminal and a Whore (BFI 59th London Film Festival)

I'm not quite sure why I decided to watch this film. Perhaps it was that the cinematographer was Christopher Doyle. Maybe it was that it starred Tadanobu Asano. Or, more likely, my extensive knowledge and love of Filipino cinema.

Either way, by the end, I don't believe any of these were reason enough to view this again. Directed by Khavn, this is essentially a seventy minute long music video. With no real narrative to speak of, this is a collection of arthouse shots to an interesting - and I mean interesting - musical score of various genres of interesting - and I mean hmm - music.

The viewer, therefore, is left to put the pieces of the story together themselves, with plot-holes throughout as the scene constantly changes.

Visually, there are some nice moments here, naturally with a film featuring Christopher Doyle as cinematographer. Tadanobu Asano often takes the role of cameraman during the film - as well as the amateur musician that he is - running around with a fisheye lens at the end of his plastered arm.

With music a key feature and Christopher Doyle involved, you can compare this to a Nineties Wong Kar-wai; the musical interludes in his films, of course. Here, however, Khavn has decided against fitting them around a real story, making them more a random collection of moments. Even if you do put the story together, it isn't exactly a life-changer.

For me, this film is just trying to be too cool. The, at times, over-stylised shots just seem to end up being an excuse for lots of gyrating hips; the nameless characters, such as 'The Criminal' or 'The Whore', reflect the lack of depth in the characterisation and storyline; and everything's just a little too 'abstract' to be enjoyable.

There are moments to this film: the street running and car montages, but these should serve as links in a more conventional film, rather than serving as stand-out segments in a string of segments. Things just don't really connect here.

If you want Christopher Doyle cinematography over music, it has been done much better before. If you want Asano giving a cool performance, he's given better, with more interesting characters to work with. The trailer was quite good, but that's essentially what this film feels like: a collection of scenes edited together to some music; story to follow. But, at the end of the day, there just weren't enough midgets with skateboards in the orgy scene for me.

57th BFI London Film Festival

This year, I amazed myself. Four films watched at this year's London Film Festival, and not one of them Japanese. Four films, in four different languages, from four different (sort) countries, spanning three continents. Once again, September was spent scouring through the Festival guide, highlighting all the films I am interested, only to find out that the 'must sees' are already fully booked, the main ones I want to watch are at times I can't see them, and that one man can't really watch over two hundred titles in a fortnight.

So, seeing as there's no Japanese to speak of, let's start with the home of the other language that I pretend to learn: Hungary. 'The Notebook', or 'Le Grand Cahier' or 'A Nagy Fuzet', is the story of two (count them) twin brothers sent to live with their battle-axe of a grandmother in a small village by the Austrian border during the Second World War. Before departing, they are given a big notebook (for those French and Hungarian speakers reading) to keep a record of their thoughts and learnings during the war years. As the war progresses, the two become more disillusioned as they grow older, finding few friends, other than a suitably pervy German officer, treated as bastards by many. It is in this that they learn that life is pain, as they start to inflict it on themselves, as well as those around them.

'A Nagy Fuzet' is, much like Hungary probably was during the war, an unpleasant experience. Regular scenes or torture, violence, fat people eating, racism and largely unnecessary, underage foot masturbation feature throughout its two hours, though any film set in the time and location could hardly be champagne and skittles. While not always speedy of pace, it draws you in, but will probably call you a nasty name.

From one scene of pain and suffering, to another: New York. Set in one of the lesser-known, slower outposts along the New York's coast, 'Stand Clear of the Closing Doors' is the story of autistic Ricky (played by Jesus...Sanchez-Velez), who one day decides to go on a bit of a wonder, getting no further than the New York Subway system, spending more time on it than the commute from Uxbridge to Balham.

The film has three major elements: the first is Ricky, the autistic son with a passion for drawing and unusual shapes. The second, Ricky's mother, Andrea, in many ways the lead character, whose determination sees her strive to locate her missing son, whether others help her or not. The third is that of the New York Subway. With a mix of staged and real-life scenarios caught on the city's trains. The first and the third combined are the most interesting element of the film, as Ricky tries to find his way in the strange network, confronting any number of dangerous faces and unique places.

A typical 'love letter to New York' in that 'isn't everything a bit crap, but we love it' kind of way, the film is set in the city's underground and a non-typical suburb, providing a slightly different portrait of the city. Yet more could have maybe been done here beyond a nice, little story about a vulnerable boy that goes wondering, leaving it more a scratch on the surface, rather than getting deep below it.

'A Touch of Sin' is the latest release form modern Chinese auteur, Jia Zhang-ke. In his typical manner of looking at the changing face of modern day China, here a host of loosely connected tales are told around the lives of unrelated characters and how one sin invariably leads to another, with Adam's sin-filled apple rearing its ugly head whenever necessary. The stories include corruption, greed, violence, adultery, lust and suicide, each committing their acts of sin for their own reasons.

Made with his signature claustrophobic feel and amateurish style, 'A Touch of Sin' isn't exactly him at his best, but works as a nice addition to his oeuvre. With moments of violence and comedy, there is a little more to keep the viewer entertained, compared to his more minimalist and silent moments, though his tackling of the subject matter has less depth here, with the 'sin' in question often coming as subtle as a brick. But, borne out of the numerous stories that seem to continually come out of modern day China, where small acts lead to outrageous moments, 'A Touch of Sin' keeps Jia Zhang-ke as one of the more vocal critics of modern day life in China.

'Bends' is a film that looks at the developing relationship between Hong Kong and mainland China, much like the sort of thing Wong Kar-wai did with 'Happy Together'. Much like Wong Kar-wai, director Flora Lau hired the services of Christopher Doyle as Director of Photography. Director Flora Lau has a friend called Wong Kar-wai, that isn't Wong Kar-wai.

The story focuses on two main characters: an aging woman, one of Hong Kong's wealthy elite, who finds her husband has disappeared, leaving her finances in doubt as she faces an uncertain future; the second is her driver, a young man living in the mainland that makes the trip across the border to work for her each day. With his young wife pregnant for a second time, he struggles to find a route for her into Hong Kong, so she can have the baby without any problems from the government.

The film is quite slow and languid, featuring lots of slow, still shots by Doyle, aided by the music in creating this feel. The film is one about uncertainty, with the financial future of those in Hong Kong put into question, as well as the new freedoms those in the mainland look towards. 'Bends' is a nice look at this relationship, but one that never pushes things too hard.

All four films viewed were good, solid efforts, but nothing that will really set the world alight. Maybe it's all about Japanese cinema for me. Scoff scoff.