Films That I Have Seen in 2017...

Here be some of the moving images that I saw in 2017 that were newly made and released. It's fair to say 2017 was no vintage wine. Largely because a year is a metaphysical concept that cannot be a wine...or even a decent Cheddar. 

But these are the ones that I thought best of these there twelve months...or so...

Always remember: Opinions can vary.

In some sort of order, starting with...

Bamseom Pirates Seoul Inferno

Director: Yoon-suk Jung
South Korea 

Documentary look at punk duo Bamseom Pirates and their album "Seoul Inferno" - as the title suggests. Music, larking about, "political" lyrics, court cases, questioning of their motivations musically...An at times comedic, at times serious political look at South Korean youth and their "relationship" with their neighbours in the North.

The Death of Stalin

Director: Armando Iannucci 
UK/France 

Iannucci-san and friends take their political comedy away from modern-day UK/US politics to Twentieth Century Russian naughtiness following the demise of some famous figure. Joshing and bants galore alongside the dark side of politics to make one laugh and consider. 

Vegalta: Soccer, Tsunami and the Hope of a Nation

Director: Douglas Hurcombe and Geoff Trodd 
UK 

Combining two of my great passions: Japanese culture and Gary Lineker; alongside one of my loathes: mass death caused by a natural disaster, "Vegalta" takes its name from the Sendai football team who rose up the J-League standings in the wake of the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake. Fans and local residents affected take a look at how the team's success gave them some brief hope after such a huge loss.   

Noise

Director: Yusaku Matsumoto
Japan 

First time director takes a look at youth and motivation in the backdrop of the Akihabara Massacre of 2008. Generational differences create pressures on the youth of the day, creating the potential for a snap-point. Noisy and bleak, "Noise" offers a voice to the little man.  

Junk Head

Director: Takahide Hori
Japan 

Stop-go. Stop-go. That old animation technique is making a comeback. Don't take the plot too seriously with this one; more enjoy the ride around as a human's mind is transplanted into a mishmash robot hopelessly wandering the strange underworld of botched clones. Inventive, if a little mad, this one feels straight out of the Nineties. 

Love and Other Cults

Director: Eiji Uchida
Japan 

Uchida-san's second collaboration with the good folk at Third Window Films. Ai is well mental a one and gets herself caught up in all kinds of wacky cults, gangs, sex scams, nuclear families in an attempt to find herself. The message is: slowing down a bit is a good way to help you find a bit of peace of mind...and then you get off the bus. 


...and those from 2016 with delayed release in the UK that I pretended to first view in 2017...

After the Storm

Director: Kore-eda Hirokazu
Japan

Kore-eda-san's annual festival tourist delivers a nice enough journey about a private detective unable to leave his ex-wife behind. Perhaps a little too comfortable, but with enough realism to keep you interested, this maintains Kore-eda's position as the better Japan person director still churning 'em out with regularity.

Kills on Wheels

Director: Atilla Till
Hungary

Three disabled killers fool Budapest's drug dealers with their unassuming status, though the English title gives little away as to the additional depth offered below the surface. A coming-of-age piece more than a violent action thriller. 

Harmonium

Director: Koji Fukada
Japan

Tadanobu Asano playing some sort of strange person moving into a family home and invading every aspect of their lives with some sort of sinister motive? Can you come round next Tuesday, Asano-san? You can't escape it, can you?! Nice film...but not nice in that way.

The Long Excuse

Director: Miwa Nishikawa
Japan

Sachio's wife's death in a car crash unveils the car crash that is his life in Miwa Nishikawa's well-paced and developed film. It gets inside its characters' heads, as one would hope a film would do. As your life gets worse, so will your hair. 

Destruction Babies

Director: Tetsuya Mariko
Japan

Remember little Akira from "Nobody Knows"? Well, he's grown-up now and likes hitting people in the face. A film that will perhaps annoy many, the realism in the fighting and harsh comment on the surrounding violence of society leaves its mark at least. That Yuya character deserves a slap, hey?!


That makes a nice round total of 11...A football team of films...in the way that Luton Town are scoring lots of goals in the fourth tier of English football...

Kills on Wheels (60th BFI London Film Festival Part I)

Usually, I gleefully await the arrival of my BFI London Film Festival programme in the post, highlighting all the films I would like to see before whittling them down to a good seven or eight titles that I will actually watch, work, money and being a single entity that can't be in two places at once allowing. But given that I've recently become a father, I can no longer make such selfish journeys to as many films as I may wish.

So, this year, I'm a little limited in the selections I've made, choosing films I definitely want to see, with the exception of Kore-eda Hirokazu's 'After the Storm', as I can't purchase sold out tickets. My first choice ended up being the Hungarian (my son's mother-tongue) film 'Kills on Wheels' (or 'Tiszta szívvel' if you're my wife - translating along the lines of something more like 'Pure Heart').

The English title is a bit simplistic and attempts to dumb down the film to make it more attractive for popcorn fodder. And, yes, while this is a film that involves people in wheelchairs that may or may not take the lives of some of Hungary's, and Serbia's, less law-abiding citizens, there is a bit more going on here than just that.

Rupaszov is a disabled former fireman, recently freed from prison for shooting a police officer when losing his way after an accident that left him paralysed from the waist down. Randomly, he befriends young Zolika and Barba, two disabled youths living in a care home. Taking them to a club to get drunk, he uses them as his assistants in his deeds for Serbian drug baron, Rados, under the belief that nobody would suspect a cripple.

Soon, Rupaszov's talent for picking-off Rados' enemies gains him a nice income and the Serbian offers him big money to take out his key rivals. But, on learning that his seated hitman has been using accomplices, Rados soon sets about making sure all three are 'taken care of.'

On the face of it, the premise is that of a low-level gangster movie, with the disabled element adding something of a twist. But with writer-director Atilla Till having volunteered in care homes; and with some of the leads and most of the extras disabled themselves, this is more a film about the lives of two young kids with disability trying to find their place in the world. Much like we all do at their age.

Zolika struggles to accept his estranged father's payment for his potentially life-saving operation, believing his disability is the cause of his parent's divorce. This leads to some quite personal scenes of novice actor Zoltan Fenyvesi. Rupaszov's physiotherapy is always accompanied by various disabled extras demonstrating rehabilitation methods in the background. But these physical challenges are played alongside more comical ones: Barba struggling to input the correct number at a vending machine; and Rupaszov unable to even flinch at being stabbed in the leg.

The true story of the film is Zolika and Barba's regular attendance at conventions in attempts to get the comic book they are working on published, as Zolika tries to come to terms with his situation. The English title looks at the more face-value aspects of the film, whereas the original Hungarian title fits much better thematically.

The Hungarian film I viewed at the London Film Festival last year, 'Son of Saul', was nominated, and went on to win, the Oscar for best foreign language film. 'Tiszta szívvel' is the Hungarian entry this time around, and probably won't reach the same heights, but is a strong offering tackling difficult subject matter.