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...

Vegalta: Soccer, Tsunami and the Hope of a Nation

On 5th March, 2011, I was in Osaka to watch Gamba Osaka kick-off the 2011 J League season against local rivals Cerezo Osaka. Six days after the home side's 2-1 win, the Tohoku Earthquake struck, delaying the season for a month. Gamba went on the finish third that season, followed in fourth by Vegalta Sendai, a relatively recent addition to the J League Division 1 surprising against the odds: The team from the region most impacted by the resulting tsunami.

Douglas Hurcombe and Geoff Trodd's documentary tells the story of the team rising from recently promoted no-hopers to league runners-up the following 2012 season, naturally serving as a metaphor for the people of the local community overcoming natural disaster to rebuild their lives.

This story is split into three parts: To start, the story of the earthquake and tsunami themselves, with interviews from local Vegalta fans that had their lives torn apart by the disaster. Secondly, the focus shifts to the re-start of the J League season in the aftermath, with Vegalta's away trip to Kawasaki Frontale their first match. Going a goal down, the Vegalta side, backed by their emotional fans complete a fairy-tale comeback to win 2-1 in the final minutes. The concluding part looks at the 2012 season, the Vegalta players and fans having played their part in helping to rebuild the community, raising money and going out to various towns and villages in the area. Though perhaps their biggest contribution to the community was building on the club's most successful campaign of 2011 to go one step further, nearly taking the title itself.

Much is made of the Tohoku people's stoic, 'country-bumpkin' mentality and how this benefited them in the aftermath of the disaster. Indeed, the fans interviewed who had family members and friends killed show a coming to terms with what happened, emphasised by their desire for the Frontale game to go ahead, fans turning up in their thousands only weeks after their homes were destroyed; and the emotional season-closing message from the then manager, Makoto Teguramori.

A relatively low-key documentary by a British-based group, this recalls Neil Cantwell and Tim Grabham's 'KanZeOn', a documentary about traditional Japanese music. Focusing largely on interviews with the fans, players and manager involved, and Gary Lineker, it keeps things relatively simple and doesn't force sentimentality on what is an emotive subject. Any emotion intended is from a largely punk soundtrack, to reflect the more boisterous aspects of Japanese football fan culture.

Up until 1992 when the J League formed, football teams, very much like baseball teams in Japan, were owned by companies. The formation of the professional J League was to eliminate this corporate association, with teams to be named after their location and form a bond with the local community. Enthusiasm, as Gary Lineker testifies to, was big among fans.

Vegalta Sendai, founded in 1988 as the Tohoku Electric Power Co. Soccer Club, were part of a J League expansion, switching to the professional league in Division 2 in 1999 under their current name. However, due to limited success, the team struggled to gain any great affinity with the local community. Though being established in Division 1 from 2010 onwards and the 2011 earthquake created this bond, with the Vegalta success giving the community a distraction, an inspiration and a wider sense of community.

The complete fairy tale ending would be that Vegalta would have won the 2012 season, around only eighteen months since the disaster itself. Though this was not to be, Sanfrecce Hiroshima taking that honour. Though, unlike the Leicester City story (Gary Lineker's interview clearly done before last season's victory), their failure makes the story more human, and puts the perspective back onto the community itself and how far they had been able to come in such a short period of time.