Film
Directed by Britain‘s Danny Cannon iJudge Dredd. Young Americans). Goa/f comes coated wrth a glossy yisuai sheen. As always wrth frlrns about football. the action sequences Involxrng actors performing heroic feats on the pitch Will never be as compelling as watching the real-life Ronaldrnho or Rooney displaying their skills. Of the actors. it's Alessandro Nr\.ola in the role of a playboy midfielder. who provides Goa/Ts most entertaining performance. It's a pity then that the world he inhabits in the film that of nightclubs. female groupres. predatory agents and tablord scoops - is depicted in such cartoonrsh terms. i'l‘om Dawsoni I General release from Fri 30 Sep. See feature. page M.
DRAMA (PG) 110min 0000
ts late August 1945). Hrroshrrna and Nagasaki have been nuked off the face of the earth and .Japan's divine l inperor llrrohrto ilssey Ogatai has had to tell his people that: "the virar has developed not necessarily to Japan's aduantagef Needy. distant. vague. hoi isebound rdue to a US n‘irlrtary l~ouse arrest: and professing an ir‘teres: in marine biology. Hirohrto is the ".lOfSl a‘.'.ik\.'.’ar(l ol ".‘JElthltlS. But ~.'.'hen General MacArthur iRobert Dazz'son. forces hrrn to renounce hrs (tl‘. :ne status Hirohrto begins to feel the '.'.rerght of his legacy.
the thzrd part of Alexandr Sokurov's great leaders tetralogy tollowrng on from r'flo/ocxlr ’HlllOt‘i and Taurus l er‘..ni. the Sun boasts both a Wider tllf>ll'll)tlll()l‘ than its predecessors and an almost ornate beauty which befits ts chamber piece genre.
icedgir "ea‘. l1. .inderpinned by Yury Arabe‘. 's spacey. ll‘(lLl‘fSlil‘.'(}. werrdly .."i"at.."ai script. o"e is left in no doubt That i'. is Sakaro‘.‘ 'as both '; nemafogra:me" and drecton who is "a'e ‘crm nere. \“lith the dimly lit "Tenors o‘ t l ro'nito's palace givrng way '2 fire .'."‘i'.e 'iueieai ‘og of the world ';..'.s fie .'.v‘"ere bored Gls tease- :>-C:’3'-7:'.£t"". b r(is cn l‘lfS lEl‘.'.’.'l. visually Sewn"). "()(lE; to Rembrandt. Hercules
‘ers a":: Rubens. Yet i‘e aiiows the
‘.7""f3 f;t).'.’il.1i(:’. Pvtter-esdue rhythm to
the "1'." inaEist 0a soundtrack '.'.rl‘.rcn clicks. a'vt statcs its way to the a qr; ’;".£ri ’)i_.tl):lt‘f;t of \"lagner or Bach. \.'.'.:n. its slog'i pace. weird stabs at slaptzck and odd strlted performances lhe San i'iay not be for everyone but ii: its yer itern/erseness inot least in its iilgeral grasr, of historical accuraciesi rt i‘at. To be noted that this is a unrgue. 'll‘:T;'llf:f'l/ltl(l. mad and brilliantly i!‘t_ii‘.:.'e stud, of the rnundanrty of "cuforft; 'nav’jn. lPaul Dale) I l :lrriliouse. [drubuigli from In 5%) .‘Sep (il l. (i/JI.‘;{}()‘.‘.’ from Hi 14 Oct.
44 THE LIST 5..., . m , .1.-
COMING-OF ‘AGE DRAMA SUMMER STORM (15) 98min .0
Tobi (Robert Stadlober) and Achrm (Kostia Ullmannr are best friends from Bavaria and this summer. yet again. they are down by the lakes to compete in the annual rowing competition. While Tobi would more than like to show off his coxswain skills to his friend. oarsrnan Achrm is happy canoodling wrth his new girlfriend. Luckily for Tobi. this year there is new competition — a team appropriately named the Oueerstrokes.
Young German filmmaker lvlarco Kreu/paintner's faintly enjoyable homoerotic drama plays like a gueered -up remake of Ivan Rertman's 1979 summer-camp comedy Meatballs. Piling the cliches from a number of different genres (communal Jerk-off scenes. predatory gays. skinny dipping. best-friend hornophobra. annoying politically correct lesbians etc etci on top of one another. it is often difficult to look away from this big gay canoe of movie. Thomas Bahmann and Kreu/paintner's script has all the natural rhythm and humour of a long- exprred crawfrsh and yet Summer Storm is absurdly easy to watch (in the way that some of the very worst Russ Meyer films are). This may have sornethrng to do wrth the strength of the ensemble cast's performances respecially considering the material wrth which they are working) or maybe it's Daniel Gottschalk's appropriately sun-kissed crneniatography. Either way. this is one bend in the river that is easily negotiated. but best avoided. (Paul Dalei I Film/rouse. Edinburgh from Fri 30 Sep. Cinewor/d Rentrew Street. Glasgow from Sun 2 Oct.
HORROR LAND OF THE DEAD (15) 93 min 000.
It's been ’20 years since George A Romero last cast his loving eye over the /Olill)l(} genre. Night of the Livrng Dead. Dawn of the Dead and Daon the Dead executed some seminal groundwork in the (30s. 708 and 80s respectrvely. Now in the noughties. there's a joyful exuberance as he returns once more to the undead. Several years after the dead first rose from their graves. society is adjusting
Willi-imimwmma Hawaii:
SEASON ROUND-UP
TIGER BEER TARTAN ASIA EXTREME 2005
Adele Hartley separates the wheat from the chaff in a new Asia Extreme programme.
The Tiger Beer Tartan Asia Extreme Tour for 2005 showcases six movies that aren’t remotely extreme, but see them quick before they get remade with Hollywood-approved teen corpses. Another Public Enemy ([15], 148min COO ) is director Kang Woo-suk’s sequel to his 2002 serial killer comic thriller. This time out prosecutor Kang (Sang Kyung-gu) attempts to drive corporate bad guys out of Dodge whilst weakened traditional values and threats to South Korea’s identity and culture are blamed on a ‘future generation’ weaned on Western temptation. Woo-suk shared duties with Kim Sang-jin (whose Attack the Gas Station is a mini-masterpiece) and Chang Youn-hyun (Tell Me Something). At two-and-a-half hours long, this is indulgent but fun.
With Vital (pictured, [18] 85min COO. ), Shinya Tetsuo Tsukamoto’s flesh obsession takes a more ethereal turn. Hiroshi (lchi the Killer’s Tadanobu Asano) is a medical student dissecting his girlfriend Ryoko (Nami Tsukamoto), who died in the same car crash that left him temporarily comatose and memory-impaired, yet away from the morgue, she continues to visit him. Shot through with a lush, seductive and hypnotic quality, Vital uses dissection as metaphor for the characters’ recall of memory, identity and purpose. This is an intimate, delicate and beautiful tale of grief and romance.
Ab-Normal Beauty ([tbc] 101min O. ) suffers from the Pang Brothers’ inability to follow any idea through. A young woman survives a childhood trauma but becomes obsessed with mortality, the unrequited lesbian love of her best friend and the total lack of a trusting and close mother. The climactic showdown between her and a sadistic misogynist relies on the shock value of repeatedly beating a half-naked woman in the face. Not one the Pangs’ more mature moments.
In the linear ghost story R-Point ([15] 106min O. ), some crybaby soldiers are sent to find others who disappeared from a supposed no- combat zone. On arrival, ooh look, what does that handy curse etched into the rock say? After much skulking in the long grass, ten minutes of three soldiers crapping in a wet field and a climax marred by nonsense dialogue - ‘I promise you’ll go on that picnic to the royal palace with your wife and baby daughter’ - you get used to how utterly predictable this is. The few saving graces are that it looks beautiful, has one or two nice set pieces and is even very occasionally creepy.
The other two films - One Night in Mongkok (15, 110min 0.0 ) is a meandering but periodically stunning cop drama, and the oldest of the bunch is Chang Youn-hyun’s hard-gore 1999 thriller Tell Me Something ((18), 118min COO ) may ultimately fall short of cohesion but, like the others in this season, should definitely be seen on the big screen where they belong. I Cineworld. Edinburgh. Fri 30 Sep— Thu II? Oct and Cinewor/d Renfrew Street. Glasgow from Fri 7— Thu 20 Oct. Visit www.asiaextreriie.co.ul< for more ll‘lfOI‘l 7 ratio! r.
to the new world of marauding /OllelC‘S and ever-dwindling resources. Foraging parties raid local towns for supplies to be sold on at a premium in the local human encammnent. Fiddler's Green. Dennis Hopper is the town's corrupt pseudo- president. as Cholo (John Legur/amo) holds the city to ransom with some missle-led terrorrsrn.
Despite its 9» 1 t allegory respeCrally l-lopper's ‘we don't negotiate wrth terrorrsts' line) this film reeks of the 80s stylistically and in its steadfast reliance
on beautifully crafted mechanical effects. There's a knowing intelligence at play as Romero peppers his script wrth spiky humour and references to mass consumerism and the nature of freedom. The zombies in many ways are the heroes. the downtrodden underclass. at the expense of the often 0rie-dimensmnal human characters. But this is still a sheer pleasure. brimming wrth enthusiasm as it revels in ever—inventive carnage and gore. (Henry Northmorel
I General release from Fri 23 Sep.