TIFF Report: Low Life, Cafe Lumiere and Vital Reviews

Well there we are. Another year has past and I am done. Yesterday was my last day and as it is when you see so many films in a week there are bound to be some highs and lows. After being starstruck by Ted Raimi I managed to get back on movie track and start my day with Im Kwon-taek's Low Life...

I was interested in this because I have fallen madly in love with Korean cinema and I wanted to get all the Korean movies at the fest that I could. I knew about this film from it's original name Raging Years; why the name change I have yet to find out but I have to say that knowing this beforehand I was a little disappointed with the new title because it doesn't quite capture the tone and setting of the film.

We meet Choi Tae-woong [Cho Seung-woo] in late adolescence in the 1950s as he rolls full fisted into a rival school to get back at students who beat up a class mate. He is subsequently injured in the fighting and then taken in by the family of the young man who stabs him since he has no family of his own. The father of the family is involved in politics and desires to bring change and a new Korea. We follow Tae-woong through the next 20 years against the backdrop of political upheaval and military rule. At first Tae-woong makes a living the only way he knows how. His fists. We witness his struggle to change his life around and make an attempt at producing movies but it can never be and Tae-woong is pulled back into the violent lifestyle he knows best. We watch his wife Hae-ok [Kim Min-sun] struggle to maintain a stable family life and order in the house. We catch brief glimpses of their brother but he does fall to the wayside and his character gets whisked away in the back story.

Most times brutal and vicious, other times saddening, Im Kwon-taek's 99th feature film attempts to connect us with the struggles of a man caught up in violence. And as much as he is shaped by events in his past so we see Korean culture and society changing at a tumultuous pace. The production was admirable. However, when you attempt to capture 20 years of the life of an indivdual and a country in 99 minutes you are going to sacrifice flow and rythym and Low Life felt choppy and rushed. An average film to start my day.

Todd wrote brilliant coverage of Café Lumière. Far better than I could. Go back a couple threads and read that. I will say this though. I do wish it did not follow up behind Low Life. Going out one theatre, back into line and right back into the same theatre for another movie is maddening. Doing it for one as slow, deliberate and methodical as Café Lumière doesn't allow me to do it any justice in reviewing it. I will say this about the film. It's beautifully crafted and shot. The acting is tremendous. You've just got to keep your whits about you and not let the pace get to you.

I knew little about Shinya Tsukamoto before last night's viewing of Vital. And admittedly I stumbled into last night's viewing not knowing that this was the man who made Tetsuo: The Iron Man, a film that I struggled with - A LOT. Canfield and Todd were there.

So once I realized this was the same director it was already too late and I was standing in line, ticket in hand and I wasn't about to give it up to some punk in the rush line. I woke up at 6:30 in the morning to buy the ticket GOSH DARN IT!!! It was a good thing too because though it had a startling start that made me second guess my choice - again, by the end I rather enjoyed Vital. Haunting and beautiful.