TIFF Tough

I saw three movies at this year's Toronto International Film Festival. Two were my choice one was my friend's. The two I picked were awful. Though, in my defense, the second one I chose out of the blue because my first choice was off sale and I was in front of the volunteer selling the tickets so I had to make a snap decision from the suggestions he gave me.

I should mention that I didn't have to pay for any of the tickets. One of my friends volunteered and they gave her vouchers to exchange. I would have felt so ripped off if I had to pay for the two movies that totally sucked.

The first movie we saw was called The Silver Cliff. Based in Rio, Brazil it's about a woman, Violeta, who's devastated at the loss of her husband, Djalma. One day he simply disappears only leaving her a phone message to say he no longer loves her. He says he's going away to another city to start life anew.

Taken totally off guard Violeta leaves her 13-year-old son with her 10-year-old niece (really?) and sets off to search for her lost love. Arriving late at the airport she's told the last flight of the day has left for wherever she was trying to go to find her husband. Resigned, she wanders the streets of Rio wallowing in her sorrow and meeting new people along the way.

The movie was so slow. I mean extremely slow. I mean really, really slow. It was slow. Each scene dragged on and on. I can't remember exactly how the movie ended. Probably because I was asleep by then. Oh... it was awful.

I feel like I was tricked after reading the description of the movie online. They made it sound so appealing. What was the programmer thinking when he/she chose this movie to be included in TIFF?

The second movie was much better. I mean it was just an average movie, but compared to the first, it was like an Oscar Award-winning film. It was called Countdown.

Based in South Korea it tells the story of a highly, successful debt collector, Tae, who, one day, collapses in his car. Upon seeing the doctor he is told he has terminal liver cancer. Given no chance of surviving he goes to successive doctors until one gives him the answer he is looking for - That with a liver transplant he has a chance of living.

The film follows Tae around as he searches for a suitable donor which turns out to be an attractive, young lady named, Cha-Ha Yeon. Recently released from prison she's a swindler who's made many an enemy. While struggling with his own demons, Tae, has to keep her safe from her enemies until the transplant can take place.

Movie number three was called Avalon and was based in Sweden. Oh my goodness, it was terrible! Like I said, this wasn't a movie I had originally intended on seeing. So I won't take the full blame for picking this one. But, why didn't they just stick a needle in my eye and get it over with?

It was about an elderly club promoter named, Janne. On the eve of the opening of a new, high end night club with his business partner, Klas, Janne inadvertanly kills Klas' Lithuanian handyman they unwisely decided to hire a couple of thugs to "make him disappear".

Things are further complicated when the dead handyman's girlfriend comes looking for him. Eventually she catches on to the fact that something has gone terribly wrong and confronts Janne who confesses. She takes off into the woods with him chasing her and they cut to a different scene.

Next they're at the night club's opening where we see Janne stealing all the money from the numerous bar tills. He escapes with his sister and Klas in a small, motor boat down a river. Yes, that's what I said... he escapes with his sister and Klas in a small, motor boat down a river. The end.

That's it. The movie is mercifully over. No one claps. In fact two people leave slightly before the end. The rest of us file silently out. Perhaps stunned by the fact we've just wasted the past 76 minutes of our lives. Or maybe still dizzy from the jittery, in and out of focus camerawork, we were all just happy to leave.

The TIFF volunteers at the theatre exits beg patrons to take a Cadillac People's Choice ballot and vote for the movie. No one takes a ballot. I don't think the volunteers watched the movie. Otherwise they probably wouldn't have wasted their breath trying to get votes for it.

So, what have we learned? Not to trust my picks for TIFF movies? Perhaps. But, come on guys (programmers)... why pick such stinkers? Who's paying you money under the table to run these horrible films? Something's going on, but I can't think of any other reason they'd be in the Film Festival.

TIFF - Aftershock

We finally got around to seeing this movie, Aftershock. It was the first movie I traded my friend's vouchers for. It was the only one we didn't get a 4-for-1 or 2-for-1 deal on. Let me just say it was well worth the price of full admission (one voucher for one ticket).

According to the TIFF website, Aftershock, was the most successful movie in Chinese history. It did extremely well when released there. So my expectations were quite high. It didn't disappoint. Zhang Ling, the Canadian author whose book the movie was based upon was at the screening. At one point she mentioned that people should have some tissues handy. She wasn't kidding. It's an extremely emotional movie.

Aftershock follows the lives of a young family living in Tangshan, China when a devastating earthquake hits and tears their lives apart. Their father is killed trying to save his two young children. They are separated when the mother takes the son for medical help thinking her daughter is dead. The movie follows their lives as they go down separate paths and deal with the guilt, remorse and sadness of what happened that fateful day. It's a powerful yet touching saga.

If it's ever released wherever you live I'd encourage you to take it in. Just thank me for recommending it after it's over.

TIFF 2010

My friend is volunteering at this year's Toronto International Film Festival. She's been doing it for a few years now. All the volunteers get vouchers that they can trade in to see movies. My job in this little arrangement is to go down to the box office at King and Peter to pick up the tickets. I've gone three times so far.

The first movie I picked up tickets for was Aftershock. It's set in China and follows a family through their experience with the 1976 Tangshan earthquake. According to the TIFF website it's supposed to be the most successful Chinese movie of all time. We've yet to see it. We're going tomorrow (Friday) night.

The first movie we actually saw was a 4-for-1 deal called The Human Resources Manager. You get four tickets for one voucher. I guess they offer that promotion when a movie hasn't sold many tickets before it's showing.

Anyway, I thought the movie was so-so. For me I had a problem with the basic premise of the story. It's about a large, popular Jewish bakery that has a PR problem that they send the HR manager out to fix.

Personally I don't consider what they did (or in this case didn't do) to be their responsibility. They were getting bad press from one particular newspaper because one of their employees died. She had no relatives living in Israel and no one identified her body in the morgue for days until a reporter caught wind of this and the bakery was blamed for being insensitive or something or other because they didn't even know one of their employees was missing. I mean, it's not the bakery's responsibility to go searching for a missing employee.

Anyway, the movie was about how the HR manager went about trying to restore the bakery's image by doing the right thing and returning her body home. It follows his adventure filled road trip to that end. My rating: 3/5

The second movie we saw (tonight, Thursday) was called Pinoy Sunday. It was also a 4-for-1 deal. It's based in Taiwan. I'm going to copy and paste the brief description from the TIFF site here - Pinoy Sunday is the story of Manuel and Dado, two Filipino migrant workers, who discover a discarded sofa. This transforms their normal Sunday routine into a tale of adventure, perseverance and self-discovery.

I have to say I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. The first 2/3 of the movie was really funny. It had me as well as most of the audience laughing right out loud. It also had it's sweet moments too. The story, though simple was very good. The two lead actors did a brilliant job with their parts.

The movie slowed down in the latter stages though. I think it's hard to keep a story of two guys hauling a sofa around Taipei fresh and funny for that long. Still I think it was good enough to warrant a rating of 4/5.

There are a three more days left before the roll up the red carpet for the last time. Hopefully we'll see a few more good films before the end.