Foreign Film Round-up: January 2018

At the beginning of the year I gave myself a challenge. My goal was to see at least three foreign films that I have not seen before each month. I'm a bit late putting this up, but I wanted to keep track of the many films I will see month to month in a psudo-online diary. Basically, I'm just going to list and jot down a few notes about the films that I have seen. I hope you all like it, and maybe get inspired to check some of these out?

Godzilla: Planet of Monsters

Production: Japan

I love Godzilla, and for the last ten plus years Toho hadn't put out a Godzilla film until Shin Godzilla. With that and the new American version it feels like the next renaissance of Godzilla goodness! So, naturally, they decided to make a three part Godzilla anime film. Planet of Monsters sets everything up. Earth was under seige, Godzilla was a menace, so naturally all the inhabitants decide to live in space until the monsters all die off. Something happens, the humans return to Earth, and they get the shock of their puny little lives.

Now as I said, I'm a bit biased when it comes to this property, but I really enjoyed the hell out of this. Like Shin Godzilla, it really feels like the Japanese production companies are trying to go back to their roots and focus on his overwhelming nihilistic overtones, because you can feel the dread and hopelessness radiating off the screen. The animation isn't the style I typically gravitate towards, but I found it strangely affecting as it made the monsters more sinister, and stylistically creepier than you'd get in normal animation. The amount of details they try to get down, like having everyone's suits dirty, is impressive, and by the time you finish the film you probably wouldn't even notice how different the animation is. Definitely, a recommendation.

Train to Busan

Production: South Korea

I honestly have no excuse as to why I hadn't seen this before. Train to Busan is an absolute delight and transcends the zombie genre. It is roughly two hours long, but the pacing and the amount of character work they put into the story makes it feel like a four hour epic. It definitely takes inspiration from the early zombie movies with how in the background the zombies are in the first half of the movie, and how much of the focus is character driven. At the heart of this film it's about what makes a good dad. You have the main characters being a workaholic business man not spending much time, nor paying attention, to his daughter and later on you meet a dad to be with his pregnant wife. Both representing the before and after effects of what being a dad can be.

Also, this is mostly taking place on a train. Trains are great scenarios for characters to interact and clash, so why not add zombies to that mix? What is incredible in this situation is the amount of ways these characters are able to find to get past the zombies. It's not always the same trick, and you get to see how each person figures out a new way to bypass the infected. That is one of the reasons why I love this script. The script is so rich in character, so creative in getting from point A to point B, and is still able to make zombies not only threatening but also keep their social commentary too. In short, by the time you get to the end scene you'll feel a breath of fresh air, because this is a very tense film that is shot beautifully and acted perfectly. There are so many fist pumping moments, and tearful goodbyes, that make this an exceptional delight. If you haven't seen this yet then I beg you to please go watch it. It's on Netflix, you have no excuse.

Desierto

Production: Mexican-French

This film is directed by Jonás Cuarón, son of Alfonso (Gravity), and is a thriller about crossing the Mexican-US border. And that's basically it...

The film is shot well, and is fine for an average film. There are a few themes and ideas that are brought up, but never played with, expanded upon, or resolved. This is a short thriller at less than an hour and a half run time. You have a group of Mexicans crossing the border, succeeding, and then being hunted by an American. On that premise there is a lot you could have done to make this a social commentary on today, and that would have been more interesting because every character is a stereotype with the main character having two more lines of backstory. Other than that it's akin to the trashy late 80s slasher films where it's about the act of killing off those people than what the story can do. There are some really bad lines in this film, and a few questionable scenes. If this went through two more drafts I think it would have been better than average.

Well, those were the foreign films I watched in January. I still have a week and a half left of February, and can't wait to share what else I have seen!