Foreign Movie Roundup: February 2018

Another month has passed, and another glorious month of watching movies has come to a close. In this round up I've gathered three relatively short, yet powerful in their own right, films that are drastically different from one another. Without wasting another word...

Phantom Boy

Production: France

I love animation. Ever since I was a kid it's been my bread and butter, even when I was "too old" for it in middle school, high school, college, heck even now. I still see people dismiss animated movies as if they were only for kids, as if there were a sort of maturity and integrity in live action. Phantom Boy, like many other animated movies, defies that perfectly.

The story is about a kid in New York City who is sick. He meets a cop in the hospital he is staying at and the two become friends once a criminal mastermind has threatened the city. The boy has an unusual ability to become a phantom and leave his body, aiding the cop in a well done noir type of story. The animation is unique in that it looks like they made it with colored pencils. It probably won't be to most standards, but when the story is about the boy, and we follow his emotional path, then the art style perfectly encapsulates what kind of story this truly is. While definitely aimed towards a younger crowd, Phantom Boy balances a very real and emotional presence in not only the boy's life, but how it affects his parents and family compared to his dreams and optimistic simplicity towards life. I'd highly recommend this.

The Bodyguard

Production: China

Also know as My Beloved Bodyguard, is an interesting film that had the right ingredients, but sadly was overcooked by its style. The heart of this story is about an aging man who begins his journey towards dementia, and his relationship with his young neighbor. The way both characters compliment each other brings out not only cute and heartwarming scenes, but seeds the path for a dramatic and emotional story. Sadly, it's the other half of this movie, one where gangsters thrive and bad action movie cliches reside, that drowns an otherwise worthwhile adventure.

The action is shot very strangely, for modern standards, and it reminded me much of early American action films from the 2000s. The camera would always be sweeping, the action was filmed in either slo-mo or some other technique that made it blurry. On top of that whenever the old man would break someone's bones, which should be really cool, they put a cheap Mortal Kombat filter over the victims to see their animated bones break. This was not what I'd expect out of an action scene, especially when Sammo Hung (a phenomenal actor and action director) is in it. Even though there are some really good scenes in this, especially with Sammo Hung struggling with his dementia, its editing, pacing, and action problems far outweigh what is good and made this a disappointing watch. I don't think I can recommend this.

The Tale of Zatoichi Continues

Production: Japan

As the title suggests, the tale that was Zatoichi from 1962 returned to cinemas in this first sequel of the influential franchise not five months later. Yep, not even planned the studio realized that they had a hit on their hands and went full steam ahead with a sequel that released merely months later. Normally, that kind of thinking and work ethic would show, and I wasn't expecting much when I learned about that, however, somehow The Tale of Zatoichi Continues is a worthy and strong successor that only showed how rushed it was minimally.

Zatoichi is a traveling masseur and swordsman. Oh, and did I mention he is blind? Yes, Zatoichi, the famous sword wielding masseur is blind and he's fantastic. This sequel picks up one year after the events of the first movie. Zatoichi returns to familiar fighting grounds to pay his respects to a dead friend, and along the way he stumbles upon a not so subtle secret about a certain Lord, and thus now has to battle yakuza  that were hired to kill him. Not only that, but he has another mysterious man following him.

There are a few times where you can tell this film was rushed, and compared to the first one this sequel flies by in a fast pace, but otherwise you couldn't tell. There is still enough love put into this movie that it felt natural, that this was the next chapter in Zatoichi's life. It still gave you what you enjoyed from the first one and built up another layer to Zatoichi's character. There are gorgeous shots, fun choreography, and enough of everything to like in this film. I'd recommend watching the first Zatoichi movie before this one, but as you probably guessed I'd totally recommend this samurai flick.

Well, those were my foreign movie picks of the month of February. I had a blast watching them, and can't wait to see what'll pop up in March. Until next month.