Einstein and Einstein (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Cao Baoping
	Actors: Sophie Zhang Li, Guo Jinglin
	Country: CN
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 02.05.2014, Teatro nuovo, FEFF2014
Synopsis: A teenager is living with her grandparents because the parents are working on their career and they take care of a younger brother. To compensate for the lack of parental education, the father gives her a dog, Einstein.
Review: The story could have been shot in Europe as well, as the problem of parents abandoning the kids for the education and pushing them for good marks at school exists also here. As in another movie seen in previous FEFF  The equation of love and death, Cao Baoping depicts a normal life story affected by the modern social behaviour.  Here the focus is on the child psychology. And what makes really a child become an adult. Nothing with travels, sex and drugs. The change is to accept oneself as such, to accept the others as they are and live with it. In that sense, it is an adult vision of the coming-of-age plot. The acting is not bad, but some exagerations from the main character Li Wan (Sophie Zhang) might be annoying. It is the second movie by Cao Baoping that I see and for which I feel there is a good directing and a good story, but something is missing. It might be the acting or as often in Chinese movies the too-long scenes.
Rating: 4 /10

Boy golden (2013)

	Also Known As: Shoot to kill: Boy golden
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Chito S. Roño
	Actors: Jeorge E. R. Estregan, KC Concepcion
	Country: RP
	Genre: Action
	Conditions of visioning: 01.05.2014, Teatro nuovo, FEFF2014
Synopsis: Boy Golden is a criminal of gang Bahal na Gang thought dead by the enemy gang of Razon. He meets Marla Dee after she kills an attorney that he wanted to kill as well. From then on, it is a quest for revenge against Razon for both of them.
Review: Philippines produced many movies in the 60s and this one is styled as in the Manila of the 60s full of gangs and probably not in the same way as in that time. The story is basic and the acting as well. The story and directing are entertaining not nothing special nor original.  One thing disturbed me all along the movie is the Photoshoped faces of the two main characters (Arturo "Boy Golden" Porcuna and Maria "Marla Dee" de Guzman), far much smoother than the other ones. So smoother that it looks like a low quality JPEG. Compared to older Philippines movies (Resiklo, A casket for rent) this one does not look so cheap in the form but cheaper in the content.
Rating: 2 /10

The terror live (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Kim Byung-woo
	Actors: Ha Jung-woo
	Country: ROK
	Genre: Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 01.05.2014, Teatro nuovo, FEFF2014
Synopsis: The radio journalist Yoon Young-hwa, ex TV news moderator, is associated to a major terror act as the terrorist calls during his radio show.
Review: The story reveals step by step aspects of the main character and of other characters as well so that it keeps the suspense. As almost everything is shot in a small radio studio, with TV connections to different places, the directing focuses the attention of the viewer to that place and all the intrigues playing there, carreers, loyalty to the government, to the company, to one's own principles.  The agitated picture made me feel just the bit of unconfort that one has when so,ething bad happens. The acting is nothing special but the dialogues are very accurate about the intrigues and the fear felt by the different characters. Good action movie!
Rating: 6 /10

Shift (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Siege Ledesma
	Actors: Yeng Constantino, Felix Roco, Matthew Valeña
	Country: RP
	Genre: Romance
	Conditions of visioning: 03.05.2014, Teatro Nuovo, FEFF2014
Synopsis: A month in the life of Estela (Constantino), undecided on what she wants in both her personal and professional life.
Review: I knew that Philipino movies could be cheap horror flicks, or Fantasy ones, or retro ones (Boy Golden: Shoot to Kill), or rather good comedies or Dramas (Barber's Tales). Thanks to Shift I discovered that they can also be simple but very well told stories of modern urban romance. The director introduced the movie as: "If you have ever been in Love and scared of not being loved back, this movie is for you". And this is exactly what she managed to portray. The two main characters are quite touching. There are many dialogs that help us feel close to them. The filmmaking is done is a very efficient way: mostly close-ups on the faces of the characters, and not showing new characters if they don't need to be shown (like the parents), or showing them not before their time (the character of Kevin). I found the situations of Love/misunderstanding/bad timing very realistic, and making you realize that youngsters in this country at the far side of the world have the same concerns as the ones here. I also loved that after one hour of movie Estela sings a song written from her recent experience. Not only the music was good and she has a nice voice, but it also makes a pleasant break point in the movie. Probably my favorite movie of the FEFF 2014.
Rating: 8 /10

Broken (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Jung-ho Lee
	Actors: Jae-yeong Jeong, Sung-min Lee, Jun-Young Seo
	Country: ROK
	Genre: Thriller, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 03.05.2014, Teatro Nuovo, FEFF2014
Synopsis: Driven mad by the murder of his daughter, a father (Jae-yeong Jeong) seeks revenge.
Review: It would seem that this movie contains all the ingredients from the classical Korean Revenge movie like Sympathy for Mr. Vengence, Old Boy, I Saw the Devil... but actually it adds some new and interesting elements like the father-daughter relationship, very strong argument to justify revenge, or the fact that the murderers are known very early on in the movie, and are a bunch of teenagers that don't even understand the bad in what they did. Those two elements bring the movie closer to the American Death Sentence with Kevin Bacon (which was a bit disappointing). Jae-yeong Jeong plays very well the father during his journey to Hell, especially as he kills the first teenager in a burst of madness, without any planning. Unfortunately, Broken repeats the common mistake of leaving many scenes last too long, especially towards the end. I understand the intent of letting the time for the viewer to feel the tension and the drama, but when it is too slow we are just longing for the movie to progress faster and the resolution to come.
Rating: 6 /10

Bilocation (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Mari Asato
	Actors: Yôsuke Asari, Asami Mizukawa, Wakana Sakai
	Country: J
	Genre: Horror, Thriller, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 02.05.2014, Teatro Nuovo, FEFF2014
Synopsis: A young woman (Asari) discovers that a copy of herself (bilocation) came into existence. She will be introduced to a group of people having the same problem.
Review: For once a Japanese horror movie that doesn't deal with spirits and long-haired ghosts. Instead we get interested in this concept of an exact copy of yourself being born from your frustration, and your impossibility to make a choice between two paths in live. The story around this concept is not revolutionary, but told well enough to keep the viewer focused for two hours, with the right amount of twists to please you but not look too far-fetched. Finally a well-balanced mix of Drama and Thriller, with a hint of Horror.
Rating: 6 /10

The Face Reader (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Jae-rim Han (Rules of Dating)
	Actors: Kang-ho Song (Memories of Murder, The Host, Snowpiercer), Jung-Jae Lee, Yun-shik Baek
	Country: ROK
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 02.05.2014, Teatro Nuvo, FEFF2014
Synopsis: The best face reader of the country (Song) is hired to work in the big city. His talents attract the political class.
Review: I was really not motivated to go and watch this movie, it being a 2h20 long Korean period drama in costumes. I already have too many DVDs of such movies at home that I am not motivated to watch. But I am glad I found the courage to watch it. I may have been too disappointed by Japanese or Chinese period dramas, with endless fights against clans poorly choreographed. This Korean one is rather different. First it revolves around the excellent Kang-ho Song who brings with him his usual comedy side (he even has a sidekick in the person of his brother-in-law for better comic effect), but can also show that he can be a good dramatic actor. We see too rarely this side of his acting. Then the story is not so much about large scale combats, but more day-to-day life in 16th Century Korea, and the political game of power that was taking place at the time. All of it introduced thanks to the intriguing idea of the face reader expert (Song), which is in the end no more than the viewer's point of contact to enter this otherwise distant world. Costumes and landscapes are good-looking, and there are only a few scenes that I felt were too long. A pleasant surprise.
Rating: 6 /10

The Search for Weng Weng (2007)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2007
	Director: Andrew Leavold
	Actors: Tikoy Aguiluz, Roy Arabejo, Tilman Baumgaertel
	Country: AUS, RP
	Genre: Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: 01.05.2014, Teatro Nuovo, FEFF2014
Synopsis: Who is Weng Weng? Small person, lead actor in several Philipino spy movies in the 70's...
Review: I know a bit about the exploitation movies of the 70's-80's, but I had never heard about this Philipino 3-feet tall counterpart to James Bond. The director of the documentary is the owner of the largest alternative movies video store in Australia. We follow his quest to find who really is Weng Weng, the actor in a movie that the director became obsessed with: "For Y'ur Height Only". After watching a few extracts of this movie I already wanted to see it, and I have now ordered it on Amazon. You can get a good idea of it by watching this Hip-Hop video clip by The Chuds. The documentary is quite well edited, in the sense that we progressively discover hints about Weng weng and the Philipino cinema History, as the director did in the course of his 7-years quest. Not really a spoiler: we finally learn the sad details of the life of the actor playing Weng Weng. More surprisingly, we learn that he was a true star, meeting with important people and the president of the country, but at the same time he was absolutely exploited and never got any money. Some moments of the documentary are quite extraordinary, like when the crew meets the wife of the ex-president/dictator, still living in an artificial world of hers. At that point I found it very interesting that the documentary breaks away from the search for Weng weng to teach us about the political History of the Philippines, and its cinema History as well. Know that at that period it was the second largest production in the World, with more than 300 movies a year!
Rating: 7 /10

Pee Mak (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Banjong Pisanthanakun (Shutter, 4bia, The ABCs of Death)
	Actors: Mario Maurer, Davika Hoorne, Nattapong Chartpong
	Country: T
	Genre: Comedy, Horror
	Conditions of visioning: 01.05.2014, Teatro nuovo, FEFF2014
Synopsis: Escaping the war, a bunch of comrades accompany one of them back to his wife and newborn child.
Review: I remember enjoying a lot the Thai selection at the FEFF some years ago. This year Pee Mak is the only one from this country. I was glad to find again an excellent sense of humour. One could think that far east countries have a different humour as us, but I assure you that you can laugh a lot when watching a Thai movie. It is the case with Pee Mak that contains some very funny situations. The whole story revolves about this bunch of guys, war anti-heroes, wondering if people around them are dead or not, and frankly being afraid of anything. Unfortunately in spite of the punctual laughs, I found that there is far too much of useless screaming in the movie, and overuse of sound effects to try and scare the viewer. It was fun to watch anyway.
Rating: 5 /10

Tamako in moratorium (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Yamashita Nobuhiro
	Actors: Maeda Atsuko, Kan Suon
	Country: J
	Genre: Drama, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 30.04.2014, Teatro nuovo, FEFF2014
Synopsis: Tamako just finished her studies and comes back to her father's place before starting her working life. But she does not look interested in looking for a job.
Review: Tamako as the French movie Tanguy focuses on a post-teenager who does not want to take responsibility in its own life. Instead of having a life and just profiting of the parents like Tanguy, Tamako profits from the father and does not even look for a job nor meet friends. Black out.  The plain colour (dominated by very light beige) and suburbs fits to the story. But the first thirty minutes are boring, as nothing happens and nobody talks. Afterwards not much happens but there is some talk and interesting ones. About education by the father, about Tamako's expectations, about friendship expectations.
Rating: 4 /10