On the subject of Rotterdam...

[Jasper Sharp]

Just got back to work from a week of to-ing and fro-ing between Rotterdam
and Amsterdam. You can see the upshot of all this activity on the
<http://www.projecta.net/> www.projecta.net website, with capsule reviews of
all films seen by me and a couple of others.

I was surprised by the large amount of Asian films screened this year. This
normally wouldn't have been a problem, but I did feel the need for a change
of pace about midway through the week, and there was very little European
stuff playing for example. (I did notice a fare proportion of Dutch films
with French titles, presumably to trick people into going to see Dutch
films!)

So I'm now finally a little more qualified to add my voice to the BATTLE
ROYALE debate, and personally I really liked it. I found it fast moving and
entertaining, and far too easily dismissed as mindless violence with no
redeeming features (even Tony Rayns voiced this opinion in the recent issue
of Sight and Sound). It may not have the intellectual depths it purports to
have, but compare it with any of the mindless teen horrors being churned out
by the Americans at the moment and it stands head and shoulders above. It is
incredibly well made and tightly scripted, and I really hope it gets a
better release over here subsequent to the festival. 

Another festival favourite was Naomi Kawase's HOTARU. I heard that this was
not particularly well received by the Japanese critics (it has been released
in Japan already hasn't it? The director told me it was coming out in March,
whereas other people gave me the impression it was already out), though I
found it to be very emotionally powerful, if a little overlong.

Sogo Ishii's ELECTRIC DRAGON BOY 80,000V was a welcome jolt of adrenaline
after a heavy day of film watching last Saturday, and even more impressive
was his relaxing short, THE MASTER OF SHIATSU which played before it.

And the only other Japanese film I saw (aside from Aoyama's 50 minute piece
of self-indulgence, ROJI-E, the less said about the better) was the
ever-reliable Miike Takashi's HAZARD CITY, or CITY OF LOST SOULS as it
played under in Rotterdam. This was the first film I saw of the festival,
and a great way to get into the flow of things. Maybe not his strongest
film, but an enjoyable diversion nonetheless.

Finally, can I just turn the subject towards Korea? Did anyone see a film
called VIRGIN STRIPPED BARE BY HER BACHELORS, Korean title OH! SOO JUNG ?
This was my surprise find of the festival, a weird romantic comedy shot in
monochrome and adopting the RASHOMAN / ALEXANDRIA QUARTET approach to the
narrative. I thought this was hilarious and I'm wondering if I'll ever get a
chance to see it again. Can anyone help?

Cheers,

Jasper Sharp