This month has a very definite oriental flavour, starting with no less than two Asian Westerns competing for our attention: in the ridiculously enjoyable The Good, The Bad, The Weird, Kim Ji-woon does Leone Korean-style while Takashi Miike takes on another 60s Italian cult classic in Sukiyaki Western Django. In our interview with Kim Ji-woon, the director explains all about ‘kimchi Western’ and why this spicy cabbage dish is the perfect symbol for Korean people.
For the second year running, the ICA is hosting Reality Fiction, a season of Japanese films inspired by real-life events. And if that’s not enough Asian thrills there is also the DVD release of the controversial Korean thriller The President’s Last Bang and the Shaw Brothers’ classic kung fu movie The 36th Chamber of Shaolin.
In other cinema releases, Nuri Bilge Ceylan returns with Three Monkeys, the eagerly awaited follow-up to Climates, the British thriller Franklyn experiments with an innovative hybrid of real-life drama and fantasy, and Jean-Claude Van Damme plays himself in the bizarre, hilarious, sincere, self-reflexive JCVD. On DVD, Kim Longinotto’s Divorce Iranian Style takes a warm and honest look at the lives of Iranian women. And we have a feature on the thoroughly brilliant West London Fantastic Film Society.
In Short Cuts, we have a report on the Club des Femmes strand of the London Short Film Festival while songsmith Eugene McGuinness tells us about some of the films that have impressed him.
The Electric Sheep Magazine team