Smash hit Italian concept movie “Perfect Strangers” is set to be adapted for the Arab world, following a flurry of remakes worldwide.
Dubai-based Middle East distributor Front Row Filmed Entertainment and sister company Kuwait National cinema have acquired Arabic remake rights from Italy’s Medusa Film to director Paolo Genovese’s 2016 ensemble dramedy involving smartphones and personal secrets.
Front Row will co-produce the Arabic version with prominent Egyptian shingle Film Clinic, whose latest titles include Cannes competition entry “Yomeddine,” and with Lebanese distributor Empire International.
The deal was negotiated by Front Row’s Gianluca Chakra with sales agent Faruk Alatan for Medusa. Besides Chakra, Film Clinic chief Mohamed Hefzy, Kuwait National’s Hisham Alghanim, and Empire’s Mario Haddad Jr. are also attached to produce and finance.
Chakra told Variety that the plan is for the adaptation to be ready in 2019 and have pan-Arabic elements that can appeal to Egyptian...
Dubai-based Middle East distributor Front Row Filmed Entertainment and sister company Kuwait National cinema have acquired Arabic remake rights from Italy’s Medusa Film to director Paolo Genovese’s 2016 ensemble dramedy involving smartphones and personal secrets.
Front Row will co-produce the Arabic version with prominent Egyptian shingle Film Clinic, whose latest titles include Cannes competition entry “Yomeddine,” and with Lebanese distributor Empire International.
The deal was negotiated by Front Row’s Gianluca Chakra with sales agent Faruk Alatan for Medusa. Besides Chakra, Film Clinic chief Mohamed Hefzy, Kuwait National’s Hisham Alghanim, and Empire’s Mario Haddad Jr. are also attached to produce and finance.
Chakra told Variety that the plan is for the adaptation to be ready in 2019 and have pan-Arabic elements that can appeal to Egyptian...
- 10/23/2018
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Empire International and Film Clinic board as co-producers.
Gulf region partners Dubai-based Front Row Filmed Entertainment and the Kuwait National Cinema Company have acquired Arabic-language remake rights to Italian hit Perfect Strangers (Perfetti Sconosciuti) from Rome-based Medusa Film.
Dubai and Beirut company Empire International and Film Clinic, the Cairo-based production house behind Cannes titles Yomeddine and Clash, have also boarded the project as co-producers.
Produced by Medusa Film, Leone Film Group and Lotus Productions, Paolo Genovese’s comedy drama Perfect Strangers grossed more than $20m at the Italian box offic and $31m internationally in 2016.
It also picked up several David...
Gulf region partners Dubai-based Front Row Filmed Entertainment and the Kuwait National Cinema Company have acquired Arabic-language remake rights to Italian hit Perfect Strangers (Perfetti Sconosciuti) from Rome-based Medusa Film.
Dubai and Beirut company Empire International and Film Clinic, the Cairo-based production house behind Cannes titles Yomeddine and Clash, have also boarded the project as co-producers.
Produced by Medusa Film, Leone Film Group and Lotus Productions, Paolo Genovese’s comedy drama Perfect Strangers grossed more than $20m at the Italian box offic and $31m internationally in 2016.
It also picked up several David...
- 10/23/2018
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Middle East distributor Front Row Filmed Entertainment and its backer Kuwait National Cinema Company have inked a deal with Italian outfit Medusa Film for the Arabic language remake rights to 2016 Italian hit Perfect Strangers (Perfetti Sconosciuti).
The Arabic version will be a Lebanese-Egyptian co-production in collaboration with Empire International and Egyptian production firm Film Clinic whose latest credits include Cannes Competition entry Yomeddine. Mohamed Hefzy, Hisham Alghanim and Mario Jr. Haddad are also attached to produce and finance.
Front Row/Kncc and Empire will theatrically distribute the film in the Gulf and Levant. Film Clinic will handle its theatrical release in Egypt. Front Row will handle all post theatrical sales across the region. The deal was negotiated by Gianluca Chakra and Faruk Alatan of Medusa.
Produced by Medusa Film, Leone Film Group and Lotus Productions, Paolo Genovese’s well-received original grossed an impressive $20M at the Italian box office for a worldwide take of $31M.
The Arabic version will be a Lebanese-Egyptian co-production in collaboration with Empire International and Egyptian production firm Film Clinic whose latest credits include Cannes Competition entry Yomeddine. Mohamed Hefzy, Hisham Alghanim and Mario Jr. Haddad are also attached to produce and finance.
Front Row/Kncc and Empire will theatrically distribute the film in the Gulf and Levant. Film Clinic will handle its theatrical release in Egypt. Front Row will handle all post theatrical sales across the region. The deal was negotiated by Gianluca Chakra and Faruk Alatan of Medusa.
Produced by Medusa Film, Leone Film Group and Lotus Productions, Paolo Genovese’s well-received original grossed an impressive $20M at the Italian box office for a worldwide take of $31M.
- 10/23/2018
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Venice, Italy — The Venice Film Festival is focusing on its artistic roots this year, courting celebrated directors and not flashy Hollywood blockbusters.
Festival director Alberto Barbera trimmed the number of movies premiering at the world's oldest film festival, which opens Wednesday, to just 18 in competition for the coveted Golden Lion, Venice's top prize. And the overall selection is just 60 films – about half the offerings in previous years.
"I don't like this idea of making it bigger and bigger year after year," Barbera said Tuesday. "Toronto is getting bigger and bigger every year and the same thing for Cannes and Berlin and so on. And I don't like that. It's not a proper way to promote a film."
The Venice lineup is heavy on auteur favorites like Terrence Malick, who premieres `'To The Wonder" on Sunday and Paul Thomas Anderson, who travels to the Lido with `'The Master" on Saturday.
Festival director Alberto Barbera trimmed the number of movies premiering at the world's oldest film festival, which opens Wednesday, to just 18 in competition for the coveted Golden Lion, Venice's top prize. And the overall selection is just 60 films – about half the offerings in previous years.
"I don't like this idea of making it bigger and bigger year after year," Barbera said Tuesday. "Toronto is getting bigger and bigger every year and the same thing for Cannes and Berlin and so on. And I don't like that. It's not a proper way to promote a film."
The Venice lineup is heavy on auteur favorites like Terrence Malick, who premieres `'To The Wonder" on Sunday and Paul Thomas Anderson, who travels to the Lido with `'The Master" on Saturday.
- 8/28/2012
- by AP
- Huffington Post
Watch 2 clips from Woody Allen's To Rome With Love, one with Jesse Eisenberg and Ellen Page, the other with Penelope Cruz and Alessandro Tiberi. The Sony Pictures Classics release opens on June 22nd, with a strong cast also including helmer, producer and scribe Allen, Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Judy Davis and Greta Gerwig. The film's also produced by Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum, Giampaolo Letta and Faruk Alatan. o Rome with Love is a kaleidoscopic comedy movie set in one of the world’s most enchanting cities. The film brings us into contact with a well-known American architect reliving his youth; an average middle-class Roman who suddenly finds himself Rome’s biggest celebrity; a young provincial couple drawn into separate romantic encounters; and an American opera director endeavoring to put a singing mortician on stage.
- 6/19/2012
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Watch 2 clips from Woody Allen's To Rome With Love, one with Jesse Eisenberg and Ellen Page, the other with Penelope Cruz and Alessandro Tiberi. The Sony Pictures Classics release opens on June 22nd, with a strong cast also including helmer, producer and scribe Allen, Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Judy Davis and Greta Gerwig. The film's also produced by Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum, Giampaolo Letta and Faruk Alatan. o Rome with Love is a kaleidoscopic comedy movie set in one of the world’s most enchanting cities. The film brings us into contact with a well-known American architect reliving his youth; an average middle-class Roman who suddenly finds himself Rome’s biggest celebrity; a young provincial couple drawn into separate romantic encounters; and an American opera director endeavoring to put a singing mortician on stage.
- 6/19/2012
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Sony Pictures Classics has acquired all North American and UK rights to DGA nominee Woody Allen.s next film, Nero Fiddled. The film stars Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penelope Cruz, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig and Ellen Page.
Produced by Letty Aronson, Steve Tenenbaum, Giampaulo Letta and Faruk Alatan, Nero Fiddled, is a Medusa film and Gravier production. The film was Allen.s first film shot in Rome.
Nero Fiddled marks Allen.s fifth film with Sony Pictures Classics. Allen.s most recent film with Spc, Midnight In Paris, has made almost $60 million at the box office and is Allen.s highest grossing film in North America. The film also recently garnered a Director’s Guild of America nomination for Allen and four Golden Globe nominations. Spc.s previous collaborations with Allen include You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger starring Anthony Hopkins, Naomi Watts, Josh Brolin and Frieda Pinto; the...
Produced by Letty Aronson, Steve Tenenbaum, Giampaulo Letta and Faruk Alatan, Nero Fiddled, is a Medusa film and Gravier production. The film was Allen.s first film shot in Rome.
Nero Fiddled marks Allen.s fifth film with Sony Pictures Classics. Allen.s most recent film with Spc, Midnight In Paris, has made almost $60 million at the box office and is Allen.s highest grossing film in North America. The film also recently garnered a Director’s Guild of America nomination for Allen and four Golden Globe nominations. Spc.s previous collaborations with Allen include You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger starring Anthony Hopkins, Naomi Watts, Josh Brolin and Frieda Pinto; the...
- 1/9/2012
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Sony Pictures Classics has acquired all North American and U.K. rights to Woody Allen’s next film, Nero Fiddled. This is the filmmaker's fifth film to be released by Spc, following on Allen's biggest success to date, Midnight in Paris. Photos: Woody Allen Career in Pictures Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penelope Cruz, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig and Ellen Page star in the Rome-set story. Letty Aronson, Steve Tenenbaum, Giampaulo Letta and Faruk Alatan produced the project, a Medusa film and Gravier production. "More laughs in this one than you can imagine," said Spc co-presidents Tom Bernard and Michael Barker. "We
read more...
read more...
- 12/22/2011
- by Jay A. Fernandez
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they have acquired all North American and UK rights to Woody Allen's next film, Nero Fiddled. The film stars Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penélope Cruz, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig and Ellen Page.
Produced by Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum, Giampaulo Letta and Faruk Alatan, Nero Fiddled is a Medusa film and Gravier production. The film was Allen's first film shot in Rome.
Nero Fiddled marks Allen's fifth film with Sony Pictures Classics. Allen's most recent film with Spc, Midnight in Paris, has made almost $60 million at the box office and is Allen's highest grossing film in North America. The film also recently garnered four Golden Globe nominations. Spc's previous collaborations with Allen include You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger starring Anthony Hopkins, Naomi Watts, Josh Brolin and Freida Pinto; the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival's opening night film Whatever Works starring Larry David, Patricia Clarkson...
Produced by Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum, Giampaulo Letta and Faruk Alatan, Nero Fiddled is a Medusa film and Gravier production. The film was Allen's first film shot in Rome.
Nero Fiddled marks Allen's fifth film with Sony Pictures Classics. Allen's most recent film with Spc, Midnight in Paris, has made almost $60 million at the box office and is Allen's highest grossing film in North America. The film also recently garnered four Golden Globe nominations. Spc's previous collaborations with Allen include You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger starring Anthony Hopkins, Naomi Watts, Josh Brolin and Freida Pinto; the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival's opening night film Whatever Works starring Larry David, Patricia Clarkson...
- 12/21/2011
- by MovieWeb
- MovieWeb
Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they have acquired all North American and UK rights to Woody Allen's next film, Nero Fiddled . The film stars Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penelope Cruz, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig and Ellen Page. Produced by Letty Aronson, Steve Tenenbaum, Giampaulo Letta and Faruk Alatan, Nero Fiddled is a Medusa film and Gravier production. The film was Allen.s first film shot in Rome. This marks Allen's fifth film with Sony Pictures Classics. Allen's most recent film with Spc, Midnight in Paris , has made almost $60 million at the box office and is Allen's highest grossing film in North America. The film also recently garnered four Golden Globe nominations. Spc's previous collaborations with Allen include You Will Meet a Tall Dark...
- 12/21/2011
- Comingsoon.net
Invisible Waves
Screened at the Berlin International Film Festival
BERLIN -- If Jacques Tati, the French comic absurdist, had ever made a gangster thriller, it probably would have looked like Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's "Invisible Waves". Much of the movie is given over to comic bliss in which the protagonist, played by Japanese star Asano Tadanobu, is assailed by minor indignities and malfunctioning amenities aboard a ship. Guns do go off and people die, but Pen-Ek de-emphasizes the thrills in favor of an existential slapstick. The film should make waves on the festival circuit before specialty pickups.
The movie starts out more in a thriller mode, albeit obliquely. Kyoji Asano), a Japanese ex-pat, lives in the former Portuguese enclave of Macau and takes the ferry daily to Hong Kong, where he works as a chef's assistant. One night his lover drops by for a romantic dinner. The lover (Kuga Tomono), who happens to be his boss' wife, dies immediately after a meal laced with poison. Turns out his boss (Thai star Toon Hiranyasup) has learned of the affair and forced his cook to kill a wife he now considers an inconvenience.
The deed has made Kyoji so mentally and physically ill that the boss presents him with a pleasure cruise to the Thai island resort of Phuket. Once aboard ship, the fun starts. Kyoji's luxurious stateroom turns out to be a room the size of a locker next to the noisy engine with mysterious steam seeping through an opening. A pull-down bed jerks right back up, the shower and wash basin squirt water unexpectedly, and one day he gets locked in the room and can't get out.
He meets a mysterious woman named Noi (rising Korean actress Gang Hye Jung). She has a baby but is vague about the identity or whereabouts of the father. She also possesses an ironic, almost flirtatious manner that intrigues Kyoji. Meanwhile, a mysterious man (Mitsuishi Ken) in a tropical shirt is shadowing Kyoji throughout the voyage.
Once in Phuket, strange things continue to befall the hapless chef. The most unfortunate is a robbery at his hotel that leaves him broke. He is forced to call his boss, who promises to help. The mysterious stranger now reveals himself as a karaoke-loving hit man employed by the boss. Kyoji quickly realizes the boss wants to eliminate him.
There's a bit of chasing and shooting in Phuket before the final reels back in Hong Kong and Macau. Alas, these sequences don't live up to the delightful, often perplexing comic rifts that brought us to this showdown. Perhaps too much philosophy and not enough slapstick absurdity dominate the ending.
Nevertheless, "Invisible Waves" is yet another example of the creative forces at work in pan-Asian cinema, which plucks locations and actors from any number of territories. Asano makes a wonderful Keaton-esque clown, struggling helplessly but without losing his cool against a universe conspiring to thwart him. Still sickened by his deed -- the chef throws up every so often -- Kyoji doesn't know whether he seeks revenge or redemption.
Gang gives the heroine a beguiling innocence tinged with sage knowingness. Hiranyasup brings a light touch to the gangster-restaurant owner. Mitsuishi's weary exterminating angel is only happy when he is singing. And singer-actress Maria Cordero as Kyoji's landlady acts as a kind of Greek chorus, offering up Old World/New Age wisdom.
The great pan-Asian cinematographer Christopher Doyle shot the film, working in unusual palettes, making the ship interiors fluorescent green, Hong Kong glumly overcast and even finding darkness in the paradise that is Phuket.
INVISIBLE WAVES
Fortissimo Films presents
a Dedicate Ltd./Focus Films Ltd./
CJ Entertainment co-production
Credits:
Director: Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
Screenwriter: Prabda Yoon
Producers: Michael J. Werner, Wouter Barendrecht
Executive producers: Miky Lee, Faruk Alatan, Daniel Yu
Director of photography: Christopher Doyle
Production designer: Saksiri Chantarangsri
Music: Hualampong Riddim
Costumes: Nagase Tetsuro
Editor: Patmanadda Yukol
Cast:
Kyoji Tadanobu: Asano Tadanobu
Noi: Gang Hye Jung
Monk: Eric Tsang
Maria: Maria Cordero
Wiwat: Toon Hiranyasup
Lizard: Mitsuishi Ken
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 115 minutes...
BERLIN -- If Jacques Tati, the French comic absurdist, had ever made a gangster thriller, it probably would have looked like Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's "Invisible Waves". Much of the movie is given over to comic bliss in which the protagonist, played by Japanese star Asano Tadanobu, is assailed by minor indignities and malfunctioning amenities aboard a ship. Guns do go off and people die, but Pen-Ek de-emphasizes the thrills in favor of an existential slapstick. The film should make waves on the festival circuit before specialty pickups.
The movie starts out more in a thriller mode, albeit obliquely. Kyoji Asano), a Japanese ex-pat, lives in the former Portuguese enclave of Macau and takes the ferry daily to Hong Kong, where he works as a chef's assistant. One night his lover drops by for a romantic dinner. The lover (Kuga Tomono), who happens to be his boss' wife, dies immediately after a meal laced with poison. Turns out his boss (Thai star Toon Hiranyasup) has learned of the affair and forced his cook to kill a wife he now considers an inconvenience.
The deed has made Kyoji so mentally and physically ill that the boss presents him with a pleasure cruise to the Thai island resort of Phuket. Once aboard ship, the fun starts. Kyoji's luxurious stateroom turns out to be a room the size of a locker next to the noisy engine with mysterious steam seeping through an opening. A pull-down bed jerks right back up, the shower and wash basin squirt water unexpectedly, and one day he gets locked in the room and can't get out.
He meets a mysterious woman named Noi (rising Korean actress Gang Hye Jung). She has a baby but is vague about the identity or whereabouts of the father. She also possesses an ironic, almost flirtatious manner that intrigues Kyoji. Meanwhile, a mysterious man (Mitsuishi Ken) in a tropical shirt is shadowing Kyoji throughout the voyage.
Once in Phuket, strange things continue to befall the hapless chef. The most unfortunate is a robbery at his hotel that leaves him broke. He is forced to call his boss, who promises to help. The mysterious stranger now reveals himself as a karaoke-loving hit man employed by the boss. Kyoji quickly realizes the boss wants to eliminate him.
There's a bit of chasing and shooting in Phuket before the final reels back in Hong Kong and Macau. Alas, these sequences don't live up to the delightful, often perplexing comic rifts that brought us to this showdown. Perhaps too much philosophy and not enough slapstick absurdity dominate the ending.
Nevertheless, "Invisible Waves" is yet another example of the creative forces at work in pan-Asian cinema, which plucks locations and actors from any number of territories. Asano makes a wonderful Keaton-esque clown, struggling helplessly but without losing his cool against a universe conspiring to thwart him. Still sickened by his deed -- the chef throws up every so often -- Kyoji doesn't know whether he seeks revenge or redemption.
Gang gives the heroine a beguiling innocence tinged with sage knowingness. Hiranyasup brings a light touch to the gangster-restaurant owner. Mitsuishi's weary exterminating angel is only happy when he is singing. And singer-actress Maria Cordero as Kyoji's landlady acts as a kind of Greek chorus, offering up Old World/New Age wisdom.
The great pan-Asian cinematographer Christopher Doyle shot the film, working in unusual palettes, making the ship interiors fluorescent green, Hong Kong glumly overcast and even finding darkness in the paradise that is Phuket.
INVISIBLE WAVES
Fortissimo Films presents
a Dedicate Ltd./Focus Films Ltd./
CJ Entertainment co-production
Credits:
Director: Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
Screenwriter: Prabda Yoon
Producers: Michael J. Werner, Wouter Barendrecht
Executive producers: Miky Lee, Faruk Alatan, Daniel Yu
Director of photography: Christopher Doyle
Production designer: Saksiri Chantarangsri
Music: Hualampong Riddim
Costumes: Nagase Tetsuro
Editor: Patmanadda Yukol
Cast:
Kyoji Tadanobu: Asano Tadanobu
Noi: Gang Hye Jung
Monk: Eric Tsang
Maria: Maria Cordero
Wiwat: Toon Hiranyasup
Lizard: Mitsuishi Ken
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 115 minutes...
- 2/15/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Invisible Waves
Screened at the Berlin International Film Festival
BERLIN -- If Jacques Tati, the French comic absurdist, had ever made a gangster thriller, it probably would have looked like Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's "Invisible Waves". Much of the movie is given over to comic bliss in which the protagonist, played by Japanese star Asano Tadanobu, is assailed by minor indignities and malfunctioning amenities aboard a ship. Guns do go off and people die, but Pen-Ek de-emphasizes the thrills in favor of an existential slapstick. The film should make waves on the festival circuit before specialty pickups.
The movie starts out more in a thriller mode, albeit obliquely. Kyoji Asano), a Japanese ex-pat, lives in the former Portuguese enclave of Macau and takes the ferry daily to Hong Kong, where he works as a chef's assistant. One night his lover drops by for a romantic dinner. The lover (Kuga Tomono), who happens to be his boss' wife, dies immediately after a meal laced with poison. Turns out his boss (Thai star Toon Hiranyasup) has learned of the affair and forced his cook to kill a wife he now considers an inconvenience.
The deed has made Kyoji so mentally and physically ill that the boss presents him with a pleasure cruise to the Thai island resort of Phuket. Once aboard ship, the fun starts. Kyoji's luxurious stateroom turns out to be a room the size of a locker next to the noisy engine with mysterious steam seeping through an opening. A pull-down bed jerks right back up, the shower and wash basin squirt water unexpectedly, and one day he gets locked in the room and can't get out.
He meets a mysterious woman named Noi (rising Korean actress Gang Hye Jung). She has a baby but is vague about the identity or whereabouts of the father. She also possesses an ironic, almost flirtatious manner that intrigues Kyoji. Meanwhile, a mysterious man (Mitsuishi Ken) in a tropical shirt is shadowing Kyoji throughout the voyage.
Once in Phuket, strange things continue to befall the hapless chef. The most unfortunate is a robbery at his hotel that leaves him broke. He is forced to call his boss, who promises to help. The mysterious stranger now reveals himself as a karaoke-loving hit man employed by the boss. Kyoji quickly realizes the boss wants to eliminate him.
There's a bit of chasing and shooting in Phuket before the final reels back in Hong Kong and Macau. Alas, these sequences don't live up to the delightful, often perplexing comic rifts that brought us to this showdown. Perhaps too much philosophy and not enough slapstick absurdity dominate the ending.
Nevertheless, "Invisible Waves" is yet another example of the creative forces at work in pan-Asian cinema, which plucks locations and actors from any number of territories. Asano makes a wonderful Keaton-esque clown, struggling helplessly but without losing his cool against a universe conspiring to thwart him. Still sickened by his deed -- the chef throws up every so often -- Kyoji doesn't know whether he seeks revenge or redemption.
Gang gives the heroine a beguiling innocence tinged with sage knowingness. Hiranyasup brings a light touch to the gangster-restaurant owner. Mitsuishi's weary exterminating angel is only happy when he is singing. And singer-actress Maria Cordero as Kyoji's landlady acts as a kind of Greek chorus, offering up Old World/New Age wisdom.
The great pan-Asian cinematographer Christopher Doyle shot the film, working in unusual palettes, making the ship interiors fluorescent green, Hong Kong glumly overcast and even finding darkness in the paradise that is Phuket.
INVISIBLE WAVES
Fortissimo Films presents
a Dedicate Ltd./Focus Films Ltd./
CJ Entertainment co-production
Credits:
Director: Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
Screenwriter: Prabda Yoon
Producers: Michael J. Werner, Wouter Barendrecht
Executive producers: Miky Lee, Faruk Alatan, Daniel Yu
Director of photography: Christopher Doyle
Production designer: Saksiri Chantarangsri
Music: Hualampong Riddim
Costumes: Nagase Tetsuro
Editor: Patmanadda Yukol
Cast:
Kyoji Tadanobu: Asano Tadanobu
Noi: Gang Hye Jung
Monk: Eric Tsang
Maria: Maria Cordero
Wiwat: Toon Hiranyasup
Lizard: Mitsuishi Ken
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 115 minutes...
BERLIN -- If Jacques Tati, the French comic absurdist, had ever made a gangster thriller, it probably would have looked like Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's "Invisible Waves". Much of the movie is given over to comic bliss in which the protagonist, played by Japanese star Asano Tadanobu, is assailed by minor indignities and malfunctioning amenities aboard a ship. Guns do go off and people die, but Pen-Ek de-emphasizes the thrills in favor of an existential slapstick. The film should make waves on the festival circuit before specialty pickups.
The movie starts out more in a thriller mode, albeit obliquely. Kyoji Asano), a Japanese ex-pat, lives in the former Portuguese enclave of Macau and takes the ferry daily to Hong Kong, where he works as a chef's assistant. One night his lover drops by for a romantic dinner. The lover (Kuga Tomono), who happens to be his boss' wife, dies immediately after a meal laced with poison. Turns out his boss (Thai star Toon Hiranyasup) has learned of the affair and forced his cook to kill a wife he now considers an inconvenience.
The deed has made Kyoji so mentally and physically ill that the boss presents him with a pleasure cruise to the Thai island resort of Phuket. Once aboard ship, the fun starts. Kyoji's luxurious stateroom turns out to be a room the size of a locker next to the noisy engine with mysterious steam seeping through an opening. A pull-down bed jerks right back up, the shower and wash basin squirt water unexpectedly, and one day he gets locked in the room and can't get out.
He meets a mysterious woman named Noi (rising Korean actress Gang Hye Jung). She has a baby but is vague about the identity or whereabouts of the father. She also possesses an ironic, almost flirtatious manner that intrigues Kyoji. Meanwhile, a mysterious man (Mitsuishi Ken) in a tropical shirt is shadowing Kyoji throughout the voyage.
Once in Phuket, strange things continue to befall the hapless chef. The most unfortunate is a robbery at his hotel that leaves him broke. He is forced to call his boss, who promises to help. The mysterious stranger now reveals himself as a karaoke-loving hit man employed by the boss. Kyoji quickly realizes the boss wants to eliminate him.
There's a bit of chasing and shooting in Phuket before the final reels back in Hong Kong and Macau. Alas, these sequences don't live up to the delightful, often perplexing comic rifts that brought us to this showdown. Perhaps too much philosophy and not enough slapstick absurdity dominate the ending.
Nevertheless, "Invisible Waves" is yet another example of the creative forces at work in pan-Asian cinema, which plucks locations and actors from any number of territories. Asano makes a wonderful Keaton-esque clown, struggling helplessly but without losing his cool against a universe conspiring to thwart him. Still sickened by his deed -- the chef throws up every so often -- Kyoji doesn't know whether he seeks revenge or redemption.
Gang gives the heroine a beguiling innocence tinged with sage knowingness. Hiranyasup brings a light touch to the gangster-restaurant owner. Mitsuishi's weary exterminating angel is only happy when he is singing. And singer-actress Maria Cordero as Kyoji's landlady acts as a kind of Greek chorus, offering up Old World/New Age wisdom.
The great pan-Asian cinematographer Christopher Doyle shot the film, working in unusual palettes, making the ship interiors fluorescent green, Hong Kong glumly overcast and even finding darkness in the paradise that is Phuket.
INVISIBLE WAVES
Fortissimo Films presents
a Dedicate Ltd./Focus Films Ltd./
CJ Entertainment co-production
Credits:
Director: Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
Screenwriter: Prabda Yoon
Producers: Michael J. Werner, Wouter Barendrecht
Executive producers: Miky Lee, Faruk Alatan, Daniel Yu
Director of photography: Christopher Doyle
Production designer: Saksiri Chantarangsri
Music: Hualampong Riddim
Costumes: Nagase Tetsuro
Editor: Patmanadda Yukol
Cast:
Kyoji Tadanobu: Asano Tadanobu
Noi: Gang Hye Jung
Monk: Eric Tsang
Maria: Maria Cordero
Wiwat: Toon Hiranyasup
Lizard: Mitsuishi Ken
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 115 minutes...
- 2/14/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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