The New York Asian Film Festival took place between June 28 and July 14, 2019. For more information, click here.
…Well, that was unexpected.
The plan for this writeup was to explore the breadth of NYAFF’s lineup; to show that even two comedies from the festival could be wildly different in tone.
You know, basic ‘compare and contrast’ stuff.
It doesn’t seem like too far a leap to assume that a Chinese comedy about a trio of debt collectors in a small community and a Japanese comedy about two losers who team up with a robot to find the Emperor’s hidden gold would vary wildly in their approach to getting laughs.
And yet… that is not the way it worked out.
UNCLE AND HOUSE
The word I try to avoid most when writing about first time director Luo Hanxing’s small, good natured slice of life comedy Uncle and House is ‘Jarmuschian’.
One, because it’s a horrible sounding and looking word, but two because that kind of sells it short. But it’s as close as I seem to be able to get to describing the very specific mood this film operates under.
Not much happens, really; there’s a hint at a thesis statement late in the movie when a character comments ‘It doesn’t matter whether it’s fake money or real money… as long as you can use it, It’s money’. But other than that, it’s more or less a panoramic view of a couple of days on Hequn Road in Guiyang City, where everybody more or less knows each other and life proceeds apace. To the extent that there are protagonists, the duties seem split between Liu Dun, an amiable and aimless young kid; and his older brother Xiao Bang (Gao Zhen), ringleader of the aforementioned loan sharks. Liu Dun’s best buddy Dong keeps politely but insistently trying to hire Xiao Bang to intimidate a romantic rival, but that thread doesn’t come to anything, nor is it meant to; Dong’s big plan, like much of what goes on here, is just another way to pass the time.
But it does tie into one of the most consistent jokes of the film, which is that the skinny, bespectacled Xiao looks nothing like the popular cinematic image of a debt collector. Not for nothing does more than one person refer to him as “well educated, but not a nerd.” And, right along with his slightly more shady looking partners, he acts nothing like debt collectors tend to act in movies, more prone to handing out sage advice than throwing punches (his advice to the lovelorn Dong: watch the Monica Bellucci vehicle Malena to get a better understanding of adolescence). They’re portrayed in an artist’s rendering as a kind of three headed creature and that’s very much how they act throughout; they even walk in a kind of synchronized rhythm that plays like a recurring gag all its own.
To that end, the debtors themselves are equally in synch with the mood of the piece; everyone involved in these transactions handles their business with a certain deadpan matter-of-factness that gets more hilarious the more they underplay it.
So as loose as the comparison is, I keep coming back to the whole Jarmusch thing, inasmuch as the film shares his ability to wring humor out of the most minute of circumstances, looking from the outside with a certain wry and dry perspective.
Stylistically, the only deviation from that is an extended sequence where a single 100 dollar yuan bill changes hands multiple times between various buyers and sellers. Each brief stopover in the sequence gives us a little view into the lives of the people on Hequn Road, and the ways in which they interact with one another. There’s a sense of history and a sense of community that, however fleeting, is keenly felt by the viewer.
From the description, I went in assuming that sequence was the whole of what the film was going to be, and I’m glad it wasn’t. What we get instead is a charming delve into the quotidian, where what happens plotwise matters far less than the simple pleasures of two kids eating a snack of Dragon’s Breath or watching an unexpected fireworks display go off on a warm summer night. It builds an entire movie out of the pleasure of the little things, and in the process creates a delightful confection of a film.
HARD-CORE
With a title like Hard-Core and a plot that involves robots and buried treasure, you would be forgiven for expecting something a little bit more high flying, tonally speaking. But where others might focus in on the wacky antics such a setup would seem to trend towards, instead it’s a surprisingly low key character study.
Granted, the characters are a bit nuts… but the movie’s interest in their development and compassion for them and their flawed natures is absolutely genuine.
Ukon and Ushiyama are a pair of born losers who find themselves in the employ of Mr. Kaneshiro, an elderly man determined to bring back the Bushido code and restore national values to modern youth. To that end, he has put them on the payroll to spend their days digging out a cave fabled to hold the Emperor’s gold. One day, the duo discover a robot in their crummy shared apartment, whom they quickly adopt as another member of their crew. And the film essentially follows the trio as they try to make a better future for themselves in a society that wants nothing to do with them.
Despite its outré details, Hard-Core shares with Uncle and House a certain charming low key aimlessness. No matter how odd the developments, it steadfastly refuses to overplay its hand. To the best of his ability, director Nobuhiro Yamashita keeps things grounded.
Well… except for when the robot flies.
Because yeah, sometimes the robot flies.
As Ukon, Takayuki Yamada does an expert job in playing up the quiet desperation and hair trigger temper that defines him and makes him an outcast from society, as well as exemplifying his dogged sense of loyalty and honor, two traits that bring him no end of grief as he tries to maintain his dignity in the face of the world’s cynicism. Yamada plays particularly well off of Takeru Sato as Ukon’s more successful and loved brother Sakon, who sees in the robot a way out of his boring stock brokering existence and into a new life of his own. Their prickly relationship reads true.
Yoshiyoshi Arakawa has an even tougher job as the mute, childlike Ushiyama, who is both deeply off-putting and oddly lovable. His desire to lose his virginity is a runner throughout the film (the image of him silhouetted against the moon, howling and wielding a weapons grade boner, is an image that has an unfortunate staying power), but Arakawa deftly makes you see both the pitiable innocent deserving of compassion and also why no woman within 100 miles would want anything to do with him.
The robot is a robot, and therefore pretty awesome.
The movie follows their fortunes, along with those of their supervisor and Knasehiro’s right hand man Mizunuma, digging for treasure over the course of several years. There’s not a lot of plot as such, and things unfold in a fairly episodic manner. Things do get a little thicker plotwise when Ukon haplessly stumbles into a clandestine relationship with Mizunuma’s daughter Taeko, who seems to take a perverse pleasure in embodying her father’s most misogynistic fears. Kei Ishibashi is great in the role, but it has to be said that the film’s treatment of most of its female characters left a pretty bad taste in my mouth.
But up until the alternately cruel and oddly hopeful final ten minutes of the film, it just ambles along, seemingly oblivious to how weird it all is.
It honestly took me awhile to adjust to the tone of Hard-Core; it was certainly a different experience than I was expecting. And those wanting something wackier would be forgiven for being disappointed. But for those willing to meet it halfway, it provides a fairly unique and oft amusing way to spend two hours.
And again… whatever else it may or may not be, it is still a movie with a robot. I do feel like I can’t possibly stress that enough.