Category Archives: Coverage

From Fantasia 2024: “Kizumonogatari -Koyomi Vamp”

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Recently I had the chance to see “Kizumonogatari -Koyomi Vamp” via Fantasia 2024. The name rang a bell, but I knew nothing about the franchise that it’s part of. As an experiment, being this project a prequel, I decided to jump in and see if a total newbie could get hooked on this universe.

Wow, what a trip this was…

As for how this film goes, it is the story of a student called Koyomi Aragi, who one day while going back home, finds a trail of blood on the stairs to the subway platform. Following the trail, he finds a beautiful lady vampire called Kiss-shot Acerola-orion Heart-under-blade. To his horror, he discovers that she is horribly mutilated after being attacked by 3 vampire hunters. Against all common sense, Aragi takes pity on her and lets her drink his blood so the vampire can regenerate.

The next day, he finds himself not dead, as expected, but turned into a semi-vampire, with some of the powers and weakness that comes with that according to the lore.

Things get tricky when he realizes that Kiss-shot is, at the moment, with the appearance of a young girl and not that powerful, since she needs more blood to fully regenerate. As she has made Aragi her minion, he is now bound with the mission of fighting the 3 Vampire hunters and recovering the body parts they took from Kiss-shot.

Ok, this movie has a LOT to unpack.

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From Fantasia 2024: «Dirty Bad Wrong»

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This year at Fantasia 2024, I had the chance to see some short films, and although I could not check as much as I wanted to, I was lucky that the ones I saw were very good.

And the short “Dirty Bad Wrong” directed by Erica Orofino, was not only good, but a great example of “Less is more”.

From the official synopsis:

Desperate to keep her promise to host the best superhero party for her 6 year old, young mother Sid, a sex worker, takes extreme measures and books a last-minute client with a dark fetish.

We don’t get nothing too graphic or extreme.. On the screen. However I’m sure in our minds, we are filling the gaps, and we know that whatever happened to be that client’s fetish was very gruesome. (there are hints, and they are not that hidden)

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From Fantasia 2024: «A Samurai In Time»

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In the final times of the Edo period, Shinzaemon Kosaka, a Samurai member of the Azu clan, starts a duel to the death with rival clan member Kyochiro Kazami. Before either of them can land the final blow on his opponent, an immensely powerful thunder is heard above them. Shinzaemon then suddenly wakes up in a remote village, in plain daylight, with his enemy nowhere to be found.

After seeing some ruffians trying to attack a defenseless woman, Shinzaemon tries to assist a samurai who appears to defend her, and here is where Shizaemon receives the first of many surprises of the day: He is now in modern time Kyoto. He is in the middle of a filming set, and what he just witnessed is a Jidaigeki (A period drama) being filmed. After being mistaken for an extra in the film production, our protagonist is kicked out of the set, thrown into a world he cannot recognize, and this is where the real fun (for us) begins.

This is the plot of “A Samurai in Time”, a film written and directed by Junichi Yasuda, which was presented in Fantasia 2024 yesterday. This film is not a regular “fish out the water” comedy involving time travel, but is an excellent homage to the Jidaigeki genre, and also has a deep emotional punch that I was not expecting. Continue reading →

From Fantasia 2024: «Heavens : The Boy And His Robot»

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Set in a world where humanity managed to explore the universe for more resources and later got into an interplanetary war with Mars, Kai, a boy that lost his father to the war, grows up and joins the Mecha Corps Academy. His desire of defending his planet, and finding his mother that has been lost in space for many years, is what keeps him moving forward despite having a very weak constitution and having to work way more than the rest of his teammates. When he is assigned his own Mecha, the two start to form a bond that makes them strong enough not only to survive the training, but also the many challenges they will need to overcome in order to survive this war.

That is the premise of “Heavens: The Boy And His Robot”, the new film by writer/director Rich Ho, who spent more than a decade working on this project, and was presented in Fantasia 2024 last night.

This movie left me with mixed feelings, and I will try my best to explain why:

The movie looks amazing, the special effects are great and the fights (both in the sky and on the ground) are breathtaking, not to mention that they are all in plain daylight and you can see everything that is going on with a lot of details.

This is in part the cause of my mixed feelings. The creator of this project, Rich Ho (Who writes, directs, composes the music, and also takes part in the special effects) spent years trying to push the technology to create the special effects for this film, and you can see the result is nothing short of amazing. And, just for that, the guy has all my respect.

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From Fantasia 2024 : «This Man»

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A menace from beyond the realm of the living seems to be behind the grizzly murders that are increasingly taking place in several places in Japan. A couple of detectives trying to stop this apparent epidemic started to note a pattern: most of the victims were under psychological care, and before their demise, they were claiming to have recurring nightmares where a very particular-looking man was trying to kill them.

A happy couple that feels blessed with their daughter and a life free of worries, have their world shaken when close friends of the mother share that they also have recently seen in their dreams “This Man” (as has been described in the media), and fear that their death is approaching. Is this a case of mass hysteria, or is this an omen that humanity itself has its days numbered?

I was very interested in the plot of “This Man”, the new film from Tomojiro Amano that was screened in Fantasia 2024. I was glad that I was not disappointed. While I felt that this production did not have a big budget behind it, the story was very well developed and made very good use of the special effects with the resources available.

The characters were very likable and therefore you worry a lot when you see the misfortune starts to fall on them. (Although at the beginning of the film, I felt I was about to have a diabetic coma due to so much sweetness in the marriage mentioned before). Even when the film is not gory or very graphic, some moments might make you feel uneasy and the film surprises you by showing you that anybody can die in this story. Films like these, are the ones I enjoy the most. Continue reading →

From Fantasia 2024 : «Hell Is a Teenage Girl»

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I rarely review shorts (I just mostly recommend them). However, this Fantasia 2024, I saw several synopses that got my interest and made me think: “Why the hell not??” The first one to draw blood is “Hell is a Teenage Girl”, written and directed by Stephen Sawchuk.

I want to cut to the chase, so let me copy/paste the official synopsis and jump to the best stuff!

‘HELL IS A TEENAGE GIRL’ OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS:
 Every Halloween, the small town of Springboro is terrorized by its resident SLASHER – a masked serial killer who targets sinful teenagers that break ‘The Rules of Horror’ – don’t drink, don’t do drugs, and don’t have sex! At the center of it all is Parker Campbell, the Slasher’s estranged biological daughter. In an attempt to clear her name and make things right with the town, Parker sets out on a life-or-death mission in hopes of ending his reign of terror once and for all…

Ok,  

Let’s dig in!

I really liked this short. And I was surprised that it went for a serious route, when I am sure that other directors would take a comedic route, if not plain parody.  This is a straight-up Slasher, and a good one at that!

Being only 15 minutes, it is understandable that a lot of background information could not be explained, but I think Stephen Sawchuk gave us all the information that we needed to understand Parker and her struggles. She is very likable, and it was cool to see that even when her life is a social living hell, she is not bitter at the whole world and nor wants to see it burn. 

If anything, she wants to see only her father burn. 

I think this could be expanded into a full feature, but it would need a lot of caution to not pad the plot with useless fillers or exposition. It would be tricky, but I am sure that we could see some moments of the original massacre that started the whole thing, without stealing the spotlight from Parker’s story.  Continue reading →

From Fantasia 2024: «The Beast Within»

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After living with her family for some time in the English wilderness in a fortified house, a young girl called Willow starts noticing that her parents start to take frequent trips into an ancient forest, just before sundown.

Since she notices that these trips are done when the nights will have a full moon, Willow starts to wonder what kind of secret her parents might be hiding. She is more curious even when she sees that only her mother comes back, and is only on the day after, when her father is brought back from the forest, and always looking bruised and in pain.

One of those nights, Willow disobeys the rules and follows her parents into the forest, witnessing something in a dungeon that shocks her. From that night on, the girl is victim of horrible nightmares, now fearing for her life and her mother’s.

This is the premise of “The Beast Within”, the tale of a family coping with a curse that has been passed from one generation to another, constantly threatening to turn a loving, dedicated father into a monster focused only into destroy them.

This film directed by Alexander J. Farrell was presented last night in Fantasia 2024, and will also be released on theaters on Friday July 26th. Continue reading →

From Fantasia 2024: «Dark Match»

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Playing at Fantasia 2024, we got to see “Dark Match”, the new film from Lowell Dean, the director and writer of “WolfCop” and its sequel “Another WolfCop”. This time, Dean drops the fur and the fangs to tell the story of a small-time wrestling company that accepts a well-paying gig in a backwoods town.

It is not until the first match has started when the wrestlers realize a little too late that the crowd gathered around the ring are not there just for the show, but for something more sinister. Something that will require 5 fights in very specific scenarios, all of them requiring something more than just sweat and tears.

All this is happening under the watch of a very charismatic leader, who seems to have a past with this particular wrestling company, and a debt to collect.

I am not a big fan of wrestling, but Dark Match was a winner in my book. Although some people might say it is too violent, I’d say it was never too much. There is some blood and some gore (and breasts!) but it never goes for shock value, nor tries to offend. It just does what it needs to tell the story, and does a great job at it. It’s very entertaining and even better, It has great performances, both inside and outside the ring.

I loved the characters and their wrestling personas. While this could be the story of Miss Behave, a lady who has played “the heel” for several years and still waiting for a shot at the championship title, I felt that the plot makes several characters have their moments and thus makes the whole story work a lot better than if it was only focused on one character. Continue reading →

From Fantasia 2024: “Brave Citizen”

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The problem with bullying in schools is something that students in several countries can relate to, so it is no wonder that it has been a theme for a lot of films, series, and books, and is great to see the stories where the victims of the abuse manage to get justice or even revenge from the tormentors.

What makes “Brave Citizen” stand out from other works is that it manages to present the bullying problem in schools (and in the streets, even) in its raw, horrible form while balancing the story with some comedy, but it never takes away the seriousness of the issue. The film also never falls into extreme graphic violence when the tables are turned just to give us some moments of unhealthy satisfaction (which is something more common in horror movies), and thanks to Fantasia 2024, we got a chance to see it!

In the new film from director Park Jin-pyo, “Brave Citizen” based on the Webtoon created by Kim Junghyun, we meet So Su-Min, a temporary teacher who hopes to get a full position in a very prestigious college. Sadly, the safe and respectful environment that the college loves to boast about in the media is nothing but a concealed lie, and the young teacher will soon have to choose between turning a blind eye to the very violent acts committed by Han Su-Kan toward some of the students, or report him to the authorities and put in risk not only her teaching career but also her life.

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The First trailer for «Black Eyed Susan» #Fantasia2024

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While we are gearing up for the Fantasia International Film Festival, we got news and a look at the first trailer for Scooter McCrae’s dark sci-fi drama BLACK EYED SUSAN, which will have its World Premiere in Fantasia 2024 on August 2nd.
Let’s tale a look!

Here is the official information we got so far…

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