The Long Dark Marathon of the Soul 2022: Mr. Go (2013), directed by Kim Yong-hwa

 

The Trailer

and

The Appropriate Tune: 'Walk of Life' by Dire Straits

       I might have commented on this before, but it really seems like Korea and its culture has really been making inroads in the U.S. for the past couple of years. Korean films are being lauded as some of the best in the medium, Korean food is appearing more and more in restaurants and grocery stores, and Kpop groups have formed fanbases more powerful and obsessive than some religions. Even manga, the most successful of Japanese exports, has seen its dominance challenged by Korean manhwa. Even on this year’s Marathon, a Korean film is going to place higher than films from Japan, Sweden and Spain, which would be the greatest honor if the placement meant anything on this list. And to think, it’s all thanks to Gangnam Style.

       Released in 2013, Mr. Go was written and directed by Kim Yong-hwa and produced by Yoo Jin-woo through Dexter Films, based on ‘The 7th Team’ by Huh Young-man. Xu Jiao stars as Zhao Wei Wei, a fifteen year old girl and head of the Ronghua Circus who is forced to take on the gambling debt of her grandfather after he dies in an earthquake. The only thing of value she could sell is their star attraction Ling Ling, a lowland gorilla who has been trained to play baseball, and Wei Wei’s not interested in that. She might not have to sell at all however, when the Ronghua Circus is visited by Seong Chung-su (Sung Dong-il), an agent for the Korean Baseball Organization. Yes, Seong wants Ling Ling to play baseball in Korea, and the big fat contract he’s offering would be enough to pay off Wei Wei’s debts and get a new circus off the ground. Sounds too good to be true, but of course the life of a professional athlete isn’t all fun and games, especially when you’re a member of the great ape family. Will Wei Wei and Ling Ling be able to make it big in Korea and save the circus? Grab your banana and find out.

       So yeah, this is basically a Korean version of Air Bud, complete with a ‘there’s nothing in the rule book that says an X can’t play X’ scene. Fair play to Yong-hwa though, as this film is far more ambitious than Air Bud ever was. The cinematography is excellent, the CG for Ling Ling looks surprisingly good for 2013, and the film actually tries to tell a story about found family and how we treat animals. This is an actual, proper movie, rather than something you’d put on so the kids shut up for a while, which just goes to show you the power of Korean cinema.

       That being said, did this really need to be over 2 hours long? The first 50 minutes is like a film unto itself; We get the introduction, Ling Ling enters the game, gets super popular, big climactic moment where it turns out a gorilla probably shouldn’t be on a baseball field, that’s really all you need, but it just keeps going on and on. The film uses that time, sure, but given that we only really focus on the two main characters and a gorilla for 85 percent it gets a bit tiresome waiting around for their arc to kick in. King Kong was able to tell its story in less than two hours, I’m not sure why Mr. Go can't get the job done.

       Mr. Go gets a mild recommendation. It’s a slightly silly, largely wholesome film that you can watch with the kids and maybe tear up a bit, which isn’t something I can say about any other Korean movie I’ve covered on this blog. I wouldn’t call it a must-see example of cinema though, so if you’re not up for watching a gorilla play baseball at the moment then you’ll be fine leaving it on the queue for a while. Why you wouldn’t want to see that I have no idea.

The Long Dark Marathon of the Soul 2020: The Thief and the Cobbler (2013), directed by Richard Williams

 

The Trailer

and

The Appropriate Tune: "Scheherazade", by the Vienna Philharmonic

      With cinema, as with many things, we sometimes find ourselves occupied with thoughts of what could have been. Alejandro Jodorowsky’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune is perhaps the most well known, but I’d venture to say that much of its popularity lies in it being supremely unfilmable. A 24 hour runtime? A cast that included Mick Jagger, Orson Welles and Salvador Dali (before he went fascist)? Art direction by a young H.R. Giger? What a trip that would’ve been! What’s less fun, however, is those films that were being worked on, did show promise, but all of a sudden...stopped. Maybe it was money troubles, or troubles with the cast and crew, or studio interference, but whatever the reason the movie just does not see the light of day. Or if it does, because movie studios are as obsessed with money as they are with fucking up the things that make them money, it’s ultimately released as a shadow of its former self.

      We’ve covered one such case on the Marathon before in Lost Soul, the documentary of up-and-coming director Richard Stanley’s ambitious adaptation of The Island of Dr. Moreau which eventually limped into theaters as a John Frankenheimer directed trainwreck. Yet all the heartache and pain that surrounding that production almost seems like a drop in the bucket compared to that of The Thief and the Cobbler.   That whole thing took place over a year or two; Director, co-writer and animator Richard Williams (who you might recognize as the animation director for Who Framed Roger Rabbit?) began work on the film in 1964, and then spent the next 30 years of his life trying to put it together, funding it out of his own pocket and through whatever investors he was able to find. In the early 90s, after a deal with Warner Bros. fell apart, Williams was forced off of the film by the new rights holder The Completion Bond Company, who hired Fred Calvert to put a bullet in its brain, which in industry terms meant filling in the cracks with cheap animation done by freelancers and Disney style musical numbers. The distribution rights of that new film, known as The Princess and the Cobbler, were then sold to Miramax, where noted rapist Harvey Weinstein had the film cut again into Arabian Knight, which in the theaters went over about as well as farting in your girlfriend’s face when she’s trying to tell you she’s pregnant. Although it doesn’t seem like he was the easiest guy to work with in the world, it is a shame that Richard Williams went to his grave in 2019 having never been able to see his life’s work come to fruition. Which got me curious to check it out for myself.

      As I said, The Thief and the Cobbler was never actually made into a movie.. A workprint was made around 1992, which is where the material for Princess and the Cobbler and Arabian Knight came from, but many scenes had yet to be animated and overall it was not in a state fit to be called a movie. Because of that, and because I had no interest in covering those other films, I decided instead to take a look at the ‘Recobbled Cut’, a project headed by Garrett Gilchrist which seeks to take as much of what was The Thief and the Cobbler as possible, the completed animation, animatics, still pictures and what have you, and fashion it into a workable narrative. It’s not a perfect solution obviously, a good portion of this animated movie isn’t even animated, but as far as I know it’s as close to Richard Williams’ original vision as we’re going to get. Recobbled Cut Mark 4 I believe is what it goes under, shouldn’t be all that hard to find. Now let’s get into it.

      In a world that is not unlike a dream, there is a golden land. In that land is a magnificent golden city, and in that city is a tall golden minaret, and at the very top of that minaret there are three golden balls. Legend goes that as long as those balls are on the minaret peace and prosperity will reign, but should they ever be removed, then death and destruction is sure to follow. However, legend also states that should this ever occur, then the simplest soul will save the day. One day, an encounter with a wily Thief ends up putting humble cobbler Tack on the shit-list of the crooked grand vizier Zigzag. Arrested and sent to the palace for punishment, Tack instead finds himself in the good graces of the beautiful Princess Yum-Yum, while the Thief catches a glimpse of the beautiful golden balls. While the two youngsters try their hand at courtship, Zigzag schemes a way to take control of the city, and the Thief plies his trade, none in the city realize the danger that looms on the horizon. One Eye, the insatiable warlord, has his sight set on ransacking the city, and he’s got about 2,000 men ready to help him do it. Disparate people with disparate aims, and yet as time goes on it seems inevitable that these paths will meet. How much stock can you put in legends? How drunk do you have to be to name your daughter Yum-Yum? And how many stories set in a fictional Middle Eastern kingdom that deals with a commoner falling in love with a princess and opposing an evil grand vizier with a bird companion whose plan involves marrying the princess against her will do we really need anyway?

      As you might expect from an animated film that was worked on for 3 decades, at its best The Thief and the Cobbler is stunning. Not only is the animation as smooth as anything you’d seen in a Disney film, incorporating an eclectic range of character designs from the simple to the grotesque, but the art, matte paintings and so on, are insane. Not only is it incredibly detailed (replicating classical Persian artwork), but how it’s used is unlike anything I’ve ever seen attempted in animation before, at least in the West. There’s a scene where Tack is chasing after the Thief in this black and white section of the castle and it might be the first time I ever felt dizzy while watching a movie, because it feels like a kaleidoscope in fast forward. The Thief and the Cobbler’s sense of scale is reminiscent of Sun Wukong on the Buddha’s palm, and I can’t think of many animated films outside of Akira and Ghibli’s best that went so far so well. It also does a great job of highlighting how it never got finished; With how much work it takes to make hand drawn animation in general much less shit this good, combined with what was supposedly a haphazard working environment, I doubt there’s many studios out there that would be willing to throw down the cash to keep the lights on. 

      The story I could also see being an issue with money hungry studio execs, because it’s not quite your standardized Hollywood fare. The characters our film are named after are almost totally silent, and while there is technically ‘action’ most of it, in fact most of the plot is driven by the extreme and often implausible whims of fate, much in the same way as a Wile E. Coyote or Pink Panther cartoon. Which can be entertaining, combined with the sense of scale you can get some truly amazing scenes of utter chaos, but it does feel at times that the movie is focused too strictly on Thief getting into slapstick situations at the expense of character development. Who cares about who Tack is as a person? Who cares about building that relationship between Tack and Yum-Yum? No matter what anybody does the world seems set on pushing towards a conclusion so I guess it doesn’t matter, basically. Makes sense for a dark comedy like Hitchhiker’s Guide, but not for a more upbeat story like it appears Thief and the Cobbler was meant to be.

      Also this is a personal thing, in this completely objective film review, but I do not agree with the choice of Sara Crowe as Princess Yum-Yum (listed as Hilary Pitchard in the credits. The rest of the cast ranges from okay to good, with the obvious highlight being Vincent Prince as Zigzag, but Yum-Yum’s voice reminds me less of a princess and more of Harley Quinn. Too high-pitched for my tastes, and since she doesn’t really get to do much in the movie she never really has time to ingratiate herself with the audience. If this were Dragon’s Lair or something where it’s full on farce it’d work, but I’m just not feeling it. I also don’t know if Bobbi Page or Jennifer Beals, the voices for the AFP and Miramax cuts respectively, were any better, I just know that this Yum-Yum wasn’t doing it for me.

      Richard Williams died having never finished his most ambitious project, and we will all die having never seen it. Still, even Williams himself acknowledged that it was fan edits like these that kept the spirit of the movie alive, so I think I can give the Recobbled Cut of The Thief and the Cobbler. If you consider yourself even a casual fan of animation I think you owe it to yourself to check it out this Halloween. If not for the story it tries to tell, then in recognition of the blood, sweat and tears that Richard Williams and dozens of others shed to try and make it happen, and to what might have been.

The Long Dark Marathon of the Soul 2019: Confusion Na Wa (2013), directed by Kenneth Gyang

The Trailer

and

The Appropriate Tune: "Dirty Money", by Antibalas

       Although there have been plenty of films relating to Africa, referencing Africa, it seems like only recently that I’ve started seeing an influx of films from Africa, made by Africans. ‘Nollywood’ I think it’s labeled on netflix, although if that’s in reference to Hollywood or Bollywood I’m not sure (depends on the amount of musical numbers I guess). I don’t know why they seemed to have suddenly appeared, perhaps a subtle sign to an almost inevitable proxy war between the U.S. and China over political and economic influence in Africa, or maybe someone just got a good deal on some streaming rights. Either way the films are here, and as it was with The Precinct and Azerbaijan, I’m interested in seeing how the people of Africa approach the medium of film. So I picked one to cover for the Marathon and watched it, and now you’re reading the ‘review’ I wrote for it. Crazy how these kinds of things happen huh?

       Released in 2012 by Cinema Kpatakpata and winner of numerous film awards, including Best Film by both the Africa Movie Academy Awards and the Best of Nollywood Awards, Confusion Na Wa is Kenneth Gyang’s sophomore film, following Blood and Henna the year before. Set in an unnamed city in Nigeria, Confusion presents us with a large cast of characters, each with their own set of problems: Emeka the well-off philanderer, Bello the timid office worker, Kola, the son of an overbearing and conservative newspaper owner, and so on and on. All seemingly unrelated, yet when Emeka’s phone, full of salacious texts from his mistress, is stolen by an easy-going thief named Charles, they find themselves being drawn together, and a web forged of connections slowly reveals itself. Which wouldn’t be too bad except someone is definitely getting a bullet in the head, and I think everyone agrees that’s not a good time.

       That end bit makes it sound like some kind of thriller, but Confusion Na Wa is actually a comedy, mainly in the existential sense, although there are a couple of good gags near the end. The ‘confusion’ that the title refers to is of people confronting the fact that ‘things just happen’. ‘Bad things happen to good people’ is the staple of gallows humor, and yet in Confusion Na Wa even the answer to what is ‘good’ has been lost in the shuffle of a seemingly chaotic world, where people and events are constantly and continuously shaped by factors that we have little to no control over. It’s a direction that might be overplayed, especially these days, but Gyang pulls off the ever-increasing coincidences well. 

       Similar to a film like Midnight Cowboy or The Bicycle Thieves, Confusion Na Wa is a film as well as a living time capsule of its setting. I’ve never been to Nigeria myself and I doubt I’ll ever have the chance to go, but when I watch this film, I feel as if I’ve caught a glimpse of its essence. What separation, if any, Gyang tries to put up between the film and the real world is struck down by the sheer noise of life that permeates throughout, the near constant sounds of bustling traffic for example. I feel as if I could close my eyes and feel the hot sun on my face and smell the aromas of car exhaust and nearby street vendors. I don’t know how much of it was intentional and how much was just the reality of filmmaking in Nigeria, but it’s very naturalistic feel that helps bring the audience into the correct state of mind. Which might sound like I’m blowing smoke up Kenneth Gyang’s ass, but coming from a place with a little wear and tear itself it’s nice to see a city that feels lived in, in a manner of speaking.

        That’s also why I’m giving Confusion Na Wa a pass on things like their minor characters being a bit wooden, a builder uses the tools he has on hand. However one thing that threw me through a loop was the use of music stings. Not the songs, which were damn good, but these little musical cues that pop up at multiple points in the film. One example comes to mind during a scene where Emeka gets a call from his wife when he’s with his mistress. During the conversation, suddenly this keening, dramatic bit of piano swells up out of nowhere, as if he were cradling her dying body rather than weaseling out of a conversation, and then just as soon leaves. It comes completely out of left field and feels so overwrought compared to the energy of what’s actually taking place on screen that the disconnect is palpable. This happens several times over the course of the film, with different music even, and every time it makes a scene that would be perfectly fine and properly dramatic with music at all into a farce. This being a comedy and the first of Kenneth Gyang’s films that I’ve seen I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and say it was intentional, because otherwise it’s a bizarrely nonsensical choice. The kind of undercutting yourself you’d see in Garth Mahrengi’s Darkplace. 

       Although Confusion Na Wa is rough around the edges, it shows that Nigeria is easily operating artistically on the same level as the rest of the world, so it gets the recommendation. Now all they need to do is crank out some trashy budget genre films, and they’ll have a place on the Marathon for a long time to come. 

The Long Dark Marathon of the Soul 2015: Pacific Rim (2013), directed by Guillermo del Toro

The Trailer

and

The Appropriate Tune: "Giant Robot Birdhead", by The Aquabats!

     Robots. Ever since mankind first conceived of the world-changing potential that machinery could bring to our lives, and the first time that said conception took the form of mechanical or artificial beings, robots have been firmly rooted in our collective pop culture consciousness. Whether we’re talking about Isaac Asimov’s infamous 3 Laws of Robotics, Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, C-3PO and R2D2 from Star Wars or even killer machines like Ultron or the Terminator, we love robots. They’re a reflection of ourselves after all, a fledgling race that we created, just as some people believe we were created. We are their God, and whether we treat them like slaves or otherwise, tells us much about how we treat ourselves and the world around. Is it any surprise there are so many stories about killer robots?

     Nowhere else in the world is man’s love of robots more evident than in Japan, where the sci-fi subgenre of mecha (giant robots that are piloted or otherwise controlled by humans) has become synonymous with pop culture in the country. Neon Genesis Evangelion, Gundam, Macross, Voltron, every sentai team (the basis for Power Rangers in the U.S.), Zoids, hell even Spider-Man had a giant robot when he was imported to Japan. They have that shit down on lock, as much as the U.S. does superheroes and Scandinavia barren landscapes. You can’t beat them, they’re the best there is.

     So it was in 2013 when Guillermo del Toro, director of Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy and others, decided to craft his love letter to giant creatures of all kinds with his film Pacific Rim. In the not too distant future, an interdimensional breach causes the arrival of giant monsters, or kaiju, which begin to destroy civilization as we know. As military forces reveal themselves woefully inadequate for defense, the governments of the world come together to create a new, more powerful weapon: Jaegers, gigantic robotic death machines that are controlled by teams of pilots sharing a mental link. For a while, the Jaegers are a terrific success, and humanity breathes a sigh of relief that they get to live again. But as the kaiju get stronger, the supply of Jaegers and able pilots gets smaller and smaller. With only four Jaegers left in the world and the strongest monsters yet to come, it’s about time for Earth to take the fight to the kaiju.

     Pacific Rim doesn’t really do anything that we haven’t seen before. All the characters are archetypes (the stern general with a heart of gold, the dick, the female love interest), the story goes through the same beats we’ve all seen hundreds of times, and you could probably guess the ending about 30 minutes. In that regard, the movie is painfully average, and in this film’s two hours I had trouble even remembering the protagonist’s name much less really care about an arc I’ve seen played out before. Even the inclusion of Idris Elba and Charlie Day doesn’t bring that much to the table, just a competently performed version of that type of character.

     What Pacific Rim gets right, and what the latest Godzilla failed to grasp is the action. Del Toro is a very visual director, especially when he has the budget for it, and since he didn’t have to worry about crafting much of a story, it left him plenty of time to focus on the special effects. To this film’s benefit, because this movie looks awesome. The pilot suits, the Jaeger designs, the bizarre Kaijus (not nearly as diverse as Toho’s monster gallery, but serviceable), the comic book style lighting, it all looks and sounds exactly as it should. When they get to the fighting (yes, a giant monster movie with giant monster fights, instead of Bryan Cranston’s wooden plank of a son), the movements of the Jaegers and the Kaiju have just enough weight to make them really seem like beings of immense size without sacrificing speed or the ability to throw bastards 10 football fields away. It’s fun and exciting, and luckily enough del Toro knows enough to give us plenty of it.

     Maybe there’s nothing very horrific about it, but Pacific Rim is a popcorn movie done right, and there are plenty who have gotten it wrong. If you’re taking a break from the scares this Halloween, try this one on for size.