The October 1st deadline for all countries wanting into the Academy Award's foreign-language film category has come and gone. According to IndieWIRE [1], The United Kingdom, which has predominantly submitted Welsh films over the years (if submitting at all), has surprisingly chosen the documentary Afghan Star as its 2009 submission for the Academy Awards. The last time the country received a nomination in this category was in 1999, when Paul Morrison's Welsh and Yiddish Solomon and Gaenor lost out to Pedro Almodovar's All About My Mother. Synopsis After 30 years of war and Taliban rule, pop Idol has come to Afghanistan. Millions are watching the TV series 'Afghan Star' and voting for their favorite singers by mobile phone. For many this is their first encounter with democracy. This timely film follows the dramatic stories of four contestants as they risk all to become the nation's favorite singer. But will they...
- 10/8/2009
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
A megahit on its home turf and a certain lure for stateside fans of Asian cinema, this spinoff of Japan's blockbuster "Bayside Shakedown" franchise doesn't require familiarity with the preceding films or the Fuji TV series that spawned them. But the well-crafted cop drama, which had its North American premiere at AFI Fest, loses a certain cultural impact in translation. The often unwieldy plot isn't compelling enough, and the acting is sometimes too broad to ignite serious crossover interest, but the film is nonetheless slickly entertaining and offers more than a few potent scenes to savor.
Writer-director Ryoichi Kimizuka sees his central character, chief inspector Shinji Muroi (Toshiro Yanagiba), as a latter-day samurai -- a stoic, taciturn defender of honor in the midst of corruption, hypocrisy and deceit. A federal cop on loan to Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department, he gets caught in the political crossfire between the two organizations when he reopens a high-profile murder case. The feds would have preferred to let things rest, with the killing pinned on an MPD officer, in turn killing the political aspirations of the Metro chief. But soon Muroi is being undermined by Metro bureaucrats too.
After the prime-suspect policeman flees an interrogation and dies in a traffic accident, his mother sues the police, and Muroi is arrested for obstruction of justice. Defending him is an inexperienced but gutsy young attorney, Kumiko Obara (Rena Tanaka), who happens to hate cops for reasons that are revealed gradually. Her opposition is Haijima (Tomohito Yashima), a diminutive hotshot who travels with an entourage and acts like an impertinent brat while wielding the law as a weapon. As the suits plot their self-protective maneuvers, the city's undercover beat cops keep the case alive, conducting impromptu briefings that recall the police procedural scenes of Kurosawa's "High and Low".
The story's frequent rewinds to fill in backstory sap it of energy, but the protagonist's quiet present-day exchanges are affecting, and there's a poignant dynamic between the weathered cop and his green attorney. Striking widescreen compositions and evocative use of wind heighten the atmospherics.
Writer-director Ryoichi Kimizuka sees his central character, chief inspector Shinji Muroi (Toshiro Yanagiba), as a latter-day samurai -- a stoic, taciturn defender of honor in the midst of corruption, hypocrisy and deceit. A federal cop on loan to Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department, he gets caught in the political crossfire between the two organizations when he reopens a high-profile murder case. The feds would have preferred to let things rest, with the killing pinned on an MPD officer, in turn killing the political aspirations of the Metro chief. But soon Muroi is being undermined by Metro bureaucrats too.
After the prime-suspect policeman flees an interrogation and dies in a traffic accident, his mother sues the police, and Muroi is arrested for obstruction of justice. Defending him is an inexperienced but gutsy young attorney, Kumiko Obara (Rena Tanaka), who happens to hate cops for reasons that are revealed gradually. Her opposition is Haijima (Tomohito Yashima), a diminutive hotshot who travels with an entourage and acts like an impertinent brat while wielding the law as a weapon. As the suits plot their self-protective maneuvers, the city's undercover beat cops keep the case alive, conducting impromptu briefings that recall the police procedural scenes of Kurosawa's "High and Low".
The story's frequent rewinds to fill in backstory sap it of energy, but the protagonist's quiet present-day exchanges are affecting, and there's a poignant dynamic between the weathered cop and his green attorney. Striking widescreen compositions and evocative use of wind heighten the atmospherics.
- 11/8/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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