The Chaser (2008)

Reading around the subject a little after Memories of Murder, this film cropped up due to the style of it. It wasn't the only film mentioned around it, but it was the one with the best cover/film poster. They say you shouldn't judge a book by the cover, does that hold for films.^[1]?

Based on a true story, The Chaser follows an investigation into a string of disappearances of young women - disappearances that had not been reported. The simple reason that people didn't seem to care was that they were prostitutes (or women working as prostitutes.^[2]) that had gone missing.
The pimp is an ex-police officer and he is annoyed about his girls disappearing - or running away. It is a simple employment dispute. When he notices that a few girls seem to have gone missing from the same customer, he thinks that the punter has sold them on and so he wants his money back. He is very protective of his assets although I cannot think they are thought of as people really. As he goes to find out what has happened to his girls, he flukily runs into the person and gives him a beating. Beatings seem to happen quite regularly throughout the film and it is fairly violent. After the beating, both the pimp and the punter are taken to the police where they are questioned and the punter admits to murdering a string of women - while he is in the police station, to the police officers. This should be the end of the film, but this is only about 20 minutes in - how is this one stretched out beyond that?! Quite well, actually with a few more twists and turns showing police "skill" and it helps that the pimp does not believe him. 

As entertainment, it is a pretty taut film and the fact that you know who has done what does, surprisingly, add quite a bit of tension. I guess the thing I found strangest was the fact that the police were turning a blind eye to a lot of violence and the fact that he was a pimp. I assumed this meant prostitution was legal in South Korea but apparently not [link], just widespread and accepted. If you know it is a true story, it does make some of the coincidences feel contrived and maybe added for dramatic effect but you cannot be sure. Well, I am not sure. 

The reservations I have are to do with the violence of some scenes, it is the first time I have kind of looked away from the screen in a film for about 15 years I think so it was pretty bad. Not in a blood splattered kind of way (which it was) but just an unflinching depiction in parts. Strangely, that is not consistent and some scenes were implied which struck me as a bit odd. In essence it is a pretty dark and dirty film which may not suit everyone and is not really suitable for a Sunday afternoon. I'd go as far as saying it is one of the darkest films I have seen due to the way the main characters are shown and the callousness of a lot of it - some of which may be cultural difference (as in it seems it to me but is actually not). It is also a particularly unflattering portrayal of the police involved, especially as the pimp is also an ex-police officer. This is similar to Memories of Murder in that respect. There are/were rumours of a Martin Scorsese remake [link] to presumably remove some of the cultural differences but you can never be sure how they turn out.
It was a good film, and it had a lot of buzz a few years back it seems but it definitely is not for everyone. Well not until it loses the foreign language, gets about twice as long and loses any type of moral ambiguity, anyway.

You can see a trailer for the Korean film here:

<sup>1. Actually, as film is a more visual medium, I think there is some merit in partially judging a film by its cover. And graphic novels are a type of book.↩
2. There is a very good sketch point by Stewart Lee and the point is made at enemies of reason here[link].↩</sup>

Gravity (2013)

Gravity is quite a big film, directed by Alfonso Cuaron (who did the best of the Harry Potter films) and starring big stars George Clooney and Sandra Bullock. It is also quite an intimate film. An intimate film with mass attraction - that is what Gravity is.

Normally, I would not tell people what happens too deep into a film as I feel a lot of the potential enjoyment is lost when given that information ("no spoilers" in the modern parlance). In the case of Gravity, the context is enough for the man on the Clapham omnibus^[1] to work out the film's arc. I'm not going to pretend that you don't know what will happen.

Gravity starts out in space with three astronauts talking and working. The floating camera gives the scale needed as down becomes up and left becomes right, which sets up the scene perfectly. It is definitely a cinematic type of film and worth watching at a decent cinema^[2].

The opening scene is quite long and feels unbroken (I think it is one take) which is pretty strange but I am not sure that I'd have noticed it had I not watched River the night before (I probably would have, but it may not have been quite so obvious). And that is the strange feel of the film - and a feel I liked - it is very much like a low budget film. It is true that in space, noone can hear you scream^[3] - unless you have a radio. That means that all the dialogue, and all the sound basically, is channelled through the radio and that means that it is heard a bit differently to how you'd expect - it sounds compressed, crackly and without much soundstage. That then has the effect, for me, of separating the audio from the video and the visuals are already quite distinct from each other. It is a pretty strange sensation as it has basically been deconstructed with each element - story, visuals and audio - sitting separately. This is exacerbated by the fact that the characters are obviously behind full face helmets so you cannot see them, you cannot hear them and they do not move much. In this way, it reminded me a little of some scenes in Ghost in the Shell where dialogue continues without mouth movement as it is all done through communication chips. The dialogue is sparse, the score is almost non-existent and the visuals are as static as the radio.

The deconstructed atmosphere continues throughout as the story progresses (with some phenomenal visuals). Due to an explosion of a Russian^[4] spacecraft, debris has been scattered which is massively destructive in space - the three astronauts must escape. It is a pretty basic premise with the escape played out as an adventure that sees the protagonist(s) get to an escape pod of a Chinese spacecraft via a circuitous route. There is a decent amount of tension in the escape and film is not padded out so the simple story is actually enough. In many ways, with the visuals and pace of it, it does act as an experience style film - especially in 3D. The story could easily be done as a play with changing backdrops but few visible characters which is actually quite refreshing.

Because of the nature of the film - following the survivors - it is a little bit of a character study with the main character's fears, dreams and emotions being looked at closely. In this way, it is a blockbuster arthouse film, which you will probably like and almost certainly appreciate.

^{1. This refers to a "normal, reasonable" person in a legal context and is a great phrase [link]. ↩}

^{2. I watched Gravity in the Barbican cinema which is a very nice cinema - arguably my favourite screen as it feels so ideally proportioned. I tried, and failed, my ticket booking and thought I would be unable to go but, in the evening, an hour or so before the showing, they called me and asked if I would want to go. They said it had locked up the seat but I guess other cinemas would have just released the seats. I think that is excellent service (and worthy of a footnote) and I also get to feel like I have been invited to the cinema.↩}

^{3. This is the tagline for Alien - a great film and the best of all Alien films. Better than Alien 3, which I have some history with.↩}

^{4. I think some have commented on the film being a little jingoistic and sexist with the portrayal of Sandra Bullock as a rookie waiting to be saved. I felt the Russians being to blame, and the bit in the Chinese spacecraft were a little off, but not massively and were not necessarily negative portrayals. The fact that Bullock's character was a bit rubbish at times was covered by the fact it was one of her first trips - I don't think it is fair to call the film sexist.↩}

River (2011)

Akihabara is pretty famous, I’d go as far as saying it is world famous amongst the right type of person – my kind of person. A few years ago, there was an incident there where a man drove a truck into a pedestrian crowd and then started to stab people, leaving a total of 7 dead and 10 injured. In a country with relatively low levels of murder, and violent crime, it was quite a shock and it has affected a few of the industries that rely on the area. Those industries are what I would consider Japan’s strongest pop-culture assets – games, anime and manga^[1]. Traditionally, the area grew up as a “radio” district where electrical goods, often black market, could be bought which then developed over time as Japan developed a thriving and innovative electronics industry. This developed further into an area where the videogame industry could develop and that is where I got my own personal interest from.

The film, River, tells a story starting with the Akihabara massacre as its simple exposition, but is about something more than that.

As the film starts, we trail a young woman, Hikari (played by Renbutsu Misako), for an extraordinary opening shot – tracking her walking through Akihabara, not particularly quickly, for about ten minutes. As you follow, in the handheld style, you get a sense of the place and also a strange voyeuristic curiosity. There is no further explanation through dialogue, just a few explanatory subtitles about the area. After a while, she is seemingly lost in thought, if not physically, she rests on a road barrier^[2]. Approached by a photographer (female) who requests her photo (“Not for any suspicious reason”), this is an opportunity to explain her reason for coming into this part of town. Her boyfriend had been killed as part of that Akihabara massacre, three years ago, and she had been travelling from Saitama (a district neighbouring Tokyo, to the north) over the past few weeks to try and move on by getting “closure” – something that she had not done.

The film finds her coming back and meeting different people within the area and eventually, by connecting with these people, the film is able to progress.

As a film, I found the opening strangely compelling – it is a very long shot as she walks from the station to the junction she stops at and it is done as one continuous shot. The film is fairly low budget and so it is clear that the film is being shot, as is, with one take, and no extras^[3]. It lends an immediacy to the whole thing and although the film is fairly short at 90 minutes, there are still quite a lot of long takes with little seeming to happen. I continued watching after the opening feeling aware of the documentary style and also that it really did feel as if we were just following this girl about. A lot of the film is literally following her about and it is a camera style that some may find off-putting but I really like. It, for me, evokes memories of 3rd person perspective videogames and feels very well suited to the location of the film.

There are some nice little vignettes of life in Akihabara and also in Saitama, where she meets an old friend who is excitedly getting ready for her new boyfriend – and a starring role in a porn film. I found it interesting as the friend had not seen her for three years and seemed less than concerned about that – and the fact that her boyfriend had been killed. The film ends with a visit for another character to the modern wasteland that Fukushima^[4] became – again shot as it was without any further post production or apparent staging. The destruction is breath-taking, it really is. I have seen it before, but it still hits you hard when you realise what a developed town could be turned into.

It is quite difficult to judge River as a film, it is pretty contemplative and the narrative element is not strong - but it is not really meant to be. The protagonist has locked herself away for so long, and this is just showing how she has let herself be able to move on. As a film, I enjoyed it but that may partially be a personal connection. It isn't that long anyway, so maybe you would like to watch a slow contemplative film. Or maybe not?

Here is a trailer:

^{1. There is a word in Japanese, otaku, (お宅), which is used to refer to the kinds of people that are really into anime, manga and games which is usually used, in Japan, pejoratively. Outside Japan, it seems to have been claimed as some type of badge of honour, however, to describe those that enjoy those same things. The word itself actually means “house, or home” but it is a polite form (many words in Japanese starting “o” are honorific forms) that could also refer to a family or home of people. I have heard two theories about its derivation, one is that these people spend a lot of time at home but I prefer the idea that they are held to be so socially awkward that they refer to each other very formally.↩}

^{2. I really liked this shot actually, as there was a lot of movement around her, Hikari seemed to be levitating by the side of the road. I am not sure if that image was intentional - it probably was - but that thought it may not have been is part of the charm.↩}

^{3. I was not sure that there were no extras used as I watched it, it definitely had the feel that it had just been shot on the streets without clearing it.↩}

^{4. In March 2011, a huge earthquake off the coast of Japan caused a massive, and destructive tsunami. You can read about it here [link].↩}

Toilet and Women (2012) / どんずまり便器

I've watched a fair few weird^[1] films in my time - some have been good, some have been great and some have been absolutely rubbish. As the name suggests, this is a film about a toilet and a woman. There is a bit more to it, but how much?

The film opens showing a schoolgirl and boy lain on the ground and the girl pulls her pants up. It is fair to assume they are post-coital. Rather oddly, she then asks for 300 yen (this is the equivalent of about £2, a small sum in Japan) which he thinks is weird but then gives it. Moments later, they are at it again. The girl, called Narumi (played by Nanaha) does not seem to be enjoying it and it does seem pretty transactional but then there is the tiny sum involved - so it can't really be that. A few scenes later, you can see the girl, who is the main character, talking to a doctor in a lab and then stealing a test tube from him. The contents of the test tube? Just some semen. It is a pretty weird film.

The opening of the film closes about 3 years later showing Narumi leaving prison (it is not clear what for) and returning home to her home and younger brother. Their parents have passed and she's not best pleased to see another person in their home - her brother's girlfriend. "not best pleased" is one way of putting it, but is it just a simple jealousy now that her brother has found a girlfriend?

Low budgets do not have to mean low quality and the low budget aesthetic is worn on the sleeve of this film. It does not feel like there are many things to get in the way of the story which is quite refreshing. Of course, this puts a greater burden on the quality of the story and the acting. I think it just about gets away with it.

The main actress, who has to go through a form of breakdown at parts, is compelling throughout with burning eyes but often quite a blank face. As a result, you do feel she is on the edge quite a lot and the early scenes do set up a film where you know quite bizarre things can happen. Her brother, who has a little less screen time, is also an engaging watch and so their relationship at the heart of the film is similarly engaging.

In many ways, this is classic indie fodder - dealing with things in a matter of fact way even though they are not necessarily "standard", and I can see why some have difficulty with almost normalising behaviour. I found it to be thought-provoking but not too pretentious, and providing no answers at all. That kind of film is not to everyone's taste but, as a short film, it might be worth the risk. If you can handle the indie sensibility, I'd say it is well worth searching out.

 

You can see the trailer here: 

^{1. Most of the very oddest and most interesting of these films, conceptually at least, have been Japanese, From the blancmange ending of Akira to the rent-a-family oddities of Noriko's Dinner Table, these ideas have stuck with me for longer than most..↩}

Goodbye Lenin (2003)

Ostalgie is nice word, which I'd imagine is a portmanteau^[1] of nostalgia and ost (east), which represents some of the warmth many feel towards the East German times. I remember coming across it when I went to Berlin for the first (and, presently, only) time which was embodied by the Ampelmann^[2]. phenomenon.

Good Bye Lenin falls into the category of ostalgie with its relatively warm depiction of the 1980s. Following a young man, Alex (played by Daniel Brühl, seen recently in Rush), through his memories of childhood, initially, there is a sepia tinge that is almost inherent with the voiceover and music bed. The basic theme of the story is directly about nostalgia as the story revolves around the recreation of the east for a single person - his mother.

As the world hurtled into the 1990s, unknown to many on the red side of the world, communism was close to its end. When the wall fell in Berlin, it set in motion a quite breathtakingly quick reunification process and that does not always take everyone with it... A few days before the change of the world, the main character's mother, Christiane (played by Katrin Saß) has a heart attack and falls into a coma. She does wake but, eight months later, there have been some major changes and the shock of that could be enough to spark another heart attack. Alex decides that she, although bedridden, should be brought home so that she does not discover the change and so recreates the very recent past in a single room. Once the setup is complete, it is a fairly simple romp through until the eventual discovery. It is fairly predictable but, at the same time, is so charmingly put together that you don't step out of the film and worry about predicting it. There are some other elements to the film but it is essentially all through that prism of unification.

I've not seen a huge number of German films so I was not always sure how the whole thing would work out, and whether there is a different narrative style to take in, I don't know if this is particularly typical either. There is an element of darkness in some of the humour but I'd say it was a fairly straightforward comedy. The premise is quite enjoyable and also quite interesting as it shows how quickly the change was made to happen for the people in the East with a huge cultural shift^[3]. Within a few months, the cityscape was so different that it was a large project to hide it from her - and I think the film really made me sit and wonder about that change. An amazing upheaval and it shows that it was not all good for the inhabitants. After 40 years within a given system, many in the East really lost out and the little vignettes of the older people wistfully thinking of the past are quite touching. There are some scenes where Alex persuades some other people (with capitalist cash, of course) to play along with his mother and they come and sing socialist songs for her and join in the party. Another friend goes to the trouble of mocking up news broadcasts to explain random Coca-Cola signs that have been spotted.

Apart from being a good film in its own right, there are also some great touches and nods to the differences between East and West Berlin that I found satisfying. If you think that aspect of it would be enjoyable, I can definitely recommend it but even without that, it is still a pleasant way to spend a few hours of your life.

^{1. This means words that are made up of others, my favourite is the cross-cultural word karaoke which means empty (kara - also used in karate) orchestra (oke) which is now an English word though it is from Japanese. The reason I like it is because "oke" is directly from the English word orchestra so it is a loan word returned back, with interest, to form the portmanteau.↩}

^{2. This is the symbol that was used in the traffic lights in the DDR which has gained cult status. You can see more about it here [link].↩}

^{3. There are some real question marks, even now, as to how deep that divide was and there are still massive differences between the east and west. This should be expected, of course, but it is fairly stark as reported in recent elections [link].↩}

London Transport Museum Depot (Acton)

I had already visited the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden (you can read that here) and mentioned that there was a bit too much history for one building. When I went to the LT Museum, I thought it would make sense to become a “friend” of the museum which is the membership scheme. In the past, that “friend” status gave unlimited access for a year but that is now included within the normal price so the benefits have been changed a bit. One of the benefits now is one visit to the museum depot open weekends.

The LT Museum depot is out in Acton (the closest station is Acton Town) and is open every so often for guided tours and open weekends to allow people to wander about at their leisure. The depot has a little youtube playlist here too.

As enjoyable as the museum in Covent Garden is, it is very accessible which makes it a little less technical than might be wanted by some^[1] so it is good that the depot allows you to see the real thing in a workshop style environment. It is still quite child-friendly with model trains, and children's activities.

I would imagine that the open weekends are slightly different each time with changing themes but I would think the overall layout is consistent – these are pretty big objects! There is a lot of detail and thought put into the store and you can see that the volunteers and friends are doing so with enjoyment at seeing other people enjoy it. The front of the depot has a number of little stalls selling bits and bobs from collections such as old timetables, maps and postcards. They are quite fun actually, but I can imagine it would be more fun for those that have a memory of London's history. One of the nice things walking around generally was that attack of nostalgia that others got from the objects -

“Oh wow! I remember these from...”

was probably the most common refrain. Brilliant.
There is a little section upstairs with a load of enamel signs – including some very old station ones that have changed name and a load of network maps too.

The back end of the depot has the vehicles which have to be the main reason people come and the biggest draw. There are a lot of old train carriages where you can see the old style seating and the wooden flooring. As I remember some of them from my youth, it was quite memorable as we sometimes had to get the old red trains on the Northern line. The red colour feels much more luxurious^[2] than I remember though – I think the restoration is to as new rather than my memory. The depot also has loads of old buses too which are quite nice but I don't have such strong memories of those – and this has to be seen as an exercise in nostalgia.
Outside the depot, there is also some further space where, on this occasion, there was the famous Met 353 carriage and locomotive that I rode on as part of the Tube 150 celebrations as well as a strange “SuperCar” from the Epping and Ongar Railway.

There was also a bit where they were making sales of depot items where I bought some Metropolitan train luggage racks and Bakerloo seat covers. They had other things too so it would be great if you want some memorabilia such as actual bus blind boxes and drivers' seats. In the depot itself, there is another shop which is a little like the lesser version of the museum shop for more conventional items too.

It was a pretty fun day and it was nice that it was both a little more technical and suitable for families – though the parents were having a bit too much fun to say it was just for kids.

^{1. By some, not that many, obviously. I have no doubt that an accessible museum is better overall seeing how many people go in there.↩}

^{2. To be honest, the weather was quite good and the lighting meant the paint jobs looked great – I also don't remember the buses being such a brilliant red. ↩}

London Transport Museum

150 years. And that is not even how old transport in London is, but the tube is that old - we had omnibuses and stuff beforehand. That's a lot of history and with so much of it being pioneering, you have to wonder if one building is enough ^[1].

Apart from the qualities of the underground system which are celebrated, there is a lot more to see here too.

As one of those museums in London that charges, you have to expect something a little different. The charge is not insubstantial but not too bad when you consider kids are free and that with a little extra info (and no more money), it becomes valid for a year. The museum can be found in Covent Garden in a beautiful old building that was once the Covent Garden flower market.

The museum is laid out over three floors [map] of different sizes and the best way of going through would be to start at the top and work down.

The lift acts as a time machine and you go back to 1800 with the soundtrack of some moments in time played through the lift speaker. The second floor is fairly small with some historical information about how London grew and changed before the introduction of the tube. It is pretty interesting to see the way the trains came into the then outskirts of the city and how quickly that happened. There are also some models of omnibuses including some horse manure. That is a nice attention to detail.

First floor
The first floor has a large train locomotive, the only remaining one from the 1860s, and carriage that you can go into. It is indicative of the Metropolitan line which was extended, in some way, from the original line^[2] which was built using a cut and cover method. Other lines were built using deep tunnels but this was not until later. The Metropolitan line, when extended out into the suburbs, or "Metro-land", extended the reach and scope of London hugely and there are some nice posters and suchlike about this. There is a bridge connection to a little learning area (great for kids) and the gallery space.

Gallery space
The space on offer is not huge but there is pace for quite a lot of pictures and this is changed fairly rgularly. When I last went, there was an excellent Poster Art exhibition showcasing London Transport posters over the ages but this is changed fairly regularly and is worth returning for if you have an annual ticket.

Ground floor

A transport museum needs transport, and here it is. The ground floor has more modern machines with a couple of heritage carriages (1938 stock I think) to see things as they were in 70s or 80s and a load of buses. It is nice to see them all in such an inviting environment there are displays about London design aspects along with a few train simulators to try your hand at it. It is quite a fun, tactile floor with so many things to ride and have photos taken at. One item I really like is a pixel art style (isometric too) frieze of London with lots of type of transport and stations that are similar to (but not identical to) real places. It is a lot of fun to work out what the inspiration was and I obviously have a soft spot for pixel art. There is a huge map of London onto which data flows are also projected but they can change what is projected and it could even be real time - for example air traffic over London. There is a study of London performed by UCL website [link] and I always find this kind of stuff being visualised really compelling. And, talking of compelling,there is an excellent, enlightening video running of the evolution of the tube's reach. The tube map has its own evolution from geographic to the present network style, which is a work of art in its own right via the ingenuity of Harry Beck. This map is not just how we see the tube but, increasingly, the way we understand the city and so to see the tube grow over time on the map, to see the stops and lines grow over time is fascinating. I know about the time and growth of the network but to see it visualised in this way is superb.

Shop

The visual identity of the tube and TfL is very strong, even apart from the ubiquitous nature of the infrastructure. London was^[3] blessed with a progressive transport authority, from when it started in 1933, that has given an identity to places and branding where there was no need. The uniformity of purpose behind London transport has seen, famously, an in-house typeface (New Johnston, a genuinely brilliant typeface) and a world famous logo - the roundel. Tfl know the value of this IP and you can see that in the shop by the prices. The shop is beautiful without the museum attached with the less geeky, design based stuff downstairs and models, technical books and posters upstairs. It is well worth a look with some clever designs and good uses of maps, colours, textures and typefaces. Some of the items, such as cups and plates, are useful but others, such as anything with moquette, are just something to have and enjoy. Even if you are not planning on buying anything, looking at some of the artwork in the posters upstairs and the careful design dotted around the shop is still a joy. You can see some of it online too.

Overall , the museum is worth a visit and is exceptional with children. Although there is an entry charge, it is still very busy almost all of the time so do not expect a quiet stroll through but it is designed to have a flow through and to be experienced as much as looked at. There is a feeling of fun and pride running through the whole thing and it would be a shame to waste it.

<sup>1. To be honest, it is not really but the depot is not always open and that has more things there for those of a geekier bent.↩
2. The original line was from Paddington to Farringdon and is now partially used for the Circle, Hammersmith and City lines along with the Metropolitan line.↩
3. Regrettably, the past tense is used as the recent introductions by TfL have been usually quite regressive with a design that seems more suitable for an opening photo shoot by newspapers rather than designed for the users. It is depressing, to see such a high quality institution being used for these ends but the recent cable car, bikes and fat bus provide a poor service for the mass transport that TfL should provide - at a high cost.↩</sup>