For the closing night film, director Takashi Yamazaki unveiled the first installment of the live-action adaptation of Hitoshi Awaaki’s hit manga series Parasyte. Balancing gory violence with a surprisingly heartfelt origin story and just the right amount of comic relief, the film is sure to win over new fans as well as please manga readers.
The Lesson, from newcomers Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov, begins with a simple exercise: an English teacher in a small Bulgarian school giving her class the chance to anonymously return money stolen from one of the students. Yet the first couple attempts yield neither confession nor cash. From there the film spirals into an exploration of the moral codes we have for ourselves and others, and the detrimental effects of a society bound by capitalism.
In Colombia’s urban jungle Santiago de Cali, whose barrios buzz with optimism for an upcoming election and a desire to express unity with the rest of the world, two friends from very different backgrounds are trying to get the message out the only way that they know how: through street art. Like a love letter to his hometown, Oscar Ruiz Navia’s second feature, Los Hongos, provides a snapshot of present-day Colombia, exploring issues of religion, love, art and class through the unclouded eyes of the young protagonists.
Not to be confused with the 1971 classic The French Connection starring Gene Hackman, director Cedric Jimenez’s second feature The Connection essentially tells the European side of events of the infamous drug operation. Academy Award-winner Jean Dujardin leads a strong cast as Pierre Michel, a magistrate stationed in Marseille, determined to cut off the supply chain but unaware of how high up corruption from the local Corsican mob has spread up the political food chain.
Female director Kulikar Sotho’s debut features the vibrant story of an unlikely first-time director, the rebellious Sophoun (Ma Rynet), who flees her unstable home in Pnom Penh and impending arranged marriage, and takes refuge in a decrepit movie theater where she stumbles upon a lost film from the pre-Khmer Rouge era. What follows is a resonating testament to the power of cinema, the relationship between subjectivity and history, and how society struggles to deal with the ghosts of its past.
The Days Come, a quirky blend of documentary footage, fiction and mid-life crisis, is a fitting way to introduce Romain Goupil (reknowned filmmaker, vocal political activist and child of ’68 in his native France) to new audiences. Delightfully absurd and occasionally self-indulgent, Goupil’s film, in which he serves as director and protagonist (playing himself), is a meta-exploration of the power of the camera to turn the mundane into a spectacle.
Less coming of age or coming out story as it is a stark portrait of isolation, Takashi Nishihara’s microbudget Starting Over follows nineteen year-old Nana (Mika Akizuki) in her struggle to survive in a society that has stacked the odds against her. Shot independently, guerilla-style, the resulting film is compelling albeit slightly rough around the edges.
Loosely inspired by an obscure series of Marvel comics, Disney’s Big Hero 6 is here to firmly shut the door on Let It Go’s last dying breath with an unlikely origin story that merges the emotional core we’ve come to expect from the House of Mouse, with a splashy, manga-like aesthetic and millenial sensibility. From the vibrant cosmopolitan mash-up San Fransokyo, where the story takes place, to the technologic conundrum of research development versus sale for immediate gain that protagonist Hiro (Ryan Potter) faces, Big Hero 6 weaves together a compelling futuristic adventure comedy with surprising deftness.