Trailer Tuesday (09-07-10)

As promised, we have some more trailers for films that will screen at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), which kicks off Sept. 9th and goes thru the 19th. This week, the emphasis is on the international. There’s also a look at a new documentary coming out this fall as well as trailer for a 2011 film that can unofficially be considered the second “Grindhouse” trailer that is coming to life as a feature-length film.

(Warning: Some of these are NSFW)…. 

  

I Saw the Devil

From Korean master Kim Jee-woon comes a hard-boiled thriller that tells a tale of bloody vengeance against a dangerous psychopath who has committed a gruesome series of murders.When a special agent’s (Lee Byung-hun) fiancée is murdered by a serial killer (Choi Min-sik), he must become a monster in turn to avenge her death. Looks intense and bloody.

 

 

The Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen

In 1920s Shanghai, hero Chen Zhen (Donnie Yen) single-handedly avenged his mentor‟s death by killing all the Japanese at a dojo in Hongkou, only to be showered with bullets while making his legendary flying kick. Now, years later, Chen Zhen, who is believed dead, returns in disguise to infiltrate a criminal empire and to dismantle the evil collusion that plagues the country. The film is a continuation of the 1995 television series Fist of Fury, with Yen reprising a role made famous by Bruce Lee in the 1972 film “Fist of Fury”. The film is set seven years after the events of the series. I know little about the series but the character’s disguise resembles both The Green Hornet and Kato, plus I like the time period.

 

 

That Girl in Yellow Boots

From Indian director Anurag Kashyap (“Black Friday”) comes the story of Ruth, a young woman searching for her father; a man she hardly knew but cannot forget. Desperation drives her to work without a permit as a massage parlour in Mumbai. Torn between several schisms, Mumbai becomes the backdrop for Ruth’s quest as she struggles to find her independence and space even as she is sucked deeper into the labyrinthine politics of the city’s underbelly.

 

  

Miral

From Julian Shnabel, the director of “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” and “Before Night Falls” comes a visceral, first-person diary of a young girl growing up in East Jerusalem as she confronts the effects of occupation and war in every corner of her life. Schnabel pieces together momentary fragments of Miral’s world….how she was formed, who influenced her, all that she experiences in her tumultuous early years….to create a raw, moving, poetic portrait of a woman whose small, personal story is inextricably woven into the bigger history unfolding all around her. “Slumdog Millionaire” actress Frieda Pinto stars as the title character which has me interesting right there, not to mention the Tom Waits tune.

 

 

Tama Drewe

Based on Posy Simmonds beloved weekly comic strip and directed by Stephen Frears (“High Fidelity” and “The Queen”), comes the story of Tamara Drewe, who returns to the village of her youth. In doing so, life for the locals is thrown upside down. Once an ugly duckling, she has been transformed and is now a minor celebrity. As infatuations, jealousies, love affairs and career ambitions collide among the inhabitants of the neighbouring farmsteads, Tamara sets a contemporary comedy of manners into play.

 

 

Freakonomics

The best-selling book by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner is an economist’s look at trends in our society and explaining them in unexpected ways. For example, Levitt looks at various topics like the economics of drug dealing, to a controversial theory that the legalization of abortion resulted in a lower crime rate. The documentary is a collaboration of notable documentary directors including Alex Gibney (“Taxi to the Dark Side”), Morgan Spurlock (“Super Size Me”), Eugene Jarecki (“Why We Fight”), Seth Gordon (“The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters”), and directing duo, Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing (“Jesus Camp”). The film closed out last Spring’s Tribeca Film Festival in New York City and should be released in November of this year.

 

 

Hobo with a Shotgun

This unrated and strongly work-unfriendly first-look at the latest faux trailer to be made into a feature (“Machete” was the first) stars the great Rutger Hauer (“Blade Runner” and “The Hitcher”) as a homeless man wielding a shotgun. There’s an appropriately unsettling and gritty tone that screams B-movie indulgence. If the film gives enough screen time to Hauer, that’s really all I care about. It’s the first feature film from director and co-writer Jason Eisener, who brings the idea that come out of a contest 2007 SXSW that asked filmmakers to submit faux trailers akin to the ones attached to “Grindhouse”. Just hearing that creepy monologue from Hauer makes me think of  “attack