Toronto International Film Festival online film list (1 Viewer)

[Brian Thibodeau]

I'd be the first to admit a whole schedule of HK Action filcks would be a bit much, but I don't recall Geddes actually filling a schedule with them. It must be said, though, that his love for the form comes from working as the projectionist at the Golden Harvest cinema on Spadina before it closed and running the Kung Fu Friday's shows at The Royal Cinema out in Toronto's Little Italy district for the past several years, so perhaps he realized he needed to lean way from so much Asian - not just Hong Kong - material to please the masses. Problem is, the films have become even more of a mixed bag in terms of audience response.

Personally, I still think the Asian filmmakers in general, and not just those from Hong Kong, are making the most inventive, resourceful, Midnight Madness-worthy films of any culture. But as I said in my previous post, I do have a bias myself: were I the programmer at Midnight Madness, I'd probably stuff at least half the schedule with films from all over Asia (goodness knows, I can think of several I've seen this year that would more than qualify for inclusion). Say what you will about RAHTREE, and I might even be inclined to agree with you had I seen it on video rather than in a theatreful of like-minded people, but that thing moved, man. Barely a dull moment, plenty of colourful character actors instead of the usual cast of prettyboys and pop tarts Thai filmmakers tend to rely on, and an admirable willingness to stay true to its intentions right through to the end.

Oh yeah, and I just remembered the dumbest question of the evening posed to the director of that film. Someone asked him about the "nickname" of the lead actress and how such nicknames came about in the Thai culture (I've since come to think he was ignorantly mixing up Thai and Filipino culture, since the latter is known for strange (to us only) English given names). Otherwise, since there were no subs on the credits of the film, I'm assuming this chap was getting it from the festival guide or from some online source, in which case he could've dug a little deeper online for an answer instead of posing it to a filmmaker who's English is limited and who is probably not that aware of the practise in the first place (which was certainly evidenced by his rather puzzled response).

"Excuse me, Wong Kar-wai, enough about your film, could you explain to the audience why Tony Leung is sometimes called "Little Tony Leung" and also why he has an italian first name?" Waaaahhh!

 

[Eric Howell]

LOL, forgot about that question Brian... unfortunately Toronto audiences are normally too polite to boo stupid questioners.

Another all time favorite question, directed toward Elijah Wood during the Q&A for Try Seventeen: [teeny bopper mode on]“What was it like working with Mandy (Moore)!!??”[/teeny bopper]

 

[Brian Thibodeau]

This is a uniquely Canadian affliction, despite the increased number of non-Canadians in attendance at these shows. As a collective, we seem more inclined to roll our eyes, quietly tsk-tsk, sigh through our noses and whisper bad things about the asker of the stupid question to our mates. It fuckin' kills me to be so complacent sometimes, but there you are...

Mind you, I'm losing my ability to control my inner thoughts as I get older: I was at a local Fall Fair when my girlfriend and I unwittingly dashed past this really obese woman and her innocent young son, an act for which I was just about to apologize until she bellowed "Niiice mooove, asshole!" to which I responded "Fuck you, Godzilla. Lose some weight!" That child may have difficulties when he grows up, but where was that freedom of expression when I needed it at the RAHTREE Q&A? Sigh...

 

[Bill McA]

I've just been going over past TIFF schedules and it looks like I over-exaggerated the "wall-to-wall HK action flicks" comment.
There is nowhere as near as many HK films in Geddes's picks that I had remembered...but I still prefer Cowan's picks.
It is surprising just how many of these films have totally disappeared since premiering at the fest, never to be seen again..

For your entertainment pleasure, the evolution of the TIFF Midnight Madness program:

Presented by Noah Cowan:

1988
The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years
Big Time
Hellbound: Hellraiser II
Heavy Petting
Forbidden to Forbid/Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em
Brand New Day
Brain Damage

1989
Dr. Caligari
Lenny Henry: Live and Unleashed
Opera
Carnival of Souls (restored version)
Space Avenger
Funny
Over Easy/Shimmelsteen/No Such Thing as Gravity/Whoregasm
Heavy Petting
Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Over-Fiend

1990
Two Evil Eyes
Bride of the Re-Animator
Hardware
My Degeneration
The Church
Frankenhooker
Def By Temptation
Meet the Feebles
Tetsuo: The Iron Man

1991
Children of the Night
The Sect
The Borrower
The Arrival (not the Charlie Sheen film)
Motorama
Guilty as Charged
The Raid
Blood & Concrete
A Chinese Ghost Story III

1992
Candyman
Man Bites Dog
Tokyo Decadence
Saviour of the Soul
Back to the USSR
Romper Stomper
Dead/Alive (Braindead)
Tetsuo II: Body Hammer
Swordsman II

1993
Dazed and Confused
Freaked
Wicked City (animation)/Wicked City (live action)
Trauma
Accion Mutante
The Making of...And God Spoke
Jack Be Nimble
Frauds
The Last Border
A program of 10 music videos

1994
Nightwatch (original version)
Love and a .45
Schramm
Naked Killer
Dellamorte Dellamore
Tokarev
S.F.W.
The Eagle-Shooting Hero
Midnight Madness music video/Extreme short films
Spike of Love

1995
Crying Freeman
The Day of the Beast
Gamera: Guardian of the Universe
Mute Witness
Screamers
Synthetic Pleasures
Tokyo Fist
Trailer Camp
Wizard of Darkness

1996
Curdled
Killer Tongue
Road Movie
Organ
The Stendhal Syndrome
All of Them Witches
Ratchet
Screwed
Gamera 2: Assault of Legion

Presented by Noah Cowan & Colin Geddes:

1997
Office Killer
A Chinese Ghost Story (animation)
Orgasmo
I Married a Strange Person
Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist
Fudoh: The New Generation
The Ugly
Love God

Presented by Colin Geddes:

1998
The Acid House
Cascadeur: The Amber Chamber
Hang the DJ
Heaven
I Woke Up Early the Day I Died
Mighty Peking Man
Perdita Durango
Night Time
Six-String Samurai

1999
Freeway II: Confessions of a Trick Baby
The Wisdom of Crocodiles
Komodo
The Item
Wadd: The Life and Times of John C.Holmes
Born to Loose: The Last Rock and Roll Movie
Possessed (Besat)
Fever
Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris

2000
Time and Tide
The Foul King
The Irrefutable Truth About Demons
The American Nightmare
The Mission
Tell Me Something
6ixtynin9
City of Lost Souls
Wild Zero

2001
The American Astronaut
Antinome
Bang Rajan: The Legend of the Village Warriors
The Bunker
Dogtown and Z Boys
Eat
Electric Dragon 80,000 V
Full Time Killer
Ichi the Killer
Brotherhood of the Wolf
Versus

2002
Alive
Bubba Ho-Tep
Cabin Fever
The Eye
Volcano High
MC5:A True Testimonial
My Little Eye
Spun

2003
Cypher
End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones
Gozu
Ju-On: The Grudge
Haute Tension
Ong-Bak
Save the Green Planet
Undead
Underworld

 

[Brian Thibodeau]

I must admit, now that I've seen your complete list, Bill, and having seen the majority of these films on video over the years, that Cowan's collective Midnight Madness programmes feature a higher quantity of movies that I ultimately liked when I finally saw them on video. I didn't start going to the festival until 1999, so I wasn't aware of the complete list of MM shows. I would've gone in 1997 or 1998, but at the time, none of those films interested me and when I did get around to seeing most of them on video, few impressed me. For the 1999 programme, I only bought tickets to GAMERA 3, and again, none of the others wowed me when I saw them at home.

I think Geddes really nailed it, though, in 2000 and, to a lesser extent, 2001, with an impressive mix of the truly unique. Mind you, I'm biased toward the 2000 run because, as I mentioned, I love Asian cinema and seven shows from that programme were from that part of the world. I thought 2002's collection was largely a mixed bag (with only two Asian films), with a slight improvement for 2003 (with four), but another drop this year (in which the few Asian films seemed to get the most positive response, which is telling).

As I mentioned above, I've seen DVDs and trailers for plenty of far wilder films that could've been included in this years MM series, but who knows the troubles Geddes probably goes through in securing even the films he does get...