Three From Fantasia 2021
Reviews for BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES, OPÉRATION LUCHADOR, and TIONG BAHRU SOCIAL CLUB
Here are capsule reviews for three films from Fantasia Fest 2021. All three of the films were clever, visually cool, and engaging—I just don’t have that much to say about each.
BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES
This inventive sci-fi comedy is a clever play on time loop films like TIMECRIMES and LA JETÉE that’s truly propelled by an infectious sense of daring and ingenuity. Cafe owner Kato (Kazunari Tosa) notices that, between the monitor in his apartment above his business and the monitor in the cafe itself, viewers can see precisely two minutes into the future.
Soon his friends get involved, trying to figure out how to use this two-minute window to see something more (and more profitable). It’s a fun and fast-paced 70 minute film that shows a lot of pluck from the cast and crew who decided to shoot the thing as if it were one long continuous take (complete with hidden and almost comically obvious cuts) and all on an iPhone. Running between flights of stairs while the situation gets increasingly odd (time has a way of doing that), creates a manic energy that finds the audience as engaged with sorting everything out as the characters. Directed by Junta Yamaguchi from a script by Makoto Ueda, BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES can occasionally feel repetitive in a bad way, but it’s mostly a joyful occasion. Shot entirely on an iPhone, this movie comes from the Europe Kikaku Theatre Group—and it feels like something that would originate on stage with that live kinetic crackle of cast members running to and fro as matters get weirder. That scrappy charm of “let’s put on a show” is all over BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES which will leave viewers looking to the future to see what this group does next.
OPÉRATION LUCHADOR
Written and directed by Alain Vézina, this is a cute mockumentary that purports to unveil the secret history of how one particularly badass luchador defeated Hitler twice, once during the war and once after! The Golden Angel (Carlos Valderrama) finds himself at the crossroads of history as he must face multiple Nazi threats, whether in the ring, in the sea, or in the air.
Along the way, the lucha libre legend will lock horns (well, arms) with Leni Riefenstahl, a Yeti, a particularly dastardly Nazi luchador, and some very impressively trained (but still evil because they are Nazis) dogs. The film is very reminiscent of 2010’s little seen NORWEGIAN NINJA, with its hidden history and “reportage” style of filmmaking. The lore that Vézina creates is a fun mixture of the absurd adventures of El Santo and the other lucha movies of the ‘60s and onward, but also hints of other “hidden” tales of the Third Reich. (The fact that Hitler ended up putting a lot of money and effort into investigating mysticism and folklore ended up creating a bit of a cottage industry in storytelling.) OPÉRATION LUCHADOR is a delightful film but feels a bit long at 85 minutes due to so many different segments filled with different tales of adventure, with no real sense of balance between each of them (Golden Angel’s romance with his wife feels like it gets less time than his fight with the abominable snowman). There is also a constant breaking of the format where it purports to be historical footage, but doesn’t really work as such. Still, with those slights aside, there are enough cute and unexpected moments that elicited a surprised “hah!” out of me while watching.
TIONG BAHRU SOCIAL CLUB
Easily the best looking film I saw at Fantasia 2021 (and, I’m willing to bet, the best looking film anyone saw at the festival), director Bee Thiam Tan (who co-wrote with Antti Toivonen) has crafted a cinematic triumph of sumptuous style and innovative design. The use of pastels and neons, architecture, costume, production design, and sound is unparalleled outside of a Wes Anderson project.
In Singapore, Ah Bee (Thomas Pang) is leaving his comfortable ultra-organized and utterly routine clerkship behind, along with the apartment he shares with his mother (Goh Guat Kian), to go live and work at the titular Tiong Bahru Social Club living community where “your happiness is our business”. He becomes a happiness consultant that tries to increase the happiness index of each resident in the paradise, while technology (that combines retro-futurism with current ‘customer data’ applications) tracks the best ways to improve people’s lives. Of course, if Ah Bee isn’t making others happy enough, or isn’t happy enough himself, he will get the boot from his job/home…which one would assume could skew those happiness ratings.
TIONG BAHRU SOCIAL CLUB is gorgeous, thanks to production design by James Page, cinematography by Looi Wan Ping, costumes by Melissa Chang, and using actual locations for the art deco and brutalist settings. The story doesn’t feel as focused as it should—maybe because so much goes into defining, finding, and maintaining happiness, including romance—and Ah Bee is mostly a vessel without true passion (as he literally states early on when asked if he’s part of the Passion shoppers’ club), creating a happy-go-lucky foil to a Bartleby the Scrivener type that goes along with everything. But there are so many inspired and surprising sequences throughout that are people by memorable characters all with bizarre little touches that straddle the line between sinister and saccharine. If absolutely nothing else, every frame of TIONG BAHRU SOCIAL CLUB is filled with stunning imagery that should be seen and devoured by your eyes.