NZFF Q&A - Robin Greenberg, Return of the Free China Junk

NZFF Q&A - Robin Greenberg, Return of the Free China Junk

Tell us about your film at the film festival
I think Bill Gosden has summed up the film brilliantly by saying the following (you can take your pick!):
"A historic wooden sailing vessel that crossed the Pacific in 1955 makes an even more improbable return journey after the family of its original sailors campaign to save it from the scrapheap and bring it home.
The honoring of six young men who crossed the Pacific in 1955 becomes a mammoth challenge of engineering,  logistics and politics nearly sixty years later."

Tell us the best moment you had making this film
I loved every moment of being in Taiwan for filming (after 1 1/2 years of planning) -- and especially being a fly on the wall of the reunion of the octogenarian junk-mates in Taiwan after 57-years, including my Christchurch-based T'ai Chi teacher Loo-Chi Hu (Huloo).
Also, after months of attempted communications, finally receiving permission from the CIA for use of color archival footage was a high point for me -- and a great relief, as we'd fallen in love with that footage and wanted to include it to evoke the feeling of Taiwan in the mid 1950s.

Tell us the worst moment – and the one thing you left out of this film
When we brought the surviving junk-mates to the site where the junk-boat 'Free China' had originally departed in Keelung in 1955, it was an unpleasant surprise that our filming schedule had been leaked to media and the junk-mates were drowned by dozens of reporters, which pretty much destroyed the intimacy of the scene as conceived...  But with documentary, one literally has to go with the flow.

Tell us what this film means to you – and why people should see it.
I'm feeling too close to this film to answer this concisely... After three years of post-production, we've just completed the film, which  actually represents the culmination of about twelve years of fascination (obsession?) with the stories surrounding the Free China junk.  I feel that the film strikes an inspirational chord of cross-cultural and intergenerational collaboration and perseverance.  For audiences, who like me, are always in search of an upbeat story with heart, humor and insights into history and human potential this film may resonate.

Tell us one of the films you wish you were seeing at this year’s New Zealand International Film Festival?
I'm especially looking forward to colleague Costa Botes' 'Acts of Kindness' which has also been years in the making.  It's great to be able to celebrate the success of other local filmmakers. And amongst the global gems in NZIFF's programme, 'Rams' (dir. Grimur Hakonarson) is high on my list for the quirky humor/story.

NZFF Q&A - Costa Botes, Act of Kindness

NZFF Q&A - Costa Botes, Act of Kindness

Tell us about your film at the film festival
Sure. Act of Kindness is a (sort-of) first person documentary, shot by the main character, Sven Pannell, A New Zealander who was helped out of a jam in Rwanda in 1999, when he was still a teenager. The man who helped him was a most unlikely Samaritan - a badly crippled, homeless beggar named Johnson. Almost a decade later, Sven went back to Rwanda. With a camera in hand, he undertook a search to find Johnson with the aim of thanking him.

One of our aims is to give a strong feel of the country. The audience will get to experience a perspective on a place that's quite different from the blood soaked horrific stereotype most people are familiar with from mainstream news reporting. The truth about Rwanda is that most people are trying to get on with having an ordinary life, but the social environment there is most definitely haunted by events of two decades ago. With that backdrop, our film explores an outsider's journey of understanding, and maybe a little bit of redemption too.

Tell us the best moment you had making this film
I wasn't involved with shooting. For me it was more of a glorious, maddening puzzle that I had to somehow decipher and assemble into an engaging filmic narrative, solving a bunch of tricky problems along the way. The raw footage was wildly variable in quality. Eventually, there came a moment when everything locked into place, and I knew we had a film. That was nice.

Tell us the worst moment – and the one thing you left out of this film
The worst moment for me came after three years of stasis, when the problems of finishing the movie seemed insurmountable. I was really struggling to motivate myself. Then Sven told me he was sick and tired of it and didn't want to do it any more. That was hard. We got past that, l'm glad to say.

Nothing was left out. Are you kidding? Every scrap of original footage was precious. Actually, I tell a lie. There is a story that Sven told on camera, about a shocking incident he witnessed. It's a powerful anecdote. But it took a while to emerge. I was certain it would exhaust the audience's patience as a piece told straight to camera. There was no supporting footage to wrap the story in, so it had to go. Unfortunately, the old canard that film is a visual medium happens to be true.

Tell us what this film means to you – and why people should see it.
I always felt there was a simple, beautiful story there; a story that was funny, inspiring, and in the end deeply moving. Act of Kindness has got something positive to say about our potential as human beings, without being preachy about it. Every action we take is the result of a choice, good or bad. How much do our cultural values incline us away from making good choices? Empathy is the essence of 'humanity'. That's what this film is about for me.

Tell us one of the films you wish you were seeing at this year’s New Zealand International Film Festival?
I wish I was seeing most of them. But I can't afford that, so as usual I'll be rolling the dice and hoping my powers of selection are better than fifty/fifty

Madame Bovary: Film Review

Madame Bovary: Film Review

Cast: Mia Wasikowska, Ezra Miller, Paul Giamatti, Rhys Ifans
Director: Sophie Barthes

Typical, you wait years for a Bovary adaptation and two come along (sort of) in relatively close succession.

While we've recently had Gemma Bovery starring Gemma Arterton, a lighter take on the story and based on Posy Simmonds' graphic novel, this latest is a straighter and closer to the source material take on Flaubert's tragedy.

Wasikowska, complete in some sumptuous costuming, stars as the bored but beautiful Bovary. Finding her life with her doctor husband a little dreary, Bovary begins to instigate a plan of social succession to escape the mundane nature of her life.

But, tragedy and debt lie ahead for Bovary.

Sophie Barthes' adaptation of Gustav Flaubert's Madame Bovary packs every bit of literary flair in as you'd imagine. It looks prestige, even if the film itself occasionally feels stilted, frosty and oddly aloof.

Wasikowska acquits herself fairly well as the lead, but there's very little other than dreariness to latch onto - Ifans' Monsieur Lhereux is like a devil on Bovary's shoulder, provoking her into buying and pushing her into demonic debt (his ethos being that "money should never be the problem, only the solution"); he provides the sole breathe of life into proceedings which desperately need enlivening as time goes by.

It's all elegantly costumed and will appeal to lovers of period pieces, but the fact it remains so cold and occasionally distant could mean many will find it hard to latch onto. Visually the film has its moments with the director making the most of the countryside around her, but all in all this Madame Bovary feels more like it's destined to haunt the inhabitants of the classroom for eternity, rather than enthrall the masses at the box office.

Doctor Who Lego Dimensions details revealed

Doctor Who Lego Dimensions details revealed

I can't tell you how excited as a gamer and as a Whovian how excited I am for LEGO Dimensions now.

Further details have been revealed this morning of the Doctor's appearance in LEGO Dimensions. Particularly the regeneration idea.

See below for more....

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment revealed today at San Diego Comic-Con details about Doctor Who™ in LEGO® Dimensions™, the upcoming entertainment experience that allows players to expand their imaginations beyond traditional gaming to merge physical LEGO brick building with interactive console gameplay.  Peter Capaldi, who plays the 12^th Doctor, Jenna Coleman, who plays Clara Oswald, and Michelle Gomez, who plays Missy, will voice their respective characters from the long running British science fiction television series in LEGO Dimensions.

In a new trailer giving the first look at the Doctor Who gameplay, worlds collide in ways only possible in LEGO Dimensions, such as the TARDIS popping up in Gotham City and Hill Valley, the Doctor battling alongside Homer Simpson in Aperture Science, riding a haunted mine car with Scooby and Shaggy, or fighting alongside Kai and Cragger in a Ninjago battle arena. 

Doctor Who, which has never before been in a LEGO videogame, will be playable in the LEGO Dimensions Starter Pack with a complete Doctor Who level where the game’s heroes continue their quest while encountering Daleks, Cybermen and other adversaries from the Whoniverse.

Fans who want more Doctor Who in LEGO Dimensions will be able to purchase the Doctor Who Level Pack which includes an additional mission-based Doctor Who level, along with a LEGO minifigure of the 12^th Doctor and LEGO models of the TARDIS and K-9, all playable in the game.  When the 12^th Doctor is defeated in the level, he returns as the 1^st Doctor and then regenerates back up to the 12^th Doctor again.  The interior of the TARDIS will reflect the corresponding Doctor the player embodies or can be manually selected.  There’s even a jukebox inside where players can choose among different versions of the Doctor Who theme music.  The TARDIS and K-9 models can each be physically built and then rebuilt twice to do entirely different things in the digital game for massive variety.

There will also be a Doctor Who Fun Pack, which includes a playable Cyberman minifigure and Dalek model which can be physically built and then rebuilt twice for a total of three different objects.

Launching September 30, 2015, LEGO Dimensions will be available for Xbox One, the all-in one games and entertainment system from Microsoft and the Xbox 360 games and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®4 and PlayStation®3 computer entertainment systems and the Wii U™ system from Nintendo.

Rugby League Live 3 teaser unveiled

Rugby League Live 3 teaser unveiled

Tru Blu Entertainment, in association with the NRL, are proud to be releasing the most anticipated Rugby League video game to date - Rugby League Live 3.

Rugby League Live 3 will include the following features: Improved Career mode and Be A Pro – take a Forward or a Back through the ranks of a U20 team into a full professional squad
Vastly improved Instant Replay System including super slow-mo and user defined camera placement – get right into the action!
Enhanced online play including filtering by locality and Online Tournaments
Dynamic time of day lighting with full sun movement and weather system giving dusk to night progress and mid game rain.
All 2014/2015 rule changes, updates to current 2015 rosters and team uniforms.
Over 100 teams from Rugby League competitions around the world including the NRL, Super League, Toyota Cup, and many more.
New Experience System: Earn badges and experience both online and off to rise to the top of the leaderboards.
FanHub Player Sharing – create your own players and teams and share them online across all supported platforms.
Dynamic Tackling System: Fend and break tackle your way past multiple defenders and use the new dynamic Struggle and Drag system to burst over the line to score or alternatively drag them into touch!

Kingsman: The Secret Service: Blu Ray Review

Kingsman: The Secret Service: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by 20th Century Fox Home Ent

Mixing (in no particular order) Star Wars, Attack The Block, James Bond, The Hunger Games, Ender's Game, Utopia (The TV series), The Raid, Austin Powers, Kickass, Spy Kids and a dollop of R-rated violence blended with Brit stiff upper lip, Kingsman: The Secret Service is an incendiary piece of film-making by a director who's clearly determined to light the blue touch paper and walk away.

Based on a comic book series The Secret Service written by the legendary Mark Millar and the iconic Dave Gibbons, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Colin Firth stars as Harry Hart, a suave and sophisticated agent.

Tasked with finding a new Lancelot agent for their order after the current one falls (they're all modern day Knights of the roundtable) and with a lisping billionaire (played by Samuel L Jackson) threatening a twisted global scheme, it turns out the future is squarely on the shoulders of troubled kid Eggsy (played by relative newcomer Egerton), who's got to earn his place in the secret organisation - as well as save the world...

Audacious, bold, provocative and in one sequence, extremely violent (albeit perfectly choreographed to Lynyrd Skynyrd's Freebird) and likely to polarise, Kingsman: The Secret Service is somewhat of a risk for Vaughan, whose previous work X-Men was easily more mainstream. (A move that should be commended)

Riffing on Bond with some self-deprecating lines about it not being that type of film before becoming an R rated version of that type film, Kingsman is certainly likely to strike a chord in places. (The no2 of the bad guy is a female blade runner - entirely reminiscent of an Oscar Pistorius / Bond villain / No 2 mash up)

But it's also incredibly fresh, thanks to Firth's Brit stiff-upper-lip Peel-esque Harry, a gent whose penchant for saving the world is as sharp as his suits. Seeing Firth dish out the violence throughout will be somewhat career-redefining; equally as impressive is Egerton who makes the ruffian an identifiable protagonist rather than an all out tyke as he works his way out from under Harry's wing (and quotes My Fair Lady at the same time). Their scenes together as the Luke / Kenobi / spy/mentor relationship is fleshed out are a joy to behold.

Stoic support comes from Strong, who as ever brings his character A game as Merlin, Michael Caine as the head of the organisation and Jackson who veers close to caricature before pulling it back.

But the real star is Vaughan, who pulls together some never-before-seen stylings and executes them perfectly on the screen in among the usual genesis storyline.

It's exhilarating and visceral viewing that lands squarely on the spectrum of visual overload as it ramps up in parts to extreme cartoon trappings - and herein lies one of the big problems of Kingsman for me.

A sequence in a church shocks, even though it's wonderfully choreographed and timed to Lynyrd Skynyrd's Freebird. It's the only time the violence is ever close to anything real world in terms of brutality - the rest of the film the violence is more of a comic nature; it's ultra-violence in the extreme and while I get that this sequence is supposed to be a shock for all involved, and that it's impressively put together with a daring that's clearly aimed at pushing the envelope, it's the first time in a long while that I've felt conflicted by what's transpired in front of my eyes.

There's a demented madness to Kingsman: The Secret Service; it's a button pusher on many levels (and even presents to us Jack Davenport - the Bond that never was) but its spy trappings, visceral thrills and nutty joie de vivre makes it an incredible cinema experience - despite the concerns.

Rating:

Gold Destiny The Taken King PS4 bundle unveiled

Gold Destiny The Taken King PS4 bundle unveiled

SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT NEW ZEALAND INTRODUCE LIMITED EDITION DESTINY: THE TAKEN KING PLAYSTATION®4 BUNDLE

Auckland, July 8, 2015 – Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE), today announced that a “Limited Edition DESTINY: THE TAKEN KING PlayStation®4 Bundle” will be available in New Zealand on September 15th 2015 concurrently with the release of the DESTINY: THE TAKEN KING software title from Bungie and Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI). The bundle pack will include the PlayStation®4 (PS4™) computer entertainment system with 500GB hard disk drive (HDD) and Wireless Controller (DUALSHOCK®4). The limited edition PS4™ features a special DESTINY: THE TAKEN KING design which showcases a map of the cosmos in silver with the Guardian’s crest set in gold. The bundle includes the DESTINY: THE TAKEN KING – LEGENDARY EDITION software title for PS4™. Also included is an upgrade to the Digital Collector’s Edition, which includes three exotic Guardian class items with XP bonuses, three class specific emotes, three armour shaders and an early access weapons pack. The bundle will be available for a limited time at selected retailers. DESTINY: THE TAKEN KING – LEGENDARY EDITION is perfect for new and existing Guardians that are ready to jump into the Destiny universe or continue to carve their legends in the stars. DESTINY: THE TAKEN KING – LEGENDARY EDITION includes the Complete Destiny Experience: The Taken King, Destiny, Expansion I and Expansion II. With the “DESTINY: THE TAKEN KING – LEGENDARY EDITION PlayStation®4 Bundle”, SCEE are delivering the next great adventure in the Destiny universe.    ENDS PRODUCT OUTLINE Product Name: LIMITED EDITION DESTINY: THE TAKEN KING PlayStation®4 Bundle Release Date: September 15, 2015 Included: PlayStation®4 x system x 1 *Special Design Hard Disk Drive capacity 500GB* Wireless Controller (DUALSHOCK®4 ) x1 *Special Design DESTINY: THE TAKEN KING – LEGENDARY EDITION for PS4 x 1 Mono headset x 1 AC Power cord x 1 HDMI cable x 1 USB cable x 1 Printed materials x 1 Copyright: ©Bungie, inc. ©Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved. Design and specifications are subject to change without notice. Product Name: DESTINY: THE TAKEN KING PlayStation®4 Bundle Release Date: September 15, 2015 Included: PlayStation®4 system x 1 Hard Disk Drive capacity 500GB* Wireless Controller (DUALSHOCK®4 ) x1 DESTINY: THE TAKEN KING – LEGENDARY EDITION for PS4 x 1 Mono headset x 1 AC Power cord x 1 HDMI cable x 1 USB cable x 1 Printed materials x 1 Copyright: ©Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved. Design and specifications are subject to change without notice.