Thanks for the kind words. Yes, the inaugural Milwaukee Film Festival is very much a festival for the populace. An Audience Award will awarded at the end of the festival and audience members get a ballot as they enter each of the screenings. I have thoroughly enjoyed participating in this year's festival and can't wait until next year - when I intend to see more films.
One of the perks are the fascinating conversations before and after the movies. At The Chaser showing, I sat in the same row with a couple that had been on the selection committee for the festival. I, of course, wanted to know how something as execrable as "Modus Operandi" made it into the festival. After seeing "Modus Operandi" I channeled my inner Jay Sherman, "IT STINKS!" ~rave! --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Keith Johnson <keithbjohn...@...> wrote: > > Been enjoying your stuff. I've been following the Toronto Film Festival > recently. I'm seriously thinking about trying to get up there for next > year's. I hear it's very much a festival for everyday people, not just > official critics and celebs. Is yours like that? > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Kelwyn" <ravena...@...> > To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com > Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 5:44:54 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern > Subject: [scifinoir2] Straight with The Chaser > > > > > > > http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2009/09/straight-with-chaser.html > > Day five of the Milwaukee Film Festival. > > The Chaser (Chugyeogja), Hong Jin-Na's dark hued meditation on corruption and > redemption hones in on Young-min Jee (an excellent Jung-woo Ha), former dirty > cop and current amoral pimp, with little discernable distinction between the > two, over the course of one long and hellish night. > > Jee is in a pickle. He is late with his payment to his over-bosses while > concurrently experiencing a cash flow problem caused by an inconvenient > shrinkage in his stable of available call girls. Jee believes his girls are > skipping town, while still owing him money, or are being snatched and sold to > other pimps. He inadvertently discovers something much more terrible is going > on when his bottom girl, Mi-jinn Kim (a heart-breaking performance by > Yeong-hie Seo), goes missing after he forces her out of her sick bed, away > from her seven year-old daughter and into the arms of a serial killer. > > The Chaser exists in a cruel, god forsaken world where evil exists in all its > permutations and goodness is snuffed out at every turn. It is a grim, rain > soaked place, a brutal maze of tight, rabbit-warren neighborhoods where human > bunnies hop, fornicate, fight, fart, fling feces - and get felleted alive. > > A kinetic, edge-of-your-seat thriller that dredges deep into the heart of the > darkness of Seoul, The Chaser is must see film noir that cements South Korea > place on the world cinematic map. > > ~rave! >
