KC has requested that I recommend a few choices for this year’s Fantasia.  There are some movies that look good but don’t fit into my schedule so we will be trying to download what we can’t see.  But here are the movies I am planning on viewing: 

Yatterman: Kitchy Japanese superhero romp.  A live action version of an anime from the ’70s.  Even the Japanese do remakes apparently.

Infestation:  American, giant bugs attack.  Looks hilarious, very tongue-in-cheek.

Love Exposure: 4 hour Japanese opus about sin, religion, love and whatnot.  This one has won several awards so I’ll go ahead and recommend it.

Instant Swamp: Typical Japanese kookiness.

Mutants: France’s take on zombies.

Yesterday: Canadian zombies.  Low budget, but the trailer sold it.

Tokyo OnlyPic 2008: Japanese satire of the Olympics… or something.  Looks very weird in a way only the Japanese can get away with.

My Dear Enemy: South Korean romantic comedy.  I’ve seen a few South Korean flics of this type before and they are always a bit weird and subversive, not your American style romcom.  (They inevitably get remade by American studios but I’ve never bothered to watch the remakes so I don’t know how faithful they are.)

Canary: This is the one I’m anticipating the most because it had THE best trailer I have EVER seen.  Utterly amazing.  I desperately hope the movie will be as good.  I don’t want to give too much away but it’s American and about organ donation.  Perhaps what the Island should have been, or so I hope.

Edison & Leo: Canadian stop-motion.

Cryptic: American science-fiction.  Time travel thriller.

Cyborg She: Japanese boy falls in love with android girl.  As one does.

Fine, Totally Fine:  More Japanese quirkiness.

Children: UK horror about killer kids.

Sans Desseins: Quebecois dude gets help with his love life from a ghost haunting his apartment.  Looks pretty funny.

Best Worst Movie: American documentary about the worst movie ever made, Troll 2.

Antique: Gay Japanese men run a pastry shop.  Obviously based on a manga.

Genius Party Beyond:  Japanese animated shorts.  If you see nothing else this year, see this.  Last year’s Genius Party was outstanding.  The genius in the title refers to the brilliance of the directors.

I always recommend the Japanese films.  I’m a sucker for their patented brand of zaniness, full of colour and life and hilarious mind-fucks.

The American documentaries also tend to be good.  It doesn’t fit into our schedule but there is also
The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia that looks good.

Also not fitting into our schedule but one we plan to find some other way is Most Love Death.  A German satire of American life, which is a mix of romantic comedy and torture porn brand of horror.

I will review the movies as I see them.