For the last several years, the World Cinema Showcase has been held in Wellington, New Zealand, hosted by Paramount Cinemas -- and at least this year it's being held in four cities with a variety of hosts. The Showcase screens a wide variety of international films (mostly of the "art house" sort of variety) that have been released in the last year or so. Each film is typically shown two or three times, which provides some chance of seeing the flims that one is interested in even with other conflicts to the screening times (although for some films, such as 2+ hour films screened in the late evening) one has to be willing to miss some sleep in order to catch the film). Usually the most popular of the films will then get picked up by one or more of the independent cinemas around the Wellington region and given a longer screening, so for some of the films one can be reasonably confident that they'll "come back" for later screening.

I ended up with conflicting events on two evenings over the Easter Weekend which meant that I missed one of the filims that I hoped to see, Gentleman Bronchos, which stars amongst others New Zealands's own Jermaine Clement -- the other screening times were late evening before a work day, and in the middle of a work day. So I'm very hopeful that one will come back for a regular screening season.

I did manage to see four films.

Anne Perry -- Interiors

"Anne Perry -- Interiors" is a documentary about the working life, and background, of Anne Perry (wikipedia entry; IMDB), the well known author of detective novels usually set in the Victorian era. What was less well known until relatively recently was that she had previously lived in New Zealand, "done something stupid" as a teenager (under a different name) and then left the country to make a new life.

It's an interesting film, although it's never really clear what the objective of the film maker actually was (beyond "here's an interesting subject, I should make a film"). It's part insight into the routine of a famous writer (she works from home with a small team of researchers, typists, etc -- and writes everything out longhand), and part probing into her background which she clearly doesn't talk about much, to anyone. It's clear that her past still weighs heavily on her and even over half a century later it's still a major influence on how she lives her life. While it's good to see that she's realised it's possible to talk about what happened a little more, even just having the camera there when some of those conversations happen feels almost exploitative. Perhaps having the documentary team there, probing, was the only way that the conversation would come out -- but one is left wondering whether something clearly so intimate to a clearly private person should have been put on show to the world.

Ultimately the film manages to come across sensitive enough to its subject to appear not to be attempting to exploit the situation (and appears as though it was made and released with Anne Perry's willing consent). But it walks an uncomfortable line between "tell all" documentary and "writer profile". And I can't help wondering whether it could have been a better writer profile, and profile of her life, if some of the "tell all" scenes had been left out -- or simply summarised at the end with a note to the effect that the filming had allowed Anne Perry to talk about her past with friends and start to move on.

Endgame

"Endgame" is "based on a true story" about the events leading up to the fall of aparteid in South Africa. In particular it is based on "The Fall of Apartheid" by Robert Harvey. It tells of secret talks held in Britian, and more offical talks held in South Africa with Nelson Mandela, and the interplay between the two sets of talks and the people involved.

Unfortunately, in my view, it plays as a drama, "based on a true story" rather than a documetary, and one is left unclear who much of it is "true story" and how much of it is dramatisation of something that didn't really happen; it's in that uncomfortable gap between documentary and fiction. (The book appears to be non-fiction, but without having read the book or having other references to the events shown it's not clear where the screenplay falls.)

Still if one accepts it as a drama, with connections to real life, it makes for an intriguing story which "could possibly be the past" in the sort of sense that Science Fiction "could possibly be the future".

Goemon

"Goemon" is a Japanese film about Goemon, a legendary bandit in 16th century Japan who stole from the rich and gave to the poor (akin to Robin Hood in English folklore). The film manages to weave this story into the story of the unification of Japan, in the Sengoku period, taking in the path to becoming a ninja in the process.

The film is very CG-heavy, without becoming Anime but clearly drawing on the visual style of Anime and Manga. Some of it reminds me Chinese film, but it's not as heavy on wire work as something like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and with much more computer graphics (as one would expect with it being made nearly a decade later). As I understand it all of this is the signature style of the director, Kiriya Kazuaki who also wrote the screenplay.

If you're interested in Japanese cinema, or like a good "Robin Hood" style story mixed with large doses of ninja fighting, political intrigue and computer graphics then it'd be worth seeing.

Love Exposure

The final film I saw was the epic-length (4+ hours! plus intermission!), "Love Exposure", a very different but equally Japanese movie. It tells, at length, the tale of a boy growing up with lashings of Catholic guilt, a distant father, and some interesting solutions to these problems -- particularly when he finds that the only time he can talk to his father is in confession. It also shows his drawn out attempts to gain the attention of the girl of his dreams, who for complicated plot reasons he only met in another identity. In the process he gets drawn into the world of "up skirt" fetish photography, and transvestism, and cult religion.

The religious aspect, both the Catholic religion and the "Zero Church" cult, seems to be a major focus of the film, with equal periods devoted to both the Catholic "programming" of its followers, and the programming of the Zero Church cult. For a large portion of the film there are clear overtones of a "puppet master" pulling people's strings, particularly with the cult's recruiting, but also less explicity with the father-son relationship and the Catholic church ("bring me some sins to confess").

But so to are the aspects of "coming of age" sexuality, both in inappropriate forms ("up skirt" photography) and more appropriate forms (getting the "girl of your dreams" especially when she's fallen for an alter-ego, a situation that then gets exploited throughout the second half of the film as a plot point).

It's very much a film that could only have been made in Japan. And it uses much of its length well to mix in yet more movie-length sub-plots. But one can't help thinking that what was a good 4 hour movie could have been an excellent 2-3 hour movie by tightening up on the story telling. Told with, for instance, the pace of Run Lola Run, which manages to pack three full versions of the story into an 80 minute movie by clever pacing, I think "Love Exposure" would have been awesome.