Review by Sean Boelman

The Japanese thriller #Manhole debuted at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival before making a stop at this year’s Fantasia. The film is at its best when it sticks to the basics, taking advantage of its simple, chilling premise, but is held back by a third act that will throw viewers off with its somewhat outlandish ending.

In what might be the most literal premise one can think of, the movie follows a man who struggles to survive after falling into a manhole. Over the course of the runtime, the protagonist faces lots of obstacles that present threats other than mere starvation. Although the character does some less-than-savory things in a desperate attempt to find help, viewers will understand because of his situation.

Director Kazuyoshi Kumakiri shoots the film in a way that is undeniably tense. There are some really interesting sequences — including one in which the manhole slowly fills from the bottom — that will have viewers on the edge of their seats. Kumakiri does a great job of creating a sense of claustrophobia and anxiety through the cinematography and the soundtrack, which features some weird but effective choices.

For those who are wondering, as any reasonable viewer would, why there is a hashtag in the movie’s title, it’s not just in the hopes that the film will go trending on social media. The second act of the movie — its most interesting portion by far — offers an intriguing exploration (perhaps even an indictment) of the online culture that causes stories like this to be heavily sensationalized.

For the first hour or so of the film, it seems like #Manhole is just going to be the man trying to escape from the manhole, and this would have made for a pretty compelling movie in its own right. There have been plenty of one-note thrillers that have been effective, but this film fumbles its attempts to be something more.

Unfortunately, the film goes into much more out-there territory in the final third, changing it from a high-concept survival thriller into a much more convoluted mystery. It’s almost as if writer Michitaka Okada didn’t believe there was enough substance there to sustain a feature runtime. The level of suspension of disbelief that Okada asks of the audience is simply a bit too much.

#Manhole also struggles with its character development. It’s clear that the film wants to subvert the audience’s expectations, but as is the case with almost everything else in the movie, the characterization is taken to such an extreme that it will cause the viewer to become disillusioned with the story.

Admittedly, #Manhole goes off the rails so much in its final act that it almost ruins what was a very solid thriller that came before. Still, even if the script takes a massive swing and a miss, there’s no denying that the film is a tense, enjoyable thriller despite going too wacky for its own good.

#Manhole screened at the 2023 Fantasia Film Festival, which runs from July 20 to August 9.

Rating: 3/5

Review by Daniel Lima

For the past decade, Kensuke Sonomura has made a name for himself as one of the best action choreographers today. Working in television, video games, and film, he has a penchant for delivering wildly creative set pieces, utilizing a diverse array of styles to build action scenes that actually tell a story. While his first directorial effort Hydra was an indie drama that happened to have a couple good fights, Bad City is a throwback to classic Japanese genre cinema, and stands among the year’s best action movies.
 
Set in the fictional Kaiko City, a den of crime and corruption, the film follows the efforts of a hand-picked team of special investigators as they attempt to take down the local kingpin. Their efforts run afoul of the Yakuza, a Korean gang that has entrenched itself in the city, and the government officials on their payroll. It’s a volatile situation — one that provides ample opportunity for some jaw-dropping, blistering brawls.
 
This film is in conversation with the V-cinema of the 1990s. At the time when the Japanese theatrical market was cratering, studios took notice of the home video market, and began producing films catering to the interest of video store customers. In contrast to the stately historical dramas and crime epics that were failing at the box office, these films boasted runtimes rarely above an hour, and were packed to the brim with gore and violence. Careers were built on the back of these horror and action films, including those of Bad City star Hitoshi Ozawa.
 
Perhaps best known today for his role in the Yakuza video game series, Ozawa was known for playing bruisers and thugs in a number of B-movies through the decades. Here, he plays a hard-boiled cop, released on parole for a murder conviction to lead up the investigative task force. Even in his sixties, he exudes a commanding, threatening air, and gives a magnetic performance. The rest of the ensemble is commendable, particularly Akane Sakanoue as a green detective, but it’s his presence that makes the most impact. That he manages to be just as forceful through the tremendous action scenes — with no stunt doubles at that — is even more impressive.

Sonomura’s choreography has always been precise and technical, almost clinically so, often combining striking with grappling and weapons work in incredibly complex displays of what the human body can do. Bad City is no different, but befitting the gritty crime story that the film is, the action maintains the feel of a street brawl. The action is clear, and the space the action takes place in is always established before the fists start flying, but Sonomura adopts a more obvious handheld style to lend the fights more immediacy. Just about every fight is a chaotic and frantic affair with a dozen participants, with the protagonists forced to adapt to and control an ever-changing battlefield.
 
The choreography reflects this, with characters focused on gaining leverage over their opponents, taking them on one at a time, taking them out as quickly and efficiently as possible. The result is almost too beautiful to put into words, with bodies contorting themselves into increasingly complex configurations, as everyone lets loose dangerous-looking power blows. As brutal as it looks, it remains every bit as fluid and dynamic as any of Sonomura's previous work. That it maintains this level of complexity while still incorporating beats within the action, moments in which the momentum of a fight shifts and a narrative is conveyed through physical movement, is simply sublime. It’s exhilarating to watch, with a climax in contention for the best action set piece of the year.
 
If there’s one great failing of the film, however, it’s that it doesn’t take enough inspiration from its influences. Where classic V-cinema was practically defined by short runtimes that favored genre thrills above all else, the drama of this film is almost as complex as the action choreography, with numerous players, motives, and machinations all competing for the audience’s attention. Sonomura proves to have the same command of rhythm and visual language in staging these scenes that he does in the fights, so none of it is taxing to sit through. Much of this, however, feels superfluous to the actual meat of the story, with too much time spent fleshing out characters who never even interact with the bulk of the cast. One can easily imagine a more streamlined version of this movie that excises this fluff, and that version could have been an all-time action classic.
 
As it stands, Bad City is still a solid entry into the modern action canon, with a level of ingenuity that far surpasses the expensive blockbusters of today. A more concise narrative would have been appreciated, but when action filmmaking craft is operating at this level, it’s hard to be too bothered. Whatever Kensuke Sonomura does next, one can only hope that he delivers something as exciting as this. 

Bad City releases on VOD August 1.

Rating: 4/5

It’s always disappointing to see a fantastic premise squandered. Based on a children’s book, The Furry Fortune had amazing potential as an odd, light-hearted, high-concept family film. That potential goes unrealized. Even by the standards of low-budget family entertainment, this is one of the shoddiest, laziest attempts at a comedy I’ve had the furry misfortune of watching.
 
A young brother and sister discover that the family dog has suddenly begun to shed money when it is happy. As the down-on-their-luck family begins to enjoy this infinite money exploit, they draw the ire of their new neighbors, a jerk IRS agent and his jerk son. As wondrous as the canine’s ability is, however, it might prove that his greatest superpower is how he brings the family together.
 
This is a crowdfunded family-friendly indie, and its meager budget certainly shows. A low budget is not an inherently bad thing, but the days of an ultra low-budget movie like Manos: The Hands of Fate — when the restrictions of shooting on film required a certain amount of forethought and consideration simply to capture an image — have since passed. In the age where the raw capture of a digital sensor is considered good enough, a film like The Furry Fortune seemingly cannot afford simple film craft like framing, blocking, and lighting.
 
There is no visual ingenuity beyond keeping people in frame and in focus, no attempt to communicate a story visually, much less attempt visual comedy. The blandness calls attention to the awful production design, which makes the supposedly beleaguered but lived-in family home look like the two-day studio rental space it probably is. The result is a film with the misé-en-scene of an early morning infomercial.

Review by Dan Skip Allen

Review by Cole Groth

​Netflix’s latest animation, The Monkey King, is frankly pretty forgettable. From the opening frame, any expectations I had going into it were smoothed out, as the cheap-looking animation is immediately present. A by-the-numbers fantasy story keeps this from feeling like anything special, but it’s at least fun enough while watching to leave a positive, if faint, impression.

With an all-star Asian cast featuring the voices of Jimmy O. Yang, Bowen Yang, Jo Kay, BD Wong, and Stephanie Hsu, The Monkey King tells the story of a super-powered monkey trying to climb his way up to status as an Immortal. Unfortunately for him, an evil water dragon seeks to thwart his quest, forcing the monkey to overcome his weaknesses on an epic adventure. Clearly, this plot isn’t anything special. If you’ve seen one of these fantasy/adventure movies, you’ll be well aware of all the beats here. Thankfully, like those movies, this one is satisfying. It’s hard to not have fun as the story progresses, and it’s clear that this will succeed with families.

The Monkey King’s biggest weakness is easily its animation. There’s something unsettling about the smooth skin of every character and the intense elasticity of their animations. There’s a sequence where the animation shifts from 3D to 2D, and it almost feels like it shouldn’t have been included because it shows what we could’ve gotten: style. The studio behind this, Pearl Studio, is responsible for a string of well-received animated movies, including Kung Fu Panda 3, Abominable, and Over the Moon. Still, this lacks any defined vision and will struggle to stand out among other outsourced animated films.