By Shiyin Wang
The fifth annual Rhode Island International Film Festival kicked off at the Columbus Theatre in Providence Thursday night with two mediocre movie entries from Japan.
This year's festival will showcase works from Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia and the United States. According to the RIIFF website, there are 22 films and a variety of shorts and features offered over the course of the festival, which ends Sunday.
Throughout the weekend, the festival will feature local filmmakers, book signings, an art exhibit and awards for Best Feature and Best Short.
The festival opened with a series of Japanese short films as part of its annual Japanese Showcase.
The first film, "The Strange Killers," by Japan's Shunsuke Yamamoto, is less of a horror film than a comedy with monsters in it. If it is intended as a horror, then the filmmaker needs to rethink the definition of horror. As a comedy, it is hit-or-miss.
The film follows Maeda, a lazy unemployed man who is cheating on his wife. His wife hates him and wants him dead for insurance money, so she hires the Japanese Hit Men's Association to get rid of him. The JHA sends its second worst assassin to do the job. Along the way, the worst assassin tries to intercept the second-worst in order to prove himself. Maeda's mistress tries to kill his wife, and the wife turns into a blue, clawed monster.
Most of the humor is slapstick, involving over-the-top violence, toilet humor and humiliation. Some of the humor is ironic, but most of it is juvenile. Still, the audience cannot help but laugh.
The film cannot decide whether it is serious or absurd. Maeda's girlfriend goes into a psychotic rage, and elements of horror emerge, but they never play out. Perhaps Yamamoto intended to make a horror movie with occasional comedic elements, but ended up failing on the horror.
The second film, Ryuhei Kitamura's "Alive," is much better but still has serious flaws.
The most obvious difference between the two films is in graphic quality. "Alive" looks professional and uses a drab color scheme that is almost artistic.
The film is set in a dark, cold prison at some point in the future. A man identified as "Condemned Man" is scheduled to be executed but miraculously survives. He is given the choice to live and is placed in a room with another execution survivor who goes unidentified. Both are serial killers. The room is an experiment, presumably to test how long the men can survive without killing each other.
As the conditions in the room worsen, the men fall into insanity and the film is at its strongest. Unidentified is loud and manic and hates Condemned's stoicism. The contrast between Unidentified's desperation and Condemned's numbness is skillfully executed. The psychological torment that is evident in the two actors' faces makes the film extremely chilling, even though it does not rely on cheap shocks to create fear.
When the men go too long without murdering each other, a woman is sent into the room to entice them. Here, the film begins to break down. The craftsmanship is consistent, but the plot takes a downturn. The viewer discovers that this is a science fiction film, not a psychological thriller.
"Alive" is a good film, especially coming from an independent filmmaker. The visuals are stunning and the effects are well executed. The film is never outright bad, but it is disappointing.
Despite its uneven beginning, the festival is a great opportunity to see art created by individuals. The centerpiece, a restored version of the 1919 German classic "Tales of the Uncanny," will be shown tonight at 7 p.m. It is a collection of five vignettes following the actions of a courtesan, Death and the Devil.
The price for the screening is $10.
According to the RIIFF website, in order to show the film "as it might have been seen when it was first released," conductor James Rohr will lead a live musical accompaniment during the screening of the silent film.
Following "Tales of the Uncanny" at 9 p.m., there will be double feature of "Freak Out," a British film, and "Shelf Life," a film from Canada. The festivities continue Saturday and Sunday afternoon with many more works, usually shown in sets of three. The price for each set is $8, and most sets are two hours long.
On Sunday night at 7:15 p.m., the festival closes on a humorous note with the showing of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer singalong, "Once More with Feeling." This is Buffy TV series creator Joss Whedon's musical arrangement, which includes original songs as well as music from the series. The price for this screening is $10.
The entire event takes place at the Columbus Theatre, located at 270 Broadway.
