Slicing and dicing time

My schedule for the BFFF appears to be something like this:

Thursday, 10/14

Saw (9:30)

Good buzz on this. (Buzzsaw. Heh.) It’s a low budget horror flick starring Cary Elwes with a claustrophobic one-room setup — the gimmick is a serial killer who always convinces his victims to kill themselves. I was hoping this would drift through Boston sometime.

Friday, 10/15

Infernal Affairs (7:30)

The hot Hong Kong police thriller of the moment. The premise: both the mob and the cops planted an undercover agent in the opposite ranks. Fifteen years later, violence ensues. This series replaced the Young and Dangerous movies as the top Hong Kong action series, which is kind of unsurprising since they share the same director. I liked Young and Dangerous a lot and I’m gonna like this too. It’s currently being remade by Martin Scorsese with Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio; the remake is set in Boston and centers on the Irish mob rather than the triads. You can feel the Boston mob movie trend juggernaut gaining steam, can’t you?

Alive (9:30)

SF action flick from Ryuhei Kitamura. I have heard depressing word of mouth on this one, but his zombie samurai movie (Versus) was superb and I loved the trailers for his historical samurai movie, Azumi. So I may well see it anyhow.

Saturday, 10/16

Five Children and It (3:00)

The BBC thought this was hopelessly twee. But, you know, so was the book and I love it to pieces. Also, Eddie Izzard is not to be missed. So I could pretend that I don’t want to see this but I would be lying.

Appleseed (7:30)

I’m not a huge anime fan but I probably want to see this anyhow, in the interests of exposing myself to new goodness. Giant mecha fighting in the future? OK!

The Bottled Fool (9:30)

Yeah, I dunno. This sounds quite honestly like the kind of lengthy dragging Japanese psychological drama I don’t enjoy. But I’m curious. Film Threat liked it in a tentative way.

Perdita Durango (midnight)

Far as I can tell, nobody liked this. Oh well. Quasi-sequel to Wild At Heart, which is about the biggest weight on the “see it” side of the scales. My decision on this will be based on stamina.

Sunday, 10/17

Freeze Frame (7:30)

This hasn’t been anywhere on my radar — I kind of suspect it of being an average thriller that I wouldn’t care about if it were a Hollywood production. I like the idea of a man who films everything he does to provide an alibi for himself, though; it’s very David Brin and it might well be enough of a framework to hang a movie on.

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (9:30)

I’m big-time excited about this. I did not so much like this director’s next movie, Old Boy, but hey — maybe it was the viewing conditions, maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood, and maybe Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance won’t be as much transgression for the sake of transgression. And Old Boy was certainly technically exceedingly proficient.

Monday, 10/18

A Tale of Two Sisters (7:45)

Not the incredibly awful looking Adam Rifkin movie. Rather, more Korean horror, influenced by Japanese post-millenial horror. Two girls return from a mental institution to their family home, where their father and cruel stepmother await. South Korea’s film industry is well worth investigation, so I’m looking forward to this.