Ahhh, so finally, we come to the closing night of the festival!
Permute
Permute
is a short film inspired by film noir which features traditional media like hand-drawn 2D animation and photography. We
watch as Lulu, the ink and paper heroine, frantically darts through the
city only to end up having her world turned upside down (literally) by a devastating phone call.
Permute was an Emily Carr grad film project by Lydia Fu, originally from Chicago.
West 32nd
West
32nd is a riveting film about the cold and complex Korean underworld
nestled in Flushing, New York. John Cho plays a young, ambitious lawyer
who takes on a pro-bono case to help raise his profile in the corporate world
while trying to clear a 14-year-old of a cold-blooded murder
charge. Lila (Grace Park), the defendant's older sister, pulls him in one
direction, as Mike Juhn (Jun Sung Kim), a ballsy minion trying to climb
the ranks of the Korean ganster ladder, pulls him in another. Each
character makes you fall for them, but, in the end, none are who they
seem. Are there any good guys?
Along with the aforementioned
actors, Jane Kim (a former Miss Teen Georgia USA winner who had me
convinced that she was Korean born and raised) did a phenomenal job
playing Suki - particularly in the scene in which her character shares her doe-eyed account of the murder of her
lover. Jun Sung Kim, who played Mike Juhn, was actually picked from
Korea for both his acting talent and for his cross-cultural
influences (having lived in Korea, the USA, and Hong Kong). Mike Juhn had
to be played by an actor who could pull off a Bronx attitude while
seamlessly flowing between Korean and English (his bad-boy good
looks don't hinder him either).
It's unfortunate that we
never get to meet Kevin, the boy who is at the heart of all the trouble in the story. But that could have been the point - it really isn't about him after all, is it? The story is really about
how far people go to further their own needs, goals and
desires - not about the innocence (or guilt) of a young boy.
West 32nd has shown in Korea as well as numerous film festivals across
North America with loud fanfare. In the near future it will be screened in select cities across North America.
West 32nd
was Grace Park's first leading role in a feature film. When asked what
initially drew her to the film, she answered that it was ultimately the
"different sense of humour" conveyed through the script. She candidly
spoke about her first encounter with John Cho who was charming and
funny, yet aloof, and how when she found out that he would also be
acting in the film she hoped (jokingly or not?) that he wouldn't be
playing opposite her as the lawyer, John Kim. Park had minimal Korean
language skill prior to filming and thankfully had the help of her
mother and husband in practicing lines. However, once the Korean parts
were filmed, the producers requested that she dub them over (they were
much better second time around!) Park also confessed that while the
cast and crew did research for the film, they "hung out with some
medium level, I dunno what you'd call them.... gangsters!"
