Fantasia: July 23

by Brenden Fletcher,
Malcolm Fraser
and Alex Rose

Mitsuko Delivers
The latest from Yuya Ishii may be the gentlest film on this year’s Fantasia slate. Fans of dragons, zombies, Korean gangsters drop-kicking each other off skyscrapers or chainsaw-wielding schoolgirls riding Segways may not find what they’re looking for; while there is a pregnant woman at the center of the story, what happens to her is hardly Cronenbergian. That’s not to say that Mitsuko Delivers is not compelling, however – it’s a wonderfully measured dramedy not unlike the better works of Jason Reitman (with a 200% less sassy pregnant protagonist) or Alexander Payne.

Flat broke and nine months pregnant with the child of an American who’s unceremoniously flown the coop, twenty-something Mitsuko (Riisa Naka) follows the clouds, only to return to the slum she lived in as a child. Almost completely deserted, this once-teeming neighbourhood is now home to her sickly surrogate grandmother/former landlord and a dingy restaurant run by an uncle-and-nephew team that have all but given up on actually ever serving food to customers. Eternally optimistic in the face of adversity, Mitsuko moves in with Grandma and takes it upon herself to better everyone’s life and spruce up the old neighbourhood before the baby is born, so as to bring the baby into a “cool” world.

Director Ishii weaves a portrait of mid-recession, working-class Japan that never stoops down to the award-baiting misery porn it could have been in the hands of a broader filmmaker. Ishii strikes a great balance between comedy and pathos, often to the great dismay of the easily-teared-up Mitsuko. Although the character’s constant philosophizing and unflappable optimism verges on Forrest Gump levels of irritating, it’s nicely offset by Naka’s likeable performance as Japan’s most driven (and nap-craving) good Samaritan. While it’s too formulaic to be truly memorable, it serves as a perfect palate cleanser between the exploding heads and machine gun ballets. (AR) 12:30p.m., J.A. De Sève Theatre (1455 Maisonneuve W.)

---

The Sword Identity

Don’t go looking for acrobatic wirework or fantastic kung-fu powers in Xu Haofeng’s directorial debut. This is a more deliberate, almost meditative kind of wuxia film, with a surprisingly realistic take on martial arts battles.

A couple of former soldiers storm a coastal city in an attempt to prove to the masters within that they are worthy of opening a school that would perpetuate the revolutionary fighting technique of their late leader, General Qi. Sadly for them, that technique involves the use of an unusual sword that’s based on an illegal Japanese fighting blade.

One soldier is captured (Yao Weiping), the other (Song Yang) hunted, mistaken for a Japanese pirate (the very bandits his technique was forged to combat). He takes refuge in a barge full of dancing girls, toys around with the city’s hapless coast guard (the Keystone Cops of the story) and incurs the wrath of a formerly retired master (Yu Chenghui) with a scandalous past, before setting himself to free his comrade in arms and prove the power of his unique weapon.

Xu crafts a unique, masterful and often humorous experience in The Sword Identity, not only handling directorial duties but also responsible for the screenplay and fight choreography of the film. For all its skillful design, thoughtful approach to martial arts and light comic moments, however, the story tends to drag in the middle.

Luckily, the performances are rock solid and ably shoulder the burden of carrying the film as the plot loses its footing. Don’t miss the contemporary Tim Hecker-style score by Zhang Yang, which adds a gentle, modern flavour that shouldn’t be overlooked. (BF) 5 p.m., Hall Theatre (1455 Maisonneuve W.)

---

We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists

If you needed a reminder that we live in strange times, the first of many in Brian Knappenberger’s doc comes when an interview subject, Joshua Corman, is identified as a “security strategist/philosopher.” That’s the world we live in, and the world documented in this portrait of the hacker collective Anonymous.

Interviewing several members of the loose-knit group—a number of whom mask their faces and voices, and/or go by names like Commander X, Pokeanon and Vendetta—the doc does its damnedest to coherently explain how Anonymous came to be, and how it developed from a band of pranksters to a politicized activist movement. Though they’ve obviously been in the news a lot of late, the doc reminds us just how closely Anonymous has been tied to some of the most major events of recent years, from WikiLeaks to Occupy and the Arab Spring.

It’s a fairly one-sided portrait, accepting on faith Anon’s belief in its own righteousness with a few token nods to editorial balance. Only one of their opponents—former HB Gary CEO Aaron Barr, who wrote a proposal (later leaked by Anonymous, of course) to start cyber-warfare and propaganda against hacktivists—dares appear on camera, and Knappenberger lets Barr hang himself with his own rope.

Despite Knappenberger’s efforts to keep things clear, insider talk does creep in from time to time, but all in all this informative and provocative portrait should be seen by anyone with any level of curiosity about this most contemporary of movements. (MF) 10 p.m., Hall Theatre.