The 20th Los Angeles Film Festival has begun! Despite its location in the heart of the film industry in downtown Los Angeles, and the now 20 years it has under its belt, the LA Film Fest hasn’t yet joined the ranks of Sundance, Cannes, and Toronto. But this year’s offerings prove the LA Film Festival can hold it’s own with 35 premieres, 23 of those World Premieres. Put on by Film Independent, who also stage the annual Independent Spirit Awards, the film festival has a distinct indie feel, and first time and emerging artists are given deserved exposure. The festival kicked off with the North American premiere of Joon-Ho Bong’s dystopian flick, Snowpiercer. Despite its rocky entry and noted squabbles over editing for the North American release, the film is here and it’s magnificent.

Set in 2031, the future of the world is cold and bleak. Literally. The world has been frozen over when an attempt to counter global warming backfired and the world is now a snow-covered tundra. The last few survivors live aboard the Snow Piercer, a train that travels along a worldwide track at breakneck speeds powered by a perpetual-motion engine. Over the past 17 years that the train has traveled on its endless loop, a class system has emerged. Those up front near the engine live in luxury, those at the tail live in destitution. Led by elderly Gilliam (John Hurt), a revolution begins to form and at its forefront is Curtis (Chris Evans playing a decidedly darker hero than the recent Captain America), along with his doting friend Edgar (Jamie Bell). They’ve been receiving messages from someone at the front, encouraging their revolution. After several of their children are taken and yet another innocent man is punished, they decide the time has come to fight back. Their first mission: rescuing an ex-security man from the jail section, Namgoong Minsu (Kang-ho Song), who can open the gates as they make their way to the front of the train.

The film pays sincere homage to its comic roots. Based on the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige by Jacques Lob, many of the film’s sequences play out in well formed sequences that could easily have been taken directly from frames on the novel’s pages. The exaggerated characters feel the most cartoonish at times, but always to excellent effect, the standout character easily being Tilda Swinton’s Minister Mason, a first class train citizen in charge of representing the almighty Wilford, he who built the train and runs its engine. Mason, with her large lipstick stained teeth, school-girl bob, and her stylized Yorkshire accent is excellent material for Swinton’s skills.

The film is well paced, fleshing out its characters as they level-up to each new section of the train. And the train! An ingenius setting for a revolution, each section narrow and yet wholly original in its purpose. Food manufacturing. Water source. Sushi bar. Sauna. School room. Night club. Each of them bringing some new insight into the train’s hierarchy, and each building to what awaits beyond the final gate: the engine room. Art Director Stefan Kovacik continually impresses with each subsequent scene.

The end threatens to weigh the film down. While Chris Evans easily impresses wielding an axe, shooting a gun, and looks damn good with bruises and blood covering him for most of the film, his wide-eyed wonder during the film’s complicated ending is entirely out of character for the action-oriented Curtis. The final 20 minutes are easily where the Weinsteins could have insisted on some editing and the film would have been all the better for it. But as drawn out and self aware as it is, each revelatory moment in the ending adds to the epic feel of the film and Ed Harris’s portrayal of the enigmatic Wilford, while somewhat expected, is still worth the film’s build.

By far the best sci-fi film I’ve seen yet this year, and proof that international films make for more interesting dynamics, Snowpiercer is easily the original action film a summer full of big budget explosions needs.

Doomsday Book is a Korean anthology film from directors Kim Ji-woon and Yim Pil-sung. It was originally supposed to have three directors as it has three chapters but the two collaborated on one together when the other director dropped out. It works out to basically be three short films with the common link between them being the theme of the end of the world. It is a rather distinctive group of science fiction stories that are told with various levels of success.

The first chapter is entitled “A Brave New World” which was directed by Yim. It follows a geeky lab technician (Seung-beom Ryu) as he is tasked to clean his family’s apartment while they are on vacation. As he is cleaning he notices a rotten apple which the camera follows from the trash bin to where it eventually ends up; in food that he and others later consume. Many others. In fact, it is not long before the virus spreads to most of the citizens. At first the victims have flu-like symptoms but soon after that it turns them into zombies.

Even though a lot of what is seen in “A Brave New World” would be found in a typical horror film, the segment is set against a comedic tone. The score ensures that you do not take the subject matter you see too seriously. Overall, it was my least favorite chapter but at the very end it brings in a quote from the Bible that fits in wonderfully.

Kim’s centerpiece “The Heavenly Creature” features a robot repair specialist that was requested to inspect a robot that resides in a Buddhist temple. As he is inspecting the defective robot it is brought to his attention that the robot itself is Buddhist. This is a unique situation that he has never come across ever before. The robot turns out not to be defective but instead is achieving enlightenment.

This story was definitely most interesting one as it covers how technology is not only affecting social issues but it takes on religion as well. You find yourself rooting for the robot as its makers try to destroy it. Kim gives the robot heart while tackling some heavy topics.

Doomsday Book finishes with the final chapter called “Happy Birthday”. Korean scientists have noticed that a meteor is about to hit the Earth causing a panic that the world may end soon. The story is centered on a young girl who orders a replacement eight ball that she lost for her father’s pool table. The order becomes much more than she bargained for as that eight ball is in fact the 10 km meteor that is scheduled to hit the Earth.

“Happy Birthday” was the most exaggerated plot of them all.The first two segments were also imaginative but not completely out of the realm of happening. The thing I enjoyed most about the last one was the delightful visuals. The silly comedy peppered throughout was fun but it ultimately did not work for me as well as the previous segments did.

By nature with anthology films, you are going to get a mixed result when you bring in a mix of stories and directors, Doomsday Book is no exception. Some of the segments work better than others, in particular the part done by Kim. However, as much as I enjoyed the second part the best, it stuck out for the wrong reason. The first and last segments felt more playful and funny while the middle one took a much more serious route resulting in a muddled project that most anthology films struggle with.

Joon-ho Bong has pulled off a sensational 120 minutes of a film that you just can’t afford to miss. With mystery, distress and tension, Memories of Murder, comes close to being one of the finest foreign thrillers that I’ve got my hands upon in recent years. It’d be a shame to put down a film such as this, only because it brings in so many bags of savour along with it.

There are a few scenes initially that need to be critically forgiven, only because it needed to be dealt with in order for the film to mould itself up together. I was skeptical at first, but the film ended up giving me little to pick on after the beginning. With Joon-ho Bong’s films, there’s more than just a regular site to cinema that you’ll come across – there’s so much that you would get to learn. Take The Host in consideration as well; both these films were proudly portrayed to their masses and delivered beautifully because of the subtlety in their tone and overall presentation. The film is gifted with darkness, heavy rain, the musk and cinematic representations of its Polaroid beauty. This may have nothing to do with the film, but completes the atmosphere and depicts its true personality.

As an audience, there’s a tendency for us to get puzzled with the way in which the film would be heading. There are some untold questions as it appeared to be rushed at first, but later it maintains its pace perfectly. I still didn’t understand why Det. Seo Tae-Yoon (Sang-kyung Kim) visited the crime scene in the first place or why the killer played his cards in the way in which he did. There’s a difference in the way in which this thriller presents itself. It draws its chapters working its way through the investigation rather than the psyche of the killer. You wouldn’t ever understand why the killings dress themselves in the way in which they do, the highly unusual M.O. or as to why it all started in the first place. Memories of Murder connects itself differently, through observations, guess work, and the obvious trail of links; yet, managing to break open with style, timing and flair.

With music by Tarō Iwashiro, there isn’t much that you’ll remember really – which surprisingly drives as a high positive for the film. Musical appearances were only brought around when required and were left alone in silence when it wasn’t called for. Dialogues were given its priorities (correctly) and the OST timed itself to follow up a rush of a heart beat from time to time. As rightly known by us all, certain volumes of tension are greatly deserved in order for a thriller (or a mystery) film to perform. The film begins to unfold its ways towards this direction only after the first real murder takes place outside the factory. It proves its strength thereafter and maintains a promising delivery.

Memories of Murder is rightly benefited by Kang-ho Song’s performance. I’ve seen him play his part in a few films in recent years and I could see a drastic difference to his later films (along with the unchanged company of Joon-ho Bong). There’s life and sincerity present in his efforts along with his gentle naïve nature to please his own humble inflated ego. Det. Park’s character couldn’t have been altered in any other way to suit the film’s needs. I was highly overwhelmed by the consistency in the journey of Det. Seo’s individual personality. You wouldn’t have realized the pattern in transformation that was headed by principles and morals (at first) followed up by a boundless effort towards the case that finally led to frustration, grief and the eagerness to catch the suspect at whatever cost. It seemed as if the two detectives managed to switch their identities towards the end of the film; wonderful to observe the narrow path of change.

I was quite unhappy to learn from the start (as the credits rolled up my screen) about the way in which Memories of Murder would come to end. I wouldn’t want to spoil it any further for you, but it could have had a heavier impact had the filmmaker not announce the most crucial detail of the film before the film had even got a chance to play its first few cards. Not only does Joon-ho Bong have the vision to grasp the non-linear techniques in filmmaking, he also has the knack to deliver a diverse and a fresh style to a thriller experience.