Legendary Japanese filmmaker Sion Sono blew audiences away last year at TIFF (where we first saw it) with his insanely wild film Why Don’t You Play in Hell?, which he describes as “an action film about the love of 35mm.” This self-aware genre exploitation movie is based on a screenplay he wrote nearly fifteen years ago about an amateur film crew who earn an opportunity to film a live yakuza battle to the death. Filled with laughs, action, extreme violence, and general outrageousness, Why Don’t You Play in Hell? is often compared to the work of Quentin Tarantino. Watch the trailer below to see for yourself just how ridiculous (in the best way possible) the film looks.

Why Don’t You Play in Hell? will hit theaters and VOD on November 7th.

Why Don’t You Play in Hell? trailer

Over the last 2 weeks my opinions have changed towards some of the films I’ve seen. Watching up to 4 films in one day can be exhausting, and sometimes through reflection films can seem better or worse in retrospect. In other words, if there are inconsistencies between my list and the reviews/ratings I gave, deal with it.

My Top 20 Films from the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival:

#20 – The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears

It’s amazing how much Cattet/Forzani’s style worked in Amer, and how much it didn’t work here. At the start I was thinking it might be the best film I saw at TIFF up to that point. At the end it felt like nails on a chalkboard.
The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears review

#19 – Moebius

This only gets ranked above Strange Colour purely by the fact that I could watch it without a problem.
Moebius review

#18 – The Green Inferno

Half of the movie is poorly acted and written drivel. The other half’s nastiness and excellent make-up by KnB make it more tolerable, but this belongs right alongside the other horror films only available on VOD.
The Green Inferno review

#17 – Like Father, Like Son

A complicated moral tale destroyed by its director making his characters spend 2 hours catching up to agree with his point of view (which is established immediately). A snooze.
Like Father, Like Son review

#16 – A Field in England

A cheap, nonsensical and mind-maddening period piece involving alchemists and hallucinogenic mushrooms. Some fun moments when things go berserk editing-wise, but that’s about the only entertainment value I got out of it.
A Field in England review

#15 – Night Moves

Kelly Reichardt is still terrific behind the camera, but she put all her eggs in the wrong basket this time. Nothing really works here on a fundamental level, leaving the visuals and cast to do their best.
Night Moves review

#14 – October November

Gotz Spielmann’s disappointing follow-up to Revanche tries to tell a dramatic story with no real drama in it. An admirable effort, but nothing more than that.
October November review

#13 – Canopy

An amazing debut on a technical level, but ultimately lacking. Still, Aaron Wilson will be a name to look out for if he makes another film.
Canopy review

#12 – R100

At times hilarious, but completely baffling overall. Hitoshi Matsumoto’s usual brand of off-kiler humour and self-aware jokes just don’t mix as well as his other films this time.
R100 review

#11 – The Sacrament

Ti West’s attempt to document a modern-day Jonestown hasn’t been aging well with me. It’s still well-done, and has some excellent warming up in the first two acts, but it isn’t making much of an impact in the way his previous films have with me. The subject matter seems a little bit in poor taste too if you know what it’s based on, but it’s still an effective horror film.
The Sacrament review

#10 – Under the Skin

I have my issues with it, but I can’t deny Under the Skin‘s power. It’s one of the more Kubrickian films I’ve seen in years, and I still can’t shake some images from it out of my head. I wish the shift in the second half was handled better, but in time I feel like I’ll grow to appreciate Under the Skin much more than I already do.
Under the Skin review

#9 – Gravity

It’s disappointing from Cuaron, but I can’t deny how much of a technical marvel this is. Expect this to win all the technical awards at the Oscars. There won’t even be a competition.
Gravity review

#8 – Manakamana

One of the most fascinating films I saw at the festival, and it further establishes Harvard’s Sensory Ethnography Lab as one of the best documentary producers today. It was a pleasant surprise when Cinema Guild picked this up for distribution, and I hope that people are willing to give it a chance.
Manakamana review

#7 – Blind Detective

Johnnie To loses his mind, and the results are just as entertaining as many of his other films. Even when he’s switching genres between films (or within the films themselves), To proves he’s one of the more consistent filmmakers working today.
Blind Detective review

#6 – Why Don’t You Play In Hell?

Sono is back on form with his absolutely insane love letter to 35mm filmmaking and projection. It’s gloriously bonkers, simultaneously all over the place and tightly controlled, and a fun time for the most part.
Why Don’t You Play In Hell? review

#5 – The Past

Asghar Farhadi makes yet another well-done drama, with a terrific cast playing people who can’t escape the tragedies from (say it with me) their pasts. Farhadi seems to be the only filmmaker doing stories like this today, and we’re all the better for it.
The Past review

#4 – Oculus

Mike Flanagan lives up to the potential he showed in Absentia. It’s a horror film that understands the power of story, with a terrifying villain and a terrific script that uses its single location brilliantly. Hopefully audiences will discover Oculus, as the horror genre needs more people like Flanagan.
Oculus review

#3 – Stranger By The Lake

Gorgeous, seductive and a total nail-biter by the end. Stranger is an amazingly well-constructed film that will resonate with anyone who watches it.
Stranger By The Lake review

#2 – Only Lovers Left Alive

A film where one can live vicariously through its characters, and Jarmusch nails the carefree tone he’s clearly going for. It’s a big, long kiss to great artists throughout history, and it’s a total blast to watch.
Only Lovers Left Alive review

#1 – Stray Dogs

Tsai Ming-Liang’s swan song pushes the limits of his style (and his actors!) further than ever before. It’s a film where the weight of time on its characters are fully understood, and a showcase of just how masterful Tsai is when it comes to form. If it truly is his last film, he’ll be going out with one of his best films to date.
Stray Dogs review

Blind Detective

On my second-last day of the festival, I was not expecting to have one of the craziest days I’ve ever had at TIFF in my six years of going. Starting off, I was getting ready for one of my more anticipated films at the festival. Blind Detective is the latest film by Johnnie To, whose film Drug War is one of my favourites this year. Having been a fan of To’s work for years, I had an idea of what I was getting into. His style usually has scenes play out without any establishment or set-up, with the details usually being filled in after the fact. It can be confusing, and To’s no-nonsense pacing means that you have to keep up in order to follow along with everything going on.

Nothing could prepare me for what did come though. To’s tricks are still here, but he’s never thrown so much at the camera before. Johnston (Andy Lau) is the title detective, a former cop who lost his sight and now spends his days solving old cases to collect reward money. After unknowingly helping police bust a criminal, detective Ho (Sammi Cheng) asks him for help. She’ll pay him to help find out what happened to a childhood friend of hers who vanished years earlier, and he’ll show her how to become a better detective.

Johnston turns out to be rather unlikable, usually using Ho’s physical prowess to help him solve other crimes he’s investigating while tricking her into thinking they’re related to her case, but Ho expectedly falls for him. Watching them go around re-enacting various crime scenes (Johnston’s strategy is to re-live the crime scene, which mostly translates to physically harming Ho repeatedly) is funny, and soon the entire thing feels like one of the most deranged romantic comedies ever made. To uses plenty of physical humour and slapstick which, combined with the very Parisian score, brings Jacques Tati’s films to mind.

While To isn’t that good, he’s still a master at entertainment and it shines through here. The assortment of subplots, eccentric characters and plot twists that come barreling through (including a deranged lovesick grandmother, a murderous gambler and a love quadrangle to name a few) almost sink the film by the end, but To manages to handle most of them with ease. Cheng and Lau’s chemistry is great, and it’s nice to see To doing something more light-hearted in tone even if the material is incredibly dark. The overstuffed plot and 2+ hour runtime make this one of To’s minor works instead of a classic, but even second-tier To is a hell of an entertaining time.

RATING: 7.2

Why Don’t You Play In Hell?

Following that was Why Don’t You Play In Hell?, the latest feature from Japanese madman Sion Sono. With Blind Detective I was taken back by the eccentric qualities of it since it was so unlike To, but Sono is a different story entirely. He’s directed gems like Suicide Club, the 4-hour Love Exposure, S&M drama Strange Circus and the nutty serial killer tale Cold Fish. It’s been over 2 years since Sono’s made a genre film, he made 2 dramas about the massive earthquake and tsunami since Guilty of Romance, but he’s more than made up for lost time here.

Somehow Sono manages to top himself here, going all-out with what looks like everything he can think of. The film starts with two different storylines: One involving wannabe teen filmmakers called The Fuck Bombers, and the other focusing on a long-standing feud between rival Yakuza gangs. Giving away specific details would ruin most of the film’s fun, as the story is so convoluted and filled with connections that it’s fun to see the surprises in store (I usually hate when a film flashes back to an earlier scene to force an audience to see how things are connected, but their use here is absolutely vital given the information overload).

Once the two plots merge, it leads to a massive sequence that’s hilarious in its gleeful bloodlust and self-awareness. It’s the kind of sequence that would make Tarantino proud, and I’m certain that if he gets a chance to see Why Don’t You Play In Hell? he’d be a huge fan. The meta elements and Sono’s general goofiness sometimes drown out everything else going on in the film, usually in a bad way, but when everything comes together it provides some huge laughs and some of the most ridiculous moments in cinema this year. With Stateside distribution acquired by Drafthouse Films, Why Don’t You Play In Hell? might finally be Sono’s breakthrough for Western audiences. If so, it’s a great place to start. Despite everything going on, it’s by far his most accessible film in ages.

RATING: 7.3

R100

Finally, I sat down to catch R100, yet another title playing in Midnight Madness this year. I was a big fan of Symbol, director Hitoshi Matsumoto’s previous film that played at TIFF. Like Symbol, R100 takes its sweet time to get going. A wimpy-looking businessman (Nao Omori) discovers a club called Bondage, which offers him the ultimate pleasure in S&M: For one year, different dominatrices will randomly appear in his day-to-day life and publicly beat and/or humiliate him. He signs the contract, and things go well for a while until the group starts getting involved with his family and career. The businessman tries to end the contract, but in doing so he discovers just how dangerous and life-threatening this club really is.

It takes a while before Matsumoto drops a meta element into the film that explains its title (some necessary background: the Japanese rating system goes by R15, R18, etc. to bar certain age groups from seeing a movie). The film is directed by a 100 year old man who insists that only people his age will truly understand what’s going on in it. The scenes where a group of people (ratings board? producers? distributors? The film never really explains who these people are exactly) deconstruct the film provide some of the biggest laughs, and the same goes for Matsumoto’s cameo as a cop who calls out the absurdity of the S&M lifestyle, but that’s kind of it in terms of major laughs.

Matsumoto’s sense of humour can just be far too strange to really enjoy sometimes, leaving me staring blankly at what he’s doing. The way he messes with expectations and form is admirable, and his repetitive editing make for a few funny moments (my favourite being the arrival of Bondage’s CEO, a massively tall American woman who introduces herself by repeatedly belly flopping into a pool), but I really could not get into a lot of what he was doing in R100. It makes for a hit and miss experience, with some scenes so singularly strange that I wish it could have worked out much better than it actually did.

RATING: 6

Next up:

My final TIFF 2013 report, with three films left to go: Cannes favourite Stranger by the Lake, Kim Ki-Duk’s latest attempt at total depravity, and Un Certain Regard winner Omar.

Another week, another batch of announcements from TIFF. This time it’s one of the fests’ staples, Midnight Madness. Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, Midnight Madness has dedicated itself to premiering a different horror/comedy/sci-fi/fantasy/you-name-it film each night of the festival. And for its 25th anniversary, programmer Colin Geddes has made sure to pull out some big guns.

The opening night film goes to All Cheerleaders Die, a film by Lucky McKee (May, The Woman) and Chris Silverston. Also joining the festivities is director Eli Roth, who is premiering his newest cannibal horror film The Green Inferno. Other TIFF and worldwide festival favourite Sion Sono (Cold Fish, Love Exposure) has also gotten a film in this year, the curiously-titled Why Don’t You Play In Hell?

Personally, the film I’m looking forward to the most is Mike Flanagan’s Oculus. Based off his short film, Flanagan has quietly proven himself to be a director to watch with his terrific film Absentia. His last film showed a lot of potential, and with a bigger budget and cast here’s hoping he can make something truly scary.

The rest of the line-up is below, but only 9 of the program’s 10 titles have been released as Geddes has been having trouble locking down one more film. We’ll give you the latest updates as they come in, and expect to see us cover TIFF later on this year.

Afflicted [Derek Lee and Clif Prowse] Canada/USA – World Premiere
Best friends Derek and Clif set out on a trip of a lifetime. Their plan: travel to the ends of the earth, see the world, and live life to the fullest. But the trip soon takes a dark and bloody turn. Just days in, one of the men shows signs of a mysterious affliction which gradually takes over his entire body and being. Now, thousands of miles from home, in a foreign land, they must race to uncover the source of his illness before it consumes him completely. Footage of their travels meant to document pleasant memories may now become evidence of one of the most shocking discoveries ever captured on film…and may be their only postcard home.

All Cheerleaders Die [Lucky McKee, Chris Sivertson] USA – World Premiere
When tragedy rocks Blackfoot High, rebellious outsider Mäddy Killian shocks the student body by joining the cheerleading squad. This decision drives a rift between Mäddy and her ex-girlfriend Leena Miller — a loner who claims to practice the dark arts. After a confrontation with the football team, Mäddy and her new cheerleader friends are sent on a supernatural roller coaster ride which leaves a path of destruction none of them may be able to escape.

Almost Human [Joe Begos] USA – World Premiere
Mark Fisher disappeared from his home in a brilliant flash of blue light almost two years ago. His friend Seth Hampton was the last to see him alive. Now a string of grisly, violent murders leads Seth to believe that Mark is back, and something evil is living inside of him.

The Green Inferno [Eli Roth] USA – World Premiere
How far would you go for a cause you believe in? In horror master Eli Roth’s terrifying new film, a group of college students take their humanitarian protest from New York to the Amazon jungle, only to get kidnapped by the native tribe they came to save: a tribe that still practices the ancient rite of cannibalism, and has a healthy appetite for intruders.

Oculus [Mike Flanagan] USA – World Premiere
Oculus is a spine-chilling supernatural tale of two damaged siblings (Karen Gillan and Brenton Thwaites) who, as children, witnessed their parents’ harrowing descent into madness and murder. At long last, brother and sister reunite as adults to expose and destroy the paranormal entity they believe is responsible: the Lasser Glass — a legendary mirror their family once owned.

R100 [Hitoshi Matsumoto] Japan – World Premiere
An ordinary man with an ordinary life joins a mysterious club. The membership lasts for one year only and there is one rule: no cancellation under any circumstance. The man enters into an entirely new and exciting world which he has never before experienced.

Rigor Mortis [Juno Mak] Hong Kong – North American Premiere
Juno Mak’s debut feature Rigor Mortis is an eerie and chilling, contemporary action- and special effects-laden homage to the classic Chinese vampire movies of the 1980s. Starring Chin Siu-Ho, Kara Hui, Anthony Chan, Lo Hoi Pang and Richard Ng.

The Station [Marvin Kren] Austria – World Premiere
At a climate research station in the Alps, the scientists are stunned as the nearby melting glacier is leaking a red liquid. It quickly turns to be very special juice — with unexpected genetic effects on the local wildlife.

Why Don’t You Play in Hell? [Sion Sono] Japan – North American Premiere
Two men, Muto and Ikegami, hate each other. Muto desperately wants to help his daughter Mitsuko star in a movie. Meanwhile, Ikegami falls in love with Mitsuko, knowing that she’s the daughter of his foe. Hirata, a filmmaker, and Koji, a young movie-lover, get dragged into this complicated situation that heads into an unexpected direction.