Fantasia Film Festival Archives | Otaku No Culture

Catching a Costume for Nicolas, A Movie Review

As long as Nicolas believes in the fantasy, that’s all we need to know. When he puts on a costume made by his grandma (pirate, spaceman, a dragon or whatever), he feels empowered and can take on anything!

Nicolas By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Playing at Fantasia Digital Film Festival 2020 On Demand till Sept 2. Buy your virtual ticket here.

North American Premiere

A Costume For Nicholas is a wild and fancy free animation for all to enjoy. It’s not only a delightful and heartfelt adaptation of the children’s book Pablo y El Baúl by Jaime Mijares but also no prior knowledge is needed! The titular protagonist has Down’s syndrome. He lost his mother just minutes into the film (it’s easy to surmise because his grandparents take him in). Thankfully, adapting to life in an unfamiliar environment is hardly difficult at all.

David is his cousin, older by a couple of years, and though the two initially struggle to get along, it will take a magical adventure to see them bond. The tween has nightmares and they manifest strongly enough for Nick to see and he offers to help. However, before he involves David, he chases after the beast by himself and finds himself in another world via an old clothes trunk. Thankfully, the dangers he faces alone are not as dangerous as The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.

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Fantasia 2020 Helps New Filmmakers Navigate the Clapboard Jungle

For any aspiring filmmaker, Clapboard Jungle is a must watch. Breaking into the industry is tough and to get noticed is even harder. This documentary is just as much as an educational resource as well as a guide on what to expect for anyone wanting to dive right in!

Nicolas By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Playing at Fantasia Digital Film Festival 2020 On Demand till Sept 2. Buy your virtual ticket here.

For any aspiring filmmaker, Clapboard Jungle is a must watch. Breaking into the industry is tough and to get noticed is even harder. This documentary is just as much as an educational resource as well as a guide on what to expect for anyone wanting to dive right in!

Many talents ranging are interviewed revealing to you what’s needed to start and keep producing. Names not as familiar, like Jen Wexler have plenty to reveal in this industry. This work is not about how Guillermo del Toro and Lloyd Kaufman did it. We all know from printed works about how hard they worked to where they are. I’m impressed at seeing Richard Stanley (Colour out of Space), Tom Holland (Child’s Play) and Sam Firstenberg (Ninja 3: the Domination) give their discourse on the industry.

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Finding No Place Like Home with Special Actors

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Played at Fantasia Digital Film Festival 2020

Kazuto (Kazuto Osawa) is playing a fictionalized version of himself, and he has anxiety. It’s tough to be an actor with this condition, because on set, if he passes out during filming, the director will call for a cut and it’d take time to reset for a retake. He also loves his sentai, and Rescueman is his safety blanket. He wants to be like this hero! Just where the film goes next is simply him meeting a troupe of “Special Actors,” which is also the title of this film.

These people are the types who are paid to show up at funerals, perhaps as extras, so they can weep for the deceased or fake moments. They are also part-time mystery solvers. No Scooby-Doo does not have to worry, but these scrappy thespians can land into different trouble all on their own, and it adds a bit of comedic relief.

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Serving Detention with Spirits this Ghost Month!

This movie is Dead Poets Society meets Pan’s Labyrinth. The dread comes at you in waves. The historical context is rightly nuanced and a solid platform to build upon for this movie by writer and director John Hsu. Additional writing credits include Fu-Kai Ling and Chiem Shi-keng.

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Played at Fantasia Digital Film Festival 2020
Canadian Premiere

SPOILER ALERT

So here is Greenwood, an unassuming high school, where students get an education about why the Kuomintang (KMT, Chinese Nationalist Party) are great. However, anyone who is found to possess other teachings may get Detention (Fanxiao).

Viewers get an after hour’s lesson of a tumultuous time in Taiwanese history. There are other secrets this educational institute holds. The demons and ghosts of White Terror’s past wanting to tell their story. I’m sure all the atrocities that occurred is one many prefer to forget. Without it, the context of why Wei (Jing-Hua Tseng) is part of a dissonant group of kids learning from banned textbooks and the writings of Nobel-prize winning Rabindranath Tagore would be lost. Thankfully he is not alone, Fang Ray-Shin (Gingle Wang) sympathizes, but she wants nothing to do with the clandestine meetings. Two teachers–Miss Yin (Cecilia Choi) and Mr Zhang (Fu Meng-Po)–better be careful too. They won’t be facing jail time, but will be executed instead for their transgressions. A warning can be found with the grave in the schoolyard which students regularly cross.

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Jesters or Trickster Spirits? These “Game Changers” Play with History!

Ultimately, the story is about The Six Matryred Ministers whom the recently annotated King Sejo wants forgotten.

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Played at Fantasia Festival 2020.
Region 3 DVD is available to order on YesAsia USA and International.

SPOILER ALERT

Newly anointed King Sejo (Hee-soon Park) is quite the pickle in Jesters: The Game Changers. He’s dethroned the former prince, his nephew Danjong, in his rise to power and in order to sully a good reputation, he recruits Deok-ho (Jin-woong Cho) and his gang of talented con artists (Jesters, in this translation) to spotlight all the good he can do.

They use strangely modern techniques to make their special effects. Honestly, it’s these moments which make this film shine. Viewers may scratch their heads at how 15th century Korea has access to electric lights but I figure what they used are smoke and mirrors inside different types of containers to make their illusions. With creative thinking, anything is possible, including projecting Buddha on a cliff side or seeing Deok-ho on an ancient treadmill.

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Highlights from My First Fantasia

There’s a mini festival within a festival if you spend your time exploring the talents featured here.

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Playing at Fantasia Digital Film Festival 2020 On Demand till Sept 2. Buy your virtual ticket here.

Fantasia Film Festival may seem short with feature length animated works this year because one title was pulled. My response is to check out the My First Fantasia Programme. There’s more than enough pieces to sate anyone’s appetite! Plus, the other packaged presentations include mini tales of fantasy, sci-fi and experimental works. There’s a mini festival within a festival if you spend your time exploring the talents featured here.

Realistically, the Annecy International Animation Film Festival is the event for fans of this medium. When my love for this genre outweighs Asian works, I had to do a marathon run of this particular set of works this weekend. I’m particularly interested with seeing what emerging talents from around the world are offering. Some are certainly ready to be noticed by Studio Ghibli, Studio Canal, Cartoon Saloon, or even PIXAR.

A few shorts are repeated in the other themed sets; they only help reinforce the concept being presented. Some are animated in CGI, others are hand drawn, a few are stop motion and the rest use a blend of other techniques—which include clay, Adobe Animation (formerly Flash) or otherwise. They are all used to great effect to convey a sense of wonder, whimsy or surreal.

This list highlights the pieces which I found the most engaging from each themed package:

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