Surprise, the festival isn't over just because there was a closing night party!
Two more films on Monday, April 16th
THE WHITE GIRL is a story of Hong Kong, old and new. But not the bustling big city, the small Pearl Village, a fishing village on decline. And it's a story of confinement and of breaking out. The titular girl was born allergic to the sun. So her father keeps her cooped up in doors, and heavily covered if she ever goes out. Her classmates tease her, and all she wants to do is go out. Which she does by taking walks at night. On one of these walks, she meets a stranger from out of town, and they start a tentative relationship. The story meanders pleasantly and somewhat non-linearly. There are historical ruins and shady developers from the mainland. But the movie is driven less by plot and more by mood and character, especially the White Girl's enigmatic mix of cheer and melancholy. And, of course, it's driven by the gorgeous cinematography of Christopher Doyle (also a co-writer and co-director with Jenny Suen.)
And finally, there was RAVENOUS, an odd zombie flick with gratuitous furniture stacking. It's Quebecois, which might explain some of the oddness. It mixes deliberately paced art-film moments with gory flesh eating and moments of absolutely bizarre humor, never settling into one genre for too long. It's a weird, weird trip, and I'm still puzzling over what those huge stacks of chairs were all about. Maybe the sequel will explain? Or better to leave it a mystery.
And that was the end of my SFFILM 2018. There was one more night of the festival, but work kept me from attending (because I had a super early meeting I was leading the next morning) and that was fine. I was exhausted. I had finally had enough (for now.)
Total Running Time: 197 minutes
My Total Minutes: 477,531
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