CHESS OF THE WIND
The first film of Day 2
was a very different change of pace, with a showing of the recently
rediscovered 1975 Iranian film CHESS OF THE WIND.
Set in Tehran, a
recently widowed buisiness man, his disabled step daughter and his adopted nephews are disputing over who should
inherit the family estate following the death of the family matriarch
The daughter, Aghdas,
firmly believes she is the rightful heir, as the family wealth was
her mother's. Whereas her unscrupulous step-father, seems to think
everything should belong to him as he was the husband and the man of
the house.
Meanwhile, the 2 nephews, that he adopted, feel
they should be entitled to some of the fortune themselves.
What follows is a
series of schemes, and double-crosses, where everybody is trying to
play everyone else off against each other, in a tale of “murder
most foul” that plays like an Iranian Agatha Christie
thriller.
Made just prior to the Iranian revolution, the film
was swiftly banned by the authorities, who disliked the suggestion
that the female leads might possibly be in a Lesbian relationship, or
the scenes of violence (ironic given how murderous and barbaric that
regime was, and indeed still is today, but anyway...)
The film was considered
lost for many years, but fortunately the original negatives were
discovered by accident in an antiques store in 2014 and returned to
the Director's family, who managed to smuggle them out of the country
and have the film restored.
Whilst it's great that
this film has been saved from obscurity, whether you will enjoy it
will depend of course if you love watching foreign language films for
their artistic merits. Admittedly, this wasn't my cup of tea, though
I'm glad I saw it just for curiosity's sake, but this is definitely a
niche interest.
It's not currently on
Disc in the UK but is available to stream in the US and there is a
Korean DVD, with English subtitles available online.
Watch the trailer on
YouTube.
TRANSCENDING
DIMENSIONS
The second film of the
day, Japanese fantasy feature TRANSCENDING DIMENSIONS certainly
proved to be one of the more bizarre films of the festival.
A woman hires a hitman
to take out the leader of a bizarre religious cult, as she believes
he is responsible for the disappearance of her lover.
The man in question, a
Monk named Ajari, claims to have all sorts of magical powers, but
they believe he is just some sort of con man.
However, when the
assassination attempt fails, Shinno, the hitman, is forced to
conclude that there is a lot more to Ajari than meets the eye and the
film gets progressively weirder from here on in. As Shinno tries to
investigate what's really going on.
Magic spells,
interdimensional battles, space travel, you're never really too sure
whether what's going on is real, other-worldy, or all in the
characters heads and the ending certainly left me with more questions
than answers.
Apparently, the film is
connected to a series of the Director's earlier short films about Mt.
Resurrection Wolf, though haven't seen any of those to comment. The
film is currently on the festival circuit, no news as to when it will
be available on Disc or to stream, although Arrow films have put out
a box set of his earlier works for anyone interested.
View the Trailer on YouTube.
THE ARBITER
Third film of the day
proved to be my favourite of the entire festival, which was Director
Marc Price's THE ARBITER.
Set in London, gangs
have pretty much taken over the streets at night. Constantly fighting
for control of various territories, the police have decided to just
let them get on with it, seeing as they're only killing one
another.
However, when a gang called The Nightcrawlers
threatens to wipe out all the others, the police send in a negotiator
to try and unite the other factions against them. Unfortunately,
their “arbiter” has his work cut out out for him. Meeting on
supposedly neutral turf, the gang leaders won't stop bickering and no
one wants to trust anyone.
But when the
Nightcrawlers ambush the meeting, they're quickly forced to find a
way of working togethor in order to stay alive. Resulting in a series
of absolutely brutal running battles, as they try to work their way
to the upper floors of the building, in order to send out a call for help.
Brutal, gory and
hilariously funny, it was rather like watching a UK version of THE WARRIORS, crossed with Peter Jackson's BRAINDEAD (in terms
of gore) and the film was certainly well received by the audience.
The Director also
released the similarly themed NIGHTSHOOTERS, which was another
festival favourite and he certainly has a talent for these
low-budget, high octane films. So I would definitely recommend
seeking this one out when it's released.
Checkout the trailer on
Vimeo.
REDUX REDUX
The final film of the
day was the McManus brothers sci-fi, action, revenge flick REDUX
REDUX. In which a woman, who comes from a place where
interdimensional travel has been invented, is using one such device
to exact revenge on the same person in every alternate universe.
It seems this person
was responsible for a bunch of child murders, not least that of her
own daughter, so she has decided to avenge her death as many times as
possible.
Brutal, action packed
and even genuinely touching at times, the film was like a bizarre
mash-up of DEATH WISH and QUANTUM LEAP, featuring numerous gun battles, car chases and more murders than you can shake a stick at, but also takes time to
examine whether vigilante justice is ever truly justified
Actress Michaela
McManus (Into the Grizzly Maze, TV's Aquarius) really stood out with
her sympathetic portrayal as Irene, the tortured soul, who's consumed
by revenge, whilst Jeremy Holt (Black Mold, Hered, TV's House of Cards)
was convincingly creepy as the child killer, who ends up dying over
and over again.
If you like brutal
revenge flicks, this one is a definite must see.
View the trailer on
YouTube.
And thus concluded Day 2, for more info on future events held by the Mayhem Festival, visit the following links.
Offical Website - https://www.mayhemfilmfestival.com/
Facebook Page - @mayhemfilmfestival
X - @mayhem_festival
