More Fantasia Festival

The Festival always has a great poster.


Fans lined up and one sitting reading a book outside at Fantasia Festival. When will they let us in to see the movie...




Higanjima. Japan 2009. An entertaining though predictable adventure story. A group of kids are lured to an uncharted island by a beautiful woman who claims the missing brother of one of the young men is on the island. And guess what? It's an island of vampires and the kids are the new food. Yes, the brother is there earnestly fighting the vampires. Can they rescue the brother, no wait, can they save themselves and the brother and the girl too. A fun movie.





First Squad: The Moment of Truth. Russia/Japan/Canada 2o09. Animation. World War Two and Germany is invading Russia. A lovely young psychic Russian girl tries to prevent the Germans from awkening "ancient evil forces" who will help them conquer the Soviet Union and win the war. The animation is interspersed with comments about this time period from Russian and German historians, archaeologists and psychologists. The animation is good but the story seems like an episode from a longer movie or TV series.



The Message. China 2009. There's a spy in Japan's 1930's puppet Chinese government. Who can it be? A well scripted, well acted and entertaining spy thriller which was much more exciting and visually enticing on the big screen than on the DVD I first watched.



Bodyguards and Assassins. Hong Kong-China. 2009. Thoroughly enjoyable movie if a tad heavy handed in delivering its message. Good acting with lots of action and great sets and costumes. Of course, like The Message, it was much better seen on the big screen than on the DVD I first watched.

Stayed tuned for more on Fantasia.