Fantasia Film Festival Review: Hello! Tapir (2021)

Hello! Tapir is exactly the kind-of film that hits me in the emotional feels; one of those kind-of films that use fantasy to deal with our own grief. Films like Bridge to Terabithia come to mind for that, as well as more direct comps in A Monster Calls and I Kill Giants. In this Taiwanese film, a young boy, Ah-Keat (Run Yin-Bai) is told stories by his father, Ah-Sheing. His main tale is about a tapir – a creature with the body of a pig, trunk of an elephant, ears of a horse and feet of a rhinoceros. The tapir is a benevolent creature who passes through villages at night, gobbling up all nightmares.

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Fantasia Film Festival Review: The Sadness (2021)

In the film, we first meet young couple Kat (Regina Lei) and Jim (Berant Zhu), getting ready for an ordinary day. However, today, after a year of living with the Alvin virus, it’s permanently mutated into something rabid. It turns everyday, fine citizens into feral sadists who give into their primal urges. In the film, Jabbaz throws every caution to the wind, creating a totally bonkers action-horror film. It’s filled with anxiety as we watch as we never know what will happen. It’s injected with the pure insanity of each film in The Purge series (the good ones), but dialed to 11. It’s also just The Crazies on crack. The first kill we see is haunting, and a big kudos to Jabbaz for choosing this greasy first death. If you’re watching the film and you’re immediately turned off by this first kill, there’s a decent chance this won’t be for you. It’s definitely not for the faint-hearted.

The Filmcraziest Show – John Hsu for “Detention”

On this episode of The Filmcraziest Show (note, that when this was recorded I still referred to it as Filmcraziest Interviews), I chatted with John Hsu, the director and co-writer of the Taiwanese horror film based on a video game of the same name, Detention. (My review of the film out of Fantasia can be …

Fantasia 2020 – Detention (2019)

Directed by: John Hsu. Starring: Gingle Wang, Meng Po-Fu, Jing Hua-Tseng. Runtime: 1h 42 min. Released: August 24, 2020 (in Canada, at Fantasia Film Festival); September 20, 2019 in Taiwan. Detention is set during the White Terror in Taiwan in 1962 during a time of martial law where freedom was not known and free thoughts …

Assassin’s Creed (2016)

Released: December 21, 2016. Directed by: Justin Kurzel. Starring: Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons. Runtime: 1hr., 55 min. I haven’t played any of the Assassin’s Creed video games, so I’m not sure if I would have been able to follow the Apple of Eden storyline better. But since I hadn’t played the games, I …