Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.

Yeah, I know Hallowe’en was two days ago, but there’s still lots to be scared about. (Don’t you watch the news?) So this week I’m looking at three new movies that involve horror, thrills or just bad things happening to good people. There’s a dance troup in Berlin that reeks of brimstone, a gay conversion clinic in Arkansas that exudes homophobia, and a young writer in Korea who thinks he smells death.

Suspiria

Dir: Luca Guadagnino

It’s 1977 in Berlin with the Cold War raging, the wall dividing the city in two, and RAF bombs exploding in Kreuzburg. Into this world walks Susie (Dakota Johnson) a naïve Mennonite girl from Ohio, with pale skin and a long red braid. She’s there to dance, if a prestigious, all-women’s dance school will have her.

Have her they will.

So she moves into their huge headquarters the next day. It’s a grand old building, right beside the Berlin Wall, with mirrored rooms, a dormitory and a theatre. It’s owned and run by a group of older women, headed by their choreographer and former prima donna Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton), known for her long black hair and floor-length dresses. They are preparing for a relaunch of their masterwork, a primitivist, flamenco-style piece called Volk. And since their lead dancer, Patricia (Chloe Grace Moretz), has mysterously disappeared, Susie is ready to take her place.

But behind the scenes, something wicked this way comes. Susie keeps having terrifying dreams. There’s a power struggle between Madame Blanc and “Mother Markus” — the school’s founder. And strangest of all, the house itself – with its secret passageways and intricate pentagrams etched into the floor – seems to transform the dancers’ violent moves into lethal weapons… with terrifying results. And Doktor Klemperer, an enigmatic psychiatrist with a secret past, is attempting to bring police – men! – into this inner sanctum of womanhood. Is this dance troupe actually a coven of witches? And will Susie be their next victim

Suspiria (based on Dario Argento’s classic horror pic) is a visually stunning film, an unusual combination of modern dance and the occult. There are so many scenes in this two-and-a-half hour movie of dance rehearsals — including an amazing performance near the end — that you almost forget it’s a horror movie. But the twisted limbs, breaking bones and endless flow of blood, blood, blood, brings you back. Luca Guadagnino (he directed Call me by your Name, A Bigger Splash, and I Am Love) is back with another aesthetically overwhelming film, recreating 1970s Berlin, and starring, once again, the fantastic Tilda Swinton in many, hidden roles. Though not that scary, this arthouse horror is always fascinating.

Boy Erased

Dir: Joel Edgerton

Jared (Lucas Hedges) is a 19 year old in Arkansas. He’s on the basketball team, has a steady girlfriend and works parttime in his dad (Russell Crowe)’s car dealership. He also goes to church: his dad’s a Baptist minister and his mom (Nicole Kidman) an active member. Everything’s hunky dory… until he gets outed as gay by an anonymous caller. Word spreads, church elders come knocking at the door, and Jared is sent off for a heavy dose of brainwashing.

Love In Action is a “gay conversion therapy” centre, with very little love. It’s headed by Victor (Joel Edgerton) a self-taught therapist full of vapid platitudes and pseudo-freudian pop psychology. He’s backed up by a violent ex-con (Flea) who hurls abuse at the patients in an attempt to scare them straight. The other patients/prisoners include the military-like Jon (Xavier Dolan, playing against type), the bullied Cameron (Britton Sear), and others who tell him to “fake it” – just repeat what they tell you until you’re out of there. But if he does, will they erase his very being? And can Jared ever get out of this godforsaken place?

Based on a true story, Boy Erased is a realistic look at one young man’s experiences in a gay conversion clinic. It’s well-acted and I found it moving (though predictable) in parts. But it’s also an incredibly uptight, desiccated, visually-starved, anti-sex movie that seems made for Sunday school church groups. No nudity — everyone’s buttoned to the top. In this movie, any “sex” is relegated to a rape scene. It’s one thing to have uptight characters, but does the film itself have to be so repressed?

This may be an important topic, but it’s a dreadful movie.

Burning

Dir: Lee Chang-dong

Present-day Korea. Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in) is an aspiring writer in his twenties who lives on his dad’s dairy farm near the Demilitarized Zone. On a trip to Seoul he runs into a woman he barely recognizes. Hae-mi (Jeon Jong-Seo) is a former highschool classmate who – post plastic surgery – works as a glamour girl spinning the prize wheel at a department store. And Haemi likes Jong-su. She lives in a small apartment that only gets sunlight for a few mites each day. Haemi is an flakey extrovert into mime. Jongsu is reserved, quiet and introspective. Soon enough, they’re lovers, but then Haemi says she’s going on a trip to the Kalahari desert to experience “The Great Hunger”.

And she comes back wth a new friend, named Ben (Steven Yeun) she met at the airport flying home. Ben is Korean, but rich, privileged and vaguely foreign. He’s one of those Gangnam-style guys, with a fancy apartment and a pricey car. He’s smooth, slick and ultra-blase – like Andy Warhol — but in a weirdly creepy way. And now he’s dating Haemi. They visit Jongsu at his farm, get drunk and smoke some pot. And Ben confesses his secret – he gets off on burning down greenhouses. And never gets caught. And soon after, Haemi disappears without a trace. Ben acts as if nothing is wrong but Jongsu is not so sure.. Is Ben a psychopath? Or is Jongsu losing touch with reality? And what about Haemi?

Burning, based on a story by Murakami Haruki, is a tense, creepy psychological thriller. The three main actors are all great in their roles: Steve Yeun — that nice guy in The Walking Dead — is perfect as the possible serial killer, and Yoo Ah-in is amazing as the shy boy seething wth inner tension.

Fantastic.

Suspiria, Boy Erased, and Burning all open today in Toronto; check your local listings.

This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Friday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com.

Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.

Japan joined the European race for colonies late in the game. But they took to it with a vengeance, expanding ever southward. First Taiwan, Korea, and Manchuria, and by the 1930s they began to seize territory in Eastern China, Southeast Asia and Islands of the Pacific and South China seas. And at the vanguard of all this was the Japanese Imperial Army. To keep the soldiers free from disease they initiated a program of Comfort Women (従軍慰安婦). Over 200,000 girls and young women from Japanese colonies across Asia were forced into sexual slavery to serve the troops. Because of the shame involved, the survivors remained silent for fifty years. What happened to them, what are their stories, and what apologies do they seek?

The Apology is a new NFB feature documentary that follows three elderly Comfort Women – from Korea, China and the Philippines — who survived that horrible ordeal. It is a highly personal film, seen through Hsiung’s eyes as she documents the three Grandmothers’ lives while they still have a chance to tell their stories.

The Apology opens in Toronto today. I spoke with Tiffany Hsiung in studio at CIUT.

Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.

Hallowe’en weekend is a time of mysteries and hidden identities. If you want to stay home and shiver, there’s a new movie streaming channel called shudder.com that only does the scary. Everything from Japanese horror, to low budget slashers, to classics like Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu. (And don’t miss The Editor, the hilarious spoof of 1970s Italian giallo horror.) But if you want to head out, there are some great movies opening in Toronto. This Hallowe’en, no monsters; instead I am looking at hidden identities. There’s a shy Korean maid who’s actually a con artist, a French terrorist who’s actually an undercover journalist, and a black kid in 90s Miami, whose sexual identity is a secret… even to himself.

Made in France

Dir: Nicolas Boukhrief

Sam (Malik Zidi) is a red-bearded, freelance journalist, the son of an Algerian dad and a French Marxist mom. To research a story, he attends a radical mosque that holds meetings in a metal-gated storage locker. There he meets three other French men. Christophe (Francois Civil) is a rich Catholic guy who sees himself as a gangsta, like Tony Montano in Scarface. Driss (Nassim Si Ahmed) is a tough boxer, radicalized while in prison for drug offences. Sidi (Ahmed Drame) is a good son, whose African cousin was killed by French soldiers in Mali. Ironically, only Sam, the undercover journalist, has any religious training or can speak Arabic.

They fall under the command of a mysterious man named Hassan (Dimitri Storoge). His motives are a secret. He says he trained at a bootcamp in Pakistan and is in contact with a terrorist group. Sam is married with a kid, and is staying in a flop house to keep them safe. But when he reports his story to the police, they threaten him with prison unless he stays with the cel and finds out who their “big boss” is. Can he survive life with this ragtag gang and the sinister Hassan? And will innocent people die in the process?

Made in France is a tight thriller told from the point of view of would-be homegrown terrorists. It has never been screened there, for obvious reasons – it was made just before the terrible Charlie Hebdo shootings and postponed again following the Bataclan massacre. But it still stands up as a good crime thriller.

Moonlight

Wri/Dir: Barry Jenkins

Chiron is a small, shy kid who lives in a mainly black neighbourhood in 1990s Miami. He is relentlessly bullied after school, with his crack-head mom never there to defend him. Juan (Mahershala Ali, Luke Cage) comes to his rescue when he sees the kid chased into an abandoned building. He takes him home where his wife feeds and comforts him. But Chiron remains completely silent, not trusting himself to speak. Juan vows to be his protector and serves as his mentor, teaching him to swim at the local beach. The boy views him in awe and adulation. Ironically, Juan is the neighbourhood drug kingpin, the one supplying the crack that’s destroying his mother.

Chiron is relentlessly bullied and beaten up. Only one friend, Kevin, shows any affection. He can’t understand why he lets other kids beat him up, and call him the “F” word. He gradually matures, but is always drawn back to that stretch of moonlit beach where he formed and later expressed his sexual identity.

Moonlight is a superb coming-of-age drama, portrayed by mainly unknown black actors. It’s moving and surprising. The gradually-paced, subtle story is told in three chapters: as kid, adolescent and adult (wonderfully played by Alex Hibbert, Ashton Sanders, Trevante Rhodes)

Chiron goes through a troubled childhood, an explosion in high school, adopting an unexpected persona as a grown-up. But in each section he revisits his declining mother, his unreliable best friend Kevin, and that stretch of moonlit beach. Fantastic film, brilliantly told.

The Handmaiden

Dir: Chan-Wook Park

It’s 1930s Korea. Sook-Hee (Kim Tae-Ri) is a shy handmaiden who lives in a grotesque mansion run by a fabulously rich Japanese baron. Hired for her Japanese ability, she works for an uptight heiress named Lady Hideko (Kim Min-Hee). Imperial Japan annexed Korea in 1910, and is now trying to Japanize the entire country. When a suitor arrives seeking the Lady’s hand in marriage, Sook-hee serves as her confidant. The dashing Count Fujiwara (Ha Jung-Woo) has swept her off her feet and promises a wonderful life in Japan. But Sook-Hee seems to have fallen hopelessly in love with her naïve mistress, and wants to school her in the Sapphic arts. This love triangle spells trouble.

But wait! Nothing is quite what it seems. All the players in this drama are actually Korean speakers. Uncle Kouzuki is a nouveau richeKorean robber baron who invested his money in Japanese erotic books. His proper niece reads them aloud to a select crowd of well-paying gentlemen. Meanwhile, both Sook-Hee and the Count belong to a Korean street gang of pickpockets and con artists, who, in a complex scheme, have infiltrated the mansion to defraud them of their millions. Jealousy, lust romance and deceit swirl around this strange foursome. But who’s fooling whom?

Based on Sarah Waters’ Dickinsian novel, The Handmaiden is a fun, sexual romp relocated from Victorian England to prewar Korea. With trapezes, bondage, marionettes, even tentacles, this movie is a total perv-fest. The story is told and retold from the point of view of the three characters. But far from a lesson in lesbian politics, the movie seems told from a male perspective, its twisted plot serving mainly as a vehicle for the audience’s sexual titillation.

Made in France is playing tonight as part of the Cinefranco International Film Festival. Go to cinefranco.com for details. Moonlight and The Handmaiden both open today in Toronto: check your local listings. This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Friday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com.

Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM, looking at high-brow and low-brow movies, indie, cult, foreign, festival, documentary, genre and mainstream films, helping you see movies with good taste, movies that taste good, and how to tell the difference.

Fall festival season continues in November! Ekran Polish festival is on right now, with wonderful films like Ida, on tonight; ReelAsian, which just started, Planet in Focus – environmental films, on now; Rendezvous with Madness – movies about addiction and mental health, starts Monday; and the EU film Festival with free films from across Europe, starting later this month. This week I’m looking at three movies about social issues. An American dramedy about a college student who talks to white people, a South Korean chiller-thriller about a high school student who talks to dead people, and a North Korean documentary about a man who talks to… well, to any people willing to listen.

Dear White People
Wri/Dir: Justin Simien

It’s a small town college where students live in “houses” — sort of like fraternities. Your house says everything about your status and something about your political beliefs as well. The school has a white president and a black dean. Sam (Tessa Thompson) is a progressive undergrad who stands up for her ideals. She broadcasts a somewhat controversial talk show on campus radio. She’s black, but calls her show Dear White People. Her house is headed by Big Man on Campus Troy (Brandon P Bell) a popular athlete, whose dad just happens to be the Dean. And who is dating the daughter of the president. Another student, the pretty and vivacious Coco (Teyonah Parris) is more interested in getting famous, so she’ll do almost anything to convince a TV producer to make her the star of a reality show on campus. And observing all this is fuzzy-haired Lionel (Tyler James Williams), a budding journalist… who might also be gay.

But when Sam wins the election as head of the house, toppling Troy from his lofty heights, things start to change. She puts in new rules and tries to change the political outlook… but then comes the blowback.

Another house plans a huge party, where people – as in white people — are encouraged to dress and act “black”. Minstrelsy rears its head, even in the 21st century.

How do Coco, Lionel, Troy and Sam choose to react? To lie down or walk away? Or stand up and fight back? This ensemble cast shows the lives of middle-class African Americans from a new angle. While the film covers a lot of ground, the ensemble cast is uniformly good, across the board. Dear White People is both an enjoyable comedy and a cogent political satire, exposing the errors and vulnerabilities of characters on both sides of the political spectrum. I like this movie.

Mourning Grave

Dir: Oh In-chun

In-su (Kang Haneul) is a high school student from the big city. He recently moved back to his childhood home in a small town, to get away from his troubles. He likes to sit in the park, sketching pictures of pretty girls he sees. And what do they all have in have in common? They’re all ghosts – he sees dead people.

In fact, he can’t even tell if he’s seeing someone who’s living or dead, but he carries an inherited charm that spins if he’s near a ghost. They’re attracted to him mainly because he helps them redress the wrongs that led to their death. But his new high school isn’t the peaceful place he hoped it would be. Turns out, the school bully remembers him from his childhood, and knows that he’s that weird kid. And the bully’s pretty girlfriend is as cruel as he is. In-su is the only one to challenge them when they’re hurting someone – the rest of the kids just turn away.

And haunting the school is a ghost of a dead student who is always seen wearing a cotton mask over her mouth. Who is she? At least there’s someone who likes him — a pretty girl with very pale skin, who shares his drawings. Will he stop the bullying? Will the ghosts ever find peace? And will his lazy uncle (another adept) help him exorcise the school of its ghosts? This is a cute Korean ghost story that wavers from rom-com, to high school drama to supernatural horror. With a cast of unknown actors, it’s packed with movie references – from the blood in Carrie to the ghost in Ju-on. Nothing too deep, but I liked it — it’s fun.

Propaganda
Dir: Slavko Martinov

A propaganda film about the rest of the world smuggled out of North Korea? That’s what a new film claims to be. BUt don’t expect the usual rosy-cheeked, red army kitsch. This film is actually a sophisticated, British-style monologue narrated by a Korean man sitting in a chair facing the camera. He wears a corduroy blazer but his face is pixillated. And over his voice is a woman’s voice simultaneously narrating in English. And it’s illustrated by a non-stop barrage of short images, each lasting not more than a second or two. There’s historical footage, current advertising, TV clips, vintage photos. If you’ve ever seen a film by the great English documentarian Adam Curtis, you’ll immediately recognize the style. But the content? Not exactly.

It starts out as a funny and fascinating look at western capitalism (supposedly) seen through the eyes of a fish-out-of-water North Korean, trying to makes sense of the consumer economy. We’re treated to hilarious shots of Oprah giving out prizes, and talentless celebrities in skimpy clothing. Americans PR, it decides, is what rules the world. We think we’re free, but public relations, marketing and advertising has turned us all into slaves and zombies. Next, the film harshly criticizes certain western nations: Australia for what it did to its indigenous population, Israel for the Palestinians, the US for what it did to everyone. (Canada is conspicuous by its absence.) Japan comes under special criticism for annexing Korea, drafting the population into forced labour, suppressing Korea’s language and culture, and kidnapping thousands of “Comfort Women” (sex slaves for the Imperial Army). Oops, sorry, I got that wrong. The main beef this North Korea has with Japan is that it kills whales and dolphins.

Then it goes right off the cliff into Truther territory. We’re told political parties and voting means nothing, the jews caused WWI, the Bush family rules the world, 9-11 was a hoax, and the W.H.O. uses vaccinations to secretly poison babies in developing countries . Uh-oh…

In any case, if you want an unusual look at our culture of consumption (as well as the usual internet-style conspiracy theories), this film is totally watchable — if you can get past the dubbing of English over Korean.

Dear White People opens today, check your local listings; Propaganda starts next week at the Big Picture Cinema on Gerrard St E., and Mourning Grave plays this Saturday at ReelAsian, on for the next ten days. Go to Reelasian.com for details.

This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Friday morning on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com.

Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.

Three women come together in a run-down farm in rural South Korea: A beleaguered single mother struggling financially; a troubled daughter with an unwanted pregnancy; and a rich woman from Seoul. She’s moving in with them for awhile. And what brings them together? The unborn foetus. The mother wants it to go away. The daughter is struggling with internal conflicts. And the rich woman wants to take the future baby In Her Place.

IN HER PLACE is also the name of a new dramatic feature about family, names, order and chaos, gain and loss. It’s made by Toronto writer/director Albert Shin and producer and collaborator Igor Drljaca. Their films have played internationally and garnered awards and critical praise. This movie is having its world premier at the Toronto International Film Festival. I spoke with Albert and Igor, in studio, to find out more.

Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.comand CIUT 89.5 FM, looking at high-brow and low-brow movies, indie, cult, foreign, festival, documentary, genre and mainstream films, helping you see movies with good taste, movies that taste good, and how to tell the difference.

Hollywood knows: sex and violence = bums in seats. But they also know that you have to keep it fresh and new. So this week I’m talking about three movies that, in very different ways, explore topics of sex, violence and the power dynamic between the two.

I’m looking at three movies playing at TIFF, one from Quebec, one from Japan, and one from Korea. One’s about a city boy who falls prey to an domineering farmer; one’s a businessman who falls prey to a gang of dominatrices; and one’s a family who fall prey to their own morass of escalating horribleness.

Tom at the Farm

Dir: Xavier Dolan

When Tom (Xavier Dolan) drives out to the country to read a eulogy for his young lover, Guy, he thinks he’ll be gone after the funeral. He agrees to spend the night at his mother’s house, even sleeping in his bedroom. But, in the middle of the night, he is attacked by a mysterious man. It’s Frank (Pierre-Yves Cardinal), the homophobic older brother of his late lover. He threatens Tom if he tells Agathe, his mother (Lise Roy), that Guy was gay, or that he was his lover. Tom is forced to pretend Guy had a girlfriend, thus erasing his own status. But it doesn’t stop there.

Frank is a domineering, abusive bully. He’s also much bigger and stronger than the diminutive Tom. Soon, Tom is put to work milking cows, dressed in Guy’s old clothes. Frank dismantles his car, and chases him down when he tries to run away. He’s trapped. Tom finds himself falling into the role of Frank’s submissive younger brother, regularly punched, kicked and threatened with death. Sexually frustrated Frank channels all blame onto Tom. And Tom has a mental shift where he finds himself sexually attracted to Frank and accepts any physical and mental abuse as his own fault.

What is Frank’s problem anyway? Why doesn’t he have any friends? What’s his hidden secret? And will Tom ever come to his senses and get the hell out of there?

This is Xavier Dolan’s 4th film, and the first one based on someone else’s play. This one’s a weird, captive-of-a-redneck horror story, with lots of pyscho-sexual overtones. I like it. It’s not perfect: Tom’s sudden transformation from city boy to hick seems too abrupt; and if he really feels threatened, why doesn’t he just call 911? But Frank and Tom’s abusive relationship – the core of the movie — seems disturbingly real. And Dolan’s careful filmmaking and precise editing leaves you with a chilling feeling at the end. It reverberates in the windmills of your mind long after it’s over.

R100

Dir: Matsumoto Hitoshi

Katayama (Omori Nao) is a shy milquetoast guy who sells mattresses for a living. His wife’s in a coma, so he takes care if his six year old son. He wants nothing more than to listen to Beethoven’s 9thSymphony. But, to escape from his daily stresses, he turns to leather- clad dominatrix for temporary relief. But his life changes dramatically when he signs an unbreakable one- year contract. He will experience the ultimate thrill – never knowing when or where a dominatrix will appear to shock and humiliate him. In his workplace bathroom, on the street, in front if his kid.

Soon enough, it has taken over his life, with hitherto unknown sexual kinks inflicted on him. There’s the Queen of Voices who terrifies Takayama by perfectly imitating his comatose wife’s voice at inopportune moments. And even a queen of spit, who orchestrates elaborate performances punctuated by huge amounts of saliva, shot at him from across the room.

Can he escape from all this craziness? And does he really want to? You can tell when he reaches a new level of submission and humiliation when his face is distorted and animated ripples of contentedness flow outward from his mind.

Meanwhile, every so often, the movie switches to the dull people producing this film, sort of a meta-movie-subplot, trying to make a movie with the ultimate restricted rating. R14, R20, refers to the age when you can view a film. This movie, they say is so dirty you have to be R100 to watch it.

I dunno. It has its funny parts – very funny parts — but it gets more and more extreme in its absurdity, as the movie goes on, until it really make no coherent sense whatsoever. It’s just a shaggy dog story, with a ridiculous — but still funny — ending.

Omori Nao is excellent as the nerdy anti-hero. Director Matsumoto Hitoshi is a dry, stand-up comic, part of the Japanese duo Downtown. If you’re into cheap-and-silly Japanese BDSM/leather/comedy, then this is the movie for you. Otherwise…

Moebius

Dir: Kim Ki-duk

A father, a mother and their teenage son live in South Korea. Dad has an affair with a woman who has a small convenience store down the street. Mom (and son) find out. Mom goes ballistic, and grabs a dagger she keeps hidden beneath a heavy Buddha’s head. Dad fights her off, so she breaks into her son’s room instead, and cuts off his penis. When he tries to get it back, she swallows it, and runs away. (That all happens in the first few minutes of this movie.)

Husband and son are forced to live without a Mom, and without one penis. Dad researches the internet for bizarre ways to help his son achieve orgasm, including rubbing a a pumice rock on your foot until it bleeds. Will dad cut off his own penis to give to his son for a penis transplant? Or will the son chop one off a random stranger? Who deserves Dad’s ex-girlfriend? Father, son or both? And will they learn to accept being stabbed in the back… literally? (I really do mean literally.)

OK, this is one of the weirdest movies around. It’s filled with rape, incest, violence, alterna-sex, repeated dismemberment (of a particular member – that one), and more. It’s told as a sort of a pantomime: no one speaks throughout the whole film. But its set up like a fable or a storybook, with each scene passing swiftly to the next. It deals with revenge, retribution, repentance but in a very simplistic way. Also interesting is the mother and lover are played by the same actress wearing different wigs and makeup. It’s not funny or cute, just non-stop, extremely repetitive violence. But, I have to say, it was really well made for what it is.

But what is it? Apparently, Kim Kiduk the director, felt his scripts had been stolen by his interns. I’m guessing here, but maybe the whole movie was his thumb in the nose to the powers-that-be in the Korean film industry. Who knows? Am I glad I saw it? I guess I am – it is unique and unusual (although, structurally, it’s like all his movies with a simple, symmetrical, yin-and-yang plot).

I saw R100 at TIFF, immediately – I mean immediately, five minutes later — followed by Moebius, a double- feature like no other. See these two if you dare. You will never forget them.

Tom at the Farm, R100, and Moebius are all playing at TIFF. Go to tiff.net for tickets.

This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Friday morning on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com

We’ve all had some pretty strange if short-lived jobs. I’ve worked as a newly-hatched chick crate stacker (horrifying… they kept on dying) and handing out government information pamphlets dressed as the letter “i”, with an enormous round, foam ball over my head (as the dot).

Well today I’m talking about three movies where the main characters have very unusual jobs. There’s a violent sort of insurance adjuster in Korea; a stuck-up Ivy League grad student who decides to be a migrant fruit-picker; and a group of magicians who try to rob banks.

Pieta

Dir: Kim Kiduk

Kang-do is a tall, baby-faced man in his thirties who lives in a rusty, dusty industrial district of Seoul. Most of the factories there are tiny shops with zero employees outside the owners. Maybe there’s one machine punching out metal parts. So it’s a constant scramble for cash. It’s a poor area, and only Kang-do (Lee Jeong-jin) seems to be doing well. He sells the one thing everyone needs: money.

He’s just an ordinary a loan shark. But he collects his payments in an extraordinary way. He makes them sign up for insurance, and then pay back their debt according to what the insurance form pays: a broken leg, an injured hand, the loss of a finger. He casually pushes people off abandoned buildings, but only from the second floor. He’s selfish, cruel and emotionless, without even a shred of conscience – the devil incarnate. He has no one to answer to except his boss – no pesky extended family to hold him back: his mother abandoned him when he was a child.

But who shows up at his door one day, offering to cook and clean, but a stranger (Jo Min-soo) — an older woman – who says she’s his mother! She sings him his childhood lullaby. She wants to make up for abandoning him. He is still bitter and untrusting but she won’t give up. She even helps him in his cruel debt collection – since it’s all her fault for not teaching him right from wrong. It’s up to Kang-do to learn to trust, change his ways and open his heart to the only one who cares for him. Is the strange woman really his mother? Why did she choose to come back after all these years? And will the introduction of love – and a conscience? — upset his equilibrium and his job?

Pieta, like most of Kim Kiduk’s movies, has a neatly symmetrical storyline with a twist, coupled with extreme violence, and largely unsympathetic, over-the-top people. The ending is very good, the quirky, extreme characters are played well, and I love the gorgeous industrial look of the film, but it’s so grim, so relentless, so nnngggrrhhh that it’s just not a lot of fun to watch, except perhaps for its schadenfreude. It’s disturbing. I appreciate the way the story plays out, but I can’t say I loved this movie.

C.O.G

Dir: Kyle Patrick Alvarez

Sam (Jonathon Groff) has just finished his MA at Yale but doesn’t want to live with his estranged mother. So he decides to earn some money communing with The People – apple pickers on a farm out west. Unfortunately, he studied Japanese in University, not Spanish. He expects to meet up with a classmate but he soon finds himself abandoned without friends. He’s soon brought down to size. The entitled, intelligent and successful rich kid soon learns the reality of real work, alienation, low wages, and unfair bosses. Next he’s working in the factory sorting fancy apples. A sympathetic employee, Curly (Corey Stall) offers him a promotion, but the benefits come with unstated duties, chez Curly. Finally he is driven to stay with an evangelical jade carver Jon (Dennis O’Hare) who is preparing for the county fair. Can a gay, cynical intellectual accept Jesus into his heart?

This is a really funny – not laugh out loud, but a grim humour – movie about the calamities hapless Samuel lands in, and the hard-to-take people he encounters. He’s made fun of as much as the people he meets. It’s based on a story by David Sedaris, and is just as funny but the movie exists, perfectly, outside of his book, as its own entity. Groff is great as an understated Sam, and Corey Stall (as Curly) has perfected the affable but skeezy guy – similar to his role as Russo on the TV show House of Cards. This is a very good movie.

Now You See Me

Dir: Louis Leterrier

Four people, entertainers all, receive tarot-card invitations from a mysterious source. There’s a conjurer (Jesse Eisenberg), a hypnotist / conman (Woody Harrelson) an escape artist (Isla Fisher) and a spoon-bender and pickpocket (Dave Franco). They meet up in New York City where they are dubbed the Four Horseman (not “of the apocalypse” – it’s just a name) and trained as a new act. Their gimmick? They can rob banks halfway around the world and give the loot to a screaming audience.

Their act is a huge media success.

As good magicians, they understand the point of a long-range trick, or a years-long setup, so they follow their directions perfectly. Soon they are being financed by a millionaire (Michael Caine), chased by an FBI detective who swears he’ll catch them (Mark Ruffalo), and also pursued by a man who earns his living debunking magicians as frauds (Morgan Freeman). And everyone wants to find out who is the fifth horseman? Is he one of the magicicians themselves? An unknown rival? A member of an illuminati-style cult? And what will the magicians’ final revelation bring?

OK. Some of the lines in this movie are pure cornball, the CGIs are often distracting, the actors are much better than the roles they’re playing, and there are a few too many twists to the plot. But never mind all that… I thought Now You See Me was a completely enjoyable, big-budget popcorn movie. A lot of fun.

Now You See Me opens today, and Pieta will be at the TIFF Bell Lightbox starting today. C.O.G played at Inside-Out Film Fest which continues through Sunday. Ghost in the Machine – a documentary about another strange job also opens today. Directed by Liz Marshall and beautifully shot, it follows an animal rights activist who, instead of freeing caged animals, takes their photos and shows their suffering to the world. And Lore, the amazing Australian movie about young German woman, a displaced person trying to find her way home right after WWII, also opens today, at the TIFF Bell Light Box.

This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Friday morning on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com .

Festival season is gearing up now, with Hot Docs, Images, and Cinefranco announcing this year’s line-up – fantastic stuff to come. But in the meantime, here are some non-festival releases. Today I’m looking at an action/thriller about one man inside a big house who wants to save the world; and a drama about three people stranded on an island who just want to survive.

Olympus Has Fallen

Dir: Antoine Fuqua

Mike Banning (played by perpetually gruff and surly Scot, Gerard Butler) was once a big man in the Secret Service. But when the First Lady is killed in an accident, he loses his status as a presidential guard. So he’s not at the White House when strange things start happening one morning. An errant gunner pilot flies a plane over the mall in Washington DC, mowing down random tourists, and knocking down America’s most famous penis, the Washington monument. Then, a group of tubby but ruthless terrorists manage to capture the White House, including the president and hold him captive. The American Empire is teetering on the brink…

Who are these bad guys? Al Qaeda? Al Shabab? Iraq? Iran? No! It’s the Zeppo of Bush’s “Axis of Evil” – the North Koreans!

The other Secret Service agents all look like part-time tenors in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. (Boy are they white!) But only tough-as-nails Mike is qualified for disasters like this. He gets to the White House on his own and opens up communication with his boss (Angela Bassett) and the grumpy, southern Speaker of the House (Morgan Freeman).

The chief bad guy, Kang (Rick Yune), holds all the cards. He is determined to learn the Cerberus defence code (known only to a few top officials). And he demands the DMZ be taken down and the Korean peninsula unified. With his crack team of super-shooters (inexplicably wearing silly Gilligan hats and bandanas over their faces) and computer experts, along with some American traitors, he’s unbeatable. Or is he?

It’s up to Banning to single-handedly beat all the bad guys, rescue the President (Aaron Eckhardt who is much more a Romney than an Obama), his young son, Connor, and the feisty Secretary of State (Melissa Leo). And, while he’s at it, free the White House, and save the world from an imminent disaster. He accomplishes this with old fashioned American know-how, brutal fighting skills, and brutish come-back lines. (Best line: “Kang, let’s play a round of f*ck off — you go first.”) He improvises, like Bruce Willis in Die Hard, using things he finds on the way. Like smashing in a terrorist’s head using a marble bust of Lincoln. As a Secret Service agent Banning knows every cubbyhole, every secret passageway in the White House.

Antoine Fuqua made the very good movie Training Day, but this is absolutely nothing like that one in style or plot. None of the movie is even vaguely plausible, but it doesn’t need a deep read to understand it. It’s hilariously awful at times, but tense and exciting at others. It’s a classic action movie, complete with explosions, shoot-outs and a virtually unwatchable close-up fight scene with a hand-held camera jiggly enough to make you lose your chili nachos in the lap of the guy in the next seat.

Watch it, laugh at it, and then forget it.

Going Home

Dir: Sudz Sutherland

Due to a change of laws, the US, Canada and the UK are now in the habit of deporting people — landed immigrants who moved to these countries as small children – back to their birthplaces after being convicted even of relatively minor crimes. This drama follows the different paths the three of them take as they are unceremoniously dumped in Jamaica with just a suitcase.

Dunstan (Canadian actor Lyric Bent) is a likeable, big guy from New York. His cousin helps set him up as security at a meth lab in Greenwich Farms, (a tough part of Kingston). He’s working for The Don, a hairy-eyeball young gangster who operates like a high court judge in his neighbourhood, punishing or helping the people there, as he sees fit. Soon he meets the pretty but stand-offish Cherry C. (pop star Fefe Dobson) and likes her a lot. Wants to get to know her much better. But she wants nothing to do with a Deportee.

Everton (played by Torontonian Stephan James) is a clean-cut and naïve, upper-middle-class student from London. He arrives in Kingston like a fish just waiting to be caught. His uncle Sam, who he’s supposed to meet in Trenchtown, isn’t there. He meets up with a cute high school girl, but things just get worse and worse. He soon finds himself homeless and penniless waiting for his mother to rescue him. But she’s a continent away and he can only reach her by long distant phone calls.

And finally Marva from Toronto (Tatyana Ali) was separated from her two young children when she was deported. She can’t find work because no one will trust a deportee. Forced to live with her relatives — a cruel aunt and a skeezy uncle (very well played by Paul Campbell) — Marva feels trapped in an untenable situation. If she can somehow get her kids to join her in Jamaica things will get better.

Will Everton be able to pull himself together and return to England once his court appeal goes through? Can Dunston earn enough to buy a forged passport and get back to his little brother in NY? And can Marva get together again with her kids?

The three deportees have their own separate sub-plots with only minimal contact among them. But they are all set in a very real-looking, fascinating Caribbean city (it was shot in Trinidad), with its colourful scenes and dancehalls, marketplaces and homes. And the movie takes place during a growing gang war affecting all of their lives.

I thought there were enough sub plots and sub-sub plots to fill a miniseries, with dozens of different side characters and twists — too much stuff going on for one movie. But by the end it all starts to coalesce, and you really feel for the characters. Great soundtrack – reggae mixed with dance. The acting is also great – especially Tatyana Ali, but also all the small roles, and there are many — and most of the (subtitled Jamaican) dialogue was fun too. As movies go, it’s a depressing plot, one I wouldn’t normally want to rush to see, and Canadian movies are prone to the overly earnest. But this didn’t happen: I liked it! It gives you lots to think about. Home Again is a good, plot-heavy drama that never leaves you bored.

Olympus has Fallen, and Home Again both open today, as does the film Yossi: check your local listings.

This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Friday morning on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com .

As Rome burns and Europe crumbles, and Wall St is pre-Occupied, and the planet is teetering on the brink… all eyes are on Asia. So now’s your chance to get a feel of what’s going on across the Pacific. The Reelasian Film Festival (“reel” as in reel to reel, Asia as in East and SE Asia) is on now in Toronto, and it’s showing great, new, popular, festival and experimental movies from that region as well as some Canadian films. That means dramas, comedies, documentaries, anime, and shorts. There are also lectures, workshops and master classes for actors, scriptwriters, and producers — even events where you can pitch your own movie proposals. So this week I’m talking about films from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam.

Bleak Night

Dir: Yoon Sung-hyun

This is a movie about a group of three friends at a private boys’ high school in Korea. Only they’re not exactly all that friendly. One is the undisputed leader of the group, and lords it over the rest of them. He’s more of a bully than a friend, and pressures and intimidates the others, who go along with it. The encounters turn into physical abuse and name calling – “you’re my bitch” he says – but no one questions him.

It’s not until one boy stands up to him – and even tries to sever the friendship – that the power-dynamic changes and the pressure builds.

I like Bleak Night, but it gets bogged down with a slow-moving plot, and too many repetitive scenes with ten-minute-long two-man conversations about what happened off-screen and what they really mean to one another.

Full Metal Alchemist (鋼の錬金術師)

Dir: Murata Kazuya (based on the comics by Arakawa Hiromu)

If you’ve never seen Japanese anime before this is a good place to start. But keep in mind, anime are based on manga and so have very long and complex plots with tons of past references and ongoing twisted story lines.

This movie (one chapter of a long saga) takes place in a fantasy setting that looks like the American southwest in the 1930’s, except the country is under martial law. Ed Elric, the full metal alchemist, is a master scientist-cum-magician with bionic limbs of steel. He teams up with his rival Crichton, his sister Julia, and her robot and companion to try to discover the secrets of Milos, find the stars of fresh blood, and gather any clues that might bring them closer to the Philosopher’s Stone. Watch and learn, grasshopper.

Saigon Electric

Dir: Stephane Gauger

Mai, an innocent girl from the sticks, comes into Ho Chi Minh city to make it as a dancer. But she’s strictly old-school: she doesn’t wear make-up, and doesn’t have a fashionable haircut or city clothes. And her dancing style is traditional too – using a ribbon, no less. But then she falls in with tuff-girl Kim whom she meets working in a restaurant. She’s a break dancer who’s being wooed by a rich guy whose family owns an expensive French restaurant. Kim hangs with her crew – Saigon Fresh — painting graffiti art on city walls, bustin’ moves to American hip-hop, and challenging the Northern Killaz to win the city championship so they can compete in the International contest In Korea. They become close friends, and when Kim finds herself homeless she moves into the room Mai rents from the scarecrow, a grumpy old musician. Mai starts teaching ribbon dancing at the same community centre where Kim is break dancing with her crew – a place where orphans and homeless street kids find shelter.

But trouble awaits: Kim and her boyfriend go off to a seaside hotel, where he promises her the world. But back in the city, some rich developers are threatening to close down the community centre where they all hang out and turn it into a hotel. What’s going to happen? Will all the characters find true happiness or will all their dreams be lost? Will the club be closed down?

This Saigon really is electric, shot in supersaturated colours, of people zooming around the city on motorbikes and skateboards. Even though it’s a age-old story, I like this very modern but distinctly Vietnamese style combined with a good dramatic plot and lots of that excellent 80’s street dancing with head spinning, sometimes even combined with classic Vietnamese drumming. (in Vietnamese).

Buddha Mountain (觀音山)

Dir: Li Yu

Mrs Chang (Sylvia Chang) a former Peking Opera star living in the city of Chengdu, in Sichuan China, is angry, hostile, bitter and depressed, since a tragic death in her family around the time of the earthquake. But she rents out a room in her home to three street-smart kids. Nanfeng (Fan Bingbing) is a pretty girl from a small town who can smash a bottle of beer on her forehead or kiss another girl on the lips – just for the hell of it. She’s trying to earn a living as a bar singer; Fatso (Fei Long) is a chubby, round-cheeked guy who didn’t get into University, but likes practicing Michael Jackson’s moonwalk as he looks for love; and Ding Bo (Chen Po Lin) is a self-centred but free-spirited youth with family troubles and too much time on his hands. They are adventurers – riding the rails, driving around town, rescuing each other from local gangs. Madame Chang orders them around like they’re her servants, and they steal from her and feel no guilt. A real generational divide. She looks down on them for their lack of culture, but for the kids she’s just a screeching fossil from a lost era.

But when one of the characters almost dies the others all rally round to help. They travel up to a Buddhist shrine on a mountain to repair damages from the earthquake and perhaps to fix the damaged parts of their own lives.

Buddha Mountain is a beautiful, touching, interesting and mainly realistic film about rootless youth in urban China.

Amphetamine / 安非他命 (Hong Kong)

Dir: Scud

Kafka (Byron Pang) — named after the Murakami novel, not the Czech writer — is a swim coach, a nude model, and a dyed-blond kung fu expert. His parents are dead, his brother is disabled, and he’s nearly penniless, but he can still do a complete split and support himself with his feet on opposite walls. Then he meets Daniel (Thomas Price), a young and ambitious Cantonese-speaking financier working for an Australian multinational. It is love? Kafka dumps his girlfriend when they seem to be falling for each other, even though it’s a first gay romance for both of them, and Kafka isn’t sure he can handle it.

They go bungee jumping, travelling, living the high life. But things get bad for poor Kafka when he starts doing too much crystal meth, and he begins to lose his grip with reality, falling into strange dreams and scary flashbacks, and beginning to think the white feathered wings he sometimes wears on his back mean he can actually fly. Is their love true? Can a poor but tough man accept the loving gestures of a Chinese-Aussie millionaire?

Definitely don’t see this movie if you’re at all uncomfortable with male nudity, since in practically every scene – I don’t care if it’s a street brawl, a love scene, a hospital, a mental ward, a police interrogation — they find some excuse to strip down. OK maybe not the bungee jumping scene, but other than that, it’s Naked! Naked! Naked!

Amphetamine is unusual for a Hong Kong movie: a stylized and partly dreamlike gay, erotic melodrama about drugs. In Cantonese and English.

Saigon Electric, Buddha Mountain, Bleak Night, and Full Metal Alchemist, are all playing tonight through Sunday at the Reelasian festival. Check the times at reelasian.com. Amphetamine is also playing this weekend at anotherr toronto festival dealing with mental health and addiction: check times at rendezvouswithmadness.com Also opening today is Lars von Trier’s Melancholia. This is a two part movie, about a wedding with the bride (Kirsten Dunst) heading toward disaster and a post wedding depression with whole planet possibly colliding with a planet called Melancholia. First opart good, second part just so-so. And Charlotte Gainsbourg as the bride’s uptight, beleaguered sister is such a let down after her tour de force in Lars von Trier’s last movie, Antichrist.

This is Daniel Garber at the Movies for CIUT 89.5 FM, and on my web site Culturalmining.com.

Hollywood westerns also have their stock characters — the black hats and white hats, the saloon keepers, the sheriffs –- that they wheel out before the camera when they need them.

And movies, like anything else, go through fads. We all know that pop movies have gradually shifted popular themes, from zombies to vampires. And lots of people predict that the werewolves are pushing out vampires now.

But what about the Ninjas? Where do they stand? Will they be the next big thing? Maybe.

The head of a ninja academy kidnaps small children all around the world and transports them to a Himalayan mountain top’s secret hideaway. They grow up as viciously trained ninjas, the almost invisible Japanese spies and killers who wear black, who throw stars and use their swords to chop up whoever they were ordered to kill. They creep in and out like the world’s best spies, nameless, faceless, deadly. But rather than keeping its Japanese theme, this movie universalizes it. The children are of every nationality and the action takes place mainly in Berlin of all places, complete with U-bahn and curry wurst – an unexpected juxtaposition of unrelated cultures.

So it’s only as Japanese as the sliding paper screens on the sets – Ninja’s have reached international status.

Kamui (in Japanese)
Dir: Koichi Sai

Much better than Ninja Assassin is the quite amazing movie Kamui, Directed by Koichi Sai. I hope it will be released in North America this year.

As an ex-shinobi on the run, Kamui, fights a female Ninja to the death when he is still just a little boy. You can never escape the clan. He is an outcast, a hinin, and teaches himself all the secret tricks and almost magical rules of self defense just to stay alive.

14 years later he witnesses a poor fisherman, for unknown reasons, cutting the leg off a corrupt nobleman’s prized horse. Kamui helps him escape and is pulled into the conflict. He has no choice but to follow the fisherman to his boat to escape the attacking troops.

The fisherman takes him to a quaint island where life is peaceful and almost idyllic, but he must always be alert to the Ninja ghosts of his past – the shinobi agents who are sworn to execute any ex-member; and the spoiled and cruel nobleman who wants to punish everyone associated with the death of his horse.

Kamui is an amazingly beautiful and moving adaptation of a Japanese comic and shares its long and complex melodramatic plot, countless faces, and the frequent revelation of characters’ hidden secrets and acts of betrayal.

Fights are done in that old Hongkong movie style where every battle has swordsman jumping high in the air to clash blades. Fighters swing from trees like Tarzan. Although it frequently uses CGIs (computer generated images), something I usually hate, they’re all excellently done.


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AH Awards: Best Camera Smartphone 2015

The smartphone camera has gotten better and better over the past few years and now, they've become so good that they can quite easily replace a digital camera for a lot of users. With larger sensors, much better software, more natural flash and speedier shooting, cameras have come on a long way in just the last couple of years. This year saw LG and Samsung make huge leaps in terms of their low-light performance and in the case of LG, in terms of better camera software. Sony came back with a little improvement, which went a long way and Google managed to put together a camera software and sensor combo that gave Nexus devices a decent shooter for once. There has never been a better time to enjoy taking photos with your phone, they're good enough for precious memories and great for taking a photo when you need to. Not all of these have been equal however, and this is our AH Award for the Best Camera Smartphone of 2015

3rd Place - LG V10 and Google Nexus 6P

This year saw LG really up their game with the LG G4 and its 16-megapixel camera. Improving on last year's laser autofocus, they also added a color spectrum sensor as well. With the V10 they took things a little further, all of the same manual shooting options - which included shutter-speed, aperture and exposure to name a few - they also added oodles of video software. The V10 is an excellent phone for those that want a camera that can do everything really pretty well. For budding filmmakers, there are a ton of features on offer, like the ability to edit and scrub footage there and then from the same camera app. Not to mention the excellent optical image stabilisation that LG have been offering for years now. It's also excellent for taking pictures, as you might imagine, and while the manual controls and such might be a little confusing for some, it's a great point-and-shoot machine as well. We reviewed the LG V10 here.

Tying with the V10 was Huawei's first Nexus device, the Nexus 6P. For the Nexus 6P - as well as the Nexus 5X - Google tried something a little different. They used the Sony IMX377 sensor, which might only take images of 12.3-megapixels, but it's usually used in consumer camcorders, making it a pretty versatile workhorse. Besides, pixels are only one part of the equation, and with this Sony sensor, Huawei's Nexus 6P takes excellent photos. They're sharp, natural and detailed with some good color saturation, without going overboard. Despite failed devices from the Nexus heritage having poor shooting experiences, the Nexus 6P is speedy to shoot with and pleasant to use as well. We reviewed the Nexus 6P here.

2nd Place - Galaxy Note 5

This year has been an interesting one for Samsung, the new design language throughout the Galaxy S6 line and the use of curved displays with the Edge series has resulted in some of their best-looking phones ever. The Galaxy Note line however, no longer looks quite so superior compared to the Galaxy S line. Nevertheless, the Galaxy Note 5 is one hell of a phone, and if you're wanting a good camera experience, this is a cut above the rest of Samsung's offerings. The Galaxy Note 5 features the same 16-megapixel f/1.9 shooter as the Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge and Galaxy S6 Edge Plus, which means they all share similar performance. This means that the Galaxy Note 5 can take incredible low-light images, it really is a testament to how much work Samsung put in here. With lots of detail in day-to-day shooting, low-light is one area where this line of devices really stands out. So, why the Galaxy Note 5, then? Well, for one there's a nice big display to view your photos on - which look gorgeous thanks to Samsung's Super AMOLED technology - and then there's the S-Pen to work with as well. The S-Pen gives you lots of flexibility to edit photos, cut portions of photos out and do so much more with your work. As usual, you can read our review of the Galaxy Note here.

1st Place - Sony Xperia Z5

For years now, Sony has been delivering the best their mobile division has to offer with their Xperia Z line. While the design of the phones might be looking a little stale at this point, the camera experience has only gotten better and better. This year saw Sony launch the Xperia Z5 line, all with a fancy new 23-megapixel sensor and lens all of Sony's design. Coming from the company that make full-frame mirrorless digital cameras you would expect great things from Sony, and with the Xperia Z5 they deliver, and then some. With the Sony line of devices, it's not all about the megapixels, and while the Xperia Z5 certainly captures a lot of them, it also captures detail, excellent colors and it's a joy to use as well. Thanks to the inclusion of a dedicated camera button, it feels like you're using a digital camera when using the Xperia Z5, and the results will have you fooled even further. In our review, we found that even though the Superior Auto mode had a tendency to wash photos out, a tiny adjustment to exposure could get you some excellent shots you would never think were from a phone. Great for recording video as well, the Xperia Z5 line does it all, and it does so in style, too.

For years now I've had a heavy interest in technology, growing up with 8-bit computers and gaming consoles has fed into an addiction to everything that beeps. Android saved me from the boredom of iOS years ago and I love watching the platform grow. As an avid reader and writer nothing pleases me more than to write about the exciting world of Android, Google and mobile technology as a whole.


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2013 NHL Free Agents We Are Shocked to See Still Available

The 2013 NHL free-agency period is almost a week old now, and some of the biggest names are already off of the market. Mike Ribeiro found a home with the Phoenix Coyotes almost as soon as noon rolled around on July 5.

Ditto for Nathan Horton, who inked a massive seven-year deal to be one of the top offensive players on the Columbus Blue Jackets. And, of course, the rough-and-tumble David Clarkson landed in Toronto with the Maple Leafs, where he's likely to be one of their most popular players.

Since Derek Roy signed on with the St. Louis Blues during day two of the free-agency period, it's been mostly quiet. Which is surprising, given some of the quality players who are still available.

Jaromir Jagr

Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

Did a brush with another Stanley Cup ring reinvigorate Jaromir Jagr for one more year of action? The 41-year-old is the NHL's active leading scorer and could provide some offensive punch for a squad that is looking under any and all rocks for goals.

There are two major drawbacks with Jagr.

First of all, it became apparent in 2013 that he doesn't tend to mix well on lines with younger players. He deadpanned with the Dallas Stars, where he bogged Jamie Benn down until he was moved to Boston. Is it any coincidence then that Tyler Seguin's performance took a nosedive once he ended up on a line with Jagr?

Secondly, the foot speed just isn't there like it used to be. It's sad to see, but Jagr looks slow these days. That said, he's still capable of playing a secondary role, and if he takes on a smaller cap hit, he could stick with a team in the coming days.

Mikhail Grabovski

Claus Andersen/Getty Images

The Toronto Maple Leafs thought long and hard about buying out Mikhail Grabovski and eventually decided that this was the right course of action. They went out and acquired Dave Bolland to fill that gap at center, and it didn't take long for sources like The Sporting News to question the move.

There's a good reason for that: Grabovski is a darn good player. He's just not $5.5 million-a-year good.

The compliance buyouts allowed some market-cracking mistakes of the past to be rectified, and Toronto wiping Grabovski's contract from the ledger wasn't surprising given the money and term.

That doesn't mean he couldn't be an excellent top-six addition for a team looking to add a player with a boatload of speed and underrated defensive ability. He only scored 16 points in 2013, but he had largely fallen out of favor with the staff in Toronto.

Given that he is two years removed from his best season—much like Ryane Clowe, who inked a big deal with the New Jersey Devils—a team could do a lot worse when trying to add a 50-point player to the mix.

Damien Brunner

Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images

Damien Brunner is arguably the most interesting player available as a free agent right now. He's only 27 years old, and toward the back end of the 2013 campaign, he seemingly found his way. He was especially effective in the playoffs for the Detroit Red Wings—he had nine points in 14 games as the Wings gave the Chicago Blackhawks all they could handle.

That's the good news for Brunner and his camp as he tries to secure a long-term deal worth several million a year.

The bad news? He was largely ineffective when used as a top-six player in Detroit, failing to make much of an impact while playing alongside Henrik Zetterberg.

He didn't start to take off until he was dropped to the third line with Joakim Andersson and Gustav Nyquist. Then Brunner found his game and victimized some of the lesser forwards of the Anaheim Ducks and the 'Hawks.

So what is Brunner then? A below-average top-six contributor? Or an above-average third-line role guy? There's a big gap in pay there, and that's likely why Brunner hasn't found a home quite yet.

Dustin Penner

Harry How/Getty Images

Given your typical NHL executive's obsession with size, it's mildly surprising that Dustin Penner is still floating about as a free agent. He's three years removed from his best season in the NHL, but hey, he's still 6'4'' and 225 pounds.

Considering that he put up 14 points in 33 games played during 2013, it's a bit unfair that pundits call Penner out for being wholly ineffective and invisible all of the time. Spread across an 82-game season, 2013 wouldn't have been a bad campaign for the big winger.

Given the lack of depth in this free-agency class, it's only a matter of time before he finds a new home with another team. He's got Stanley Cup experience, and there's always a chance he reverts back to 60-point Penner.

A team shouldn't pay him for that, though. It should pay him for what he is, a spotty top-nine option who is capable of putting up 10 or 15 goals in a season if all goes well.

Now, what are you willing to pay for this scratch-off ticket of a player?

Brenden Morrow

Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

The best available rent-a-leader, Brenden Morrow just drips intangibles on and off the ice and is a proven locker room presence. He's more than an ex-captain, though. Morrow showed that he's still able to put up some points when put in the right situation.

He posted 14 points in 15 games with the Pittsburgh Penguins, as he set up shop in front of the net and let Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby do all the smooth skating.

Morrow is still one of the better dirty-goal scorers around, and he stands out from the crop of remaining free agents for that reason.

A versatile guy, Morrow has the sandpaper to move up and down lines as necessary. He can bang bodies on the third line as well as the first, and he should get a shot with a team as cap situations start to settle down a bit and become clearer.

Ron Hainsey

Sean Rudyk/Getty Images

If Ron Hainsey had scored three goals last year like Ryane Clowe, maybe he could land a big-money contract from an NHL team. Sadly, the defenseman hasn't had a goal since 2010-11 and seems to only be capable of actually playing defense and setting up a goal now and then.

Not shockingly, a defensive-defenseman who blocks a ton of shots and plays big minutes is still sitting at home as a free agent while wishy-washy forwards and flashier players get locked up to massive deals. Did no one watch the Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks en route to the Cup Final?

Shot-blocking, minute-munching defenders are invaluable.

Hainsey will receive his payday at some juncture, it just remains unclear who he'll latch on with. For a team like the Philadelphia Flyers who are looking to add a top-four guy on the blue line, he is one of their few viable options.

Ian White

Christian Petersen/Getty Images

More or less the polar opposite of Ron Hainsey, Ian White is a solid puck-moving defenseman who is capable of putting up some strong numbers from the blue line. He didn't pan out with the Detroit Red Wings as a replacement for Brian Rafalski and became the victim of a numbers game in 2013.

White posted 32 points in his last full season of action in 2012—a number that should be largely attractive to at least half of the teams in the NHL, given the value placed on defenders who are capable in the offensive zone as well.

No one is going to mistake him for Erik Karlsson, but White is still a very capable guy in the offensive zone. The best part about him may be his age.

He's only 29. A team shouldn't be afraid to lock him up for three or four years, depending on the salary demands.


Cover entire thumbnail area (cropped) Always show picture ID label Always show resolution label Always show picture tags Use additive model for tag filering Do not open pictures in slideshow Group similar pictures together (beta)

I know this chick who always wears sandals with socks and I see the outline of her toes. Pictures like this one always remind me of that and how I just sit and imagine what's under that stupid sock. It could be paradise in there!


"Alyssa was amazing! She definitely helped direct and guide us to taking the perfect pictures. She was very prompt about getting back to us with any questions we had during the planning of our wedding! She made us laugh all day long which helped us relax!"
"Alyssa was everything we hoped for and more. From our delightful engagement session at Long Wood Gardens to our beautiful wedding day this fall, she worked with us every step of the way. We were able to build a friendship along with her ability to capture such stunning moments during this special time of our lives. We are beyond thrilled with her flexibility and work ethic. We have received many compliments from friends and family on our wedding photos and we love them all! We would certainly recommend Hope & Stay to any newly engaged couples!"
"From day one, it was like working with a close friend, and Alyssa is also very professional, on top of her game, and a great communicator. I can't even find words good enough to express how perfect our experience has been. We will definitely continue to use Hope & Stay in the years to come for those landmark moments. "


SDAH - CG LOCAL (34512) departs from SEALDAH Railway Station at 05:45.
SDAH - CG LOCAL reach on day 1 to CANNING Railway Station. The arrival time of SDAH - CG LOCAL at CANNING Railway Station is 06:57.
SDAH - CG LOCAL covers 45 km to reach CANNING Railway Station at average speed of 38 km/hr. SDAH - CG LOCAL passes through 16 stations.


Type species: Mustela lutra Linnaeus, 1758.
Lutra in Mammal Species of the World.
For more multimedia, look at Lutra on Wikimedia Commons.
This page was last edited on 28 December 2018, at 13:14.


Last week was one of the weeks I look forward to the most every year. Two other woman and I hosted a camp for kids ages 5-12. This camp focuses on mindfulness, yoga and cooking, with the kids rotating through each area every day. I am responsible for the cooking part of the camp so every year I have the challenge of finding recipes that the kids will like but that don’t activate any of the kids food allergies. In this day and age, with 24 kids involved, this is a big challenge. However, this year I found two different recipes that used black beans- one a savory recipe and one a sweet recipe. After the kids seemed to enjoy both of them, it made me want to explore the nutritional benefits of beans. These are the facts I discovered.
Black beans are a food everyone should keep in their cupboard. They are a cheap, easy to prepare source of protein, regularity producing fiber, disease fighting antioxidants, and numerous vitamins and minerals.
Black bean’s rich, deep color point to their high anti oxidant content that is especially helpful in the fight against color cancer.
One cup of black beans provides 15 grams of filling fiber. This fiber helps to keep us regular and provides a feeling of satiety after meals. The fiber is also helpful in blood sugar control.
Black beans are low on the glycemic index because they are a complex carbohydrate that the body is able to slowly digest and use for energy without spiking blood sugar levels.
Black beans are an excellent source of numerous vitamins and minerals including magnesium, iron, phosphorus, folate, and B vitamins.
One cup of these beans provides about 14 grams of fat-burning protein, making them an excellent source of protein for vegans and vegetarians and carnivores.
Place the beans, 1/4 cup chocolate chips and oil in a food processor; cover and process until blended. Add the eggs, brown sugar, cocoa, vanilla, baking powder and salt; cover and process until smooth.
Transfer to a 9-in. square baking pan coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Cut into bars. Yield: 1 dozen.
1 brownie equals 167 calories, 7 g fat (2 g saturated fat), 53 mg cholesterol, 131 mg sodium, 24 g carbohydrate, 2 g fiber, 4 g protein.


Spring invites you to continue enjoying outdoor activities, but it's time to store away your skis and get out on the golf courses and hiking & mountain biking trails. Bike parks are scheduled to begin opening late-May who also offer other family recreation attractions.
The Kootenay Rockies is British Columbia's Mountain Playground!
All inclusive Yoga Experiences at the gateway to the Valhallas in the pristine Slocan Valley.
Six days starts at $1,099; 4 days starts at $699.
The Kaslo Hotel is celebrating 10 years of being an award winning, heritage designed, boutique hotel. One night in a luxury room for 2 w walkout balcony & $40 pub credit for $149/night. 1-866-823-1433 Valid until May 12, 2019.
Long Stay Specials - FERNIE LODGING CO.
Great discount on longer stays; Stay 7 nights; pay for 6.
Fernie Lodging Co. has over 100 properties to pick from!
Valid until November 30, 2019 with blackout dates.
Book at the award winning BW Plus Columbia River Hotel and get rewarded. Each night reserved includes a $20 dining voucher to the on-site Foxy's Fine Food & Drinks. 1-800-465-6682 Valid for 2019.
Select Fairmont Hot Springs properties are available at a significantly reduced weekly rate. Special rate is available for bookings made within 28 days of arrival.
Nipika Mountain Resort on the edge of Kootenay National Park offers a Mountain Bike Clinic. $495 per person includes meals, coaching, lodging and rides.
Two Nights and One Round of Golf.
Stay between April 30 and October 30, 2019.
Book by June 15, 2019 and save 20% on lodging.
Spring has arrived! Stay at the Adventure Hotel this April and save, save, save on your accommodation. Discounted rates available including the popular 3 for 2 rate special. 1-888-722-2258 Valid during April 2019.
Kicking Horse Mountain Resort. Stay between April 30 and October 30, 2019 and save up to 15% on lodging.
Book a 3 night stay by June 15, 2019.
One night stay in a standard guestroom, $25 gift card to Conrad's Kitchen & Grill or Don Agave Cantina, (both on-site) 2 passes to the Radium Hot Springs pools.
Three nights in the Bear Lodge, scenic raft trip, barbecue lunch and a visit to the Grizzly Bear Refuge.
Package price $1,829/based on 6 people sharing.
Stay 3 nights, get your 4th night free.
Valid at Panorama Mountain Resort May 15-22, 2019.
Valid in Fairmont Hot Springs October 9-16, 2019.
1-877-646-5890 Please inquire for pricing.
Meadow Creek near Kaslo and Nelson.
Talus time in the summer and fall; hiking, wildlife observing and nature viewing. Package includes helicopter transport and 3 night stay. $1,435/pp.
Valid from April 19 to Oct 31, 2019.
Bighorn Meadows Resort invites you to escape the hustle of life with paddleboard instructions, yoga classes, delicious food and wonderful lodging. Starting at $435/pp. 1-877-344-2323 Valid August 9-11, 2019.
Valid during 2019 golf season.
The Golden Golf course packages with a number of community accommodators. Check out the selection online and golf Golden this season.
Choose from a number of packages that combine massage with body & facial care. Includes aromatherapy steam room, hot spring hot tub, robes and more.
Valid during 2019; blackout dates apply.
Set in the Rocky Mountains, Fernie is a pleasure to explore and experience; a mecca for biking, hiking, rafting, fishing & skiing. Check out the number of Packages and Deals being offered by a variety of businesses.
Treat yourself and explore natural wonders at Island Lake Lodge. From hiking, spa treatments, acclaimed food & wine, wonderful accommodation and setting. 250-423-3700 Starting at $467/couple. Valid June 7 - Oct 7, 2019.
Five-night bear viewing holiday. Head out into beautiful, remote terrain to view totally wild bears. Starting at $2,350.
Excellent meals and luxury cabin lodging.
Valid during May & June 2019.
Kicking Horse Mountain Resort offers 15% off lodging when you book a summer adventure. Activities include Grizzly Bear Refuge, Via Ferrata, whitewater rafting, golf and more. 1-800-258-7669 Book by June 15, 2019.
Stay in any Fernie Lodging Company vacation rental property this summer and receive 50% off your third night. Valid for stays until November 30, 2019.
Book your getaway to the Fernie Alpine Resort by June 15, 2019 and save up to 10%.
Valid for stays between April 30 to October 30, 2019.
Spring Sale: $20 per night off all rooms until May 16, 2019 at the upscale, downtown, out of the ordinary Cloudside Hotel in the beautiful city of Nelson.
Snow Valley Lodging offers rooms, suites and tiny homes. Book direct and get 10% off their Best Available rate.
Their courtesy bikes are a great way to explore Fernie.
Free coffee with breakfast at Rel-ish Bistro. Stay at the Cloudside Hotel and get coffee at one of Nelson's finest restaurants for free.
Package price starts at $450. Valid May 10&11, 2019.
Spring Special of 15% off until June 10, 2019.
Save 20% on stays of 5 nights or more at the brand new Brooks Creek Ranch - modern luxuries in a natural environment. Use promocode: SAVE20. 1-866-288-1418.
Starting at $328 for 2-night stay. Valid until June 29/19.
Ainsworth Hot Springs, Balfour, Lardeau, Kaslo, Meadow Creek & Nelson - Check out the number of Packages and Deals being offered by a variety of businesses - from world-class adventures to great dining & lodging options.


List of ebooks and manuels about "Green Design Rfp"
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The Request for Proposals (RFP) for Green Building Research is organized into the sections listed ... Design and construction of green buildings has increased.
Conceptual Park Design ... The Request for Proposals (RFP) will be ... with two softball/baseball fields, concession stand, a large open green.
The intent of this RFP is to identify a qualified organization or team ... who will participate in refining and implementing a Central Green design.
proposals based on the criteria outlined in this RFP and will negotiate the ... Neighborhood sustainability and green building design elements.
You Design a Winning, Green Bus Shelter. We'll Give You ... The RFP calls for the installation of a double shelter with outer dimensions 6' x 20'.
RFP NO.: 2018-01. Redevelopment of Property located at. 5801 and ..... green design, energy and water efficiency and appropriate density.
GREEN CHEMISTRY & DESIGN COLLEGE CURRICULUM GRANT PROJECTS ... meeting the evaluation criteria stated in this Request for Proposals (RFP).
utilities; and (v) a test fit and concept design for the Chapel. .... Proposals will be evaluated in accordance with Part D of this RFP. ...... Improve on the Chapel's surrounding green space areas to create both overflow areas and.
Green Infrastructure RFP for the Provision of. Construction ... these areas? A: There are ongoing design contracts in all three Project Sites.
Green Park Phase 2B RFP for Engineering, Design, and Related Consultant. Services released by NYCEDC on June 29, 2015, as amended (the “RFP”), the.
RFP – Professional Design and Engineering Services .... complying with ADA standards, stormwater/green infrastructure, overhead and.
1.6 Expenses incurred by the respondents in replying to the RFP or in making any .... Sustainability and green design will be guiding principles.
To the extent feasible, the Consultant shall incorporate green ... design of the Phase 3 development, and is included with this RFP as. Exhibit D.
this RFP must type this offer under their letterhead, sign, date, and submit it as part of their ... Use of sustainable and “green” design elements.
1 | P a g e. Request for Proposal. Reference No.: ECO-RFP-2018-001. Gender-sensitive urban design services.
This Request for Proposals (hereinafter referred to as “RFP") was developed in .... sustainable design options to the greatest extent possible.
Green Design Rfp Files for free and learn more about Green Design Rfp . These Files contain exercises and tutorials to improve your practical skills, at all levels!
You can download PDF versions of the user's guide, manuals and ebooks about Green Design Rfp, you can also find and download for free A free online manual (notices) with beginner and intermediate, Downloads Documentation, You can download PDF files about Green Design Rfp for free, but please respect copyrighted ebooks.


The three events below are just a few highlights from an exciting and impressive array of events! Visit the ArtWeek website to get a full list of events in our area and beyond!
This Saturday take a sneak peak of Norman Rockwell’s last, and “best studio yet,” (opened just for ArtWeek!) before it officially debuts to the public. Free with museum admission. Also on Saturday is a journaling workshop for artists and writers with award-winning illustrator Lisa Cyr. Focusing on the development of personal content through journaling and sketching in handmade and custom-altered books, you’ll explore mixed media techniques and creative writing exercises as Ms. Cyr offers an extensive array of possibilities for artists and writers. $35 Program Fee which includes admission to the museum and studio.
At her eponymous gallery in Great Barrington Lauren Clark will be demonstrating the ancient craft of Turkish Paper Marbling. Watching the magic of marbling is a hit with adults and Ms. Clark is a pro—a paper marbler for over 30 years and instructor at nearby IS183 whose work can be found in multiple books by Dover Publications and at art supply and fine art paper stores.
Sculptor Andrew DeVries will be at his gallery in Lenox for a “Meet the Artist” event to share his passion of casting his own sculptures and creating lively colorful pastels. Also enjoy a video portraying a day in his life, illustrating his bronze process and the lost wax method, playing at the gallery.
The Berkshire Community Land Trust has invited Sarah Waring, Executive Director of the Center for an Agricultural Economy (CAE), and Matthew Derr, President of Sterling College and CAE board member, down from Hardwick VT to share their organizations’ visions. Ms. Waring will share her vision of farmers, entrepreneurs, citizens, government and educators working together to effectively build a vibrant local economy that respects the region’s unique landscape. Mr. Derr will speak about Sterling College and their commitment to preparing the next generation of farm/food/agricultural entrepreneurs. $10 or 10 BerkShares.
THE SALISBURY FORUM: WHAT’S NEXT AMERICA?
Veteran journalist Ray Suarez is presenting “Getting Ready for the Next America: The Fight Over Who We’ll Be;” discussing the battle over America’s racial and ethnic future. Mr. Suarez argues “the two elections of Barack Obama may have convinced you the path to majority-minority America was going to go one way. President Trump, nativism and Charlottesville may be a signal that it’s going to be a much more complicated transition.” Mr. Suarez has over 30 years experience in the news business as a reporter for CNN and ABC, a correspondent for the PBS News hour and the host of Talk of the Nation on NPR. A longstanding member of the press corps and critically acclaimed author, Mr. Suarez has had a front row seat for decades and is now offering us a preview for what’s next. Free.
Celebrate Independent Bookstore Day at The Hickory Stick Bookshop with giveaways, refreshments and activities throughout the day including two book signings. Take part in the state-wide celebration by picking up your “passport” (valid ONLY at independent book stores in Connecticut), and, if you get it stamped at 15 of the 20 participating stores, you’ll win $25 gift cards for all 20 shops! Or stick around at Hickory Stick to enjoy meeting the authors of "Dancing Inside", a book of poetry with watercolor illustrations, and Bibi Gaston, author of "Gifford Pinchot and the First Foresters: The Untold Stories of the Brave Men and Women Who Launched the American Conservation Movement." Visit the website for a list and map of participating stores. Free.
Head to the Stagecoach Tavern for their lively Sunday Jazz Brunch—this week a live performance by The Wanda Houston Band. Executive Chef Laurel Barkan whips up a hearty, wholesome and soul-satisfying brunch to accompany the soulful music of the talented Ms. Houston and her quartet. Covering tunes from the 30s through the 70s, expect rhythm, blues, jazz and, of course, a lot of soul.


Q:

where is the best palce to count the lazy load property using JPA

Let's say we have a "Question" and "Answer" entity,
@Entity

public class Question extends IdEntity {
    @Lob
    private String content;
        @Transient
    private int answerTotal;
        @OneToMany(fetch = FetchType.LAZY)
    private List<Answer> answers = new ArrayList<Answer>();
......

I need to tell how many answers for the question every time Question is queryed. So I need to do count:
String count = "select count(o) from Answer o WHERE o.question=:q";

My question is, where is the best place to do the count? (Because I did a lot of query about Question entity, by date, by tag, by category, by asker, etc. It is obviously not a good solution to add count operation in each query.
My first attempt is to implement a @PostLoad listener, so every time Question entity is loaded, I do count. However, EntityManager cannot be injected in listener. So this way does not work.
Any hint? (I use Hibernate as provider).

A:

If using extensions is not excluded, you could maybe use @LazyCollection with the EXTRA option:
@OneToMany(fetch = FetchType.LAZY)
@LazyCollection(LazyCollectionOption.EXTRA)
private List<Answer> answers = new ArrayList<Answer>();

This would allow to call answers.size() without loading the collection.


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Contributor North Carolina Human Relations Commission.
Description Spring 1983.; Bibliography: p. 70.
Physical Characteristics 70 p.; 28 cm.


Life change happens best in relationships.
We don’t have to, we get to.
Be built up in your faith through the Word.