Fantasia Festival: Volume 4

by Ari

All Out Nine

In my limited experience with Asian sports movies, I’ve noticed that filmmakers prone to following a comedic direction almost always go out of control with their stories. They show no restraint, no boundaries, and no sign of calm, balanced, and typical style. If a sports movie isn’t meant for any dramatic effect, it becomes a testing ground for sheer energetic madness for directors of highly stylized and outrageous sensibilities. The absurd and sporadically entertaining Shaolin Soccer immediately jumps to mind. On rare occasion, a comedy like Ping Pong comes along and provides energy with drama, resulting in something moving and profound. That, however, is the absolute opposite of what you’ll find in All Out Nine - the single most ludicrous sports movie ever made. This film is perhaps the most gleefully hyper sports (or normal) comedy I’ve ever seen - a long, enthusiastic, and high-spirited endeavor that is as exhausting as it is enjoyable. I have to begrudgingly admire its effort to entertain, and thankfully the actors pour on the charm even when you’re tiring of their presence. The same can be said for the director, who stylistically inserts every trick he can muster with an undeniable charisma and heart, even when it becomes a bit irritating and excessive. All Out Nine does everything it can to make you laugh, and its crazed determination to do so is amusing in and of itself.

Director Hasumi Eiichiro is undoubtedly doing his best to recreate the fevered tone that exists in the source material, a popular Japanese comic-book by Shimamoto Kazuhiko. This attention to the over-the-top style of the book is abundantly clear in the many visual effects, title cards, exaggerated conflicts, supernatural elements, and rapid pacing that defines All Out Nine. The story centers on a young baseball captain, Toshi (Tamayama Tetsuji) who desperately wants to lead his team of outcasts, nerds, and slackers to the league nationals, where they will compete against the best of the best. Unfortunately, his team has never won a single game and faces the threat of permanent termination by the principal (Fujioka Hiroshi) of his school. I think it’s fairly obvious how this standard premise unfolds. Toshi must figure out how to inspire his teammates so they can be victorious in qualifying rounds, while dealing with his own personal demons, or “adversity!” as he likes to call it. These adversities include passing exams, taking care of his friends, falling in love, and, of course, the threat of losing his sport, team, ambition, and pride.

So, what kind of absurdities can be found in All Out Nine? A high-speed pitch that turns the baseball into a fiery, beaming, living, SMILING creature, to monoliths that either crash-down on earth or rise from beneath the ground to influence the young captain with pseudo-philosophical advice. “It’s your own fault” “That is that...this is this” .....and everything else in-between. The ultimate idea is to create a moving comic-book with real actors in real locations, and regardless of how respectable I usually find that, director Hasumi Eiichiro is unquestionably successful in his aim. If you have patience for that sort of excessiveness, then All Out Nine is worth a look.

Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai:

I guess limits don’t exist anymore. Festival organizers and programmers have the responsibility to keep things under a certain limit when holding a public event. Or at least I thought they did. Quite frankly, the screening of Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai crossed the line. Is Fantasia a film festival, or a place where pornographic, degrading propaganda is meant to be embraced? There is no justifying this movie as film, art, or entertainment, unless your idea of such things revolves around demeaning, grotesque, and vile acts of sexuality and violence. If so, then stay very far away from me. Presenting repulsive features like Sachiko Hanai is beyond reason. It’s not daring. It’s not amusing. And it’s certainly not intelligent.

If you can get past the gratuitous sex sequence that opens Glamorous Life, you’ll experience a pitiful attempt at social and political satire told through a character motivated by meaningless sexual activity. The title character, Sachiko Hanai, is shot in the head and miraculously survives, only to be suddenly possessed by visionary intellect and insight. She then decides to discover the nature of the universe, and does so by having endless amounts of sex with anyone who remotely glances her way. The filmmakers want you to think something profound and sophisticated is happening, but only witless individuals without an iota of a clue will actually fall for it. When something gives the appearance of being controversial or bold or daring, imbecilic fans of the obscure usually tend to hail it as revolutionary. Sachiko Hanai gives the appearance, but don’t be foolish enough to actually believe it’s rewarding. This is thoughtless, mean-spirited pornography of the most misogynist sort - absolutely unnecessary and unacceptable.