IRIS CHANG, THE RAPE OF NANKING

Rating: *** 1/2 (3.5 out of 4)

Given the nature of the subject matter, it's not a pleasant film to watch. However, this is a powerful film that sheds light on the author who helped to put focus on a tragic event in history.  

Iris Chang wrote a book called The Rape of Nanking published in 1997 becoming an unexpected best-seller and provoked controversy in Japan. The book chronicled the Japanese Army's atrocities committed during their 1937 invasion of China's capitol city of Nanking. To this day, there are some people in Japan who deny that these atrocities ever took place. Iris Chang, The Rape of Nanking mixes re-enactments of Iris Chang's (Chang played by Olivia Cheng) journey from California to Nanking as she was researching and writing her book with archive footage as well as interviews with the survivors from Nanking. The survivor accounts are incredibly stirring but equally chilling is an interview with a Nanking denier from Japan who insist that everything documented on Nanking has been concocted by the Chinese government. 

Iris Chang herself is seen in the film through archived interview footage as she promoted her book and spoke up for the victims of Nanking. Chang hoped to inform more than just this one injustice. She believed that horrific acts like these needed to be identified no matter how long ago they occurred in a hope to insure that the past isn't repeated again. 

The filmmakers, Anne Pick and Bill Spahic, meticulously piece together a powerful tribute to Iris Chang, who died in 2004, while simultaneously continue to give voice to long forgotten victims of Nanking.  

Screening: Tuesday, April 15, 7:10 PM 

-MK

The Skyjacker 

Rating: * 1/2 (1.5 out of 4) 

At least with the recent speculation about D.B. Cooper's parachute The Skyjacker seems slightly relevant. The story, heavily based on the aforementioned Cooper's 1971 unsolved hijacking, does little to enlighten us as to why we're still wondering about that case. The film starts with pretty scenery from the Northwest, and quickly gets us onto a nearly empty plane where the title character spends most of the film seated and smoking (a lot of smoking which if nothing else cements the film's pedigree as an Indie).  

The Skyjacker played by Jeff Pickett informs the stewardess that he's got a bomb and the rest of the film doesn't get much more exciting than that. Along the way he forms an unlikely bond with one of the stewardesses played by Lizzy Davis. The efforts of the actors are game but they are given so little that even in more dynamic performers hands I doubt the result would differ much. 

A seventy-one minute run-time feels achingly too long and the material does seem ripe for a short film. An exploration of a skyjacker set in a time that made it possible for one determined person to pull it off with relatively little consequence is certainly worthy material for a feature film. This, however, is not that film. 

Screening: Monday, April 14, 9:30 PM & Wednesday, April 16, 4:45 PM

-MK

Skills Like This

Rating: ** (2 out of 4) 

On paper, it should have worked. Skills Like This is a quirky story that's well-shot and solidly acted. In reality, it did work for many. The film garnered the audience award at the prestigious South by Southwest Film Festival last year. However, for me the film did not work on several levels.

The film revolves around a group of friends in their mid-twenties. Yes we've seen them before many times but they're not as cliché as one might expect from an indie film. The main character Max (played by Spencer Berger who also penned the screenplay) decides after a disasterous debut of his latest play, that may or may not have caused his grandfather's demise, that he's just not cut out for writing. Instead, he discovers quite haphazardly that his real calling could be crime as he robs a local bank with a plan he conceived in all of 30 seconds. In a happy accident, the kind that only happen in indie films written by wishful thinking screenwriters, he crosses paths with the attractive teller (an appealing Kerry Knuppe) from the earlier robbery and they fall in love. The rest of the film revolves around the decision Max must face to either embrace his new skill completely or atone for his crime.

Unfortunately, for me, hilarity didn't ensue. The film really would like to be Bottle Rocket, and to be fair, most of the press that I perused so far have given them credit for coming close. An over-written "quirky" side-kick who goes about his quest for purpose in unusual ways does much to oversell the unconventional dynamic set up in the script.

I guess I can see why some might like the film. Like I said, on paper, this film should be good. The cinematography and technical aspects of the film are very good. I'd like to see more work from this team, particulary Monty Miranda, to see where they might go from a near-miss with a lot of potential.

Screening: Thursday, April 17, 9:25 PM & Friday, April 18, 2:45 PM

-MK