DVD - July 06

Cemetery Man (R1)

Achingly romantic and creepy-funny, this funereal fantasy from the director of La Chiesa (1989) is unlike any Italian film in memory. Rupert Everett plays Francesco Dellamorte, a lonely cemetery caretaker who just wants to get out of his small town of Buffalora. His assistant and sole companion, Gnaghi (played by famed French musician Francois Hadji-Lazaro) is an overweight cretin who speaks only in grunts, and the dead people outside are rising from their graves as zombies and trying to have him for breakfast. This situation, coupled with all his other problems, gives Francesco a real complex. His troubles are compounded when he meets a series of mysterious women (all played by the beautiful Anna Falchi) whom he loves before they die tragically. Soavi's film is based on a graphic-novel, Dylan Dog by Tiziano Sclavi, but Soavi's more obvious influences range from Jean Rollin's La Rose de Fer (1973) to Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands (1990). Barbara Cupisti (of Soavi's Deliria) has a small role, and the film also benefits from Manuel de Sica's memorable score and excellent pacing by editor Franco Fraticelli. This is a film to savor and it will go down as one of the most striking Italian genre efforts of the decade.

The Maid (R3)

During the Chinese Seventh Month, the gates of hell open and spirits are let loose upon an unsuspecting world. For 30 days, the dead walk among the living. To protect themselves, mortals devise rules. For Rosa Dimaano, all those are just a bunch of old wives' tales. Hailing from a small village in the Philippines, the 18-year-old arrives in Singapore on the first day of the Seventh Month to work as a domestic maid. She urgently needs money to save her sick brother back in the Philippines and ghosts are the last things on her mind. Happily for Rosa, life in Singapore cannot be rosier. Her employers, the elderly and gentle Mr and Mrs Teo, are a godsend, caring for her as if she was their own daughter. Their mentally-handicapped son Ah Soon also takes to Rosa immediately. Between cleaning house and helping the Teos with their work at the Chinese opera, Rosa is blissfully happy....until things start going wrong. Glimpsing strange apparitions at night, Rosa soon finds herself tumbling into the world of the dead. Unknown to the innocent girl, she had unwittingly broken many rules on the first few days of the Seventh Month. As the festivities reach a fever pitch in Singapore, Rosa's life turns into a nightmare. A mutilated boy haunts her. A faceless woman appears. Rosa feels as if she is losing her mind. Her employers urge her to bear with the sightings. But Rosa is uncertain. Someone somewhere seems to be trying to reach out to her. To keep her job, the poor girl has to stifle her screams and fear. To save her brother, she must survive the terrors of the Chinese Seventh Month. Maid (Official site)

Brick (R1)

A modern-day Southern California neighborhood and high school. There, student Brendan Frye's (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) piercing intelligence spares no one. Brendan is not afraid to back up his words with actions, and knows all the angles; yet he prefers to stay an outsider, and does – until the day that his ex-girlfriend, Emily (Emilie de Ravin of Lost), reaches out to him unexpectedly and then vanishes. Brendan's feelings for her still run deep; so much so, that he becomes consumed with finding his troubled inamorata. To find her, Brendan enlists the aid of his only true peer, The Brain (Matt O'Leary), while keeping the assistant vice principal (Richard Roundtree) only occasionally informed of what quickly becomes a dangerous investigation. Brendan's single-minded unearthing of students' secrets thrusts him headlong into the colliding social orbits of rich-girl sophisticate Laura (Nora Zehetner), intimidating Tugger (Noah Fleiss), substance-abusing Dode (Noah Segan), seductive Kara (Meagan Good), jock Brad (Brian White), and – most ominously – non-student The Pin (Lukas Haas). It is only by gaining acceptance into The Pin's closely guarded inner circle of crime and punishment that Brendan will be able to uncover hard truths about himself, Emily, and the suspects that he is getting closer to. Brick (Official site)

Final Destination 3 (R2)

After a high school senior, Wendy Christensen (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), has a fatal premonition of a disastrous roller-coaster accident that involves her and her friends, she warns everyone and luckily gets herself and many of her friends and others off the roller-coaster before it sets off, after they get off and the roller-coaster starts off, it crashes just like in her premonition, soon she teams up with a friend, Kevin Fischer (Ryan Merriman) as well as many other people, some including Erin (Alexz Johnson) and Ian (Kris Lemche) to try and cheat death.

'Final Destination 3' (Official site)

Carnivale: Complete Second Season (R1)

The final battle between Good and Evil is looming, and Ben Hawkins and Brother Justin are on a collision course that could determine the fate of the world. CARNIVALE follows a traveling carnival as it wends its way across the Dust Bowl, focusing on Ben Hawkins, a mysterious 18-year-old fugitive with hidden talents who is taken in by the carnival, and Brother Justin, the charismatic, shadowy evangelist who will ultimately cross his path. The series takes place at a time of worldwide unrest, with evil on the rise around the globe and the Great Depression wreaking economic and social havoc here at home. Cruelly axed after its second season Carnivale was in my opinion one of the best series HBO has ever produced. Season 2 gets its Region 2 release in August.

Carnivale (HBO site)

Red Angel (R2)

One of Japan's most notorious and internationally criminally under-exposed films. Shocking, beautiful and moving in equal measure, this is one of Masumura's very finest achievements. Set against the Sino-Japanese war in 1939, a young angelic military nurse is raped by her patients and sent to the front line for daring to register a complaint. Posted to a rag-tag demoralised unit, she falls inlove with an impotent morphine-addicated surgeon. Together the pair seek solace in each other, as all around, disease, brutality and carnage threaten to sweep their humanity away.

V for Vendetta (R2)

Set against the futuristic landscape of totalitarian Britain, V For Vendetta tells the story of a mild-mannered young woman named Evey (NATALIE PORTMAN) who is rescued from a life-and-death situation by a masked man (HUGO WEAVING) known only as “V.” Incomparably charismatic and ferociously skilled in the art of combat and deception, V ignites a revolution when he urges his fellow citizens to rise up against tyranny and oppression. As Evey uncovers the truth about V’s mysterious background, she also discovers the truth about herself – and emerges as his unlikely ally in the culmination of his plan to bring freedom and justice back to a society fraught with cruelty and corruption.

V For Vendetta (Official site)

Tsotsi (R2)

Based on South African playwright Athol Fugard's only novel, TSOTSI is a thrilling, provocative look at life in the ghettos outside present-day Johannesburg. Presley Chweneyagae stars as the title character, a teenager with a killer stare who lives alone in a ramshackle room in a poor shantytown, where he pulls off petty crimes with the help of three compatriots Boston (Mothusi Magano), Butcher (Zenzo Ngqobe), and Aap (Kenneth Nkosi). But after they stab a man to death on the subway and Tsotsi (which means thug or gangster) beats up Boston for trying to find out about his past, Tsotsi runs off to a wealthy section of the city, shoots a woman, and steals her car. Only later does he discover that there is a baby in the back seat and decides to keep it for himself. As Tsotsi finally does look back at his own childhood, he tries to take care of the infant, carrying it around in a paper bag and forcing a young mother, Miriam (Terry Pheto), to breastfeed it at gunpoint. At this point, writer-director Gavin Hood could have opted for trite sentimentality, but instead he delves deeper into Tsotsi's psyche, as the young man might have already gone too far to turn back now. TSOTSI is a pulsating, electrifying film propelled by Chweneyagae's powerful, mesmerising performance. The pounding soundtrack features popular local Kwaito music by Zola, who also plays crimelord Fela in the film. Winner of the 2006 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, 'TSOTSI will rank as one of the best films ever to come out of South Africa', as Fugard himself said. Tsotsi (Official site)

Dumplings (R2)

No woman can resist the temptation of potential rejuvenation - for some it's a dreamy blissful chase; for others a never-ending nightmare of endless pursuit. But Qing can afford it all. An ex-starlet turned wife of a prominent rich man, Qing is destined to have this dream come true. Qing uses a lot of connections to get to the mysterious chef, Mei to obtain her famous specialty dumplings. Qing is no gourmet but simply dying to recover her youth and beauty. At stake is her new "career" as a housewife of the rich. Mei's dumplings claim to deliver the goods. Mei, a former gynecologist, developed a secret recipe for rejuvenation which has allowed her to bid farewell to her career as an abortionist. Now Mei only serves desperate rich women like Qing. Mei understands a woman's need and she can fulfill a woman's desire -- all you need is a leap of faith to take a bite into her special dumplings with usual fillings.

Dumplings (Official site)

Art of The Devil II (R3)

The follow-up to the nerve-twisting 2004 Thai original, Art of the Devil II chronicles the horrifying exploits of a seductive elementary school teacher named Miss Panor. Captivated by her beauty and desperate to win her heart, several of the village men simultaneously cast a Love Spell on her. But that many spells is too much for one woman to handle, and Miss Panor soon begins to lose her grip on reality. When an Indian Witch doctor prescribes a diet of human flesh, Miss Panor plunges even deeper into the darkest corners of witchcraft. With the help of six of her former students, Miss Panor must tempt fate in order to take revenge on the lustdriven madmen who drove her to the edge of sanity.

Art of the Devil 2(Official site)

Samurai Champloo: Complete Collection (R1)

This excellent anime is now available in a complete box set. Seven Discs, totally 650 minutes of viewing pleasure. Mugen is a fierce animal-like warrior with a unique Bboying (break-dance) inspired fighting style. Jin has a more traditional style but don’t think of this as a weakness because his skills are amazing. The two contrasting samurai warriors are far from friends, yet their separate paths seem to cross anyways. Mugen is wandering aimlessly through the city when he stumbles upon a teahouse where he meets Jin and Fuu (A ditzy waitress, but don‘t think she doesn‘t have anything hidden up her sleeves). Fuu convinces them both to come with her in search of a mysterious samurai that smells like sunflowers and their journey begins. This modernized hip-hop tale breaks the barriers of the common, historical, samurai anime.

Infection (R2)

Continuing Tageshige Ishise's J-Horror series, Masayuki Ochiai's (Parasite Eve) Infection takes place in a dark, isolated hospital, where one nurse's mistake has led to dire consequences for a patient. The night crew decides to cover up the incident, hiding the evidence deep in the bowels of the institution. Shortly thereafter, a patient is left at the hospital doors dying of inexplicable symptoms. The patient's death triggers off a deadly infection that seems to target only those staff involved in the cover up. As the infection spreads, so does the terror as one by one, the mysterious disease strikes them down.