Fringe Film - Comedy Channel Short Film Festival - Howard Flu; review

The Comedy Channel Short Film Festival is a competition celebrating the art of comedy in film making, and showcases the funniest short films from Australia and overseas.

A panel of celebrities and film industry experts choose their favourite films and these finalists appear at a series of competition screenings.

It's the first time the Short Film Festival has gone on tour, so Fringe-goers can enjoy the hilarious entries at the Palace cinemas, as well as choosing a film for the Audience/People's Choice Award.

The winner receives $10,000, and will be announced at a ceremony Awards Screening grand finale in Melbourne.

All competition screenings are FREE entry.

Fun On Film by Linh

All the short films being screened are worthy as finalists, as they all possess the comedic edge and clever cinematography of future film makers.

Highlights include Howard Flu (scenes pictured above), Copy, Beyond The Fridge and Drought. South Australian director and producer Dario Russo's The Time That Time Forgot was a favourite among locals. The stand out film was Howard Flu, receiving the most laughs from the audience.

Written and directed by Lawrence Leung, Howard Flu, which is a firm favourite to win, is about a man who seeks a cure for his conservative flu. With each sneeze and sniffle, he turns into Prime Minister John Howard - a puppet version of the PM, complete with hilariously accurate voice impersonation.

Throughout the six minute film, the puppet PM is seen on the political hustings kissing and cuddling babies, chatting with everyday Australians and making mention of his unpopular policies, including Workchoices, the GST, Iraq invasion, selling off Telstra et cetera. It's well filmed and the vox pops with puppet PM are a highlight.

The Host - film review

The Host (Gwaemul in Korean meaning 'monster') was one of the most enjoyable, suspenseful, political horror films I have seen in ages. It's more than special effects and monstrous attacks on humans; there's a strong element of family drama and uniting to fight government bureacracy to hunt down the creature.

Monster Hit by Linh

The Host opens with a somewhat prophetic prologue on the impending fear about to hit the Koreans. At the morgue of a US Miliary base in Korea, highly toxic formaldehyde is poured down the drain, then flows into the Han River.

Fast forward a few years later, Park Kang Du (Song Kang-Ho), works at his father's snack stand beside the Han River. A creature is spotted swimming in the waters of the Han River, then it is seen again hanging underneath the bridge. Its amazing acrobatic skills bewilder the locals as it does back flips with the agile ease of a trapeze artist. Moments later, the creature whick looks like a huge mutant tadpole with a pink vagina dentata mouth on solid taloned feet, emerges from the water and goes on a chaotic rampage causing destruction and trampling anyone in its path. Kang Du's daughter Hyon-Seo (Ko Ah-Sung),is captured by the mutant and everyone believes she's dead. The plot involves Kang Du, his father Hee Bong (Byon Hee-Bong), and his brother Nam Il (Park Hae-Il), and his Olympic archer sister Nam-Joo (Bae Doo-Na) embarking on a frantic and dangerous search for the 15 year old Hyon-Seo.

The director Bong Joon-Ho takes the audience into territory which most sci-fi films don't venture. Scenes of a mass public funeral where the families of the mutant's victims are televised in mourning, the process of de-contamination and fumigation of anyone who came into contact with the beast and the medical testing.

The Host is less about the monster, but focuses more on the inadequacies and failures of the Park family members; Kang -Du is clumsy and lazy, his father is irresponsible and procrastinates, his sister loses athletic competitions,and his brother gets drunk and violent. These folk seem so dysfunctional as a family and losers as individuals that the manner in which they unite to save Hyon-Seo is heroic and admirable.
All the performances were excellent, in particular Ko Ah-Sung as the bratty school girl Hyon-Seo.

The political subplot involves America's intervention with the East featuring scenes with US military parading around like they own the place. American influence on the East where the US government insists the mutant is spreading a virus, when there is no virus at all, and the US also introduces the chemical 'Agent Yellow' in Korea.

The ending was unsatisfactory and it seems as if all the family's efforts were wasted in the end. However, The Host is an exhilarating ride of slapstick comedy, horror, special effects and solid performances from the lead actors.

Adelaide Film Festival - 'Forbidden Lie$' review

The Adelaide Film Festival is almost over and I've been so busy, I nearly missed seeing some of the world premieres and locally-made films.

Luckily, I've booked tickets in advance for the last few days of the Film Fest and get to experience an exciting visual feast.


The Truth About The Lies by Linh

Forbidden Lie$ is a documentary which gives an intriguing insight into the intricate web of lies spun by a woman whose book was exposed as a literary hoax.

Director Anna Broinowski gains access to the disgraced author of Forbidden Love, and creates a documentary of a woman's notorious journey from literary star to literary hoax.

Norma Khouri (pictured)is the author of the 2003 bestseller Forbidden Love billed as a true story of an honour killing in Jordan.

The book tells of Norma's Muslim friend, Dalia, who was killed by her father and brothers after she fell in love with a Christian client she met at her unisex hairdressing salon.

The documentary is fascinating as it begins with Norma on a quest to write about her friend's murder, her undertakings to get her book published and then the media rounds to promote the book. The audience was led to believe the story was genuine and Norma was on a mission to end honour killings in Muslim countries.

The hoax was exposed in 2004 when Rana Husseini, a journalist from the Jordan Times, found numerous errors throughout Forbidden Love.

Rana Husseini sought to prove Norma's story was fabricated, containing nothing but lies and misinformation from a money-hungry, masterful con-artist.

Dalia and the unisex hairdressing salon never existed, the honour killing never happened and the geographical descriptions in the book were incorrect.

As the film progressed, we see a different side to not only the issue of honour killings, but also the author.

The plot thickens as Rana discovers Norma's details in the novel such as time, people and places were all inaccurate and incorrect.

Norma claimed she was single with no children, yet she had a husband living in Greece and she abandoned her two children, who are living in Queensland with her neighbour.

Norma also says her father sexually assaulted her when she was four, and her husband beat her then held a gun to her head.

As the compelling documentary continued, director Anna Broinowski gave Norma many opportunities to come clean and prove her story was not a lie. More deception followed until Norma confessed to lying. Although she still claims she "lied for a reason".

An engaging, balanced and well researched documentary revealing a diabolical liar, deceptive con-artist that is Norma Khouri.