Aachi and Ssipak Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Fantastic Fest Dispatch: Feuding Horror Trivia Gurus and Other Unexpected Pleasures
Filed under: Festival Reports », Fantastic Fest », Cinematical Indie »
In comparison with film festival veterans, I'm a newbie: I've attended all or part of about two dozen over the past five years. I've yet to make it to Cannes, Toronto or Sundance, but I've gone to regional fests, Asian fests, homegrown fests run entirely by volunteers and big city fests sponsored by large corporations. With all these fests, I've come to expect different things: red carpet premieres and well-known stars at the bigger ones, great enthusiasm and excitement for the films at the smaller ones. Fantastic Fest in Austin, which concluded its third edition this past Thursday, walks another line entirely.
Our own Scott Weinberg described it as "the slickest, screwiest, most user-friendly genre festival this side of the continent." (We'll get to Scott and the unexpected pleasures of the game show he hosted later in this article.) Allow me to explain further: the festival is held at the Alamo Drafthouse (South Lamar location), a multiplex where, yes, you can order food and drinks from your seat, but, more important, all the auditoriums are superb screening facilities. Any projection glitches are fixed quickly and the sound is cranked up as loud as it should be.
Three of the six auditoriums were set aside for the festival, and clearly marked lines were set up in the lobby so you knew where to stand while waiting for your next movie. The staff and volunteers are friendly, well trained, knowledgeable and willing to share opinions on movies if they can spare a moment. It's a huge advantage to have all the festival screenings at one location, especially an exceptionally well-run facility with plenty of free parking. This gives Fantastic Fest a tremendous leg up on other well-meaning though poorly-organized festivals I've attended.
Fantastic Fest Review: Aachi and Ssipak
Filed under: Animation », Foreign Language », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Theatrical Reviews », Fantastic Fest », Cinematical Indie »
Nothing makes me feel at home at Fantastic Fest like a cute Korean animated movie about a futuristic world powered by excrement, where tiny blue mutants with diapers on their heads are threatening to take over the world in pursuit of addictive popsicles. I looked forward to seeing Aachi and Ssipak just for the weirdness factor, and I wasn't disappointed.
Aachi and Ssipak is set in a world where the source of energy is poop -- from humans -- and citizens are encouraged to contribute as much as possible, to the point where everyone has a chip installed in the pertinent location. People who give most are rewarded with Juicy Bars, a drug in popsicle form that turns out to be addictive -- those who consume too many turn into the child-sized blue mutants of The Diaper Gang. The government "Chief" has commissioned a super-cyborg cop to thwart the Diaper Gang's attempts to steal as many Juicy Bars as possible.
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