Section:GDN 12 PaGe:11 Edition Date:190906 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 5/9/2019 16:33 cYanmaGentaYellowbla
The Guardian
Friday 6 September 2019 11
Ne Zha
★★★☆☆
Dir Jiao Zi
Voices Yanting Lü,Mo Han, Hao
Chen
Length 110 mins Cert PG
A sword swings high above the
neck of a baby – a not-so-adorable
Chucky lookalike with a mark on his
forehead, like a malignant little Harry
Potter. This PG fantasy animation
from China features all the mild peril
you’d expect from a family-rated
movie – plus a smirking demon child.
There were howls of terror from a
little kid at the screening I attended.
China’s highest-grossing movie so
far this year tells the origin tale of Ne
Zha, a demon born to human parents.
His father, a lord, refuses to have him
killed at birth, despite a prophecy
that Ne Zha will wreak destruction on
humanity. Instead, the child is locked
up behind an invisible force fi eld,
though he repeatedly escapes to duff
up local children. An outcast, Ne ZhaSeahorse
★★★★☆
Dir Jeanie Finlay
Length 91 mins Cert 15
Across the breadth of fi ction, the
notion of male pregnancy has
historically been played for laughs,
terror or, most often, a combination
of the two. The documentary
Seahorse (which was produced
in association with the Guardian)
dares to take seriously a scenario
heretofore portrayed as absurd.
There’s nothing amusing about
the heartfelt, draining struggle of
trans man Freddy McConnell to
conceive and deliver his own infant.
Director Jeanie Finlay extends
sincere empathy towards someone
who won’t let gender get in the
way of heeding the basic human
impulse to create and nurture
new life. That’s how Finlay wants
us to see McConnell’s journey to
fatherhood – a phenomenon as
natural as the reproduction of the
seahorse. (Male seahorses carry and
spawn their own young.)
The friction in McConnell’s
day-to-day comes from the
disparity between his biologically
hard wired drive to multiply, and the
extraordinary medical measures
that must be taken to make that
dream real. He has had surgeries
above the waist but not below
it, enabling him to undergo an
intense water-birthing procedure,
which is captured with frankness.
Before that, however, he will
need to get off the testosterone
treatments that have brought
him closer to reconciling his body
with his identity.
By the end of the fi lm, McConnell
chastises himself for his na ivety
at the beginning of this journey,
failing to realise that listening to his
internal clock would ultimately lead
him to feel like “an alien ”.
The question of what is or is not
normal hangs over nearly every★★★★☆Long summer days with nothing to
do but hop on a bike and explore are a
distant memory for most of us (not
least today’s children, according to
depressing headlines about how
much time they are permitted to
spend roaming outside). Knights
and Bikes captures the nostalgia
of British childhood holidays in
worn-down caravan parks and
small-scale adventures in seaside
towns. Designed to be played with
a friend, with both of you tapping
a button to careen around a on
extremely 80s bikes, it is energetic
and charming enough to make you
laugh all the way through.
Perhaps unsurprisingly
considering the developers’
connections to Media Molecule,
makers of the most unassailably
sweet video games around, there
is a gooey emotional centre to
Knights and Bikes. A genuinely
touching story of loss and family
hardship bolsters the whimsy of
the madcap art, ramshackle seaside
architecture, punky soundtrack
and endearing writing.
In between hunting down the
mysteries of Penfurzy island and
bashing creepy objects possessedKnights and Bikes
PC, PS4Sprinter
★★★★☆
Dir Storm Saulter
Starring Dale Elliott, Kadeem
Wilson, Lorraine Toussaint
Length 111 mins Cert 15
Here’s a heartfelt sports drama from
Jamaica made in the traditional
style, about a teenage athlete who
dreams of using his blistering talent
to give his family a better life.
Does the kid have suffi cient grit to
make it to the fi nish line? Sprinter
is a movie that leaves virtually no
sporting cliche unbothered, yet it’s
rooted in a naturalistic, emotional
family drama refl ecting the specifi c
scene, heaviest in those showing
McConnell explaining himself to
his family and loved ones. He has
trouble conveying that what might
be uncommon doesn’t have to be
abnormal, compounded by the fact
that many people just don’t want to
hear it. A contentious conversation
with a conservative family member
crystallises an inward pain that fi lms
from cisgender directors and actors
can only approximate. For Finlay,
however, allowing McConnell to
use his own words makes sense of
a complicated process fraught with
contradictions and paradoxes even
for those not contending with a total
destabilisation of their personhood.
Charles Bramescois hated and feared by villagers and
pelted with rotten fruit. H is parents
want to protect him from prejudice,
and there’s emotional resonance
in these scenes. Elsewhere, the
characterisation borrows the
lik able goofi ness of Hollywood
family entertainment.
I enjoyed the jolt of strangeness
delivered by this world of demons
stalking the Earth. But the
action is hit and miss. There’s an
exceptionally good scene as Ne Zha
fi ghts off a sea monster that turns its
enemies into stone. If only the rest of
the action sequences had the same
energy and lightness of touch.
Director Jiao Zi likes to pile it
on, with bloodthirsty fi ght scenes
thundering to a deafening chaotic
clima x. It probably helps to go in with
a couple of paracetamols. CCby a pirate curse, Demelza
educates her new friend Nessa on
the correct way to consume a scone.
(Jam fi rst, then cream, apparently:
“If you do it the other way, you have
to go in the sea.”)
The two girls have a
complementary set of skills – Nessa
can chuck water balloons that
Demelza can kick to douse fl aming
scenery, for instance – and Knights
and Bikes encourages cooperation
and friendly chatter between two
players not just through puzzle
design, but through friendly bike
races and target practice. If you’re
playing alone, the AI takes over the
other character.
It’s sometimes too competent,
rushing ahead to solve a puzzle or
bash up every enemy on screen
before you’ve had a chance to
fi gure it out yourself, but that’s
all the more reason to rope in a
friend or partner for this endearing,
unusual little adventure.
Keza MacDonaldpleasures and perils of life in
Jamaica. Storm Saulter directs with
energy and style.
Dale Elliott plays Akeem, an
exceptional 200-metre sprinter; a
warm easygoing kid, he’s nicknamed
the Rasta Rocket and is already a
national hero. But family problems
are distracting him. Akeem’s mum
(Lorraine Toussaint ) has been
working illegally in America for adecade. His dad (Dennis Titus) is
lonely, worn out from raising two
sons alone, and drinking heavily.
Akeem’s older brother Germaine
(Kadeem Wilson) is living proof
of the dangers of trusting in
sport as a ticket out. Once a hot
favourite 400-metre runner,
Germaine picked up an injury. Now
he’s working for a local gangster.
For a fi lm about an athlete,
Sprinter dawdles to a fi nish, as
Akeem struggles with concentration
ahead of a make-or-break race. Still,
it’s impossible not to root for this
movie. Newcomer Elliott is such an
open presence, and the stakes for
Akeem are so high.
Jamaica has been unveiled as
a major location in the new Bond
fi lm , but let’s have more fi lms
about Jamaican people living their
lives, please. CC11
Games
RELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws