Black Coal, Thin Ice / The Keeper Of Lost Causes / Betibu / The Golden Bug

Somewhat falling behind again (as usual) with the reviews so time for a quick round up of four foreign language productions that have recently graced our shores, starting off with Diao Yinan’s Golden Bear bothering Black Coal, Thin Ice. This has a great start what with the discovery of human body parts at numerous different coal factories, a police arrest which is botched by the sudden appearance of a hidden gun (a brilliant piece of direction by Yinan, going from 0 to 100mph in just a few seconds) and a great tracking shot that moves us from the POV of a car to a motorcycle, whilst also indicating the passing of five years. It falls apart very quickly though after that as any intrigue and detective work is jettisoned for following ex-cop Zhang (Liao Fan) and his mooching (well obsessive mooching…and not the good kind either) after pretty laundrette employee Wu (Gwei Lun-Mei), who may or may not be tied into the whole nasty business. There’s some other sumptuous shots (particularly in many of the cold and snowy outdoor scenes), but it’s all too slow and the outcome to the mystery makes little sense with the final scene trying to peak interest which you will have long since lost (though it does explain the films Chinese title of Daylight Fireworks at least). Moving on we have a couple of films that may have had cinema releases despite the fact they would probably work best on the small screen. A couple of years ago you couldn’t throw a Danish Blue at a cinema screen without hitting a Scandinavian thriller or drama, but things have trailed off a little since then. So it’s good to see that The Keeper Of Lost Causes carries on where others have left off with this solid (though not spectacular) policer. When Danish policeman Morck (played by familiar BBC4 face Nikolaj Lie Kass) bungles an operation he is re-assigned to solving cold cases and given a new partner in the shape of coffee loving Assad (Fares Fares - not a typo). All the standards are here (awkward relationship with son, cultural differences between the partners, badges revoked etc.), but it still holds the attention due to the intriguing case they investigate concerning the disappearance of a politician from a passenger ferry. Director Mikkel Norgard moves things along briskly enough and though there are the pre-requisite shots of the cold and murky unforgiving Danish countryside, this isn't really cinematic enough to convince it wouldn't work better on the small screen. That's by the by though as the follow up has already been filmed, which will at least be interesting to see if it moves into something a little less formulaic. Plus, lets hope the poster for the new film will make a bit more sense than this one, which has the protagonists standing on a scrapheap looking like two well dressed relatives of Stig of The Dump. Also struggling to persuade that the cinema is it's optimum premium is the Argentinian release Betibu. It's billed as being from the producers of The Secret In Their Eyes (arguably the greatest film of the last five years), but this is a long way off that masterpiece. When a successful businessman is found dead in an upmarket neighbourhood, two local journos and a well known novelist team up to get to the bottom of things, but before long other bodies begin to pile up. The mystery part of the film works well, but the script is quite disheartening in its portrayal of how the two sexes get on and the ending goes around in circles with it's grubby depiction of virtually everyone being corrupt and untrustworthy. Finally we have the crushingly unfunny The Golden Bug. Not to be too harsh on (what appears to be) a first time director's effort, there's a difference between making a film for a wider audience and one that only you and your mates will find entertaining. The latter is what we have here when an Argentinian film crew attempt to subvert a European film production by sneakily moving the production to a location where they believe there is buried treasure. Even taking the unwritten filmic suspension of disbelief into account, the premise is ludicrous (why don't the Europeans just do a simple search on the internet to see they're being taken for a ride?). There probably was a decent film to be found in here somewhere, but something has clearly got lost in the translation of this joint Argentinian-Danish-Swedish effort and the cheap production values coupled with the same gags every five minutes just make for a hugely disappointing experience. There’s a chance of course that the whole film could redeem itself with some sort of Planet of the Apes-esque shock twist at the end. Not that I could tell you though, as I (along with many others) had already left by then. Black Coal Rating: 5/10. Causes Rating: 6/10. Betibu Rating: 6/10. The Golden Bug Rating: 2/10.