TashC

Invisible Waves is a movie about gangsters, loyalty, murder and revenge. Gangster movies are typically action packed with chases, fights and confrontations. Invisible Waves is a courageous film in that it only uses these traditional action elements to punctuate its mesmerizing and hypnotic pace. Depending on your perspective, this is either brilliant or boring.

Kyoji is a talented chef in Hong Kong who makes two big mistakes. First he has an affair with his boss's wife and then he murders her. Though his boss is a likable gangster with a big heart, he is a dangerous man when he has been betrayed. So Kyoji is in big trouble. He is also "the stupidest smart guy" and so naively entrusts his escape from Hong Kong to Lizard, someone he has never met, and climbs aboard a clapped out old cruise ship heading for Phuket. Before the ship has left the dock, we (though not optimistic Kyoji) begin to suspect that he has been set up.

Though Kyoji does not inspire confidence, blundering his escape and dawdling into disaster, we did find Invisible Waves intriguing and atmospheric. Unfortunately there are just too many irrelevant scenes; long, low or off centre camera shots; and lengthy silent pauses to make this film riveting. It also suffers from multiple random characters who seem as if they could be significant, but never amount to anything and so must be purposely pointless.

This is definitely a film that will divide audiences. Between those people who appreciate that art requires risks that may not always be successful and can still enjoy the attempt and intention; and others who abhor pretentiousness and are fed up with having expert cinematography compensate for poor construction and storyline. So whichever group you identify with, please conclude our verdict for Invisible Waves accordingly.

Gustave Klopp does a lot of dreaming. Born with an incurable "design flaw" (narcolepsy), stress causes him to fall fast asleep. So, understandably, he sleeps through most of school, being a teenager, dating, marrying, numerous jobs and having a mortgage.

But his sickness finally provides meaning to his life when he starts turning his dreams (heavily influenced by his father's love of American action movies) into comic books. His therapy group of misfits love his stories, but his therapist, his wife and his best friend all have ulterior motives and Gustave has to wake up to reality, or lose everything.

The film is quirky, funny and populated with eccentric characters with big dreams and thwarted ambitions. A surreal comedy that is also poignant and cruel.

All writers ruthlessly re-cycle ideas, characters, memories and experiences. The creative mind is littered with discarded snippets of people and places all waiting to be remembered and put to use. In Re-cycle, Ting-Yin is a successful writer who turned a failed romance into three bestsellers. She is now working on a supernatural novel and strange things are happening in her house. Is this her inspiration, or is her story coming to life? The film's beginning is classically horror, but when Ting-Yin stumbles out of reality it becomes much more fantastic and really feels like a video game. She moves from one bizarre landscape to another, dealing with zombies as she goes.

Beautifully shot, the production is slick, but the story is more melodramatic than frightening.