EIFF Day 9

Our last day at the film festival and another 3 movies, luckily we went out on a bang because they were all good. First off, a father and son reunite on an Indonesian fishing platform in the drama Jermal. Second off, Steven Soderbergh's art-house movie about a high class escort, The Girlfriend Experience and lastly, one of the best movies from the festival, Pontypool; an intelligent twist on the zombie genre.

So that's it for another year, 19 films on 9 different days, only a couple of duff ones, some excellent small art-house movies, No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti, Can go through skin and Jermal especially and some bigger but still excellent films, Sin Nombre, the hilarious Black Dynamite and Pontypool.

EIFF 2009 Day 8

Our second last day at the film festival and we're going out with a bumper 3 movies for each of the last two days. First up was the excellent, touching tale of a man trying to fight against the system to keep his daughter, No Puedo Sin Vivir Ti. Next up was the slightly disappointing Adventureland and lastly the even more disappointing Romeo and Juliet vs The Living Dead.

Tonight's our last night, but there's still 3 more films to see before it's over.

EIFF 2009 Day 7

Another two films, to start me on my way to 2000 reviews :) First off, a private investigator led modern take on film noir, The Missing Person and then, the extremely violent Korean Gangster movie Breathless. Only two more days and 6 films left at the festival, but there should still be some good movies coming up.

www.wilkiewideweb.com 1000th film review

I've just posted the 1000th film review on my www.wilkiewideweb.com site. That means since August 2003, I've watch around 1 film every 2 days!

EIFF 2009 Day 6

Yesterday was our 6th day at the Film Festival, another two movies. First up, Dutch psychological drama Can Go Through Skin, a tale of one woman coming to terms with a violent attack. Later on we saw Black Dynamite, a 70's Blaxsploitation spoof which has to be one of the funniest films this year and one of the best spoofs in ages.

EIFF 2009 Day 5

Another day at the film festival and another 2 movies. I left work half an hour earlier than usual to catch our first movie at Cineworld, the very good El niño pez a tale of love across the class divide in Argentina's Buenos Aires. After grabbing some dinner we went to the second film for the evening, Members of the Funeral a darkly comic and slightly confusing South Korean film, focusing on 3 family members at the funeral of a young boy, none of whom really know anything about each other.

Notes from Japan - Luggage & Yamato

When I was in Japan on my Honeymoon, I came across a number of things which I meant to blog about in order to help out anyone who was in the same situation. First up, the logistics of taking 2 suitcases and a Snowboard bag with two boards on a holiday which involves travelling from Tokyo to Hokkaido, back to Tokyo, on to Okinawa and back to Tokyo before heading home.

First thing I have to say is that Yamato is your friend. They are basically a luggage delivery company who will send your luggage from place to place at reasonable rates. Look out for the black cat on a yellow sign in airports, convenience stores, hotels etc. There are a few similar companies, I just picked Yamato because their logo is instantly recognisable and we used them and they were excellent.

So first stop, we arrived at Narita airport with all our luggage, we turned up at the Yamato counter (after a brief issue with not having the address of our accomodation in Niseko) and after some explanation in broken Japanese, got them to ship or boards to Hokkaido for us. It cost something like £20 and took 3 days, which is pretty good considering the board bag weighed about 20kg and is 165cm long. Boards arrived safe and sound in Niseko 3 days later when we turned up.

Another thing worth mentioning is that Yamato wanted a phone number, it was a bit confusing as we didn't have one in Japan, but I found out later that UK 3G phones work in Japan (call prices are extortionate, but if it's only for emergencies, it's worth knowing).

Worth checking out if you're flying into Haneda/Narita is the possibility of getting Yamato to send your luggage from the airport to the hotel. This is especially handy if your hotel isn't on the limousine bus route. One of our hotels was in Shinagawa and there is no limousine bus from Haneda airport, you're meant to use the train link. Which isn't all that much fun with 2 massive suitcases. On the way back, we discovered our hotel had a Yamato counter at the Bell Hop station and the night before we gave them our bag and just picked it up at the airport the next morning. If we'd known to send the bags ahead to the hotel it would have been much easier.

So, there you have it, my first tip for travelling in Japan, if you have lots of luggage, let Yamato handle it, they're fairly inexpensive, excellent service and it saves a lot of hassle. I hate to think how much hassle it would have been trying to take a snowboard bag in a taxi or out to Haneda on the train if we hadn't been able to ship it straight to Niseko.

EIFF 2009 Day 4

Yesterday was my 4th day at the EIFF, only 1 film, my 7th of the festival and it was the bleak, realist, family drama Der Architekt. 2 more again tonight, which will take me through to just under half way.

EIFF 2009 Day 3

Another day at the Edinburgh Film Festival. I didn't see any movies yesterday due to a Stag Do, but saw another two today. First up was Irish comedy Wide Open Spaces which saw Ardal O'Hanlon and Ewan Bremner star as two friends who must leave the city and take up manual labouring jobs in the country.

The second movie was Jerichow a German retelling of The Postman Always Rings Twice which tells the story of a loner struggling to make ends meet who is given a job by a rich local business man. When he begins an affair with his new boss' wife, the relationship between the 3 of them becomes tense.

Only one movie tomorrow, but with another 13 to go, I'm nearly a third of the way through the festival.

EIFF 2009 Day 2

Our second day at EIFF, another 2 movies today. First up the lush Sin Nombre a well presented tale of romance and drama in Central American as Honduran immigrants attempt to cross Mexicon, headed for the U.S. Second on the bill was the rather disappointing Exam which saw 8 applicants sit a test to get a job in a set up best described as Cube meets the Apprentice. But the promising set-up soon make way for utter nonsense as things descend into mind numbing boringness. Not movies today, but another 2 tomorrow, then back into full swing next week.

EIFF 2009 Day 1

Another year, another Film Festival, I didn't add blog entries for the films last year, but I guess I might as well this year. Yesterday was our first day at the festival, second day of the festival overall. First two movies for this year were Canadian Drug Addict Heist dark comedy, High Life which was really funny and enjoyable and Hong Kong cop drama vs Ghost movie Rule #1 which was ridiculous and not all that good. Another 2 movies tonight, so plenty more reviews to do before the end of the festival.