The fourth Big Bad Film Fest kicks off this week and I’m here to help profile most of the shortfilms that were made available to me for this year’s edition. The shorts roster this year includes a few entries that I’ve actually already screened in previous online coverage as well as at least one past festival event but they’re fun views nonetheless.
Indeed, some of the works I’m seeing with newer faces are just as eye-opening to the talent making the rounds these days. To this, my post is mainly a slate of immediate reactions to help whet curious appetites about the forthcoming shorts in lieu of the feature film line-up making its way to the Big Bad audience this weekend. Additionally, the press folder I was sent only included eighteen of the shortfilms to screen.
There are only a few re-screenings here too, as I’d seen Lorenz Hideyoshi Ruwwe’s Night Shift and Lost In Spice from directors Virak Thun and Maryline Vo. Shaolin Avengers, from the guys at Martial Club, had its time online and is now an exclusive for the Big Bad crowd this year, as is Kent Lloyd’s Waterlogged which I got to take a gander at for last year’s Haymaker festivities. These are all great finds though, so if you’re in town for Big Bad IV, I think you’ll be in good company.
Be sure to tap here to learn about what’s in store. Otherwise, read on:
• Lorenz Hideyoshi Ruwwe’s latest short, Night Shift, was a project I’d already watched upon its public online release a while back and subsequent screening for another festival. Nonetheless, the short is a fun revisit focused on a scooter cab driver forced to fight for his life in a neo-noir urban martial arts duel for the ages with the Action C stunt guys and Andy Long Nguyen.
• Barrett Coates is a name I haven’t written about since the days of The Hit List. He’s since collaborated with a group out in Thailand for Bangkok Dragons which teams him with Andrey Kasushkin for a story with a pair of characters clearly inspired by the brainchild of Yoshihisa Kishimoto in which two fighters – polar opposites of each other – square off to settle their differences as a woman runs to find safe haven from a gang of goons: A watchable affair with action that meets the moment and delivers accordingly from Coates and co-choreographer Stephen Renney.
• Aaron Vargas and Nnanyere Okoro head up the next two offerings with the first, Spencer Schwendiman’s One Last Job, hailing from Bad Still Films and follows to hitmen clashing with one another as each other’s latest targets: Upbeat and with very little fluff, this is a fun little sampler to watch. I’d seen Vargas perform in other stuff so I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed, while Okoro left a terrific impression on me for this being my first view of his work.
• The same goes for their reunion on Mind Body Soul, which sees Vargas and Okoro work out their differences using mini devices they hook onto their ears, transporting them to a virtual plane with enough space for them to dish out all the kung fu shapes and weapon wielding they want to their heart’s content. Davidson Corona directed this one, blending action and comedy with stimulating cinematography that’s assured my interest in seeing what else he can do going forward out of the Fisticuffs Collective.
• Next up is a project that brings Sam Lee Herring’s caliber to the table once more in Reginald Johnson II’s Stronghold, in which a fighter consults with his master in an effort toward spiritual cleanse and peace. Anthony Giovanni Elias, Ti Young and Jamal Dennis take over the psychological arena as Herring’s opponents of choice with a resolute performance by Peter Mensah, and for a story that brings quiet resolve in messaging that’s as strong as the action Herring and the cast brings to the table.
• Bulenz Ozlarusso brings some more cerebral thrills in his return to my radar with Time, with a logline that sees an “outcast beliver” crossing paths with a skilled marksman. This one is a bit of a mind job but it makes you think nonetheless, adding some meditation to a short duration actioner with A.J. North and David Cheung at the forefront. Dark, brooding, hypnotic, it’s a snackable gem that brings something different to the table.
• Grief and redemption are on the table for Jay Curtis Miller’s Knuckles. Taylor Novak takes the title role for a Southern noir about an ex-fighter forced back into East Tennessee’s underground fight circuit when his younger brother his brutalized by someone with blood ties to his past: Indeed, a brutal and often scintillating drama by Miller in his delivery of a smartly crafted effort to delight fans of action and drama. I’d pay to see a feature version of this, especially.
• Jose Escorcia’s latest is a remake of a 2021 project he made during his years in film school with Guard. Pitting Gavin Teragawa and Graham Jenkins as dueling gladiators, the story teeters back and forth in time, unfolding the events of a boxer who plunges into the underground fight circuit, forced to fight in death matches as he’s tormented by the ghost of his dead brother: A starkly different take on Escorcia’s predecessor with upgrades in aesthetics and tone, this one definitely leans a little more into the supernatural for its intended assembly.
• I’ve been a fan of Kevin Barile for almost as long as I’ve been writing about movies, and The Mime is instant proof of how worthwhile it is to keep up with his stuff. I actually got to pre-screen WIP version of this one a while back and this is pretty much beat for beat everything I got to look at, with Ed Nathan Mecate bringing loads of heart to the ubiquitous action and laughs crafted by Barile for a story of a Mime literally fighting for his life before a stern panel of talent show judges. You’ll be left wondering exactly how Barile balances the illusion creates between the props and general spectacle of this shortfilm feat.
• Fresh from her wins with lo-fi actioner Mad Cats and the award-winning Dark Child, Ayane wears her multiple hats this time around in her crowdfunded directing debut, Happy Cooking, the story of the violent bloodletting that ensues when miscommunication arises between two killers. I was aching to see this project since Ayane started pitching her campaign, crafting a whipsmart tale led by a menacing protagonist with a killer appetite. Take that description however which way you see fit. This is something I think Miike would be impressed by if I’d say so myself.
• Jill Gillespie – or Sister Jill, if you will – has a handful of completed shortfilm projects under her belt, so she’s well into her craft with a variety of projects. It just so happens that Wakashu, a neo-noir thriller blending Japanese history and lore with modern action, is her latest endeavor being revealed at festivals, showcasing the story of a transwoman stalked by a gang of hoodlums only to discover she’s more than a toothless damsel: A fascinating look at an action project from a director who’s been in my orbit for a while over at BlueSky. It’s got its frills, but from the opening title card right down to the action, the good Sister and her team are a feat to watch, and with choreography that bares enough heft to warrant attention, and the demand for more.
• Coming from a long spell of time away from the director’s chair, Eric Jacobus returns with Bag Lady, the conceptual preamble for a future long form movie under a different title – here following a ragtag trio on a haphazard quest to investigate the mysterious goings-on in their town. The result is an all-out brawl of the sci-fi kind that will have you seeing double, and with an ambitious idea wholly worth the mind of a production to be steered by one of the founding members of The Stunt People, and one of the minds behind longstanding favorites like Contour and the Rope-A-Dope shorts.
• Matt Routledge crams war trauma and action in Hunted, in which a man trapped behind enemy lines times his escape to the nearest extraction point: A half-decent effort woven together with explosive flashbacks for an intense build-up to an otherwise gradual finish if special effects shots assembled by generative AI aren’t a dealbreaker for you.
• James Newman is a man after my own heart, and your heart, and your heart, and your heart, AND your heart, and all the hearts if you dig the action stylings of Japanese and Korean films of the last twenty years. His taste here and committment to what he bills as “morally grey characters” and “stories” now brings us We Are All Monsters, with Troy Roker and Javier Macias headlining as opposites in the story of a detective and his desperate hunt for a calculating serial killer. A touch of David Fincher with a splash of Kim Jee-woon and a coating of Kensuke Sonomura and you have a brooding, cerebral thriller capped off nicely by one of the best shortfilm fights you’ll see this year.
• In Shane Chung’s Check Please, what’s a little generosity between friends? Here, it’s all about seniority with a bilingual short story starring Richard Yan and Sukwon Jeong as restaurant patrons from different walks of life, vying for honor over who will pick up the bill in this generously over-the-top kimichi action comedy from a new director in the making.
• Aptly titled TCG, Jeremie Earp’s two-minute creation pits Aïcha Tremblay against Viviane Cyr and Alyssa Pellerin – a.k.a. “The Combat Girls” – in a comedic three-for-all for a golden waist pouch. Here, it’s all about the action with a sprinkle of laughs for a nice little festival gem that delivers.
• Euri Sakamoto, son of global action cinema luminary Koichi Sakamoto, is right in his wheelhouse with Kicks Of Fury. Sakamoto shepherds the project with Blue & Gold Stunts for a 2v1 entry between himself and Nathan Tam opposite Shaun J. Seo. The choreography alone says everything you need to know about how wise these boys are to old school hits, indicative of a very promising future for the posterity of the genre.
• Virak Thun teams up with stuntwoman and actress Maryline Vo to share the helm for ubiquitously entertaining shortfilm, Lost In Spice, about a man who saunters into his favorite bar only to blindly accept the challenge of eating the spiciest ramen he’s ever had. What follows is a ringside look into actor Romain Bloch’s character as he battles a fierce femme fatale for his taste buds and senses, capped off with a comical finish for a project that’s proudly graced audiences online and even at Cannes.