Before Crazy
Rich Asians stormed movie theatres this past year and generated $174.5
million in ticket sales there was Canadian filmmaker Ben Hoskyn’s similarly
themed indie film — with a script by himself, Allan Mackey, Nick Dolinski and
Nate Estabrooks — titled 8 Minutes Ahead.
It played the festival
circuit (Whistler Film Festival, Ocan Film Festival, etc.) during late 2017 and
early 2018 and would have gone largely unnoticed if not for the stellar efforts
and watchful eye of Indican Pictures.
They will be bringing it to the domestic market on Jan. 22 with a DVD
push.
While Crazy
Rich Asians took the comedy pathway about tradition and family internecine
conflicts, Hoskyn’s 8 Minutes Ahead takes a harder edge approach. Based on his own experiences in Hong Kong,
Hoskyn began formulating the idea of a rich Asian patriarch — in his finals
days — and the conflict created when an “outsider” is suddenly introduced to
the family business and social mix.
While this idea matured
and developed, he learned the craft of filmmaking by becoming a camera operator
and cinematographer … ten long years of episodic television, documentaries,
short films and then writing and directing (8 Minutes Ahead is his
debut).
This technical expertise
has paid off as 8 Minutes Ahead belies its indie production budget. You would never guess that it took four long
years to get the project off the ground and completed. The strong storyline, coupled with the solid performances
from a largely unknown cast and the crispness in its execution all combine to
make this one of the New Year’s early must-see home entertainment entries.
Danny (Raugi Yu) is a
Hong Kong native who is now living in Canada.
He’s the son of a wealthy shipping magnate named Zhou Li (played by Tseng
Chang — Dim Sum Funeral, Shanghai Noon, Romeo Must Die, etc.) who has
not long to live … and in these final days he decides to set one particular
matter in his life right.
And what could be the
“matter” that will set everything in motion and threaten to tear the family
apart? Zhou Li insists on including an
illegitimate son — a 19 year-old kid named Cheng (Benedict Yuen) — that he’s never met in his will. The family immediately requires Danny to
return to Hong Kong and deal with this insanity. Split the family business with a
stranger?
While Crazy
Rich Asians dealt with similar issues as a romantic comedy, 8
Minutes Ahead has family members ready and willing to murder Cheng to
avoid such an embarrassment. Does Danny
endorse such plans — blood in the streets — or does “family” and the wishes of
his father come first?
8 Minutes Ahead is presented in English and Mandarin (with
English subtitles during these sequences).
In other new-to-DVD
release news from Indican Pictures this past week, director Cornelia Duryée’s
(aka: Cornelia Moore) intense mystery/thriller, West of Redemption, will
be making its debut on Jan. 29.
This is one of those
head-scratchers. West of Redemption was
produced back in 2015 and then proceeded to work the festival circuit
throughout the balance of year, winning the Best Feature award at the Jefferson
State FlixxFest and Best Dramatic Direction at Eugene Film Festival (among others)
and then suddenly disappeared.
Fortunately, Indican
Pictures got wind of this indie gem and is now bringing it to the home
entertainment marketplace.
The story takes place in
1989, where we are introduced to Hank Keller (Billy Zane) and his much younger
wife, Becky (Mariana Klaveno — best known to audiences as Lorena Krasiki of the
True
Blood television series), who live on a remote farm near the sleepy
town of Redemption (filming took place in and around Spokane, Washington).
A seemingly uneventful
evening takes on ominous tones during a much needed rain shower when a knock on
the door finds a young man (Kevin Alejandro — as Dan Espinoza in the Lucifer
television series and Jesus Velasquez in the True Blood series),
soaked and in need of a tow truck (he says).
Hank lets him use the phone and then upon hearing him relay his name, “Richard
Youngblood,” to the tow truck driver on the other end of the line he waits … he
waits for the call to be finished and then beats him senseless with the phone.
The young man is tied up
and “interrogated” by Hank … we come to learn that he was once Becky’s
lover. Has he retuned by accident? Did his car really run off of the road and
require a tow? Or, is he there to
reclaim “what is his?”
Filmmaker Cornelia Duryée’s
West
of Redemption ratchets up the tension, the suspense — and the mystery —
to the point of intensity of which nightmares are made!!!
