RKS 2025 Film: “Cloud”: Up in the Sky or Down Far Below?

Ryosuke Yoshii (Masaki Suda) is an internet reseller of whatever he can bargain cheaply for and hopefully resell at retail or wholesale at an enormous profit. Good freedom of enterprise all legitimate unless the merchandise is counterfeit. Operate in the cloud as Yoshii does under a pseudonym Ratel then the transactions are all anonymous and completed with impunity? As that Kim Mitchell song plays, “grab a soda and nobody gets hurt”.

Yoshii has cultivated enemies in his quest for financial success including driving brutally hard bargains and unloading counterfeit merchandise to other resellers purchasing from Yoshii that paid the additional price of being beaten by angry purchasers realizing they have been duped. In his personal life he has refused a promotion in his day factory job offered numerous times by his boss Mr. Takimoto (Yoshiyoshi Arakawa) grossly offended by Yoshii’s rejection. Then there is Muraoka (Masataka Kubota) a vocational college fellow student who he refuses an offer to join with in a business enterprise. Yoshii terminates Sano (Daken Okudaira) his assistant for snooping on his computer. In fact there are so many aggrieved individuals they band together and hunt down Yoshii seeking revenge.

Yoshii’s sales are sufficient to finance a move from Tokyo to a quiet village living in a large rented lakeside house.  His girlfriend Akiko (Kotone Furukawa) joins him. It is clear she is an avid consumer and wants to spend, spend and spend and Yoshii is her golden ticket.

Before moving from Tokyo Yoshii discovers a dead rat on his doorstep and has tripwire set outside his home causing a nasty spill on his motorcycle. In his new home an automotive part is thrown through his window and a Mercedes cruises menacingly outside his home in darkness. The mystery is in full swing!

His enemies unite and hunt down Ratel. The hunt, at times, is somewhat comedic but when Ratel the prey is in their clutch’s matters turn nasty and deadly. In the ensuing gunbattles it is Sano that comes to Yoshii’s rescue becoming Yoshii’s ally. This and Sano’s proficiency with firearms seem odd indeed for an assistant he employed to ally himself with a boss that terminated him.

Who is behind all the commotion and why? For a starter pay very close attention to Sano’s meeting with a “syndicate” member on a train station platform and his sending his best regards to the “chairman”. And the surreal car ride by Sano and Yoshii concluding the film will answer all your questions. Yoshii is an unwitting Jabez Stone and Mr. Scratch is clearly nearby? Sano is Charon?

Sano’s meeting with a “syndicate” member may be the key to understanding the film

Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Makes a Canadian theatrical run commencing 18July2025.

Watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsU2vNvHwns

RKS 2025 Film Rating 93/100.

RKS Literature: Marooned in Love (James Baldwin)

“Barbara and I were marooned, alone with our love, and we were discovering that love was not enough-alone we were doomed. We only had each other, and this fact menaced our relation to each other. We had no relief, we had no one to talk to-far behind us were the days when we had played at being lovers and laughed how easily the world was shocked. We were not playing now, and neither was the world.”

Marooned in Love, “Tell Me How Long The Train’s Been Gone”, 1968.

RKS 2025 Canadian Wine: A County Pinot Noir From The Grange of Prince Edward County in Ontario

The winery website describes its Farmer Series Pinot Noir “as a robust terroir driven County Pinot” aged 10 months in French oak.

Aroma: Black cherry, raspberry held together in a light smoky frame.

Palate: Too smooth to be considered robust! Definitely tannins but not lending to a robust categorization and that’s fine by me. Somewhat of a chalky texture and a peppery influence on the thin finish. Raspberry and Catanian cactus pear.

Personality: “Farmer” from a Canadian perspective equates to adjectives of everyday, basic and decent then this Farmer’s Series Pinot Noir foots the bill.

Food Match: There is an emphasis on farm to table in The County. And there are plenty of farms in The County. If at the winery at The Grange Vineyard Kitchen why not The Grange Burger?

Cellarbility: Consume before 2026 winds down.

Price: $33. CDN.

RKS 2025 Canadian Wine Rating: 88/100.

(The Grange of Prince Edward County, 2024 County Pinot Noir Farmer’s Series, VQA Prince Edward County, 750 mL, 12%).

RKS 2025 Canadian Film: “Foreigner”: Polite Racism or Ignorance?

One associates racism with malevolent intent. The Canadian film “Foreigner” acknowledges malevolent racism also suggesting racism can possibly be “polite”, based more in ignorance than malevolence.

Yasamin (Rose Deghan) is a newly arrived Iranian teenager to British Columbia living with her widower father (Ashkan Nejati) and her grandmother Zoreh (Maryam Sadeghi). There are hints Yasamin’s mother succumbed to the vicissitudes of mental illness.

Understandably Yasamin is desperate to “fit in” at her new school. Valley Girls, or better said as this is Vancouver, North Van bible study girls, led by Queen Bee Rachel (Chloë MacLeod) appear anxious to welcome Yasamin into their circle. The North Van girls are overplayed, perhaps intentionally. They are profoundly ignorant about any culture other than North Van and they are pleased it seems, to meet their first Muslim! A good deal of amusement awaits the viewer as these are not overtly Mean Girls but their pleasing exterior may mask a vindictive and evil nature.

Yasamin rejects her Iranian culture in her desperation to fit in including a blond hair dye job but discovers recognizing her own identity through her experiences is more important than fitting in. Somewhat polemic you may find.

At times a bit of “Carrie”, “ET”, “Mean Girls”, “The Exorcist”, a rather lame Government of Canada Citizenship Video and a few satirical jabs at evangelical Christians.

Deghan certainly plays the role perfectly and her grandmother played by Maryam Sadeghi oozes love and empathy at precisely the right times.

You may watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iav4c1HG2Ug&t=1s

Directed and written by Ava Maria Safai.

Plays at Fantasia in Montreal on 31July and 2August2025.

RKS 2025 Canadian Film Rating 67/100.

Melania Trump Deported to El Salvador

Spoof News Services: 15July2025: Redneck, Florida

Spoof News Services reporters on the ground in Redneck, Florida have reported Melania Trump has been deported to El Salvador this afternoon. She was abducted by MICE Agents in a shopping mall in South Beach, Miami attending an opening of a discount designer mall by the dog of Kimmy K “Puffyhead”.

Tom Unwholesome, former MICE Czar had explained to reporters that Melania had a heavy accent and was acting suspiciously eating TACOs at the mall and agents identified her as a dangerous foreigner most likely a “Mexican birth righter” on par with Rosamund O’Connell. Mr. Unwholesome was subsequently executed on the White House lawn hence is the former MICE Czar.

Karry Leadhead, a White House spokesperson, reported a serious error had occurred attributable to “Biden agents” and negotiations were underway to get “the old bird back”. Unfortunately, her return may be subject to a 400% tariff imposed on exports from El Salvador by executive order of the Big Guy.

Further details to follow.

RKS Literature: American Media’s Obsession with the Cult of Personality

“You are literally, then, one amongst countless millions. You are news. Whatever you do is news. But it does not take long to realize, at least assuming that one wishes to live, that to be news is really to be nothing; that the attention paid to one’s vicissitudes is merely the most cunning way yet devised of making the adventure of one’s life a farce. He woke up this morning, or he didn’t, and then he peed, or didn’t, and then he shit, or he couldn’t, and then he fucked his wife or his broad or he fucked his boy or his boy fucked him, or they blew each other, or they didn’t- it’s a story, either way, any way: it is all, all, there in the eager faces of the reporters.”

James Baldwin, “Tell Me How Long The Train’s Been Gone”, 1968.

RKS Literature: Avoiding an Incitement for a Racist Riot (James Baldwin)

“But, by the time one has become an incitement, not very much is left in one’s power. It is not a matter merely of walking straight, eyes straight ahead. No, one’s eyes must be everywhere at once-without seeming to be, without seeming to move; one must be ready for the rock, the fist, the sudden movement; one must see every face and yet make it impossible for one’s eyes to be caught, even for a second, by any other eye. One must move swiftly, and yet not in a hurry: one must, in fact, give the crowd no opening, either by seeming to be too proud or by seeming to be too humble. All such crowds are combustible, and they always will be. Their buried, insupportable lives have brought them together and on the only terms they can come together: the unspeakable despair concerning their lives.”

James Baldwin, “Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone”, 1968.

RKS Literature: The Happy and Prancing Negroes! (James Baldwin)

“I saw with a particular shock, the root of the despicable and tenacious American folklore concerning the happy, prancing niggers. Some of the people were moving, indeed, and the jukebox was loud; their movements followed the music which their movements had produced; but prancing scarcely described the use of their vigor. Only someone who no longer had any sense of what constituted happiness could have ever confounded happiness with this rage. Yet, the scene we entered had been tirelessly reproduced, in stale and meticulous, absolutely libelous detail, in countless musical comedies and innumerable porkchop-in-the-sky films: the nigger, moving in uncanny time to the music, hips, hands, feet working, all flashing teeth and eyes, without a care in the world.”

James Baldwin, “Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone”, 1968.

RKS Literature: Not Realizing I Was Colored (James Baldwin)

“They disliked Jerry because he was Italian, they disliked Barbara because she was not, and therefore, had no excuse, and they disliked me because I did not appear to realize both Barbara and Jerry were white. I did not, in fact, appear to know that I was colored and this filled them with such baleful exasperation, such an exasperated wonder, that the waitress’ hand when I stopped in the diner, actually trembled as she poured my coffee, and people moved away from me, staring as though I was possessed by evil spirits. Naturally, I despised them. They didn’t even have the courage of their sick convictions, for, if they had, they would have tarred and feathered me and ridden me out of town.”

James Baldwin, “Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone”, 1968.

RKS 2025 Canadian Film: “LUCID”: Of Magic Mushrooms, Murder, Monsters and Mayhem

Mia Sunshine Jones is a struggling arts programme student unable to complete a project telling the world who she really is. Her professor and fellow students are far from impressed with her efforts and Mia is given a one-week deadline by her professor to produce a passable artwork.

Mia contemplating her journey

It isn’t too long before the viewer witnesses the anger, frustration and bitterness that is Mia. Mia is a mess. What is the cause?

Mia has a creative block preventing her from delivering her art project and is advised by members of a band performing at a club she attended their creative block was lifted by band member Desdemona’s godmother’s magical elixir. Mia heads to the godmother and purchases a pill with “LUCID” stamped on it with a dosage of a little nibble every night before bed will begin the dissolution of her creative block with a warning she must not eat the entire tablet in one swallow which she does.

Then the on and off magic mushroom trip begins with its psychedelic cinematography bearing in mind LUCID is not a psychedelic. The 35- and 16-mm film, FX monsters, eccentric characters and trippy plot with eclectic music create the perfect “avant garde” film.

Mia must find her block to recognize exactly its nature so she can move on. Her voyage is surreal, full of monsters and mayhem and at times nightmarish. Frequent flashbacks to her childhood and her hippy musician parents, repeated imagery of knives and sharpened scissors suggest the block may have been rooted in her childhood with a violent component.

The cinematography, soundtrack, rock solid casting near perfection and writing lay the foundation for a nouveau Canadian classic film. Caitlin Acken Taylor excels as Mia in a very difficult role requiring a wide range of emotions she masters with mesmerizing excellence.

“LUCID” will world premiere at Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal on 21July2025.

Directed and written by Deanna Milligan and Ramsey Fendall.

RKS 2025 Canadian Film Rating 96/100.