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Tran Quoc Bao is a very
talented filmmaker who I first was introduced to with his short "Bookie"
which was a pretty good neo-noir crime thriller. "Black Coffee" is a
film that aspires to take a page from the Hitchcock book of filmmaking
and Bao comprises a movie that is a very interesting and tense thriller
that involves intrigue, deception, and a story that is worthy of a
feature length film if Bao ever got the chance to direct it. Quite
simply, Bao never pads the film and gets to the point of the matter.
David is a local politician who happens to have had a steamy affair with
a local woman named Natalie who works at the Chicka Latte shop. What he
doesn't know is that his wife Melissa is having an affair with her too
and now the duo are planning to blackmail David and take him for every
penny that they can. Bao's film is very taut with some masterful
photography that amps up the suspense with every passing minute. Shot in
black and white,
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Bao evokes
the crime genre classics of the past with a plot that our
antagonist David can't possibly get out of. Putting him in
to a corner we're left rooting for him in spite of his sins,
and the entire film revolves around three rather slimy
individuals trying to outdo one another and save their own
hides. There are many indicators that Bao is attempting to
tap the crime genre with some very well shot sequences
including the love scene between David's conspirators, and
big confrontation in the tower in the climax. |
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The
performances are rather good as Yuji Okumoto portrays a rather
pathetic individual forced in to an affair and a plot that he is
unaware of and the madness that ensues with his character is quite
gripping. Bao is never one to pull for our sympathies and instead
just asks us to sit back and wait to see which of these characters
will edge each other out in the end. Melissa Roberts and Nina
Carduner are absolutely insanely gorgeous and yet quite despicable
as this scheming set of lovers looking to bring down their male
nemesis and deprive him of his dignity and career in exchange for
some rather shifty ulterior motives. In the end Bao thankfully never
cops out and serves us a final scene that declares who the losers
and who the winners are. That is, of course, left up to us to decide
Bao folds on yet another truly good short film.
 The only
reservation I had with this is that Bao has potential to stage a
truly exciting feature length thriller here and whether it's about
the budget or the capabilities to do so, I would love to see this
eventually made in to a full length mystery that could fully realize
the talents of the entire production crew.
I saw it twice and
frankly it's one of the sharper short thrillers I've seen in a while.
With a memorable cast, great direction, and a plot worthy of becoming a
classic, "Black Coffee" is most definitely worth looking for.
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