Kfc (2016)

Kfc is the debut feature of Lê Bình Giang - a young filmmaker who had to overcome many challenges, some due to the unique characteristics of this very film, in his way to bring this initially a graduate project to the audience. Called after the famous fried chicken brand that were among the first American fast-food companies, if not the first, able to break into the Vietnamese market after the normalization of bilateral relationships between the once bitter enemies Vietnam and the United States, this film does contain numerous images and plot points related to KFC - the food. But if someone expects a nice and cosy culinary cinema experience, they are in for a treat, a nightmarish treat that is. As this ultraviolet film is anything but nice and cosy. Instead, Bình Giang's debut is a revenge tale full of stomach - turning visuals and characters who made this purely - fiction environment a very hard world to live in and to believe in. Somehow the upfront and central role of violence, extreme and savagery violence, in this film reminds me of the 1992 mockumentary Man Bites Dog and also one of the most extreme action films of Hong Kong cinema since the turn of the new century Dog Bite Dog (2006). But more than just a replica of the past films or a collage of homages and borrow items of the action and crime genres, Kfc surprises the audience with a very clever non linear plot that requires them to give their utmost attention to each "misplaced" sequence of the film if they really want to figure out what really is going on in this hellish world, with these devilish characters. Of course, such concentration is not at all an easy feat since every single sequence of this film contains many unconventional and upsetting details, but if anyone with determination to stay through the one - hour length of the film and able to stitch together a somewhat comprehensible storyline for Kfc, they would surely appreciate the very distinctive characters and world-building carefully crafted by Lê Bình Giang, his crew, and the passionate cast. Judging by the creative script alone, Kfc could already be considered a commendable debut by a promising director. But when adding the consideration about the rather-conservative and traditional taste of the Vietnamese public and the fact that overtly violent domestic films would hardly be able to find their way to the big screens here, one should give Lê Bình Giang a big applause for his creativity and audacity. Of course, the violence in this film would understandably turn some viewers away, or be considered by others violent just for the sake of it like many slashers b-films churning out every year "straight to DVD". But for more open-minded viewers or ones already accustomed to stylistic slasher films and the nightmarish manga of Junji Ito and thus could stomach the incessant flow of imaginary violence and cannibalism in this film, Kfc could actual be a breath of fresh air of the indie genre that reflects the director's very unique view of violence itself, of lives and deaths, of the hardships one might encounter at the bottom of the modern society, and of the hard-to-imagine but actually very probable cruelty a human can inflict upon another for the sake of survival or revenge. Even without such a second layer of thought, the very creative nonlinear narrative of this film, which could make fans of Christopher Nolan think of his excellent second feature Memento (2000), is more than enough to make Kfc a memorable watching experience and a very impressive "Hello World" for Lê Bình Giang to filmgoers who expect new, and unique things coming to the cinema.

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This commissioned piece has been published somewhere.