film digestion - korean edition, vol. 1

Instead of writing long-winded and meticulously researched opinion pieces about certain movies, I'm going to try and write some quick and "to the point" type reviews with a 5 star scale that can be gulped down in a single bite ...hence 'film digestion.' The inaugural post will involve some recent korean movies that I just watched recently.. 


 I SAW THE DEVIL,   ** 1/2  (2010)
Overall, a very brutal and exceptionally long-winded thriller about a secret agent who seeks revenge on the serial killer responsible for killing his wife. While the violence is horrific and the action sequences exceptionally well choreographed, it falls apart into severe implausibility as the film drags on and on into an endlessly repetitive and hopeless cycle of violence and degradation. Although Choi Min-sik is completely amazing as a cunning and heartless killer, his performance isn't enough to save the film from its lumbering length, utterly inept writing, and pretentiously nihilistic dialogue. 



THIRST,  ****  1/2 (2009)
Park Chan-wook's film about a priest who turns into a vampire after a failed medical experiment is the kind of movie that Twilight fans need to see instead of the watered down pap that does nothing but convince millions of impressionable minds that "vampire movies" are apparently PG-13 rated cosmetic commercials for glittering goth kids who like to play baseball in the rain. THIRST properly examines the blissfully sexual and occasionally bloody escapades that can occur if you find yourself transformed into a creature of the night, complete with amazing cinematography, smart writing, and a sexy performance from Kim Ok-bin as the object of the priest's newly found affections. Instead of relying on age old tropes to convey the complex moral, religious, and sexual issues that can compound the mind of any newly formed vampire, the film brilliantly avoids any such predictable shortcomings by simultaneously being a romantic comedy, a horror movie,  and an art house flick without any of the normal pitfalls of each respective genre.