film digestion - korean edition, vol. 3

I'm starting to run out of Korean movies to watch on instant view...

A Tale of Two Sisters, ** (2003)

This was a convoluted and tiresome horror film that seemed to slowly just sink and cave in on itself as it dragged on and on into oblivion. It was uninspired and boring with a lot of needlessly dense plot twists that made the entire experience downright grueling and agonizing to sit through. Even after reading the Wikipedia synopsis twice, I’m left scratching my head, trying to understand why this movie tried so hard to obviously make itself as confusing as possible. I’m all for a good head trip, but in order for those to be effective, they have to have a focal point that is easy to understand in order to uncover and resolve everything else nonsensical around it. This film can’t even figure out if it’s trying to be a horror movie, a ghost story, or a psychological thriller. Even though I think that Asian filmmakers are downright masters at birthing suspense and tension in their psychological horror movies, this one must have been the runt that got dropped on its head. One star for the Silent Hill-style sound design and another for the cute “evil” stepmother (Yeom Jeong-ah).

The Man from Nowhere. **** (2010)

This is probably the first Korean movie that I’ve ever seen that doesn’t have a completely depressing and nihilistic ending, so by default, it’s a stand out. It’s also the first Korean film that I’ve watched recently that feels almost exactly like a typical American action movie, without any dreary, morally ambiguous characters and a batch of clear cut villains that all get punished accordingly. Even though it is obvious that they were shooting to make a film that would appeal to general Western (read: AMERICAN) audiences, it still has enough of that gritty Korean negativity to remind me us all that we are not waiting for Bruce Willis or Sly Stallone to come and save the day.  Story and acting-wise, there is nothing really impressive about the movie: a “mysterious” stranger tries to rescue a neighbor’s 8 year old daughter from an evil gang of drug dealers. Zzzzzzzzz. On the other hand, action-wise, this movie is stellar, with tons of amazingly well choreographed fight sequences throughout the film. However, the main attraction is a single knife fight near the end of the movie that is so amazing, it gets all 4 stars.  It is the stuff of legends; a graceful yet brutal showdown between two killing machines that will easily stand the test of time as one of the greatest fight sequences ever filmed.   

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.