Thirst-2009

blogger Tags: chan-wook park, Kang-ho song, ok-bin kim, vampires, korean vampires

Directed and written by Park, Chan-Wook and starring Song, Kang-Ho and Kim, Ok-Bin.

Plot-Yes it is a vampire movie, so the plot will center around either a vampire’s love interest or someone becoming a vampire and learning to deal with it.  This movie is able to but a pretty unique twist on the subject matter by making the person infected a Catholic priest.  Not just any priest, a miracle priest that has followers.  The movie is dark and brooding from start to finish. 

Characters- Song has been in a lot of different movies, and his experience shows with his performance here.  He portrays the dark brooding priest that has inner conflict to a T.  Relative new comer Kim does an excellent job as well.  She is the character that goes through the greatest transformation during the movie.  She is extremely attractive and I see her going places. 

Cinematicly-there are some great scenes in this movie.  the camera work and music all work.  The white washed apartment was bright but still eerie.  This might be the most provocative Korean movie I have ever seen.  There is a lot of nudity in this movie including male full frontal.  There is a whole bunch of gore in this as well. 

Overall-  This movie is one for horror fans and vampire aficionados.  I don’t mean twilight girls either.  They would be in for a shock.  I wouldn’t let my kids watch this one and my wife chose to sit it out due to the sex and violence.  If either of those things bother you, you may want to stay away from it as well.  I liked it and thought it was a pretty good movie with an interesting take on the very popular and overdone vampire genre. 

HaeUnDae-Tidal Wave 2009

Image via Wikipedia

The Wife and I sat down the other day and watched this movie.  I am not sure what kind of budget it had but I can tell you that  the movie could have been done better.  It wasn’t the special effects, which should have been better considering how much animation comes out of Korea, but the editing.  The movie felt rushed and it comes in at 120min.  There were a lot of scenes that would just cut from a scene and other scenes that were maybe  10 seconds long.  There was a scene of a group of friends talking that must have changed camera angles about 50 times in a 2 minute scene.  I thought I was going to be sick.  When I review movies, I don’t usually mention editing, it just isn’t something on my radar, but it was obviously bad with this movie. 

The Characters were likeable and this is with us watching it in Korean with no subtitles.  I was able to catch the drift on what was happening without too much translation from the wife.  Not sure how we got a version without English subtitles but it happens.  The acting was pretty good and this is where Korean movies generally shine.  There was lots of visual comedy.  The still gorgeous Uhm Jung-Hwas was in this one and does a pretty good job in a fairly emotional scene. 

The writing suffered in this movie as well.  People are randomly living and dying for no obvious reasons.  Science is blatantly ignored in order to increase tension and advance the plot.  Some of this is done for comedic effect and that is okay but thee rest is taking itself seriously.. 

Overall it was a fun movie as long as you didn’t think about it too much.