Oldboy

Oldboy


It is very hard to talk about this movie without spoiling it.  So, I will talk around the movie.  If you like violent movies then go for this one.  If not, stay away. 


My wife asked me, why do you watch the worst side of Korea when I started watching this.  She is right.  The movie doesn't portray the country in the most positive light.  It makes the society out to be full of gangsters and crimes that go unsolved because no one cares.  But every country that has film has these kinds of movies.  I suppose it is more a reflection on me for watching it than Korea for having a person that made it. 


This is an ultraviolent movie.  Think Quentin Tarantino here.  That is actually a very apt comparison as the movie twists into something that manages to turn your stomach and still keep you watching. 

Iron Giant as a Psychopath Test

The Iron Giant is now my psychopath test. If you haven't read the book the Psychopath Test you should do so. It gives a long drawn out series of test that you can use to see if someone is a psychopath or not. This is encompassed in the narrative of a person committed for life with no proof and a mysterious text. It is very entertaining. Based on the actual psychopath test, I have created my own expediated test. Have someone watch Iron Giant with you. Watch them during the Be who you want to be scene. Look for emotional reaction. If there isn't any or you see confusion, the given person is a psychopath. Works really well on kids, so invite your children's friends over and see which one of the little buggers is missing a soul. Statistacally 4% of the total population lack that inner voice that helps them establish right from wrong so chances are you and your family know a few. Warning: if watching in a group, the psychopath will mimmick the reactions of those around him/her, so be careful. This test is not actually scientific, so take results with a grain of salt. But come on, they should be in tears, or something is wrong with them.

I Saw the Devil (2010)

I Saw the Devil is Korean thriller from 2010.  It stars Byung-Hun Lee (Storm Shadow from G.I. Joe) and Min-Sik Choi (Oldboy, Shiri).  It is probably one of Korea's most violent movies.

I watched this with a group of friends as part of a horror movie double feature.  The first movie we watched was Cabin in the Woods and we all loved that one and were wondering how we were going to follow it up.  XBMC (X Box Media Center, great way to organize your media in a visually pleasing manner) had this in the horror genre and had it rated higher than Cabin in the Woods and The Thing from 1982.  While my collection of horror is not the most complete, it has some pretty good movies in it and having this as highest rated was intriging, so we all decided this would be the second movie.  We were not disappointed.

The story is a simple revenge plot.  Kim (Lee) is after the serial killer that killed his wife (Choi).  The story does take some twists and turns along the way.

The acting was excellent.  Korea is very good for comedies as the actors tend to over emote, but there was none of that here.  The acors brought the weight into the performance that it deserved.  We attempted to watch it with English language dubs, but quickly changed our mind.  Watch this one in Korean with subtitles.  The English language dub is horrible. 

Overall, it was a great movie.  Not sure it was horror unless you consider man as the scariest monster their is.  I do.  It is our twisted minds that created all these monsters in the first place.  The only problem seemed to be the ability of the characters to recover from harm.  20 bashes to the skull with a metal pipe is going to kill anyone on Earth.  Maybe he should have worked the body with most of those strikes.  If you liked Silence of the Lambs and Taken, this one should be great for you.  I have heard it compared to Oldboy, but I still haven't seen Oldboy.  I don't think kids are ready for this one.  It was almost a 19+ in Korea. 

Tae Guk Gi (2004)

Considered to be one of the best movies in Korean film history, it is appropriate that the title of the film is also the name of the Korean Flag.  I sat down to watch this with the wife at her suggestion.  She couldn't watch most of it. 

Story-  This is a war movie through and through, but it is also a love story between two brothers.  I hope you don't have to have a brother to understand that bond, but I do and it played to that bond very well.  It is also a movie about sacrifice.  It was an amazing story that kept me guessing till the very end. 

Characters-  The actors playing the brothers were excellent.  They nailed the roles and were very believable as brothers.  Eun Ju-Lee was great as well (hey, I didn't know they had plastic surgery back then).  Sadly she killed herself a few years ago. 

Overall- It was an amazing movie with pretty cutting edge special effects for the time that it was made.  It is bloody and gory and does not romanticize what the war was.  It was a bloody mess with soldiers being sent to their slaughter.  It shows some of the autrocities of both sides and makes you really uncomfortable knowing that this stuff really happened.  It doesn't have a happy ending, but that makes it even more true to life.  Excellent movie, probably for 13+ due to violence/blood/gore. 

Seven Days ( 2007)

Seven Days is a thriller starring Yunjin Kim (Lost).  The premise of the story is that her daughter has been kidnapped and Ji-Yeon (Kim) must successfully defend a murderer in order to get her daughter back.  Oh yeah, she only has seven days to do it.

This is really strong drama, a Korean strong point.  The pacing is a little slow but the tension continues to build throughout the movie.  The ending surprised me, so the story telling wasn't completely predictable.

Kim does an excellent job.  I think the movie was seven days because she was in between seasons of lost and didn't have time to film a movie called thirty days.  All of the acting is well done, without the hyperbole that you find in comedies.

Overall it was a good movie.  If you like thrillers you will enjoy this one. 

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.