Movie of the Day – The Bow

March 6, 2012 Leave a comment

Kim Ki-duk is one of my favorite Korean Directors out there.  If you are one of the fans of the “art-house” genre of filmmkaing, Kim Ki-duk is by far and away one of the most unique visual and story telling directors around.  I have seen about half of his films before and even talked about 3-Iron a while back, but one of things that seems to grab me about his films is that while they are visually pleasing, he often says so much with so little dialogue.  It is one of things that I admire about him, the fact that his pull you in with a strong emotional connection and they characters never have to say anything.  Visually arresting films and serene, emotional acting are the hallmarks of Kim Ki-duk’s career.

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Movie of the Day – A Tale of Two Sisters

December 4, 2011 3 Comments

My love affair with Korean cinema and the often bemused rejection of horror movies continues in today’s post.  A Tale of Two Sisters is a 2003 Korean horror movie that is directed by one of my favorite directors, Ki Ji-Woon (A Bittersweet Life, I Saw The Devil).  The film is an adaptation of an old Korean story entitled Janghwa Hongryeon jeon, which thanks to wikipedia and the internet translates into “The Story of Janghwa and Hongryeon” which you can read about here.  In the traditional Asian horror cinema, there are plenty of ghostly looking kids with stringy black hair and some visceral imagery.  I am not sure why that is the norm, but it really seems to be the standard in horror movies, which is why I am adverse to wanting to watch horror movies that use this insipid plot devices all the damn time.  After taking a look at this movie, this is really the only film that should be allowed to use that thematic element.

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Movie of the Day – I Saw The Devil

July 15, 2011 1 Comment

Well, if you know me well enough and have been reading my blog posts, then you know my love of Korean cinema and their love of wanton violence and emotion fueled rampages.  I covered the Park Chan-Wook revenge trilogy and discussed about the suspenseful film Mother.  There has been an emerging pattern in my selection of Korean films and they revolve around vengeance and violence.  I wrote three long posts about vengeance and the emotion drive that overtakes the characters and today’s post is no different from the previous posts.  I Saw The Devil is brutal film to watch.  Not in the sense that the subject matter is difficult, but emotional gut punch you get when watching two actors vehemently amp up the violence towards one another in each scene.  The film is rough and gritty to watch, but such a gorgeous movie that plays with this cat and mouse scenario, only if the cat and mouse each have the ability to wield giants knives and outright attack one another.  Let’s setup the story first before I dive into the subtext of the movie and why I seem to love violent, revenge driven flicks.

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Movie of the Day – The Host

June 18, 2011 2 Comments

Going back through some of my previous posts, I noticed that I don’t have a lot of monster horror movies on here.  I felt I needed to correct this issue since I love monster movies.  Give me a Godzilla, Mega Shark, Jaws, or any Sy-Fy original monster movie cause they are cheesy as hell and good for a laugh.  The thing about monster movies is that most are cobbled together with action set pieces, irritating main characters, and really no substance to it, other than sating the need for death and destruction.  The movies lose sight of what makes monster movies interesting, and that is using the monster for horror effects.  I enjoy movies that show some entity, always looming in the background terrorizing a group of people.  When you shift focus to a group of people, rather than the masses of the effected city, you get a true sense of dread and fear since we are meant to connect with the small band of people.  So following my love of Korean cinema, imaging my surprise that there was such a movie that combined my favorite elements of monster movies into neat little package.

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Movie of the Day – 3-Iron

June 9, 2011 1 Comment

There is that old saying “a pictures worth a thousand words”, so while a movie typically need dialogue to propel the plot,  sometimes it is the job of the actors and actresses to carry movie through emotional engagement.  Sure words help and simplify a plot, but sometimes less is more.  Emotional engagement is important through a movie as we can connect with the feeling and emotions of the character on screen since we also have those same emotions.  I enjoy when a movie does away with needless dialogue cues that clue the audience into how they are supposed to feel.  I rather see anger or joy or love through facial expressions rather than someone saying that exact emotion.

So what I am ultimately getting at here with the Movie of the Day pick is that Kim Ki-Duk’s 3-Iron is a movie that have a personal affinity for.  I won’t bury the lead yet, but let me set up the story.

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Movie of the Day – The City of Violence

June 3, 2011 1 Comment

Few movies can really deliver on what they promise.  When it comes to action movies, you have a certain expectation as to what the movie will deliver when their titles reads something like “Death Warrant” or “The Expendables”.  You expect some sort of balls to the wall action scenes and ridiculous elevations of fighting.  So with a name like “The City of Violence” I am expecting to see a city that is filled with violence or something of that nature.  What I got was more of a small village but holy hell is this is fucking good action movie.  I got to say that South Korea keeps solidifying my love of their cinema.

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Movie of the Day – Lady Vengeance

May 29, 2011 2 Comments

Now  we come to the grand opus of the Movie of the Day revenge trilogy with Lady Vengeance.  This is Park Chan-wook’s most operatic and grandiose movie.  Out of all the movies in the trilogy, this is the prettiest looking movie of the group and one his best artistic endeavors.  While not my favorite of the three, this is a crowning cap on the essence of revenge and the cycle of violence that happens.  Before, I discussed that each movie centers around a different theme of revenge.  Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance dealt with revenge and the consequences of our actions when we want vengeance.  Oldboy handle the idea of the revenge and the human condition, seeing how far a human being will go to exact revenge.  Lady Vengeance is a story about redemption and salvation that comes from the act of revenge.  Can one bury their past once the act of violence is complete?  I think that this is the culmination of all the past themes of revenge and presented to us in a neatly wrapped package. Chan-wook gave us a look at revenge through the eyes of a female lead this time around and deep insight into the cold and calculating ways of a woman out for revenge.

Spoiler warning ahead of Lady Vengeance!

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