Inbox:Replay: 8½

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Replay revisits moving pictures that I have seen in the past.

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It's apparent from the first moments of watching 8½ that it stands in a different world of cinema. Many accolades have been heaped upon the film and most of those are deserved. The film has had a profound influence on a number of other filmmakers and has been referenced throughout cinema history. After watching it, yet again, I have to admit that I was still impressed, but the question remains: why?

8½ is a metafilm of sorts, being a semi-autobiographical look into the life of director Federico Fellini. Set as Fellini-esque Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroinna) as he endeavors to commence filming on his latest project. As he struggles with creating some kind of statement with his film, he also struggles with the various women in his life, including his mistress, Carla (Sandra Milo), and his wife, Luisa (Anouk Aimée).

A pretty vague synopsis, right? As he meets with his advisor, his advisor basically lays out the flaws with the film that's unfolding: it's episodic and doesn't seem to have a concrete destination. And, in a logical sense, it's very true. The film itself doesn't really fit the storytelling mode of the cinematic narrative, even as it's sort of a journey of a man who discovers himself by struggling with his indecision and selfishness. Rather, it's an experiential work that focuses on Guido's experience as a means of personal and emotional storytelling and it works because we get to journey with Guido as he struggles along. That's not to say that the film isn't bewildering or unfocused at times, but as Guido is both surprised and unfocused, it actually turns out not to be disadvantageous for 8½ to adopt this approach as it puts us further into Guido's experience and the end pays off well as a result.

Of great immediate notice, however, is the absolutely gorgeous black and white photography and costume design. Almost every single shot seems like it could fit perfectly into a photography coffee table book and the costumes are still gorgeous to this day, from Luisa's simple white dress, to Guido's sexy block sunglasses; the film oozes with style. And that style is backed up with strong performances by most of the cast, even selling the characters when the lip sync goes off sometimes. Also, there's an impressive use of sound, especially in the opening sequence which stays mysteriously silent until a pivotal moment--and the score, featuring classical works will inevitably stay etched in your memory, tying those pieces to memories of this film, much like how "In the Hall of the Mountain King" is tied to Lang's "M".

8½ would be a masterful film even if just for the visual splendor and strong performances, but that such a seemingly chaotic story can form a coherent personal and emotional narrative really takes it from just eye candy to an indelible moment in cinema. Even during my first watching of the film where I fell asleep during sections of the film, the parts that I witnessed were seared into my mind and it was clear that I was watching something special. I will say that this film is not for the lazy. It doesn't spoon-feed you everything that you're supposed to think and feel and you have to work to focus and try to empathize with what you see. But those that do will be rewarded with a rather unique piece of cinematic history and one that lingers on in its memory even through today. 9/10.

Links:

• Available at Amazon (Blu Ray) / (DVD) / (Instant)

Progress Report: 내생애 마지막 스캔들, Episodes 5-8

Progress Report provides ongoing impressions of serials or sets I view them.

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I have to admit, this show sucked me in. I'm still able to resist the temptation to just watch all the episodes of Last Scandal in a row, but the balance of comedy and drama are strong and fortunately, the show has not gotten too angsty, although I'm really liking some of the backstory building going on. There is one plot hole that really annoyed me at the end of the seventh episode, but everything else was fun enough that I'm managing to overlook it.

The one thing I'm particularly impressed with is how the story is slowly, but steadily unfurling and the antagonistic interaction between the two somewhat immature leads. I also like that there's no super-evil-heartless villain to the story either, but that different people have different agendas. Definitely looking forward to more episodes--but the full hour format still feels long, perhaps since I'm more used to US TV 44-minute runtimes.

• Watch for free at DramaFever

Inbox:Replay: M

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Replay revisits moving pictures that I have seen in the past.

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The very first time I ever saw M, I actually struggled to stay awake through part of it, because it was during a phase of my higher education where I slept little and consequently fell asleep during class screenings. However, I also admit that I was totally enthralled by other parts of it. I figured that since I was no longer acting like a collegiate, I'd be able to watch it this time around without dozing off, but to my surprise, I managed to doze off twice while watching the film. Yet, at those same moments that I remembered so clearly from class, I was again in rapt attention. An interesting reaction to this early sound German masterpiece.

M stands for what I presume to be "Mörder" ("murderer" in English) as the story revolves around a series of unsolved child murders in a city. As the police crack down on the general populace to catch this villain, the local mafia decide that the murderer is bad for business and decide to catch him as well. Of course, will either side catches him before he finds himself with the urge to kill again?

I'm a bit conflicted about this film. Perhaps because I had not watched the whole thing previously, the better parts left this film marked at unbridled excellence in my memory, but now that (with a couple attempts) I've been able to see the thing as a whole, I don't find it so flawless. Part of my contention with M is that the film is rather fragmented in story and the whole beginning section is a bit overlong, taking a great amount of time to setup when it could have moved into the story more quickly. At the point where M was made, film had become sophisticated enough that editing and elliptical storytelling was quite prevalent, which left me wondering why there was so much temporal space given to setting up the film, which was also where I had fallen asleep during my multiple attempts at the film.

The other problem with the film is that it doesn't feel entirely contiguous, despite that it's all about the manhunt for a child murderer. The first part is all setup, but also seems to be a commentary on society and the impact of paranoia and fear. The second act of the film is a tense thriller about the catching of our killer, Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre), easily the most gripping section. The final act turns the film into a courtroom drama and exploration of madness and justice, which is also quite enthralling. But as these three segments aren't really joined together by a larger thematic thread, it feels like they are just tied together by the plot. Which, I suppose is fine, considering how potent two-thirds of the film are, but I can't help but feel a little disenchanted by it as a result.

Fritz Lang, however, is masterful as far as visual directing and even acting directing goes. Hailing from the German Expressionist school of film, he transitions into a more realistic style for this then-contemporary set film, but despite the more realistic look versus the Expressionist look of German cinema of the age, the film is loaded with the aesthetic styling of German art, with stark lines. Lang's choices, particularly in mis-en-scene, are quite striking at times and while sound was still in its infancy at this stage, Lang plays with diegetic sound and space masterfully, enveloping us atmospheric sound effects and visual play, with the whistling of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" developing a surprising menace for that which is unseen.

So, all said, I still find M to be worthy of its status as a masterpiece--it's a visual/aural wonder, especially considering its time and manages to have two very gripping and powerful sections, making it far more than just a serial killer suspense thriller. Yet, while watching again, I managed to confirm that the early third of the film is a little too slowly paced and that the film isn't as unified in itself as I'd like from a single viewing experience. But, that's hardly much to complain about when the film is otherwise indelible. 8/10.

Links:

• Available at Amazon (Blu Ray) / (DVD)

Progress Report: 내생애 마지막 스캔들, Episodes 1-4

Progress Report provides ongoing impressions of serials or sets I view them.

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Upon watching the first four episodes, I believe that Last Scandal is going to a pretty good ride and, for some, Korean drama crack. Somehow, a lot of the most entertaining Korean dramas that I've seen tend to have atypical protagonists, such as My Lovely Samsoon's curvy, titular heroine. Last Scandal's heroine, I think takes an even bolder step and makes the heroine a genuine ajumma (a middle aged woman, typically married with children or of the age where it would be expected). Much of the rest of the setup, however, is pure Korean drama tropes, from the poor girl and rich/famous man fantasy to what's shaping up to be standard love quadrilateral, with an interesting crinkle of our heroine already being married mother and the husband still a part of the picture.

Some of the coincidences that are going on do have my contrivance sensors buzzing, but the show is full of delicious, even if unsophisticated, comedic irony and while the pacing is a little slow in the episode (thanks to Korean full-hour run-time conventions), each episode so far has really ended on a have-to-see-the-next-episode cliffhanger, which I've been able to resist so far, but does engage me very well.

As far as the look of the show, it definitely has the production values of a mainstream Korean drama, so that's effective and the actors seem to be doing well and I love the relish and unabashedness with which the late Choi Jinshil approaches her role as Sunny Hong. Funniest moment for me so far was when Sunny and Jaebin/Dongchul walk along in a lovely conversation with each other over the phone and then, not knowing that each is who they are, upon seeing each other, go sour-faced and quiet, passing each other only to go all lovey-dovey again when out of eye-sight of each other. Yes, it's all Shop Around the Corner, but good fun and the show has done much to earn my goodwill in the first four episodes. Let's hope it can keep it up!

• Watch for free at DramaFever

Inbox: 김씨표류기

Inbox features items that I have recently purchased or received.

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I think one of the first comparisons anyone is tempted to make when dealing with Castaway on the Moon is to 2000's Cast Away as they both feature some degree of isolation and a man "returning to wild" as he learns to survive on an island alone, but the films are hardly similar. Castaway on the Moon is actually a story about both isolation and human connection and carries a different tone, message and purpose, in which I do think it's largely successful, albeit with some concerns.

In the film, Mr. Kim (Jung Jaeyung) is at the end of his rope and attempts suicide by jumping off a bridge, but wakes up washed ashore on an abandoned nature reserve island in the middle of the Han River of Seoul. Unable to swim, he's stuck on the island in the heart of the city and has to learn to survive with the help of some of the trash that washed up on the island. Meanwhile, Ms. Kim (Jung Ryuwon) is a recluse who apparently never leaves her room, living out a virtual life online and taking pictures of solitary places like the moon or the city during an civilian air raid drill, when no one is on the street. During one civilian air raid drill, she spies the forcibly isolated Mr. Kim on the island and slowly becomes fascinated by him, perhaps because of their shared solitude.

I think there's a very interesting story here, with both Kims having different emphases for their stories, but connecting at the greater theme of the need for human connection and I actually find the film surprisingly convincing in both characters' development as well as the development of their limited relationship. My main complaint with the film comes at the end, which, I suppose is in some way inevitable, but I felt that the sentimentality factor of how it was handled was just too much. Still, the explorations of both isolation and human connection in the film struck a chord with me personally because while I'm not as reclusive as Ms. Kim, I felt a sort of empathy with her as a strong introvert and identify with her story to some degree.

The film is well shot and directed, with director Lee Haejoon putting together some fine film sequences, occasionally getting a little silly and sometimes also hitting some flights of fancy which never distract and are believable from the subjective viewpoints of the characters. And, as the film really spends time with these two titular Kims, it depends heavily on its actors and both Jungs really do a great job of embodying their strange characters. I was particularly surprised with Jung Ryuwon's performance as I had only recognized her as a pop singer from the late 90's and for a decent performance in the megahit romantic drama My Lovely Samsoon. Jung Jaeyung is dependably solid and he pulls off the wry comedy of his character well.

The film, while essentially a drama actually pulls off enough comedic moments (including a moment early on that successfully mixes scatalogical humor with black humor to laugh out loud results) that it stays strongly funny, but also manages to balance that well with the drama of these two lonely souls connecting. While the ending was a little disappointing, the rest of the effort was so enjoyable that I have to say that Castaway on the Moon is certainly a film worth a watch, if the premise sounds interesting to you. I was pleasantly surprised. 8/10.

Links:

• Additional Reviews: Hangul Celluloid, Koreanfilm.org, VCinema
• Available at YesAsia

Replay: The Thing

Replay revisits moving pictures that I have seen in the past.

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John Carpenter's The Thing, a remake of an old 1950's film is a horror movie with a powerful psychological component. In many ways, The Thing surpasses Carpenter's other well known work of horror, Halloween.

The premise is that, following a confrontation with members of a Norwegian research station, creatures start killing people in a small Antarctic research station, eventually able to perfectly mimic those that they consume. Paranoia sets in as the remaining humans, including our protagonist, R.J. Macready (Kurt Russell), start suspecting each other to be the creatures.

In some sense, the movie is like a dramatic science fiction game of mafia. The creatures so perfectly mimic human beings that they are just as convincing in being "real" and in accusing the others. The true horror of the film is that you can't even trust those that you considered friends. The film leaves us with a bit of an ambiguous ending, perhaps in hopes of a sequel, but also probably to leave questions as to whether or not trust could ever be reestablished when so badly broken.

The film also has moments of extreme gore, of which the special effects are quite impressive for the time. Although the creature effects are visceral, the most impressive aspect of the movie is the direction, which is cold and observant, helping develop the same paranoia and mistrust that the characters face in the film. And the actors do a solid job of capturing that paranoia, even as subtlety isn't exactly called for.

All in all, this is an impressive horror movie, frightful in it's creature effects inasmuch as it's psychological effects. Recommended for those who can handle the intenseness of horror/sci-fi films. 8/10.

Links:

• Available at Amazon (Blu Ray) / (DVD) / (Instant) and iTunes

Inbox: 하녀

Inbox features items that I have recently purchased or received.

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The Housemaid credits itself as being based upon Kim Kiyoung's classic of the same name. While it does share the same name and related characters and even some of the plotting, Im Sangsoo's film is most definitely a different creature, not only the product of a different time, but a film with a wholly different intent and direction and somehow, even with much more titillating content, more tamer than its predecessor.

Unlike Kim's film, the protagonist is shifted towards our housemaid, Eunyi (Jeon Doyeon), a naive restaurant worker divorcee who lives in a cramped apartment with her roommate/best friend. Given an opportunity to put her studies in child development to use as a maid to a wealthy family and nanny for their child, she goes for it. She's coldly mentored by the longstanding senior maid, Byungshik (Yoon Yuhjong) and quickly bonds with her charge, the observant daughter, Nami (An Suhhyun). And while things seem okay at first, when his pregnant trophy wife Haera (Seo Woo) doesn't fulfill his sexual needs, the entitled Goh Hoon (Lee Jungjae) solicits our housemaid. From there, things get worse.

Im's Housemaid, while very stylish and a scathing critique of the entitlement of the wealthy and the viscousness to which they'll resort to retain their position, suffers from some rather weak character development and plot dynamics. I actually do appreciate that the story does mirror the original Housemaid to a large extent, as far as plotting goes. Unfortunately, our protagonist is a bit unfathomable--she doesn't get much development at the beginning and consequently, there doesn't ever appear to be any considerable conflict to her rather gung-ho decision-making. It's this lack of believable conflict in her character that really pulls the power out of the story's punches, as she just gets shuffled along by the events of the film and the points where she should have a lot of agency to make difficult decisions don't seem very dramatic. Hoon and Haera, the antagonists are actually a touch more interesting, both undergoing notable dynamic change, but we never spend enough time in their perspective to appreciate their conflict either. In the end, it's Byungsik, who is also not focused enough on that gets the greatest amount of personal conflict, but she is neither the titular housemaid, nor her antagonists, leaving the whole affair a touch lackluster.

On the plus side, the film looks gorgeous. Immediately notable is the immensely gorgeous mansion-set for the film, the beautiful costumes and Im's drenching of every shot in a kind of elegant style that really captures well the world of the elite that Eunyi wanders into. Interestingly enough, it's in stark contrast to the bustle of the "real world" that Eunyi lives in before her move and I think that's a really effective technique. Even as the writing is weak, the directing is strong. The performances from the actors are also quite impressive--I love how Seo Woo plays her Haera as superficially polite and love watching the change in her character after her betrayal. Jung wraps the cocky arrogance and entitlement of his character so naturally you almost wonder if he's like that in real life. And An is remarkable for a child actor, capturing a surprising distance with her huge eyes. Jeon and Yoon are predictably excellent. Even as the story might just be weak, this is a film where you can really appreciate the craft.

Ultimately, while the craft of filmmaking is very strong here, it's not enough to make up for the lack of real drama and strong character exploration in the film. The Housemaid is just too distant from its characters to really become involved and its protagonist is just a little too unfathomable or perhaps it was a poor choice of character to make a protagonist, despite the talent behind her actor (in the classic Housemaid, the middle-class music teacher/husband/father is the protagonist). It is still an effective exploration of the wickedness of the wealthy, but that's not quite enough to make The Housemaid satisfying, especially since it is linked to the potent original and will draw comparison. Still, there's a lot to see and appreciate, it's just not what it could have been. 7/10.

Links:

• Additional Reviews: eastern Kicks, Hangul Celluloid, Seen in Jeonju, VCinema
• Available at Amazon and iTunes

Progress Report: Battlestar Galactica: The Plan

Progress Report provides ongoing impressions of serials or sets I view them.

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As The Plan is a recap movie, it, this review, and the embedded trailer, will contain many spoilers for the Battlestar Galactica series.

I'm going to say it up front. I found the ending to "Battlestar Galactica" a bit of a disappointment and the ending kind of echoed "Galactica 1980", which is definitely not a comparison that any television series wants to have made. But, the series was otherwise done well enough that I was willing to overlook the wishy-washy, fence-sitting, and somewhat incredulous ending because the journey getting there was so good. However, the series spent a good part of the first three seasons tauting that the Cylons had a plan and raised a lot of questions as a result, many of which never got answered before the series ended.

The Plan is an attempt to answer the questions raised by the series, by presenting the "Battlestar Galactica" series first pair of seasons from the Cylon perspective. It revisits many of the events of the first two seasons and focuses on the actions of the lead Cylon Cavil (Dean Stockwell), or at least two of them, as well as looking at what's going on with a number of other Cylons, including Boomer (Grace Park), the members of the Final Five, and even creates a new story for a Cylon model Four (Rick Worthy).

Unfortunately, the result is rather disjointed and not aided by half of the film's running time being clips from the series, which kind of pulls a little focus away from the many stories that are going on. All of the stories about the different Cylons essentially end up feeling like subplots of an episode of BSG, but a whole lot of them all put together and tied into a clips show. That might have been forgivable if we had actually focused on "the plan", but it's disappointingly revealed early on that the Cylons actually really had no discernible plan beyond the initial genocidal attempt and so The Plan really results in a greater disappointment in the series' regular tauting of the Cylon's plan. Furthermore, this film actually results in a thematic contradiction to what was happening on Caprica during the first season. Finally, the film is in no way self-contained and really requires remembering a good deal of details of the series in order to catch what's going on. I do get that some of the sub-stories are trying to build towards a point that The Plan is trying to make, but it's a shallow point and kind of pulls away from the conception of the film to begin with. The Plan exposes more cracks in the BSG armor than it fills.

On the plus side, the acting is actually decent and the various spotlight actors, including Cylon #4 and his wife, Giana O'Neill (Lymari Nadal), add some degree of human character to an interesting sub-plot. The cutting together of the old footage and the new does feel a little artificial at times, so it's not that smooth. At least the show also does a good job of making the newly shot footage really feel like BSG, although being a less ratings restricted direct-to-video event, there was a bit of nudity which only seemed to be there to titillate, even if was meant to serve a point, because of the series was more prime-time prude and so I actually found its inclusion quite distracting and distancing from the feeling of the series.

In the end, I think, like the Cylon's plan, The Plan is a bit of a mess and quite possibly not enough of anything to really call it a plan. The stories are restrained by the need to fit in the idea of "The Plan" as well as the format of a clips show and feel too episodic for a movie. The movie also in part contradicts what happened in the series, even as it answers some minor questions, and because of the lack of a "plan", sort of takes even more wind out of the series' sails. There are some nice notes played on the subplots, even if not always subtle, but subtlety wasn't really a feature of BSG to begin with. Still, I don't think that really makes up for what amounts to a rather chaotic viewing that actually makes the series more disappointing. I'm going to try to ignore that The Plan came out and keep "Battlestar Galactica" a little less disappointing in my memory. 5/10.

Links:

• Available at Amazon (Blu Ray) / (DVD) and iTunes

Inbox:Replay: Paths of Glory

Inbox features items that I have recently purchased or received.

Replay revisits moving pictures that I have seen in the past.

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While Paths of Glory is a war film, it actually has elements of a suspense/war film, a courtroom drama as well as a prison film. Even this early in Kubrick's career, it's obvious that he's got an auteur's touch, with epic and masterful mis-en-scene and camera movement decisions, which would continue with Kubrick through his career, all of which enhances this dark story of men in war.

The film revolves around a battle during World War I's grisly trench warfare, where the French army convinces demanding hardnosed General Mireau (George Macready) is cajoled into waging a rather impossible assault on a military target called The Ant Hill. Tasked with leading this task is the dedicated and pragmatic Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas). When the attack expectedly fails, Mireau and the other heads of the military start looking for scapegoats and it falls upon Dax to defend his men.

Even as the film moves through a series of sub-stories with the war, the trial and the drama as the trio of unlucky survivors of the assault on Ant Hill are held in prison, the focus of the film as a whole is well constructed around Dax and only the prelude to the core of the film feels just a little slow, although a necessary setup for the whole of the film. I like that Paths of Glory paints a bleak world, where bad things happen to people that don't deserve it and yet, I also like that Dax is painted as an unapologetically heroic character in that world.

Kubrick uses some impressive camera movement during the war portion of the film to convey the uncertainty and intensity of war effectively, moving into more still cameras as the action slows down. The black and white photography is well done and I especially like the fireside chat scene done almost to film noir levels of chiaroscuro, highlighting the covertness of Dax's interaction with the seemingly affable General Broulard (Adolphe Menjou). Expectedly, the performances are strong, from the hypocritical and bureaucratic military commend down to the enlisted troops. I do find it a little disconcerting whenever I realize that this film is about the French army and everyone is speaking in American or British English, but I suppose that's a minor complaint, although I think it would have been more engaging were the performers all fluent in French.

Paths of Glory proved to me that Kubrick was a strong filmmaker even early on, but more significantly, it remains one of the most potent anti-war films that I have seen, capturing the dehumanizing effect of war and how even the most heroic efforts by idealists still readily fail in the face of such inhumanity. Expertly shot and with solid performances, the film manages to keep a solid throughline in its story, despite moving from one genre to another and still retain a strong emotional punch at the end, even with Kubrick's detached style. A marvelous war film. 9/10.

Links:

• Available at Amazon (Blu Ray) / (DVD) / (Instant) and iTunes

Progress Report: Battlestar Galactica

Progress Report provides ongoing impressions of serials or sets I view them.

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After spending four seasons worth of episodes in the world of Battlestar Galactica I came to find myself relatively pleased with the series, even if the series had some pitfalls and didn't leave me with an overwhelmingly strong impression by its conclusion. Battlestar Galactica won't win any awards for being subtle, but all the same, I still found the series especially daring for television, even cable television, especially at the beginning of the third season.

The series, a re-imagining of the 1970's space opera of the same name follows the events of the well liked two part miniseries where the Cylons, machines created by humanity return after a long truce and instantly destroy the majority of the remaining human race on its twelve colonies. The short of 50,000 survivors comprise of the titular warship and a number of (conveniently diverse) civilian vessels and are pursued by the genocide-intent Cylons (who, as the tagline for the show says "...have a plan."). They humans also have a plan: to return to their ancestral homeworld of Earth and start a new life there, if they can escape the Cyclons first, who now "look and feel" human and who are likely amidst the survivors even yet.

I found that BSG really embraced a sort of dualism in its story and its storytelling. The series, like the conflict between the characters, embraced both the mythological (gods--the humans followed the Greek pantheon, and God, for the monotheistic Cylons), often finding miraculous events and almost mystic characters as well as the pragmatic, often dealing with political and practical concerns and issues. Along the same lines, the series also seems to run along both sides of the fence in terms of its overall worldview, bouncing from idealistic to cynical, simply depending on the episode. While I appreciated the diversity of the storytelling as a result, especially at the end, I found that this lack of committal to a point of view for the show to actually take most of the wind out of its sails. When all was said and it, it became highly anticlimatic. Furthermore, there were many hinted story elements that never ended up manifesting itself by the end of the series, leaving me to wonder why all the fuss, when it wasn't actually important at all.

And, as with any television series, the characters are quite important. It really is an ensemble cast affair, not just on the Galactica, but even the Cylon-centric episodes contain interesting characters and interactions. The characters are all drawn with some amount of depth, although they all seem to fit an overarching archetype and largely serve one of the two viewpoints on the show. The characters are most interesting as they tackle the challenges presented to them as they struggle to escape the Cylons and deal with being the fragmented remains of humanity (or in the Cylon case, deal with their own dualistic conflict between their faith and their mechanical origins). Surprisingly, for such well developed characters (who still suffer the flaw of taking on every role necessary in the fleet), the episodes that focus specifically on characters and relationships, seem to fall the flattest or seem the most insignificant. And the more stand-alone an episode runs, usually focused on a character, the less interesting it tends to be, although this is not really a rule for the show, but a larger observation.

My comment about the show's lack of subtlety and its daring go hand in hand, as the show often explores real world relevant allegories (especially the war on terror) and dares to place its point of view with the underdogs. It's often very obvious what the show is trying to do and it often telegraphs its whole story within the first act, but I have to respect its willingness to go places where many mainstream television series wouldn't dare. I also appreciate that Gaius Balter (James Callis) was made one of the most conflicted and dynamic characters on the show and loved that I was often challenged in both my hope for him and also my disgust in him.

The series' many episodes run from entrancing to mediocre (and, very rarely, frustrating). And the directing of the show is somewhat diverse. A good number of episodes (particularly mythologically oriented ones) actually feature some surprisingly artistically aware attempts at storytelling, often opening with long periods without dialog. Others, usually the more pragmatically oriented episodes, are gritty, realistic (for a sci-fi show) and straightforward. The acting is often excellent and most of the ensemble cast, even those that are rough at first, really grow into their characters and once the series gets rolling, is quite good. The musical elements of the show incorporate a lot of repeating themes, which actually become relevant within the mythology of the series, but at times I felt like they were just a little much. Especially the opening theme.

All in all, Battlestar Galactica is a highly entertaining and even occasionally challenging series. Although it ultimately suffers due to its lack of a firm viewpoint and lack of development of hinted at stories, it still provides good (even if on-the-nose) material for pondering and often remains gripping at times. I won't say that I ever felt impossibly compelled to watch the next episode, so this isn't the most addictive of television, I will say that I rarely ever tried to avoid checking out the next episode of the series. Even the lesser episodes still often had some redeeming elements and were still somewhat enjoyable. BSG is certainly is one of the best science fiction series to show up on television, even with its many flaws, and for that, I can easily recommend it. 8/10.

Links:

• Series website
• Series Facebook
• Series Hulu

Inbox: 구르믈 버서난 달처럼

Inbox features items that I have recently purchased or received.

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After being disappointed with his previous film, I decided to give director Lee Joonik another chance, based on the goodwill I have towards his earlier films. And this time, he is attempting an adaptation of a popular comic series while also going back to a time closer to the period piece that brought him his greatest success. Unfortunately, I think Lee fails to go back to the one thing that he was really good at: looking at the relationships between friends (in particular male friendship). And while Blades of Blood does point to some growth as a director as far as aesthetics are concerned, Lee's abilities as a storyteller have obviously been stymied in this unfocused tale.

Blades of Blood is ostensibly about a bastard child, Han Kyunja (Baek Sunghyun) whose noble family is butchered by a rebel alliance in retribution for political betrayal and his quest for revenge. In charge of the alliance is Lee Monghak (Cha Seungwon), an expert swordsman and nobleman who speaks of wiping out the current ineffective nobility so that the nation can properly defend itself against a rumored Japanese invasion. And helping Kyunja in his quest for revenge is the blind swordsman, Hwang Junghak (Hwang Jungmin), who teaches Kyunja a thing or two about stabbing and slashing along the way.

And here's the deal, if you had to ask me what the story was really about, I might guess that it's some allegory about the futility in opposing the current system and rather reuniting with it in order to face greater demons or maybe about the corruption in the heart of those who seek power, even if stated intentions are pure, but even that's really a stretch. You see, the protagonist of the story is Kyunja, but the story is never really about Kyunja, it's about Lee Monghak. But even his character isn't developed with much depth nor explored very deeply. And when we get into all the politics or "bigger issues", the film really becomes simplistic and largely falls flat. The one place where the film actually does well is in portraying the growing relationship between Junghak and his charge, Kyunja, but ultimately none of that is significant in the story. And I think the problem lies in that the film just didn't make good storytelling choices. If the protagonist is Kyunja, it needs to be a revenge story, but it never becomes that. If it wanted to be a rumination on politics, then the protagonist should have been changed to Lee Monghak and the actual matters of politics given more care instead of being treated with a rather simple hand. But it does neither and so when the credits rolled at the end, I was frustrated because I couldn't take anything away from the film.

Lee Joonik is clearly experimenting with this film, because the opening of the film is shot with an interesting shallow depth of field style and for a second I thought that Lee was going to go all Lee Myung-se on us, but while he never gets that stylistic, I'm glad he's at least trying to present the action in the film in some artistic way, even if the lengthy slow motion sequences sap some of the energy out of the moment, it also shows just how close the calls where in the swordplay. But it's not an action film, really, it's a drama. Other choices were more dubious, like the choice to give Lee Monghak villain fangs. Yes. He has large, sharp incisors, which might have worked in the comic book, but come across as subtle as a large mustache to twirl would. I think the talent was capable and at least Hwang was given a chance to really play a character, but ultimately the depth of all characters was blunted by the shallow writing and Han Jihye in particular really didn't have much to do at all, since her character was pretty much a cipher.

Lee Joonik, you failed me again. Like with Sunny, the problem here is that the protagonist doesn't capture the audience nor does the protagonist's conflict really matter in the story. In fact, the story isn't really about the protagonist and his journey. But even the other characters were fairly inaccessible and ultimately, the story was shallow and ham-fisted. There is a lot to appreciate about Blades of Blood, like the costuming and art design, the score wasn't bad and I liked Hwang's turn as the blind swordsman, but very little of that has to do with the purpose of narrative film: storytelling. And I just don't think that part works in Blades of Blood with its lack of character development. So, I have to say that you should give Blades of Blood a pass. Better luck next time, director Lee. I'll give you one more chance. 5/10.

Links:

• Additional Reviews: Far East Films, Koreanfilm.org, Modern Korean Cinema, Seen in Jeonju
• Available at YesAsia (Blu Ray) / (DVD)