Inbox: 나쁜놈이 더 잘잔다

New for me

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Even a modest crime drama is usually intense and often gritty. I've noticed that Korean crime dramas often tend to be quite intense and gritty from the moment I watched my first, Beat. So, it's no surprise that Korean indie crime drama, A Good Night Sleep for the Bad has its share of intensity and grit, with a bleak crapsack world. Speeding along at under ninety minutes, A Good Night Sleep for the Bad (aka The Bad Sleep Well, named after the Kurosawa movie) keeps it tale of hoodlums short and simple, which I think helps it to overcome its limited characters and story.

In A Good Night Sleep for the Bad, things are hard for Yoonsung (Kim Heungsoo). His part-time job at the gas station isn't even covering the interest payments on his imprisoned father's debts. His sister Haekyung (Ahn Jo) desperately wants to become a singer-actress at all costs. Yoon wants to get himself and his siblings away from his father's mess and to Canada, but that costs a lot of money and, as he notes, he doesn't have the patience to make that money the right way. So he resorts to theft and robbery with some cohorts and a criminal financier/porn director. However, when one of his father's associates offers him a little money and the opportunity to gamble for more, Yoonsung finds himself in a more desperate situation then he could have predicted.

One of things I can appreciate about this little crime drama is that it builds its situations well and Yoonsung's tendency to make hasty decisions is established, but despite the terrible things he does, he at least does it for a good reason. And while there are some clear villains in the film, I like that Yoonsung ends up putting himself in conflict with people that aren't really villains to him. On the other hand, there is a minor story logic flaw in why Yoonsung doesn't go after his "uncle" when things become desperate. But even that is somewhat addressed, giving the plot solid consistency and, even if the characters aren't particularly likable, they are believable. There's also a mild touch of dark comedy of the Korean sort in this film. There is one moment of dramatic irony that drives the final act of the film that's also just a little too unsubtle, but that's the only moment.

The film is clearly an indie film, with the production values to match that descriptor, but writer-director Kwon Youngchul makes the best of it and manages to pull of some decent shots here and there although the film does have its share of humdrum settings and dressings. The actors, for the most part, perform their roles well. The editing keeps the film pretty snappy, although the film does indulge in some limited characterization that isn't followed up upon.

I think the film's saving grace is simply that it's short and to the point. It keeps the plot from meandering and the audience focused on the fairly well woven story of descent into crime. It is a bleak film, one that gets darker and darker as the film progresses, so that might be a bit much for casual audiences, but it fits well within the parameters of crime dramas as a result. But as far as an indie crime drama goes, I think it shows promise by the writer-director. 7/10.

Links:

• Feature website
• Available at YesAsia

Seen: The Holiday

Reporting on the movies I see

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Every holiday season, the studios produce a crop of holiday themed films, ranging from family oriented films to romantic comedies to the occasional darker fare, the former being more popular than the latter. In 2006, Sony Pictures Entertainment produced The Holiday, a romantic comedy built on a high concept and can at times be sweet and charming, but one that struggles under its lengthy runtime, some flat performances and trite underlying romance stories.

The Holiday features a dual story, following L.A. movie trailer producer, Amanda Woods (Cameron Diaz), who gets cheated on by her jerk boyfriend and English literature editor Iris Simpkins (Kate Winslet) whose ex-boyfriend gets engaged. Both understandably upset, find each other via a house-swapping website and decide to swap houses for the holidays. In England, Amanda gets surprised by Iris' attractive brother, Graham (Jude Law) whereas in Los Angeles, Iris finds friends in her 90-something neighbor, retired Hollywood screenwriter Arthur Abbott (Eli Wallach) and Amanda's ex-boyfriend's friend, film score composer nice guy Miles (Jack Black). Yes, romance and comedy ensue.

The film is a bit bloated from having to juggle two full romance storylines, but between them the Amanda/Graham one is stronger, despite that Amanda's character is a bit out of the bounds of believable, thanks to the simplicity of their story. The Iris/Miles story struggles because there's little that really brings them together and the third story of Arthur Abbott is a bit of a feel-good time sink. Characterization is a bit flat, with the exception of Graham and Arthur, leading to some rather generic seeming heroines and love interests. Finally, Amanda's own character development story is rather trite and uninteresting. On the other hand, Iris' better story is bogged down by a rather circumstantial and unconvincing progression.

At least writer-director Nancy Meyers knows what a romantic comedy should look and feel like and the film gets the Hollywood aesthetic for modern romantic comedies down, looking like the multi-million dollar production it is. The one quirk that I found amusing is Amanda's regular daydreams in "trailer-vision" and the big-budget parodies within the film. As far as acting goes, the Amanda/Graham side does better, even Cameron Diaz is just being Cameron Diaz, Jude Law manages to instill Graham with a bit of pathos. Winslet manages to eek in a tiny bit of conflict into her character, but is largely flat, especially when paired with the great character of Wallach. Jack Black is a life-drained zombie in this film and his performance is so subdued that he actually subdues the scenes that he's in. Certainly a miscast.

I do think The Holiday will deliver casual movie goers the kind of romantic comedy goods that they want, but it's long and at times tedious. Furthermore, the core of the story is lacking. It does make up for this somewhat with some fun to be had from the house swap and the better chemistry on the Amanda/Graham side as well as Wallach's fun performance as Abbott. The Holiday is not going to be considered a classic for the holidays by any stretch of the imagination, but has enough sweet moments to appeal to its target demographic and to be tolerable. But there are better holiday-themed films and better romantic comedies out there. 6/10.

Links:

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

Inbox: 6년째 연애중

New for me

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Lovers of Six Years is an interesting film as it's sold as a romantic comedy, but it's really more of a drama, focusing on the rhythms and problems of the titular long gestating relationship. For such a mainstream dressed film, it actually rather lacks any kind of novel concept, merely content in observing a troubled relationship. However, that same reach for the mainstream leads the film to be rather limited in its drama, resulting in a film that's not quite exciting enough for box office success, nor one that would satisfy those looking for a meaningful drama.

The lovers of six years are book publisher Dajin (Kim Haneul) and home shopping show producer Jaeyoung (Yoon Gyesang), who in their six year relationship have become remarkably comfortable with and accustomed to each other. And then, at some point, Jaeyoung encounters the manic pixie dream girl part-time worker at his office, Jieun (Cha Hyunjung) while Dajin is tasked with signing the cool illustrator Jinsung (Shin Sungrok), with both Jieun and Jinsung developing an interest in the protagonist pair.

Both a strength and weakness of the film is its willingness to just sit with the characters and not worry about introducing a major plot complication. This way, it becomes easy to find and appreciate the rhythms of this pair's relationship so when a complication arises, it's meaningful. On the other hand, that means we watch a whole lot of tiny little conflicts, but nothing that seems to have meaningful stakes, resulting in more than a touch of boredom, since the drama isn't intensely focused on. When all is said and done, there doesn't seem to be any sort of meaningful impact on the characters, giving the film a slice of life of this relationship. Yet, it raises the question as to why we are seeing this to begin with--there doesn't seem to be a story to really tell here. It would be one thing if the six year relationship was a meaningful stake, but the story holds neither it nor the new relationships as valuable, leaving just a lot of apathy in its wake.

Writer-director Park Hyunjin, much like in the script, doesn't seem to be able to decide on a strong course of direction for the film. It's too light to take the drama of the relationship seriously, but the rhythms of the film are more drama oriented and there's not much in the script to suggest a comedy. As a result, despite the competent control of the look of the film, the voice of the film is rather flat. The actors themselves actually perform fairly well, given the limits of undecided script and direction, but nothing that's going to impress anyone.

On the other hand, the film doesn't really do anything egregious in terms of storytelling. Characters make decisions, some that we don't like, but everything makes sense in context of the film. And that attention to the reality of their situation and the focus on the daily rhythms of their relationship aren't bad. It's just that the film ultimately doesn't seem to know where it's going and that makes Lovers of Six Years a rather uninspiring and ho-hum film. 6/10.

Links:

• Available at YesAsia

Progress Report:Replay: Alien: Resurrection (2003 Special Edition)

Revisiting movies that are part of a set

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After the disaster that was Alien 3, I would have thought that the franchise would have been buried. But like those ever-surviving creatures, the franchise came back for a fourth, the amusingly titled Alien: Resurrection. Of course, I would have to say it was a pretty poor resurrection as the resulting movie, while better in some respects than Alien 3, flails and fails in others resulting in a bit of a wash. And part of this just comes perhaps the wrong mixture of talent involved, from writer, to director to cast.

Decidedly the most science-fiction oriented of the franchise, the film opens with the successful cloning of Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) circa Alien 3, which (somehow) includes the presence of the larval Queen inside her. For some inexplicable reason, this results in the clone's DNA crossing with the alien's DNA, resulting in her absorbing some of the alien's characteristics, like acid blood, superhuman strength, as well as the memories of the deceased Ellen Ripley. Anyway, a squad of mercenaries comes with illicitly acquired hosts for the new facehuggers and, well, you can't keep a good alien locked up.

It's not a deep exploration, but Resurrection actually produces a science fiction core question about the nature of humanity in both the advent of cloning technology as well as human-like androids and the ethics involved in DNA experimentation. Yep. Can you believe it? Unfortunately, the story has more than a few large logic holes, like the final act twist not making sense if facehuggers were in the film, the unbelievable nature of the cloning process that resulted in both Ripley and alien, etc. Now, the story does also imbue both new Ripley and mercenary Call (Winona Ryder) with some actually interesting character elements. The rest are a bit stock and cheesy in the vein of Aliens. When that's combined with the story and direction's sense of humor, however, it really goes a long way to burning much of the suspense of the film, leading to some rather silly action sequences. Yes, there some really good ideas in the story, more so than in the previous film, but there were even more problems with its execution.

Likewise, Jean-Pierre Jeunet added a very specific style to the film, one more closer to the Alien aesthetic than the Gilliam-esque Gothic stylings of the third, which was good. However, Jeunet also intentionally pushes the film more into comedy leading to a tonal inconsistency that drains, in combination with the script, the suspense and often emotional resonance of the film. This leads to a loss of urgency as the survivors never really feel like they are in genuine danger, plus some theoretically emotionally revealing moments for the main characters fall flat, both because of the overall cast of the film as well as how and when they are scripted.

At least the film escapes the CGI ugliness of the third film and stays with physical creature effects, which, along with the art direction of the film falls much more in line with the rest of the franchise. The acting is a mixed bag. Most of the characters are so archetypal that the performances tend to be a bit cartoonish, much like the second film. This works well in more comic scenes, but the lighter tone of this film makes most of the stock characters seem rather silly. However, Weaver adds a nice layer of menace and uncertainty to her alien-hybrid Ripley. On the other hand, Ryder isn't able to convincingly capture the necessary depth of Call.

The result is that Resurrection, a film with elements that were much more promising than the third film in the series, just simply doesn't come together well. The comic tones of the script and direction really drain the film of the necessary elements of suspense and desperation needed to drive it and for every interesting idea the script explores, there's a weakness in story logic. It looks and talks a bit more like an Alien film than the third, but the third actually retains some suspense and intensity whereas Resurrection ends up in the sillier end of comic book territory. Perhaps genuine fans of the franchise will want to watch this one as well as those that want to follow the careers of the many talents involved, but this flawed film is the resurrection that wasn't. 6/10.

Note: The 2003 Special Edition takes the comic aspect and charges it up with the alternate film opening. One of the included deleted scenes does help add to the story, but everything else is rather unnecessary and most viewers would do better to watch the theatrical version.

Links:

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

Inbox: 조금만 더 가까이

New for me

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I knew nothing about this independent movie before I encountered it, but in a rare instance, the cast is what caused me to purchase this movie: you see, the cast includes the talented Jung Yumi as well as indie pop darling, Yozoh. It turns out that Come, Closer is really an actor's movie, set around five sets of interactions between pairs of people. To some extent, there is a nice naturalistic feeling to the film, giving the greatest focus to the actors, giving some scenes quite a charged intensity. On the other hand, the segments can even feel a little bit directionless, indulgent and lacking purpose.

The film's five conversations about love opens with a phone conversation between Polish man (Filip Svec) in Rotterdam, who is searching for his fiance, and Soojin (Kim Hyosuh), a worker in the cafe he calls. The second has Seyeon (Yeom Bora) at the apartment of Youngsoo (Oh Changsuk), a possibly gay man that she has a crush on. In the third, Hyunoh (Yoon Gyesang) is stalked and then badgered by his ex-girlfriend (Jung Yumi). In the fourth, Woonchul (Jang Suhwon) deals with a confession from his boyfriend and the final part is a discussion about love between bandmates Jooyoung (Yoon Heesuk) and Hyeyoung (Yozoh).

One of the strengths of the script is that its writing is rather natural, giving the actors the seeming of spontaneity in their given dialog (although, for all I know, the lines themselves might be improvised and the situations given) and that makes these discussion have a rather natural feel, but at times, they do come across as almost seeming too improvised, which I'll get back to later. I also like that some of the pieces are connected to each other, in various degrees and in one pair of scenes, this is rather significant; however, the other connections seem somewhat meaningless, even in context of the conversations had and therefore, little is gained by suggesting those connections. Finally, I feel that these conversations don't really have a solid theme that they're moving across, other than the very broad theme of relationships and most of the conversations reveal very little beyond the moment of those conversations, leaving me to wonder why I'm watching these conversations.

Director Kim Jongkwan does actually manage a somewhat arresting style, which was perhaps a touch too stylized at the start with its frame matting, but once into the later conversations manages to really get intimate with his actors, allowing for, in some cases, palpable performances. On the other hand, these performances, despite their natural rhythms, feel improvised, with certain twists and returns in the flow of conversation that make the conversations themselves born out of improvisational games rather than a thought out script, which doesn't reflect well on the overall acting or directing. Obviously, having Yozoh on board as a musician means that the film also features her performing in its soundtrack which is nice and does help add to the film's intimacy.

But for all the strength in direction and the natural performances, the underlying feeling of watching an improvisation as well as leaving each conversation none the wiser or moved, makes me wonder what the point of it all was. And I think it's because, ultimately, despite being intimately displayed, the characters are largely inaccessible. There is no development or journey for each within their segments and the conflict is ambiguous in most. As such, Come, Closer feels like a drama that actually lacks the core essence of good drama. But, for still being able to captivate within each individual conversation by intimacy of direction and by believable performance, this film might still be interesting to some. 6/10.

Links:

• Available at YesAsia

Progress Report:Replay: Alien 3 (2003 Special Edition)

Revisiting movies that are part of a set

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Alien 3 marks the tragic downfall of an exciting franchise. Now, there's quite a story behind the development of this film, going through at least three complete changes to the story and the final film being an amalgam of two of them, the film also having to deal with a lot of studio executive meddling even through its production (which was done largely without a complete script). So, it's actually remarkable that the film is as coherent as it is, partially thanks to reverting to the simple horror concept of the original film, as well as having a strong set of actors and some impressive visual design. However, none of that saves the film from some laughable CGI and, most significantly, the tremendous weaknesses in its story.

Like its predecessor, Alien 3 begins immediately following the previous film as the ship Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) escapes on has a few eggs on board, which assails the crystostasis tubes they sleep in, ejecting them in an emergency craft, crash-landing on an isolated prison planet, killing or destroying everyone aboard except for our heroine. Now stuck waiting for a rescue crew to pull her off this planet, they discover that another alien gestated on this planet: this time in a dog (or an ox, if you're watching the special edition). Weaponless, Ripley and the convicts must make a bid to survive the alien before the rescue team arrives.

The film is flawed from its opening moments, abandoning the alien egg mythology of opening right in front of a potential host, leading to the emergency ejection (which itself seems contrived) and then the deaths of the established survivors directly affronts the second film as well. From there, the prison planet characters are largely expendable and individually add little to the story and the religious aspect of their remaining on the largely abandoned prison tells very little meaningful story as well. Finally, the climax of the film is rather haphazardly wrought and while Ripley's decision makes sense, it seems very poorly built to and not at all a conflict, as a result of the decisions happening in the earlier part of the film.

Now, if there's anything that can be spoken positively of when it comes to Alien 3 is having a rather unique style and direction, capturing a strong Gothic look, drenched in heavy browns and some blues. The eventual director of the film, a still green David Fincher adds a bit of his own unique visual style to the film as well. And Fincher manages to shepherd the visuals as well as the strong acting cast into a overall coherent look and style. However, part of the problem with this is the Gothic look and style strike such a contrast to the previous two films, which were much closer to each other, that Alien 3 just feels like its own entity in story and in aesthetic, barely tied to the franchise by the alien and Ripley--this story would've been better wrought as a supernatural ghost story sans the Alien mythology. And the alien, when seen in CGI, is rather laughable, a far cry from the real life creature effects and presentation of the previous two films.

All this makes Alien 3 a bit of a chore to get through as a member of the Alien franchise as it's disappointingly weak in respecting the established mythology and does little to convince that its story is one that is necessarily an Alien one, further weakened by a pointless setting with only a tiny meaningful addition to the mythology (the aliens taking on characteristics of their host). Not to say this reflects poorly on director Fincher, the cast, or the production team who was working with a mess of a script's legacy to begin with. They still make some striking visuals. But there's precious little here justifying this film as part of the franchise. If it weren't, there is the potential for an interesting religious Gothic horror film here, but Alien 3 is not that either. 6/10.

Note: The 2003 special edition adds in over half an hour of footage and makes some noticeable changes to plot points and especially to the pacing of the film, although Fincher was not at all involved in the new edit. It gives the film a much more methodical pacing and puts much more emphasis on the religious prisoners, which does help the setting together, but it doesn't resolve the core problems with the film, so it's in some ways better, but still not good.

Links:

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

Inbox: 참을 수 없는.

New for me

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I picked up a copy of Secret Romance (aka Loveholic) because it was director Kwon Chilin's follow up to Hellcats and in part due to Tom Giammarco's positive review at Koreanfilm.org. Whereas Hellcats seemed like an obvious echo of his previous film, Singles, Secret Romance is actually it's own movie. While still focused on the relationship lives of women, Secret Romance explores the world of marriage and infidelity, resulting in a surprisingly uncommon story, although the film does suffer a bit from tonal inconsistency and narrative wandering.

We are first introduced to Jieun (Chu Jahyun), a literary editor whose job gets cut and then, after a bad drunken decision, ends up without a home. Her friend, homemaker Kyungrin (Han Sooyeon) offers her a temporary residence in her home, where she lives with her successful doctor husband, Myungwon (Jung Chan). However, the immaculate Kyungrin is targeted for seduction by bad boy Dongjoo (Kim Heungsoo), who is both her rock climbing instructor and a tech at Myungwon's hospital, and Jieun discovers that she has a lot of common with Myungwon, complicating their living arrangement and each other's lives.

There's an interesting contrast painted between the two women, the immaculate perfect housewife Kyungrin and the hard drinking, cursing, messy Jieun, and at the beginning of the film, there's an exchange where they express a desire to be in each other's situation. So it's foreshadowed the roads that they'd take, but it's the exploration and the conflict within the characters as they face these paths that's interesting. While Jieun's the protagonist, Kyungrin's own descent into her yet unexplored passions is the most dramatic change. Jieun's story, on the other hand, suffers a little bit from a lack of focused conflict. We get her conflict between her loyalty to Kyungrin and her growing attraction to Myungwon, but in all that is also a story about her getting a job and, being a protagonist, it doesn't feel like either of these is given enough attention, leading to a bit of listless climax and resolution in the film.

Even more so than Hellcats, Secret Romance is shot quite naturally, but the film does suffer from tonal inconsistency, drifting from romantic comedy to drama back and forth throughout the film, which weakens the overall tone of the film and how we are supposed to read it, plus also weakening the drama of the story and making it seem too light at times and, in that way, ineffectual. The film is clearly shot on an indie budget, so while the overall production is still clean looking, the photography especially suffers a bit, sometimes looking stale and the lighting is reminiscent of European television lighting. The acting itself is pretty good and does give the characters some life and the soundtrack is okay.

But the end film is just not focused enough to make the impact it could have, given the rather interesting setup and story progression. Where the film more able to consistently change from the lighter start of the film and build and maintain the gravitas necessary for the second half, it would've retained more strength in the drama. Likewise, if our protagonists' story where more focused, especially on her conflicts and given a unity of story between her work and relationship life, it would have been more compelling. As is stands, Secret Romance is interesting enough that those interested in the story need not avoid it, but overall, it is not compelling enough to invest a lot of time and effort in seeking out, except for those who are particularly interested in the careers of the directors, writers or stars. 6/10.

Note: Pre.GM's Korean DVD release is rather flawed as it makes the incomprehensible decision to encode the film in 4:3 Letterbox format, rather than 16:9 anamorphic, resulting in only using the center 1/4 of a 16:9 screen for the pic. And while I'm not going to blame a Korean release for this, it also doesn't have English subtitles, so non-Korean speakers will not be able to access it.

Links:

• Additional Reviews: Koreanfilm.org
• Available at YesAsia

Progress Report:Replay: Aliens (1990 Special Edition)

Revisiting a movie in a set

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Aliens, the direct sequel to Alien, saw a changing of director to James Cameron, whose prior film, Terminator, was a notable science fiction hit. In the changing of hands, Aliens takes the new franchise from horror territory into action-thriller film territory, giving Aliens a tense atmosphere, broken by bursts of action, but the sequel goes a step further, giving the characters all a little more story although with rather broad strokes.

In Aliens, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), the sole survivor of the Nostromos wakes up after a fifty-seven year hypersleep and finds that no one believes her story. However, when Earth loses contact with a colony established on the planet where they found the alien, Ripley is asked to join a hardy team of colonial marines in an investigative and rescue mission, to which, she reluctantly agrees.

One of the nice developments in Aliens is that Ripley is much more a full character (even fuller in the longer 1990 special edition) and there's much more detail added to most of the characters, including the team of marines and Weyland-Yutani corporate representative, Carter Burke (Paul Reiser). Furthermore, a level of parallelism regarding motherhood was added, giving the film a bit on the thematic level (especially in the special edition). However, all of this is done without much subtlety, the characters themselves being broadly painted and cartoonish and the parallels drawn so obviously, you might as well stick a glowing sign in those scenes that reads "check out this cool motherhood theme", plus it doesn't seem to be done with any meaningful thought.

Cameron applies the same broad and almost cartoon-like hand to the action sequences, which does make them exciting, but in a Saturday morning cartoon sort of way, with almost silly amounts of exploding aliens and weapons discharge. Fortunately, the situations keep up the suspense in the situation as Ripley and the marines find themselves in dire straits, counter-balancing the toy commercial-like action. The cast, especially of the marines, really ham it up, with only Weaver, Michael Beihn and Lance Henriksen managing to give any realistic weight to their characters. In terms of attention to detail in production and art, Cameron and company are keen, making sure to match the look of the previous film, but giving it an appropriate technology update, since this film is set in the future of the Alien.

Cameron does really put a lot of work into making Aliens more expansive than the original film, giving it a level of detail that the original didn't find necessary for its monster movie world and really putting a mythic arc to Aliens, legitimizing the franchise. However, I do wish more subtlety was used in the film because it gives Aliens the cast of an 80's rough-and-tumble action movie which kind of cheapens the attempt at drawing more character development and story themes. I also miss the science fiction aspect of the first film, which the second loses to build its mythology. Still, the film has enough in it that it's still fun in that cheesy early James Cameron way and even though it feels more dated than its predecessor, it's still a dependably fun watch if you're looking for some action in your franchise. 8/10.

Note: The 1990 special addition adds almost half an hour of additional story and detail to the film and is the version that Cameron considers definitive. I do believe it helps flesh out the mythology and themes of the film, so despite the added length, I believe it's a better watch in the end.

Links:

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

Inbox: 뜨거운 것이 좋아

New for me

---

I picked up Hellcats because I found director Kwon Chilin's previous film, Singles, to be pretty decent and was hoping that another film based on the lives and relationships of women would be at least as good. In some ways, Hellcats is actually a very close echo of Singles, with similar story elements and plot structure build in, but Hellcats broadens its character study to three stories and perhaps in its ambition, stumbles trying to make all the stories matter.

The main protagonist is Kim Ami (Kim Minhee), an almost-thirty screenwriter without a move to her name and an equally unsuccessful musician boyfriend, Na Wonsuk (Kim Heungsoo). She lives with her forty-year old sister, Youngmi (Lee Misook), a successful theatrical production designer and single mother to teenage Kangae (An Sohee). When she's betrayed by her boyfriend, Ami stumbles, drunk, into the mature and straight-laced Seungwon. Meanwhile, Youngmi is pursued by a twenty-something actor and Kangae conspires with her best friend Miran (Kang Haein) to steal a kiss from her oblivious boyfriend.

Ami's story itself aligns itself so closely with the main character's story from Singles that it's hard to ignore the many, many parallels between the two and, unfortunately, having seem both, results in Hellcats seeming a little weaker for it, especially since Ami's character seems like she has less of a tangible conflict and struggle. Another problem with the story is that Youngmi's and Kangae's stories are not really fleshed out or examined in any meaningful depth, making them feel a bit weightless. However, I think the characters and situations are well fleshed out, so they're not a complete loss, just underwhelming.

Stylistically, director Kwon has simplified since Singles and the general early 2000's era of heavy graphic usage, meaning that Hellcats has a much more natural cast, which works well, given its natural story (although there is one indulgent moment of graphics usage). Even the lighting feels pretty natural and I think that really helps keep the spotlight on the characters. The actors themselves give good performances with Kim Minhee able to breath some life into her internally conflicted character, although, perhaps because of the script-within-a-movie situation, her character does seem a little too self-aware. Lee Misook is dependable as always and Wondergirl Sohee manages to handle her simple character believably. The film also benefits from a clean, polished look typical of modern Korean films and an attractive but innocuous score from the pop-electronica band W.

Like Singles, there's a bit of a woman-positive message at the heart of Ami's own story, which does make Hellcats a little refreshing when compared to many other romantic comedies, which absorb patriarchal ideals. However, Hellcats isn't particularly original nor particularly focused, with Ami's story lacking drive and the other two stories glossed over, sapping away at films cohesion. Still, when all is said and done, there's still enough of a decent movie left that it's certainly watchable and at times still charming thanks to good performances from the actors and the still rare story from Ami's character. And that's enough to say: watch it if the premise interests you. 6/10.

Links:

• Additional Reviews: Koreanfilm.org
• Available at YesAsia

Progress Report:Replay: Alien (2003 Director's Cut)

Revisiting a movie in a set

---

Alien, even after all these years, easily remains one of the best monster movies of all time, made all the more potent by its science fiction setting, immense visual design and wickedly great suspense.

It all starts with the Nostromo, a deep space towing ship with a crew of seven, lugging some immense amount of ore back to Earth. The ship's computer, Mother, wakes up the crew from their cryogenic slumber when it encounters an unusual signal and the reluctant crew is stipulated by a clause in their contract to investigate the possibility of intelligent life. Well, they find the source of their signal, but what's more, they find the titular creatures and are forced to fight for their survival.

It's such a simple idea: your basic monster movie distilled into a science fiction format. And I love that despite the horror movie at the core of this film, the science fiction elements are not lost and the mid-film twist is great at bridging the horror and science fiction elements together. The characters are a little thin, but not inappropriately so for the genre and there's a lot of interesting subtext in the film about gender and horror films to fuel intellectuals as well as chills and spills for the average movie goer.

And a lot of the success of this film is thanks to director Ridley Scott, who dares to take his time in getting to the "exciting stuff", spending a large portion in the front of the film introducing us to the crew of the Nostromo and then, as the script demands, slipping us bits of ominous happenings. The choice to limit how much of the alien we see helps keep that terror, that fear of the unknown, real, so that when we fully get to see it at the end, it's quite horrifying.

And that also means that the art and production team should get a lot of credit for building such a real science fiction world, with unique designs for the human and alien environments that, despite some of the seemingly ancient technology on display, still does not feel outdated, as well as the creature designs, from the eggs to the facehugger to the big monster itself, which are the things of nightmares.

This is all enhanced by a foreboding score from Jerry Goldsmith and solid work from the actors, including good performances from a veteran cast as well as younger actors Sigourney Weaver and Veronica Cartwright, working well within the trappings of the horror genre.

Alien is arguably one of the pinnacles of the horror genre as well as a reasonably solid sci-fi film. Alien takes its time to create some amazingly tense atmosphere, builds in some great tricks into the story and creates some of the most iconic creature images in film history. And that combination of going above and beyond the horror genre with its inclusion of science fiction elements and meta-commentary on the horror genre, along with its superb attention to suspense and visionary art and production makes it a film worthy of some reverence. 9/10.

Note: I watched the 2003 director's cut, which includes some deleted scenes, but the alterations seemed to be rather minor as I didn't really notice much different except for an extended escape sequence at the end (which I don't think really added anything).

Links:

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

Inbox: 전설의 고향

New to me

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As far as I can tell, The Evil Twin (Korean title: Hometown Legends) is based on a Korean television period horror anthology series, taking one of the stories and expanding into a feature length tale. While I think the film does benefit from feature-level production values, the story itself, with a twist that's obvious from the first ten minutes and multiple gaps in story logic, doesn't hold together well enough to stay afloat.

In the story, two twin sisters are drowning and the survivor, Soyeon (Park Shinhye), goes into a coma for ten years. She awakens with partial amnesia on the death of a man who was involved in chasing the dead sister, Hyojin (also Park Shinhye) to the pier where they fell into the water. Meanwhile, Soyeon, rumored to be the mean sister of the two tries to win the heart of her betrothed, who had previously loved Hyojin. Of course, being a horror movie, the ghost of Hyojin is hard at work, dispatching those she holds a grudge against.

I won't spoil the twist, but I figured it out almost immediately and that sapped a lot of the fun out of this film, which seems to have a bit in common with the modern day drowning-horror movie The Ghost. However, this film suffers from having a lot of inexplicable action going on, including multiple trips by various characters to some random shed in the woods, without revealing at all the significance of the shed and why the characters are going there. There is something interesting about how the ghost goes about her vengeance, but that's all mixed up with the boring old haunting as well, making the whole thing seem a bit slapdash, or perhaps I'm drawing a picture with random dots. Despite the noticeable plot holes, the story does otherwise hold together, but not enough to be particularly interesting.

At least the film looks good, with good production, art and costume work, although the ghost's look is about as common as you can get. Given that she's a classic drowned ghost, perhaps I'm asking for too much to have her be more than the eerily moving, hair covering her pale face look. Still, the camera does well and although the director definitely walks straight into these plot holes and cliche scare tactics, when its not being stylized for horror effect, it looks fine. The actors are adequate, little more, but I guess little more is being asked with these two dimensional characters. The score is a bit too reminiscent of Tale of Two Sisters, but otherwise inoffensive stuff.

There's nothing exceptional about Evil Twin. With an obvious plot twist and seemingly haphazard scares, it misses its potential to be a truly twisted ghostly revenge story. What's more, there are just too many obvious lapses in story logic that the film stumbles over to keep it fun. Not to say that this is horrible, but it's a touch below mediocre since it stumbles and wasn't even ambitious to begin with. 5/10.

DVD Note: As typical, the Sky Entertainment Hong Kong DVD release, while all region, really struggles on the transfer, especially blowing up the contrast and losing all detail in dark scenes, and being a horror movie, that means a lot of looking and globby dark images with no idea what's going on.

Links:

• Additional Reviews: Koreanfilm.org
• Available at YesAsia

Progress Report:Replay: Fantasia 2000

Revisiting movies that are parts of sets

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Despite the fact that Fantasia 2000 runs on the same idea as the original Fantasia, it really comes off as being a wholly different film, a product of a different era in artistic style, with the exception of the classic "Sorcerer's Apprentice" from the original Fantasia that comes back to be included in this second, shorter collection.

Some dialogue from the interstitial sequences in Fantasia introduce the first piece, "Symphony No. 5 in C minor-I. Allegro con brio" by Ludwig van Beethoven, a rather popular and famous piece and done in an abstract battle between light butterflies and dark bats. The second segment is the "Pines of Rome" by Ottorino Respighi and follows a pod of flying whales. George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" is set to an Al Hirschfeld-styled New York and the following "Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Major-I. Allegro" by Dmitri Shostakovich goes for a Disneyfied take on the originally dark Hans Christian Anderson's The Steadfast Tin Solder. The brief finale of "The Carnival of the Animals" by Camille Saint-Saëns has a short comic moment where a rogue flamingo has fun with a yo-yo and that's followed by "The Sorcerer's Apprentice". Donald Duck has a moment to shine in a take on the Noah's Ark story set to the popular graduation march, "Pomp and Circumstance – Marches 1, 2, 3 and 4" by Edward Elgar and the film closes with Igor Stravinsky's 1919 version of the "Firebird Suite", where a nature sprite awakens the terrifying firebird of the volcano, which aims to consume her work in bringing the forest from winter to life. All this is brought together by celebrity hosted interstitials to introduce the various pieces.

The different segments are hit and miss, but all feature a very modern, engaging visual narrative style that might lack the charm of the original Fantasia, but is certainly more attuned to modern visual storytelling, so despite my tiredness, I didn't fall asleep at all. That said, I did feel that the flying CGI whales were a bit much and fall short of the attempt at capturing the broad sense of grandeur of the "Pines of Rome", the Steadfast Tin Soldier segment far too saccharine and the opening Beethoven piece a little bit too obvious. I thought the "Rhapsody in Blue" component was excellently done in keeping with the spirit of the piece and the yo-yo flamingo was a lot of fun, even if exceptionally brief and perhaps a little goofy next to the other segments. Despite the manipulative irony of Donald Duck's featuring role, I still ended up being moved by it and I thought the "Firebird Suite" was beautifully rendered, even if quite literal an interpretation. The interstitial segments were just a little pat and self-congratulatory; although they did at times provide some information, they weren't all that entertaining.

Like the visual narrative approach, the animation approach here is all contemporary Disney style and ranges from blunt abstraction to CGI whales to beautifully rendered still-hand drawn components, although the aid of technology in constructing many of the new segments is apparent and sometimes makes the art seem a little too clean. Sometimes, the CGI falters, like with the ballerina in The Steadfast Tin Soldier, and it also does seem just a touch soulless, which ends up making the hand-drawn sections seem quite nice. The pacing of the film, especially in keeping it significantly brief at seventy-four minutes is brisk and keeps the attention, but occasionally results in some pieces, like "The Carnival of Animals" feeling far too short. Also, some of the music selections, like Beethoven and Elgar, might have been a little too popular and recognizable, making it difficult to overcome preset conceptions about the music.

Still, despite the misses, I largely enjoyed this thoroughly modern take on the Fantasia idea and its modern visual narrative style and faster pacing should result in a more accessible viewing for modern audiences, especially children. In the glut of animation set to music that exists today, Fantasia 2000 doesn't quite hold the same degree of novelty that the original did, nor does it have the originals refined character and charm, but its energetic modern take does provide moments of fun and a way to appreciate classical music anew in the present day. 7/10.

Links:

• Set index
• Available at Amazon (Instant) and iTunes

Inbox:Replay: 왕의 남자

Revisiting past movies I've recently acquired

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The King and the Clown was one of director Lee Joonik's biggest films and a surprise hit in Korea, especially considering the gay context of the film and it's small period piece drama nature. However, I think it won over its audience with a well told little story about a relationship, more than a friendship, perhaps not quite lovers, between two men who encounter a surprising situation when a third, unstable, man of power appears between them.

The referenced clown is Gonggil (Lee Joonki), a minstrel blessed (?) with pretty boy looks resulting in his troop leader regularly prostituting him to nobles. However, when close friend Jangsang (Kam Woosung) stands up for him, an incident occurs that forces the duo to flee to Seoul, where they find a crew willing to mock the King, King Yunsan (Jung Jinyoung). After a touchy incident, the jesters become the king's royal entertainers and all seems well, except that the king develops a fascination with Gonggil, the ministers protest the presence of the minstrels who mock them, and the child-like king, is surprisingly bloodthirsty and possibly mad.

What works so well about this historical piece is the relationship dynamic between the three players, especially how Gonggil eventually ends up finding some sympathy for the tyrant king, as he shows some vulnerability to him. The political intrigue and machinations keep the plot moving along well along a taut tightrope as well, but it's really the story of the relationship that really impresses with this film, tied well together by their work as minstrels.

Lee Joonik keeps the film grounded and focused on the characters and the drama, which is a surprising turn of pace considering that his previous film was the period comedy, Once Upon a Time in a Battlefield. The production team also does a great job in giving the film a really great period look. And with so much focus on the characters, it's good to see that the actors are up to the challenge, with Kam and Lee handling their work well. I think Jung plays his mad king a little broadly, but it works well in some of the quieter scenes. Other supporting actors add well, both in comedy and in drama. The film was obviously adjusted to fit modern tastes so the language and the comedy elements in particular aren't quite as stodgy as in more reverential historical pieces and I think that also helped make this film accessible.

And, really, that's all that really makes this small story of friendship and love in the midst of political strife work. It is a wonder that this film did so well to such a broad Korean audience, considering its content and small scale nature, but I think it's still one of Lee Joonik's finest works and worth a viewing if Korean period pieces interest you. 8/10.

Links:

• Additional Reviews: Hanguk Yeonghwa, Koreanfilm.org, Otherwhere
• Available at YesAsia (Blu Ray) / (DVD)

Progress Report: Fantasia

Reporting on sets of movies as I watch them

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Disney's Fantasia is a rather unique film, not only in the history of animation, but the history of film, as it's a rare feature film whose purpose is to give visuals to classical music in a series of segments. While today, music videos are so commonplace and animated music videos certainly present, such that perhaps Fantasia might not be such a big deal, but as far as feature length presentations that try to do this and especially for classical music, it remains a rare, groundbreaking work. That said, it's not a perfect film as it stumbles at times and nearly put me to sleep several times, although perhaps that was a product more of my late night viewing rather than a lack.

The film is composed of animated musical segments, connected by introductions handled by a narrator (Deems Taylor) set in the orchestra hall, with Leopold Stokowski conducting. The parts include "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" by Bach, animated in abstract, inspired by the instruments at play and including some photography of the performers. Then several dances from the "Nutcracker Suite" by Tchaikovsky, featuring fairies and anthropomorphic vegetation and wildlife dancing and otherwise moving through the image. Then there's the iconic "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" by Paul Dukas, featuring Mickey Mouse playing out the story of an apprentice that decides to make a broom do his water lugging to disastrous effect. Igor Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" follows, this time chronicling the beginnings of life on earth, through the dinosaur's ages. Then there's a brief intermission where an animated soundtrack does a little demonstration, followed by Beethoven's "The Pastoral Symphony", set to Greek mythology, following the exploits of pegusi, centaurs, and even a few gods themselves. "Dance of the Hours" by Amilcare Ponchielli follows, featuring animal ballet dancers and finally a medley of Modest Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain" with devils and demons and Schubert's "Ave Maria", with a bit more abstract imagery.

Despite loving the included pieces, I have to admit that the film did try my attention at times, especially during the languid "The Rites of Spring". The easiest parts to be attentive to are the ones with consistent characters with little stories, which most of the pieces do contain, but more abstract parts, like "Ave Maria" and "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" were challenging, the latter less so, thanks to the musical dynamism of the piece. As such, I'm of mixed opinion about some of the choices made, despite that I find the art well in keeping with the songs, because the film ends up bouncing between art and entertainment and there's some inconsistency there. I'm also of mixed opinion about the narration, since it's largely redundant, the visuals telling their story better, although I do like the informational bits about the music, including the composer and it also helps break up the musical segments.

The animation itself is, as expected, quite beautiful throughout and the style changes from piece to piece, ranging from abstraction to more classic Disney style (notably with Mickey Mouse, the only major Disney character to be present). Musically, every single piece was arranged for the grand symphony orchestra and some of the arrangements are stronger transformations than the others, although this might be a matter of opinion (I'm much more fond of "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" as an organ piece). The little bits of animation and human integration were fun and helped tie together the two realities.

I do like Fantasia. Really. However, it's hard for me to love Fantasia, despite containing two things I love: classical music and animation. The reason is simply because the film is neither consistently entertaining, nor consistently pushing an artistic agenda, nor consistently pursuing both throughout all the pieces. As such, it was hard to stay in a single mode of appreciation, which often led me to be bored when I was expecting entertainment and got abstraction. But it still is lovely animation and music, works fantastically as aural-visual wallpaper and might still be an enchanting experience for many viewers. 7/10.

Links:

• Set index
• Available at Amazon (Instant) and iTunes

Inbox:Replay: Taxi Driver

Revisiting past films that I've recently acquired

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Taxi Driver is a rather complex movie. Rich in character, dramatic and even a touch of reflexive irony, it studies its protagonists descent into madness, but also the way we sympathize with those elements that his madness uses as fuel for his increasingly disturbed behavior. Drenched in the color and culture of 1970's New York, Taxi Driver remains an iconic classic of American cinema for its deep character study and nuanced storytelling.

Everything in Taxi Driver revolves around Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro), the titular Taxi Driver. On the surface, he seems like a rather unassuming guy, but from his voice-over journal entries, we realize that he holds a strong disgust for the criminal elements of his native New York. During his long day job, he develops an attraction for Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), who works for the Palantine presidential campaign and encounters on multiple occasions, Iris (Jodie Foster), a teenage prostitute. As his insomnia wears on him, his disgust is accelerated due to an incident with Betsy and he decides he needs to do something about the "filth" of the city.

The most impressive thing about this film is how we are both repulsed and drawn to Travis Bickle. He represents a purity of mission and ideal, but his inability to discern the nuance of personal interaction and empathize with others, drives him to be overbearing with the women he takes a kind of interest to as well as driving him to judge and condemn others quickly. At the same time, Bickle's yearning for a better city, is something that resonates with others (and by the end of the film, in a very real diegetic way), including us, to some extent and while we might be appalled by the choices he makes, his desire is attractive, making him a fascinating film figure as we watch his descent into his schizophrenic world.

Martin Scorsese really makes quite an impact with this film from the opening of the film, with its extreme close ups and throughout the film, making interesting stylistic choices that reflect the monotonous world of Travis Bickle as a taxi driver. But he also manages to keep us from going entirely subjective with Bickle as well, grounding us mostly within a real-world aesthetic, keeping us aware of Travis' own disassociation with reality. And DeNiro somehow manages to give such a charismatic life to his character, grounding him in real rhythms, but layering him an underlying and disturbing intensity. And a lot has to be said for the film's score as well, which includes a memorable jazz theme that foreshadows the mental and emotional state of the film in its opening with its distorted aural switching.

Taxi Driver seems to impress me more with each viewing and the more I ponder it, the more I'm surprised with the reasons why I find myself both attracted and repulsed by the character of Travis Bickle. He stands as a mirror to our own contradictions and the film, despite its distinct time and place, manages to transcend it at the same time. A remarkable film that's worth visiting and revisiting. 9/10.

Links:

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

Seen: The Tree of Life

Reporting on the movies I see

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Terrence Malick's films are something else and The Tree of Life might be the most something else of his yet. While the Tree of Life does have a narrative embedded in it, it's almost at times a means to express the larger questions of life that the film tries to deal with. At times the film is sprawling, stretching broadly to deal with the eternal question of "why?". And while this does result in a bit of indulgence, the film only really stumbles when it tries to pin itself down within its spiritual and philosophical boundaries.

The film opens up with a quote from the Book of Job, where God answers Job and then moves directly into a story about a family that discovers that their middle child had died, leading to a provoking question of why. As the film grapples with the many characters' questions and remarks to God, often drawn from the Bible, we also follow the family from the birth of their first son Jack (Hunter McCracken and through their growth as boys, grappling with the dueling dual forces of their "nature" father (Brad Pitt) and "grace" mother (Jessica Chastain) in their lives.

While it takes some time to get used to the rhythms and approach of the film, the intimate examination of the O'Brien family life is quite powerful just on its own. Seeing the hypocrisies of Jack's father and his philosophical contrast with his mother as well as the resulting rebellion of Jack is enveloping. And even the theological and personal questions and prayers uttered by the characters is impressive. However, I think too much was made of that opening quote and the film's finale, which kind of pins the spiritual, personal and philosophical exploration of the film into an examination of the reasons why bad things happen to good people, but the film reaches far beyond that, so it's frustrating to see the film try to narrow itself down like that. Also, I felt that the grown up Jack (Sean Penn) sequences and presence weren't really necessary for the experiential thrust of the film.

Terrence Malick definitely has a kind of genius thing going about him and clearly keeps the word auteur valuable. His use of the camera, in its floating, handheld, close-up, dynamic sensibilities makes the visuals of even just the 1950's world of the main narrative visually arresting. And then there are the long visual passages accompanied by music and sometimes the questions, remarks and prayers of the characters, that follows the birth of the universe and the glory of the natural world, perhaps as God's answer to the characters as in the quoted Job passage, but the imagery doesn't stop there and is often visually stunning and remarkable in editing placement and timing. However, I do feel the film goes a little overboard at times with the quantity and feels a touch indulgent as a result. But, the often piercing score blends with the strong atmospheric soundtrack that absorbs as much as the visuals, resulting in a complete experience, enhanced by the immensely natural performances from the many actors.

The Tree of Life is really its own thing. A potent, powerful and often arresting film that reaches for the heavens when it comes to dealing with life's questions as well as painting a surprisingly honest portrait of life in family while doing so. And while its reach might be hampered by its own attempt to ground itself and its sometimes indulgent visuals and narrative constructions, it falls short into a place that is still a remarkable experience. This might be too much for casual moviegoers but I think cinephiles will at least find the attempt fascinating, even if it doesn't blow their minds like The Tree of Life did mine. 8/10.

Links:

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

Inbox: 된장

New movies for me

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There's a lot of interesting stuff going on in The Recipe, shot with style and genre jumping with reckless abandon, which is more than enough to draw in a viewer. However, as the credits to the film rolled, I found myself rather underwhelmed by what I'd seen, which was tantalizing at first with its mystery, but when it was unraveled, it was pedestrian and even quaint, which goes to show that putting a gleaming sheen over and old fashioned melodrama core, won't hide it for long.

It all starts when Choi Yoojin (Ryu Seungryong) hears wind that an infamous serial killer's last words were desiring a bowl of dwaenjang (fermented soybean) stew. Upon looking into it, he discovers that the killer was caught basically because he stopped to eat this stew, which captivated him as well as the entire police unit that went into the restaurant to capture him. Drawn into the story, Choi investigates the mysterious woman that made this impossibly good stew, learning about the ingredients that went into it and the secret of its making.

The mystery setup is a great framing mechanism for the story as it quickly draws in the viewer who wants to know what was going on too. However, that also means we're ultimately aligned Choi's boss in that we're hoping to find a really good story about this dwaenjang stew. Unfortunately, the underlying melodrama romance that's uncovered by Choi's search is comparatively weak versus the more interesting and exciting framing mechanism, resulting in quite a let down by the end, which is echoed by Choi's own response. There was a big ramp and wind up, with lots of comedy, mystery and even a little thriller involved, but all this for a pedestrian magical realism romantic melodrama core, made me wish that it was never revealed and Choi discovered more about himself on his journey. That's quite disappointing indeed.

At least the road Choi takes in uncovering this mystery is interesting. There is a heavy layering of style into this film with large punches of magical realism, but contrasting that is faux-documentary style (after all, Choi is a documentary producer) which bleeds into mockumentary as comic events occur both in front of that camera as well as in the film proper. But most of this stylistic cocktail fades away, leaving just the magical realism for the romance story, which runs the film wellspring of visual strength dry as the story dries up too. At least Ryu is a strong actor to carry the more interesting parts of the film and the more comically oriented supporting characters perform well. The romantic leads were all right, I suppose, but the story wasn't compelling enough to give them room to compel too.

I suppose the biggest reason why The Recipe is so disappointing is that the mystery primed a rather big revelation and not the barebones romance that was uncovered. It's actually damning when the story within the story is anti-climatic. But I thought the first half of the movie, following Choi's exploits in trying to unravel the mystery was quite interesting, so I can't say that The Recipe is a waste of time, just disappointing. With so much of the best running time spent with Choi, I think it would've been better to make it his story instead. 6/10.

Links:

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

Seen: 오싹한 연애

Reporting on the movies I see

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Spellbound isn't the first example with blending horror and romantic comedy that comes to mind. There's the horror-thriller-meets-romantic comedy of My Scary Girl and writer-director Hwang Inho previously was involved in writing Sisily 2km, which had a sample of romance in its gangster comedy meets supernatural horror blend. And while Spellbound might be the smoothest of these genre blends, leaning heavily towards the romantic comedy side, like many modern romantic comedies, it suffers from being a little slight.

In Spellbound, street magician Jogu (Lee Mingi), in need of a real genius idea for an act encounters the withdrawn Yuhri (Son Yejin) and is inspired to create a ghost-themed show with Yuhri as the ghost. It's a hit! However, Yuhri proves to be quite withdrawn and this gets Jogu curious why. As it turns out, Yuhri sees dead people and so does anyone who gets close to her, chased away by long deceased best friend. However, terrified as he is, Jogu starts developing feelings for Yuhri.

Spellbound does everything seemingly right for a romantic comedy. It sets up two people from different worlds, throws in a twist (ghosts!) and forces each of them to face this obstacle and make sacrifices to be together. The weakness of the film comes in the horror aspect seems just like a convenient excuse and could have been a little more deeply wound into the story and into Yuhri's character development. And when it comes to character development, it's pretty limited, so the ghostly obstacle doesn't seem like all that impressive a challenge. There is also some logical inconsistency to the ghosts' behaviors, especially the vengeful one as to when she appears. Finally, the ending is a little messy, drawn out, and doesn't entirely feel earned. But, the film does play well with comedic situations around ghosts and the romance angle is fun, even if limited.

As per expectations for a mainstream romantic comedy from Korea, Spellbound is a glistening jewel of production values. Hwang, in the director's seat for what I believe is his first time, finds the rhythms and tempos of the romantic comedy easily and also manages to blend in horror tropes well, so it does actually look like a good blending of the two genres. Son Yejin is darling, her withdrawn shell obviously a mask for the warmth, but also the loneliness, within her and Lee Minki is perfectly adequate as a leading man. Supporting characters, like Yuhri's friends and Jogu's boss also add some character and levity, but the spotlight is on the leads.

Despite my desire for more from the story, I had a fun time in the theater. There were jumpy scares and creepy ghosts, but I think the romantic comedy elements help keep all that to just moments and will probably do well to draw in most moviegoers and entertain them. And for that, I think Spellbound is a perfectly serviceable romantic comedy as long as that's all you're expecting from it. 7/10.

Links:

• Feature website
• Feature Twitter
• Additional Reviews: Hanguk Yeonghwa, Hangul Celluloid
• Available at YesAsia (Blu Ray) / (DVD)

Inbox: 퀴즈왕

New movies for me

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From the moment Quiz King opens, with its quick cuts to various characters, it's instantly evident that we're watching a Jang Jin film. From its intricate plotting, absurd deadpan and awkward humor and genre mashing, as well as its highly stylized directing, Jang's stamp on the film is unmistakable. But, while Quiz King displays many of Jang's strengths, it also exposes his weaknesses poor pacing, weak threading of the underlying mystery, and, like Going By the Book (written by Jang), an over-abundance of characters and activities leading to shallow characterizations.

It all starts with a traffic accident, when a young woman is hit by a car, leading to a four car pileup and the death of the woman. In the resulting time spent at the police station, the many characters involved, including a father and son, a family of three, a pair of gangsters, and a carload of depression help group attendees discover that the woman was the question writer for a notoriously difficult quiz show with an enormous current jackpot. Oh, and they got to see a portion of the final question, which is the question that no one has ever successfully answered on the show. Of course, that means that everyone at the incident is going to try for the prize.

Pacing is immediately a problem with the film. We know it's supposed to be about a quick show, but we spend almost half of the film in the police station trying to figure out who is to blame for the accident and the identity of the dead woman. This might be a getting to know you for the various characters, all of whom get equal attention, but by the time we discover that there is a quiz show plot, it almost seems too late. The rest of the quiz show, especially the mystery concerning the woman is then rushed through and fails to really build either its mystery or drama behind the characters. And the characters are the second problem. There are just too many of them and they are handled far too evenly, resulting in very weak motivations and characterization, ultimately failing to ground a protagonist for the film nor giving meaningful reason why we'd care if any of these characters succeed. There's also a huge plot hole in the nature of the what's revealed about the final question and why anyone would feel emboldened to pursue the quiz show only knowing the final question and not the answer. Finally, the story of the dead question writer is only briefly addressed and made to be a big deal in the middle of the film, but largely ignored until the end all of these weakly turned strands culminating in a big mess at the end where it's no longer sensible who we should care about and why, nor what the story is trying to say.

At least Jang has not lost his touch behind the camera or with his actors. Jang's immense sense of style makes the accident and the quiz show quite dynamic and his command of his talented cast really draws out the best of their one-to-two-dimensional characters. It's not enough to make the final monologues and interactions at the end of the film meaningful, but the actors do a good job, especially where comedic timing is involved and Jang's eye for comedic timing has not lost a beat. Unfortunately, there are times when the editing is almost too dizzying to follow, like the opening montage of the film, and a bit more steadiness to the whole affair would have helped.

In fact, a bit more steadiness and focus would have helped Quiz King greatly, because there is a genuinely interesting mystery built into it and the characters do hint at interesting stories, so if the film had picked one or two characters at most to focus on and then woven all this around the story of the mystery girl, we might have had a very intriguing and coherent film. Or perhaps expending this out into a full series to give all the many characters space to develop could have worked. But as it stands, the overload of character and narrative strands, plus too much time wasted getting to the inciting incident (even if the comedy in the police station was quite funny) makes Quiz King too poorly sewed together to capture intrigue, emotion, and ultimately entertainment. Quiz King is a dizzying, flashy mess, which is sad because it had so much promise and potential. 5/10.

Links:

• Additional Reviews: Far East Films, Modern Korean Cinema
• Available at YesAsia

Progress Report: 커피프린스 1호점

Reporting on series as I watch them

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The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince is a oft-charming series, highlighted by a gorgeous soundtrack and strong, endearing acting the cast. While it does struggle a little to retain dramatic energy and often meanders into unnecessary vignettes, the series still manages to pack in some compelling story, at least up until the last few episodes, where the ends of the story fray. However, where the series is good, it's captivating and I can understand how this sometimes unfocused series gets its praise.

Our protagonist in this series is the energetic tomboy, Go Eunchan (Yoon Eunhye), whose boyish appearance and demeanor often lead others to mistake her for a man. Go Eunchan is left the breadwinner of her family and is often rushing around to earn money for her spendthrift mother (Park Wonsook) and high school aged sister, Eunsae (Han Yein). Enter introverted playboy, Choi Hangyul (Gong Yoo), who returns to Seoul from working in the toy business in New York at the behest of his grandmother, who wants him to settle down. He holds longstanding feelings for artist Han Yoojoo (Chae Jungan), who had long been in a relationship with his elder music producer cousin, Choi Hansung (Lee Sungyoon). After a couple chance encounters, Hangyul offers Eunchan a job, to pose as his boyfriend to ward off the women his grandmother sets him up with. Eventually, his grandmother forces Hangyul to take over a coffee shop and Go Eunchan gets hired as one of the shop's "princes" and all seems well except that Hangyul seems to be developing an affection for the Eunchan he believes to be a man.

I think the core story is pretty well done, but all the other stories that surround it are poorly woven into it, resulting in staggered storytelling, with events happening in such a sequence that it almost feels like we're getting a series of epilogues towards the last few episodes, rather than a real ending to the story and the loss of dramatic fuel is apparent as we watch the secondary story between Hansung and Yoojoo linger while not providing a meaningful enough contrast to the main couple's story. However, when the drama is working in the main couple's story, up until its early resolution, it's often electric, especially when it comes to Hangyul's internal emotional conflict. I do think that Eunchan is a little neglected when it comes her own agency, so it's a bit unprecedented when her agency pops up in the series' final few episodes.

Visually, the series is crisp and clean, although occasionally a little too cute, especially in an early dress-up montage, so there are no real problems there. However, like the story, there's far too much fat in the direction and editing with many scenes trailing off and several completely disconnected montages (like how to make coffee) that don't even feature the characters or integrate into the story, making these parts of the episode almost a chore to watch. On the plus side, the acting is strong, with Yoon Eunhye doing a remarkable and inspiring transformation in behavior, voice and energy as boy-like Go Eunchan and Gong Yoo providing boyish charm and a few solid moments of anguish. Supporting performers, like the second leads, other princes, and family members make the most of their characters and add to the overall series.

And, as I mentioned, the series boasts a stellar soundtrack, courtesy of musical director Tearliner and featuring a number of notable Korean indie musicians. That underlines the mixed bag of beans that is Coffee Prince. On one hand, it's held up by strong charismatic performances, an excellent soundtrack, and a really solid premise, but weakened by excessive, meandering and poorly structured storytelling and presentation. I do think that those who like Korean dramas will find more to appreciate in Coffee Prince than not, but I don't think that it's going to be a series that will convince unbelievers. It's fun, but often too long and unfocused. 7/10.

Links:

• Set index
• Series website
• Additional Reviews: Koreanfilm.org
• Watch for free at Crunchyroll and DramaFever
• Available at Amazon and YesAsia

Inbox: 위대한 유산

New movies for me

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I'm always taking a risk when I watch one of the random free movies I receive and I'm rarely pleased by the results, although it has happened. I usually brace for a mediocre film and that gets me through the results fine, but sometimes you run into a rambling unfunny mess of a romantic comedy like The Greatest Expectation and it makes you much more shy about popping the next freebie into your DVD player. I went in with no expectations and was still quite disappointed.

The story is pretty convoluted, but essentially revolves around two slackers, the unemployed Changshik (Lim Changjung) and the struggling actress Miyoung (Kim Sunah) who live in the same neighborhood and whose temperaments cause them to bicker with each other. One night, they both happen to witness the hit and run of a random late-night jogger by a small-time gang boss and then the impoverished pair later discover that there's a reward advertised for those who can help find the killer of the man.

There are a lot of problems with this film, but the most immediate one is that the characters are both rather unlikable. They're crude, rude, money-grubbing, delusional and both quite lazy and not shown any real redeeming qualities, so while being human might be enough to care for them in their crazier situations, you certainly don't root for their success. Plus, Changshik engages in some rather reprehensible behavior involving Miyoung and he gets away without any consequences. Of course that doesn't resolve the second problem with this film, in that even when what seems to be the main story involving the gangsters is over, there's another story about birth secrets that's staggered in with it, drawing it out. And when you think the movie should be over, there's still a romance story that draws the whole affair out longer.

The whole birth secret story actually adds nothing but painful running time to the film, especially since all that time is set up for a single unfunny and predictable joke and the love story itself between the two is incredulous, given that we see absolutely no chemistry between the two characters and nothing to indicate that they were anything more than reluctant allies in their dire straits situation. Even the pacing of the story is sludge-like with nothing interesting happening until almost twenty minutes into the film and a lot of time spent with unfunny and throwaway interactions.

Of course, the direction itself ends up being rather plain, not employing any of the flash and style you might expect from a mainstream romantic comedy from even this film's 2003 era. There is one choice featuring animated eyes that I thought might have been interesting were an animated component a larger part of the film, but without that, it just feels like a waste and incongruous to the rest of the film. There's also a "getting to know each other while drinking" montage that does little in actually developing the pair's relationship except providing some exposition. The leads lack chemistry with each other. I think the film might have turned out at least a little more amusing had the two been able to deliver some believable comedy and/or frustrated attraction with each other, but end up just screeching and whining a lot. Some of the bit players are a little amusing, but their bursts are not consistent or frequent enough to relieve the tedium of the rest of the film.

Obviously, I'm not going to recommend this film, one of many films in the romantic comedy wave following the success of My Sassy Girl, trying to copy some of its character and feel, but failing at both. As such, the only reason I could forsee watching this film is for die-hard fans of the actors, although they might want to avoid seeing their actors in such disgrace, and for academics researching some intersection of Korean film and romantic comedies. For all others, there are plenty of mediocre to great romantic comedies as superior alternatives. 4/10.

Links:

• Available at YesAsia