Inbox: 다세포소녀

New for me

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I really didn't know what I was getting into watching Dasepo Naughty Girls and immediately after watching, I still wasn't entirely certain what I saw. But after some consideration, I did realize that the film has a rather unique character, likely its greatest asset, but in terms of narrative, it shows some adaptation fatigue, with the multiple storylines not quite coming together. That's not to say that Dasepo isn't without its charms, including its visual flare and quirky socially liberal point of view, but the film would have done better with a focused sense of storytelling purpose.

Based on a racy, but popular webcomic, Multi-Cell Girl, the film is set in an "all accepting" high school, its attitude being very open to young sexuality and from the opening scene, we discover that every student has slept with another student in the class as a rumor of syphilis burns through the classroom. One storyline focuses on the class' poor girl (Kim Okbin), who literally has Poverty hanging on her back and while she makes some side money as a prostitute, she remains a virgin as her clients curiously only ask her for non-sexual favors. She bears a crush on wealthy pretty boy Swiss exchange student, Anthony (Park Jinwoo), who himself finds himself attracted to the one-eyed class outcast, Cyclops' (Lee Kyeon), younger sister (Lee Eunsung), who harbors a secret. Elsewhere, the class monitor (Park Hyewon) enlists the help of Anthony's troublemaker friends (Yoo Geun & Lee Minhyuk) to discover why the normally sex and fun-loving female students are turning chaste and studious.

In terms of characters and tone, there I've never seen anything like Dasepo Naughty Girls, creating a rather unique set of characters and environment. That's the film's greatest strength, as well as the quirky way that reality operates in it. Unfortunately, the film throws together adapted storylines from the books and doesn't successfully tie them together. While the two main storylines following the poor girl and the mystery of the chastened students manage to carry moderately well through the film, the two side stories around Anthony and the Class President (Lee Yongjoo) don't have considerable impact and are quickly forgotten, and would probably have better been left on the cutting room floor, especially as Anthony blends into the poor girl's story and leaves and confusing narrative thread when his own story drops out.

Although there are some considerable flaws in the film's compressed and adapted narrative, director Lee Jaeyong does manage to successfully bring to life the unique world of the students of this crazy high school. Interestingly enough, for all the wildness implied of the characters, the film actually remains quite chaste itself, focusing more on the quirkiness of the characters than their raciness and creates a surprisingly affable mood for the film. Furthermore, the film has a few musical moments, some of which get the full on noraebang (song studio) treatment, complete with highlighted lyrics. And the film really benefits from the well coordinated visual presentation, wacky as it is, based on the comics. The performances range from decent to strong, likely both weakened and helped by the inconsistent script.

But, aside from successfully creating a quirky, bright, lively, and unique world this side of Baz Lurhmann's Moulin Rouge!, Dasepo doesn't entirely overcome the narrative compression and inability to hone the multiple source stories into a coherent whole. So, while the film is visually and tonally memorable, and that was enough to retain my interest, it remains ineffectual in its narrative and so potential viewers will want to take it or leave it on whether the concept and aesthetics appeal to them. 7/10.

Links:

• Additional Reviews: Hanguk Yeonghwa, KoreanCinema.org, Koreanfilm.org, Otherwhere
• Available at YesAsia

Inbox: 두사부일체

New for me

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There was once a time in the early 2000's when gangster comedies were all the rage in Korean cinema. One of these many films was My Boss, My Hero, which takes a relatively novel high-concept premise and puts it together with a tonally fluctuating story that doesn't quite have it all together, but the earnestness of the effort still makes it mildly enjoyable, even if a bit problematic.

Here's the deal: mob captain Gye Dooshik (Jung Joonho) is the favored man of his boss, but he never graduated high school and is consequently looked down upon by his equal level gangster peers, so when the boss wants to hand over a new district they're aiming to control to Dooshik, he makes one stipulation, that Dooshik first return to school and graduate. But the hardened gangster Dooshik discovers that getting through high school itself can be as tough as beating down an enemy gang, dealing with hard edged teachers, bullies, and money-grubbing administrators, all while trying to keep his cover on enemy turf.

What works well in the story is the parallels drawn between Dooshik's gangster world and high school, but also some of the underlying commentary directed at those who are less educated, as everyone in the gangster world looks down upon the high school dropouts inasmuch as the scholarship students at the private school Dooshik ends up at are desperately fighting to gain higher standing in class against families who are buying their grades. I also like that Dooshik's personal journey from ambitious gangster to genuine member of the student body is portrayed.

That said, the film has some major characterization issues, especially with the English teacher (Song Sunmi), who the writer/director/actor couldn't decide if she was a charismatic hottie or a beautiful ice queen. Also, the sense of comedy in the film isn't consistent and results in some of the comedy beats falling flat. Finally, the film doesn't quite resolve its main story around the school, leaving quite a few loose ends hanging, which isn't surprising because some of the side stories, like Dooshik's quasi-love interest Yoonjoo (Oh Seungeun), are a bit haphazardly developed.

Like many films of its era, the production values are still a bit rough and so the film doesn't look quite as slick as contemporary Korean cinema and director Yoon Jaegyoon is clearly still learning on what was his first feature film. As such, the film doesn't hold a strong sense of consistency and the undeveloped tonal aspects results in the film feeling a touch thrown together. The performances are pretty agreeable and while some of the comedy parts are rather broad, like Head's (Jung Woontaek) simple-mindedness, aside from Song's English teacher, they're largely consistent and appropriate to the genre.

Still, even with all the problems that My Boss, My Hero faces, I ended up still liking the film and I think that's because the film aimed to be a little more than just another Korean gangster comedy, making some statements on the high school environment, educational status, and socioeconomic class. Plus, the main character actually undergoes some meaningful development and makes a decision. That doesn't entirely make up for the inconsistent vision for the film from first-time director Yoon, nor for the lack of follow through on some elements of the story, but it does make My Boss, My Hero some modestly enjoyable entertainment. 6/10.

Links:

• Additional Reviews: KoreanCinema.org
• Available at YesAsia

Inbox: 키스할까요

New for me

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I must have a problem with Kim Taegyoon because I've disliked the two films of his I've seen so far, the previous being the manipulative melodrama A Millionaire's First Love. Like A Millionaire's First Love, this film, First Kiss (a.k.a. Shall We Kiss), has many of the same storytelling problems, lacking in connective tissues, but also suffers from pacing problems. When combined with the sometimes aimless direction and constant mugging by the actors, I found First Kiss to be an annoying and frequently senseless affair.

The woman who is hoping for her first kiss is Song Yeonhwa (Choi Jiwoo), an entertainment news reporter, with a socially awkward disposition. When her boyfriend, whom she was hoping to smooch, decides to break up with her, she goes into a little depression, prone to spacing out and snapping at people. Into this comes the new photographer, the gregarious Han Kyunghyun (An Jaewook), who immediately takes a liking to the prickly Song. But the other female reporter, Kyunghee (Yoo Hyekyung), who is already sleeping with the editor (Lee Kyungyoung), has her sights set on the handsome new guy.

And all this setup might be a fine story if there were any reasonable story logic to drive what happens for the duration of the film. But what First Kiss fails to do is to motivate any of the changes that the characters experience. There is no explanation for why Song softens to Han, but she does. And there is no explanation for why Han suddenly gets upset or pulls away from Song. And that lack of reason for the characters to do what they do pulls the dramatic rug out from underneath everything that they do, essentially depriving the film of any real meaningful development. The characters simply seem to change when it's necessary for the plot and, as the result, the story feels heavily contrived. Plus, it's neither funny nor particularly dramatic.

The story itself might have been hard to bear, but this was compounded by the acting. It seems like every single character is shrill, loud, or otherwise unreal and, consequently, unbelievable, and several of the actors simply mug for the camera much too frequently. When the parody of a horror film inside the film seems more real than the main characters themselves, there is a problem. Of course, that mugging is probably in part a director's problem, who is doing little to make this world believable. Much of the film feels like there is a distinct lack of vision, simply just going along with the characters and occasionally adding in a meaningless directorial flourish. Furthermore, the film simply takes forever to go anywhere, although perhaps it could be said that the film really never does go anywhere.

Being a film from 1997, before the Korean motion picture machine really upgraded its equipment and crew skills, the low production values can be excused, as it looks no worse than similar films made in Korea in the late 1990's. What's amusing is just how dated the film feels, in terms of its late 1990's aesthetics, especially in the fashion and make-up departments, which makes the film feel like it's trying hard to follow the current trends. But even that could have been forgiven if the story itself were more convincingly wrought and much better told. Unfortunately, the ramshackle attempt at a romance film here doesn't get the basics of storytelling together here, which only amplifies its other weaknesses. 4/10.

Inbox: Inception

New for me

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Much like Christopher Nolan's other non-Batman films, Inception proves to be a fine thriller, one that breathes both science fiction and caper film. It does feel almost so stuffed with ideas at times that the film seems like it's speeding past its drama, but at almost two and a half hours, that can be excused, especially with how tight the thrills are packed into it.

The story is about Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), a "extraction" expert, who, with his partner, Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), enters people's dreams and steal information locked in their heads. Cobb, however, is haunted in these dreams by his once-wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) and desperately wants to return back to the US where his children live and where he is a wanted man. So when his most recent extraction fails, his target, multi-billion dollar Japanese conglomerate head Saito (Ken Watanabe) gives him a tempting offer: inception. If Cobb and whatever team he puts together can, instead of stealing ideas, plant an idea in the head of one of Saito's rivals, something that is said cannot be done, Saito will make all of Cobb's problems go away and make his team rich. Cobb, of course, takes the job and assembles a dream team of dream manipulators to complete the task, which requires an elaborate multi-dream deception at great risk, but Cobb himself with Mal, might prove to be their downfall.

The complex dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream concoction for the "heist" is richly layered, detailed and plotted and it all might be confusing, except that the story takes pains to make clear what is going on and why. The concept itself is fascinating and allows for some interesting manifestation of Cobb's personal issues. That said, there's a lot going on and sometimes I felt that the story was a little too split between Cobb's personal drama and the thrills of getting the job done with the former feeling just a touch scant, so making the "glitch in the system" feel a bit forced. Also, for a story that toys with reality and dreams, I felt like it stopped short of really working with the idea and forcing into a crime caper, but I think that's a small complaint for an otherwise fun film.

Nolan continues directing with aplomb and I have to give him a lot of credit for using a lot of practical effects, including a great battle in a gravity defying hallway, as well a half a dozen gorgeous locations and a bunch of visually wonderful CGI helped impossible dream moments. And while the film is long, the pacing is pretty tight in it and so it never really feels as long as it is, because the thrills are always keeping you on edge. The cast performs pretty well overall, with many of the actors being former Nolan cohorts and new ones, although I do wonder if DiCaprio is becoming a go-to guy for this kind of film, given Shutter Island of the same year.

I'm not going to say that I found Inception mind-blowing. At its heart is a caper film with perhaps a dash of noir and the dream structure is but a science fiction version of a clever heist. This is all given a slight dramatic boost from the Mal storyline, which adds further tension as she creates complications for the team. But as a thriller, the film succeeds as well as Nolan's other thrillers, which is a good thing. Add in some eye-popping dream visuals and some fun with the multi-dream scenario and you could imagine people wanting more. But I think as it is, Inception is an entertaining time at the movies. 8/10.

Links:

• Feature website
• Feature Facebook
• Available at Amazon (Blu Ray) / (DVD)

Progress Report:Replay: 친절한 금자씨

Revisiting movies that are parts of sets

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The first time I watched Lady Vengeance, I found my reaction to the film relatively cool, at least until the final act, where an interesting drama emerges, in part distracted by very stylized visual elements of the film, but also not prepared for its slow build towards the finale. On my most recent viewing, I found the visual direction of the film enthralling, and the exploration of preparing for vengeance, but also the conflation of that vengeance with redemption and justice woven into the film quite fascinating, making the ending of the film even more impressive.

In this tale of vengeance, the titular lady is Geumja (Lee Youngae), known as "Geumja the Kind-Hearted" by her fellow inmates, for her overwhelming compassion for them. Having been forced to take the fall for her conspirator, Mr. Baek's (Choi Minshik) murder of a young child, under the threat of the death of her own child, she is released thirteen years later, marshaling favors from her many released fellow inmates in long preparation for her revenge and, with it, her hope for redemption for her part in leading to that child's death.

Lady Vengeance actually has a much lighter and more optimistic tone than its predecessors because it incorporates a theme of redemption, and, perhaps because of it, it also contains a great deal more humor (even if it's of the blackest sort). On the other hand, the first two thirds of the film are quite a slow build towards the final, spending the first third watching Geumja prepare for revenge by contacting the many allies she made in prison. The second throws a kink in her plan as she visits her adopted-to-Australia daughter, Jenny (Kwon Yeyoung) only to acquire her.

The pacing is slow and overflowing with story details, much of which isn't economical in terms of storytelling tightness, however, most of which actually speaks directly into the rather complex heart of Geumja, from her need for her vengeance to be both beautiful and appropriate, she takes the time to wear crimson makeup and dresses in a sexy manner to strike against her innocent natural appearance as she knows she is going into a dark place, all the way to how her plans for revenge also involve being kind to others in order to win them over to her, a cold and manipulative tactic, and yet all of this comes to impact the decisions she makes in the final act of the film and has a lot to say about the blurring between vengeance and justice, as well as how she feels the burden of guilt and how what she's doing is also in pursuit of redemption and by the end of the film, I was utterly moved by Geumja's plight.

Lady Vengeance shows an even higher attention to aesthetic detail from director Park Chanwook, which mirrors the protagonists insistence on aesthetics mirroring internal realities. Similarly, the film features a section chromatic shift from brighter warmer colors to darker colder ones over the course of the film, and, in fact, a "fade-to-white" version of the film was also released, using digital post-processing to gradually desaturate the film from start to finish. This attention to visual detail shows in every camera setup, including the framing of the most mundane flashback scenes in prison, which are evocative and often dynamic and the cinematography is accordingly fantastic, taking care to capture the contrast between light and darkness on the street outside her home (including when it's important to the plot) as well as using photography tricks to capture snow and affect the continually darkening mood of the film.

The aesthetic brilliance even extends into the production and art design of the film, just looking at the wild colors of Geumja's apartment, her beautiful bakery work, and even the gorgeous opening credits sequence, which blurs the line between baking and the sinful desire for blood. Of course, with so much of the film's pathos carried on the titular character, it's a great credit that Lee Youngae captures the complex character so well, striking a contrast against her good-girl TV drama persona. She's especially effective in carrying Geumja's tremendous sadness and guilt under her sexy and cold exterior. Choi, who really has a small role in this film, also transforms against his usually sympathetic characters and makes a meal of his few scenes in becoming a complete monster. The film also boasts a number of great cameos from actors in Park's past films really tying the films together in an interesting way.

Oh yeah, the score is pretty awesome and memorable too, like Oldboy, dropping in a little baroque music, appropriately, as the aesthetics of the film, especially during the first half, could be called baroque.

Being as extravagant a work as it is, Lady Vengeance could certainly be called a little unwieldy and it was certainly so overflowing with detail that it was almost too much to take the first time I saw the film. Furthermore, the slow build-up towards the finale isn't exceptionally captivating and so I understand how many who have appreciated Oldboy might be disappointed here, but it's not that different from Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance in taking its time to reach a potent conclusion. And, I feel, from a story-telling point of view, that finale is phenomenal and incorporates well all that detail into a conclusion that explores well the films themes of vengeance, justice, redemption and guilt. All of this is provided through one of the most visually dazzling displays of directing, cinematography and production aesthetics I've yet seen in contemporary cinema, combined with a star-worthy performance by Lee Youngae. And that really elevated Lady Vengeance for me into a pinnacle of Park's filmography and Korean film on the whole. 9/10.

Links:

• Set index
• Additional Reviews: City on Fire, eastern Kicks, Far East Films, Hanguk Yeonghwa, Koreanfilm.org
• Available at Amazon (DVD) and iTunes

Inbox: 슈퍼맨이었던 사나이

New for me

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I got A Man Who Was Superman for free and only later realized that it was one of Jung Yoonchul's follow ups to Marathon, a film that surprised me by turning out to be pretty decent. I wasn't fully sold on the premise and I felt that A Man Who Was Superman suffered from a wandering narrative for the first two thirds of the film, only finding itself in the final act, which manages to lift the movie up a bit. However, the film is also a bit uneven in performances too and the result is certainly a mixed bag.

In AMWWS, Song Soojung (Gianna Jun) is a human interest reporter with a personal disdain for the stories about quirky mental cases that she's specialized in for the last three years. Finally having had enough, she quits, taking a nice camera as her severance, but it gets stolen from her. In her pursuit of the thief, she encounters the titular Superman (Hwang Jungmin), a man who has clearly lost a little touch with reality, running around the streets of Seoul, randomly helping people, which now includes retrieving Soojung's camera. Her journalistic instincts lead her to follow him in curiosity. As Soojung returns to her work, following around Superman, she starts finding his insistence on helping people more personally interesting than the quirky people she's previously documented, but the past that Superman tried to escape begins to catch up with him.

There are some noticeable issues with storytelling in the first couple acts of the film, resulting in a film that's rather flat, with little conflict or drive, seemingly stringing together a bunch of scenes as we, and Soojung, watch the Superman do his thing and while it's supposedly showing Soojung developing a fondness for Superman, there doesn't seem to be any real reason for her to have a change of heart. When we finally start lumbering towards the conclusion, however, the digging into Superman's real identity and backstory, followed by some of the final decisions he makes is compelling, but this does feel more like a short story that got extended into a feature film, with so little actually happening in the plot for much of its running time.

The film dabbles in giving us Superman's perspective by presenting a few heroic scenes from his flights of fancy, but I found this to be confusing and unnecessary, although the full on imagination of the Daily Planet was amusing. Aside from those moments, Director Jung keeps his eye on the reality of his characters and even if the storytelling is rather loose, he does give plenty of attention to his principal actors, although more to Superman. Which makes sense, given Hwang's dramatic, but still human performance, really capturing in his face some of the backstory that drove Superman to become what he is. On the other hand, while the narrative really needed to give Soojung more attention, Jun's performance was a bit lacking, never quite seeming more than tired, rather than cynical and being unable to carry the sense that her perspective on Superman is changing, only really sparking during the aforementioned brief imaginary sequence when playing Lois Lane.

But for all my problems with Jun and simply finding the film unfocused, once the dramatic gears start turning, the film had me in its grasp, developing quite a genuinely surprising hero story near the end. I think if the Superman's story was better built into the film and if Soojung's story (and Jun's acting) were more compelling, A Man Who Was Superman would easily have been as winning as Jung's Marathon. As it is, it's a film that lumbers at the start before finding itself and finishing strong. And, for the strong finish, I still thought it was an enjoyable character piece, but I can't recommend wholeheartedly as it simply takes too long to pick up and become interesting. 7/10.

Links:

• Additional Reviews: Far East Films, Hangul Celluloid, Rainy Day
• Available at YesAsia

Progress Report:Replay: 올드보이

Revisiting movies that are parts of sets

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Oldboy represents one of Korea's biggest international breakout films, garnering a pile of international awards and increasing the visibility of Korean film around the world. It's easy to see why audiences were impressed by Oldboy as, in some ways, it presents a visually supercharged directorial effort from Park Chanwook, featuring some extreme elements that are easily memorable and a twisting plot filled with violence and vengeance. I don't think the film is as potent on follow-up viewings, especially in terms of story, but the visual and technical strength of Oldboy keeps it interesting.

Loosely based on a manga, Oldboy tells the story of Oh Daesu (Choi Minshik), an alcoholic, who, after an evening being drunk and disorderly in a police station, gets kidnapped and kept in a room for fifteen years without explanation, only to be suddenly released. As Daesu looks both for vengeance on Lee Woojin (Yoo Jitae) for his imprisonment and tries to solve why Lee imprisoned him, he encounters young sushi chef Mido (Kang Hyejung), who he develops an instant bond with and she helps him on his quest for truth and revenge.

The story, being a mystery, throws a couple twists along the way, including a rather huge twist at the end as the underlying story is revealed. And while the process of pursuing the mystery is engaging the first time through, additional viewings aren't quite as interesting because the villain's motivation is rather hollow and the film's dizzying set of switches and revelations don't have any depth once you realize what's going on. It's still a rather tightly driven narrative, but a bit short on substance, unlike its predecessor.

On the other hand, Park's already strong attention to visual detail only increases in Oldboy as the film's production elements in art, costuming, and sets becomes quite evocative, especially tied to Park's overall visual direction. One particular fight sequence is still quite memorable, drenched in greens, and the rest of the film seems to have its own visually interesting elements, from color to cinematography, to sense of reality. This sense of the near-fantastic is elevated by the larger-than-life performances from most of the cast, including the wily Choi and, in contrast, the strangely smooth Yoo. And finally, the film's soundtrack is quite immersion. That said, there is a rough, grainy, and soft quality to the cinematography, giving the film a bit of a roughly produced look, despite the high quality of the production in front of the family, and while it was probably intentional, I do think it does strike against the lushness of those production elements.

The first time I watched Oldboy, I was blown away, but that effect didn't extend to additional viewings. It's fantastic visual design, strong direction, and enormous performances don't fully overcome the narrative shallowness, once the novelty of the reveals wears off. Granted, the film's narrative is still as interesting as its spiritual relatives, Greek tragedies and Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, but in its modern incarnation, Oldboy feels almost pulpy, which is ultimately going to come down to a matter of taste. As with other films in this trilogy, Oldboy is not recommended for the squeamish, but anyone who likes twisted tales of revenge will probably continue to appreciate Oldboy. Despite my reduced enthusiasm for the film, I still think it's a fascinating work of direction and production. 8/10.

Links:

• Set index
• Additional Reviews: City on Fire, eastern Kicks, Far East Films, Hanguk Yeonghwa, Koreanfilm.org, VCinema
• Available at Amazon (Blu Ray) / (DVD) / (Instant) and iTunes

Inbox: 옛날 옛적에 훠어이 훠이

New for me

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Director Yoo Hyunmok has been pretty hit and miss with me, directing some films that I really like (Obaltan, Rainy Season) and others that I found difficult to appreciate (Forever with You, The Guests of the Last Train). But seeing as I've liked more of his films than I've disliked, I decided to try another one of his films, Once Upon a Time, released as part of the Korean Cinema Masterpiece Collection series. While I was worried since it didn't have subtitles, my Korean was sufficient for watching the movie, aside from pausing the film about three times to look up unfamiliar words. It turns out that the greater difficulty for enjoying the film was its meandering story and slapdash direction, making me question just how this film was considered a masterpiece.

Set after the unification of the Three Kingdoms, the film opens with a description of some of the lawlessness due to the threat of the Tang Dynasty, which was involved in the violent unification. During this time, a messianic prophecy arose in the countryside of an infant warrior that would be born that could overthrow the conquering Tang, heralded by a flying horse. Into this situation we meet a peasant, Ah Sadal (Baek Ilseob), who we first discover stealing a Buddha statue from temple and stealing food from an old man dying of hunger. We then meet his wife, Sea Ohnyeo (Jung Hee), and the happily married pair soon conceive and bear a child. However, reports of a flying horse abound and the Tang start a campaign to find the infant warrior, with potential consequences for the new parents in addition to the rest of their village.

The problem is that the story really does not do well to build up any suspense around the couple's child and while the consequences of the Tang's local presence is felt, the threat is simply as intangible as the never-seen flying horse. Furthermore, the male protagonist's introductory behavior does little to connect with the rest of the story and work against his later character. And then, a side story that's introduced halfway into the film with a grieving old woman seeking to reclaim her deceased son's head also really fails to add to the story. So, when the events reach a heightened peak in the finale, the film simply falls flat.

Part of the problem with the film is that Yoo's direction is very uneven. While he does make some interesting visual decisions, with rack focusing and with some of his choices for long shots, his camera team suffers from some rather shaky camerawork and his shots frustratingly crammed into the 4:3 frame, seeming like they're bleeding over the edge and should have been at least shot 1.85:1 (and if it was, then I'll have to blame either the surviving print or a terrible transfer job by SM Screen). The color photography is occasionally a bit blurry, the colors aren't consistent and the existing print isn't in great shape, so the film simply doesn't look that good. Furthermore, the audio track suffers from some terrible dubbing, leaving little pleasant for the eyes or the ears in this film. Also, for a late 70's film, the acting seems to match the style from a previous generation, occasionally just seeming silly, especially in color.

I was bored by Once Upon a Time. The story isn't compellingly written or structured, the directing not especially interesting and the film suffers from either a terrible surviving print or just weak cinematography and the audio isn't really any better. Furthermore, the color picture makes the acting seem rather dated at times. While Yoo Hyunmok shouldn't be written off, simply because he's made a number of better, sometimes excellent, films, Once Upon a Time is simply not one of them. Still, even though its story isn't tight, at least it doesn't suffer from unfathomable degrees of plot holes, so it's not irritatingly bad, just simply boring. If you're going to watch a film from this legendary Korean director, I'd recommend starting somewhere besides this alleged masterpiece. 5/10.

Links:

• Available at YesAsia

Progress Report:Replay: 복수는 나의 것

Revisiting movies that are parts of sets

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While Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance might often take a backseat to Park Chanwook's follow-up, Oldboy, when it comes to international recognition, but in a more subdued and careful way, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance stands up to its more popular successor, thanks to strong visual presence, a well crafted, echoing story, and excellent performances all around. Even without the increasing flash of Park's later films, Sympathy still manages to weave together some mesmerizing moments into a dark story of cascading sins.

It all starts with a sick sister (Im Jieun) in need of a kidney transplant. Deaf-mute brother Ryu (Shin Hagyoon) makes a deal with some black market organ dealers, but ends up losing both his kidney and the money he had saved up to pay for his sister's operation. Having lost his job, his girlfriend, Cha Youngmi (Bae Doona), suggests that they kidnap his rich ex-boss' kid and return her for ransom to cover the costs. Of course, that would be too obvious, so they instead kidnap the daughter of his wealthy neighbor, Park Dongjin (Song Kangho), and every seems like it's on track, but these things rarely go as planned and the titular campaigns for vengeance begin.

What the film achieves well is in painting a mirror-like picture of revenge for both Ryu and Dongjin, as each loses someone they love, sparking their murderous vendettas and despite how Ryu is poor and disadvantaged and Dongjin is wealthy and able at the start, the film shows that in the end, they both choose to end up in the same place, with no one coming up a moral victor. And even as they understand each other, the gnawing desire for vengeance swallows them as whole as Ryu's own desperation enveloped him.

If there is a weakness in the writing, part of it lies in the story structure, which is bifurcated and with Dongjin not even becoming a notable character until halfway into the movie, once his daughter, Yoosun (Han Bobae), is kidnapped. I feel the drama does manage to carry the film into the middle, but it's still a tough transition between the two protagonists and a slow, atypical start. There's also a little bit of a plot hole during the transition and the film either takes too much plot development off screen or simply contrives the mystery element of the film so it's too easily solved, but it admittedly hurts the already slow and wobbly middle of the film.

While Sympathy doesn't have a lot of violence, the violence that is in the film can be rather gruesome, so those with weak stomachs might beware of the film. Otherwise, Sympathy is a very clear case for Park Chanwook's directorial abilities, filled with mesmerizing images and sounds, including several intense, breathtaking or captivating moments, even when there is an abundance of blood involved. But even outside of the violence, like the framing of a climb up a staircase where Ryu will make a choice that creates the slippery slope of decisions in the film, gives a clear idea of Park's apparent mastery of visual storytelling.

And this also extends into the way that sound is incorporated in the film with lots of play taking advantage of Ryu's deafness, even extending into a number of inter-titles to help express the thoughts that Ryu can't speak. Furthermore, the soundtrack itself is an interesting mix of classical scoring and the presence of UhUhBoo Project, handling the memorable theme to the film. Finally, the performances from the lead cast are impressive, with Shin managing his deaf-mute character well. I think some of the narrative weakness in the middle of the film does make Song's transformation a little harder to swallow, but he still manages to capture his character's feeling that his decisions are inevitable and by the end of the film, he convinces.

The first time I watched Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, I was utterly blown away by the encapsulation and exploration of the theme of vengeance, how well the story tied its two lead characters in parallel with each other, and the remarkable attention to visual and aural detail. This later viewing does betray a few weaknesses in the storytelling, but I would be lying if I said that I wasn't still captivated by everything that impressed me before. Sympathy is clearly a hallmark in the career of Park Chanwook, a film that declares a strong directorial voice and vision with its bravura study of the darkness in humanity. 9/10.

Links:

• Set index
• Additional Reviews: City on Fire, Far East Films, Hanguk Yeonghwa, Koreanfilm.org
• Available at Amazon (DVD) / (Instant) and iTunes

Inbox: Vengeance Trilogy

New for me

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Anyone that knows anything about Korean cinema will at least know the name Oldboy, one of the most popular Korean films internationally. Anyone with more than passing awareness of Korean film will also know that Park Chanwook, director of Oldboy, had also made two other films, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance before and Lady Vengeance following. Due to Oldboy's popularity, it easily got multiple DVD and Blu Ray releases around the world, but only some time after did the rest of the trilogy get a proper DVD and then Blu Ray version.

In the United States, Tartan had previously released a fully featured version of Oldboy and, after their acquisition by Palisades, it was Palisades Tartan that would release the trilogy on their Asia Extreme label. However, many home video purists discovered that this Palisades release of Oldboy actually lacked the lossless audio track advertised on the box, which is a significant loss for those who seek a high fidelity home video presentation. Consequently, when I finally saw that Canada's Alliance version of the trilogy was of comparable price when shipping was included, I went ahead and purchased the foreign version, simply because it actually includes the advertised lossless audio track.

Physically, the Palisades Tartan version can come in either a nice solid slipcase or a fancy tin and contains three full-size Blu Ray cases containing the four discs that comprise the set. The Alliance version instead houses the discs in slim pack cases and a slipcase over that. Like the Palisades Tartan tin, the Alliance slipcase is a little fragile and received a few dents over the shipping process, but it does feature some cute embossing of the title text. All said, if you're the US and losing the lossless audio on Oldboy doesn't bother you (perhaps because you've bought the previous two disc release), then the US trilogy should suffice, but those in Canada and US residents who want higher quality audio should opt to purchase from Canada.

One particularly nice bonus is that Lady Vengeance features both the regular theatrical version as well as the special "Fade to White" version of the film that saw a limited release, in which the film slowly drains away its color before fading to white at its conclusion. This results in Lady Vengeance also getting split onto two discs, with most of the special features on the DVD.

Most fans will want to pick up the set and, depending on their needs, should consider the Alliance version over the Palisades Tartan version, but aside from the packaging the lack of lossless audio on Oldboy, I hear that the image, sound and special features are otherwise identical between them. Other editions can get quite fabulous, like the gorgeously packaged UK version, complete with hammer. As for me, I'm happy with the space-saver slim pack set from Alliance. 8/10.

Disc List:

• 복수는 나의 것 (2002) (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance)
• 올드보이 (2003) (Oldboy)
• 친절한 금자씨 (2005) (Lady Vengeance)

Links:

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

Inbox: Lady and the Tramp

New for me

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Most of the Disney films that I've seen were adaptations of existing material, so Lady and the Tramp is a rather uncommon Disney film to me as it's based on an original story and even though it's a film about the world of dogs, its grounding in an otherwise real world, devoid of fantasy, and a very real (and, even human) story, results in a surprisingly strong feature, especially tied together with Disney's beautiful animation bringing the characters to life.

The titular Lady (Barbara Luddy) is a cocker spaniel, gifted to Darling (Peggy Lee) by Jim Dear (Lee Millar) and quickly becomes part of the family. However, when a baby becomes due, Lady is feeling a little ignored and that's when the free-spirited vagabond Tramp (Larry Roberts) shows up, taking a liking to Lady and sowing seeds of doubt about her family's continued love for her. But Lady remains steadfast, except that one day, Darling and Jim Dear are set to take a trip resulting in Aunt Sarah (Verna Felton) arriving. Having no great love of Lady and two mischievous Siamese cats, Lady finds herself in the proverbial dog house, where the rascal Tramp finds her and tries to open her up to his world. A little adventure for the well heeled Lady follows.

The story is simply charming in part because it's written from the dog's point of view (the humans are named after what they call each other), but also because it's a genuine extrapolation of what could happen to pets and older siblings upon the arrival of a baby or at least a manifestation of their fears, and so the conflicts therein are genuine, just like the tension between the domestic life of Lady and the freewheeling world of the Tramp. This easily makes it one of Disney's better rendered early stories because it captures a sincere and human element and, while there is a little adventure to be had, it's largely rendered from the believable real. Not to say that there aren't some troubles with the story, like the film's broadhanded ethnic stereotyping as well as how the pat the story resolves for Tramp and, notably, not giving Lady, the protagonist, the heroic finale.

One thing that I really loved about the animation of this film is how well that they captured the mannerisms of dogs. Despite their anthropomorphism, the animals still move wonderfully as dogs do and it's instantly familiar for anyone with experience with dogs. The world is lovely, colorful, surprisingly realistic and yet the different dogs are given lots of character as well (again, with some rather broad ethnic stereotypes unimaginatively being used with some).

But, it's the lovely familiar and real story at the heart of Lady and the Tramp that somehow makes it so much more human than the more larger scaled Disney epics. When combined with the legendary animation studio's beautiful artwork and attention to detail in animation, you have a film that might not get as much gloss as its more famous peers, but has more than enough heart to convince, even if time has exposed some of the mars in its characterizations. 8/10.

Links:

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

Inbox: 報應

New for me

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I was pretty pleased to have won a free copy of Milky Way Image's latest to reach the US on home video, Punished, thanks to the production company's positive overall reception from Asian and genre film fans. However, Punished turned out to be a poor representative of Hong Kong crime thrillers, being pretty flat on thrills, drama, and even the few action sequences that were present felt pretty trivial, resulting in a film that's surprisingly boring for its kidnapping and retribution premise, despite a short running time.

The kidnapped is Daisy (Janice Man, rebellious daughter to corporate boss Wong Hochiu (Anthony Wong), who we discover dead, recovered by Wong's right hand man, Chor (Richie Ren). As Wong asks Chor to find those responsible for the kidnapping and cement his vengeance, the film exposes the underlying family conflict between Wong and his various family members, as well as the series of events that led up to Daisy's kidnapping and murder.

Unfortunately, the narrative simply lacks direction and conflict. If we know that Daisy is dead from the start, then what is the conflict of the film? Even once Wong assigns Chor to the task of hunting down the killers, since Wong has removed himself from the process, there's little drama for us to concern with him, except for grief. Likewise, Chor doesn't really have any truly compelling element to have us care that he's tracking these guys down, nor is the resulting procedural particularly interesting, being quite matter-of-fact and devoid of any personal conflict, except for a moment near the very end and that one's pretty poorly planted and unraveled as well. Punished is simply very poorly written: its story structure betraying conflict, killing the thrills due to a lack of purposeful objective, and yet because of Wong's general inactivity, the drama that is implied to happen onscreen is simply not compelling.

The visual element of the film holds up a little better than the story, especially at the start, due to picturesque Mirror to the Sky location in Bolivia creating quite the image. The rest of the film is rather unspectacular. Director Law Wing Cheong does manage to string together the scenes and performances in an intelligible manner, but doesn't seem to be able to surpass the flawed writing of the script nor keep a clear eye on the compelling conflict of the various scenes. Even the limited chase and action sequences don't manage to be particularly compelling, in part because the story failed to make the stakes something the audience cares about, but also because they are rather roughly put together. Fortunately, the cast actually makes the film somewhat survivable, mining up some personal conflict for their characters, but without strong story and direction framework, it's not enough to support the overall viewing.

Punished is simply disappointing. While I wasn't expecting something new, as the premise of the film has been done, the script and the direction overall miss creating the necessary drama, conflict and thrills necessary to drive the film, squandering the potential of a thriller film, neither being able to establish real interpersonal drama, nor managing to hold together enough action for more visceral thrills. The film is fortunately spared of any real head-slapping story logic flaws and that simplicity plus the performances might still make this a modest viewing for some, there's simply nothing compelling enough in Punished to commend. 4/10.

Links:

• Feature website
• Additional Reviews: City on Fire
• Available at Amazon (DVD) / (Instant) and iTunes

Inbox: 악마를 보았다

New for me

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In Beyond Good and Evil, Friedrich Nietzsche writes, "He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." And in I Saw the Devil, writer Park Hoonjung and director Kim Jiwoon take the concept and run with it, even having a character paraphrase it, perhaps even turning it past the fourth wall and into the audience. This all the while crafting a oft-gripping, visceral, and dark tunnel of cinema that might linger just a touch too long in itself at times.

At the beginning, we meet Jooyun, who quickly gets captured, murdered and mutilated by the serial killer, Kyungchul (Choi Minshik). Her father, retired police captain Jang (Jung Gookhwan) and her fiance, Kim Soohyun (Lee Byungwoo) discover this along with many others as her remains are discovered. Driven to revenge, Soohyun, a secret service agent, takes a couple weeks off work, tracks down Kyungchul with a little help from his almost father-in-law and sets to beat him senseless, shove a tracking sensor down his throat and let him go, only to repeat this brand of torture again as soon as Kyungchul feels safe. Of course, Kyunghcul is rather wily and capable, so Soohyun is playing with fire.

The story starts very dark and continues along that path all the way to the end, only broken by a few moments of equally dark humor, but the plot is really simple. And the repetition that occurs is more of a spiral than a circle as each time we see additional people suffer as a result of Soohyun's obsession with torturous vengeance and so I feel that it works, although I do feel like the beat where Soohyun encounters some friends of Kyunchul is unnecessary and drags out the film a little. Still, I think the film's point is made pretty effectively and even points a finger at the audience, in turns drawn to the thrill of these brutal moments and possibly repulsed by them at the same time, questioning whether our rooting for Soohyun makes us as culpable as we have been gazing into the abyss with this film.

And boy does Kim Jiwoon spare little in examining the brutality of vengeance, serving it up with a cold, but carefully handled eye for detail. There is a lot of gory detail i the film, but Kim manages to keep the film closer to a thriller than gorn, with the focus on whether Soohyun will capture Kyungchul in time before he goes too far, but I would definitely say that the film is not for the weak of constitution.

Choi Minshik, who marks a return to film after an extended absence, turns in a wild performance that could make a case for scenery chewing whereas fellow Korean mega-star Lee Byunghoon plays his character rather cold, and neither is really much of a stretch for either actor considering their respective filmographies and past work in other notable revenge films.

But, much like what the film has to say about revenge, there can be a gnawing emptiness left after witnessing I Saw the Devil, because I don't know if it really has a point to make beyond watching the conflict of a man turning monster and perhaps being drawn to that abyss ourselves. But the thriller elements are white knuckle and, while there was a noticeable character logic failure near the penultimate climax that had me yelling at the screen, I was gripped for the whole of the film, long as it is. So, I think of I Saw the Devil as a successful genre exercise, especially in toying with the themes of the genre and with the audiences' participation and while I might not be up to watching it again soon, I think's a worthwhile viewing for those that like and can stomach this kind of film. 8/10.

Links:

• Feature website
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• Additional Reviews: City on Fire, eastern Kicks, Far East Films, Hanguk Yeonghwa, Hangul Celluloid, KoreanCinema.org, Seen in Jeonju
• Available at Amazon (Blu Ray) / (DVD) / (Instant) and iTunes

Progress Report:Replay: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Extended Edition)

Revisiting movies that are parts of sets

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I'm not usually the type to find darker and edgier better naturally, but the continued darker tone of Return of the King finds it a strong film and keeps it from over-indulging itself most of the time. The film, in its loyalty to the novel, does find itself replicating some of the weaker story elements from the third part of the trilogy, but the film is otherwise a strong finish for the series.

In the third part of Lord of the Rings, with Saruman (Christopher Lee) defeated, Sauron takes the offense on the beleaguered Gondor. With the Steward of Gondor, Denethor (John Noble), too absorbed in mourning the death of his son, Boromir (Sean Bean) to wage an effective war, it's up to the remnants of the fellowship to marshal the human lands together. Meanwhile, Frodo (Elijah Wood)and Sam (Sean Astin) continue with the treacherous Gollum (Andy Serkis) onward to Mordor.

Again, I found the adaptation pretty strong, with the added storyline of Aragorn's acceptance of his legacy coming to fruition. This does improve a little bit the detour that Aragorn makes in final act to raise the army of the dead, but it still doesn't make that segment of the story feel particularly well woven into the whole of the narrative. I also think that the film wisely chooses to snip away the more involved denouement of the books, with the events that take place in the shire in the hobbits' absence.

As with The Two Towers, the darker and grimmer nature of the final act of the films lends a great amount of gravity, keeping in check some of the need to hammer home its message with overblown scenes and swelling music. Not that the film avoids it, simply that it's tempered because so much has already culminated over the films there is less need to force it. This results in a mostly more natural direction and performances by the actors, although the army of the dead sequence veers closer to camp territory. The enormous war sequences are pretty fantastic and I have to credit Peter Jackson for being able to hold all of this together.

I still feel like the film could have been directed and produced with just a little more gravitas and a little less glamour, befitting the story's World War inspirations, but I'm glad that the films came together as well as they did and that The Return of the King mostly worked well to bring the tale to a close. This set of films feels definitive with no need to revisit the stories in film format again and only leaves a hoping and a hunger for the eventual production of The Hobbit. A good way to close out the story. 8/10.

The extended edition is a mixed bag of extras. I think that the addition of the Saruman scenes does help close that story, but other scenes, like the development between Faramir (David Wenham) and Eowyn (Miranda Otto), is just so lightly brushed upon that it seems trivial at best, even more so than the Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) and Arwen (Liv Tyler) romance. Still, I think for the scenes that work, including the ones that add a little bit more depth to the Faramir and Denethor relationship, fans will appreciate the extended edition, but the theatrical should suffice casual viewers with its tighter storytelling.

Links:

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

Inbox: 체포왕

New for me

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While I certainly won't say that Officer of the Year (aka The Apprehenders) is a high cinematic achievement, this rival cop comedy turned crime procedural still has enough going for it that it somehow manages to overcome its heavy tonal shift to entertain, although the nearly incongruous nature of that shift does make the film a bit jarring. Still, with affable performances and steady direction, the film holds together well enough for an enjoyable time at the movies.

The titular Officer of the Year is a title awarded to the cop with the greatest points in collars and the holder of that title is "Sneaky" Hwang (Park Joonghoon) of Mapo, who enjoys some of his success from pinching crooks from other precincts. Enter young Lieutenant Jung (Lee Sungyoon), recently promoted to lead the Major Crimes division of Seodaemoon, rival to Mapo. Lt. Jung is under pressure by his pregnant fiance's father to put a downpayment on a house before he will get permission to marry and it turns out that the Officer of the Year title includes just the right amount in cash reward. The rival departments are soon both given the task of capturing a serial rapist, leading to a competition between the two departments to do so to the benefit of the criminal.

The film's starts out with a lighter comedic tone, which remains consistent until a time jump occurs in the final third of the film, where the film suddenly becomes quite serious. This is more than a bit jarring, and while seeds of this need for tonal shift are planted earlier, it almost feels like the movie failed to take its own advice and instead of a gradual shift, the film jerks into a crime procedural suddenly. Now, the comedic elements are quite strong and the irony of two police departments combating each other so much that it impairs their enforcement of the law is amusing, but the seriousness of the crimes does lead to some dissonance, especially since the comedy isn't particularly dark. I'd say that the procedural element of the film, which composes the final third, isn't quite as engaging, although I appreciate the development it provides for its characters.

The film's direction matches well the two tones of the film and it's handled well by first time helmer Im Chanik, giving plenty of attention to the performances. And that's probably where the film shines the brightest and Park Joonghoon and Lee Sungyoon both manage to play a good mix of serious and silly each and manage some good chemistry with each other. That mix of comic and serious that both actors bring, I think, is part of the reason that the film is able to manage the tonal shift and not fully lose the audience. I also have to mention that bit player Lee Wonhee steals his scenes as a man who's lost his mind and continues to turn himself into police for crimes he didn't commit.

I don't think that the switch from comedy to procedural is going to go over well with everyone and there is still quite some incongruity with the lighter comedic tone and the nature of the crimes, as well as the suddenly serious faced final act, but I appreciate that the film does stop to ask some questions about how seriously the police take their jobs and consider the victims of crimes. Unfortunately, the film doesn't seem to fully get the message itself and the tonal switch is evidence of that. Still, with strong performances and a mostly engaging setup, the film is still a fairly entertaining release from Chungmuro in 2011. 7/10.

Links:

• Additional Reviews: Modern Korean Cinema, Seen in Jeonju
• Available at YesAsia

Progress Report:Replay: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Extended Edition)

Revisiting movies that are part of the set

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I actually felt that The Two Towers proved to be an improvement from the first film in terms of nuance and presentation, although perhaps that might be due to the overall darker nature of the story, as is natural for the middle film of a continuous trilogy. Some of this is because The Two Towers doesn't contain as many highly overwrought moments as the initial film, but also a deeper exploration of characters, world and interest, as is natural to the building story.

Things are grim at the start of the The Two Towers: Gandalf (Ian McKellen) had sacrificed himself to defeat the balrog of the Mines of Moria, Boromir (Sean Bean) betrayed the Fellowship and was killed by the orcs, Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) left their companions to go to Mount Doom on their own, and Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd) were captured by the orcs. In the Two Towers we see the threat of both Sauron and his new ally, Saruman (Christopher Lee), grow to endanger the human kingdoms for Rohan and Gondor, swallowing the remaining members of the Fellowship. Meanwhile, Frodo and Sam capture Gollum (Andy Serkis) and are forced to entrust him to lead their journey into Mordor, but Gollum might turn out to be as tricksie as he claims the hobbits to be.

Again, the adaptation here fits well the film format, although the Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) and Arwen (Liv Tyler) romance still feels a touch extraneous, it's at least balanced by a fascination of Aragorn by the Rohan princess Eowyn (Miranda Otto). And while the writing is a little less broad as the first film, the film still manages to verge on the edge of silly at times, but I think it's as much a criticism about the directing as it is about the writing.

There are no moments to draw loud inappropriate laughter this time, although some are less interesting. Peter Jackson still continues to go for a rather broad approach to drama, which works well at times, like when the hobbits are interacting with the ents and the action sequences are still quite engaging. Still, some elements, like Galadrial's (Cate Blachett) brief moment in the film as well as the high drama that follows Aragon and the worg is still a little too forced (but still less forced than similar moments in Fellowship).

The Two Towers somehow makes a half-hour long battle sequence in an over three hour film interesting. Its pacing is strong and the film carries over many of the best traits of the first film, continuing an epic story. And by going deeper into the myth and the characters, the result is actually surprisingly satisfactory, especially as the film dials back on the emoting and lets the story tell itself more. 8/10.

While most of the additions in the extended edition mostly add color, there is a great character flashback added to further develop the late Boromir and his relationship to his brother, Faramir (David Wenham) and their relationship to their father, Denethor (John Noble), which helps explain a lot about Boromir as well as setting up for the third film.

Links:

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

Inbox: 헨젤과 그레텔

Reporting on movies I've recently acquired

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When I last watched Hansel & Gretel, I had to admit that even if the film was a bit unoriginal, Yim Pilsung did manage to impress with both the visuals and the atmosphere and avoided going down conventional horror routes. Having the visuals and atmosphere being one of the reasons to watch this film, it was only natural that I would upgrade to the Blu Ray version of the film that Tokyo Shock released.

I'm hoping that the added audio and visual detail from the Blu Ray will be a nice upgrade from the DVD for the next time I feel like watching this atmospheric fantasy horror.

Links:

• Available at Amazon (Blu Ray) and YesAsia (DVD)

Progress Report:Replay: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Extended Edition)

Revisiting movies that are parts of sets

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Let me get this straight before I get into this review: I love The Lord of the Rings. I even like the movies. But on this latest viewing of The Fellowship of the Ring, I have to say that the film has some weak spots, weak spots that had my laughing out of the overwrought seriousness of the film at multiple points throughout the over three hour extended edition. I didn't want to. I wanted to take the movie as serious as it was taking itself, but for all that the film does right in its adaptation, in its production and in the spectacle, the actual writing, directing and performances sometimes abandons any hint of subtlety and goes overboard, which becomes a bit incredulous to me. And yet, I still had a decent time with the movie.

The Fellowship of the Ring is the first third of the tale of the Lord of the Rings, documenting the passing of dark lord Sauron's ring from the hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm) to his nephew, Frodo (Elijah Wood), the subsequent flight from the ringwraiths and the quest of the fellowship, including four hobbits, two men, an elf, and a dwarf, to accompany Frodo as he takes the ring to be destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom, thereby vanquishing Sauron. Since it's merely the first of three parts, things don't go exactly as planned.

In adapting what is a much longer and richer story, I think the film makes good decisions in which elements to drop (for example, excising Tom Bombadil) and some of the changes don't make much of a difference, like the expansion of Arwen's (Liv Tyler) role in the story. On the other hand, the writing is a bit forced and blunt at times, integrating in Aragorn (Viggo Mortenson) and Arwen's love story, which is a bit stilted and adds little to the picture. But sometimes, like during the argument at the Council of Elrond, the dialog just gets silly.

One thing that I really like about The Lord of the Rings films is the production and artwork. The movies simply look fantastic and visually really capture the fantastic world suggested by Tolkien's books. That said, and I hate to say this, but I found Peter Jackson's direction a bit too heavy handed at times, causing me to crack up at a few points where I was obviously supposed to be terrified (Galadriel's (Cate Blanchett) temptation for one), or saddened (the mopefest following Gandalf's (Ian McKellen) apparent death) and I found the whole of the Arwen-Aragorn romance to be dreadfully forced as well. At least the action sequences were fun.

And I'm not sure whether I should attribute some of that to the performances, or whether it's just overcooked directing and writing, but in those extreme moments, everything just becomes too obvious, hammering on me to feel whatever it is that the scene is trying to express, the score working overtime with the extended shots of hobbits, elves, dwarfs and men emoting sadness or fear. So it's precisely in those moments of excess (and a few more excessive artistic decisions, like goblins Spider-manning down from the ceiling in the Mines of Moria) that the film teeters into laughable.

Strangely enough, and maybe because of the grandness of the attempt and my love for the source material, I still rather enjoyed my latest look at the film versions of what remains one of my favorite reads of all time. But unlike the wide-eyed wonder with which I appreciated The Fellowship of the Rings the first time in the theater, I can't help but finding myself guffawing at the sometimes laughable attempts by the film to emote what's happening with the characters. It's still a good time, but I have to admit that my fondness for the books makes me more open to its occasional hyper-theatrics. 8/10.

The extended edition adds a lot of additional material to the movie, mostly fleshing out the world and the adventures. Some of these additions will be particularly enjoyable to fans of the books as it restored added detail from the books. Another group of scenes adds in a subplot expanding on Aragorn's character and his reluctance to join his fellow humans at Gondor. And some final scenes for the fanboys expand the action sequences a little. I will actually say that I don't think the extended edition of Lord of the Rings is necessary at all for casual fans and is really more for deep fans of the books and the movies.

Links:

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

Inbox: 세상에서 가장 아름다운 이별

New for me

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I picked up The Last Blossom because I had modestly enjoyed director Min Kyudong's 2005 film, All for Love, which, even if a bit slight in going for breadth over depth, had a nice positive energy flowing through it. The Last Blossom takes a different route and puts together a melodrama, one that is a little too unsubtle in its writing and the too obvious resulting manipulation is hit and miss, possibly creating as many guffaws as tears.

The story is wrapped around one of Korea's most popular melodrama cliches: terminal illness. That alone should be enough to get you to reach for your handkerchief, but in this case, the recipient of cancer is Kim Inhee (Bae Jongok), long-suffering and seemingly perfect housewife to inexpressive doctor Jung Chul (Kim Gabsoo), mother to Yeonsoo (Park Hasun), a young professional who is having an affair with a married man, and Jeongsoo (Ryu Dukhwan), a lazy high school graduate who might have impregnated his girlfriend. Oh, and she takes up the task of the faithful daughter-in-law and is the primary caretaker of her senile and child-like mother-in-law (Kim Jiyoung). And then cancer strikes and has an impact on everyone.

One of the core issues that take the wind out of the film's sails is quite simply that the protagonist is simply just too perfect. She has few flaws and demonstrates inordinate patience and compassion, especially for her violent and temperamental mother-in-law and so, heartbreaking as it is that she's going to die, she never displays any weakness other than what you might expect from mortality and even then is probably still too perfect. This might not be a problem in itself, but that it is simply that she's sick that changes all the people around her with a realization of who she is their lives is just a really thin motivator of character development.

What's more, every single tearjerking moment in the film is rather expected and seemingly ladled out carefully by plot contrivance of doctor Jung keeping the news secret to himself and only slowly sharing it with his family, which just makes everything feel pretty contrived. On the other hand, it's terminal illness: it simply works to yank tears out of eyes, but I couldn't help laughing in disbelief while also being sad about those sad moments. All this means that The Last Blossom is still capable of creating emotion, but because of the flatness of the characters and their development, it rings fairly hollow in the end, despite a feel good attempt.

In terms of direction, it's hard to separate from the heavy-handed script, as the film takes pains to draw out Inhee's suffering, contrasting it with her seeming perfection. I will say that the cinematography on the film leaves something to be desired, frequently flattening images and making the film seem surprisingly roughshod in moments, although this might be the result of a poor DVD transfer. Also, it's easy to see that the actors are limited by their relatively flat tear-bucket characters and while sparks of inner conflict show up for everyone, only the vitriolic brother (Yoo Joonsang) and sister-in-law (Seo Younghee) seem to be having any fun in their roles.

All the same, I have to respect The Last Blossom's single-minded focus on wrenching tears out of eyes and its willingness to not over-complicate the tragedy, although the grandmother character is just a little too over-the-top at times, which really highlights just how idealized a character Inhee is. Still, the contrived premise combined with thin characters and the obviousness in which the story is manipulated for maximum sadness makes the film difficult to swallow for anyone that likes a measure of subtlety or nuance in their cinema. That said, I think those looking for a tearjerker will still find what they're looking for with The Last Blossom and I can't hate the film for giving its intended audience exactly what it's looking for. 5/10.

Links:

• Available at YesAsia

Seen: 借りぐらしのアリエッティ

Reporting on the movies I see

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I have to admit that I was disconcerted throughout my entire watching of The Secret World of Arrietty because of the dub; not that it was especially bad, but because I'm just not used to hearing anything but Japanese associated with Studio Ghibli's animations. And while it was a continual distraction for me, it didn't detract from the overall fine animated effort that was Arrietty, which manages to instill a lot of the gentle, optimistic spirit of Studio Ghibli into the classic English children's story.

The classic story is Mary Norton's The Borrowers, a story of really little people that dwell in a regular human beings' houses in secret and "borrow" items as needed. This particular story is about the Clocks and Arrietty (Bridgit Mendler) is a headstrong teenager looking forward to her first borrowing. When her father, Pod (Will Arnett), decides to take her on her first borrowing, she's caught red-handed by Shawn (David Henrie), a boy with a heart condition who has recently moved into the house. Shawn proves to mean Arrietty no harm, as his family has a history with borrowers, but his well-meaning, if naive attempts to help the borrows leads to the nosy housekeeper, Haru (Carol Burnett), becoming suspicious of Shawn's behavior and the little things that go missing in the house.

The story, adapted from the book, is simple, but effective and ends on a bittersweet note, which is a rarity in modern family films, although apparently the US dub goes as far as to tack on a slightly happier ending via voiceover than the other versons. That said, I did feel like the antagonist of Haru wasn't properly motivated and I kept wondering why it is that she's doing what she's doing. It would be one thing if the film introduced a backstory where she had already suspected the borrowers before Shawn's appearance, but as it's presented in the film, she ends up seeming unbelievably crazy. And that's my only real major criticism of the story.

As for the art and animation, it's everything you'd expect from the famed studio, with gorgeous attention to detail, even in the way that liquids are animated in scale. The studio's character designs are also immediately apparent and there should be little to no questions that this is a Studio Ghibli film while watching it. On the other hand, the US dub felt a bit spacey and flat, especially in the recording and the mix, which simply felt too clean. It wasn't entirely unconvincing, but didn't always line up well with the energy in the scene of the animation, and left me wanting. Perhaps the UK dub or the Japanese original is more convincing.

But that's certainly not enough of a problem to mar Arrietty, which has the double distinction of a modest, but enjoyable story, and lush, gorgeous art and animation. In that way, it does effectively carry the tradition of Studio Ghibli's smaller scale stories like My Neighbor Totoro while also bringing a frequently cherished children's story to life. And that makes me glad to see that Studio Ghibli is back. 8/10.

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Inbox: 내머리속의 지우개

New for me

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I ended up having mixed feelings about A Moment to Remember when the credits rolled. The movie is long. Needlessly long and because of it, boring at times, especially in the first act of the film. Furthermore, it's a little manipulative and forced once it starts making an impact almost halfway into the film. And, yet, like a well crafted melodrama machine, it still manages to have its semi-cathartic impact, even if it drags itself out to reach it.

The premise is pretty simple: girl, Soojin (Son Yejin), meets boy, Chulsoo (Jung Woosung). They get together, get married, and live happily, but not ever after because girl discovers she has Alzheimer's and is going to forget everything. That's the whole plot.

The film somehow manages to spend almost a third of its two and a half hour running time on the romance between the two and suffers greatly for it. While I don't mind a little romance montage, the reason why most films opt to montage it is because it's simply not that interesting because it lacks conflict. We are treated to so much happy-good-times with barely a moment of conflict that it's easy to stop caring. The film gets better when we move into the serious part of the relationship and they get married, because then there's some conflict, especially with Chulsoo's reluctance to get married, then the fact that he's a subordinate of Soojin's father's, among other things, but a lot of times the resolutions to these conflicts feel pat sucking the story dry of genuine character development.

What did work with A Moment to Remember, and in part because of the time that the film took, is how Chulsoo comes to reflect on his relationship with Soojin and the way it changed him (cheap and pat as the moments were rendered in the film), as well as the moments where both Soojin and Chulsoo grapple with the revelation of her disease and its growing impact. It's all pretty manipulative and contrived, and one moment, where Soojin's ex drops by their home, goes outside the boundaries of belief, but, it still does what it intended to do. And, thanks to the film's lighter touch on the melodrama and willingness to just spend time with the characters, it doesn't feel as insulting as A Millionaire's First Love's approach to the same manipulation.

And as much as the story needed serious trimming and genuine, character-driven conflict, resolution and development, John H. Lee's direction of the various scenes was still pretty good, occasionally playing with stylistic flourishes like camera zooms and wide angle lenses, but mostly working with the cinematographer to shoot the film in a fairly realistic and warm way. And it looks gorgeous as a result. Likewise, the leads also play a big role in preventing the melodrama from descending into a cascade of narm by giving a lot of life to their characters.

And the latter qualities helped make A Moment to Remember a survivable watch, certainly perhaps the kind of film that those who appreciate their emotionally moving melodramas will like, although the thin and contrived nature of the story will probably leave others wary, even if possibly still affected. Even as my brain was telling me that the moments were definitely manufactured to make me reach for tissues, some of the moments in the film still left me getting watery-eyed, which is a testament to some degree of consideration in both the direction and performances. Unfortunately, the film is also full of moments that bored me and made me slap my forehead in disbelief. And so A Moment to Remember didn't quite live up to its title for me. 6/10.

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