Movies
I've been on a small movie renting spree this month, after a Blockbuster card allowing you to rent as many movies as you want for cheaper cost until the end of April came in the mail. There was nothing new I wanted to see, so I took the opportunity to rent some of the recommended Asian horror.
My favorite was a Chinese film called Koma. The second Asian movie I've seen that deals in some way with organ theft (makes me wonder if it isn't a real problem over there). Almost every scene in that movie has long since become a cliche in suspense films (like the final showdown in the big dark empty building, to cite just one example), but yet all those cliched scenes were done well or better than I've ever seen them done before. The story doesn't hold any actual surprises, it sets things up a certain way in the beginning and by the end you realize everything was what it initially looked like it was; but that's okay since the story is really about those two women (and that one jackass guy, I was never sure if the movie wanted me to like him or not), who they are and where they come from, and how they interact with each other. In that respect I found the movie fascinating.
Then I saw A Tale of Two Sisters, this very strange Korean movie that did have some very big plot twists, actually I had to watch the movie twice before I could really understand any of it. Still it left me with some unanswered questions (like what exactly was that woman's motive in the final scene, and was the house ever really haunted, although I suppose that doesn't matter very much). I do understand why so many people liked it, it is a well acted and definitely a beautiful looking movie, the plot twists were pretty good ones and I appreciate any movie that leaves me a little stumped first time through. Still it was a little slow getting to the point and doesn't have a lot of replay value for me; good movie, but not the kind you want to watch a thousand times.
Lastly I got Three Extremes 2 (actually Three Extremes is the sequel to this movie, originally called Three, but which was never released in the US until after Three Extremes was, so thus it was released here as the sequel to its sequel). I didn't enjoy this movie as much as I was hoping I would. The first film, Memories, was directed by the same man who did A Tale of Two Sisters and it played pretty much the same way, a lot of weirdness with a sudden shocking plot twist followed by a short series of flashbacks at the very end to explain what just happened. For all that successful (if slow) strangeness in the beginning, the eventual explanation was pretty typical and so it was sort of a let down for me. I don't know what the hell to make of that Japanese film The Wheel about a cursed puppet, everyone dying, possessed children, insanity, etc. I did get into the Chinese movie Going Home, with the man keeping his dead wife in a small apartment, bathing her in Chinese herbs believing that this will revive her within three years. I find that I'm enjoying stories of human depravity more than those of supernatural phenomena, which is why I liked Three Extremes better.
The rest of the family had rented Brokeback Mountain, which I had considered watching while it was in the house, just for the sake of having seen it. I decided to pass after hearing the reviews; everyone thought it was boring, even my mother who loves that sad, sappy romantic shit. I think everything that woman watches is boring, so if she was bored there was simply no way I could've sat through it.
This will probably be the end of my movie watching for quite some time. The only thing out I want to see now is Hard Candy, I'm hoping to find an AMC theater near by playing it (since I have $30 in gift certificates and I really ought to use them).
My favorite was a Chinese film called Koma. The second Asian movie I've seen that deals in some way with organ theft (makes me wonder if it isn't a real problem over there). Almost every scene in that movie has long since become a cliche in suspense films (like the final showdown in the big dark empty building, to cite just one example), but yet all those cliched scenes were done well or better than I've ever seen them done before. The story doesn't hold any actual surprises, it sets things up a certain way in the beginning and by the end you realize everything was what it initially looked like it was; but that's okay since the story is really about those two women (and that one jackass guy, I was never sure if the movie wanted me to like him or not), who they are and where they come from, and how they interact with each other. In that respect I found the movie fascinating.
Then I saw A Tale of Two Sisters, this very strange Korean movie that did have some very big plot twists, actually I had to watch the movie twice before I could really understand any of it. Still it left me with some unanswered questions (like what exactly was that woman's motive in the final scene, and was the house ever really haunted, although I suppose that doesn't matter very much). I do understand why so many people liked it, it is a well acted and definitely a beautiful looking movie, the plot twists were pretty good ones and I appreciate any movie that leaves me a little stumped first time through. Still it was a little slow getting to the point and doesn't have a lot of replay value for me; good movie, but not the kind you want to watch a thousand times.
Lastly I got Three Extremes 2 (actually Three Extremes is the sequel to this movie, originally called Three, but which was never released in the US until after Three Extremes was, so thus it was released here as the sequel to its sequel). I didn't enjoy this movie as much as I was hoping I would. The first film, Memories, was directed by the same man who did A Tale of Two Sisters and it played pretty much the same way, a lot of weirdness with a sudden shocking plot twist followed by a short series of flashbacks at the very end to explain what just happened. For all that successful (if slow) strangeness in the beginning, the eventual explanation was pretty typical and so it was sort of a let down for me. I don't know what the hell to make of that Japanese film The Wheel about a cursed puppet, everyone dying, possessed children, insanity, etc. I did get into the Chinese movie Going Home, with the man keeping his dead wife in a small apartment, bathing her in Chinese herbs believing that this will revive her within three years. I find that I'm enjoying stories of human depravity more than those of supernatural phenomena, which is why I liked Three Extremes better.
The rest of the family had rented Brokeback Mountain, which I had considered watching while it was in the house, just for the sake of having seen it. I decided to pass after hearing the reviews; everyone thought it was boring, even my mother who loves that sad, sappy romantic shit. I think everything that woman watches is boring, so if she was bored there was simply no way I could've sat through it.
This will probably be the end of my movie watching for quite some time. The only thing out I want to see now is Hard Candy, I'm hoping to find an AMC theater near by playing it (since I have $30 in gift certificates and I really ought to use them).