Shin-ae just moved to Milyang, a place her new friend Jong says is just like any other. Self proclaimed new friend I must say, since he pretty much starts stalking her from the minute he meets her. Well, it might be a place like any other, but not for Shin-ae. Because when her little boy goes missing, her life really takes a turn for the worse (again).
I promise you to bring a more light hearted Asian movie next week, but for now I have a movie as or even more dramatic than last week.
I've now seen two movies of director Lee Chang-dong and both are about people with some major trauma. He's a director who must have had some pretty difficult times himself, capturing this troubled people in such an intelligent way.
You can describe this movie as the search for some 'simple' peace. Shin-ae tries being angry, believing in God and just going nuts. And meanwhile, all Jong thinks about is getting into Shin-ae's pants. Which doesn't actually make this as dramatic as I promised. A rather strange, but unique combination.
Two teenage girls run a prostitution ‘business’ together. One makes the appointments and the other does the job. But when she gets into a fatal accident, the other one goes from making the appointments to doing the actual job. Then, one day, her father finds out and he’s out for revenge.
There are a number of things I like about Kim Ki-duk. First of all, he's a great and intelligent writer. The characters he creates are always interesting and unusual. But also his direction. He is always creating beautiful scenes like in 'Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring.' Always looking for something different, a different perspective as you might say. Sometimes in metaphors and sometimes in dialogs or acting.
Samaria is just like it. Unusual and beautiful pictures, like the one on top, combined with the story about a girl, who does this crazy thing to get in the mind of her girlfriend. But Kim Ki-duk always pulls it off and keeps it convincing. Well, always, I might say he learned, since 'Address Unknown' (2001) wasn't his best effort.
Unfortunately, it has been a while since I saw this movie. But I'm planning on seeing it again soon. As I said, his movies impress on many levels, which makes it worth rewatching. Shannon is mostly not into serious Asian cinema, but I think even she quite enjoyed this Korean drama.
As if the tension between North and South-Korea wasn’t big enough, a firefight takes place in the DMZ (De-Militarized Zone) and two North Korean soldiers get killed. As expected, both camps have their own story. The South claims one of their people got kidnapped and the North says they were ambushed by the South. But there’s something not right about both stories. And soon a neutral inspector finds out the people involved have more history than they admit.
Music video:
I recently saw this movie because of the director Park Chan-wook. Since he has directed some other impressive pieces like Oldboy, I was interested in his earlier works. Little did I know this was the highest grossing film in Korean movie history in 2000.
The story takes place after the incident, using flashbacks to tell the story. I was initially put off by the neutral inspectors, who mostly speak English. It was like those war movies, where the German soldiers speak English with a German accent. Not convincing at all. I almost turned it off, thinking it was some kind of Korean B-movie. Some directors need time to develop and maybe this was one of them. But luckily I didn't. Because when the story turns to the real incident, the director brilliantly pulls you into the story.
It's a story about a friendship the society doesn't approve of. It ultimately shows how the people fighting the war have nothing against each other. But how they get forced to. It would be interesting to know how many friendships actually took place between different camps in time of war. Or is it just the magic of cinema that can make it happen?
When Young-su realizes his alcoholism is getting seriously out of hand, he moves to a sanatorium to treat his illness. Forgetting his partying lifestyle, he meets a girl and they eventually decide to move to a quiet place together. But the longer Young-su lives in this deserted place, the more he starts to long for his earlier life.
Underneath you can find not only the trailer, but also the music video and the music edited making of!
Korean dramas, or maybe I should call them romances, always attract me more than the Hollywood type. Some fall into the same general love story clichés. But quite a few are really exceptional for their genre.
They don't shy away from taking a different dramatic direction. They even purposely take this route I think. Which mostly takes them much deeper than your average Hollywood story. It makes you connect. Where with another Hollywood story, you would leave the cinema thinking about the popcorn that was exceptionally tasty this time around.
Happiness starts as a sweet and interesting story about two totally different people, who happen to be at the same place at the right time. But it develops into a journey about life's choices. A lot of people have the dream of living a quiet live, in the middle of nowhere with their loved one. But is it enough? Will it satisfy you? Or do we prefer the life of a teenager. Partying and barhopping, while puking our guts out the day after. Where do we find our happiness?
It was one of those exiting days. At that time, I was one of those nerdy collectors (now I’m just nerdy). From Japan, one of the crowns on my DVD gift set collection would come in. The Spirited Away Limited Collector’s Edition. Numbered and everything! Little did I know, I would sell it the following year. But that’s a whole nother story.
As Spirited Away was one of the best rated movies last month, this is a small update on the movie. Not only was Spirited Away a box office success, it was also a big commercial success after the movie left the theater. Particularly in Japan, merchandise was all over the place.
Here's a promo/featurette, with some quite enthusiastic people:
(the audio got a little screwed on this one, sorry for that)
And this is a video of Miyazaki drawing, followed by a great music trailer:
At this point, if you haven't seen this movie yet, the time to at least rent it has come. Read our impression or click "see the results". Only Japanohaters don't like this movie. Are you a Japanohater?
