[Movie 2010] I Saw The Devil, 악마를 보았다

[rubie]

September 20, 2010

I Saw the Devil

By ROB NELSON Variety

A Magnet Releasing (in U.S.) release of a Softbank Ventures Korea, Showbox/MediaPlex presentation of a Peppermint & Co. production, in association with Siz Entertainment. Produced by Kim Hyun-woo. Executive producers, Greg Moon, Jeong Hun-you. Co-executive producers, Suh Youngjoo, Moon Jae-sik, Cheong Kee-young, Kang Yeong-shin, Kim Kil-soo, Bryan Song, Il Hyung-cho, Kim Byung-ki. Co-producer, Jo Seong-won. Directed by Kim Jee-woon. Screenplay, Park Hoon-jung.

With: Lee Byung-hun, Choi Min-sik, Oh San-ha, Chun Kook-haun, Chun Ho-jin, Kim Yoon-seo, Choi Moo-seong, Kim In-seo.

An unflinching gaze into the heart of pure evil and a perverse genre entertainment par excellence, Kim Jee-woon's "I Saw the Devil" takes the serial-killer thriller as far into the realm of pulse-pounding mayhem as it has ever gone. When a pregnant young woman is brutally murdered by a hammer-wielding maniac, her special-agent b.f., Joo-yeon (Lee Byung-hun), goes on a rampage, stalking the killer as ruthlessly as any psycho. (" … And He Is Me" could be the pic's subtitle.) Kim has battled the censors in South Korea and lost, but Magnet Releasing will issue the director's cut Stateside.

A bona fide cult film, "I Saw the Devil" might well create a minor sensation among genre fans who dare each other to see it. Repugnant content, grislier than the ugliest torture porn, ought to have made the film unwatchable, but it doesn't, simply because Kim's pic is so beautifully filmed, carefully structured and viscerally engaging.

Near the start of the film, a kid finds a severed ear in a field beside a bridge in Seoul, leading detectives to discover a head floating in the water. The deceased was not only Joo-yeon's g.f., but the daughter of a retired police chief, which gives the case added importance among the city's cops. Mournful Joo-yeon announces he's taking two weeks off from his duties at the National Intelligence Service, although it soon becomes clear he's not going on vacation. Acquiring a short list of suspects, Joo-yeon beats the first two senseless, then finds his man in No. 3.

The killer, Kyung-chul (Choi Min-sik), who works part-time as a school bus driver (yuck), goes toe-to-toe with Joo-yeon in a botanical-garden setpiece that aims to pump up the viewer's bloodlust. Turns out the avenging Joo-yeon is a serious badass with martial-arts moves aplenty, although he curiously leaves Kyung-chul alive, throwing him into an open grave along with, outrageously, a wad of cash. Joo-yeon wants his nemesis to feel as much pain as possible before dying, and makes him swallow a GPS-tracking pill with a tiny microphone attached in order to follow his every move.

"I Saw the Devil" is somewhat akin to Michael Winterbottom's "The Killer Inside Me" in its level of brutality and proximity to the murderer's psychology. Kim follows Kyung-chul's actions so closely -- as he washes his bloody face in a creek after a wicked slaughter, for instance -- that we catch ourselves feeling some shade of identification with, if not sympathy for, the devil.

More deliberately, Kim seems to borrow elements of the most disturbingly provocative American horror from the early '70s -- namely Wes Craven's "The Last House on the Left" and Tobe Hooper's "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre." Craven's method of making the audience gag on its taste for revenge is duplicated here, as Joo-yeon gradually turns from justly motivated hero into full-fledged sadist. Joo-yeon cuts the killer's tendon and lets him loose again, the better to play out his twisted cat-and-mouse games.

"I Saw the Devil" sports a lot of philosophical talk -- too much, perhaps -- about the problematic irony of becoming a monster in order to catch one. Kim's stronger tack is purely visual, turning the movie's urban landscape into a projection of the characters' sick fantasies, wherein they drive against incoming traffic and beat each other to a pulp but still survive, as if they're robotic terminators. As murderer and avenger issue ultraviolent taunts with a strange hint of empathy for one another, the movie achieves a kind of ludicrous poignancy unmatched in the two decades since John Woo's "The Killer."

The actors -- Choi from "Oldboy" and Lee from Kim's "The Good the Bad the Weird" -- make their characters differently aggressive, but equally watchable. Cinematographer Lee Mogae composes the film largely in darkness, as befits the pitch-black material, but colors pop out vividly nonetheless.

Even with its occasional flashes of dark humor, Kim's pic is obviously not for all tastes. But art-film lovers with strong stomachs will want to see what the fuss is about, while fans of hardcore Asian action and horror will simply eat it up.

[rubie]

December 14, 2011

Guest Post: “We Saw the Devil..”

BY STEWART SUTHERLAND – hnewkoreancinema.com

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Stewart Sutherland of Podcast on Fire..

Source: rodolforever.deviantart.com

‘Korean revenge thrillers’ probably bring one name to mind – Park Chan-wook. Park’s Vengeance trilogy shook the world and for many years the genre has been his, although experimental “genre master” director Kim Jee-woon introduced the world to his take on the modern revenge thriller with I Saw The Devil, which turned out so shocking it was at risk of receiving “Restricted” rating, preventing any sort of release in theatres or on home video in its home country. So the big question is what the hell is it about?

Korean screen icon Choi Min-sik portrays the embodiment of pure evil that is Kyung-chul, the killer without a cause! On one snowy night he finds and murders his latest victim, Ju-yeon. the daughter of a retired police captain and the loving fiancé of a extremely dangerous federal agent named Soo-hyun.

Source: listal.com

Award winning actor and style icon Lee Byung-hun plays Soo-hyun, after the distressing events revolving around the murder of his fiancé he takes a leave of absence from his post and concentrates on an investigation into finding the monster. Soo-hyun finally discovers Kyung-chul in the midst of another conquest; he beats Kyung-chul within an inch of his life and leaves him! Kyung-chul awakens battered and bruised, deciding to lead his life as if it’s his last day. Although, Soo-hyun begins haunting Kyung-chul on his trails, thoughtfully tracking and beating him, becoming Kyung-chuls own devil.

I Saw the Devil takes the Murder/Revenge story and portrays it in a blood soaked rollercoaster of emotions that sickens you, but at the same time leaves you begging for more. The violence in the movie is horrific, not to be compared in the same vein as the SAW franchise. It’s not ‘over the top’ grotesque – it’s startlingly real: you can’t help but wince, shudder and you can’t jam your eyes shut enough when the variety of mindless brutality takes place on the screen in front of you.

The music you will find is as powerful as many notable Park Chan-wook films. Composer “Mowg” (yes, Mowg) sets the tone with dark, enthralling tones, but still keeps a beat to it, never letting the adrenaline simmer. His music accompanies the violence making the impact twice as powerful – the intensity in some of the final stand-offs are amazing, the variety of different instruments and it working exceptionally well with Lee Byung-huns depth of expressions. This soundtrack is truly astonishing.

Kim Jee-woon initially caught my attention with A Bittersweet Life, the movie struck up a continuing interest with the director and leading actor Lee Byung-hun. The Good, the Bad, the Weird proved that this director can produce a stunning body of work.

Source: zimbio.com

In 1998 Kim’s debut film The Quiet Family was released well recognized by new audience, even to the length where famous Japanese director Takashi Miike remade the film, as The Happiness of the Katakuris back in 2001. Kims second feature jumps genre into a sports comedy revolving around Wrestling; The Foul King starring Song Kang-ho attracted over two million admissions.

Kim has also worked on two notable short movies, the first being Coming Out, the story of a brother video taping his sisters “confession”, although the confession they hear is not what they expected. Luckily for the United Kingdom we can see this 40 minute short as a special feature on the 2-disc edition of The Quiet Family. His second short movie is actually Kims participation in the horror movie Three, where three different Asian film directors direct their own horror segment. Hong Kong director Peter Chan directed ‘Going Home’ based on a story by fellow director Teddy Chen starring Eric Tsang and Leon Lai. Thai director Nonzee Nimibutr contributed with ‘The Wheel’. Kim Jee-woon’s short (written and directed) was called ‘Memories’ and starred Kim Hye-su and Jeong Bo-seok

Each film Kim Jee-woon directs always seems vastly different compared to the last, so one of the big questions is does he get it right in the first go?

Director Kevin Smith once quoted a conversation with Quentin Tarantino after he had finished filming Kill Bill - Tarantino said he had finally understood how to make the perfect Kung Fu movie. Smith said the same thing after directing his first horror movie; Red State. Kim Jee-woon doesn’t seem to need this “trial run” from the recognition he has received from films such The Good, the Bad, the Weird and A Tale of Two Sisters. I Saw the Devil is his stab (pun intended, yes) at that well recognized genre in Korea, the Revenge movie. With films such as Bong Joon-ho’s Memories of Murder, Na Hong-jin’s The Chaser and Park Chan-wook set the bench mark with the Revenge movies in the Vengeance trilogy, Oldboy being the staple of the series.

The performances from both leading actors in I Saw The Devil are stellar. Choi Min-sik manages to make this the performance of his career after returning from a four absence from film. His portrayal of cold remorseless killer is chilling, stunningly convincing and award worthy – this man needs to be showered with recognition! Choi’s characters’ appearance eerily channels Robert De Niro’s character Max Cady from 1991s Cape Fear: the crazed persona, the subtle dress sense. When interviewed Kim stated that they gathered research through a book that Francois Truffaut and Alfred Hitchcock talked about films from the horror and thriller genres, and how they portrayed devilish characters.

The first time Choi Min-sik caught my attention was through the insane response to his starring role in 2003′s OldBoy from director Park Chan-wook. Choi started his career acting in theatre and he appeared in a few lesser known films such as Our Twisted Hero and Kuro Arirang. It wasn’t until 1998 when début director Kim Jee-woon cast Choi Min-sik as the leading characters brother in The Quiet Family starring alongside Park In-hwan and Song Kang-ho that Choi’s popularity sky rocketed leading him into starring roles such as the villain in Shiri – Korea’s first attempt at a Hollywood-style action blockbuster which broke Korean Box Office records.

Credits: listal.com

My personal recommendations would have to be his roles in both OldBoy as the great Oh Dae-su and his role as the English teacher Mr. Baek in the beautiful Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. One of Choi’s most notable starring roles outside of revenge thrillers is his role as Gang Tae-shik a silver medallist boxer who has turned into a human punch bag after dealing with debt collectors and a failed marriage in Ryu Seung-wan’s Crying Fist.

In I Saw The Devil Lee Byung-hun almost channels his persona from the great A Bittersweet Life and the incredible physical strength and skill of his character Storm Shadow in G.I. Joe! Yes, I’ve referenced G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Lee shows incredible acting depth in the simplest distance stares, this actor can change a mood of a scene just by moving his eyes, it’s incredible.

Lee Byung-hun started his career by starring in Korean television dramas, but it wasn’t until his starring role in Park Chan-wooks incredible achievement Joint Security Area starring alongside Lee Young-ae and Song Kang-ho. One of Lee’s strongest dramas is Addicted from 2002 and directed by Park Young-hoon. Addicted follows the story of two brothers who end up in two separate car accidents leaving the older brother in a coma, while the younger brother (Lee Byung-hun) is left to comfort his elders wife. It’s a powerful drama which even earned an American remake titled, Possession, which was released in 2009 starring Sarah Michelle Gellar and Lee Pace.

Lee’s first movie with Kim Jee-woon is the stunning noir mobster film A Bittersweet Life which gained both men world recognition from the 2005 Cannes Film Festival and led Lee onto winning three Best Actor awards from different award ceremonies across South Korea. In A Bittersweet Life bitter Gangland boss, Mr. Kang (played by Kim Yeoung-cheol in his first film for fourteen years) has suspicions that his girlfriend is cheating on him. He sends his right hand man Sun-woo (Lee) to “sort out” this problem. But when he finds the girl with another man Sun-woo doesn’t kill them. This ticks off the gang boss and now Sun-woo finds out the he now has to fight against the mob as well as Mr. Kang!

As you could expect A Bittersweet Life was my favourite film starring Lee also on par with G.I. Joe. Okay, no I’m sorry, just kidding – Lee’s A Bittersweet Life performance is on par with his role as deadly outlaw / hitman “The Bad” Park Chang-yi, in The Good, the Bad, the Weird. Co-starring with Jung Woo-sung as sharp shooting bounty hunter “The Good” Park Do-won and of course the lovable Song Kang-ho takes upon the role of oddball thief Yoon Tae-goo alias; “The Weird”.

Source: geckomovies.com

Lee Byung-Hun then appeared on screen across the world in the most unlikely movie franchise: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra . Lee took the role of the villain Storm Shadow across from Channing Tatum, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marlon Wayans. The movie looked cringe-worthy, but must have struck a cord with its audience as a sequel is currently in development. The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Lee will return reprising his role starring alongside addition cast members; Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Bruce Willis.

I have to admit that Lee’s role in I Saw the Devil has become a strong favourite, that is until G.I. Joe 2 comes out next year! Okay, no more Joe jokes! I promise.

Other supporting actors in A Saw The Devil include Soo-hyuns fiancé Je-yeon, played by Oh San-ha. Devil is Oh’s first film, but she has worked with the biggest of four major Korean television networks; KBS on TV Dramas such as Magic Fighter Mir & Gaon and Salmon Dream. Oh’s on screen father is played by Jeon Gook-haun – who will most recently be known for his role as Shadow in 2010s Secret Reunion starring Song Kang-ho and directed by Jang Hun. Jeon’s character Jang is a retired captain of the violent crimes section who uses his connections to provide files on suspects to help Soo-hyun. Jang also has a younger on-screen daughter played by Kim Yoon-seo – another actress who started Korean Dramas such as Tamara, the Island and this year in SBS’s Korean drama Poseidon. Killer Kyung-chul even has a friend in this film, “an old hunting buddy” by the name of Tae-ju and played by Choi Moo-seong, a bit part actor who has appeared in various films such The Servant and Missing Person back in 2008.

I Saw The Devil has taken everything and everyone to a higher level; Choi Min-sik’s performance shows that he has broken away from his OldBoy persona and Lee Byung-hun has surpassed his terrific performance in A Bittersweet Life. Kim Jee-woon, who seems to only make one movie in each genre, I would love to see how you could expect to out-do yourself in the Revenge thriller.

The most notable piece of controversy surrounding the film was the producers originally releasing the film with an 18+ Rating, the highest rating to films approved for public release in Korea, here based on “humanitarian grounds”. Minor edits were made and they sent it back for another rating and on the second verdict the film was rated for a Limited Screening only in Adult Theatres showing “Adult Films” however at this time there was no ‘Adult’ Theatres in South Korea! Essentially this meant that the movie was banned from a cinema and video release in its home country. The film eventually saw its initial release after final edit removing 80-90 seconds.

To confirm what scenes have been cut out between versions is very difficult to tell – according to several different Festival reviews certain scenes were cut out and restored in different countries. The version of the film played in Korean Cinemas apparently had scenes of body parts being eaten by a dog and humans, as well as more scenes of a human body being mutilated. The US release had violent scenes reinstated, but a rape scene was removed. Whilst certain sources (online message boards) claim (again, message boards) that the films screening at the 2010 Toronto International Film was uncut, yet Kim Jee-woon was quoted in an interview saying that the film was rated ’14′ in Canada! At this point who can really tell anymore!?

Ever since Kim released A Bittersweet Life, he has become one of those festival film makers: you know when ever he releases a movies as you’ll see at Sundance, Cannes, Glasgow, Edinburgh, London, Toronto, festivals the world over. I Saw the Devil followed in this same path.

Source: covershut.com

In the United Kingdom, the British premiere of I Saw the Devil was on November 6th at the 2010 London Korean International Film Festival. Played alongside The Man from Nowhere, both films were shown at the prestigious Odeon Cinema in London’s West end. Kim Jee-woon attended the premiere in person and after the showing he took part in a Q & A session with the sold-out audience. When asked in an interview Kim revealed that the version of the film playing at this Festival was partially restored at parts that were missing from the South Korean release, but also revealed that he made some minor edits in order to improve the films pacing.

Following the London Korean film Festival screening, I Saw The Devil was shown at the Glasgow Film Festival as part of their Film4 Fright Fest line-up on Friday 25th February alongside Little Deaths – a three part horror film from three different British horror directors (possibly similar to Three / Three Extreme films?) and Mark Hartley’s documentary Machete Maidens Unleashed!

Outside the Festival scene, I Saw the Devil had a selected cinema in the US handled by Magnet / Magnolia Pictures who released it over 20 different cinemas back in early March 2011. Magnolia Pictures previously released Bong Joon-ho’s crime thriller Mother and John Woo’s period epic Red Cliff. Magnet released a DVD and Blu-Ray set in May and special features on both formats include; “Deleted Scenes” and a Making Of Doc titled; Raw and Rough: Behind the Scenes of I Saw The Devil. I do have to admit that the DVD / Blu-ray artwork for the US Release is awesome: it has Lee Byung-Hun staring with a silhouette of a large kitchen knife covering the right side of his face, in the silhouette though is the right-hand side Choi Min-Siks face in a demonic red light.

Online two different movie posters were released – the first is our leads staring through a shower of blood with the title frantically scratched across. Effective, yes. The second poster shows Choi Min-sik standing in the snow with the bloody axe beside his yellow van, although the from the waist up he is hidden by the snowy darkness. The text on this particular poster resembles The Social Network’s “You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies”, replaced with the slim-lined text conveying the films title as well as it’s leading cast and the eerie tagline “EVIL LIVES INSIDE”.

The United Kingdom had a limited cinema run of I Saw The Devil on April 29th by Optimum Releasing and was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on May 9th 2011. Both DVD and Blu-Ray come with Directors Commentary, ‘Making Of’ (roughly 18 minutes), an Interview Gallery w/ the director and the two leads (clocks in at 20 minutes) and a trailer gallery. The UK-based distributor (now renamed StudioCanal Ltd) previously released Bong Joon-ho’s mutant thrill ride The Host and has recently distributed the creature feature Chaw.

Now isn’t it about time you See the Devil? Or at least Rent him?

[rubie]

I Saw The Devil 2010 Blu Ray Front Cover

Source: covershut.com

[rubie]

December 23, 2011

Total Film: Top 10 Films Of 2011

Find out our picks of the year

By Total Film totalfilm.com, highlight at Nate

By Sam Ashurst (Deputy Digital Editor)

1. Kill List

“Bleak, eerie and utterly weird - and, like all truly great horror films, totally in sync with our times. Kill List wasn't just the best cult flick of the year, it could end up being the best terror tale of the decade.”

2. Animal Kingdom

3. 13 Assassins

4. I Saw The Devil

5. The Tree Of Life

6. Snowtown

7. I Spit On Your Grave

8. The Guard

9. Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes

10. Rubber

Honourable mentions:

1. Blue Valentine

2. Lake Mungo

3. Never Let Me Go

4. X-Men: First Class

5. Warrior

6. 50/50

7. Paranormal Activity 3

8. Captain America

9. Super 8

10. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

2012 Top Ten Predictions:

1. The Dark Knight Rises

2. Django Unchained

3. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

4. Prometheus

5. The Avengers

6. The Inkeepers

7. The Amazing Spider-Man

8. Chronicle

9. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D

10. Halloween 3D

[rubie]

December 29, 2011

I SAW THE DEVIL: Austin Film Critics’ Biggest Surprise Winner

Steve Montgomery altfg.com l Austin Film Critics

Lee Byung-hun, I Saw the Devil

This year, the Austin Film Critics went for some unusual — though not exactly "surprising" — choices. Well, with one exception: Jee-woon Kim's revenge thriller I Saw the Devil, their Best Foreign Language Film. To date, US-based critics have gone instead for Pedro Almodóvar's The Skin I Live In, Asghar Farhadi's A Separation, or Takashi Miike's 13 Assassins. Earlier this year, I Saw the Devil, about a young man (Lee Byung-hun) out to avenge the murder of his pregnant wife, won an Asian Film Award for Best Editing. [Full list of Austin Film Critics winners.]

Best Film

Hugo, directed by Martin Scorsese

Top Ten Films

(runners-up)

Drive by Nicolas Winding Ref

Take Shelter by Jeff Nichols

Midnight in Paris by Woody Allen

Attack the Block by Joe Cornish

The Artist by Michel Hazanavicius

Martha Marcy May Marlene by Sean Durkin

I Saw the Devil by Jee-woon Kim

13 Assassins by Takashi Miike

Melancholia by Lars von Trier

Best Foreign Language Film

I Saw the Devil, South Korea, directed by Jee-woon Kim

Best Director

Nicolas Winding Refn, Drive

Best Actor

Michael Shannon, Take Shelter

Best Actress

Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin

Best Supporting Actor

Albert Brooks, Drive

Best Supporting Actress

Jessica Chastain, Take Shelter

Best Original Screenplay

Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen

Best Adapted Screenplay

Drive, Hossein Amini

Best Cinematography

The Tree of Life, Emmanuel Lubezki

Best Original Score

Attack the Block, Steven Price

Best Documentary

Senna, directed by Asif Kapadia

Best Animated Feature

Rango, directed by Gore Verbinski

Robert R. “Bobby” McCurdy Memorial Breakthrough Artist Award

Jessica Chastain, Take Shelter/The Tree of Life/The Help/The Debt/Coriolanus/Texas Killing Fields

Best First Film

Attack the Block, directed by Joe Cornish

Austin Film Award

(given to a local filmmaker or film shot in Austin)

Take Shelter, directed by Jeff Nichols

Martin Scorsese's 3D ode to the magic of movies, Hugo, was selected as the Best Film of 2011. Elsewhere, US critics have been leaning more heavily toward another ode to the magic movies, Michel Hazanavicius' black-and-white silent comedy-drama The Artist, which, curiously, failed to top any of the Austin Critics' categories.

Take Shelter's Michael Shannon and We Need to Talk About Kevin's Tilda Swinton have usually been either "nominees" or runners-up, as Best Actor and Best Actress citations have mostly gone to The Descendants' George Clooney and My Week with Marilyn's Michelle Williams. Not so in Austin, where Shannon and Swinton topped their respective categories.

The supporting winners were more on a par with the other critics' groups: Albert Brooks for Drive, which also earned citations for director Nicolas Winding Refn and screenwriter/adapter Hossein Amini, and Jessica Chastain for Take Shelter. Chastain was also singled out as the year's Breakthrough Performer after appearing in one out of every other movie released in the last twelve months (Take Shelter/The Tree of Life/The Help/The Debt/Coriolanus/Texas Killing Fields).

Woody Allen's box-office hit Midnight in Paris was the Best Original Screenplay winner, Joe Cornish's sci-fier Attack the Block was voted Best First Film and earned Steven Price the Best Original Score citation, and Asif Kapadia's Senna was the Best Documentary. Gore Verbinski's Rango, featuring the voice of Johnny Depp, was the Best Animated Feature.

Additionally, Take Shelter won the "local" Austin Film Award for Arkansas-born Austinite Jeff Nichols. The Austin-made The Tree of Life, for its part, earned Emmanuel Lubezki one more Best Cinematography Award.

Lee Byung-hun/I Saw the Devil picture via the film's official English-language website.

[rubie]

December 31, 2011

FILM THREAT’S TOP FILMS OF 2011

Source: Film Threat

The choices for the top films of 2011 are as varied as the personalities of the writers who selected them, therefore they are being presented exactly as the writers would like. Some have simply listed their picks, some didn’t respond and others have written more… much more. Is there an overall Top Ten consensus to be had from all of this? Sort of; some films came up enough times to be included in a Top Thirteen. Here’s the overall Top Films of 2011 followed by, in alphabetical order by writer, the individual picks for their Top Ten Films of 2011...

TOP FILMS OF 2011

(number of writers’ lists film appears on in parentheses)

Bellflower (4)

I Saw the Devil (4)

Attack the Block (3)

Drive (3)

Martha Marcy May Marlene (3)

Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey (2)

Melancholia (2)

Moneyball (2)

The Muppets (2)

Red State (2)

Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles (2)

Take Shelter (2)

We Need To Talk About Kevin (2)

Mark Bell

Narrative Features

Attack the Block

Gandu

I Saw the Devil

The Innkeepers

Insidious

Milocrorze: A Love Story

The Music Never Stopped

Prairie Love

Red State

Submarine

Noah Lee

El Bulli

The Yellow Sea

Hesher

Martha Marcy May Marlene

The Muppets

Snowtown

I Saw The Devil

Nobody does revenge movies like Korean film makers. This year’s best of those and also the second best horror film, which explores the nature of revenge, compassion, evil and remorse, is shockingly brutal and yet deftly handled as to never wade into absurd territory. Jee-Woon Kim is one of the finest Korean directors working right now and when paired with Byung-hun Lee and Min-Sik Choi, you get nothing short of an amazing work of horror and thrills like “I Saw the Devil

.”

Bellflower

Attack the Block

John Wildman

Bellflower

The Color Wheel

Green

A Separation

Melancholia

I Saw the Devil

Martha Marcy May Marlene

Pariah

Miss Bala

The Woman

Don Lewis

Take Shelter

We Need to Talk About Kevin

Moneyball

Drive

Warrior

I Saw the Devil

“Ho-lee mini cooper.” I swear I said that to myself four or five times in “I Saw the Devil” and I meant it. This film is downright amazing and batmini cooper crazy. No one does revenge films like the Asian filmmakers and Korean Jee-woon Kim seems as unable to stop himself from turning it up to eleven as the seemingly possessed antagonist and protagonist in this film. Shades of “Oldboy,” “No Country for Old Men” and “Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia” blend together for a wild ride that you kind of don’t want to end. And when it does finally? Ho-lee mini cooper. Find this film. It’s on Netflix Instant right now in fact. Do it.

Young Adult

Martha Marcy May Marlene

Attack the Block

Red State

Read more: http://www.filmthreat.com/features/44746/#ixzz1i7NWYWFn

[rubie]

February 27, 2011

I SAW THE DEVIL

by KJ Doughton filmthreat.com

Year Released: 2011

MPAA Rating: Unrated

Running Time: 141 minutes

A woman’s broken body being dragged through stark-white snow. A human head rolling along a river-bottom, its raven hair swirling with the tides. The flashlights of a forensic team, gleaming off black waters and casting light into even darker skies.

Awful. Beautiful.

“I Saw the Devil” is a gorgeous film about horrible things. Days after the screening, I still carry its unsettling baggage with me. Korean genre master Kim Jee-woon has assembled this Frankensteinian beast with surgical skill. But do you really want his bloody hands leaving their imprint on your brain?

Remember when “Se7en” was subversive and shocking? Compared to “I Saw the Devil,” it’s a life-affirming lifter-upper. Did “Blue Valentine” bum you out? It’s visual Prozac compared to this cinematic Quaalude overdose. Even so… “I Saw the Devil” is art of the highest order, an unflinching vision brought to full bloom. I love it. I hate it.

“I Saw the Devil” is like pitch-black Charles Bronson with subtitles (it was made, and then banned, in Korea). Elite special agent Dae-hoon (Lee Byung-hyun) is forever scarred by the brutal death of his pregnant fiancée. Kyung-chul (Choi Min-sik of “Oldboy,” another feel-bad classic), a deplorable serial killer, is the culprit.

Completely and utterly warped by his lover’s tragic demise, Dae-hoon seeks revenge. But not just any old payback. He wants to toy with Kyung-chul. Wants to maim his nemesis one fleshy bit at a time. Wants to paw, catlike, then watch this lunatic squirm before inflicting the next clawed swipe.

“I Saw the Devil” begins where other thrillers typically wrap up. Early into its first reel, Dae-hoon has already captured Kyung-chul, force-feeding the dangerous cretin a transmitter-pill. While this ingested tracking device remains in the killer’s digestive system, our scarred “hero” can hone in on him. Sever an Achilles tendon, perhaps. Then set him loose again.

But there’s a big problem. The longer that Kyung-chul is toyed with, the more pissed off he gets. Worse yet, he seems impervious to conventional human feelings like pain or sorrow. Each moment out of custody is another opportunity to gleefully inflict more mayhem onto innocent bystanders. By keeping this creeper alive in selfish, single-minded pursuit of vengeance, Dae-hoon is aiding and abetting his prey.

Delicate moments provide respites from the violence – or do they? Two grieving men share a park bench, cocooned by comforting clouds of mist. But their sad, empty eyes merely magnify the impact of their loss. Another scene lingers on the face of a man confronting an awful truth. His hand rises to stunned face, jaw dropping in mortified disbelief.

These are the film’s “light touches.”

As for the “dark” factor…. just when you think the film’s gory cycle of revenge has reached its limit, something even more despicable happens. Think cannibalism, fish hooks, and guillotines. Kim Jee-woon further intensifies the film’s projected human wounds through vivid music and sound effects. Mournful strings. The cold jingle of metal chains dragging across a concrete floor. The dull “clunk” of metal hitting bone.

Strong stuff. But however furious its violence, “I Saw the Devil” is no exploitation film. It’s as serious as a heart attack, posing two fascinating questions: is vengeance really all that sweet? Can a jaded psychopath be “forced” to feel emotion? Kim Jee-woon has perspectives on both, and they’re hit home with maximum impact. Dae-hoon and Kyung Chul come across as real men. We feel for the former. We loathe the latter. Reluctantly, we come to understand both.

“I Saw the Devil” is a dazzling downer. Artistically, it’s a great piece of work. But do we really need another onscreen trip to hell, however well-crafted the hand basket?

[rubie]

December 31, 2011

Travis “Skip” Leamons’s Favorite Films of 2011

by Travis Leamons Inside Pulse

We are all about lists. Grocery lists, to-do lists, Top 10s, etc. They help keep order but are in no way finite. For example, grocery shopping can change on a whim; whenever you add something to your basket that’s not already on your list you’ve essentially altered it. I make this preface not to endorse Post-Its, but because lists are always subject to change. So my top ten below is my top ten as of today. Not yesterday or tomorrow, but how I feel today.

Most of you will see this as the moment to scroll all the way down and read, or most likely skim, my list. Staying just long enough to see the film titles and where they placed. However, for those that have decided to stay and continue reading you will be treated to my reflections of the year in film.

This year, the most prevailing theme to me was “everything old is new again.” Two years ago, James Cameron’s Avatar made “game changer” an overused colloquialism and gave Hollywood a means to milk money from audiences with more 3D presentations. So leave it to a relative unknown director in Michel Hazanavicius to make The Artist, a film that defied normal conventions to tell a story of Old Hollywood. Sure, it used a gimmick (applying techniques of cinema’s silent era), but here you had a feature that 1) was not projected in 3D (shocker!), 2) was presented in black-and-white (bigger shocker!), and 3) included no spoken dialogue, only music (extreme shocker!).

The Artist when paired with Martin Scorsese’s Hugo presented a double bill exploring film in its infancy, before it became an enterprise where paint-by-numbers and Mad Libs took the spots reserved for direction and storytelling (for the most part).

Last year, I bestowed praise to females in Hollywood due largely to the success of director Kathryn Bigelow, newcomers Jennifer Lawrence, Hailee Steinfeld and Chloe Moretz, and Noomi Rapace for her portrayal of Lisbeth Salander in Sweden’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. This year belonged to three actors specifically: Michael Fassbender, Ryan Gosling and Jessica Chastain. All three appeared in at least three films in 2011. It was a breakout year for Chastain, as she’s been getting kudos for her work in The Help and The Tree of Life. Fassbender, on the other hand, has been one of the most consistent actors in Hollywood for the past few years, able to navigate between blockbusters (X-Men: First Class) and art house cinema (Hunger, Fish Tank). His performance in Shame is one of the most emotionally taxing but also one of the year’s best. And then there’s Gosling. Looking like he was Photoshopped in Crazy, Stupid, Love and working on George Clooney’s presidential campaign in The Ides of March, it is his iconic performance in Drive that will resonate in the years to come.

Sticking with the old is new again theme, Alexander Payne delivered his first film in seven years with The Descendants. You could say he was trying to pull a Terrence Malick and release a new film once every decade. Speaking of Malick his film The Tree of Life was met with some dissatisfaction by certain moviegoers. Some were so disappointed that it led the Avon Theatre in Stamford, CT, to post a NO-REFUND policy once you purchase a ticket. Well played. Best to be an informed audience than to decide what movie to see on a whim.

Having seen over 180 new releases this year – plus another 85 or so catalog titles (both new and old favorites) – I was pleasantly surprised at the vast array of stories told. Some are easily disposable leaving you content or dismayed, while others stick with you for days if not weeks. And then there’s that one film that I wanted to see again right after the credits rolled.

So without further ado, I give you my favorite films of 2011.

10. Hugo

9. I Saw the Devil

Kim Ji-woon’s I Saw the Devil represented the best revenge thriller of the year. For a while there, Devil and Pedro Almodóvar’s The Skin I Live In were neck and neck on my top 10 list. Both explored the theme of revenge in such distinct ways that it was hard to pick a favorite. Then the more I thought about it, I began to veer away from Almodóvar’s Frankenstein-inspired tale to Ji-woon’s story about a secret agent (Lee Byung-hun) who methodically tracks down the murderer (Oldboy’s Choi Min-sik) of his pregnant fiancé, only to inflict punishment, release him and punish him again at a later time.

The film’s subject is enough to turn off the squeamish, but for those who keep an open mind, I Saw the Devil illustrates that anyone is capable of becoming a monster. Also working for the film is its beautiful photography and structure.

8. Martha Marcy May Marlene

7. The Guard

6. Shame

5. The Tree of Life

4. Take Shelter

3. We Need to Talk About Kevin

2. The Artist

1. Drive

Please refer insidepulse.com for complete article.

[rubie]

January 2, 2012

Top Ten 2011: Narrative Features

By Kim Voynar voynar@moviecitynews.com

I’m doing a couple things differently with my top ten lists for 2011. This year, I’ve put together separate top ten lists for narrative features and notable indie films, which includes a couple films from the fest circuit that haven’t yet been picked up or released, and a third list highlighting documentaries. I also decided to list my picks alphabetically this year, rather than assigning a particular position on the list to each. Here’s round one: the top ten narrative features I saw this year:

I Saw the Devil, Jee-Woon Kim

I fell head over heels for this film when I first saw it at Toronto way back in 2010, and my love for it has been unwavering ever since. A tensely drawn story about a serial killer (Old Boy’s Min-Sik Choi) who has the tables turned on him when he chooses as one of his victims the pregnant fiance of a secret agent (Byung-hun Lee), I Saw the Devil is not only one of the best written and directed films of 2011, it’s also one of the best edited and shot, and has a terrific score to boot. It’s violent and bloody, yes, but it’s more an exploration of morality and what separates men from monsters than your typical serial killer movie about the mind of a psychopath.

Martha Marcy May Marlene, Sean Durkin

One of the most buzzed about films at Sundance this year, with its title that forced you to memorize it or forever stumble over it, and a stunning breakout performance by Elizabeth Olsen in the lead role, Martha Marcy May Marlene uses non-linear storytelling to explore both how this young girl got drawn into a cult led by the scary and charismatic John Hawkes, and her unraveling as she tries to go back to a normal life when she runs away from it. Jody Lee Lipes brought some of the most note-worthy cinematography of the year to this film; the dreamy scenes on the farm the cult lives on are just stunning. Olsen, who had two films at Sundance in 2011, looks to be moving fast in making her mark on the indie film world. If she keeps taking smart roles like this one and stays away from Hollywood tripe, she’ll be a formidable force in the future.

Meek’s Cutoff, Kelly Reichardt

I haven’t seen Kelly Reichardt’s earlier feature, River of Grass, but with her more recent films — Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy, and now Meek’s Cutoff — she’s established herself as a writer/director who, like Claire Denis, pays close attention to the visual composition of every shot and uses words with great restraint and economy. Meek’s Cutoff, a exquisite, patient, quietly tense tale of a group of pioneers whose questionable guide gets them lost in the wilderness at a time when there was no help around the corner, no gas station or town just around the bed, no cell phones with which to get help, uses some stunning cinematography to establish the vastness of the wilderness into which our travelers have wandered, carrying their precious few vestiges of civilization with them in their wagon.

Melancholia, Lars Von Trier

Melancholia, in which Lars Von Trier distills an end-of-the-world tale down to its impact on a wealthy, emotionally unstable family, moved me greatly with its visual imagery and poetry. We first meet sisters Justine (Kirsten Dunst) and Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) on the eve of Justine’s wedding, held on the sweeping, majestic estate Claire shares with husband John (Kiefer Sutherland) and their young son. All of Claire’s meticulously proper wedding planning goes awry, though, when clinically depressed Justine tries and fails to hold it together for the sake of her sister and new spouse. In the second half of the film, as the end of the world comes nigh, though, things flip and it’s mentally unbalanced Justine who faces the end with eerie calm, while Claire and John fall apart. Every frame of this film is gorgeous, and every moment bears the mark of Von Trier’s unique vision. There’s a scene with Dunst lying naked in the moonlight that’s has such painterly beauty, it makes your soul ache. He may be one of the most controversial directors around, and he could sure use a handler to guide him through press conferences, but you can’t say that Von Trier makes films that look and feel like they could have been made by anyone.

Pariah, Dee Rees

Dee Rees’ smart, sensitive feature debut Pariah explores the acceptance (or not) of masculine lesbians within the African American community through an excellently acted and directed exploration of that theme. This is the kind of film that’s made or broken by performances, and Adepero Oduye gives a stellar turn in the lead role of Alike, a young girl coming to terms with her butch-dyke sexuality within her insular, controlling, religious Brooklyn family. Kim Wayans is terrific and heartbreaking as Alike’s controlling mother, and Oduye, who seems to look frankly right through the camera lens into your heart, is spot-on in every frame.

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Apichatpong Weerasethakul

There’s nothing linear or traditional about Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s weird, engaging tale of Boonme, who we meet as he’s dying of kidney disease and saying goodbye. Seamlessly interweaving the spectacular natural beauty of Thailand with Buddhist ideas around reincarnation, the characters in Uncle Boonme accept without question the presence of spirits, the idea of reincarnation, and the need to meditate on the choices made as you’ve wended your way down your life path. This isn’t the most accessible film for audiences used to having their stories spoon-fed them with laugh tracks, big explosions and heavy-handed exposition, but if you can sit back, open yourself up to its gentle, abstract beauty, and allow its imagery to flow over and through you, Uncle Boonme is a most fulfilling cinematic experience.

Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy, Tomas Alfredson

I loved practically every second of Tomas Alfredson’s striking adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. This intelligent, perfectly paced thriller about moles and mysteries-within-mysteries, is excellently cast; Gary Oldman as Smiley is getting critical raves, but the rest of the cast, including John Hurt, Colin Firth, David Dencik, Toby Jones, Mark Strong and Ciaran Hinds, is equally top-notch; the excellence of the performances allows Alfredson an economy of form that keeps the dramatic tension pulsing from start to finish as the mysteries unravel. The tight script, by Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan, very effectively whittles down a rather mammoth and complex story to its bare essentials. The mysteries are there, but the characters are front and center. And the brilliant, spare, visually evocative montage that closes the film is a practically perfect use of cinematic form in storytelling.

The Tree of Life, Terrence Malick

Have you ever meditated for a long period time, until you reach that dream-like, floating stage of consciousness where images from your subconscious mind float like soap bubbles before you, only to pop and disappear? This is what watching Terrence Malick’s long-anticipated film The Tree of Life felt like. I’m still not convinced that the dinosaurs, and even the whole part with Sean Penn, couldn’t have been excised from the final cut without losing much, but every moment exploring the 1950s life of Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain as the parents of three young boys more than made up for any transgressions. Way more than just a “circle of life” ode, The Tree of Life is a gorgeous, thoughtful, moving gift from a writer and director who seems to be deeply mining his own philosophical underpinnings in figuring out what life, the universe and everything means to him.

We Need to Talk About Kevin, Lynne Ramsay

Lynne Ramsay’s chilly, wrenching examination of the mother-child bond ponders the question of “nature or nurture?” through the impact of a teenage spree killer on his mother, as she muddles her way through the aftermath of shattered lives. Tilda Swinton gives a terrific performance as Eva, a world-traveling feminist who chafes against the shackles of motherhood once her odd, endlessly crying son holds her captive to home and parental duty. Is Eva unable to bond with Kevin because there’s something amiss with him from the beginning? Or does he grow to become a calculating killer because off some internal button that never got pressed my maternal love and compassion? Either way, Eva cannot wash the guilt off her soul, even as she endlessly scrubs a bath of red paint off her house as she struggles to rebuild her life.

Without, Mark Jackson

If Mark Jackson’s feature debut, Without, had gotten into Sundance last year, I have no doubt we would have been hearing about his lead actress, Joslyn Jensen, in the same breath with Felicity Jones, Brit Marling and Elizabeth Olsen. As it was, the film’s solid reception and awards at Slamdance helped the film make its mark on the fest circuit, though I’m continually surprised by industry folks who haven’t seen it. Jensen turns in a solid performance as Joslyn, a young girl who accepts a short-term job taking care of Frank (Ron Carrier, also excellent) an elderly, wheelchair-bound man, in an isolated island house, while she struggles to come to terms with overwhelming grief and guilt. Jackson does a superb job of building tension from scene to scene, keeping the audience guessing as to whether Frank is really as disabled as he seems, and just how much Joslyn will unravel before it’s over. This is one of the most striking debut films I’ve seen; Jackson who wrote, directed and edited, is one of the most exciting young directors to come along in recent years. Keep an eye out for more out of him.

[rubie]

January 3, 2012

R0BTRAIN’s Top 10 Movies of 2011

by Robert Sutton insidepulse.com

When I look back at my time watching the films in 2011, I can’t deny that I’ve had a terrific experience these past 12 months. While I feel like the year might have been devoid of the sort of transcendent movie or game changer the likes of Avatar or The Dark Knight or Inception, we’ve been lucky to have gotten a ton of great pictures, so much so that it was tough to narrow this list down to just ten. In fact, December alone yielded two films that ended up on my list, and had a few more that were terribly close. Pictures such as Moneyball, Contagion , and Midnight in Paris were all films that could have easily made this list, but when it comes down to getting to a final 10, you’ve got to make big sacrifices no matter how bad it hurts.

Now to be sure, the year had its share of big disappointments as well. Season of the Witch got us off on the wrong foot early, but did anyone expect duds like Sucker Punch and the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean outing to be so boring, or for Pixar to release their first out and out bad film with Cars 2? Thankfully, we got some pleasant surprises to even things out, especially Fast Five, which kind of blew the roof off every other action film that came out for the rest of the summer movie season. And who knew Rise of the Planet of the Apes was going to be so awesome?

My point is, is that while it wasn’t perfect, 2011 was still able to give us a lot of great cinema. While 2012 looks to be busting at the seams with huge epics that are right around the corner, 2011 gave me enough films that I’m really not ready to stop thinking about them yet.

R0BTRAIN’s Top 10 of 2011

10. Captain America: The First Avenger

If you love comic book films, especially those based on Marvel superheroes, then 2011 was a heck of a good time for you. Thor surprised with its liberal amounts of humor and its epic fantasy sequences, and X-Men: First Class was so good it made us forget about every lousy X film since the second one. If I had to pick a favorite though, Captain America: The First Avenger wins out with its combination of high adventure, nonstop action, and tons of heart.

Director Joe Johnston went back to his roots on this picture, showing us the protégé of Spielberg and Lucas who worked on the crews of classic adventures such as Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Captain America has the director in his oldschool action wheelhouse; producing a true follow-up to Johnston’s best film, The Rocketeer. With its plucky hero, gorgeous damsel, and villains so bad even the Nazis won’t take them, this is a picture that would have fit the bill perfectly during a Saturday afternoon serial, but as it is, it makes a wonderful final piece to Marvel’s Avengers puzzle.

9. War Horse

There were several blockbusters in 2011 that managed to pay homage to the works of Steven Spielberg, many of which were produced by The Beard himself. For most filmmakers that would have been enough of a creative output for one year; but not for the creator of Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, and Jaws. 2011 saw the release of two films with Steven Spielberg as director, and while some might not know what to make of the motion capture epic The Adventures of Tintin, Warhorse gives us Spielberg at his schmaltzy best. The director tugs at your heartstrings with expert precision as we watch the picture’s main character, a horse named Joey, travel from the farms of Britain to the battlefields of WWI. Spielberg wrings every bit of emotion out of the story with amazing setpieces, gorgeous photography, and a John Williams score that just won’t quit.

8. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

I had some doubts as to whether Brad Bird could show the same sort of creativity and humor he was able to infuse into his animated films such as The Incredibles and The Iron Giant. About five minutes into Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, those doubts were a distant memory. Once Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt and his IMF team were globetrotting through exotic locales and Cruise himself was hanging from the tallest building on earth, I couldn’t wait to see what Bird had up his sleeve next. The new Mission: Impossible is mind boggling awesome, with enough chases and fights to make it the best American action film of 2011 with very little competition.

Think Tom Cruise is too old to be playing super spies? Think again. Even with other cast members like Jeremy Renner and Paula Patton doing more of the heavy lifting than ever before, Cruise plays his intense superman as well as he ever has. Nearing age 50, he’s still the hardest working action star in Hollywood, putting his body on the line, and doing whatever it takes to get you into the theater. Mission: Impossible 5 can’t come fast enough.

7. Rango

In a year when Pixar disappointed us for the first time, Rango was there to take up the slack. Hilarious and weird, Rango seemed to free director Gore Verbinski like never before, showing us more wit and eye candy than ten Pirates of the Carribean films put together. With incredible character models from top to bottom, this spaghetti western homage is a wonder to behold with its one glorious sequence after another. Without question, my favorite collaboration between Verbinski and star Johnny Depp; this movie had me in stitches and on the edge of my seat all the way up to its final showdown.

6. The Muppets

The Muppets is a like a sledgehammer of nostalgia; wearing its heart unabashedly on its sleeve as it dares you not to sing along with its silly songs, laugh at its nonstop hilarity and get misty eyed at its earnest love for all of its characters. Director James Bobin and star Jason Seagal have created a loving tribute to Jim Henson’s madcap creations, and even if the voices aren’t 100% right, the heart the film gives us definitely hits it mark. As Kermit and the gang try to put on one last show to save their beloved theater, I sat in amazement as I got to watch The Muppet Show performed anew, which is something I thought I’d never see again. For all involved, I simply say “thank you”.

5. I Saw the Devil

Kim Ji-woon’s tale of sadistic revenge seems to put the nail in the coffin of the Korean revenge thriller genre once and for all, but what a way to go. Kim Ji-woon is relentless here, as stars Lee Byung-hun and Choi Min-sik face off in the ultimate battle of cop and serial killer with a nonstop barrage of knife fights, gun fights, murder and mayhem. The flick barely lets you catch your breath as it effortlessly swings one way and then the next. You honestly have no way of knowing what’s going to happen all the way up to the film’s final insane moments, and thank goodness for it, because you might just want to turn off the movie too early.

4. 13 Assassins

There’s something that just stirs inside of me when I watch 13 Assassins. Takashi Miike’s throwback samurai epic about 13 warriors who conspire to take down an evil lord is the most visceral action film to come out of any country in the last year. Everything about the film is just classic “men on a mission” formula, but Miike puts the movie together with such care and expertise that it all feels fresh. Goro Inagaki’s murdering rapist, Lord Naritsugu, is a villain that earns a plot against him of this magnitude with his over the top madness, and while Miike simply doesn’t have the time to delve too deeply into the lives of all of his heroes, veteran actors such as Kōji Yakusho and Tsuyoshi Ihara get the job done, and give us plenty of badassery to unapologetically root for.

Best of all, Miike lets it all hang out for the final hour of this movie, putting together a final battle that puts the conclusion of Transformers: Dark of the Moon to shame. Sure, Miike doesn’t have hundreds of millions of dollars to play with, so instead we get a screen filled with wall to wall bloodshed. This battle featuring our mighty 13 vs.200 samurai aligned with the evil Naritsugu is a showstopper of a sequence, reminding me of the best of Kurosawa or vintage John Woo. You want classic action without modern over-editing or CGI overload? Then 13 Assassins has you covered.

3. Attack the Block

If classic ‘80s John Carpenter had decided to make an “anti-E.T.”, I’m pretty sure Attack the Block is pretty close to what that would be like. The movie is just a flat out blast, as we see these rough city kids from a London slum who decide to take it to a pack of alien invaders with wild results. The movie is brutal and unforgiving to some of the kids, but there’s still a lot of humor and heart to go around when this group of lovable miscreants isn’t fighting off alien hordes using only fireworks and flea market samurai swords.

The monsters in the movie are particularly wonderful and creative, like pitch-black bears with glowing teeth, and Cornish gets the most he can out of every scare in the flick. It’s our alien fighting street thugs though, that really make this movie work. John Boyega as the group’s leader Moses is a particular standout, showing a cool confidence and vulnerability that you wouldn’t expect from a guy starring in his first film. Top to bottom, Attack the Block is cult movie heaven, and I think we’re going to be hearing a lot from everyone involved for years to come.

2. Super 8

Do you ever feel like a film maker is making movies specifically for you? Like the director is able to tap right into your brain and pull out everything you love about movies and then just put it up onscreen. That’s the feeling I get every time I go to see a J.J. Abrams movie these days. I suppose we live in a time when movie geeks are growing up become film makers themselves, and that explains a lot of the success of directors like Tarantino and Edgar Wright, but with Abrams its seems like he’s going just that extra step. I love spy movies dearly, and Abrams’ underappreciated Mission: Impossible III is a film that has grown in leaps and bounds for me in the last few years. My devotion to Star Wars, Star Trek and space adventures in general is no secret, so to say that I loved every minute of Abram’s new Star Trek reboot would be a giant understatement to say the least.

With Super 8, it’s just same song, different verse. The part of me that has never stopped loving early Spielberg, especially E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, took in this film with open arms and loved every second of it. Abrams and composer Michael Giacchino simply had my number anytime that they were after it and I couldn’t have been happier. The group of kids at the heart of this story are so good together and so naturally charismatic onscreen that I would gladly watch them in a picture even without aliens. Fortunately, I think the alien storyline still works like gangbusters, creating a total package for this film that I found completely undeniable. Add in Kyle Chandler as a modern day Roy Scheider, and Super 8 is a total winner in my eyes.

1. Drive

When was the last time you saw a character that was as effortlessly cool as Ryan Gosling’s driver in Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive? 2011 was an incredible year for Ryan Gosling, who seemed to knock it out of the park with each successive project, but for me, I felt like Drive was his coming out party. His nameless character in this ultra-cool crime thriller was like getting to see the second coming of Steve McQueen. Perhaps simply the strong, silent type or maybe an autistic maniac, Drive shows us an actor in complete control of his craft every moment he’s onscreen. From his subtly sweet love scenes with Carey Mulligan to his ultra-violent, hammer wielding showdowns, we see the full range of Gosling’s screen power and he’s pretty mesmerizing.

Of course, the picture set around the driver is also fairly amazing from top to bottom. Nicolas Refn’s film is like an ode to ‘80s Michael Mann and veterans like Ron Pearlman and Albert Brooks do some of their best work ever. This goes especially for Brooks; cast against type as one of the scariest villains I’ve seen in some time, surprising us with his brilliantly subtle menace. Bryan Cranston and Carey Mulligan are also exceptional here, crafting characters that you have genuine emotional investments in, desperately hoping they stay out of harm’s way.

The film is so meticulously crafted, from its look, to its music, costumes, and to even the fonts of the opening credits, that it’s all a little dizzying. Director Refn stages beautiful, operatic mayhem, but does so with incredibly intense buildup and character work, so the action is never just about being noisy. The love scenes are dreamlike, the action is violent and savage, and the final result is nothing short of a masterpiece.

[rubie]

January 10, 2012

I Saw the Devil (2011)

Source: Dan The Man's Movie Review

Never ever going to Korea now.

Secret agent Dae-hoon (Byung-hun Lee), discovers how far over the edge he will go in order to seek revenge after his fiancée is brutally slain by psychopathic serial killer Kyung-chul (Min-sik Choi). With the police baffled by Kyung-chul’s murders, Dae-hoon decides to capture the killer, but his own increasing violence makes him wonder who the monster really is.

Before I get into this review let me just tell you that even before you think about checking this film out because of its cool poster and plot-line, let me warn you that this flick is VICIOUS. And when I put all CAPS for a word you know that means business.

When it comes to watching on-screen violence, I think I can tough it out through a lot but there is always one film that comes around and just has me cringing every 5 seconds. I can’t remember the last time that happened to me before this one but regardless of how much of a pansy I may be, this film is downright ruthless. This film does not leave anything up to our imagination and shows people that have no problem for the pain that they are causing, hell, they actually gain pleasure from it. The film has these long extended sequences of total torture and each and every torture sequence basically one-ups the one that came before it.

The story itself starts off pretty straight-forward but it soon starts to get very twisty, edgy, and totally suspenseful where I had no idea what the hell was going to happen next and right when I thought I knew, I was proven wrong and I was glad to be. It’s not very often that you can get a flick that combines elements of a slasher, horror, revenge, and bad cop flick and keep us guessing until the last shot is off the screen. I guess America just blows when it comes to making any type of revenge flicks, or maybe it’s just that we don’t have a director like Ji-Woon Kim around here. I mean what this guy does with a plot that seems like it’s over in about 30 minutes, and stretch it to about 2 hours longer without ever losing steam, is a true showing of a great director and I hope that Hollywood doesn’t even try to touch this material because they are already trying to with ‘Oldboy’ and that obviously doesn’t seem to be working out.

The film may seem like just another torture porn/horror flick but what does separate it from others like ‘Hostel’ or ‘Saw’ is that it actually has a story that seems believable, with characters that seem real as if you could be walking side-by-side with them on the streets one day. The vigilante detective named Soo-hyun, played by Byung-Hun Lee, is a guy that means business right from the matter and seems so smart, so determined, and so effin’ cool that every time he’s on-screen you can’t help but think he’s going to kick richard simmons either way. It also helps that the guys girl gets killed right away so right away we feel something for him even as he does keep on doing some more and more terrible mini cooper to this one dude, but hey with a cool-richard simmons leather jacket that he has and wears the whole entire film, you can’t help but root for him.

However, the villain named Kyung-chul, played by Min-Sik Choi, is the one character that we keep on remembering the most. This character is a whole new-form of evil that I don’t think I’ve seen much of often in films. The guy doesn’t care about who or even what he kills, he’ll kill for no reason other than just to do it, he is best-friends with a cannibal, and laughs in your face as he’s getting ready to hack off your limbs. Seriously, this guy is evil right in-front-of-our-eyes and the worst part about it is that he feels like a real person with all of the terrible things he does and just how his whole demeanor seems to be. It’s not until the end where we get to fully see this guy in his prime stage of evil as we almost see him come to terms with all of the terrible things he has done, until he gives us all a little speech about how much of an evil bubble gum he is and that he knows he is, and he doesn’t care what happens to him because he will still be laughing even when he’s rotting away in hell. Talk about a real evil dude that I just hope I never meet or see in my life.

What really sets this film apart from just being another “bad guy vs. good guy” flick is that by the end, we start to really question who actually is good and who actually is bad. We see how one another gets revenge on each other and at first it seems reasonable but once they keep on extending the pain and anguish, we start to really wonder when the line should be drawn. The message we get is pretty plain and clear by the end. The film is all about how even though revenge may seem reasonable at times, it can also serve even more vengeance which then brings up more and more evil within all of the heinous acts. It’s pretty blurry by the end of the flick who was actually the good guy and who was the bad, but what I can say is that even though we never get a full sense of who did the right thing, we still know that evil always comes back to bite ya in the richard simmons no matter who you are.

Consensus: I Saw the Devil may be a little hard for most to watch but for others, this is an energetic, original, tension-filled, fun, and perfectly-acted and directed Korean flick that does many things with such a simple premise that no American film has been able to do in the year of 2011.

9/10=Full Price!!

[rubie]

February 1, 2012

[Herald Interview] Choi Min-sik returns as layered villain

By Claire Lee (dyc@heraldm.com)

'Nameless Gangster' star says every character is complex, especially the bad guys

It’s quite fascinating to meet Choi Min-sik in person.

For those who have never met this prolific actor off-screen, it’d be hard to imagine him as someone so down to earth and “normal.” On top of everything else, his face is that of the gruesome serial killer in “I Saw the Devil,” and the child murderer in “Sympathy for Lady Vengeance.”

In real life, however, Choi is a fan of popular girl group Girls’ Generation, loves to cook and clean at home, and is surprisingly casual. Dressed in black with messy hair, he often loses that charisma he shows off on the silver screen, with his simple, good-natured smile. He talks enthusiastically without formalities, which makes him even more approachable.

“You know, this is all about my work, and I take it seriously,” Choi says in a group interview with reporters in Samcheong-dong, Monday. “When you play the villain, you should not think what you are doing is something horrible. They think what they are doing is right for everyone; they’d go crazy if they don’t do it. Many would not think so, but villain characters are extremely layered and complex. They have a series of reasons why they do such horrific things. For example, if you are an ordinary person who happens to hate the color red, you’d just try to avoid that color as much as possible. But if you are a psychopath, it just becomes so unbearable that you’d have to completely get rid of the color from your world, even women who are dressed in red.”

Actor Choi Min-sik poses for a photo in Samcheong-dong, Monday. (Park Hae-mook/The Korea Herald)

Choi is returning to the big screen as another villain character in his upcoming film “Nameless Gangster, in which he teamed up with actor Ha Jeong-woo.” Taking place in Busan in the 1980s, Choi plays a corrupt customs officer, who ends up working with street gangsters to support his family. He is a shameless liar and completely immoral, manipulating people for his own benefit. Yoon Jong-bin, who directed the film, has told reporters that he made the film as he was curious about what his own father, who was mostly quiet at home, would’ve been like at his work.

“This character is a complete bastard, there’s no question about that,” says Choi. “But he is a father. And that’s what makes this character so convincing and superbly layered. He does all kinds of immoral deeds but feels no shame or guilt because he thinks it’s the only way to feed his family. I’m sure there were a lot of fathers like him in that particular time period.”

In 2006, Choi famously demonstrated in Seoul and at the Cannes Film Festival against the government’s decision to reduce the number of days theaters were required to screen local films from 146 days to 73 days.

When asked if he expects to win any awards at Cannes for the role in the upcoming film, Choi gives a rather unexpected answer.

“You’d think I wouldn’t get nervous in front of celebrities,” he says, laughing. “International film festivals really aren’t about winning awards for me. I had a fantastic time there, mainly because I get to see the people whom I had been dreaming to see. When would you ever have dinner with Roman Polanski and talk about ‘Oldboy’? When would you drink wine with Tilda Swinton and Quentin Tarantino? I could not believe it when I saw Martin Scorsese, because I grew up watching ‘Taxi Driver.’ I even asked one of the people I met there for an autograph. I can’t tell you who the person is!”

“Nameless Gangster” opens in theaters on Thursday.

Source:

Nate

[rubie]

March 4, 2012

I Saw the Devil is not easy to watch, but hard to turn away from…

Source: nediunedited.com

Let me start by saying Koreans are WHACK! I’ve seen a few of their films and yeah…they’re some crazy people. Crazy and brilliant! I Saw the Devil is an emotional journey. An intense story about a psychopathic serial killer and the secret agent that stalks him in order to seek revenge. It is a graphic, gory, unflinching look at a monster which would be almost unbearable to watch, if not for the fact that it is, at its core, a sad tale of loss. How far is someone willing to go for justice? Or Vengeance?

The killer is perfectly played by Min-sik Choi (also famously in Oldboy–another Korean classic). Min-sik is very convincing as a soulless monster–it gave me the willies. Byung-hun Lee plays his counter–the secret agent who places his own soul in jeopardy in his pursuit of revenge for the death of his finance. Byung-hun is quiet and stoic which makes his descent into darkness all the more disturbing and sad.

If you have a strong stomach and do not mind delving into dark side of the human psyche, you will appreciate what director Jee-woon Kim has accomplished. He has taken what could be a straight shock-horror film and has created a melancholic portrait of grief. I could not take my eyes off the screen, but was exhausted by the end. WHEW!

[rubie]

March 6, 2012

Oh San Ha Signs Exclusive Contract With Entertainment TONG

Source: Nate l CJ E&M enewsWorld Park, HyunMin Translation Credit : Ju Ahn Lee

Actress Oh San Ha signed an exclusive contract with Entertainment TONG and will join the same agency as actor Ryu Seung Soo. Entertainment TONG is a new talent agency and was founded earlier this year.

On March 5, a rep from Entertainment TONG said, “We signed an exclusive contract with Oh. She is an actress with unlimited potential, and we would like to help her realize her dreams through many broadcasting and film opportunities."

In 2010, Oh made a name for herself with her appearance as Lee Byung Hun ‘s fiancée in I Saw the Devil (directed by Kim Ji Woon). She made her acting debut in 2006 through KBS2’s The Salmon’s Dream and expanded her acting resume with MBC’s sitcom, Secret of Keu Keu Island.

Oh also appeared in the musicals Really, Really Like You and Our Town and gained popularity through her many different roles.

Oh is currently looking at several different movie and drama scripts in preparation for her next production.

Photo credit: Entertainment TONG

[rubie]

March 7, 2012

Violence Meets Violence: I Saw The Devil

Posted by Richard Gray KOFFIA Blog

Get a sneak peek at Richard Gray's thoughts on the film he will present this Thursday at Cinema on the Park, the X-treme Korea hit I Saw the Devil. Come along for a free film at the Korean Cultural Office in Sydney!

Korean cinema isn’t suffering for a lack of revenge films, so the prospect of another one in I Saw The Devil was hardly the most thrilling of premises to start a legitimate phenomenon. Yet it is hard to imagine a Korean film that has sparked more discussion in the past few years than Kim Ji-woon’s I Saw The Devil, a beautiful, brutal and morally confronting thriller.

Joo-yun (Oh San-ha) gets a flat tire on a dark and lonely night, and Kyung-chul (Choi Min-sik) offers to help her out with a lift. She declines, but Kyung-chul’s true nature as a remorseless serial killer is soon revealed, and she is murdered and dismembered. However, Joo-yun was the daughter of police Chief Jang (Jeon Kuk-hwan) and the wife of secret agent Soo-hyun (Lee Byung-hun), who is determined to exact his revenge on Kyung-chul non matter what kind of monster he becomes.

In reference to his 2005 mega-breakthrough A Bittersweet Life, his follow up to the original and twisty if somewhat ponderous A Tale of Two Sisters, Kim Ji-woon cited Jean-Pierre Melville as a massive influence. Looking at the Korean cinema on the landscape at the time, he commented in a 2006 interview with the BFI that “In Korea most films about violence focus either on becoming box-office hits or on communicating to critics.

Park Chan-wook's vengeance trilogy is an example of an auteur courting both, as is Bong Joon-ho's Memories of Murder”. With I Saw The Devil , Kim is firmly in Park Chan-wook territory, echoing the mixed morality of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Oldboy, and trying to find a balance between the object eye of the camera and the audience-driven material he spoke about half-a-decade earlier.

Yet for this to have been audience-driven material, there has to be a safe place for the viewer to take a small refuge in. I Saw The Devil offers no such safety net, with a completely remorseless killer in the always brilliant Choi Min-sik’s Kyung-chul, and Lee Byung-hun’s character of Soo-hyun rapidly becoming the same breed of monster he is trying to eliminate. This is not a subtle point on Kim’s part, directly speaking to it at a dinner part of the damned with the cannibalistic Tae-joo (Choi Moo-sung). Reminiscent of Texas Chain Saw Massacre by way of Japan’s Sion Sono, it’s a celebration of the grotesque.

Which is where I Saw The Devil treads a very thin line. In its native Korea, the Korean Media Rating Board forced Kim to recut the film involving seven cuts to make it legally available to audiences. Kim is pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable on screen, but does so in a beautifully shot and steadily paced first half of the film. Yet if this is gore to comment on how violence breeds violence, then it is unrelenting in its portrayal. As the film falls into more typical audience-driven chase sequences and nail-biting Se7en territory, Kim bloodies the water before what should be a shocking conclusion.

The legacy of I Saw The Devil will undoubtedly not be more clever commentary on the subject of desensitisation to violence, but rather it will escalate the cinematic violence in Korean and international cinema. Ironically, this will prove the point of the film, making Kim’s work the cinematic equivalent of the psychotic killer depicted in the film, perfectly adept at his own craft but inspiring horrible deeds in others. Kim’s own career, like his contemporary Park Chan-wook, is now headed to the English-speaking world, directing Last Stand with Arnold Schwarzenegger next.

Richard Gray is the Editor of the online magazine The Reel Bits, and this KOFFIA Blog. He is also a regular guest at the KCO's Cinema on the Park. You can read Richard's unfiltered train of thought on Twitter @DVDBits.

[rubie]

March 6, 2012

Top 10 Koreans Films of 2010

Posted by Pierce Conran at Modern Korean Cinema

2010 was a great year for Korean cinema and as here at Modern Korean Cinema I'm going back through Korean film to get a sense of what were the best and most important films through the years. I'm thrilled to present my top 10 for the year to coincide with the Korean Cinema Blogathon. I have seen a lot of films from 2010 and the only major omission is Cafe Noir which has yet to find a DVD release, here's hoping there'll be one!

This follows on from January's Top 10 Films of 2011 and I hope to make my way back through to the 90s.

Without further ado, the top 10, followed by some honourable mentions and the year's biggest turkeys:

TOP 10

10. Secret Reunion

Jang Hoon followed one of Korea's best debut films, the exceptional Rough Cut (2008), with a big tale of intrigue chronicling agents and spies from both sides of Korea's DMZ. Established star Song Kang-ho and up and coming heartthrob Kang Dong-won electrify the screen in this surprising tale of unexpected camaraderie which explores many big questions of Korean identity and separation anxiety. Secret Reunion is at the same time an engaging thriller, a buddy comedy and a weighty drama and true to Korean style, the combination of its many elements is very successful. Jang, a former Kim Ki-duk protege once again crafts an intense and fascinating exploration of the male id in contemporary South Korea.

9. Rolling Home With a Bull

One of the year's most surprising efforts, Lim Soon-rye's fifth feature is an extraordinary road movie with a concept that comes dangerously close to being labeled as quirky but instead winds up being heartfelt and meditative. Kim Young-pil and Kong Hyo-jin excel in Rolling Home With a Bull, their performances throughout are fresh and natural. The low-budget film offers a unique view of Korea, far from the concrete jungle of Seoul or the vibrant harbor of Busan. Instead we wind through roads, regions and mountains as we contemplate how notions of family and responsibility have changed in the modern era. A great antidote to the sometimes overly familiar terrain of commercial modern Korean cinema.

8. Oki's Movie

Hong Sang-soo's 11th feature is one of his slightest not to mention quickest at a brief 80 minutes. Oki's Movie demonstrates Hong's growing skill wringing naturalistic humor out of common occurrences. As with his other films, structure and repetition are key as we follow a woman's dalliances with two men, a student and a professor, as they frequent the same locations. The return to black and white photography adds another element to the proceedings as it reinforces and further questions notions of nostalgia and selective (and often duplicitous) memory. One for the fans and for uninitiated viewers, Oki's Movie may be short but it is another big entry into Hong's ever-fascinating oeuvre.

7. The Servant

Korean period dramas are often a mixed bag but every so often the genre yields an excellent film and such is the case with The Servant, an erotic period drama from first time director Kim Dae-woo who previously penned Untold Scandal (2003) and Forbidden Quest (2006). The film is a twist on the famous Korean pansori tale Chunhyang, charging the classic story with eroticism and intrigue. One of the most beautifully shot Korean films of recent years and featuring some great performances, including a superb supporting turn from Ryoo Seung-beom, The Servant is everything a period drama should be, wonderfully crafted and engaging. Not to be missed for any fan of the genre.

6.

I Saw the Devil

A controversial film from Kim Jee-woon which polarized filmgoers, I Saw the Devil is a deliberate attempt to make a streamlined and yet subversive revenge thriller. The concept, which pits a federal agent (Lee Byung-hun) on a hunt for the psychopath (Choi Min-sik) who killed his fiance, is exceedingly simple and yet turns the genre over on its head. Lee Mo-gae's cinematography is beautiful and the script by Park Hoon-jung (also behind The Unjust) is clever, macabre and darkly humorous. I Saw the Devil is brutal, relentless, and can come off as simplistic and just as easily be viewed as pointless, but scratch beneath the veneer and you will come away with something more. Let's hope that Kim Jee-woon still makes them like this soon to be cult classic when his first Hollywood offering, the Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle The Last Stand, will be released early next year.

5. HaHaHa

The first of Hong Sang-soo's 2010 films may be his funniest as well as his most accessible. Anyone looking for a way into Hong's oeuvre should look no further. Besides its humour throughout, HaHaHa also exhibits all of the traits that Hong has become known and loved for. Once again reveling in repetition and everyday minutiae, the film carefully lays bare two intellectuals' neurosis during a trip to a small town. As with many of his other films it employs a fascinating structure that is at once prosaic and inspired. HaHaHa cleverly leads us to doubt the protagonists accounts of their sojourn in the seaside town and this coupled with some La Jetee-style scenes bring to mind some larger questions of the authenticity of our own memory. One of Hong's best and a good second chance for anyone who has not previously connected with his work.

4. The Yellow Sea

Na Hong-jin burst onto the scene in 2008 with The Chaser, one of Korean cinema's most vital films of the past few years. All eyes were on him and his new film The Yellow Sea, which reunited his debut's stars Kim Yun-suk and Ha Jug-woo (though their roles as protagonist and antagonist are swapped), when it opened in December. A big film with a large scope, Na's second feature is a slow-burning crime film that builds into a heart-pounding action vehicle. I did not see the original, lengthier cut, which many had reservations about but I was mightily impressed by the pacing with sucked me more and more into the film as it progressed. One of the most exciting cinema releases of 2010, The Yellow Sea cemented Na Hong-jin as a major international talent, not to mention its excellent stars Ha and Kim, who keep going from strength to strength.

3. The Unjust

One of the enduring themes in Korean cinema is the representation of the corruption and ineptness of authority, namely the police departments. There have been many great films that have expounded almost exclusively on the phenomenon such as Jang Jin's uproarious Going By the Book (2007). However, Ryoo Seung-wan's latest feature is perhaps the most blunt and vicious attack on the system yet. The Unjust takes a step back from Ryoo's previous action films but harnesses the same energy as it seeks to attack authority. Worlds collide, egos clash, collateral damage abounds and the constant tension keeps the heart racing. Ryoo outdoes himself by showing us that he is much more versatile than his previous films hinted at while still playing to his strengths. A breathlessly paced film with big performances from Hwang Jeong-min, Ryoo Seung-beom and Yu Hae-jin, The Unjust is a thriller not to be missed.

2. Poetry

People talk about event pictures like a summer blockbuster or an adaptation of a very popular book but for me when a new Lee Chang-dong film comes along this is a real cause for celebration as I know it will likely shake me to my foundation and challenge the way I look at the world. His latest Poetry is no exception and has been cited by many as his finest work. Besides the film's magnificent script and its fascinating musings on life and certain philosophical concepts, it has also been singled out for the performance of Yun Jeong-hee. Absent from the screen for 20 years, Yun's return is nothing short of a marvel and for my money's worth the best performance by any actor worldwide in 2010. Lee has surpassed himself yet again.

1. Bedevilled

A good genre film is one of the greatest joys that cinema has to offer. Completely immersed in the medium it seeks to provide raw entertainment, its purpose is solely to please. So what happens when a genre film transcends its limitations ? You end with a film like Jang Cheol-min's Bedevilled, a film so unique and so vital that it sent a chill down my spine, while at the same time being remarkably astute in its understanding of generic coding. Beautiful, austere, intimate and harrowing all at the same time, Jang crafts a microcosm on an island with scant characters that is teeming with crises and conflict, far mo so than the vast majority of films set in some of the world's most populous metropolises. Bedevilled works because it is founded on solid ideas and though it is incendiary and brutal in its climax, it is remarkably layered and convincing in its buildup.

Honourable Mentions

There were so many great film in 2010, here are a few more and to be honest there are still some strong features beyond this:

71: Into the Fire

Cyrano Agency

Eighteen

Harmony

Haunters

Hello Ghost

My Dear Desperado

Passerby #3

The Man From Nowhere

The Quiz Show Scandal

Bottom 5

I love Korean cinema but I'll be the first to admit that the industry can put out some atrocious films, here are 2010's worst:

1. A Little Pond

2. Yosul (aka Magic)

3. Natalie

4. Hero

5. Grand Prix

[rubie]

March 11, 2012

Kim Ji-woon: International or Korean?...Take Your Pick

Posted by Paul Bramhall at KOFFIA Blog

If anybody asks me who my favourite director is working in cinema today, I’m always able to answer without hesitation that it’s Kim Ji-woon. I first experienced his work with 2003s ‘A Tale of Two Sisters / 장화, 홍련’, and have been a fan ever since. He’s the rare director that seems to be able to turn his hand to whichever genre he chooses, and create an excellent piece of cinema.

Kim Ji-woon...contemplating what to put in each version of his next movie.

However despite my admiration, there is one frustrating element to Ji-woon’s work that started with 2005’s ‘A Bittersweet Life / 달콤한 인생’, and has been a recurring event with both of his movies released since then. It’s what I’ve come to call the curse of the International version & the Korean version. That is to say, all three of his most recent movies have come released in two versions, and each one has enough differences to warrant a separate viewing of each. While seeing a different version of the same movie might hold novelty value for some, I for one personally wish that he would simply create his definitive vision of the movie, and release that for the world to see, not just a certain version for his local audience and a different one for the rest of the world. For me the most frustrating factor is when I try to switch my friends onto his work by showing them one of his movies, I often find myself scratching my head for far longer than any reasonable person should contemplating which version I should show.

To get mathematical for a second, let me provide the exact breakdown. For ‘A Bittersweet Life’, which to be fair had the two versions entitled the Theatrical cut & the Director’s cut, comparing them against each other the Director’s cut has 16 scenes removed, and 2 scenes rearranged & slightly lengthened which results in the Director's cut being 30 seconds longer. For ‘The Good The Bad The Weird / 좋은 놈, 나쁜 놈, 이상한 놈’, comparing the International version to the Korean version there are 30 alterations, including 7 scenes of alternative footage, 13 scenes in which the International version runs longer, & 1 recut. The difference in running time has the Korean version running 5:24 minutes longer. Finally for ‘I Saw the Devil / 악마를 보았다’, comparing again there are 14 extended scenes in the International version totaling 3:20 minutes, 15 extended scenes in the Korean version totaling 5:37 minutes, and 3 alternative sequences.

Confused? It’s understandable. To give people some idea of what you’re in for and the reasons behind such decisions, not to mention the fact that unless you buy the Korean DVD release you might not even be aware of the different versions, I’ll take a look at each movie individually.

For ‘A Bittersweet Life’, out of the three the differences made between the Theatrical cut & the Director’s cut make the most sense. The Director’s cut for the most part takes the movie and makes it flow more, while adding more narrative structure which results in things making more sense. The best example of this is probably when Lee Byung-hun’s character Sun-woo drives back to the girl’s apartment to confront her. In the Theatrical version we don’t get to see why, however in the Director’s cut it shows Sun-woo in his car watching her talk to a man outside her apartment, who is her boyfriend. Once her boyfriend leaves Sun-woo also drives away, not knowing that she is watching him, and once he’s gone she calls her boyfriend to advise that the coast is clear, but by chance Sun-woo almost gets into a car accident with him. Realizing he’s been deliberately deceived, this scene shows why he is so brutal when returning to the apartment.

A worthy scene from the Director's cut

Other changes for the most part actually involve small cuts here and there, the stabbing in the ice-rink is trimmed a little along with how many times Sun-woo gets shot in the final scene, although totally these changes don’t even equate to a second. Interestingly one of my favourite scenes in the movie only exists in the Director’s cut, when Sun-woo has been badly beaten and is on his knees in front of his boss Kang in the rain, Kang asks him why he decided to keep that fact that his girlfriend was seeing somebody a secret and not just call him, saying it’s very out of character for him. Sun-woo stays silent and doesn’t answer, and for me I thought this was a really powerful scene in portraying the feelings Sun-woo was harbouring for the girl.

It was with ‘The Good, The Bad, The Weird’ that the changes being made essentially contribute towards changing the tone, and even in this case the ending, of the movie. While to detail every change would be tiresome, I will outline the couple of significant differences between the two. Firstly, in the International version the scenes containing the character of Korean Freedom Fighter Song-yi, played by Eom Ji-won, are completely cut out. In the Korean version it’s shown that she is the person who hires The Good, played by Jeong Woo-seong, to find the map, as it’s very important it doesn’t get into the hands of the Japanese army. Her character also has several short scenes throughout the movie, all of which are gone in the International version.

Eom Ji-won, the girl who wasn't there

Secondly, and probably most significant, the ending is extended by several minutes in the Korean version. According to CJ Entertainment, it’s actually the ending of the International version that matched Ji-woon’s original version, which in my opinion is also

Secondly, and probably most significant, the ending is extended by several minutes in the Korean version. According to CJ Entertainment, it’s actually the ending of the International version that matched Ji-woon’s original version, which in my opinion is also the better or the two. For the Korean version, the ending goes on continuing directly where the International version finishes to show the fates of the Good & the Weird. Song Kang-ho’s character sits up and wonders why he’s so heavy, and upon lifting his shirt reveals a metal plate in a homage to ‘A Fistful of Dollars’, however the Japanese army soon catch up with him and after accidentally lighting a stack of dynamite, everyone runs for cover. Additionally it then cuts to a scene of Jeong Woo-seong entering a room of men playing cards around a table, and asking them where he can find the Weird, after a moment’s silence he shoots everyone except the boss and asks again. It’s at this point the movie cuts to the shot of him on the motorbike which finishes both versions.

Perhaps the biggest difference between the two versions is the Korean version more heavily leaning on the resistance fighters element of the story, so adding more of a historical background to the proceedings, which is completely absent from the International version. It also gives a several minutes more screen time to heart throb Jeong Woo-seong, which no doubt his legions of female fans appreciated on local soil.

Lastly with ‘I Saw the Devil’, it’s fair to say the majority of changes here were to do with satisfying the Korean Media Rating Board, but once again there are also some significant dialogue scenes missing from both versions, which makes it the most frustrating movie in trying to decide which is best. In total Ji-woon went through three edits of the movie to get his movie through for Korean release, so some of the violence is trimmed down, and pretty much every direct reference to cannibalism is gone from the Korean version. With that in mind, it’s interesting to point out that the Korean version actually runs 2 minutes longer than the International version, as with the International version he took the opportunity to cut out various dialogue or connecting scenes that he didn’t feel necessary, which makes the added violence even more powerful.

This will of course make each version an either more rewarding or less rewarding experience depending on which one you see first. For me personally I saw the Korean version upon its release in Korea, and was left more than satisfied with the experience. However upon my second viewing I watched the International version, and although the added violence (& there is a fair few scenes) will leave gore hounds drooling, I found myself frustrated at the fact that nothing is explained as to how Byung-hun’s character finds who the suspects are so easily, as the scenes are all cut out which show that the police already have some perpetrators in mind. Also, although in the International version it’s made more than clear that Choi Moo-seong’s character is a cannibal both verbally and visually, I’m not sure what the reason is behind cutting out the sex scene that occurs between Choi Min-sik & Kim In-seo in the kitchen.

In the end, it’s hard to recommend either version as the superior viewing experience, and ultimately it’s best to watch both and reach your own conclusion. My hope is that when it comes to Ji-woon’s English language debut next year with ‘Last Stand’, it will also herald the last time we have to choose which version of the movie we want to watch.

Paul Bramhall@Paul Bramhall

[rubie]

March 10, 2012

Ten Reasons to become a Korean Cinema Addict

Posted by Gail Kavanagh at Asian Cinema Cafe

Of course I can just start with the standard fangurl's list - Jung Woo Sung, Lee Byung Hun, Rain - but there are plenty of blogs and websites that will give you that.

My top ten reasons for becoming addicted to Korean cinema will in fact quickly get you addicted to Korean cinema if you follow them up, even if you don't just fall over and die the first time you see Lee Byung Hun - but I guarantee you will anyway.

On with the lust - I mean list. Freudian slip!

1: The first and most important reason is that you are sick to the back teeth of Hollywood. All those endless sequels, addle brained chick flicks, comic book characters (even when the characters aren't from a comic book) and of course, the remakes. Remakes of old movies, classic movies, foreign movies, movies that just should have English speaking actors in America or no one will watch them because of the subtitles, and Korean movies. That's right, Korean movies, because Hollywood hasn't come up with anything original in decades, so it copies Korea to find fresh ideas. Enough said.

2: It's never bland. Funny, extraordinary, politically incorrect, but never bland. Korea is like the last frontier of movie making. The actors are always injuring themselves doing mad stunts. Korean Jackie Chans, the lot of them. The scripts are brutally honest, going where a mealy mouthed western script wouldn't dare unless it wants to get labelled an 'art movie'. I don't mean swearing and sex, that's so repetitive in western movies, it has become bland. I mean ideas, shocking ideas, and twists you never see coming. I mean no tame sticking to genre either. A Moment to Remember is a heart wrenching romantic weepie, yet it contains ones of the funniest scenes ever when a guy on a motor bike tries to snatch Son Ye-Jin's bag.

3: Korean cinema is about life. Remember those movies that actually made you resonate to the situations of the characters? When you could relate to them because they weren't all doctors and lawyers and lived in MacMansions? In Korean movies and drama, some characters live just like you do. And they feel and react just like you do, and they dress just like you do, and eat - yay, they actually eat! - and they say dumb things and smart things, and are just generally real folks, just like you. I think that is because Korean film makers and actors and actresses haven't lost touch with reality, and the beauty of truth in cinema.

4: Boy, can they creep you out. Korean horror is superb, scary, and you will soon amass a list of movies you will just never, never, never watch again. I saw the Devil is on mine, but not Old Boy. I love that movie.

5: Korean movies espouse old fashioned values like loyalty, duty and family. Maybe that's why Hollywood has to remake them. Notions of duty to family, especially to the older members, have little impact in the west. In fact, the more selfish, slack and downright arrogant you can be, especially if you are a woman, the more of a cinema role model you will be. I don't buy it. Politeness and respect are beautiful to see.

6: Korean movies make you think. They don't just follow Hollywood formulas. You actually have to pay attention, and leave your preconceptions at the door. Korean War movies give you insight into their view of the Korean War. M*A*S*H sometimes did that, but always filtered through American consciousness. For example, when family means as much as it does to Koreans, what is the impact of families being torn apart by war? Watch The Brotherhood of War and weep. War affects everyone, and this movie will give you a far better understanding than any Hollywood movie.

7: Korea can do blockbusters. Watch the gorgeous Musa, the action packed The Good, The Bad, The Weird, or any big costume epic from the land of spectacular scenery and headstrong actors launching themselves into thin air tied by a rope. Magnificent battle scenes, fantastic horsemanship, and production values that make your eyes water come together in unforgettable movies.

8: Romance is really romance. Not just couples rushing into bed and then spending the rest of the movie agonising over gender issues because there's really nothing left to do after you've already banged each other's brains out.

9: Korean movies go off topic. Personally I love this. Life doesn't stay on topic, or pack itself into different genres. Korean directors are quite happy to pursue a random thought, and I am more than happy to follow them. I can see that this would annoy someone whose idea of a movie is more Hollywood, though.

10: All right, I give in. Korea has some of the most attractive actors and actresses on the planet. Luckily, they are also some of the most talented, heartfelt, emotionally unleashed and totally natural as well. And Korea also has brilliant character actors, like Kang Ho Song, the Weird from The Good, the Bad, the Weird and the star of many other fine movies like Memory of Murder.

Where do you get Korean movies? eBay is a good place to start, or you can find some full length movies on YouTube if you want to dip your toe in. Sites like Far East Films and Yes Asia are also great places to find Korean DVDs. Check Amazon as well - never know what you'll find there. Dive in - cinema can become an adventure again.

[rubie]

March 9, 2012

Revenge: Korean Style!

Posted by Korean Film Festival in Australia at KOFFIA Blog

With so many topics this week being about Korean films and in particular films about revenge, we thought this post would be a great piece to help us look deeper into what its all about. Christopher Wheeler studies Revenge, Korean Style, which a special focus on the 2 films we are screening this week and next at Cinema on the Park, I Saw the Devil and The Chaser!

Alfred Hitchcock once said "Revenge is sweet and not fattening", a stance shared in Korea as the suspense thriller genre has become synonymous with their film industry.

Along with the melodrama, revenge films and themes have become all too easy to identify in some of the most famous films to come out of Korea in the last ten years. This apparent sweet tooth has indeed been affected by Korea's turbulent socio-political history and perhaps a social consciousness persists that past injustices have not been adequately addressed both globally and locally.

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance

Art--in this case, cinema--has the ability to purge, expose and depict past wrongs through spectacles that simulate and enact the painful residue of trauma. The notion of a "Revenge" film is a sadomasochistic affair in which the spectator is forced to oscillate between identifying with protagonists' painful circumstances and over-identifying with their vengeful actions. The degree to which one identifies with the hero's (or anti-hero's) trauma sets the parameters for how far we are willing to accept the resultant acts of revenge. Once that limit has been breached, an over-identification occurs and the more sadistic pleasures emerge.

Blood, gore and horrific imagery are the symbols in films that represent a need to over-indulge our lust for revenge in a space that seemingly exists outside normative social spheres. It is this safety of mind and from judgement, from guilt and repentance that functions in the revenge film as desire is dramatically played out to serve the individual, as they exist within a collective social consciousness.

Old Boy

But what of the fate of the hero? How does our protagonist progress once the revenge has been served? In revenge films, the answer is almost always undesirable. In Old Boy Oh Dae-su's journey ends with a forced forgetting, knowing that he will be unable to return to the state he once found himself. Much like the act of walking out of a cinema, reality looms and once the tunnel vision ceases to provide comfort, there is need to equip oneself for the aftermath of such a cathartic release. Oh Dae-su has his answers; he has taken the bloody trip and what results in an ineptitude to digest events in a manner that would allow him to transcend his trauma. This is where revenge and the act of seeking knowledge, itself, is a catalyst to compound suffering, except here the aftermath is without a suitable object to direct or project suffering onto. And when forgetting or forgiveness is not an option, there is only one choice left, the death drive.

Bedevilled

In Bedevilled Kim Bok-nam is a pressure cooker that explodes in this psychotraumatic thriller. After years of torment and suffering, she snaps and goes on a short, but ultra-bloody rampage of revenge. Her mind is beyond repair, her existence now limited to eliminating those who she deems responsible for her suffering. She has no regard for herself or her future; it is all here and now and tomorrow holds no value as the damage has been done. Again, we can see how justice in revenge films is a highly subjective affair. Faith in any objective justice system is abandoned and a new, more self-serving system emerges.

I Saw the Devil

This is particularly evident in the 2010 film I Saw the Devil, in which Kim Soo-hyeon discards his title as detective in favour of a personal vendetta against his wife's murderer. Social justice in contemporary Korean cinema is seen as a failing and inadequate tool for balancing the scales. Even for a man within the justice system, Kim Soo-hyeon's personal need to deal with matters himself supersedes his previous commitment to social order. Revenge is personal; justice will always remain in the social arena and it is the revenge film that probes the individuals' drive to personally enact it.

The Chaser

Na Hong-jin's The Chaser shows how social authority can fail even when one attempts to work inside its parameters. Eom Joong-ho was once a detective himself but now finds himself operating outside their conventions and authoritative norms. When they do become involved, their incompetence and self-imposed restrictions limit their capacity to carry out what Eom Joong-ho would consider appropriate in dealing with the elusive sociopath. The Chaser is an interesting case because there is initially under-identification with our hero. This quest for revenge is more about economics than self-suffering. The justification is not initially self-evident (as in I Saw the Devil). Our hero is a vessel in which, over the course of the film, we assign justification for his actions. It is only when Eun-ji (Min-ji's daughter) is made the empathetic object that we begin to really identify with his quest and set the parameters for Eom Joong-ho's final confrontation with his target. Through projection, we fill Eom Joong-ho's "revenge cup" with reasons and justifications that he might not otherwise possess or be aware of. He is, at least initially, guided by a purer desire that he has not yet been made conscious of.

Although films like I Saw the Devil and The Chaser see the heroes as abandoning their socially appointed titles and obligations, does that mean that revenge cannot be a social affair? In Park Chan-wook's Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, revenge takes on a more social dynamic. This time a female protagonist is behind the wheel and she makes the decision to form her own "revenge society" with its own rules and codes of conduct. Here we can see a stark contrast between masculine and feminine ideals of social responsibility. Unlike Bedevilled where the trauma was localised within an individual, here need for revenge is equalled by Lee Geum-ja's social consciousness and her subsequent responsibility to it. The act of revenge still exists outside of great authority but she creates a new democratic system designed specifically to deal with the situation at hand. In addition, the spectator's identification is split between an under-identification with our protagonist, as her initial trauma is subverted and displaced by temporal narrative structuring, and a over-identification with the revenge act itself as we are seduced by the groupthink of the victims and the choices they make.

Contemporary Korean cinema has a number of other revenge films that were purposefully not mentioned as the films discussed here represent my personal favourites of the bunch. The revenge genre is a fascinating one and its relation to Korean culture and society is an equally intriguing one worth tackling.

-Christopher J. Wheeler Hancinema.net

[rubie]

March 19, 2012

Inbox: 악마를 보았다

Posted by refresh_daemon at init-scenes.com

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.