MOVIE/DVD REVIEWS

[gossamer138]

<object width="420" height="315"><param name="movie" value="<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/anF5XiN8QY8&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/anF5XiN8QY8&rel=0</a>"></param><param name="allowFullScreen"

A Tale of Two Sisters

- Kim Jee-Woon. based on Korean folkyore.
Stylistic, suspensful, and masterfully shot with a keen intricant sense to detail. A brilliant masterpiece that few have seen, let alone heard of, and even fewer will grap without multiple views.

The movie plays out like a novel, of which it is based on. This  is NOT a horror or blood and gore type, rather a slow building suspense drama that builds up to a twisted revelation. The movie is 115min long and may seem slow and challenging to the average hollywood viewer for the first 60-70 min, because this is a suspenseful and masterfully crafted asian cinema where the payoff is the devil in the details. Multiple scenes offer you insight and clues that will most likely evade you the first viewing, small marticulous details that seem mundane the first trip around but are important and very insightful when you come to realize thier significance. Chances are you will not be able to digest nor fully appreicate this without multiple viewings along with multiple synopsis and interpretations by more experienced viewers. This goes to show you the extent and lengths the director went to, to delivery a well crafted, and thought out piece of cinema tha will ultimately challenge your perception in this intricant tale of deception. Looking back its amazing how mundane the scenes may seem but how relevant they really are for the big scheme of things.

I could easily give you several examples of movies that draw some comparisons from, but that will ultimately give away one or possible two of the main twists in the story. 
the last 40 minutes is where everything is tied to together and explained to some extent, there is alot of puzzel pieces that you will see that seemed missing at first now fit nicely together in this puzzel that will make most viewers dumbfounded and consfused at first.

This movie is not for everyone, including the hollywood type who must be spoon fed explainations. You must have the patience not only to endure this  2 hr methodical piece of asian cinema not only once, but multiple times to fully enjoy all its small details. You must have a keen sense of detail and enjoy the slow build up like reading a good novel. If you are a big mystery and suspense person who doesn't mind reading subtitles and enjoys mulitple twists and putting multiple puzzel pieces together but still not having a full picture then this is for you. There are many interpretations of this movie, some are never full revealed and mere hypothesis but is guarantted to be one of the smartest movies you will see.

[gossamer138]

  First after reading an analysis and being able to watch A tale of Two sisters again my appreciation for this increased expotentially. This is now my 1b movie of all time to my 1a Oldboy.The film is riddled with symbolism, hidden meanings and beautifully picturesque scenes that are simply breath taking. Every scene seems to contain some bit of importance, symbolic meaning or hidden secret of the house and family's dark history. An absolute work of art. now onto...

Martyrs
    A complete opposite of the fore-mentioned tale of two sisters. This isnt symbolic, beautifully illustrated rather a brutal, raw, violent and vile movie beyond your sickest expectations. ive seen a bit of shocking movies but have to admit the disgusting and vile nature of this caught me off guard, It is a kick in the gut, ugly, a tale of achieving martyrdom and the disgusting figureheads that will stop at nothing to reach it.

This film is utterly violent and disturbing, a emotional rollercoaster that is psychotically deranged, depraved and skin crawling with some of the sickest forms of torture you will ever see or want to imagine. if scenes of physical violence against women revolt you in film, then do not watch this, a very hard thing to stomach in some parts. A profane and physically abuse film that will turn your soul black. it will surely give you an appreciation for your own life and a sorrowing respect for those of physcial abuse. an absolute stomach turning experience that is violently repulsive. if the thought of hostel and its content make you quesy, then this is 1000x worse in graphic nature. you actually feel the emotional and physical abuse with a sorrowing soundtrack that will flutter your heart.

.not your ordinary tale of abduction and revenge. Nice little twist.  only for the sickest of the sickest. this is all to real, bloody and gritty. watch at your own risk but seriously it may be better you not.  As always don't bother with r- rated version completely stripped of all key scenes. Unrated.


<object width="560" height="315"><param name="movie" value="<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Jbct9qWBSME&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/Jbct9qWBSME&rel=0</a>"></param><param name="allowFullScreen"

[gossamer138]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/4-lnf01j7kw&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/4-lnf01j7kw&rel=0</a>


3 Extremes

 3 short movies, with two being from my favorite directors of all time Park Chan wook (old boy and the vengence trilogys) and Takeshi Miike (ichi the killer, 13 assassins, audition).

"Dumplings" by Fruit Chan. Probably the most straight forward of the three and most stomach turning. An aging trophy wife feels unwanted, unloved, and suspicous that her husband is cheating on her. A woman claims to have the secret to eternal youthful looking skin. Her dumplings with a special ingredient. For the squemish and female crowd may want to skip over to the next movie section. Despret to retain the attention of her extremely rich husband a woman seeks to regain her once beautiful and flawless skin and youth even after she becomes aware of the special ingredient. The film is fairly straight forward with the attention being drawn to a few distrubing scenes. The dumpling eating is particularly unsettling, with an almost clear transparency, the women slowly slurps the dumplings like oysters, slowly methodically savoring it while an unsettling sound of crunching can be heard as she slowly chews on it, sounding almost like tiny crackling sounds. In case you havent figured it out the special ingredient is abortions. As she prepares the dumplings and the women is eating them she explains what trimester makes the best dumplings, the bones being soft but brittle enough to consume and chew. There are 2 scenes of home done abortions, one involving a young 12 year old girl with the fetus beign shown and another bath tub scene at the end, where after the women finds out she is pregnant, aborts it in the bathtub, snares out a long serpent like tongue, and is seen in the final cut consuming her young like to maintain her youthful appearence. there is also another disturbing scene of the young 12yo girl bleeding out on the bus from the blotched abortion.

"Cut" from my favorite director Park Chan wook. A  disgruntle "extra" is insanely jealous of a famous, and well off director who seems to have it all including a charming personality. The extra ends up kidnapping the director and holding him hostage at his home with his wife strung from wires and fingers attached to piano keys (shes a pianist). The extra explains he wants the director to make a decision and do an dispectable act to lower himself to his standards. An innocent 13 yo child is tied to a couch, the director tied up to a retractable cord, only long enough to reach the couch. He must make a decision to kill the innocent child which the extra picked up along the way or have his wifes fingers cut off for every 5 minutes he hesitates ala "saw" . the setting and staging is absolutely beautifully done, customes, atmosphere and the camera work is second to none. slowly revolving, panning out  to reveal hidden surprises, and focusing on the human element and facial expressions. There are instances of fingers in a blender, some song and dance to lighten the mood, and some foreshadowing from the beginning for which it ends which was neatly done. A beautiful and stunning visual play.

"Box" by Takeshi Miike (ichi the killer) a surreal, and dream like world where you struggle to determing what is real, imagined or going on for the most part. One of the most hardest segments to figure out. Two girls with a step father in the circus are practing for an act. one is accidently locked into a box and burned alive. Scenes of jealousy, seduction, incest are just a few of the surreal like atmosphere. A box being buried in a dirt hole where the incident happened, a ghost of the burned girl peering out from the box. the SPOILER AHEAD... from what i gather one girl was jealous of the attention from the stepfather and killed her sister in the box. there seems to be two different scenarios and confusing dream sequences mostly because the end reveals the girls waking up together, literally, they are siamese twins. i guess the concept is that they may share a body, but the dream individually and that is why the dream sequence was hard to follow, we are torn between the two girls dreaming. very intriguing cocept.

caught this on pay per view for 2.99. each segment is about 40 minutes long, creepshow style, there is not really alot of gore or action, rather a slow methodical build up that asian cinema is known for that focuses on psychological fear.

[gossamer138]

well here it is for you old school horror fans. was skeptical at first but putting my trust in raimi and alvarez. things pick up at 1:40 and the ending scene is something to be seen.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/v3UiELNrjhE&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/v3UiELNrjhE&rel=0</a>

[The one]

well here it is for you old school horror fans. was skeptical at first but putting my trust in raimi and alvarez. things pick up at 1:40 and the ending scene is something to be seen.

http://www.youtube.com/v/v3UiELNrjhE?

Wow, like i have stated many time before, I think all they horror movie guys are just trying to "one up" each other with the extreme gore and violence. But, to each their own.

[gossamer138]

just found out about this one. looks interesting and is slated for a jan 11 release. Basically a korean imagining of the 78 "towering inferno"

value="<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/0H4TAxk0yaE&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/0H4TAxk0yaE&rel=0</a>

[gossamer138]

J.J. Abrahms to direct the next star wars movie for release in 2015.

did anyone else notice the last hurrah of the last action heros of the 80's all having movies released simulatanously?
Schwazennegger has "the last stand", stallon "bullet to the head", Willis "good day to die hard" and for shits and giggles you can throw in cruise (mission impossible) in "oblvion"
is there no young action stars to take the place of these who are on there last legs. damon (bourne series?) straham? hollywood is either playing it safe as always, or has no new stars in the pipeline.

[gossamer138]

its been to long since ive seen a good movie, long dry spell. Stoker is released in limited theaters and still waiting to make its way on VOD. just picked up a whole bunch of new stuff on dvd so hopefully have some good material. Was finally able to get A serbian film 100% uncut , probably the most sickest, and depraved movie you wish you never laid eyes on. still a greatly made movie full of symbolism about the struggles of serbia and its treatment of its people.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/ddwrbcMmzlc&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/ddwrbcMmzlc&rel=0</a>

[Rifle76]

Loved the First one


<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/LVTPlCkSmFQ&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/LVTPlCkSmFQ&rel=0</a>

[gossamer138]

just ordered Ichi the killer, the good, the bad, the weird and the man from nowhere which features a kick ass knife fight scene. what do you know..someone did bring a knife to a gun fight. 

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/x0BcGXHVfBg&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/x0BcGXHVfBg&rel=0</a>

[gossamer138]

The Chaser

Plot:  An ex-cop kicked off the force turned pimp is finding some of his girls have gone missing after advancements. Fearing they may have run off with his money, he soon realizes they have gone missing finding a connection with a common client, whom he thinks is selling his girls. The plot unfolds as a cat and mouse game as the pimp hunts down the killer with no help of an inept police force and bungling beaucracy, that seemingly cannot find any real evidence to put this serial killer away.

Yun-seok Kim plays the ex cop Joong-ho turned pimp, but it is the cold, cunning, and sly performance of Jung-woo Ha as the serial killer that really makes this movie. Joong-ho is a typical pimp, ruthless in his enforcement and with little care or regard for his merchandise. When a third girl of his goes missing, his best one, he gets suspicous and the tale starts to unfold as he as to hunt down this guy to save the life of Mi-jin kim who may still be alive. You start to see a transformation in Joong-ho but is hard to tell at first if its because of protecting his investment or of generally concern for the well being of his girl who has a little daughter. Soon we see him go to great lengths with little or no help from a bungling police force that is more keystone capers then detectives and who can't seem to formulate any hard evidence to help him before time runs out on Mi-jin's life.

As the name suggests, there is some foot chase scenes and the film revolves around Joongs chase against time. It is a cat and mouse game for the first part of the movie, turning to a korean revenge in the later half. There is some funny comedic elements and Yun-seok  has some great deliveries and ways of handling situations. There is not a lot of violence for those who may be turned off by that sort of thing with the exception of one hammer scene. The fight scenes are very realistic, not over the top and showy. The movie in whole is suspenseful, hard to predict, and a good thrill ride as the two main characters are really identifiable and likable.


The quality of the movie itself is good, on dvd the picture is very sharp, high grade, while most of the chase evolves around the bustling nightlife of Seoul which everything is nicely shot. There isnt a lot of artistic camera work, but the dialogue is funny at times, and there is always enough interest where the 125 minute run time never seems to slow down. An enjoyable movie that some here may even find enjoyable, as its more mainstream then many of the movies i usually partake in and close to a hollwood type. trust amazon or imbd for more indepth curiousity. of course as with 99% of the movies i watch it does have subtitles for those who may find that a discouragement. Fun, Definitely worth a watch.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/mo1nuuu7aFQ&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/mo1nuuu7aFQ&rel=0</a>

[gossamer138]

Ichi the killer (blu ray) unrated.

   When a yakuza crime boss goes missing, along with his girl, and all the syndicates money, the family seems to think he ran off. Its up to henchman Kakihara to find out what happened, convinced he was taken by a rival gang, het sets out to unleash his own form of sadistic punishment and torture in the path of all those that cross him to find the truth.

   Based on the Japanese Manga ( think the japanese equivalent of graphic novel) Ichi is a violent protrayl that shocks with visual graphics, albeit sometimes exaggerated forms of violence and blood shed. The movie does suffer from a set identity as to wether it wants to protray the realistic, brutal and shocking aspect (a prostitute is beaten closed fist til her face swells up and a man is tortured, hung by fish hooks and wires, while having a needle pierce his jaw, and cheek only to have boiling oil poured over him melting off his skin) to the outlandish, manga style, often cartoonish form of exaggerated violence (a man is cut in half from head to crotch with each side of his body falling opposite directions to a mans face sliced off, and flies across the room, sticking to the wall before sliding down leaving a trail of blood with his death stare). And who can not forget when two unfortunate souls have thier neck sliced open, while running around the room in panic, looking like a bobblehead, with a exaggerated, though funny, spurts of blood emitting at almost firehose force, and a sound effect that sounding like someone turning on a faucet. Yes long before thier was hostel or saw, Takashi Miike was dishing out violent asian extreme cinema.

Kakihara is a sadist/masochist, bored with life, unable to find the love in violence his once  boss dished out on him, that excites him so. He becomes obssessed with the only man that fullfill his fantasy, of a showdown to meet an exciting and exhilerating death.

Ichi is meek and mild mannered 90 pound wimp, who is under control by a man named Jiji who is using him to front rival gang members against one another by using false implanted memories thorugh hypnosis. When he gets upset , falsly being told to kill those that bullied him, he starts to cry before going into a uncontrollable killing frenzy (think adam sandler in the waterboy if you will).

Takashi Miike has proven himself to be a master of visual violent effects, there is some nifty camera work, ala the blurring of the tokyo street lights and buildings when ichi is running through the streets to protray panic and disarray. Miike is also known for his vague, open -endings where things just dont seem to make sense (see the box in 3 extremes), leaving the viewer to make his own intrepretation offen leading to frustration and anger in amercian viewers who usually want a spoon fed explanation and neat tidy ending. you wont ever get this from Miike,

The bluray version is only marginable better in picture quality and bitrate, but does include two hours of extras. If you like violence mixed in with some soft comedic effect and some outlandish moments, this is worth a look. I would say this is a solid B rated movie, not great as compared to Oldboy, a tale of two sisters, and i saw the devil, but does offer a look at one of japan's premier directors and the one that brought Miike into the spotlight,

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/coiVr5Pl4-s&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/coiVr5Pl4-s&rel=0</a>