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anyone in to asian films?

Just watched Memories of Murder, a South Korean film about the hunt for their first documented serial killer back in the mid 80's. Compelling stuff, highly recommended.
 
Sounds good. I think I saw that one yesterday when I was at the rental store. Next time I will pick it up, along with 2046.
 
I LOVE asian movies! been watching for most of my life (hong kong, chinese and japanese) then later on I started watching indian and korean...recently just started watching a few thai movie too

:) :D
 
This weekend I watched Teruo Ishii's 1969 exploitation classic Inferno of Torture(Tokugawa irezumi-shi: Seme jigoku). The second film of his Tokugawa trilogy. Exploitation disguised as historical fiction. This one is for lovers of trashy cinema only. The director passed away last month. God rest his smutty soul.:(
 
I finally got to see Chan Wook-Park's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, which finally came to Region 1 dvd. This is the first of his 'Revenge' trilogy, with Oldboy being the second, and the upcoming Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. I thought it was good, but not as good as Oldboy.
 
I just saw Oldboy, but I didn't realize it was part of a trilogy, I'll have to look for the other two movies.
 
Well it's an extremely loose trilogy with just the themes running through every film. I loved Oldboy and recently watched Sympathy for Lady Vengeance which while enjoyable paled in comparison to Oldboy. I've yet to see Mr. Vengenace but in time i guess
 
Ms. said:
Well it's an extremely loose trilogy with just the themes running through every film. I loved Oldboy and recently watched Sympathy for Lady Vengeance which while enjoyable paled in comparison to Oldboy. I've yet to see Mr. Vengenace but in time i guess
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Thanks for the info :)
 
Just got around to watching "Sympathy for Mr Vengeance". And I'll agree with what people said above: while really good, it's not up there with "Oldboy". Then again, it IS a more challenging movie - for one thing, it's largely a silent movie, complete with caption cards... Beautiful, disturbing and very bleak; Chan-wook Park is a piece of work. I'm really looking forward to watching "Lady Vengeance" now.

Could anyone recommend any Korean directors apart from Chan-wook Park, Ki-duk Kim and Ji-woon Kim? In particular, are there any from before the current "asian" hype who really deserve checking out? It seems just about everything we get from Korea (and Japan) are horror and action flix, and while I do love horror, there's gotta be something else too...?
 
beer good said:
Could anyone recommend any Korean directors apart from Chan-wook Park, Ki-duk Kim and Ji-woon Kim? In particular, are there any from before the current "asian" hype who really deserve checking out? It seems just about everything we get from Korea (and Japan) are horror and action flix, and while I do love horror, there's gotta be something else too...?
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There is...on my to watch list are 1)Bloody Ties and 2) Dasepo Girls, I was looking for a link to put up for them just now and I came across this Link, if you scroll down it has an overview of a few Korean films (I am a Cyborg looks very appealing)

I haven't yet seen Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, but I did enjoy Lady Vengeance, it's beautifully shot - the colours alone immediately engage your brain. But no, it's not as good as Old Boy.
 
Thanks! I've seen that site before, it's almost TOO detailed... but "Bloody Tie" looks real interesting. Also, I just got "A Bittersweet Life" on DVD, really looking forward to that one.

BTW, apparently there's a US remake of Oldboy in the works. Wanna bet all the
incest and eating of live animals
is cut out and that it will star Ashton Kutcher?
 
The Korean war film, Taegukgi: Brotherhood of War is very good. Filled with realistic war violence and lots of human drama. It was a huge hit over there.
 
lenny nero said:
The Korean war film, Taegukgi: Brotherhood of War is very good. Filled with realistic war violence and lots of human drama. It was a huge hit over there.
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Thanks Lenny - will try to find that one too.

"A Bittersweet Life" was indeed very good. It's VERY different from "A Tale Of Two Sisters", even if you can tell that it's the same director - those absolutely beutiful shots, the colours, etc. But much less convoluted, much talkier, much funnier (!) and with lots of action scenes that are ALMOST too much to take seriously. And yet after approximately 14,576 bullets and several hundred gallons of blood, the ending is... well, it fits the title very well. The comparison that kept popping into my head was Jarmusch's "Ghost Dog"... if Jarmusch had watched a Robert Rodriguez movie the day before he started it.
 
I caught the Korean serial killer film H on The Sundance Channel about a week ago, It was very downbeat, depressing, and really gruesome.
 
lenny nero said:
The Korean war film, Taegukgi: Brotherhood of War is very good. Filled with realistic war violence and lots of human drama. It was a huge hit over there.
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Just watched this. I agree; very powerful, moving film. The idea of having brothers fighting in a civil war could get very heavy-handed, but I thought it was handled very well. At times
especially during the scene where they burn the barn with POWs
it reminded me of one of the most harrowing war movies ever, Elem Klimov's "Go And See" - "Taegukgi" isn't quite as nihilistically brutal, though, even if it is more graphic in its violence. It goes a little over the top with the soundtrack a few times, but other than that - brilliant movie. I can understand why this would be a hit in a country that has essentially been at war with itself for 56 years...
 
Guess I might as well post this here, even if it came up in the "Being scared by a movie" thread.

direstraits said:
There is a Thai movie recently that made it here as one of the scariest movie in recent memory - even my scary movie buff pals were scared. It's called Shutter... anyone seen it? (you don't have to ask me if I've seen it...)
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Frankly, I don't think this movie lived up to its hype (LOTS of 10-star reviews at IMDb). While it's very well photographed and edited, with good acting all around, it does stay a little too close to the standard Asian-spook-movie we've seen in recent years; there are some scenes that are copied more or less shot-for-shot from "Ju-On", for instance, and the plot is yet another "Ringu" clone with the ghost of a dead girl haunting people until she can get peace yada yada yada. Plus while the movie is scary in places, it does rely a little too heavily on cheap scares - and the cheap scares are much less effective than they were in "Ju-On".

The saving grace is the ending, which - while not completely surprising - does make a pretty good point and is actually pretty original. Not completely original, but at least not the standard and-the-curse-goes-on ending.

3/5.
 
I finally got around to seeing Sympathy for Lady Vengeance this past weekend, I thought it was good, not Oldboy good, but definitely worth one's time. I can't wait to see what Park Chan Wook has up his sleeve for his next film.
 
I've just rented Seven Samauri. I had a copy at home but with no subtitles - bummer. And after reading Shogun I am looking forward to seeing this awsome film.
 
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