Thanksgiving Doublog! 家有儿女 (Home With the Children) and 부l힌지옼 Possessed

This Thanksgiving, I have two films to recommend watching with friends and family: Korean horror movie by Yong-ju Lee, Possessed, and a warm and cute Chinese sitcom show Home with the Children.

 

Possessed is a psychologically thrilling Korean horror movie that friends would love watching together. Possessed ranked 6th place at the South Korean box office for its opening weekend of August 14–16, 2009. It is about a college student who returns home when her 14-year-old sister So Jin (Shim Eun Kyung) goes missing. Her mother is a fanatic evangelist and resorts to prayer and refuses to work with the lazy police. Meanwhile Hee Jin hears rumors that her sister had been possessed. The whereabouts of So Jin become increasingly elusive and dead people begin appearing in Hee Jin's distorted dreams.

The sypnosis is not that creepy, but trust me, the film is more than creepy. 

I thought Possessed was great at capturing the small, creepy details and building suspense. The actors are great, especially the actress for the slightly crazy mother. I love how Possessed captures so much terror in one look from a possessed person, or a single shadow in the distance. There were a few scenes where I thought nothing was going to happen and something – an eye, a body, or a sound catches me by surprise. Some parts didn’t scare me at all though – when the director clearly meant for the scene to be scary.

So, on my Doublog scale (1 is that it is the best movie to watch; 10 is to not ever watch this for the holiday) I rate it as a 3.

Next up; Home with the Children is a nice sitcom to enjoy with the family over a crackling fire. It is about a family with three children (two from the father's previous marriage, one from the mother's previous marriage). It is a chaotic mess of a family and yet they manage to solve every problem with zing!

The funny moments in Home with the Children are unbelievable, and inspired me to think that if I look at life in a different way, anything is laughable. The sitcom has accompanied me through my childhood and actually is a useful tool for stress relieve. The innocence in Home with the Children transports many back to their own beautifully innocent times. I rate this a perfect 1. Must see, especially for my Chinese followers!! BTW, you can watch episodes on Youtube.

There you go! :D See you Saturday for a Japanese anime movie!     

신데렐라 "Cinderella": Ah, I'm Scared?

For Halloween weekend, I watched Cinderella, a 2006 Korean horror movie by Bon Man-dae. With the assurance from friends that all Korean horror films were super scary, I expected a traumatizing movie.
 This is the general plot of the story extracted from Wikipedia (SPOILER ALERT):

"The title "Cinderella" is directed towards the orphaned girl, the black haired ghost in the story. She can be dubbed Cinderella because she was illegally adopted after the original Hyeon-su suffered near-fatal burns and disfigurement from being in a car explosion. The orphan loved her "mother" very much but after the original Hyeon-su began to recover, their mother did an operation to have the orphaned girl's face cut off and attached to the real daughter. The real Hyeon-su, having no memory of the incident was spoiled by her mother while the faceless orphaned girl was kept in the cellar. The original daughter, was forbidden to go.
Making connections back to the original Cinderella story, Cinderella was also treated badly by a step mother and was locked away in her room while her two step sisters obtained all of the fortunes.
The adopted daughter was never given any birthday parties, was never allowed to go to school, and was left inside the basement writing in her diary, hoping that one day her "mother" will make her a new face, as she promised but never did. As she grew older, she felt more betrayed after watching Hyeon-su, the real girl, grow up and become beautiful with her face and having birthday parties with her beautiful friends and thus ended up committing suicide in the basement, writing about how much she hates Hyeon-su and her friends and she wishes she could kill them all. Unfortunately, the mother finally decided to throw the orphaned girl a party and brought her a cake, only to discover that she had hung herself. Feeling it be Hyeon-su's fault, she begins haunting her friends until they go crazy with thoughts of being ugly. With those thoughts, they commit suicide by cutting up their own faces, or inflicting facial disfigurement on each other. Also, it must be noted that the orphaned girl truly loved her mother and wanted nothing more than to be with her forever. The real Hyeon-su, even before the accident, never fully appreciated her mother and was extremely spoiled. In the end, Hyeon-su's mother agrees to go onto the afterlife with the adopted girl to save her real daughter and bring peace to the orphaned girl's torturous life."

Well, the synopsis seems scary, but the movie isn't. All the gory scenes aren't bloody enough to repulse, all the suspense scenes can be easily predicted, and all the actual scary scenes (ghost appearing) are total failures. There is in several parts of the movie where the 'ghost' is just a blue eye glaring at the audience -- the thing is, the blue eyes look beautiful and not creepy...so I don't get creeped out at all. I would say it is more of a mystery movie that has connecting themes of family conflicts and love and death rather than a pure horror movie.  

IMDb agrees, with viewers rating the movie an average of 5.5/10 stars.

A viewer said in his/her review:

"It's pretty dull and offers almost zero scares."Cinderella" looks slick,the acting is fine and Korean girls are jaw-droppingly beautiful,unfortunately the action moves at the snail's pace.Skip this one. "

Basically, this horror movie is for the 'light-headed' people who normally can't stand scary scenes. Believe me, it is at best a mystery movie, and more of a melodrama than anything else.
Still, worth a shot. Maybe my disappointment arised when I watched the Blair Witch Project (brrrr) the next day and compared the scare level (out of ten stars, Cinderella ranks 4 and BWP ranks 7.5).

I give this movie an 'eh' 2.8/5 stars. The 2.8 is for the amazing lead girl and the message that plastic surgery is no good! It is dangerous and pointless! You'll get attacked by a ghost if you do it. :P
Stay tuned for my next blog post on a Japanese anime movie!!!

トイレの神様; Goddess of the Toilet: The Most Beautiful Family Story Ever

Goddess in the Toilet (sorry, no trailer available, so I posted a clip), an adaptation of Japanese singer/songwriter Kana Uemura's song Toilet no Kamisama about her late grandmother, is the most touching, lovely movie I have ever laid eyes on. The plot is so simple, yet the sweet, well-thought details make this movie a hit on my blog. It was produced by MBS and directed by Hajime Takezono as a drama in January 2011. 

Goddess in the Toilet starts out as a funny comedy with a twist, and turns in a very serious yet inspirational direction. When she was 8 years old, she lived at her grandmother's house next door to her parents, playing gomoku, eating noodle soup when they went out shopping, and watching Yoshimoto Shinkigeki. Her grandmother especially told her that a beautiful goddess lives in the toilet, if she cleaned it every day, she'll turn out to be as beautiful as the goddess. As Uemura grew older, they stayed together still (actually the real Uemura grew very apart from her grandmother). Her grandmother gave her very good advice from achieving her dreams to dealing with her boyfriend. Her grandmother later became more ill when Uemura left for Tokyo to pursue her hopes of becoming a singer, and was hospitalized. Her grandmother could not say much and the next morning died quietly in her sleep. Uemura believes her grandmother was waiting for her.

There are no reviews in English or Chinese that I could easily find (guess I am the first). I personally feel like this movie was breathtaking. The characters are very relatable and optimistic, portraying many different viewpoints on one situation. The lessons learned from this fantastic movie are truly invaluable. It is as if your own grandmother is telling you these lessons. At the end, get a box of Kleenex ready because every tear etched down from Uemura's face will prove to be unbearably moving. You see, this my the first time I remember me bawling simply because of a movie. And also notice how the film ends very happily and peacefully, comforting you and leaving your soul cleansed/stable. The soundtrack is also not something to take lightly.

If you haven't guessed, this movie gets a phenomenal 5 out of 5 points. MUST SEE.

Apologies

Apologies for the three week stall! School just started, so everything has just been piling up. T.T Getting started up soon as possible. Thx for the continuous support.

늑대의 유혹; Temptation of Wolves: Tear-Jerker...Maybe a little too much?

Director Kim Tae Goon's 2004 novel adaptation Temptation of Wolves (starring hotshot Jo Han Seon) is a witty jumble of different types of love and violence in modern South Korea. This movie is what I would call a pretty pretty love story.

Jung Han-kyeong is a country girl, and after her father's death, she comes to Seoul to live with her mother. However, her life in Seoul is a series of mental and physical shocks. Seeing Han-kyeong's pitiable and adorable nature, Hae-Won, the most popular guy in school, falls for her.
The leader of Sung-Kwon High is named Jung Tae-sung (Kang Dong-won), and he, too, has feelings for Han-kyeong. Despite his adorable face, Tae-sung has strong fists. Tae-sung has a secret, one that forces him to love Han-kyeong in spite of himself, and Han-kyeong, ignorant of this, tries to do her best to be gentle with both of them. Eventually, Han-kyeong and Hae-won learn of Tae-sung's secret. (summary adapted from Wikipedia)

I think that if the director meant for this to be a simple, old-fashioned Korean romance, than he has done his job. The male leads are absolute heartthrobs with a cool, gangster attitude, and Han-kyeong is innocent and charming. The slightly complex issues of romance, family-love, and even tough bromance makes this film different from other romance films. It makes the movie watcher reflect and make connections to their own lives. Wolves is fundamentally a tragedy, and there was a lot of crying. But after a while, the tears drowned me in a state of boredom...the crying is supposed to make the movie watcher feel sadder. Somehow, the way Tae Goon's arrangement of the sad scenes weren't as tear-jerking as I liked it. Also, the portrayal of the female 'protagonist' really annoyed me -- she as pure white skin, is really short, leans physically and emotionally on the two men, cries a lot, and always looks down at the ground as if ashamed -- how more sexist and extremely feminine can you make her, Tae Goon?! Of course, the males are violent, frowning, remote, and really tall. Therefore, although the film did make me emotional, I give it a just-above-average 3.8/5 stars, because it is one feeling when one is watching the film, but it is a whole other feeling when one is reflecting a while after the film ended.

Here is a critic's comments:

 It’s refreshing to see Han Kyeong resemble a normal Korean girl, one the audience can relate too. While Hae Won reflects the modern day “Prince Charming” minus the aura of coolness, stubbornness, and ignorant distinctiveness. Making girls swoon once again is Tae-song, adding more complication to the plot and the movie falls directly under the category of audience knowing the answers before the protagonist does. The Love triangle between Tae Song, Hae-won and Han Kyung would have classified it as a teenage romance flick, but the complications between the characters gives the story more depth. (http://kmovieaddictsreviews.blogspot.com/2006/10/temptation-of-wolves.html)

A generally great love story, minus the hints of sexism and partial unoriginality (but no one has a completely 'original' romance out yet. Do watch!!!

Next week, an educational, inspirational Japanese movie.

停车, Parking; An In Depth View of a Problematic Social Structure

Did I mention awesome cover...and great soundtrack music??

Parking (2008), a thought provoking movie by director Chung Mong-Hong and starred by the renowned Chang Chen, is the first movie that deserves my five out of five stars rating. It is a beautiful story that perfectly mixes simple emotions/characteristics like love, kindness, humor, and sympathy with the complicated darkness of Chinese/Taiwanese social and government structures. Very creepy, yet heartwarming.

On Mother’s Day, Chen-Mo (Chang Chen) a kind yet niave man, plans a dinner date with his wife (Kwai Lun-mei), trying to improve their near-disastrous relationship. As he buys a gorgeous cake, a car blocks his parking space. Up until midnight, Chen-Mo searches for the owner of the car, encountering a wierd events and eccentric people: an old couple who lost their only son; a one-armed barbershop owner with an interesting past; a mainland Chinese prostitute trying to escape her pimp’s cruel clutches; and a plump Hong-Kong tailor beaten by underground loan sharks. This is the kind of story where different segments of different characters' lives come together to create a big picture for Chen-Mo, one that he learns a lesson from.

I am not usually a fan of Taiwanese films, because they are too slow, too superficial, and too 'cute' for my liking, but wow this one is a mind-blower. This film gives me a whole new sense of being. Worth a watch, but not for the really light-hearted movie-goer.

Here are some reviews:

As with most Taiwanese productions, Parking is never in any great hurry to tell its story, and lets events unfurl at a leisurely pace, however first-time writer-director-cinematographer Chung Mong-Hong remains in careful control throughout. The script is darkly comic, with the audience guiltily sucked in by the escalating schadenfreude that drives the narrative forward. Those familiar with this type of narrative, essentially Orpheus with bubble tea, will realize that only the dawn can hope to bring salvation for Chen Mo, and until then he may very well be taken to hell and back and forced to face demons long buried beneath a routine of mundane complacency. Chung’s cinematography effectively simulates Chen Mo’s mounting sleep deprivation, slowly creating a soft-focused, dream-like atmosphere as events become increasingly other-worldly.  -- http://www.bcmagazine.net/

Swinging delicately between offbeat comedy, gangster thriller and arthouse melodrama, Parking is a kaleidoscopic little film that never ceases to fascinate with its inspired originality – not to mention its enchanting score, crisp editing and dazzling cinematography. -- http://www.timeout.com.hk/


Wonderful, out-of-expectation production. Best I have seen of Chang Chen yet. This Weds, get ready for a Korean romantic movie!

李小龙, 我的兄弟, Bruce Lee, My Brother: A Twist on Chinese Superhero -- A Good Twist or Bad?

Bruce Lee, My Brother is an interesting new film released on Thanksgiving 2010 in Hong Kong by directors
Manfred Wong, and Wai Man Yip. The main actor is Aarif Rahman (Wang Lee Hom look alike!! *sigh*).




Okay, a little background on Bruce Lee for anyone out there who is curious:



Born Lee Jun Fan, on November 27, 1940, in San Francisco, California. His father, a Hong Kong opera singer, moved with his wife and three children to the United States in 1939; his fourth child, a son, was born while he was on tour in San Francisco. Bruce studied dance, once winning a cha-cha competition. As a teenager, he became a member of a Hong Kong street gang, and in 1953 began studying kung-fu to sharpen his fighting skills. In 1959, after Lee got into trouble with the police for fighting, his mother sent him back to the U.S. to live with family friends outside Seattle, Washington.
He got a job teaching the Wing Chun style of martial arts that he had learned in Hong Kong to his fellow students and others. Through his teaching, Lee met Linda Emery, whom he married in 1964. By that time, Lee had opened his own martial arts school in Seattle.
Lee gained a measure of celebrity with his role in the television series The Green Hornet, which aired from 1966 to 1967, while his most notable role came in the 1969 film Marlowe, starring James Garner. Confronted with the dearth of meaty roles and the prevalence of stereotypes regarding actors of Asian heritage, Lee left Los Angeles for Hong Kong in 1971, with his wife and two children (Brandon, born in 1965, and Shannon, born in 1967).


End of history lesson. Onto the film!

Bruce Lee, My Brother is an 'eh' sort of film. The positive side to this film is the quirky, cute humour that Rahman depicts very well and the bittersweet inspiration near the end of the film. This movie is less action (like I expected) and more to do with Lee's family and younger life in Hong Kong, so the point of view from which Wong and Yip directed it is relatively original. As BeyondHollywood.com says, "What 'Bruce Lee, My Brother' lacks in the action department, it somewhat makes up for it in other areas...“My Brother” is more palatable as an easy-going coming-of-age drama, at least when it’s not masquerading as the true story of a famous person. The film boasts some impressive production values, and there is a very real sense of adoration for the film’s ’60s setting by the filmmakers." However, Bruce Lee is a martial arts actor, yet the film doesn't have a decent martial arts/ karate choreography? What is this? Also, the film is shot in choppy time intervals -- you haven't gotten a gist of the scene yet, and bam, it is ten years later, little Bruce is already 20 years old. It is interesting how quite a few Asian historical films (Great Revival, anyone?) has this weird problem. At many times in My Brother, I got lost with where the film was roughly going. That was a bit annoying. JapanCinema.com says, "The casting is great, and although the pace and the story telling is uneven in many parts, it tends to inhibit a pretty big, strong wave of positive momentum. Sadly, the fight scenes weren’t up to par. The main reason for my beef with the fighting is it is all visually appealing, yet, it never really shows the techniques of the famous wing chun system. I felt this is important to elaborate upon when dealing with a Bruce Lee biopic. Yes, this is the same wing chun at Ip Man’s school, and it’s during this section of the film where events portrayed can seem too dramatic to have been true. That aside, no effort was spared in the attention to detail in sets and costumes. Bruce Lee, My Brother is a movie with great packaging but contains nothing of real, lasting substance on the inside." I guess it is up to the viewer, and what you want to get out of the film...if it is good action, then maybe switch to Ip Man and Ip Man II.

IMDB rates this movie 6.6/10 stars -- I am with IMDB this time with 3.5/5 stars, aka 'average'. Nevertheless, worth a watch. Pretty inspiring.

This weekend, let's review a Taiwanese black comedy!