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!!!

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.

마이 블랙 미니드레스; My Black Mini Dress: Beautiful and Extremely Fun

Korean film My Black Mini Dress was directed by Heo In-moo (허인무) on March 23, 2011. It is a film about the lives of four friends coming right out of college to 'real' life; through 24 years old characters, this movie presents the real stories of young women in South Korea.

In the beginning of the movie, I thought it was another superficial Korean drama about love, cute couples, and physical fun with alot of pretty teenage girls partying their lives away. However, after one scene with a depressed protagonist crying without out her makeup, I was greatly sobered and I immediately started getting into the story. I love the unconventional plot! Such modern uniqueness, such wonderful creativity. For once this year, I was moved in several scenes. And the newest actress I have fallen in love with is Cha Ye-ryeon (차예련). She looks smart and sophisticated, captivating me at first sight. Her character is all that I personally wish to be.

Here is what a critic said:
 'MBMD' is so humorous and fun, that it would be almost impossible for young women to keep their eyes away from the screen, and they will at least nod once in agreement to the concerns that the four women face.
But it also has some lacking areas for men to sympathize with. It makes you wonder if the rich man Suk Woo (Lee Yong Woo), who's life mission is simply to hunt women and Soo Hwan (Lee Chun Hee), a loser who has just entered the society, are too dichotomized.
And it may also lose some sympathy from men because the movie doesn't allow the clubbing and brand name crazed women to be labeled as 'Dwen Jang Nyus (brand name items/expensive lifestyle crazed girls)'.

http://yooneunhye.net/forums/topic/my-black-mini-dress-movie-review

There you go, 4 out of 5 stars. Everything is perfect except for the strong hints of Sex and the City (*shivers*). Give it a try; maybe you'll find your first fave Korean star too. Great for watching with girlfriends and the family (maybe, maybe not the kids). The film is a wonderful mix of the sad and the happy, the funny and the serious.

Okay, see you on Wednesday for a review on a Chinese martial arts movie.