The Day After (2017) ☆☆☆(3/4): A slight minor work from Hong Sang-soo

Posted on July 9, 2017 by kaist455

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Besides being one of the most prominent filmmakers working in South Korea, Hong Sang-soo is one of the most prolific ones. Like Woody Allen, he has usually made one or two works every year, and watching his new film has been a sort of annual event for me and other audiences, though it took some time for me to get accustomed to his plain, minimalistic storytelling style. While I was mildly amused by “Tale of Cinema” (2005), “Woman on the Beach” (2006), and “Night and Day” (2008), I came to enjoy his films a little more than before after watching “Like You Know It All” (2009) and “HaHaHa” (2010), and I became more enthusiastic around the time when “In Another Country” (2012), which is one of his best works to date in my inconsequential opinion, was released.

In case of “The Day After”, one of Hong’s three films in this year, it is mainly driven by a series of conversations scene like many of his other works, but it is more straightforward and less playful compared to his recent works. Shot in black-and-white digital film like “The Day He Arrives” (2011), the mood is drier then before, and I observed its few characters from the distance throughout the film like I did while I watched “Tale of Cinema” and “Woman on the Beach”. While the movie required some patience during my viewing, but there are several good moments to amuse me at least, and that is as much as I could expect from Hong’s work.

The movie opens with its middle-aged married hero beginning his another day early in the morning. Besides working as a literature critic at times, Bong-wan (Kwon Hae-hyo) runs a small publishing house, and the following flashback scenes show us the end of his affair with Chang-sook (Kim Sae-byeok), a pretty young woman who had worked under Bong-wan as his sole employee but recently walked away from her job as well as Bong-wan.

thedayafter05While it seems he is still not recovering from his break-up with Chang-sook, there comes another pretty young woman. She is Ah-reum (Kim Min-hee, who was terrific in Hong’s previous film “On the Beach at Night Alone” (2017)), and she comes to Bong-wan’s publishing house as his new employee. As shown from the first conversation scene between her and Bong-wan, she is genuinely interested in literature, and Bong-wan soon finds himself attracted to her. He later takes her to a restaurant for having a lunch and some drink together, and it looks like she is also attracted to Bong-wan while they talk more and more with each other.

However, Bong-wan shows her his jaded superficiality as their conversation becomes more serious. When Ah-reum asks him about his belief and life philosophy, he does not give her any satisfying answer while not knowing what to say, and then this awkward moment is followed by a bitter flashback scene between Chang-sook and Bong-wan.

Not long after her lunch with Bong-wan, Ah-reum is confronted by Bong-wan’s wife Hae-joo (Jo Yoon-hee). Hae-joo has been suspecting her husband’s affair, so she comes to his workplace for facing the woman with whom he is involved with, but, unfortunately, she mistakes Ah-reum for Chang-sook. Sandwiched by Ah-reum and his angry wife, Bong-wan cowardly tries to avoid taking any responsibility for the mess caused by his infidelity, and, to our little amusement, that only makes him look all the more pathetic.

After this incident, Bong-wan buys Ah-reum a dinner as a sort of compensation for her bad first day, but the situation becomes complicated when he comes across Chang-sook around that point. After he takes both Chang-sook and Ah-reum to his publishing house, they drink together a bit like many characters of Hong’s films, and it seems Bong-wan and Chang-sook still have some feelings between them.

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This could be the solid beginning for whatever would follow next, but Hong’s screenplay simply stops there and then moves onto the epilogue part, which amusingly repeats one of the earlier scenes in the film. I guess its point is that our pathetic hero does not learn anything from his embarrassing mess as repeating himself again, but the movie does not make much impact for that as merely watching one of its main characters silently walking away from us.

Anyway, the movie is an engaging experience mainly thanks to the good performances from its small cast. Kwon Hae-hyo, who previously appeared in “Yourself and Yours” (2016) and “On the Beach at Night Alone”, is effective as a weak, flawed guy who seriously needs some self-awareness, and Kim Sae-byeok and Jo Yoon-hee are also competent in their respective roles. In case of Kim Min-hee, who recently drew lots of public attention due to her affair with Hong, she did an effortless job of filling her character with warmth and shrewdness, and that is why her character comes to us as the one we come to care about more than the other characters in the film.

“The Day After”, which was recently shown at the Cannes Film Festival along with Hong’s other film “Claire’s Camera” (2017), is not as enjoyable as “On the Beach at Night Alone”, but it is still another interesting (and amusing) work from Hong despite its rather slight aspects in terms of narrative and characterization. Although I did not chuckle as much as I hoped, I enjoyed its solid performances and spontaneous dialogue scenes, and maybe I will revisit it someday for getting more from it. After all, Hong’s films are a kind of acquired taste, aren’t they?

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Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Spider-Man with a bit of Iron Man

Posted on July 7, 2017 by kaist455

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After watching “Spider-Man: Homecoming”, I thought about how fast things come and go these days. We thought it was over when Sam Raimi completed his Spider-Man trilogy in 2007, but then there came “The Amazing Spider-Man” (2012) and its 2014 sequel, and now we get another reboot here, which is better than “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” (2014) or “Spider-Man 3” (2007) but frequently hampered by several weak aspects including thin plot and superficial characterization. In short, this is no more than a product to fill another spot in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) franchise.

As many of you know, the movie is the first Spider-Man movie connected with the MCU franchise. After a deal was made between Sony and Marvel Studios a few years ago, Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Tom Holland) could be included in “Captain America: Civil War” (2016), and one early scene of “Spider-Man: Homecoming” summarizes what Parker went through in that movie via a series of video clips shot by him. While he is excited to be recruited by Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), he is also thrilled to receive a new Spider-Man suit which is a lot better than what he has worn, and he is certainly eager to be a new member of Avengers.

However, Stark and his assistant Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) think Parker is not ready for that, so Parker keeps doing his usual small heroic things around the city of New York while also trying to deal with several matters of his mundane adolescent life. He has been carrying a torch for a pretty girl named Liz (Laura Harrier), but he has hesitated to express his attraction to her although they have known each other as members of the academic decathlon team of their science high school. While he has managed to hide his superhero identity from others including Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), his close friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) finds it out on one day, and he surely shows lots of interest in Parker’s superhero abilities while mostly keeping his mouth shut.

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In the meantime, there comes a big trouble. Not long after he confronts a group of criminals armed with new kinds of weapons he has never seen before, Parker comes across Adrian Toomes/Vulture (Michael Keaton), who was initially a hard-working scrap scavenger but came to start his black market business with bits of alien technology after being pushed away from his big business opportunity by Stark Industries and the US government several years ago (Remember that massive alien invasion in “The Avengers” (2012)?). Watching Keaton appearing with a pair of big metallic wings on the screen, I could not help but think of his funny Oscar-nominated performance in “Birdman” (2014), but Keaton brings considerable intensity to his character nonetheless, who is not as memorable as Doctor Octopus or Green Goblin but feels menacing enough at least.

As Parker tries to stop his opponent, the movie gives us a number of action sequences, but most of them are not particularly impressive to say the least. Except a nice action sequence unfolded on a big ferry, the action sequences in the movie suffer from their rather mediocre special effects, and they are also little confusing at times due to choppy editing, which will be surely distracting especially if you watch the movie in 3D instead of 2D.

The director/co-writer John Watts, who previously made his first feature film “Cop Car” (2015), tries to keep things being afloat via light-weighted mood, and the screenplay written by him and his five co-writers succeeds to some degrees in case of several scenes involved with Parker and his school colleagues. These scenes feel genuine and enjoyable, and it surely helps that Holland, who is currently 21, looks young enough to play a teenager character. Beside conveying well his character’s irrepressible eagerness to prove himself, Holland is also believable as his character comes to learn some important lessons through his first big solo adventure, so nobody has to tell his character this time that with great power comes great responsibility.

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However, most of the supporting performers surrounding Holland are under-utilized to my disappointment. Robert Downey Jr. simply appears a few times in the film as required, and so do Jon Favreau, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Chris Evans, who gives us a short but humorous moment at the end of the movie. Although it is nice to see minor supporting roles in the film being played by various notable performers including Donald Glover, Tony Revolori, Kenneth Choi, Michael Chernus, Hannibal Buress, Bokeem Woodbine, Logan Marshall-Green, Jennifer Connelly, and Abraham Attah, they do not have many things to do except filling their respective roles, and Marisa Tomei is seriously wasted in her underdeveloped role. I guess the movie tries to do something different with her character, but Tomei feels too sexy and vibrant for her role, compared to Rosemary Harris in Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy or Sally Field in “The Amazing Spider-Man” and its 2014 sequel.

“Spider-Man: Homecoming” will probably appeal a lot to the fans of MCU movies as usual, but it does not have enough personality to distinguish itself from other recent Spider-Man movies. It merely functions as a prelude to another Spider-Man movie as well as other upcoming MCU movies including “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018), and I left the screening room with growing tiredness in my mind when it was over.

Is superhero movie really approaching to eventual collapse, as many film critics worried around the time when “The Avengers” came out? While “Wonder Woman” (2017) and “Logan” (2017) thankfully showed that there are still some new grounds to be explored, that alarming trend seems to be continued as exemplified by “Spider-Man: Homecoming”. The movie is watchable but forgettable, and I wish I could care more about it.

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Okja (2017) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4) : Save her super pig

Posted on July 2, 2017 by kaist455

okja01What an odd work “Okja” is. Besides being an offbeat hybrid between South Korean film and American Hollywood film, this is also a quirky cross of several different genres which are somehow juxtaposed together in one curious bundle, and I enjoyed that a lot even though it is not wholly successful. The movie alternatively works as a zany adventure drama, a broad social satire, and a grim horror story, and it is rather amazing to see how the movie mostly balances itself well between its many contrasting and clashing genre elements as casually jumping from one narrative point to another.

Anyway, what the hell can I expect anything else from director Bong Joon-ho? Since his debut feature film “Barking Dogs Never Bite” (2000), he has consistently attempted his own fusion of different genres as shown from “Memories of Murder” (2003), “The Host” (2006), “Mother” (2009), and “Snowpiercer” (2013), and “Okja” is not so different from his previous works in that aspect. Like Bong’s other works, the movie is bountiful with many goodies to be appreciated, and we gladly go along with its eccentric ride as totally involved in one touching relationship at the center of its story.

The movie opens with a big promotional event held by a multi-global corporation named Mirando, and its decidedly cheerful CEO Lucy Mirando (Tilda Swinton) introduces a new type of pig which is actually a genetically modified species but is promoted instead as a natural species newly found in Chile and then grown in Arizona. Emphasizing that this ‘super pig’ can be an answer to the increasing global demand for food, Mirando announces her ambitious plan; 26 of super pigs will be individually sent to various farmers around the world, and there will be a special event after 10 years, which will present the best one among the bunch.

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10 years later, we meet one of these super pigs, which was sent to a farmer living in a remote mountain area of South Korea. Looking like a cross between hippopotamus and manatee, this super pig, named Okja, has been under the care of Heebong (Byun Hee-bong) and his young granddaughter Mija (Ahn Seo-hyun), and the close relationship between Mija and Okja is apparent to us as we watch how they spend their free time together in a mountain forest surrounding Heebong and Mija’s little house. When Mija gives Okja some soothing words shortly after one precarious circumstance, we do not hear what exactly she is saying to her big friend, but we feel the intimacy established between them, and that makes the scene all the more emotionally resonant.

On one day, there come several visitors including Dr. Johnny Wilcox (Jake Gyllenhaal), a wacky zoologist and TV personality who has been a public representative of the Mirando Corporation. They come for evaluating Okja, and Okja is soon taken away from Mija because it is chosen as the best super pig to be sent to New York City. Understandably angry and furious about this, Mi-ja is determined to regain Okja by any means necessary, so she immediately goes to Seoul, where Okja is currently being prepared for being sent to New York City.

The plot gets thickened as Mi-ja inadvertently gets involved with a bunch of animal rights activists. Like Mija, they want to save Okja from the grim fate awaiting her in US, and there is an amusingly disjointed moment when they try to communicate with her via their translator, who turns out to be a little too eager about following their cause. While not knowing what is exactly going on, Mija subsequently finds herself sent to New York City along with Okja, and Mirando is fully ready to use them for promoting what may be her greatest business achievement.

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Going up and down along with Mija and other substantial characters, the movie serves us with several different moments to remember. In case of an action sequence unfolded in a downtown area of Seoul, it alternatively amuses and thrills us as peppered with nice details to notice (my favorite one is a big pork advertisement on the wall, by the way), and the farcical score by Jung Jae-il further accentuates the comical aspect of this sequence. In case of one particular scene later in the movie, it will surely make you think twice about eating pork or other kinds of meat, and that is why one small moment around the end of this gut-chilling scene feels tragically poignant.

While I admire how the screenplay by Bong and his co-writer Jon Ronson goes for many unconventional things, some parts of the movie do not work as well as intended, and the movie pushes its broad characterization a bit too far at times. It is rather fun to see notable performers like Tilda Swinton, Paul Dano, and Jake Gyllenhaal willingly hurling themselves into their caricatures roles under Bong’s deft direction, but not all of them are successful, and Gyllenhaal often looks too strained in his supposedly intentional over-the-top performance, though I must admit that Gyllenhaal drinking a bottle of soju is something we do not see everyday.

Nevertheless, the movie works on the whole as an entertaining mixed bag as its weak and strong elements are held together by the emotional power generated from its sensitive depiction of Mija and Okja’s relationship. Simple and direct in her sincere acting, Ahn Seo-hyun is believable in her scenes with Okja, and Okja is a convincing CGI creature imbued with life, personality, and some intelligence.

“Okja”, which is currently available on Netflix and is also being shown at a number of movie theaters in South Korea, can be described as a ‘flawed’ work, but it is equipped with so much of style and personality that I came to regard its many flaws and holes with affectionate amusement during my viewing. We need more of movies like that these days, you know.

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Anarchist from Colony (2017) ☆☆☆(3/4): An anarchist couple who stood by each other

Posted on July 1, 2017 by kaist455

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Based on a dramatic real-life story from the Japanese Occupation era, South Korean film “Anarchist from Colony” is more amusing and entertaining than I expected. While being as serious as required by its historical subject, the movie is also quite humorous as cheerfully bouncing along with its two spirited main characters, and we cannot help but admire their indomitable spirit while observing how they passionately and mischievously stand by each other in front of social injustice and oppression.

They are Park Yeol (Lee Je-hoon) and Fumiko Kaneko (Choi Hui-seo), and the early part of the movie shows us how they come to fall in love with each other in Tokyo during the early 1920s. When they come across each other via a mutual friend of theirs, something clicks between them right from when their eyes meet. We soon see them sharing feelings and thoughts as fellow anarchists with common socialistic belief, and there is a funny, heartfelt scene where they make a personal/political oath to each other.

While he seems to be a plain rickshaw driver on the surface, Park has been a member of an underground group involved with the Korean Independence Movement. As reflected by a few brief amusing moments, the activities of Park and his comrades are inconsequential to say the least, but they want to contribute to the movement as much as they can, and Park has considered a plan for throwing a big blow to the Japanese government.

Kaneko knows all about this because she also attends their secret meeting. Unlike many other Japanese people, she believes that Japan has been doing wrong things to Korea, so she is sympathetic to the cause of Park and his comrades, and she willingly goes along with her lover’s plan although she is not so pleased when she comes to learn that he does not share everything with her as promised to her before.

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However, not long after one of Park’s comrades is sent to Shanghai for getting a bomb, there comes an unexpected catastrophe. On September 1st, 1925, Tokyo and its surrounding areas are suddenly shaken by a big earthquake, and the city and its people are thrown into panic and chaos while a group of high-ranking Japanese officials are trying to get the situation under control. They eventually decide to declare the martial law, but false rumors about Koreans poisoning wells and burning buildings are spread around the city with their connivance, and that leads to the mass killing of Koreans. Officially, 231 Koreans were killed during the aftermath of this earthquake, but, as briefly mentioned at one point in the film, it is estimated that the actual number is around 6,000 at least, and this was indubitably one of many shameful moments in the 20th Japanese history.

As facing this grim consequence, Mizuno (Kim In-woo), a high-ranking Japanese official who actively spread those virulent false rumors, needs anything to divert public attention from this, and he and his men find a right target in Park and Park’s comrades, who happened to be arrested shortly after the martial law was declared. Having been on the watchlist for years, Park and his comrades certainly look like a menace to the establishment, and Misuno’s men already got a confession from the guy who was sent to Shanghai. Technically, Park and his comrades only prepared for their plan a little while not committing anything serious, but that is more than enough for Mizuno and his men to bring a charge of treason against them.

Knowing well what will happen regardless of whether he and his comrades resist or not, Park decides to confess, but he has a clever idea of how to utilize this supposedly hopeless circumstance for his political purpose. For protecting his comrades, he insists that he planned it alone from the start, and he also claims that he was planning to assassinate the crown prince of Japan. This ‘confession’ of his surely draws lots of attention from the media, and he becomes more determined to make the upcoming trial into a political show for him and Kaneko, who did not hesitate to get arrested along with Park and then gladly presents herself as her lover’s sole accomplice.

While they will likely be sentenced to death at their trial, Park and Kaneko are more bound to each other as strongly pushing their belief and love together in front of others, and the movie generates a number of humorous moments as these two defiant lovers give constant headaches to Mizuno and other Japanese government officials. On the first day of their trial, they cause public sensation as wearing traditional Korean costumes, and I can assure you that Park and Kaneko really did that in real life. The screenplay by Hwang Seong-gu sticks very close to the records of the real-life trial, and I heard that most of those politically charged statements made during the court scenes in the movie are exactly what Park and Kaneko said during their trial.

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It surely helps that the movie is anchored by two charismatic lead performances. While Lee Je-hoon, who drew my attention for the first time via his terrific breakthrough turns in “Bleak Night” (2010) and “The Front Line” (2011), balances his performance well between comedy and drama as demonstrating another side of his immense talent, Choi Hui-seo, who previously played a minor supporting character in director Lee Joon-ik’s previous film “DongJu: the Portrait of a Poet” (2015)“, is also wonderful as Lee’s equal acting partner, and the screen sparks with their undeniable chemistry whenever they are on the screen together. Thanks to their solid performances, Park and Kaneko come to us as vivid, enjoyable characters, and Lee and Choi are particularly good when Park and Kaneko indirectly confirm their love to each other via their individual statements during the trial. They do not say anything about their love, but their mutual affection is palpable as the camera looks at them, and that is why this moment is touching and poignant.

The other characters in the movie are less developed in comparison, but it is interesting to observe how some of Japanese characters besides Kaneko are presented as sympathetic figures. While Kim In-woo is suitably despicable in his broad villain role, Kim Joon-han is a no-nonsense judge who gradually becomes skeptical about his case, and Japanese actor Tasuku Yamanouchi deserves to be mentioned as Tatsushi Fuse, a conscientious lawyer who defended not only Park and Kaneko but also numerous notable Korean activists in real life and is in fact the only Japanese citizen who received the Order of Merit for National Foundation from the South Korean government.

Through his notable films including “Once Upon a Time in a Battlefield” (2003), “King and the Clown” (2006), “Blades of Blood” (2010), “The Throne” (2015), and “DongJu: the Portrait of a Poet”, Lee Joon-ik has shown his affinity toward historical subjects, and “Anarchist from Colony” is no exception. While it loses some of its bouncy spirit during its expected third act, this engaging period drama film still distinguishes itself with considerable personality, and Park and Kaneko remain to be interesting characters to watch regardless of what you think of them. They are indeed hardcore anarchists, but they are a pretty cool couple, aren’t they?

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American Honey (2016) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Selling and drifting on the road

Posted on June 28, 2017 by kaist455

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“American Honey”, which won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in last year, gives us a vivid, realistic glimpse into a certain type of lifestyle which is not so familiar to many of us. Because I had never heard about its subject, I observed the movie with curiosity, and then I found myself gradually involved in its seemingly aimless journey with a bunch of young characters wandering around the American midwestern regions. I was excited by a number of small but wonderful musical moments brimming with life and spirit, and I also felt a bit saddened as observing that its characters will probably go on and on until they are no longer young.

In the beginning, we meet Star (Sasha Lane), a poor adolescent girl living in some town located in Oklahoma. Because her stepmother left her and her two younger siblings and her father is nothing but an alcoholic bum, she is the one in charge of taking care of her family, and the opening scene shows her searching a trash container and then eventually finding something fairly edible: a package of frozen chicken which is almost thawed now.

When she and her two younger siblings are around a town supermarket building, a van passes by them, and then she comes across Jake (Shia LaBeouf) and his fellow young drifters. When Rihanna and Calvin Harris’ song “We Found Love” is played in the building, these young people joyously dance to the music, and that brief moment of joy and freedom surely impresses Star. When she approaches to Jake later, he gives her a chance to join his bunch, and she grabs it as hoping for the escape from her poor neighbourhood.

Mainly through Jake, Star comes to learn how to earn money like other members in the bunch. Under the strict management by Krystal (Riley Keough), who is the forewoman of the bunch, they have to sell magazine subscriptions door-to-door during their work time, and Krystal emphasizes to Star that she will not be generous to anyone who does not earn enough.

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Jake has always been the number one salesman in the bunch, and Star watches how he works when they go together around a suburban neighborhood. When he rings the doorbell of one house, a teenager girl opens the door, and he quickly ingratiates himself with that girl. When that girl’s mother appears, he swiftly moves his focus to her, and we get a humorously tense moment as he tenaciously tries to persuade that woman to buy anything. The woman does not seem to be persuaded at all, but he keeps talking and talking while the woman’s daughter is having a fun, lively musical time with other girls outside, and this situation is eventually punctuated by Star when she refuses to go along with his tactic.

Instead of being plot-driven, the movie drifts around such good scenes like that as its characters move from one region to another. At one point, Jake and Star come across a trio of apparently affluent middle-aged guys, and this encounter leads to an amusing scene unfolded around the swimming pool of a big house. When Star and other members of the bunch approach to a group of oil field workers, we get another wonderful musical moment as the aforementioned song by Rihanna and Calvin Harris is played, and then it is followed by an unnerving private moment between Star and a worker who makes an offer she cannot refuse easily.

And we get to know the bunch a bit as feeling the sense of community around them. Besides vividly capturing small and big moments of natural beauty on the screen, cinematographer Robbie Ryan, who previously collaborated with director/writer Andrea Arnold in “Fish Tank” (2009) and “Wuthering Heights” (2011), did a splendid job of conveying the intimacy among characters whenever they spend time in their van, and the screen ratio of 1.37:1 furthers accentuates that. While Jake and Krystal are naturally more prominent in comparison, the other members of the bunch are colorful in each own way, and the performers playing these characters, most of whom are non-professionals, are believable as distinctive individuals to watch. McCaul Lombardi is particularly hilarious as a showier member of the bunch, and I also liked the gentle supporting performance by Arielle Holmes, who plays a shy, sweet girl in the bunch.

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In case of Sasha Lane, a non-professional performer who was picked by Arnold at the last minute, she is simply fabulous in her unadorned acting which is as memorable as Katie Jarvis’s equally impressive performance in “Fish Tank”. Beside a few early scenes which succinctly establish the world in which she has been stuck, the movie does not show or tell much about Star, but Lane makes every moment of hers in the film feel true and genuine, and she ably carries the movie even when the movie falters around its arrival point.

Shia LaBeouf and Riley Keough are also very good in their respective roles. Suitably looking wily, shabby, and charming, LaBeouf shows that he is still a good actor despite his recent career trouble, and he and Lane click well together as their characters are slowly drawn to each other. Tough as nails as required, Keough has a couple of juicy moments, and I appreciate how she indirectly suggests her character’s hardened humanity during these scenes.

“American Honey” is not entirely successful. While its heroine’s journey is the whole point of the movie, the movie becomes a little too repetitive during its second half, and, in my opinion, the finale does not work as well as intended. Nonetheless, I admired its authentic mood and commendable performances, and I think it is another fascinating work from Arnold.

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Yongsoon (2016) ☆☆☆(3/4): A country girl’s hot, problematic summer

Posted on June 25, 2017 by kaist455

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While it is uncomfortable to watch at times for good reasons, South Korean film “Yongsoon” comes to us as an engaging coming-of-age drama about its adolescent heroine’s hot, problematic summer. Although it is inarguable that she clings to a very inappropriate relationship, the movie maintains its non-judgmental view as closely observing her tumultuous emotional struggle, and we come to care and worry about her a lot while watching her recklessly swaying along with her hormone-charged feelings.

Yong-soon (Lee Soo-Kyeong) is an 18-year-old high school girl living with her widower father in some country village, and she tells us a bit about herself during the prologue sequence. Her mother died early when she was young, and she still remembers her last moment with her mother, who left her husband and then went to her first love when there was not much time left for her.

That probably made Yong-soon go for her first love, but the person in question is not so suitable to say the least. As summer begins, she joins the athletics team of her high school along with her close friend Moon-hee (Jang Haet-sal), and everything looks fine on the surface as she and other teams members go through training under their coach’s guidance, but it is gradually revealed that Yong-soon has been in relationship with the coach for a while. Although the movie never clarifies how far they have gone in their hidden relationship, they did spend time together several times, and, as reflected by her sincere present to the coach, Yong-soon is totally serious about her first romantic relationship like any girls around her age.

However, it turns out that the coach is less serious about their relationship. On one day, Yong-soon’s another close friend Pak-kyoo (Kim Dong-yeong), who has had some feelings toward her for years, shows her a video clip of the coach going inside a local motel along with an unidentified woman, and Yong-soon naturally feels angry about this. She becomes determined to find who that woman is, and Moon-hee and Pak-kyoo agree to help her although they have reasonable concern about their friend.

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The mood often becomes humorous as Yong-soon and her friends try to find the identity of that woman, but the movie does not overlook the serious aspect of Yong-soon’s circumstance. While it is undeniable that the coach did a wrong thing to her from the very beginning and he should have ended their relationship as soon as possible, he remains indecisive even when she makes clear to him that she is suspicious of him, and that makes her all the more exasperated and frustrated.

Meanwhile, Yong-soon’s father decides to marry a young Mongolian woman who has corresponded with him for a while, and this causes more emotional turmoil inside Yong-soon. Although Her father’s new wife is ready to be nice to her stepdaughter, Yong-soon is hostile to her stepmother right from their first encounter, and she frequently throws harsh words at her stepmother just because she has been angry and annoyed. As a woman genuinely cares about her husband and her stepdaughter, Yong-soon’s stepmother tries to be patient and understanding, but there comes a point where she decides that enough is enough.

The situation becomes more complicated when Yong-soon and her friends eventually discover the identity of the woman involved with the coach. As the movie arrives at a certain expected narrative point, we brace for what may happen among Yong-soon and some other characters when they happen to be in the same space, and this moment strikes us hard with considerable emotional intensity thanks to director/writer Shin Joon’s competent direction and his performers’ convincing performance.

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As the feisty center of the movie, Lee Soo-kyeong, who previously played a minor supporting character in “Coin Locker Girl” (2015), is commendable in her unpretentious performance, and she conveys well her character’s dynamic emotional state to us while never making any excuse on her character’s self-absorbed aspect. Simply not wanting to give up her first love, Yong-soon is willing to go as far as she can, but she only finds herself going down into more misery and unhappiness, and she surely gets some important lessons from that.

Lee is surrounded by several good supporting performers who are equally solid in their respective roles. While Jang Haet-sal and Kim Dong-yeong are likable as comic foils to Lee, Choi Deok-moon and Mongolian performer Janska have their own small tender moment as their characters’ relationship turns out to be deeper than we expected, and Park Keun-rok is adequately cast as a guy who certainly deserves what he gets in the end.

“Yongsoon”, which is developed from Shin’s short film “Yongoon’s Summer” (2014), is a modest character drama on the whole, but it deserves to be mentioned along with other recent notable adolescent drama movies such as “The Diary of a Teenager Girl” (2015) and “The Edge of Seventeen” (2016). Like “The Diary of a Teenager Girl”, the movie handles its rather sensitive subject well while never going too far, and it also captures well the emotional difficulties of adolescence as “The Edge of Seventeen” did. In short, this is one of interesting South Korean films of this year, and it is definitely a nice alternative to those brainless summer blockbuster films like “Transformers: The Last Knight” (2017).

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Transformers: The Last Knight (2017) ☆1/2(1.5/4): Another unbearable epic mess

Posted on June 24, 2017 by kaist455

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It is an understatement to say that “Transformers: The Last Knight” is a cinematic equivalent of blunt instrument. This is another unbearable epic mess as brainlessly loud and bombastic as three previous sequels following “Transformers” (2007), and it will relentlessly bludgeon your aural and optic nerve system for no less than 149 minutes while making no sense at all in terms of story and characters.

Accompanied with the narration by Anthony Hopkins, the prologue sequence of the movie ridiculously attempts to mix the legend of King Arthur and his knights with metallic CGI figures. When King Arthur and his knights are about to face a grim moment of certain death by their barbaric enemies, a guy named Merlin (Stanley Tucci) saves the day at the last minute through a little help from his big alien robot associates, and we are served with an outrageous moment featuring a flying dragon robot with three heads, while also being bombarded with lots of bangs and clangs to numb and bore us.

The movie subsequently moves forward to the present point not long after the events depicted in “Transformers: Age of Extinction” (2014). As more alien robots come to Earth, they are regarded as enemies to be destroyed as before, and Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) has been accordingly hiding along with a bunch of robots including Bumblebee, but then he and Bumblebee happen to draw the attention of the US military and the Transformers Reaction Force (TRF) when they come across a young girl named Izabella (Isabela Moner) in an abandoned area of Chicago. Although it may be a bit amusing to see Bumblebee showing his hidden ability for a while, the movie indulges in lots of loud noises and frantic special effects again, and we only get more numbing confusion as a result.

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While saving Izabella and her little robot Sqweeks from their danger, Yeager comes to acquire a mysterious object, and that eventually leads him to a character played by Hopkins. This is surely a paycheck role to play for Hopkins and the movie does waste his undeniable talent, but he did what he could do with his role, and I can only tell you that he manages to maintain his dignity amidst heaps of nonsense and numerous silly cheap jokes. During his obligatory expository sequence, he looks as serious and authoritative as demanded despite its sheer nonsense, and he sells it to some degrees even though the movie annoyingly interrupts him more than once.

From Hopkins’ character, Yeager comes to learn about a big, imminent danger approaching to Earth, and he is accompanied with Vivian Wembly (Laura Haddock), a young professor who suddenly comes to realize her destined role in this very urgent circumstance. As they hurriedly search for a clue which will lead them to a certain old object belonging to Merlin, the movie mindlessly pushes them from one moment to another without any tangible sense of direction, and I must confess that I gave up discerning the exact details of how they eventually arrive at a certain underwater spot.

The movie tries to generate some sparks between Yeager and Wembly, but they do not have much human depth to engage us, and neither do other noticeable human characters in the film besides Hopkins’ character. For example, Yeager’s assistant is no more than your average black sidekick, and Izabella and her shabby robot often look like an insipid version of Rey and BB-8 in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” (2015), though it should be mentioned that Isabela Moner brings some pluck into her rather bland character.

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In case of the robot characters in the film, they do not interest me a lot as before. Bumblebee and other good robots including the ones voiced by John Goodman, Omar Sy, Ken Watanabe, and Steve Buscemi are just a little more distinctive and colorful than those bad robots led by Megatron (voiced by Frank Welker), who are mostly indistinguishable from each other in their uniformly ugly appearances. As the villainess who brainwashes Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) for her diabolical plan, Quintessa (voiced by Gemma Chan) is not particularly scary or menacing, and that is one of the main reasons why the climax sequence of the movie does not work at all while merely being an incoherent series of CGI actions which are utterly joyless and unimaginative.

While I did not like “Transformers” enough to recommend it to others, I enjoyed it to some degrees, and it has been disappointing to see how the series has consistently gone down from that point. “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” (2009) is still the lowest point in the franchise thanks to many unforgettably awful things including that robot dog humping on Megan Fox’s leg, but the following two sequels are also pretty lousy to say the least while demonstrating the worst sides of director Michael Bay, whose recent cinematic aesthetics mainly consists of endless explosions and chaotic actions.

“Transformers: the Last Knight” is no exception, and watching it along with many audiences including a friend of mine was one of the most depressing movie-watching experiences I have ever had during recent years. I later apologized to him, but he said he disliked it less than me, and I am glad that this crappy piece of work did not hurt our relationship. I think I really should show him something a lot better someday.

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Antiporno (2016) ☆☆☆(3/4): Another perverted exercise in style from Sion Sono

Posted on June 18, 2017 by kaist455

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You cannot possibly expect anything normal from Sion Sono, who is surely one of the most interesting filmmakers working in Japan at present. “Cold Fish” (2010) was a bleak, disturbing psychological thriller about an ordinary family man gradually influenced by a diabolical serial killer he happens to be associated with, and I sort of admired how willingly that movie pushes its hero into the stark pit of evil madness. Although I cringed at many extremely violent scenes in “Why Don’t You Play Hell?” (2013), I could not help but laugh as excited by its manic comic spirit, and that movie remains to be one of the funniest (and bloodiest) movies I have ever watched during recent years.

In case of “Antiporno”, Sono tried another perverted exercise in style. Cheerfully morbid and colorfully stylish, the movie prances from one bizarre moment to another as deliberately disturbing and confusing us during its rather short running time (75 minutes). While I was not very comfortable with its sensational subject, I enjoyed its wild, bold madness surrounding its increasingly neurotic heroine, and you may also enjoy that if you are familiar with Sono’s other works and admire his own no-holds-barred approach.

During its first part, the movie seems to be about a virulent relationship between two different characters. Kyôko (Ami Tomite) is a popular novelist who has been known well for her unorthodox method of creating story and characters, and she does not seem to feel that well as trying to figure out what will be her next novel. Full of self-disgust and repulsion, she wildly bounces around in her apartment alone while heedlessly making supposedly feministic statements during the opening scene, and that further accentuates the stylized reality of the movie, which is mainly represented by the bold color scheme of her apartment and occasional gauzy shots.

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It looks like Kyôko wants to write about female freedom this time, and that is certainly ironic considering how she cruelly mistreats her long-suffering assistant Noriko (Mariko Tsutsui). When Noriko comes to Kyôko’s apartment for notifying today’s schedule to her, Kyôko mocks and abuses Noriko a lot just because she can, and Noriko tolerates all these abusive behaviors from her boss while barely maintaining her meek, submissive appearance.

This sadomasochistic relationship of theirs is further explored when there come a bunch of chic female visitors to Kyôko’s apartment, who are going to interview and photograph Kyôko. Kyôko does not hesitate to show more of her cruelty to Noriko in front of them, and these visitors do not mind that at all. In fact, they willingly join her acts of cruelty, and there is a darkly absurd moment when they and Kyôko push Noriko into more humilation as Kyôko finally gets an idea for her new novel.

Around that point, “Antiporno” suddenly shifts itself onto a different situation, so now I advise you not to read further if you want to fully enjoy the movie. Its first 30 minutes turns out to be a part of a softcore film in production, and Kyôko and Noriko’s relationship is presented in a completely different light as they are revealed to be performers playing their respective roles. As the lead actress of the film, Kyôko tries to play her cruel character as believably as possible, but she cannot pull it off well to the frustration of everyone including her, and she is constantly bullied by not only the director but also her co-star Noriko, who could play Kyôko’s character instead considering how mean and uncaring she is to Kyôko in front of others on the set.

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As Kyôko becomes more nervous, her state of mind gradually gets unhinged as the line between reality and fiction is blurred along with a series of weird moments. There is a hilariously blatant conversation on sex and pornography among Kyôko and her family, and then there comes a brief disturbing moment involved with Kyôko’s sister, whose fixation on butterflies leads to another odd moment to remember. These moments and other ones in the movie may reflect whatever has been suppressed in Kyôko’s mind, but then it is also possible that the second half of the movie is merely a fiction being written by Kyôko the author.

I must admit that the movie was a little too confusing for me from time to time, but I appreciated its mood and style at least. I was entertained to some degrees as the movie kept going on and on with its wry bad taste till the end, and I was often amused by the ironical use of classical music pieces throughout the film. The movie seems to be spinning its wheels around the ending, but then it jolts us with one hell of excessive moment as we can expect from Sono, and that is certainly a big finishing gesture to behold.

“Antiporno” is a part of the movie project in which Sono and four other prominent male Japanese filmmakers attempt to deconstruct and reconstruct Nikkatsu Roman Porno films, Japanese softcore films made by the Nikkatsu Studios during the 1970-80s. According to the pamphlet of “Antiporno”, the project intends to bring female perspective to softcore films, but I am not so sure about whether the movie is successful in that aspect. While it does work as a send-up and criticism of its subject, the movie still feels as gaudy and sensational as your average softcore film, and that makes me have some reservation on its overall result. Anyway, like Sono’s other works, the movie is something you cannot easily forget after watching it, and I recommend it with caution.

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I Am a Cat (2017) ☆☆☆(3/4): Aren’t they cute?

Posted on June 13, 2017 by kaist455

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South Korean documentary film “I Am a Cat” is full of cats, and I enjoyed that as a longtime cat lover. Since I began to photograph those stray cats living in the campus of Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, my affection toward cats has grown for years, so I could not help but smile during my viewing, and I also came to reflect on how harsh South Korean society has been to many stray cats out there.

The documentary begins its story with one particularly cold winter in Seoul. A guy drives his motorcycle around narrow alleys during freezing nighttime for checking stray cats in his neighborhood, and then he comes across a dead cat on the one side of an alley. Life is always hard for stray cats, but winter is especially difficult for them due to not only low temperature but also the lack of food to eat, and they have to depend on the kindness of strangers like this guy whenever winter comes.

As the narrator of the documentary, who assumes the role of the representative of stray cats in South Korea, tells us how they struggle to survive and live everyday, a number of unpleasant news reports are quoted. One news reports tells about someone trying to poison stray cats, and we hear that the residents of one apartment building attempted to get rid of a bunch of stray cats in a very cruel way. I must tell you that I and other South Koreans frequently hear about such incidents like them; I remember the case of one poor stray cat who was burned alive by some vicious prick, and it broke my heart to see the harrowing photo of that cat, who was luckily rescued and then survived.

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After making its points on how much cats are disregarded and mistreated in South Korea, the documentary moves its focus to Japan, where cats are adored more by people in comparison to South Korea. We see large cat dolls, and we hear about how cats have been regarded as a sign of good luck in Japan for a long time. As the movie looks around Tokyo and several other cities and places in Japan, we meet several people who take care of stray cats with lots of affection and attention, and we see how they do many other things besides merely feeing cats. For example, neutering stray cats is essential for decreasing their number, and there is a little intriguing moment showing how stray cats are carefully captured through cage traps prepared with little yummy baits.

The highlight of the Japanese part in the documentary is two islands which are virtually a heaven for cats. The cats in these island live freely and casually along with the residents of the islands, and these cats certainly attract many visitors who would like to stroke them or photograph them. As some of you know, cats can be terrific photo models, and I must confess that I envied a South Korean photographer in the documentary as I watched him photographing those adorable island cats.

Cats are treated well also in Taiwan, and we meet an middle-aged lady who has diligently taken care of stray cats of her neighborhood in Taipei for many years. Her dedication to them is palpable especially when she shows us a big map showing where they respectively live around the area, and she tells us that she has seldom taken a break as taking care of them everyday.

In case of a rural mining town named Houtong, it is virtually saved by cats. After its coal mining business declined and its many residents accordingly left, the Taiwanese government tried to promote the town as a historic site at first, but it was many stray cats in the town who actually attracted visitors. Houtong soon became one of the best places for cats in the world as the focus of its local business was shifted to cats, and one middle-aged guy tells us a little interesting story on how he left the town but then came back later.

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These comfortable living places for stray cats in Japan and Taiwan are naturally contrasted with the continuing harsh reality for stray cats in South Korea. Fortunately, there are some people who care about cats as much as their counterparts in Japan and Taiwan. In case of a young amateur photographer, he feeds or photographs stray cats in his neighborhood while delivering newspapers at early dawn, and we later see him holding a small private exhibition of cat photographs in front of his fellow cat lovers.

We also meet an association dedicated to protecting or rescuing stray cats. Association people often get calls about stray cats in the need of help, and there is one urgent case involved with a cat which happens to be trapped in the narrow space inside a concrete wall. It is apparent that the cat went into the hole in the wall before the hole was sealed, and it was really lucky for the cat that somebody heard its faint meowing from inside the wall before it was too late. Eventually, the cat is rescued thanks to association people and others, and it recovers well as reflected by a photograph shown at the end of the documentary.

Through its earnest approach accompanied with occasional animation scenes, “I Am a Cat” works as a sweet, sincere documentary which will appeal to any cat lover. I wish it showed more cats, but that is just a mild grumble from your average incorrigible ailurophile, and I am satisfied with the overall result. After all, how can I possibly say any bad word to all those precious cats on the screen?

Sidenote: The title of the documentary comes from Natsume Sōseki’s novel of the same name.

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The Villainess (2017) ☆☆(2/4): She’s lethal….and sappy

Posted on June 12, 2017 by kaist455

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“The Villainess” is probably one of the most exciting bad South Korean films of this year. While there are several first-class action sequences to be admired for heaps of efforts and techniques put into them, it is unfortunately stuck with third-rate plot and characterization, and this gap distracted me a lot during my viewing. To my disappointment, the movie is not bold or crazy enough to go all the way with its badass heroine, and it only gets worse as mired in a sappy, hackneyed melodrama which does not mix well with its gritty, ruthless action.

Evoking the merciless energy of “The Raid: Redemption” (2011), the opening action sequence of “The Villainess” is visually arresting and pulsating right from its first minute. Someone suddenly comes into a shabby building which turns out to be the headquarters of a big criminal organization, and then lots of goons are swiftly maimed or killed right in front of our eyes as the camera mostly sticks to the viewpoint of the intruder. Although this impressive long-take sequence sometimes feels like watching someone playing a violent video game, I must say that it also feels quite visceral and electrifying as the intruder relentlessly advances from one spot to another in the building, and there are a good number of amazing moments which will surely make you wonder how the hell they shot these moments. For example, when the intruder smashes into a window and then hangs on a rope in the air, the camera also hurls itself into the action along with the intruder, and it goes without saying that this is one of the most awesome moments in the film.

The intruder in question is Sook-hee (Kim Ok-bin), a young Korean Chinese woman from Yenbian, China. After her father was killed when she was a little girl, she grew up to be a tough, ruthless killer under the guidance of a local gangster named Joong-sang (Shin Ha-kyun), and this quality of hers draws the attention of a secret government agency not long after she is arrested by the police in the aftermath of her carnage. The agency is interested in her particular set of skills, so she is sent to a clandestine training place, and her handler Kwon-sook (Kim Seo-hyeong) promises to her that she will be free after working for the agency as a spy/assassin for 10 years. Sook-hee initially resists, but she comes to accept her circumstance because of an unexpected reason, and she soon finds herself going through her training period there along with other female trainees not so different from her.

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Now many of you are probably reminded of “La Femme Nikita” (1990) and other similar films, and the movie gives us obligatory training scenes as required, though they are perfunctory at best and shallow at worst despite a few nice touches to amuse you. As a part of her training, Sook-hee learns acting at one point, and that leads to a brief moment which utilizes well the undeniable star presence of lead actress Kim Ok-bin, but other scenes do not add much to what was already established in the early scenes. While Sook-hee surely looks different in her more refined and sophisticated appearance around the end of the training, we do not get much sense of character development, and the supporting characters around her including Kwon-sook mostly remain one-dimensional without any discernable depth.

Anyway, the second act of the movie starts as Sook-hee begins her new life outside several years later. On her moving day, she comes across a guy living next to her apartment, and he seems to be interested in getting closer to her, but the guy is so awkward and clumsy that it would not be not much of spoiler to tell you that he is an agent assigned to monitoring her closely, even if the movie did not show you his identity in advance.

Sook-hee’s present relationship with that guy is juxtaposed with flashback scenes showing her past relationship with Joong-Sang, who is revealed to be more than a father figure to her. The screenplay by director Jeong Byeong-gil and his co-writer Jeong Byeong-sik tries to develop a melodramatic situation from that after a certain narrative turn, but it fails to engage us on the emotional level mainly due to its superficial characterization and heavy-handed plot. Kim is solid and believable in her physical performance, but her character is a rather bland cypher defined by a few characteristics, and Shin Ha-kyun and Seong Joon are woefully wasted in their mediocre roles.

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As I felt more depressed by the jumbled narrative of the third act of the movie which does not make much sense, I came to appreciate more its technical prowess. I was thrilled by a long-take action sequence where our heroine busily fights with a trio of goons chasing after her while all of them are running rapidly on motorcycles. And I was also impressed by another long-take action sequence which culminates to a pulse-pounding climax unfolded inside a speeding vehicle.

However, I am reminded of better films out there. “La Femme Nikita” is still one of more memorable works in its genre territory, and I may revisit it someday for appreciating not only its striking action sequences but also its poignant emotional power. In case of “Coin Locker Girl” (2015), this small South Korean noir film did a better job of presenting tough, strong female characters, and that is why it is more engaging to watch than “The Villainess”. Although I did not like “The Raid: Redemption” and its sequel enough for recommendation, I sort of admired how they were willing to push envelop relentlessly, and they certainly made “The Villainess” rather tame in comparison.

While I gave “The Villainess” two stars mainly because of its poor storytelling, I guarantee you that you will not waste your ticket money if you just want to enjoy well-made action sequences. Sure, we all can agree that its stunt performers and technical crew members deserve praises for what they achieve here, but the movie did not succeed in engaging me in terms of story and character, and I only observed during its final scene that its heroine looks too sappy for its title.

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