Tag Archives: Murder

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4) : Meet Lisbeth Salander with a different style

As the remake, David Fincher’s new film “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” has its inherent weakness right from the beginning of its production. Around two years ago, the original Swedish picture directed by Niels Arden Oplev, based on late … Continue reading

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A Simple Plan (1998) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4) : It sounded so simple at first…

 Sometimes the ordinary people becoming evil are more frightening than Dr. Hannibal Lector or Frank Booth. The villains like them are downright scary, but they are basically outsiders with monstrous nature beyond our common sense. In contrast, the characters in … Continue reading

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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4) : Meet original Lisbeth Salander

—- David Fincher’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”(2011) will be released on the second weekend of next January in South Korean theaters. The original Swedish version will be also released in South Korea a week before, so I checked … Continue reading

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Bullhead (2011) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4) : A Bull to the slaughter

“… I think that we’re all in our private traps, clamped in them, and none of us can ever get out. We scratch and, and claw, but only at the air, only at each other. And for all of it, … Continue reading

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Animal Kingdom (2010) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4) : “Have you worked out where you fit?”

While revisiting David Michôd’s “Animal Kingdom”(2010), I wondered what it was like for its passive teenager hero to live with his heroin addict mother at their small home. We can only assume that she definitely could not get the Mother … Continue reading

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Confessions (2010) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4) : Vengeance is hers

It begins on the last day of the semester at a classroom of some Japanese junior high school. Though they will return to their school after a month, most of the students are very excited while waiting for the time … Continue reading

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The Vanishing (1988) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4) : A tale of two obsessions

“‘Will you walk into my parlor?’ said the Spider to the Fly.” – from the poem “The Spider and the Fly” by Mary Howitt The crucial moment in George Sluizer’s chilling psychological thriller “The Vanishing”(1988) can be summarized with that … Continue reading

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Blind (2011) ☆☆☆(3/4) : A blind woman in grave danger

 A blind woman is in danger. A psychotic killer wants to kill her. She finds herself being nearly alone with him in the house at dark, rainy night. She must do something to increase her chance of survival while being … Continue reading

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The Front Line (2011) ☆☆☆(3/4) : Waiting for the truce

  There is always the lagging phase in wars unless they end quickly. The soldiers on the both sides are tired and exhausted day by day. They doubt whether they can eventually survive or not. And it seems their hardship … Continue reading

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Leaves of Grass (2009) ☆☆☆(3/4) : Crime and Philosophy – and also Marijuana

 As far as I know, “a mixed bad” is a negative expression, but I think that is an appropriately positive one in case of “Leaves of Grass”(2009) for its seemingly disjointed combination of crime story and philosophy. The movie throws … Continue reading

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