Tag Archives: Thriller

The Yellow Sea (2010) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4) : Chased into the chaos and mayhems

Posted on December 25, 2010 by kaist455

    If you were left confused after watching “Inception” despite constant reminders and explanations in the story, I bet you will be also confused, or more confused, after watching Na Hong-jin’s ambitious noir thriller “The Yellow Sea”. It does not … Continue reading →

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Buried (2010) ☆☆☆1/2 : A sheer claustrophobic terror under the ground

Posted on December 12, 2010 by kaist455

“To be buried while alive is, beyond question, the most terrific of these extremes which has ever fallen to the lot of mere mortality.” -From Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Premature Burial”   When I saw several equipments devised for saving … Continue reading →

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Bedevilled (2010) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4) : There will be revenge

Posted on December 1, 2010 by kaist455

 Revenge is served raw and simple in “Bedevilled”(2010). The movie delivers exactly what it promises to us, but that is not for free. There are barbarous scenes that make you wince, and then there are bloody scenes that make you … Continue reading →

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Inception (2010) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4) : Descent into the labyrinth of dreams

Posted on July 24, 2010 by kaist455

Surprisingly to me, “Inception” is a small movie when viewed objectively from the outside. The story is not ground-breaking; it’s in a very familiar area where “Matrix” and other movies about the mind-bending world belong. The movie stays inside its settings and rules, and sticks to them even at the finale. Continue reading →

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Moss (2010) ☆☆(2/4) : A rural mystery – more than 2.5hr

Posted on July 17, 2010 by kaist455

After so much hoopla before its release, “Moss”, a much-anticipated Korean thriller of 2010, turns out to be very, very disappointing in almost every way you can imagine due to the fatally misguided direction. It is lazy, incompetent, and, above all, not compelling at all. Despite some good basic elements of a thriller in the screenplay, it is more close to the ennui of the bright summer days in a country town, and, boy, the running time is more than 2.5 hours even if you exclude the end credit. Continue reading →

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Presumed Innocent (1990) ☆☆☆ (3/4) : A Prosecuted Prosecutor

Posted on July 11, 2010 by kaist455

“An innocent man has nothing to fear, remember that.”, said the cop in Hitchcock’s” The Wrong Man” to Henry Fonda’s arrested character, but we all know his saying is not true at all. Guilty or not, our fate will eventually be decided at the courtroom where the lawyers make arguments on your culpability in front of the judges and the jury. And in that inexorable system pursuing the justice, we tremble in fear for the sheer possibility of punishment sentenced upon us.
Continue reading →

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

The Ghost Writer (2009) ☆☆☆1/2 (3.5/4) : The Trouble with a Memoir

Posted on June 6, 2010 by kaist455

Whatever your opinion about Roman Polanski as a human being is, we all can agree that he is one of the great directors in the film history. In the career as tumultuous as his life, he has made several great films including “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Chinatown” while making very disappointing movies. And now, with his new movie “The Ghost Writer”, it is apparent he is still a immensely talented director who knows how to make a good thriller. With chilly, foreboding atmosphere and a subtle sense of humor, this calm but compelling movie proves that the most important thing for the thriller is how to pull us, not how to ambush us. Continue reading →

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , | 6 Comments