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zandert33
Sep 20, 2002

Gozinbulx posted:

I watched New World last night. I'm not too familiar with Korean cinema (only seen Oldboy and The Host), but it was pretty drat good.

I found some interesting things in the movie I want to discuss but it seems like no one here, except one guy, has even mentioned it.

Planning to finally watch it this coming weekend, look forward to hearing some discussion.

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rvm
May 6, 2013
Yeah, I'd love to discuss it, too, because I liked it a lot, and more people should watch it. I just thought New World was so straightforward in its narrative that there's not too much to discuss in that regard at least.

rvm fucked around with this message at 16:49 on Jul 30, 2013

zandert33
Sep 20, 2002

New World spoilers below:

I thought it was a pretty good movie, it was at least Choi's best film since his return from retirement, but, and maybe it's just me, I found the story a little too convoluted in certain parts with the interaction between the Chinese and the Koreans. Honestly I think the part that made it so confusing was the fact that every single actor in this movie *looked* Korean, I would have never pegged any of them for being Chinese or part Chinese. So when people would refer to the Chinese guys I didn't always knew who they were talking about.

I thought the end was very good I liked the aspect of the mole actually deciding to become a die hard gangster (and clean house in the process) instead of the typical ending of the cop being completely devoted and unwavering.

I wouldn't put it up there with top tier Korean films, but I thought it was worth viewing.

Then again the last Korean film that I saw and really enjoyed was "The Thieves", so maybe I'm going soft in my old age.

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

Gozinbulx posted:

I watched New World last night. I'm not too familiar with Korean cinema (only seen Oldboy and The Host), but it was pretty drat good.

I found some interesting things in the movie I want to discuss but it seems like no one here, except one guy, has even mentioned it.

Try to discuss something if you've seen it. I'm the only one in this thread who watches this stuff new and I have no idea when anyone else is even going to get access to it. Even Snowpiercer doesn't have a set US release date, and most of the people in it are Americans.

Anyway, The New World! This might be as good a time as any to post the Q&A session with director Park Hoon-Jeong.

What I found really interesting about the movie was how the melodrama actually worked really, really well in context. I never would have expected a gangster movie could be improved by melodrama but that's exactly what happened. It's pretty weird to take stock of the movie in retrospect and realize that all those scenes that seemed like comic relief were actually important character-building.



Let Me Out is the story of a an aspiring film director who learns that making movies is harder than it looks. As much as I'd like to be gung-ho about this movie I wasn't that impressed. It was basically exactly that sentence plus zombie jokes. If that's enough for you then great, give it a look because it's coming out on August 15th.

Gozinbulx
Feb 19, 2004
Well, I'm going to put this all in spoilers cause I don't feel like determining what is or isn't a spoiler about New World:



2 of the things I found most interesting have just been touched on, somewhat. First was the whole Chinese/Chinese descendant aspect. It was pretty illuminating as to Koreans' views of Chinese, at least from the perspective of this director (I won't say all Korean's feel this way cause one director). Basically that the Chinese and those descended from then (which, as you said, I could not tell apart physically, but then again I'm just an American), where all portrayed as loud, brash, avuncular louts, minus the main protagonist and the other dude whose name I don't remember that is the other police mole that ja-sung whacks at the end. Both the moles were supposed Chinese descendant, and all of the other gang members kept on reminding of it. In a "positive" sense when they said they would be to control the other Chinese descended foot soldiers, and then negatively (most of the time) when they would refer to them as "loving chinks" (that's how the subtitles translated it). Probably the most potent illustration is the Yanban Hobos, who are actually from China (had to look it up), and are all drunken, loud, incredibly violent thugs. That interplay was very interesting.

The second was the ending. Perhaps it was just my Western expectations, but it really caught me off guard. I did think for a second "well, if we kills the chief and his boss at the station, he could pretty much live the rest of his life as a certified gangster" but I didn't think he would actually do it. So I guess it was just surprising that he just decided to turn "full bad" instead of any real redemption. Is there a different take on the end among Korean audiences? Is it not so clear cut "bad"? I mean, I sincerely doubt it, but maybe i'm projecting my own cultural ideas on something erroneously.

Also the very very end, I didn't quite understand what it meant to illustrate. The part where he and Cheong walk into some random seafood store and apparently murder a whole bunch of dudes. Was it meant to illustrate that he was a pretty bad/tough/violent/sociopathic dude to begin with? Didn't really get it.

zandert33
Sep 20, 2002

Gozinbulx posted:

Well, I'm going to put this all in spoilers cause I don't feel like determining what is or isn't a spoiler about New World:



Also the very very end, I didn't quite understand what it meant to illustrate. The part where he and Cheong walk into some random seafood store and apparently murder a whole bunch of dudes. Was it meant to illustrate that he was a pretty bad/tough/violent/sociopathic dude to begin with? Didn't really get it.




This part took me a minute to process as well, I actually had the brief belief that perhaps that scene took place BEFORE he was recruited by the police, and that we were actually seeing that he put himself into the police as a mole in order to get put in as a double agent into the mob so he could take over. Then after I looked it up online I realized the timeline was off so this was completely wrong. Anyways, I think maybe it was to show the bond that the two guys had with each other, which is why, even though the one guy learned that the other was a mole he didn't have him killed right away.

Gozinbulx
Feb 19, 2004

zandert33 posted:

This part took me a minute to process as well, I actually had the brief belief that perhaps that scene took place BEFORE he was recruited by the police, and that we were actually seeing that he put himself into the police as a mole in order to get put in as a double agent into the mob so he could take over. Then after I looked it up online I realized the timeline was off so this was completely wrong. Anyways, I think maybe it was to show the bond that the two guys had with each other, which is why, even though the one guy learned that the other was a mole he didn't have him killed right away.


Yeah, if I remember correctly the scene took place 6 years earlier, whereas ja-sung had been a mole for almost 10 years or something.

So its just a nice bonding scene, bonding over relentless, brutal murder of dozens of people? Thats nice.



Really like the film.

ladron
Sep 15, 2007

eso es lo que es
Living in Korea for going on 9 years, I've see a lot of Korean movies. Much like American movies, a good deal of them are tripe, but there's still a few gems.

Park Chan Wook is awesome. Mr. Vengeance remains one of my all-time favorite movies. Song Gang Ho is such a good actor.

Kim Ki Duk I just don't get. I really feel like it's an emperor's new clothes kind of thing. I just don't think his movies are that great. With the exception of Pieta, there's always a woman who's a hooker or morally bankrupt and a character that doesn't talk.

One movie you may not have seen because it's Japanese (although about Korea, in a way) is Blood and Bones. I'd suggest checking it out if you like the depressing, gritty brutal life stories like Breathless (the original name is "poo poo Fly", which I think is much more appropriate).

zandert33
Sep 20, 2002

Looking forward to Snowpiercer? If you live in the US get ready to import it:


http://twitchfilm.com/2013/08/weinstein-thinks-you-are-too-dumb-for-snowpiercer.html

Gringo Heisenberg
May 30, 2009




:dukedog:

ladron posted:


One movie you may not have seen because it's Japanese (although about Korea, in a way) is Blood and Bones. I'd suggest checking it out if you like the depressing, gritty brutal life stories like Breathless (the original name is "poo poo Fly", which I think is much more appropriate).

Breathless
was awesome and I wish more people would see it. Top 3 for sure, huge downer though.

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

I'm genuinely really puzzled by this whole Snowpiercer thing. I've been mentally classifying it with Stoker and The Last Stand the last several months because they've always been presented as this distinct set of American films with Korean directors because Korean film is so hip and trendy. And now Snowpiercer isn't getting a real release, even though it's by far the most mainstream film of the set. It's breaking records at the Korean box office, and it's using a print with English subtitles for the few Korean portions of the film.

I don't get why the Weinstein Company even wanted the rights to this movie in the first place if they were just going sit on the distribution and cut twenty minutes from it. How could this possibly make them more money than just releasing it at the same time it came out in Korean theaters? It's the time of summer where people hate heat so much they'll watch The Smurfs and the movie's about a frozen train. You're not going to get more ideal conditions than that.

Tars Tarkas
Apr 13, 2003

Rock the Mok



A nasty woman, I think you should try is, Jess.


The Weinsteins have done exactly that for over a decade now, driving people like me to avoid their stuff altogether.



Also My PS Partner is awesome awesome awesome.

ladron
Sep 15, 2007

eso es lo que es
Hanging out with some friends last night , I remembered another interesting Korean movie Take Care of My Cat.

It's about 5 female friends and how their lives change after high school, following their dreams and whatnot. No blood or suspense or anything like that, just an interesting, well done movie.

zandert33
Sep 20, 2002

Wow, Korea makes movies that don't have blood and suspense? Tell me more.

ladron
Sep 15, 2007

eso es lo que es

zandert33 posted:

Wow, Korea makes movies that don't have blood and suspense? Tell me more.

Take a look at the movies that have been named so far, and tell me how many have neither blood nor suspense.

zandert33
Sep 20, 2002

Tars Tarkas posted:


Also My PS Partner is awesome awesome awesome.

I watched it at this recommendation, and even though there's a lot about it that seems pretty typical for the genre it still was very charming, and one of the better romcoms I've seen lately.

Anybody check out "Men's Manual"/"How to Use Guys with Secret Tips"? That one appears to be getting a fair bit of hype.

USMC_Karl
Nov 17, 2003

SUPPORTER OF THE REINSTATED LAWFUL HAWAIIAN GOVERNMENT. HAOLES GET OFF DA `AINA.

zandert33 posted:

Looking forward to Snowpiercer? If you live in the US get ready to import it:


http://twitchfilm.com/2013/08/weinstein-thinks-you-are-too-dumb-for-snowpiercer.html

I don't know exactly what they cut out of it, but I just watched it in theaters and gotta say that it was actually a really well done film. I guess I'm biased because I have lived in SK for the past 5 years and generally like SK media, but the film was surprisingly good. There are some rather.... ham-fisted parts like when, before a fight with a bunch of dudes with axes, the bad guys slowly cut into a fish to get blood on their axes but other then those (very small parts) the movie was interesting. I'd highly recommend watching it.

If I had to guess I think they are going to cut some of the middle sections out of the movie for US release. I could see how the film could lose a couple of those segments and still have the story relatively intact, but it depends on what is being chopped.

Either way, Snowpiercer was a pretty good sci-fi movie.

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

I really don't know what twenty minutes are going to be cut out of it. It's not a slow movie by any stretch of the imagination and it moves pretty briskly. Apparently Bong Joon-Ho is the one who's going to be making the cuts, though. Why he would have any idea which twenty minutes would be the most boring to American audiences I have no idea. I guess it's better than the alternative. No, the worse alternative, not the intelligent one of just screening the print they already have. I mean, good grief, it's only two hours long.

So, I'd like to take a minute to discuss the Korean Film Archive. It's a complex in the Mapo district of Seoul that stores film. What's really neat about is that they have a free film library and anyone can go in and watch any movie, from anywhere, ever, for free in one of the film kiosks. If you're not picky about what movies you watch, there's also a full theater in the basement of the complex with regular bi-weekly themes. Not always Korean ones, necessarily. Right now it's a retrospective on Korean horror films. The last one was high-concept Hollywood blockbusters, and before that was Westerns, including the few period Korean Westerns. The themes can get really specific and weird sometimes, like the time they did the complete works of Michael Werner Fassbinder. Whether foreign films have English subtitles usually depends on the prints they have. Sometimes they're preloaded with English subs, sometimes not, though Korean films typically don't have them unless it's a special series. Still, if you've ever wanted to see A Tale Of Two Sisters in a full-sized surround sound movie theater for free, this is your chance. Their English website is here. I'm there pretty much every day, so if you see a young foreigner that's probably me and you should say hi.

Anyway, by request-



The film is way more tasteful than that poster makes it look. How To Use Guys With Secret Tips is about a professionally frustrated woman who ends up using a set of old VHS tapes to make inroads in her career. The art design is gloriously vintage and cheesy. And there's actually no magic- everything is exactly as goofy as it sounds, which is most of the movie's charm. Very interesting use of real-life ideas and reasoning considering this is a romantic comedy, where those rules normally go out the window. It's not quite intelligent enough to make the most of its more ambitious story elements, but it's still very funny, charming, and unique.

AnonSpore
Jan 19, 2012

"I didn't see the part where he develops as a character so I guess he never developed as a character"
So I'm in Korea for a few days and I caught Snowpiercer in theaters, is it kosher to discuss it in detail or is there a courtesy rule to wait until it hits western theaters? I enjoyed it a lot, though I do have some questions about the ending that I'm hoping I could discuss with other people.

ladron
Sep 15, 2007

eso es lo que es

Some Guy TT posted:

So, I'd like to take a minute to discuss the Korean Film Archive. It's a complex in the Mapo district of Seoul that stores film. What's really neat about is that they have a free film library and anyone can go in and watch any movie, from anywhere, ever, for free in one of the film kiosks. If you're not picky about what movies you watch, there's also a full theater in the basement of the complex with regular bi-weekly themes. Not always Korean ones, necessarily. Right now it's a retrospective on Korean horror films. The last one was high-concept Hollywood blockbusters, and before that was Westerns, including the few period Korean Westerns. The themes can get really specific and weird sometimes, like the time they did the complete works of Michael Werner Fassbinder. Whether foreign films have English subtitles usually depends on the prints they have. Sometimes they're preloaded with English subs, sometimes not, though Korean films typically don't have them unless it's a special series. Still, if you've ever wanted to see A Tale Of Two Sisters in a full-sized surround sound movie theater for free, this is your chance. Their English website is here. I'm there pretty much every day, so if you see a young foreigner that's probably me and you should say hi.

This is awesome and I had no idea.


AnonSpore posted:

So I'm in Korea for a few days and I caught Snowpiercer in theaters, is it kosher to discuss it in detail or is there a courtesy rule to wait until it hits western theaters? I enjoyed it a lot, though I do have some questions about the ending that I'm hoping I could discuss with other people.

I'd say ask, just put it in spoilers

AnonSpore
Jan 19, 2012

"I didn't see the part where he develops as a character so I guess he never developed as a character"
Alright, here goes:

First off, why did Gilliam tell Curtis not to trust Wilford? If Wilford was telling the truth at the end, and there's no reason to assume otherwise, he and Gilliam were in cahoots all along and Curtis was never meant to reach the engine room at all. I realize that at the point in the revolution where they had actually breached to the water room, the plan had already gone off the rails, but even then I can't imagine that Gilliam could have expected Curtis was ever going to reach the engine room and meet Wilford face to face. And even if he did, killing Wilford would have destroyed the entire system, which is specifically what Wilford and Gilliam were working to prevent.

About the ending itself: Can anyone offer some interpretations of it? The way I saw it, the polar bear represented life going on, without humanity. Jonah and Timmy are possibly the last two human beings left on the planet, and they're both train babies so it's likely they won't last long. But the polar bear looked well fed, so it kinda felt like even though humanity was gone, life itself wasn't extinct. There was still an ecosystem in place, with everything in its allotted spot, except for mankind which was trying to be where it didn't belong anymore. Sorta like human beings themselves as a whole were going against the whole spiel that Wilford and Mason have going on. But that doesn't seem to be what the rest of the movie was saying (to be honest I have no idea what the rest of the movie was saying in light of the ending, considering that Curtis's desire to reach the front of the train and Minsoo's desire to live in the outside world both more or less directly caused the extinction of humanity) so I'm stumped.


That was a bad ramble because I am dumb with words but I hope someone can clear things up for me.

blinkeve1826
Jul 26, 2005

WELCOME TO THE NEW DEATH

Some Guy TT posted:

So, I'd like to take a minute to discuss the Korean Film Archive. It's a complex in the Mapo district of Seoul that stores film.

Uggh I lived in Mapo-gu for a year and a half and had no idea this existed. If you're reading this thread and currently live in Korea, take advantage of this because it sounds awesome!

zandert33
Sep 20, 2002

Some Guy TT posted:


Anyway, by request-



The film is way more tasteful than that poster makes it look. How To Use Guys With Secret Tips is about a professionally frustrated woman who ends up using a set of old VHS tapes to make inroads in her career. The art design is gloriously vintage and cheesy. And there's actually no magic- everything is exactly as goofy as it sounds, which is most of the movie's charm. Very interesting use of real-life ideas and reasoning considering this is a romantic comedy, where those rules normally go out the window. It's not quite intelligent enough to make the most of its more ambitious story elements, but it's still very funny, charming, and unique.

I actually caught it this weekend as well. I thought the first half was great, really charming and fun, but the second half after she became famous just did nothing for me. Kinda disappointed overall.

USMC_Karl
Nov 17, 2003

SUPPORTER OF THE REINSTATED LAWFUL HAWAIIAN GOVERNMENT. HAOLES GET OFF DA `AINA.

AnonSpore posted:

Snowpiercer stuff

Well I'm no cinema critic and I sure as hell suck at interpretation, but.... WORDS ABOUT SNOWPIERCER

For your first question, I think that Gilliam told Curtis not to trust Wilford mainly because he expected Curtis to never reach the engine. If you'll remember, there was the "Have an egg and eat freakin' SMG bullets" segment, so I'm pretty sure the plan was for Curtis to bite it in the school and *poof* revolution over. Purpose would have been served, Wilford and Gilliam could have purged the back cars and gone back to the status quo. Instead, well, Curtis didn't die.

About the ending; I read (well, I tried to read, my fiance helped me) an interview with the director and he basically said "Don't think about it too much." The guy seems absolutely hilarious and I imagine that critics will read all sorts of dumb poo poo into the ending, but pretty much his words were "your first reaction is the right one." I took that to mean that life is going to go on. I imagine that other people could have possibly survived the derailing of the train, there are all those food stores in the train that could (with a poo poo load of work) be gotten to and all that gunk. A lot of the directors answers to "How did ~ " or "Why did ~ " questions were "Just cause" which I thought was really refreshing. As an example, he was asked how both Tuna and Salmon could coexist in the train. His answer? Basically "I dunno, don't think about it so much."

With that said, my initial reaction to the ending was, well, humanity is screwed. I mean, a little 5 year old boy and a teenage drug addict are the only apparent survivors? But my fiance had the "Well they'll do alright, there has to be other survivors" reaction so I imagine the ending is pretty much open to interpretation.


With all that said, the movie was pretty awesome. I'm not exactly sure what 20 minutes will be cut either, but I think it could be done in such a way as to preserve the story and overall tone of the movie. The director basically said that a lot of the more political undertones of the movie might be cut, but who knows? I for one think that the black woman screaming for chicken will probably be cut because... well.. while that got a laugh out of me it was more along the lines of "Wooo boy, that shouldn't be there" kind of laugh. I'm sure there are lots of little things that can be chopped out, like some of the walking through cars, maybe a little bit of the school car (the song or the escapees frozen [according to director, the leader was Minsoo's wife]), maybe the fat dude shooting at them through the window of the train that wouldn't really effect the overall story too much.

Also, if you understand the Korean language listening to Minsoo vs. what comes out of the translator box is a lot of fun. The whole translator box is a genius idea because it lets the movie maintain its Korean aspects while opening it up for international audiences.

AnonSpore
Jan 19, 2012

"I didn't see the part where he develops as a character so I guess he never developed as a character"

USMC_Karl posted:

Well I'm no cinema critic and I sure as hell suck at interpretation, but.... WORDS ABOUT SNOWPIERCER

For your first question, I think that Gilliam told Curtis not to trust Wilford mainly because he expected Curtis to never reach the engine. If you'll remember, there was the "Have an egg and eat freakin' SMG bullets" segment, so I'm pretty sure the plan was for Curtis to bite it in the school and *poof* revolution over. Purpose would have been served, Wilford and Gilliam could have purged the back cars and gone back to the status quo. Instead, well, Curtis didn't die.

About the ending; I read (well, I tried to read, my fiance helped me) an interview with the director and he basically said "Don't think about it too much." The guy seems absolutely hilarious and I imagine that critics will read all sorts of dumb poo poo into the ending, but pretty much his words were "your first reaction is the right one." I took that to mean that life is going to go on. I imagine that other people could have possibly survived the derailing of the train, there are all those food stores in the train that could (with a poo poo load of work) be gotten to and all that gunk. A lot of the directors answers to "How did ~ " or "Why did ~ " questions were "Just cause" which I thought was really refreshing. As an example, he was asked how both Tuna and Salmon could coexist in the train. His answer? Basically "I dunno, don't think about it so much."

With that said, my initial reaction to the ending was, well, humanity is screwed. I mean, a little 5 year old boy and a teenage drug addict are the only apparent survivors? But my fiance had the "Well they'll do alright, there has to be other survivors" reaction so I imagine the ending is pretty much open to interpretation.


With all that said, the movie was pretty awesome. I'm not exactly sure what 20 minutes will be cut either, but I think it could be done in such a way as to preserve the story and overall tone of the movie. The director basically said that a lot of the more political undertones of the movie might be cut, but who knows? I for one think that the black woman screaming for chicken will probably be cut because... well.. while that got a laugh out of me it was more along the lines of "Wooo boy, that shouldn't be there" kind of laugh. I'm sure there are lots of little things that can be chopped out, like some of the walking through cars, maybe a little bit of the school car (the song or the escapees frozen [according to director, the leader was Minsoo's wife]), maybe the fat dude shooting at them through the window of the train that wouldn't really effect the overall story too much.

Also, if you understand the Korean language listening to Minsoo vs. what comes out of the translator box is a lot of fun. The whole translator box is a genius idea because it lets the movie maintain its Korean aspects while opening it up for international audiences.

Well the thing is, if Curtis had never been meant to reach Wilford in the first place, Gilliam honestly had no reason to tell Curtis anything. In the sense of Snowpiercer as a movie it makes sense because it's foreshadowing that Gilliam knew/knows Wilford, that he's expecting Wilford to betray him for the revolution going too well, etc., but it doesn't make "sense" from a realistic point of view (and I realize this is a really stupid thing to bring up in a movie where a fight to the death will stop for a second because it's January 1st, but there you have it).

In regards to the ending, I'll go with that. I'm not usually one to really critically think about things in movies, it just bothered me how humanity seemed screwed as a direct result of both main characters' decisions/wishes.


As an aside, the film sorta reminded me of Robert Heinlein's novel "Orphans of the Sky" about a generation ship on the way to Alpha Centauri where over time people had forgotten their mission and the crew had regressed to an agricultural society that adopted a weird religion based on worshipping a deity called Jordan (a Jordan Foundation helped fund and build the ship). While obviously the people on the Snowpiercer weren't that far gone due to being on the train for just two decades (compared to Orphans' ~1000 years), the Wilford worship and the kid's school scene reminded me of the culture depicted in the book a lot, especially with how there were people who had only known the vehicle as their world their whole lives.

And yes, Song's first few lines (which went unsubtitled if I remember correctly) were hilarious, as was the translator's failure to pick it up. Speaking of which, I also really liked how the translator machines worked, they more or less perfectly picked up on nuance and intent in a way that no mechanical translator really can but that's perfectly fine, because they're just a device to provide communication through a language barrier and Bong makes no attempt to pretend otherwise. I especially liked the scene where Curtis and Minsoo have their talk right before Wilford's room, and initially the machine is translating their words but at some point you stop hearing it in the background, and they're just talking to each other without that artificial delay between sentences, and that's great.

CharlieFoxtrot
Mar 27, 2007

organize digital employees



A friend of mine brought this question up in conversation recently: are there any films about about the world of Korean pop music or Korean celebrities? Specifically, something incisive or dark, like Perfect Blue except Korean, but anything in that realm would be helpful too.

ladron
Sep 15, 2007

eso es lo que es
I watched PAJU tonight. Interesting subplot about the redevelopment issues going on (maybe some of you in Korea remember the redevelopment protests going on at Yongsan a couple years ago). The movie as a whole was meh.

Also, I'd like to mention TAXI BLUES - a documentary that's not well done, but very interesting, about being a taxi driver in Seoul.

Another documentary is SHOCKING FAMILY - about how poo poo it is to be a woman/child in Korea. Again, not very well done, but very interesting.

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

CharlieFoxtrot posted:

A friend of mine brought this question up in conversation recently: are there any films about about the world of Korean pop music or Korean celebrities? Specifically, something incisive or dark, like Perfect Blue except Korean, but anything in that realm would be helpful too.

Let's Go To Rose Motel is pretty dark and incisive. However, it is not a movie you should watch under any circumstances, as it is terrible. Fortunately, it won't be available in English for several months, if ever, so you won't be able to ignore my advice unless you're reading this thread from the future.

Beyond that your best bet would probably be 200 Pounds Beauty, which has a pretty healthy dose of cynicism regarding the industry even though genre-wise it's a romantic comedy. You might also get some mileage out of Born To Sing, which depicts the only cultural event in Korea considered to get people into the celebrity world out of merit. Everything else is pretty open about the fact that its an industry that involves shady wheelings and dealings.



Speaking of professions that Korean film is cynical towards, Public Enemy depicts rear end in a top hat cop Officer Kang as he beats the crap out of every annoying person he meets. And it's pretty easy to piss off Officer Kang so he mostly just beats up everyone who isn't a cop. The movie's story arc isn't about him becoming a decent human being, surprisingly enough, but about him slowly coming to realize that he should be using his powers off rear end-kickery on people who actually deserve it instead of whoever he happens to run into on a bad day. It's kind of like Lethal Weapon meets The Wire, except the closest we get to sympathetic characters are the morally neutral ones.

CharlieFoxtrot
Mar 27, 2007

organize digital employees



Thanks for the recommendations. While on the topic of specific aspects of Korean pop culture, are there any films that feature Starcraft or e-sports as part of the plot? I remember seeing a Chinese film about Warcraft III where the Korean team were the villains; considering pro gaming is big over there I'd think that there would be at least one film that touches on it.

Illinois Smith
Nov 15, 2003

Ninety-one? There are ninety other "Tiger Drivers"? Do any involve actual tigers, or driving?
Can anyone recommend me some Kim Ki-Duk films? I loved Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter ... Spring, wasn't too crazy about Pieta and thought Bad Guy was a mixed bag but at least interesting.

Illinois Smith fucked around with this message at 12:22 on Aug 29, 2013

ladron
Sep 15, 2007

eso es lo que es

Illinois Smith posted:

Can anyone recommend me some Kim Ki-Duk films? I loved Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter ... Spring, wasn't too crazy about Pieta and thought Bad Guy was a mixed bag but at least interesting.

Samaria is interesting in a teenage hooker kind of way.
The Isle is interesting in a disturbing way.

I think Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter ... Spring was probably his most mainstreamly accessible movie.

Mayne
Mar 22, 2008

To crooked eyes truth may wear a wry face.
3 Iron is amazing.

ladron
Sep 15, 2007

eso es lo que es

LooKMaN posted:

3 Iron is amazing.

really? I found it to be one of his shittiest "What the gently caress did I just watch?" movies.

The original name is "Empty House", which is more appropriate at least

Velocirocktor
Oct 18, 2006

And it's just a little bit of Cretaceous Castle Magic
I enjoyed 3-Iron. Time is also pretty good, I thought, and both of them are pretty accessible, especially compared to Samaria. Can't compare them to Spring, Summer... because I haven't seen it yet. That's about the extent of my Kim Ki-Duk knowledge.

ladron
Sep 15, 2007

eso es lo que es
I found Time to be a huge social commentary on the ubiquity of plastic surgery in Korea.

Bugblatter
Aug 4, 2003

3-Iron is by far his best. One of my favorite movies.

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

ladron posted:

I found Time to be a huge social commentary on the ubiquity of plastic surgery in Korea.

Time is legitimately my favorite movie of all time, because I saw it as going way deeper than that. The film isn't a criticism of the institution of plastic surgery, but rather of the deeper social underpinnings that cause people to want it in the first place. The two main characters are genuinely incapable of understanding what the value of their relationship in terms aside from the tangible, because their entire understanding of themselves is built on the understanding that the essential aspect of themselves is not their minds, but rather their body. And when they finally manage to figure out that the emotional stuff is what really matters, it just turns into an entirely different game of emotional one-upsmanship that still uses plastic surgery as the instrumental plot device. I think that's what makes it such a strong statement- plastic surgery is just the weak salve the characters try to use to repair the emotional balance caused by the expectations of modern culture. If plastic surgery did not exist, they would almost certainly just find a different way to test, prove, and rationalize their love that would be every bit as destructive because their entire conceptualization of the concept is based on destructive social mores. It's not even a directly Korean movie in that sense- Americans have extremely similar body image issues, and the film appealed strongly to my background in Women's Studies. It's another reason why I have trouble understanding how Kim Ki-Duk is attacked as a misogynist.

Oh yeah, Moebius is coming out soon. There's a press screening today, but I'm probably not going since it's low priority for my target audience and I'm covering a retrospective on Korean horror right now. Supposedly it will be "the most controversial work of Kim Ki-duk circling a destructive family while questioning one's basic sexual desires."

Some Guy TT fucked around with this message at 02:19 on Aug 30, 2013

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

For anyone who's on the fence about watching Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring, or just wants to remember how great that movie looked, here is a pretty excellent collage of the film's camerawork, divided into the five seasons. Mild spoilers inside, but nothing that really ruins any of the more important, less predictable storyline developments.



Pisces is a film about the subtleties in actual human relationships that are not normally well-captured on film because they they don't conform well to traditional narrative structure. This is a deliberately super-slow movie that substitutes definite dramatic moments for very gradual building ones. The relationship between the two leads completely changes throughout the film, but it's hard to say when exactly. A lot of film and narrative conventions are challenged here in ways that will almost certainly make you feel uncomfortable. I give this one a very high personal recommendation.

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

So...did anybody like the previous set of pictures? Well, if you did, here's a bunch more from The King and the Clown. As an added bonus, a visual distillation of that entire film into a single image:



Makes you wonder why the film suddenly turns all green, doesn't it?



Epitaph is a horror movie that takes place in a Japanese colonial era hospital. It's more of an omnibus film than anything linked by a solid framing device. There are three basic mysteries all localized within the environemnt that end up taking very weird directions. This is an actually scary movie, even while it does have some clear pretensions, it uses a lot of scare imagery than is genuinely creepy and frightening. Know what's even scarier than an angry ghost? A friendly ghost.

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RightClickSaveAs
Mar 1, 2001

Tiny animals under glass... Smaller than sand...


Some Guy TT posted:



Epitaph is a horror movie that takes place in a Japanese colonial era hospital. It's more of an omnibus film than anything linked by a solid framing device. There are three basic mysteries all localized within the environemnt that end up taking very weird directions. This is an actually scary movie, even while it does have some clear pretensions, it uses a lot of scare imagery than is genuinely creepy and frightening. Know what's even scarier than an angry ghost? A friendly ghost.
Cool, this one is on Netflix (US at least). I haven't seen a Korean horror film in a while.

I'm curious on your perspective on this Some Guy, is South Korean horror not really being made anymore or does it just seem like that outside of the country? For a period there, it seemed like they were endless, I'm guessing brought on by the success of the larger Asian horror wave with such films like Ju-On and Ringu, but I haven't seen a paranormal SK horror movie in a while. I'd imagine I Saw the Devil and Bedevilled could be called horror, but the focus seems to have shifted away from ghosts, are people just tired of those films, or does it just seem that way because they're not getting international attention anymore?

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