THREE...EXTREMES
DUMPLINGS
Directed & Edited by: Fruit Chan.
Produced by: Peter Ho-Sun Chan.
Written by: Lilian Lee.
Director of Photography: Christopher Doyle.
Music by: Chan Kwong-Wing.
Language: Mandarin & Cantonese with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: Hong Kong.
With: Miriam Yeung, Bai Ling & Tony Ka-Fai Leung.
CUT
Directed & Written by: Park Chan-Wook.
Produced by: Ahn Soo-Hyun.
Director of Photography: Chung Chung-Hoon.
Edited by: Kim Sang-Bum & Kim Jae-Bum.
Music by: Peach.
Language: Korean with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: South Korea.
With: Lee Byung-Hun.
BOX
Directed by: Miike Takashi.
Produced by: Naoki Sato, Shun Shimizu & Fumio Inoue.
Written by: Haruko Fukushima, based on the story by Bun Saikou.
Director of Photography: Koichi Kawakami.
Edited by: Yasushi Shimamura.
Music by: Kouji Endo
Language: Japan with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: Japan.
With: Kyoko Hasegawa.
125 min. Rated: R.

Though released just in time for Halloween, this anthology offers far more than just blood and gore, but a triumphant representation of the impressive Pan-Asian takeover of the horror genre.

Fruit Chan's deliciously twisted and astute “Dumplings” satirizes a woman's blind pursuit of eternal beauty and the hyper-consumer culture that supports it. Qing (Miriam Yeung), a retired actress-turned-betrayed wife, is willing to take any measure that money can buy to recover her youth and her husband’s lust, landing her in the hands of Mei (Bai Ling), an abortionist-turned-chef who feeds her customers her special rejuvenating dumplings chock-full of aborted fetuses. Christopher Doyle's usually graceful cinematography takes a more playfully sinister tone as he captures Mei close-up munching away. Bai Ling also gives what may be her most delightful performance as the free-spirited and creepily maternal Mei.

Like his feature films Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Oldboy, South Korea's provocateur Park Chan-Wook sticks to his thematic obsession with revenge in “Cut”. Ryu Ji-Ho (Lee Byung-Hun) is a successful and kind-hearted filmmaker until he returns home one day to find his pianist wife tied up by a stranger, an extra from every one of his films, whose jealousy for Ryu's all-around good fortune has turned him into a psychopath. He gives Ryu a choice - to kill the kidnapped little girl that he brought along, or to watch his wife's fingers being cut off one by one. Though confined to the singular space of a living room, the film's spastic editing and the desperate, rapid-fire interplay of characters make “Cut” as engrossing as it is repulsive.

By far the most visually accomplished of the three films, Miike Takashi's contemplative short “Box” reflects Japan's cultural emphasis on silence and nature. Trapped within a world as silent and colorless as snow is Kyoko (Kyoko Hasegawa), a beautiful and successful writer plagued by a childhood incident in which she accidentally caused her twin sister to burn to death. Years later, the trauma comes back to haunt Kyoko in that ubiquitous emblem of J-horror, an apparition of a young girl with the long hair. Though plodding in pace and far too minimalist for its own good, as a final piece “Box” encapsulates the anthology's point - thought the nightmare of each director differs vastly, the extremes of horror are always found in the infinite complexity of the human psyche. Maria Iida
October 28, 2005