FILM-FORWARD.COMReviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
THREE...EXTREMES
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
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