Thirst

Thirst – Bakjwi – 2009

From IMDB: Beloved and devoted priest from a small town volunteers for a medical experiment which fails and turns him into a vampire. Physical and psychological changes lead to his affair with a wife of his childhood friend who is repressed and tired of her mundane life. The one-time priest falls deeper in despair and depravity. As things turns for worse, he struggles to maintain whats left of his humanity.

Finally, what i’ve been talking about nonstop for months on here, my twitter, to my friends, and pretty much anybody who would listen, i got a chance to watch and own a copy of Thirst. What can i say.. where can i even start? I’ll try, even tho when it comes to Park Chan Wook my vocabulary seems shy of appropriate and beautiful enough terms.

Bakjwi (originally set to be titled “the bat”) is the story of a catholic priest, Sang-hyun (impeccably played by korean superstar Song Kang-ho of The Host and Sympathy for Mr Vengeance) who loves life and humanity so much that he decides to volunteer for a medical experiment, only to come out of it as a vampire – and the only survivor out of 50+ patients. As he’s dragged into the world of Sin and carried away by lust, thirst for human blood, and most of all confusion, we watch his faith crumble irremediably.

Of course, the reason behind this precipitous fall into the rabbit hole is a woman, Tae-ju (brand new actress Kim Ok-bin), who not only is one his childhood’s friends wife, but also a beautiful – and troubled – individual who had been waiting her whole life to run away.

Their encounter changes their lives forever, and brings the substance of the story at much more than “just” the typical vampire movie. Thirst is about pain, desire, the fall of dogmas, and most of all internal struggle. And Park Chan Wook is right there telling us this beautiful and grotesque story in that familiar way he got us all used to: stunning camera work, outstanding atmospheres, attention for details, and the perfect soundtrack. I’m sure the ending will blow most of you guys’ minds away for it is so gorgeous it almost physically hurts.

The actors are top-notch, and the movie delivers the perfect combination of brutal violence, gore, and drama but also lots of very funny black humor (my favorite!), suspense, and steamy sex scenes (fun fact: Thirst was the first Korean movie to feature full frontal male nudity). And of course, an endless amount of blood.

I have been looking around for a copy of this every day since the teaser trailer release back in March, so you can only imagine the kind of suspense i had been building up for myself. On top of that, besides many many positive reviews (not to mention the fact that Thirst won the Jury Prize at Cannes this year pretty much blowing the jury away) – i’ve also read all of those other reviews, the jealous and “i-have-to-critique-negatively-at-any-cost” type, that said it wasn’t Park Chan Wook’s best work, that the movie is too long and needs more editing, and yadda yadda. so i had mixed feelings about my super high-end expectations.

you know what? fuck those critics. the movie is PERFECT.

so perfect i can’t wait to watch it again, and again, and again…

Hansel and Gretel

Hansel and Gretel – 2007

From Imdb: When Eun-soo gets lost in a country road, he meets a mysterious girl and is led to her fairytale ike house in the middle of the forest. There, Eun-soo is trapped with the girl and her siblings who never age. Eun-soo finally discovers a way out which is written on a fairy tale book. But the book tells a story of none other than himself.

From time to time, we all want to watch a horror movie just for the entertainment. We want something that will please our eyes, our guts, and that will make us jump from our seats once or twice. Of course each one of us has a favorite horror category to refer to when needed, such as slasher, gore, psychological and so on. As a person who loved horror movies longer than i can even recall (rumors say i was a fan even while still in the womb, true story), i have always had a soft spot for one thing: that creepy fairy tale element that brings my inner child out, the one who’s scared of the dark but still insists in playing hide and seek just because of the thrill.

When i was little i was always intrigued by the creepy characters in my fairytale books, like the witch of the west, the witch in Snow white, and so on. Hansel and Gretel takes inspiration from this element, borrowing the very popular brother Grimm’s story title, and makes a hell of an entertaining horror movie out of it, in typical (the good kind of typical, think A Tale of Two Sisters) K-Cinema style.

Directed in 2007 by Yim Phil-Sung (Antarctic Journal) , Hansel and Gretel provides such a delightful journey with its impeccable photography and camera work. Many compared the visuals to Pan’s Labyrinth, and i can definitely see some similarities in the attention for the details. It’s an entertaining dark fairy tale, complete with creepy little kids that can make things happen with their imagination.

not only the movie successfully delivers the eerie factor, but it also tries to go a little deeper exploring (and of course, condemning) abusive childhoods. you won’t be disappointed, this movie is pretty much a must see.

Blackwater Vengeance

ever since my passion for the korean han started, i have been meaning to paying it my own personal tribute.

charatcters like Lee Guem-ja (sympathy for lady vengeance), Oh Dae-su (oldboy), Kim Sun-woo (a bittersweet life),  they all somewhat changed my life, made me realize there was some sort of artistic expression out there that reflected what has been unspoken inside me for a long time.

and so, without being too pretentious and saying i tried to create some art, i simply did a photoshoot that was inspired by these people. it is up on the suicide girls front page for the next 24 hours, and it’s called Blackwater Vengeance

to see the whole set, go to suicidegirls.com and get a memebership. if you already have one, here’s the link to my personal page (sorry content is members only):

suicidegirls.com/girls/gogo

here is a glimpse of it, i hope you enjoy it. skip after the jump for the not safe for work version.

Antarctic Journal

Antarctic Journal – Namgeuk-ilgi – 2005

from Wikipedia: During their journey the expedition led by Captain Choi Do-hyung discovers a journal that was left behind by a British expedition 80 years earlier. The journal was remarkably preserved in a box in the snow and Kim Min-jae, another member of the expedition, gets the job of examining it. It turns out that the two expeditions shared the same goal and soon other strange similarities between them start to show up.

I have recently been more and more interested in the theme of “whiteness” in horror/thriller/drama movies. Something that gives an extreme and almost out of place contrast with subjects otherwise dark, and gruesome, and definitely not innocent – as opposed to what we usually identify the color white with.

Antarctic Journal is the combination of all this things, and is undeniably as white as any movie could possibly be. Filmed in 2005 by director Yim Pil-sung, Antarctic Journal scores korean actors as big as Song Kang-ho (Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, The Host) and Yoo Ji-tae (Oldboy, Into the Mirror) as members of an expedition team trying to reach the Pole of Inaccessibility, nonetheless. One of the most difficult places to reach on the planet, trodden upon only once by a Soviet team in 1958.

Everything goes relatively fine until the group finds  an old journal left by a British expedition team around eighty years in the past. Only a few pages are readable, but there are some spooky drawings that not only point to the fate of the British crew, but eerily parallel the mishaps affecting the Korean team in the present day. This is when things start going wrong, and a different kind of journey is set to start, one that goes deeper and deeper into the explorers’ minds.

We are following both a physical and psychological journey of a group of men that soon begin to question the reasons for the journey itself,  with no immediate chance of coming out of an incredibly desolate, icy surrounding that is so desperately white, and all of a sudden just lonely and endless.

Antarctic Journal is really slow paced, so you’d have to be in the proper mindset to watch it, even tho i found it to be one of the movie’s strong points. Everything looks and in fact is simply frozen and stuck in time. Altho psychological thriller would be a better classification for it,  some really creepy elements such as ghosts and the weird drawings in the Journal itself, made it fall into the horror category.

The big budget and popular faces put into this movie generated high expectations,  but later failed to deliver both critics and box office-wise. It is definitely not the best korean movie i’ve ever seen nor makes it to my top-anything, but there’s something about that whiteness, so intense and endless and hallucinating, that just captured me and intrigued me enough to put it up here. If you ever come across to seeing it, some of you out there will know what i mean.

Crying Fist

Crying Fist (Jumeogi unda) – 2005

Down on his luck and desperate, Gang Tae-shik is doing it hard on the streets. He’s lost the respect of his son, and his wife has thrown him out of home. Now the former silver medallist of the Asian Games is selling himself on the street as a human punching bag. To wipe his mounting debt and regain his plummeting dignity, Gang sets his sights on the amateur boxing title. Yoo Sang-hwan is a young rebel with few prospects and even less ambition. Living for gang fights and muggings, he soon finds himself behind bars in a juvenile detention centre. But his penchant for punching has one guard suggest he join the boxing club. The amateur boxing title provides, for the first time, direction in his life. Gang and Yoo face off for the battle of their lives.

Crying Fist is a 2005 movie written and directed by Seung-wan Ryoo. It stars one of my all time favorites, Choi Min-sik (Oldboy, Failan, A Quiet Family) as Tae-shik as an old boxer who’s personal and financial life are falling apart, and Seung-beom Ryu (the director’s brother) as Sang-hwan, a troubled kid who finds redemption through boxing.

The movie is over two hours long, but never gets boring. Even the photography alone is a good reason to approach it, because it’s so beautiful and moving and detailed that it will be impossible not to appreciate it. The plot unfolds slowly but at  good pace, while we follow the two separate stories of two men trying to regain dignity as human beings, and the results of what’s on the screen is wonderful and touching and heartbreaking all at the same time.

Both the actors deliver such a stunning performance that you won’t be able to help but sympathise with them and it will make you want to know what happens next. Choi Min-sik is so incredibly talented it’s almost unfair. Another review from Imdb summed up the movie perfectly, so i’m just gonna quote it this time:

Many will think this is just another tear-jerking melodrama. It is not, I guarantee, but you would not be able to appreciate the real thing unless you have once gone through your own hell in the life. I cried with Ryu at the end of the movie, I felt his sorrow and happiness so real just as they were mine, it was mentally painful.

I am not an expert in professional sports movies, but personally Crying Fist reminded me of The Wrestler in many ways. Just as in Aronofsky’s flick, the movie is more about the characters rather than the discipline, which becomes sort of a media used by both of them to find some kind of redemption, and a reason not to give up yet.

I think if you liked the Wrestler you’re gonna love this one as well. I’m not gonna forget this movie anytime soon, and i’ll keep it as an example as of why korean cinema is so special to me.

Running Wild

Running Wild (Ya-Su) – 2005

From KMDB: JANG Do-young is a hot-blooded homicide detective who has lost faith in the law. OH Jin-woo is an elite prosecutor who stands in opposition to JANG in that there’s nothing but the law in which he can believe. However, learning that they’re running after the same target, the two men decide to team up. As they get deeper into the investigation, a huge conspiracy awaits them, in which YOO Kang-jin, boss of the Kuryong Family, is involved. Feeling threatened, YOO blackmails JANG’s family and pulls strings to get OH off the case. Now an unavoidable battle begins between two men and the kingpin of the criminal world.

Running Wild is a 2005 movie directed by Kim Sung-Soo, who is said to be Park Chan-Wook’s protegé. The story revolves around two characters, Yoo Ji-Tae (Oldboy, Into the Mirror) as OH, and Kwon Sang-Woo as Jang. Like every good korean drama, we are presented a scenario where the glass is already half empty, both the characters are going through rough times (Oh’s wife wants divorce and Jang’s mother is on her death bed) and as they start their battle against a gangster boss turned politician , they inevitably end up fighting against the whole system itself, a system made of corruption, and the tragedy that comes with approaching it.

The movie is slow paced, but the ending is worth the wait. Unlike most movies of this genre, it’s more focused on beatings rather than gunplay, which is definitely a plus in my books (you can never have enough koreans wearing suits and brutally beating people while covered in blood). The most interesting character is of course Yoo Ji-Tae’s, his on screen presence is always outstanding and his tormented look pierces the screen every time he engages in dark, cynical roles.

I promised you all korean movies involving Park Chan Wook’s favorite actors until we can finally watch THIRST (only one month until american release!!), hence the reason behind this review. My favorite part is the photography, which is noir, dark, and more in general just beautiful. If you’re looking for brutality, action, and breathtaking plot twists, this is not a movie for you. But if you liked The Chaser, and more in general if you’re a fan of police thrillers, and satirical attacks against the system, you’re going to really enjoy it.