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Kam
09-19-2005, 06:35 AM
Ok, so caught up on some different movies, and figured there were some odd titles, so i'd throw the headsup out to everyone. Here are some maybe not-so-well known foreign titles. All available on dvd.

Oldboy - Highly reccomended (with some caveats). This is a Korean movie from 2003. A man (Dae-su) is on his way home, after being held at a police station for being a drunk, with a birthday present (a pair of white, angel wings) for his young daughter's birthday when he gets kidnapped. For the next 15 years he is kept in a hotel room/ prison without any ideas as to who/what/why this has happenned to him. He tries everything to get away, including suicide. His captors drug him with the food and water and gas him to clean the room, cut his hair, etc. Then one day he wakes up on a rooftop in a new suit and a pocket full of cash and begins to figure out what the hell happenned to him, who did it, and why. Can't say anything else without giving things away, but suffice is to say it is a seriously violent and disturbing movie. VERY disturbing. This was the belle of the ball during the 2004 festival circuit, capped off with winning the Grand Jury prize at Cannes. One particular scene to watch for is when Dae-su comes back to his place of imprisonment and fights all the guards in this narrow hallway. They "cut-away" half the hallway (lengthwise) and the camera tracks along one side as Dae-su fight everyone (like you're looking through the wall of one side of the hallway). The take is about 4+ minutes long (i think) without a single cut as the camera tracks the entire fight sequence! It's a phenomenal shot as you see him kick butt and get his butt kicked. Incredible story. Which, of course, means its being remade by Hollywood. Hollywood has jumped on the bandwagon and is remaking this movie next year. It just played last year. And it's being REMADE ALREADY!!??? Hey, I have an idea... this movie came out last year and won the Academy Award... it was called Million-Dollar Baby... maybe hollywood should remake that one, i mean, that was last year. Oh i know! Even better, this movie, not sure if anyone remembers it, called Sixth Sense, did really well too. Maybe hollywood should remake that one!! Un-freakin-believable. The second something with any little tidbit of originality or freshness comes out, and hollywood tramples it into the ground. Rather than take the challenge to come out with something better, it rehashes what someone else has done in another market. Nothing like: "Holy crap those asian filmmakers are kicking ass with their movies over there, especially the horror ones, we need to get our asses in gear and compete!" It's more like: "Hell american audiences don't watch anything with subtitles, lets just copy what they did."
(am not saying copying doesn't occur, hell everyone copies... but not like this).

City on Fire - This chinese movie from 1987 was the inspiration for Reservoir Dogs. Now that i finished the rant about copying above, here is a prime example of it done well (Tarantino's copy of COF). City on Fire is told in linear time about a cop that goes undercover to bust a jewelry heist. We watch as the cop (Chow Yun Fat) infiltrates the gang. It goes into how a cop loses himself in his 'role' as an undercover agent and touches on who should he be loyal to: his brothers in the police, or his new found brothers in crime? How those lines become blurred and what happens. I, unfortunately, watched the dubbed version, which i personally hate. In spite of this huge disconnect from the actors, i still really enjoyed the movie and reccomend this one as well. Not just to see how tarantino lifted and changed it into Reservoir Dogs, but because its a great movie and storyline in and of itself. Another high reccomendation (but find the non-dubbed version if you can).

Cashern - (2004) This was (arguably) the first movie to use the entirely shot on a blue-screen process. Some say it was Skycaptain and the World of Tomorrow (Sin City used the same process). But in any event, it is visually stunning but makes no sense whatsoever. I've only watched it once, but have no clue what in the world was going on most of the time. Its a japanese movie that follows a manga comic and has traditional anime style. Very violent, visually stunning, interesting stuff going on, but incredibly confusing. From what i gathered, its in the future where the world has been 'unified' except for a few pockets of resistance. A scientist has a wife going blind and a son that goes off to war. The wife goes blind, son comes back dead. The scientist has been working on genetic cloning experiments. Something (a metal thing that's in the shape of a lightning bolt) comes out of the sky and into the scientist's vat of genetic cloning liquid. It electrifies it and all of a sudden all his clone pieces come to life. The military comes in and kills most of the clones but some escape to one of the pocket areas of resistance and form their own little resistance. Meanwhile, the scientist dips his dead son into the vat and brings him back to life, all the while as the son's ghost watches on. The son then develops superhuman everything and the scientist (or his friend, i couldnt tell who) develops this special bodyarmor for the son to wear. Battles ensue, etc. I can't really reccomend it, because thats just what i think happens, not sure if that's exactly what was happenning. (the subtitles were on, but wow it was strange). Its visually fun to watch, and still better than 90% of the crap that's out there, even as confusing as it is, but i just cant give it a full reccomendation (there's just way too many older classics to check out or I'd rather say watch Sin City again).

peace
k2

MomurdA
09-19-2005, 02:09 PM
Iam going to have to check these ones out. I like watching anime movies, so looks like cashern will be the first.