More Kurosawa!

An early Christmas special from Criterion, through their Eclipse line. A collection of five films by Akira Kurosawa from 1946 to 56, appearing briefly on video in the 90's, but making their first US dvd appearances here. They are: I Live in Fear, The Idiot, No Regrets for Our Youth, One Wonderful Sunday, and Scandal. I have seen all of these films, and all are highly recommended, especially I Live in Fear and The Idiot, one of my favorite Kurosawa films (also his most atypical film, a bit swarmy for some but it pushed all the right buttons for me). No word on a release date, but with the Saura box set already released this week, I bet they will try to get this out before Christmas. Regardless, a mandatory purchase.

Korean Period Horror - The Evil Twin

A young woman awakes from a ten year long coma. Her last memory was of drowning with her sister in the nearby river. Her reawakening provokes rumor and fear among her friends and the villagers, as strange things begin to occur. Finally, one by one, people once close to her start to die.....

The Evil Twin is an anomaly in the contemporary horror scene -- a historical period piece that relies on suspense and the terror that is imagined, not necessarily seen. Thanks to a stronger than average storyline, which falls under a classic film noir suspense tale of lost identity, Evil Twin fuses that with the doppleganger twin that is so common in asian horror, to create something different. Park Shin-Hye plays So-Yeon, the heroine who reawakens to a world much older and different than she last remembered. Her displacement becomes an effective way to show the unfolding of events that follow, as layers for truth are revealed, about her friends, her family, and finally, herself. Hyo-Jin is her twin sister in the tale, and while at first she seems like another long haired demon girl a la the Ring, she is mostly in the background until the end, and when she does appear, she is genuinely creepy. No shock music or backward motion special effects, just atmosphere and silence, which deliver a real onimous feel to her presence. Yang Geum-Seok plays So-Yeon's mother, a woman with a guilt in her heart about a choice she had to make in the past. So-Yeon and Hyo-Jin were the classic good girl/bad girl, not necessarily good/evil, but one gaining more favor than the other - So-Yeon is promised to be married, a favor not gained by Hyo-Jin (this being at a very young age, as was the custom). That conflict affects how her friends treat her, because, and this is a key point, everyone thinks So-Yeon is her sister, because of the bracelet belonging to her sister was found on her wrist when she was rescued. The visuals are excellent, although the dvd transfer I saw the blacks came out as deep blues in certain key moments, and I don't know if that was when they added some special effects or if it was just a bad transfer. The entire film has an old-school feel, and reading other reviews of this film, I see that it is indeed a throwback to the ghost story films of the 60's in South Korea. It also reminds be of the Val Lewton films of the 40's, though there are a couple of brief grisly moments. The ending too reminds me of another film, the Japanese version of Dark Water, with the mother having to make the decision that she thought she should have made years ago, a choice as to which daughter she should save from drowning. The moment is touching and powerful, as is this above average horror film, which once again proves that a good story is more effective than cheap shocks to thrill the viewer. Recommended.

Shim's Family or Skeletons in the Closet

Skeletons in the Closet is a surprisingly good comedy about a middle class South Korean family who are all in a rut in their lives. Chun Ho-Jin is the father, an english teacher at a local high school who no longer makes love to his wife (Moon He-Kyung), and takes her for granted. He also has an unemployed sister in law (Kim Hye-Soo) comic book author who leeches off of them, and a son (Yu A-In) and daughter who both are just getting by in the same school that he teaches. The son is madly in love with another student (Jeung Yo-Mi), a girl who practices ballet and is a prostitute. One evening Mr. Shim sees a prostate body of a young woman in the subway. It is Jeung Yo-Mi, and there is a lot of blood between her legs. He picks her up and is going to take her to the hospital, but she begs him to take her to a motel and get some hygenic stuff so treat her wound, and he does. Together they stay overnight, Mr. Shim feeling uneasy as he knows the implications of an older man with a young girl in a motel. But nothing happens between the two of them -- until the cell phone, which Mr. Shim has confiscated from a student who was text messaging in class, is returned, and a video is discovered on the phone, of him and the student in bed. It is placed on the internet, on a Youtube like site, and a scandal erupts. The Shim family falls prey to the social pressures of the scandal. Mrs. Shim, in the meantime, is looking for some value after being treated as a slave by her family. She develops a crush on a young man who runs a karaoke bar, and is a promoter for a local coffee firm. He talks her into going to a retreat at a coffee company, which is essentially a recruiting camp. At first she is crushed that she wasn't going on a date with the young man; however, she finds some value in the process and impresses her family with her new coffeemaker (which works during a power outage and plays music), and a revived spiritual confidence in herself -- through coffee. The daughter lives in a dream world where she hates her family, is not particularly good looking, and writes a journal of her fantasies on her computer. The sister in law does nothing of importance except maintain a large comic book collection, writing stories and doing nothing for herself. She was coming out of a lousy relationship with a man who just plays around. All of them are shocked out of their hum drum existence with Mr. Shim's scandal. During a hot evening there is a blackout, and the family goes to the riverside, where the community has rigged a camp where they will watch a soccer game on power generators. People eat and generally have a good time, until the Shims are confronted by a neighboring family, who are outraged that their poodle was violated by the Shim's family dog. A fight breaks out, and the Shims unite to fight the neighbors and all the scandal and bad vibes that have been hanging over them. They run back home in separate paths, the daughter commenting through a voice over that this was the first time ever that she had so wanted to be back home. The scandal blows over, and Mr. Shim continues to be a teacher. The sister in law resumes a career as a writer, Mrs Shim is given more respect and the two children clean up their act.

There has been a run of really bland or awful Korean comedies lately. This is an exception. Director Chung Yoon-chul (Marathon) has put together a tight and atypical comedy of a South Korean family with problems. There are no heart tugging moments or overwrought sappy drama. It is filmed in a style similar to a film like the Royal Tennabaums, a no nonsense approach to the subject matter that places emphasis on the characters and not style. The outdoor fight scene is the funniest and best part of the film, as it is where the Shims' finally deal with all their problems by asserting themselves for the first time. Shim's Family is a clever look at one modern family, warts and all, and finds the heart and pulse that keeps them united. Recommended.

Life

Y'know, things just get in the way. Important things, like family, work, and health, all of which were in flux these past few months. So, after a long delay, let's resume with the reviews, shall we?