Dolls
I was recommended Dolls by my film studies teacher, and he leant me his (Korean) copy of the DVD. When we watched parts of it in class, it looked good - clean lighting, interesting plot, and a nice overlapping of past and present to explain the plot without narration. But once I started watching it at home, all the flaws of the film suddenly jumped out at me.
For one thing, following the main characters, there’s no talking. For another, it’s long. By the end, with the sudden appearance of matching dress robes (with a blatant fade-in-fade-out wink towards the first scene with puppets), and the magical half-recovery of the brain damaged heroine, I really just didn’t care anymore.
The shots are nice. The sounds are okay. The stretches the director (BEAT TAKESHI, YEAAAAH) makes to fit the film into the “tragic lovers” setting makes me grin nervously - if you want to make a movie about yakuza, just make a movie about yakuza.
Interestingly, the costumes were all done by Yohji Yamamoto. That was one aspect of the film that I enjoyed, but it also tended to make the visuals slightly distracting. Were this film a play, the costumes would be awesome. As it is, it’ll just gain mild cult status.
THREE EXTREMES
Box
God, this movie scared me so bad. I can’t really talk about it because I don’t want to ruin anything - but the visual style is very striking, and I appreciated almost every single theme Takashi Miike threw in there.
Dumplings
I did not enjoy this film. At times sensual, it was mainly cringe-worthy. Why did it deserve a full length adaptation? Did we need an extended bath/abortion scene? Or maybe a real ending - that I’d like to see.
I guess the bottom line is that I’ve known about this film for far too long - YES, she eats dumplings made of babies to stay beautiful - and unless the director wants us to want to do the same with no consequences, something bad will either happen to her, or to the people around her. Or it wouldn’t be a horror film by normal standards.
Cut
I couldn’t tell if Park Chan Wook was getting his directorial rocks off on making a film about revenge, or on the lavish visuals. As I got to the midway point in the film without feeling a single ounce of tension, I started to suspect that it was the latter option - and the the film’s fright factor suffered because of it. Rather than staying in relatively normal territory (for him) by making the revenge be from an innocent onto a successfully portrayed moral-less retch, it was just a crazy underdog.. of a bad guy, lashing out at what he thinks is his direct opposite.
Maybe the film just doesn’t get enough time to simmer - 45 minutes is hardly time enough to get me to care about his characters, at the pace he sets. But Three Extremes is supposed to be an exercise in control, and mastery - shouldn’t he be able to make something better than this, given his directorial status and past?
(just so you know, my favorite part was at the end when his wife throws up all the blood :D)
Noriko’s Dinner Table
The Suicide Club Franchise can’t seem to remember what its plot basis is. I’ve now watched both films, AND read the manga - and the differences are far too striking to not mention. The first film has a general underlying theme of subliminal messaging, which interested me when I saw it, but the overall shock factor elements (THOUSANDS of suicides, going relatively unexplained) made me hate it in the end. Noriko’s Dinner Table was supposed to clear up all the plotholes, as well as give more background in general.
It failed. It ended up creating more plot problems than it fixed. It was a better film in that it made more sense, but it was horrible to look at - trying to integrate clips from the original film, the juxtaposition was striking in the worst way. So it was better, and worse - but it still felt like it was completely disconnected from the original film.
I mean, I can write about this another time, I guess - mostly what I wanted to say about Noriko’s Dinner Table in particular is how it’s a sort of inverse religion. It’s purporting this weird anti-atonement movement - that’s it’s your duty to FULFILL an ego (specifically, a “role”) rather than the opposite - loss of self (identity) for the sake of religion. They’re almost claiming that our default as people is a blank, rather than blankness being some pious ideal to strive for.
