| Film Review | Dana Place |
Three Extremes
Dir. Fruit Chan (segment “Dumpling”)
Dir. Chan-wook Park (segment “Cut”)
Dir. Takashi Miike (segment “Box”)
Plot:
Three Extremes is a three part film designed to showcase
three master directors’ style and the style of horror films
made in China (Fruit Chan; Little Cheung, The Longest
Summer), Japan (Takashi Miike; Dead or Alive series,
Happiness of the Katakuris, Audition ), and South Korea
(Cha-wook; Old-Boy, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance). “Dumpling”
is the story a young wealthy woman who will go to any
lengths to keep her youthful beauty. “Cut” is the story of a
director who, in a cruel twist of fate, finds himself in a
real life version of the horror film he is creating. “Box”
is the story of two sisters and their father. One of the
sisters died in a horrible accident and her other sister
attempts to deal with the tragedy later in life.
Review: All three films (like most American horror
films) are reflections of the culture of their
writer/director’s homeland, and if you are a fan of Asian
cinema or follow any of these directors, you can see
familiar themes in each of the vignettes that have been
played over and over in their countries homeland.
“Dumplings” (China) is a morality tale designed to warn
against the evils of excess and the abandonment of the poor
as the rich get richer. The story does not attempt to shock
you in the traditional sense so much as to teach a lesson
and to show that there are consequences to everyone’s
actions. “Cut” (South Korea) is a hyper-stylized horror
story that is best described as a horror opera/marionette
show without the music. The vignette shows off the South
Korean liberal use of American filmmaking techniques with
the willingness to experiment and to find new ways of
telling the same story. The story itself is really nothing
special, but the director, Chan-wook Park, takes an entirely
new approach, making the telling of the story more fun than
the story itself. All of the Japanese horror films I have
seen have a fascination with the occult, the supernatural,
dream life, or ghosts and spirits. “Box” is no different.
Takashii Miike is pretty well known for completely turning a
film on it’s head just when you think you have a grasp of
what is going on, and in the case of this short film, he
seems to take that ability to a new extreme, using beautiful
imagery and metaphor to take what was probably a very linear
story and turn it into a dream wrapped in a riddle that only
comes together in the last scene. If you are a fan of
Takashi Miike’s work, I definitely suggest you find a way to
check this out. These short films do not attempt to tie
themselves together to make a coherent story, and are
actually filmed so distinctly different that you have to be
prepared for the change or else it is a little disorienting.
The films go from slow and methodical to sleek and hyper
kinetic, to well, I can’t really explain the third version,
but if you know what you are getting into and really enjoy
Asian cinema, especially horror, then I definitely suggest
you search this movie out and go to see it. It is playing in
limited release starting 10/28/2005, but is definitely worth
hunting around for.
