027 & 028.- THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD (2008, INTERNATIONAL AND KOREAN VERSIONS, ARROW 4K UHD). Streaming on ROKU CHANNEL, AMC+.
Kim Jee-woon's epic 'kimchi' western set during the Japanese occupation of Manchuria in 1939 is a love letter to Sergio Leone with a capital 'L' that doesn't let its homage intentions interfere with carving its own identity. A ruthless train robber (Lee Byung-hun's Park Chang-yi, aka 'The Bad'), a bounty hunter with principles (Jung Woo-sung's Park Do-won, aka 'The Good') and a goofy-exterior-hides-a-dark-past thief (Song Kang-ho's Yoon Tae-goo, aka 'The Weird'), all badass South Korean gunslingers with vehicle/weapon preferences, either stumble upon or are made aware of a map leading to a treasure buried deep in the desert. If you've seen "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" you already know where this is all leading up to... except the actors and filmmakers aren't merely copying Leone's playbook. They're using this particular western as a springboard to tell their version of Eastern history in as exciting a cinematic spectacle as possible. By virtue of who these storytellers are (contemporary South Korean filmmakers) and their resources (not quite Hollywood, but the most expensive cinematic production the country could afford at the time), the result is one of the best action westerns made in the 2000's.
I liked the International version (129 min.) so much that I immediately rewatched the Korean version (136 min.), which supposedly expands the role of the Korean rebellious mindset that is mostly background in the worldwide release. There are extra scenes at the start (Do-won at home) and end (Tae-goo dynamites his way through the remaining Japanese army), but overall there aren't enough story/pace differences for me to rank either version differently. I'll give the nod to the International one just for being 7 min. shorter. Either way, get ready for an impressive opening train assault, exciting semi-comedic shootouts and one hell of an extended chase through the desert (involving horses, motorcycles, dynamite sticks and long-distance cannons) that puts most U.S. action films from this era (ERA!) to shame. And despite speaking Korean, the archetype-looking leads (particularly Park Do-won riding a horse while reloading his shotgun as his coat flaps in the wind) are as universal to cinema as John Wayne or Roy Rogers. Did I also mention the Arrow 4K transfer looks stunning? 😁 4.5 BULLET-RIDDEN DIVING HELMETS (out of five).
029.- THE HUNT (2016, AMAZON PRIME). Also streaming on TUBI, PLEX.
A 'gold fever' Korean survival tale, one I can imagine Jalmari Helander watching in Finland and planting the seeds for his eventual "Sisu" movie. An old woman finds gold at the root of a tree not too far from the entrance to an abandoned mine where a tragedy took the lives of several miners many years prior. The crooked cops who come to investigate the woman's claim lie, then bring in armed reinforcements so they can keep the gold to themselves. Unfortunately for these blinded-by-bling inexperienced mountain men, an old hunter and a mentally slow teenage girl witness their attempt to kill the old woman. As the tables constantly turn (they capture the girl, the hunter frees her but is captured, he escapes but the girl gets lost in the woods, etc.), "Lost-type flashbacks to these characters' past paint a morally complex story about strained family relationships, guilt-ridden survival complex and the urge/need to reconnect with your loved ones. If "Sisu" is the fantasy old man who can still kick ass and defy death, "The Hunt" is the semi-realistic last hurrah of an emotionally wounded warrior punctuated by shootouts, knife fights and bad timing all around. Come for the mountain action, stay for the story revealing a heart-wrenching throughline between the fallen and those left behind. 3.35 SLIPPERY ROCKS COVERED IN BRAIN MATTER (out of five).
030.- DERAILED (2016, TUBI). Also streaming on PLEX. ROKU CHANNEL, FAWESOME.
I had to sneak a movie starring my favorite South Korean actor of all time, Ma Dong-seok aka Don Lee ("Train To Busan," "The Roundup" series, "Marvel's The Eternals," etc.). Four teenage runaways survive day to day on the outskirts of Seoul, doing petty crimes (stealing cellphones, hotwiring cars, etc.) for quick cash to pay for food, saunas, hotels, etc. The leader of the group, Jeon Jin-il (Choi Min-ho), refuses to let his girlfriend Choi Ga-yeong (Jung Da-Eun) pretend to do prost!tution to make some quick pick-pocket hotel money. But Ga-yeong does it anyway, running into Hyung-Suk (Ma Dong-seok) who doesn't like it when his BMW and credit cards are stolen. A karaoke bar owner forced into running a small prost!tution ring due to bad investments (which he keeps a secret from his wife and teenage daughter), Hyung-Suk convinces Ga-yeong to work for him as repayment for the stolen car. Guilt-ridden by his girlfriend's turn to prost!tution, Jin-il and his runaway friends steal more than usual so they can help Ga-yeong repay her debt faster.
Through all that a just-released-from-prison psycho gangster, Kang Seong-hoon (Kim Jae-young), is gunning for Jeon Jin-il for ratting him out and stealing his girl (Ga-yeong). All these characters' fortunes (plus well-meaning but incompetent cops waiting in the wings to flip Jil-il) eventually intertwine, resulting in a mean little thriller where Hyung-Suk always seems to be one step ahead by being smarter and meaner ("Roundup"-style punches, slaps and body blows) than everyone else... until it comes back to bite him in the rear end. It's basically a Korean take on a French New Wave outlaw/youth rebellion tale, one where the grey of the grimy moral ambiguity shines brighter than the black and white extremes surrounding it. A diamond in the rough. 3.65 STOLEN AUDIS (out of five).
BONUS: 30 DAYS OF PINK PANTHER & FRIENDS, DAY 6! 031.- THE INSPECTOR: CIRRHOSIS OF THE LOUVRE (3/9/1966, KINO LORBER BLU-RAY). Streaming on YouTube.
I wasn't planning to do three "Inspector" cartoons in a row the same day, but these turned out to be so good! 🤩🥰 An art thief known as 'The Blotch' (red and passthrough, like Casper full of jalapeno sauce) threatens to steal all the paintings from The Louvre Museum. It's up to The Inspector and Deux-Deux to stop him. From the use of actual photorealistic paintings in the background to Deux-Deux's constant use of Spanish ('Si.'), this one's a laugh-riot ('PARIS U'HAUL') that ends on a gag so lame and stupid it's actually hilarious. 4.5 WHISTLER'S MOTHER MOP WIGS (out of five).
032.- THE INSPECTOR: COCK-A-DOODLE DEUX DEUX (6/15/1966, KINO LORBER BLU-RAY). Streaming on YouTube.
The chicken-related surrealism is off the charts on this one, courtesy of new-to-DePatie-Freleng Enterprises director Robert McKimson (creator of Foghorn Leghorn for Warner Bros.) and a plot similar to the OG "Pink Panther" movie. A big diamond is stolen from a wealthy aristocrat who only has chickens as workers at her chateau. Disguised as a chicken himself, Inspector narrows down the suspects and almost nails the case... until the children's equivalent of p@rn distracts him. Exquisite, sublime ridiculousness. 4.5 'CHICKEN LANGUAGE MADE EASY by DR. CLUCK' BOOK HARDCOVERS (out of five).
033.- THE INSPECTOR: SICQUE! SICQUE! SICQUE! (9/23/1966, KINO LORBER BLU-RAY). Streaming on YouTube.
The "Pink Panther/Inspector" cartoon I remember most as a child of 10, watching at 12:55PM/6:55PM on Channel 2 in El Salvador 7 days a week. While inspecting the empty laboratory of a just-carted-to-jail mad scientist alongside Inspector, Deux-Deux ingests what appears to be Seltzer water. It's actually serum that turns Deux-Deux into a grotesque, monster-like version of his Mr. Hyde... with the transformations happening at random times to keep Inspector from realizing what's happening. A sequence featuring a dark basement lit by an on/off light is comedic timing gold. Even with the out-of-nowhere midget Frankenstein monster at the end, this cartoon slaps from beginning to end. 5 SURREALIST RUE MORGUE PAINTED BACKGROUNDS (out of five).
A biggie to get this great day started. 😎
ReplyDelete027 & 028.- THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD (2008, INTERNATIONAL AND KOREAN VERSIONS, ARROW 4K UHD). Streaming on ROKU CHANNEL, AMC+.
Kim Jee-woon's epic 'kimchi' western set during the Japanese occupation of Manchuria in 1939 is a love letter to Sergio Leone with a capital 'L' that doesn't let its homage intentions interfere with carving its own identity. A ruthless train robber (Lee Byung-hun's Park Chang-yi, aka 'The Bad'), a bounty hunter with principles (Jung Woo-sung's Park Do-won, aka 'The Good') and a goofy-exterior-hides-a-dark-past thief (Song Kang-ho's Yoon Tae-goo, aka 'The Weird'), all badass South Korean gunslingers with vehicle/weapon preferences, either stumble upon or are made aware of a map leading to a treasure buried deep in the desert. If you've seen "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" you already know where this is all leading up to... except the actors and filmmakers aren't merely copying Leone's playbook. They're using this particular western as a springboard to tell their version of Eastern history in as exciting a cinematic spectacle as possible. By virtue of who these storytellers are (contemporary South Korean filmmakers) and their resources (not quite Hollywood, but the most expensive cinematic production the country could afford at the time), the result is one of the best action westerns made in the 2000's.
I liked the International version (129 min.) so much that I immediately rewatched the Korean version (136 min.), which supposedly expands the role of the Korean rebellious mindset that is mostly background in the worldwide release. There are extra scenes at the start (Do-won at home) and end (Tae-goo dynamites his way through the remaining Japanese army), but overall there aren't enough story/pace differences for me to rank either version differently. I'll give the nod to the International one just for being 7 min. shorter. Either way, get ready for an impressive opening train assault, exciting semi-comedic shootouts and one hell of an extended chase through the desert (involving horses, motorcycles, dynamite sticks and long-distance cannons) that puts most U.S. action films from this era (ERA!) to shame. And despite speaking Korean, the archetype-looking leads (particularly Park Do-won riding a horse while reloading his shotgun as his coat flaps in the wind) are as universal to cinema as John Wayne or Roy Rogers. Did I also mention the Arrow 4K transfer looks stunning? 😁 4.5 BULLET-RIDDEN DIVING HELMETS (out of five).
029.- THE HUNT (2016, AMAZON PRIME). Also streaming on TUBI, PLEX.
ReplyDeleteA 'gold fever' Korean survival tale, one I can imagine Jalmari Helander watching in Finland and planting the seeds for his eventual "Sisu" movie. An old woman finds gold at the root of a tree not too far from the entrance to an abandoned mine where a tragedy took the lives of several miners many years prior. The crooked cops who come to investigate the woman's claim lie, then bring in armed reinforcements so they can keep the gold to themselves. Unfortunately for these blinded-by-bling inexperienced mountain men, an old hunter and a mentally slow teenage girl witness their attempt to kill the old woman. As the tables constantly turn (they capture the girl, the hunter frees her but is captured, he escapes but the girl gets lost in the woods, etc.), "Lost-type flashbacks to these characters' past paint a morally complex story about strained family relationships, guilt-ridden survival complex and the urge/need to reconnect with your loved ones. If "Sisu" is the fantasy old man who can still kick ass and defy death, "The Hunt" is the semi-realistic last hurrah of an emotionally wounded warrior punctuated by shootouts, knife fights and bad timing all around. Come for the mountain action, stay for the story revealing a heart-wrenching throughline between the fallen and those left behind. 3.35 SLIPPERY ROCKS COVERED IN BRAIN MATTER (out of five).
030.- DERAILED (2016, TUBI). Also streaming on PLEX. ROKU CHANNEL, FAWESOME.
ReplyDeleteI had to sneak a movie starring my favorite South Korean actor of all time, Ma Dong-seok aka Don Lee ("Train To Busan," "The Roundup" series, "Marvel's The Eternals," etc.). Four teenage runaways survive day to day on the outskirts of Seoul, doing petty crimes (stealing cellphones, hotwiring cars, etc.) for quick cash to pay for food, saunas, hotels, etc. The leader of the group, Jeon Jin-il (Choi Min-ho), refuses to let his girlfriend Choi Ga-yeong (Jung Da-Eun) pretend to do prost!tution to make some quick pick-pocket hotel money. But Ga-yeong does it anyway, running into Hyung-Suk (Ma Dong-seok) who doesn't like it when his BMW and credit cards are stolen. A karaoke bar owner forced into running a small prost!tution ring due to bad investments (which he keeps a secret from his wife and teenage daughter), Hyung-Suk convinces Ga-yeong to work for him as repayment for the stolen car. Guilt-ridden by his girlfriend's turn to prost!tution, Jin-il and his runaway friends steal more than usual so they can help Ga-yeong repay her debt faster.
Through all that a just-released-from-prison psycho gangster, Kang Seong-hoon (Kim Jae-young), is gunning for Jeon Jin-il for ratting him out and stealing his girl (Ga-yeong). All these characters' fortunes (plus well-meaning but incompetent cops waiting in the wings to flip Jil-il) eventually intertwine, resulting in a mean little thriller where Hyung-Suk always seems to be one step ahead by being smarter and meaner ("Roundup"-style punches, slaps and body blows) than everyone else... until it comes back to bite him in the rear end. It's basically a Korean take on a French New Wave outlaw/youth rebellion tale, one where the grey of the grimy moral ambiguity shines brighter than the black and white extremes surrounding it. A diamond in the rough. 3.65 STOLEN AUDIS (out of five).
BONUS: 30 DAYS OF PINK PANTHER & FRIENDS, DAY 6!
ReplyDelete031.- THE INSPECTOR: CIRRHOSIS OF THE LOUVRE (3/9/1966, KINO LORBER BLU-RAY). Streaming on YouTube.
I wasn't planning to do three "Inspector" cartoons in a row the same day, but these turned out to be so good! 🤩🥰 An art thief known as 'The Blotch' (red and passthrough, like Casper full of jalapeno sauce) threatens to steal all the paintings from The Louvre Museum. It's up to The Inspector and Deux-Deux to stop him. From the use of actual photorealistic paintings in the background to Deux-Deux's constant use of Spanish ('Si.'), this one's a laugh-riot ('PARIS U'HAUL') that ends on a gag so lame and stupid it's actually hilarious. 4.5 WHISTLER'S MOTHER MOP WIGS (out of five).
032.- THE INSPECTOR: COCK-A-DOODLE DEUX DEUX (6/15/1966, KINO LORBER BLU-RAY). Streaming on YouTube.
DeleteThe chicken-related surrealism is off the charts on this one, courtesy of new-to-DePatie-Freleng Enterprises director Robert McKimson (creator of Foghorn Leghorn for Warner Bros.) and a plot similar to the OG "Pink Panther" movie. A big diamond is stolen from a wealthy aristocrat who only has chickens as workers at her chateau. Disguised as a chicken himself, Inspector narrows down the suspects and almost nails the case... until the children's equivalent of p@rn distracts him. Exquisite, sublime ridiculousness. 4.5 'CHICKEN LANGUAGE MADE EASY by DR. CLUCK' BOOK HARDCOVERS (out of five).
033.- THE INSPECTOR: SICQUE! SICQUE! SICQUE! (9/23/1966, KINO LORBER BLU-RAY). Streaming on YouTube.
DeleteThe "Pink Panther/Inspector" cartoon I remember most as a child of 10, watching at 12:55PM/6:55PM on Channel 2 in El Salvador 7 days a week. While inspecting the empty laboratory of a just-carted-to-jail mad scientist alongside Inspector, Deux-Deux ingests what appears to be Seltzer water. It's actually serum that turns Deux-Deux into a grotesque, monster-like version of his Mr. Hyde... with the transformations happening at random times to keep Inspector from realizing what's happening. A sequence featuring a dark basement lit by an on/off light is comedic timing gold. Even with the out-of-nowhere midget Frankenstein monster at the end, this cartoon slaps from beginning to end. 5 SURREALIST RUE MORGUE PAINTED BACKGROUNDS (out of five).