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Foreign Film Watch: Lethal Loves.
Sick of sappy love stories? How about the relentless ‘good cheer’ of premature holiday season marketing? Or are you merely feeling a bit misanthropic? If so, check out these films: all of which explore the darker dimensions of obsessive love. There are two absorbing dramas: one from China and the other from Korea; an entertaining, if flawed thriller from Hong Kong; and a controversial depiction of one young man’s descent into sexual depravity from France. The final four are horror films, two from Thailand and one from Korea and one from France. The second Thai and French horror films are guaranteed to scare the proverbial “living shit” out of you. Three of these films may well put you off dating for a while, but with the right frame of mind, you’ll enjoy achieving your renewed appreciation for the virtues of solitude.
Top to Bottom: The assembled cast of "Springtime in a Small Town". Yuwen (Jun Hu) and Zhang (Bia Qing Zin) check out the sights, Liyan (Jingfan Wu) begs for it.
Winner of the Best Film Award at the 2002 Venice Film Festival, Springtime in a Small Town (China 2002) is set in China during the brief period of peace after Japan’s 1945 surrender to the Allies, and before Communist Party takeover in 1949; and depicts the acute longing and uncertainly brought on when first loves are reunited. The tubercular Liyan (Jingfan Wu) and his wife Yuwen (Jun Hu) are trapped in a loveless marriage. They reclaim the home they were forced to evacuate months before, and before long Liyan's childhood friend Zhang (Bia Qing Zin) pays them a visit. Much to Zhang's surprise, his friend Liyan's wife, Yuwen, is an ex-lover who he left behind when he left town to begin his medical studies years before. Zhang and the unhappy Yuwen fight themselves and each other in their efforts to resist temptation, when a drunken party brings the three adults unresolved issues to the fore.
Springtime in a Small Town is recommended for those with the patience for deliberately-paced, but well-played, absorbing human-scale drama. Like Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Being Wild, Tian Zhuang Zhuang’s Springtime explores what happens when personal passions are severely restricted by cultural conventions, and like WKW, Tian relies on his actors to convey the drama through expressive performances. These are characters whose every word, every gesture has to be “proper” and yet reveal the passions raging just under the surface. The lovely Jing Fan Hu stands out as the demure Yuwen, a young woman who is nowhere as ‘correct’ and submissive as she appears to be on the surface. While cinematographer Lee Ping Bing's ( The Vertical Ray of the Sun, Millennium Mambo, In the Mood for Love) cinematography isn't as inventive as Chris Doyle's on WKW's films, he deserves credit for the way he graceful drifting camera beautifully frames the actors against stunning even painterly, rural backdrops and probes the darkened interiors, while subtly direct the viewers gaze without having resort to much back-and-forth editing.
Springtime in a Small Town is available in Region 1 DVD.
Left to Right: Seo Ki-Min (Choi Min-Shik) grasps his child and ducks out of sight. Seo & Choi Bora (Jeon Do-Yeon) his wife. Choi Bora with Il-Beom (Joo Min-Joo). Seo “loses it”.
Happy End (Korea, 1999) is a realistic, straightforward and suspenseful depiction of a marriage crumbling under intense emotional strain with horrific results. The story itself is quite simple, and oft-done. What makes the film notable is the intensity of the actors’ performances. Choi Min Shik (Oldboy, Crying Fist) is solid as a middle-aged man who becomes deeply depressed when he loses his job. He escapes in cheap novels, and appears to take the news that his wife is cheating on him with resignation, at least until his wife’s indiscretions endanger their child. Then he becomes dangerous, even terrifying for the deliberate and methodical manner with which he exacts his cuckold's revenge.
However the story is hardly one-sided. One of Korea’s finest and most versatile actresses, Jeon Do-Yeon (No Blood No Tears, Untold Scandal) perfectly plays his busy, wayward wife, Choi Bora. Her need for relief is almost palpable, as is her concern when her lover complicates her already busy life, rather than being content with simply providing her with a respite from it. It’s to Jeon’s credit that her character remains sympathetic despite her escapist impulses. (Jeon’s range is amazing: I’ve seen her convincingly play radically different characters and utterly disappear into a new personality each and every time.) Joo Min-Joo (Musa) rounds out the cast as her needy lover, a man who just doesn’t seem to “get it”.
Happy End is available in subtitled Korean region-3 DVD editions, as well as an all-region, Cantonese and Mandarin-dubbed Hong Kong edition.
Top to bottom. Daniel Wu as “Coke” with his “agent” Ting (Jing Ning), Suen (Aaron Kwok) gets shocked out of his jet leg. Coke beats on Suen, because "he likes him, and it will be good for him".
Divergence (Hong Kong, 2005) is an entertaining, if flawed action thriller. Depending on your level of expectations, you will either find it fun or a well-meant train wreck. A plainclothes cop, Suen (Aaron Kwok), assigned to the Corporate Crimes Division, is escorting a key witness in a money laundering case back to Hong Kong from Canada when his charge is killed by a sniper. What follows has to be longest week in poor Officer Suen's life. Topping it all off, he is constantly plagued by his memories of Amy (Angelica Lee) a woman who walked out of his life without a word of explanation years before. Before long Suen is caught up in a punishing, even humiliating game of cat-and-mouse with the sniper who put down his witness, “Coke” (Daniel Wu). For his part, Coke does his level best NOT to kill the distraught, harried Suen. We will eventually learn Coke’s reasons for sparing the increasingly pathetic cop.
Without a witness, the police cannot convict Yiu (Gallen Law), the businessman who hired the sniper, but he can hardly celebrate. Even bosses have bosses, and when his son disappears Yiu becomes convinced his ‘elder brother’ is holding him to ensure his silence. Yiu’s attorney, To (Ekin Chen), allegedly hates his work (in the films weakest performance, Chen barely never shows To's distaste for his lucrative job, leaving it to Angelica Lee, playing To’s wife Fong, to say so aloud, announcing it for the audience’s benefit). During a stake out, Suen catches a glimpse of Fong, who resembles his long lost Amy. Stunned Suen begins stalking the couple from a distance. Paradoxically, it’s by giving in to his obsessive love for Amy that Suen uncovers the truth behind the disappearance of Yiu’s son.
For three-fourths of its running time, Divergence is a perfectly good action thriller. The fight scenes and car chases are well choreographed, and Benny Chan’s taut direction of Ivy Ho’s complex story will keep you on your toes. However the story suffers from Aaron Kwok’s overwrought performance (and the maudlin music which follows hims wherever he goes) as Suen, Ekin Chen’s opaque turn as To, and a disappointing, rather perfunctory ending that made me think the filmmakers cut short the shoot when they realized had enough footage to assemble a feature film. I wanted to see more of Daniel Wu’s cocksure “Coke“, a friendly, frisky young wolf of a man, who can be a surprisingly forgiving soul when he isn’t on a job. He’s certainly the most engaging presence in the film. We also needed to see more of the attorney and his wife. Neither Ekin Chen nor Angelica Lee make much of an impression in their characters’ few scenes, however important they are to the film’s final resolution. Chen was certainly miscast, and the capable Lee utterly wasted (or totally mis-directed) in her role. Finally I don’t think other reviewers have given Gallen Law enough credit for his performance as a man gradually losing his composure over the gnawing mystery of his son's disappearance.
Divergence is available in all-region Hong Kong DVD editions.
Top to Bottom: (Isabelle Huppert) touches bottom, then fondles her son Pierre’s (Louis Garrell) bottom. Pierre contemplates an uncertain conquest.
Ma Mere (France, 2004) focuses on a disorienting summer in the life of Pierre, a sheltered adolescent in his late teens. Raised by his pious grandmother (isn’t that always the way in these European films?) he joins his parents in the Canary Islands for a summer, only to learn that they hate each other, flaunting their contempt for on another by openly indulging in affairs with others. When Pierre’s father dies suddenly, Pierre’s mother Helene has her lovers initiate Pierre into their private world of alcohol-fueled debauchery. His mother distances herself for a while, and Pierre soon finds himself in a mire of anguish, shame, sexual pleasure, and self-disgust. Then Hélène returns to the scene, and things get even darker, fast. The story is pretty bleak stuff, akin to Kim Ki-Duk’s Bad Guy in its nihilism, and its un-glamorized depiction of sex which is both a strength and a weakness here. Despite the presence of the formidable Huppert, Ma Mere isn’t a lot of fun. Though flawed, Don’t Bury Me On a Sunday is a more entertaining treatment of the same themes and ideas.
Ma Mere is available in a region-1 DVD edition.
Top to Bottom: Fear, love, pain and suspicion in "Nang Naak": Mak (Winai Kraibutr) loses it, the happy couple, Mak questions Naak (Intira Jaroenpura).
Nang Naak (Thailand, 1999).
There is no Thai who does not know Mae Naak … mentioning her name can make young children run and scream … mothers invoke Mae Naak's name to quiet their crying infants otherwise, the ghost might break their necks and eat their heads with chilly sauce …
Winner of the numerous festival awards, including Best Film at the 1999 Asian Pacific Film Festival, Nang Naak is a beautifully shot, lovingly produced and sympathetic interpretation of Nang Naak’s tragic tale, placing much emphasis on the sad love story at it’s core, intertwined with the story of a rural community of rural subsistence farmers faced with an extraordinary situation. Like Springtime in a Small Town (discussed above) the film is beautifully shot, and the filmmakers let their story unfold at a leisurely pace. I’ve never before seen such a detailed and sympathetic portrayal of life in Thailand’s rural areas. Unfortunately, unlike Springtime, the simplicity of the story, and the simplicity and directness of the characterizations don’t really give the viewer enough to chew on, however heart-rending the tale. Also, the films deliberate pacing has the effect of dissipating much of the story's potential suspense, sapping the even the story’s most effective scares of their full impact. Despite the beauty of the production, and Intira Jaroenpura's fine performance as Naak, I’m sorry to say that I was disappointed with this production as a whole.
Top to bottom: the formidable Cecile de France as Marie, Alexa (Maiween de Besco) “loses it”, Marie tries to comfort a distraught, traumatized Alexa.
A well made thriller that hinges on hidden desires, Alexandre Aja’s High Tension (France 2003) was deliberately shot and directed to emulate the look and unrelenting suspense of the better cut-rate slasher flicks made in the seventies. As such it’s a near masterpiece of its type. An excellent Cecile de France, plays Marie, the weekend houseguest of an isolated rural family, who watches helplessly as a powerful man in dirty yellow coveralls breaks into her hosts house one night and methodically dispatches her friend's father, mother and brother one-by-one. The man leaves, dragging Marie’s friend, Alexa, the sole surviving member of her family, with him. Marie spends the rest of the film in desperate but determined pursuit, looking for a chance to rescue the hysterical and traumatized Alexa, who lies chained up in the back of the man’s van. If you enjoy well-shot gore you will appreciate the loving care that went into realizing and depicting Marie and Alexa’s desperate ordeal. Good, but definitely not for the squeamish. There are no concessions to sentiment here. If you think you can handle it, go for it.
High Tension (Haute Tension) is available in Region 1 DVD.
Three faces of Natre (Achita Sikamama) the vengeful ghost of "Shutter".
Despite a couple of minor jumps in continuity Shutter (Thailand, 2004) is a well shot, wonderfully cast, and above all, convincing tale of a haunting. Thun, a young photographer, and his girlfriend Jane, flee the scene of a hit and run car accident. Soon they discover strange smears of light in their photographs. Finding no technical reason for these spectral impressions, they investigate the phenomenon. Meanwhile Thun’s closest friends find themselves assailed by their own ghosts and Jane uncovers something horrible linking her lover and his friends, speeding the stories resolution.
The scares are subtle, but pretty damn effective, producing an effective sense of disquiet that builds nicely though out the length of the story. The actors do a good job - particularly Ananda Everingham’s as Thun, and a key revelation is handled quite well. The linchpin of the story is both ugly and utterly believable. One can easily see something like this happening in your own neighborhood, or among your own college classmates. Not that this is any comfort to Thun, who is going to learn more about the motivations of the restless dead than anyone, even he, should have to. The film loses some points for using of some visual tropes familiar to Western audiences from Japanese films like The Ring or Ju-on (The Grudge), but on the whole Shutter stands very well on it’s own. Other writers have referred to it as the quintessential Thai horror film. I agree. As such I recommend it.
Shutter is currently available in a region-3 DVD edition. A region-1 edition is expected soon from Tartan Extreme Video.
Clockwise from top left: Hee Jin (Suh Jung) reels in her man, the lake, Hyun-Shik (Kim Yoo Suk), contemplates his limited alternatives, “See what you made me do?”, and Hee-Jin’s justice.
The Isle (Korea, 2000).
No discussion of “obsessive, dangerous love” in recent foreign film, could not be complete without a consideration of iconoclastic Korean filmmaker Kim Ki-Duk’s, The Isle. Like the French films, Haute Tension or Ma Mere, The Isle is definitely not for the weak of stomach, but it’s also beautiful and haunting fantasy of one man’s desperate plight from the law, which leads him to crossover into one woman’s primal private universe, the kind of journey from which no one returns unchanged, if they return at all.
The story opens on a picturesque lake high up in the mountains. Here a striking woman, Hee-Jin (Suh Jung of Spiders Forest) operates a kind of floating motel, a series of floating one-room shacks on rafts, where city people come, alone, or in small groups, to fish, have quick assignations with their lovers or prostitutes, camp out on the lake, or in some cases, hide out from the police. The nearly mute Hee-Jin silently ferries her guests from shore to cabin and back again, and brings them food, coffee and fresh bait, cleans out the rooms, and when asked, provides sexual services, either herself or by calling in young prostitutes from nearby towns.
It’s clear that Hee-Jin is more than just a caretaker or a prostitute, if not quite fully human. My best guest is that she's some kind of barely domesticated, possibly abandoned “wild child”, barely literate and largely asocial but not asexual. She is also the embodiment of the motel’s ethereal, otherworldly setting (much like the elder monk in Kim Ki-Duk’s Spring Summer Fall Winter & Spring), both benevolent and vengeful. (Here she differs from the monk. That character is beyond vengeance.) People, men in particular, come to her floating motel to indulge in their most basic impulses without realizing that, at best, they’re just visitors in a place that runs by definite rules – Hee-Jin’s. She is everywhere, sees all, ministers to her guests needs however craven or distasteful, and punishes those who trespass against her unspoken laws.
Into this strange vaguely threatening world comes an anxious man, Hyun-Shik (the unfortunately named Kim Yoo-Suk) who's clearly on the run from the police, and wants to hide out in one of the floating cabins. Thus begins an engrossing game of cat and mouse, as man and the woman eye each other warily, make tentative, clumsy attempts at contact and connection, with results that are both touching and horrifying. He is barely aware of it, but Hee-Jin is subtly and slowly drawing him into her primitive world, a place that’s both dangerous and well beyond the reach of normal “human” society. While the film’s ending is intentionally left ambiguous, I have no doubt that wherever the man went, he’s well on his way on a one-way journey to something other.
Recommended for those who like horror movies and art films, preferably both, The Isle is available in a region-1 DVD edition. PETA members, and others squeamish about seeing animals killed on screen, or fishhooks used in ways they were never intended to, need not apply. In fact, you are cautioned to stay away. Purists may want to check the running time (90 minutes) as censored versions have been released in some countries.
Won Kim
Sherman Oaks, California
October 2005
Posted by YourMomsBasement at November 2, 2005 10:47 AM
