EPT
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No this isn't a list of three more extreme movies, but this is the first of hopefully many blogs to focus on a single film. That film is "3 Extremes", an international asian horror compilation featuring three short movies from different countries. From Japan we have one of my favorite directors of all time, Takashi Miike, contributing the short film "Box". From China, Fruit-Chan's "Dumplings". Finally, from South Korea, we have Park Chan-Wook's "Cut."
Each of the films has a very different spin on horror and all three are worth watching. While I have my own opinions and biases toward each movie, the compilation is a must see. With subject matter ranging from the sickest possible to the absolutely surreal, this isn't a feature you'll soon forget. Let's begin, shall we?
Feature One: Box by Takashi Miike
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Box is one of the most surreal films I've ever seen. When watching this film, much like when viewing Gozu, I had no real understanding of just what was happening. However, that's ok. The film is just that, an experience much like a dream, concerned so solely with its own message that all pretense of coherency or linearity is discarded.
Box's plot is hard to pin down but essentially it follows the recurring dreams of a young writer named Kyoko. The film will begin with a death sequence during the winter time, in which Kyoko suffocates in the cold as a man in a long coat buries a box. She awakes from the dream to begin a day that isn't much less surreal than the nightmare she had just supposedly ended.
In her dingy apartment building, she hands off a manuscript to a publisher who is quite wary of her eccentric behavior. She strips down to her dress in silence before rubbing his face as the unnamed publisher stands in obvious discomfort. Ryoko Hasegawa emits powerful sensuality with very minimal movement, a credit to her performance during this film. However when the publisher returns her touch, she recoils in disgust and immediately they begin to talk business. During the visit, they are visited by the ghost of what appears to be Kyoko's sister.
Then a series of flashbacks begin. We discover Kyoko is suppressing a hidden guilt. The two were twins, performing with a mysterious masked man in a traveling circus as contortionists. The man is a pedophile and he favors Ryoko's sister, Shoko. When the man gives Shoko a gem necklace for a performance well done and sleeps with her that night, Ryoko becomes overcome with jealousy and traps her sister in a box. When the man discovers what Ryoko has done, he strikes her, causing her to knock over an oil lamp which sets the box on fire.
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The story continues on with a series of bizzare dreamlike sequences as Ryoko comes to terms with her guilt and undying love for the man who molested her sister. The scenes in what we assume to be reality make use of starkly cold colors: piercing blues, stark whites, and solemn greys. In contrast, scenes from Ryoko's childhood are bathed in a sinister warmth. The contrast between the two, visually, represents the modern Ryoko's cold and distant approach to life versus her warm, passionate, and violent youth.
The ending scene is indeed a huge twist and to me, it makes quite a bit of sense of things. However, the movie ends like it begins: as though it were a dream. Box is one of my favorite works Miike has done and it has a visual beauty and surreal atmosphere that can only be found in J-Horror.
Feature Two: Dumplings by Fruit Chan
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What would you do for beauty? Dumplings was my introduction to the works of Chinese director Fruit Chan and I must say I was very impressed. Fruit Chan paints a beautiful contrast between the high class lifestyle and the human condition in the slums of Hong Kong. The rich and the poor meet in this horrifying and disturbing tale as an aging actress searches for eternal youth.
Dumplings follows Mrs.Li, a retired actress whose aging body has lost her the affection of her successful and lecherous husband. Mr.Li goes on trips without her, having multiple affairs while making no real attempt to hide it. Frustrated, Mrs.Li resorts to desperate measures to regain her beauty and her marriage.
Thus, we are introduced to Aunt Mei. Mrs.Li travels to a Hong Kong slum to visit a woman whose dumplings apparently restore the youth of those who eat them. When she arrives, Mei asks Mrs.Li how old she looks. Mrs. Li guesses 30 (even that seems high) but is surprised to learn Aunt Mei is much older, possibly in her sixties.
Mrs.Li begins to demand more and more potent dumplings and after a while they begin to work. She visits her husband while he is in the hospital for a broken leg only to find that he is overcome with an intense lust for her. The scene bursts with a powerful sensuality while also being quite conservative.
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As far as the dumplings are concerned, needless to say they are made of an extremely horrifying substance which I will not name. Watch the film to see, but the movie caused several walk-outs when it was screened and led to me feeling a bit nauseous. Now, I've sat through Cannibal Holocaust, Guinea Pig, and all sorts of horrific extreme films. But this really grosses me out on a visceral level.
The final scene is one of the most disturbing I've seen, for what it implies about Mrs. Li, an intensely dislikable character. Her mad lust for beauty and youth goes unpunished, it is in fact those around her who are hurt for this cause and yet she is completely oblivious to this fact. She is utterly selfish in the most repugnant and evil way imaginable and yet you know she will get exactly what she wants and perhaps live the rest of her life in peace and happiness.
Aunt Mei is an intriguing character. Although she does the unthinkable to create her products, there is an aspect about her that you can't help but like. She is charming, funny, witty, and human. Mrs. Li is cold and uncaring yet Aunt Mei exhibits a warmth and caring about her that makes you almost look past and forget what she has done in the name of helping Mrs.Li and countless others find beauty.
The movie has some severe and interesting messages. What stood out to me as the most obvious was that it scolded our societies obsession with youth and beauty. Yet it doesn't do this by punishing those who seek it, rather they are rewarded. But this is a welcome sense of realism that many films lack. Evil doesn't always go punished, there isn't always a hell waiting for those who sin, and sometimes evil wins. Is that justice? It just is what it is.
Feature Three: Cut by Park Chan-Wook
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Cut was my least favorite movie of the three and the ending made me vomit. Now don't let that prevent you from watching it, this was made by the director of fantastic films such as "I'm A Cyborg But That's Ok" and "Oldboy" but something about the film just made it seem as though it belonged in a different compilation altogether.
Cut is a dark comedy with incredible amounts of violence. The premise is quite simple, a handsome and kind horror film director is kidnapped by a crazed extra who used to appear in his movies. He awakes on a movie set, which is an exact recreation of his home, to find his wife locked up in piano wire with her fingers glues to the keys. The crazed kidnapper will cut off one of her fingers every 5 minutes if the director doesn't comply with his demands.
The man hates the director not because he is rich, but because he is rich and a good person. He says spitefully "You'll have a good life here and a good life in heaven. We have shitty lives and we'll go to hell." He wants to see the director do evil and has kidnapped a young girl for this purpose. The director must kill the girl and he and his wife will be set free.
Everything in the film is over the top. Over the top colors, extreme camera angles, and extreme violence that it reaches a level of comedy much like Tokyo Gore Police or Machine Girl. Dance sequences, ridiculous costumes, and the very odd methods of capture just add to the morbid humor that runs through the movie.
Cut, however, seems a bit pointless and shallow compared to the previous two films. However, that's what makes this compilation so great. Each film is unique with its own pace, its own message, and its own style. Cut ends with a sequence that made me lose my lunch. I have a particular issue with vomit and with a large amount of vomited blood spraying about in this movie, my stomach couldn't handle the sight.
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Cut is a bit of an anti-climactic end and the re-issue of the movie has the order changed with Cut being in the middle and Box being at the ending. However, the order isn't important. Although Cut was my least favorite, I quite enjoyed the film and the arguments and discussion between the kidnapper and the director make you think a bit. Although the questions it poses about our own morality are a bit cliche and that's why I'm not a big fan of K-Horror in general. Most K-Horror films are indistinguishable from J-Horror's yet lack a bit of their original punch.
Not to say that Cut is unoriginal. I haven't seen a visual style like this before and it certainly has a very unique premise. But ultimately the message seemed to be an afterthought to the imagery and shock of the movie, something which Dumplings made a good point of avoiding.
Overall, if I were to rate 3 Extremes as a single unit I'd have to put in my top 10 asian horrors. Each film is unique, there isn't a bad or boring film in the collection, and it has something for every kind of horror fan. To the arthouse horror fan, to the moral centric horror fan, and finally to the exploitation lover. 3 Extremes is an absolute must-see. I recommend it highly.
i like your taste.
