I'm going to attempt to resurrect this thread, because we need a regular Asian film thread / discussion / area / group.
I watch a fair bit of East Asian films to I'll start to throw some comments about them in here.
Recent watches:
Last Life in the Universe. I had high expectations, and I wasn't disappointed. Really great film about loneliness and how we drift inconsequentially through life.
The Taste of Tea. A slice of life type film about 6 members of a family in the Japanese countryside. It's whimsical, surreal, funny, eccentric, a little bonkers but very beautiful. Possibly the closest thing to a live action Ghibli film I've seen. Bizarrely features Tadanobu Asano who was in 'Last Life in the Universe'
Memoir of a Murderer. Not to be confused with another Korean film, (the excellent) ‘Memories of Murder’ and also not to be confused with the Japanese film ‘Memoirs of a Murderer’ which seems so be a remake of this film, bizarrely released in the same year. There seems to be a lot of memoirs and memories of murders and murderers in Japan and Korea. This film is based on a Korean best selling novel by Young-ha Kim.
Anyway, this is director Shin-yeon Won’s crime thriller that focuses on a serial killer (Byung Su) who hasn’t committed a crime for 17 years. He now lives a peaceful life with his teenage daughter, having retired as his profession as a vet. One day, he’s involved in a collision with another car, who appears to be another serial killer with a body in the boot. This ties in with recent spate of killings that have resurfaced in the area. What follows is Byung Su trying to piece together how to catch this killer amid the guilt he feels at his own terrible past. There’s only one problem – he has dementia, so has to record his movements on a tape recorder as he keeps forgetting who he’s met and what he has discovered. In this respect, it plays a lot like Nolan’s ‘Memento’.
There are more action segments and set pieces than I was expecting, the film unfolds over several time-lines and requires a lot of belief to be suspended. But the twists and turns (some predictable, some not) are a thrill ride and there is a lot of fun to be had with this film if the viewer can just let it ride out and not expect it to be a meticulous crime drama rooted in reality.
Taipei Suicide Story. A beautiful short. 40 minutes long, centred around a receptionist working at a suicide hotel. Forget about the bleak premise and just watch it for it's beauty. Wonderfully directed. The images hint at the yes/no, shall I shan't I, 50/fifty life choices we make. The dialogue is spot on. I've not seen Yang's similarly titled film buit will seek it out soon.
Sweet Bean. This film is gorgeous. Naomi Kawase directs a film about a struggling baker who hires an old woman to help him revive his business.
New Religion. Very ambitious debut film from Keishi Kondo. It's a Japanese arthouse psychological drama horror that deals with grief. The production values are pretty low and some of the narrative follows a well trodden path but at the same time there's a real sense of talent directing wise here.
A mother turns to prostitution after a tragedy in her family. One of her clients is obsessed with photographing her spine, her feet and progressively other parts of her body. Then it gets weird.
There's a real Nicolas Winding-Refn vibe in parts of this film (which is a good thing) and perhaps a nod to The Silence of the Lambs too, but the film is very much it's own thing. There's perhaps not quite enough meat on the bones for anyone who wants a traditional horror thriller (no jump scares, no gore, not much violence). It's all in the mind. So for those who like to be challenged, there is a puzzle to be solved which might offer additional satisfaction on repeat viewings. Keishi Kondo is one to watch.
Il Mare. The premise of ‘Il Mare’ is ludicrous and the music is generally awful as tends to be the case with these films, but I have a weird penchant for South Korean romance films. This is the synopsis:
In the year 1999, a young woman (Jun Ji-hyun) leaves her quaint seaside house and returns to the city, leaving in the mailbox a card for the next owner, with instructions to forward any mail of hers to the new address. In the year 1997, two years before, a jaded young architect (Lee Jung-Jae) moves into the same house--and finds the letter. His reply, which he slips into the mailbox, finds its way to her, beginning a parallel-time love story separated by a span of two years.
Sounds tenuous, and there are many holes in the whole time travel setup, but the film isn’t about the minutae of time travel or parallel realities. It’s more about the concept of fate, and love. It’s very well directed and the shots of he sea lodge especially are stunning.
Jun Ji-Hyun also starred in ‘My Sassy Girl’ a year later which has a lot of similarities to ‘Il Mare’ in terms of tone, the romance angle and a slight Sci-Fi element. Look past the slushy music cues and you’ll find an achingly beautiful film.
7.8/10
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