Title: Thirst
Director: Park Chan-wook
Year: 2009
Genre: Drama
Format Reviewed: Film

Some Park Chan-wook films, specifically the Vengeance Trilogy films and Cut, are known for their realistic, brutal violence.  Adding J.S.A. and I’m A Cyborg… But That’s OK, the comparisons by plot are less, but the trademark features of a Park film are still present: silly humor and well-defined characters.  On all three of these levels, Thirst delivers.

Like Let The Right One In, Thirst is definitely a different take on the vampire genre.  The main character is a priest who donates his body to scientific research in order to find a cure for a disease and become a vampire by accident.  His motives are clearly good, and even as a vampire he refrains from killing any humans. The girl, on the other hand, becomes a vampire by choice.  As soon as she transforms, she kills at will and for pleasure.  Her whimsical nature about killing will likely bring joy to fans of the violence in the Vengeance movies.

Thirst never becomes a horror movie, nor does it really commit to a drama.  It’s pacing reflects the slow, method of Lady Vengeance, and is more of a study of the imagination surrounding vampires than the resolution of the plot itself.

Title: Let The Right One In
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Year: 2008
Genre: Drama
Format Reviewed: Bluray (US)

Let The Right One In is a much more serious take on a vampire story.  In fact, unlike Thirst, the ‘vampire parts’ of the movie are not the main focus.  At it’s core, Right One is a coming-of-age love story.  Vampire movies often include seduction or love, but this one has a classic “it’s not going to work out” love story that you would find in any other romance.  But this is definitely not the feel of the film.

The visuals of Let The Right One In are just as gory, and actually even more visceral than Thirst.  The kills in Let The Right One In, which are a combination of necessity and passion crime, are realistic and disturbing in a Fargo way, not to mention all the snow.  The imagery and slow pacing helps to make the small town and it’s citizens feel like an otherwise stable, quiet community.

In the end, Let The Right One In is a better film in almost every way.  The characters are developed better, the violence is stronger, the pacing is more deliberate (a plus to the drama), and ending much more powerful.  This isn’t to say Thirst is a bad film.  If it weren’t for Let The Right One In, I might declare it the best modern day vampire movie.  But Let The Right One In transcends the genre to deliver both a gruesome killer and a dramatic romance that delivers on both ends, perfectly.

While I would recommend Thirst to any Park Chan-wook or violence fan, Let The Right One In is a must see for anyone serious about film that can put up with a rated-R film.  The last 20 minutes are truly epic.

Ratings:
Thirst: 4 /5
Let The Right One In: 5 /5

Here are a bunch of mini reviews of things I watched from the festival and since then:

All Around Us (Gururi no Koto) -4/5 (CIFF09)
Great, though quite slow.  A family-drama that leaves many messages about living life and the connections between loved ones, especially a spouse.  Some characters were a bit annoying, though it can’t be helped if art imitates reality.

Surveillance -3/5 (CIFF09)
Not horrible, but could have been much better, in my opinion.  Some twists in the plot, some of which are predictable.  But this is no action movie.  It’s almost all dialogue, and awkward dialogue at that, for the first three-quarters of the film.  Probably would have been better as a short.

Chaser (Chugyeoja) – 5/5 (CIFF09)
Excellent thriller.  Korean movies contain some of the best psycho-killer/ detective movies and this is one of them for sure.  Though not as epic as a Park Chan-wook film, it has great pacting, characters, tone, and is interesting to watch.  Some gory parts.  Worth tracking down.

Sparrow (Man Jeuk) – 2/5 (CIFF09)
Too slow, and too long.  The plot is not interesting enough to make a whole movie out of, though it did hold my attention.  What was there was executed well and had some nice imagery.

White on Rice – 4/5 (CIFF09)
Good feel-good comedy.  You kind of root for the main character, and definitely grow to like his quirks.  You can see a lot of miscommunications that a Japanese-American may come across, and this really hits home if you have some familiarity with a non-native English speaker.  Plot is a bit uninspired, but serviceable for fun.

Meatball Machine – 1/5
After seeing the excellent Machine Girl, and iffy Tokyo Gore Police… I knew that Meatball Machine could go either way.  And it was bad.  Bad in a bad way.  Even for a B-movie, there is nothing really interesting that goes on.  The characters are beyond boring… enough to make a user manual seem a worthwhile use of time.  Gross out moments are not realistic or that gross if you’ve seen either of the mentioned ultra-gore movies.  Unfortunately, I can’t recommend this movie to even gore fans.

Tale of Two Sisters (Korean) – My 2nd viewing – 4/5
Although it’s probably one of the best Korean horror films I’ve seen, the rewatch isn’t that great.  The characters are a little boring and the pacing slow, but the ending and mystery is pretty good.  Although it’s a must see for asian horror fans, you really probably only need to see it once.  Compare with Ju-On, which I can watch many times and still enjoy.

The Wrestler

Mickey Rourke is up for best actor in this very realistic story about the downfall and clinging-on of past fame of an old wrestler.  The movie itself is kind of a downer, though more reflective than sad.  Some parts are extremely graphic, which really help the story seem realistic.  If the camera work weren’t so good, I would think this was a documentary.  I suppose this is a testament to Rourke’s acting.  Though, I’m not sure if he deserves the praise because of acting as much as him fitting the role both on and off the camera.  I can’t say either way.  To me, this is a great accomplishment.  The movie is meaningful, but doesn’t go the extra mile to really move the audience, in my opinion.

Rating – 4 /5

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Frost/Nixon

Another contender for Best Actor, in addition to Best Picture.  Frost/Nixon is a very interesting based-on-real-life story about an interview between an Australian TV figure with the recently outed Nixon.  Especially great if you like a politically charged film.  I don’t mean this like a nation-wide politics, but on a personal level: similar to The War Room, which focused mostly on the internal politics of the campaign managers.  Nixon is played very well.  It’s a tough call of whether or not Rourke in The Wrestler is better than Nixon’s portrayal in Frost/Nixon.  The main character of Frost isn’t anything great… he is more of a silent protagonist if anything.  He doesn’t really show you his feelings as much as Nixon does.  And Nixon does get very emotional.  His confession confrontation in the last interview is amazing.

Rating – 4 /5

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Slumdog Millionaire

Danny Boyle delivers again.  Aside from Millions, he’s put out some of my favorite genre movies.  And now…. a Bollywood genre?   Slumdog is unlike any other movie this year.  Aside from it’s emotionally-charged “love destiny” story, it shows some of the beauty and dirt of India.  It opens up some cultural barriers between India and the West, as well as shows us how to make a feel-good ending.  You couldn’t root for the main character enough, and one can feel each tough decision that he makes throughout his tough life.  Monetarily, it is a “rags to riches” story, but emotionally, he has one dream.  It is epic and Slumdog is easily the best film up for nomination at the Oscars.

Rating – 5 /5

Equinox Flower doesn’t seem like an Ozu film in plot.  Although the first half of the film sets up the family drama like the two previously reviewed movies (Early Spring and Tokyo Twilight), the tone of Equinox Flower is a large shift from those.  Ozu is showing a similar world to the ones he’s shown before, but with different actions by the protagonists and a very different result.

The father figure is once again the most important character, but this one is more mean than many others by Ozu.  He is more strict and stubborn.  The mother is a very forgiving and diplomatic figure between him and the daughters.  But rather than the daughters making the wrong moves, the father is the one who causes most of the household trouble.

The big tone shift is near the end of the film, where the father gives in to those around him and accept the decisions of his daughter.  Rather than ending in a sad result and having to accept the tragedies of life, Equinox Flower does the opposite.  The unfortunate result, which you may expect from an Ozu film, never happens.  It ends with kind of a “everything will work out” ending.  That isn’t to say Ozu isn’t giving a message to his audience.  Equinox Flower gives its message by telling the viewer how their decisions could work out for the better, rather than how they could turn out for the worst.

Overall, it was a little strange for a drama to be dramatic without a major death or abandonment.  Almost a polar opposite of Tokyo Twilight in this point (though there are several references to the events of Tokyo Twilight in Equinox Flower).  But the “good result” is not always a very cheerful one.  There still seems to linger a kind of stubborn reluctance to appreciate the fortunate turn of events.  The father does not really gain any happiness in life.  He just doesn’t lose it.  Similarly, the film doesn’t move one in a way to act differently, but allows one to more passively see the other side of the balance.  Because of this, one’s appreciation of life are more a result of one’s inner feelings than the events themselves.

Rating: 5 /5

Title: Tokyo Twilight (aka Tokyo Boshoku)
Director: Yasujiro Ozu
Year: 1957
Genre: Drama
Format Reviewed: Criterion Eclipse DVD

I recently bought the Eclipse Series 3 box set, and have gotten through the first two movies.  Early Spring and Tokyo Twilight are the two B&W films of the set and are quite a bit different in plot.  Early Spring follows a salaryman who becomes involved with a co-worker, while his marriage is on the rocks for reasons related and unrelated.  It is a study of interaction between people who have known each other for a long time.  Tokyo Twilight’s main plot revolves around a much younger protagonist, who unknowingly meets her mother, who ran away with another man after giving birth, leaving the girl to be raised by a single father.  Tokyo Twilight actually feels much slower paced and has a good amount of angst.  I suppose some things in youth are universal.

Early Spring is the better feeling film, though enjoyment from an Ozu film has more to do with whether you can grow into the characters.  There is a bittersweet ending and it can be touching, as the characters are quite likable.  In contrast, Tokyo Twilight seems more distant and unrelatable, although purposefully.  It’s an interesting comparison to look into.  For Early Spring, one can understand that the love between a couple can go through hard times and yet still feel close.  As for the relation between the daughter in Tokyo Twilight and her mother, they have never met before, and although they share a mother-daughter bond, it seems that fate will always keep them separated because their love was never given time to mature.  Though there is also a meditation on the limits to what the bond the single father can have with his daughter.
Of course, if you’ve seen an Ozu film before, you know the style of film and deliberately paced family drama that you are getting into.  There are few times where you laugh, cry, get depressed, etc.  It’s the test given to a good drama.   Ozu is obviously a master of this genre, and neither of these two film disappoint fans of his.  Early Spring is interesting enough to be accessible to a newcomer to older Japanese cinema, and I would chose it over Tokyo Twilight.  It may even be a better choice to start here with Ozu rather than Tokyo Story, because it is a little less depressing and more relatable, though certainly not as moving.

The Eclipse transfer is pretty good, though I can’t compare to a film copy.  I didn’t notice any significant lack of details in dark spots.  Running through the mono-theater simulation on my receiver, they both sounded very good.

Ratings:
Early Spring – 5 /5
Tokyo Twilight – 4 /5