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Five Nice Foreign Films – Carancho, Så som i himmelen, Anthony Zimmer, Unjust etc

 Foreign Movies  13 Responses »
Jan 122012
 
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Thank God for Netflix.

We can have our fill of Korean, Argentine, French and so many other fine films.

Here’s a bunch of decent foreign (non-English) films we watched recently, some on DVD and others via Netflix Instant Play:

* Carancho (Spanish) – A lovely, dark Argentine film that shows a side of humanity few of us ever see or want to see. Argentine superstar Ricardo Darín (remember him from the Oscar winner The Secret in Their Eyes?) plays the lead role of a debarred ambulance chasing lawyer for whom nothing can go right. A look into the underbelly of life is not for faint hearts.

* Så som i himmelen (Swedish) – Better known by its English title As It Is in Heaven, Michael Nyqvist plays a famous conductor who after taking ill settles in a village from his childhood. Soon, our hero becomes cantor for the village choir and his work opens up repressed anger, discord, hatred etc and causing them to rise to the surface in the remote hamlet. The human condition, it seems, is the same be it large cities or small villages. Michael Nyqvist (you may remember him from the Dragon Tattoo films) is superb.

* Anthony Zimmer (French) – A 2005 romantic thriller featuring Sophie Marceau and Yvan Attal that we streamed on to our iPad via Netflix. The French movie has so much more class than the English version, The Tourist (Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie), that came out five years later. By the way, how many romances are thrilling and how many thrillers have you seen that are also romantic? Sophie Marceau is hot! ;) Yes, we saw the twist coming although we’d forgotten about The Tourist. Or maybe it was lodged in our subconscious.

* The Show Must Go On (Korean) – A gangster movie featuring the extraordinary actor Song Kang-ho. Even gangsters have wives and daughters and make sacrifices and care for their families deeply. Han Jae-rim wrote and directed this film. We’ve seen Song Kang-ho in three or four movies so far including The Good, the Bad and the Weird. He’s amazing.

* The Unjust (Korean) – A fast-paced Korean crime filled with violence that shows the police in a poor light, and often no different from the criminals they pursue. Ryu Seung-wan directed the film featuring his brother Ryu Seung-beom as a corrupt, ambitious, hard-driving public prosecutor.

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 Posted by SearchIndia.com at 5:02 am  Tagged with:

Righteous Ties – A Not Bad Korean Film

 Foreign Movies  3 Responses »
Dec 082011
 
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We have developed a robust appetite for Korean films and, by God, we’re gorging on them.

The other day, in a first, we watched an entire Korean movie on the iPad, streaming it off Netflix.

Since it was late night, we used our iPhone headset.

The overall picture quality via WiFi streaming was divine on the iPad 2. Not a single hiccup.

For the life of us, we can’t imagine streaming and enjoying a full-length movie on any of the chutiya Android tablets like Kindle Fire or Samsung Galaxy.

The Korean movie we streamed was a gangster film Righteous Ties (2006).

Directed by Jang Jin, the film has Jeong Jae-yeong playing Chi-sung, a mobster’s Right-Hand Man. We suppose, in Hollywood they’d call such people the Capo or capo bastone.

Jeong Jae-yeong is not new to us or the SI blog habitues.

We watched Jeong recently in the 2007 film Going by the Book where he played the straight-arrow cop Jeong Do-man. By the way, Going by the Book is also directed by Jang Jin.

Jung Jun-ho plays Chi-sung’s close friend Joo-joong, also a member of the same mob group.

Korean Movie - Righteous TiesRighteous Ties Theater Poster
(Source: Wiki)

A Revenge Tale

The central theme of Righteous Ties is revenge. Continue reading »

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 Posted by SearchIndia.com at 2:24 pm  Tagged with:

The Yellow Sea – Don’t Miss this Bloody, Awesome Korean Crime Thriller

 Foreign Movies  4 Responses »
Dec 052011
 
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(** Attn U.S. Readers: The Yellow Sea is currently playing at select theaters in NYC, NJ, Skokie (IL), Cupertino (CA) and Los Angeles)

*******************************
Yellow Sea Cast & Crew
Director – Na Hong-jin
Story/Screenplay – Na Hong-jin
Actors – Jung-woo Ha, Yun-seok Kim
*******************************
Given our insatiable lust for Korean crime films, it was preordained that we would watch The Yellow Sea when it hit theaters in the U.S.

Much to our chagrin, the movie took a long time coming to Amreeka but finally it debuted last Friday in select theaters across the U.S. Braving the thick Mid-Atlantic fog, we hotfooted over to see the movie this morning.

When The Yellow Sea was screened at the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival in May it won loud applause from many admirers.

By now, movie buffs who can move a mouse and with an abiding interest in quality films (the un-Bollywood stuff) are aware that Yellow Sea moves at a ferociously bloody pace with a furious velocity that lunges at you and holds you in its thrall, keeping you at the edge of your seat for the duration of the film.

For Korean film aficionados like yours truly, the cast and crew of Yellow Sea are familiar names.

Director Na Hong-jin, whose explosive debut in 2008 with Chaser established his reputation with moviegoers, gets together once again with the two lead actors from his first film, Jung-woo Ha and Yun-seok Kim.

Na Hong-jin is also credited for Yellow Sea’s story and screenplay.

Yellow Sea starts off in the Yanbian region, an area at the intersection of China, Russia and North Korea, where 800,000 Korean-Chinese live, many of them making a living off illegal activities.

Cab driver Gu-nam (Ha Jung-woo) is overwhelmed by the debt incurred in his wife’s passage to South Korea to find employment there. Gu-nam’s crushing debt of 60,000 yuan gets worse with his gambling losses from Mahjong.

As his debt situation becomes alarming and the thugs keep pressing him, Gu-nam’s lenders push him to complete a dangerous assignment for a local criminal Myun (Yun-seok Kim) to settle the debt – Kill a person in South Korea and bring back his thumb as evidence of the job completed.

Initially reluctant, Gu-nam eventually agrees as he sees no other solution to his financial woes. Continue reading »

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 Posted by SearchIndia.com at 9:48 pm  Tagged with: ,

Going by the Book – Offbeat Korean Crime Film

 Foreign Movies  1 Response »
Nov 292011
 
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(For SI blog reader Guruji)

In a long life, we’ve watched many kinds of rape scenes in movies.

In Hindi films from the 1970s, we watched Prem Chopra and Ranjeet smacking their lips as they fall upon the helpless girls, and then in the 80s we witnessed the suave cold-blooded Raj Babbar rape the two sisters in Insaaf Ki Tarazoo. We’ve also seen the crude, garish rapes in Tamil movies featuring Satyaraj et al.

But never have these old eyes fallen on a rape like the one in the Korean film Going By the Book.

The short-rape scene in the Korean film is what we’d call nonpareil.

If pressed, we’d say it belongs to the push-up genre of rapes and makes for one of the hilarious moments in the 100-minute movie.

More than Gore

Their fame in the violence genre notwithstanding, Korean films are not all about blood, decapitations, gore and revenge.

Nice as bloody films like I Saw the Devil, The Chaser and The Man from Nowhere are, Korean filmmakers also put out other movies.

Movies like Going By the Book, for instance.

We watched Going By the Book (2007) on Netflix Instant Play the other day and considered it a decent film.

Directed by Ra Hee-chan, Going By the Book is a crime film, albeit an unconventional one.

Since Sampo town is hit with a wave of bank robberies the new police chief Lee Seung-man decides on a novel drill to restore public confidence in the police department.

When the chief picks a traffic cop Lee Seung-man to play the robber, it’s clear this drill is going to be like no other.

You see, Jeong Do-man is a serious, dedicated cop who goes so much by the book that he doesn’t hesitate to issue a ticket even to the new police chief on his first day in town!

Previously on the crimes investigations department, Jeong Do-man has been demoted for investigating corruption allegations centering around the Governor.

Jeong Do-man prepares and goes about his new assignment with the same fastidiousness that is his hallmark, much to the irritation of his senior colleagues.

As the drill continues, the ‘robber’ makes the police force and the SWAT team look grossly inept and provide for some interesting comic moments.

Much of Going by the Book is filmed inside the bank or just outside its doors where the police and the SWAT team have gathered.

Jeong Jae-yeong who plays the robber, Son Byeong-ho as the police chief and the rest of the cast do a good job.

But the script by Jang Jin and Lee Gyu-bok could have been a lot better. It tends to drag on occasion and the last 20-minutes or so was a bit of a letdown with ‘dead’ cops driving the getaway bus.

Also, it seemed odd that given the initial focus on the spate of bank robberies so little attention should be focused in that direction, except in a clumsy way toward the end.

Despite these inadequacies, SearchIndia.com still recommends Going By the Book for its offbeat crime story, the comic touches and the decent acting.

Related Posts:
Korean Films Reviewed by SearchIndia.com

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 Posted by SearchIndia.com at 12:42 pm  Tagged with:

Sympathy for Mr.Vengeance – Another Korean Gem

 Foreign Movies  2 Responses »
Aug 292011
 
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No matter what our well-crafted plans be or how meticulously executed they are, life sometimes takes strange turns in ways completely unanticipated even by the smartest of men.

We call this the law of unintended consequences of our actions.

If Sympathy for Mr.Vengeance (2002), the precursor to Korean director Park Chan-wook’s well-known oldboy and the first film in his Vengeance trilogy, embodies anything it’s the law of unintended consequences.

Sympathy for Mr.Vengeance features South Korean actors Shin Ha-kyun, Song Kang-ho and Bae Doona in key roles.

When a deaf-mute young man Ryu (Shin Ha-kyun) desperate to save his ailing sister in urgent need of a kidney transplant decides to donate his own kidney and pay 10-million Wons to a group that promises a compatible kidney for his sister, little does he or we know the strange, horrible consequences that will soon follow with deadly consequences.

Ryu’s money and kidney are soon gone and he’s abandoned naked in a deserted building by the criminal group that’s been preying on people like Ryu.

Compounding Ryu’s misery, the hospital tells him that a compatible kidney is available for his sister and asks him to get there soon with 10-million Won.

What’s the desperate man to do?

His quick-witted girlfriend Cha Yeong-mi, played by the effervescent Bae Doona convinces an initially reluctant Ryu that under the circumstances kidnapping is the right course to take.

Before long, a young girl, daughter of Ryu’s ex-boss’ friend Song Kang-ho (Park Dong-jin) has been lifted and brought to the hovel Ryu and his sister live in.

But kidnapping the young girl and getting the ransom seems the easiest part in retrospect for everything goes awry after that.

Horribly awry.

Vengeance lifts its cloak off the human soul and death becomes a constant visitor, dropping its calling card ever so often in this entertaining Korean film. Continue reading »

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 Posted by SearchIndia.com at 11:48 am  Tagged with: ,

The Last Godfather Review – Decent Crimedy

 Hollywood  2 Responses »
Aug 242011
 
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Crimedy, yeah.

No comprende?

How would you, schmuck?

That’s a portmanteau word, a combination of a crime and comedy.

A neologism we thought of, moments ago.

Well, before the earthquake hit us yesterday the mail carrier brought us The Last Godfather DVD from Netflix.

Given our new-found love for Korean films, it’s no surprise we picked up The Last Godfather.

The Last Godfather Review - Decent Comedy

After all, it’s directed by South Korean comedian and filmmaker Hyung-rae Shim, who also has a key role in this movie.

But The Last Godfather is an English language film unlike the other Korean films we’ve seen lately.

At least, the version we saw.

When an aging Mafia gangster Don Carini decides to appoint a successor, he doesn’t name one of his close associates to the top job.

Instead, he brings in a strange Korean character Younggu (played by director Hyung-rae Shim).

Younggu is his illegitimate son from a liaison with his Korean girlfriend when Carini was on the run from his rivals.

The fun starts as Younggu, who is short, fat, oafish and looks very old, is inducted into the Carini Mafia clan of his father.

Not only does Younggu stumble and fumble at the easiest of tasks to the great irritation of Don Carini’s lieutenants but he also falls in love with the enemy, Mafia chief Don Bonafante’s daughter Nancy.

Stupid as Younggu may look and stupid as Younggu may act, he’s also compassionate, sensitive and occasionally even smart, albeit unwittingly. Continue reading »

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 Posted by SearchIndia.com at 10:13 am  Tagged with: , ,
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