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Reviews
Gin gwai 2 (2004)
wrong title, good film
As has been said, this movie has virtually nothing to do with the original Eye, except for the blurry ghost effects and music video style direction/editing. Good thing too as I believe that movie was corny and hardly better than your average television show despite many other more favorable opinions of it on this site. My biggest complaint was the music-video style of this movie, too slick and cool to really make this movie scary or unnerving, Pang Brothers have good potential to make some effective horror but always resort to trendy camera-work, cheesy synthesizers and obvious "scary moment" sound and music that renders their work a bit shallow and more juvenile than it should be. Too bad because they have some good actors, high production values and some decent ideas that touch upon what could be really deeper themes and squander what could have been much more effective chills and thrills. I like the sad/angry/vengeful/pitiful ghost in this movie very much. What an interesting choice for an actress, scary and beautiful at the same time.
Another interesting point is the way in which Buddism has been overshadowed by Northen Chinese, Hindu and Tibetan style mysticism in so much of Asia now. Buddah;s original writings actually stressed that there is no soul that exists beyond the interconnected array of desires, fears and impulses that make up the living moment, there is no possibility of reincarnation as there is no essential soul or "self" to speak of. His teachings directly opposed the Hindu pantheon of gods and Tibetan shamanistic mythologies that were prevalent in his time and have become to intertwined with contemporary Asian-Buddist culture and national identity. His message of enlightenment was specifically to do away with the forms of belief that dealt with concepts like spirits and reincarnation and find the unburdened, unencumbered awareness of the present "now". This very major point has been lost in the Chinese dominated parts of most Asia at this point and Buddism has become a very superstitious belief system rather than an approach to a liberated psychology. Sri Lanka has become the modern heart of the faithful Buddist teaching, read " The Gods drink whiskey" if you are interested.
Marebito (2004)
absolute trash, worst I've ever seen
this movie sucked in every way, thin plot, no character development, flimsy acting, pretentious themes, clumsy production, super-low budget.
nothing at all redemptive except maybe the hot girl and a decent beginning. Its like a watching a mediocre student film that got way too much attention.
This movie is generally so bad one does not know where to begin...
If you watch the director/actor/producer interviews on the DVD you will find out that they shot it over 8 days on break while the director was making ju-on, this makes sense as they spent no time developing this movie and one has to wonder why they bothered at all. It also becomes apparent through the lead actor's (Shinya Tsukamoto) interview that director Shimizu gave his actors little to no direction which he politely (and somewhat embarrassedly) tries to spin as as a good thing but reveals that he (as a director himself) wonders why there was so little thought and effort behind this project. This would explain his totally flat performance (just because the protagonist is alienated doesn't mean you don't have to act)! Producer Takahashi answers this mystery in his interview by revealing that this project was an "experiment"... read low budget throw-away to make a quick buck on his indie brand label. This is all pretense and no follow-through. I am selling my copy on ebay so look for it if you like j-trash.
What a bunch of rubbish... Don't bother wasting any time on this one.
Janghwa, Hongryeon (2003)
creepy ghost haunted house psychological thriller
* The movie is a guilt-trip/projection of the older sister's guilt over her negligence at her younger sister's death and possible crisis over incest and subsequent projection of guilt and anger onto the stepmother as source of all evil and downfall of family. Neither the younger sister nor the "crazy" stepmom really exist for most of this movie, they are all projections in her mind (and a real ghost too just for kicks!) It all comes back to the scene at the top of the stairs toward the end while the older sis and the stepmom are engaged in a terse conversation and "stepmom" warns her that she will regret this moment. As for the bag, she was beating a doll that was inside it. The pills are for older sis. There was no real blood in the bag as she tried to kill herself with the statue. I still don't get the same books and pencil, same folded clothes stuff at the beginning. Anyone? **** ANYWAY... this movie is excellent, scary and unnverving enough that I had a stomach ache watching it! It has everything you could possibly want in a horror movie, scary house, scary dolls, scary clocks, creep stepmom, drugs, hallucinations, nightmares even scary wallpaper!!! Excellent use of color and sound it never degenerated to superfluous gore or graphic violence to "get you", it achieved an incredible amount of horror through pure traditional devices such as great directing and acting (for a change) and editing!!! Its suspense and creepiness sink you into the film and draw your attention to a details that are crucial all the way through (if you can watch without holding your hand up to the screen!). Most Asian horror flicks are good for cheap thrills, some better than others (Eye 2 was also good but nobody talks about it, Eye 1 was a bit cheese) but A Tale of Two Sisters is way way out there ahead. On a par with The Shinning for suspense and terror and with The Others for its ability to scare without any outright violence/gore. I like someone else's comparison of Spirited Away meets The Shinning.
Really worth the watching, especially if you can see it projected on a wall/screen or large TV with good sound late at night. Sound is crucial to all these types of films. My only complaint is that the English subtitles are so freakin slow you have no idea who is speaking at times due to the lag, really bad job on that. Otherwise this is quite possibly the scariest movie I have ever seen...