Shi - Poetry

2010 by Lee Chang Dong - Korean movie

Many movies come with the typical tag of being Fresh, but very few are fresh. Here is a movie which is fresh in all its aspects.

A 66 year old grandmother, Mija, who is living on Government pension and a small maid job, enrolls for a poetry lesson. 

That single line of plot alone is quite unique for movie world. But what makes this movie even more fresh is that Mija lives with her grandson, in a tiny apartment. Her divorced daughter is working and living in some distant town. Mija soon discovers that her grandson and 5 other school boys are behind the suicide of a school girl.

This movie is about a lot of things. About ageing, about loneliness, about nature and poetry, about parental love and protection and also about how a single elderly woman manages a grue some situation of a family crime, all alone. But all these is carefully and tactfully woven into a wonderful script.

Of course the movie is slow paced, but it has a big heart. Mija would make us curious, happy and sad for her.  She will even inspire us with her way of living and approach. The way she treats her grandson, after knowing about his crime, is brilliant. A really brilliant character, very fresh of course.

The performance by Jeong-hie Yun, as Mija, is simply brilliant. It was one of the simple scenes which really made me admire her acting, actually, above all. There are a few scenes of Mija walking on the streets, talking to her daughter. It looks bloody natural. Brilliant performance all through out by this veteran actor.

Mija is one of the most powerful and strongest characters in cinema, for me. Her image is still in front of my eyes.

Taegukgi Hwinallimyeo - The Brotherhood of War

2004 by Kang je-gu - Korean movie

A real epic movie. Just not sure, whether its an epic movie on war or on a family. It is more than interesting that when we get war movies from America, they are just war movies, barr a couple of exceptions. But many war movies from Europe and Asia, there is actually a heart too. Especially the ones from Asia are quite different in this aspect and this movie is the best example. We cannot easily term it as a war movie or an epic movie of a family in the backdrop of a war.

During the Korean war, two brothers are forced to the war front. War changes the eldest into a true soldier, while the younger one is shocked by the change in his brother. Only one survives for sure.

Of course, there are few moments in this movie, which definitely looks inspired by certain Hollywood scenes. But otherwise, it is a real epic movie from Asia. The love between the two brothers and that for their family is wonderfully captured. The changes happening in the two brothers which gets into a kind of love hate relationship, is typical of certain Indian family movies. Just that, here all this happens while at war and I found it simply brilliant.

At times, the movie has a real American way of looking at things, quite biased but through the younger brother it also goes into the human side of the war. This is the most interesting aspect of this movie. The elder brother stands for nationalism and the younger for the human aspects, the negatives of the war.

Just that, in few scenes it turns a bit too dramatic, only if one wants to nit pick. But otherwise, here is a movie which has executed both the war and emotional quotients brilliantly.

There is no question about the quality of the technical aspects too. Everything is simply world class. Koreans must be really proud about this movie. Some of the frames, even if they are in between violent war scenes, are really classic and adds to the epic nature of this movie.

Brilliant performances from the two brothers. And also from the actress who played their mother. A woman who lost her voice at the death of her husband, who only have very few scenes in the movie, but every time she is on the screen, she really impress and can touch our hearts.

If this was released as a Hollywood movie, I am sure that this one would have been accepted by people all over the world, especially Indians and Asians, with all their heart. The family aspects of the movie, though universal, will strike a chord with Asians very easily. It is a real pity our people dont get to watch such epics. 

Choyonghan Kajok - Quiet Family

1998 by Jee-Woon Kim - Korean

Film makers, across the world, tends to give so much importance for Luck. Irrespective of how good or bad the movie is, they think luck is really important for the movie to get public recognition, awards, festival screenings or even critic ratings, at least some critics should get to see it, right? So there are so many under rated movies across the world, which inspite of being much better than the most average movies from their region or even better than the acclaimed classics, tend to end up as an unsuccessful movie. I have seen some of these under rated movies and sometimes wondered what the hell is wrong with the world that this movie had this kind of a fate. A love song for Bobby Leong, from Hollywood is one such movie, which will always be one of my favourite from Hollywood. I just came across one such hugely under rated movie from Korea.

A family, father mother uncle son and two teenage daughters, buys a lodge by a prominent hiking trail, they did not have any experience with hospitality though. They wait eagerly for their first client, but there isn't any. Finally after a few weeks, a man check in and kills himself on the very first night. Afraid of bad publicity, they decide to bury the body in the woods. Well, that was just the beginning of a series of burials for the poor family. 

A wonderful movie which is hilarious through out. It has a treatment which is followed by art house movies, but there is incredible fun, in spite of the slow place, awaiting us at each and every turn making it a wonderful entertainer actually. Except the teenage daughters, all the rest have some inborn subtle stupidity around them. Who else will go and invest money on a lodge, without knowing anything about that industry or the client prospects. So it is fine with the characterisation, but as you laugh with them you cant help feeling sympathy for them. The script lose some charm towards the end and leaves some pot holes, but I would gladly ignore them and am really glad I saw this ridiculously funny movie. For some people can call it as a kind of horror or black comedy movie, because of all the dead bodies and the blood dripping injuries and for the kind of lighting used. But it is not intended to scare the viewer, I would say, and actually only give us more chances to laugh out.

One particular scene, when the hapless couple has to use their fingers to count, as they are not sure about the number of corpses around, is ridiculously brilliant. And even if it is nearly a fantasy topic, it is told very realistically that I was wondering how in the world did this writer imagined this theme. Brilliant.

The whole family, the father, the mother, the son, the 2 daughters and the uncle all were very fresh in my mind, even when I woke up today morning. I couldn't help laughing on my walk to the gym and saw people looking at me like a weird. An excellent comedy. Such a pity that very few people have rated this movie outside Korea. 

Oldboy

2003 by Park Chan wook

I think I have seen all Kim Ki Duk movies and I never understood why his movies are not that popular in Korea. In fact even most Koreans are not really appreciative of this wonderful director. I still dont know the reason and am not sure why I even thought about Kim Ki Duk now. But I must say that Korean movies, from all what I have seen in the last 4 years, are excellent. Even some of the pure entertainment ones were excellent. Watching Old boy, I was thinking how lucky Koreans are.

Oh Dae-Su gets drunk on the birthday of his daughter and before he can reach her, is kidnapped. He is locked in a  room and actually spends about 15 years there. When he is released he wants revenge and soon finds his kidnapper who reveals to him that Dae-Su has been hypnotised for selective memory and he will have to find out the reason behind his 15 years solitary confinement. Dae-Su, with Mi-do, a young chef he met in a restaurant, sets on this search for his past. He realises that the 15 years itself was a revenge on him, for a silly sin, and its not over. The worst part of this revenge is for him to experience, yet.

This movie is based on a novel, but if we can call some movie scripts as intelligent, then here is one for those list, which I would say is brilliantly intelligent. What a plot! Absolutely stunning. In the beginning, when he is in his jail, I was struggling to think about another movie on a similar kind of jail - still dont remember the name and if it was from US or Europe - but the similarity ends there. Oldboy actually starts only when Dae-Su is out of the jail. His quest for the past is excellent and so is his relationship with Mi-do and how he wants to take on his kidnapper Woo-jin. And as the past is out there, obviously not just Dae-Su, but even the viewers might think, is it all for this.  Really? That just looks like a very silly sin. But once the final revenge on Dae -Su, the main secret, is revealed, the transformation on Dae-Su is stunning. He falls and pleads on the legs of Woo-jin like a dog and even cuts off his own tounge. The most amazing aspect is that we keep wondering, but isnt this a bit too much of a revenge. However, at the end there is this really touching scene between Woo-jin and Soo-ah and that scene was really heart broking. If one has ever fallen in love, it is hard to bear that scene and I must say I really felt sad.

It is also noteworthy that Hypnotism plays a major part in this movie, it occupies only a few seconds on screen though. The final scene, were Dae-su finds his original hypnotist and wants to be hypnotised again, is quite nice. The movie is left open for interpretations, like modern French classics, and I liked it. It is for sure that Mi-do is still not aware about the secret, but the final hypnotised Dae-su, what exactly is he carrying in his mind, is open to the viewer to interpret.

There are still some ethical questions here but I would like to ignore all that and all those probability questions and just admire and appreciate this movie. Cent percent, this is an intelligent and beautiful movie. Intelligent for its script and direction, beautiful for its technical sides and performances.

I feel proud about this movie as an Asian. My salutes to the writer and director.

Just wanted to note down something which is repeated in this movie - When you laugh the whole world laughs with you, when you cry you cry alone. Truly loved it.

This is a kind of genius of cruelty. Brilliant movie. It is nice that Hollywood haven't remade this yet.
Please don't. 

Gongdong gyeongbi guyeok Joint Security Area

2000  by Park Chan-wook

India shares some volatile borders with Pakistan, Bangladesh and China. But never, our film makers made a movie on our borders, about those, the soldiers, facing off on both sides, other than some ordinary war movies. I am surprised I didnt realise this fact at all, until I saw this brilliant Korean movie, JSA. In fact, other than movies like No Man's Land, which is quite similar and different at the same time, as far as I know, there are really only a few movies on this subject, even from around the world.

When I read two lines about this movie, it felt more like Few Good Men, and could have been an adaptation, but for some reason I thought I should see this. And what an experience it has been. This is an incredible movie, much superior to Few Good Men, about soldiers from two enemy nations, once a single nation, also pointing out to the futility of war and its politics.

In the Korean border line, a shoot out occured on the North Korean post, killing 2 North Koren soldiers and injuring one. The South Korean soldier who did this runs across to his side with a bullet on his leg. The situation could turn really bad and to prevent a possible break up between the two nations, a commission of Neutral Nations orders an enquiry. A swiss officer, Sophie a law officer, arrives and investigates the case. She finds the reports from both sides completely contradictory. Slowly she manages to talk to the two soldiers, the South Korean accused and the wounded North Korean witness, and what unfolds is a brilliant story. A moving story of friendship, which was quite simple but with a violent and sad ending.

The movie starts in a bit mediocre way with the arrival of Sophie and her first attempts to talk to the soldiers. However, as the main content falls in, this movie raise itself to the level of a master piece. The different versions of the two soldiers, and the real happenings unfolds in pieces and in flashbacks and reminiscences  but its brilliantly scripted and directed. The scenes towards climax is just brilliant. So are many scenes which happens on the border. Scenes in which soldiers from both sides interact without any dialogues like the patrolling in the snow etc are so wonderful. It is the growing friendship of the 4 soldiers and the after effects, which is the heart of the plot and those are all shot brilliantly, I must repeat, its incredibly brilliant.

The final ending of the movie alone deserves some awards. In the first half there is a scene, few visitors, tourists may be, walking in the border from the S.K side and one of their's cap flies off to the other side. A N. Korean soldier picks it up and hand it over to his S.K counterpart. A tourist seems to take photographs of the scene. One of these photograph is shown at the very end and the camera pans through the various faces in the frame and this is incredible. It would make us feel sad and at the very same moment say 'Wow, thats brilliant'. I would say that is the real height of brilliant imagination. If I was to chose the most brilliant and touching last shot in any movies I have watched, I would pick this. Of course, JSA is not just about this last shot, but this single shot can vouch for the brilliance of the whole movie.

It is also notable that this movie does not try to point either of the Korean sides in a negative way. May be that could be the reason why it did not win a prominent award from the west, who have a favourite in the region and the plot is against their basic propaganda.