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Asian Cinema on DVD (1 Viewer)

Matt_M

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Can anybody point me to a good website that lists the exact specifications for Korean movies? I get a lot of them through my friends who travel to Korea on a regular basis so I always got the good quality releases. I want to order some movies over the internet but want to make sure I pick the ones with the best transfers etc.

Thanks in advance
 

ThomasC

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Matt, DVD-Basen will help you find reviews of DVDs from any region. I've ordered all of my non-Region 1 Asian movies from YesAsia, and I think their specs are accurate.
 

David Lawson

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Mikko, thanks for that link.

I watched Pulse tonight, and it didn't do much for me. I think I "got" it, for the most part, but I just wasn't pleased with how it was presented. The editing is haphazard, the fantastic expositions are matter-of-factly presented and/or accepted as truth in most cases, and it seems that no one is afraid to chase strange beings or enter forbidden rooms alone.

I really liked the concept for the story, and the visuals do an excellent job of setting the tone, even if they seem simplistic most of the time. The true horror in the film runs deeper than the ghosts, which is refreshing. Unfortunately, the execution of the concept is lacking, thanks in no small part to the horror cliches. I'm not a huge fan of the genre in the first place, and I have always found it hard to accept moments of stupidity from otherwise intelligent characters. I don't think I'll revisit this one, so if anyone is interested in taking it off my hands, let me know.
 

Juan M. Rico

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Joined
May 20, 2003
Messages
51
I did a search on this Korean movie, but I didn't find any hits. My apologies if this has been mentioned before... But I would like to recommend Natural City. This sci-fi may borrow heavily from other movies (specifically Blade Runner), but nevertheless, I quite enjoyed it. The acting is top notch, and the production values and special effects have nothing to envy to any American production.
 

Brian Thibodeau

Supporting Actor
Joined
Dec 10, 2003
Messages
992
Good timing, Juan. I was about to resurrect this thread with some reviews of recent Korean DVDs I've watched, including NATURAL CITY.



Here they are:



SPRING BEARS LOVE (2003) Directed by Donald Yong I. Written by Haung Jo-yun. Cinematography by Bak Ki-ung. A connected series of love notes scribbled in library art books convinces gawky grocery store clerk Hyun-chae (Bae Doo-na) that a mystery man - known only as “Vincent” - is pursuing a relationship with her. Meanwhile, an infatuated pal from her high-school days - shy, quirky subway driver Dong-ha (Kim Nam-jin) - relocated to Seoul to actually pursue a relationship with her, which she rejects in former of the ersatz paper chase provided by her mystery man, going so far as to pawn Dong-ha off on her sister at one point. Sweet, low-key, histrionics-free romance with a clever story concept that allows for a second act twist that’s exactly what you’ll expect and yet far more clever than it really seems. Not without its sentimental moments, but they’re far more restrained than similar scenes in many Korean films of this sort. Not unexpectedly, technical production is sparkling, with gorgeous cinematography by Bak Ki-ung and art direction by Park Hyun-jo. 9

http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.as...section-videos/



OH! BROTHERS (2003) Directed by Kim Yong-hwa. The number 6 box office charter of 2003, this is an odd, needlessly complicated tale of a debt collector/blackmail photographer/missing person finder Sang Woo (Lee Jung-jae) learning upon his father’s death that he has a half-brother - mentally deficient man-child Bong-ku (Lee Beom-su) - whose mother, if he can find her, will be legally forced to absolve him of his father’s hefty debt. Not surprisingly, Sang-woo discovers Bong-ku’s creepy affectations and appearance (at one point he’s dressed up like the killer doll Chucky in a dream sequence), make him the ideal “muscle” to have on the job, particularly when a sleazy cop forces Sang-woo to get staged adultery photos of the police superintendent in order to expand the jurisdiction of his extortion program. There’s also a subplot that sees the pair trying to unite a deaf woman, at the behest of her estranged sister, with their dying father and which mirrors much of the boys situation and allows for plenty of tears. Lee Beom-su’s performance as Bong-ku, written as the comedic centerpiece of the film, is largely played as a grown man who ACTS like a precocious ass rather than a grown man with a mental age of 12, thus undermining much of the pathos the filmmakers try to wring from his relationship with Sang-woo. Technical production is superb, with warm cinematography and an inviting production design ultimately servicing a thoroughly constructed central relationship that seems designed to feature as many piano-backed scenes of teary catharsis between sensitive new age Korean males. Moderate, but occasionally serious head slapping rates this a 4 on the Korean Cranial Abuse Scale. The overall movie rates a 4 as well.

http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.as...973357/pname-Oh!-Brothers-Directors-Cut/section-videos/did-165/code-k/version-all/



CRAZY FIRST LOVE (2003) Directed by Oh Jong-rok. Typically overblown tragicomedy that signifies much of what westerners find inacessible about Korean cinema and, to some extent, the Korean psyche. Let’s call this lecture Misogyny and the Posessive, Overgrown Man-Child. To protect the virtue of his daughter (Son Ye-jin), an authoritarian high-school teacher (Yoo Dong-geun) sets - and keeps changing - unreasonable standards for the young slacker (MY SASSY GIRL’s Cha Tae-hyn) who has loved her since childhood, then must work with him when she grows tired of their constant meddling and surveillance and becomes involved with another man. Korean men do not come off particularly well in this film (but then,that would depend on who you asked). They’re either shallow gadflies or control freaks with maturity issues. How fitting, then, that the only way the male filmmakers could rationalize their crazed behaviour in the greater social theme of things is to slap the progressive-minded female lead with myelodysplastic syndrome, the same terminal disease - read punishment - that killed her mother at 18. Faced with her own immortality, and in a scene far, far too reminiscent of MY SASSY GIRL, we finally discover why she couldn’t be with the man who has gone to insane lengths to win her affection and why she could be with a lothario who will one day find happiness with yet another woman. While it’s tough to deny the calculation behind emotional scenes like those that end this film - and in Korean cinema scenes like these are legion - one can’t shake the feeling that for Korean comedic cinema - indeed much of Korean cinema in general - to truly move on and perhaps capture a larger international audience, Korean filmmakers may need to dispense with a great deal of the contrived, subtly misogynistic heartstring manipulation that, ultimately, reinforces dated stereotypes about patriarchy, makes childish men look like pariahs and punishes women for thinking outside the box. People crying on mountaintops (and this film is has one!) are starting to wear thin. See also SEX IS ZERO for a similar treatment of these themes. 3

http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.as...-k/version-all/



OH HAPPY DAY! (2003) Directed and written by Yun Hang-ryeol. Wrongheaded, often irritating “comedy” purports to send up the the ubiquitous, vertically oriented Korean class structure, then ultimately plays by the rules as yet another “constructed romance” movie in which the goal for any girl who knows what she wants is to want a rich, educated prettyboy. Except in this case the gal, by all rights and no thanks to smart screenwriting, should be a secondary character who ultimately gets dumped in favour of leading lady Jang Na-ra, who spends nearly the entire movie looking and acting exactly like Rachel Dratch on Saturday Night Live (and I mean that in the meanest possible way) as a voice actress making life miserable for the shallow Club Med executron (Pak Jeong-chol) who denied her homely friend a spot on a singles group holiday. That he actually begins to fall for her, to the point of ultimately dumping his successful girlfriend - who is never once painted as a bad person, just a bit superficial - is either this film’s most clever bit of dark satire or the most egregiously stupid moment in an ill-conceived screenplay. I’m leaning toward the latter. Korean cultural and cinematic traditions are sometimes cleverly held up for ridicule - Jang’s mother takes physical discipline to room-trashing levels of excess, while Jang’s mid-film collapse beside a blood-filled toilet turns out to be a bad case of hemorrhoids - but in the end, the parents know best when it comes to forcing people together based on status, and a staggeringly contrived scheme is hatched to drive home the point, culminating in - of all things - a big musical number featuring the entire cast! The film is ultimately hobbled early on by relentlessly overblown performances that mistake volume and force for wit - Jang’s scrunchy-faced eye popping grows tiresome very very quickly. We do however, get the following standard Korean ingredients: K-pop, tears, snowfall, and head slapping, the latter mild enough to rate this a 2 on the Korean Cranial Abuse Scale. The picture, however, also rates a 2, largely for the usual glossy tech specs.

http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.as...839454/pname-Oh!-Happy-Day/section-videos/did-165/code-k/version-all/



WHEN I TURNED NINE (2003) Directed by Yoon In-ho. Korean drama films set in public or high-schools often make me uneasy for I know there will be severe Korean Cranial Abuse, played completely straight, as this is one of the many liberties apparently afforded teachers (among other authority figures) in Korean culture. Westerners will no doubt react with horror at the relentless, wordless beating young Baek Yeo-min (Kim Seok) endures from his stone-faced teacher for dunking the shoes of snooty new classmate Woo-rim (Lee Se-young) in retaliation for an earlier slight. Not only do the very real looking blows eventually start knocking him to the floor, he gets back up and faces into yet another one because, well, that’s just what you do. Yeo-min is the defacto Big Boss of his public school social order in the early 1970’s. He takes his licks, defers without issue to his elders and their rigid disciplines, and is actually quite attracted to the Woo-rim, a Seoul transplant who’s prone to inflating the wonderfulness of her possibly broken family, lies like a rug, plays favourites in the playground pecking order and will make you very tempted to call her something that rhymes with “bitch.” But Yeo-min sees beyond all that, even if he doesn’t understand why, and much to the chagrin of his female friend Keum-bok (Jung Sun-kyung). Meanwhile, on the homefront, Yeo-min’s greatest desire is to buy a pair of sunglasses for his mother, who was blinded in one eye by a factory mishap and now spends her days a recluse at home, and who ultimately teaches him the error of his weak thinking by whipping the back of his calves with a reed in yet another scene of heartwrenching realism that may put off those who don’t read up on the culture. He also becomes acquainted with the town philosopher, whose inability to connect with a local music teacher echoes the potential social problems of Yeo-min’s attraction to Woo-rim. Ultimately, this plays like one big ode to Korean strength through suffering (an understandable facet of the country’s cinema), and though I’m willing to allow for my own ignorance of other cultures when something doesn’t quite sit right with me, much of the melodrama in this film seems a tad disingenuous, particularly the dialogue written for these wise-beyond-their-years youngsters. Now I’m aware from the books I’ve read, that the harsh living conditions for the Korean underclasses from the 50’s to the 70’s were enough to make anyone grow up fast and hard, I’m still somewhat uncomfortable with the sight of an ten-year-old standing before her bawling classmates and owning up to a laundry list of “issues” as though it were her final day in rehab seems just a little bit phony. Director Yoon In-ho and screenwriter Lee Man-hee, working from a novel by We Kee-cheul, know just what buttons to push to get the tear ducts welling up, but I’m afraid they don’t know how to push them lightly. From a technical perspective, the film looks stunning, with the barren poverty of the small town beautifully captured through several seasons by cinematographer Chun Jo-myoung. 6.

http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.as...-k/version-all/



NATURAL CITY (2003) Directed by Min Byong-chan. Arresting productions design and state-of-the-art visual effects can’t disguise a dull plot that borrows so liberally from BLADE RUNNER and GHOST IN THE SHELL that the word “tribute” wouldn't stave off legal action. To date, this is probably the most beautiful looking AND most vapid Korean science fiction film to come down the pipeline, and one feels almost guilty in knocking it in spite of the undeniable amount of craftsmanship that went into it. Set in a futuristic megacity in the year 2080, it’s about a sullen policeman (Yu Ji-tae) who wants to extend the life of his beautiful android dancer Ria (Seo Rin) by finding a new host for her brain-chip. As she’s nearing her sell-by date, which requires her complete destruction, this puts him at odds with fellow cop Noma (Yun Chan) and evil android Roy Batty...err...evil uber-android Jeon Doo-hong, who has plans on accessing android headquarters and programming a massive robot uprising. Flying police cars, slow-floating dirigibles with gigantic projection screens, rain drenched outdoor noodle stands, endlessly vertical skyscrapers forming a mountain of technology in a post-war wasteland. We’ve seen all this before. And indeed, it all looks amazing here. But what’s missing is any depth of character to make the story more convincing. The leading man is a complete cipher whose motivations for prolonging the life of his robot are never explained or explored, and while his robot clearly has functional difficulties with her impending doom, Seo underplays these scenes to a fault, generating neither tension nor sympathy, only indifference about her fate. To give credit where it’s due, Korean is one of the few Asian countries - and one of the few countries outside of America and Japan - even attempting such high-minded science-fiction films as this, WONDERFUL DAYS, 2009 LOST MEMORIES, and YESTERDAY. One hopes that one day, the quality of screenwriting will improve to meet the superb level of technical artistry already apparent on screen. The 2-disc Special Edition DVD of this film has tonnes of interesting (unsubtitled) materials for those inspired by its technical merits, including an art gallery, a sketch gallery (tres Syd Mead), a 45 minute TV doc with plenty of behind the scenes and FX footage, a 24 minute DVD doc with more of the same, a 14 minute interview with the lead effects man, an 8.5 minute interview with the animator of the opening credits, 6 minutes of deleted scenes, an English language Cannes trailer that pumps up the action quotient, cast interviews and a 20 minute walking tour of the films locations with the director and lead actor. A cool easter egg can be found on disc 2 by arrowing up on the main menu to highlight “*REC”. This will give you access to what appears to be a 7 minute, effects laden music video about the plight of a country devastated by a nuclear attack, which almost feels like the backstory to the main feature. 5.

http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.as...-k/version-all/
 

ChrisBEA

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Not sure if it's been mentioned anywhere else, but it appears that Kitano's Zatoichi is getting an R1 DVD release as a double feature with Sonatine.

I already imported Zatoichi, but this looks like it may be a good release. Don't have the date yet though.



ALso if anyone is interested, I've posted reviews for Atsushi Muroga's Gun Crazy movies on my blog, my access to my blog is down at the moment, or I would have copied them over. See my sig for the link.
 

David Lawson

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I watched Fly Me To Polaris last night. The subtitles on the DeltaMac R0 leave something to be desired, since I'm not sure I even got the gist of what the characters said sometimes. The audio itself was fine, although the dubbing of Richie Ren is painfully obvious more often than not.

As for the film itself, I felt the emotional impact is tempered by how casually (and borderline silly) some things are handled, like tripping over the rock or waiting in line to enter Polaris. Richie Ren is mismatched against Cecilia Cheung, but so is everyone else in the film. Her performance and delivery is incredible, especially during the scene in the tunnel under the train.

In the end, however, the goofiness outweighed the heartbreak. I found myself wishing for a more polished or serious tone on a number of occasions. Brian dared us not to cry during this film, and I did a couple of times, but nowhere near enough to emotionally drain me.
 

Brian Thibodeau

Supporting Actor
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Messages
992
David



I share your sentiments about POLARIS. I found the ending particularly phony, and I believe that's mentioned in my original review. I'm a sucker for sincere-feeling schmaltz, which I think Hong Kong filmmakers do exceedingly well, and which I think Hong Kong audiences are not entirely uncomfortable with, but my comments daring people not to cry was aimed at people far weaker than us, of course.
wink.gif




I do think the method of Richie's demise was a bit of a stretch, but I've seen such constructs so many times in Hong Kong films, I've come to accept it as part of their cinema vernacular: it never seems like the filmmakers think we're dumb enough to buy it, they just need to get from point A to point B in their own inimitable style.
 

Matt_M

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Thank you everybody for the great suggestions as far as the websites are concerned
smile.gif


Speaking of Keorean movies you should check out "Too beautiful to lie"...great comedy about an ex-con who impersonates a guys fiancee...had me laughing a lot I would say it's on par with "My wife is a gangster" as far as the humour and the story is concerned.
 

LorenzoL

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There's talk that the Miramax version of Sonatine is a pan and scan version of the movie.



Just when I thought that they were getting better with the release of Shaolin Soccer (giving us the original version), they do this.
 

Brian Thibodeau

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quote:Speaking of Keorean movies you should check out "Too beautiful to lie"...great comedy about an ex-con who impersonates a guys fiancee...had me laughing a lot I would say it's on par with "My wife is a gangster" as far as the humour and the story is concerned.




You won't believe this, but that's the movie I'm watching at the moment! I'm hoping to include a mini-review in the next batch that I post.



Got about half way through it late last night, watched a bit more this morning before work, and will finish it up tonight. I'm at the point where she's preparing him for the "Pepper Boy" contest. So far, I'm impressed with the approach it's taking to the "constructed" nature of relationships portrayed in Korean films - you know, mismatched couple brought together by meddling family - by having the family's meddling, such as it is in this one, caused largely by the girl's unavoidable lies. The first half is a lot of fun, and there's a reasonable cleverness to how everything spirals out of control. I'm just hoping they don't need to detour in to tragedy or bloodshed in the third act (but please, NO SPOILERS!!!). After MARRYING THE MAFIA, SEX IS ZERO, CRAZY FIRST LOVE and a few others, I'm, uhh, dying to see a Korean romantic comedy in which the heroine doesn't end up with a terminal disease and the man isn't a terminal baby. This one's lookin' good...
 

LorenzoL

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I was able to track down the Fox/Fortune Star release of Knockabout, Mr. Vampire, Iron Fisted Monk, Battle Creek Brawl (Big Brawl) and The Postman Fights Back in Toronto for $9.99 Canadian each.



Unfortunately, I won't be able to watch them until the weekend.
 

Matthew Brown

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Messages
781
Lorenzo -



Those releases include the original mono tracks. I have reviews of Mr. Vampire, Postman Fights Back, and Iron Fisted Monk on my site. Knockabout should be up in a night or so.



The image quality is very good on Iron Fisted Monk and Mr. Vampire. Postman Fights Back looks decent but not as good as the others. Also, this movie only has Chow Yun Fat in a relatively small part.



Iron Fisted Monk is a very straight out revenge story but the ending is spectacular. There are some brutal rape scenes which seems out of place for these movies.



Matt
 

LorenzoL

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Thanks for the great news Matthew.



Its great that Fox finally listen to our request to add the original audio along with the 5.1 and DTS sound. Also read your review of the Iron Fisted Monk, The Postman Fights Back and Mr. Vampire and glad that the subtitles are not dubsubs.
I wonder why Fox did not indicate this on the package?
 

Matthew Brown

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Sep 19, 1999
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781
Fox and Fortune Star have both been wonderful in listening to the fans.



As far as the rape scene goes in Iron Fisted Monk, I am really surprised that not only is it not mentioned under the rating, but Naked Killer was cut and it wasn't as bad.

I emphasized this in my review because I know a lot of people that let their kids watch these movies. They figure if it's just Kung Fu it isn't as bad as people getting shot up.



Matt
 

LorenzoL

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I was able to obtain tickets for the Gala Event of "House of Flying Daggers" for the Toronto Film Festival Saturday night 09/11/04
biggrin.gif


I'm so excited right now and can't wait to see this movie.



I'm also trying to score tickets for Old Boy and Kung Fu Hustle and 3-Iron. Hopefully I'll be able to get them.
 

Brian Thibodeau

Supporting Actor
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Dec 10, 2003
Messages
992
Lucky you if you can get 'em. How did you score FLYING DAGGER tickets? I was on the website first thing yesterday morning (when single tickets went on sale), and DAGGERS, HUSTLE and OLD BOY were all listed as being rush tickets only. I did manage to get tickets to three other Asian films (RAHTREE, STEAMBOY and ZEBRAMAN). I'm not too worried about OLD BOY since its widely available on DVD from both legit (and illegit) sources. Is ticket availability different at the boxoffice?
 

ChrisBEA

Screenwriter
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I wish I could go to Toronto, I'd love to see any/all of them. Especially Daggers and Steamboy.

I want to see Oldboy too, but I may just import it.
 

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