Kim Ki-duk Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Asian Films on DVD: 'Election,' 'Sleep Alone,' 'Time'
Filed under: Action », Drama », Foreign Language », Independent », New on DVD », Home Entertainment », Cinematical Indie »
Writers' strike got you down? Wondering how to fill those late-night hours now that all the talk shows are on hiatus? I've got just the answer for you: Asian films on DVD! All three of these newly-released films are sure to provoke, though I'm not sure they'll prepare you for sleep as well as Jon Stewart or Craig Ferguson.Johnny To's Election brilliantly details a clash of triad titans in Hong Kong. Every two years an election is held to determine a crime gang's new boss; both Simon Yam, a suave yet savage family man, and Tony Leung Kar-Fai, a brutal and much feared lieutenant, want the job. Director To generates tension with great subtlety, and the story has several surprises up its sleeve. The DVD includes a "making of" feature and interviews with the director and stars.
Cinematical's Jeffrey M. Anderson wrote a beautiful review of Tsai Ming-liang's latest film, I Don't Want to Sleep Alone, explaining how it fits into the director's ouevre and concluding: "The pleasure here belongs to Tsai's images, which can be both familiar and baffling, or beautiful and humorously deadpan, or realistic and supernatural. It's best to give up ideas of plot, story and characters and just explore these amazing images, one by one." The DVD includes the original theatrical trailer, which can be viewed at Moviefone.
Our friends at Moviefone also have the trailer for Kim Ki-Duk's Time, which in no way prepares you for how infuriating the film proves to be. I agree with Martha Fischer, who wrote: "The problem with Time is that every character in the film is so fundamentally repulsive it's impossible to care about any of them." Still, as I've written before, Kim's films are visually beautiful and told in an indelible narrative style, and that might be enough to justify a rental if you're curious. The DVD includes a "making of" feature and the trailer.
TIFF Watch / Foreign-Language Oscar: South Korea, Lebanon Submit
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Foreign Language », Independent », Romance », Toronto International Film Festival », Cinematical Indie »
Two more countries have officially tossed their hats in the ring for the Foreign-Language Oscar, according to separate stories in Variety, and both selections are screening at the Toronto International Film Festival. South Korea's entry is Lee Chang-dong's Secret Sunshine. The well-regarded drama debuted at Cannes, where Jeon Do-yeon won the award for best actress. As the Variety story notes, she plays "a young widow who moves from Seoul to start over in a provincial city." Variety says that Secret Sunshine was selected over Kim Ki-duk's Breath (also a Cannes selection) and May 18, a box-office hit based on real events. In addition to its screenings in Toronto, Secret Sunshine will also be playing at the New York Film Festival and at AFI Fest in Los Angeles, but does not yet have US distribution.Another Variety story covers the general wariness of buyers toward the films on display in Toronto, but also reports that Lebanon officially selected Nadine Labaki's directorial debut Caramel as their Oscar entrant. According to Variety, the film opened in France and Lebanon in August and is already on course to become the top-grossing Lebanese release in those two territories. Caramel is a romantic comedy revolving around the lives of five women, set in and around a beauty salon in Beirut. The trailer at the official French site looks low-key and glossy. Jason Anderson at Eye Weekly called it "a Lebanese chick flick" that's "usually as fetching as it is familiar." Roadside Attractions has US distribution rights.
'Breath' Picked Up For US By Tartan
Filed under: Drama », Foreign Language », Independent », Cannes », Cinematical Indie »
I expected Kim Ki-Duk's Breath to cause some kind of stir when it played at Cannes last month. It was the provocative Korean director's first selection in the Official Competition, which normally draws greater critical attention. But it seems that Breath screened and everyone yawned. David Hudson gathered the reactions at GreenCine Daily; the trades were generally positive, if not exactly enthusiastic (Dan Fainaru in Screen Daily: "Works wonders within the minimalist conditions"; Derek Elley in Variety: "Will play best to Kim's existing fan club"; Ray Bennett in The Hollywood Reporter: "Unlikely ... to make much headway beyond those who are already fans"), and Mike D'Angelo of ScreenGrab speculated that it would be memorable only because it's the one in which "his predilection for mute protagonists officially became intolerable even to his fans." In the recent past, Variety film critic Robert Koehler called Kim "South Korea's worst filmmaker"; blogging for filmjourney.org, he wrote that the director "surprised no one -- except perhaps Derek Elley -- with Breath, which was screened and mercifully forgotten." Mercy, indeed! Reviewing Kim's previous film, Time, Koehler wrote: "As always with Kim, under the frantic and bloody surface, underneath is ... nothing." Kim's films are visually beautiful and told in an indelible narrative style, but are attractive surfaces enough? Some of his work has struck me as thematically repellant (Bad Guy, The Bow, Time), yet the imagery in others (The Coast Guard, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring) has stayed with me for years. Breath features a young married woman who discovers that her husband is cheating on her and decides to have an affair with an imprisoned murderer. Tartan has acquired all US rights. Whenever it becomes available -- most likely direct to DVD -- we can see if the critics are right.
TIFF Review: Time
Filed under: Drama », Foreign Language », Romance », Thrillers », Theatrical Reviews », Festival Reports », Toronto International Film Festival », Cinematical Indie »
Late in Time, a character suddenly looks into the camera wearing a life-sized mask of her own face, complete with eye shadow and lipstick. Had the movie worked to that point, the moment would have been chilling, reducing the audience to a stunned silence. As it is, however, the scene is greeted by shouts of incredulous laughter; for viewers like myself, it's the point at which we realize there's no redemption ahead, and we're never going to make the emotional connection director Kim Ki-duk seems certain he's created.Based on a fascinating topic -- the allure of plastic surgery, not for enhancement but for renewal -- Time is a story loaded with potential. As the film opens, Seh-hee (Park Ji-Yeon) and Ji-woo (Ha Jung-woo) have a terrible fight that stems from him having the temerity to lay his eyes on another woman. Later in bed, Seh-hee apologizes over and over for always having the "same boring face," and begs him to imagine one of the women they fought over as they make love. The next day, she's gone, ending a two-year relationship without a word.
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