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Last night I caught up with all my netflix movies at home, which means I was up till 2:30am!!!
First up, Time, is a Korean movie by Ki-duk Kim recommended by Lucius. Initially, I was worried it would be gory and horrific because of the opening scene of plastic surgery, shown in gory detail. But it's not. It's about an obsessively jealous young woman who is sure her boyfriend of two years is tired of her looks. She decides to have plastic surgery so that she can present a new face (and presumably new body, but that's not clear) to him. It's similar to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind but here the memories are not erased --and therein lies the problem. The boyfriend truly loves her and when she disappears for six months is devastated....I won't say more about it but it's very interesting and also reminds me (which it did when Lucius told me the basic plot) of Garry Kilworth's wonderful story "Songbirds of Pain."
Then I watched Michael Clayton which I loved. It's a very entertaining thriller with wonderful acting (Tom Wilkinson and Tilda Swinton were indeed excellent)--I adore George Clooney and I'd watch him in anything but I think that because he's such a movie star his "acting" is best appreciated when he's doing something different and small. I'd like to watch and re-watch a bunch of his movies in a row to figure out what I actually DO think of his acting.
I've now seen three of the five nominees. Will get to Juno and Atonement when they're available on netflix.
And what kept me up really late was watching the first four shows of Dexter. Because I knew the basics--sociopathic serial killer channeling his murderous tendencies to kill those who deserve it-- I was not very surprised by the first episode and didn't start really liking the show until the third or fourth episodes. More next week. I'll watch the rest of the first season and see if I want to continue.
First up, Time, is a Korean movie by Ki-duk Kim recommended by Lucius. Initially, I was worried it would be gory and horrific because of the opening scene of plastic surgery, shown in gory detail. But it's not. It's about an obsessively jealous young woman who is sure her boyfriend of two years is tired of her looks. She decides to have plastic surgery so that she can present a new face (and presumably new body, but that's not clear) to him. It's similar to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind but here the memories are not erased --and therein lies the problem. The boyfriend truly loves her and when she disappears for six months is devastated....I won't say more about it but it's very interesting and also reminds me (which it did when Lucius told me the basic plot) of Garry Kilworth's wonderful story "Songbirds of Pain."
Then I watched Michael Clayton which I loved. It's a very entertaining thriller with wonderful acting (Tom Wilkinson and Tilda Swinton were indeed excellent)--I adore George Clooney and I'd watch him in anything but I think that because he's such a movie star his "acting" is best appreciated when he's doing something different and small. I'd like to watch and re-watch a bunch of his movies in a row to figure out what I actually DO think of his acting.
I've now seen three of the five nominees. Will get to Juno and Atonement when they're available on netflix.
And what kept me up really late was watching the first four shows of Dexter. Because I knew the basics--sociopathic serial killer channeling his murderous tendencies to kill those who deserve it-- I was not very surprised by the first episode and didn't start really liking the show until the third or fourth episodes. More next week. I'll watch the rest of the first season and see if I want to continue.
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I'm actually finding the political interplay at the police station as interesting, if not more so than Dexter himself. I'll definitely get through the first season but it'll have to get a lot more interesting for me to continue after that, I suspect.
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Also, re: your last entry - I have a recipe I bet you would LOVE, based on the things you were eating with your drinks etc. It's a kind of brie-nuts-honey-bake thing. Shall I hunt it up for you? It's fantastic with wine, too.
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Oh, and apparently, Kim recently (in the last year or so) had a whole complicated ordeal, best described here. I don't always like his work, but he is one of the most interesting filmmakers here, and, unfortunately, Koreans in general prefer predictable, easy, and unchallenging fare. (ie. If a movie bombs in Korea, I usually take it as a sign that it's interesting, intelligent, well-written, and will succeed abroad. And those that succeed the most in Korea, like, say, D-War, are usually just boring hypernationalist crap, though of course there are exceptions.)
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Nope. I'd never heard of him before Lucius recced the movie to me. Will have to check out other movies by him when I've got a chance.
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I should note that while Kim doesn't quite shy away from putting shocking things onscreen -- things lots of directors just avoid and whitewash -- he does also... I don't know, romanticize is the wrong word, sort of. But sort of not. In a film like Samaritan Girl or Bad Guy his honesty, and the spin he puts on things, can be even more disturbing than the absence. I have a feeling you might find those latter films offensive for reasons similar to what turned you off in von Trier's work, though Kim is less misogynistic than straight-up misanthropic, I think. (With the exception of Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring.
Oh, and while I'm recommending Korean films: Please Take Care of My Cat is probably the best mainstream film here I've seen (aside from Lee Chang Dong's Peppermint Candy, which is kind of mindblowing, and about the Kwangju Uprising and how the military dictatorships totally screwed up Korean society). I also liked The Barber of Hyojadong (about the Park dictatorship from the POV of a regular Joe, sort of) and Lee Chang Dong's Oasis which is probably the most moving of all the films I've listed. And if you want something bizarre -- a sort of mixture of Misery and Silence of the Lambs but comedy, with cartoony SFnal elements, Save the Green Planet was about the weirdest Korean movie I've ever seen, except a very amusing musical released the other year called Requiem for the Ghost Cinema, a very rough and funny musical set in a haunted movie cinema (which falters toward the end, but is still mostly fun). Oh, and Dasepo Girls, I think it's called, a kind of psychotic sex-comedy set in a high school, with cyclopes, crossdressing middle aged men, a karate fight with a flasher... also a musical. (And these high school sex comedies seem to be on the rise here, in the wake of American Pie I guess.)
Alright, I'll stop. Who knows how many of these are available there. (But if you can't find something, and are curious, let me know.)
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Quite an uncommon idea for a series. The acting as well as the writing (so far, especially for a first season) is very good.
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But the show is head and shoulders above so much of its ilk currently playing on American tv.
For Lucius though it's still dandruff...
I sort of waffle on it a bit. The writing is dramatically enjoyable for the most part but unrealistic...ex. Dexter's sister falling for the serial killer.
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