31 Days of Asian Horror: 13 Game of Death (2006) vs 13 Sins (2014)

Today’s pairing is of the 2006 Thai horror-comedy, 13: Game of Death, and the 2014 US remake, 13 Sins. While I feel that both of the movies have enough to make them two different watches, the rough backstory is the same. A man who is down on his luck receives a mysterious call who promises money if he goes through different stunts, each progressively harder and more degrading as the monetary value rises.

As I said, both films have the same general premise but stray a bit in their execution. While the Thai version is labeled as a comedy, it is noticeably different in tone than the US remake. The US one tends to go a bit darker, ramping up the thriller aspect and making some of the games more gruesome. This difference leads to a very different mindset when going into the movies. In 13: Game of Death, you spend most of the time trying to understand what is happening and what the next thing is going to be. It’s more erratic in its degrees and a lot of the time the games focus on actions that don’t hold a lot more consequence than embarrassment or degrading to him solely, which is much more impactful when the character has already been beaten down by life.

The other major difference between the two is the way that our protagonist is represented. In 13: Game of Death he’s a loner, constantly giving money to his mother, and not a high seller in his company. He’s overshadowed by his coworkers and genuinely down on his luck, lost, and alone. In the remake, he’s a bit more well-off. He has a few bad things that happen in the very beginning that set off everything, but comparatively, he has a much better life. He is in a seemingly great relationship, has a fairly good relationship with his brother. While he does lose his job he talks about how he was a high earner. Most of his debt is that he has other people depending upon him, but they are people active and loving in his life. He’s just not at the level the original main character is. You can kind of see this in the way the scene with the fly varies between the two movies. Phuchit is a fly at the beginning, or at least he perceives himself to be. He’s being constantly swatted down and when he hits the fly with the newspaper, it’s finally him changing and taking charge. Elliot does it because it’s a fun game that can fix his (new) problems easily.

I think it’s one of the major missteps that the remake took in my personal enjoyment of the film. The actions that unfolded felt much more real and understandable coming from the original, and the actions from the remake seemed like something he would already do. This wasn’t someone desperately down on his luck and at his absolute lowest, this was someone who had some bad things happen recently, and got lucky that the game fell into his lap magically. When all of the action comes to a head at the end of the movie, both versions portray the character as remorseful and sorrowful, but it didn’t feel that the remake made me truly feel that he was. He was just more exhausted or he just realized that he took on something much bigger than he expected. It felt like in the original I was rooting for the underdog, and in the remake I was rooting for the annoying character.

-Slight Spoilers-

The ending of the remake is what really sunk the entire thing for me. While I enjoyed the setup of the character in the original more, I was enjoying how different this version was and so it didn’t bother me as much, and was enjoying the film for what it was…until the ending. I just don’t understand the need for all of these remakes to have “happy endings”. Especially in a movie where it already makes sense not to have one. 13: Game of Death’s ending was much more impactful because he had given up everything to do all these horrific things and still at the very end he loses to his dad killing him. In 13 Sins he essentially got away with all of it because he lives. I guess it works for the opposites of the two characters, with the main character in 13 Sins having a rough life, yet not an outright terrible one, but what about his fiance? She gets to live with that type of person not knowing who he is or what he’s done? Is the horror then meant for her? She was barely in the movie to actually be that much of relevance in the writer’s mind that it doesn’t seem like that was the main objective. I will say that the execution of the ending worked a bit more for the remake than the original. The betrayals and surprises were a bit more upsetting because the characters had more bearing and had been setup more than the original. In the original focused on what the dad had done, but he was not an active part of his life during the majority of the movie so when he appears at the end you don’t get the same sense of betrayal, mostly because you barely know it’s him.

I also found that the absence of a character like Tong in the remake was a shame. Since 13 Sins had established him in a pretty good relationship - even at the end - there was no need for a central character like her to be used and to follow him around. Tong served as the constant reminder that there was someone who cared about Phuchit and was constantly trying to get him to come back from the dark and yet he could never see her. Phuchit spends most of his life doing things for others never believing or seeing what is there in front of him, which makes his character much more pitiful. While the US remake aimed to work that into the plot, they didn’t spend enough time to incorporate it well. Most of the time it wasn’t that he didn’t see the fiance as a constant there to help and support, she was just an obstacle in him trying to accomplish each game without being caught.

-End Spoilers-

In the end, I do really like that 13 Sins didn’t try to be 13: Game of Death as much as a lot of other remakes try to. It took the work and made it its own, and some of the character choices and relationships worked much better for a Western audience and the tone they were focusing the move on. 13: Game of Death still outshines Sins in its writing and set up of the characters and pacing for me, but I would still recommend giving both a shot.

Both 13: Game of Death and 13 Sins can be found on Tubi.

+++

31 Days of Asian Horror: Agyaat (2009)

I’ll admit, I’ve watched little to no Indian/Bollywood dramas or movies, and Agyaat is definitely the first horror for me to run across. I figured I’d give it a try because it fit today’s theme (Film Maker Tuesdays) and wanted to branch out of my comfort zone in where I usually watch for Asian horror. Netflix has sort of a sizable collection of Indian movies and dramas on their site, so it was pretty easy for me to find something that seemed interesting.

Directed by Ram Gopal Varma, Agyaat is set in the jungle where a film crew is working on a project. The lead male actor is over the top and conceited, the crew largely consists of amateurs, and there become several problems that effect the shoot which causes the group to have several days of free time. They decide to tour the jungle during this downtime where the meet an entity that starts killing them one by one.

I’m not going to lie to you, it was pretty hard to watch this movie in the very beginning. It was largely boring for me and I ended up zoning out for a long time before realizing I was still watching it. I do like the idea of what the movie was trying to do in the beginning, as it was deliberately campy so that when the entity starts to kill the tension ramps up, but for the most part none of the characters were likeable or interesting enough for me to care whether they died or not and just generally felt apathetic about caring. And usually that doesn’t bother me, I don’t have to like a person to be able to follow them, but no one was even interesting. I think the problem was that’s all we were doing for 40 minutes, rehashing and drilling in what type of people this group was, when it didn’t need it to spend that much time setting it up. Especially when they were deliberately one-dimensial caricatures.

I do think when the movie finally started to get into the horror is where it started to settle into the story and I was able to enjoy it a lot more, but it took too long to get there. The first half barely even had the mention of the spirit/thing that hunted in the jungke. Almost every “scare” came from the movie they were shooting. Even when the movie finally became a horror movie it mirrored the first part in that it was the same kind of thing over and over with out very much payoff. The intrigue of the entity wasn’t enough to keep me fully invested and while you could see where it was supposed to go, it just wasn’t getting there. There were a lot of missed moments that could have helped flesh out the script more and make this more of an appeal, but in the end it fell flat.

Agyaat is currently streaming on Netflix.

+++

31 Days of Asian Horror: Suddenly in the Dark (1981)

When I say that Suddenly in the Dark has been on my watchlist for a long time, I mean it. It’s one of those movies that has been there a little too long, I just never made time for it. October seemed like the perfect time to finally rectify that, and after watching it just confirmed my suspicions that I was wrong for not getting to it faster. It’s an engaging psychological thriller with slow builds and a perfect unreliable narrator that is further supported by the interesting camera angles and various filters used. While I’m not going to give away too many spoilers in this post, it’s a movie that I can’t not talk about for some length. If you haven’t watched the movie, go watch it and come back here.

The movie follows Seon Hee (Kim Young Ae), a housewife whose life is disrupted when her husband brings home a young woman, Mi Ok (Lee Ki Seon), a daughter of a shaman priestess. Mi Ok has been recently made homeless due to a fire that claimed the life of her mother and comes to help out Seon Hee around the house for a place to stay. Mi Ok brings home a doll that her mother gave her, a doll that has been tormenting Seon Hee’s dreams. Suddenly in the Dark is director Go Yeong Nam’s only horror film out of his over 100 film credits.

The main plot of the movie is Seon Hee’s spiral into distrust of both her husband and Mi Ok. A lot of the tension had been growing slowly over some time, well before we see her, but her friend’s remarks only further help it and aid to solidify her paranoia about her husband. Because of Seon Hee’s position and where she was living, she is essentially shut off from society. There is only ever one car shown, and has no visible neighbors. She only has, seemingly, one friend and spends her life waiting for her husband to return from long trips and now her routine has been disrupted with the entrance of a younger female - one that she didn’t bring into the house. Seon Hee has only been known as someone else’s. Yu Jin’s wife, Gyeong Ah’s mother and now there is a clear threat of that being stripped away from her, and that she is losing the only identity she knows. She’s at a turning point in her acceptance of being her own person and it is presenting itself in her dissolving mental state.

In Korean culture, the butterfly is a symbol of joy and prosperity. When shown in pairs they symbolize harmony and unity among a husband and wife. (source) Seon Hee’s husband spends much of the movie away from the house trying to catch a rare butterfly that has only been seen by few in Korea. There is also a superstition that if you touch one you’ll go blind. Yu Jin is blind throughout the movie to his wife’s diminishing mental state and how far gone she is truly becoming. The events of the movie only further heighten it. Everything comes to head at the very end as his butterfly collection is destroyed, and too their marriage.

The film makes you question everything, and there are parts that seem like her delusions of Mi Ok are true and supported by events that are happening. You are constantly questioning the husband and Mi Ok’s actions because of this. The use of Seon Hee being such an unreliable narrator not only helps the psychological mind play that is happening, but it also creates a sense of constant uneasiness. Seon Hee forces a mirrored version of the woman in the magazine onto Mi Ok, which we see in numerous times through the lens of the camera. Mi Ok’s naivety and age only help create a false reality to support these stories. It really helped with the tension because I was being forced to figure out if it was all true, or if we were truly seeing a woman who is mentally spiraling. Both options aren’t good, Seon Hee purposely sabotaging this facade seems unlikely and you are left sadly watching a woman losing everything because she’s not getting the care she needs. The upkeep of the image of the wealthy perfect family was too much for her and had rendered her silent for years until it was forced to bubble over with Mi Ok’s arrival.

While a little too experimental and hokey at times, the film’s use of practical camera effects and angles add to the delusion. Any time Seon Hee is seeing the distortion of truth, a kaleidoscope lens is applied. An almost broken mirror that we are seeing only bits and pieces of what is truly going on. In these instances, you really start to feel the erraticness of her actions and how she is spiraling out of control in her distorted reality. The movie worked well to use the camera tricks to help with the tension and added some good eery parts and I was also left guessing. The creepy doll only adding to everything and made my enjoyment of the film only grow. I was immersed in everything which led to me not only letting my guard down, but also feeling like Seon Hee at times. I was uncomfortable and confused. There are weird things constantly happening, almost seemingly in the background, but because of Seon Hee’s fixation of Mi Ok they are almost missed. Kim Young Ae does a fantastic job in her role and carries Seon Hee well. While the other’s acting is slightly lacking, it works well for the crazy ride of the movie and I wasn’t bothered by it. I’m really glad I decided to pick this one up, as its become a new favorite.

Suddenly in the Dark is available on Blu-Ray and streaming on AsianCrush (and by default Midnight Pulse).

+++

31 Days of Asian Horror: Dearest Sister (2016)

Today is a freebie day on my schedule, and I purposely looked for something a bit different to add to my mix. While browsing Shudder, Dearest Sister has always caught my eye but never realized that it was a horror film Laos. It seemed like the perfect time to give it a try. I went into the movie knowing absolutely nothing about it and was pleasantly surprised. The premise of the movie is fairly simple and it spends a large portion of the film building up to the main story. A village girl named Nok (Amphaiphun Phimmapunya) travels to Vientiane, the home of her rich cousin Ana (Tot Vilouna) who has begun to lose her eyesight at the request of her family and Ana’s husband. Nok is there to provide support for her as she copes with her eyesight diminishing, and it’s there she finds out that Ana can see ghosts and is tormented by them.

I want to keep most of the review spoiler-free because I really want people to watch this film with very little knowledge like I did. Because of that, it’s hard to fully deep dive into the movie but a do think it’s necessary. The plot takes some time to build, and a lot of the movie we are spent not knowing what is going on, and it sets up a nice slow burn that really doesn’t start to ramp up until the end of the movie. I didn’t know where the movie was taking me, and by the end it wasn’t what I thought. I really enjoyed the payoff at the end, though, and found that even with the slow build and in the quieter non-horror moments I was still heavily engrossed by the relationship between the two. Nok comes in as almost a stranger to Ana. They are opposites in all regard, Nok living a life of poverty rooted in spirituality and Ana a life of luxury. The way the two interact throughout the movie was intriguing and really came to a head at the end. The movie is much more than the aspect of Ana seeing the ghosts, and more about how change and money can affect people - whether good or bad. The movie focuses its creepiness more towards the tension and atmosphere of the tone, thus the horror is relatively low. I think this would be a good movie for those who may be a bit more scared, or don’t want to watch something gorier or that focuses on jump scares.

When I was researching the movie after watching, I found that the story was directed by Laotian American director Mattie Do. She is not only the first to direct a Lao horror film, but she is also the country's only female director. Do started her horror journey back in 2012 with the low-budget film, Chanthaly. I also ended up watching Chanthly directly after watching Dearest Sister because I was intrigued by her work. While for a lot of the production you can feel the low budget, the movie overall had a nice backbone and for a first-time direction (that was shot at Do’s home and on a $5,000 budget) I thought the story was good. The movie can be found on Do’s YouTube channel, with subs, here. It’s already hard being a female in the industry, and to top that off with being the only one in your country it puts more pressure on her. She’s a pioneer for that, and I look forward to watching more of her work.

Senses of Cinema has a great interview with Do that talks more about her background, her creative process, and her thoughts on her position as a director that is putting Laos on the map as a contender for film. I highly suggest checking it out.

Dearest Sister is currently streaming on Shudder.

+++

31 Days of Asian Horror: Mon Mon Mon Monsters (2017)

It’s Creature Feature Friday and today we are going to Taiwan to talk about the 2017 horror comedy directed by Giddens Ko, Mon Mon Mon Monsters. The movie has been sitting in My List on Shudder for a very long time. I’d put off partly because of time, but also partly because I knew it was going to be a comedy and needed to be in the mood for it before pressing play. As I began watching I thought I had made a mistake, the first 15 minutes or so of the movie is sort of hard to get through and focuses on a trope that I tend to stay away from (bullying), but the introduction of the monsters in the first minutes of the movie made me intrigued enough to power through, and I’m glad I did.

Mon Mon Mon Monsters follows Lin Shu Wei (played by Yu Kai Teng whose most recent credit is Tree in the River), a high school student who is constantly tormented by a group of students in his class. When the teacher assigns the group and him to do some community work they encounter a monster, capturing and torturing it. They uncover secrets about its power and use that to continue their terror. The film has sort of an easy and somewhat overused plotline, with the moral of the piece being a fairly used plot: the exploration of how humans can be much more monsters than actual monsters. Ko has stated in interviews that at the time of working on the project he was having a hard time as he was caught up in a public affair scandal. Using the hatred he was receiving from the public about it led to the creation of the text.

“But when I started to work on the script, I found I couldn’t exclude myself from the horror, so the project developed into a more personal story.” (source)

The pacing is executed well and hones in on the narrative, getting darker as the movie progresses and felt the movie had some genuinely good scares and the creepiness level of the monsters worked well. Without giving too much away, the monsters are closer to vampires but the narrative never confirms this, and the way that they interact with each other and humans is just different enough to make it an interesting take on a smashup of different creatures. Eugenie Liu (Triad Princess) plays the eldest of the monster sisters. I’m familiar with some of her other work and was impressed by her interpretation of the monster. For most of the movie I didn’t even recognize her - not just because of the makeup. The pacing of the comedy also worked well for me, and while there is a bit more of the over exaggerated puns and gimmicks, it fits the characters. Despite their horrific acts, the main characters are underdeveloped kids and I think the story did a good job to remind the audience of that every once in a while. They are immature and I think a lot of the comedy is just a mirror of the kid’s immaturity not understanding the severity of the situation, and how they are breaking the tension of the situation rather than the movie trying to interject it. The comedy dissipates when it needs to, and it was never a jarring tonal watch for me.

I really enjoyed the movie much more than I expected to. Once I got past the bullying in the first part, which I mentioned is a trigger for me, I was able to start to relax and focus on the story. While a lot of what happens is not unexpected the story is intriguing and some of the characters had great layers to them that were able to be executed as the story unfolded. There are some genuinely great scenes. The bus scene, for example, was a highlight and perfectly accomplished a mix of horror, gore, and worked as a great way to convey the raw emotion of the monster and it didn’t just add a showy spectacle. The ending also stuck the landing, making it an all-around great watch.

Mon Mon Mon Monsters is currently streaming on Shudder.

+++

31 Days of Asian Horror: Vampire Cleanup Department (2017)

I probably should have planned things out a bit more so that I didn’t have two horror movies from Hong Kong back-to-back, but it’s vampire day and one of the movies that kept coming up when searching for options was the 2017 Vampire Cleanup Department, and I knew I was going to have to check it out.

In the early 1980’s, Hong Kong had an explosion of comedy/action/horror vampire films stemming from the popularity of the 1985 Mr. Vampire directed by Ricky Lau.. Vampire Cleanup Department is a spin-off of sorts, more an homage to the genre of films that were so popular. The movie takes elements from the original Mr Vampire that are most notable - vampires that hop and the way that vampires die - to update the story for a new era. Former Mr. Vampire franchise alumni Chin Siu Ho and Richard Ng star in the film. As for the movie, it has a fairly easy set up. After a brush with a vampire, Tim Cheung becomes an intern for a vampire hunting organization. While patroling one night he meets a female vampire and things start to spiral out of control when he falls for her. If you took Ghostbusters, replaced all of the ghosts with vampires, and added more mysticism and martial arts you’d get Vampire Cleanup Department.

The movie is wacky and campy, rarely letting go of the comedy and is entirely aware of it. Because of this, the comedy worked really well for me. I’m not usually into comedies that switch tones in and out too much and thought that all of the gags worked. From the way they introduce the unit, the jumping vampires that act more like mummies with fangs - it’s a constant ride of jokes and puns. While the movie was a fun way to spend a weekday night, it’s nothing that I would consider special or outstanding. It has sort of an interesting plot in the beginning, yet it doesn’t really make time for it to continue within the antics of everything going on and the by the second act the film heavily switches over the focus on the love story. I feel like this would have been a fun short series instead of just the movie so that we could get to know some of the other characters, which there are a good bit. All the characters are enjoyable, and there is a setup to a storyline with his parents that a series would give ground to an interesting backstory. This could have been intentially done, hoping that the movie would spawn a resurrection of the franchise, yet I can’t find any movement on that which kind of forces the movie to feel incomplete. That said, if you are in need of a low stress movie to watch for the Halloween season, especially if you have some older kids who will sit through a movie with you, I suggest giving it a try. While it doesn’t stick the landing, it was a good way to spend a couple of hours.

Vampire Cleanup Department is currently streaming at a number of places, inlcuding Viki, AsianCrush, and Tubi.

+++

31 Days of Asian Horror: The Eye (2002) vs The Eye (2008)

I tried to make some sort of “eye for an eye” pun but just couldn’t make it work.

Today I’m pairing the original horror film from 2002 directed by brothers Danny and Oxide Pang, The Eye, and it’s 2008 US remake of the same name (directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud) to talk more about them and discuss the differences between the two films and what I thought did - or didn’t - work. While I am going to try my best to keep out of major spoilers, I might have to venture into that land for a bit. Most of the movies I have picked for this month were selected beforehand, but this became a last-minute add when I sat down to watch the Pang Brother’s original the other night and was curious what the remake looked like. I had never actually seen the remake before watching, the movie came out my senior year of college and as a theatre major there was no way I had extra time for anything. But the movie is one of those from the 2000s that I would have gravitated towards if I had the time.

The two aren’t identical, which I will discuss below, the basic premise is the same for both. The main character has been blind for most of her life, and after receiving cornea implant surgery so that she would be able to see again, she starts noticing people and places that no one else can see and tries to figure out why it is happening to her.

Note: Since the remake shares the same name as the original, for purposes of this post when I refer to The Eye I’m talking about the 2002 version.

While both movies stay close to each other’s main storyline, I found that the interpretations of the remake were off and sometimes it effected the rest of the storyline. Take for instance the importance of the transplant surgery. In the original, the transplant is there for her and in the remake it’s almost like it’s there for the world. In The Eye she was part of a blind orchestra, and regaining sight meant that she lost her place and that aspect of normal life would be taken away from her, yet in the remake she’s not part of any special orchestra, she is the shining star both before and after the surgery. A lot of the remake tries to point towards her disability, as if to enforce how special she is when the character herself is very humble towards everything and the opportunity she was given.

This becomes a problem towards the middle of the movie when she is starting to collapse mentally because of the amount of ghosts she’s seeing. The remake tries to integrate it into the story that it was her against the world, when in the original those around her are concerned. She’s not seen as abnormally crazy, just not adjusting as well as she could be and it’s much more real. This difference also bleeds into the relationships she has. The Eye’s biggest pull is in the emotion it conveys through the characters. While there is tension and horror associated with the ghosts she sees, the movie constantly falls back to the human side. Her friendship with the young cancer patient and her relationship with the doctor bring the movie back into a grounded emotional state that we just don’t see with the remake. Her relationships are rushed in the remake and we don’t get a sense of who they are or who she is, more on what she is doing. Part of this could be that the focus was less on the characters, but it’s also due to pacing. For a shorter film, The Eye is excellent at it, giving you the information you need while allowing the relationships to mean something, even when the characters haven’t had much storytime together. The Pang brother’s are able to fill a moment with a lot of meaning and while watching the US remake (especially directly after) the drastic differences in the two are felt and you can really feel the unevenness of the pacing. The plot of the remake rushes to integrate these points, which is just not an obstacle for the original film.

The remake’s greatest misstep is shown in how it handles the way that she sees the ghosts. In the remake, there is an undertaker-type figure that she constantly sees is much more exaggerated because it focuses on death being the monster of the movie. The original makes a point to focus on the realness of death and that life has ending that must be accepted - no matter who it is. It’s not some crazy monster and neither good nor evil, just a part of life that is shown through the events at the end of the movie. The Eye’s main moral is that life is based on your outlook, and while the remake kind of gets there at the end it doesn’t do a whole lot to justify it and a lot of the changes that they make, specifically at the ending, don’t really work.

While I do think the remake is a good story on it’s own, it’s hard to not compare it to the original. I know I spent this entire comparison on all the points I didn’t like about the remake, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I didn’t enjoy it. If you are looking for a more action based film that focuses more on the gruesome haunts and frights without grounding itself in reality then its a good movie to watch. The set up is scary, and I don’t think Jessica Alba is bad in the role. It’s a perfectly fine one-off movie that wraps up nicely and wasn’t bad. I do like that it stayed pretty close to the overall stoyline from the original and do think that a good portion of what was changed was to make it fit with the audience they were shooting for. And there’s nothing wrong with that. In the end, the biggest difference between the two was where they focused the character’s motivations and emotions. The Eye took situations and grounded it in that emotion, while the remake would use it to heighten the superficial horror.

The Eye has two sequels: The Eye 2 and The Eye 10, both directed by the brothers. Besides the American remake it has spawned two other remakes: A Tamil version called Adhu and a Hindi version Naina.

The original is currently only available on DVD, but the remake is streaming on Peacock.

+++

31 Days of Asian Horror: One Cut of the Dead (2017)

How do I talk about a movie like One Cut of the Dead? It’s an experience that you just have to…experience. The joy in this movie is watching it and following the crazy ride from start to finish. What starts off as a film about overworked actors shooting a zombie film with a cynical director evolves into chaos as zombies appear. The camera work, lack of decent lighting, sporadic focus, and not-so-great acting add so much to the film and captures the rawness blending the satire into the story flawlessly.

Because of how well it is able to take you on such an unexpected journey, it has become one of my favorite zombie films. It’s quirky and fun, yet extremely smart. This film depends upon your first viewing having not known any of the spoilers to truly get how beautifully this film was crafted and produced. It would be a disservice to take that away from your enjoyment of the film and if you haven’t watched it, now is the best time. Don’t let the first part stop you, I promise the payoff is more than worth it. Shinichiro Ueda was able to craft a witty and original horror-comedy while on a low budget with a cast of unknown actors that is satisfying and has a lot of heart. The film is beyond enjoyable.

I’m not going to lie to you, the movie’s draw is the twists and reveals, but it is still highly re-watchable even after knowing the secrets and just adds another layer of enjoyment. It gives you all the clues along the way and with each rewatch you see them in a new light. The film was inspired by Ryoichi Wada's stage play, Ghost in the Box, and in a way it follows that theatricality. Because of it, the movie allows you to transition from the viewpoint of the audience, the actors, and the backstage crew to get a lot out of your multiple viewings.

One Cut of the Dead is streaming on Shudder.

+++

31 Days of Asian Horror: Kuroneko (1968)

*Slight spoilers throughout

When I was first coming up with the list of movies to watch and review for this month, I knew I wanted to focus on some offerings that pushed me out of my watchlist and into areas that were a bit more foreign to me. It’s eventually how I chose do the “retro” day. I wanted to purposely pick some older films. I didn’t think when I was planning that I would develop such a deep love for it. It seems silly in hindsight, as a lot of the elements that these movies focus on and the way that they are produced are what I enjoy. I was happy that Kuroneko proved to be much more of a solid pick than I had ever hoped.

Kaneto Shindo’s Kuroneko is based on a folktale by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, In a Grove. Set during the civl war in Japan, the film follows a mother and daughter-in-law who are assaulted than murdered, returning as cat-like ghosts to avenge their deaths. I pause to say that this move is a horror. In a way, it is but the story flows as a mashup of multiple genres. Kuroneko is more than just a vengeful spirit tale. It’s a story of grief, love, anger, and a deep sadness of what could - and should - have been. Shindo is able to bridge the melding of these genres that goes beyond the normal vengeful female ghost stories and grounds the realness and confusion of the events.

The abrupt and brutal assault of the women in the very beginning of the movie sets up the tragedy they are forced to endure and there is an immediate understanding on why they do what they do. While their actions aren’t necessarily justified, the audience plays an understanding and sympathetic role and we immediately understand that the horror lies with these actions much more than what the pair will do. Their hatred for samurais are eventually challenged when Gintoki appears. Shige question everything and struggles with her want to feel his love and be happy again. The sadness that Yone feels for both her son and daughter-in-law and her pain and anger feeding her want for revenge create a story that is intriguing and heartbreaking. I was engaged throughout.

Another standout for the film is how it portrays the appearance of the pair. The practice of hikamiyu, shaving the brows and smudging on a higher line on the forehead, accented the feline features of the two. The lightness in the fight choreography also lent towards the feline feel as they were able to fly effortlessly through the air, landing quietly on their feet. There are only a few times we are reminded visually that they are cats, and at that point the viewer has almost forgotten that they are not the humans that they are presented with and just the smallest hint of them being inhuman reminds you of that and when the story of Gintoki starts to unfold it adds to a new grief.

The film is shot in black and white which adds another level to the creepiness of the setting when Yone takes the samurai back through the bamboo forests. The shadows and lines of the pair as they take the long walk through the woods heightens the tension of the situation - the density of the bamboo is engulfing. You are rarely ever scared for the women, though. In a way, the story is the act of the women taking back their lives, and becoming the upperhand in a time where they would normally not. They were violated in a such a horrific way that transcends their deaths, and there is something beautiful, while dark, about a story that allows them to see that out. While Yone finds her lost love and chooses to follow him, the mother can not. Even the love of her son doesn’t allow her to let go of vengence and mirrors how survivors can share the same assault, yet the way it affects them is drastically different.

Mizuki Sameuelson has a great essay that explores the topic more detailed, “Kuroneko: On Rape-Revenge and The Monstrous Feminine” that focuses more on the difference between Yone and Shige’s end choices that I highly suggest checking out.

Kuroneko can be streamed on the Criterion Collection.

+++

31 Days of Asian Horror: The Tag-Along (2015)

The Tag-Along is an adaption of the well-known Taiwanese urban legend, The Little Girl in Red. In 1998 after a hike, a Taichung City resident suddenly passed away and when family members viewed footage from the hike they saw that they had been followed by a young girl in a red dress, this led to increased sightings of the little girl and the legend continued to gain popularity. The insertion of the well-known legend connected with local audiences, and when it premiered it became a huge success. It broke the ten year record of the best-selling horror film in Taiwan (previously held by Silk in 2006). Executive producer Tseng Han Hasien stated that he wanted to make more than just a movie.

“I'm well aware there aren't many Taiwanese horror movies, but if no one wants to start, aren't we going to be stuck forever?” Tseng told The News Lens, following the release of the film in November 2015. “Taiwanese are too afraid of failure, and a movie not working out is enough to shake people's confidence.” (source)

I really wanted to like this movie, and it was presented as one that I would enjoy. I like slow builds because find them a bit more creepy. I want to be able to settle in the atmosphere trying figure out the mystery. While the start of the movie set up a premise that I wanted, it started to crumble as the plot got messy towards it’s finally act. There were some good creepy moments, but at the end the movie’s faults and a direction for a character I don’t agree with muddied my enjoyment. Because of this I’m going to talk a little bit more about the ending. Spoilers below.

---

The story presents itself as one way, with Chih Wei assuming the central character in the first act. While I did find it interesting to switch to Yi Chan being the main character when he disappeared, it really was only to set up what happens to her later in the movie and despite having time with her character, they failed to set up her character’s actions for the end. Because of this, it directly conflicted with the little we do get to know of her. The only time we get a sense of who she is as a person isn’t during this time. While yes, we do see her struggle to find help for her missing boyfriend and the panic and grief that she is juggling while solely taking on the investigation, her background is not hinted at during this time.

We only get know more about who she is and what she stands for when she is with Chih Wei. One of the main conflicts between the two is that he has bought a house for them to live in together, without discussing it with her. It is revealed during this that Yi Chan doesn’t want to get married and doesn’t want kids, a point that she has already discussed it with Chih Wei who still tries to force her in the direction essentially guilt tripping her into it by surprising her with the house, and complaining about how long they had been together. There’s no nod to regret or some secret she has because of her stance, the story presents her as being independent and that this is just a clash between the two with no hint for it to be anything bigger.

The problem is, we need it to be bigger. We need it to have more consequence and have more nuance, or the events in the forest fail to live up as anything other than character assassination to tell the main agenda. It doesn’t make sense to who she is as a person, the one given by the script, and ultimately forces the stereotype that a woman must have some sort of horrid past that is tormenting her for not wanting to be a wife and mother and it’s a sad pivot for her as her own being. In a way, that’s all her character ever was. To her boyfriend and to the writer, Yi Chan’s actions - both in her aborting the child and her want to not be married and have kids - were taken away from her at the end. It’s obviously not the horror the writer wanted to portray, but it is the one we got.

While the ending was disappointing for me, I do feel that the movie had some general good moments and has some good moments that I do think a general audience will find creepy. Hsu Wei Ning did well within her role, bringing a lot to it. While I hated the way the reveal happened in the forest, her emotions are raw and honest and she really did well to keep up the weight of the movie (Wei Ning was just recently in Victims’ Game, a crime series currently streaming on Netflix, if you want to see more of her work I suggest giving that a look). I also think using the legend of the Little Girl in Red was an interesting take on the movie. It didn’t follow some of the main stories about the little girl, but took what was scary about her to create more of the mystery and I do see where a lot of the local audiences can connect with the story. Even if you don’t know a friend of a friend who had seen the girl, growing up hearing the legend helps you immerse yourself in the world because of that connection. The graphics were ok and while standard and overused, had some fun creepy moments. I think in general people will find this a pretty good movie and it is certainly not my least favorite despite my issues. The story did keep me guessing and the overall tone made it a mostly enjoyable watch. Combine that with Ning’s performance it was pretty decent till almost the end.

There is a 2017 sequel with both of the main actors returning to their role, and another movie in the series that focuses on a completely different legend. The sequel was a massive success, overtaking the original and becoming the highest-grossing local horror film of the past decade.

The Tag-Along is currently streaming on Tubi and AsianCrush.

+++

31 Days of Asian Horror: The Host (2006)

It’s officially October, and day one of the 31 Days of Asian Horror! What better way to start than with a personal favorite genre and one of my top Korean movies, the 2006 monster movie The Host.

After a military scientist flushes down a liquid that enters the Han River, a creature is created that makes landfall and takes the daughter of a snack bar attendant, Gang Du (Song Kang Ho). Written and directed by Bong Joon Ho (Parasite), The Host follows Gang Du’s family’s fight as they try to get back Hyun Seo from the creature and the obstacles that the creature’s presence creates.

The Host is a little bit different than most creature features, as it focuses it’s satire through the characters and not the creature. It combines action horror with an underlying plot about the background of the creature, the public’s response, and a larger coverup. The character’s are constantly grounded. The film portrays a view that is closer to what would happen in a situation like this rather than other action films with a super-powered hero that gets everything right.

We see this throughout the film not just within the main characters. The way the crowd reacts when the creature first emerges, throwing beer cans into the water or the white male hero trying to take down the creature to only get eaten within minutes. No character is necessarily good or evil. They all lack the skills to survive unlike normal main characters in an action film and the plot allows for those faults to work within satire and comedy that doesn’t go over the top. Even the way the government and the police handle it, and how the citizens who weren’t at the river view what happened, all help form a smart and entertaining story that keeps you guessing even when you think you have it.

Korean films, in general, tend to focus on families (related or found) as it is engrained in their culture, and khorror does not stray away from it. Much like films such as Train to Busan or The Quiet Family, through the wackiness of the central plot The Host focuses on the underdogs working as a team and the importance of them all working together to become the hero. At the end of the day, The Host is a focus on the importance of family and the fight (to help family or those in trouble) makes you a hero even when you don’t think you possess those skills.

I highly suggest watching this movie even if you are not a horror fan. It’s a fun watch that will keep you entertained and engaged throughout. The movie is wacky, quick-witted, and has a lot of heart.

If you are looking for more movies similar to this, I suggest giving Chaw a chance. I previously reviewed it here.

The Host is currently streaming on a number of sites such as Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Tubi and available on Blu-Ray/DVD.

+++

Review: Howling Village (2019)

With the amount of times I kept seeing Howling Village pop up in various horror news outlets, and its slots in various film festivals, I was really interested in the movie and made a point to watch it when it was released in the US on VOD as opposed to waiting till it was on Blu-Ray or later on in the year when I’m not spending most of my attention on Korean horror. Written and directed by Takashi Shimzu (Ju-On), Howling Village follows psychiatrist Kanae who’s brother goes missing after events that happened while visiting the Haunted Village with his girlfriend, and her journey to uncover the mysteries of the village and it’s ties to her family. In theory, it sounds like everything I would want in a movie. Mysteries, ghosts, family secrets, and creepiness. The movie, however, didn’t quite live up to it.

While the film started off relatively quickly, after about the first third it felt draggy and bogged down in the pursuit of the truth behind the Howling Village and their family’s relation to it. There was a lot of time spent on this, and very little scares were part of this. If you are not a lover of slow burns, this movie will not be your cup of tea. I was intrigued by the mysteries in the beginning, but it failed to live up to what I assumed it would be. The reveals were a bit underwhelming and confusing. Even at the end during the main reveal, much of the focus was trying to figure out what was going on and why the pieces we got along the way come to this. This resulted in a lot of the creepy factors being overshadowed by trying to keep up with what was going on.

The haunted village and tunnel in the movie are based on true legends, as Takashi stated in this Disappointment Media interview:

“The producer approached [me] about some strange things that had happened in this Inunaki Tunnel and what may have happened in the tunnel, a lot of it has been taken up on the internet, and everybody has chimed in with their own version and their own ideas. And basically, [I] took all of that and started to put it together into a script.”

I’m not familiar with the legend, and while not much information is available, I did find several articles about some of the lore behind it. The tunnel is located in Miyawaka town in the Fukuoka Prefecture and is mostly famous for the amount of murders that have occurred in or near. The tunnel is currently sealed because of this. The YouTube channel Kowabana Japan has a couple of videos with a brief history of the area, including the main murder that happened that has cursed the area. I suggest checking out the video (found here). While it doesn’t really tie to the movie, it is interesting to know a little more about the area and why it is a known place for people in that area.

Although Howling Village did not live up to the hype for me, I did enjoy some parts. I thought Ayaka Miyoshi was great in her main role, and her scenes with the boy she was taking care of were some of my favorite parts. I would have loved a bit more with them, and more with the spirits he could see. I would recommend this to anyone who’s into jhorror or a fan of Takashi’s work, but wouldn’t drop things to make room for it. Howling Village is currently on VOD in a number of places (I watched it on YouTube) and will be released on Blu-Ray September 14th.

+++

Phone (2002) Non-Spoiler Review

Phone was written and directed by Ahn Byeong Ki, who’s known for a number of horror works such as the Bunshinsaba series, APT, and Death Bell 2. The movie follows Ji Won (Ha Ji Won), an investigative journalist who starts to get mysterious calls on her new cellphone. Thinking it’s in reference to a case she had just broken, she thinks nothing of it until things escalate when her friend’s daughter gets ahold of the phone and hears something that frightens her, prompting Ji Won to investigate the source of the calls.

Phone has everything I personally love in horror films. The spookiness of a horror film, with the mystery of a crime drama. I think the film balances out the creepy bits with the investigation into what is behind the problems with the phone well. It keeps you not only on the edge of your seat because it uncovers some great shocks, but also because you don’t know what the entity is going to do next and why. Pair all of those elements with a delightfully creepy kid, and you get a really enjoyable movie.

The stand-out performance in the cast is Eun Seo Woo as Young Joo. Her role requires her to deal with a range of emotions and she is able to pull it off at only seven years old. I’ve watched Ha Ji Won in several roles, all in rom-com settings, so it was nice to see her in a different role. Although she seems to be the main character as the phone calls are coming to her, she really isn’t in the context of the movie and is there as the catalyst to unveil what happened. I thought she worked well in that role and didn’t take the attention away from that storyline while keeping her character grounded. Kim Yoo Mi as Young Joo’s mom is also great, her character progression throughout the movie was subtle but highly effective.

At the risk of not giving too much away, I will say that I liked the nod to The Tell-Tale Heart paired with the build of tension using ‘The Moonlight Sonata’ at the end and was a great wrap-up to the story. The movie has a good amount of twists and turns that keep you entertained. If you like Asian horror for its slower builds and vengeful ghosts, I highly suggest checking out Phone.

+++

DEEP (non-spoiler) Review

I wasn’t going to do a review on this movie since I’ve been trying to limit the amount of non-Korean horror content I post until the end of August, but since it just came out I figured it might be good to put one up in case someone was trying to feel out the movie and whether it was worth it to watch. I ended up watching it when it premiered on Netflix a couple of days ago, and after watching I knew that I maybe needed to focus a review on it.

Desperate for cash, Jane (Care Panisara Rikulsurakan) joins a study on insomnia that implants a chip to make sure you stay awake. The project spirals out of control as her and three other students try to get out.

Deep had so much potential to be a fairly decent movie, but ultimately fell flat. I wish I had liked the movie more, and I wish that it had pushed the boundaries a bit more. It had an interesting concept, and the cast did relatively well with the script they were given, so I know that if they had a more fleshed out story they’d be able to carry it. You could see where the movie was supposed to go at multiple times, but they never attempted to or tried to go in any of those directions. For the first half of the movie, it’s barely a thriller or even sci-fi movie. We don’t see much about the actual study of what the chip does. For the most part it’s just about a group of teens finally being free to be themselves and finding friendships with all this extra free time they have. During the pivotal turning points, it was boring and uninventive. It never kept you on the edge of your seat and the climax was equally as boring.

While the movie is obviously for a younger crowd, I don’t think that it even lives up for them. I know that if you had asked me if I enjoyed the movie when I was like 13 I’d still feel the same sense of emptiness out of it. I probably wouldn’t pick up on things like the weird dialogue and deliveries, but the thriller aspect of the movie was really not there, and I would have been as disappointed then as I am now.

Should you watch this? I’d say no, there are several other sci-fi thrillers that are much better that this can definitely be skipped. I’d say that unless you have teens or preteens who like this type of movie and want to find something you both can watch together knowing that there isn’t going to be any sex scenes or bad language, this isn’t the movie night for you. It is by far not the worst thing I’ve sit through but ultimately I’d say watch something else.

+++

Chaw (non-spoiler) Review

I am back to reviews after a week off (sorry about that, last week was a little too busy and I didn’t plan ahead well). As I hinted towards in my Creature Features post, today I am reviewing the 2009 dark comedy monster film, Chaw.

Chaw’s premise is super simple: a mutant pig terrorizes a small rural town that has seen no deaths in years, and a ragtag team is formed to stop it. Director/writer Shin Jeong Won stated in an interview that he came up with the idea to do the movie when he kept getting comedic scripts that didn’t match his comedy. He wanted to do a monster movie and was “intrigued by the idea of a familiar animal attacking and killing humans and wanted to create something out of this unexpectedness. But most of all, I wanted something funny and unique.” He picked a boar because it’s the most well known animal that creates the greatest amount of destruction. (source 1) (source 2).

Apparently, Shin and I would get along great, because I loved how the comedy was used in this film (and probably would have hated all those comedy scripts he was sent). For the most part, when we deal with the boar and its destruction, the comedy isn’t used or played up which allows a lot of the satire to lie in the quirkiness of the town and the characters outside of incidents with the boar. The comedy really just helps to form the backdrop of the town and the characters to give you a sense of who they are and why they are responding the way they are. Seriously, I’d watch a drama of just this town and all the people in it. I read someone comparing it to Twin Peaks, and I’d have to agree. If you combined Twin Peaks with The Host, you’d get Chaw if that helps you figure out what type of movie you’re getting yourself into.

The boar was a mixture of animatronic and CGI. As a lover of practicals, I really liked it a lot. The pig was created by an FX team in the US and it took three years to create along with all of the stuntmen and costumes. All the work paid off, as it works well and really helps some of the major scenes that the actors are with the creature in the same room and interacting with it. There is a bigger fight scene towards the middle where the CGI and animatronic was used, it integrates pretty nicely within the scene and doesn’t take away from what’s going on.

I think what also helped the movie to not feel too cheesy was that the design of the boar leans more to a realistic copy of a boar and focuses the scare more on it being a real life problem as opposed to trying to make it some weird hybrid sci-fi creature that looks unknown. They describe it as a mutant, but really it’s just a larger boar…that poses a much higher death count. I felt that it also helped keep the comedy’s focus on the characters, as there wasn’t a time you were supposed to find the boar a weirdly funny creature and helped it feel much more like an actual boar, which was essential for some of the later scenes.

I really suggest checking out Chaw if you have the chance. I don’t think it’s talked about a lot, mainly because it probably gets overshadowed by The Host and just the general lack of monster films coming out of South Korea. It’s fun, aware of its campiness, and integrates it well so that it doesn’t over saturate it. The characters are equally as fun and quirky and the main team works well together and are perfectly incompetent. They are a great found family with heart.

Chaw is currently streaming for free on Tubi with ads.

+++