Dorm

I really liked this Thai thriller about a boy whose parents suddenly send him to an all-boys boarding school where he knows nobody.  He's pretty pissed at his father, for reasons that are revealed late in the movie.  The other boys torment him with ghost stories that make him wet the bed.  He finally finds a friend, who turns out to be pretty complicated...

It's a good, spooky, touching story.  Well done.

Availability: DVD
Released: 2006
Added to queue: 2/12/2008
Reason added to queue: Asian Horror Invasion!

Woman is the Future of Man

This Korean film centers around two friends who each had his own relationship with the same woman years before.  They meet up after not having seen each other in awhile, and awkwardly decide to look her up.  Then they awkwardly fumble through the rest of the movie.

It's good.  All the characters seem kind of clueless, except the woman mentioned above, who seems to have become kind of numb after all the crap she's been through.

But if you like relationship dramas or guys hanging out remembering old times although they kind of don't like each other anymore, this is definitely one to consider.

Availability: DVD and Streaming
Released: 2004
Added to my queue: 2/11/2008
Reason added to my queue: I was obviously on an Asian rampage.

The Red SHoes

I really liked this movie.  If you're looking for a decent Korean horror movie, this might be the one for you.

That said, the shoes are fuschia.  Which wouldn't be that big a deal, except people wear them with red clothes and red lipstick, so it sort of sticks out that they're not red in the slightest.

The premise of the movie is kind of a riff on the Hans Christian Andersen story of the same name - it centers on a pair of shoes with which people become obsessed, to horrifying ends.  The main character is a woman leaves her cheating husband, taking her small daughter to an apartment.  Then things get crazay!  Just kidding.  Only not really.

Anyway, I don't want to spoil it for you - but it's good!

Availability: DVD only
Released: 2005
Added to queue: 2/11/2008
Reason added to queue: Added with all those other Asian horror movies, which had been getting on my nerves, but this one was good.

Ju-On 2

This is the sequel to Ju-On, the Japanese original version of "The Grudge".

I liked this better than the first one.  But it flits back and forth in time, so I didn't really get the hang of what was happening until the end.  So I don't know.

The movie focuses on the curse of the house that was the center of the original (the same house was used for the American version, which starred Sarah Michelle Gellar and was nearly a shot-for-shot remake of the Japanese one).  This time, the curse is impacting people associated with a television show about the curse.

This is going to sound weird, but I think the reason I like this more is that it doesn't spend as much time at the house.  I'm not really that into the house, it gets old.  And the characters are compelling - the main character is an actress who stars in a lot of horror movies, so they refer to her as a "Horror Queen".  The other characters include an extra from one of the horror movies, a girl who works on the television show, the host(ess) of the television show and her boyfriend, and another dude affiliated with the show.

Here's the thing about these Japanese movies: they always involve really long black hair strangling people to death.  Like to the point that I'm surprised any Japanese people have hair past their chins.  Also, mouths sewn shut.  Not sure what that's about.

I mean I liked it though.

Availability: DVD and Streaming
Released: 2003
Added to my queue: 2/11/2008, along with all those other Asian movies
Reason added to my queue: Probably because I had seen the American one

Holiday

This movie is essentially a shot-for-shot remake of the movie Dirty Dancing.  In Hindi.  With Indian music.

Stop and think.  Even if you are the biggest fan in the world of Dirty Dancing, or of Bollywood, would you want to see an Indian remake?  Having done so, I will venture to say "No."  Sadly, the best character in Dirty Dancing is the music.  I can't speak for Indian people - maybe they used the perfect music and I just miss the American songs - but the storyline and characters, while compelling, just can't carry the movie, in my opinion.

I love me some Bollywood though, and am looking forward to Crimes, which should be coming to me soon and starring the same leading man, Dino Morea.  Quite the dancer, that one.

Availability: DVD only
Released: 2006
Added to my queue: 9/5/2007
Reason added to my queue: unknown

71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance

This movie shows a mass shooting at a bank, and then shows the victims' lives in the leadup to the shooting, along with real news footage from around the world at the time (1991).

I found the premise and the characters interesting.  It's in German, which might be why I felt sort of disconnected to it.  But it was decent.

Availability: DVD only
Released: 1994
Added to my queue: 5/13/2008
Reason added to my queue: Not sure.  I also added Funny Games that day, so maybe I was on a German kick?  Who knows.

One Missed Call II

Okay, I can't believe I even watched this movie, considering how terrible the first one (and the American one) was (were).  

But dude, if you have to watch a movie about a cell phone call portending death, this is definitely the one to watch.

It's not nearly as vapid as the first one - the characters are engaging, you actually don't want them to die - and you hope they get to the bottom of the mystery.

No promises on that front.

The premise is the same - creepy ringtone you didn't download, then three days later you die.

Availability: DVD

Released: 2005

Added to my queue: 2/11/2008 

Reason added to my queue: I seem to have added tens of movies that day, nearly all of them Asian horror.  Who knew I'd be paying 5+ years later?

Three...Extremes II

I really liked the first one, so I figured the second would be good.  And it was decent.

It's three vignettes, each directed by a different Asian director:

• In "Memories", a woman keeps trying to get home.  Based on experience with other movies, you will ultimately begin to wonder whether she's actually alive or a ghost.
• In "The Wheel", a Thai village is haunted by creepy ceremonial puppets.
• In "Going Home", which I found to be the most interesting and worth watching, a man is held captive while his neighbor prepares for the resurrection of his dead wife.

 Far and away the most disturbing of the vignettes is in Part I, though.  The first one on the the first disc is seriously disturbing.

Watch it, don't watch it.

Availability: DVD only
Released: 2002
Added to my queue: 2/11/2008
Reason: This is when I added all the Asian horror movies to my queue, so I assume I was on some kind of tear.

The Power of Kangwon Province

I apologize in advance for this review, I'm pretty sure it's going to suck.

This is the blurb about this movie on Netflix:

"After a painful breakup with her married professor, Jisook joins two of her girlfriends for a holiday. But in an eerie twist of fate, her former lover plans a getaway for the same destination, where tragedy brings them together once again."

I watched the movie.  I gave it the vast majority of my attention.  Now, it was in Korean, so that is one area where I may have missed something.  I did see Jisook go on holiday.  I even saw her go back to visit a dude she met on holiday.  Then, I saw her former lover go to the same place she had gone.  But I missed any eerie  twists of fate and if I saw a tragedy, it didn't move me much.

So I mean.  Skip it.  Or watch it and let me know what I missed.

Funny Games (German)

I saw the American version of this movie in the theater, randomly, with my friend Wendy in NYC.  It was so violent and senseless, we were kind of dumbfounded.

The German version is, based on my recollection, almost exactly the same.  Shot for shot remake.  Even the house feels the same....

The premise is a family arrives at their lake house for a vacation, and as they're settling in, two strangers come over to innocently borrow some eggs for the neighbors' breakfast.  And then it gets messy.

If you like senselessly violent torture thrillers, one of these two movies is for you.  The German one is cool because it's the original, but the American one is in English and (stop me if I'm wrong here because it's been like 6 years since I saw the American one) they're basically the same movie.

Availability of German: DVD and Streaming
Released: 1997
Added to my queue: 5/13/2008
Reason added to my queue: I'm assuming because I had seen the American version.