Movie Review: The Eye 2 (2004)

 

The Eye, a Chinese supernatural horror film from 2002, has always seemed like one of the most underrated of the Asian horror films - perhaps outshined by its similar counterparts like Ringu and Ju-On (and their American remakes). I have never forgotten The Eye and in particular its spectacular ending that makes it all the more memorable. Now I've finally watched the sequel and though it has a bit of a different feel than the original, it is still a highly enjoyable spooky flick - especially if you're me and love ghosts as much as I do.

Joey Cheng is a young woman who attempts suicide over another failed relationship. Soon after, she not only finds out that she is pregnant, but that she is also now able to see spirits all around her. Fearing that one of these spirits wishes to take over the life of her unborn child, Joey must find out who she is and how to to get rid of her before she gives birth.

My first reaction to The Eye 2 is simply "YES." Hell yes, even, because this is exactly what I want to out my ghost movies. This is the kind of supernatural activity I want to see, and this is the kind of story that I want to see play out. Also, The Eye 2 is not a true sequel to The Eye - a true sequel being one that continues the original story in some way. The only thing these two really have in common is the name and a chick who can see ghosts. She has "the eye," or something I guess. Not that I cared too much about that while watching the movie because I think The Eye 2 is certainly good enough to stand on its own.

Some of the ghostly phenomenon is stuff that we've seen many times before. The movie makes it work because it understands the concept of timing and suspense. Things like a door that opens and closes again on its own after Joey walks through it, a picture flying off the shelf, even simple jump moments like just a random ghost turning up unexpectedly when Joey turns around are all highly effective at getting the spooky mojo flowing. The image of when Joey first sees the ghosts, when she is on the brink of death at the beginning, and the final image of some ghosts in another room were the only things I didn't like so much because they had this stupid shaky, gray, digital effect thing to them that looked really hokey. Other than that though, all the ghosts appear as regular people, with only a little bit of "dead" makeup.

Asian horror is known for providing some very unsettling images that stay with the viewer for a long time. No-Jaw Woman from The Grudge still terrifies the fuck out of me. When these ghosts take over the bodies or lives of babies in this movie, it seems to happen right at the moment of birth, and we get an in-your-face representation of just what that looks like. Joey, some nurses, and a woman in labor get stuck in an elevator at the hospital and the woman must deliver right there. A ghost woman comes floating down from the ceiling, her body very stiff and straight, and she slowly heads towards... well, between the woman's legs. Too freaky. Other good ghost stuff includes the freak-ass ghost woman in the taxi cab and the two (not real) bodies that fall from the sky while Joey is at the bus stop. Really nice effects work on them as they just lay there, half their heads squished flat on the pavement, in a huge pool of blood, talking to Joey and freaking her out. I really wish I could have found a picture of that scene, because DAMN.

Toward the end of the movie, more of what the story is really about comes out and this is where The Eye 2 sold itself for me. Joey gets an endoscope procedure done and she can see her baby's face - which she recognizes as one of the ghosts she saw earlier in the film that jumped in front of a train. While researching her newfound ability, the belief in reincarnation comes up. You're thinking all along that all of these ghosts Joey sees have some sort of sinister intention with invading the lives of these babies but the ending shows us that that is not at all true. Despite them trying to fit in one last scary image before the credits, the ending is actually a very happy one. That might be a disappointment to some from a horror film but within the scope of this particular story, it totally works and is actually a nicer way to end this kind of film rather than just banishing the ghost or whatever. There's a real message and belief to this story, and if you believe what they are talking about, it makes you feel a lot better about the possibility of life after death.

I didn't have too much hope for The Eye 2 when I first started watching it because I'd never heard it mentioned anywhere else before, but it ended up really surprising me. The lead actress is wonderful and carries the film exceptionally well, the direction is perfect, and it scared me a couple times. Big win for me! Watch The Eye 2 for the good ghostly stuff, but definitely stay for the really nice ending.

Movie Review: Ichi the Killer (2001)

So occasionally Netflix will give me the kick in the ass I need to watch all the movies in my queue by mysteriously making them unavailable for streaming on a certain date. Such was the case with Ichi the Killer, which is a film I know I should have seen a long time ago. And although it was quite a different movie than I was envisioning, it was no doubt a fun journey into the realm of mind-fuckery, courtesy of that austere auteur mind-fucker, Takashi Miike.

When yakuza crime boss Anjo disappears with a lot of money, his loyal henchman Kakihara - a sadomasochist with blonde hair and a heavily scarred face - goes on a revenge mission to find out what happened to him. He learns that Anjo was brutally murdered by a mysterious killer named Ichi, who is infamous for the fantastically bloody crime scenes he leaves behind after he's done his work.

To get the obvious complaint out of the way, no, that is not Ichi on the cover up there. That is Kakihara, who actually turns out to be a much more interesting character. Just his look makes him ten times cooler than anyone else in the movie, with his flashy rock star clothing and those weird-ass piercings on his mouth that seems to be holding the skin together (a later scene tells us that this is the truth - gah). Kakihara's character is also used to show the funny side of sadomasochism - as in the scenes where he gleefully tortures people ("KAKIHARA! What is going on here??!!"  "Just a little torture.") and the one scene where Anjo's girl Karen attempts to sexually satisfy Kakihara by beating the crap out of him.

But apparently Kakihara has nothing on the elusive Ichi in terms of blood and guts. So that we get an idea right off the bat of how dangerous Ichi is, the first main scene involves some men going into a room to clean up after him. There is gallons of blood literally dripping from the ceiling and walls, and all kinds of body parts and viscera on the floor, which one of the guys ends up slipping in. Ew.

And just who is this Ichi the Killer? In reality, he's a wimp. He's a whiny, pathetic little crybaby who can't be more than 25 years old. Turns out Ichi is under the control of Jijii who uses hypnosis and mind control to plant false memories into Ichi's head of him having been bullied at school. These memories enrage Ichi, and make him commit the murders that Jijii wants him to do. The best part is the fact that Ichi has this great all-black superhero outfit that he wears to do the killing, with the number 1 in yellow on the back. I thought this was silly at first, like Ichi was trying to say that he was Number 1, but a little research tells me that "ichi" is the Japanese word for "one." So I stand corrected.

Now I hate to sound like a jaded horror fan but it's true that I was a little disappointed by the violence and gore that this movie is supposedly so famous for. Or was I just not as affected by it because it was presented in a mostly comedic fashion? I'd say that's probably it. Many of the scenes reminded me of Tokyo Gore Police with the excessive blood-sprayage, especially in the two scenes where Ichi heel-razors those two chicks in the neck. I don't see how people can have a problem with this kind of violence, when it is very obviously cartoonish and so extreme that you can't really take it seriously.

The only parts where the violence was definitely not funny to me were the two scenes of the pimp beating up and raping a prostitute that Ichi likes. Though it is a bit over-the-top in how hard he punches her in the face, I wasn't too fond of these scenes because of how graphic they were and how close they were to reality.

I'm not saying that there wasn't some great gore gags in this movie, though - not by a long shot. Ichi the Killer has got some nasty stuff going on in it that I would have never thought of in a million years. When Kakihara takes out the piercings in his mouth and skins that guy's hand with his teeth? When Suzuki is strung up by those body hooks and has hot oil poured over his back and head? When the prostitute-abuser and rapist gets sliced down the middle of his body? Wonderful. All of these scenes were so much fun to watch, even if the special effects were mediocre on some of them - especially the body that gets split in half. I don't know if I was laughing at the effects at that part or the way the guy died, it could go either way.

As one of the most well-loved extreme Asian horror films, Ichi the Killer did not disappoint me. Even at over two hours long, it never felt drawn out or boring. I loved every minute of it and enjoyed the story that turned out to be so much different than I thought it was going to be. Another point for you, Miike! Good work!

Asian Horror Week: Tokyo Gore Police (2008, Japan)

Guess I should have expected nothing less from a movie called Tokyo Gore Police. It was crazy bloody, campy, not too well made, and had some freak-ass special effects. Therefore, it ruled.

The air-quote "plot": In some kind of nutso future, Ruka is a police officer whose speciality is killing engineers. Engineers are mutants who can turn any wound they receive into a deadly weapon (think James Woods' gun-hand thing from Videodrome). Ruka is out for revenge against whoever killed her police officer father, while the creator of the engineers seeks to make his mutants the master race of the world.

Ruka is one of those really hot skinny chicks who never smiles and knows every kung-fu and samurai move, and looks totally bad ass while doing it. She doesn't talk that much and she's got some issues because her father was assassinated right in front of her, and was raised by the chief of police who taught her how to become the strongest engineer hunter. This guy has some kind of megaphone device attached to his police uniform (which looks like something the Vikings wore) to amplify his voice. Why? Who cares.

Anyway, this movie has an insane amount of blood. I mean, INSANE. Whenever anybody gets wounded even a little bit, about five gallons of blood literally squirt, spit, and spurt out of them while they yell as loud as they can. Think about when Lucy Liu cuts that dude's head off in Kill Bill and that is what this entire movie is about. Peoples' limbs are sliced off, certain parts are bitten off, and people just die in the most crazy ways. And of course this is all in good awesome fun, and the only problem I had with it was that the blood mostly just looked like red water or a very light-colored cherry Kool-Aid. If that was the case, then I'm guessing everyone on set must have stained the crap out of their clothes. Indeed, I have never seen a movie with a more appropriate title than Tokyo Gore Police.

You see, the only way, naturally, to kill these engineers is to mutilate the fuck out of their bodies so that you destroy this key-shaped tumor inside them that makes them what they are. This is wonderfully presented to us in the first fight scene where Ruka kills an engineer on a rooftop. After a freaking DUELING CHAIN SAW fight, Ruka takes her new chain saw toy and just slices this guy all to hell, then takes out her shiny samurai sword and slices him down the middle. Niiiiiice. Then she gets a medal for it. I'm guessing that police brutality claims are not all that common in this engineer-infested Tokyo.

When one girl is literally shot in half, the lower half of her body mutates into the mouth of an alligator. The guy that gets his junk bitten off (ironically, by Alligator Girl) grows a huge tumor-junk that shoots out... well, I don't know what it was but it looked nasty. There's a great scene where a guy grabs Ruka's ass on the subway and she pulls him outside and cuts his hands off, popping up a pretty umbrella against the shower of blood. There are so many crazy gore effects all throughout this movie that it's impossible to talk about them all here or pick a favorite. They are in the same fashion of movies like Dead Alive where the gore is the gag, and you'll be laughing your butt off the whole time.

The special effects other than the gore include lots of really messed up looking mutations and costumes for all our crazy characters. The chief guy has this S&M reminiscent "pet" guy with no arms or legs, but who at one point walks around spider-like on samurai swords that replace the missing limbs. Note to self: Stay away from Japan if the future ever gets to be anything like this.

The main score for Tokyo Gore Police is actually pretty awesome. It sounded vaguely familiar to me, although I can't place where I might have heard something similar. Nevertheless, it is quite fabulous, very dramatic and over-the-top. Loved it.

There's also a definite humor throughout the film and not just in the wacky kills. Those freaky commercials that the Japanese are known for make a few appearances - advertising how effective the police force is (after they blow away one dude with four machine guns) and even one that advertises a stylish looking box cutter for girls so they can look cool while they cut their wrists. Yea! It's so fun. I'm not sure if this one was supposed to be a real commercial or not, though, since it is established at the beginning that Ruka is a cutter.

If your looking for a fun movie with not a lot of substance (really no substance at all), you could do a lot worse than Tokyo Gore Police. I'll just leave you with some images from the film for hilarity's sake. Snail Girl, I believe, is quite provocative. Hehe.

You really want to see it now, don't you? DON'T YOU??!!

Asian Horror Week: Three... Extremes (2004, China, South Korea, Japan)

Three Asian directors take a stab at the anthology subgenre with three very different short films that make up Three... Extremes. Fruit Chan from Hong Kong helms "Dumplings," Park Chan-wook from South Korea directs "Cut," and the awesome Takashi Miike from Japan gives us "Box."

Dumplings
In "Dumplings, a once famous actress goes to see a woman named Aunt Mei, whose special dumplings are known for their anti-aging properties - if you can overlook the secret ingredient.

All of the films in Three... Extremes seem to have a grotesque nature surrounding them, and this one is quite possibly the most grotesque. I thought the big mystery about this short would what was actually in the dumplings, but it's not. They tell you fairly soon on what Aunt Mei is using to make herself and other women look younger, and if you really think about it for a minute you can probably figure it out for yourself. I had a pretty good idea about it myself before it was revealed and was quite grossed out to find out that I was right. But if you don't want to know, go away because I just can't ignore it.

I say "Dumplings" is the most grotesque, but the one thing it has in common with another of the stories - "Cut" - is that it is almost a black comedy. Mrs. Li is in a failing relationship with both her husband and her career. She goes to see Aunt Mei knowing what is in those dumplings but she is desperate to regain her youth and make her husband interested in her again. Li at first seems reluctant to partake in the consumption of ABORTED FETUSES (yup, that's the special recipe) yet she still does it, and comes back several times - even demanding that Aunt Mei provide her with more "potent" goods to make them work faster.

This is where a bit of the black comedy comes in. The scenes where Li is eating the dumplings are morbidly funny to me with the way Aunt Mei casually talks about the best way to cook the fetuses, and also the looks on Li's face and the nasty crunching noises as she chews. Li herself becomes the most grotesque character of the bunch, especially in her final scenes. Yuuuuuuuuck.

There's some nice bloody baby gore, so women watching this movie, beware! Not one but two bloody abortion scenes are extremely disturbing and made me cross my legs for the duration of the film. You might not want to eat much after watching "Dumplings," and even if you are offended by what you see, it's surely not something you'll forget any time soon.


Cut

"Cut" was by far my favorite in this anthology. It's about a Director (I use caps because that's how I'll be referring to him) and his Wife who are taken hostage by a crazed Extra. If Director doesn't do what Extra says, Extra will cut off one of Wife's fingers every minutes (she's a pianist). The film has very surreal imagery. The hostages are held on the set of Director's latest movie, which strangely looks like the living room of his own home, and the set up that Extra puts Wife in is way past bizarre looking. Director is attached around the waist by a really long band that goes through one wall of the set and out and around and up the ceiling - it's just odd. The set itself is a huge open room with blue walls, gold accents, and a black and white tiled floor. It's calming and pretty and looks like it belongs on a episode of Friends, not a horror story. It's well lit and a very unsettling atmosphere.

The comedy is much more apparent in this short and again it is more of a black humor, although there is a song and dance number. Don't get too psyched, it's just Extra going a little crazy. His whole beef with Director is your basic jealousy - Director has a pretty wife, successful career, nice house and Extra has nothing, is a drunk, and beats his wife and son. Extra keeps trying to make Director corrupt himself by admitting any kind of past bad deed that will convince Extra that Director is not the Mister Perfect he thinks he is. In the end, Extra wants Director to commit the ultimate atrocity to save his wife.

I absolutely loved the way "Cut" was shot. It starts off with a spectacular tracking shot that goes around the actors in the room, then speeds out behind them, going through the handle of a pitcher, and around and through other objects. There's also a lot of tight close-up shots and zooms - something that is not used a lot in film anymore, and frankly I think it should be.

At times "Cut" feels like any other cat-and-mouse game between good guy and bad guy, but the acting and set pieces, and also some plot twists along the way, make it the most entertaining short in Three... Extremes. There's some confusion at the end with Director's final actions but don't let it get you down. You'll have way more time to be confused at the last segment.


Box
The final film, "Box," concerns a writer haunted by the memory of her sister. Without shame, I put on my dunce cap over this movie. I have no fucking clue what is going on. Looking up some interpretations, I see that many people have many different ideas as to just what the film is trying to explore. There doesn't seem to be an solid explanation, even from the director himself, so maybe I should just stick to the technical specs.

"Box" is basically your typical Miike - a convoluted mess of a fucking confusing plot projected by beautiful imagery. The main character Kyoko has a recurring dream somebody burying her alive inside a tiny box, under a ground blanketed by fresh snow. She also has flashbacks to her life as a child in the circus, performing magic tricks with her twin sister. The deep reds and golds of these scenes are a stark contrast cold blues and whites in the scenes where Kyoko is older. Kyoko and her sister Shoko also did synchronized gymnastics moves in their act together, which at times looks very freaky.

As I said, this short can be and has been interpreted to mean several different things to different people. The events and clues presented seem to mean an underlying theme of guilt and remorse to one person, while another person sees jealousy and repressed feelings from sexual molestation. My mind was only a jumble of question marks by the time the credits roll, so I don't feel at all qualified to give an interpretation at this point - at least not until I've seen it about 20 more times to help me understand it.

I'm not demanding an artist to give us a cut and dry explanation of just what the hell he's trying to say in his work, but sometimes a story as open-ended and ambiguous as this is downright frustrating - and I don't know about you, but when I'm frustrated, I'm a six-year-old trying to read War and Peace. It sucks. In that sense, "Box" was a big downer after the fun and excitement of "Dumplings" and "Cut" and didn't really seem to fit into this anthology. It's still a great piece of art from a great director and I continually applaud Miike for the kind of shit he thinks up. I don't want anyone fucking with my mind but you, Miike.

Asian Horror Week: The Victim (2006, Thailand)

Gosh darn it, these Asian horrors can be real mindfucks. I love 'em!

Hokay, so here's what's going on in The Victim: Ting is an aspiring actress who gets a job with the police department, acting out various crimes as the victim. When she takes on the role of a missing and presumed dead beauty queen named Meen, she starts getting supernatural visits from the victim to help her track down the real killer.

PSYCHE!

About 50 minutes into the film, we find out that Ting is actually May and the whole movie up until now has been the filming of a real movie about the real murder of Meen (so then the actress playing Ting/May in this movie is an actress playing an actress playing an actress). The movie set and the cast and crew have been plagued by supernatural experiences during the shooting, mostly surrounding May, and the mystery deepens when crew members start to die.

The first part of The Victim is the film within a film, also called The Victim. And we get this whole set up of the murdered Meen possessing Ting's body and other random ghosts popping up around her. However, it is Meen that Ting becomes really obsessed with, so when the story switches to the filming of the movie about the real Meen, we are led to believe that Meen really is a ghost haunting the set, probably all pissed off that they're making a cheesy ghost movie about her. Confused yet? It really does make sense when you actually watch the movie, just a bit difficult to put into words.

Now most people would hate this complete turnaround of events, but I didn't really mind it that much. The film within the film was a weak story at best and nothing that we really haven't seen before in ghost stories, either Asian or otherwise. The twist gives us a more interesting mystery to work out. If you need the ending explained to you, you weren't paying that much attention. The plot is a bit of a cluster, but it is mostly red herrings disguising the real threat to May. The final twist at the end is predictable. However, that kind of ending always leaves me smirking. Not-so-happy endings are always the most fun. Guess I'm a sadist.

I saw some reviews that said that this movie scared them a lot but I didn't get that at all. The ghost appears all shadowdy and like she's surrounded by a swirling mist of ash or other black stuff, and she's always doing these freaky Thai Likae dance movements with her arms as she's appearing at May through a mirror. And once when she's floating toward May down a hallway. Not scary, just weird looking.

The craziest thing about The Victim is that in Thailand, the police really do make criminals reenact their crimes with stand-ins playing their victims, all while the press snaps happily away at the event. Frankly I don't see the point of this and find it all very morbid. In the reenactments we see in the movie, the criminals all seem rather reluctant to commit their acts again, but eventually there has to be one that would enjoy reliving his exploits which I think would be damaging, and is quite irresponsible of the police. The director included this bit of Thai culture into the film because he was curious as to how playing the victims of real crimes with the real criminals would affect the "actresses." This is not really fully explored in the film, but he does show that Ting enjoys getting into her roles and even develops a fan base amongst the citizens, which is also quite morbid to me.

There are a couple of good creepy scenes and a couple of annoying cliche scenes. The bathroom mirror scare makes an appearance, plus the dreaded 'it was just a dream' scare. That one was the worst. May gets a call after Shane the director is killed and runs into the ghost - then she wakes up and it was just a dream. She goes into the bathroom and sees something freaky in the mirror - then she wakes up AGAIN and it was all just a dream. Seriously lame. I don't like to be jerked around like that. Dream sequences work in some cases but mostly they are unnecessary unless they reveal something new about the plot.

Sidenote: Try to ignore the horribly translated subtitles for The Victim. Couldn't they have at least made the effort to put the translations into proper English? Seriously not that hard, people.

Asian Horror Week: The Host (2006, Korea)

Hell yeah! Asian horror is not just creepy dead girls with long black hair. They do creature features, too, and this one, The Host, was AWESOME.

Synopsis is just a fancy word for plot: After some idiot dumps bottles and bottles of formaldehyde down the sink, it gets into the Han River and causes a freaky mutation. After a few years, an enormous mutated fish with legs starts wreaking havoc near the river. A young girl is taken by the monster, but when she calls one night, her family realizes she is not dead like the authorities believe and they escape capture by the government to try to save her.

Mixing elements found in classic creature features, comedy, and even a little drama, The Host is a highly entertaining flick from the folks in South Korea. The tongue-in-cheek humor lightens the mood that usually surrounds monster movies while the drama of the family's attempts to rescue their youngest member keep the tension high. 

The first time we ever see the monster is right at the beginning, as it spectacularly rampages a crowd of people enjoying a day by the river. This is when the girl, Hyun-seo, is captured and taken to the monster's lair under a bridge. Hyun-seo's father, Gang-du, who is at first presented to us as kind of a deadbeat, is one of the people to fight the monster as it knocks people down, throws them into the river, and munches on whoever gets in its way. There's a great part where a group of people run into a trailer of some sort and the creature rushes in after them, and you see people's bloody hands trying to get out of the chained door as the trailer rocks and screams are heard.

Hyun-seo's family is pursued by the government through most of the movie because the creature is believed to be the host of a deadly virus that infects those that come in contact with the creature. And it is strange that that seems to be the government's main concern rather than trying to kill the creature itself. The guys in yellow spacesuits take people hostage and do tests and junk on them, but the government or military is never once shown as trying to locate and/or eradicate the monster. Instead, it is a group of civilians, including a chick with kick ass archery skills, who brings the beast down. So I see that when it comes to biological disasters, the US government is not the only one that sucks at dealing with such situations.

The actors playing Hyun-seo, her father Gang-du, and her grandfather, aunt, and uncle all do a great job in their roles at both the comedy and the occasional drama. I'm not sure which one of these emotions the director was going for in the scene where all the family members go apeshit crying at the thought of Hyun-seo being dead but it's still a nice scene to watch. The news people taking pictures of the grieving family is perhaps one of the film's political commentaries - which also includes the bitter feelings about the US military presence in Korea.

The creature effects are very well executed with intricate detail work on its body and movements. You can hardly tell the CG when it is engulfing a body into its mouth or doing acrobat-like moves underneath the city's bridges. The effects only waiver at the film's conclusion when the family manages to kill the creature. It is set on CG fire, and CG fire just never really looks right in any movie. They can make huge fish monster creatures look real, but for some reason fake fire always looks hokey and too obviously computer-generated.

There are some great moments dealing with the monster. Some of my favorites include a part where the creature returns to the lair where he stashes his bodies for future snacking (the lair is a dark, deep concrete tunnel) and he stands over the edge and regurgitates a slew of human bones into the tunnel. Another part is where Hyun-seo and another survivor boy has made a rope out of clothes to escape the tunnel, but it's too high for her to reach. When the creature is asleep in the tunnel, Hyun-seo runs up its back to reach the rope, but before she can climb up, the creature grabs her with its tentacles and gently sets her back on the ground. Guess he doesn't want his little pet to escape.

The Host is rather long for a monster movie, at almost two hours exactly, and while it starts off with a bang, it slows down a lot when the family gets separated. It is unclear how much time has passed since the monster made its first appearance and it probably would have helped the film more if the action was sped up. But in the same light, the scenes dealing with each family member trying to evade capture and still trying to find Hyun-seo are still interesting. Gang-du is experimented on by the government with huge needles in the collar bone and what looks like a drill to the head. Yeesh. 

The film was an international success and at the time was South Korea's highest grossing film ever. It was nominated for and won several film festival awards and made many critic's top 10 lists for 2006. I never would have thought that a creature film could be so popular amongst mainstream critics, but The Host is well deserving of its praise. Quotes called it "a knockout monster movie" and "on par with Jaws," so check this one out and see what you think.