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Reviews
Yureru (2006)
Overview of this movie by a westerner....
This film is beautiful and thought provoking, although it is also a very subtle movie. I must admit, that even though I have studied Asian culture while in college, I have not experienced it first-hand and certain aspects of it still elude me. That is probably the only problem a western viewer MIGHT have with this movie, is missing some of those beautiful and subtle suggestions.
What I took away from this film, is that it is mainly concerned with the relationship between two brother: This is explored through showing us the different ways that they have chosen to live their lives, and demonstrating what sort of person they are by showing their behavior in common situations (at first).
The key turning point of the plot involves one brother being involved in an incident that results in a woman's death, but it is not immediately apparent (to the the audience) if it was an accident or murder. It is possible that the other brother witnessed this event, but even that is not immediately clear. During the rest of the movie, the relationship of these two brothers is examined and explored as we watch them react and interact to the predicaments they find themselves in because of this woman's death.
However, and this is the part that contains spoilers, I was never really sure about what happened to cause the woman to fall off the bridge, or if the younger brother lied at his older brother's trial. Through-out the movie we are shown what appear to be flash backs of this critical event, but they are continually presented as different scenarios. In the initial scene, we can see the younger brother watching the older brother and the woman crossing the bridge from a distance, but before anything happens on said bridge, our view is obscured by trees. We then see younger brother react to something, and then begin to run back to the bridge. Many different "flash backs" of this same moment occur through out the rest of the movie, but as I have said, they are all different. What really happened? I would welcome your thoughts, insights, and opinions.
Seuseung-ui eunhye (2006)
I bought this movie expecting something else...
Bloody Reunion is described as a horror/slasher movie, but because of all the hype and good reviews of this movie, I was expecting a better storyline than what is usually found in this genre. I am a huge fan of Asian horror in general because of the greater depth of their story lines, yet this movie remains confusing throughout. Also, even though I'm not a big gore-hound, this movie really doesn't provide the gruesome killings expected by most American slasher fans, although those scenes were quite unique.
***SPOILER ALERT*** Confused storyline: The most significant problem I had with this film is that what did and didn't really happen is not fully explained. We find out that the story told to the police by the one surviving student,who is also Mrs. Parks caretaker, is a lie. We are then told that these students meet every year with their teacher, that they are all in fact successful, that the student known as "Shy-Guy" never really existed, that the young woman caring for the inexplicably wheelchair bound Mrs. Park is in reality the student known as "Shy Guy", and that all of the nasty things the young woman described as being done to the other students, were in reality all done to her by Mrs. Park. Confused? It gets even better. Also, we find out that all of those former-students were killed with poison, and then mutilated by the young woman. Why would she kill her former classmates? Well, we are shown a flashback of this young woman as a student, and in this scene she is humiliated by her classmates and her teacher, Mrs. Park, when she has her first menstruation in class: They all insist that she has defecated in her pants. (Wait, there's more) She goes home to her poor mother, who loves her more than anything, and after telling her mother what happened, the mother is so angry that she goes marching off to the school(clutching her daughter's bloody underwear as proof) and is killed when she is hit by a car. The girl left school, and hasn't been seen until she shows up to care for Mrs. Park about a year before the reunion. Oh, and this young woman also keeps her dead mother in her old apartment, and Mrs. Park may or may not have had a hideously deformed son that she kept in her basement who liked to wear the same bunny mask the killer is described as wearing when the young woman tells her fabricated story to the police. At the end of this movie I was left wondering: What really happened? Who really existed? Why did I pay $29.00 at Borders for this movie?