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The Hateful Eight (2015)
My Hateful 2 Cents
I have to say, I think these were some stellar performance by actors Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Michael Madsen and Esteban Reyes - oh I mean Demián Bichir. The latter actor's execution of lines and choreography were spot on "in character", unlike, say, Channing Tatum's appearance, which despite the script's effort to maintain a dialogue of spirits centuries past, I don't feel could live into the role with any believeability. I think casting is such a crucial part of a movie production... You don't only have to talk the part, but look the part as well. Given that this was the 8th collab between S. L. Jackson and Tarantino, I guess it's no wonder that when he finally got billed as top cast, literally 10 or 15 minutes of the movie was either directly or indirectly about his "dingo". What a peculiar ego-show and weird friendship Jackson and Tarantino have.
I personally do like Walton Goggins a lot (man he played the hillbilly cop role sweet in The Shield!) but in here, he kinda switched between hillbilly and semi-intelligent during the movie, which is of course can be blamed back at the script, and not the actor's own performance, but I felt some twitchy looking for the consistency in his whole act in this movie. One thing I couldn't get, was when after these seemingly bright people get shot towards the end, why no one had the survival instinct to inspect the wounds and put bandage/pressure on them, for trying to survive. Given the nature of their professions (bounty hunter in one case, and sheriff in the other), one would think they had real desires to live, for themselves, or others. I think the whole thing became way too theatrical for passing as any kind of believable unfolding of a story.
In the end, both dying, having achieved what? Hanging one measly criminal as a method of frontier justice, and accepting their own fates to die together? Man, this drama, it's really hard to find credible. There were alot of excess scenes, especially in the landscape department, which did not add anything of value to the movie other than prolonging it. If these kinds of scenes are used to accompany something, like a sudden shift of plot, a new crucial point in a movie, or similar, then may have a purpose, but in this movie they kinda just acted like a repeat pattern (including the set-up of the outside toilet walk-way), where I personally just wanted the dialogue to come back. Also, when hammering the door shut, all actors kept hammering on the plank parallell to the door, and *not the door frame*, which in every case, would be ineffective to hold the door shut, and it would blow open again instantly. It was so weird, since every actor kept doing this mistake. I wonder, did Tarantino forget to offer them breakfast before shooting.
I'm not generally a Tarantino fan in the sense that his imagery makes a mockery of real-life bold, raw situations. I was rather impressed the first hour or so, it seemed like he had taken a step another direction, committing to quality shooting and some sort of suspenseful buildup, but then the vomiting of blood scenes came, and the extravagant kill scenes, which frankly becomes what you remember clearly from the movie; the rest kind have the potential to fades away, which is a shame, 'cause it seemed like there was actually a potential story to tell there.
The one scene where Kurt Russell smashes the guitar after J. J. Leigh played her song, actually was an antique guitar worth in the north of $40 000. Due to a miscommunication, he smashed the authentic piece instead of one of the replicas they had made. J. J. Leigh's reaction to the smash "what are you doing!" is a genuine concerned scream, which you clearly notice her 21st century accent is back, and you can see she probably is looking behind the camera over at Tarantino at that moment with a kind of plead in her eyes, like "blame Kurt, not me". Idk what I think about including this in the movie. It becomes more like We paid 40 grand for this scene, so we're keeping it. But it's a result of negligence and bad administrative work. I'm divided about this, if I think it added or subtracted from the movie as a whole (most bang for the buck). I like for movies to stay in character from start to finish. I'm trying to turn the tables and start writing what I liked particularly about the movie, but I'm having a hard time. It had a Coen-esque vibe with a clear tinge of Noah Hawley's writing style. These are good people to replicate, I think. Although in the end, I think Tarantino did his whole "black man vs America" already in Django Unchained. Thus, The Hateful Eight became a conveniently staged, rather tame, expensively produced play. On the basis of the 4 actors I mentioned in the beginning, I ended up rating this movie 4 stars out of 10.
Cheong-nyeon-gyeong-chal (2017)
Character comedy in a raw setting
Cheong-nyeon-gyeong-chal beautifully blends the main characters' personalities into their quest for justice in the dark nights of Seoul. It is joyfully goofy at times, but not prolonged as to make moments overly gleeful as the story takes darker turns into topics such as human trafficking. The focus comes to the strict "chain of command" dillemma, where there is a long queue to get priority for a new police case, and the two characters decide to take vigilance upon their own chests, going after the criminals themselves. The fighting scenes and realism are top notch, and I kept paying attention the whole movie.