High Tension

The only reason I could enjoy this movie was the fact that I didn't even look at this poster before watching it. This movie was recommended by my friend, and I just blindly downloaded and watched it. At first, I wasn't really enjoying the movie because it just seemed like a typical slasher film - something like Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I don't really like slasher films because of its lack in plot depth. 

This movie was directed by a French director Alexandre Aja. While I have a high regard for French movies, I was rather disappointed for the first three quarters of the movie. Nothing much for me to analyze from this movie though. The plot was pretty direct. Well, as all my movie reviews contain spoilers, I will also mention the plot twist for this movie. Turns out, shes the murderer. Somewhere on the brink of personality disorder and schizophrenia. While the plot twist really got to me (because I was totally unprepared and my brain was getting lazy as it was boring in the beginning), watchers still could not resonate with the main actress here - the murderer/psychiatric patient. I'm not sure whether compassion from the watchers was the intent of the director, or it was purely the bloodshed that was targeted. 

Either way, I still can't fully love this movie because there was literally no plot. No background history was given as to why she became that way, how they became friends - nothing. I couldn't feel anything. At most I was shocked when I found out that she was the one killing, but that's it. It was a 5 second shock phase. In that 5 seconds, everything became clear. The clues from the beginning were :

1. I won't let anyone get in between us.

2. I dreamt of myself, chasing myself.

3. The voyeurism - during her friend's bath, and obviously pleasuring herself thereafter.

4. Her facial expressions during her friend's description of having a boyfriend.

5. The overly quick switch of hiding place from bath tub to underneath bed.

6. At one point, I thought - this is the smartest victim of any serial killing movie I've seen -
    something's off. 

Other than the exciting plot twist, I've really got nothing much to say. I enjoyed the soundtrack - New Born by Muse. They finally got the kill right though - I'll give them that. I think I've mentioned before, at least to my friends - if you ever get caught by a serial killer and you have a shot at killing him - make sure he's dead, because they just have a weird amount of strength to return although bleeding all over. In this movie, she had one chance and she maximized it. However, she was killing herself, which also meant she wasn't killing anyone. Hahahaha. Psychiatric patients are awesome, I loveeee them - forever interesting. 

The love for what you hide
The bitterness inside
Is growing like the new born
When you've seen, seen
Too much, too young, young
Soulless is everywhere

 

~ Muse - New Born ~

The Heirs

Well, I just finished watching The Heirs. It's not a new drama. It was released in 2013, but since it was suggested to me, I just watched it. 

Everybody is very stylish in this drama, obviously because it's supposed to be about rich kids and high classed homes. So far, not many Korean dramas annoyed me. The only drama so far that I couldn't even finish was The Night Watchman's Journal. Seriously, The Heirs was almost about to make me give up also. The word draggy can't fully express my feelings. All dramas have their Interaction Delay. Yea, that's what I call it. Its those moments, where it gives you palpitation and anxiety when the guy is running to meet the girl who was lost for 10 years - but the directors will drag that moment just enough to make you really want them to meet, and when they do, you get goosebumps all over. The skill needed in directing dramas is knowing exactly how much to delay. In this drama - the Interaction Delay was overdone to the point of annoyance.

For me the drama that really conquered the Interaction Delay was of course my favorite drama of all time, Empress Ki. I didn't really blog about Empress Ki because I watched it before even starting this blog. In fact, I watched a whole lot of movies before blogging. Besides the Interaction Delay being a major disappointment, most of the appealing Korean dramas usually comes with suspenseful childhood trauma. The Heirs merely focused on the love story for the first half, and the taking over of Jeguk Group in the second half of the story. So much focus was given on the love story (which I don't really mind), but the taking over of the father's business was so superficial and simplified. Usually Korean dramas can come up with something more complex and watchers get to learn more about the conflict - just as how the life of reporters were portrayed in Pinocchio. In The Heirs, the taking over of the business was so superficial it just consisted of dialogues about percentage of shares, loyalty and partnership.

The third disappointment will be the Age Setting. Seriously? You want me to look at Lee Min Ho and Park Shin Hye as school students? They look so much like adults, the high school love didn't match them at all. In fact, all the other actors are too old to take on school kids characters. The fight between Kim Woo Bin and Lee Min Ho didn't look like school boys fighting - it looked like someone is going to crack their skull. The forth disappointment will be the fact that, this would be the first drama that I've watched that I think no one should have got the girl. Its because she is the kind of girl that isn't even worth fighting for. At every chance she gets to bounce, she flees like a bird that just received freedom from its cage. How many freaking times, does Kim Tan have to come looking for her, and begging her to just freaking stay by his side. Sometimes, people don't want to take the battle. They just want to give up. Contrary to the popular notion, I actually don't mind that. My problem is that, if you wanna give up, don't be bloody hesitant about it. At the point where Kim Tan fell crying on his knees in the empty apartment - I really felt pitiful for him.

Acting wise, it was good. Min Ho and Shin Hye did well, for me at least. Both of them know how to cry - well for Min Ho, not really, but his facial expressions has variations, which is good. Kim Tan's mother did really well too. Park Shin Hye's, about-to-cry-face is really good. She has truly mastered that technique. While I have full loyalty to Shin Hye because of her looks (she still remains as the worlds most terrible kisser), I have to say that my favorite female character is actually Lee Bo Na (Krystal Jung). She looked too cute in the drama. I'm not too sure about her in real life though. 

Korean dramas and their relationship issues are always fun to watch. Someone actually took the time and effort to actually come up with a relationship chart. Uh-maze-ing.

Actually, its a little more complicated that than. Some of the characters are left out. But that's mainly the relationships, and since I found this online, I just decided to include it here. What I really like about this drama was their wrap up in the final episode. It was short and sweet, and very appealing. Only in the final 2 episodes, the Interaction Delay with an instrumental background was starting to make you Not want to fast forward. Another aspect about Korean dramas are Anchors and Literature. I just created the word anchors because I don't know how to group them. Its those memento like things that anchors feelings to them. In this drama, it was the Dream-catcher and the Wishbone. These anchors are not necessary, but its the little spices that make the dish different from the rest. Also, their frequent reference to literature in many Korean dramas always intrigue me. In The Heirs, they talked about Gatsby. I watched The Great Gatsby where Di Caprio acted, but I didn't know it was a literary text. My favorite quote from the drama would be "One who wants the crown, bears the crown." Overall, I do not recommend this drama, unless you really have nothing to do, or you have a really important exam coming up. 

"We may fall again, and we may get on our knees. However, one thing's certain, no matter what...go for it."

 

The Babadook

Hi Guys! I just watched The Babadook. Well, I'm not really a horror/scary/ghost fan, but since this was recommended by a friend, I gave it a try. This movie was written and directed by Jennifer Kent - an Australian actress, writer and director. I loved her take on the scenes. There are usually three parts to a certain scene. For example, there is a door knock, she walks to the door, and opens it. I loved that she always truncates the middle part. Its artistic to take away almost all of the middle parts. There were plenty of them. The son pushes the cousin down the tree house, next scene - in the car. Its not really considered a montage, but I like it when repetitive scenes are repeated with only the essential parts - such as her son's daily nightmare. I haven't read any reviews yet. However I will provide my fresh opinion about this movie. There are a couple of themes that are embedded in the plot. I'll try to discuss as many as I can.

First, its about loneliness. Her husband died, driving her to the hospital while she was in labor - as it was repeated by her son, plenty of times. Some people can't get over death and separation even if they want to. This is seen when she saw a couple kissing on television, and she immediately rushed for her vibrator - and even that she couldn't finish because her son barged in the room. Also, the hallucination of insects, its a sign of loneliness because insects travel in groups. Plenty of movies use this insect hallucination - some of which I can remember is Old-boy and Martyr. She wasn't able to talk about her late husband, just indicates that those areas are still inflamed. On top of all of this, she had really poor support from her family and peers, and also a really annoying old lady as a neighbour.

Second, which came first - the chicken or the egg? Well, in this movie, the Babadook or the Breakdown. The loneliness was not only experienced by the mother. It was also experienced by the son. Before Babadook came about, the mother didn't really have any hallucinations. However, her sleep was already being disturbed due to her loss. The triad of insomnia, loss of a loved one, and the duty of having an overly-curious-down-syndrome-looking kid equals paper cuttings in a book getting their own life. So the breakdown came first. The Babadook tale, was just a correctly timed trigger. The schizophrenia usually takes a form. Her violent self took the form of Babadook and the murderer took the form of her husband wanting his kid back.

Third, love heals? The only reason the son stayed and the mother fought back was all because of love. She had the strength to fight back because she still had a reason to live for. With all her might she fought the Babadook in her, in order to protect her son. It was a really touching moment when the son told the mother "I'm not leaving you, you said we'll protect each other." Well, to say love heals isn't so accurate, because she actually didn't get rid of Babadook, she came to terms with it. The basement signifies that its deep within herself. However, I was unable to get the meaning of the bowl of worms. I think the soil is indicative of pica as a replacement of her violence, but worms are considered living things. Maybe the bowl of worms just signifies shes feeding her hallucinations to keep them alive because she can't really get rid of it. 

Fourth, nobody actually cares. Well, nothing new here, but psychiatric patients really need help and its difficult for them to admit so. I thought the fact that it took weeks to get an appointment with a doctor, only happens in places like my country's government hospitals, however it happens there as well I guess. At one point, I just wished someone would call the social services and take away the child and deem the mother unworthy of taking custody of the child. However, no one bothered to call. Her friends and family didn't care, and the police - well no one can blame them. I'm not entirely sure why, but at one point I wished Babadook should have killed the old neighbor. Shes one of those purposeless characters, where without them there would be no change to the plot.

About the visuals, I really liked it. I loved the fact that there were no jump scares, and terrifying music. I actually really like it when the ghost or hallucination creeps up silently, and stays there or moves closer to the actor/actress slowly. I liked the auditory hallucinations also. It consisted of many voices and occasional meaningful sentences. Finally, Essie Davis did a really good job in her acting. The extremely fatigue look, and the change when Babadook completely took over when she killed the dog, was near perfect. The possession-like scene in the basement with the son - where she was conflicted with herself on killing the son, was beautiful. The saturation, color and contrast of the video together with wooden furniture, old wallpapers and weird basements were all suited to enhance the level of creepiness, and it was successful. Overall, I really enjoyed the movie, and it kept my muscles tensed throughout! See ya!

Pinocchio

Yes, I know that my Orthopedic exam is this coming Wednesday, and my finals is in a month's time. I don't really know whether the reason I'm relaxing is because I want to reserve energy or it's because I have none left. Anyway, I really enjoyed this drama, Pinocchio.

Just like most of the typical Korean dramas, it consists of two parts - the main conflict and the love story. I shall address the main conflict first. So In Ha, the female lead, has 'The Pinocchio Syndrome' - where in this drama she has hiccups every time she tells a lie. The story starts when the leader of a firemen team and his crew dies in a fire. Later on, the body of the leader is not found. Quickly, speculations were made saying that the leader left his crew to die in the fire, and in fact instructed his team to go into the building, knowing there was going to be a chemical explosion later on. What makes things worse is that, there will be a random person with the Pinocchio syndrome that will testify he saw the leader alive and well somewhere. Without blinking an eye, the community shuns the leader's family and the media portrays the leader of the fireman team to be a murderer. Not long after the family is destroyed due to this tragedy. 

While the father is missing, the elder brother takes off to go look for answers. The younger brother (which will be the lead actor later on) stays with his mother. Eventually his mother gives up, and attempts to commit suicide, and she pulls the youngest son along - off a cliff. However, after jumping off a cliff, only the mother dies, and the younger brother is saved by a very old man. The old man takes care of him in some faraway island. 

There will be a specific reporter that the brothers hate for life due to the way she portrayed the news about their father. It was because of they way she reported it, that the public opinion was manipulated out of proportion and their lives were destroyed. Turns out, the daughter of this reporter will be the lead actress, who will eventually fall in love with the youngest son of the alleged murderer. 

As the story unfolded deeper and deeper, it started to freak me out a little because all I could think off was the incident of MH370. How the media quickly shifted the blame towards one person - the pilot. Before you knew it, evidences such as the pilot bringing in passengers into the cockpit and he had a flying simulator device at home pointed to him being guilty of taking a joy ride. What freaked my even more is what I read on twitter today, of all days while watching this drama.

Of all days, today the sister of the pilot twitted this. Even if we don't want to believe the media, people are quickly swayed by it. Just like in the drama, a couple of news about the fireman being a murderer - be it a fact or fantasy - destroyed a family within a blink of an eye. Similarly, I now realize how much damage a news like this would have caused the family of the pilot of MH370. In the drama, the blame is shifted to shield the senators involved in a bigger circle of bribery and corruption. It doesn't matter whether the fireman actually committed the crime or not. What I've learnt from the drama is that, all news have a half-life. In its hot period, people will spend investigating the most important thing. After which the news is almost forgotten. So all they had to do, was buy time. During its heated period, they shifted the public's attention towards the 'coward fireman who left his team behind' and people almost forget that the main issue - 'how did the fire start?'

I cannot fully convey how much this drama has affected the way I view the media. All I can say is that, this drama was an eye opener for me at least. I also realized how challenging is can be to do a reporter's job. You can either be a puppet or you can be a real reporter while living your life recklessly. The ugly truth is - there's no middle ground. 

As for the love story, as usual - it was very appealing for most parts. What I disliked about this drama would be a part of the love story of course. It's the part where he leaves her and also his adopted family just so that he can focus on his revenge plan. It would be justified if no one understood his purpose of revenge. Here, she actually understood the fact that he had to do what he had to do, and yet he left? She said that she will stay by his side through everything, and what more does he want? He still chooses to isolate himself until he sorts everything out. This is quite common in average Korean dramas, and its just bloody annoying. It took the pity-party character to talk some sense into him. To be honest, I actually remember what I thought about this exact choice, 6 years ago. When I watched another movie that had this kind of option, I felt it was okay, I felt it was justified. I'm not entirely sure I was immature back then or my age is currently regressing.  

Sometimes I just have to chill, and enjoy common love stories. Those ridiculous moments of hitting each others' shoulders in attempt to pick up the same book - stuff like that. Its normal - but nobody said being normal is an easy task. I'm not saying life is simple, but I shall learn to embrace simplicity before I embrace complexity. 

The Final Scene