Other Countries Thriller Movies #2

It's time for me to talk about the movie Ju-on. It's also Japaness movie with The Ring(the movie that I introduced before.) and it was one of the famous horror movie.

The movie Ju-On was released at 11 February 2000 at Japan, and later it was exported to many other countries. In USA, the movie Ju-On is remaked as 'The Grudge' at 2004. Actually the title of the films translates roughly to The Curse or The Grudge.

This movie, the story begins with a man, who murdered his family at the upstairs room. Several year passed, this house finds a new owner, but the curse of rage survives there and destroys those who come into contact with it. Welfare worker Rika Nishina is called in to investigate after complaints were reported that an elderly, bed-ridden woman named Tokunaga is left alone in the home. As Rika approaches the home, she feels a strange and eerie atmosphere surrounding the home, but continues on with her job. She soon finds the old lady, sitting alone and talking to "someone." The social worker taking care of the elderly mother is soon immersed in this curse and the hauntings that persist.

This movie give us a fear with a young boy at the poster. And it's more horrorful because those fearful events occur at the house, where we sleep and act mostly. This movie was so famous and as the result, They made Ju-On2 which is released at 5 September, 2003 in Japan. In Korea Ju-On has released as a "Ju-On theater Ver." at 2002.

And this is the scene that people mostly get fear at this movie.

Interview with the Vampire

It's one of my favorite horror movies, and I have DVD! You can see the young Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. In the movie, they were much handsome than now. Even though they were young, they act really well. Let me tell you the summary of the movie.

A journalist is allowed to interview with a vampire. The vampire whose name is Louis tells about his 200 years. In 1791, Louis, who lost his wife and child, wanted to give up his life. Lestat, a vampire, found Louis and bit him. Lestat gave him a choice to die or to be a vampire, and Louis chose the latter. After that, Louis felt unhappy because he had to kill people and he felt guilty. One day he met a little girl, Claudia, who lost her mother. Lestat made her a vampire, and Louis's life was changed.

It has a tag line, "Drink from me and live forever." If we can live forever, will our life be perfect like a god? I think etenal life gives us lack. Vampires also feel loneliness, despair, and fear, and look for beauty and love. This movie has a philosophy of life!

Silmido - the hidden story of Unit "684"

The movie "Silmido" is famous for various things. It was the first one throughout the Korean movie history, to drew 10 million audiences. Therefore this movie is kind of a monumental movie. (Not to mention the two top famous actors, Ahn Seong-gi and Sol Kyung-gu.) It's about a special Unit whose goal was to assasinate Kim Il-sung, the former ruler of North Korea. It is based on a true story -An army troop known as an armed Communist Squad, committed mutual suicides in the bus for Seoul. The story in the movie is pretty much edited and quite different with the facts, but still it aroused public attention toward this historical tragedy.

The movies plot goes like this. An army troop was newly recruited in order to go to Pyeong-yang in N.Korea and kill Kim Il-sung. However the circumstances has changed during their training and they were no longer needed. So the government wanted to eliminate their existence in order to maintain the military situation between S.Korea and N.Korea. The troop's members found out what was going on and they decide to make their moves first.

I cried over this movie. Well, in fact a lot of the audience did. It is a sad, tragic story. It shows how 31 of the innocent men died. There were a lot of documentary movies made right after the "Silmido" has been released. Those documentaries let me know that some were even kidnapped to be trained, and many of them were dead during the training. (In the movie, the recruits are all criminals who were sentenced to death-this is just a set up.) If you want to have a glance on the tragic part of Korean history, you'd better watch this movie.

Cheating and being cheat : The Big Swindle

Since early time, there are lots of Hollywood movies about big swindle. The movie like Italian Job or Ocean's Eleven is typical work of that. But, Korean thriller is weak especially that kind of thriller. Although there were a few movie about swindle, they were very shabby and poor for Hollywood thrillers which are very spectacular and splendid. For that reason, even Koreans turn their back on the Korean thriller and they have enjoyed the Hollywood movie.

By overcoming weaknesses Korean thriller, the first successful Korean swindle movie comes into korea. That movie name is 'The big Swindle'.(Korean title is 'The reorganization of crime'.) The plot of movie is that five swindlers planed to rob the Han-Kook bank and they succeed. But, after successful robbing, they cannot find money. So, they start to find out the real swindler.
This movie couldn't catch up many hollywood movie has lots of spectacle like many other Korean movie. However, this movie show that even if it was low-budget film, a well-knit plot and exciting reversal make the movie interesting and successful.

If you are tired of Hollywood rule as 'The hero will always be happy in the end.', I recommend this movie. Of course although this movie reverses that rule perfectly, continuous cheating and being cheat fight makes this movie more attractive in suspense during enjoying the movie.

Why Are We Mad at Jo-Pok Movies?

As we know, Jo-Pok movies are prevalent in Korean society. This phenomenon naturally raises a question: why Jo-Pok movies are so popular in this society? Perhaps no one would agree that Jo-Pok movies are much funnier than most Hollywood movies. However, there is one evident reason why audiences feel pleasure from these movies.

I think this trend is deeply related to corrupt Korean society. In this society, it is common to meet news articles about corrupt government officials, politicians, and even teachers who are looking for bribes and perks. In order to get what they want, these people willingly abuse their social power. Although this society may seem to provide equal chance of opportunity to its people, it is so evidently hierarchical that people from low social status are suffering from social disadvantages.

This is where the Jo-Pok movies come in. They provide a vicarious experience of fighting against corrupt society. People feel pleasure and catharsis by projecting themselves on to the ‘hero’ in such movies. For example, in the movie ‘Do-Sa-Bu-Il-Che,’ they fight against corrupt Korean education system, and in ‘Cho-Pok-Ma-Nu-Ra,’ they fight against corrupt politicians.

Dogville

Have you ever seen Dogville? It was released in 2003, and I didn't see it because my friends told me it was boring. Two years ago, I saw this movie by DVD, and I totally fall in love with the director, Lars Von Trier. I'm going to tell you special features of the movie.

First, the film set was very unique. It pretended to have a house, a dog, flowers, chairs, wall, etc. But there didn't have the objects, but only the people. So the set looked like a play set. Second, the movie went slow in a depressed mood. It might make you sleepy. Third, the acting was great although actors couldn't see the real objects.

I strongly recommend Dogville. I know we got familiar with exciting hollywood movies, but sometimes we need to see this kind of art movies. Also when you see the ending, you'll find out why it is a thriller movie. :)

Other Countries Thriller Movies #1

There are lot's of famous thriller movies of other countries, which is non Korean movie or non Hollywood movie. Let's talk about those movies today.

First, It's 'The Ring' which was made in Japan, released at 1998. The original title is "Ringu". It was so famous that Hollywood remaked this film at 2002 and it was also one of box-office movie. The movie starts story with a strange video tape. A strange video begins to circulate among high school teenagers. When you watch the tape, a ghost appears at the screen and then the phone will ring, tells you will death will come in one week. The story goes on with reporter Reiko Asakawa investigating the origin of the strange videotape.

At this movie, the scene shown at the below is the most popular scene, and it became the best scene to represent all the thriller movies. This movie give us very especial thrills than the movie which was released before that the movie Ring. It was kind of a sensation. If you haven't seen this movie before, you do better watch it. It's one of index of thriller movies.

Next time, I'm going to tell you about the movie, "Ju-on" and it's also one of Japaness famous triller movies. See you next time!