The Quiet American, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Initial D, & Three... Extremes

The Quiet American is a book I've been wanting to read for years, at least since I first read about the making of the Michael Caine film (which I really love, you know, just in case you couldn't have guessed from it being me) and it being held back for being anti-American. Which it is, completely deservedly due to our constant screwing up of a variety of countries through stupidity. The book itself sort of surprised me, especially with the ending. (Really, that's how you're going to end it? What does that say about the world if everything goes that way after the American gets killed by the commies?) Also, lots of opium. It's actually far better than either movie, as would be expected, but I was more impressed with just how accurate Graham was in his impressions of what would happen and just how much more he knew about the situation rather than the Americans. I also read this essay about the differences in the films, the book, and reality. It's interesting, if you're familiar with all of them, which you probably aren't, considering there were only 2,913 ratings of the 1958 version on Netflix (far less than the 225,852 ratings on the 2002 version).

Sunday Bloody Sunday is a sort of depressing look at a love triangle with the only twist that it's a Jewish doctor and an older woman for a younger man. It's a John Schlesinger film, who's very up and down, with good films like Midnight Cowboy, The Falcon and the Snowman, and Cold Comfort Farm, along with dreck like The Day of the Locust and The Next Best Thing. He also did Marathon Man, the movie that is extremely disturbing for the garotte scene alone. I found this film most interesting for the answering service, which was just a cranky old woman who was basically lying to a bunch of people about messages if she felt like being vindictive.

Initial D is full of pretty cool car stunts, and is all style, no substance. I imagine it's basically just like The Fast and the Furious, but with actual talent involved (the team behind Infernal Affairs, who apparently made a film called Forlorn City with the good Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, and Shu Qi, and I clearly need to see), so I can completely see why they felt like ripping it off for Tokyo Drift. And anything with Anthony Wong is worth watching for his performance alone. But my favorite thing about it is the fact that it has a dubbed version and subtitles. And they're not the same. I am a huge fan of terrible subtitles, although I bet that the subtitles track the actual dialogue far more than the dubbing. The jokes in the subtitles are far funnier than the dubbing as well, as there are fewer gay jokes and more crossdressing and prosititution jokes. And the voices in the dubbing are horrendous. Weird that the main girl, Natsuki, was played by Anne Suzuki, who was in Snow Falling on Cedars, quite a good film. Also weird: the ending of the film with respect to the relationship of Natsuki and Takumi. I guess it really is just a love story about a guy and his car. Speaking of which, watching the videos for Gran Turismo 5 on the Playstation Store made me want to get that game lots. And there are quite a few other games I want for the PS3. Could this possibly mean that purchasing a PS3 rather than buying a PS2 and saving the extra money wasn't a terrible decision? Well, Blu-Ray porn has something to say about that!

Three... Extremes is a three-part anthology film (and apparently this is the second collection of these films?) with parts by Fruit Chan (who I hadn't heard of before first reading about screenings of this film, but is a good Hong Kong director, maybe?), Chan-wook Park (overrated Korean pain director), and Takashi Miike (Japanese awesomeness). So the three films are pretty much horror films, although only one had any aspects that have become cliché as an Asian horror film (creepy long haired ghost). As any anthology film goes, some are better than others. Dumplings, Fruit Chan's film, is about Bai Ling making dumplings from aborted feti as a sort of anti-aging remedy. It made me extremely sick. The crunching sounds when she's eating continue to make my skin crawl long after watching it. Really, just ick. And the scene in the bathtub towards the end was extremely squicky. Highly recommended to anyone with a strong stomach. And anyone who wants to see a gorgeous film (shot by Christopher Doyle, my favorite cinematographer) with a non-good Tony Leung. Cut was crap. Chan-wook Park does a little crappy self-referential junk which is just violence for the sake of violence. With a twist at the end. Hey, just like Oldboy, that vastly overrated film. What a surprise! Maybe his I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK will be better, since it isn't a revenge film at all. JSA was good, and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance at least seemed like you didn't hate everyone in your film, and then, what? Some actor must have pissed in your Cheerios, because that's the only excuse. I should have liked it with the vampire aspects, but nope. Box, on the other hand was one of the creepiest things I have seen. And it's also the one closest to the Asian horror cliché, with the sister of the main character creepily wandering around. But the film was extremely well-made, and what's the scariest thing imaginable? Twins. There's also contortionists, small places, fire, and being buried alive. And the final reveal. Oh, man, it really freaked me out. So I salute you, Takashi Miike and Fruit Chan, and give a big raspberry to Chan-wook Park. I recommend the film, even with Cut, because you can always skip ahead. Yay for DVDs.