Inaugural Night GP

The Chaser (2008)

タイトル：The Chaser (2008) – 추격자 (Choo-gyeok-ja)
キャスト： 김윤석 (Kim Yoon-seok), 하정우 (Ha Jeong-woo)
監督： 나홍진(Na Hong-jin)

昨日、教会の友達と映画を見に行った。韓国語映画。行く前、この映画は全然知らなかった。聞いたこともない。でも、友達によると、映画の新聞評価はいい。これから、英語で。。。because my Jap is still pretty bad

I went to see this South Korean movie with a friend. She had taken a day off from work to relax and decided to call me out. As someone who has recently taken to Korean drama and culture, she was keen to watch this movie, especially after seeing that it had garnered a good rating in the newspaper review. I went along, without a clue as to the type of movie it would be. I’ve not even heard of it. You can say I went in without much expectations. I only found out the title of the show when we sat down in the cinema. And boy did the movie blow my mind. I’m not someone very into violent thrillers. I can’t take even some of the PG violence that has become so common in films nowadays. When I heard from my friend that it was going to be pretty violent, I was quite apprehensive, but too late, the die had already been cast, we were already seated and the lights had dimmed, the show was about to begin. It is only now, after the movie, when I’m looking up information to write this blog entry that I realise that this movie is actually quite a big hit and critically acclaimed in South Korea and it’s being considered for a remake in Hollywood. I just want to say to the good people there (Hollywood), “Don’t bother.” You can’t make it any better than it already is (c.f. Infernal Affairs, Il Mare, My Sassy Girl, etc.).

Synopsis adapted from HanCinema
Ex-cop pimp Jung-ho (Kim Yoon-seok) is irritated because his girls keep disappearing without clearing their debts. One night, he gets a call from a customer and sends Mi-jin. Jung-ho soon realises that the phone number of the customer matches that of the calls made by the missing girls’ last customer. As something smells fishy, he decides to set a trap to catch the customer who he suspects of selling his girls. He instructs Mi-jin to message to him her location after she has gone to the house of the said customer. However, after a long wait and unable to get through to her, he senses something amiss and decides to search for her. During his search, Jung-ho dents a car in the alley. When Jung-ho spots blood splattered on the driver’s shirt, he senses the man, Young-min (Ha Jeong-woo), is the suspect. After an intense chase, Jung-ho catches Young-min. But because of Jung-ho’s pretense as a cop, they are both taken to the police station. At the station, the man bluntly confesses to killing the girls, and the last girl, Mi-jin, may still be alive.The police, thinking that they have landed a big serial killer, try to piece together Young-min’s confession, wary of the fact that without a arrant, they may have to release him after 12 hours. Young-min does a fine job of wasting their precious time by sending them on a wild goose chase to look for corpses as evidence. Jung-ho is at first sceptical of Young-min’s confession of murder, thinking that he is trying to stall for time by making up a bogus confession. However, as he combs the dark, in all sense of the word, streets looking for Mi-jin who he believes is still alive, he comes to the sickening realisation that Young-mi might be telling the truth afterall. And it is a race against time for him, to locate Mi-jin before the 12 hours are up and Young-min gets his freedom.

This is one of the few really good shows I’ve watched recently. This despite the fact that it is a pretty violent movie, at least by my standard. Right from the get go, the violence was there. Barely 10 minutes into the movie, the victim, Mi-jin, is being hammered, literally, by the psychopathic killer. First time Director Na keeps the right amount of suspense and expectations throughout the movie. I find myself squeezing my eyes shut and plugging my fingers into my ears to shut out the sound of the hammer on the chisel on human skull (the serial killer’s modus operandi), yet at the same time, wanting to sneak a peek at this mad man’s insane deeds. And this happens quite a few times throughout the movie, i.e., trying to shut out the sight and sound, yet wanting to sneak a peek. At the same time, there are twists and turns throughout the movie to cause you to doubt your initial judgement and expectations.

The cast is wonderful. The psychopathic serial killer Young-min is portrayed very well by Ha Jeong-woo. He exudes a sense of innocence that causes you to let down your guard. But, as my friend rightly remarked, he is as cunning as a fox, and shows no remorse or even an iota of emotion as he goes about his business of slaughtering his victims.

The anti-hero Jung-ho (Kim Yoon-seok) is a flawed protagonist with less than righteous motives, at least initially, for finding Mi-jin and the killer. He is only interested in making money and prone to violence as well. Thrice in the movie, he beats the crap out of the killer, although one of the beatings is off camera. He is also the one who dragged the sick Mi-jin out of bed and literally sends her to her death. But he redeems himself in taking care of Mi-jin’s daughter and his effort to track Mi-jin down.

The movie never really explains why Young-min behaves the way it did. There are some clues along the way, but it stops short of a real explanation for his bazaar behaviour. Even when we have left the cinema, my friend and I were still discussing it, trying to dissect and analyse the characters. This I think is the success of the movie. Not only the suspense and thrill of the moment in the cinema, but the ability to get the audience talking even after it’s over.

The only flaw, if you may even call it that, is the ending scene when Jung-ho finally catches up with Young-mi and has him on the floor. He has a hammer in his hand and is about to swing it into Young-mi’s head. Scenes of Mi-jin and her daughter flashes in his mind. He hesitates. Then, the police swoop in. Jung-ho gives it all he’s got, aiming for Young-mi’s head. I don’t know if it makes contact or not. For that moment, I had shut my eyes and ears. But I was told that he did make contact, avenging all the victims, especially Mi-jin. Okay, this is really really my very very humble opinion, but I think it would have been better to show him being unable to finish Young-mi off. Yes, he is a pretty violent person himself (ex-cop Jung-ho, that is), not known to hold back on his punches. Man, he even beats the crap out of the police, his ex-colleagues. But, he still holds onto that last bit of human-ness. That last bit of sanity. That crucial bit that differentiates him from the madman killer Young-min. The killer who brings down the hammer onto his chisel to crack a hole in the head of his victims in cold blood. When they are still alive and breathing. Because I always think that there is line (no matter how thin) that differentiates normal people from murderers. And at the end of the day, it is that bit of humanness that prevents normal people from committing such acts of violence. To kill someone. That the thought of the act itself is just unthinkable.

So, except for this little flaw, and the fact that it is a very violent movie, although I can understand the need for the violence, I would have given the movie a perfect score. It is really good. I would say it is as good as another movie that I have given a perfect score, Riding Alone For Thousand Of Miles by Director Zhang Yimou.

Mid-Autumn Festival

今年の中秋祝祭はジュロンにある中国庭園へ行った。妹と。行く前、ジュロンポイントへ食べに行った。あちらは日本食通りがあります。

いつ：八月二十二日
どこ：ジュロンポイントの麺いち
だれと：妹
カメラ：Canon IXY40

デザートはクレープハウスへ行った。

中国庭園の中秋祝祭テーマはハろキチです。

麺いち
クレープハウス

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter

Title: The Memory Keeper’s Daughter
Author: Kim Edwards

I got this book at the Kinokuniya store in town. I have to be honest, the thing that caught my eye was the cover jacket. Looking at the title, I thought it was a book by Amy Tan or something. I remember that she has a book of a similar title. I really enjoy reading Amy Tan so I was excited that she has another book out. When I read that this book is about a girl with Down syndrome, I just had to buy it; my niece has Down syndrome. That was way back in Feburary or so. No, it’s not that it took me so long to read the book. But it did take me this long to get down to writing a review. So here goes, retrospectively, that is.

About the book: it starts off with a nurse, Caroline, being infatuated with a doctor, Dr. David Henry, she was working with. However, the doctor has married another woman, Norah, and they were going to have twins. In the cold winter blizzard of 1964, Norah gave birth to twins – a boy, Paul, and a girl, Phoebe. But Phoebe has Down syndrome, and Dr David Henry, decides to institutionalise Phoebe without the knowledge of Norah. He tells her that Phoebe has died at birth. Meanwhile, Caroline, who was tasked with carrying baby Phoebe to an institution decides to bring up the baby herself. She leaves town with Phoebe without the knowledge of Dr Henry.

One must remember that this was back in the 1960s when people think that institutionalisation would be the best for such children. Of course, nowadays, early intervention and integration into society is more the norm. But Dr Henry’s own motivation for sending Phoebe away is more complex – he grew up with a sister plagued with a heart disease, whose death had devastated their mother. He did not want his wife to suffer the same fate as his mother. All in good intention it seems. But Norah is not his mother. He should not have made the assumption that he knows what is best for her. For all you know, she might be strong enough to live with it. But she never got the chance to know for herself. And this secret, that Dr Henry had sent his own daughter away, drove a wedge into the relationship of the couple, and affected the whole family as well. The couple grew apart and Paul, the son, grew up distant from Dr Henry. In the end, Norah had an affair while they were holidaying in Aruba, witnessed by both father and son. Dr Henry turned to photography, spending long hours in his darkroom, while Paul left home to pursue his music.

Meanwhile, Caroline has set up home in Pittsburgh, Dr Henry’s family home, with Phoebe and became close to truck driver Al whom she eventually weds. Al is the guy she had met that night she was driving away from Kentucky with Phoebe. In Pittsburgh, Caroline (and Phoebe)stayed Leo March whom she had been hired to take care of (since she is a certified nurse) by Leo’s daughter, Doro. Phoebe grows up strong and healthy, different from the sickly child that her father had predicted at her birth. Caroline keeps in contact with Dr Henry by sending him photos of Phoebe while he in turn sends her money. But he makes no attempt to track down their whereabouts.

Towards the end of the book, Dr Henry returns to Pittsburgh for a photography exhibition and returns to his old home. He finds a pregnant 16-year-old Rosemary squatting there and brings her home. Everyone talks about their relationship. All Dr Henry wanted to do was make up for abandoning his own daughter, something he couldn’t really tell his wife and son. It led to the final breakdown of his family. Eventually, he dies. And with his death, Phoebe finally reunites with her mother and brother Paul.

I thought the book was pretty well-written, at least in the beginning. The story shifts from Dr Henry to Caroline from chapter to chapter and you are drawn into their worlds as you read. Although it seems so wrong for him to send his own daughter away and lie to his wife about it, you kind of sympathise with Dr Henry and can empathise with him, given his childhood with his sickly sister. At the same time, you also wonder about this man who makes use of his subordinate’s love for him by getting her (Caroline) to do the “dirty” work of sending his daughter to the institution for him. He is in fact not just asking her to do the dirty deed, but also keeping it a secret from his wife. That, I think, is really dastardly. Isn’t this just as bad as adultery? He is sharing a very intimate secret with her without the knowledge of his wife. In that sense, the characterisation of Dr David Henry was pretty successful. You have an ambivalent feeling towards him and his actions.

My only complaint is the length of the book. Not that I don’t like long books. Just that towards the end, I don’t get the feeling that the bits at the end are really meaningful. Or should I say I don’t feel that things are resolved successfully. I really don’t understand the introduction of Rosemary to make the family more estranged then they already are. Somehow, the last few chapters just don’t sit well with me. I’m not asking for neat happy endings. In fact, the morbid me likes unhappy endings. I strongly detest happily-ever-after endings, especially in our local dramas, where there’s a mass wedding in the final episode. So fake. While there’s no mass wedding here, there is a wedding at the end, Norah’s wedding, which Paul and Phoebe attend. I just wish that the ending was less draggy. That would have make the pace of the book more consistent, in my opinion. But overall, the book was a good read. The cover jacket is definitely eye-catching.

A made-for-television movie premiered on April 12, 2008, on Lifetime. The cast included Dermot Mulroney as David, Gretchen Mol as Norah, and Emily Watson as Caroline. The adolescent and adult Phoebe is played by Krystal Hope Nausbaum, an actress with Down syndrome.

The Rule of Four

Title: The Rule of Four
Author: Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason

This was a book that I read when I was in Japan and this review was written then, more than 2 years ago. I’ve decided to put all my reviews in the same place, so here it is:

I guess it’s not fair to say that this book follows the fomula of The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown since according to the authors, the idea for the book was conceived before Brown’s book. But the similarities are uncanny – a race against time to break codes and solve mysteries found in ancient texts, in this case, it’s the Hypernotomachia Poliphili. Murder, suspence, the adrenaline rush. All within 24 hours (although in The Rule of Four, there is an epiloge of sorts at the end that stretches a few years beyond that time-frame).

In terms of the storyline, The Rule of Four was bogged down by too many subplots, relationships between the 4 protagonists and their friends/family, etc. After a while, it’s difficult to keep track of the minor characters and the argument behind the Hypernotomachia Poliphili. Figuring out the codes and riddles, solving mysterious, finding the murderer, these are potentially interesting, but on the whole, the Hypernotomachia Poliphili is too obscure a manuscript to really make you want to research more into its origins, or to really care about the arguments put forth as to who wrote it and why it was written.

This is why The Da Vinci Code is so hugely popular – da Vinci, the painter himself, is a familar figure and the conspirarcy theories suggested are intriguing, making you question your own beliefs about truth and facts. I mean I actually searched for a picture of The Last Supper to see if the figure on Jesus’ right was really a woman.

Conclusion, The Rule of Four is fairly readable and enjoyable, but not nearly as exciting and a page-turner as The Da Vinci Code. If you like riddles, ancient manuscripts, murder mysteries, you’ll probably like this book.

Hanadan Final

タイトル：花より男子ファイナル
キャスト：井上真央、 松本潤、小栗旬、松田翔太、阿部力

花より男子ブログ

やっぱり花沢類の方が好きです。小栗旬はかっこいです。とても。もちろん松本潤もかっこいですが、小栗はもっとかっこいと思います。大好き。牧野だたら、類を選びます。＾＾

Cyborg She

タイトル： 僕の彼女はサイボーグ
キャスト：小出恵介、綾瀬 はるか
監督：곽재용 (Kwak Jae-young)

この監督の映画が見たことがある。韓国語の映画－My Sassy Girl (엽기적인 그녀)とWindstruck (내 여자친구를 소개합니다)。女優は綺麗なJeon Ji-hyun (전지현)です。Windstruckは日本に住んでいた時、友達と映画に見に行った。韓国語原語と日本語の字幕、ちょっとチャレンジでした。でも、面白かった。

だから、この映画を見たかった。実は綾瀬 はるかがあまり好きじゃありません。彼女のドラマは全然見てない。でも、この映画の綾瀬 はすばらしかったと思います。楽しかった。