Burning [2018]

Burning [2018]
Original Title: Beoning
South Korea
Director: Chang-dong Lee
My Rating: 5/10

This is another movie that I like and don't like.  I generally like a lot of build up, but this movie is just too slow paced.  When nothing is revealed and what happened is up for interpretation, sometimes it works and sometimes it feels lazy.  Steven Yeun is fantastic in this movie, but the lead actor Ah-in Yoo is difficult to watch because he spends the entire movie with his mouth agape.  Something like that shouldn't reflect on the film as a whole, but it's so distracting.

I started watching this knowing nothing about it, but immediately recognized the idea adapted from the Murakami story, which is the most interesting part but seems to only serve as a  metaphor here.  With a half an hour edited out from the first act and some motivation given for all the characters, it could have been a really excellent story.  I don't think it would have taken away from the mystery.

Luck-Key [2016]

Luck-Key [2016]
Original Title: Leokki
South Korea
Director: Kae-Byeok Lee
My Rating: 5/10

I watched this on Netflix thinking it was an action movie, I was surprised but not disappointed to discover it is actually a comedy.  The premise is kind of stupid, as is almost anything involving amnesia.  This might be intentional as part of the plot involves a shitty soap opera type television drama, the type of show that would happily use the amnesia plot cliche. 

Despite the stupid premise, it is actually funny in a silly, feel good sort of way.  The good will it earned with me collapses in the end with an implausibly bad finale.  All logic goes out the window, and what would have been an otherwise decent comedy ends up being pretty average.  I simply don't want to watch a movie that takes place in the present, but also is in a universe without photo ID, and where everyone except business executives watch television dramas.

Neighbor No. 13 [2005]

Neighbor No. 13 [2005]
Original Title: Rinjin 13-gô
Japan
Director: Yasuo Inoue
My Rating: 5/10

I watched this because it was recommended as a good violent horror movie, but really it's more of a thriller.  Worse, it's a thriller with a very tired and overdone premise: bullied kid seeks violent revenge. This is the set up for a lot of the slasher films of the 80's.   I couldn't help being rather bored from the start.  I didn't really care for any of the characters, and I found it hard to believe that the bully in the film could go through life like he did without being horribly beaten himself by someone at some point.

I also didn't understand how the main character had no scars from the violence done to him as a child, yet his split personality has them.  Did he imagine the violence?  Did he just magically heal?  Did it not actually happen?  The movie just never addresses this.  The fact that he has a split personality is not a spoiler (despite the wikipedia page implying that it's some sort of revealed twist), it's right there on the poster and it never even occurred to me that it was anything other than overtly obvious.

Despite all of its problems, I liked the ending so I still give it 5.

Psychokinesis [2018]

Psychokinesis [2018]
Original Title: Yeom-lyeok
South Korea
Director: Sang-ho Yeon
My Rating: 6/10

I really like the concept for this movie, but the end result was just okay.  Part of my frustration came from characters making stupid decisions which is almost always due to lazy writing.  If someone I knew told me they could do something amazing and then they showed me said amazing thing, I might not think they were a superhero or wizard, but I'm generally impressed at impressive things.  Also, if someone attacks my family, friends and I with a weapon of some sort, I'm not going to batter them a bit, disarm them and send them on their way.  Especially when they already had a monetary motive for the attack before I just added a revenge motive.

Maybe I just wanted the movie to be darker, more realistic, violent, etc...  It's a lighthearted affair and it's entertaining, so in that respect it works.  Apparently in Korea, if someone showed superhuman abilities, they could do so openly without any fear of unwanted attention.  That sounds nice, I want to live in that world.  In this utopia, movies could ask the audience to suspend their disbelief for sci-fi/fantasy elements, but then depict both characters and reactions in a realistic way.

Time [2006]

Time [2006]
Original Title: Shi gan
South Korea
Director: Ki-duk Kim
My rating: 2/10

What the hell did I just watch?  I guess I would sum this up as tale of two psychotics and their horrible relationship.  From the very beginning I wanted to scream at the guy: Run!  His girlfriend goes into jealous rages in public and tries to start fights with anyone who looks at her boyfriend.  Then she bails on him for six months while recovering from cosmetic surgery that has apparently made her completely unrecognizable.  You know, as you do.  Then she returns to him just to mess with him?

He's into it, but then does the same to her.  There must be less painful, expensive and time consuming ways to psychologically abuse your partner.  There is not a single relatable character presented.  Everyone is either crazy, screamy, punchy or rapey.  Nobody is capable of having an adult conversation without it devolving into childish shouting or violence.  The whole thing is crazy.

Something like this could have potential in theory I guess.  Maybe with some back story on how they ended up such terrible people.  The mystery was a little effective at the end, with trying to figure out which character was the surgically altered lead, but by then I was bored.  I think it could have benefited from some sense of danger.  The couple were clearly horrible people, capable of physical abuse, it might work as a thriller.

In the end, I'd say this was mostly garbage.  It wasn't anything special visually, the story didn't feel either believable or interesting, I didn't like the music or the actors.  It was more bleh than meh.

Castaway on the Moon [2009]

Castaway on the Moon [2009]
Original Title: Kimssi pyoryugi
South Korea
Director: Hae-jun Lee
My Rating: 10/10

This is one of those rare perfect films.  I liked everything about it: the characters, the actors, pacing, story, tone, and character arcs.  I'm not usually a fan of "feel good" movies, and although this movie doesn't have an overly happy ending (it's actually a little ambiguous) I would be surprised if anyone could watch this and not feel at least a little good.  It manages this without feeling too sappy or melodramatic, which is a rare thing.

Themes of redemption and self-reliance are especially appealing to me, even if all is for naught.  In fact that makes it more enjoyable, when the characters achieve fleeting or partial success.  That feels more realistic.  This movie is a solid 10 all around, I wish I could discover films like this more often.

Gamera: The Giant Monster [1965]

Gamera: The Giant Monster [1965]
Original Title: Daikaijû Gamera
Japan
Director: Noriaki Yuasa
My Rating: 5/10

While I'm a big fan of the Godzilla movies, Gamera just doesn't really do it for me.  If I can find an original Japanese language version with English subtitles, my opinion might change.  Until then, I regard this as an okay giant monster movie.  It's biggest drawback (besides the bad dialog/dubbing) is the annoying child.  This goofy little kid insists (based on no evidence) that Gamera is the friend of all children, even though he's messing up Japan pretty good.  Even more annoying, in the sequels this turns out to actually be true.

As for Gamera himself, he's pretty silly in appearance and basic concept.  He's a giant rocket turtle.  These first gen monsters all look pretty silly to be fair though.  This movie is still oddly watchable, maybe because I have a soft spot for the genre as a whole.  I'd give it a solid 5, which is mostly meh.