The time: 1986. The place: a remote island off the southwest coast of Korea. The plot: when the inhabitants of Geukrak Island begin to disappear, the villagers decide to carry out an investigation of their own, led by Che Wu-song, a head doctor at a public health center. The story of Kim Han-Min’s debut feature, the thriller/comedy Paradise Murdered [극락도 살인사건], might at first appear to resemble that of Memories of Murder (2003): both films involve an elusive serial killer, both take place in the 1980s and the prime suspect in each is played by none other than Park Hae-il, the foul-mouthed out-of-work college graduate in The Host (2006). But while Bong Joon-ho’s movie was based on actual events, Kim’s is a work of fiction, and in the former the case is never resolved, while at the end of Paradise Murdered, the criminal’s identity is revealed. The boyish-faced Park has shown himself to be a versatile actor, capable of portraying a sleazy high school teacher in Rules of Dating (2005), a gentle postman in My Mother, the Mermaid (2004) and a cold-hearted murder suspect in Memories of Murder. Paradise Murdered will screen in local theatres on April 12th.

Director: Kim Han-Min [김한민]
Cast: Park Hae-Il [박해일], Seong Ji-Ru [성지루], Park Sol-Mi [박솔미], Lee Dae-Yeon [이대연], Park Won-Sang [박원상], Choi Ju-Bong [최주봉], Kim In-Mun [김인문]

Posters, Photos, Production Shots, Trailers

[Source: koreanfilm.org, The Korea Times, Donga Ilbo]

There was a time—not that long ago—when I would go to the movies and watch images projected large on the silver screen and return home to craft a written response, preferably a mythopoeic one. I’m not quite sure where the process inverted but these days I tend to read about movies at home and then go out looking for the film that matches the description(s). It’s not always a perfect fit—aligning images to words and vice versa—often it’s not even a comfortable one, as Godard professes in Two Or Three Things I Know About Her.

As I am fond of saying these days, paraphrasing Alice, the more movies I see, the behinder I get. The oeuvre of masters like Godard are daunting to a novice, and it’s often just catch as catch can. But after being assigned by my SF360 editor Susie Gerhard to locate online resources for a piece that ran earlier this week on Two Or Three Things I Know About Her playing at the Castro Theatre, I decided to actually go see the film this afternoon. Imagine!

Wikipedia profile on Two Or Three Things I Know About Her.
SF360 overview (Susan Gerhard).
SF Bay Guardian Review (Max Goldberg).
Strictly Film School Review (Acquarello).
Senses of Cinema Director Profile (Craig Keller).
The Guardian Review (Peter Bradshaw).

Continue Reading "Jean-Luc Godard’s 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d’elle (Two or Three Things I Know About Her)"...

Freshly dubbed The Grindhouse Monkey by Todd I bring forth more good news and a trailer from the upcoming geek-gore-fest The Grindhouse. IGN has Eli Roth’s faux Thanksgiving trailer. You can find the American traditions embedded here. Viewers must provide their age as it is deemed Age Restricted. Go on fakers.

VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED

Thank you Sharky.

Trinity Home Entertainment LLC is scheduled to release Gabriel Dowrick’s Nailed on DVD (T-4383) in the U.S. on July 10th; the DVD is available for pre order from Twitch affiliate Amazon.com Inc.. The movie has been rated ‘R’ by the Classification And Rating Administration (CARA) “for violence/gore, drug use and language.”

As was previously reported here and there on Twitch, the screenplay for Nailed was written by Dowrick and Jonathan Krygier, based on Dowrick’s short movie of the same title, which they also wrote the screenplay for. The movie stars Tashi Martel, Glenn Ruehland, Frank Hruby, and Samantha Noble.

MySpace: Nailed theatrical trailer #1 page
Google Video: Nailed theatrical trailer #2 page *
MySpace: Nailed teaser trailer page
MySpace: Nailed official page
IFM World Releasing: Nailed
Trinity Home Entertainment: Nailed DVD
Amazon.com: Nailed DVD
* The second theatrical trailer actually predates the first one, but wasn’t publicly released until February 19th of this year.

Below is a synopsis for Nailed from the website of international sales agent IFM World Releasing Inc..

Continue Reading "DVD update: Gabriel Dowrick’s NAILED"...

Chad Ferrin’s Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill! is scheduled to be screened at the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival (AFFF) on April 22nd (technically, April 23rd) at 12:00 a.m.. The movie had its world première at the Twisted Nightmare Weekend (TNW) convention in Middleburg Heights, Ohio on August 4th of last year.

The screenplay for Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill! was written by Ferrin. The movie stars Timothy Muskatell as Remington, Ricardo Gray as Nicholas, Charlotte Marie as Mindy, Trent Haaga as the bum/Donald, David Z. Stamp as Ray Mann, Marina Blumenthal as Lupe, Max Haaga as young Nicholas, Jose I. Lopez as Jorge, Ernesto Redarta as B.F., Kirk Sever as the newscaster, Jeff Sisson as the clerk, Amy Szychowski as Brooke, and Kele Ward as Candy.

Here’s a description of Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill! from the AFFF website: “A good title goes a long way, and with Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill!, Chad Ferrin is halfway there. The reference to Russ Meyer’s Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! shouldn’t be taken too seriously though, because Ferrin has quite a different approach. The director, who had the AFFF audience cringing in their seats in 2004 with the nasty The Ghouls, is not exactly known for his gentle outlook on life.

Where The Ghouls had an actor with Down’s Syndrome playing a very unsympathetic role, Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill! features a mentally-challenged character as a (not-so-helpless) victim. This is Nicholas, who lives with his mother Mindy and is obsessed with Easter. The tough life of mother and son seems to be taking a turn for the better when Mindy falls in love with Rem, but he turns out to be a total brute who abuses Nicholas in every (un)imaginable way. Nicholas has a surprise trick up his sleeve though: a mysterious killer who hides his face behind an Easter bunny mask.

The strength of this film lies in the fact that a premise which sounds ridiculous on paper, is executed without too many attempts to lighten things up. Although Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill! has its share of outrageous black humour, Ferrin takes his horror very seriously, if not the pointy-eared killer’s grisly slaughter sessions, then definitely the everyday horror of child abuse, drug addiction, and paedophilia. And Timothy Muskatell, who plays the ultra-sadistic Rem, reveals himself to be a modern David Hess.”

YouTube: Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill! teaser trailer page

Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill! official website

MySpace: Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill! official page

AFFF: Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill!

Dread Central: Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill! review

Once you get a Press Pass in your hot little hands at a film festival that is screening more than 190 films (about half full-length features), the temptation is to try and see as much as humanly possible.

I’ve done that before, and it just about killed me.

It’s not just the logistics of getting from one screening to the next, which can be physically exhausting in itself; it’s the mental shutdown, in which one film bleeds into the next, to the point that you forget what you liked and why. So when circumstances kept me from seeing certain films, I consoled myself that I was recharging my creative batteries (such as they are). What follows are capsule reviews, providing a snapshot of what was on offer this week, beyond the individual reviews I’ve already posted.

After the jump: comments on Beings, Snuffed, The Good Life, Cake: A Wedding Story, Year of the Fish, The Rape of Europa, The Favor, Netherbeast Incorporated, 10 Items or Less, Away From Her, Severance, Exiled.

Continue Reading "AFI Dallas Report: Catching Up with Capsules"...

It’s no secret I’m a big fan of Head Trauma, one of my Top 10 Experiences of 2006. Filmmaker Lance Weiler distributed the film himself, and obviously has been thinking extensively about how to present his work to the public. He also helped created Fest Mob, a fascinating experiment in building a community vibe, and now it sounds like he’s expanded on that notion with what he calls a “remix” presentation of Head Trauma.

Tonight—Saturday, March 31, at 7:30 pm—the good people of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, will have an opportunity to experience what Weiler describes as “a collision of music, movies, theatrics and gaming.”

Read on after the jump for details as explained in the press releases, including plans for a tour of the event to other cities. If I was within driving distance of Philadelphia, I’d drop any other plans I might have and hightail it over there.

Continue Reading "How Do You Remix Head Trauma?"...

A rant of mine concerning Lucio Fulci: if there is one film in my collection which failed to live up to my anticipation, it’s his “Zombi 2”. Seeing as how that has many titles I’ll elaborate: it’s the one with the “zombie vs. shark” fight and the “splinter punctures eyeball” scene. To me that sums up the whole movie as all other things in it have been done better elsewhere. What is worse, the zombies made me laugh and the movie sports some of the worst continuity errors ever. Zombie loses an arm: cool. A few seconds later this zombie still has both arms: NOT cool. And these errors are not there to “evoke a dreamlike state”, as one apologist told me. When people’s hair and beards change length and color back-and-forth several times within the same scene this is just evidence of SLOPPY FILMMAKING!
Still, faults and all, “Zombi 2” certainly had a couple of cool bits and if people hadn’t been praising it out of proportion I would have had more fun with it.

Apart from his better-known gorefests Fulci also made a lot of movies in other genres, which made me wonder whether the man was generally overrated or if there was a part of his resume I’d be more fond of. So when I got a chance to see the new Severin DVD-release of Fulci’s “Perversion Story (a.k.a. One on Top of the Other)” I was curious to see if it would suffer the same deficiencies as his ahem… classic masterpiece.

To my pleasant surprise it didn’t: “Perversion Story” is a stylish little thriller with some great visuals. It also has a plot which manages to hold your attention, decent performances, and of course the gratuitous nudity which gave the film notoriety.

Continue Reading "DVD-review: PERVERSION STORY aka ONE ON TOP OF THE OTHER"...

Dave Hudson at The Greencine Daily has already done a fine job of compiling the press releases for this year’s 50th San Francisco International Film Festival.  Here’s a few more since his last announcement.

In something of an unprecedented turn, members of the San Francisco Film Society (which sponsors the festival) can already access the festival mini-guide in pdf format for purposes of advance ticket sales.  Naturally, I’m embargoed from releasing the program line-up until the official press conference next week; but, for SFFS members who can’t wait for next week’s members preview at the Letterman Digital Arts Center in the Presidio, have at it.

Continue Reading "2007 SFIFF50—Press Notes"...

A third theatrical trailer for Simon Cathcart’s StagKnight has replaced both the first one on the official website for the movie, and the second one on the website of international sales agent Shoreline Entertainment Inc.; it’s much longer than the second one, which itself was much longer than the first one.

The screenplay for StagKnight was written by Cathcart and Rob Mercer. The movie apparently stars Jocelyn Osorio as Blossom, Danielle Mason as Ginger, Simeon Willis as Brian, James Hillier as Charles, Santos De Castro as Santos, Sandra Dickinson as Fay, Martin Bayfield as William, (Simon) Cathcart as Sean, Paul Coskun as Mike, Jason Hyde as Dave, J.C. Mac as Wolf, Joe Montana as Roger, Tony Tang as Makoto, and Barry McNeil as Steve.

For more information on StagKnight, see Twitch’s fifth, fourth, third, second, and first articles on it.

StagKnight theatrical trailer #3 (downloadable 18.2 MB WMV file)

StagKnight teaser trailer (downloadable 2.3 MB MOV file)

StagKnight clip #1 (downloadable 1.3 MB MOV file)

StagKnight clip #2 (downloadable 1.2 MB MOV file)

StagKnight clip #3 (downloadable 1.3 MB MOV file)

StagKnight clip #4 (downloadable 2.6 MB MOV file)

StagKnight clip #5 (downloadable 1 MB MOV file)

StagKnight clip: “Kill Number One (New Wave Dave)” (downloadable 1.2 MB WMV file)

StagKnight official website

Shoreline Entertainment: StagKnight

Below is a synopsis for StagKnight from the production.

Continue Reading "Simon Cathcart’s STAGKNIGHT: 3rd theatrical trailer"...

It’s material that take him far from the crime dramas where he made his name but India’s Ram Gopal Varma is such a powerful film maker that I’m more than willing to follow where he wants to lead and when his source material is something as powerful and charged as Lolita I’d say we’re going to be going someplace well worthwhile. The latest from the director of Company is titled Nishabd and film’s website and trailer are now online.

Nishabd website (trailer within)

Drool drool drool. Pant pant pant.

The Other Way

Scared

Ava Gardner

Where’s The Shit

Made You Something

And plenty more where those came from!

Hmmm. Isn’t it appropriate that this film open on Good Friday? Oh it will be Good alright.

This review originally appeared almost exactly two years ago - March 28th, 2005 - and is reproduced here with some comments on the new Tartan DVD release added.

Thai horror flick Shutter is a film that has arrived a couple years too late. Had it been made in the early going of the current Asian horror boom it very likely would have been hailed a minor classic, mentioned in the same breath as Nakata’s Ringu and Kurosawa’s Kairo. Coming this late in the game, however, it seems that a good number of people have taken a look at the early materials, branded it a derivative knock off, and thought no further about it. Those people are certainly justified in their thinking—Shutter IS quite derivative, owing a large debt to Nakata in particular, but it also succeeds in taking what is now a rather tired formula and re-injecting it with life, creating a film that is significantly more than the sum of its parts.

Continue Reading "Shutter Review"...

Bey Logan, I could kiss you, you wonderful man you. I should have been keeping my eyes open for the 2007 lineup announcement from the TWC’s label Dragon Dynasty. Glory be, look at what’s coming out this year!!!

April: Born to Fight: 2 Disc Ultimate Edition

May: Shanghai Express: Special Collector’s Edition and Above the Law: Special Collector’s Edition Follow the Shanghai Express link to see both DVD covers and specs!

June: 36th Chamber of Shaolin: Special Collector’s Edition, King Boxer: Special Collector’s Edition, The One Armed Swordsman: Special Collector’s Edition and My Young Auntie: Special Collector’s Edition

July: Two John Woo classics Hardboiled: 2 Disc Ultimate Edition and Last Hurrah for Chivalry: Special Collector’s Edition

August: A couple from the Jackie Chan canon Crime Story: Special Collector’s Edition and Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin: Special Collector’s Edition
September: City of Violence: 2 Disc Ultimate Edition and Dragon Heat: Special Collector’s Edition

October: Jet Li’s Tai Chi Master: 2 Disc Ultimate Edition and Sammo Hung’s Hapkido: Special Collector’s Edition

November: Quentin Tarantino presents The Shaw Brothers’ Collection (titles to be confirmed)

December: Thank the gods, Jet li’s Fist of Legend: 2 Disc Ultimate Edition and Dreadnaught: Special Collector’s Edition

My wallet just got that much thinner.

Thank you Ed, The King of Carrot Flowers

Oh how I wish I was giving away the original...sigh. In these days of the remake, and the remake of the remake I feel something else must be remade- the point that remakes are generally speaking a bad idea.

So… I have ten copies of this failed masterpiece to give away. Howzabout you send in your story of what you would say if this was the only thing waiting for you under the tree on ChristGeek Morning. Consider it your opportunity to write a first class rant regarding the lack of originality in Horrorwood these days.

I’ve got eight of these freakin’ things to unload. Ho-Ho-Ho.

Send to by April 10.