Pusher

Directed by - Nicolas Winding Refn
Country of Origin - Denmark
Richard's Rating - (6 out of 10)

Pusher is a week in the life of Frank, a low level heroin dealer in Copenhagen, Denmark. It's the first installment in the excellent Pusher trilogy. The movie is filmed documentary style, so you feel like you are part of the action. Frank starts his week by running up his already substantial tab with his heroin supplier, Milo. After a run of bad luck, Frank is left without his product or cash. The harder he tries to get the money to pay off his debt, the more things go wrong for him. I really liked the way the film builds up the tension as Frank's life and week go further down the shitter. Frank's best friend in the movie is Tonny, played by Mads Mikkelsen, who just played Bond's nemesis in Casino Royale. The story has a good flow and keeps your attention as Frank schemes to get the cash he desperately needs. I enjoyed the authentic feel of the character's personalities. So if you're looking to experience the seedy Copenhagen underworld, check this one out.

-Richard

Suicide Club (Jisatsu Circle)

Directed by - Sion Sono
Country of Origin - Japan
Nick's Rating: (8 out of 10)


Ok I'll admit it, I'm one twisted mofo when it comes to my taste in movies. This is one of my all-time favorite movies, not just from Japan but out of EVERYTHING. "So why did you give it only an 8 and not a 10 if it's your favorite?" Well, because I've started to realize that my f**ked up taste in movies might be be clouding my over-all judgment. So that's why I say I'll give it an 8, because it might be too disturbing and hard to follow to be good to a normal audience.
The title "Suicide Club" is pretty self explanatory. Teens are killing themselves by the boatloads throughout Japan, which is an extreme outlook on what is actually happening in real life Japan today. I really don't want to give away too much of this movie because a lot of the surprises are important to the telling of the story. But I will say this; the movie gives a horrible alternative to laser tattoo removal . . . it hurts to watch, and yes, they most certainly make you watch. There are so many hidden clues in the movie to watch out for, so much so that I immediately replayed the movie to see if I could find them all. I've read a few other reviews of this movie that talk about unnecessary scenes in this movie that make it drag, but I can safely say that everything in this movie is there to give a clue to what is actually going on. Like I said before, this movie may not be for everyone but you will definitely be saying "What? That's pretty f**ked up!" more than once.

-Nick

District B-13 (Banlieue 13)

Directed by: Pierre Morel
Country of Origin: France
Richard's Rating (7 out of 10)

I wasn't expecting much going in to this movie, but I was immediately impressed when the action started. B-13 is written by Luc Besson (The Fifth Element, The Professional, La Femme Nikita), so you know the action will probably be better than your average movie. The movie is set in 2010 Paris where the worst neighborhoods are sectioned off from the city to curb crime. One of the heroes, Leito (David Bell), crosses a local crimeboss Ta Ha. So after stealing a nuclear weapon, Ta Ha kidnaps Leito's sister. During a rescue attempt, Leito is arrested by corrupt police. The French government sends an undercover supercop, Damien (Cyril Raffaelli), to break Leito out and enlist him to stop Ta Ha from detonating the bomb. B-13 separates itself from other action movies with it's chase scenes and innovative fights. They use the sport of Parkour, which was invented by the main character David Bell. Parkour is a style of running that allows runners to overcome larger than normal obstacles. Chase scenes involve increasingly larger jumps in an urban environment. The two heroes must fight their way past Ta Ha and his small army to deactivate the bomb and save Leito's sister. The action in this movie is non stop and definitely worth checking out.

-Richard

301/302

Directed by - Park Cheol-Su
Country of Origin - South Korea
Nick's Rating: (5 out of 10)


What? Another South Korean Film? Yes dammit! A bunch of bad-ass movies come out of South Korea and I have yet to even scratch the surface. This is a really good movie. Notice I said, "Good" and not "Great". What stops it from being great is that this movie drags much like Michael Mann's movie "Heat" . . . not that Heat's a bad movie just that it seemed 2 hours too long. And there's a sex scene (Wahoo! Uhh wait, actually it's more like . . . Zzzzz) that seems to go on for about 10 minutes. Really the scene only lasts about 3 minutes but it's so passionless and seems to have no real purpose in the movie that it causes time, as we know it, to slow down and create a vortex of boredom. Other than those problems the movie is very disturbing and has you wondering just exactly what will become of these two female neighbors who are both completely out of their minds due to past abusive relationships. Beware! Food is a big motif in this film, so when you're not about to be sick to your stomach because of something very twisted that you just observed, you're hungry from looking at food being constantly prepared or eaten. All-in-all it's a good film and totally worth seeing. Who knows, you might totally disagree with me and think that every scene has a definite purpose to the over-all telling of the story, but just to be safe keep your finger on the fast-forward button.

-Nick

Sympathy For Lady Vengeance

Directed by - Park Chan-Wook
Country of Origin - South Korea
Nick's Rating: (8 out of 10)


Park Chan-Wook is by far my favorite South Korean director. His films engulf me to the point where it feels like I'm being tortured with the protagonist, and HOLY CRAP are his protagonists tortured. Chan-Wook's movies tend to be very hard to watch and this film is no different. The third part of a trilogy which also includes the movies "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance" and "Old Boy", Lady Vengeance is probably the easier to sit through. I can best compare it to Clint Eastwood's movie "Million Dollar Baby" where the viewer has become emotionally drained by the time the ending credits start rolling, but this is a very common trait for Chan-Wook's films. Actress Lee Young Ae does a great job in her role as a woman that has been just released from prison after serving time for being falsely accused of a child's murder. She is, of course, now on a mission to find the real murderer and make him pay in the most painful way possible, thanks to Chan-Wook's twisted imagination. Again, this movie is very graphic but if you like a great story please check it out . . . I have yet found an American revenge movie that even comes close to any of the films in this vengeance trilogy.

-Nick

Kamikaze Girls

Directed by - Tetsuya Nakashima
Country of Origin - Japan
Nick's Rating: (10 out of 10)


Ok . . . Japanese movies are kind of hit or miss for me. They either have an awesome storyline with fantastic acting or the far-FAR latter. I was very hesitant about this movie at first. Would it be a super girlie flick with an over all message of "men are assholes, so girls need to stick together because men are, in fact, assholes" or would it be totally lesbian porno like some Japanese movies can be? I am thrilled to say that it was neither. "What no lesbian action? Forget it!" Don't let that sway you. In my personal, totally unprofessional, opinion this was a perfectly shot, directed and acted movie. The best way I can describe it is to say that it was a beautiful graphic novel that had come to life. It seemed as though each shot was framed as though it was being plucked from the Kamikaze Girls comic. Kyoko Fukada and Anna Tsuchiya were perfectly casted for their rolls for this movie. Not to mention that this was Anna's very first movie roll - not too shabby. Unlike some films that tend to make me extremely bored with their - "let's spoon feed you the plot with some endless dialogue in a monotone setting" - this film kept me awake and involved with no hiccups in the story. So if you want to be entertained by a Japanese movie with humor and culture, but not so much culture that you ask, "What the hell is going on?", check out this movie.

P.S. The DVD extras contains an English music video by the actress Anna Tsuchiya that is pretty entertaining as well.

-Nick

The Host (Gwoemul)

Directed by - Joon-ho Bong
Country of Origin - South Korea
Nick's Rating: (7 out of 10)

First I must say that this is the first in the long line of South Korean films that I love. And it is the first that I've seen with really well done CGI. The basic plot of the film is that the U.S. needs to stay out of foreign business, especially South Korea's. American scientists pollute the Han River with toxic chemicals leading to a mutated creature being born and reaping havoc on Seoul. And throughout the movie Americans try to help the South Koreans but inevitably only make things worse. The whole time your watching a family trying to save their 13 year old daughter/niece/granddaughter from the creature while it seems the American's do everything in their power to stop them. So this basically makes you ask who in fact the real monster is, the mutated creature from the Han River or the Americans? (the American government to be exact) Sure this movie might be an "anti-Americans-being-over-in-other-countries-propaganda-thrill-ride" but it's a damn good one. I have to say that my favorite part about this movie is the way they introduced the creature, it was as if it came from one of my childhood nightmares. The fact that the whole first sequence was during the day made it that much more believable and outright awesome.
If you're new to South Korean films, this is definitely a good one to get you started.

-Nick