Crying Fist (2005) Dir. Seung-wan Ryoo
Starring: Choi Min-sik, Ryoo Seung-bum

**

Imagine two parallel Rocky pictures mixed with Asian extremes and that peculiar Korean cinematic wit. Unfortunately, at 135 minutes it's just way too long to keep anyone other than Asian cinema fans nailed to their couch.

Tae-shik (Choi Min-sik) is a middle-aged former boxer, and father and husband, who is so down on his luck he's forced to make ends meet as a street performer, offering to be beaten up by anyone with some spare change. Sang-hwan (Ryoo Seung-bum) is a young punk who disappoints his family when he finds himself in prison for robbery. An amateur boxing competition becomes the salvation for these characters, a parallel trajectory that leads them to fight each other in the ring, both looking to reclaim their lost honour.

Choi Min-sik, most likely remembered by North American audiences as the tortured hero in ‘Old Boy’, has a remarkable face. His uncanny ability to evoke earth-shattering sadness and stone cold rage reminds us of Takeshi Kitano or Robert De Niro. His character is so loveably pathetic we desperately yearn for him to escape from his despair. Less so with Ryoo Seung-bum; the younger protag who seeks to regain the pride of his dying grandmother is as sullen but less endearing than Min-sik.

Even if both stories were equally compelling the film needs to be shortened by 45 minutes. The boxing competition isn't announced until the one-and-a-half-hour mark; it would be either the mid-point or first act turn in most movies. Before then it's a series of repetitious scenes that continually beat us down with the depravity and lifelessness of the characters.

But of course, this is Asian cinema, specifically Korean, which has its unique peculiarities. For fans of the genre it fits in well with the themes of self-flagellation and humiliation, bringing the characters down to their lowest moments. Tae-shik's dishonourable humiliation at being beaten daily in the streets by regular people is darkly humorous. At one point Tae-shik's loan officer, in an attempt to regain his honour, eats a man's freshly cut fingernail droppings as repentance.

Curiously, it's only been three years since its original release and the film already shows its age. The striking cinematography is comprised of blown out white highlights and overexposed backgrounds — the "Tony Scott look" that's now passé even for television. Even many of the Asian extreme elements, including the fingernail bit, in 2009 feel like they've jumped the shark.

This review first appeared on Exclaim.ca

D-War: Dragon Wars (2007) dir. Shim Hyung-rae
Starring: Jason Behr, Amanda Brooks, Robert Forster, Chris Mulkey, Elizabeth Pena

*1/2

“D-War: Dragon Wars” a new Korean monster movie is one of those films where the poster is infinitely better than the film. The ads depict two bad ass Godzilla-like serpents battling each other atop A skyscraper. I had hopes it could have been another quality Korean genre film like “The Host”, but I was shocked to see that it was all American – even set in L.A. with semi-recognizable Hollywood actors. In their attempt to make an internationally successful film the filmmakers disregarded anything about their own culture that would have made the film distinct and created a throw away carbon copy picture.

Curiously, according to the DVD Special Features, “Dragon Wars” was the most expensive film ($30m) ever made by Koreans. In fact, it’s worn like a badge of honour. But no one seems to care if the film is any good.

The story is apparently based on Korean myth. As a boy Ethan Kendrick meets an antique dealer (Robert Forster) who identifies him as the reincarnated spirit of Halam, a warrior from ancient Korea. In flashbacks we see Halam and his lover Narim confront an evil serpent monster named Imoogi. The pair take the power of the dragon to their suicidal deaths with the knowledge they will be reunited 500 years later. When Ethan grows up he is compelled to find the reincarnated lover who will have the power to summon the good serpent to fight the bad serpent. The backstory is impossible to understand – in fact I had to refer back to Wikipedia to remember it all. Anyways it’s all hokey-pokey pseudo-mythology stuff.

The Imoogi serpent appears in Los Angeles to find and kill Ethan’s reincarnated lover Sarah (Amanda Brooks). As a TV news reporter he discovers a series of mysterious events and disasters could be the reemergence of this legendary monster. Ethan accepts the responsibility of his former life and must save Sarah from the evil Imoogi. Just in the nick of time the good Imoogi finally returns for a climatic battle of the monsters.

All of the above is an excuse to have some good ol’ Godzilla-style destruction. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But unlike those campy Japanese films the Korean filmmakers felt the need to mask the film’s campyness and turn it into a Roland Emmerich blockbuster. Though the budget was the highest in Korean history they still couldn’t reach the bar that Emmerich or Michael Bay have set for the genre. There’s 2 or 3 big set pieces that sustain your attention, but everything else is just moving through the ringer with truly awful results. The best scene is an ambitious downtown L.A. monster battle (a la “Transformers”). There’s some awesome destruction and explosions involving the Imoogi and an army of flying pterodactyls. If you have to rent this film you may want to fast forward to this scene.

Since the poster features a dragon vs. dragon battle atop an L.A. skyscraper I was waiting for that scene. But it never comes. It’s only in the very last scene does the good serpent finally emerge. The battle is a let down because it's way too late in the film and, for some reason, the filmmakers forgot to put arms and legs on the monsters. Therefore their movements, actions and ‘fightability’ were extremely limited. I'll take Godzilla va. Mothra any day.

The film had potential to be another quality Korean monster movie like “The Host”, which could compete with the Hollywood blockbuster monster movies but still retain its distinct “Korean-ness”. Instead it fails because of its naïve attempt to be Hollywood.

“D-War: Dragon Wars” is available from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on DVD. Buy it here: Dragon Wars - D-War

The Host (2007) dir. Joon-ho Bong
Starring: Kang-ho Song, Hae-il Park, Du-na Bae

***

“The Host” is the biggest film ever to come out of Korea, a fun monster movie and a mixture of “Alien”, “Godzilla”, and all the Roland Emmerich-disaster films rolled up into one, with an unquestionably peculiar Korean spin to it.

The opening is clever: years before today, an American scientist at the U.S. Army base in Seoul instructs his Korean subordinate to drain a bottle of dusty, expired formaldehyde into the drain. The Korean man objects saying it will end up in the Han River harming the tepid waters. The scientist wonderfully typifies the environmentally unfriendly “Ugly American.” The Korean follows orders and proceeds to drain the bottle into the sink, but when the camera pans right we see there are hundreds of bottles to dispose of. This slap-in-your-face expository set up is a great send up of the B-monster-film genre.

Cut to present day, on the banks of the beautiful Han River, we meet the Park family operating a kiosk selling food and snacks to tourists. In the middle of the serene day, everyone’s attention is curiously drawn to an odd shape hanging underneath a bridge in the distance. When the shape falls into the water the quick glimpse reveals it’s a large creature of some sort. Several moments later it swims to shore and appears with great shock charging towards a group of tourists on the bank of the river. One of the rules of the monster genre is to hide the creature from full view of the audience until at least the second act, and in the case of Jaws, Alien and some others, the third act. But in "The Host" we dramatically see the alien in its full glory in this first scene. This is the first of many great shocks and surprises in this genre-send up film.

Hyeon-Siu Park, the daughter of the kiosk operator is sucked into the jowls of the beast and taken away. The remainder of the film portrays the family’s search to find the beast and rescue the girl. In addition to the scares Joon-ho crafts some great comic scenes, including a hilarious grieving scene for the victims of this first attack. Joon-ho sets up the family’s dysfunctionality when they start fighting with each other, while mourning at the foot of their child’s memorial.

The family provides the majority of the laughs, Gang-du is the father of Hyeon-Siu, but a real dimwit who takes the blame for letting his daughter go, his brother, Nam-il, is an unemployed university graduate and is self-conscious for his underachievements, and the sister, Nam-ju, is a famous archer, who feels shame for winning a ‘bronze’ in the latest world championships. The dynamic of these three fuels the film in between the monster moments.

But it’s the monster moments that make the film. The beast is truly scary and unique as well. It’s like a giant mutated piranha/lizard with dash of Alien and Predator thrown in. The special effects by New Zealand’s famed Weta Workshop (“Lord of the Rings” and “King Kong”) is top-notch and completely believable.

The send up of the SARS scare provides added poignancy and humour not to mention the not-so-subtle jabs at the anti-Kyoto, military-heavy American influence in the Korean culture. The result is a funny, scary and highly entertaining piece of pulp cinema. Enjoy.