Paradise Villa

A thriller from Korea that adds another entry to the ever expanding Asian horror genre. The genre, which first began as an invigorating and fresh addition to the canon of horror, now is becoming rather typical and predictable. However, these titles are generally more successful than horror films being made else where in the world, if only for at least aspiring to be different and original. "Paradise Villa" is an example of one of those films in that it aspires to be unique, but sadly becomes derivative despite the effort.

What makes the film different is the perspectives the movie portrays. The film concentrates on several different characters within a apartment complex and they all have their own story lines that somewhat overlap with others. This intertwining relationships and complex system of focus may have led to a rather refreshing story about how all our lives are interwoven with one another, and how actions we take will not solely effect us but rather impact everyone around us. Sadly, this is not the case.

The story line is essentially an excuse to link characters these characters and nothing more. The focus is not the relationship but the characters themselves which makes the film into a series of vignettes rather than an complexly structured narrative. So ultimately the way is told is unique, but unfortunately the opportunity to take full advantage of that was never materialized.

The characters, however, are strongly written and each are unique. The actors playing them play their parts to the fullest and, as a result, the characters are lively and fresh. However, since no relationships have been established between them, we are simply seeing a series of character studies with no direction.

The violence also seems out of place with this direction the film takes. The movie is told in a rather light tone and the gory violence seems like an abrupt deviation from the overall tone the movie set.

Also, by the end of the film, no progression has been made since throughout the movie we essentially only saw characters going about their day to day lives. When it ends, we learn nothing new and our last impression is that it was all pointless.

It very sad that a film missed such a big opportunity to explore something profound, but instead it is rather flat and aimless. I would recommend this to only fans of the slasher genre since it is different than the typical entry to this sub-genre, but to anyone else I would recommend you skip it since there are better examples of the Asian horror genre out there.

The story of this movie is simple. An on-line gamer has all his weapons stolen by another user named Viagra, so he tries to track down Viagra to get his weapons back. In the process, due to many coincidences, he ends up killing many people without getting what he wants. There is another parallel plot that a couple tries to hide a body. All these are happening under the subtext of the Japanese versus Korea football game in real time.

The movie is rather clever in telling us many details about the tenants within the short time frame, so we feel for them instead of a 1-dimensional victim to be killed. Underneath all the violence and sex, there is also a clever plot that one phone call started this all.

I enjoy this movie. It has the right level of violence and intrigue. The lesson of this movie is also intriguing. That young people of today are too obsessed with senseless violence on the on-line world and are ready to kill in the real world as well.

Scary and disturbing as hell, the kind of movie that makes Panic room look like a movie for your little sister! One of the best "huis-clos" I have ever seen, don't miss it! Too radical to be a Hollywood movie, the kind of movie everyone should show to those kids who still think that the sixth sense (not the wonderful Michael Mann version of the Thomas Harris world, no, I'm talking about the director of the probably overestimated Signs and of the highly underrated Unbreakable) is frightening! And I'm not talking about monsters or ghosts, I'm talking about human beings...probably the scariest monsters of all time!

I remember when i was still an innocent little guy, that would be my pre-teen ages, at that time i was already watching 'Psycho', the murder scene especially makes me feel uncomfortable, i still got it from time to time whenever a film have an excessive epitaphs of violence towards female..i guess because in the eyes of male this is more sexually psychological , i.e. the recent "Koroshiya Ichi".. ok the same uncomfortable feeling comes back to me when i watch this piece, like a sledge hammer thumping my forehead, this film isn't about anything except a directionles mayhem that occured within an apartement building. and yeah , lots of women get killed in this one, the word 'nihilism' is all over the place.

the story starts with a computer geek whilst playing in an online gaming centre , finds out that his online character weapons has been stolen and sold (people who spend 24/7 on RPG character developing games such as Diablo, Baldurs gate, will be familiar with this scenario) well from here on, this guy is hellbent on tracking the theft who goes by the initial Viagra, who happens to live on "Paradise Villa" after the first murder, with some side plotting of an accidental murder, people can guess where this film is going, that is given the fact that this geek's psychology doesnt really make any sense except being the necrophiliac knife wielding he is,why would he kill at the first place ? if his goal is to retrieve his game items or vengeance why the hell does he do other irrelevant twisted stuff like going about to rape a dead body who doesnt have any connection with the viagra character? heck i felt like im watching Friday the 13th all over again...cheese hole plot slasher.

The strength of this film lies within the wacky residents,with the story takes place in the midst of world cup eve (2002?)a water purifier sales woman who tries majorly hard to sell her products,a cheating landlord, a titanium alloy mouthed aspiring pornstar and heaps more.. although often im wondering why they exist at the first place except to be dispatched later on.

The violence potrayed in this film is rather crude and too realistic often i think about neighbourhood violence that often happens in city development areas, some sexual scenes also exists so there you go with the warning.

Watch it if you like black comedies at its blackest (this ones barely a comedy) for those who dwells in Asian cinema , if u like Koroshiya Ichi type of shotgun vehicle go see this, otherwise stay away and see Palwol Il christmas instead.

I gave "Paradise Villa" a 7 but purely on the basis that I highly enjoyed its storytelling and direction. I don't know how you could think the movie is particularly scary. It's raw and violent, but not really scary. Actually it's closer to "Short Cuts" than "Panic Room" ...

The "Short Cuts"-comparison comes from a directorial viewpoint. "Paradise Villa" tells a lot of stories and connects them over and over again. I really dig that approach, especially because it's limited to this one house. In only 100 minutes you get a lot of looks into personal lives, into small problems, into neighborhood quarrels. Very nicely done. I have to admit that in the middle of the movie I had to skip back a couple of scenes to catch up with some of the connections of the people. I didn't pay attention for a second there and got the penalty later.

Ah, penalty. That brings me to football. The movie is done in real time. Remember "Lola Rennt" - "The game lasts for 90 minutes". True for "Paradise Villa" too. The game (Japan-Korea of course) isn't that important, but sets a nice tone and a feeling of time.

Let's go back to the people. The way the movie slowly reveals the connections among the people is marvelous. There's a phone call that results in a whole series of mishaps - and only late in the game you actually realize that the phone call was a complete misunderstanding. A lot of things told earlier now pay off - and that's true for most of the things you pick up along the way. There might be some logical bumps, but overall, it works.

Then of course, there's the violence. There's quite a lot of it, and all of a raw kind. The killings are very simple (mostly done by knife) and there's some violence off screen that you only catch via a grisly soundtrack. The violence didn't have such a big impact on me because a) I was hooked by the story more than by the killings and b) because the story is infused with a morbid sense of humor. We're not talking a "Pulp Fiction"-approach to the violence, but you cannot take it completely serious. I know it sounds contradictory (raw vs. ironic), but I just got that very feeling from the movie.

So don't watch it for the gore. There's some, but this is more a story-drive tale. Not one grand story, but a big amount of small, everyday stories. That's what makes the film rewarding in my view.

Rating: 7/10