king-8

Not, I repeat, not a sequel to Gingko Bed. Great sense of a fully realized world where young men must go through a life and death trial to be a warrior and evil lurks in the forest just outside the peaceful compounds of the village. Great performances by all. Especially Yoon-jin Kim who plays the female warrior / archer, Yun. She also played the North Korean agent in the movie Shiri. Don't miss it!

Joy, the adult version of Weiner from "Welcome to the Dollhouse" sings a song that captures the movie's essence. All the characters in this film (and Weiner from the previous film, who also sings a "happy" song in the midst of suffocating depression)are longing for that elusive happiness. The pedophile father is the most striking example of someone that is miserable in a "happy" environment. Instead of getting help from a shrink (he himself is a shrink, one of many ironies in the film), he has no one to go to. If the film has one true villain, it is not the pedophile father but his wife. Her happiness derives from seeing others suffer beneath her well constructed foundation of upper-middle class living. Solondz bangs away the point whenever something substantive appears to creep up on the conversation the wife interrupts with a "Have you seen Leno last night?" This recurring phrase from the wife echoes the older brother from "Welcome to the Dollhouse". Whenever something occurs that requires discussion or understanding he would remark, "That would look good on my college application" Solondz truly has sympathy for these pathetic people and he even seems to offer some answers. One answer is to not turn blind eyes to people who suffer around us. Again going back to the pedophile father, he does not turn his son away whenever he comes with embarrassing prebuescent sexual questions. He listens and offers honest, frank advices. This extends to the devastating climactic scene between the father and son when the father reveals his sickness. In the end Solondz seems to be saying that perhaps the son is all the more healthy for the honest conversation (The son's gleeful smile towards the end of the movie is the ONLY genuinely happy emotion in the entire film). This is the best film of 1998 by far and I completely disagree with the comment criticizing the Ben Gezzara and Louise Lassar scenes. Instead of pointlessly trying to define what "effective" means, he/she should have at least try to understand the sadness/loss of will one might encounter in anyone's twilight years. Solondz has made a film that is touching yet spiced with deadly satire and even some that are laugh out loud funny.