I rented this movie thinking it was a comedy because of the goofy looking cover. Let me just dispel that. Its not a comedy. Its not something small children should see. its gory and gruesome and repulsive.

I can’t really describe this Korean movie without ruining the ending. All I can think of is that if you took beer, ice cream, broccoli, and maybe some chicken nuggets and blended them together into something that was pretty good then that would be the equivalent in cooking. Yeah, its a pretty weird analogy but damn, this is a weird movie.

But its good!

Most of the movie is a serial killer thriller that would stand on its own against anything else out there. And it would be worth it to watch it just for that. Its really good. The intensity is similar to perhaps seven but with more focus on the killer instead of the detective.

Then it switches gears. I’m assuming you know what the title of the movie is and it does not sound like a serial killer flick. This discrepancy kind of nags at you. It is so incongruous to most of the movie that you really never know what to expect. And its a valid nagging. The end is so “Whoa! What just happened” that its kind of stunning. You feel let down. But then you think its flippant. But then you reconsider and they are being perfectly serious!

Its really hard to conceive of what was going through the directors brain as he made his decisions but he did and there it is. You can argue that if he had’nt done what he did, then he would just have another serial killer movie. Also, you really kind of like the killer guy. Sure he’s totally torqued but you feel for him. If it ended with just a serial killer ending, all that sympathy that was built up would of been false and you would of felt let down. So, maybe he did it to save the character? I dunno.

The extras don’t give you much of a clue either.  The interview with the director is not so interesting. He does have a really good conversation with his fans that gives some insight into who he is.

If your in the mood for a serious foreign serial killer / detective movie with a really strange ending, then I would highly recommend this.

I first got turned on to Phillip Dick by the movie A Scanner Darkly reviewed on this site. I thought that movie was based on some pretty original thinking so I had high hopes of a good read.  Boy did I underestimate!!

He wrote this book which was later turned into the all time classic movie Blade Runner. Despite being an amazingly good movie, it does not do justice to the book. There is just so much to it.

Dick flits about between some amazingly imaginative concepts so quickly that you are amazed that he can keep a coherent book together but he does just that. He examines such difficult subjects as human emotions, the existence of the soul, engineered religion, corporate evil, marital interrelations. . . I can go on.

All in big font, double spaced, and less than 200 pages!

Its a thrilling book that opens your eyes. A must read.

Wow, this movie was made in 1971 based on a Michael Crichton book. Thats when I was born!

It seems people at that time seemed to be worried that we would all be killed by germs from outer space. Ha! Havent we figured out yet that the only people who kills us is us?

This movie is definetly a classic. Its fairly suspenseful. I thought it was kind of boring but still enjoyed it as an insight into science fiction way back then. If your not a sci-fi or Crichton fan, you may not want to spend the time to watch this movie.

This is a movie about a drug deal among teenagers gone awry that ends with one 15 year old dead and everybody else in jail.  Based on a true story.

Justin Timberlake is one of the lead actors and amazingly enough does a great job. Bruce Willis and Sharon Stone support.

The movie makes no bones about being a train wreck. You know exactly what will happen so you don’t feel like watching but yet the characters that are entirely unlikeable are well crafted and you watch. Hey, you did rent it.

I feel disturbed but I don’t want my 2 hours back.

I was working on a coldfusion site and noticed that the var scope has no structure. It seems strange since coldfusion has moved everything to structures since cf5 but yet not this one.

Certainly you can scope a structure and use that instead but it seems like a workaround.

Pure poetry is the only way to describe this movie. The mood created and sustained is absolutely amazing. It is dreamy and fluid and the flow of time is very unhurried and vague. Its a tour-de-force to be able to maintain this energy for the whole thing. Marvelous character development. You just want to be able to invite these people into your house and then shake them for being so obtuse in their dreamy roles. Except that is part of the poem and you can’t shake a poem.

You can kind of say that this movie is kind of about love and relationships and then not falling in love and being fallen in love with but really such a definition is moot. The whole point is the experience crafted. So, watch this if your in an experiential mood. If you want something more cut and dry and typical, look somewhere else.

Lastly, this movie comes from Hong Kong directed by Wong Kar-Wai and was shown in cannes in 04. Apparently he made another movie to which this is a vague sequel called “In the Mood for Love.”