jürgen fauth’s muckworld

Since I’m behind the curve on most items in this Konsum roundup, the soundtrack for today’s post is provided by Talking Heads, performing “The Great Curve” in Rome in 1980. You can download a DVD of the entire show from Dimeadozen.

4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days
As apparently the last critic in New York City to see the freshly Academy-snubbed 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, I don’t have much to add to the universal acclaim the film has garnered — only this: if you take a look at the Rotten Tomatoes page, you’ll see adjectives like “excruciating,” “harrowing,” “wearing,” “wrenching,” “bleak,” and “unblinking.” All of those fit, but it seems to me the terminology applied to blockbusters like The Bourne Ultimatum isn’t inappropriate, either: 4 Months is also an edge-of-your seat thriller.
4 luni, 3 saptamani si 2 zile. Cristian Mungiu, 2007. ****

Woman on the Beach
My favorite at NYFF06 — at least until INLAND EMPIRE showed up — is currently playing at Film Forum. Reason enough to take another look. Lo and behold, it’s still a wonderful film. J. Hoberman.
Haebyonui yoin. Hong Sang-soo, 2006. ****

The Duchess of Langeais
An About.com review of Rivette’s Balzac adaptation starring Jeanne Balibar and Guillaume Depardieu is forthcoming.
Ne touchez pas la hache. Jacques Rivette, 2007. ****

The Wire, Season 1
Yes, we’re ridiculously far behind, so I can barely participate in the conversation at this point. Anybody who’s been following this blog knows that I’m a sucker for structure, and The Wire’s intricate plot lines left my head spinning. Looking forward to catching up with the remaining four seasons, like, this weekend. ****

30 Rock
I love every single character on Tina Fey’s show, from Alec Baldwin’s head of TV and microwave programming to nutso Tracy Morgan and Kenneth the Page, and I haven’t seen a TV show that delivers as many smart laughs per minute since the first season of Arrested Development. 30 Rock makes me happy. ****

Californication
Thoroughly enjoyable HBO series about a sex-and-booze addicted writer (David Duchovny) who is still in love with his ex-wife (Natascha McElhone), and whose novel God Hates Us All was adapted into the “Tom and Katie” vehicle Crazy Little Thing Called Love. ***

“Amélie in a mental institution,” Marcy quipped as we walked out of the Kulturbrauerei in Berlin, where Park Chan-Wooks latest played as part of the Fantasy Filmfest. As usual, she had a point: at the center of I’m a Cyborg is an adorable waif (Lim Su-jeong) who insists on seeing the world in her own peculiar way and is surrounded by a quirky cast of lovable supporting characters.

The filmmaking, as you’d expect from the director of Oldboy, is muscular and inventive. But unlike Jeunet’s unbearably cute Amélie, Cha Young-goon has to face some all-too-real pain. The girl believes herself to be a cyborg (”You know, kind of like a robot”) and is sent to the mental ward after trying to “recharge her batteries” in a way that reads to the rest of the world as a suicide attempt.

Continue reading my review of I’m a Cyborg But That’s OK at About.com.

Saibogujiman kwenchana. Park Chan-wook, 2006. ***

• The trailer
• I’m a Cyborg on Wikipedia
• Review by David and Adrienne Hudson

I’m having a hard time putting my finger on exactly what Bong Joon-ho is doing with genre, but that’s the thrill of it: in The Host, he’s transcending the monster horror formula, and this previous movie is a police procedural that’s equally infused with dark humor, outbursts of violence, and human moments that are all the more touching because you didn’t see them coming. Byeon Hie-bong, who played the slacker father in The Host, is a small-town cop trying to solve Korea’s first serial murder case. It all starts like any episode of Prime Suspect, but somehow the cops keep falling down, they can’t keep farmers from running over the evidence with tractors, and they’re not above beating confessions out of retards. Shot as beautifully as The Host and every bit as unpredictable, Memories of Murder isn’t exactly a deconstruction of the whodunit, but a strange and beautiful mutation. I want to see it again soon.

Salinui chueok. Bong Joon-ho, 2003. ****

• There’s a spoilerish trailer on YouTube.

On second viewing, Bong Joon-ho’s upcoming monster smash hit is still a thrill, and it also reveals just how exquisitely crafted it is. The cinematography is outstanding, and the film is stuffed with oddball humor and details that resonate and multiply, giving the characters real life above and beyond the necessities of mutant fodder. There’s also a sly political sensibility at work — who has ever seen such an enthusiastic celebration of the molotov cocktail?

There’s talk about a Hollywood remake, but that’s just ridiculous. The Host is itself imported from any number of American horror films, overlaid with a peculiar South Korean auteur’s preoccupations. To remake it in this country would be as idiotic as remaking A bout de souffle (which, of course, they did.) What makes The Host so special is the way Bong quotes and twists genre cliches and adds a thousand small touches: a hero who has coins stuck to his face when we first meet him, lazy-eyed scientists, the moment’s wait before the ramen is cooked, van jokes that outdo anything in Little Miss Sunshine, an 11th-hour speech about the lack of protein, a disposable fisherman who worries about his daughter’s plastic cup, untrustworthy salarymen who fret about taxation on reward monies, the finale of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest replayed as farce, and a terrificly slippery, tentacled monster with an endless supply of surprise moves. The Host is full of specificity and character, but also satisfies (almost) all of our genre expectations. A hell of a lot of fun. Now scheduled to open on March 9. I have some footage from the NYFF press conference with Bong that I may finally put on YouTube….

Gwoemul. Bong Joon-ho, 2006. *****

• Previously on muckworld

Here’s the trailer, which doesn’t really do it justice:

Yes, yes, yes! Bong Joon-ho’s record-breaking monster movie strikes a perfect balance between broad social satire, oddball comedy, and honest-to-god horror thrills. Thanks to Americans who blithely pollute the Han river, an amphibious mutant creature with fearsome mandibles and a prehensile tail haunts the sewers of Seoul. The creature is designed by Weta, but the family that has to fight it–along with backstabbing salarymen and untrustworthy government agencies–is 100% Korean, a bunch of ramen-selling “losers” (Bong) who are prone to screwing up just when it matters most. In Bong’s hands, stock scenes, like the character-building moments of respite between monster attacks, turn into little gems of droll humor and genuine sadness. The plot doesn’t follow Hollywood conventions, and the biohazard setup allows all sorts of swipes at SARS and American hubris, including a few stabs at the Iraq war. It’s all shot beautifully, and some of Bong’s directorial flourishes made me want to pump my fist and shout “yeah!” Tentative release date is January 29, 2007.

The Host. Bong Joon-ho, 2006. ****

[tags]film, 4 stars, horror, monster, korea, bong joon-ho, nyff, seoul, sewers, satire[/tags]

I wasn’t too enamored with Hong Sang-soo’s A Tale of Cinema (NYFF 2005), but this new film is marvelous. Set in an off-season seaside resort, it concerns a movie director and his girlfriends (both sober and drunk on sake), an abandoned dog, vindictive sushi chefs, and swollen muscles. A delicious surprise. At the press conference, Sang-soo turned out to be as soft spoken and gentle as you would expect. He works with a twenty-page treatment, shoots in sequence, and doesn’t write actual scenes until the day of shooting. The result is ineffable, subtle, hilarious, and true. With the beautiful Korean TV star Go Hyun-jung. My favorite film at the festival so far.

Woman on the Beach. Hong Sang-soo, 2006. ****

[tags]korea, 4 stars, hong sang soo, go hyun jung, film, nyff[/tags]