The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, a book I’ve mentioned in other posts, is now making it’s rounds of the art house cinemas (and the torrent networks). All three movies have been filmed and released in Europe, but only the first is out now in the USA. Of course a US version is being prepared, but the original Swedish one is very dark and creepy. In fact, even having read the book I still found it kind of scary.
NOTE: This is a very violent film. Not so much gore but mental and gritty. Rape, torture, murder. The original title was “Men Who Hate Women” and you’ll see the depths of their evil in this flick. Might be hard for some to watch.
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One of the greatest apps for the iPhone is TVUPlayer. It’s a peer-to-peer television application that lets you watch TV from around the world. One channel is basically the latest and greatest movies from Asia, which I’ve been watching quite a bit over the last few weeks to help cure the insomnia and middle of the night wakeups that go with being a dad.
In the past few weeks I’ve seen:
Sniper (Hong Kong)
Spy Girl (Korean)
Lady Cop & Poppa Crook (Hong Kong)
Sassy Girl (Korean)
New Police Story (Hong Kong)
Accidental Spy (Hong Kong)
Mr. Nice Guy (Hong Kong)
It’s the last one (picture at right) that moved me to write a post. I came into the film a bit late so I had to check wikipedia for some plot background. As you may know, many Asian films undergo some plot development flaws and a certain inconsistency problem. This is the plot summary below. See if you can guess why I was a tad confused…
They travel to a mountain in the countryside where she unveils a time capsule. During the previous night the couple wrote their true feelings in letters which the Girl says will be buried next to a particular tree on the mountain. They agree to meet again at the tree after two years to read the letters together. After burying the time capsule they go their separate ways.
Overtime
During the two year span, Gyeon-woo works hard to improve himself in many ways, even writing My Sassy Girl which someone has bought the movie rights to, an event he eagerly anticipates telling the Girl about. When the agreed upon date arrives, he travels to the mountain but the Girl does not show up. Eventually, he opens the time capsule and reads her letter and learns the root of her angst and behavior: Gyeon-woo reminds her of her previous boyfriend who, rather than breaking up with her, actually died before she met Gyeon-woo. All through the time the Girl and Gyeon-woo were seeing each other she had been seeing her dead boyfriend’s mother, who wants to introduce her to a nice young man.
A year after Gyeon-woo visits the tree, the Girl finally arrives. Sitting under the tree is an old man. During their conversation the old man reveals the secret of the tree, that it is not the same tree; the original tree had been struck and killed by lightning a year before and a similar tree had been planted by a young man so that someone special wasn’t sad, and that he has read the letters. The Girl says she had hoped that destiny would bring the couple together during the two years. As the girl begins to read the letter, she sees a UFO (time machine) flying away. This lead her to believe that the old man was Gyeon-woo from the future.The Girl then tries to call Gyeon-woo repeatedly, but she was informed that number is either changed or doesn’t exists.
The film then cuts to Gyeon-woo entering a subway station, wearing the same suit he was wearing at the beginning of the movie. The flashback has ended and continuity is resumed from right after Gyeon-woo leaves the photo-studio. Gyeon-woo is caught outside the shutting doors of a train, presumably ignorant at first of the Girl’s presence on the train but after a few seconds of staring he seems to realise whom it is he sees from behind. As the train pulls out he runs along but has to give up.
At lunch with her deceased boyfriend’s mother after a year-and-a-half, the Girl is surprised to hear a familiar voice apologise for his lateness. The mother introduces her nephew Gyeon-woo whom she has been trying to introduce to the Girl for years. The mother, who is Gyeon-woo’s aunt, tells the Girl to go out with him, he’ll make things easier for her and then tells Gyeon-woo that the Girl can give advice to him about his impending trip to England but Gyeon-woo replies, “I don’t have to go now.” The pair hold hands under the table and the Girl says she thinks she met a man from the future (Gyeon-woo’s future self).
WTF? WTF? is really the only thing I can think of after watching this stuff.]]>
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[caption id="attachment_2462" align="alignright" width="150" caption="The British Remake"][/caption]
You might get that idea in the media. This month I finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which in Swedish was called Men who Hate Women Menn Som Hater Kvinner. It was about some murders of women…well I won’t spoil the plot other than to say sex and murder had a pretty big role.
Last night I watched the first episode of Wallander on Masterpiece Mystery. Wallander cop stories have been a staple of reading in Europe for the last decade, and a Swedish tv version has been around for nearly as long. The BBC took a shot at making some films and the result was pretty good, though it also dealt with the same weird sex / violent murder that seems to be particularly Swedish this month.
Wallander was pretty good. I suspect I’ll watch the next few episodes and maybe read a book or two (heck, without cable I don’t have much of a choice besides PBS). I don’t think I’ll be visiting Ikea anytime soon. Too much weird Swede stuff this month.]]>
Ok, I love Hong Kong cop films, so it probably helps. I’m also able to sort out Asian faces better than most idiots who just say ‘they all look alike’, which definitely helped because this movie is part Hong Kong police fare part Buddhist personality play. I also love Johnnie To movies so watching this was quite a treat.
The Mad Detective is a Hong Kong police officer blessed/cursed with the ability to see a criminal (or anyone’s) inner personality. In doing so he basically go insane and drops out of the force, until called back to help in the disappearance of a Hong Kong police officer and his gun (a cop losing his gun in HK is a very big deal). As he looks at possible suspects and partners, he ’sees’ (and you see) the personality inside–be it the stern taskmasker, the lazy loaf, the thug, or the brains (always played by smartly dressed hot women I should add). For those easily distracted in movies, this will throw them for an absolute loop, but once you make this realization that each time you are looking at someone they can be someone else the film takes on this really interesting dimension.
This is one of the tightest written Hong Kong cop movies I’ve seen in a long time. No random characters or scenes that obviously suffered from excessive editing (i.e. no continuity in the plot). The film has been released on DVD by Blockbusters as part of their new move into foreign films.
Like I said, if you can track multiple characters (personalities) this is really a pretty entertaining film. Definitely kept me interested as the plot twisted and turned making you feel like a lost child at times.
Yea, it’s an old one, but I was watching it the other night and by the time it was over all I wanted to do was go and spend some time with my son.
The plot’s pretty simple. Czech musician and playboy does a sham wedding to a Russian to help her get a travel visa (married people were more likely to return to Communist countries, so the thinking goes). Nonetheless, she bails out to West Germany in the final days of the Soviet empire and leaves her son with a relative. That relative gets sick, and sham husband gets stuck with the boy.
The bond eventually grows between them despite some language problems (the boy speaks Russian, the husband Czech) and they fight off the secret police investigating him for the sham marriage and eventually become very close.
It’s definitely worth seeing. I’m a bit of a sap (according to basically everyone) so I probably liked it more than the cynics, but if you are a father with a young boy I’d strongly recommend seeing this film and then spending a little more time with your child enjoying life and whatnot.
Oscar for best Foreign Language Film in 1997. More on it here – Koyla Wikipedia.
“The Bank Job” On DVD last weekend (I no longer get to the theater).
True story? To some extent. In 1971 £4 million robbed from a British Bank, including pictures of a ‘royal person’ in a compromising sexual position, several cabinet ministers photographed in a brothel, and a spreadsheet of corrupt policeman at Scotland Yard. Mi-5, Scotland Yard (both clean and corrupt coppers), and various London mafia types all chased down the robbers who really didn’t know what they had gotten into.
Now, is it true? No idea–the file was “D-Noticed” meaning it was headlines one day and illegal to write about it the next. Papers just stopped covering it for ‘National Security Reasons”. Some of the files are still classified (until 2054!). Movie was based on leaks and guesses….
One of the greatest apps for the iPhone is TVUPlayer. It’s a peer-to-peer television application that lets you watch TV from around the world. One channel is basically the latest and greatest movies from Asia, which I’ve been watching quite a bit over the last few weeks to help cure the insomnia and middle of the night wakeups that go with being a dad.
In the past few weeks I’ve seen:
[/caption]
You might get that idea in the media. This month I finished 
, which in Swedish was called Men who Hate Women 
. It was about some murders of women…well I won’t spoil the plot other than to say sex and murder had a pretty big role.
Last night I watched the first episode of Wallander on 
stories have been a staple of reading in Europe for the last decade, and a Swedish tv version has been around for nearly as long. The BBC took a shot at making some films and the result was pretty good, though it also dealt with the same weird sex / violent murder that seems to be particularly Swedish this month.
Wallander was pretty good. I suspect I’ll watch the next few episodes and maybe read a book or two (heck, without cable I don’t have much of a choice besides PBS). I don’t think I’ll be visiting Ikea anytime soon. Too much weird Swede stuff this month.]]> 
Yea, it’s an old one, but I was watching it the other night and by the time it was over all I wanted to do was go and spend some time with my son.