A Taste of Asian

Many blogs ago, I made a few complaints about Japanese horror films becoming a self-parody of itself. It’s no secret that many of them, along with Korean horror films, give away the tired routine of ghostly girl with fine dark hair running over her shoulders like an overflowing river. And it’s a ghost on a bad streak.

I guess some dead folks have bad days too. Much of it began with the advent of the film “The Ringu” which is pretty good on its own standing. But, like a fad gone wild, the Japanese horror genre became too self-evident. And reliant on the same tricks.

However, I shouldn’t have been so critical. There are some exceptions if you do a little digging through the junk piles of film entertainment. You might find a true gem under all the flopside of garbage that’s been left clinging to the shelves. For every crappy “Cursed” film, there’s a true inspiration to the rule.

One of those small discoveries is “3 Extremes.”

Three of everything. You get three directors, three stories and a linear narration that goes through the entire collection in a final knot. Three times the gore, I suppose.
Nothing wrong with that.

This film does offer an intelligent treatment on themes and runs away with a number of interesting ideas that might either intrigue or disgust you. Depending on the mood you are in. But the film never does insult your well-being as a viewer. Instead it takes you on an uneasy journey to the darkest corners of humanity. There is a horror story around every corner.

The first segment “Dumplings” gives the notion that beauty can’t be with us always. It’s not around forever. Those youthful models getting their snapshots taken know that someday the old age will catch up with them. And their youthful looks will leave them eventually.

You couldn’t rely on beauty forever. That is why the likes of Marilyn Monroe or Jane Mansfield seems like a starlets destined for eternity. She died at a younger age. Therefore our memory of them are imprinted into our thoughts, the sweetness of their songs fill our thoughts for a long time. Perhaps forever.

Youth can be captured. But at a cost. Both women lost their lives due fateful circumstances. “Dumplings” takes the idea much further with an aging actress looking for any way to stop herself from growing older. What will she do to preserve her own beauty in this way? Some of the things she does are very unhealthy for dieting.

Fruit Chan is a very established director from China with a number of credits to his name including the Prostitute Trilogy. His segment may seem very mild. Almost mundane. But there’s an uncomfortable thread that runs beneath his themes which makes his short film very focused, uncanny. It is like seeing another side of a person you do not wish to. And you’re not sure if you should feel sorry for the actress that falls into her own trap of recapturing beauty.

I do think the Asian cinema, in many ways, outweighs the American films in terms of being subtle. They have an interesting perception of the going-ons in life. Now the next segment is going the other deep end provided by one of my own favorite directors Park Chan-Wook of South Korea who created one of my all times movies “Oldboy” being part of his famous Vengeance trilogy. He has a deep sense of irony in his films, very stark, a genuine sickness that bleeds through his films. Yet there’s a certain quality of beauty in his works. Some of the set designs used in his short work is mesmerizing with the interesting chess board patterns covering the floor soon to be covered with so much blood you couldn’t mop to get rid of it.

His short film “Cut” is filled with tension, gore, and plenty of missing fingers. But beneath the stylish violence that cuts you deep is a certain theme that is pure and simple. The idea of neglect. No one likes to be abandoned. No one cares to be pushed to one side in the forgotten land of cinema. And this is what happens here. An arrogant director is riding the winds of his success. He drums the tides of his triumphs while an actor schemes to reap vengeance.

This guy is nothing more than a mere extra. A mister nobody. Compared to the successful director, he’s nothing. Yet he garners a game of his own realization: he kidnaps the director and his wife in a cruel game where the wife’s fingers are chopped off for every mistake made.

Despite the sickness of the ordeal and the grueling tactics of the film, the theme of loss and neglect floods the short film like a bucket of blood. You couldn’t get away from the gore in this one. It stays with you. With every hatchet scene. But Chan-Wook gives the story enough sense of style that it’s also funny as well as disgusting. It's a really good cut.

The final segment is from probably the most well known director stemming from Japan named Tashaki Miike. He’s known for his incisive violence and over the top gore that has been the mainstay of his previous works. He’s not for everyone. And he makes those with the strong stomach squeamish like a girl.

Yet, surprisingly enough, we get a very mild, if sulky, Miike here for the short film “Box.” Basically his central idea is being trapped. The feeling of loneliness that ensnares us all. But the feeling of closed detachment could lead to total darkness. And the soul being buried. The young woman in the film experiences horrible nightmares about being trapped in water.

She learns that there is more to her long-lost sister than this. And the connection between the two grows into a very lonely, sinister thing.

Those expecting true gore from Miike will be disappointed here… he’s mild here, considerably so, more than his previous outings such as the nail-inducing “Imprint” from the Masters of Horror series. Instead he opts to explore themes and connections instead. He does so with a masterful approach, but some of us wish he would just cut loose with the bloody intent.

There are other films like “Abnormal Beauty” or “Wishing Stairs” in the always wonderful Extreme Asia cinema line where they go away from the usual Japanese horror often painted across the cinema. Films like “3 Extremes” show that there are other horror stories that do not need to go back to the Japanese ghost story bent on havoc, crawling into reality, catching up with us. Instead there are films that can explore other attitudes of horror, different themes while still maintaining the perfect dose of fear.

You should try the Asian horror flicks before knocking them down. There is something perfectly chilling about the Asian cinema that makes us look inward into our own humanity and finding something else we might not like.