Apur Sansar

I thought I would see another Korean movie today. This time around I chose director Kim Kid-duk's Bad Guy. But the film was not such a great experience. The impact I have after watching bad guy does have traces of the reaction I had after watching Address Unknown.  The initial part of the film progresses interestingly. But the narrative struggles as the plot development seems to be too little. The character never really interested me. The film does have a few good symbolism and some interesting images despite the very sad events happening inside the film. 

Death of a Cyclist or Age of Infidelity, as it is given at the imdb.com was quite an interesting film. I did not personally expect much from the film but the film was brilliantly made. The film is powerful in every aspect of its making, from the plot to the screenplay to the visuals to the actors. Everything was excellent. What I loved exceptionally well was the transition from one scene to another. The film also makes brilliant use of the black and white photography. The screenplay is crisp for the 90 minutes and it is definitely worth your time.

Kim Ki-duk is one director whom I have suddenly become a huge fan of. The reason is simple, his characters don't talk too much. I have only seen four of his films however. The last two of them happened to have made me admire the craft and art of the filmmaker in Kim Ki-duk while the first two where not quite the sort I enjoyed. The first film that I saw from the maker was called Address Unknown and I remember very little of it now except for some brutally bloody scenes which are more or less nightmares for me now. Then I happened to have seen a brilliantly set film that happens just around a single location. It was The Isle. The female character of the film was a mute girl and so was the film mute for more than three fourth of the time. What I disliked about Isle was also certain scenes of extreme violence which was very hard for me to watch on screen. It was 3-Iron that surprised me completely of how beautifully characters could be handled in the film with very little talking. 3-I...

I had seen a film by the director Joon-ho Bong almost three years back (That would be 2007). The film was called The Host. It was a dubbed version of the Korean original. I usually don't like dubbed movies, but the experience of watching Host could be called a slightly different one. It is because, the film worked for me. The film was a comedy set on a disaster day. The disaster of a monster attacking a city. The film was brilliantly made, though I'm not sure if everybody would enjoy the kind of humour that was present in the film. Now after three years I was able to visit yet another film by Joon. It was a film made in 2003. The film had faces familiar to me via The Host! The film was called Memories of Murder. Memories of Murder is a brilliantly made film which grows into being a excellent thriller. The film is smartly written, well executed and splendidly visualized.

Kim Ji-Woon is a Korean filmmaker. I happened to have seen two of his films recently. A bittersweet life and A Tale of Two Sisters. These two movies happened to have had a terrific impact deep inside me. If you ask me if these are my favourite films. The answer would be a definite no. But they seem to have inspired me to be a filmmaker real soon. The kind of treatment and the beauty in executing scenes is evident through out these two films. A bittersweet life is a story that is a bit over board as the film progresses. But what makes the film work is the sensibility with which the filmmaker has treated his film. The beautiful thought provoking story in the beginning and the brilliantly crafted scenes that follow of the lead protagonist are a pure treat to watch. A Tale of Two Sisters is a horror flick. Even when it has a lot of cliches the treatment of Kim makes you want to sit through the whole film.