Recommendation: “The Handmaiden”

In some of my first posts on here, I mentioned that I love South Korean cinema quite a lot. My top 10 included “Memories of Murder”, which is how I fell in love with the genre of Korean thriller and many movies since have captivated me and have taken my attention for days after watching them.

I’ve been quite busy, too, so I guess my writing will come down to 2-3 times a week when I get myself sorted.

I watched “The Handmaiden” last week and still occasionally think about the movie. It’s obvious that some directors just have a sophisticated way of presentation and a world view, even when they make movies about the darkest human abilities.
Park Chan-wook does it really well and lots of old and new directors could use / have used this perspective and technique.

I don’t think there’s a cinema-loving human that missed out on “Old Boy”. The bizarre narrative combined with a precise, beautiful directing technique and vulnerable and raw acting seemed to have thoroughly impressed humanity that watches film both for a living and as a hobby.
But, Park Chan-wook’s vision is not everyone’s cup of tea, and despite the more bizarre world out there that has all the eerie stories that may exist, once put on film, they gain some kind of shock value. Mr. Park is no stranger to humanity’s weirdness. He probably just dwells in it, draws inspiration from it and creates beauty however difficult it may be.

“The Handmaiden” contains all of the elements listed above, those elements which characterize Park Chan-wook’s directing, but I’ll go out on a limb here and say that he has never made a better film. I watched a lot of his movies and they all carried a severely emotional message, but “The Handmaiden” has an unlikely happy ending. This movie is also an indirect adaptation of the novel “The Fingersmith” by Sarah Waters.

To summarize the plot, the movie is set in the 1930’s in Korea, when the Japanese imperialist policy was underway in Southeast Asia. Korean people who aspired to mingle with the Japanese aristocracy, which lives in Westernized castles and wears Western clothes, went through changing their names into Japanese and emigrating in attempts to live better. Here we have the aspiring, handsome lord Fujiwara who is actually a Korean (Ha Jung-woo) and he wants to infiltrate a rich, royal Japanese family, marry the niece named Hideko (Kim Min-hee) and when she signs her wealth to him through the form of marriage, he would claim her as crazy and sign her up in a mental institution. He brings a con-girl named Sook-hee (Kim Tae-ri) with him to Lady Hideko’s home where she lives with her estranged and seemingly insane uncle Kozuki (Jo Jin-woong). Sook-hee needs to play the Lady’s maid and convince her to marry Fujiwara, and in return she would get lots of cash; she is very skilled and knowledgeable in trickery, but what Fujiwara doesn’t know is that Sook-hee also loves women. And Lady Hideko is absolutely stunning.
I’ll stop here. Whatever you may think happens in this movie just from the premise, you are far from it. But you’re also very close.
The relationship that grows between Lady Hideko and Sook-hee obviously turns into a bit more than what meets the eye.

The reason why I believe this is Park’s best movie so far is because he incorporated details that gave the story its essential depth. The scenery was perfect and went so well with the narrative; every bit of nature that was displayed and shot had a purpose in the storytelling context. The massive tree, the rope in the box, the symmetry of the frames and scenes was just breathtaking. I saw a few directors who did it this way, but most of them were Asian (Kurosawa, as the most obvious example, I guess). Correct me if there are others, please.

The costumes, interior design and historical accuracy are very much on point. The costumes are simply stunning and the entire display of them really give us insight on the movie’s biggest plot, which is the relationship between Hideko and Sook-hee. Somehow, the costumes bring them closer, and it works.

Ha Jung-woo is a great choice for the role of Count Fujiwara because, and this is going to be biased but, he is so very handsome. On the objective side and what I really mean is that, Ha Jung-woo is handsome and masculine but he also has a con-man’s aura – he gives off a confident vibe, convinced and yet sustained in many things; his reactions never seem to tip over the extreme and linger between the subtle and the explosive. That’s why his Fujiwara portrayal makes him perfect for it. The count is extremely confident, he believes his own lies and presents himself with plans A, B and C just in case. Once you get a look of him, you couldn’t say if he wants to seduce you or kill you. And yet, people like him often overlook the fact that there is more beyond their ego. This character was especially great, although I cheered for Hideko and Sook-hee with all my heart.

Kim Min-hee’s Lady Hideko has two sides, and I wouldn’t want to spoil it any how, but just her beauty alone is enough to mesmerize every mortal in her vicinity. That side of her is what she can not control nor choose, but it is definitely something that she can use to her benefit. Beautiful women who know they are beautiful can become really, really dangerous.
Kim Tae-ri’s Sook-hee is spontaneous, possessive, jealous, but also kind of romantic and most of all, really clever. A con-man type of clever, ‘street smart’ as we would call it nowadays. And Jo Jung-woo’s Uncle Kozuki… Well, this man really gave his all to do this. Insane, estranged, convinced in his own beliefs, chained by his vice and living in the past, Kozuki is the wild card of the movie that flips its narrative halfway through the movie.

The encompassing element that gives a final, beautiful touch to the film are the frames. The frames are picturesque and at the same time pretty eerie. The spirit of the insanity was depicted through aesthetic pleasure. Way to go, Park Chan-wook.

I can’t bare to give this movie less than five out of five, if there was a scale. The complicated plot unveils itself beautifully, and in the end, what matters is that love wins.

‘Til next time.

Anja

Recommendation: “Captain Fantastic”

I’ve seen quite a few movies this year but I can’t seem to remember any of them by anything special. I believe MARVEL have been doing a nice job, especially with X-Men and Captain America, and “CA: Civil War” was a pleasant surprise when it comes to giving superheroes certain mental obstacles and firmly defending their beliefs. There was also the super vulgar but still funny “Deadpool”, which in my opinion, went overboard a few times, but just a few. Still, they all have some plot holes that can and can’t make the movie very memorable.

Not many features are able to truly captivate us, and every time I say – “well, there was that movie I saw”, it’s followed by, “oh wait, that’s from last year”. Last night I watched “Captain Fantastic” and I was captivated by it from the first moment.

To quickly present the plot to you: one man lives in the woods with six of his children, he teaches them how to hunt and makes them read all kinds of books; one sad event forces the man to take his kids out into the world, which causes some trouble for both him and the kids.

I gotta say, there was never a more talented ensemble of kids and young adults. The kids’ dad is played by Viggo Mortensen, who I’ve always had trouble identifying with, but who helped me with that during watching him unveil as he plays Ben Cash, the dad in this feature.
The reason why I was captivated from the first moments of “Captain Fantastic” is because it’s one of my lifelong dreams to own a cottage or a small house in the mountains or the wild and separate myself whenever I am ready, from the world and its absurdities.

The Cash kids grew up in the wild and they have the muscular and mental strength of very disciplined soldiers who can also express their creativity freely. The youngest kid, Zaja (played by charming little Shree Crooks) can define fascism to you by heart, can give her opinion on the Bill of Rights and still be only 8 years old; the kids are not hidden from the truth and the dad treats them like adults, doesn’t spare them from pain and teaches them that they don’t need more than they have.
When they see a bunch of obese people in a waiting room, the kids are surprised – “What’s wrong with everyone? Are they sick?”, this is one of my favorite scenes; they’re untouched by the modernization but still, they suffer the consequences when they meet their peers.

Despite being hated and misunderstood by the rest of the world, Ben Cash doesn’t waiver when it comes to how he raises his kids. He realizes, though, that when the kids go out into the world one day, which is inevitable, they could easily get hurt. This is when he doubts himself the most. The world IS out there and it’s an inevitable one.
I was impressed and immersed as if the cast was a real family that was being shown to us; the ensemble gets along too well, they’re like a real family, they actually look alike and all of them display great amounts of individuality, despite being in an ensemble of seven the entire time. This can be really difficult and not something you can see in “Avengers” for example, where they sometimes try to trick us into thinking we could know more about a character and then simply cut their story before it culminates.

Viggo Mortensen is simply there to support the ensemble of kids, but he still lingers as the influence that made them all like that. His acting successfully boosts the kids’ acting but he also displays an individual note, just like everyone; still, there wasn’t enough time to know why his character Ben believes in raising the kids in the wild, next to the fact that he wanted to help his wife get better from her bipolar disorder. It’s hard to believe that’s the only reason, but then again, it might be if we analyze right – the two of them wanted to be away from the stimuli of the world and then grew to like their newfound home. This doesn’t feel like a reason enough; his beliefs are rooted into avoiding worldly illusions and he teaches the kids not to have any themselves.
Since the story is about the kids for the most part, then it’s easy to guess that the writers and the director didn’t want to spoil their “rite of passage” into the world with any other deviations from the plot.

This is the heartwarming family film that we missed deeply; with all the violence and superhero-ism happening this year, we needed a gentle, educational and emotional story about raising kids in a chaotic world. Out of imaginary five stars at the most, I’d give this four and a half.

‘Til next time.

Anja

Why you should be watching: “Quarry”

Cinemax has always been referred to in movies as “I get-to-see-a-lot-of-sex channel”, because it’s always focused on more artistic films and those that hail from all over the world. In the emergence of two channels of Cinemax, channel number one usually contains a more known program, such as blockbusters and TV series that they themselves produce, and then on channel two, you get to see the sex.

After the ending of the exciting and action-packed bloodbath that was “Banshee”, Cinemax produced and released a retrospective into the 1970s in the form of the series called “Quarry”, which was actually based on the novel of the same name, written by Max Allan Collins.
The main character is Mac Conway who returns from his 2nd tour in Vietnam and gets a bad reputation among the locals because of a scandal that happened during his service. Not just him, but his best pal Arthur Solomon too, has seen the hell of war and came home with a semi-calm head. This is just the beginning, and the plot can be seen in episode one already – Arthur is less than semi-calm, he’s barely 3/4 calm as he takes on a dirty job worth $30,000 (which can today equal to an amount from $132,000 to $420,000) and asks for Mac’s help.

Why is the show important? It deals with two major themes that were a big issue in the past and are a big issue now, too. The relevance of giving war veterans their space and understanding when they zone out, sleepwalk or don’t want to talk doesn’t ever seem to be clear to people, especially to the wives of the men who return in such programs; you’ve seen it in every war themed movie in some way. It’s difficult to cheer for someone who’s trying to push their way into a man’s head when he’s seen dead bodies and waken up next to them for two years in a row. Despite feeling left out and abandoned, Mac’s wife can’t seem to get the elementary, at least that’s how it seems in the first few episodes.
The narrative moves slowly but has incredible scenes which reveal to us how both sides feel at the same time. This was important during the Vietnamese war, and it is important for anyone going to the battlefield in the Middle East today; his wife elaborates why she felt left out and abandoned, while Mac does his best to mutter out why he did two tours in Vietnam and what it meant for him.
I’m sure that the era when there was a general pressure for men to prove themselves through military service made some people grow up sooner than they had anticipated to.

What makes the situation harder is the fact that Mac and Arthur can’t get any legitimate jobs that they very much qualify for; Arthur bags a physically demanding gig which is way below his abilities or education, just because he came back from the war and may or may have not been involved in a mass murder.
The hipocrisy of the country that honors the men who go to war and then rejects them when they wish to move on with their lives is shown strongly and without beautification.

The other matter that is so important in the show is the treatment and inequality of America’s African-American citizens. Nowadays, we’ve been hearing on the news how police keeps treating their nation and how Donald Trump invites rallies to expel “bad ombres” from the country (I am not American nor do I live there, so I can only get informed through the news and programs) which feels unrealistic in this day and age, to be such a man and think in such a way; the situation depicted in “Quarry” shows a time of early integration of African-American citizens into the community, and Arthur Solomon’s family, and Arthur himself, are black citizens.
The very depiction of the attempts of integration and mistreatment is painful to see, if you are a normal functioning human with a heart, that is. While we watch it and think: “No one ever deserves this”, this isn’t a fantasized situation – it was real and it was recent. When we look back, 1972 is only 44 years ago from today, so not even a round 50 to say things are different; not that the number 50 would make it somehow justifiable.

Overall, the performance of Logan Marshall-Green as Mac Conway has brought our long awaited attention to him. He played supporting roles for most of his career and never really stood out. “Quarry” has shown us that he is around for a reason – he plays his calmness and his anger with a subtle difference. We can tell when he’s relaxed and happy, but most of his life has been intertwined with some of the most stressful situations known to man, so whenever he gets a release, it’s rare and valuable; Marshall-Green takes us slowly and nicely through the pain and the discomfort.

Some supporting characters carry heavy roles on their shoulders but I won’t elaborate who they are in order not to spoil anything too much. The actor Damon Herriman who plays Buddy has a huge history in the TV series universe, and he is my personal highlight of the show. Buddy is another kind of reject among the rejects of war, but he displays his insecurities through flamboyance and jokes. He rarely ever feels well but somehow manages to see things could get better for him; his relationship with his mother helps him remain encouraged, despite the relationship’s ridiculous and sometimes strange qualities.
Peter Mullan plays The Broker, another very important supporting character in Mac’s life and Peter Mullan is already a veteran in acting; The Broker’s omnipresence makes us dread but when he appears, we all know what’s coming next. When we see a character and know what’s about to happen, without ever needing him to explain, we should know that that’s a mark of a good program.

“Quarry” is heavy, gritty, emotional, captivating and exciting.

‘Til next time.

Anja

Why you should be watching: “Black Mirror”

I binge watched season 3 of “Black Mirror” with my mum yesterday. We just thought we could take it one at a time, maybe watch two new episodes and see what it’s like, and we ended up watching all six episodes in one night.

If anyone is familiar with “Black Mirror”, they also know that its writer and creator is Charlie Brooker, a man whose satirical and dark reviews of domestic (UK, that is) policy shows how much the world needs people who can easily call ‘bullshit’ on certain events. Personally, I watched everything Brooker had created to date because I have immense respect for him and his creative genius but I can’t guarantee he wouldn’t call me a buffoon as well if I told him I was a fan of his work; I just have a feeling he might, I don’t know.

The first season of “Black Mirror” was something very new on the market, despite having stories about technological advancements and science fiction drama from the dawn of time (I should look that fact up, though). This season really showed how technological advancement can hurt humanity, since people will stay people no matter how many gadgets they have; Toby Kebbell perfectly played the jealous husband in a world where he can access his and others’ memories from a hard drive. The other two episodes focused on the society’s obsession over reality TV. It was exciting to see this, even the first episode, in which the PM of Britain is blackmailed into having sex with a pig on national television. Years after the premiere of that episode, David Cameron was enshrouded in the scandal of doing something similar back in his college days – Brooker saw right through everything and went, “well if this happens, the world will have gone mad by then!”. Or maybe he knew more than many of us.

Season 2 followed the same thematic path but it wasn’t as memorable as the first one. The issues of technological advancement were very emotionally approached in the first episode where Hayley Atwell’s character can’t quite cope with the loss of her husband and decides to sign up for a service that can recreate him and keep him in her head the entire time. This can be devastating for numbers of reasons, as love and loss are two incredibly powerful emotions that can affect us, at most times, permanently. This was the best episode of the series, although the slowest one in terms of pace. Other two episodes simply deal with societal issues of publicly (and violently in public) judging an individual, as well as the entire absurdity of elections, candidates, politics and political games.

But, the arrival of season 3 made everything different. The release of this season was a bit under the radar for me, since I wasn’t sure it would continue after the second one. I thought maybe Charlie Brooker had had enough of making up stories about broken ideals and society. I was terribly wrong, though, since he wrote 6 episodes (well, five, if we don’t count “Nosedive”, which was only his idea but not his screenplay) and they all combined the emotional aspect, alienation and general humanity with the technological advancements, replacements and larger-than-life inventions. Episode called “Nosedive” was really stunning in both visual and dynamic aspects; somehow, the pastels in which the world is tightly wrapped can’t lighten up the darkness of the loneliness behind chasing ratings and online popularity. Reality of us getting to that place in time kicks in when our main character, played by Bryce Dallas Howard, can or can’t use daily amenities because she’s judged by her ratings. Yikes.

Other episodes, like “Playtest” show the advancement of video games, and how much that universe has expanded and how dangerous it can get; it delved into facing one’s fears in a truly dangerous way. That can be done in a gentler and kinder way, definitely. The story about the army man who is programmed to see only what the government wants him to see (and kill) is probably the scariest. Actually, they’re all scary. Fascinating and scary at the same time.
The best part is, the final episode is as long as a feature film, almost 90 minutes.

I fell in love with “Black Mirror” again. I keep thinking about the episodes all day today and I envy the people who still haven’t seen it. Whatever could possibly go wrong with society was depicted in the series and despite it being truly depressing, it’s actually riveting and exciting – the dialogues are exquisite, the visuals are impeccable and the universe of each episode can pull us in and make us think about it for hours after watching it.
Someone more adept would say it lacked something, they’d criticize it more objectively but I love Brooker’s vision and I love that his thinking takes us to some very possible outcomes; I also love that, however dark, he’s also a bit of a romantic. He understands how far someone would go for love, for success and for simple, pure happiness. He also understands that people are still people once released from the gadgets, and that our inner workings will always need care.

‘Til next time.

Anja