Movie & Television Reviews

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"I Saw the Devil"

Title: I Saw the Devil
Genre: serial killer, horror
Rated: R for graphic depictions of violence
Director: Jee-woon Kim
Writer: Hoon-hung Park (screenplay)
Starring: Byung-hun Lee, Min-sik choi, and Gook-hwan Jeon

Summary borrowed from IMDB: When his pregnant fiancee becomes the latest victim of a serial killer, a secret agent blurs the line between good and evil in his pursuit of revenge.

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Wow. I don’t even really know where to start with this one. I’m not even sure if I even liked it or not, and I highly doubt that I’ll ever watch it again. But that’s just my personal preference.

This is a revenge movie ala “Oldboy” or “Otis,” though this movie keeps it real.

Starts off with a woman having a flat tire and being stuck on the side of a mountain road. While she waits for the tow truck, she calls her fiance. His advisement: “Lock the doors and stay put. Wait for the tow truck.”

While she’s waiting, a van drives up and a man gets out. He taps on her window — she’s smart enough not to open the door — and offers to check things out. She tells him she’s waiting for the tow truck, but he insists.

Creepy guy fiddles around near the tire while she’s still talking to her fiance. She tells her fiance goodbye and hangs up, then settles in to wait for the tow truck. Which is about the point that creepy guy pops up and tells her to open the door. She says no… and things get serious.

He busts in her car window with a hammer, thumps her with it on the head, then roughly drags her body to his van. At this point, I thought that she was dead … Read the rest “RE MOVIE: I Saw the Devil [Korean]”

Title: The Monster a.k.a. Home Sweet Home
Starring: Shu Qi and Alex Fong, Tam Chun-Ho
Genre: horror, psychological

Summary: A young family moves into a nice Hong Kong high rise and things immediately begin to go badly for them. They’re only there for a short time–maybe a week–when their three year old son Chi Lo is abducted. The mother frantically searches for her son after the police have given up after only a few weeks. Some of her actions during her search–falling through the ceiling, buying a big rottweiler, etc–have some of the other inhabitants of her building thinking that she’s just some crazy woman. But she is certain that some strange, rag-wearing woman has taken her son and she’s not going to stop until she gets him back.

Opinion: Though this movie is classed as a “horror” movie, it would be a mistake to try and judge it by the same criteria as the usual Chinese horror movies (“The Eye,” “Gu-On,” etc.) And even though some parts were a tad overdramatic, it was still very interesting and I actually became very sympathetic of “the monster.”

I would recommend watching this movie, just don’t rate it on the basis of the usual horror movies. Don’t go into it blind and prepare yourself to be moved to tears over the plight of the supposed villain.

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Title: Returner (2002)
Genre: sci-fi, action
Directed by: Takashi Yamazaki
Written by: Takashi Yamazaki, Kenya Hirata
Starring: Takeshi Kaneshiro, Anne Suzuki, and Goro Kishitani

Summary from IMDB: A young woman from the future forces a local gunman to help her stop an impending alien invasion which will wipe out the human race.

aStore: DVD

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Okay, so this movie is basically ET, The Matrix, Transformers, and Terminator all rolled up into one. And it was pretty awesome, if I must say.

The lead guy is pretty hot. The girl is kind of cute in a very normal girl kind of way. The story is somewhat nonsensical and you have to wonder why the heck they would do some of the things they do. The dialogue is sometimes incredibly stupid and you’re left wondering what kind of people they really are. It was pretty juvenile sci-fi fan service in some of its scenes. But it was also a truly awesome movie.

It will never be my favorite movie, I would never go that far, but it was very good and I was left with that soaring heart feeling you only get from movies that have in some way effected the way your brain thinks of something, even if you don’t know what the effect could mean. This movie had some personal significance to me, though all I really know is that it made me happy to watch it.

The lead guy is seeking vengeance on this crazy guy over the death of his childhood friend, and he doesn’t seem to care if he dies to do it. So he becomes a paid assassin. His bad guy is the bad guy, which gives the good guy a double reason to go after the jerk and rip out his pound of flesh.… Read the rest “RE MOVIE: Returner [Japanese]”

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The Man From Nowhere (2010)
Korean action movie
Director: Jeong-beom Lee
Writer: Jeong-beom Lee
Starring: Bin Won, Thanayong Wongtrakul, and Sae-ron Kim

Summary borrowed from IMDB: A quiet pawnshop keeper with a violent past takes on a drug- and organ trafficking ring in hope of saving the child who is his only friend.

aStore: DVD, Blu-Ray, digital


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Okay, so this is one of those great action movies that basically has everything. Movies that give me a similar vibe: The Professional, The Crow (more the TV show than the movie, actually)

The story begins with a pawnshop owner that is kind of nice to a young girl, and in return she keeps coming around. Her mother is a junkie and a thief, and the girl is poor and there’s always people teasing her and thinking she’s trash, so she gets into fights or causes trouble and things. Her feelings for the pawn shop owner have her saying that he’s her father when she gets into trouble in the hopes that he will save her. He does not, just walking off.

There’s a whole tragic backstory about his past, and while he’s dealing with that, the junkie mom gets into trouble when she helps steal from the wrong people. The pawnshop guy shows up in his fancy clothes in time to find out that the girl and her mother have been taken by dangerous criminals — men neck deep in guns, drugs, prostitution, and murder.

And that’s when things blow up into action as the pawnshop guy races to save the girl, or if he can’t do that, at the very least avenger her.

He has a secret past and is one dangerous mofo. This is a straight up action thriller, with a gritty taste and feel. There’s … Read the rest “RE MOVIE: The Man From Nowhere [Korean movie]”

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