Three...Extremes is a film with three different stories being told. Dumplings, Cut and Box. All of which have a horrific tale routed in it's story.
Three extremes take two talented directors and one unknown (from my perspective anyway) and let them carve their own original piece of a puzzle that fits together in Three...Extremes. While I'm still impartial to Miike, he does have talent. He has beautiful imagery in his films, it's just that they also tend to have some story lacking. With his short, BOX, Miike gets you to think about what the outcome is going to be. His films are always twisted in some kind of way and asks the audience to look deeper into what they just saw. With BOX, he ultimately disappoints with the ending. Cut, the second short directed by Park has an uncanny resemblance to "SAW", as some might say. It deals with the psycho kidnapping someone and getting them to play a game, or someone dies.
CUT was my favourite segment out of the three and throws the viewer a curve ball at the conclusion. Which leads you to believe one of two things. Do you believe the events that you just saw and take them as face value, or is there some mind tricks at play. Finally, the first short actually, is Dumplings from Fruit Chan. A name I never heard of but would like to hear more of. Dumplings doesn't have the edge that CUT has, or the beautiful images that BOX has, but it does have the disturbing factor. Which lands Dumplings in the good books.
CUT is my favourite segment and Park did a great job at hinting that the film is not EXACTLY what it seems and it has the "oh so cool" factor that this film needed. BOX, being the second film that I've seen from Miike still leaves me in the grey with him. I want to seek out more of his work, but am hesitant because it hasn't impressed all that much. BOX isn't all that bad, it's just not all that good and the viewer feels cheated by the end. Some might feel the same with CUT and be left very confused with the actions of some characters, but it worked out it's in favour for some strange feeling.
I'm going to let the cat out of the bag and tell you what Dumplings is about...eating aborted fetuses. Gross? Yes. Disturbing? Yes. Why did I like such a thing? Fruit handled it very well, I have yet to see the full cut of the short but it leaves me wanting to know more. The ending...again with these endings, left me very confused. What was with the tongue? It didn't flow with the rest of the film? Is she human?
Finally, if you're a fan of Asian cinema, give this a little taste test. It's three for the price of one, and you'll get some sort of enjoyment out of at least two of them. If you're the type that is uneasy hearing the crunching sounds of a women eating an aborted fetus, you might want to skip these and look for Bambi.
Three extremes take two talented directors and one unknown (from my perspective anyway) and let them carve their own original piece of a puzzle that fits together in Three...Extremes. While I'm still impartial to Miike, he does have talent. He has beautiful imagery in his films, it's just that they also tend to have some story lacking. With his short, BOX, Miike gets you to think about what the outcome is going to be. His films are always twisted in some kind of way and asks the audience to look deeper into what they just saw. With BOX, he ultimately disappoints with the ending. Cut, the second short directed by Park has an uncanny resemblance to "SAW", as some might say. It deals with the psycho kidnapping someone and getting them to play a game, or someone dies.
CUT was my favourite segment out of the three and throws the viewer a curve ball at the conclusion. Which leads you to believe one of two things. Do you believe the events that you just saw and take them as face value, or is there some mind tricks at play. Finally, the first short actually, is Dumplings from Fruit Chan. A name I never heard of but would like to hear more of. Dumplings doesn't have the edge that CUT has, or the beautiful images that BOX has, but it does have the disturbing factor. Which lands Dumplings in the good books.
CUT is my favourite segment and Park did a great job at hinting that the film is not EXACTLY what it seems and it has the "oh so cool" factor that this film needed. BOX, being the second film that I've seen from Miike still leaves me in the grey with him. I want to seek out more of his work, but am hesitant because it hasn't impressed all that much. BOX isn't all that bad, it's just not all that good and the viewer feels cheated by the end. Some might feel the same with CUT and be left very confused with the actions of some characters, but it worked out it's in favour for some strange feeling.
I'm going to let the cat out of the bag and tell you what Dumplings is about...eating aborted fetuses. Gross? Yes. Disturbing? Yes. Why did I like such a thing? Fruit handled it very well, I have yet to see the full cut of the short but it leaves me wanting to know more. The ending...again with these endings, left me very confused. What was with the tongue? It didn't flow with the rest of the film? Is she human?
Finally, if you're a fan of Asian cinema, give this a little taste test. It's three for the price of one, and you'll get some sort of enjoyment out of at least two of them. If you're the type that is uneasy hearing the crunching sounds of a women eating an aborted fetus, you might want to skip these and look for Bambi.