This intriguing showcase of three short films from Asia's primary horror directors is, in most, a hit-and-miss affair ranging from the downright shocking to the disappointing. The series, when watched on the R4 DVD, begins with the Hong Kong segment by maverick Fruit Chan. In classic Cat III form, we are dealt intense subject matter and some scenes of extreme perversity in Chan's 33 minute DUMPLINGS, which revolves around a backyard abortionist who has found an elixir of life in the form of eating fetuses. Some of the set pieces in DUMPLINGS are pretty extreme - the abortion scene is one of the sickest scenes to come out of Asia in 2000s and certainly one of the most perverse set pieces to be commercially released for the Western world. Of lesser extremity is South Korea's segment CUT. Directed by Chan Wook Park of OLDBOY fame, this sees a crazed extra hold a director and his wife hostage, simply because the filmmaker is 'too nice' and makes him look bad. CUT is the most conventional of the three and, save for some quintessentially Asian horror moments, plays out like a slick Hollywood thriller with some Hostelesque torture sequences. Finally there is BOX, the segment I was most looking forward to by famed Japanese horror and yakuza director Takashi Miike, renowned for his overly violent genre pieces. The convoluted plot of BOX circulates an author who has been living as a recluse all her life after the untimely death of her sister. This segment is truly terrible and lets the whole trilogy down. It is so boring, so mind numbingly sublime that it makes the final forty minutes spoil the culminated two hours. Not only do the segments play out from most extreme to least but also from best to worst: DUMPLINGS is the most accomplished and is truly disturbing stuff. If you can find this and Park's episodes individually, jump at the chance, for lovers of Asian horror will not be disappointed. But avoid Miike's BOX at all costs because, for me, it spoiled the whole film.
Review of Three... Extremes
