Change Your Image
mistress_centipede
Reviews
Yeogo goedam 3: Yeowoo gyedan (2003)
Wish for a horror with a decent plot line? Climb no further...
Okay, so some of those horrors out there are really, really HORRible. Sure, they scare you pantless but then take off in some unknown direction to further frighten the viewer. Personally, from the Ring, I still pray that Sadako won't find me under the covers at night, but the story was nothing too spectacular.
In this movie, however, there are definitely a few good lessons and themes intertwined with the horror. Assuming you are familiar with the premise: a set of stairs with a mysterious, wish-granting 29th step, I'll continue. Surprisingly, most of the true horror is not caused by monsters or ghosts, but by the actual PEOPLE who are victimized. They, themselves inflict the pain upon themselves.
A girl wishes to be skinny, she becomes bulimic. A ballerina wishes to be better than her friend, she eliminates the competition. An artist wishes her art was more lifelike, she becomes her art. These are snips of irony that are just so mingled with the overall story that you can't just help but say to yourself, "that's what you get for wishing." I'm not native Korean, so it was difficult for me to appreciate this movie as a whole, but I would have to say the acting pretty okay. The effects were a little bit unoriginal, if not plagiarized, but the over all feeling they left was definite. This movie was fairly original, and I enjoyed it, I recommend it to anyone who enjoys Eastern Horror of any type.
But remember, be careful what you wish for...
American Dragon: Jake Long (2005)
Stereotypical garbage (in a nice way)
I'm in love with anime and am semi-versed in Asian culture. This show...is...a disgrace. The writers for this series rely far too much on making Jake a good Asian-American boy, as a result, they make him talk slang so he doesn't come off as fobbish, which would not be nearly as insulting.
Being based completely on stereotypes, the black girl is just that: black. The white boy is a stoned ditz. The Chinese grandfather sports his garbs all around New York and NO ONE finds that in the least odd? Now seriously, the theme is (if not plagiarized) a good theme. A boy living a double life trying to defend the magical world (because Juniper Lee, Danny Phantom, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Inuyasha are NOTHING like that) but still, my point remains that it does have potential if it weren't so kid-friendly.
Probably the worst part is that Jake has no respect for his grandfather. If they wanted to stick to stereo types, they would have Jake be more obedient to his teacher rather than constantly goofing off like an immoral idiot.
On one last note, Disney must just...stop. This is just humiliating, I mean, just listen to that theme song!
Eiga Inuyasha Tenka Hadô no Ken (2003)
Hit and Miss... but mostly Hit
This had to be the best of any Inuyasha movie released in English thus far. Even if you haven't been a geek sworn in to the series, you'll understand the basic storyline, very much unlike the previous two.
This is not for the lovebirds in the audience, it's more for the series' main genre, the action (battle of the brothers to be precise). The movie's OC villain, Takemaru, was surprisingly deep and had an exceptional storyline laced with Izayoi, Inuyasha's mother. The father of Inuyasha and Sesshomaru, however, was probably the highlight of this feature, he himself was worth seeing the entire movie for.
However, there were one or two things that troubled me about this story. There were many out-of-character moments that just irked me, but that's to be expected by the people who write the movies, and are not too familiar with the original manga.
Though, I'm happy to say that this movie's animation is much more consistent and mirrors both the manga and anime stylings very well. The music is amazing, I was happy to see some of the old stuff from the first season mixed in there. "Four Seasons" at the end was also a very nice treat.
All and all, I would say that this is one that needs to be seen by any fan, avid or not.
Red Eye (2005)
Was it really worth the $9.50?
*Minor Spoilers*
As much as I truly looked forward to seeing this movie, I must say that I was very disappointed. It seemed as if the first half hour revolved around Lisa Reisert's character meeting Cillian Murphy in the airport, with which nothing truly spectacular happened other than him weirding her out with his interest in her choice of drinks.
For the next painsaking hour of this movie, we are taken onto the (non-coast to coast, therefore not red eye) flight where Reisert is invisibly beaten by Murphy, whilst everyone seems not to care. Suddenly, we are given her two choices, her father (which we've already met) and an apparently important person staying in her hotel. For the remainder of the flight, she fights to not make the call, but fails miserably and ends up calling anyway.
Then, with very little foreshadowing, she shows backbone and makes her escape, saving both the Keefs and her father. Murphy eventually catches up to her, and we are given the only REAL thrilling part of the movie.
I could see how they tried to do so much with this movie...and just utterly failed. It was just one of those films where you walk out and say "huh?"