We follow random territory: Hitman kills bad people, and bad people want to kill Hitman. There you go, but they didn't want to do it that simply. In this instance they add a bunch of corrupt police officers and army generals in the mix and I never really understood what they had to do with the movie. They'd introduce characters into this film and they'd kill them off about ten minutes later. That I didn't have a problem with, but what troubled me was the fact that I didn't really understand what the character's point was. That annoyed me because it didn't allow me to enjoy the film, rather than to question every moment by moment just to get the right answer. I hate that bullshit. We start out by introducing the main character who is an assassin. Okay, I got it. He kills for a living (No Shit). Anyways this is where we loose it because they introduce this guy...and he dies..then this guy....and he dies. But to what avail? Then there were some side plots about the police officers and this old assassin guy who killed this young kid's parents and raised the kid. By this point however, you should be sick of this crap. The story has so many random moments, it feels more like a badly edited shit stain more than anything else.

The film never really goes anywhere either, the assassin character really isn't interesting or cool. He's an assassin, a guy who kills for a living and that's that. There is a lack of character development as well which eventually does lead to a downfall of the film. The assassin character Tanthai meets up with this young kid (after saving him from a beat down) and they kind of strike up a friendship. But there really isn't anything of the sort to show that these guys are actually friends, the filmmaker decided to skip all of the character moments with more cliched moments, for instance "We must catch the assassin and kill him for wronging us!" He also tries to build some long grudge type thing that involved Tanthai and this guy who he almost killed. But guess what? They do it so badly that you don't even realize that these two were in the same scene earlier in the film. That's what this film is, a bunch of moments rather than a full on story. It's bullshit.

Granted the film does win points because it has a great look to it. It shows a bunch of great spots in the city: the Muay Thai boxing arena, the gambling areas, the funeral homes, the countryside. I truly haven't seen these shots in any other Thai film I've watched so it was a blessing to see one shot the way they should be. There was also a great soundtrack which fit the mood of the somber town and the somber faces. I also think they could improved on the gun battles (lacking) because that could have upped this film in my mind. There were some great scenes showing the assassin taking out his random clients and it was some great stuff. Tanthai takes out four dudes and one guy is still squirming and with a flick of the wrist, he takes out the remaining guy and just walks on. Awesome stuff. But SON OF A BITCH! They don't expand on any of this and they would rather focus on a story that just plain sucks! What a shame, because I was truly interested in this film and it let me down in all aspects.

The acting is generic at best, there really isn't anybody who acts themselves into my respect. For the most part, the dialog is sparse which probably results in the character's being mostly dull which does touch the film in the wrong way. There were too many characters to count anyways and nobody did a standout job. The film ends how it begins, we stay on a corpse that has just recently been struck by bullets and now is corpsey as corpsey can be. That's how the film ends, killing some random guy whose actual point in the film is lost in the sporadic nature of the events that we just witnessed. But not to fear, there is some Thai phrase at the end that I didn't catch because the subtitles weren't exactly working but I'm sure it was bullshit. I've noticed the same type of crap in all recent Thai films I've seen, some type of message that goes with 2 hours of nothing .

Hit Man File isn't all bad but the story ruins all of the smaller goods as it sinks into your mind. It just doesn't make a worth of sense. It's a good looking film with some good aspects and some good stuff but I'd ignore it and check out another Thai-hitman flick like Bangkok Dangerous....

For those of you who haven't seen the first one (probably all of you), Kibakichi is a half werewolf-man whose town people were wiped out and now he wanders the land like Zatoichi, searching for a purpose. This film starts out with Sakuramaru, a murderer who terrorizes a small town, confronting Kibakichi and them having a duel. Sakuramaru cuts Kichi good which makes the wolfman retreat to a small village where he saves a blind girl from a rabid dog. She instantly sees the good in him, while the town people are afraid of him because he's a monster. During this, we meet Anju who is trying to murder Kibakichi to kill off the remaining person from her hometown (she's a monster as well) and eventually to kill herself to remove the remaining monsters. Before they can get to this, a fuckup named Dogan wants to kill all monsters and then humans so he can take over the world. So Sakuramaru, Kibakichi and Anju eventually team up to kill the bastard and then settle things with each other later.

The story moves easily enough, it's only 85 minutes remember and with this fact it never stays on anything for too long. The subplot with the blind girl wasn't really necessary but they did it the right way. The character Kibakichi isn't really that interesting or worthy of mention because he rarely says a word and is dull when he's not killing people. There's also some stuff about the background of the Sakuramaru character and how he was the bastard child of some white rapist who came to Japan and murdered a bunch of people. Funny stuff. But as a story, it's successful at giving us what is needed and not leaving any questions unanswered, there's even a helpful fuck in the beginning who explains what needs to be known (so basically you don't have to see the first one to get everything here). It's not deep stuff and it's not gonna win any awards in the near future, but you probably knew that the moment you saw the DVD art (Kinda shitty eh?). WEREWOLVES AND MONSTERS! Fuckin' stuff, man.

As for the monsters in this film, you should know before you see it that it's full of a bunch of people in bad monster costumes. No CGI or anything, just bad costumes. That surely doesn't tamper with the film, probably makes the thing more entertaining. For action, I think this film upped it from the last one as I recall it being kinda boring in the middle (perhaps I was tired) until it picked up at the end. There were a bunch of good scenes in this one, nothing of GREATNESS but it does the job. The final duel is probably the highlight, nothing compared to thousands of other great films but hey it's entertaining with some type of ant-eater thing stabbing people. But for me, the true moment of this film was the WOLF FIGHT. I'm probably the only one who'll think this is funny, but Kibakichi and Anju morph into wolves at the end of the film and supposedly fight, but what we see here is almost like dancing and hugging. I couldn't stop laughing for some reason, and thinking about it now, I should really kick myself in the ass. The actors in the film were decent, no standouts as before.

Ah Kibakichi 2 is a fun film like its predecessor and is enjoyable for those who realize what it is and don't dismiss it for things such as the stupid ass monsters (So very stupid, but stay with me here). It doesn't deserve any type of praise for anything but the entertainment value, and probably many of the moments were entertaining when they probably weren't suppose to be. But as I fall to sleep tonight, the image of the WOLF FIGHT will go through my head and I'll wonder what the hell it was suppose to be. Fun film and little else, but give it a shot if you like that sort of thing.

WOLF FIGHT

So the film starts out with a guy named Kang, who just seems to be having a bad life. First his wife dies in a plane crash and then he finds two dead bodies in a cabin. We learn later that these bodies belong to his boss and his trouser bowser enjoying girlfriend. Kang initially cries but hears somebody in the house and spots the little bastard. In a creepy chase through a creepy forest (Spider Forest no less) he gets tripped up and the killer evades him. But not only does poor ol' Kang get smashed in the head by the killer with a log, he gets smashed by a car and in turn almost dies. After getting patched up at the doctor's office, he tells the doctor to get him the police. A police officer (name escapes me) comes in and has some sort of a small friendship with Kang and they go over in detail how Kang came to where he was and events that led up to these moments. We learn of Kang's girlfriend, his dead wife, his job and the legend of the Spider Forest itself.

What's excellent about this film is that if you have the balls to actually pay attention to this flick, it'll pay off. The story moves like a dream almost, Kang relays his story onto the police officer and we learn of a simple man who deals with his loss like most do. There are many smaller stories as well, such as the legend of the Spider Forest which tells that unloved souls go to the forest until they are remembered or loved again. It captures your interest with giving you something to go by as a smaller piece of information that is dealt out every moment. It's not really a "detective" story where it's more of a mystery saga that doesn't try to rely on a bunch of random gore-infested shits to catch your ADD-fueled mind. Kang's a likable guy and we follow him in regular life and when he begins to find out more and more about the Spider Forest and what actually went down at the cabin. But Kang goes into hyper mode and he begins to doubt himself and his own memory at times. The psychological aspects of this film gives us conclusion after conclusion that tries to argue the fact that we might be watching fiction. The point of this is that the director doesn't try to follow the hokey fucking attempt to explain everything we see with some dead girl calling people on a phone or something: it goes the way I wouldn't have expected it to go.

The visuals in this film are also outstanding, there are a few hidden secrets along the way. There's a scene where Kang peels a dead leaf off of a table and it leaves an imprint that looks like a heart. There's a whole bunch of that stuff going on in this film and you can definitely see it. Some great direction is also added which makes the film even more like a dream, from vast shots of the countryside to some horribly violent situations (Stabbed in the neck with a sickle? Yee haw), it's all top notch. The only crappy fact that this film has is that it is named "Spider Forest" (Doesn't that sound to you like a stupid fucking movie with ten foot spiders jerking each other off and spewing poison slime at people? Hopefully it doesn't, because that's just nasty). The music is pretty haunting as well, it fits the scenes that it accompanies.

The film asks some interesting questions as well. "Are we living a constant string of memories? How can we really tell what's what?" The film relies on it's ending to cement the fact that there are two separate problems that could have occurred: did all this happen? Or was it simply a dream? That's a parallel that you couldn't find from you simple run of the mill type film, but what can you do? We end with the final results of the mayhem and we are left partially pissed off and partially sad for Kang's current situation. The guy went through a lot and it might have been in his head. Ah, it's so nice these days that Korea still can kick film making in the ass because I've been pretty bored with other stuff as of late.

Ignore the ranting above and just go see this film. It's an easy rental if you like a little bit of thinking after the credits role. Tartan, you've gotten better in the last few months, ditch the horror bullshit and start getting stuff like this. Don't expect a full on horror film (as it's sadly billed as) but a great film that hopefully gets some notice over the next few years.

Sympathy's story seems a little toned down from what Oldboy dishes out. This time around we got a young green haired deaf-dumb kid named Ryu who has a dying sister. Like any good brother he wants his sister to live, so he tries everything in his power to make sure that she does. He decides to let them cut out his kidney and give it to her: only problem is that it doesn't much the blood type. So what does our friend Ryu think next? He goes to some rama-shama (loser) doctor in the middle of nowhere to let them cut out his kidney. Well if you didn't see this coming, I feel sorry for you: they steal his kidney and leave him to rot. Things are starting to look up later when the doctor tells Ryu that a kidney is ready for his sister if he can put up the 10 million for it. Oh, but poor Ryu had to pay 10 million for the kidney he was going to receive from the Rama-sham assholes but we know where that went. So since he's now down 10 million and needs some quick cash for the surgery he decides to steal the daughter of his boss. Chances are if you've seen a Park Chanwook movie, you might know what happens next. If not, people die and vengeance is sought after! HOY HOY.

To put a spin on things, Ryu's sister finds out about the whole little thing and kills herself. Then one after one people start to die until we reach the end where it seems that everyone who is everyone died in this movie. Vengeance is a proper word to describe the second half of this movie because that's when our two main characters seek it. The first half of the film seems to be a little more somber yet likable. Why? Because it seems that the kidnapping of the girl was the only way out for Ryu and his problems. We can agree on everything up until this point. But things get fucked up when his sister finds out that he stole the girl and it hits you like a bag of bricks when Ryu finds her dead in a bathtub. Park Chanwook does this effectively and the tide of the movie shifts as both characters (Park goes after his kidnapped daughter's captors and Ryu goes after those who stole his kidney) try to take back what was taken from them. We go into hyperactive kill mode now, both characters really don't give a shit now, as they try to kill everyone who has wronged them.

I'll try not to spoil the other moments if possible but it's hard not to because that's the best part of Park Chanwook's movies: to understand and think about the stories and if you agree with their motives for death and destruction. But obviously not any director could handle the artwork of this film, from awesome camera shots to brutal violent scenes, you can't have it any other way if you want to enjoy his films. Yes as mentioned there are a few violent scenes in this film, including somebody getting stabbed in the neck with a knife and slicing the ankles of one of the characters in a harsh way. But as the character is dragged through the river, the blood that pours out of his ankles makes almost an artistic image in the water. I really don't think this film is entertaining because it really has no feel good emotion whatsoever, you feel sorry for Ryu and Park because both men go through loads of shit and death which seems to follow both of them as they go through this film. It's some depressing shit, because the "good intentions" get thrown into the well and we end up with loads of dead bodies. Not good in this instance, sad more than anything.

I think that the acting was very much up to snuff as well in this film because everyone that had something prominent to do hit the ball out of the park. Kang-ho Song is a great actor all around, and if you've seen some of his acting performances (JSA, Memoirs of Murder) you know what I'm talking about. He plays a lost father who feels lost after his daughter goes missing and his character ultimately feels horrible for his actions but becomes a monster and also becomes a fan of torture. The green haired douche was played by Ha-kyun Shin and he did a good job. I thought the character was dopey but he pulled it off and when he sprouts the tears in the scene where he finds his sister dead, it's believable. The girlfriend and the sister were played well and you could get with the characters and feel a little bit of their pain. Typical cops and shit aren't anything to get excited about either but there were a few cool supporting stars. I found those organ bandits a little odd but funny in some weird aspect and that retarded guy seemed to just come out of nowhere and have a spastic attack for no apparent reason.

There were some dull moments in Sympathy for sure but they were mostly made up of the beginning scenes which took a while to get going. I think that the film also had some editing problems because it should have focused more time on Ryu's sister's suicide and it seemed to just jet by it. There were more scenes in the movie that felt this way as well. Maybe I wasn't paying that close attention but how Park found out where Ryu lived and everything seemed to get lost in the swing of things. I think that with Oldboy they got much better with the editing thing because I knew more than I wanted to with that story. The only other thing I can complain about was the ending, whether it was suppose to be clever or whatever, I found it to be stupid. Granted, these points were too small to be noticed but I felt it to be very successful at evoking some damn emotional scenes that just make you "That sucks."

Hopefully people who see this movie haven't seen Oldboy first because I'm sure that with a view of that, they'll have high expectations and throw this one in the water because they were expecting some over the top flick that has the same style. It's a depressing flick that doesn't really have any feel good moments, but who cares? It's a well made flick and has a truly engrossing story....if you haven't seen it yet, go see it. Pretty basic huh? I'm not doing pony tricks, go see the movie.

Hiroshi Takagi (Asano) gets into a violent car accident that almost kills him but he does survive although his girlfriend isn't so lucky. When he does awake later on, he can't remember a thing. He goes back home with his parents to see if that can put that turn his mind around, instead he is drawn to a book about dissection and immediately enrolls in a medical school. We learn later that just before the accident, Takagi lost interest in medicine and became some what of a drifter. Part of the medical schooling features the students taking part in dissecting corpses and for some reason Takagi seems to recognize his project. He later finds out that the corpse he's dissecting is his former girlfriend.

The story is fairly simple to follow, I've heard people bitch about how it got confusing when they'd cut to one of Takagi's memories quickly and then simply go back to the present situation but that wasn't really a problem for me. It's truly interesting going into the main character's mind as he discovers small memories left and right (his memories don't feel like true memories, notes Takagi). The film is not without it's messages that circle around the importance of memories to humans, do we see what we want to see? Tsukamoto adds his flair by directing Takagi's memories like they were pieces of art from his girlfriend's dancing style to the bright colors in some of the scenes. I liked the scenes that involved Takagi visiting the parents of his girlfriend, her father noting that his daughter had changed and seemed to have lost her "light."

Tsukamoto's direction shines throughout, from his editing style to his art that makes you simply look at the screen and take in the images. I enjoyed alot of his direction, especially in the dissection scenes. The dissection scenes were done in such a way, you could hear the flesh on metal sound and feel every single moment of them as Takagi would jot down his sketches of the mashed up bodies in such a frenzied type way. I'd say if there was a strong point in the film, it'd be the direction because the story can get dull in some spots. All of the scenes that involved his girlfriend and him with their sexual fetish for strangling each other or just them simply sitting on the beach were all well done. Tsukamoto handles all of this without going back to the fuckall technique of showing mangled body parts and blood just for the sake of it being there (there are some notable scenes like this but very few). One of my favorite shots from the entire flick was one which showed Takagi talking to his girlfriend's father as Tsukamoto slowly motions the camera around him, showing the picture of his wife sitting next to his daughter (showcasing that his WIFE had just passed on from a disease revealed earlier in the film).

The performances are pretty good as well, Tadanobu Asano (Ichi the Killer) portrays the long haired and brain damaged Takagi with expressions and mannerisms rather than with dialog (He has very few lines to say in this film) and does a remarkable job. The two leading ladies (Kiki and Nami Tsukamoto) both do a good job as well, dealing with the characters on how they should be done with some random outburts but they still the job the right way. The secondary characters in the film (The parents of both Takagi and Ryoko) have a little more time to get their characters developed so obviously they have more characteristics that would fall into the human category (while the Asano and Tsukamoto characters seem more off beat and dream like in some sense).

For a film, Vital has much going for that includes stellar direction, worthy performances and a plot that is actually interesting and covers some good topics. It's actually a surprise to see the director of something like Tetsuo come out with a more mild version (still has its moments of pure intensity) of what he throws out at you. It's a solid movie experience and showcases one of the more under-appreciated directors at work doing his thing the right way and that's always worth something.

Lee Geum-ja (Lee Young-Ae) seems like the perfect lady: she's beautiful, kind and everyone loves her. Well, she is perfect aside from the small detail that she kidnapped and murdered a five year old boy. Even though she's perceived as a murderer in society, everyone seems to love her and that polka-dot dress she's seen in becomes the fashion statement of the moment. Hell, even in prison everyone loves her because she cares about everyone and helps them in different ways. (See a big fat lesbian who forces chubby women to perform oral sex on her who gets punished with a "clean stomach.") When she is released from captivity, she's a different person entirely and only looks at one option: to find Mr. Baek (Choi Min-sik) and kill him for putting her in prison for nine years.

There's a whole lot more to the story, but you'll have to watch to find out bastards! Anyways, the story moves perfectly, giving more details and showing more of Geum-ja's actions before the ACTUAL vengeance-fueled finale. The plot in the film seems more down to Earth than say Oldboy that doesn't include locking a man away in some room, drugging him and then erasing the new knowledge he found out with hypnosis. It also strides far away from the deep dark depressing mode that Oldboy/Mr. Vengeance strode into with and comes back with more of a tough drama and partially a comedy flick. Yeah, there's a bunch of stuff that had me laughing in this flick that ranged from a strange dream that Geum-ja has, from a Priest sporting the worst haircut I've ever seen on someone, to a scene where Geum-ja is whacked out on some PCP and she's hammin' it up with some Australians(CRIKEY!). Mr. Baek even gets on in the action when he out of the blue bends his wife over a table and just proceeds to rape the shit out of her while she regularly continues her meal and chats with him about shopping with her friends. But let's put it this way, even though the film has it's humorous moments, get ready for some dark moments that include a video camera that follows us to our blood-soaked finale which literally punches you in the chest.

Park Chan-wook isn't without his goodness about, his direction shines in every moment. He rarely misses a spot in this film, perhaps my favorite shot belongs to a scene in which a group of people (I won't spoil it) dress in plastic wrap and sit in a line awaiting to throw out some violence. Now, it had the idea that these people were awaiting their turn to unleash their hate and anger but it also was humorous to me because it looked like they were waiting in line for a ride at a water park and didn't want to get their clothes wet so they put on some plastic to make sure. His direction is a character of the film, from the different things he focuses on, Geum-ja's eye shadow or a huge ass bullet wound in the back of someones skull, it's all good. This is accompanied by a great musical score that goes with every scene it shows up in. I don't know, sometimes music is plain bullshit in movies but it adds to the strength of the scenes that would otherwise seem a bit dull.

The acting in Lady Vengeance is greatness, plain and simple. Although most of the characters in the film do a good job, it's really Lee Young-Ae's show. She is a presence on the screen and hits it well out of the ballpark. Her character goes through a transformation and blames it on Mr. Baek (who is more or less responsible) and in turn thinks that ridding the world of him with complete her quest for redemption. Every scene you can relate with her story, you can get into what she's offering at the plate. Her performance in believable if anything and is the bright shining spot on the film. Choi Min-sik is awesome, enough said. There's even some worth while cameos in the film, ranging from Yu Ji-tae (Oh Dae-su's captor in Oldboy) and Song Kang-ho (JSA, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance). Hell even the Australians didn't bring back bad memories of those white bastards in JSA.

Although it's not perfect, Lady Vengeance is a hell of a film that Park Chan-wook goes all out on and delivers the goods. I'd still have to say that Oldboy is my favorite out of the three but this one comes close. I would usually end with saying what you would like or wouldn't like depending on who you are but I'd really have to kick you in the nuts if you didn't want to sit through this one. No explosions here but who f*cking cares? There's more than enough to please my mind for time limit and I suspect you'll love the movie too (Just don't expect an Oldboy type twist finale, but not to worry the ending here is just as powerful). What's next from the great director? I hear something about mental hospitals and vampires....bring it on.