The Good, the Bad, the Weird (Korea, 2008)

What can I say other than that this another bitchin' film from Kim Ji-woon, the Korean director of The Quiet Family (1998 / trailer) and the original version of A Tale of Two Sisters (2003 / trailer). Needless to say, the title of this film, which Ji-woon himself calls a kimchi western, is a play upon Sergio Leone's classic spaghetti western The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966 / trailer), the third and final film of his Dollar Trilogy, from which Ji-woon borrows the basic concept of a trio of three protagonists of varying moral character, a buried treasure, a variety of scenes and the final Mexican standoff.
At the time The Good, the Bad, the Weird was made, it was the most expensive film in South Korean history, and it not only looks it, but looks as if all the money was spent in the right places. Currently, the movie can be found in two versions, the original Korean cut with its happy ending, which runs at 136 minutes, and the international version, which runs at 129 minutes and is the preferred cut of the director himself, as it is closer to the film he wanted.
The review here is based on the international version, so the ending is hardly happy – though oddly inconclusive considering the final 5 seconds. That said, it must be noted that going by what you can see here Schnittbericht.com (that's "cut report dot com" for those of you who can't read German), the longer version at least gives some background to the presence of the Good (Jung Woo-sung), who is literally suddenly just there in the international version. The English version, by the way, is even a few seconds shorter than the international version: they cut out some obvious and real animal cruelty, something that Koreans obviously have little compunction about. (Sorta like the Italians back in their exploitation heydays of the 70s.)
The plot of GBW is a truly simple one – so simple as to verge on being a non-plot – and is far less interesting than the various set pieces, the numerous action scenes and the vibrant style with which the whole film is made. The Bad (Lee Byung-hun of I Saw the Devil [2010 / trailer]) is hired to steal back a treasure map from a Japanese official on a train, but even as he attempts to do so, the Weird (Song Kang-ho as Yoon of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance [2005/ trailer], Lady Vengeance [2006 / trailer], the over-rated monster film The Host [2009/ trailer] and Thirst [2009 / trailer]) robs the train and makes off with the map just as the Good shows up (as mentioned above, literally out of the blue in the international version). Before long the Weird is being pursued by the Bad, the Good, the Japanese Army and a gang of Manchurian bandits all out to get the treasure map, which everyone believes leads to the buried riches of the Qing Dynasty... bullets fly, blood flows, opium gets smoked, grannies wander about, people die and the chase is on!
In a film full of exciting visual highlights, two of the best are undoubtedly the shootout at the market that is so obviously inspired, like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2002 / trailer), by the tree-walking masters of classic Hong Kong sock-em-chop-em films, and the almost ironically overextended chase scene – 20 minutes long! – that never gets tedious. For that matter, the whole film never gets tiresome, which is not to say it is flawless. The narrative is a bit jumpy at times, tertiary characters simply disappear with no explanation, and the major twist at the ending is hard to swallow when taking into consideration the previous actions of the character up to that point in the movie. (In other words, it has all the flaws normally found in a real spaghetti western.)
Still, for that the ending of the international version is satisfyingly nihilistic – the ending of the Korean version, however, sounds like as much of a fairytale copout as the tacked on ending for the original Japanese release of the unduly overlooked spaghetti western masterpiece The Great Silence (1968 / trailer).
But seeing that The Good, the Bad, the Weird, unlike the Sergio Corbucci film, hardly intends to convey a political or intellectual message, perhaps a happy ending really isn't a copout after all... Whatever version you end up seeing, you'll probably like it.

Plague Town (USA, 2008)

So, another film with good points and bad points that has gotten a lot of positive word of mouth and thus, upon viewing, proves all the more disappointing for only being a passable way to pass the time that displays some directorial talent but way too little narrative creativity. A great film for film stills, but were it anything other than a low budget directorial debut one would be hard pressed to not simply dismiss Plague Town as over-hyped. The beauty of some of the images, and the occasional sense of horror and disorientation, are all very commendable, but is it too much to expect a storyline that is perhaps a little less worn? Main characters that you can identify with? Developments that you don't see coming? Logical action on part of those endangered?
That said, much of the film is suitably oblique to possibly keep most novices surprised by the film's final "twist", but I think that even had I not watched Dying Breed (2008 / trailer) the week prior to this film, as a horror film fanatic I still would have seen the ending miles away. Worse, despite the fact that the other two people watching the film with me were not hardened horror fans, within five minutes after the Fodder Five first showed up we managed to agree upon and correctly guess the order in which the characters would die and who the Final Gal was going to be.
Filmed in Connecticut but set in Ireland, Plague Town opens with an effectively disagreeable prologue set in the past that ends with the grisly end of the parish priest. A bus exiting to the right later, we meet the highly dysfunctional Monohan Family from the US on a bonding day trip to visit some old ruins and enjoy the Irish countryside. Jessica Monohan (Erica Rhodes), the blonde mega-bitch daughter, has Robin (James Warke), her recently discovered English boy toy in tow so as to round up the number of fodder to the industry standard of five. He is a supercilious twerp with a never-emptying, disappearing and reappearing beer can in hand, but later he is also the centerpiece of most of the film's most intense visceral attacks before ending up as a piñata for the local kids. Daddy Monohan (David Lombard), who looks almost young enough to be dating his daughters, and his new wife Annette Rothman (Lindsay Goranson), are parental figures there for the plucking, while the youngest daughter, Molly Monohan (Josslyn DeCrosta), sees doom far in advance but her Cassandra cries are ignored due to her history of mental problems. So, who do you think is the Final Gal? (Although, as in Dying Breed, being the Final Gal in Plague Town doesn't seem to be all that much better than being fodder.)
Needless to say, as is expected the minute they got off the bus, the not-so-happy family later miss the last bus back to civilization and have to walk. They don't get far – that is, they don't get far until they find reasons to separate and the body count can start. Daddy's death got a rousing laugh from the 17-year-old we watched the film with – or, to be more exact, a rousing snort of derision – though I sort of thought it at least looked good. (But, really: even if you are looking for your bitchy daughter, if you were to wander into a dank, dark and ruinous house where you saw kiddies who first hide and then rush past invisibly and stick a shard of glass into your shoulder as they giggle, would you slowly follow the giggling psychos deeper into the darkness of the house or hightail it back to the others?) Annette-the-wife's death is far more unnerving, primarily because it is more sordidly realistic than spectacular, is dragged out so long, and Molly gets to watch it to the end. And despite the fact that Robin is English, the viewer actually begins to feel sorry for him by the end of his tribulations.
OK, so now you know something that the characters of Plague Town never really know until it's too late: we're dealing a hoard of sadist, mutant killer kids and the town that spawned them, populated by a smaller but likewise deadly group of adult mental inbreeds looking for new breeding stock in the hope that new blood might dilute the "plague". (Oddly enough, but for their pale skin, none of the adults seem to share the physical deformities of their offspring – perhaps they lose that with puberty.) Most confrontations end deadly, but a few do not so that the film doesn't end too quickly – and once again, the viewing public is reminded that them thar backwater eejits are not "good people" no matter what country you're in.
That said, despite the fact that the film suffers a lot of bad day-for-evening photography and is 90% predictable, it should be stressed that Plague Town enjoys some excellent acting and some truly disturbing if not almost surrealistically horrific imagery, both which go a long way in making the film intriguing and keeping the viewer captivated, even if the story and plot development don't. Likewise, the leisurely pace does help add some tension and there are some truly jump-worthy moments. But in this regard, Plague Town is a bit like an excellently made carrot cake dressed to look like a Black Forest Cake: in the end, no matter how good the carrot cake is, you're sort of disappointed it isn't Black Forest Cake – even as you take a second slice. To make a carrot cake that looks like a Black Forest Cake, however, does take talent, so it is easy to believe that director David Gregory could, in the future, make something much better than this highly interesting, visually eye-catching, properly depressing but much too predictable film.

Jack Frost (USA, 1997)

Full film:

"Sally, when I want philosophy, I'll turn on 'Oprah'."

Jake (Jack Lindine)

It's been awhile, but finally another intentionally bad film that actually works as a good bad film. Unlike, say, such recent displeasures like Frostbiter (1995), which almost works at times, or Timesweep (1987), which doesn't work at all ever, ever, ever, Jack Frost has the proper amount of self-awareness, cheekiness and vision to actually work. Thus, the direct-to-video film, with all its low budget and "flaws" – the bad acting, the cheap sets, the funky special effects, the ridiculous story – as visible as a neon sign is a true barrel of stupid fun.
Let it be clear: Jack Frost is crap, but damn if it ain't platinum-plated crap – just like we like it here at A Wasted Life. And obviously enough other people have liked it as well: three years after its release, Jack Frost was followed by a sequel, Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman (2000 / trailer)... which, needless to say, we definitely plan to see one day.
Jack Frost is the directorial debut of Michael Cooney, who prior to this deliciously fragrant visual fart had written a few thrillers – namely Tracks of a Killer (1996) and Murder in Mind (1997 / trailer) – and then went on to script one of James Mangold's best films, the highly enthralling and well-made horror thriller Identity (2003 / trailer). For Jack Frost, however, he obviously wasn't going for creativity or intelligence as much as he was going for fun, and fun he achieves. And while one might argue that the concept of a killer snowman is relatively original, and thus creative, the method in which it is created is not: if you have seen Mosquitoman (2005 / trailer) or Sharkman (2005 / trailer) or even Shocker (1989 / trailer), then you know the score – something happens that turns someone into an unstoppable something.
In the case of Jack Frost, a few days before Christmas a homicidal maniac (see Mosquitoman & Shocker) named Jack Frost (Scott MacDonald) is being transported to his execution when the transport wagon collides with a truck full of an experimental liquid from the local genetic research labs. The liquid turns the killer into Jack Frost, a homicidal snowman. Obsessed with getting revenge on the man that originally caught him, Sheriff Sam (Christopher Allport*), who just happens to live close to the accident site, Jack Frost shows up in the town of Snowmonton and begins to play ten little Indians with the unsuspecting town inhabitants....
Featuring the acting debut of Shannon "Love Pillows" Elizabeth in minor part of a horny teenage that literally gets fucked to death by a snowman – carrots are good for more than just being a nose – Jack Frost lacks anything that night resemble logic or believability, but overflows with devil-may-care mirth. (Oh, wait, you question how I could use the word "believability" when talking about a killer snowman movie? Well, the word refers less to the concept of the killer snowman – as a film, it is a given that a certain level of fantasy must be accepted as "real" – than to, for example, a sister that is not only hot to fuck her boyfriend a mere few hours after her brother loses his head, but also breaks into the sheriff's house with her squeeze to do so; a son who makes oatmeal for the father he loves using antifreeze; a snowman – as in: without legs – that can drive; etc. etc.)
Like Freddy and Chucky, Jack Frost can't seem to do anything without spouting totally lame one-liners, but they are so stupid that they compliment the film as a whole. The deaths are not very bloody – body-count lite, so to say – but plentiful, and for the most part good for a hearty laugh. One or two demises even overcome their obvious low-tech execution to become surprisingly icky – the puking scene of Stone (Robe LaBelle of New Nightmare [1994 / trailer] and Fido [2006 / trailer]) is the most memorable in this regard. More amazingly, the movie even manages to achieve a certain level of tension at times, though it usually dissipates quickly due to the giggles or laughter that always follows soon thereafter.
Jack Frost – platinum-plated crap, perfect Christmas viewing for the whole family... well, for certain families, at least.

*In a bizarre and deadly case of irony, Christopher Allport was literally killed by snow in January, 2008: He was on a skiing trip at the Mountain High Resort in at the San Gabriel Mountains when he and two others (Michael McKay and Darin Bodie Coffey) were killed in a series of avalanches.

Otogiriso / St John's Wort (Japan, 2001)

Ever hear of a "visual novel"? I hadn't, at least not until after I saw this film, which I had previously assumed to be based on some obscure Japanese computer game. But computer games are not always just computer games, and Otogiriso is less a first cousin to, say, Ms. Pacman or Super Mario Brothers or Grand Theft Auto than a distant relative of Leisure Suit Larry – a fact most obvious, perhaps, in a scene in which one of the characters in Otogiriso finds a key while closing a window that takes the protagonists further in their exploration. (I, for one, immediately thought of the ring that Larry finds while washing hands, one of many such found objects in the game that take Larry closer to his eternal quest for getting laid.)
A visual novel, for those not in the know, is (to quote Wikipedia) "an interactive fiction game featuring mostly static graphics [...] or occasionally live-action stills or video footage. As the name might suggest, they resemble mixed-media novels or tableau vivant stage plays." St John's Wort, as Otogiriso is entitled for the English-speaking word, is based on the 1992 visual novel created by Goro Nakajima, who is also listed as one of the co-writers of the film. In the game, a young dude and dudette get stuck in the middle of nowhere when their car gets hit by a tree felled by lightning and take refuge in a large deserted house. This basic setup reappears in the film as well: Kohei (Yôichirô Saitô of Karaoke Terror [2003 / trailer]) is creating a video game with two other twens based on the drawings of his ex-girlfriend Nami (Megumi Okina of The Grudge [2002 / trailer] and the remake of Shutter [2008 / trailer]), whom he joins to visit a house in the middle of nowhere she just inherited from a father she never met; when a tree felled by lightning falls upon their car, they are forced to spend the night in the mysterious mansion – where, unbeknownst to them, someone unknown is observing them the entire time. Assisted by the two twens back in the development office – despite the storm, their faultless and super-fast wireless connection never fails in streaming video in real time or in transferring massive amounts of digital data without a glitch – Kohei and Nami unravel the mystery of Nami's past and discover the grisly secrets and horrors of the house even as they are confronted by physical danger...
To say that St John's Wort is a slow-moving film would be an understatement, as the narrative truly unfolds at a snail's pace. Thus, those is search of fast-paced thrills and chills should steer clear, for more than anything else this deliberately paced film serves a continual flow of impressive and surreal colors and visuals that initially take some getting used to but eventually serve well to create and support an atmosphere of otherworldly dreadfulness.
Regrettably, though the noteworthy and unique computer-enhanced cinematography (by Kazuhiko Ogura) does eventually manage to fully draw the viewer into the nightmarish and eccentric world that it so uncompromisingly constructs, director Ten Shimoyama (of Shinobi [2005 / trailer] and Blood [2009 / trailer]) and his scriptwriters fumble tremendously on a narrative level and literally drop the ball at the film's initially almost Gothic resolution: the sudden, last-minute full reversion to the game-playing world not only destroys both the established mood and tension, but literally removes any fangs the story had slowly grown and replaces them with baby teeth. In seconds, the movie flips from being an interesting and depressing horror flick with artistic pretensions into being a total raspberry.
In short, St John's Wort is a slow-moving but visually astounding and creepy horror film with a linear, almost stereotypical narrative that seduces the viewer on an ocular level as it single-mindedly strolls towards an enjoyably Gothic resolution only to fully collapse into idiocy by the time the final credits roll. For a film that starts off with a hell of an attractive basket, St John's Wort ends up having no balls at all.
But damn, the visuals are sure some mighty fine eye candy.