Change Your Image
flolaba
Reviews
Bakjwi (2009)
So much potential wasted
Story - Editing
It looks like bad editing combined with a disjointed script (including lots of unexplained junk that just gets in the way of the story) forced the production team to try to recover their investment by billing it as a comedy.
Then there is the length of the movie. Tight editing alone could have cut 30 minutes out, raised the production values and made the story work.
1 The vampire priest idea could have been really scary and tragic - instead it becomes just another cross that the movie must bear.
2 When the priest comes out of the experiment he looks more like the Invisible Man than a recovering patient. (though the groupies waiting to be healed was a nice touch.
3 The patient who tells the sponge cake story, falls into a coma and later becomes a convenient donor to slake the priest's thirst is actually one of the few devices that sort of worked. There were several others that began but didn't end - or ended without a beginning.
4 The end of the story could have been a powerful conclusion to the story arc rather than an out of place twisted scene out of an Anne Rice story.
5 There doesn't seem to be a coherent back story. Was the Filipina girl living with a Japanese family in Korea? Would this explain the sushi made at home and the floor furnishings right next to the dining table?
6 The idiot husband - this just jumped all over the place. First he was always needing a hot water bottle. Then he does stuff that is out of character. Finally he reappears in the bed several times without any reason. Who was affected by his presence? The priest and girl ignored him.
The only brilliance in the movie - the idea to bill it as a black comedy. Otherwise it would have only ever been seen in Mystery Science Theater 3000.
God Wears My Underwear (2005)
It is the story of my life!
I saw this film at a preview screening in Toronto and it hit a chord with me. The story is about a woman with gender identification dysphoria who believes she is reincarnated from a Buddhist monk who witnessed the rise of the Nazi's in the 1930's.
The storyline is presented in a style best described as stream of consciousness. A little hard to follow at first, but once I was into the film, I saw how all the parts fit together. In some ways this is more a work of electronic art than a film, but it definitely evoked an emotional response.
I think there are other ways the filmmaker could have handled the ending which is a bit of a downer. Indeed, I would like to have seen a longer film with more explanation and I'm wondering what changes the director made in subsequent cuts.
Of particular note is the music which is a kind of Middle Eastern, jazz fusion. I think the images and the music worked well together.