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Eungjingja (2013)
a very polished awful awful film
The two protagonists of this film are horrid people. The simpering "victim" and the arrogant "bully." The victim doesn't even get the full brunt of the bully's sadistic behavior but bears the pain of a wronged friend vicariously, never letting go and never forgetting his miserable high school existence. The bully is shown to deserve the campaign of pain the now grown up victim will bring by refusing to show the slightest contrition for his behavior. But the victim is so pathetic it is impossible to feel any compassion for his "plight" or take pleasure with him in his schadenfreude. And so these two bring misery and death to those close to them. (well one person gets off scot-free in the film's gonzo ending, but still...) Yeah yeah the movie's a "cautionary tale" about bullying and how revenge can make one worse than a bully but the message is hopelessly muddled in poor storytelling. The movie looks so good but the content is beyond disappointing. What a waste.
Ha-wool-ling (2012)
solid film
Howling takes a somewhat unbelievable plot and runs like a wolf with it. The two detective protagonists do an exemplary job carrying the film... but the real hero of the film is the avenging wolf-dog. I must admit I was never bored during the shots of the beast running or staring out with piercing eyes. If this were an American film I'm sure Hollywood would have made a mess of the sexism subplot and turned the whole thing into some clumsy "message" movie. In this context the other detectives came off as jerks and one couldn't help but root for Eun-yeong & Sang-gil to solve the case before their colleagues. Once it was determined that the deceased were all "bad guys" it seemed a little odd that revenge wasn't even considered as a motive until later. The scene with final kill was sad and expertly done. That sealed the deal for me. Unless you dislike avenging wolf-dogs, you can't really go wrong with Howling.
Die xue gu cheng (2010)
Watchable Chinese War Movie
Death and Glory in Changde was an entertaining film. The uniforms, weapons, and sets looked great. There were a few cheesy moments related to the romantic subplot but the story overall was solid. The action is rather well done and gets intense at times. The ending felt tacked-on but gets the job done. Chinese films are always fascinating to me when they tackle historical subjects. Even though the Nationalist Chinese are the good guys, we the viewers are meant to identify with the plucky young peasant (who's a crack shot) volunteering to defend China against the Japanese "devils." The Japanese don't come off too horribly clichéd, all things considered, but are definitely represented as the brutal adversary they were. For the connoisseur of foreign war flicks, this is a must-see.