Kim Hye-ja, "Mother"

Reroll is a new category of posts from the past, that I’ve done for a small number of other outlets besides clumproll.com. They are reposted here not because they are exemplary instances of my writing ability, but rather to serve as a simple log or archive of my past efforts, especially with those outlets being difficult to find online any more.

This particular post was originally for The Korea Society Film Blog when it was still around. I had seen the film during the original theatricalrun while in Korea, shortly before the time of writing this in July of 2009.

For those interested, the film Mother recently(July 2010) became available in the U.S. on DVD, Blu-ray and streaming video via Magnolia Pictures.

When Bong Joon-ho announced his fourth film after the record-breaking hit The Host would be a murder mystery about a mother and her wrongly accused son, I was one of many worried about it being a retread of his masterful second film, Memories of Murder. Would Bong be able to replicate the tight pacing and cinematic completeness he had with that film once more?

As it stands, his latest Mother is thankfully not a retread in the slightest. Its lead is obviously a woman – not a young face, but a veteran actress with wrinkles and a compelling presence throughout. In the titular role, Kim Hye-ja is up against circumstantial evidence, impatient police, a self-important lawyer, and unbelieving townsfolk. This mother descends into the dilemma of clearing the murder charge on her only son. I call it a descent because she goes down a long, dark rabbit hole full of questions to face the unfortunate souls that may have answers to the real murderer of the high school girl that her son is alleged to have killed. Each newly uncovered piece of evidence and person of interest needs more than a few rounds of vetting, and the turns made are fast and always unexpected.

Kim Hye-ja is, as Bong once said, and rightly so, the “mother” of a certain generation of South Koreans that watched years and years worth of her on television dramas. I’d take a rough guess they are the generations born somewhere between the 1950′s and 80′s that fit the category more than any other – the folks that narrowly missed the war, saw a Republic of Korea rise from the ashes, stumble through the labor demonstrations and extended presidencies, that felt the pride of hosting the Olympics and the throes of a massive financial bubble burst. All along, there was a mother on TV and she was Kim Hye-ja.

It is a welcome but sobering surprise that in all these years, Bong Joon-ho is only the third director to capture this very talented actress for the big screen. Bong has crafted a murder story set in a poorer countryside town that some have disagreeably called cliché. But many will agree that he was able to capture this character’s every essence with Kim Hye-ja’s nuanced portrayal – and that it is truly one of the strongest, most hard-hitting performances from any actress in Korean cinema.

The full-body title shot of Hye-ja in the country field, as the word “Mother” scrawls into place is at once powerful yet wanting, because we instantly recognize that certain look on her face – not what it means exactly, but what it feels. Kim’s superb performance that follows is similarly riddled with the grace, nerve, love, hysteria, and honesty that we have come to expect from our mothers.

Won Bin surprises as country bumpkin Do-joon

Do-joon is her 27-year-old son, unemployed and mentally challenged. He needs his mother, it is as simple and as complicated as that. When he is arrested and separated from her, both find themselves at odds with the idea of each other. Although I never really paid attention to Won Bin’s previous drama and film work mostly as a “pretty-boy,” Do-joon’s revelations and moments of “clarity” is where he shines, with an uncanny knack for gripping urgency that shakes up our expectations of this helpless character.

The blue inflections of Latin music on the score somehow fit very naturally for a small Korean countryside. There is one particular, if wholly forgivable, visual gimmick Bong has used before in The Host. At times unnervingly close and at others expansive, his camera is determined, stylized, tense, full of bleaker tones than his previous films – is there a light at the end? Like Memories, and all good murder mysteries, Mother‘s sleuthing for the truth is what compels the story forward. Somewhere between the high emotions and the low depths, however, it becomes quite clear that what Bong really wants is to unsettle us with the question, “How far does the rabbit hole go?” When the credits roll, I couldn’t help but feel a familiar sense of spent frustration and sorrow – in fact, whether the mystery is solved is unimportant because by then, we have witnessed a force of nature. There is an answer, one that will haunt me for some time to come. Things happen, too specific to repeat here. Though I will say that by the end of the film, you understand everything that was shuffling through mother’s head on that expansive field.

The other possible question that remains is whether Mother bests Memories of Murder. For an unabashed Bong Joon-ho fan like myself, I would say it’s pretty darn close.

Director Bong Joon-ho

Simpsons get stamped, May 7, 2009

After 20 years on television and still going, Fox’s The Simpsons is now the first and only show to be featured on a stampset while still in primetime production.
On May 7, 2009, the United States Postal Service will release 5 stamps featuring Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie Simpson nationwide. Matt Groening created the original artwork for the stamps and will present them at a First-Day-of-Issue ceremony in Los Angeles on that day. Stamp collectors and fans can pre-order the stamps right now from the USPS website for home delivery.

• via USPS press release

Make it right or the fans will squash you like bug.

April Fools passed by without much incident (or did I just miss the hoopla?)  but there’s been news of late that I wish was a joke, and some genuine welcome surprises. Unfortunately, this is is one of the former.

Sony Pictures is working on adapting seminal PS2 game Shadow of the Colossus into a movie, as confirmed by both The Hollywood Reporter’s Risky Biz Blog and Variety’s The Cut Scene blog . There’s no expected release date yet, and the project is in the earliest stages of development.

Here come the bad news: the attached screenwriter is Justin Marks, whose only released film to date he worked on is Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. The small ray of hope in this is that Hollywood really sees some potential in this guy and has already entrusted Marks with some real geek fantasy in-development projects like Voltron, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and Masters of the Universe. I just hope Chun-Li is him getting started and that Shadow of the Colossus is the last possible adaptation he does, after steadily getting better at the craft.

[avhamazon asin="B0009I6S0O" linktype="pic" locale="US" picsize="Medium"]Shadow of the Colossus, PS2[/avhamazon]The 2005 game from Sony Computer Entertainment centered on the solitary Wander, searching out Colossi – giant creatures held together by stone, earth and magic – that he had to bring down in order to save the life of a girl. There are no other humans to interact with and an expanse of barren land between the Colossi. To get a sense of the game, look around the ‘net and you’ll find  common themes used to describe it include epic, grand, mystical, adrenaline, accomplishment, cinematic, genre-breaking, game-as-art.

Shadow of the Colossus had a truly EPIC sense of scale and it does excite me to think about seeing an enormous mountain of a Colossus come to life in properly-done CG on some ginormous IMAX screen.  The camerawork in-game and even the soundtrack had a very cinematic quality about them so those are a natural translation to the big screen. But there was also no real spoken dialogue in it, save  Wander calling his horse Agro near, so already there is a conflict of narrative devices there. Look around for fans reactions to the movie news and you’ll see I’m not the only one quite unsettled here.

Slashfilm reminds us that Guillermo Del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy) once called the game “a masterpiece.” It’s my hope that a director like him who appreciates and understands the vision of the game will be able to whip the “film” into shape, save it from becoming just another “game movie” flop.

• via The Cut Scene [Variety], Risky Biz Blog [The Hollywood Reporter],
  Kotaku, Slashfilm

Pics of Gondry, Rogen & Chow looking serious since their Green Hornet movie probably won't be.

If director Michel Gondry isn’t a household name in America already, that just might change with this bit of movie news. Columbia has ok’d the Brooklynite Frenchman to direct The Green Hornet, which has Seth Rogen in the title role and Stephen Chow as sidekick Kato. Gondry previously directed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, wrote/directed Be Kind, Rewind and much heartfelt The Science of Sleep.
Since the script is written by Rogen and laugh buddy Evan Goldberg, it seems very likely the flick will go in a comedic direction that would upset some die-hard fans of classic Hornet. Gondry is yet another quirk into what is shaping up to become a kind of tongue-in-cheek production. Already I expect scenes of a wheezing Rogen in green tights – resting to catch a breath in between crime-fighting – and sidekick Chow with outlandish martial arts moves (à la Shaolin Soccer, Kung Fu Hustle). Gondry’s directorial touch will most likely be in the visual areas, though I’m curious what narrative experiments he’ll slip through — especially since Variety notes that Gondry “got the job after presenting a vision that wowed” the production team.

Columbia’s The Green Hornet is set for a June 25, 2010 release.

• via Variety and The Hollywood Reporter

10 noms? really?

Please, also go watch and support smaller, heart-felt films like The Pool if you see it playing nearby.
It will change your life – I guarantee it. NYTimes review

That is all.

Toys at The Korea Society, CG test footage of 'Robot Taekwon V'

Just as The Korea Society opens a new exhibit on 70′s and 80′s toys from Korea with the Taekwondo-style butt-kicking giant robot Taekwon V as its centerpiece today, there’s news that the animated feature film will be made into a live-action/CG film to be released in August, 2009 (Test CG footage looks awesome! read on).

First, straight from The Korea Society’s website:

“Toys – always more meaningful than the simple playthings they appear to be – can embody the fantasies, values, obsessions and anxieties of a generation. Toy Stories: Souvenirs from Korean Childhood includes a veritable toy box of over 90 flamboyantly colored action figures, robots, miniature tanks and paper dolls from 1970′s and 1980′s Korea.”

So the exhibit will have more than just action figures and robots for boys, but also girls’ toys and dolls too. Being that Korea’s growing industrialization made new things possible in the country for the first time during that period, it would be interesting to see just what got kids excited back when there was no Guitar Hero or PlayStation. Here’s some key proceedings tied to the show:

• The opening reception for the exhibit is today at 5:30 PM
• Exhibit runs through April 18
• “Gallery Talk” (lecture): “Our Toys Our Selves: Robot Taekwon V and South Korean Identity” on February 7
• Film screening of animated feature Robot Taekwon V (2007, Digitally restored from original 1976 prints) on March 18

The film was the first Korean animated feature – ever. While original prints were long thought to have been destroyed by fire, a print was later found in one of KOFIC’s (Korean Film Council) off-site storage warehouses, was digitally restored in a 3-year-long process and re-released in 2007 to theaters across the nation in a very successful run.

Second, the live-action/CG adaptation. With Shin Cine(씬씨네) pouring 20 billion Korean Won (more than $20 million US) into the production, and CG/visuals done by (count ‘em!) 5 Korean VFX companies they’re going all-out on this one. Twitch does remind us that releasing in 2009 means it will “go head-to-head with The Transformers 2 in the Korean market.” YTN (Korea’s CNN) cites the movie will be based on the webcomic series “V” but will be a completely separate(different) work, and that the screenplay is in its final drafts. Won Shin-yeon of A Bloody Aria and Seven Days will direct, and in the YTN newscast, Won says

“Though it’s hard to be moved to awe or tears with technology, robots, I want to try doing that with Taekwon V, and I’m confident it will be possible with this.”

V webcomic. The top text reads, "I haven't lost yet."

In the webcomic, Hoon, who at the time of the original animation in 1976 was a young man, is now a 50-something years-old powerless paper-pusher that joins forces with Robot Taekwon V when it (he?) resurrects to fight off an impending evil. The series was produced by comic artist Jaepigaru and Robot Taekwon V, Inc. (yes, amazingly there’s a whole company just for one animated character).

You can watch test CG-render footage in the video below (or click here if it doesn’t work). Let’s hope its historical significance and national-fanbase backing culminates in something much less cringe-inducing than the cg-craptastic flop that was D-War.

• Toy Stories Exhibit, Korea Society
• YTN news video
• Joynews24 article with test footage
• webcomic series “V”
• Twitch

Update: Trailer is out, added below!

Emile Hirsch in full ‘Speed’ gear, Rain (South Korean pop sensation Bi) about to knock Speed out, the Mach 5 car on a crazy psychedelic racetrack, Christina Ricci and everyone else in funny haircuts — it can only mean one thing: Speed Racer pictures from the upcoming Wachowski Brother’s(The Matrix Trilogy, V for Vendetta) anime to live-action movie adaptation. Trying out what they’re calling car-fu - ‘kung-fu with cars’ – it seems they got the pop-visual look of the 60′s cartoon down pat. The movie will be Rain’s English-langauge debut, and also stars Susan Sarandon and John Goodman as Speed’s parents, Mom & Pops Racer. Gotta love the straightforward naming scheme.

Pictures of Rain, Ricci and more (plus the trailer) after the jump.

• USAToday has the full story and gallery with more pictures.

• via Cinematical

and now the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQyYPP9zR7M

John Cho has been cast to play Hikaru Sulu, in the new Star Trek XI movie to begin shooting by the end of this year. Directed by J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias), the film will tell the story of the original Trek-series characters as they first meet each other in their younger years. Paramount has given a new crop of actors the daunting task of filling the large boots of immortalized characters Kirk, Spock, Scotty, Uhura, Chekov and others - and hopefully revitalize a “tent-pole” franchise that has been sagging in its absence the past few years, hampered by less-than-stellar interest in it the later (post-Next Generation) TV shows and competition from other sci-fi properties like Star Wars, Stargate SG-1 and the phenomenal Battlestar Galactica reboot.

Other actors confirmed for the film include Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) as Scotty, Anton Yelchin as Chekov, Zachary Quinto (Heroes) as Spock, Zoe Saldana as Uhura, and Eric Bana (Troy, Munich, The Incredible Hulk) as a villain character. In what sources say will be a smaller role than the name suggests, Kirk is yet uncast, but they are in talks with Chris Pine who was apparently one of the three strange “country brothers” in the disappointing Smoking Aces. Sure, Pine looks the part but his resumé makes me ask, for Kirk, really??? (for pictures, follow the link at the bottom there.)

Back to John Cho. Though he’s been in the business for nearly a decade, Cho has become one of the most recognizable Korean faces in Tinseltown only after playing Harold in the buddy(stoner)-comedy Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (remember that before this movie he was only known, if at all, as “the MILF guy from American Pie“). For a commercial project like the Star Trek franchise right now, this recognizability or star-power is probably the best reason to pick some one like Cho. He’s been in numerous sitcoms (like the shortlived Off-Centre *youtube link* with American Pie co-star Eddie Kaye Thomas) as main characters to extra-bits and of course had the feature films recently. After some more dramatic ones in the Asian-American films Better Luck Tomorrow (dir. Justin Lin, 2003) and West 32nd (dir. Michael Kang, 2007, with Grace Park from Battlestar Galactica), he reprises his role in the yet-untitled Harold & Kumar sequel to give us another round of laughs in the next year some time (probably before Star Trek warps wraps).

Though I’m more familiar and trusting of his comic portrayals, I certainly hope the best for John Cho. Sulu (portrayed by George Takei in the TV series and films) was a very stoic, honorable character. Apparently Takei “had previously given his blessing if a non-Japanese actor was cast in the role” so I hope Cho can make fans, and his fellow senior Asian actor, proud. Being a Trekkie myself, I’ve sorely missed watching some good Trek recently. Star Trek XI is looking for a Christmas 2008 release.

• Hollywood Reporter via Yahoo!
• IGN’s Star Trek Casting Comparison has some pics with the old and new crew (the latest confirmed additions, Pegg and Cho are on the second page)

The 45th New York Film Festival at Lincon Center debuts The Darjeeling Limited, No Country for Old Men, and more

The schedule for the 45th New York Film Festival was up on Monday, and the biggest titles are already being sold out. A high profile selection of films from all over the world once again converge at Lincoln Center. It runs from September 28 to October 14, 2007

Opening night: Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited. Blade Runner, Ridley Scott’s ‘Final Cut’ after 25 years. Centerpiece Joel and Ethan Coen’s No Country for Old Men.  Closing night, the animated Persepolis, based on the acclaimed graphic novel. A complete retrospective of Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, “father of Brazil’s Cinema Novo movement.”

While those are obvious picks for any avid film fan, sold out at no tickets means looking elsewhere. Other personal picks of mine would be: The Orphanage, produced by director Guillermo Del Toro of last year’s fantastic closing night film Pan’s Labyrinth. Hou Hsiao-hsien directing Juliette Binoche in Flight of the Red Balloon. Nicole Kidman and Jack Black in Noah Baumbach’s Margot at the Wedding. Song Kang-ho and Jeon Do-yeon (in her Cannes Best Actress award winning role) in Lee Chang-dong’s Secret Sunshine. Claude Chabrol’s A Girl Cut in Two. Béla Tarr’s The Man from London. Palme D’Or winner <4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days…

There’s just too many interesting films. Enough reading, just go watch something before more tickets are gone.

• Official website, New York Film Festival

Family Ties, one of the films from the fest, starring Moon So-ri

The 7th New York Korean Film Festival 2007 starts this Tuesday and it’s turning out to be their biggest yet. Everything from romantic comedy to historical drama, the gangster flick and even documentary are represented. That includes 16 of the latest Korean movies from 2006 and 2007, a 4-film retrospective of renowned Mr. “101-films” director Im Kwon-Taek, 8 horror films (or rather 7 horror + 1 moody drama) and an expanded full day of short films for free(!). There will be a number of parties, and 2 special guest directors from Korea this year. Being pretty much the only chance for us to see these films in a theater-setting outside of Korea, I’m definitely looking forward to the fest.

• www.koreanfilmfestival.org
• podcast introducing this year’s festival