Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

Discuss internationally-released DVDs and Blu-rays or other international DVD and Blu-ray-related topics.
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kevyip1
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Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

#1 Post by kevyip1 » Mon Jan 31, 2005 12:06 pm

The 2002 Korean horror flick Phone was released on DVD by Tartan in the US and UK last week. Both editions are somewhat fully-loaded, with interviews, scene-specific commentary, deleted scenes, making-of, etc.

I only saw the R2 Tartan edition, and was horrified by the excessive ghosting on the screen. This had to be due to NTSC source being converted to PAL. But I also got Tartan's A Tale of Two Sisters and the picture was fine. So I wonder why Phone was f*ed up. I haven't seen the R1 edition of Phone yet, but figure it's probably the same since it's also from Tartan. I also saw the Korean-made DVD edition of Phone and it didn't have any problem.

Also, the featurettes in the supplement sections of both Tartan's Phone and A Tale of Two Sisters sometimes look too dark to see. Somebody at Tartan didn't know how to adjust brightness.

Even though certain elements in Phone resembles a few of the recent Asian horror films like Ringu, I still find it enjoyable. It has a pretty good performance by an actress who couldn't be more than 5 years old.

Here's a clip. It's tough to babysit a kid that acts like this:

The following semi-hidden text contains SPOILERS about the film.
SpoilerShow
Phone doesn't seem to get enough credit it deserves from the reviews I've read. What I like about it is the recurring theme of "love affair between older man and young girl." We're told the heroine has written an article on a sex scandal involving an older man and an underage girl. We later see the husband having an affair with a high school girl. And, in an ironic twist, a 5-year-old girl later becomes "infatuated" with her dad -- the oddly incestual undercurrent makes it even more interesting.

There is also the unspoken theme of an infertile, jealous woman wreaking revenge on the world. The wife in the film not only kills the high school girl impregnated by her husband, but also attempts to kill the egg donor who enabled her to give birth.

There is also a memorable closeup shot of goose bumps suddenly appearing on the back of the heroine's neck. Very cool moment. (This occurs in the scene where the heroine meets the blinded girl near the sea.)

There are some visual trickeries that are used in quite a few of the recent Korean horror films -- flashbacks that come and go without warnings, unexplained moments or visions that are echoed later, etc. They are becoming a bit cliched, but I still enjoy them when a film does them.

And then there is some good-ass acting by a 5-year-old actress.

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Gary Tooze
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#2 Post by Gary Tooze » Mon Jan 31, 2005 11:47 pm

Nice points !

Henrik, did a good review of the Tartan DVD here.

Best,
Gary

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Steven H
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Yoon Ki Lee's This Charming Girl (Korean DVD)

#3 Post by Steven H » Tue Mar 29, 2005 4:37 pm

Yoon Ki Lee's This Charming Girl (Korean DVD)

Spectrum DVD is releasing This Charming Girl on April 15th (yesasia.com link here)

Amy Taubin from Film Comment:
A Pusan prizewinner, This Charming Girl is an unusually subtle feminist critique made by a male director within one of the world's most misogynist film cultures. Lee's heroine is a young postal worker, grieving the death of her mother, the only member of her family who did not condemn her for walking out on her husband on their wedding night. Driven to the edge of suicide by loss, loneliness, and her inchoate sense that there is something wrong when almost every man she encounters acts as if it's his prerogative to tell her what to feel, believe, and do, she saves herself by her stubborn trust in her own impulses. This Charming Girl is a minor miracle, not just for its feminist politics but also for Lee's filmmaking precision and his ability to convey the unspoken and often unconscious deployment of power.
anyone seen this? thoughts?

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#4 Post by artfilmfan » Tue Mar 29, 2005 10:18 pm

I've been waiting for this ever since I read about its production last year. But, wasn't it shown in theaters in Korea not long ago (maybe earlier this year)? How come it is released on DVD so soon?

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#5 Post by Michael Kerpan » Tue Mar 29, 2005 10:20 pm

Not seen yet -- but this is the 2004 Korean film I've been most eager to see.

Korean films (even successful ones) rarely seem to have very long first runs -- so DVDs can come pretty quickly.

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#6 Post by Pinback » Wed Mar 30, 2005 6:39 pm

Steven H wrote:Yoon Ki Lee's This Charming Girl (Korean DVD)

anyone seen this? thoughts?
I'm really looking forward to seeing this film...I've heard nothing but good things about it. English subtitles are generally excellent on Korean DVDs too, so this release should be well worth checking out.

There's aslo lots of information on the film at HanCinema.Net

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Yoon Ki Lee's This Charming Girl

#7 Post by Steven H » Mon May 02, 2005 6:28 pm

Excellent DVD and a very good film. This is one of those films where "nothing happens" but I loved every second of it. I think it works more as a character study than a feminist critique (not that you can't have both), in my opinion.

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#8 Post by Michael Kerpan » Mon May 02, 2005 7:26 pm

Steven H wrote:Yoon Ki Lee's This Charming Girl (Korean DVD)

anyone seen this? thoughts?
I just got my copy of this -- but haven't seen it yet. I also got HUO Jianqi's "Life Show" recently. Surprisingly similar in structure to Naruse's "Woman Ascending the Stairs" -- but without the sardonically humorous counterpoint. Beautifully shot -- and the actress playing the heroine (TAO Hong) in incredibly lovely.

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David
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#9 Post by David » Tue May 03, 2005 1:58 am

I saw This Charming Girl a couple of days ago by pure coincidence. Now when I think back on it, the movie feels like a music piece. My thoughts wanders to "Trois Gymnopedies" by Erik Satie, with it's variation on the base melody (which in the movie is her daily life). It's also similiar in it's "quiteness" - it don't jump up on you, it's just there, like an almost unheard whisper, which, if you pay attention do it and let yourself be absorded by it, will grow to a whole orchestra of emotions and life.
Needless to say I was very moved by it.
Last edited by David on Tue May 03, 2005 10:28 am, edited 1 time in total.

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#10 Post by Michael Kerpan » Tue May 03, 2005 9:19 am

> I saw this movie a couple of days ago by pure coincidence.

Which did you see? The film that is the actual topic of the thread (Charming Girl) -- or my off-topic distraction (Life Show)?

;~}

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#11 Post by David » Tue May 03, 2005 10:27 am

Michael Kerpan wrote:> I saw this movie a couple of days ago by pure coincidence.

Which did you see? The film that is the actual topic of the thread (Charming Girl) -- or my off-topic distraction (Life Show)?

;~}
Sorry. That'd be This Charming Girl

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#12 Post by Michael Kerpan » Tue May 03, 2005 11:12 am

> Sorry. That'd be This Charming Girl

Interesting -- because your description could apply almost as well to "Life Show".

;~}

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#13 Post by David » Tue May 03, 2005 3:45 pm

>Interesting -- because your description could apply almost as well to "Life Show".

Indeed interesting. I'll try to get hold of that one too.

Please let me (us) know your thoughts on This Charming Girl when you've seen it.

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#14 Post by Michael Kerpan » Tue May 03, 2005 4:24 pm

I should have watched "Charming Girl" last night.

Instead, I watched "Weekend". Big mistake. I may offer this for sale in the appropriate sub-forum, as I won't be watching it again. ;~{

Maybe tonight. (But "Tristana" is also beckoning).

I think it is truly excellent. It was so thoroughly (albeit non-ostentatiously) "feminist" in its outlook, I was convinced this must have been directed by a woman -- but the special features disproved this theory. I agree it is more a "character study" than "critique", however.

Highly recommended.

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#15 Post by artfilmfan » Sat May 07, 2005 11:09 am

I've just finished watching This Charming Girl. It's a very good film. It also looks beautiful. This film reminds me of two other films: Maborosi and Rosetta. Some times it looks and feels like Maborosi; at other times it looks and feels like Rosetta (especially the unsteady camera, the quick cut between shots, and the slightly optimistic ending).

I would have been more crazy about this film (as I've been about Maborosi) if it weren't for the unsteady camara and the quick cuts between shots which made me feel dizzy. It could have been another great film, like Maborosi, if it weren't for these things.

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#16 Post by kazantzakis » Sat May 07, 2005 4:10 pm

On first viewing I thought it was excellent. It manages to establish an autonomous personality, not one to embody the viewer's expectations, fascinations etc. The way the flashbacks are introduced is fairly non-intrusive, organicall justified (they dont seem forced at all) and enriching. My only problem with it was that in the end the filmmakers were unable to resist a hermeneutic justification, as if they could not trust the psychography to carry its own weight and needed to prop it from the outisde. I think this harmed the film.

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#17 Post by Michael Kerpan » Sun May 08, 2005 12:20 pm

My theory is that, if the body of a film is well-nigh perfect, I'll cut a less than perfect ending some slack.

The hand-held-ness of this didn't bother me at all. I rather liked the cinematography.

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#18 Post by kazantzakis » Sun May 08, 2005 1:03 pm

Perhaps you are right Michael, subsequent viewings will decide it for me.

The handeheld aspect didnt bother me at all either. A picture-perfect impresionism, meticulously lit and painted saturated color palette and would have given a completely different feel. I find the jumpy edits, natural lighting, loose framing etc to complement the content well.

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#19 Post by Steven H » Mon May 09, 2005 3:07 am

kazantzakis wrote:The handeheld aspect didnt bother me at all either. A picture-perfect impresionism, meticulously lit and painted saturated color palette and would have given a completely different feel. I find the jumpy edits, natural lighting, loose framing etc to complement the content well.
I completely agree and I would like to add that the sound design is very interesting (the music isn't distracting, and works well). It seems to be the glue that holds the film together (you could say this for many films, but this one especially, more in the way a Bresson film is held together by sound). I love how this film uses it's "hand-held" style to also help bend reality, it's present and past seemed to be inseperable (flashbacks worked into the film silently between breaths). There is something to be said for the link to Rosetta, now that I think about it it does remind me a little of the Dardenne film (though at a Hou pace).

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#20 Post by Michael Kerpan » Mon May 09, 2005 8:02 am

> I love how this film uses it's "hand-held" style to also help
> bend reality, it's present and past seemed to be inseperable

I was going to say this myself last night -- but couldn't quite think how to phrase my thoughts. ;~}

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#21 Post by artfilmfan » Mon May 09, 2005 9:21 pm

Michael Kerpan wrote:The hand-held-ness of this didn't bother me at all. I rather liked the cinematography.
If one could get through "Weekend", one can handle just about anything :)

As an example, look at the scene in which the two women are eating icecream and pick a point near the left or right edge of the screen for reference and notice how unsteady the camera is. It seems like the cameraman is an inexperienced one. He could have used a camera with an image stabilizer.

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#22 Post by kazantzakis » Mon May 09, 2005 9:24 pm

I am not sure why you suggest the look of the film is due to inexperience and not a conscious aesthetic choice.

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#23 Post by Michael Kerpan » Mon May 09, 2005 11:52 pm

Skimming through this French interview, I think one can safely say that the "look" of this film is very definitely a matter of deliberate directorial choice:

Also, the cinematographer CHOI Jin-woong would appear to be a pretty seasoned hand.

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#24 Post by kazantzakis » Tue May 10, 2005 12:05 am

Thanks for the interview Michael. He seems to be a very eloquent and (for now at least) modest fellow...let's hope he doesnt get eaten up by the industry.

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#25 Post by artfilmfan » Tue May 10, 2005 7:22 pm

I didn't complain about "the look" of the film, by the way. I mentioned that the film looks beautiful. What I really complained about are (1) the unsteady camera and (2) the quick cuts between shots. An example of the "unsteady" camera is the icecream eating scene that I mentioned. If it was the directorial choice, then let it be. It's just strange (and uncomfortable to look at, for me that is) when the camera keeps moving like that. For that particular scene, for instance, the camera was moving side-to-side. I picked up an item near the right edge of the screen (when the camera is in front of the women), (I think it was a wooden post or something like that), and observed how it was oscillating toward and away from the edge of the screen. As for the quick cuts, an example is the scene in the groceries store where the main character saw one of the male postal customers who had been to the post office earlier. Those quick cuts between shots made the scene look like a sped-up slideshow.

I'm just trying to point out these things so that people are aware of them. There may be some other people out there like myself who don't like this kind of film-making technique. To me, this film employs two stylistically opposite techniques. That was why it reminded me of "Maborosi" and "Rosetta". The only other film that I've seen using a combination of these two techniques is Kore'eda's "Afterlife".

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