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Shai-8
Reviews
Oldeuboi (2003)
weak plot does this one in
***minor spoilers**
I have to laugh when I see some people calling this a work of genius. The characters are cardboard set pieces in the sandbox of a weak writer. "Hypnosis" is frequently used as a device to cause the main characters to act sans mental phenomena. (hypnosis or memory don't work at all like the way suggested, the movie versions of these concepts are deus ex machina only with a different label) There is room in a narrative of control for character development but there is little conflict between man and that environment in this story, only slightly above average fight scenes that are unconvincing. (it's a comic book universe where one man takes on 30 or 50 or however many people at once because he was training by shadow boxing in an earlier scene)
There is a reference to "The Count of Monte Cristo" (or rather an acknowledgement of borrowing from that tradition), and there are obvious parallels, for example the protagonist in this learns from watching TV for 15 years, the Count of Monte Cristo books and a wise prison companion. They've essentially added one big twist to that basic story but the only way to make it work drains it of character and meaning.
Decent acting from Min-sik Choi can't save this one.
6.5/10
Koroshiya 1 (2001)
a lame spectacle
The violence is comic book, a lot like "Story of Ricky". Unlike Ricky, a solid 5.0 movie, there isn't much slapstick or humor in the violence; however, it's not really disturbing either.
There isn't much of a plot. Some of the reviewers here think there is some sort of hidden meaning to the film (no doubt, these are some of the ones who gave the movie a perfect 10); the story has an elliptical quality that invites interpretation (for example, when considering the character of Ichi against the relationship of the viewer to the film); but there is no depth to any of it. It's sort of a Brillo Box in the form of a crappy grind-house Japanese horror film. One may as well interpret the Kabbalah - you'll get whatever you want out of it. It's art, it just isn't very good.
One positive: it does a decent job of setting a mood, but nowhere near as well as, for example, Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "The Cure", which didn't rely on gore at all.
Back in reality, the primary function of this movie is film-as-spectacle. The king of spectacle is of course PT Barnum and his sideshow of freaks. Barnum never said "there is a sucker born every minute", but that's how I feel after hearing from friends how great this movie is.
5.5 out of 10