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I love The Bad Sleep Well so much. The only criticism would be that the ending felt somewhat rushed.

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Originally Posted by DeadChannel (Post 1653355)

Mini Review

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) - IMDb)
Another Korean flick, another masterpiece. Granted, it's one that seems to be divisive, but immediately I'm in love. Up until this point, I'd only seen Chan-wook Park's Oldboy, which lead me to expect something entirely different from what I got. I was anticipating a raw, violent, tense revenge thriller, but instead I got this sad, surreal, but still very violent revenge drama. There were legitimately a few moments that I started choking up.

See, the film sets off as a brilliant surrealist tragedy, and remains a tragedy until about two thirds in, when, after about an hour and a quarter of melancholic tension building, it explodes into a shower of gore. But this isn't the irreverent yet no holds barred violence of something like I Saw the Devil. No! However shocking, however brutal, it's almost poetic.

Perhaps the film is at times alienating. The first part seems poised to bore some who'd be attracted by the second part. The second part might scare away those attracted by the first. The way the film plays freely with narrative and style might be too much for typically mainstream audiences to stomach. However, when you put all of these elements together you get something nearing perfection: you get Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance.

It might be worthy of a ten, I'll get back to you on that.

Great film. You ought to check out Thirst for your next Chan Wook Park film. I'd go as far as saying that it's better than Oldboy.

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Originally Posted by Tristan Geoff (Post 1655635)

Jeez, I've never even heard of any of these. I really need to get caught up.

How do you even find out about these?

Thanks. I guess I find what I like the same way everyone else does. I'll focus on a particular genre, country or director's work for a while, but I jump around a lot. Mostly I just enjoy being a student of cinema.

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Originally Posted by grindy (Post 1655637)

I love The Bad Sleep Well so much. The only criticism would be that the ending felt somewhat rushed.

I didn't in particular find that to be an issue for myself, but I see what you mean.

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Originally Posted by Frownland (Post 1655647)

Great film. You ought to check out Thirst for your next Chan Wook Park film. I'd go as far as saying that it's better than Oldboy.

I'll make a point of checking it out. Really loved the first two vengeance movies, so...

Mini Reviews

Trainspotting (1996) - IMDb

I watched the first fifteen minutes of this movie twice because the accents were so heavy that I had to put on subtitles. Once I did that, though, a terrifying, absurd portrayal of heroin addiction appeared. The film is extremely bleak and not for the faint of heart, but I can recommend it highly to anyone who likes good cinema. Also, I feel like this movie kicks the ass of any of those lame high-school-scare-tactic-based videos on drug use. None of those are half as chilling as this movie.

Plus, the movie gets extra points for referencing Thomas Pynchon. Dope af.
9/10

Buried (2010) - IMDb

I'm always impressed when movies manage to get so much out of so little. The entirety of this movie takes place in a coffin underground, but it manages to be a tense, smart thriller. Considering the lack of change of scenery, I was amazed by my lack of boredom throughout. . And for someone who most of the time wishes that Ryan Reynolds didn't come from his country, I was very, very happy with the performance. Some of it felt a little contrived in a bad Hollywood sort of way, though. The snake incident comes to mind as being a bit dumb, as was the sand-falling-into-coffin thing. And was it just me, or did the coffin slowly get roomier as the movie went on? Also, the soundtrack was really boring and cliche sounding. I would've liked some originality there. It sort of seemed trapped in this weird word of not knowing if it was a Hollywood movie or a low budget indie, but I still dug it.

7/10

I quite liked Buried as well and agree on the unnecessary conflicts like the snake and ****e.

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Originally Posted by Frownland (Post 1655730)

I quite liked Buried as well and agree on the unnecessary conflicts like the snake and ****e.

Yeah, but I'm still always impressed by stuff that can do so much with so little.