Three Extremes (sequel to "Three") is a collection of three different short stories by three different directors from three different countries. Catch a pattern? From China you have Fruit Chan's Dumplings, from Korea you get some Chan-wook Park with Cut, and Japanese has the notorious Takashi Miike who did Box. The order of the three films in the original release was Box, Dumplings, and then Cut. For some reason they changed it up in the American release. Why? *shrug* Who knows. Crazy Americans. Most people who would read my review will probably watch the American order, so I'll refer to it as such.
Dumplings
To win back her husband, a former actress visits a legendary cook whose dumplings are said to give back your youth and beauty.
Cut
A director comes home from work to find a nice surprise waiting for him. An extra from all of his films has a little grudge towards... well... everyone, and decides to take it all out on his hero director.
Box
A woman dealing with horrible nightmares about a troubled past.
Whew boy, this movie pulled a whammy on me. The day I got it in from Netflix I went over to Barb's house and had an Asian Movie night. We started with, Kamikaze Girls, and then watched Three Extremes right afterwards. We knew that Three Extremes was some serious shite, but damn, that was an odd combo. While watching, we were completely GLUED to the TV. So glued, Barb's husband was like "Hey, you guys ok?? ...Um... Hello...? ...guys...?"
Each short film was full of style, atmosphere, great acting, and plenty of disturbing content. I loved every minute of it.
Dumplings (Directed by Fruit Chan)
Dumplings is quite a feast. The story is very basic, somewhat predictable, but the style, atmosphere, and the way it is told made this film stand out. With such a dirty topic, there is clean feel to it while still being gross at the same time (gotta love the chewing sounds Mmmm, Mmm!). While watching the movie you wonder what is actually in the dumplings, and once the secret ingredient is revealed the film shows how someone can twist their morals to fit their needs. Humans are very greedy creatures. Dumplings also has a twisted small side story that pulled some emotions from me. It all wrapped up to an ending that had me squirming while hiding behind my trusty pillow.
Cut (Directed by Chan-wook Park)
Now here is the most suspenseful of the bunch. Cut is a chopped up mixture of comedy, drama, horror, and suspense. Who could pull it off better than Chan-wook Park, director of Oldboy and Sympathy for Mr./Ms. Vengeance. Remember the pillow I was hiding behind in Dumplings? Yep, it never left, and probably had some chew marks added. If you haven't guessed it, Cut has some twisted shite. There were lots of times I didn't know how to react emotional wise. Chan-wook Park mixed in the comedy/horror/suspense so well that you'd be laughing and the next second something terrible happened causing you to rethink your laughter. A common thing in Asian inema, especially Korean. Ah, Black comedy at its best. The characters and their reactions were all very believable, and the style... ah the style... yum! Not to mention the twists will thoroughly kick your ass. My only complaint is the ending was a bit... gyaaa... Done very well, but upset me. Its not much of a complaint though, because I don't know how else he could have ended it without disappointing us.
Box (Directed by Takashi Miike)
Yeep, Miike, THE Ichi the Killer Miike. Guess what, He surprised me yet again. Miike is a director of many many talents. I did not expect his film to be the most artsy of the three. Box was so beautifully disturbing. It might take a second viewing or more for it to grow on you, and I don't know if anyone is able to explain it. Box is not as strong as the others. Not that that’s a bad thing, but might be more of a turnoff to our American viewers (cept for weirdoes like me who like artsy and foreign films). Box tells a twisted story of a woman's troubling dreams reliving a certain event in her childhood. At first you might get the feeling it's going to be a normally j-horror ghost story, but boy are you wrong. Every time I try to think of some word to describe this film I come up with a beautifully disturbing piece of art. The only problem is that you start to understand everything then when it ends it goes weird and confuses the hell out of you. I don't know quite what Miike was trying to get out of the ending... maybe it will all come clear laate laate at night, when I'm in my thinking mode. Like how I figured out and completely understood the world of Silent Hill. One of those "OMG EVERYTHING MAKES PERFECT SENSE!" moments.
Dear god, each one was just a bundle of cinematic beauty!
Dumplings
I am sad that I have not seen any other films done by Fruit Chan. I simply loved the beautiful colors used in Dumplings, it was just so vibrant! There were many beautiful shots making it stand out from all the other secret-eternal-youth movies. I was in love with the overall feel of the film. The score was great and very cute at times. Acting was also wonderful. Miriam Yeung Chin Wah (Ching, the former actress) was very beautiful and did a great job. She played her character thoroughly to a T. Ling Bai (Mei, the cook) was great as the mysterious somewhat sinister cook. Everything she did seemed so easy, and understandable. She pulled off the "nothing's wrong with cooking and eating *spoiler* in your dumplings" look very well. She took life with ease.
Cut
My my, what a delight Cut was. You can definitely tell it was done by the same director as Oldboy and the like. Cinematography was great, many many nice shots. Score consisted mainly of beautiful orchestral pieces, and it fit right in. Byung-hun Lee (Director) played his character off very well. He showed us great emotion, while still having the 'what-the-hell-is-happening-I-can't-freak-out' look. He was also in A Bittersweet Life, and is pretty damn hot ;D. Hye-jeong Kang (Director's wife) pulled off a lot of emotion, especially considering she was tied up by piano wires the entire time without sitting on anything. The scene when she has her revenge still plays through my mind. She's my hero!! Won-hie Lim (The extra) was a goofy, scary, crazy man. Dude, this guy was psycho and really goofy at the same time. Also a great dancer. Loved him.
Box
God, did I mention before that this film was beautiful? Everything (besides the wavy story) was perfect! I loved the color symbolism throughout the movie. And the score... Oh god the score! Beautiful Music box/bell sounds throughout and a clever use of pure silence at the right moments. I love you Miike! Kyoko Hasegawa (Kyoko) was amazing. She pulled off such a range of emotions, she was simply stunning!
As I said before, I was GLUED. Me and Barb's trusty pillow! Course, I kinda feel sorry for the pillow.... I squeezed the hell out of him. I had to drive back home in the dark after watching this. My mind was being very evil to me. As you can tell, I loved this movie. I learned very valuable lessons from each movie. Dumplings, be careful who you eat dumplings from. Hell... I might never eat dumplings again.... Cut, I never want to be in show business. And Box, Um... never... uhh... yeah.... Anyway, I suggest this one to anyone who enjoys a twisted fucked up movie. Especially anyone as messed up as I am
Acting:
Booyah! Every film had great actors.
Directing:
*bows down and worships*
Score:
Great, Great, and Great. Three... Greats! Ok Ok I know... pretty corny.... but I just had to!
Action:
Not any fighting action really, but your heart is still racing.
Gore:
Ok, not much actual gore gore, but enough implied to be bad. Lots of axe chopping, dumpling eating, burning, licking, blood puking fun! Also, a long pointy object going where a long pointy object should never EVER go... EVER.
Boobage:
Ok, not much boobies to see, but there is a sex scene (technically two) in Dumplings. There's a lot of implied sexual themes in Box, and none of them should be getting you off due to the context... The scene with the doll really bothered me while still being very tastefully done. Miike got the point across without showing the actual deed done.
Fuckedup-ness:
Gak! Where's my pillow!!
Three... Extremes is available to buy at the following vendors:
