KOREAN & JAPANESE HORROR MOVIE REVIEWS: I SAW THE DEVIL, HELLDRIVER. ASIAN SPLATTER-GORE FILMS, YOSHIHIRO NISHIMURA.
Amazing turnout last night at the JapanLA / Sweet Streets Art Fundraiser! Thanks to everyone who came — Seba and I enjoyed meeting you.
We’ll post LA photos soon, and more updates about our fundraising for Japan. Til then, here are some movie reviews I’ve been meaning to post…
My friends and I are fanatical about Asian horror-gore films. Japan has a bloody arsenal — Tokyo Gore Police, Audition, Ju-on, and so on. But I think Korean movie-makers take the cake for making your stomach churn.
I’ve been twiddling my thumbs for Jee-won Kim’s latest film, I Saw The Devil (his Tale of Two Sisters spooked the daylights out of me). The distributor invited me to the advance screening, so that I can bring you this review.
A pregnant woman is chopped up by a serial sicko – played by Min-sik Choi, the wild-haired star of Oldboy (one of my favorite films). Her fiancé tracks him down, maims and releases him. Over, and over. But the prey steps up the stakes, and the tracks get bloodier as they are locked in a monstrous game of revenge.
I Saw The Devil is well-paced, with plenty of flesh-eating, chopping and puncturing to keep us gore-heads entertained. The actors turn in tense performances, and the story keeps you thinking: is the agent creating greater horrors for himself and those around him, by enacting revenge in this fashion? Decide for yourself. I Saw The Devil is now in North American theatres.
My friend John Skeleton reviews Helldriver, Yoshihiro Nishimura’s latest splatter-gore film… featuring zombies. Below is an excerpt; the full article is on his blog (a must-read for Japanese horror film fans).
Helldriver is Nishimura’s self-professed bid to create the ultimate Japanese zombie film, and in many ways, I believe that he succeeded. High school girl Kika (Yumiko Hara) is tormented by her deranged uncle (Kentaro Kishi) and murderous mother, Rikka (Eihi Shiina, star of Tokyo Gore Police and Audition). After a meteor blasts a gaping hole in Rikka’s chest, she tears the still-beating heart from her daughter’s chest and grafts it into her own body… eventually being taken over by a starfish-shaped alien in the meteor, and used to spread a mysterious ash that turns everyone who inhales it into mindless flesh-eating zombies.
Nishimura took great pains to ensure each of his rotting corpses was shocking and memorable, down to minute differences in their antennae. Antennae? Yes, that’s right. One of the side effects of the plague is that victims sprout a T-shaped horn from the center of their foreheads.
[While Mr. Skeleton loved the intensely visual cinematography, he had some reservations about the continuity and rushed editing, at the expense of good pacing. You can read the entire dissection here.]
Recent films by Yoshihiro Nishimura, Noboru Iguchi and others have truly established a “brand”. The crew forms a creative network from which unprecedented works are spawned. These people enjoy doing what they do, and that comes through in a film like Helldriver. If you are expecting to see massive eruptions of gore, blood by the bucketful, and more decapitations, eviscerations, and general mayhem than you can shake a severed limb at, then you certainly won’t be disappointed.
Are you a fan of Asia Extreme horror films? Which ones are your favorites?
PS… Shop clerk: “How can I help you ladies?” Sebastiano: “Ehyy! Maybe not quite…” (The third time in 24 hours that he was mistaken for a girl!)
Japanese Word of the Day: Mabuta ga basabasa – Fake eyelashes
Song of the Day: Deathgaze – Genocide And Mass Murder
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LA CARMINA
34 Comments
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I Saw the Devil was fantastic and I would highly recommend it!
Congratulations Carmina I’m SO GLAD your Fundraiser was a success. Your doing amazing work angel. much love pixie xxx
love anything by takashi miike!
I can’t do horror movies >.<
big hug… ♥
I just watched death bell 2 last night.
I missed seeing you at Anime Matsuri but I had a great time with the h.NAOTO people! I bought the belt from them I’ve been eyeballing for months!
Helldriver!! I really want to see this movie. I’m just glad the directors of these movies got together and made the studio Sushi Typhoon. I pretty much love all the ones made by Iguchi and Nishimura. My favorite being The Machine Girl.(hopefully one day I will meet Minase Yashiro ^^)
Meee tooo. I can’t wait to see the latest.
I want to watch both of them I just love horror movies even if I’ll be suffering nightmares after watching them xDD
This one will create nightmares :)
Suicide Club. Brilliant. And Ichi the Killer
Suicide club lol
I can’t think of anymore >< Lol I watch alot of movies .(/ _ ; )
A tale of the two sisters :0 I love it!!! ♥
Oh wait … Ju-on
LaLa!! ♥
I’ve seen all of these — great!!
ooh, I’ve been starting to watch all these films so these reviews are super useful for a newbie :-)
Awesome!
Yea!
I watched “I saw the devil” 2 weeks back and thought it was inventive, and almost funny in its gruesomness, but not the best in its genre. You neglected to mention the fiance was played by gorgeous Byung-hun Lee, who was so fantastic in “The Good, the Bad, the Weird”, and “A Bittersweet Life”. Swoon…I’d watch him in anything.
haha I didn’t find him so attractive, personally ;)
I LOVE horror movies, both western and asian. I’m not that much into gore, I like more psychological stuff… but a f*cked up gore, extreme movie sometimes is good. I just wish I had more time to watch them! My fav among the ones that I last saw is surely the Thai movie “Shutter”, made me actually jump a couple of times!
Ohh I saw Shutter! It made me jump too.
just thought i’d let you know, for the japanese word of the day, “mabuta ga basabasa” is literally translated to “my eyelids are fuzzyfuzzy”
which might be a colloquial word for all we know but usually it’s termed “tsukematsuge” (stick-on eyelashes) for fake eyelashes.
I know you probably know this but it might confuse the masses who don’t know japanese and who knows, they might ask for a “mabuta ga basabasa” to a store clerk during their japanese holiday… the clerk would blink their eyes in confusion! lol
btw carmina you are such a goddess with your style and kindness always, thanks for supporting japan especially during the difficult times of the earthquake. LOVE <3
Great point! :) Such a fun word. I love the busabusa kirakira type words in Japanese.
Big hug :)
I’m glad to see you continuing with your regular blog posts! I just want to commend you for your integrity, strength, and focus during this difficult time. Although you have received flack on the way you handled some issues concerning the crisis in Sendai and affected areas, I feel the negative feed-back to your blog was heinous and rude. It is clear to see you first line of thought was the welfare and safety of the Japanese people which I can’t see how anyone could argue that point. Your lightening fast efforts to raise money and awareness speaks volumes of your character and your apparent love for the people of Japan, it’s history, and culture. I just want you to know that I have a new-found appreciation for you and your blog. Keep up the excellent work!
Thanks, I appreciate it. In the moment of crisis, when there’s friends involved and everything’s so unclear (and remains so), I’m trying my best…
Miss you already. You’ve been doing great with the fundraising. Keep at it!
Ah I remember watching that a while back…about…4 months back. Pretty good movie…I’m usually a kind of guy that can stand all the blood and gore and stuff…but there was a point when I thought it was a bit too much. But overall it was great just as every other Kim Ji-Woon film.
Recent films by Yoshihiro Nishimura, Noboru Iguchi and others have truly established a “brand”. The crew forms a creative network from which unprecedented works are spawned. These people enjoy doing what they do, and that comes through in a film like Helldriver. If you are expecting to see massive eruptions of gore, blood by the bucketful, and more decapitations, eviscerations, and general mayhem than you can shake a severed limb at, then you certainly won’t be disappointed.
miss lacarmina :3 i am curious. i was wondering if u saw, and if so, what u thought of the movie Repo! the Genetic Opera? also hell driver was pretty good ^_^
I did see Repo! and thought it was a visual feast! Interestingly, there was a Repo! night at the Wizard of the Opera theme restaurant in Tokyo…
素晴らしい！！！！
I really wanna see them
I look forward to Helldriver and Gothic Lolita Psycho!
I look forward to Helldriver and Gothic Lolita Psycho!