This is one of the movies I picked up in Korea. I didn’t know anything about it other than recognizing Kim Rae-won from other movies. The synopsis was in Korean, so I went solely by the cover. I got the feeling that it was going to be a romantic but somewhat sad movie.

The story is about Min-a, a school girl who lives with her mother. Min-a is very ill, but her mother wants to let her live the remainder of her life happily outside of the hospital. Kim Rae-won plays Young-jae, a young photographer who […] there’s more! »

The other day I watched the movie Blind, starring Kim Ha-neul. It’s about a former police academy cadet, Soo-ah, who has lost her eyesight in an accident. One day she crosses paths with a serial killer. It all starts with a hit and run, that Soo-ah witnesses (she’s riding in the car at the time, but gets out before the driver leaves with the victim in the trunk). The police officer in charge is told to close the investigation since the only witness is blind, but Soo-ah insists that he questions her as he would any other witness. He is impressed with the level of detail in Soo-ah’s description and starts looking for the perpetrator. Meanwhile, his colleagues are busy dealing with a series of missing person cases.

The movie is pretty decent. There are some scenes showing what she “sees” based on the sounds she hears, and so on, that are pretty neat but short, so you’re not fully immersed.

I watched the Studio Ghibli anime Porco Rosso the other day. It’s one of those movies that I bought ages ago, but never got around to watching. Until now. I was looking for an “easy watching” movie where I didn’t have to invest much. It fit that bill well. It’s a very laid back movie.

The story takes place at the Adriatic Sea in the late 1920’s. It is about a former air force pilot, who has turned into a pig for some reason and now makes a living as a bounty hunter, chasing air pirates. His plane is damaged during a dog fight and he goes to Italy to have it repaired at his old friend’s shop. There he meets the friend’s granddaughter Fio, who is put in charge of making the repairs/improvements.

I liked Porco Rosso. It had some nice moments, but some things weren’t explained or resolved. The ending is one of those where you get a summary of what happened to everyone after the last scene, which was a bit “blah”. Enjoyable none the less.

Last night I finally watched Hana no Ato (After the Flowers). It’s a Japanese period film starring Keiko Kitagawa. It’s based on a short story by Shuhei Fujisawa, whose work was the basis for similar movies such as Twilight Samurai.

I was planning on getting it on DVD as soon as a version with English subtitles was released, but it never came out, so after waiting for over a year and a half I got a fan-subbed version.

Keiko plays Ito, who is the daughter of a clan official. Without any sons, he has trained Ito in swordsmanship. One day Ito meets a lower ranking samurai, Magoshiro, who asks for a sparring match. During the match they make a connection. However, Ito’s future husband has already been decided and she tries to quench her feelings.

This might sound like a very romantic story, but it’s not typically romantic as much as a story of respect and quiet admiration. I don’t want to spoil the story more than that.

[…] there’s more! »

I watched Korean monster action movie Sector 7 last night. The main character, Hae-jun, is played by Ha Ji-won. The reason I watched the movie (apart from the fact that Ji-won is in it) was the reference to this movie in the drama series Secret Garden that I watched recently.

The movie is about a crew on an off shore drilling rig… and then there’s a monster. No need to explain the plot in more detail . It’s Korea’s first 3D movie, but I watched it in 2D.

I wasn’t expecting much from Sector 7, and rightfully so . Ji-won looks great, but that’s about it. There’s a lot of CGI. It seems like there are almost no proper sets, just green screens and a few props. It’s kind of cheap looking CGI which takes a while to get over. I was hoping that the movie would be a little scary, but it wasn’t even close. It’s one of those movies where whenever the monster catches up to the main character it stops and roars instead of just decapitating its victim. The actions scenes at the very end were pretty WTF-inducing .

The movie had the ingredients to turn out OK, but it was kind of bad . I agree with the iMDB rating of 4/10. It’d be great to see Ha Ji-won in a better action movie, though.

Apart from the reference in Secret Garden to this movie, another link is that Hae-jun’s deceased father is played by the same actor who played Ra-im’s deceased father in Secret Garden. Ha Ji-won also did her own stunts in Sector 7.

I went to see an early screening of The Hunger Games (imdb) today. I first saw the trailer last year when I went to see the latest instalment in the Twilight saga. The trailer looked very promising and I had pretty high expectations.

The movie is about Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) who volunteers in the stead of her sister, whose name is drawn when choosing the representative of their district for the annual hunger games. A girl and a boy from each 12 districts are chosen to participate in a televised survival game/battle royale. The last person alive wins.

I’ve heard this movie compared to Twilight and Battle Royale. The only thing it has in common with Twilight is the same production company, that it’s based on a book series and that it’s targeting the same age group.

While the concept of the game in the film is similar to the one in Battle Royale, it’s far more predictable and […] there’s more! »

Today when I got home from work, feeling a bit under the weather, I checked my mail box and saw a package slip. “I haven’t ordered anything…” I had forgotten that I made a K-Pop/K-Movie order a week ago, so it was a pleasant surprise .

I got T-ara’s latest mini-album Funky Town, the Mr. Taxi version of SNSD’s The Boys and the movie Sunny. I got the Tae-yeon (Toy Story) peas in a pod plushie a while back, but it made its way into the picture anyway . […] there’s more! »

Last night I watched another movie that I bought in Korea. This time I picked White - The Melody of the Curse (화이트 - 저주의 멜로디), starring Ham Eun-jung from T-ara. It’s a horror movie. Not what I usually go for, but I got it because of Eun-jung.

Eun-jung plays the role of Eun-ju. She used to be a backup dancer, but is now the leader of a rookie K-Pop girl group that’s not doing very well. One day their management company relocate them to a new studio building (where a lot of people had died in a fire some years ago). While cleaning the dance studio, Eun-ju finds an old VHS tape titled “White”. The tape contains a blurry music video recording of a pop song. The song sounds like it would be a hit, but no one has heard it before, so they decide to use it as their own. Horror ensues.

The movie wasn’t overly scary. However, I did employ some “selective viewing” at the end .

I did find the story a bit unrealistic, though. In real life, I think this is how it would’ve happened: “I found an old VHS tape. Does anyone have a VCR?” “No.” The end. Also, haven’t these girls watched The Ring? When has playing an old video tape ever led to anything good?

I watch movies way too seldom nowadays. I have a huge “to watch” pile. However, yesterday I watched Studio Ghibli’s latest film The Borrower Arrietty (Karigurashi no Arrietty, aka The Secret World of Arrietty). It’s based on the novel The Borrowers by Mary Norton.

The story takes place in a Japan, where a sickly boy, Sho, goes to live in his mother’s childhood house to rest before his heart surgery. Under the floors of the house lives a family of “borrowers”. They are tiny (10 cm tall) persons, who borrow small things they need from the house from time to time. The borrowers must remain hidden from the humans, but the young Arrietty is spotted by Sho.

This film is less otherworldly than other Ghibli works. It’s pretty quiet and simple. It was relaxing to watch. The imagery is very colourful and pretty. I like how things are made to look huge, that would be huge to someone the size of a borrower. I liked the movie, although it’s pretty open-ended.

The soundtrack is also different from other Ghibli movies. Usually it’s Joe Hisaishi who composes the music. When the music started, I thought “is this Michelle Branch?”, but it turns out that it’s a French singer named Cécile Corbel.

I bought the DVD in Korea, but I watched it with the original Japanese audio and English subtitles. The subtitles were good except for the erroneous, but consistent, use of “human beans” instead of “human beings” .

I got my copy of the extended version of Sucker Punch today. I ordered it from the UK.

Here’s what I don’t understand: I get a set of two blu-ray discs (one with the extended verions and one with the theatrical version) plus one DVD including digital copy, all with Swedish subtitles(!), and it costs less than getting the Swedish release, which (as far as I can tell) only consists of the theatrical version. And the Swedish version hasn’t even been released yet.

What is the Swedish distributor thinking?