Deliver Us From Evil(다만 악에서 구하소서) Korean Film thoughts

 

   Deliver Us From Evil is a 2020 South Korean film that was directed and written by Hong Won Chan(Office). The film stars long time beloved actors Hwang Jung Min(Real World, A Bittersweet life)  and Lee Jung Jae(Along With The Gods, Real World). During the time of release, the film took third place at the South Korean box office while also being met with good reviews. 

   An Assassin tries to save the daughter of a women who he met a year before but a gangster worse than evil himself stands in his way...... 

    I have to be honest about this film too. It wasn't that I had a lot of expectation for Deliver Us From Evil because I really didn't. If you watch the trailer and came into this film expecting to get what you saw, then the film doesn't disappoint. If you aren't like me and haven't been experiencing South Korean cinema since the early 2000s then your standards won't be much when it comes to films like this. Deliver Us From Evil isn't a bad film at all. What the problem was is that South Korea has a ton of slasher gangster film's in it's history so when creating films like these, you either go big or go home. Story for this film doesn't go big because the plot has been done before. Little girl gets kidnapped for her body parts and Assassin goes on the hunt to save her. Viewers could see this plot done better or more effectively in the classic film Man From Nowhere. Super violent gangster kills everyone in his path has gotten a bit old in the Korean film script scene too. Other older films showcase this type of character. Films such as New World, Dirty Carnival, or even more recent film, The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil. Nothing new was brought to the table in this film that South Korea hasn't already done a thousand times over which leads me to understand why the film didn't take top spot in South Korea. What was good about this film since I've mostly said what bothered me so far? The cinematography was slick as the film goes from different places around Asia. I love scenes that uses shots of the sky during different times in the day to signal a new event is bound to occur. Plus the action sequences that used slow motion to make an impact during the knife fights kept my attention. These were some of the best gangster action scenes that I had seen in awhile. I only wish that the story would have been a bit more enervative to make Deliver Us From Evil stand out more. The ending was very typical Korean film. Seasoned South Korean Cinema fans could see that ending coming a mile away.  I felt nothing watching that unfold. Just as I felt nothing in my heart for  most of this film full of recycled themes. 

   Lee Jung Jae has always been a good gangster as seen in New World. All the performances made this film quite a gritty experience but it wasn't anything spectacular. The actor who stood out to me the most was Park Jung Min who played a cross dressing character. Acting ability wise, he stole the the show. The character was a new direction for him and he got to be a bilingual character. I remember seeing his acting debut in 2011 film Bleak Night, while thinking that he had a special quality about him when he was on screen.

   Deliver Us From Evil showed me mixed elements from other classic Korean films. Elements that made those films great but caused this film to feel unoriginal. I'm really sad because I haven't found a good Korean film in the bunch that's come out over the pass year. South Korea needs to get back in the game again. 

Hard Boiled Stories From The Cat Bar(酒と涙と男とニャンコ) Japanese Manga Thoughts

         

           

     Men living a life of crime and crime solving find their way to a cat bar, no matter how hard they try not too. These macho men just can't get enough of cats after a night of evil deeds.

  Hard Boiled is a one shot manga that a reader could get into even if they don't like cats. THAT WAS If only the story was a bit more consistent in keeping a clear end goal, this manga would have had a better end result. Much of the plot deals with the case of a police officer's death and the details behind that death being a bit mysterious. Then we have the men who frequent the cat bar as well as the assassin who's foot steps are followed by a dirty cop. Under these men's feet are the idea of cats being man's best friend. So much so that the manga constantly reminds the reader of this whenever one of the character's has a fit over his cat. A lot goes on in the crime elements of this manga due to the story being heavily disjointed. Dialogue also gets a bit to preachy toward the conclusion because the creator had to throw cats back into the story after a whole crime ark where cats take the back burner. Yourei Ono had an opportunity to create a thrilling story surrounding loyal cats's owners in night life crime but instead became overwhelmed in fitting the two subjects together. We manga readers see enough crime manga on the shelves without having to feel that reading these manga is a chore to get through. I felt this way reading Hard Boiled Stories From The Cat Bar as a guy who likes cats. 

  The art is the best aspect that this manga has going for the content. However, that art is still a problem. Most characters look similar to  each other. what's worse is the two main characters look just alike. Only one has a scar on his face and the other dos not. When I was reading, I had to pay close attention to the dialogue to know which character was which. Most times I couldn't tell. The flashback scenes were the worst. Manga being printed in black and white didn't help the cause either.  

  I would recommend this mang to people who like cats and can still enjoy the bad story. I won't be reading this manga again. I'm not sure why I feel like this manga was suppose to be in the Yaoi category at first.. 

MINARI(미나리) American film Thoughts

 

    Minari is a 2020 film directed by Korean American film director Lee Isaac Chung and stars well known actors from South Korea and America: Steven Yeun,  Han Ye Ri, and Youn Yuh Jung. The film scored big at this years Academy Awards, earning six nominations. Youn Yuh Jung also won for best supporting actress being the first Korean actress to do so. I honestly don't consider Minari a foreign film but the film still won best foreign film nether less.  Minari tells the AMERICAN experience of a Korean family in the nineties. Speaking a foreign language in a film doesn't automatically make the film foreign.  

  A Korean family with two immigrant parents move from California to Arkansas during the nineties to start a new life. Farm life was never easy and gets harder when their grandmother comes to live with them.....

  If I'm to be honest, I had a little bit of hight expectations for this film. Especially since I'm a fan of Yeun and Yuh Jung. Then as I kept watching the film, my thrill started to slowly die. This film is a very slow moving film about a Korean family who don't have much money. Yet, They still strive to make the best out of the lives they are given. The performances dig deep into this emotional showcase weaved between the bonds of family. I can acknowledge all of this to the point of appreciation and still this aspect wasn;t enough to kept me interested in the plot of Minari. The parents fight most of the film with the two children stuck in the middle. The grandmother comes to live with them when they barely could make ends meet by themselves. She then continues to do more harm than good. I guess the ending of the film was supposed to show a family's strong structure to stay together no matter what. Because lord knows a divorce seemed to be looming over the parents the ENTIRE FILM. Also, You mean to tell me that there was absolutely no black people in Arkansas during the nineties? I know this was based on Director Chung's life so maybe he just doesn't remember seeing black people working the farms..... Or maybe Brad Pitt didn't give the project enough money to hire black actors?  Who knows at this point. What I do know is that this film will put you into a slumber after awhile. Too bad cause I really liked the overall concept but I'm not going to say I enjoy a film just because it's Asian. Same could be said about Black films as a black man. 

   Steven Yeun's performance was the worse I think I've seen him act. He plays a father well. He plays a husband well. His Korean even improved since I heard him speak in Burning until he tried mimic an old middle aged Korean man's accent when he speaks english. Everything went downhill from there. Yeun couldn't keep the accent while in character. His own American accent kept coming out when he would say certain English words causing me as the viewer to be taken out of the story. I found myself thinking that native Koreans would find his portrayal kind of funny.  Probably awkward as well. Jung plays a role here where she's not a kooky mean old lady like in her other films. I'll call that award worthy. Every other character was either super wired or forgettable to me.  

  I'm learning to not let the words of others hype me up about films. Usually the artsy films that everyone loves to rave about end up being not too impressive in my eyes. Parasite had me feeling the same way Minari does. Both films did not live up to what I thought they would be.