Inbox: 백만장자의 첫사랑

Inbox features items that I have recently purchased or received.

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I had some misgivings about choosing A Millionaire's First Love as my free DVD with a past order from YesAsia. I often use those free DVDs as opportunities to try out movies that I would otherwise have no interest in spending money on. Sometimes, it works out well and at other times, at least I didn't pay money for the freebie. This is one of those "other" times, as the film takes a high-concept drama/comedy idea and jerks it into something completely different (and manipulative).

The setup isn't exactly an eyebrow raising kind: spoiled brat millionaire orphan Jae-Kyung (Hyun Bin) discovers that he has to graduate from a high school in the boonies with none of his money to help, if he wants to receive his inheritance. Of course, he doesn't take well to this and tries hard to find a loophole out. At the new school, he meets its small class of bumpkin students including Eunwhan (Lee Yeonhee) a young woman who drops in on him in Seoul and seems to work every odd job in town. Clearly the beginning of an antagonistic relationship with unresolved sexual tension common in screwball and romantic comedies. Then, halfway through the film, a revelation hits the story, throwing it in a completely different direction and a series of more revelations occur for the rest of the second half digging it deeper in a direction that's completely unrelated to the initial conceit.

Look, I'm not going to deny that the film actually did a great job of manipulating me during its scenes and it took a little time to develop the characters a little so when the mid-point twist happened, you can't help but care a little for the character. However, A Millionaire's First Love only does just enough to squeeze emotions from the hearts of more sensitive visitors, stringing scene after scene of these moments together with hardly any meaningful story of note between them. The main character learns about the value of things beyond money, but we never get to see that process, rather it seems to happen spontaneously out of the "love" between his character, but the stakes for such change never really seem clear. And that's the problem with the whole film, none of the connective tissue between any of the scenes are there--they are implied, but none of the development of the characters or their relationship is earned. All of this is made even worse by the heavily contrived nature of the revelations that occur in the film. They aren't necessary to tell the story that's trying to be told and just ends up being ridiculous. When all is said and done, I felt manipulated and that I was watching a whole lot of emotional nothing.

In terms of production, the film is all right. The film is actually photographed with relative simplicity and the photography team seems to like washing the film in warm golds during the daytime scenes, which probably all aim to heighten the manipulative capacities of the film. The direction is apt, in terms of drawing those emotional performances, but the stylistic flourishes that inhabit the beginning seem just a little overbaked, especially as the whole film seems to turn, in terms of direction, along with the story. The actors, not having been given characters of any considerable depth, are a bit of a question mark in terms of their ability, but they fill their role in the emotional manipulation well, bawling, crying, getting frustrated, getting angry, but while they get those parts right, the characters still never really connect on a meaningful level.

Again, the manipulation worked on me and drew the expected emotions, but there's absolutely nothing subtle about this film. And it's not even like I require subtle, but the story itself is focused more on creating these highly emotionally charged scenes and forsakes actual meaningful character development for implied character development. It's really obvious what the film is up to and relies heavily on cliché ideas from both romantic comedy in the first half and melodrama in the second to drive the story. And what's worse is that the story just seems to abandon it's main story for large swatches of time in the second half of the film and largely loses focus of it, leading to a rather unclear path trodden. This is, I think, what you get when you develop a whole film around a few hard hitting emotional scenes, without truly considering the story at large. If you're seeking that kind of emotional roller coaster, this will provide it, but it's really obvious what it's up to. And essentially, besides that blast of emotions from its many designed-to-shake-hearts scenes, it provides little substance, so I recommend a pass, except for those looking for that sort of emotional ride without a point. 4/10.

Links:

• Additional Reviews: Far East Films, Hanguk Yeonghwa
• Available at YesAsia

Seen: 미남이시네요

Seen takes a look at the shows I have seen in person.

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I really started watching "He's Beautiful" (aka "You're Beautiful") on a whim, although even sampling the first episode was influenced by the mostly positive response from the reviewers/recappers over at Dramabeans. Of course, I was also drawn to it due to the involvement of the Hong sisters, who were responsible for the generally enjoyable My Girl. What I discovered was that the sisters have gotten better, even if they haven't fully shaken off their weaknesses and the other elements of the series (which I'll label a romance comedy) work well to create a fun and satisfying, even if borderline ephemeral, show.

Our protagonist, Go Minyeo (Park Shinhye) a young nun-in-training--an orphan who grew up in a convent--is suddenly pursued by a pop artist's manager, Mr. Ma (Kim Inkwon) who begs and pleads for her to pose as her identical (I know, but just go with it) twin brother for a bit while he has a botched plastic surgery operation fixed in the States. You see, he's been picked to join as a new member of one of the hottest boy bands around, A.N.Jell and getting this job is critical for his career as well as helping the pair realize their hope of finding their missing-from-childbirth mother. After a little running-around, our naive would-be-nun accepts and falls into the crazy world of boy bands--as her brother, Go Minam ("Minam" meaning "beautiful male" and "Minyeo" meaning "beautiful female"). While it's still obviously a high concept idea, it's initially not as contrived as some of its other Korean drama peers. We meet the various members of A.J.Nell, the playful youngest, Jeremy (Lee Hongki), the considerate gentleman Shinwoo (Jung Yonghwa), and the arrogant perfectionist bandleader Taegyung (Jang Geunsuk). Predictably, our naive nun-in-training falls for our Jerk with a Heart of Gold Taegyung, who has some parental abandonment issues of his own to deal with. And so goes the story as she tries to keep from blowing her disguise in the crazy world of pop boy bands.

Okay, first and foremost, You're Beautiful is very clearly a Hong sisters work and, more significantly, nearly a plot-level retread of My Girl. Not a story retread, mind you, but the major character archetypes as well as the birth secret backstory are all present and accounted for. Only the main character's archetype changes from the cunning swindler to the naive nun-in-training, but all the lead characters have an absolute naivety regarding romance. Both stories also feature a meddling secondary female love interest as well as a less meddling, sweet-hearted secondary male love interest. But, You're Beautiful takes the female wish-fulfillment to another level, having all the boy band's members become smitten with Go Minam, some who don't even realize why, while our plucky heroine draws the heart of gold from our resident bad boy, Taegyung.

But, despite that the show really echoes their previous hit at times, a comparison that I just couldn't shake at times, the writing duo manage to improve upon their formula. They reduced the number of contrivances (reduced, not eliminated), did a great job of reducing the story-slowing angst moments, performed some fun twists on standard Korean romantic comedy tropes, and put together a set of very interesting, even if two-dimensional, characters to watch. They excel in writing comedic interactions and the back and forth between the quick witted Taegyung and various other characters can be quite fun to watch. The ladies also still show a weakness for having the subtlety of a sledgehammer, nowhere more apparent than in the endless series of "star" and consequent "light/darkness" metaphors that flood the second half of the series, but I suppose few people really watch romantic comedies for subtle writing. Furthermore, the show really manages to mostly move along without taking a hit for the most part, when focusing on the main story. It's positively breezy. I will say that I wish there was a little more development for Taegyung's mother as her character lacks credibility and I also wished that there was at least more mention of the real Go Minam, because oftentimes, it seems like Minyeo almost entirely forgets why she's posing at the cutest new member of a boy band. But, as the show is this fun, I can forgive these oversights and hope they are improved upon in future Hong sisters written shows.

In terms of directing and production, one thing I really liked about You're Beautiful is how the cinematography different from the usual glossy incandescent lighting, but often approached the main segments with a more muted lighting palette. It gives the pictures a cleaner look and also creates room for use of "drama" lighting on some of the imagined scenarios within the show. Another nice touch is that the cast is never really asked to participate in hype montages, except when it's an imagined scenario, which keeps the whole show more grounded. And the cast itself performs surprisingly adequately. It's clear that most of the actors don't have a lot of range, but given their limited archetypes, they don't really need to. This is most obvious when Park Shinhye played the real Go Miman--she is never convincing as a real man for a minute. Jang Geunsuk gets to show a little more range because of his bad boy with a nice heart double side, but he often overplays his scowl. Of the actors, the one with the most dynamic performance would be Lee Honggi, who plays a very simple character all the way until one of the end episodes where he suddenly explodes with the rawest emotionally charged performance on the show. UEE, who plays female troublemaker/rival Yoo Hyeyi does a pretty satisfactory job getting under respective skins.

Being a show about a boy band, you'd expect music to play a role on the show and it does. The show's soundtrack repeats of a number of songs of the fictitious band (who actually performed a couple of real live shows) as well as a few other unrelated songs. While they definitely fall squarely into the realm of kpop, they also tend towards pop rock/ballads as opposed to dance pop or R&B pop, which fits the rock band setup of the band. Although they aren't outstanding songs, I found myself growing to like them over the course of watching the show. I did wish that the show had more performances and/or music built into it and I was hoping to see at least more than one performance with Go Minam, but, I'll live. I'm definitely interested in hunting down the soundtrack now.

Overall, this is a fun, fast, and cute little comedy with just enough drama to keep it from floating away into pointlessness. While it might not have the strongest story or the best acting, the comedy is very good when it works and it works most of the time. The characters are all charming in their own way, even though they are limited. The drama fortuitously manages to avoid hyper-angst Korean drama syndrome and does very well at pacing, even if a few moments are slogged by side plots that never really develop as well as they should. But the biggest thing that the drama has going for it is a sense of fun. The situations are fun, the characters are fun, even the direction is fun. And for an escapist romantic comedy, that's high praise. Check it out if that's something you're interested in. 8/10.

Links:

• Series website
• Watch for free at Drama Fever
• Available at Amazon and YesAsia

Inbox: 나도 아내가 있었으면 좋겠다

Inbox features items that I have recently purchased or received.

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I saw the cover for the film I Wish I Had a Wife Too featuring top Korean talents Sol Kyunggu and Jeon Doyeon and then saw a nice price tag, so I picked it up solely on the strengths of the actors. I won't say that I was blown away by this film, but it manages to draw up some charms from older Korean romances/dramas that have largely vanished since high concept storytelling has taken hold of the Korean film industry.

The titular wisher is Kim Bongsoo (Sol), a bank manager who has long harbored a wish to get married, making videos for his future bride and learning magic tricks to amuse her. The problem is that there is no woman in his life with whom to dream of a future with. It also turns out that his roommate, "the Ultimate Bachelor", is getting married along with other people in his life. He's understandably frustrated. Next door to the bank at after-school classroom, Jung Wongju (Jeon) goes on with her life as a teacher, occasionally running into the bank and eventually finding herself with a crush on Kim after he helps her fix a light in her office. Kim, however, encounters an old friend with whom he enters into a relationship, obviously driven by a desire to wed.

The interesting thing to the story is that it's not built around some major intense conflict and consequently doesn't have the build-up to a traditional Aristotelian climax. Rather, the film has a story rhythm more similar to a documentary film as the film follows the exploits of its two protagonists with a natural eye, capturing their rituals and in their everyday moments. While it might not mean much for developing or pushing plot, it does create a sense of familiarity with the characters that just isn't won from traditional storytelling. This is a trait of many of the late 1990's and early 2000 Korean romance films. Instead of seeking conflict, it seeks to watch as these characters fumble their way towards love. And it all works, even if it does so quietly and unassumingly.

The actors understandably do a good job as the leads, while neither reach the bravura heights of their award winning future films, the film doesn't require that sort of performance either. These are quiet characters and they require a quiet charm, which the they manage. The films production values are surprisingly good for its time, also unsurprising, since the actors would already be pretty high profile by 2001, when this film was released. I like the writer-director Park Heungshik's mixing of footage, blending self-shot camcorder footage, bank closed circuit footage and regular omniscient camera footage where appropriate, but other than that, stylistic flourishes are minimal. There's a lot of rain shot and there's a cute umbrella scene, which was a popular trope during the renaissance of Korean cinema.

In no way is I Wish I Had a Wife Too a mind-blowing film. In fact, it never really reaches any sort of emotional heights, but all the same, it's clear that the film never had such a goal. Rather, it seems content on telling a boy-meets-girl story with naturally paced rhythms, focusing on developing two characters and their interactions simply by observation and in the end makes for a cute, if unspectacular effort. And in the world of non-stop intense high drama romances, this is a nice change of pace. 7/10.

Links:

• Additional Reviews: Far East Films, Koreanfilm.org
• Available at YesAsia

Seen: 天元突破グレンラガン

Seen takes a look at the shows I have seen in person.

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Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, one of the more recent anime series by Gainax shows a return to the giant mecha genre for the studio, but weaves in a lot more crazy ideas and puts it in a way-post apocalyptic setting. While it's in part a straight up light-hearted homage to the sillier elements of giant mecha anime, the film makes an about-face twist halfway through (or possibly one quarter through, depending on your perspective), turning the whole thing into a much more serious affair, while still retaining elements of its sillier side.

The initially centers around Simon, an expert digger in an underground village. He's a little weak-willed and cowardly, but, being underground, digging is important and he's the best as it. He's looked after (and dragged into trouble) by his self-appointed "big brother" Kamina, a hot-headed, ridiculously self-confident man, who is bent on making his way to the surface. One day, Simon discovers a strange little head with arms and legs while digging, but also gets locked up with Kamina thanks to their plot to escape the village. Then, the vault over their underground township breaks open and down falls a giant malicious looking mecha, which looks like a large mechanical head with some smaller appendages, followed shortly by a scantily-clad, rifle-wielding woman named Yoko. In the panic, Simon and Kamina discover that Simon can somehow pilot the little mecha head, dubbed Gurren, and they destroy the threat and make their way to the surface with Yoko, where they discover that the beastmen have been oppressing or eliminating the humans that attempt to live on the surface. And so begins a journey to make the surface inhabitable by defeating the beastmen and their Spiral King. Or so they think...

The overall series has a two-part structure with each half being predictably tonally different, with a more fun and lighthearted first half and a much more serious second half, bridged by a recap episode right in between (by the way, I hate recap episodes). Overall, the series has the simple theme of the hope, drive, desire of the indomitable human spirit, originally embodied in Kamina, which effectively spreads to the other characters. Despite the light-hearted nature of the first half of the series, it doesn't hold back from tragedy and our main characters will see a large share of tragedy before the end of the series, but I appreciate the emotional depth afforded to most of the characters, even as Simon threatens to fall off the boat of caring due to his intense whiny angst a quarter into the series. But he gets better. And the series gets increasingly epic, to universe-threatening levels, a feature found in a number of fantastic science fiction oriented series like Gurren Lagann. Fortunately, the pacing for the series is pretty tight and while there are slower more anthology-oriented episodes, no episode is wasted in terms of moving the overarching story along, especially insofar as it explores the themes as embodied by the different characters that are introduced throughout the stories. The ending fortunately avoids the fate of being a total mindscrew and leaving everything unresolved as Gainax has been known to do, so in that sense, it's a wholly satisfying watch.

And this production is very clearly a Gainax production, boasting absolutely gorgeous art, whether it's being fun, funny or aiming at ultra-cool mecha combat goodness. Like the story, the design aspects are often heavily exaggerated to proportions (especially the size of the mecha Gurren Lagann's drills) that would be laughable if it weren't just so ridiculously awesome at the same time. Likewise, Gainax's non-stop love of fanservice is present in the super-skimpy string bikini that Yoko sports without a reason or rhyme. The artwork style also follows the first/second half division in the story by presenting goofier art in the first half and much more intricate and serious designs in the second, without losing the link between the two.

I only had the opportunity to watch the English dubbed version and I will admit that the voice acting, especially early on, was quite uneven and sported the same cast of voice actors you hear doing practically every English anime dub ever. I wasn't terribly impressed overall, but it wasn't bad enough to be distracting, although the mixing into the rest of the soundtrack did leave the voices seeming unusually flat. I'm curious to see how the original Japanese soundtrack sounds.

Ultimately, Gurren Lagann is a wild ride. While the story is plenty predictable, borrowing from the larger tropes present in its boy-oriented mecha genre anime, its willingness to just go with its guns and embrace ridiculousness with gusto turns it from being stale exaggerations of the genre to awesomely fun, even if the overall story is simple. And the simple story has merit, making a statement about the power of (not necessarily religious) faith, but not in simple terms, showing both the boons and the losses of a life led in the pursuit of greater things. Tengan Toppa Gurren Lagann, then, is everything it aspires to be: one heck of a good time with giant robot battles, shonen-styled melodrama, wacky characters and serious characters, and a willingness to go overboard for the sake of cool. And in its genre, that's better than a lot of its peers can even aspire to. It's not a transcendent work, but it easily earns its praises by providing heaps of fun. Good stuff for people that like boy-centric anime. 8/10.

Links:

• Watch for free at Hulu or YouTube
• Available at Amazon and iTunes

Inbox:Progress Report: 내 이름은 김삼순, Episode 1

Inbox features items that I have recently purchased or received.

Progress Report provides ongoing impressions of serials I view them.

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Having a reputation as one of the most popular trendy Korean dramas, a copy of My Name Is Kim Samsoon (also known as "My Lovely Samsoon") had to go to my mother. When she was finished, it found its way to me and so I thought I'd give it a spin.

The setup has the titular Kim Samsoon (Kim Sunah), an out of work French pastry chef, who is unlucky at love, getting older and just a touch (and I really mean just slightly) heavier than the average Korean actress, run into the rich and arrogant Hyun Jinheon (Hyun Bin), who, despite immediately having an antagonistic relationship with Samsoon, needs a new French pastry chef immediately for his fancy restaurant. Having only seen the first episode, I can only guess at what's going to happen, but it seems like a classic setup of a hot tempered poor woman with an arrogant jerk as the one true pairing.

Meanwhile, another woman shows up at the very end, bearing the same first name, Heejin, that Samsoon has decided to use in order to avoid using her old-fashioned real name. From the very start, this drama is very obvious as to how it's going to go, but that's not necessarily a bad thing--oftentimes, the good part is the execution and "My Name is Samsoon" hasn't yet proved itself. The protagonist, being an ill-tempered, foul-mouthed, slightly older and heavier woman is a refreshing change of pace from the typical female drama protagonist and her pairing with the arrogant jerkface has a lot of promise for comedy, a la Much Ado About Nothing, but it hasn't really shown up yet.

In terms of production, the series is clearly top of the class as far as Korean drama goes, at least for shows shot on video, using plenty of glossy lighting, fancy costumes and locations, as well as just a touch of dessert porn. The soundtrack (which initially drew me thanks to Clazziquai's involvement) doesn't yet seem like it'll be the grating kind, using a mix of Clazziquai's electropop and a number of American oldies, but we'll see as the show goes along.

So, as far as a first episode goes, it has some promise and I would say it's worth seeing what happens next.

Links:

• Watch for free at Crunchyroll, Hulu and Drama Fever

Progress Report:Replay: Robin Hood: Men in Tights

Progress Report provides ongoing impressions of serials or sets I view them.

Replay revisits moving pictures that I have seen in the past.

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I have to admit that, after watching all of the other films in the Mel Brooks Collection, I actually didn't have very high expectations for Robin Hood: Men in Tights, though I remember appreciating it in my youth. Partially because Spaceballs didn't wear as well as I remembered it. However, it turns out that Robin Hood: Men in Tights was a better experience than I expected, even if it doesn't quite live up to Mel Brooks' career highs.

The story mostly follows a hybrid of the Kevin Costner led Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and the classic Errol Flynn vehicle, The Aventures of Robin Hood, both drawing upon the various incarnations of the Robin Hood legend. So it should be no surprise that the film basically follows Robin Hood (Cary Elwes) as he and his merry men bring trouble upon Prince John (Richard Lewis) and the Sheriff of "Rottinham" (Roger Rees). Gone are the rob from the rich and steal from the poor elements of the story and Maid Marion (Amy Yasbeck) is transformed into an unwillingly chaste woman, engirdled by a chastity belt and seeking the man who will give her sweet release. Prince John and the Sheriff scheme to get rid of Robin and Robin prepares to free his countrymen from John's tyranny, but more importantly, find the key to Maid Marion's... heart.

Obviously, the story is really just there to hang the gags and jokes upon, so I'm just going to say that it serves its purpose, thin as it is. I think changing the focus to Maid Marion being the goal partway through the film sort of busts its direction, but it's not really the point. In terms of funny, the jokes are probably half recycled gags from previous Brooks films, some of which work just as well as before (Prince John's mole), but most barely raise a chuckle. The more setting/source specific comedy, as well as the new jokes that raise allusions to other films seem to work much better. The film does date itself awkwardly incorporating rapping merry men as bookends for the film, aiming for idiosyncratic and ending up just seeming desperate to be hip. But jokes based on characters, like Blinkin (Mark Blankfield) the blind servant's physical comedy and Robin Hood's witty remarks and asides work well. Also funny is Robin Hoods propensity for long boring speeches at one point upturned by a Malcolm X impression by Achoo (Dave Chapelle).

I think one of the reasons that this film ends up working better than some of Brooks' other spoofs is that Cary Elwes carries the film as a lead so well. He easily channels Errol Flynn's charisma and swashbuckling, but has comedic skills, both previously used well on The Princess Bride and is an inspired choice for the role. Lewis does a good job at being the craven Prince and Rees a good job as the flummoxed Sheriff. And most of the other players all perform their roles well, either adding to the comedy or at least taking little from it. The directing is a little loose, like Brooks' style, but the editing is tighter and punchier, helping keep the jokes from losing steam and the film from the little momentum that it has. The production team also does a good job creating an amalgam of the two distinct styles of the source Robin Hood movies. Also greatly appreciated is the return of the musical bits, which are a bit more inserted than a natural part of the story, but they break up the film and retain Brooks' comedic musical style and are generally fun.

Consequently, Robin Hood: Men in Tights is a much more enjoyable film than perhaps many of Brooks' spoofs since his first few big hits. The biggest help is having a good group of actors as well as stronger comedic timing and editing. The film seems to especially enjoy the older Robin Hood film while poking fun at it and I think Brooks does much better when he shows some warmth to the source material. The film is kind of weightless, even in terms of comedy, and many of the jokes do feel played out, so this isn't a perfect effort, but if you like Brooksian spoofs, this is one of the better ones of his later efforts. 7/10.

Links:

• Set index
• Available at Amazon (Blu Ray) / (DVD) / (Instant) and iTunes

Inbox: Serenity

Inbox features items that I have recently purchased or received.

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I have to admit that I really enjoyed the unreasonably short-lived Firefly series and was a bit sad to find out that it had been cut short, before any kind of resolution could be given to the story. Fortunately, the show did exceptionally well on DVD and had a strong cult fanbase which eventually led to the regathering of the cast to produce the movie Serenity, which wraps up loose ends and gives the series a true conclusive story finale.

The film had a pair of DVD releases and I managed to snag the special edition for about $5 many years ago, but being a modern space epic, I wanted an HD presentation. And then a sale came along and gave me the movie for less than $10 on Blu-Ray. Since I have the series on Blu Ray, having a matching movie was pretty appealing, so I bought it. And now I can enjoy the series and the film in high definition!

Progress Report:Replay: Spaceballs

Progress Report provides ongoing impressions of serials or sets I view them.

Replay revisits moving pictures that I have seen in the past.

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Spaceballs holds the distinction of being both the first spoof and the first Mel Brooks film that I'd ever seen. When I was younger, I had already had the space opera spell of Star Wars cast upon me by the original trilogy as repeated on HBO. Then, came Spaceballs, which I was able to appreciate both in being a space movie and for its general comic antics. It turns out that its charms didn't age with me very well, but I still give it credit as a half-decent Brooks spoof with some pretty impressive production values.

The plot is largely based on the first Star Wars film and goes like this: Spaceballs used up all their air and need more, so President Skroob (Brooks), Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis) and Colonel Sandurz (George Wyner) kidnap the runaway bride princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) of Druidia and ransom her for planet's air supply. King Roland of Druidia (Dick Van Patten) hires Lone Starr (Bill Pullman) and Barf (John Candy), who are in serious debt to Pizza the Hutt (Dom DeLuise), to rescue her. What follows is a series of escapes and rescues often resembling the various scenes from the Star Wars films, largely as a means for many recognizable Brooksian gags.

And the story is pretty thin, but functions adequately as a means to the film's many gags. Many of the gags are just repeats of Brooks' previous gag library, just transposed to a space opera setting, but many also take advantage of elements of science fiction and fantasy films and poke fun at them. While I do think that the gags and jokes are overall successful in being funny in themselves, as the film is quite quotable, I have to admit that it seems to have the affect of being funnier in recollection than in actual watching. Another part of the film that got me was that the film was colder than many of Brooks' other spoofs--it seems more mechanically using the genre rather than having that heart, both in story and in spirit, than Brooks previous spoofs.

But one thing I can say is that Spaceballs is quite possibly one of the most tightly produced of Brooks' spoofs, going end on end to replicate a comical version of the space opera look, from spaceships to laser blasts to special effects, it looks like (a slightly cheap knockoff of) a classy space opera. I guess maybe the leads of Vespa and Lonestarr aren't necessarily as charismatic as previous leads either, which might also make the whole effort seem cooler than previous efforts. I also feel like the timing and pacing of the story isn't quite as tight as it should be and some of the air between gags and responses as well as the time necessary for the mechanics of telling the story slows the LPM (laughs per minute) of the film.

For all of its amusing antics and generally strong production qualities, I feel that Spaceballs ends up a little more mechanical and cool than other Brooks spoofs, which results in the humor being a bit more muted. While many of the jokes and gags make decent showings, the timing of their performance and the rhythm of the editing, combined with the steady pacing of the film result in an upper cap to their impact. Still, for what it's worth, this is still a decent spoof with enough laughs to merit a viewing for interested parties. Just don't expect anything on the level of Brooks' classic spoofs. 6/10.

Links:

• Set index
• Available at Amazon (Blu Ray) / (DVD) and iTunes

Inbox: 마더

Inbox features items that I have recently purchased or received.

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Mother is writer-director Bong Joonho's fourth film and he hasn't made a dud yet. Inspired by the actress Kim Hyeja, he wrote a suspense-mystery-thriller around a character he devised for her and then got her to play the part, one very different from the warmer characters of her past.

Kim plays the titular mother, that is, mother of a somewhat mentally impeded adult son, Dojoon (Won Bin), who has problems staying focused and remembering things. Dojoon hangs out with his only friend, a streetwise hustler named Jintae (Ku Jin). The pair do get into trouble, often at Dojoon's expense and thus leaving our overprotective mother constantly concerned for his well being. Then a girl is found murdered and strung up on the rooftop where Dojoon was last seen. Being the first murder in a little town, they find a piece of evidence that ties Dojoon to the location and it's an open and shut case for them, clearly using Dojoon's own lack of recollection and weak mental skills to speed the whole thing up for him. Believing her son to be innocent, the mother sets off to clear his name, but finds herself foiled by the usual avenues of help (police, legal system) and so decides to investigate herself the real circumstances around the murder. What she unravels is quite the twisting and turning mystery affair with a lot of surprises, to her as well as to the community.

The early part of the story is admittedly slow, taking its time to show the strange overprotective relationship between the mother and her son and putting the pieces together, but as soon as the murder happens, the film grips tightly the coils of suspense and plays out with almost Hitchcockian attention to detail. The characters are well-rendered, even if many of them are odd, and although the backstory revelations sometimes seem unusually placed, they help fill in the greater narrative in understanding motivations or why characters are the way that they are. The thriller aspects are all in place as well and while you might not think having an elderly woman as a protagonist would be all that thrilling, it works. In some sense, this is a portrait of motherly love gone to extremes, but also of how self-interest fits into and twists that kind of motherly attention.

The film is reminiscent of Bong's other crime thriller, Memories of Murder, sharing much of the same drained color palette and production choices, giving a heft to every carefully composed shot. Bong's direction is well thought out and studied. Of course, Kim Hyeja actually seems to drive the film herself with her performance, exuding both anxiety and determination and almost seeming to pull the film forward on her strength alone. Won Bin also performs surprisingly well, giving some interesting edge to what would otherwise be a dull character, but this is Kim's show.

And Kim, fortunately, does an excellent job. Granted, Mother is predominantly a genre piece, with hints of black comedy to release tension and give some additional food for thought. This is both credible as a thriller as well as a dramatic study of motherly obsession. It's not immaculate, as pacing in the first half is a bit slow and sometimes the story and the order of scenes conflict in terms of which one feels like it should be revealed first. However, despite its small problems, it works excellently in grabbing thrillers and puts an immense actress in the spotlight, who carries the show. Job well done, director Bong. 8/10.

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Seen: Kick-Ass

Seen takes a look at the shows I have seen in person.

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Kick-Ass is an adaptation of a Marvel Comics series by the same name. I actually wasn't at all aware of the book nor the movie until I started seeing some buzz about the adaptation from various film enthusiast oriented websites and then my comic-book enthusiast friends and co-workers (well, those that appreciate Mark Miller's work) gave some positive reviews for the film, so I figured I should check it out.

From what I can tell, the story largely follows the comic book, but makes some exceptions in order to make it fit into the film format and runtime. In a world without superheroes, regular kid Dave Lisewski (Aaron Johnson) wonders why superheroes don't exist and, in a bout of possible madness, decides to put together a costume and try to be a real superhero. Not really training, he promptly gets his ass kicked, but gains some notoriety when he's actually successful in defending one man (again, getting his ass kicked). Eventually his fame earns him enemies in a local mob boss Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong), friends in the form of two real superheroes, the father-daughter team of Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz). Of course, with Hit Girl and Big Daddy covertly and mercilessly slaughtering D'Amico's foot soldiers and Kick Ass having high profile for being an internet sensation, plans get set in motion to get rid of the nuisance that isn't. A whole lot of the titular ass-kicking follows with some twists and turns along the way. Oh, and there's some subplot with a girl that Dave likes.

I have to admit that I have some problems with the story, at least as it's presented in the film. I think the books might have had more space to give each character their due, but my biggest problem with Kick Ass is that it really loses sight of its protagonist and his story about a third through the film when Hit Girl and Big Daddy absolutely steal the show from him. While his story does go through the paces and completes itself, the emotional core of the story is instantly snatched up by the superior crime-fighting duo, especially duo to the events preceding the final act of the film. Furthermore, I don't buy Dave's initial superhero impulse and I most certainly don't buy his crush's behavior halfway into the film. On the other hand, as a structure to string together a large number of impossibly cool set-pieces, the story performs adequately. As a story, it left me cold because it was just unable to give the protagonist the story--rather Hit Girl steals the show.

And that's one of the shiniest parts of this film: Chloe Moretz easily captures every scene she's in and while she might not be doing the exhilarating combat stunts, she carries the charisma and swagger to make her character believable. Cage portrays Big Daddy with a goofy charm that I haven't seen in him in ages even though it clashes with his merciless character. Most of the rest of the cast does pretty well too, none really detracting from the ongoings. In terms of the direction, the film is kinetic, easily captures its homage to comic books and lives up to the title. The production team does splendidly and I absolutely love all the geeky comic references very appropriately embedded into the film. And the action scenes: it's an absolute nerdtastic pleasure to watch Hit Girl and Big Daddy at work, even though ultimately, the clash of real badass superheroes in a world where there are not supposed to be superheroes does throw off the character of the film a little.

In the end, Kick-Ass is really a kick-ass film, in terms of providing all the joys that a fanboy would appreciate. Tons of absolutely ass-kicking action, plenty of wish-fulfillment and a coherent enough story to string it together. Unfortunately, while the story does its modest job well, I think it sort of loses its point, perhaps as a result of a conversion and condensing to the film format, and Dave almost ends up a cipher at the end as a result. It's a fun movie, but it's one that doesn't quite manage in the "so what?" department. A ridiculously fun movie and completely inappropriate for children. So its butt-kicking action and its lack of focus in the story results in a film that's entirely enjoyable for spectacle and swagger from Hit Girl, but is quite simply an ephemeral experience. Catch this one on a big screen with a great sound system, a tub of popcorn and leave your brain at the door. If you're not offended by a swearing kid and tons of ultraviolence, you will probably find this ride a fun one. 7/10.

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Inbox:Replay: Toy Story 2

Inbox features items that I have recently purchased or received.

Replay revisits moving pictures that I have seen in the past.

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Since I found the original Toy Story to be utterly charming and thoughtful, of course expectations were high when the second one was released. However, I actually didn't catch that one in theaters in 1999. It was actually years later in college when I'd finally see it on DVD. But even on my modest 20" screen in my small dorm room, the film won me over. Toy Story 2 is an even more mature, but yet still fun and funny follow-up that adds to the story, and, in one moment, touches hearts.

The film follows the events of the first Toy Story as Andy (John Morris), his family, and his toys are getting ready for a big move. Of course, with a move, comes a yard sale and a broken toy gets taken down to the sale. In a heroic effort, Woody (Tom Hanks) sneaks down there to save the broken toy, but in the process gets stolen by a stereotypical nerd. The rest of the toys, led by Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), mount a rescue operation. Meanwhile, at the nerd's lair, Woody encounters some relics of his past and, due to his torn arm, begins to ponder his own mortality.

For a film series that is child friendly, Toy Story 2 really spends a lot of time dealing with adult themes, especially considering mortality and the value of temporary human relationships. And yet, none of this is ever hammered into your face, but is just sculpted into the story. In one particularly poignant moment, Jessie (Joan Cusack), a new toy related Woody's own toy line that he encounters reminisces about her own relationship with her past owner and I have to admit, it was so tragic that it brought a tear or two to my eye, but wasn't manipulative at all, just a vignette that explains both a character and fuels a plot twist. But the story isn't entirely without problems--the largest being the overall storytelling split between Woody and his existential dilemma and the rescue operation led by Buzz--these two stories are operating on wholly different degrees of thought and it might prove clashing to some, but I managed to accept it as the rescue operation provides some emotional relief from Woody's troubles and Woody's situation gives heft to balance out the rescue operation's zaniness, complete with a romp through a toy store.

It's also clear that Pixar had gained greater animation capabilities since the first Toy Story as the human characters all move more smoothly and have more detail than before. Being a sequel, the look of the movie is the same and many of the same characters and props re-appear. The whole world does look a little too clean, a common occurrence in these computer animated films, but that's nothing really worth complaining about. Action is well staged and some of the set-pieces, including an airport baggage carousel gag are quite elaborate.

Pixar proves in Toy Story 2 that it's capable not only of broaching some mature subjects and making them meaningful to children and adults, but doing so while telling a fun and whimsical story with top notch animation and even putting in a moment that actually tugs at the heartstrings. Toy Story 2 is a sure-handed, multi-faceted near-masterpiece of family friendly animation and easily worth multiple viewings. I love it! 10/10.

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