In this follow-up to 2002's San Geng (aka Three), three Asian directors, one from Japan (Takashi Miike, of Audition and The Happiness of the Katakuris fame), one from South Korea (Chan-wook Park, director of Oldboy and Joint Security Area, one of the best military thrillers ever made) and one from Hong Kong (Fruit Chan, primarily known for art-house fare) craft three short horror films.Fruit Chan's "Dumplings" concerns a trophy wife (Miriam Yeung) desperate to hold on to her youth and her loaded hubby (Hong Kong stalwart Tony Leung Ka Fai). She goes to wise woman Auntie Mei (
Sky Captain's Ling Bai) for her special homemade dumplings, which restore health and youth. The dumplings have a secret ingredient that would make Dorian Gray a vegan teetotaler.
Chan-wook Park's "Cut" is the love child of Stephen King's
Misery and
Saw. A handsome, well-educated film director (Byung-hun Lee) is making a horror movie on a set that looks exactly like his own palatial home. When he arrives home from a shoot, someone knocks him out and he wakes up in the company of his pianist wife (Hye-jeong Kang) and a man who is not very nice at all (Won-hi Lim), who resents the director because he
is nice. Meat-work ensues. Things go downhill from there.
In Takashi Miike's "Box," a fragile novelist named Kyoko (Kyoko Hasegawa) has issues meeting her deadlines. Her editor (Atsuro Watabe, star of Masato Harada's
Inugami) must come by to get her manuscripts. Kyoko has recurring dreams about being buried alive in a box. As a child, Kyoko and her twin sister, both ballerinas, would perform an act with their harlequin-like stepfather that would end with the girls contorting themselves into small boxes. What happened to her sister? And what happened to Kyoko, that she has such lingering trauma?
One home run and two grand slams "Cut," which is an outstanding short film, seems weak only because it has the misfortune to be showcased with "Dumplings" and "Box," which are stunning. Chan-wook Park infuses "Cut" with a demented, Sam Raimi-like humor. The climax of "Cut" involves unbelievable cruelty and a gag lifted out of a Road Runner cartoon; imagine the Marquis de Sade with access to Wile E. Coyote's Acme charge account. The balance of sadism and slapstick is amazing, setting the stage for three remarkable twists in the last few minutes.
"Dumplings," though edited down from a full-length feature, feels like a whole and intact narrative. "Dumplings" is a brilliant articulation of the horror of narcissism, demented and deliciously sick. Written by respected novelist Lillian Lee (author of
Farewell My Concubine), "Dumplings" may force some audience members to bolt from the theater. Fruit Chan, with the help of his brilliant cinematographer Christopher Doyle (who has shot films as diverse as
Rabbit-Proof Fence,
2046 and Jet Li's
Hero) and composer Kwong Wing Chan (aka "Punk" Chan, whose score sounds like a didgeridoo played by dyspeptic Sasquatch on mescaline) creates a blandly urban-yet-surreal world in which the breakdown of basic human decency seems oddly inevitable. And kind of funny, for those with strong stomachs.
"Box" almost can't be reviewed in the way that movies are typically reviewed. Takashi Miike and his cinematographer Koichi Kawakami have made a movie that is, truly, a visual poem. The changing use of
color, even just through differing shades of blue, is as important to the narrative of "Box" as is dialogue and action. Is "Box" a mood piece? Not at all. It's a
series of moods that are strung together like the movements of a musical composition.
Three ... Extremes succeeds as a whole because it
is extreme, counterpointed by moments of extreme quiet and restraint.
I can't express this strongly enough: Avoid any spoilers for "Dumplings." The central ... ummmm ... issue of "Dumplings" should stay a mystery until Fruit Chan is damned ready to reveal it. As I said, "Dumplings" will make some people bolt, so don't say you weren't warned, but at the same time, the twist is such a shocker, it's better to not know. —Mike
