Sabishii Nettaigyo
17 April 2007
I'm so bored... I really wish I had the internet right now. I haven't played Final Fantasy XI for almost a month now and it's killing me. It's like an alcoholic trying to quit drinking. I've well and truly 'hit the wall' as it were. I hope for hell I get internet access back soon or I'm going to cry. I miss playing my Corsair, I miss doing the weekly assaults, and most of all I miss talking to everyone on the linkshell. They're sort of like an online family so when you don't speak to them for a while you feel kind of lonely. You could almost say that I'm feeling slightly homesick, crazy as that sounds.
One thing I have been doing is continuing my marathon of films. I bought Sky High, Sympathy for Mr Vengeance and, The Constant Gardener on DVD. Lots of places are doing sales on DVDs so it's a good chance to pick up some films for cheap. Sky High is a film directed by the same guy that directed Azumi/Azumi 2 - Kitamura Ryuhei. It tells the story of Mina who is murdered on her wedding day by a serial murderer who tears out his victims' hearts. After her death she finds herself at the Gate of Resentment (where all the spirits of people who are murdered or die in accidents go) and is given the three options: accept death and enter paradise and wait for rebirth; wander eternally as a ghost; or find and curse her murderer (however, anyone who kills must go to hell). Meanwhile the man she was to marry, Kohei Kanzaki, sets out to avenge her death. Mina must do all she can in order to stop Kanzaki from condemning himself to hell. It's probably not as good as Azumi but it does have its own merits. The fight sequences are a little lacking in the finesse of Azumi but the characters had a bit more depth. Verdict: 7/10.
I thought Arlington Road was one of the darkest films I'd ever seen but it seems like a family comedy in comparison to Sympathy for Mr Vengeance. This Korean films is shocking to the extreme in its portrayal of the consequences of revenge. The story begins with Ryu, a deaf-mute factory worker who is trying to raise cash for a kidney transplant to save his dying sister. Unfortunately the waiting list for kidneys is extremely long and there's no guarantee of when a match will be found. He also gets fired from his job at the factory. Out of desperation he gives all his money (10 million Won) to a group of illegal organ dealers in the hope of getting a kidney quickly. However, they take his money and one of his kidneys and leave him with nothing. Then to compound matters the hospital contacts Ryu and informs him that a matching kidney has been found. With only a couple of weeks to find the money, he follows his girlfriend's advice and kidnaps the daughter of his former employer. Everything seems to go well as the father promptly pays the ransom. Unfortunately Ryu's sister finds out about his redundancy from a note left in his trouser pocket. Of course she doesn't know anything about the kidnapping plan and believes all hope is lost. When Ryu comes home he finds that she has committed suicide by slitting her wrists in the bath. His sister's wish was to be buried by a river where they once played as children so he drives the body and the kidnapped daughter there. Whilst he is covering the body with rocks he doesn't notice the daughter get out of the car. She falls in whilst trying to cross the bridge to reach him and because he is deaf he doesn't hear her cries. He also cannot see her because he has his back turned. She ends up drowning and is found by the police a few hours later. Her distraught father then sets out to find and kill Ryu.
Watching this film was painful to say the least. It was a constant stream of unfortunate occurrences which could so easily have been avoided. It was kind of like Grave of the Fireflies in a way but a lot more tragic. Throughout the film you wanted to scream at the screen in desperation. It was hard to decide who your sympathy lay with. Neither Ryu or the father were completely to blame, nor where they completely innocent. And in that way I guess is the beauty (for want of a better word) of director Park-Chan Wook's film. A shocking, tragic and distressing film but one which shows the consequences of revenge. Confucius said it best, "Before starting out on the path of revenge, first you must dig two graves". Never has this been so true as in this film. Verdict: 8/10.
The Constant Gardener was one of those films I remember seeing released at the cinemas and wanting to go see. When I saw it on sale at £4.95 at Woolworths I jumped at the chance. It's a conspiracy based thriller about the pharmaceutical companies set in Africa. Justin, a British diplomat based in Africa, is married to Tessa, a forceful and opinionated woman who uncovers a conspiracy to test drugs on HIV patients in Nairobi without their consent. She is subsequently murdered to prevent the scandal from surfacing. Justin doesn't know anything about Tessa's work until he stumbles on some clues in her diary. He then sets out to uncover the truth behind the conspiracy, something which doesn't go unnoticed by the drug companies and the British government. Though this film was decent enough it wasn't quite what I was expecting. It lacked that certain something which prevented it from keeping me completely engrossed in the story. Rachel Weisz's character was down right annoying most of the time and Ralph Fienne's was a wimp, though he did get better by the end of the film. Not a bad conspiracy film but there have been better. Verdict: 6/10.
Posted byHocchan at 10:26 pm
