The Chaser (2008) [Film Review]

The Chaser; or, You Cannot Tell a Soul

     Hey, 4885. It's you, huh? Oh, brother. Son of a bitch. Answer it, asshole. You're dead meat.

The Chaser is a 2008 action thriller starring Kim Yoon Seok and Ha Jung Woo in the leading roles. The directorial debut of Na Hong Jin was inspired by the real-life serial killer case of Yoo Young Chul. Praised by the critics and the viewers as well as becoming a box-office hit in the year of its release, The Chaser is hailed as one of the best South Korean thrillers out there. Does the movie live up to its name? Let’s find out in this review:

Release Info

Directed by: Na Hong Jin Starring: Kim Yoon Seok, Ha Jung Woo, Seo Young Hee

Language: Korean Original Title: 추격자 Runtime: 120 min

 

Synopsis

Joong Ho (Kim Yoon Seok) is an ex-policeman turned pimp who is in charge of a small call-girl business. Two of his prostitutes have recently gone missing and Joong Ho suspects that they might have been sold. One night, Joong Ho orders Mi Jin (Seo Young Hee) to service a weird customer who called from the cell phone number 4885. Soon after, Joong Ho discovers that this client was the last person who saw the missing girls alive. He calls Mi Jin and tells her to text the client’s address. When the girl’s cell becomes unresponsive, Joon Ho finds himself in a race against time in order to find her.

 

Catch Me if You Can

I was quite moody and in need of an engaging story the other night, so I was hoping that The Chaser would grab my attention. Indeed it did. It is a very suspenseful, inverted detective story (we get to know who is the bad guy like 15 minutes in the story) sprinkled with very gut-wrenching, almost horror-like elements.

 

The extremely dark tone and fast-pacing are the movie’s main advantages. However, shoehorned play with expectations in order to forcefully make a viewer cry is what I disliked about this movie the most. On the one hand, it feels like an R-rated episode of Monk (which is a great thing: Getting to know the murderer’s modus operandi). On the other, there is so much blood gushing out and bodies rolling over in this picture that I felt as I was watching an 80s exploitation flick.

 

Perhaps this is why The Chaser became so memorable. The movie keeps you on the edge of your seat and does not let you go for a single moment. The tension reaches such a degree in the film’s climax that I actually related to the exhaustion of the main character as soon as the end credits rolled in.

 

With regard to performances, Kim Yoon Seok is awesome as a morally questionable ex-cop/pimp on the run after the psychotic murder played by Ha Jung Woo. Seo Young Hee is also great in the supporting role as Min Jin, but her role has a limited screen time. Kim Yoo Jung makes up for her absence in the second act as Eun Ji, Mi Jin’s daughter. Additionally, a fact should be noted that the film was shot entirely on location around Mangwon-dong in the Mapo district of Seoul, which is where the storyline is set.

 

Recommendations

All things considered, The Chaser is not a movie for the faint-hearted. However, if you’re into hardcore crime stories, then this film is a perfect choice for you. I would not call it a masterpiece of the thriller genre, but it is very interesting and engrossing nonetheless, despite the huge amount of violence. I do not regret checking it out, yet I won’t be coming back to it anytime soon. Other South Korean thrillers like Memories of Murder (2003) or Montage (2013) may not be so action-packed, but they have a higher re-watch value, in my opinion.

Overall score: 7/10

Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) [Film Review]

Eat Drink Man Woman; or, Family Desires

     Eat, drink, man, woman. Basic human desires. Can’t avoid them! All my life, every day, that’s all I’ve done. It pisses me off. Is that all there is to life?

Finishing my review series of “Father Knows Best” Trilogy, I am now turning to the final, and my personal favourite, movie of the set, Eat Drink Man Woman, shot entirely by Ang Lee on location in Taiwan.

Release Info

Directed by: Ang Lee Starring: Sihung Lung, Chien-lien Wu, Kuei-Mei Yang, Yu-Wen Wang

Language: Mandarin Original Title: 饮食男女 Runtime: 119 min

 

Synopsis

Mr Chu (Sihung Lung) is a widower and a master-chef living in Taipei together with his three unmarried daughters: Chu Jia-Chien (Chien-lien Wu), an executive working in an airline industry; Chu Jia-Jen (Kuei-Mei Yang), a school teacher who has issues with relationships and seeks consolation in Christianity; Chu Jia-Ning (Yu-Wen Wang), a college student who accidentally gets involved with her friend’s ex-boyfriend. The family lives through everyday existence while ritually eating every night large portions of elaborate dishes prepared by Chu.

 

A Confucian Father and Modern Children

Even though Eat Drink Man Woman refers to the Chinese idiom about human desires and provides exactly what the title says, I would not call it a “food picture”. This is not the film about the celebration of eating like, for example, Juzo Itami’s Tampopo (1985), but rather, it’s about the food playing the role of a communicator between distanced family members. In all three films of the trilogy, there are Ang Lee’s autobiographical elements and the issue of father-child conflict is the most predominant here. Mr Chu by no means is a bad father, but he is very traditional and rigid in his relations; yet, similarly to his daughters, he too has some desires which he wants to fulfil.

 

With regard to the three daughters, they all are very colourful characters who undergo a certain degree of change as the story moves on. Although they vary in age, the daughters become more independent in life due to men they encounter. Thankfully, it’s not all about the liberating power of sex, but a true connection which expresses itself as either love or friendship, all that with food placed in the background.

 

In Eat Drink Man Woman, Ang Lee beautifully dissects the fabric of modern-day family in the face of rapid globalisation and fading tradition. As in the case of The Wedding Banquet, the viewer finds himself rooting for all the characters but the outcome is very much an unexpected one. The third act of the film is especially important in this regard because the house grows to be the central figure of the story which stands in-between of Mr Chu and Chu Jia-Chien.

 

Speaking about performances, Sihung Lung is just brilliant as the father. If it hadn’t been for him, the whole trilogy would have looked totally different. The performances of Chien-lien Wu, Kuei-Mei Yang, and Yu-Wen Wang are also wonderful. In addition, it’s great to see Winston Chao and Gua Ah-leh (both from The Wedding Banquet) in the supporting roles. Also, Jong Lin’s cinematography and a memorable music score by Mader deserve praise.

 

Recommendations

I safely recommend Eat Drink Man Woman to anyone looking for a peaceful two-hour story set in Taiwan. In my opinion, this is a spiritual companion piece to Edward Yang’s Yi Yi (2000). To think that Ang Lee’s career was launched by a random Taiwanese screenplay contest still boggles my mind. This guy is a marvellous director and I love his three earliest films the most. He really should come back to Taiwan and make one more Asian slice-of-life movie. In the meantime, we should all enjoy the "Father Knows Best" Trilogy.

Overall score: 10/10

The Wedding Banquet (1993) [Film Review]

The Wedding Banquet; or, It All Stays in the Family

     The Wang Hsi Zhi school emphasizes harmony and nature. Your Wang style of calligraphy reflects a beautiful structure combined with unrefined purity. Bei Qu Yi's poem and your writing flow naturally. That art is not often attained and every stroke is perfect. That shows your steadiness. It's a sign of longevity.

Continuing my review series of Ang Lee’s movies, this time I’m focusing on a 1993 romantic comedy film entitled The Wedding Banquet. This story is yet another, after Pushing Hands, unusual take on the Chinese family issues, which launched Lee’s fame in America.

Release Info

Directed by: Ang Lee Starring: Winston Chao, May Chin, Mitchell Lichtenstein, Sihun Lung, Gua Ah-leh

Language: Mandarin, English Original Title: 喜宴 Runtime: 106 min

 

Plot

Meet Wai-Tung Gao (Winston Chao). He is a prosperous businessman with an American citizenship. His Taiwanese parents, Mr and Mrs Gao (Sihung Lung and Gua Ah-leh), are fruitlessly urging Wai-Tung to get married. The problem is that Wai-Tung is living together with his friend Simon (Mitchell Lichtenstein) as a gay couple and he’s afraid to tell the parents. In the meantime, Wai-Tung’s tenant, Wei-Wei (May Chin), finds herself out of job and in need of a green card. Simon comes up with an idea to accommodate all parties: Wai-Tung will have a sham marriage with Wei-Wei. In this way, she will get to stay in the U.S. and the parents will let Wai-Tung off the hook. What can possibly go wrong?

 

Never enough of Hongbao

On the basis of the outlined synopsis, it seems readily noticeable that The Wedding Banquet served as primary source of influence for Fake Couple (2015) drama (which I highly recommend as well). However, it does not have the same degree of crazy playfulness like the television series. There are many funny moments in The Wedding Banquet indeed, but they are intermingled with bittersweet moments of family members lying through their teeth in order not to hurt one another.

 

Apparently, the idea for the movie was suggested to Ang Lee by a Taiwanese screenwriter Neil Peng who heard about a similar story happening to his friend. In consequence, the script went through various drafts in Chinese as well as English only to materialise as a motion picture that mixes Mandarin and English in its dialogue track. Apparently, it’s been quite an issue for American audiences to watch a subtitled movie set in America, but The Wedding Banquet ultimately became a box office success (outdoing even Jurassic Park in the ratio of returns instead of total revenue).

 

The Wedding Banquet is not so much a comedy of mistakes than a careful observation of family relations. In an almost documentary-like fashion, Ang Lee presents us with the wedding party that is the ultimate culmination of Wai-Tung and Wei-Wei’s fraud as well as Mr and Mrs Gao’s long-time dream. Although this is just fiction, we find ourselves cheering for all the characters to find a proper solution to their problems (which they do, in a way).

 

Speaking about performances, all of the main leads were perfectly chosen for their roles. Looking at the movie from the modern perspective, it actually launched the successful careers of Winston Chao, May Chin, and Mitchell Lichtenstein. The chemistry between them was so great that I wish they could do one more movie together. Of course, the performances of Sihung Lung and Gua Ah-leh cannot go unnoticed. Even though Gua Ah-leh steals the show as the mother, Sihung Lung still does great with the material he’s given here. On top of that, this is the only movie in which we can hear him speak some English.

 

Recommendations

As in the case of Pushing Hands, I safely recommend The Wedding Banquet. It is a very engaging story with bright characters and a meaningful ending. I did not regret a minute of it. If the gay theme somehow puts you off, then do not worry. This movie is not about gender politics but a genuine, unpronounced love between family members which provides a room for reconciliation between Eastern and Western values.

Overall score: 9/10