Okay, so Kim Jee-woon and Peter Ho-sun Chan are hardly small fry, but here’s a selection of directors to make any horror fan’s mouth water. Just don’t eat the dumplings.
Dumplings: Directed by Fruit Chan
Mrs Lee (Miriam Yeung Chin Wah) is a comely woman afraid that she's losing her beauty and, consequently, the affections of her estranged husband, Mr. Lee (Tony Leung Ka Fai). In a desperate attempt to recover her fading youth Mrs Lee visits Mei (Ling Bai), a cook who says she’s her own best advertisement. Mei is youthful and beautiful, claims to be much older than she looks, and puts it down to her very special dumplings.
A spoiler warning has to follow here, so if anyone doesn’t want to know the specifics of this piece by all means skip to the next segment. For anyone familiar with recent Chinese horror films, they’ll know that Dumplings was soon after developed into a full feature by Fruit Chan and that the theme here relies on the ingestion of aborted fetuses.
Fruit Chan (Made in Hong Kong 1997) is unquestionably skilled and from a technical standpoint there’s little, or nothing, to fault and a great deal to praise. The visuals are lushly composed and expertly shown and the principle cast is excellent, particularly Ling Bai. The only complaint here is of the theme that seems to have become endemic to Chinese horror. This is a wild stab in the dark, based on a limited exposure to the Chinese horror genre, but would it be wrong to equate China’s population boom as having an impact on the genre’s insistence in using the theme of abortion? There may be a considerable shock value that comes with the theme, but seriously, who wants to see it? And, more to the point, who wants to see it repeatedly? Both the segment and feature of Dumplings are highly regarded works, and rightly so, but if you’ll forgive the pun, they leave a rather bad taste in the mouth.
Cut: Directed by Park Chan-wook
A famed director (played by Lee Byung-hun) and his wife are taken hostage by a disgruntled employee. Their psychotic captor (Lim Won-hie) insists that the director must murder yet another captive – an innocent child – or he will cut off one of the wife’s fingers every five minutes.
As readers of this section may know, Park Chan-wook (Oldboy 2003, I’m a Cyborg 2006) is here regarded as one of the most standout directors around today (if not the standout director around today). In Cut, Chan-wook creates an off-set reality that’s obsessively well-presented, however messy or disturbing the content. Under the likes of Chan-wook, the simplest act of violence is placed under a magnifying glass and held up to the viewer’s face, an all the more notable achievement given that he seldom shows extreme and graphic violence directly. This is something of an exception.
Even so, Chan-wook uses the opportunity to parody himself, and perhaps a line about a director who only makes films that make the director look good while his cast is overlooked is actually a self-mocking reference. It’s also no surprise that his segment has the most humour, as their kidnapper parades about in a series of costumes in an attempt to jog the director’s memory.
There’s a somewhat bizarre conclusion following several scenes of brutality, all set against a meticulously prim and proper set to contrast the violence. And, as usual, Chan-wook evokes nothing less than fine performances from his cast. Lee Byung-hun, of course, is today an internationally reknowned talent, while Lim Won-hie is superb and Kang Hye-jeong supports in the, let’s just say, stifled role of the wife.
The Box: Directed by Miike Takashi
This involves a deeply subdued woman, Kyoko (Kyoko Hasegawa), who is haunted by dreams of premature burial and the memories of her time as a child, when she performed as a contortionist with her sister, under the apparent tutelage of their father (a difficult, if not impossible, statement to verify) and a tragic accident that haunts her still.
Fans of Miike Takashi (Audition 1999, The Happiness of the Katakuris 2001) will anticipate a torture-ridden frightfest in the vein of his disappointing contribution to Showtime’s Masters of Horror (which nevertheless featured a truly gnarly scene of persecution). Instead, Takashi has here downtoned violence for atmosphere, creating a visually stunning piece with a broader scope of cinematography than other entries in the series.
Even as a short, The Box is a brilliantly layered and disturbing piece, whose ending will demand at least one more viewing as Kyoko’s reality unfolds. Also featuring Atsuro Watabe in a dual role, there’s little room for the cast to shine, but shine they do under Takashi’s style, grace and visceral visualizations.
Three…Extremes Summary
It’s great to see that small-time horror in the East doesn’t mean a lack of real quality and technique. Three Extremes is not just an incredible advertisement to that end but a huge re-enforcement to the notion that just because certain content – as is usually found in the horror genre – will be shunned by the majority of film-goers, that’s no excuse for a lack of high-quality (except, of course, from a financial standpoint, from where it’s every excuse).
It’s no surprise to find that all three segments here are just that. Segments – merely peek shows into the formidable ability of their casts and crews. They’re a good starting point for anyone interested in pursuing a who’s who of Asian cinema, and these directors are always worth following for their guarantee of originality and shock value.
There is currently a Western DVD release, which incorporates both Three and its sequel. However, as Three…Extremes was released first in the West, Three has been re-named, strangely, as Three…Extremes 2. Never mind the confusion, these are rare and precious shorts of a quality to match most features. Don’t miss them.
- Released: 2004 by Applause Pictures, CJ Entertainment, Kadokawa Pictures
- Running Time: 125 mins approx
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