Tuesday, July 21, 2009

H

Last time a movie with a one letter title appeared on Movies at Random, it was Z, and it was awesome, easily the third or fourth best movie ever made. The pattern suggests that the next one letter movie we encounter will also be good, right? Well, here's H, a Korean thriller, I bet it's awesome!

Jin-Hee Ji is detective Kang, an enthusiastic new detective investigating a serial killer. Jung-Ah Yum is detective Kim, who is also investigating the murders, but is less enthusiastic. She also has no emotion whatsoever in her face at any time. It's remarkable, I don't think I've ever seen an actor that stone faced, even Keanu Reeves has emotion sometimes.

I digress. Anyway, they are investigating a series of ovary-based murders. That might sound like me being slightly flippant, but no, they're murders which are planned to the detail on the habits of ovaries in general, and the disregard for their ovaries that the victims have. They appear to be copycats of murders which serial killer Shin Hyun did 10 months ago. Special note must be made of Seung-woo Cho, who plays Shin Hyun. He somehow goes through the entire movie in slow motion, which strikes me as bizaree, creepy, and not the least bit lazy. It's as he tried to be Anthony Hopkins, failed, and then just replaced brooding and intensity with lethargy.

The movie itself is a standard thriller, with red herrings, mystery and copious gore. There's a twist ending, which comes out of nowhere, is quite stupid, and strangely unsatisfying. Motives never ring very true, the ending seems both a bit too long and a bit rushed, and there are often odd leaps made without the audience ever getting a hint of how we got there.

There are some good moments. There's a fantastic low speed pursuit, where the chase is conducted with drivers trying to outwit each other rather than by sheer power, though it was a cool enough premise I wished it lasted longer. In fact, if someone is chased in this movie, it's usually quite quality. Also, some shots are very pretty, and there's one in a bus parking lot that makes the whole thing unworldly. Plus, like all Korean movies, there's a sense that the entire place was built yesterday, since every building is shiny and ultra modern, and I like that.

It's hard to say something interesting when you're presented with a product that actually isn't very interesting at all. It's a by the numbers thriller with an unfulfilling ending, the kind of movie that fades steadily to dust as we get further and further from its initial release. That's the funny thing about this project, sometimes you'll get something amazing, sometimes something terrible, but there's just as much of a chance you'll get something that's just middle of the road and unremarkable. I try to keep this as random as I possibly can, given my limitations, and unfortunately that means they can't all be fantastic winners or astonishing losers. H proves this.

2 comments:

  1. Man I am right there with you on that "hard to make interesting commentary on things that aren't interesting" concept. Some high-falutin' British lady made a disparaging comment on one of my entries:

    http://albumdujour.wordpress.com/2009/05/09/the-verve-urban-hymns/

    And she failed to realize that I intentionally made the writeup boring and repetitive because the album itself is boring and repetitive. Still, people will complain, eh?

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  2. Surprised they didn't catch on. I specifically remember thinking you were being a clever goose.

    At least that gave you material. Even the amusingly bad things (the acting, for one) weren't interesting enough for text. The villain does move so slowly you think he's from Sparta though.

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