하녀Hanyeo (The Housemaid)

Film is a remake of a classic Korean movie with the same name by Ki-young Kim, which I haven’t seen and decided not to watch before watching the new film mainly because Sang-soo Im was in competition at 2010 Cannes and wanted to have a fresh approach to story. With this said I have to admit that film is visually stunning with extraordinary sets, location, compositions and a truly amazing style while story is maybe not much compelling but will keep your attention thanks to actors’ great performances and its good looks.

According to Sang-soo film is an exploration of the life and lifestyle of upper classes in 2010 Korea, which tend to live very privileged and isolated lives. If you consider only what Sang-soo says then film story is an outstanding exploration that goes from distant and proper behavior to the most cruel behavior you can imagine where money makes all kind of unpleasant situations go away. I liked this story.

But what you will more clearly see is the story of Eun-yi a good woman that is hired as Nami’s nanny while Mami’s mother, Hae Ra, is pregnant with twins. Hae Ra is not satisfying the sexual needs of her extremely wealthy husband, Hoon; so Hoon looks for sexual satisfaction with Eun-yi. Byeong-sik (aka Miss Cho), the housekeeper, sees Hoon and Eun-yi having sex and soon enough notices Eun-yi changing her habits and deduces that she’s pregnant. Miss Cho reports all to Hae Ra’s mother and from this point on you will watch a dark narrative about power, more exactly women power as story develops with only female characters. This story was not much compelling but performances by actors keep your attention; still I was most impressed by Yeo-Jong Yun performance as Miss Cho and little Seo-Hyon Ahn as Nami, even if both were supporting characters their moments on screen were truly remarkable.

As a film is almost perfect with spectacular locations, excellent camera with many beautiful compositions, wonderful use of black and white in sets -especially when is a full-color movie- great editing and many more superlatives for other tech specs, which superbly is essential part of the wealth recreation.

Film is labeled in some sites as an erotic thriller maybe due to some (not-so-explicit) sex scenes that honestly are no big deal if you enjoy European cinema, so I suggest you don’t get fooled by marketing that exploits the sex scenes as fellatio scenes magnificently show Hoon’s absolute power.

As MUBI has Ki-young Kim movie I will watch it as I’m curious to see the original story that according to what I read it is very different to this story as Sang-soo Im maybe kept the story essence but changed everything else.

Another 2010 Cannes movie that I like even when Eun-yi story was less interesting than the wealth exploration story and definitively I do recommend it to those that enjoy visually stunning movies with good actors’ performances.

Enjoy!!!

Watch trailer @MOC

15th Pusan International Film Festival Award Winners

The festival screened 306 films from 67 countries with 101 world premieres and 52 international premieres which are record numbers for the fest. Yesterday was the awards ceremony and here are the winners.

New Curents Award
The Journals of Musan, Park Jung-Bum, Korea
Bleak Night, Yoon Sung-Hyun, Korea

Flash Forward Award: Pure, Lisa Lngseth, Sweden
Special Mention: Erratum, Marek Lechki, Poland


FIPRESCI Award: The Journals of Musan, Park Jung-Bum, Korea
NETPAC Award: Dooman River, Zhang Lu, Korea
Audience Award: My Spectacular Theatre, Lu Yang, China

To check awards for documentaries and shorts go here and to browse films go here.

Carancho

I believe I watched this movie in one long sigh, probably with my mouth open all the time. I suppose is not an easy-to-watch film for many as so realistically shows what is truth in so many countries in the world. It was hard-to-watch for me because I know that I just have to go to other side of the city I’m currently living to watch live many of the things portrayed here even if insurance payouts does not really exist here as a flourishing industry. Maybe because of the last comment the film make me feel similar emotions as when I watched Cristi Puiu’s The Death of Mr. Lazarescu.

I was absolutely overcome by the story but this could not have been  possible if the movie was not almost flawless. Pablo Trapero’s movie is a very complete cinematic experience that successfully travels many film genres and with a film noir (strict term definition) style tells about the sleazy lawyer business that takes advantage of people misfortunes. Set in a Buenos Aires bleak suburb film slowly introduces characters, so slowly that you start to get anxious for the drama to explode and when it does you find no relief as tension only goes up. Very painful to watch but also very gratifying if you appreciate good world cinema. Yes this Trapero’s movie belongs to world cinema as absolutely goes far beyond the Latin American current cinema jungle.

As I said before, I’ll watch everything with Ricardo Darin, he’s such a multifaceted actor that since the first film I saw with him, a very long time ago, has blown my mind as he always so-well creates intense complex characters no matter the role he plays. Sleazy lawyer Sosa is no exception, as with sights, body language and facial expressions makes a non-likable character totally human in every sense of the word. Amazing. But here we also have Pablo Trapero’s real-life wife in another mesmerizing-to-watch role. My first experience with Martina Gusman was in Trapero’s Leonera (Lion’s Den), have seen some of her TV work but definitively is one actress that I’ll follow especially after watching how good she created Luján the complex young doctor that recently arrived to Buenos Aires from the provinces. Superb actors and great cast.

As a movie has a technical quality equal… no, above great world cinema. I know that many will inevitably make comparisons between this movie and the one that won the Oscar last year for Best foreign language film as both star Ricardo Darin, but not only Darin has two very different roles but also films are very different. Is precisely in the technical quality where both Darin’s stellar films have the most difference as Trapero’s film is superior to The Secret of Their Eyes. That’s how good tech specs are in this movie as absolutely are essential part of everything that happens in the narrative.

Definitively not an easy-to-watch movie but one that everyone that loves great world cinema should watch and as such I strongly recommend it; absolutely must be seen to those that chose to follow Ricardo Darin and Martina Gusman performances and most of all, to realize how Pablo Trapero is becoming a master filmmaker.

My fourth 2010 Cannes film and it’s official, I’m slowly changing my perception of the festival film quality from the so-so to the great! Hope the trend continues as I go on further exploring the films.

Big Enjoy!!!

Watch trailer @MOC