date watched: May 23, 2009
location: Apgujung CGV, Seoul, South Korea
Honestly, purchasing the tickets for this movie wasn't so much for the movie as it was for the actors' introduction.
I don't really know the Japanese actor, but I'm a huge fan of Ha Jungwoo, who did a marvelous job as a psychopath serial killer in CHUGYEOGJA/THE CHASER (Na Hong-jin, 2008).
There really isn't a whole lot to say about the film, since it didn't leave a particularly strong impression on me; needless to say, it was not a first-rate movie.
But I do want to say one thing about co-productions involving two or more countries. It's one thing when the whole script is written in one language and then directed by a foreign filmmaker. And it is another thing when the script seems neither here nor there, and it is clear that too many cooks ruined the stew, so to speak.
So far, I think the best co-productions were those that gave the director "free reign," but was backed by foreign currency. For example, all, or almost all, of Jim Jarmusch's films were made with the help of Japanese investors.
There are, of course, exceptions. I would say that Jean-Luc Godard did a fine job in Contempt (1963) mixing English, French, Italian, and sometimes German (via Fritz Lang). It's true that Godard was more often than not satirizing the concept of co-productions, but it was artfully done, nonetheless.
No comments:
Post a Comment