Movie Reviews

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I Saw the Devil
Rated: R for graphic depictions of violence
Director: Jee-woon Kim
Writer: Hoon-hung Park (screenplay)
Starring: Byung-hun Lee, Min-sik choi, and Gook-hwan Jeon

Summary borrowed from IMDB: When his pregnant fiancee becomes the latest victim of a serial killer, a secret agent blurs the line between good and evil in his pursuit of revenge.

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Title: The Monster a.k.a. Home Sweet Home
Starring: Shu Qi and Alex Fong, Tam Chun-Ho
Summary: A young family moves into a nice Hong Kong high rise and things immediately begin to go badly for them. They’re only there for a short time–maybe a week–when their three year old son Chi Lo is abducted. The mother frantically searches for her son after the police have given up after only a few weeks. Some of her actions during her search–falling through the ceiling, buying a big rottweiler, etc–have some of the other inhabitants of her building thinking that she’s just some crazy woman. But she is certain that some strange, rag-wearing woman has taken her son and she’s not going to stop until she gets him back.

Opinion: Though this movie is classed as a “horror” movie, it would be a mistake to try and judge it by the same criteria as the usual Chinese horror movies (“The Eye,” “Gu-On,” etc.) And even though some parts were a tad overdramatic, it was still very interesting and I actually became very sympathetic of “the monster.”

I would recommend watching this movie, just don’t rate it on the basis of the usual horror movies. Don’t go into it blind and prepare yourself to be moved to tears over the plight of the supposed villain.

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The Man From Nowhere
Korean action movie
Director: Jeong-beom Lee
Writer: Jeong-beom Lee
Starring: Bin Won, Thanayong Wongtrakul, and Sae-ron Kim

Summary borrowed from IMDB: A quiet pawnshop keeper with a violent past takes on a drug- and organ trafficking ring in hope of saving the child who is his only friend.

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Returner
Directed by: Takashi Yamazaki
Written by: Takashi Yamazaki, Kenya Hirata
Starring: Takeshi Kaneshiro, Anne Suzuki, and Goro Kishitani

Summary from IMDB: A young woman from the future forces a local gunman to help her stop an impending alien invasion which will wipe out the human race.

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