World of Silence (Joyong-han saesang) (2006) • South Korea

When I saw the poster for this movie of the two guys and the girl with the big red clown lips painted on her face I said, "That's messed up, that's freaky. I'll gamble." It paid.

World of Silence, a.k.a. Missing Girl, is a classic who-dunnit mystery/suspense/thriller/melodrama drama/buddy cop comedy from South Korea. At its heart is the story of a world weary cop and his goofball partner investigating a series of murders of young orphaned girls who appear to have been tripping on non-indigenous magic mushrooms and otherwise treated very well before being killed. No visible signs of trauma. Dressed nicely. Woven into that is the story of a man who possesses extra-sensory abilities and a constantly unfolding history of sadness and loss who, coincidentally or not, appears ahead of the cops at each of the crime scenes and who, as plot would have it, takes custody of a young orphaned girl who has a plot moving special disease.

This film is sprinkled with throw-popcorn-at-the-screen, Crime and Punishment style coincidences and delivered with a controlled ominosity worthy of Brian De Palma and General Hospital. The more films I see from South Korea the more I see that this kind of mixed mellow drama genre bag is quite common. It might take a little patience and getting used to, but when it's as well executed as World of Silence it's a very fulfilling film experience. I hesitate to throw melodrama into the mix because it often conjures up associations of chick-flick, which this flick is certainly not. In the capable hands of director Jo Ui-seok, melodrama is a key ingredient, used almost as a heat check, a dare, alongside mystery elements and light-hearted humor to keep the audience engaged.

Despite the groan-out-loud-inducing plot moves and a few eye-rollers to boot, I loved this movie. The performances are all top-notch. Yong-woo Park (My Scary Girl) plays the world-weary detective with a cynical sense of humor, unkempt hair, and a cool leather jacket he steals from a co-starring criminal who plays a key role in solving the murder case. Sang-kyung Kim, who played that cool cop role in Memories of Murder, plays the mystery man here looking good in an elegant, long black overcoat putting some freak in the head of the world weary detective. A very pleasant surprise is the uncredited young girl who plays the orphan Soo-yeon Park. She is adorably able to transform her screen presence from sad orphaned girl whose father died in a car accident and whose mother's been in a coma for two years but is described to her as just having a really bad cold and needing to take a really long nap, a nap that Soo-yeon hopes she will awaken from in time to attend her upcoming talent recital, to a smiling and feeling-loved 3rd-grader in the length of a breath.

World of Silence peels off layer upon layer, uncovering about five film's worth of internal demons and other dramatic tragedies, but it ends, and it seems to end a few times, like a sportscaster screaming "No! No! I don't believe it! Don't ..." and then "Great shot!" when it goes in.

★★★★★

Rouge (Crocodile) 2007 • Australia

As far as mean monster croc movies go this one is pretty decent because the characters are fairly well drawn and the environments both creepy and beautiful. It's more of a suspense film than a chew 'em up slowly gore slasher. We get only brief glimpses of the angry man eater until the third act which takes place in a different location from the first two.

The first act is devoted to character development, some basic saltwater crocodile facts, and lots of beautiful scenery shots of Australia's rugged Northern Territory. It's here that we decide who we hope gets killed and who we think will be the heroes. The second act finds the group of tourists and their guide trapped on a tiny little island after the big croc takes a bite out of their boat. This island is in a tidal river which means it will soon be underwater; and it will soon be dark.

The second act sees the group attempting a number of escape routines, as tensions build and the population shrinks. We still don't see much of the monster, just people who are there one minute and gone the next. An attempt is made to trick and trap the crocodile, if only for a few minutes so the group can make a run, er ... swim for it.

One of croc-o-facts we learn is that they often don't swallow their prey whole right away, but rather they take it to a hiding place and save it for later. This is where the third act takes place. The hero attempts to rescue the heroine from the crocodile's den. It's a pretty cool looking lair and we get lots of angry croc shots here. It looks and acts pretty realistic, revealing its CGI inner child only briefly. And it's big. But we've only got the hero and heroine left so there's not a lot of snacking going on. If you like your croc flicks gory, give this one a pass. If you're just looking for a little suspenseful fun, Rogue is not too bad.

★★★

An Affair of Love (Une liaison pornographique) (1999) • France

A cute, yes cute, 40ish French couple recount the stages of their pornographic affair to an interviewer while we are treated to flashbackical scenes of meetings and memories. I call the couple cute because most of their acting is thoughtful, sincere reflection, and they are cute doing it.

BIG SPOILER: We are never told nor shown what kind of kinky sex constitutes the affair even though it is referenced a number of times. Instead, the focus is on how they come to actually like one another, going against the code established for the relationship, and then sadly decide to stop seeing one another.

Even though I liked the characters the film seems a bit of a cheap tease, and tries to pull on the heartstrings too much, too artificially. I don't know what the goal for the film is and the ride by itself isn't good enough to compensate. It is not particularly erotic nor sexy, and for a talkie film it has too much yardage between the goal posts. This is one of those films that comes off like a screenwriter's catharsis more than a slice of life.

★★★

Cold Prey (Fritt vilt) (2006) • Norway

Not much here except for some beautiful shots of the Scandinavian Mountains at the beginning. It takes 45 minutes before there are any clues that this might be a scary movie, and then all we see is a anonymous swinging pick axe.

The heroine of the film is the only likeable character; I'm glad the rest of them get killed but it's annoying that it takes our Leatherface clone a couple of goes at each one. This is one of those stupid slasher flicks where somebody takes a pick axe to the face, end of scene, and then shows up later so they can be violently killed again. Their friends don't get to see the first kill which is done in private to try and build tension as the non-killed-yet wonder and fight over "what happened to so and so".

There is more gore to the snowboarding accident than any of the kills. The goofball of the group breaks his shin and we get to see the bone sticking out. Big whoop.

Fritt vilt fails to deliver on all fronts and the film's final shot at humanizing the big jerk Leatherface clone with the pick axe by going full circle with backstory is not worth mentioning. The film comes off like a genre exercise by a director who's not cut out for it.

★★

Blue Gate Crossing (Lan se da men) (2002) • Taiwan

Dreamy, Romantic, Tender. OK We're given those on the poster. They are not the words I would use. Instead, I'd go with: Adorable, Sweet, Sensitive. This is a well-acted, well-directed, well-written movie, a joy to watch.

It took me a few minutes to warm up to the characters, but only a few. We meet the two girls first, a girly girl who seems to be in control, and a brooding follower. Not much to go on with that. Girly girl spots sensitive boy and wants him but insists that brooding girl act as the go-between. The film focuses on the friendship that develops between brooding girl and sensitive boy after that. Brooding girl becomes razor-sharp, adorably-mixed-up-commando-teen when paired with sensitive boy—who falls in love with her.

This film (the director?) does a remarkable job of capturing teens as they are: insecure and passionate; as easily hurt as they are to fall in love. They provoke each other without knowing why and then act like it never happened. One of the many highlights of this film is when the boy and girl, having run out of verbal ammunition, begin a shoving match. It goes on for some time and then they stop. They talk again. The director cuts to a scene of the two of them straightening up their surroundings together. He makes many decisions like that to keep us focused on the big picture: shit happens, and then something else happens. There's no stopping it.

I have to point out that watching this Taiwanese film with English subtitles added quite a bit to the adorableness of it. For example, after brooding girl sets up sensitive boy with girly girl, who knows he likes brooding girl, (you have to see the film to see how that happens), sensitive boy walks girly girl home. After an uncomfortably done good-bye, girly girl calls out after sensitive boy as he's about to mount his bicycle and says: "Zhang Shihao, (pause) can you date with me?" I don't know exactly what was said in Taiwanese, but that odd translation seemed to capture the moment perfectly.

I smiled from ear to ear while watching this movie from the time sensitive boy was introduced until the very end. This is an exceptionally well done film, off-the-charts-delightful.

★★★★★

In Love with the Dead (Chung oi) (2007) • Hong Kong • Danny Pang

Good Pang/Bad Pang. I thoroughly enjoyed this Danny Pang film, surprisingly, after suffering through his Forest of Death catastrophe. It's a well shot and well acted dark and creepy melodrama, just like I've come to expect from the Pang Brothers. My faith is restored.

★★★★

The Aura (El Aura) (2005) • Argentina • Fabián Bielinsky

It's sad Fabián Bielinsky died (young) after making this film because El Aura demonstrates clearly that its director has mastered his domain. There are a few puzzling moments in the script and its characters, but this isn't one of those "Don't go in that room!" thrillers, it's old-school/neo-noir; quietly intense and full of suspense.

Ricardo Darín's peculiarly charactered performance is executed with such subtlety and nuance that it's hard to believe he's acting. The sound design and original score are beautiful, and so perfect for the film they seem to be growing out of it rather than being imposed upon it. There are times when the lack of any soundtrack is deafening. The droning tensions and lilting piano ennui disappear, punctuating the moments of action with a moribund silence.

Sometimes I complain when a film ends with such ambiguity it appears to be a cop-out. But not here. The ending will make you rethink the journey you were just on but it won't devalue its magnificence. This is one of those rare films where the ride is so engaging that its hard to imagine anything but disappointment merely because it does end.

"Aura" is what doctors use to describe the moment before falling into epileptic seizure. Ricardo Darín's character describes it as a moment of pure freedom. The inevitable is so clear that decisions are impossible, hence ... Freedom. Clarity.

★★★★★

Anamorph (2007) • USA

Some films are intentionally ambiguous leaving the final interpretation up to the viewer while others simply fail to tell a cohesive story causing the viewer to invent all kinds of theories about what the film was trying to say. Anamorph falls into the latter category.

This is one of those films where the death/crime scene is a work of morbid art, in the tradition of Se7en and Silence of the Lambs. The film looks good with its fiery cinematography. It's paced well and Willem Dafoe turns in a smoldering performance as the aging cop we're never clear on just how torn apart are his insides. And that's where this film fails. It's never clear about much of anything and tries to justify itself via the concept of the anamorph whose rendering "Depends on where you stand." Flashbacks and reflective turmoil are used to try and fill in the blanks as to why Dafoe's character is so intimately connected to the crimes. The film's denouement gives us a silly special effect suggesting multiple personalities may be involved. But maybe this and maybe that aren't good enough and I'm confident that at film's end you will scratch your head and say "Whaaaa"? It's also disappointing that, surprisingly, we weren't treated to any really good anamorph illusions. Given the title of the film, I'm just saying ....

★★★

The Ruins (2008) • USA

And now for something completely different. An angry temple that eats people; no over-sized half-wit with a chainsaw in this one. Instead, we have blood thirsty shrubs with the ability to reproduce sounds they hear, like cell phones and screaming. They literally get under your skin and when you die they drag you away. If you scream they mock you.

There isn't much particularly scary in this film, but there are a handful of squirm in your seat moments. I like the trend in recent horror movies to keep the gore less gratuitous and more necessary to the plot. Quality over quantity. Give the the special effects department some props for this one.

Jonathan Tucker is a little miscast, I think, but the two girls are pretty good. A couple other bearded guys play meat puppets. They all suffer while we look on. It seems a little odd that this group of kids witness the vines killing and dragging one of them away and then the rest of them just go to sleep in a tent and get up the next morning ready for more worries. Aside from that ....

★★★