THREE…EXTREMES (Hong Kong, 2004)
Directed by: Takeshi Miike, Park Chan-Wook, Fruit Chan
Starring: Bai Ling, Tony Leung Kar-fai, Miriam Yeung, Lee Byung-Hun, Kang Hye-Jeong, Lim Won-Hie, Kyoko Hasegawa, Atsuro Watabe
In the ‘60s, omnibus horror movies were standard fare. Movies like Black Sabbath introduced Americans to the work of Italian horror maestro, Mario Bava, with three short stories wrapped up in one poisonous little pill. Now THREE…EXTREMES introduces Americans to the work of three of Asia’s best directors, each helming a nasty little horror flick.
BOX – directed by Takeshi Miike, Japan’s King of Cruelty. Miike has established himself as one of the world’s most extreme directors with movies like Audition, Ichi the Killer, and the recent One Missed Call. Now he goes against expectations with a quiet movie about one of those creepy little child contortionists that are the bread and butter of Cirque de Soleil. She’s all grown up now, but something’s come scuttling out of her past and it’s very flexible. Quiet, atmospheric, and as grim and creepy as the scrape of the gravedigger’s shovel on snow.
CUT – directed by Park Chan-Wook, the Korean director whose Oldboy won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2004, and whose JSA is one of the highest-grossing and best-loved Korean films of all time. Director Park turns in a “Tales from the Crypt”-style short story about a horror movie director who arrives home one night to find a disgruntled extra who gives him a choice: kill a little girl, or watch his piano playing wife lose her fingers one at a time.
DUMPLINGS – directed by Fruit Chan. Hong Kong’s arthouse hero teams up with Wong Kar-wai’s cinematographer, Christopher Doyle, and international crazy lady, Bai Ling, to deliver a piping hot short film that is the most disturbing thing you’ll ever see. The premise? A mainland Chinese woman (Bai Ling) has set herself up in Hong Kong selling rich wives the secret of eternal youth: dumplings made of human fetus. You’ll be licking your lips in anticipation and thinking of all the smooth young skin that could be yours with just one crunchy little bite.