Love comes in abnormal forms

Its officially winter here and all I can think about is snuggling up in my bed and watching a movie. But I’m really in the mood for an action films and I’m bored with the normal run of the mill romantic comedies. So I was looking around and I found these three movies and they’re definitely not what you would call average.

 
Eega (Makkhi) 2012

Language(s): Hindi, Telugu, Tamil

Rating:

This is an Indian romantic fantasy film directed by S S Rajamouli. The film starts with Nani, a man who makes fireworks, who loves his neighbor Bindu. She loves him back but chooses not to show it. A millionaire and womanizer named Sudeep immediately becomes infatuated with Bindu upon meeting her and becomes jealous of her feelings towards Nani. Sudeep starts following Nani and Bindu around and becomes enraged when Nani confesses his feelings to her over the phone, so Sudeep decides to kill him. Upon dying, when Nani hears that Bindu

feels the same way he is reborn as a fly and is bent on revenge against Sudeep. In other words, hilarity ensues.

I thought this film was so funny.  There are a lot of beautifully exaggerated visual effects that I loved and the story line itself is really quirky. It starts off with you thinking its going to be an average romantic film and then your introduced to a sorcerer and a man reborn as a fly bent for revenge. 

 

   Viva! Love (2008)

Language(s): Korean

Rating: NR

So the film focuses on Bong-soon, a fifty year old woman running some type of in home hotel/lodging business and a karaoke bar. She lives with her husband Mr. Ha and her daughter Jung-Yoon. Now here’s where things get interesting. Jung-Yoon is caught in a relationship with one of her mother’s tenants, Ku-Sang,and when her parents find out she decides to get engaged to Ku Sang. Jung-Yoon suddenly finds a job in the city and leaves nothing but a letter of apology. Ku-Sang is devastated and passes out in the streets where Bong-soon finds him, takes him home, and falls in love with the pitiful boy. After a one night stand Bong-soon finds out she’s pregnant and the two express their love for one another.

This movie was very “woah” to me. The beginning definitely caught my attention. What’s more interesting than a middle aged woman with a husband and adult daughter falling in love with her daughter’s ex boyfriend? A few of the twists in the film had me thinking they were a little too cliche and the ending left me feeling “that’s it?” Overall I really didn’t think it was that bad but I feel the other two films I watched are a lot better.

 

 

Seducing Mr. Perfect (2006)

Language(s): Korean, English

Rating: PG-13

Also known as Mr. Robin kkosigi, Seducing Mr. Perfect is about Min-jun, a woman who was recently dumped, bumps into the car of Robin Haiden and pretends she doesn’t know any English, having no idea that he is her new boss. She ends up asking Haiden for advice  in an attempt to avoid getting dumped again since he comes off as being Mr.Perfect. Haiden sees love as nothing more than a game of chess and when Min-jun starts acting in this way she realizes its simply not for her.

Although I think this is definitely worth the watch, for the most part this is one of your average romantic comedies. What makes this film abnormal from other films like it, is its English-Korean script. The character Robin only speaks English for the most part while Min-jun speaks Korean. Both characters understand both languages but have a hard time speaking their non native language. It definitely leads to a lot of comedic misunderstandings.

 

Tales of Revenge from South Korea

Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man’s nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out. -Francis Bacon.

Who doesn’t think of getting vengeance after they’d been wronged by someone? These three films will make you think differently about the concept of revenge as each one posses a unique ending.

The Man from Nowhere (2010)

Language: Korean

Rating: R

This film was so exciting. It follows a pawnshop owner by the name of Cha Tae-sik, whose neighbor is a heroin addict and her daughter, Jeong So-mi, often comes to play with him. After taking some money from a gang, Jeong So-mi and her mom are kidnapped. This gang sends an assailant to Cha Tae-sik who kills him with ease. Cha Tae-sik is shrowded in mystery as no one can find information on him about his life for the past five years. It seem’s like he just came out of nowhere. *pun intended*

Out of the three film’s this one is probably my favorite. It’s a really good film filled with mystery, drama, and action of course. The overall plot had me hooked within the first ten minutes and I couldn’t help but feel bad for Cha Tae-sik and Jeong So-mi. Both are revealed to have rough lives, Cha Tae-sik’s past is quite heart touching. There wasn’t a moment when I was watching this film that I wasn’t on edge or curious about what was going to happen.

 

 

The Housemaid (2006)

Language: Korean

Rating: NR

Eun-yi Li is a divorced woman coming to work as a maid for a very high class family. The wife is expecting twins and already has a daughter named Nami. The husband comes home late often but treats Eun-yi Li and the head maid of the house, Byung-sik, with respect. The family takes a trip to a winter cabin,leaving Byung-sik at home. There the husband, Hoon Goh, goes into Eun-yi Li’s room and has an affair with her while his pregnant wife sleeps upstairs. When they return home, he pays her for it and they continue their relationship.  Byung-sik discovers that Eun-yi is pregnant and tells Nami’s grandmother. From this point on the family is trying to figure out how to get rid of the baby.

This is a lot more drama filled compared to the last film. I’m more into action but this was a nice revenge film. I’ve gotta say the ending of this movie really made me think. Her form of revenge said more about her assailants than herself. I had to watch it a few times but the family goes on as if nothing happened. They don’t face any problems they just hide it with money if they can, or completely ignore it. Without the film ending the way it did, I think it wouldn’t have had the same impact.

OldBoys (2003)

Language: Korean

Rating: R

The movie starts off with one man holding another over a cliff but quickly switches to a drunkard in a police office. This is our main character, Dae-Su Oh. He’s a father who, after being picked up by his best friend and on his way home, he suddenly disappears. When he wakes up he’s inside a small room and is imprisoned there for fifteen years. When he escapes he’s on a mission to find out who put him away and why, but things become very complex and his revenge isn’t as sweet as he’d hoped.

 

This is definitely the type of film that would make you think twice about wanting revenge. Dae-Su is imprisoned for fifteen years for what he’d purposely did to someone else. His thirst for revenge leaves him speechless, literally. After watching this I was left with so many questions. Was Dae-su right for wanting revenge although his imprisonment was someone else’s revenge? Revenge is just one big whirlpool spinning its victims round and round until it kills them all.