In one of my favorite T.V. cartoons, “The Critic”, Jay Sherman sings "I love French films, pretentious, boring French Films. I love French films, two tickets s'il vous plaît!" That was 1994 and Jay Sherman was taking his middle-school aged son and his Cuban girlfriend to the movies. Sherman was a film critic who hated almost every movie he saw, basically only considering foreign movies worth ratings other than "it stinks!"
I connect with Sherman in this regard. In many cases, I would much rather watch a good foreign movie over a good American movie. This isn't to say that simply because the movie touches American hands that it possesses diminished quality, but instead that American film motifs are familiar, overused and boring. Name one recent American movie that doesn't have love somewhere...anywhere...in the whole film. Even the refreshing originals, like Inception, fall back to some of these overused themes.
Among all the world film industries, Korea stands alone as understanding the balance between art and excitement: French movies are very artistic, much like slowly walking through a museum – and American movies are exciting, like riding a rollercoaster. But like a museum trying to make a “fun exhibit!” or a theme park displaying local art, the movie just comes off as all wrong. There are some gems worth the time and money of viewers, but unfortunately the vast majority of American cinema is starting to rot to the point of inedibility.
But before we start, we should get the obvious out of the way. Most (perhaps all) Korean movies that make it to American DVD have already proven wildly successful in their home country, or the movies received sparkling reviews at international film festivals. Deciding to add English subtitles and ship them over here appears to be an afterthought – should the movie be good enough, Korean movie executives decide to ship it over. Contrast that with American movies in an American market; we see movies that have been unfiltered by previous audiences. If we lived in another country and only the top 10 grossing American movies received time in our home theater, we would probably also operate on the assumption that Americans only make quality movies. It is also an interesting fact that Korea is one of the only countries in the open-market world where domestic movies control more market than American movies.
With that out of the way, we can proceed with the list. But it is worth keeping in mind that the market filters the good/bad movies, which is partially the reason why foreign movies that appear in American theaters are usually of high quality and worthwhile reviews (at the time of writing, RottenTomatoes has only 3 movies out of 10 with a total rating above 71%. Granted, RottenTomatoes’ system considers movies “Fresh” if 6 out of 10 critics recommend it, but that simple majority may reflect diminished expectations).
1) Less Reliance on New Technology.
It’s great that America leads the world in movie technology. I can still be awed by what computers can do in movies. But I believe that the technology has also made movies more complacent. A very fair criticism can be made that the major reason the prequel Star Wars movies were so bad was George Lucas' technology fetish. He sacrificed the humanity of the movies, making them less emotional and staler (this argument is also made by Red Letter Media's awesome movie reviews, watchable here). We can also see this in the original Paranormal Activity when compared with My Soul To Take. Since Paranormal Activity couldn't afford fancy computer effects, the movie built fear and tension in a more human way. Instead of chasing people with axes, perhaps to the point of comedy, Katie would spend hours standing by the bed of her boyfriend Micah, watching him as he slept. The director said that he wanted to use the vulnerability of our sleep to scare audiences -- and it worked amazingly well. The Nightmare on Elm Street remake was essentially the same theme -- horror from the vulnerability of sleep -- but executed in a stale way. Now with a bigger budget, I'm scared Paranormal Activity 2 will use technology to turn the franchise into Nightmare on Elm Street. At present time, I have yet to see the sequel.
Korean movies rarely possess the same amount of technology or budgetary freedom and so they rely on the niches of artistic means coupled with character nuances. If Korean movies need an actor tense, the director uses the actor to show the tension. Contrast this with many American movies that use music and jerky camera angles to convey the same idea. And this applies to nearly every movie emotion: love, fear, excitement, tension, regret. Korean movies attempt the emotional rollercoaster humanly.
Paranormal Activity on Amazon
2) New Takes on Hollywood Motifs.
Hollywood has overused their themes and motifs to the point of nausea. Any sports movie will essentially follow this story arch: the person/team is currently struggling, tries something new and imaginative, fails at first, but they stick with it and eventually see it pay off. We can apply it to Major League, The Replacements, The Mighty Ducks franchise, Miracle, The Longest Yard. There are a few exceptions -- perhaps they stick with it and they lose, but the protagonists learned a valuable lesson on the way and probably rediscovered love or their passion for the sport. This is what we expect from sports movies and what we get.
Korea also makes sports movies! But they usually add enough twists or changes to ignite the drama and actually make you care about what you're watching. In Forever The Moment, the filmmakers took a gamble -- make a sport movie involving a sport that nobody watches or cares about (Olympic Handball) -- then another gamble by making it the women's team. They show the story of the Olympic team members working in grocery stores, unknown to anyone since nobody watches the sport. The team trains hard, fights with each other and has the general expected conflicts of working on a team going through several coaching crises. And while the movie does abuse some annoying sports clichés (the star player quitting then coming back at the last moment), the characters are interesting enough to keep us engaged. Then when the team loses, we aren't depressed because of failure -- instead we are depressed because we saw the dreams of the individuals thrashed. We care less about the sport than we do about the success of the women.
In Superstar Mr. Gam, the protagonist is a factory worker dreaming of playing for the professional Korean baseball league. He tries out and makes it mostly because he throws so slowly that nobody can hit his ball. He’s a benchwarmer the whole season – an unremarkable player that is confused for a fan when a superstar pitcher sees him holding a baseball. And when Mr. Gam is finally given a chance to pitch in a crucial game, he loses. But we like him enough anyways that victory or defeat, it doesn’t matter which, he is still respected by the audience.
Forever the Moment -- part of a box set
3) Diverse Settings.
Movies taking place in the far off past seem to be out of style. I'm not too sure why, but if the setting isn't World War II, there don't seem to be many historical movies. But it's important to remember that historical movies can be extremely enjoyable (Braveheart and Gladiator for example). It is my assumption that Hollywood feels that if the setting is unfamiliar to audiences, they won't go. Perhaps the filmmakers are uncomfortable with new settings. Or, if the setting is unfamiliar, there needs to be massive changes to make it more like today (The Patriot, while enjoyable, made Mel Gibson superhuman AND fabricated the results of the final battle, which was in fact a loss for the Continental Army. Why not use a battle we won? Or just let us lose, audiences know we lost battles but won the war…right?).
Korean movies are much bolder in choosing interesting, fun and diverse settings. The Good, The Bad, The Weird is a gun slinging Western in 1930's China. Several movies take place when Korea was a colony of Japan. A few horror movies take place some 300 years ago where we see traditional Korea clothes. Go Go 70 takes place during the 70's. The President’s Barber takes place during the 60's and on. You're In A Far Away Nation takes the perspective of Korean involvement with the Vietnam war. I think this shows that Korean filmmakers are more comfortable making movies outside their contemporary experience. I also think this shows that filmmakers give their audience some historical credit. American audiences loved Titanic, despite an 80 year gap. So it isn't as if people from the past are foreign to us nowadays, it just seems filmmakers are uncomfortable playing with settings.
The Good, the Bad, the Weird on Amazon
4) Forgettable Characters in Memorable Situations.
The Saw franchise is what I consider to the poster-child of cookie-cutter situations where the characters don't matter at all. The first and second Saw could possibly be considered slightly better than the rest of the series, but the point is similar: if the movie can place any character in the same situation and not change the story, the movie has a very serious problem. The best movies have character-driven stories – would The Social Network be different had the protagonist not been Jesse Eisenberg’s Mark Zuckerberg? Of course! The whole story was built around Zuckerberg’s choices, actions, reactions, motives, desires and fears. If we put anybody else into that situation, the story would unfold differently. In the first Saw, the doctor and photographer are unique enough that their decisions would have some impact on the story (replace Adam with a woman, perhaps Dr. Gordon would have made different choices). This is sedated in the sequel (too many shallow characters) and completely absent in the rest of the series. The only difference between characters is the occupation and the actor/actress.
Many Korean movies have deeper, more complicated characters. It seems that much of the action, tension, love and emotion comes from the characters and not the situation. In one “Simpsons” episode, Ron Howard is pitching a script and says one character faces "a heart-breaking decision to make about whether his best friend lives...or dies." The executive hates the idea, so Howard steals Homer's script idea involving a time-traveling robot and says the robot also faces "a heart-breaking decision to make about whether his best friend lives...or dies.” Without missing a beat, Howard wants a “Sophie's Choice.” It didn't matter who the characters were, or the story’s evolution; all he wanted was a situation and then place the characters in the situation (much like Saw). A better idea would be to create a character that builds up to a point – this would help the audience care about which choice the protagonist makes. Then when the audience cares about the choice, they care about the result. The Korean buddy-cop movies have been abused with repetition, but still manage some strength because the situations result from character decisions. And the audience gets the feeling that if the character were different, so would the movie pivot on that difference.
5) Play with Genres.
It took me a long time to appreciate Korean genre-blending. Sex Is Zero is the perfect archetype and also the specific movie that introduced me to the blending of genres. Sex is Zero is the American Pie of Korea. It is raunchy, sexual, and funny, meant for high school/college viewers. What was most surprising is how quickly it turns serious and after that turn, is no longer a comedy. By all means, the movie seems primarily a sexual coming of age comedy. In one scene, a few male college roommates want to see what happens to sperm if fried in a pan. When their other roommate returns and thinks it would be funny to eat “the fried egg sandwich,” his roommates desperately try to stop him (somewhat mimicking the “pale ale” scene in American Pie). The protagonist, an awkward and horny young man, discovers later that his love interest was dumped by her boyfriend after becoming pregnant. He decides it should be his responsibility to support her during the tear-filled abortion. The character deepens because he shows a love beyond lust, a deeper appreciation for the woman, and an attempt to right a wrong. There are attempts at humor after that point, but it's impossible to laugh after the 180 degree emotional turn.
I saw this occur during many other movies -- ghost movie up to a point, then a romance; crime then comedy; thriller then drama. My first analysis was that Korean films were suffering from identity crisis. Perhaps they just couldn't stick to one genre, so they kept exploring and whatever was the final product was fine. But when I returned to American movies, I became disappointed. It seemed that most American movies could be summarized with one sentence. There was no complexity, no originality. Once a formula for success was found, milk it until it ran dry (remember several Japanese horror remakes after The Ring? The Grudge and Dark Water quickly came to mind), then move on. And as much as we can enjoy American Pie, play with the genre a little more and get something good!
Sex Is Zero on Amazon
6) Can't Predict the Unexpected!
The first Korean horror movie I ever saw, A Tale of Two Sisters, wasn't actually that scary. But when I first watched it, my heart wouldn't stop racing. Why? Because I had nothing to compare it to -- I had no idea what to expect. In American horror movies, when the camera angle changes or the music becomes creepier, we know something is going to happen. Our heart races a little bit. When the conversation is quiet, relaxed with a stable camera, we're relaxed. But A Tale of Two Sisters was quiet and stable the whole movie -- so what hinted that something was about to happen? Nothing. I kept waiting and waiting for the horror, and when it did arrive, I had nothing to prepare me. There were no jumps. In one scene, the awkwardness of dinner builds to a climax when a woman suddenly faints. We don’t see why until a few minutes later, when she describes the person hiding under the sink.
With foreign movies, we have that unpredictability. Until we see enough to consider ourselves accustomed to the culture, we're stuck in perpetual uneasiness. The few horror movies that push the genre in a new direction (The Ring, Paranormal Activity...even Scream for revitalizing slashers) are the most exciting. But they are rare precisely because there is risk involved. After watching enough Korean horror movies, you can get a general hypothesis working and ready to offer predictions...to some degree, destroying the unpredictability. But even then, it takes a lot longer. Hopefully by that point, you’ll have discovered what makes Korean cinema so amazing.
A Tale of Two Sisters on Amazon
7) That Special Director Touch.
American films have a few directors where you can recognize the style of their movie without even reading the credits: Wes Anderson, Coen Brothers, Stanley Kubrick. Korea has these character directors as well: Bong Joon-Ho, Park Chan-Wook, Kim Ki-Duk and Im-Kwon Taek.
Kim Ki-Duk is the easiest example and probably the most artistic and philosophical of contemporary Korean filmmakers. I haven’t seen his earlier work that brought him to prominence, but Bad Guy, Spring Summer Fall Winter And Spring, Samaritan Girl, 3-Iron, and Breath stand as some of the most fascinating and experimental movies in the world (I once met a French woman doing her graduate thesis on Kim Ki-Duk movies, who would be more authoritative on the subject than I). All his movies have something religious, perhaps even a little spiritual about them. In Samaritan Girl, two high school friends work together as prostitute-and-pimp to earn money. When one accidently dies, the second girl takes up prostitution as atonement for her friend’s death. The Samaritan believes that her service actually helps her customers and makes her a better person.
3-Iron is about a homeless man who breaks into apartments and houses every night, performing small chores as payment for the stay. After he is caught and sent to prison, he eventually escapes by disappearing…literally. In perhaps one of Kim’s most powerful scenes, the man reappears behind his love’s husband to kiss her, taking her outstretched hand that moments ago was finding nothing. The whole movie feels like a dream – as many of Kim’s movies do.
Bad Guy on Amazon
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring on Amazon
Samaritan Girl on Amazon
3-Iron on Amazon (Cover depicts described scene)
8) Actors Devoted to Art.
I didn’t really notice this until recently, when I had a friend point it out. Oldboy stars Choi Min-Sik, an established actor in his 40’s. The role requires Oh Dae-Su, the character, to fall to his knees, beg the antagonist for forgiveness, lick the antagonists’ shoes and wag his tail while barking like a dog. My friend was surprised simply because it was a very demeaning scene. He wondered aloud if any American actors would do it. Subsequently, he wondered if any 40 year old established American actors would take a role requiring so much embarrassment. I wondered too.
In an earlier scene, the character was required to eat a live octopus, something that isn’t necessarily abnormal in Korea. But since Choi is Buddhist, he was religiously opposed to doing it. Nonetheless, he executed the scene perfectly (well, not so much. It required several takes and he prayed every time). Choi understood that, even as the star, he couldn’t expect the script rewritten for his personal preferences. Would we be able to say the same for American actors?
What are your thoughts? Are there countries in the world creating amazing movies that I need to see? Should American movies still be considered the undisputed ruler of worldwide cinema? And subsequently, is anyone capable of taking them down?
Originally posted at http://bethanytableexperience.blogspot.com/
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