Spider Forest and other odds and ends.

Well, I finally got around to posting my review of Spider Forest. I probably spent too much verbage on the manifesto at the front, but I can go back and edit the thing later, I guess. Interesting movie, though not entirely successful. If Korea can find screenwriters the equal of their filmmakers, they'll kick the crap out of every other national cinema in the world. Mark my words.

Started Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance last night before football. I'll finish it tonight. The most striking thing about it isn't the violence (so far), but the way Chan Wook Park composes the film frame. I haven't counted them yet, but the number of shots where the screen is bi-sected by a vertical barrier is surprisingly high. This makes me wonder if this isn't another veiled allegory to the politics of the Korean penninsula--a thematic hold-over from Joint Security Area, if you will. I didn't get that from Old Boy, but I sure as hell get it from this.

I may have to put Mr. Vengeance on hold for a bit, though. Warner's new version of King Kong came out today. It's hard to resist the eighth wonder of the world...