Weekly Kaiju Movie Thread #20 (9/21)

[Alpha OTS]

[klen7]

[Henry88]

[klen7]

[Henry88]

make way for the killer squid thing.

[MekaGojira3k]

[Henry88]

[klen7]

i think that depends on who participates in the discussion

[metal_bryan]

[Henry88]

so many jokes i could put here

[Alpha OTS]

[klen7]

This seemed like a good film to watch with my daughter.


SPOILERS!!!

The Good
I have a lot of love for this film. It's a bit of a genre bender since it
has elements of drama, comedy, action and horror and it seems to blend them
all pretty well. While I am not normally a fan of CG monsters, i think it
is done very well here, especially the inital attack scene. I also like the
way the monster swings with its tail, it is pretty unique and works well
with the creature design.

There are a couple scenes of comedy that stand out to me.. the scene were
the guy turns on the news to explain the situation is pretty funny since
that happens so often in films but would never work in reality.. also the
scene where the man spits at the bus stop.

There is very artistic eye that makes a lot of very nice imagery in the
film and even though the monster is added in post production, you get a
sense that the director had each sequence painstakenly planned out before
it was shot... There is a great scene where the military is fumigating when
a man gets out of his truck and picks up some money before the monster
attacks, but the camera work is timed perfectly starting at his feet
hitting a puddle and panning up as he walks, lingering on the water just
enough to make you wonder if there is something just below the surface,
then he turns to come back and then BAM monster swings in. The movie does
not rely on a lot of quick cuts and close ups which seem to plague modern
american horror.

I also have a little bit of "sympathy for the devil" with this film.. there
is a scene where the creature is drinking rain water, and its that moment
that paints the creature, not as a malovenlent force of nature, but simply
an animal acting on instincts. Because of this scene I find the means of
the creatures demise to be a bit tragic. Granted the creature needed to die
since it had taken human lives, but still i felt pity for the beast.


The Bad
There is some dramatic elements that are a bit dark which make this movie
suffer a little for repeated viewings. If i had made the film, one or both
of the main deaths would likely have not happended since i felt like there
was enough tension around the quest, and enough conflict with the
government... I have seen a few other Korean films (Thirst, Mother, The
Vengence Triology) and they were all a bit dark, so it may be a cultural
thing.

Also The dub is a bit rough. I own the 2 disk collector's edition of this
film, and this is the first time i watched the dub. I initially saw this
subtitled during its theatrical run, and have seen it subtitled the couple
times i have seen it since.

The Weird
I guess i need to watch the director's commentary, but there are two
scenes, which i am sure are symbolic that don't seem to fit perfectly. The
first is the dinner scene where the girl is with the rest of the family.
The other scene takes place in the sewers where the girl has a brightly
colored spider on her. I am not sure if that was meant to create tension,
but the bright color and the fact that it wasn't really moving towards her
face or anything have me wondering why the shot was included at all.



I give this film 4 out of 5 spent shotgun shells... or was it 5 out of 5?

[klen7]

[Alpha OTS]

[MekaGojira3k]

[Henry88]

[MouthForWar]

I LOVE THIS MOVIE.

Unfortunately, I've been sucking with these lately (REALLY meant to get to Yog last time, but it just wasn't in the cards )

Anyway, don't know if I'll get around to this one. I've seen it a good 4 or 5 times though, so my motivation to get to this one might be a little weak, so it isn't the highest on my list of things to watch this week. Regardless, this is a film that I honestly enjoy more with each viewing (I was "meh" the first time, now I full blown LOVE this flick).

And Gwoeumal (or whatever) is easily one of the coolest movie monsters of the last decade.

[klen7]

[Henry88]

[jellydonut25]

[Alpha OTS]

Wow. Just simply. Wow. I finished watching this the night before last, and I was kind of irritated with myself afterwards that I have gone this long without watching this movie again.

Rewind a bit earlier in the evening, and I had trouble finding the dvd in my collection because I had put it in the "horror" section of my dvds, away from the kaiju stuff. So I finally find it, pop it in, and start to watch it with the dub. Something seemed off about what was being said during the first few scenes, so I started over with the subtitles.

The picture on this dvd is fantastic. Not only that, but as I found out while watching this movie has an excellent 5.1 soundtrack. The creature's footsteps use the subwoofer perfectly, and the whole initial attack scene is the reason I have my home theater, which I didn't have when I had first watched the movie years ago. This was seriously a ton of fun.

As I was trying to find a couple screen grabs, I had the opportunity to listen to the dub. It's....ok. That might be generous. Gang-du's voice isn't right at all. This might be the reason I hadn't watched it in so long, because I'm almost positive I only watched the dub the first time. Never again. Again, not that the dub is horrible, just that its really missing the emotion coming from these characters who really are the best part of the movie.

So in copying klen's system of the good and the bad, the good is definitely this dysfunctional family of characters. Every single one of them. You get to know them, and even if you don't like them at first, you find you soon do. Gang-du's character arc is particularly good. It's with that in mind that I took a couple screen grabs catching these moments.



And the scene where the father is explaining why Gang-du is how he is is just a great scene from start to finish.



So the bad, it'd have to be the whole virus subplot. It works for making this family a bunch of refugees from the law, but when the one scientist admits there's been no virus found in the American soldier that died, it just gets a bit confusing. I get that there's a statement being made throughout the film about unwieldly government power, but it gets confused when you realize that Gang-du's saying there's something wrong with his back, but then that's soon forgotten.

I just put the movie back on the shelf from where I found it, but I'm realizing as I type this that I need to put it in my kaiju section so I don't go so long without watching this again.

[klen7]