2008. 11.21 NOW PLAYING
Happy-Go-Lucky (15)Comedy / 118 min. / English
See review, left.
Blindness (18)
Thriller, Mystery / 121 min. / English
Jose Saramago’s renowned novel “Blindness” is brought to the screen by Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles.
A blindness epidemic suddenly strikes an unnamed city. As the disease spreads, the government decides to quarantine the afflicted. Amongst them is a doctor (Mark Ruffalo). His wife (Julianne Moore), who is not blind but unable to live without him, joins him in the grimy high-security institution where all the visually impaired are isolated. The couple is desperate to survive in the unsanitary facility, which falls into chaos.
As the only person who can observe the chaotic situation, the wife is in shock and decides to lead the blind to a stable environment on an uneasy journey.
Sleuth (15)
Thriller, Mystery / 88 min. / English
Milo Tindle (Jude Law) is an ambitious young man who is having an affair with the wife of Andrew Wyke (Michael Caine), a famously droll writer. Tindle demands that Wyke divorce his wife so that he can marry her.
However, as any successful man would do, Wyke does not give up his wife and instead offers Tindle a deal: a battle in his mansion which is equipped with electronic gadgets and odd contraptions that Tindle has to watch out for. The battle, more like a cat-and-mouse game, becomes a gunfight. Three days after the encounter, inspectors visit Wyke as they retrace Tindle’s footsteps.
Michael Caine starred as Tindle in the 1972 original of this film. Thirty years later, he is in the remake as Wyke.
Max Payne (15)
Thriller, Action / 100 min. / English
Max Payne (Mark Wahlberg) is a cop obsessed with finding the killer of his wife, Michelle, and newborn daughter. Max had caught one of the two murderers but the other can’t be found anywhere.
Max attends a party run by his snitch where he meets Russian sisters Natasha (Olga Kurylenko) and Mona Sax (Mila Kunis).
Natasha wants to sleep with Max but he’s not interested. As Natasha walks down the alleyway, she is attacked and killed by a mysterious flying object.
Max’s former partner, Alex, investigates the murder and discovers that Natasha has the same tattoo on her arm as the murderers of Max’s family. Alex is later found dead, and both Mona and Max seek revenge.
Connected (15)
Thriller, Action / 113 min. / Chinese
Engineering designer Grace (Barbie Hsu) is kidnapped right after she drops off her daughter at school. The unidentified kidnappers threaten to kill her daughter if she doesn’t tell them where her brother is.
She’s kept in isolation with nothing but an old broken phone that only connects randomly. She doesn’t know who’s on the other end, but just wishes that someone will pick it up.
On the receiving end, Bob (Louis Koo), like all the others, thinks it’s a nuisance call and wants to hang up, but hears gunfire over the phone.
If he hangs up on Grace, she might die. But can he rescue the woman on the phone?
Waltz with Bashir (18)
Animation, War, Drama / 87 min. / Israeli
One evening, at a bar with an old friend, director Ari recounts a nightmare in which he is chased by 26 furious dogs. The two conclude that the nightmare is closely related to their experience in the first Lebanon War.
However, Ari can’t remember anything from that time. He decides to meet old friends from the war and interview them. The memories mostly blur at first but develop vividly. 3D animation mitigates the severity of war and adds dramatic essence.
Quantum of Solace (15)
Action / 106 min. / English
When we last left Bond (Daniel Craig), he was a damaged soul following his lover Vesper Lynd’s betrayal and death. Now, he is single-minded in his pursuit of Lynd’s other boyfriend, Yusef.
We learn he’s detained an agent with clues on a mysterious organization threatening MI6, 007’s mother ship, and from here it gets personal. When the new organization takes a crack at M (Judi Dench), Bond’s spymaster, the agent adds a new entry to his to-do list.
What follows is fast-paced jetting from Italy to Haiti, then to Austria and South America and so on. Along the way, Bond finds his target, the sniveling villain Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), who is masquerading as an environmentalist and philanthropist.
A Portrait of a Beauty (18)
Drama, Romance / 108 min. / Korean
Directed by Jeon Yoon-soo, “A Portrait of a Beauty” is adapted from the hit novel “Painter of the Wind,” which has also been turned into a hit TV drama of the same name. Joseon-era painter Shin Yun-bok, who produced art under the pseudonym Hye-won, is portrayed here as a woman dressed as a man. Although history says the painter was indisputably a man, the film provides an interesting, sensual take on one of the most mysterious but admired figures of Korea’s art history.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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