2011.3.4 NOW PLAYING
Come Rain, Come Shine (15)
Directed by Lee Yoon-ki, “Come Rain, Come Shine” takes the audience through every move and emotion of a couple on the verge of divorce.
The man (Hyun Bin) has been married to his wife (Lim Soo-jung) for five years. (Their names are never mentioned in the film.) He’s a handy architect and a good husband.
He cooks her pasta and brews her coffee just the way she likes. But he is also fainthearted and timid, and can’t seem to tell his wife “No.”
One day, the wife tells her husband that she wants to leave him for her new boyfriend. All he can muster is “Oh, I see.”
Then we’re brought forward 72 hours to the day of their separation and the woman is filled with anger at his behavior in light of the situation. When he continues to give passive responses such as “I’m alright” and “Never mind,” she snaps.
But the husband is coping in his own way. He replies, “I know I can’t change your mind. You made a decision and nobody can change it. That’s all.” Yonhap
Rango (all)
“Rango” is a special kind of animated film, one that combines top acting talent, an accomplished director and isn’t filmed in 3-D.
That’s right, this hyper-fun animated flick about a chameleon in the Wild West was filmed in 2-D, and most reviewers believe it’s a good thing, with Variety magazine saying, “... even projected in 2-D, ‘Rango’ makes better use of dimension than many stereoscopic toons.”
Johnny Depp plays Rango, an ordinary pet chameleon who finds his way to Dirt, a Wild West town in need of a new sheriff. The town features other creepy crawlers who let Rango know that past sheriffs haven’t exactly had success in Dirt.
The film has a smart sense of humor about it and features numerous bizarre, but cool-looking animals, like a rattlesnake (Bill Nighy), a desert iguana (Isla Fisher) and an armadillo (Alfred Molina).
And as the first major animated film of the year, this Paramount-produced movie should attract plenty of viewers.
Bleak Night
“Bleak Night,” directed by novice filmmaker Yun Sung-hyun is a coming-of-age story about three high school boys.
Devastated by the death of his son Ki-tae (Lee Je-hun), Ki-tae’s father (Jo Sung-ha) starts to investigate his son’s short life. The first thing he does is rummage through his son’s drawers and finds a picture of Ki-Tae and his friends Dong-Yun (Seo Jun-yeong) and Hee-Jun (Park Jung-min).
When he finds out that one of the boys transferred to another school and the other doesn’t show up at Ki-Tae’s funeral, Ki-Tae’s father becomes suspicious.
“Bleak Night,” directed and written by Yun, received rave reviews and the New Currents award at the 15th Pusan International Film Festival last October.
Black Swan (18)
Natalie Portman’s Academy Award-winning performance in “Black Swan” is a sight to behold. Portman’s Nina plays a young dancer with a prestigious New York City ballet company.Directed by Darren Aronofsky (“The Wrestler”), the film is about the manic pursuit of one’s art to the point of self-destruction. Bones break, flesh is ripped, and a hysteric, haunting cunnilingus scene make it clear that this is not just another film about an artist and her art.
Children (15)
Thriller, Mystery / 132 / Korean
“Children” is based on a true yet unsolved murder case from the early 1990s that is known among Koreans as the “disappearance of the frog children.” In 1991, five elementary school students told their parents that they were going to hang out on a nearby mountain to catch frogs.
They never came back.
In the movie, a television producer, the devastated parents of the missing children, a professor and a detective all take different stances on the case and in the end one of the parents becomes a primary suspect. In reality, the case morphed into a national scandal.
Director Lee Kyu-man, a rising star in the Korean film industry, presents a compelling picture of the case. But just as the case hurt the parents in real life, the movie could touch off nerves - especially because the film depicts the parents as primary suspects in the case.
In style, “Children” resembles the 2003 hit “Memories of the Murder,” which was based on another unsolved mystery of a serial killing in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi, in the early ’90s.
Audiences familiar with the case may have a difficult time with the plot, which gives the story a fictional ending even though the case remains unsolved.
Late Autumn (15)
Drama / 115 / English, Chinese, Korean
Director Kim Tae-yong’s “Late Autumn,” the much-hyped remake of a Korean film classic of the same name, is, in its essence, a love story.
As the movie’s gray, foggy Seattle backdrop foretells, however, the lovers don’t get to enjoy a feel-good, Hollywood rom-com scenario. There are no cute declarations of love. Nobody gets saved, or discovers their “true self” to the strains of an aptly placed song.
Instead, two misfits meet at the brink of their own hopelessness, after the milk has been spilt and there is no way out of the misery that is their lives.
Anna (Tang Wei) is a Chinese immigrant in the United States doing jail time for killing her abusive husband. Seven years into her nine-year prison term, she gets a three-day parole to attend her mother’s funeral. On her way there, she meets Hoon (Hyun Bin), a young Korean gigolo who charms his way into the hearts of rich older ladies in order to make money.
For a long time, a withdrawn Anna dismisses Hoon’s efforts to chat her up.
Nevertheless, Hoon is persistent and manages to win her over with his bubbly, amicable nature.
Despite his outgoing personality, it is ultimately his sense of loss that Anna identifies with. The two can’t help but express their desire for one another, even though they both know this won’t do them any good, or make any difference in changing their lives.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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