2011.5.27 NOW PLAYING

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2011.5.27 NOW PLAYING

I’m Sorry, Thank You (12)

테스트

Drama / 114 / Korean

“I’m Sorry, Thank You” is an omnibus film by four filmmakers who each contributed a short film about the relationships between humans and their pets.

According to relevant groups, including Korea Animal Rights Advocates, there are about 10,000 pets in Korea, meaning that an average family of four has one, whether it is a dog, cat or an exotic animal such as an iguana. But pets are continuously being abandoned for diverse reasons. The film explores the causes and people behind the issue, which has grown increasingly serious of late.

The filmmakers are known for their involvement in animal rights: Lim Soon-rye is an advocate for Korea Animal Rights Advocates and Park Heung-sik is famous for lyrical films such as “My Mother the Mermaid” (2004).

Park’s “My Younger Brother” depicts a 6-year-old girl’s separation from her dog, which she treats as an imaginary sibling. When the girl’s mother gets pregnant with her second child, the family decides to put the dog up for adoption, a frequent occurrence in Korea.

“Catty Kiss,” directed by Lim, focuses on the harsh lives of abandoned cats. The film tells the story of an old maid who regularly takes in stray cats, a hobby that becomes a source of conflict with her father, who can’t understand why she pours so much of her money, time and effort into caring for the cats, which have traditionally been regarded with suspicion in Korea.

The troubled relationship between the father and daughter, however, begins to turn around as the two take care of the cat together.

“Chu Chu,” directed by Oh Jeom-kyun, depicts the friendship between a homeless man named Young-jin and his newly adopted dog, a stray he names Chu Chu.

The final short is “Thank You, I’m Sorry,” directed by Song Il-gon. It focuses on Su-young, a hard-working mom who inherits a dog after his sudden death of her father. Taking care of her father’s dog causes her to reflect on her life and she learns to appreciate simple pleasures, just as he once did.


Mama

테스트

Drama / 110 / Korean

Motherhood is a popular subject for many filmmakers, including director Choi Ik-hwan, who is making his directorial debut with this omnibus film.

The film consists of three stories about mothers and their children.

The first story is about a mother (Uhm Jung-hwa) who devotes her life to taking care of her son (Lee Hyung-suk), who suffers from a chronic disease. When the son, who can barely walk, realizes his mother has also fallen ill, he decides to care for her as she has done for him.

The second story depicts the troubled relationship between a mother and daughter. The mother (musical theater actress Jeon Su-kyeong), the top soprano in the nation, is far from a typical devoted Korean mother and always wants to be pampered. Her daughter (Ryu Hyun-kyung), a high school dropout whose experience has been the opposite of her mother’s, works as her manager. The two are always fighting and struggle to find a way to navigate their relationship.

The third episode centers upon a gangster (Yu Ha-jin). When he hears that his mother (Kim Hae-sook) has been diagnosed with breast cancer, he strives to fulfill his mother’s wish to reunite with her first love before she dies.


The Resident (18)

Thriller, Horror / 91 / English

“The Resident” is another in a long-line of no-nonsense - but no substance - horror films that pits an unsuspecting female lead against a creepy and psychotic man who is clearly obsessed with the woman.

Juliet’s (Hilary Swank) first mistake was to rent a New York apartment from Max (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). And if you can already see where this is going already, you’re probably right.

At first, Max seems charming and even relationship worthy to Juliet. But she decides not to go through with it because she still has feelings for her ex-boyfriend Jack. Bad move.

Max starts spying on Juliet through secret corridors, a one-way mirror and peepholes into her apartment. And he gets so obsessive that he secretly enters her apartment to smell her clothes and do all manner of other arrestable offenses, including sedating and raping her. When Juliet reconciles with Jack and finds out that Max raped her, things take a supreme turn for the worst and “The Resident,” directed by first-timer Antti Jokinen, takes a turn for the “Yeah, I knew that was going to happen.”


Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides (12)

테스트

Action, Adventure / 137 / English

The fourth installment of the franchise sees Cap’n Jack escaping from George II’s palace, meeting up with Keith Richards for some witty repartee and then setting off with Barbossa to find the elusive fountain of youth, only to discover that Blackbeard and his daughter are after it too.

Keira Knightley has been replaced by Penelope Cruz, who in the right light looks a bit like a heavily made-up Knightly, and plays the daughter of the dreaded Blackbeard. Ian McShane, perhaps best known to Americans for his role in HBO’s “Deadwood,” plays the fearsome pirate and continues the franchise’s fascination with British baddies. There is a mermaid in there, too, somewhere, as much buccaneering as you can shake a cutlass at and the classic swashbuckling music that has become part of the brand.

Gore Verbinski has been booted out of the director’s chair and Rob Marshall, a Broadway choreographer and director turned filmmaker, has been drafted in to breathe life back into the franchise. The similarities to the other films in the series are too many to list but, as with most franchise films, if you liked the other three you will probably like this one too.


The Collector (18)

테스트

Horror / 90 / English

Desperate to repay his debt to his ex-wife, an ex-con plots a heist at his new employer’s country home. Sounds fairly mundane so far. But he has picked the wrong house on the wrong day.

The criminal is unaware, obviously, that a second criminal - not your run-of-the-mill break-and-enter type but a more sadistic, sicko type - has also targeted the property and rigged it with a series of deadly traps and is holding the family hostage.

If you’re thinking to yourself “I know this plot, sounds a bit like ‘Saw’ IV, V and VI,” give yourself a cookie because “The Collector” has the same writer as those films.

The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw gave it one star (presumably because he can’t for some reason give it zero stars) and suggests why this masked nutter might be doing all these mean things “because he’s a ‘collector’ of people. Why? Who knows, or indeed cares?”

The film stars nobody you will likely have heard of and was directed by the writer, who you will also not have heard of. If blood and gore are your thing, you are probably in for a treat.
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