(JUYUSO SEUBGYUKSAGEUN)
*** (out of ****)
Starring Sung-jae Lee, Oh-seong Yu, Seong-jin Kang, Ji-tae Yu, and Yeong-gyu Park
Directed by Sang-Jin Kim & written by Jeong-woo Park
1999
113 min R
A movie that ranks alongside Guy Maddin’s “Sissy-Boy Slap Party” for doing precisely what its title promises. Four punks decide to smash the gas station to bits one night, just for the hell of it. Then, the next night, they decide “Hey, let’s attack that gas station again!”
This was my second Korean film, after Chan-wook Park’s magnificent “Oldboy” but before the rest of his “Vengeance” trilogy. And if I can make so blanket a judgment after only two films, it appears that your average Korean guy is walking around with a lot of pent-up frustration and guilt. The first finds solace in whaling on other people, the second finds relief in other people whaling on him. Either way, a whole lot of crap gets beaten out.
Like “Oldboy,” “Attack the Gas Station!” has a glossy, candy color scheme, virtuoso long takes and hand-held tracking shots, and everything is given a wonky, exaggerated look through a wide angle lens. The movie has goofball masterpiece within its clutches but is just a little too lead-footed to achieve it – 90 or 100 minutes might serve it better than 2 hours. I does have the kind of balls-to-the-wall opening sequence that might cause you to scream out “this is the greatest movie ever!” There is a musical quality to its cadences, as more and more people are captured, forced to stand on their head, and threatened with a death that never arrives.
It’s certainly a socio-political satire in disguise — signs for “let’s build a better Korea!” are smashed gleefully. The four thugs vaguely symbolize anarchism or Communism in the way they re-arrange the social pecking order and give everyone a full tank. They turn into money-grubbing capitalists though, chasing down patrons who don’t pay. And, of course in the end, he who controls the oil controls everyone.
That being said, “Attack!” remains true to itself by preferring, instead of a particular statement, to delight in smashing stuff. Each thug is given a ten-cent flashback that explains everything in a ridiculous movie way. Hostages make goofball demands about their legs being asleep or preferring to be locked in their own trunks. And the bit where the guy breaks into one vending machine to get change for the vending machine right next to it is brilliant.
Back to home.
*** (out of ****)
Starring James Stewart, John Wayne, Vera Miles, and Lee Marvin
Directed by John Ford & written by James Warner Bellah, Willis Goldbeck, and Dorothy M. Johnson
1962
118 min NR
IMDb sez: “A senator, who became famous for killing a notorious outlaw, returns to a funeral of a homeless man and tells the truth about his deed.”
John Ford makes a Frank Capra movie, complete with Jimmy Stewart (both directors are very interested in what makes America). Ford is the hero to my heroes (Scorsese, Kurosawa, etc.), but why can’t I get into his movies? Why does John Ford hate me? “Liberty Valance” is a film I admire for what it says, not how it says it. I only intermittently enjoyed watching it but I’m glad to have seen.
I like the messages Ford is getting at about the crazy mixture of hypocrisy and violence that gave birth to America – but the movie is so corny, like every character is the low comic relief in an outdoor production of Shakespeare, booming for the back row. They’re cartoonish and soooo broad. Ford’s direction, for all he’s raved about, hits me as club-footed much of the time, although there are a handful of great shots when it’s not plotting time.
“Liberty’s” script is full of great questions about America and is even better for how infrequently the ideas are expressed outright. Instead, they come at us under the table. But the script is also relentlessly full of vaudeville – you almost expect Borscht Belt comedians in the old West. The movie also dialogue-heavy to the point that you could close your eyes and enjoy it like a radio show. Movies ought to work the other way around – you should plug your ears and still know what’s going on.
Like everyone in the film, Jimmy Stewart is louder than normal, but he sells lines sincerely that no one else could sell at all (except Cary Grant sarcastically). Stewart’s such a great actor that he functions in this cartoon universe. John Wayne does what he does best, as does Lee Marvin. All else is caricature, and maybe it’s these caricatures that tend to keep me on the outside of John Ford movies.
Finished Friday, December 15, 2006
Copyright © 2006 Friday & Saturday Night