Beyond Utopia

Posted October 25, 2023

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It is easy to wake up in the morning, brush your teeth, get ready for work… and think your life sucks. It is easy to understand the concept of death, and yet there are people who can’t understand the concept of freedom.
I remember when I saw a video of defected North Koreans eating meat for the first time. They were not children. They were adults.
We watch our 100+ channels and listen to our choice of radio station and can’t even comprehend a life of 1 tv station, and 1 radio station, the is constantly spouting propoganda and anti-American scentiment.
At one point, when asking a child how she felt once she had crossed the river away from North Korea, she cried and said she didn’t feel safe. When you live in a country that will put your entire family on a watch list for the disobedience of one member, how do you ever feel safe?
In an interview, one successful defector talked about remembering how after school the children all went into performance training. Not in some gymnasium with fat mats, but outside, on the hard cement, in the blasting heat, and the freezing cold. And you realize, while watching all the mass performances during grand sporting events and oohing and aahing over the synchrosy and beauty, that one misstep could mean extreme punishment. No food for your family, or even beatings.
This film was completely hand-camera style. It was uncomfortable. And I am not going to pretend that I didn’t cry. It is a world that seems almost science fiction, and yet, the most heartbreaking part is… it isn’t.

The Good Nurse

Posted October 8, 2023

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It only got subpar ratings, but it needs to be given credit for the exceptional acting.
So maybe it isn’t a film involving loud bangs and blood and guts. In fact, for a hospital drama, there is no blood, or guts. But there is a gratuitous amount of death.
These are the ones who confuse me. These types of serial killers. Medical professionals. Often, grossly labeled Angels of Death. Motivation still opposes the purpose of the profession. To heal.
I am not fully familiar with medical serial killers. This was my first deep dive. After watching a documentary episode on Charles Cullen a nurse who had worked at numerous different hispitals. He injected insulin and digoxin into IV bags. Not while they were hooked up to patients. Before they had even left the med room. Indescriminant and complete random chance as to who was given one of the contaminated IV bags.
Where is the motive? Where is the twisted, carnal satisfaction typical serial killers need? What was even the point?
He had no point. He had no motive. It was simply that no one stopped him.

Silenced

Posted October 5, 2023

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I wanted to have something to say.
I NEEDED to have something to say. But my heart can’t find the words.
How ironic, when talking about a movie about people needing to speak up…

Memories of Murder

Posted October 4, 2023

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Based on a play this film depicts two detectives hunting down a serial killer in Hwaseong, Korea in the 80s. Directed by Bong Joon-Ho, director of films like The Host, Snowpiercer, and award winning Parasite. Also starring Song Kang-Ho, who has worked in a number of Bong’s films, as well as many other amazing films.
In the farmland of Hwaseong women are turning up raped and murdered. The real killer, Lee Chun-Jae killed 15 women and was reported to have over 45 victims over the span of nearly a decade.
This film isn’t gritty in the way special effects and edgy music can bring. Rather, it is slow burn. In the 80s when resources for detective work was limited and children ran wild through crime scenes, the hope of catching the killer seems almost hopeless.
But there is an energy amd atmosphere about the film that keeps you there with the detectives. You see them working tirelessly, at one point one of them getting IV fluids courtesy of his wife. And you see the toll it begins to take on their sanity as well as their moral compass.
Bong Joon-Ho won an Oscar for best director for good reason. He is a master at his craft. This isn’t going to be a Dahmer type serial killer movie. It is more of a ride with the detectives who are trying to catch the killer.

The Chaser

Posted October 3, 2023

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Na Hong-Jin’s directorial debut, this film is loosely based on the real-life serial killer Yoo Young-chul. Named Korea’s first serial killer.
After watching The Raincoat Killer documentary on Yoo Young-Chul and his crimes, this film feels surprisingly tame. The scariest kind of serial killer: one who doesn’t stick to the same pattern. At one point Korea was afraid there were two active serial killers on their streets. This film focuses on his last pattern. Luring prostitutes to his apartment and killing and dismembering them. These deeds only hinted at in the film. Nothing as jarring as the descriptions of the real acts.
And where Yoo Young-Chul, a true serial killer with no empathy or remorse was quoted as justifying his actions with “women shouldn’t be sluts…,” Je Yeong-Min is seen laughing at the police, cowering under a raised fist, eating chocolate. He does not evoke the spine chilling terror of a serial killer so much as a bored, teenage boy.
I think one of the most important moments of the real serial killer case was when Yoo Young-Chul was covered with a hat, a mask, and a raincoat, walking through a mass of reporters and civilians who had, only just the day before, been terrified. That moment was lost here, and with it the world building terror, the chill that runs down our spine.
But, this was just a movie.