3 Extremes

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Three Asian directors, from Hong Kong, Korea, and Japan, join forces to create an omnibus horror film, Three...Extremes. In Fruit Chan's "Dumplings," shot by Christopher Doyle, Mrs. Li (Miriam Yeung), a thirtysomething former actress with a philandering husband (Tony Leung) goes to visit Aunt Mei (Bai Ling), who sells the most expensive dumplings in Hong Kong. Mrs. Li knows about their rejuvenating powers, and she also knows about their unpleasant main ingredient, but after some initial nausea, she digs right in. In Oldboy writer/director Park Chan-wook's "Cut," a successful filmmaker (Lee Byung-hun of Joint Security Area) arrives home to find that a disgruntled extra (Lim Won-hee) has taken over his home, and fastened his pianist wife (Kang Hye-jun of Oldboy) to the grand piano. The madman threatens to cut off the wife's fingers, one by one, unless the director strangles the helpless child he's tied to the couch. Takashi Miike directs the last segment, "Box," about a young author and former circus performer, Kyoko (Kyoko Hasegawa), seemingly haunted by the ghost of her twin sister, who died a mysterious and horrible death while practicing their act. Adding to Kyoko's trauma, her editor (Atsuro Watabe) is a dead ringer for her old stepfather/ringmaster, who may have perished in the same "accident" that took her sister's life. Three...Extremes was shown at Subway Cinema's New York Asian Film Festival in 2005. For the American release of Three...Extremes, the order in which the films are presented was altered from the original "Box," "Dumplings," and "Cut" to "Dumplings," "Cut," and "Box." This film was actually preceded by another omnibus film, Three, that was nevertheless retitled Three...Extremes II for the English-language market and issued after this one. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 2
• Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 (Alternate Wide Screen)
• Features:
  • Disc 1:
  • 16:9 widescreen
  • Original language 5.1 Dolby Digital
  • Original language 2.0 Dolbt Digitial
  • English and Spanish subtitles
  • Audio commentary with director Miike Takashi for Box
  • Disc 2:
  • Dumplings full-length feature
  • Original language 5.1 Dolby Digital
  • Making of Dumplings
  • English and Spanish subtitles
  • Scene index
  • Trailers

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Bai Ling
       Miriam Yeung
       Tony Leung Kar - Fai
       Pauline Lau
       Zabit Memedov
       Miki Yeung
       Wong Su - Fun
       Lee Byung - hun
       Lim Won - Hee
       Gang Hye - jeong
       Lee Jun Goo
       Lee Mi Mi
       Kyoko Hasegawa
       Atsuro Watabe
       Mai Suzuki
       Yuuya Suzuki
       Mitsuru Akaboshi

• Director:

  Fruit Chan, Takashi Miike, Park Chan-wook

• Producer:

  Naoki Sato, Peter Ho-Sun Chan, Fumio Inoue, Ahn Soo-Hyun, Shun Shimizu

• Screenwriter:

  Lilian Lee

• Book Author:

  Lilian Lee

• Screenwriter:

  Park Chan-wook, Haruko Fukushima

• Cinematographer:

  Christopher Doyle, Koichi Kawakami, Chung Chung-Hoon

• Composer (Music Score):

  Chan Kwong-wing, Koji Endo, Peach Present

• Editor:

  Kim Sang-beom, Chan Ki-hop, Yasushi Shimamura, Tin Sam-Fat, Kim Jae-beom

• Production Designer:

  Yee Chung-man, Takashi Sasaki, Yoo Seong-Hee

• Art Director:

  Pater Wong

• Associate Producer:

  Patricia Cheng

• Executive Producer:

  Eric Tsang, Oh Jung-Won, Choi Pyeong-ho, Lee Eu-Gene, Park Dong-Ho, Kazuo Kuroi

• Costume Designer:

  Dora Ng, Cho Sang-Kyung, Tomoko Yasuno

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Kim Suk-won, Kinson Tsang, Jin Nakamura

• Visual Effects:

  Su Chun-Hung

• Short Story Author:

  Bun Saiko

REVIEW:

• Omnibus films are uneven by their nature, and Three...Extremes is no exception. Unsurprisingly, the film, as a whole, has no cumulative power. The three shorts, from three directors, each with a distinctive style, from three different countries, don't really compliment each other in any way. They are all meant to be disturbing, and beyond that, there is no genuine thematic or stylistic connection. Fruit Chan's segment, "Dumplings," is an unappetizing though aesthetically gorgeous presentation of youth-obsessed cannibalism. It is viscerally unsettling, but, despite Christopher Doyle's stunning work, it's essentially an EC Comics-worthy morality play gussied up with fancy visuals. Its tale of vain women and a wicked back-alley abortionist/witch also contains more than a hint of misogyny. Takashi Miike's "Box" is less problematic thematically, but it's overly familiar. Perhaps owing in part to his prodigious output, Miike is an inconsistent and occasionally sloppy filmmaker, and, despite the presence of twin little-girl contortionists, this is one of his less interesting efforts. While "Dumplings" is memorable in its way, only Park Chan-wook's (Old Boy) brain-twisting and amusingly reflexive "Cut" makes a lasting positive impression. Once again, Park's motif is revenge at its most baroque, and from the elaborate set design to the startling, witty performances of Lee Byung-hun as a successful young film director and Lim Won-hee as his insane tormentor, the film gets the most out of its abbreviated running time. Park is the one director represented here with both a great "extreme" tale and the means at his disposal to tell it to full effect. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi