THREE... EXTREMES

Directed by Takashi Miike, Fruit Chan & Park Chan-Wook
Produced by Applause Pictures, Bon Film Production, CJ Entertainment and Kadokawa Pictures

BOX
Directed by Takashi Miike
Written by Haruko Fukushima
Story by Bun Saiko
Cinematography by Koichi Kawakami
Musical score by Kouji Endo
Cast: Kyoko Hasegawa & Atsuro Watabe

DUMPLINGS
Directed by Fruit Chan
Cinematography by Christopher Dolye
Musical score by Chan Kwong-Wing
Cast: Miriam Yeung & Bai Ling

CUT
Directed & Written by Park Chan-Wook
Cinematography by Chung Chung-Hoon
Musical score by Peach
Cast: Lee Byung-Hun, Lim Wonh-Hee & Gang Hye-Jung

2004/40mins/37mins/45mins/Color/DTS ES
1.85:1 anamorphic/Various/Asia/NTSC Region 0

Review from the Mega Star DVD

THREE... EXTREMES is a new horror anthololy with three unique stories from Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea.

In Takashi Miike's BOX, we follow the story of the beautiful but troubled Kyoko (Kyoko Hasegawa). As a child she performed in a circus along with her twin sister. Due to her father's affection to her sister, Kyoko did something terribly wrong that still haunts her today. Japan's maverick director, Takashi Miike created a dreamy tale of the bizarre, despair and jealousy even adding a RING-esque feel to the whole story. This is the most creepy movie happening in a circus since Alejandro Jodorowsky's SANTA SANGRE.

Reality and dreams almost becomes one as Kyoko drift back to her past as she feels responsible for the tragic death of her sister who surprisingly visit her in the present... well considering that this is a Japanese film it shouldn't really surprise anyone.

In Fruit Chan's DUMPLINGS, Mrs. Lee (Miriam Yeung) is desperate to stay young. She meets the rather weird Mei (Bai Ling) who's dumpling she makes with a special ingredient has the magical power to keep the person who eats it stay young. But Mrs. Lee doesn't have a clue what the secret ingredient is in the dough-wrapped delicacies.

Mrs. Lee who recently retired from a very successful television career will soon discover that there's a high price to pay if you want to stay young. Even if you do anything possible, in the end you will get old and ultimately die. The film features a very controversial abortion scene which I don't think you should watch with your girlfriend if she's pregnant! Well I guess by now you all figured out what the secret ingredient is... DUMPLINGS has also been released as a separated 90 minutes film.

In Park Chan-Wook's CUT, Lee Byung-Hun plays a successful director who's held captive along with his wife (played by Gang Hye-Jung from OLD BOY) by a person from his past. After filming a scene for his next movie, Ryu (Lee Byung-Hun) is knocked out by a stranger. When he wakes up he finds himself attached to an elastic that allow him only to move to a certain distance. His wife is attached like a marionette with her fingers glued to a piano keys while the stranger claims he will chop of one of her finger every five minutes if Ryu don't show that he can be an evil person.

Once again, Park delivers a truely unique, twisted and masterpiece of revenge and desperation. CUT features great performance from the whole cast, superb cinematography, lightning and the whole won't leave anyone different.

After the success of THREE back in 2002, it was only a matter of time before another one got made... I wonder how the next one will turn out?!

Mega Star did an amazing job with this DVD... something that unfortunately rarely happens with disc coming from Hong Kong. The film is presented in its original aspect ratio fo 1.85:1 and it is enhanced for 16x9 television. The image is pristine with rich and superb saturated colors. There is no artifacts or compression whatsoever. The DTS ES and 5.1 Dolby Digital EX audio tracks are loud, crisp and clear giving the films all the audiophonic atmosphere it needs. We get opttional and easy to read English subtitles along with traditional and simplified Chinese subs too. Each movies are separated in 4 chapters, the menus are static but look nice.

The second disc features many extras but unfortunately and not surprisingly none have English subs. First of all, we get the story for BOX, DUMPLINGS and CUT. Next are making-of for all three shorts, in the one for BOX we follow Takashi Miike (sporting a weird skunk-like hairdo!) giving instructions to the beautiful Kyoko Hasegawa, a look at some of the props, the three, lots of behind-the-scenes footage, interview with Kyoko, the three and more. The one for DUMPLINGS features many clips from the film, interview with Fruit Chan and the cast, some behind-the-scenes and many scenes that are actually only in the long version of the film. Finally, the one for CUT features interview with the master, Park Chan-Wook. We also get to hear what the leads have to say, how the strings were attached to the poor actress, more behind-the-scenes footage, rehearshal and the cast fooling around. We also get the trailer for THREE... EXTREMES ands for DUMPLINGS. Both are superbly edited and creepy. Finally there's the cast and crew credits. We also get a rather useless 4 pages booklet on other DVD from Mega Star, the discs comes in a keep case which comes in a very nice slipcase. Its important to note that even though the package reads "NTSC 3" its in fact NTSC 0. One of the best movie of 2004 and a highly recommended DVD edition!

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Review by Kim Dubuisson. All Right Reserved. 2004. ©

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