raweater Reviews

A Bittersweet Life (2005)

Another breathtaking revenge movie from South-Korea

[8/10 · 14 August 2005]

I had the luck to watch this gem at the Fantasy-Film-Festival in Frankfurt yesterday. It was shown in a theater with about 600 seats and against my expectations the room was packed with people.

In comparison with Oldboy or Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance the story is not as deep and goes more straightforward to the pure revenge theme. But this does not make the movie less enjoyable. The cinematography is brilliant and the main-character delivers a great performance. It contains beautifully choreographed martial-arts and gunfight scenes with references to masterpieces like Taxi Driver and Kill Bill.

Despite the fact it is very harsh in some scenes the humor does not come to short. The scene with a discussion of Korean-Russian wannabe-gangsters made me nearly wet my pants.

Bang Boom Bang - Ein todsicheres Ding (1999)

German cult comedy

[9/10 · 27 May 2005]

Early in the movie one of the main characters Keek wants to rent "Didi - der Doppelgänger" starring Dieter Hallervorden (another milestone of German comedy) at his local videostore. As the clerk checks if it is available, Keek is reminded that he has had this movie at home for some weeks and forgot to return it. But Keek is not suffering from Alzheimer' disease, no, Keek is a pot-head.

As the director indicates in the commentary, BBB was not a big success at the box-office, but made much money at videostores because people forgot to return or lost it completely.

I'm owner of the DVD now...

Survive Style 5+ (2004)

Nippon over-the-top pop comedy

[8/10 · 27 May 2005]

First of all, you must know I'm not a big fan of comedies. Dull stuff like American Pie, Road Trip, etc. simply gives me the yawns. After I had the luck to get my hands on SS5+ and watched it, my turn-away from US comedies was complete; it might be that the Japanese sense of humor suits me more. Watching a hypnotized family dad acting like a bird is much more funny to me than seeing someone banging an apple-pie....

The flick follows 4 different stories which are sewn together in perfect timing: 1. A husband tries to get rid of his wife - unsuccessfully. 2. A family father is able to follow his animal instincts. 3. A woman working in the commercial business tries to sell her ideas, which are shown as real commercials - some of the most funny parts. 4. A trio of sexually-not-clearly-oriented burglars is getting in trouble.

From my point of view Vinnie Jones, playing a hit-man (what else ?), is the main character because he connects the different story-lines and he is very interested in people's purpose in life.... see it and you know what I mean.

The Director's (Gen Sekiguchi) origins are obvious. He made highly successful commercials before, SS5+ is his debut film. So the movie is colorful, fast-paced, but not cut too hysterically, extremely funny but sometimes with a sad under-tone.

Watching it gave me a really good time. Highly recommended !