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Three… Extremes (Takashi Miike, Fruit Chan & Chan-wook Park, 2004)
64 Jeremy Heilman
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Three… Extremes, a pan-Asian horror anthology, featuring a trio of tales
from top directors Takashi Miike (Japan), Fruit Chan (Hong Kong), and Chan-wook
Park (Korea) trumps most entries in the genre by maintaining a reasonable level
of consistency throughout. For different reasons, each part of the package is
something of a technical marvel. The consistently high production values and
legitimately creepy storylines ensure that even those who don’t consider
themselves horror fans will likely feel satisfied after this three-course meal.
Miike’s entry, entitled The Box
is the first, and best, of the three segments. A story of survivor’s guilt,
told mostly through striking images, it uses its superficially stately surface
to mask the queasy feelings that lurk underneath. Though its non-sequential
editing and young girl apparitions initially peg it as a rote Asian horror
exercise, the undeniably disturbing accumulation of uncomfortable familial
tensions pushes onto into its own twisted plane. Perhaps, Miike’s revolting Visitor Q went farther in subverting the family unit, but it cannot
match what he’s accomplished here in terms of formal control and directness.
Though The Box is seemingly a
superficial revenge tale, its fundamentally unresolved nature gives it the power
to haunt long after it’s ended.
Fruit Chan’s Dumplings
comes next, and thanks to the stellar work of cinematographer Christopher Doyle,
it is a memorable work. Filtering his images through gorgeous layers of
distortion, Dolye contributes to the eerie mood more than any other element
here. The unconventional compositions that exist throughout Dumplings recall
the other films that Doyle has shot more than anything Fruit Chan has made.
Though, like The Box, Dumplings
has a simple plot, its execution makes its familiarity forgivable. Bai
Ling’s winking performance (she packs twice the energy of Vera Drake’s
Imelda Staunton) adds tremendous energy to the segment, and makes many of its
loose ends forgivable. A feature length version of Dumplings exists, and
I suspect it helps to alleviate this segment’s truncated feel, but this
appetizer to that main course is still satisfying on its own terms.
Beginning and ending as a character
vomits blood, Chan-wook Park’s Cut can’t
be faulted for being too restrained. The director’s rambunctious technique and
off-kilter framing are the highlights of this tale, which will likely please
those who have enjoyed Oldboy and Sympathy
for Mr. Vengeance. Using Fincheresque impossible digital tracking shots and
an obvious soundstage as his tale’s backdrop, Park ensures that his foray into
madness is always marked by a certain level of artifice. Even though it
doesn’t quite add up at its end, Cut’s
appropriate directorial verve makes it a ride worth taking. Like its two
companions, it conspires to make Three…
Extremes a surprisingly arty horror film that resists cheap thrills.