Category Archives: zForeign

The Last Witch

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Background to the movie :: We are no strangers to the tales about witch hunts, and most of us have read about similar incidents all around the world, especially Salem witch trials which had presence in movies like The Lords of Salem and The Conjuring – we even remember a television series with the name Salem. When we look deeper, there has been no shortage of similar incidents throughout the world. In a number of books, we have read about the witch trials in Early Modern Europe. We read in our schools and colleges about Joan of Arc who was burned at the stake, accused of witchcraft. Even in India, we often hear the word Chudail, associated with the witch, even though the same can be applied to demons and spirits too. Here, the movie The Last Witch has its roots on real incidents related to witches in the past too – on one of those incidents involving allegations of witchcraft, witch trials and execution.

One particular witch trial and execution :: Here we have our attention towards the Terrassa witch trials which had taken place in Terrassa, a city in the east central region of Catalonia, in the province of Barcelona in Spain between the years 1615 and 1619. During those days, a terrible weather and crumbling economy of the time was credited to the evil plans of witches, and their worship of their masters in hell. This had lead to a lot of rumours during those times, which finally meant that there would be panic, bringing the need for a witch commision to have the suspects arrested, lest people would take law into their hands. A number of suspects who were arrested, agreed to have been part of Witches’ Sabbath, a meeting of those who practiced witchcraft and other similar things. On the date 27th October 1619, Margarida Tafanera, Eulalia Totxa, Joana Sabina, Guillermo Miramunda Font and Miquela Esclopera Casanovas were executed.

So, what is this particular movie about? :: There were those five women who were hanged during the Terrassa witch trials in Spain, and then there is Joana Toy (Clara Gayo), who had escaped death after being brutally tortured by the authorities for many days, as the torture devices like Heretic’s Fork, Iron Maiden, Judas Cradle, Breaking Wheel and Wooden Horse were part of many such incidents. There is no clue about how she escaped, and where she had disappeared after the incident, as it remains a mystery to be solved by a newer generation. Three friends are all set to discover the truth behind all these, and finding Joana’s whereabouts is the key. These three young friends, Sandra (Paula Pier), Eduardo (Jorge Gallardo) and Mario (Alfonso Romeo) are all set for the same, with a desire to become famous video bloggers after finding something which has been hidden for so long. One of Sandra’s grandparents turns out to be part of that commision which found out if the women were really witches or not, and sending them to their newfound fate of brutal torture and death. He had once told her that the escaped witch lived just outside the city and that her house is still there.

And what is to follow in this particular adventure? :: They feel that she could have come back to her home some time later and might have settled down there, followed by her bloodline – the place has been a farmhouse for a long time, as Sandra figures out from her grandfather’s words. This leads to more of curiosity, and they will find more than just a few homeless men and empty spaces as they usually do. It is no more about getting it viral on Youtube and finding maximum viewers – the mystery is darker than what they thought it would be, and too much for them to handle. There is nothing funny about it anymore. They end up seeing a symbol associated with an ancient organization, which Professor Robert (Fernando Tato) identifies as related to be a Satanic organization of the early seventeenth century that has a history of worshipping a witch rather than the devil. But it is only the beginning of what they are going to find in that abandoned farmhouse. Were they even close to being prepared for this?

The defence and negatives of The Last Witch :: Coming from Carlos Almon Munoz, the only Spanish winner of the Horror Society Awards for Best Short film of the year 2014 for his short-film “Face Your Fears”, as his first movie, this one is surely well-crafted within its genre. We know that Spain has a rich history of coming up with nice found footage films including the REC series. As a fictional account is made about what might have happened to Joanna Toy, this one gets the tale going in the right direction. This is not one of those movies which can score big with what comes out of its budget, as The Last Witch is very much simple and without wonders there. But you will surely want to have more scares, and the need to get into action earlier. But after it gets into the action, there are enough of scares to keep things moving towards that end. With the found-footage stuff, maybe the movie makers here also can make some good work in the category, which has never really been here, gaining some inspiration from this one. We have a good story here, without doubt.

The newfound love for the subgenre :: Where I come from, there are not many fans for the found-footage horror, and I am myself not a big fan of the same. But still, I was able to find interest in this one. Even I have watched only two, Pan’s Labyrinth and The Skin I Live In, liking them both – it is only safe to say that I loved both of those movies, with my admiration for Guillermo del Toro beginning there. I was very close to watching REC, but I did watch its English remake Quarantine and liked it, which was one of those moments when I started feeling that I had to look into this particular subgenre of horror. When a found-footage horror movie is related to something which really happened, like the Terrassa witch trials, there is a certain extra strength regarding the same, no matter how much fictionalized the story ends up to be. I would consider this to be my beginning to watch more of found-footage horror.

How it finishes :: It is said that Spain actually had only a few witch trials compared to other nations and states in Europe, and just a few years after Terrassa witch trials, the practice disappeared completely. It is on one of these later, and one among the last trials, that this movie is focused on. Many European records show cases of people being accused of taking part in Witches’ Sabbath, and a good number of them tried and some executed. The Last Witch nicely uses one of those background tales to create and bring an interesting story to light. There might be many other high budget movies with witches, including The Last Witch Hunter, and there are those which are divergent in character like The Witch and The Autopsy of Jane Doe, along with those on full entertainment mode, like Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, Seventh Son and Dark Shadows. However, you can see here that The Last Witch also brings an identity of its own without going into that possible void, and manages to be a horror movie which uses what it got, to good advantage, with fine performances.

Release date: 1st January 2016
Running time: 94 minutes
Directed by: Carlos Almon Munoz
Starring: Fernando Tato, Pepe Penabade, Alfonso Romeo, Paula Pier, Clara Gayo, Jose Zumalave, Jose Antonio Almon, Jorge Gallardo

<— Click here to go to the previous review.

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

The Story of 90 Coins

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Vampire Owl: I have to say that this title has immediately caught my attention.

Vampire Bat: It is not natural for such a thing to happen for you considering the fact that this is a short-film.

Vampire Owl: I have loved more short-films these days than any other. So, there is a certain vision coming to me.

Vampire Bat: So, you will be watching more short-films?

Vampire Owl: I don’t see why not, as you have been writing about so many. I have to keep up.

Vampire Bat: So, you are coming up against the realization that short-films are more worth the time, right?

Vampire Owl: Yes, I have gotten fine results with the last few which I watched.

Vampire Bat: Also, it is for everyone, and not limited by the boundaries, as it is available online.

Vampire Owl: And available in so many language, with English subtitles.

Vampire Bat: The only thing which stops us from watching a short-film is we ourselves.

[Gets some kuzhalappam and three cups of elaichi tea].

What is the movie about? :: The movie begins with Wang Yuyang (Dongjun Han) telling Chen Wen (Zhuang Zhiqi) to be with him forever. When she doesn’t agree to the same, and shows her doubts about the future of the relationship, he asks her to give him ninety days to prove her love towards her. Every night, when they left each other, he would give her a coin, and if she rejects his proposal after those ninety days, they would take the cash to the stall where they had first met, have some drinks and bid adieu to each other, hoping not to meet again – that would be the end. Otherwise, they are going to use it for the wedding purposes, according to him. Even though she does fall in love with him, her first priority is to have a house in the city. She also has her career in front of her, and marriage doesn’t come at the top of the list at the moment.

So, what happens next? :: Then there is a chance for her to go to Paris, which is quite the perfect place to continue her fashion designing work. The city which has been commonly referred to as the fashion capital of the world just seemed to have endless opportunities for her. Andre (Jose Acosta), her French co-worker is also asking her regularly to join him on the trip to France, and see how far she can go with her skills in the field. They have their own complications in the relation in between, and it remains to be seen, if they can stand the factors of real life when going through their tale of love. It comes to that point when the relationship was going to be no more – but the promise of ninety days remain. Will they be able to go through those days which are reflected in each coin? Is it love or is it the job that gets the upper hand in the end?

The defence of The Story of 90 Coins :: The movie is just so beautiful to watch – there are those wonderful shots, and there are also beautiful people working in it. Along with the same, the performances are also too good that we feel the reflection of the emotions of the two protagonists. The emotional effect that this movie brings is more than what some of those highly appreciated romantic flicks lasting two and half hours has brought us. We can take the example of two Malayalam movies which are considered top love stories – Ennu Ninte Moideen and Annayum Rasoolum. While the former was entertaining, it dragged itself to almost three hours, with moments which didn’t need to be there. The former also had a run-time close to three hours and had more drag than material. These two, the most overrated love stories don’t stand a chance against a nine minute short-film, and there lies the beauty of The Story of 90 Coins.

Soul exploration 1: Love and promises made :: We see so many movies with promises of love being made. Lets take the example of another overrated movie, Neelakasham Pachakadal Chuvanna Bhoomi – it only has the glorification of our youth who can’t make a good promise and stick to it, and as people don’t usually stick to promises they liked it. The Story of 90 Coins is for the kind of people who stick to those promises made in love, like the characters in the movie Anarkali. Unlike what a lot of youth from a spoilt generation thinks, love is not love when it finds deviation – falling in love is a commitment, and whether it is before or after marriage, it takes real courage, faithfulness and trust to stand with the person you love. With love, comes a promise, and it is about this promise that The Story of 90 Coins talks about. Good men and women keep it, and won’t let it become a random memory which comes into mind later.

Soul exploration 2: Love and love only :: There will be other things like work and people will keep looking for job satisfaction – unfortunately, in a terrible modern world, it is something that people will use to judge you and society will even judge your partner on the same. There will always be those offers to make you feel successful, but it is not inside that cabin or the cubicle that you find what matters the most – it is in in front of your beloved, in her words, and in her arms. As we look at a world affected terribly by modernity, we feel so much less of love – they turns into robots, and they divide us into factions. But there will be a day when we realize that love matters – it will be not that creepy new generation love made in the name of modern love which has no commitment and just infatuation and lust. Love will be love only when it is worth to be called by arranging those four letters in the right way in heart, and never stepping back from those feelings of oneness.

How it finishes :: There are lots of dialogues in this movie which are certain to stay with you. The process of making you feel the love begins from the first few seconds itself, and there are those amazing words in the end, which are sure to give your emotional side and belief in true love a big push. It is shameful that we have more of “theppu” short-films here rather than true love stories – we are the industry which had so many of real love tales which became big hits in the past, and we struggle to make more of the same kind even as short-films. It is during those times that this Chinese short-film from Michael Wong becomes a very significant lesson. This is a movie which has won more than fifty accolades from different international film festivals, and it is the director’s short-film debut. After watching this The Story of 90 Coins, I hope that he will make a lot more of similar interesting flicks.

Release date: 28th July 2016
Running time: 97 minutes
Directed by: Michael Wong
Starring: Jose Acosta, Dongjun Han, Zhuang Zhiqi

Watch The Story of 90 Coins here:

Other short-films of interest: Mangalyam Thanthunanena, Red Jacket, Grace Villa, Culprit, AUFDRUCK, The Shaman.

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

The Mermaid

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Vampire Owl: Do you know how much I love the mermaids?

Vampire Bat: I am pretty sure that you don’t love them as much as you love Lady Death.

Vampire Owl: Lady Death is more like a final destination. So do not try to bring her into this conversation, and neither should you talk about Doctor Frankenstein.

Vampire Bat: Frankenstein? Okay, so tell me more about your love for those mermaids who don’t love you back.

Vampire Owl: Mr. Vampire Bat, they don’t love me because they don’t know me.

Vampire Bat: Actually, the truth is that they don’t even realize that you exist, and there is no such requirement for them either.

Vampire Owl: No, I am the most popular vampire apprentice in this realm.

Vampire Bat: Dude, the word ‘vampire’ don’t go well with owls. Your kind works well with demons, spirits and the similar creatures from the other dimension.

Vampire Owl: What nonsense! I am as vampire as Kung Fu Panda is Kung Fu.

Vampire Bat: I see the food being a common factor linking you two.

[Gets three cups of Kumily tea with a piece of marble cake].

What is the movie about? :: A young and energetic business tycoon Liu Xuan (Deng Chao) is one of those newer faces in the elite class, looking forward to making it big. It is because of the same reason that he buys the area known as the Green Gulf, planning for a sea reclamation project. He uses the sonar technology to get rid of the oceanic creatures there, especially the dolphins which are supposed to live there in large number. With the technology which proves brutal, they are very much successful in driving the dolphins away, as there was not much of a sighting of them for a long time. Along with his long line of supporters, and the newly found special business partner Ruolan (Zhang Yuqi), he decides to take it to the next level – Ruolan, not only being attracted to him for his success and quick money-making, but also sexually, decides to keep him with her throughout for the deals, despite him not having that huge a family background.

So, what happens next? :: But unknown to Liu, Ruolan or any other, the Green Gulf is the home of merpeople, the aquatic creatures with the head and upper body of a humans and the tail of fish, or other sea creatures. It turns out that after Liu had bought the area, overall pollution had increased, and the sonar devices placed in the sea has been producing a devastating effect on their kind. A lot of them had died, and some of them unwell, with not much of a future left, awaiting the end of their lives. With their people being lost to sickness and even worse fate, the merpeople decide not to co-exist in peace and suffer for the damage that humans have been doing to them as well as the environment. They decide to react, and by the same, they feel that things should begin with the one man who has caused all the trouble, Liu Xuan, the millionaire – they all want him dead, and that too, as soon as possible, before he cause any further damage to their world.

And what is to follow in this adventure in water and land? :: The half-human, half-fish creatures of the ocean join under Octopus (Show Luo) who is half-man half-octopus, who calls for a hitman, or rather a femme fatale to murder the evil human target. They train a beautiful young mermaid named Shan (Lin Yun) to walk on her fins, and adapt to human life, hiding among humans, and find an opportunity to meet Liu. When she gets to find him and have a meeting, she is supposed to seduce him, and send him to his doom. The plan seems to be quite a smart one for everyone, as they send Shan to the land, and after setting up her place on an abandoned house which has the sea underneath it, she goes on to find Liu with Ruolan and other girls – she leaves her phone number for him and asks him to call her, and they all wait for the man to call the mermaid. So, will Liu fall for the trap and call the mermaid, inviting his own doom, or will he just continue with his work? Will Shan be good enough for the job, and can the Green Gulf and the merpeople be saved?

The defence of The Mermaid :: When we look at The Mermaid, we see that it works at two levels, one at the simplest level of comedy, and another level, at the more serious concern, on the need for conservation of nature from all which contributes in polluting it. There are a number of funny moments which you will get to watch and can’t control laughter, which includes, but is not limited to the mermaid’s attempt at assassination, the octopus trying to sneak in for no use and the millionaire remembering his father when getting to eat a chicken. There is cuteness present, which makes sure that no matter how dumb some comic scenes happen to go, you will find that the simple characters and simple incidents make sure that the fun is something that will keep on going. It is certainly divergent from the usual mermaid tale that you will see anywhere, and it is also different in talking about protecting the environment. You call this a package which takes them all in.

The claws of flaw :: I am sure that a lot of people will find some of the comedy scenes to be rather childish, and for a movie with ninety three percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, you tend to expect more than that. There is also that certainty of confusion with the genre, which can be seen, as we look at how things proceed, with focus being shifted from one genre to the other, and its inability to take a few things seriously is rather confusing – after all, there are some elements which have to be dealt with leaving the comedy behind if they are present, but The Mermaid never tries to put down what it has in its lap, but stands straight up to take something else. It can be said so more concerning the final scenes, and it makes us wonder why it couldn’t maintain the strength that it had earlier. Maybe it could have maintained the comic side, without going rather violent and yet without seriousness. The modern take of the folktale mermaid story could have surely been better. The romantic side is rather strange too.

How it finishes :: As the four people playing the most noticable characters, Deng Chao, Lin Yun, Show Luo and Zhang Yuqi make their moments count so well, The Mermaid becomes a movie that you need to give a try for the elements it possesses, and the divergence that it brings here with its not-so-little mermaid. The combination should feel strange, but if you take each of them separately, you will know that there is some interesting effort at almost everything here. Without that much of a violence in the end, and with more comedy as it had in the beginning supported by better visual effects, The Mermaid could have done more justice to its world. But as of now, with a short run-time, and some moments to remember, this one could be that comedy movie with the environmental message which has the strength to be remembered for a longer period of time than a documentary or a serious movie taking on the same issue. No wonder it is the highest-grossing Chinese movie of all time, even after releasing with The Monkey King 2 – the movie has to be enjoyed for the funny side without thinking too much about the story, but do remember the environmental message.

Release date: 8th February 2016
Running time: 94 minutes
Directed by: Stephen Chow
Starring: Deng Chao, Lin Yun, Show Luo, Zhang Yuqi, Kris Wu, Ivan Kotik, Lu Zhengyu, Fan Shuzhen, Li Shangzheng, Bo Xiaolong, Pierre Bourdaud, Kong Lianshun, Chiu Chi Ling, Bai Ke, Tsui Hark, Tin Kai-man, Wen Zhang, Lam Chi-chung, Yang Neng, Zhang Mei’e

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

The Wailing

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Vampire Owl: Another Korean movie? I am very much interested in the same.

Vampire Bat: There are so many more movies, and it doesn’t matter how many we watch, as we won’t be satisfied ever.

Vampire Owl: Are we actually running short of immortality?

Vampire Bat: Yes, whenever one such movie begins, the Wheel of Time spins faster.

Vampire Owl: That is a cruel thing, indeed.

Vampire Bat: It is quite natural because a wheel doesn’t really watch any movie.

Vampire Owl: Do you think that we can trick the Wheel of Time to watch this movie if we name it The Wheeling?

Vampire Bat: I don’t think that you understand. You just can’t play with the Wheel of Time. The consequences can be terrible.

Vampire Owl: You mean worse than the kiss of Lady Death?

Vampire Bat: You kissed her? How dead-romantic out of a cemetery!

[Gets three cups of Wayanad tea with Patanjali Doodh Biscuits].

What is the movie about? :: A police officer Jong-goo (Kwak Do-won) is investigating a mysterious disease and the murders that follow in a small town. It all began after a Japanese man (Jun Kunimura) arrived in the secluded village, and there are stories being told about this stranger. A usual rumour is that this particular man from outside the country who stays alone in a cabin in the woods right on the mountains could be nothing less than an evil spirit or a ghost who is haunting the town. The newest one is story of a man having witnessed this stranger eating a deer raw, and that he had red, glowing eyes. Accompanied by a Japanese-speaking pastor who is supposed to translate for him, and another police officer who is to provide him company and support, Jong-goo decides to go for the cabin in the woods, and meet this much talked about personality at home.

So, what happens next? :: There, the man has kept the pictures of those people who are infected and those who were murdered. Among them, is a shoe belonging to Jong-goo’s daughter Hyo-jin (Kim Hwan-hee) which brings him into a state of anger and frustration, and the girl also begins to show the symptoms of the disease, much to the dismay of everyone at the house, as his mother-in-law (Her Jin) and wife (Jang So-yeon) attribute this to an evil spirit requiring an exorcism as the only way to save the girl. It leaves Il-gwang (Hwang Jung-min), a popular shaman with the duty of freeing the girl from the clutches of the evil spirit which is the man in the woods. But can it be done? Is this Japanese man really the one causing all the trouble or is there something more to the tale? Is there the presence of more terrifying truths which are to be unveiled?

The defence of The Wailing :: There will always be something special about the mystery which we pursue in this movie, as it gets deeper and deeper as the flick progresses – the last half an hour or so of this movie becomes the special thing, as we keep wondering who belongs to which side, and where the side of the light is, and who is aligned to darkness and pure evil. As it is with our world, we always tend to put or trust and faith in the wrong person – whether it is on a godman as in Tiyaan, or a priest as depicted long ago in Ekalavyan or Crime File, The Wailing has you in deeper trouble, as there is unspeakable terror from another world waiting to pounce on you and your family. The fear factor rather goes deep, as we feel the horror smoothly and nicely affecting us rather than getting on to scare us quick and sudden. The mystery is always there, and so is the fear of the unknown, and the twists are all ready to unleash themselves, as we can only wait for the best which is to come only by the end.

The claws of flaw :: A ninety nine percent critical appreciation after so many reviews – the expectations have never been this high as you look at it. The movie is just too long to keep us there all the time, and that leaves one with too much of free-time in between. The movie could have actually done without that exorcism sequence by the shaman, and also that infected person going zombie all over the protagonist and friends – these don’t really suit into the overall style of the movie. There is also a chance for the creation of confusion, and that could be avoided only with some good focus in watching this movie in the last thirty to forty minutes – paying attention is a must, which is why we have to spend more than two and half hours with this movie, and nothing else should disturb us as it nears the end. Let all good and evil in our life wait for The Wailing to go for its final hunt. After all, you don’t get to understand a smart movie that easily, you need to keep on.

Soul exploration :: The movie effectively makes us feel the presence of the supernatural right through its run. It is rather sad though, as the shaman can’t help them, and the priest of the local church also says that he can’t help him. There might not be another movie in which the protagonist has to be so confused and hopeless against terror – there is no help for him and no hope. It is the case of ultimate grief in life, that you have been so good with your life, and yet nobody wants to help you, or rather nobody can. When the presence of evil is so much here, you wonder how the good men and women can take a stand against it, but soon you are to realize that you just can’t. The movie clearly shows that evil keeps winning, and the good person’s defence against the strong terror is rather too weak, and it has been the reason why evil has thrived for centuries. Even these days, things such as hate and lies drive people.

How it finishes :: Among the movies which comes close to The Wailing, there is surely The Witch which stands closer than any other, with terror waiting to be unleashing from the woods, and there is one particular suspect as the supernatural one – in both tales, it is evil that has the upper hand, and goodness might never really had a chance; even the neutral alignment had no opportunity to create an impact for it has been all stronger with the dark side. You are left with the realization that evil always finds a way – for it is eternally easy to be evil, and rather too difficult to be good. As easy as spreading lies and hate, is the strength of the hands of evil. The smartest thing evil ones can do is to convince someone to trust the wrong person, and use that fake trust to thrive on it with more and more of all things fake and terrible. You see a lot of examples right in front of your eyes; evil and its lies – they are so smart that you trust them.

Release date: 12th May 2016
Running time: 156 minutes
Directed by: Na Hong-jin
Starring: Kwak Do-won, Hwang Jung-min, Chun Woo-hee, Her Jin, Kim Hwan-hee, Jun Kunimura, Jang So-yeon, Kim Do-yoon, Son Kang-gook, Park Seong-yeon, Kil Chang-gyoo, Jeon Bae-soo, Jeong Mi-nam, Choi Gwi-hwa, Baek Seung-cheol, Kwon Hyeok-joon, Park Chae-ik, Kim Gi-cheon, Yoo Soon-woong, Jo Han-cheol, Kim Song-il, Bae Yong-geun, Im Jae-il, Lee In-cheol, Jo Seon-joo, Lee Chang-hoon, Kim Ji-won

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

The Monkey King II

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Vampire Owl: I have this name wandering in my mind somewhere.

Vampire Bat: I am sure that you have known many kings and monkeys during your life-time.

Vampire Owl: Yes, the most recent acquaintance being the Lich Queen with her undead minions.

Vampire Bat: What? You met the Lich Queen? It is forbidden for a vampire to meet an undead queen sorceress.

Vampire Owl: She is not that undead, you know, and she is a good host.

Vampire Bat: Whatever. That doesn’t explain how you met the Monkey King though.

Vampire Owl: Well, I was reading this classic, and the pages came alive.

Vampire Bat: And they attacked you?

Vampire Owl: No, then I realized that I was tearing the pages apart. Then I took some glue and fixed it back to its place.

Vampire Bat: The imperial librarian won’t be that happy this time. You should get a few zombie minions to cover it up.

[Gets three cups of strong tea with Mariegold biscuits].

What is the movie about? :: A young Buddhist monk, Tang Sanzang (Feng Shaofeng) is on the journey to the West, to the Thunder Monastery in India to collect some of the valuable scriptures of Buddha. But the soldiers who were meant to assist and protect him during his journey leaves him when a white tiger attacks them. Trying to protect the horse, he ends up being under attack from the tiger, only to get into a cave and save himself. As he is followed by the tiger, he sees Sun Wukong a.k.a. The Monkey King (Aaron Kwok) who was imprisoned under the Five Fingers Mountain as part of his five hundred years of atonement for the trouble which he had caused in heaven. The awakened and released monkey soon deals with the tiger, but that only begins in new life, as the Goddess Guan Yin (Kelly Chen) has instructed him to protect the monk throughout his journey.

So, what happens next? :: Wukong is not someone who likes taking orders from anyone, but he is bound to stay close to the instructions made by the goddess, as he is wearing a magical headband which can’t be removed, and will cause him pain if he acts like a bad monkey. He finds his life connected to the monk’s, and decides to finish this job as soon as possible, and get back to his usual, mischievous life. On the way, Wukong defeats two other immortals looking like monsters – Zhu Bajie (Xiaoshenyang) and Sha Wujing (Him Law) who joins them in the journey as atonement for their sins, as the monk gets protected from three sides. Both of the new travelers consider Wukong as their big brother, and approves of his superiority in skills. They have some interesting moments during their travel, and reaches Yun Hai Xi Kingdom, which is ruled by a king (Fei Xiang) and his people living in fear.

And, what is to follow next in the adventure? :: The kingdom is terrorized by the White Bone Demon (Gong Li), a powerful demoness who is known to take away children from everywhere, and she is supposed to devour them to keep herself in this world. As the demoness learns about the arrival of the young monk, she decides to eat him, and thus get more powerful, without no reincarnation, being an eternally unstoppable demon who could challenge even heaven and hell. She, along with her three demoness minions (Lu Weu, Xi’er Qi and Miya Muqi) get the four to their house in the middle of the forest, where they offer all of them a place to rest. She tells them the story of her past as a young woman, which had Sanzang in tears. The two monsters fall into the seductive trap of the demonesses posing as beautiful girls, and Wukong seems to have some problem with his eyes – so, will the demoness and her minions be successful in using the young monk to expand their evil? Or will the Monkey King be able to save him?

The defence of The Monkey King 2 :: This movie is visually excellent with its creatures, surroundings and magic having our attention, and has those action sequences which will immediately ask for your attention. There are also the messages about forgiveness, and the reflection of the fact that humans are so capable of being more evil than the demons every time. There is also some humour present here, and the comic relief is very much useful in this movie. It actually combines nicely with the adventure as well as the spiritual side, making this package whole. Everything is so simple in this movie, and this simplicity in fantasy is something that we can cherish, and the same makes sure that this movie is for everyone – kids are certainly going to love this one as much as any animated movie. Even though there are not that many reviews of this movie in English, the ratings received, including those in Rotten Tomatoes make nice example of how well this has worked.

The claws of flaw :: Maybe, a more serious version of the classic might have been expected by many, and also this one happens to be a sequel rather than the original story, which could have also kept some people from watching this particular flick. There is also more needed of action from everyone other than Monkey King whose action scenes never cease being delightful – the fans from everywhere will always look for more from him, as I had wondered more about this particular character than anyone else. Also, despite having a very strong female villain there with minions, her manipulation or the fighting skills get quite less attention than we would have expected to witness. Looking silly at times is not something that one would expect from this movie, as there is enough depth all the time, as long as you have a classic in your hands, and got hope of everyone who has read or has read about the work expecting a lot. Also, despite the movie being a visual treat, there are moments when the CGI looks too much and strange.

How it finishes :: Those who have read the novel Journey to the West by Wu Cheng’en, are sure to love this movie adaptation of the tale – there are so many version of the same, and many translations. This tale is actually something that needs to be read by everyone, and this movie will help in attaining that for sure. As more people get to read Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese Literature, adding the other three, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Dream of the Red Chamber and Water Margin to their list of books to read, we can safely say that this visual extravaganza of an action movie is successful in doing the right thing for literature. Even if you haven’t watched this movie’s predecessor, or never known about the novel, it is still okay to watch this movie – this one is a rather stand-alone work, and things really can’t get any simpler than this as far as fantasy movies are concerned. Then, the messages are also straight-forward with nothing there to bring a message out of a message. Also note that the actor who played the antagonist in the previous movie plays the protagonist here.

PS: For more on the movie of the week here, read on – Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum

Release date: 6th February 2016
Running time: 119 minutes
Directed by: Cheang Pou-soi
Starring: Aaron Kwok, Gong Li, Feng Shaofeng, Xiaoshenyang, Him Law, Fei Xiang, Kelly Chen, Lu Weu, Xi’er Qi, Miya Muqi

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Train to Busan

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Vampire Owl: I had the feeling that you were never going to write on foreign movies.

Vampire Bat: Yes, that was the earlier intention, but there are so many good titles among them. To add to it, I had written about a foreign short film.

Vampire Owl: So you mean to say that you are breaking the rules.

Vampire Bat: Yes, but only this rule. I will not be writing on a movie which gets a score of 70/100 when it is from last year, or 50/100 if it is new. I will also not write on any movies older than the previous year.

Vampire Owl: It is fair enough. So just more categories at Movies of the Soul?

Vampire Bat: Yes, an expansion was needed. These are the days when there is not much of a place for honest reviews.

Vampire Owl: Yes, I see that people take money from the movie makers and write positive reviews, no matter how bad the movie is.

Vampire Bat: It is where we choose to write on only the movies which are good, thus not writing about at least half of the movies that we watch.

Vampire Owl: Well, we need more reviews then, because most of the movie pages and celebrities are only sharing those reviews for which they have paid for.

Vampire Bat: This is an undead movie. So let us start the new saga with this one, and expand our territory.

[Gets three cups of Wayanad tea with Patanjali Doodh Biscuits].

What is the movie about? :: Seok-woo (Gong Yoo) a fund manager so obsessed with his work that he rarely think about the rest of the things in his life. Due to the same reason, he rarely get any time to spend with his only daughter, Soo-an (Kim Su-an) who wishes to be with her parents. But that wasn’t going to happen as her father and mother and divorced, and she could consider her lucky enough just to have some moments from her father’s busy schedule. Hoping to see her mother again, Soo-an makes the birthday wish to see her who is at Busan, to her father, who really had no clue what to buy his daughter for her birthday. Even though he really wants to keep on working, Seok-woo takes his daughter to the Seoul railway station to board the Korea Train Express. There seems to be something strange going on in the city with ambulances, police and fire fighters rushing, but they ignore the same.

So, what happens next? :: There they come across Sang-hwa (Ma Dong-seok) and his pregnant wife Seong-kyeong (Jung Yu-mi) who are looking forward to a rather peaceful and undisturbed journey. The journey has two of the strangest passengers, one being a homeless man (Choi Gwi-hwa) who has shut himself inside the lavatory being afraid of something, and there is an injured girl (Shim Eun-kyung) who has run into the train without the ticket checker noticing. While the former had just seen the attack to get scared, the latter had just been bitten by a zombie in the outbreak which had plagued the city causing panic all around. The girl turns into a zombie and spreads the infection beginning with an atttendant, and then on to the passengers. Along with the father, daughter, husband and the pregnant wife, a cheerleader Jin-hee (Ahn So-hee), her lover and baseball player Yong-guk (Choi Woo-shik)are among those who escape by getting them all into one compartment.

And, what is to follow next in the adventure? :: The zombies await the survivors in the very next compartment, but they are not able to get in, as they are not that smart. Sang-hwa is doubtful of Seok-woo as his a corporate man and was hesitant to open the door of the compartment for him and his wife. Seok-woo is not that fond of him either as he is concerned about his daughter more than anything else, and is afraid to do anything that has the slightest possibility of putting her in danger. Then there is the rich and selfish COO Yon-suk (Kim Eui-sung) who just wants to get him safe, even if it means that everyone in the train has to die a painful death. But time keeps running out for them, but hope comes as they are supposed to stop at Daejeon Station, where all passengers are to be quarantined. Seok-woo calls one of his influential colleagues and makes sure that he and his daughter would be able to get through without being quarantined. But you can never be safe as long as there are zombies anywhere, right?

The defence of Train to Busan :: There are not many zombie movies this quick, as this movie goes on as fast as the train itself – there is absolutely no dull moment in this flick which moves forward as if it is a bullet shot right out of a gun, and people used to say that the zombies were slow, or rather the slowest among all of the undead. There are so many thrilling moments here that we get to stop counting – there are so many of the undead, and there are so many occasions when our protagonists need to keep running or even fight back to keep the creatures out. We get to care for so many of characters like never before in a horror movie. All these are so nicely shot, and whatever we see have smartness behind them. There is the corporate evil shown with all brutality here, as we see the man in suit being the most selfish creature, even worse than the zombies. We also see a lot of emotions, and acts which define humanity in one way or the other – there heroes when least expected, and some acts of sacrifice will go very far down deep.

The claws of flaw :: A ninety six percent approved movie from the critics should mean to be something more when you look at it – and there are zombies, which means that you never bring the expectations down. Train to Busan is one of those rare Korean movies which got its release in the multiplex near our place, and we know that it got everyone’s attention by a huge margin. The movie’s biggest predictability is that a lot of people can figure out the two people who are to survive by the end of the movie – it seems like that is meant to make sure that even families are going to like it, even though the horror movie genre rarely make any inroads there. We have also had a lot of zombie movies, and we were looking for something that deviated like no other – there was also the need for an explanation of how zombies came into being; it would help, as it was proven by a franchise like Resident Evil which was rather one-dimensional in its content even though it was three-dimensional on the screen.

How it finishes :: We have had many zombie movies with the outbreak of something resembling a plague, which spread through bite – even if we forget those earlier movies, we have had quite a good number of interesting ones in the last few years, and the biggest money-maker has been the video game inspired franchise which never really seemed to have an end until they released one movie titled the final chapter, Resident Evil. Then there was the most divergent of them all, the one which had a zombie love story which threatened to take away more than just a few Twilight fans – Warm Bodies. Then there is World War Z which might be the most similar to Train to Busan, but we see that this Korean flick here is rather the improved version – a zombie movie which will stay in your minds with not just the action, but with all things combined. Well, the point to be noted is that it is not Hollywood who has come up with this all-rounder zombie flick. Even we had Go Goa Gone.

Release date: 20th July 2016 (Korea); 21st October 2016 (India)
Running time: 118 minutes
Directed by: Yeon Sang-ho
Starring: Gong Yoo, Ma Dong-seok, Jung Yu-mi, Kim Su-an, Kim Eui-sung, Choi Woo-shik, Ahn So-hee, Choi Gwi-hwa, Jung Suk-yong, Ye Soo-jung, Park Myung-sin, Jang Hyuk-jin, Kim Chang-hwan, Shim Eun-kyung

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

AUFDRUCK

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AUFDRUCK

What is the movie about? :: Beginning with a quote from Heimito von Doderer, the movie features two women, Pansen (Mary Krasnoperova) and Schluppe (Kira Mathis) who are having some talk about various things as they sit facing each other at a cafe. These two young women who are somewhere in their twenties will talk about anything under the sun, and the focus also remains on the cup of coffee and the cigarettes which they are having; they don’t seem to ever end up with enough of these and they are of the opinion that people should be better. They don’t seem happy at all with what happens around them, and have that kind of opinions which are not just strange, but also too direct and won’t be really acceptable to many.

So what are the points of discussion about? :: The exact translation of AUFDRUCK is “label”, and LABEL is also the English title of the fourth short-film directed by Jaschar L Marktanner, who have taken six films so far; this is also his first work as an editor. Each dialogue in the movie reminds us of the labels, the symbols of those miserable conclusions that the society come across related to what we do; something which is often declared by our own relatives themselves. A “label” is something from which there is no escape, as it has been pasted on us with so much ease, as the repetitive words work as the glue. There are times when we wonder if the society had already made a decision on us when we were little kids; sometimes we feel that the relatives always knew what to label us according to certain factors which we know nothing about. It is really difficult to get rid of the labels.

Soul exploration :: The movie is shot in black and white, except for the little colour in the end, and there is a certain piano sound playing on the background. The subtitles are in colour though. The language used won’t go on well with everyone, especially a lot of people from this part of the world. But it can be seen a reflection of the new generation types which we see all around these days. Even around here, we can see such abusive language being used in local languages throughout the social media. It has become part of our lives, and people just randomly use it against people whom they don’t like. The two lady characters in the video are reflections of such people who can do nothing much other than being disrespectful and abusive to the strangers about whom they come up with random opinions in a negative way. The funny thing here is that they even brand the aliens!

More soul exploration :: Such opinions which become nothing less than labels, are put upon people based on just random thoughts. It is clear from the opinion about waitress job that is said with such clarity and confidence that it will make one wonder how people can so easily have a personal opinion regarding people just based on their jobs. The case of dignity of labour is still not there, even after so many years of modernity, and even with the teaching in schools that no job inferior. The teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, the father of our nation, never really maintain any influence on most of our countrymen as we have a look around and see how the labels fly and how some people are mistreated. The class divide has only increased with the new millionaires, and so many people still living below the poverty live a miserable life.

Further soul exploration :: If it is looked at directly from the point of view of a common man here, the points are that the two things here coffee and cigarettes have been considered as more of the capitalist matter. The replacement for cigarettes have been beedis, which were the common man’s cigarette for quite a long time, and has had a relationship with the socialist and communist movements here. Nationalists also used to support beedi in favour of the home-made products. The situation is even more radical in the case of tea. Coffee became popular here because of the IT companies and call centres which have the machines offering free coffee to which the professionals are addicted. The common man’s drink has always been tea, as it remains the cheapest available drink in the country.

And a little more about it :: Tea has been considered the socialist drink, and the communist parties here have used them through the ages, with some movies featuring the same providing tea with the title of being the drink of the masses. Tea still remains the most consumed drink here, and is also the national drink. India’s ruling nationalist party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has also successfully used tea as part of its campaign, with “conversation over tea” idea for the common man. So, the idea of having coffee and cigarettes and being abusive towards the working class is a symbol of the class divide which has been widening, with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. The poor gets the labels put on them by the rich and the successful people – even the parents of the successful men and women comes up with such labels, don’t they?

How it finishes :: But these people who belong to the higher class can actually act very well, and they will pretend to be good. They can hide their contempt as much whenever they want to because they are trained to pretend. They will just blame the society which consists of the working class, and as they are the more influential ones in the society, this society will take over the labels which these people create, and paste them right on the common man. When they see people who are different, they are even quicker to come up with the labels; it is the depressing state of our society. It has the first leading role for Kira Mathis and the first role for Mary Krasnoperova, and the two ladies have done some excellent job in reflecting the true nature of the society – the latter is my favourite here. It is an interesting work from Jaschar L Marktanner, which will work for you depending on how you think about it, and what you decide to take from it. I consider this flick as a representation of the class divide and the basic human contempt/vanity that leads to labeling others. You will also see the reflections of the online trolls and abusers who do nothing, but keep talking in an abusive tone. The message here which you can take home is to stop judging people, especially based on money and job! If you get deeper into it, you will want this short-film to be at least a little bit longer. You can watch the trailer of the short-film below, and the full movie will be available online soon.

Release date: 10th October 2014
Running time: 4 minutes
Directed by: Jaschar L Marktanner
Starring: Mary Krasnoperova, Kira Mathis, Steffi Charlotte Fluri, Jaschar L Marktanner

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.