nanoomi

Initially, I was not going to do a post about my favorite films of last year. I had returned from travelling after the new year had already begun and felt it was too late.  ‘Best of’ posts are more usually seen immediately before or after January 1, not three weeks into the month. However, a friend suggested that I write my opinion on the films I liked from last year, so here it is. Actually, I liked many more films than are on this list.. These are just what I thought were the best. Read the full story

Brief Notice

The interpreter of the Police Headquarters of the Japanese Consulate named Yun Tai Heung, donned Japanese clothes and entered the house of a Korean policeman, Yi Kyung Sul, knowing that Yi was on duty at the time. He insulted Yi’s wife and made a disturbance generally. The neighbors heard the noise and informed Yi, who hurried home and arrested Yun on the charge of house-breaking. Yun tried to pass himself off at the police station as a Japanese but his identity was soon established. He was put in prison awaiting trial. Last Monday some Japanese policemen went to the Police Headquarters and demanded his release but the authorities refused to comply on the ground that the prisoner was a Korean and amenable to Korean law.

The Steamer Higo arrived from Japan yesterday and will leave for Neuchang and Chefoo this morning. <In an earlier edition, I had assumed that Chefoo was a variation of Cheju (Jeju) Island. However, further research has revealed that Chefoo was the former name of the Chinese city of Yantai> Read the full story

Things you will learn from the issue:  The benefits of being a policeman, to leave your hairpins at home and that not everyone likes rice.  This issue also requires me to put a up a disclaimer;  the opinions expressed belong solely to the editor and staff of the Independent living more than 120 years ago. They do not reflect my own opinions.

Local Items

- The municipality of Chemulpo contemplates the plan of changing the street lamps for electric lights. Hurrah for Chemulpo!

- The Taetar of Nanking is reorganizing his army on European plans and it is to be officered in part by foreigners.

- More police stations have been established in different parts of the city. Read the full story

I am currently in the USA for the next three weeks and will not be able to easily watch Korean films. However, I took copies of The Independent with me so I could update my blog while here. Usual posts on Korean movies will shortly after I return to Korea on January 14.

The Independent, April 21^st, 1896

Local Items

A little girl about four years old was lost on the Big Bell street the day before yesterday and was picked up by the police and cared for at the Police Department awaiting the arrival or discovery of the parents.

The Peking Pass is temporarily blocked by a mass of stone and debris that has fallen in from the steep sides. Fortunately no one was passing at the time. Water percolating through the crevices and freezing probably caused the landslide. <In a later issue, I leared the “Peking Pass” was what the foreign community called the road between Pyeongyang and Seoul> Read the full story

Local Items– We are pleased to remark that the ladies of the Seoul Union have put their shoulders to the wheel and handsomely papered the rooms of the Union. We congratulate them and ourselves on the improvement thus effected and are glad to hear that they intend to open the season tomorrow. Let every member be present with his tennis racquet and with a good stock of harmless gossip and show the ladies his appreciation of their efforts. Read the full story

I opted to combine these two issues as the Editorial found in the April 11th issue was taken up with the growing tensions between Spain and the USA regarding Cuba. Reminder: All opinions expressed herein belong to the editors of The Independent and written 120 years ago.

Read the full story

This past weekend, my friend suggested that we watch one of my DVDs. He mentioned that he hates horror films but anything else was ok except that he was not in the mood for anything depressing. After browsing through the movies I have, he pulled out this film. I was a little surprised and asked why he wanted to see this.. It contains no action, has no famous performers and is basically an unknown, arthouse film which I thought he would have no interest in as, in the past, he has raved about such movies as Avatar and the Transformer series. “Why” I asked, “did you pick this?” “Because everyone looks so happy on the cover,” came the answer.  Ah, Gi-wook…haven’t you learned to read the back of the DVD box?  Tweaking the old adage a little, ‘never judge a DVD by its cover.’  True, the people on the cover look happy and every poster made to advertise the film at the time of its release shows the three main characters smiling brightly. However, that is only the cover. The movie, an omnibus made up of three short stories, contains a suicide, a character considering suicide, a stagnant life, a failed romance, a crushed dream, a dead marriage and the lead up to a probable double murder.

The first story is about twenty-one year old Jeong-hee who lives with her older sister.   They were abandoned by their father fifteen years earlier and the sacrifices that the pair have had to make in order to survive left them with very different characters. The sister is a little on the mousy side and has turned to religion to find her strength. In contrast, Jeong-hee has developed a very tough exterior and could be considered rather selfish. When her sister wants to move to a better apartment, Jeong-hee whines, drags her feet and ultimately forces her sister to take the one and only place they look at with disasterous results. She also lashes out at her father when he reappears at her sister’s request with tragic results. Read the full story

Today, we will look at our final creature of the darkness on the Obscure Monster Countdown to Halloween, Death. However, calling Death obscure is not quite fair. Death is a common theme in quite a few Korean films and spans all of the genres. But did you know that Korea has a personification of death?  Just as Europe and North America have the Grim Reaper and Angels of Death, East Asia has Jeoseung Saja.  Dressed in billowing black robes and wearing his telltale tall black cap, the Jeoseung Saja walks the Earth seen only by those who are about to die. Pale skin and sunken eyes which stare unrelentingly at their target, these death-beings visit those at the point of death and call for their souls. For the most part, there is no escape from his firm grasp as he cannot be reasoned with or swayed from his task.. .(except in the comedy short film collection of Dasepo Naughty Girls Series in which the Jeoseung Saja allows the students and teachers of the school to barter for their lives with sexual favors). Read the full story

Snakes are a popular choice for movies. In recent years we have had at least four Anaconda movies, Snakes on a Plane, King Cobra and the Python series. Earlier decades gave us movies such as Venom and Mamba.  Way back in 1974, Hollywood treated us to a movie simply called Snakes in which an elderly man sent his pet snakes out to take revenge on his enemies rather like the better known film Willard which featured Rats. Both of these could be seen as part of a sub-genre of the ‘Nature-Gone-Wild’ category of disaster films. In Nature-Gone-Wild movies, a species– or sometimes an entire family comprised of various, related species– of animals would rise up against humanity. Hitchcock presented us with The Birds and the feathered fiends were quickly followed by many other animals from rabbits (Night of the Lepus), frogs (Frogs) and even worms (Squirm)!

The nature-gone-wild films and disaster films in general never really caught on in Korea. However, during the late sixties throughout the early 80s, Korean filmmakers frequently teamed up with Hong Kong and Taiwanese production companies. Most of the films made through these collaborations were action ‘kung-fu’ flicks but there was some variety. Here we will briefly look at two movies featuring reptiles of revenge that were co-produced with Hong Kong. The first is a film known as Calamity of Snakes (1983). This one follows the usual pattern of nature-gone-wild films where a greedy corporate executive does something to destroy the natural habitat of the animal of the day and they rise up to indiscriminately take vengeance. In this case, the snakes seem justified as their brethren have just been horribly slaughtered by a construction crew who are building a new resort hotel. In retaliation, the snakes invade a luxury, high-rise and attack all the residents living there. Mind you, this is not just one species of snake– it is quite an unusual mix. And they are led by a gigantic boa with kung-fu ability.  Yes– you read that last part right. The snake, suspended from the sky, becomes involved in a wire-fu battle with a team of exterminators.  Sounds like it might be fun, right? Well, not really. For many of the scenes, the snakes are real (unlike the one in the photo above) and so are their deaths.

The other co-production is The Magic Curse (1975).  A trip to Borneo takes a bizarre turn when the travellers encounter a snake cult who make human sacrifices to their serpent god. Taekwondo instructor Im Moon-yeong escapes the clutches of the bizarre witch doctor Adulla and runs straight into the arms of a mysterious woman who turns out to be a high priestess of the snake god. She falls in love with Moon-yeong and sends him safely on his way, but with a little gift. When kissing him goodbye, she bites him and imparts to him a curse. She warns him that if he meets any other woman, her rival for his love will die a horrible death. Instead of taking her seriously, Moon-yeong makes a stop over to Hong Kong and proceeds to screw — I’m sorry– I meant ‘make love to’ as many woman as he can.  After he leaves, each of these comely lasses are terrorized by snakes until they can bear it no more and suffer from heart failure. I’m sure there is something Freudian going on here…  Anyway, Moon-yeong soon finds that the curse has another aspect.  When he is assaulted by a gang of thieves, he transforms into a scaly man-snake with enormous teeth.  With dead street punks on his hands and a trail of dead women behind him, it is not long before the police track Moon-yeong down. Fortunately for our hero, the police believe his story of the curse and accompany him to Borneo to put an end to it. Meanwhile, in Borneo, the high priestess has fallen victim to a curse herself placed upon her by Adulla.  She is transformed into the green Medusa-like woman in the poster and she too is leaving a trail of havoc in her wake.

We are not quite done with snakes yet. These are not quite supernatural enough. Tomorrow we will look at the Snake Wives.

Take a look at the following trailers from The Ruins (2008), From Hell It Came (1957) and The Maneater of Hydra(1967) – Three Western films that feature man (and woman) eating plants. If you were to watch these films, you would notice that they have something in common, namely that you have to be pretty slow, pretty stupid or a combination of both to get yourself devoured by a plant. Even the lumbering tree monster which is not rooted to the spot once it matured moves at a glacial pace. Let’s face it, plants are not scary and the fact that they can barely move is the primary reason. Alien plants are a little different and make a better impression on the horror enthuiast. The original version of The Thing, Little Shop of Horrors, The Body Snatchers and The Day of the Triffids all feature alien plants that are far more memorable than any of the posies listed earlier in the paragraph.

At first glance the title flora in The Flower of Evil, directed by Lee Yong-min back in 1961, might be suffering from the same problem. It is confined to a flower pot. Even though descriptions state that it can move at night, I don’t think it would get very far with its roots firmly trapped in soil on a pot on an end table. This is especially problamtic as this sinister flower requires a healthy dose of blood to survive. Its stature may be deceptively small, but the amount of blood required to keep this plant alive is surprising. How can it possibly get what it needs?  The answer is simple and follows in the vein of the original Little Shop of Horrors (1960)– the plant simply tells its owner what it wants.  But there is no thin little whisper of “Feed Me” nor the more musical demands as made in the remake of Little Shop of Horrors. No, this plant has an entirely different method. At night, it transforms into a ghost and makes its needs known.

“Now wait just a minute,” you might be thinking, “How can a plant transform into a ghost?” Well, if it were just a plant, I would share your disbelief. After all, a couple of days ago, the One-Eyed Ghost explained that the dying with han in one’s soul was what caused a person to come back as a phantom.  I think most people would agree that a plant does not have a soul and, even if you could convince me that it did, I would never believe that its spirit could carry a grudge that would drive it to revenge. But the ability to transform into a ghost– as well as its lust for human blood — was bestowed on the cursed orchid when the spirit of Baek Ryeong (pictured right) fused with the plant. Baek was a woman deeply in love with Prof. Lee Gwang-soo but he did not return her feelings. She died in an unspecified manner (I suspect suicide) and her spirit joined with a flower creating a new species of plant that Prof. Lee, as a botonist, found irresistable. He now had something unique in the plant world. The fact that it required blood was problematic, but nothing that Lee found too intimidating. He started draining blood from various victims to feed his favorite flower, but he drains too much from one woman and she dies, making him a murderer.

You might think that would be as bad as things could get, but it becomes worse. His frequent nightly expeditions to procur more blood have a startling effect on Dr. Lee.  He is slowly transformed into a vampire himself!  He then proceeds to attack his devoted and loving wife. Will his wife survive or will Baek Ryeong have her revenge and spend eternity as a monster with the vampire she loves? I can’t tell you that, but I can tell you that this movie had everything– a blood guzzling vine, a virgin ghost and now a homicidal vampire!  Ah– but ‘had’ is the operative word. This movie is lost. There are no extact copies known. Given the number of stills that exist, I suspect the final copy deteriorated to the point that it was unsalvagable and the remains were photographed as a way to preserve what remained. That is why the image of the actual star of the film, the Flower of Evil, is not clear.  I did not have a lot of options to choose from. But there are not only stills; the scenario and a poster are still around and serve as evidence of this movie’s existence.

Tomorrow— Snakes!