Weekly visions - week 35, 2024

‎I Confess , directed by Alfred Hitchcock, written by George Tabori and William Archibald based on a play by Paul Anthelme, US, 1953 - ⭐️⭐️⭐️½

What could have been a tense moral thriller is diluted in melodrama, with a lot of screen time devoted to Anne Baxter’s character, which may not resonate as well in modern times as it would have in 1953. Montgomery Clift’s Logan is a man of such high principles that his being a priest is irrelevant: his loyalty to the other characters is so strong that it doesn’t matter whether he leaves behind his cassock, he will always wear a uniform anyway. Also, the depiction of German character Otto Keller is really poor; I understand it was not even ten years after the end of WWII, but still…

‎Oldboy/올드보이 , directed by Park Chan-wook, co-written with Hwang Jo-hoon and Lim Joon-hyung, based on a manga by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi, South Korea, 2003 - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (no change from my previous rating)

Twenty years after its release, Oldboy is still as strong, shocking and twisted as it felt the first time I watched it. Granted, a lot of what I like about Park Chan-wook films is the style (the actual direction, the cinematography, the editing) rather than the substance (the plot), and even on the directing side I can’t really condone the animal cruelty (and probably human cruelty as well) that made one of the scenes in this movie unforgettable. And the Mi-do character is mistreated in so many ways. Still, it’s unusual for a film to be so compelling: the other iconic (sorry for using this word) sequence - the corridor fight - deserves all its praise, and the photo album scene literally gave me goosebumps because of its simplicity and terrible effectiveness. Talk about ‘show, don’t tell’.

‎Lady Vengeance/친절한 금자씨 , directed by Park Chan-wook, co-written with Chung Seo-kyung, South Korea, 2005 - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½ (up from my previous ⭐️⭐️⭐️½)

For some reason I have a complicated history with Sympathy for Lady Vengeance: I loved it when I watched it the first time; then, four years ago, it didn’t live up to my memory. I was in doubt whether to watch it again, but my completionism wouldn’t allow me not to finish the Vengeance Trilogy rewatch. It was the right choice, because seeing the three films over a few days allowed me to appreciate the progression of the ‘series’: this third film includes a lot of elements from the other two (the long imprisonment of the lead character, the kidnapping of children, a daughter left behind; it even features most of the actors from Oldboy and the leads from Mr. Vengeance in cameos), but it feels much more human, as if finally Park let empathy take the lead over anger. Sure, it’s still a vengeance story, and, again, the ending is chilling and terrifying, but for once the lead character is allowed to atone for her sin and (hopefully) achieve her peace.

I Saw the TV Glow , written and directed by Jane Schoenbrun, US, 2024 - ⭐️⭐️⭐️½

Remember what it felt like you were a teenager and all your imagination was absorbed by the fictional world of a TV show? I don’t. Because in my household TV series were never ‘a thing’ and because the silver/golden age of television arrived when I was already older. Maybe that’s why I can only partially relate with the characters in this film and, as much as I loved watching Buffy, I never ran the risk of its world colliding with mine. Also, probably I wasn’t its main target, to be frank. So, through my detachment, I can appreciate some of what Schoenbrun wants to say, and I can understand the subtext of gender-identity themes, but the film feels a bit acerbic or lacking conviction of what it can do, failing to amalgamate lynchian identity confusion (and a musical intermezzo that reminded me of both Twin Peaks: The Return and early Buffy’s musical acts at The Bronze) and pessimism about the future of cathodic teenagers. The cheesy effects in the fictional The Pink Opaque show reminded me more of (even recent) Dr Who, but the presence of a character called Tara and a cameo from Amber Benson (Buffy’s own Tara) make it clear what the reference show was.

Decision to Leave/헤어질 결심 , directed by Park Chan-wook, co-written with Chung Seo-kyung, South Korea, 2022 - ⭐️⭐️⭐️½ (up from my previous ⭐️⭐️⭐️)

On the wave of Director Park’s appreciation, I decided to complete (or so I thought) my rewatch of his films, by giving a second chance to his latest drama. My reaction to it is a bit more positive than when I saw it at the cinema two years ago, but I still think there’s too much contrast between its two parts: a very strong initial half, which could have been a (maybe a bit by-the-numbers) film by itself, and a more poetic but not as tight second part, where characters behave in weird ways just for the sake of plot. Regardless, Park owes co-writer Chung Seo-kyung his films’ best female characters, though most of them (judging by Thirst, Lady Vengeance and The Handmaiden) are quite the scheming kind. Now, if only I could find a copy of I’m a Cyborg but that’s OK…