Popcorn, Soda, and Goobers - Movie and DVD Reviews and Film Commentary

Three… Extremes (imdb | get the dvd)

I didn’t like “The Ring,” and I don’t get why people think it’s frightening. I don’t find a girl crawling out of a television to be that scary. However, I’ve heard that the asian original “Ringu” is pretty creepy. I checked out Ju-On (never saw “The Grudge”), and I’ll have to say that asian horror flicks are a bit creepier than the American knockoffs. While Ju-On wasn’t the scariest gorefest I thought it would be, it was quite creepily dreadful. Enter “Three… Extremes”: three short horror films compiled into one full length feature. This film surveys the horror from Hong Kong, Korea, and Japan, and provides a chilling experience at the same time. Each short is strange and twisted in its own way and has no relation to the other films. Packaged together, they provide fast paced scares along with slow growing apprehensive fear.

While I’m not going to give you the stories (you can find them here), I wanted to mention something about asian horror in general. In my humble opinion, asian horror is irrational and nonsensical terror. I find them to be creepier than most Hollywood slashers as they depend on genuinely scary stories rather than cheep thrills and pop-out-and-make-you-jump tricks. Although I enjoy being scared genuinely, the american viewer in me sometimes becomes troubled by the irrational storylines and the interpretive nature of asian horror. BUT I’ve realized that the lacking of resolutions and the plotholes actually make the movies more lasting for the viewer. Many a time after seeing an asian horror film, I’m still thinking and trying to figure out exactly what the hell happened. Maybe it’s poor movie making, but maybe it’s genius because the movie becomes lasting in your memory.

If you saw it already: I liked “Dumplings” the most, but I liked “Cut” also. “Box” - not so much.

3.5 delicious dumplings out of 5