Three (2002)
Director: Peter Chan, Kim Jee-woon, Nonzee Nimibutr
Year: 2002
Country: Hong Kong/South Korea/Thailand
Alternate Titles: Sam gang
Genre: Anthology
Plot:
Three more stories told by emerging Asian directors.
Review:
Memories-Awaking from a car accident, a woman with no memory tries to piece the puzzles of her identity back together while her husband seeks to find the reason for her strange disappearance. As more and more clues come together, they gradually realize the strange rationale for both situations. Frankly, the only thing really enjoyable here is the finale twist, which manages to come off quite nicely and has a lot of great scares present here because of that. The main problem is the fact that these are so late into the segment that the rest of it is being taken up with the strange mystery is just excruciating to get through. The low-key pace and drama-like feel of the situations don't help matters, as barely anything happens beyond their friends questioning each other while she runs around trying to find the cause of her condition. None of this is really engrossing material nor built for generating scares, and as a whole, this one is pretty weak.
The Wheel-In a small Thai village, a theater troupe reenacting famous folklore tales finds a cursed puppet washed up on their shore. When everyone who comes into contact with it suddenly experiences grave encounters, a local boy tries to find a way to end the curse. Overall, this one was quite enjoyable, with there being a lot to like here. The main part of this one is the fact that the atmosphere created with the puppets is pretty chilling, as their mannequin-like looks and highly elaborate decorations make them gorgeous to look at with a sinister air beneath the facade, and that creates a really lasting impression here. That the backstory about the rival clans and curses brought along makes for quite a fun time here, with this one really getting a chance to play that up with the different situations encountered throughout here, from ghostly executioners and general pains around the body to supernatural fires and possession that becomes quite creepy along the way. While this one does get a little confusing with all the slow-motion shots that tend to go on forever, distorting the dialogue to make it pretty tough to figure out what's going on in the latter half, the atmosphere and pacing are more than enough to hold this up.
Going Home-Moving into an apartment complex, a man and his son try to get along with a reclusive neighbor who keeps his comatose wife in their apartment. When the son goes missing and the search leads him to the apartment, he finds a far more sinister reason behind the wife's condition. This one really could've been great and was certainly full of positive points here with the engrossing mystery and strange behavior setting up a really chilling set-piece later on when he comes barging in looking for his son, and that's when this one turns south by having the kidnapper really be more compassionate and caring rather than a sadistic captor which makes the rationale for holding him all the weirder. None of these scenes really drives up the horror atmosphere all that much by keeping this one so low-key and drama-based that it really doesn't offer many thrills here. That's also in keeping with the final half, where the backstory is finally revealed, which steers this one even further away from horror into a dark romance effort that doesn't do much to keep this one all that scary. It's a real missed opportunity.
Overview: ***/5
Enjoyable but still flawed Anthology effort that has some decent stories present, this one has some slight drawbacks, which are more than enough to make this one worthwhile at points. Viewers who enjoy this kind of genre fare, are huge anthology completists, or fans of the creative crew, w ill be the main audience here, while most others out there might want to heed caution here.
Three...Extremes (2004)
Director: Fruit Chan, Park Chan-wook, Takashi Miike
Year: 2004
Country: Hong Kong/South Korea/Japan
Alternate Titles: Sam gang 2
Genre: Anthology
Plot:
Three stories are told by emerging Asian directors.
Review:
Dumplings-Finally fearing the advances of age, a middle-aged housewife seeks the advice of a local chef renowned for her curative and seemingly magical dumplings. When the strange dish starts to work, the two begin spending more time together, finally letting her in on the gruesome secret to its spicy flavor. Overall, this was easily the best of the three. The main part of this one is based on the concept of her appearance against the stereotype, which manages to get some great work out of the burgeoning mystery of what she uses to prepare the dish. Once this is finally unveiled and there's the whole truth revealed, it manages to utilize this quite well with the actual revelation sequence coming off as a wholly intense and disturbing sequence that really feels like it gets away with a lot, as it's quite a dark and chilling explanation. While the rest of this could be better, especially all the adultery angles throughout here, which aren't all that interesting by taking up a large portion of time to get to a mild-mannered resolution, this is the only underwhelming part about this whole effort.
Cut-Returning home from a movie shoot, a big-time director finds himself and his wife kidnapped and held hostage on the movie set by a deranged extra. Forcing him into a series of extremely brutal games, he gradually begins to uncover the real reason behind the encounter. This one was just lame and completely unworthy, as the biggest factor against this is the main plot for it. It's simply not scary as the rationale is so inherently stupid it's a wonder it made it through to the final approval, the purpose of performing the capture and torture just doesn't make sense and the whole thing could've ended on numerous occasions without any harm done had there been more interest in removing himself from the situation without regard for his captors' well-being. Still more flawed is the fact that this one then spends an indefinite amount of time recounting a series of grievances against each other and doesn't tend to make this move along at the briskest of paces. Likewise, the fact that this is billed as having him torture them for their behavior and position in society, then skimps out on the torture, leaving only the impact of their final retribution against him as the only gory bit in the whole story, just seems completely infallible. All in all, this was a truly terrible segment.
Box-Tormented by strange dreams, a woman begins to feel her twin sister has come back from the dead to haunt her. Trying to find the confidence to shake off the experience, she finds her closer than she initially expected. Once again, this is another just truly outright terrible segment, as the main focus here is again completely removed from horror. The only real interesting part of this is the backstory explanation for their situation as the two sisters performing a ballerina routine succumbing to jealousy from the misappropriated preference towards their father and the resulting encounter one day unleashing an accident that consumes one in a hellish blaze, but beyond that, this is just so slow that it's agonizing to get through yet is the quickest one running time. The psychosexual implications at play offer a chance to mix up the long sections of wordless moments that pass by, but instead are just dull and lifeless, and there's even less to like about it once it tries to become interesting, as what happens isn't really horror anyway. This is a curious and questionable inclusion that really lowers this overall.
Overview: ***.5/5
A fun anthology that might have some issues at points, but there's still quite a lot to enjoy here, and there's enough to cover the lackluster work present. Those who enjoy this kind of genre fare, are huge anthology completists, or fans of the creative crew, will be the main audience, while most others out there might want to heed caution.
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