n&H's Pick of the Week, It's back.

I know since the AO-X clubhouse was constructed that we don't have a great deal of members, but I could care less. Hassun and myself decided to get back to work and pummel your senses once more. So I present to you....

Sugar



The Story

We're introduced to a nameless girl who awakens balled-up inside of a refrigerator (yeah, that's right) and appears very daunted. Once she emerges we see that she lives in a very shabby and claustrophobic apartment. It appears as though a previous tenant named "Anthony" used to reside in this room and has left many belongings behind. Later we realize that "Anthony" is dead and no longer with us, but the girl keeps finding odd messages and clues about him as she cleans up the apartment. Many horrific visions and occurrences follow.

That's all I care to say, the rest of the "plot" and it's climax are debatable so I'll just stop right there.

The Nitty Gritty

Lord, where to begin? This is definately one of the most bizarre, abstract and puzzling Horror films I've ever witnessed. Which would explain why it was a part of the official selection at Sundance last year.

"Sugar" plays out almost like a modern silent film. It is 82 minutes long and has absolutely no dialogue whatsoever. There are sound effects, music and what have you....but no speaking from the character. To sum up the over all feel and display, I'd say mix David Lynch and Wes Craven's most cerebral moments and add a dose of "student-film" feel to the mix. It's quite effective.

It's a very slow moving flick but much like most of my favorite films, it's the small things that happen here that stick with you. Quality over quantity baby! It's a very strange picture and sometimes hard to follow but quite rewarding afterwards. If you ever do see this movie and remain confused, don't feel bad....I had to watch it twice to realize why it was named "Sugar". But once I peiced everything together...wow. Clever title indeed.

Directing & Style

Visually exhausting. It changes from black & white to color throughout the picture. It's pretty cool and disorenting at the same time, I'm assuming that was the point.

The Nail in the Coffin

Nobody can ever accuse this film of being cookie-cutter or generic. It's unpredictable and as odd as they come, but nowadays that's a good thing. It's more of a symbolic montage than anything else...and it accomplishes that goal dead on. There are many ways to observe this movie, some say it's a ghost story, some say it's psychological, some say it's a giant metaphor. To be honest I'm not quite sure which is right.

Also this film reminds me alot of Silent Hill 4: The Room, seeing the similar set-up and feel at times. Good stuff indeed. It's worth picking up on DVD for sure, or download it online if you can find it. Whichever your cup of tea is.

See ya bastards next week!

Never seen it, I don't think it has been released around here (yet).
I'm gonna pull some strings and see what I can dig up.

Yeah, grab a bottle of Aspirin and enjoy. Once you realize what's going on, you'll be hooked.

Not sure if I wanna see it if it ends up reminding me of SH4 :\

Fine, I'll say it. SH4's controls sucked ass. But the game was damn good! Go pick this dvd up Raven, now.

Ok, I'll probably have time to post the new one tomorrow.
No promises though...

I bitch-modify cause I care.

This post has been edited by narrator on May 4 2006, 06:52 PM

The Joker?

EDIT:

Ok it seems like my 30 minutes of work writing the new pick of the week didn't come through and firefox quit on me.
'tis really a shitty day...

I'm working as fast as I can you shitsack.

I need an N&H review of Audition.

It won't be Audition this time but it will be a film made by Miike.

do audition next god damnit

I'll get to that one, Ken. If a certain "someone" would stop taking FFGirl to pregnancy meetings....then we could continue with this thing. She told me all about it, H. You're busted.

Sorry for the delayed entry fuckers!

Today's pick is...

The Happiness of the Katakuris



Directed by none other than Takashi Miike, this film feels like snorting hot frying oil through a $100 bill.
The story is based on the Korean film "The Quiet Family".

The story:

The Katakuri family owns a guesthouse in a remote area in the mountains.
Because of this, they never get any customers (A road should be constructed near them in the future, changing that situation)
so when one finally does show up they're as happy as can be.
But then their first guest commits suicide in his room...
The family don't want to give their guesthouse a bad name so they decide to secretly bury the guest and pretend he wasn't there in the first place.
More people come, more people die, more people are secretly buried.

It all boils down to a grand finale when everything goes ape-shit insane!


Why Hassun, why?

Good question. Did I tell you this film is actually a badly sung and badly choreographed musical? Yes I said MUSICAL.
There are even sing along scenes with coloured subtitles (see below).
Oh yeah, there's also claymation in this one (again, see below). Are you getting freaked out yet?
Miike takes the original black comedy and gives it his weirdo Japanese twist. The ending in particular makes you go WTF!? (Like this: )


Closing comments (why the fuck should I watch it?)

If you're not affraid of a little weirdness and you like some typical (!?) Japanese comedy, this film is right up your dark alley.
The acting is good and the songs will surely make you grin.

Finally, this film just has it all! Jokes, zombies, gore (not much of it), musical numbers and claymation! It's a combination to die for.

www.aboutfuckingtime.com

But enough of that.

This movie does sound like it would hit the spot, I've heard quite a bit about it and oddly enough it's the only Miike film I haven't seen. He's never dissapointed me so I'm definately gonna give this a viewing. Me and Miike have'nt been on speaking terms lately (I was very infuriated by his cameo appearance in 'Hostel') but I think I'm ready to forgive and forget.

I still don't get how it could get high parental advisory ratings. This film isn't shocking in any way.

And to Hostel's defense, he said that Hostel was too nasty for him.

Nasty? No damn way, H. Just when the film was starting to pick up...it pussies out before anything really controversial happens. I don't know what Miike's talking about there. But besides that, Miike is fuckin awesome. And I will absolutely take my ass up to the video store.

Maybe he meant 'nasty' in a different way?
As in...crappy?