Slightly Trashy
Directed by: Joon-ho Bong. Written by: Joon-ho Bong, Chul-hyun Baek, Jun-won Ha.
Plot: One day, a giant mutated fish-monster comes out of the river in Seoul and starts attacking and/or eating people. When it drags a little girl (Ah-sung Ko) away into the depths, her family (which reminded me of an extra down and out version of the Tenenbaums…) bands together to rescue her.
Review: This is actually a very bizarre movie. It feels sort of like Cloverfield on peyote or something. Well maybe not peyote, but Cloverfield did remind me a lot of this, only not as awesome. Probably because both could be described as modern monster movies - they resemble the big radioactive monster movies produced mostly in Japan, mostly during the 1950s-70s, but they’re a little more slick, a little more self-conscious, a little less ridiculous. Modern.
Although both Cloverfield and this movie border on the ridiculous, Cloverfield takes itself waaaaay to seriously and tries its best to cover the silliness up with… I dunno, nasty shit happening, but this movie tends to embrace it. Something really weird is happening? They just make it weirder and more goofy. Good stuff. It has a sense of humour which is nice for a change...
So it alternates between being creepy/weird and funny/weird. Emphasis on the weird… it’s really weird…
The weird dub job helps with that too (I admit, I watched the dubbed version. I think I may have watched this before I Learned How to Watch Foreign Language Films).
But the one thing that really seals this movie as awesome for me, is the fucking incredible monster. That thing was the coolest fucking thing I’ve ever seen. Yes, it was almost entirely comprised of CG, but it was still fucking amazing. It was like a fish, but it had all this trippy shit going on, like, I dunno, arms and shit… man that shit’s whack.
I mean, they could have made it just your standard Korean fish-monster, but no, they went all out. They worked hard to make something truly amazing.
God it was cool. So cool it was. Yeah… and all caused by some arse pouring formaldehyde down the drain… kids, don’t do that. Remember. It makes things just really unpleasant for everybody. Not just your parents.
Oh my God I don’t know where I’m going with this. I’m very tired. Working on a self-set deadline sucks major ass. Yeah. I guess this is enough about this movie. Next.
Favourite Part:
BIOTCH! ....also, the superior character development.
Other versions: According to IMDb, there is a remake in the works (bastards).
Sequels: According to IMDb, there is also a sequel in the works (?).
Click here to read my original review (October 7th, 2007).
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