Culture in the English-speaking world

A Korean mystery and thriller movie Oldboy, which premiered in 2003 in South Korea, seems to be one of the best known Asian movies and also the best and most rated Korean movie according to the IMDB. It has won over 20 awards and it has been nominated 12 times. And all this not without reason since the film will undoubtedly amaze all the viewers with its crooked and unpredictable storyline.

Oh Dae-su (played by Min-sik Choi), an alcoholic man with a family, gets kidnapped and imprisonised for 15 years. One day after being locked out of the surrounding world he manages to escape. Without knowing who or why someone kidnapped him he begins to hunt down his captor. And soon after his escape he finds out he has only 5 days to find out the kidnapper and the reason for his capture. He seeks for revenge – but it turns out that his captor hasn’t got his one yet either.

All the characters were intresting and kinda ”out of ordinary”. The protagonist is more or less problematic even before he is captured and let alone when he has spent 15 years in a same room, watching TV and eating fried dumplings every day. As for the villain, Ji-tae Yu creates yet so laid-back but twisted character that is thrilling to watch and wait for his next move. In a supporting role we will also see Hye-jeong Kang who introduces us a mysterious young woman, Mi-do, who will help the main character solve the situation.

My first impression after I had watched the film was shocked. The movie reveals something so disturbing in the end that is not just easy to take in. But after thinking the plot again for a while I thought it was actually really clever. And my favourite part was definitely when the plot twist comes in even though it’s pretty horrendous. But after all it still is the highlight of the entire movie.

The director Chan-wook Park (Bajkwi (2009), Stoker (2013)) succeeds to keep up the thrill even unto the very last minutes of the film. And more importantly, he manages to achieve a frigid plot twist that will most likely mess you up. Because of seeing some of his other work as well I can consider him as the best director I know. The films he has directed are often pretty gloomy and provocative but it’s part of his style. Probably that’s why one of his personal quotes goes like this: ”I don’t feel enjoyment watching films that evoke passivity. If you need that kind of comfort, I don’t understand why you wouldn’t go to a spa.”

Oldboy may seem a little bit complicated or confusing at the beginning, especially for people who usually stick to the ordinary American or British movies. But often in Korean movies things will be explained in the end even though they still leave you stuff to think and struggle with. And that’s what I like about them because in that way you won’t forget the film very easily. Although this movie was pretty cruel and messed up it was extremely well done so I would definitely recommend it to anyone whose willing to watch something different. Oldboy has its American remake as well but in my opinion the original always beats the new version. Don’t shun foreign films, be brave and encounter some new experieces!

I’m doing a review about the movie ”Year one”. It’s a rather old one already as it was made in 2009. It was director Harold Ramis’ last movie he made before his death in 2014. He was also one of the writers and played the role of Adam, the first human according to the bible. The movie is a comedy which is my favourite genre. But if a movie relies only on being funny it’s not very good anymore. The plot is a mix of history and the bible and it’s making a lot of fun at their cost. I feel like they didn’t use all of the potential the idea has. The story focuses on two cavemen Zed(Jack Black) and Oh(Michael Cera) who are lazy and thus not very liked among their tribe. One day Zed finds and eats from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and starts to get ideas and solutions. Once he gets found out he’s immediately banished from the tribe. When he leaves he manages to accidentally burn the place and Oh then decides to come with him since there is nothing left for him back at home except a girl he likes but he is too shy to tell her that. On their journey they encounter a lot of scenes familiar from both history and the old testament. The plot is basically jumping from place to place and always expressing it’s dirty humour. Without that the plot would be even more poor and constant change of scenery makes it look confusing but because it’s a comedy it doesn’t even have to make sense all the time. The characters have very common personalities that are shown very strongly in them for an example a strong guy who is easily recognized to have a nature of a bully and a ruthless authoritative who despises everyone. There are some characters from the bible such as Abraham and Isaac. The casting has a lot of names I don’t recognize but there is some. Not very big ones though. Hank Azaria (playing the role of Abraham) is the most known for being a voice actor for ”The Simpsons”, the longest and most successful animated series from the USA. Jack Black(starring) is one very often seen name in comedies and was the main character’s voice actor in Kung Fu Panda movies. All in all the movie is not that good but not a total flop either. It is enjoyable if you are a fan of it’s type of humour. I would rate it 3/5.

Citations are marked in [ ]. Pressing the link opens original website in a new tab.

Have you ever got that feeling when you are losing in a video game and feel like you could replace every word in your sentence with spectrum of swear words? Or when you would rather throw up than play a game when it just mocks you and makes no sense whatsoever? Yeah… maybe my last statement went a little bit overboard, of course nobody would go that nuts just from a video game, right? If you haven’t ever known such person well now you will because that’s exactly what a person going by alias ”Angry Video Game Nerd” does!

Before going into the details one should know something about the series itself. Angry Video Game is a fictional character created by James Rolfe. It first began as a joke when James filmed an angry review of a game called ”Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest” in the 2004 [1]. However the whole thing escalated pretty quickly and few years later AVGN (I will be using this as an abbreviation for Angry Video Game Nerd) became an internet phenomenon and one of the most popular internet series known to this day. So in a nutshell the whole show is about a nerd doing angry game reviews about old and crappy games for peoples enjoyment. It actually became so well known that even James couldn’t believe it himself. Just think about: you’re just a regular person in his early 20s and you make an angry rant about something totally random as a joke and few years later you find out that you have become an internet super star. That’s pretty amazing right, but James took a step further and released a movie about AVGN, simply named ”AVGN – The Movie” on 21 July 2014.

In short the movie is about the Nerd and his adventures revolving around the game called ”Eee Tee (parody of a game based on the movie ”E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” by Steven Spielberg for game console Atari 2600. The game is said to be worst video game in history and obviously one of the most requested games for Nerd to review. Renaming is of course for copyright reasons)” and a myth around it where it is told that millions of game cartridges were buried in the middle of a desert in New Mexico involving aliens, Area 51, the government, cheap special effects and so on . Plot sounds simple yet somehow quite absurd which the movie definitely is – in a good way.

The main cast is James Rolfe as the Nerd (he also was one of the directors by the way. Other one was James good friend Kevin Finn), Jeremy Suarez as Cooper who is something one could a sidekick, Sarah Glendening as the woman of the nerd trio Mandi, Stephen Mendel as General Dark Onward the government agent, Time Winters as a paranoid, ex-scientist wearing a metaphorical tinfoil hat named Dr. Louis Zandor, and Helena Barrett as the female antagonist McButter. In my opinion they all acted their respective roles well but if I were to give an Oscar for one of them I would definitely give it to Stephen Mendel. He really made his character exactly what one would expect from a clumsy and comedic army general.

One of the most hilarious and cheap things in the movie that made me totally lose my sides were the special effects. Even though the budget was really low for a movie presented in theaters (about 325,000 dollars which he received from fans in forms of donation [2]) the special effects are really cheap looking: poorly made green screen scenes, airplanes changed into small props which are set on fire probably with a lighter, not-so-hidden use of wires and thread for jumps, levitating etc. For a person who really doesn’t have any idea what AVGN is this can sound and look quite awkward, like if the movie was made in the middle 60s and such but for a genuine AVGN fan these small, moderate effects just make the movie more enjoyable. It’s James aka the Nerds way to say: ”Hey, I heard you like watching me play bad games and suffer so let’s switch places once in a while.” (excessive amounts of swearing cut for the sake of purity) Animatronics were made really well though, plus for that.

There isn’t much to say about music. It actually is one of those things in the movie a typical movie reviewer wouldn’t consider ”bad” or ”cheap”, really great in my opinion and does what it should do: sets the mood  (here’s by the way a link for the official soundtrack). The sound effects on the other hand are exactly the same as special effects: simple, crappy and cheap yet entertaining for hardcore fans and regular viewers alike.

In summary the whole movie can be said to be a big parody. The show is all about the exaggerated reviews, Nerd coming up with new words mankind could have never believed to be in existence, mocking badly designed games even though they were made thirty years ago for a limited hardware, cheap special effects like in the movie, scatological humor, ”abomination of mankind” like the Nerd himself once said, and so on. The list could keep expanding forever. The movie is definitely not for people who take either movies or video games too seriously, can’t take on self-irony, or expect a spectacular performance from the actors and great effects. The movie parodies everything the Nerd and James himself have ever told about things that makes movies and video games ”bad”. It’s clear self-irony. Even though the movie didn’t have a good reception from the critics it still fulfilled it’s main goal: amuse fans. James killed two birds with one stone. He accomplished his greatest dream, and gave fans what they wanted: a whole movie about AVGN and a review about ET. Overall I think it was a great movie with a meaning which can be described with a proverb ”more than meets the eye”. I didn’t have high expectations because I knew it couldn’t have a budget in scale with James Camerons Titanic or Avatar. I recommend it for anyone who has any interest for old comedy movies but don’t care if they have a modern twist or to people who just enjoy other people ranting about stuff for you. I would advice taking a little peek into the AVGN series as it helps a lot understanding the movie and concept behind it, you will not be disappointed.

Official trailer (Swearing warning)

”Love isn’t complicated, people are”

– unknown –

Pride and Prejudice is a movie based on a novel written by Jane Austin. The story takes place in a town of Meryton in Herdfordshire in England. As well as the book the movie doesn’t focus on England’s growing industrialism or political issues instead moral questions and relationships plays a bigger part in the engaging story. The movie, which is categorized as a romandic drama with a slight touch of irony, was produced 2005. The director, Joe Wright, elicits plausible and enjoyable performance from the lead actors. Right from the beginning it was apparent that the movie is not from our century. Shooting, backgrounds and ensembles takes us in to the early 19th century. There is piano music playing in the background almost in every scene and the shooting is produced from an outsider’s perspective.

In the predawn mist Elizabeth, also called as Lizzie, walks in a field reading an old book. My very first impression of her was a delicate, a most beautiful girl who is desperately longing for love. As to my thoughts of her she wasn’t so frantic at all, which appears to me later as the story goes on. Elizabeth is the second daughter of the Bennet family, living in an estate. She has an older sister Jane, who is incredibly beautiful and adorable woman. Her younger sisters Catherine and Lydia are living salad days as Shakespeare would put it. They are very loud and some might say undisciplined. That is frustrating family-wise and particularly for Elizabeth, who is trying to maintain the honour and the pride of the family. Elizabeth’s third younger sister Mary is the family’s black sheep. I feel that Mrs Bennet is emotional and a bit unconventional woman whose life’s purpose is to find suitables and rather rich husbands for her daughters. Since their family isn’t actually rolling in money. Mr Bennet on the other hand is trying his best to please all the women in the house and acts more calmly to his wife’s paring rituals.

When a rich man, Mr Bingley, moves in to the town with his sister and his best friend Mr Darcy the life of the Bennet family turns around. Mrs Bennet is deligted to introduce her daughters to the new acquaintances in a pompous ball that is held in the town. Mr Darcy seems at first as cold as ice and unfriendly. Elizabeth, being brave and modest, intentionally teases Mr Darcy because she is so irritated of his self-centeredness. In my opinion the chemistry between those two is obvious although they don’t want to admit it. Mr Bingley instead lays his eyes on Jane and they fall in love. Mr Darcy sees that marrying Jane wouldn’t be good for Mr Bingley because of the Bennet family’s reputation. Therefore he seperates them. Nevertheless, he himself falls in love with Elizabeth and can’t help himself. Hence Mr Darcy helps his best friend to get Jane back just to get Elizabeth’s affection. He also helps the Bennet family otherwise to get their reputation back. After Elizabeth notices how kind Mr Darcy really is she finally lets her feelings come out. Elizabeth asks her father’s approval for marriage, which is odd because everyone thought Elizabeth hates Mr Darcy. Mr Bennet gives his approval when he hears how much good Mr Darcy had done to the family in spite of some mistakes he had done but so had Elizabeth. I could have identified with Elizabeth, who has a lot of characters that are similar to mine, if I had lived in that century.

I think the story behind the movie is flawless because in the end it is not a typical love story. The plot is unique and so are the characters. In the story the characters make mistakes and misunderstand each other, furthermore, everything doesn’t work right away as it should. So it is much more real and believable than countless fairytales. How heartbreaking it was to see when Mr Darcy realises that he loves Elizabeth despite her family name or her past and opens himself up to love unconditionally. That happens once in a blue moon when people are brave enough. It doesn’t matter is it the 19th century or nowadays love hasn’t changed and loving hasn’t become any easier The next unknown quote ”Love isn’t complicated, people are” summarises in my opinion the message of the movie worth watching.

In this article I´ll be reviewing The Monsters University. It’s an animated film produced by Pixar Movie Studio. I decided to watch this film because it is a prequel to Monster Inc. , a film that I loved when I was kid. I thought it would be fun to see how much I would like this new film since I have grown older after seeing the first film. It tells a story about relationship between two monsters- one-eyed Mike and blue furred Sullivan. They both study in college to become scarers (monsters who enter the human world at night to scare children so their screams can be harvested for energy). First they can`t stand each other. Mike studies hard and Sullivan-who comes from famous family of scarers-is lazy and is relying only to his natural talent and starts to fail. They both get expelled out of the school because of one incident. They have to work together to get back to school and after many bends they become best friends. The plot is well written, funny and the characters are adorable. First of all The Monsters University is warm hearted story about friendship and believing in your dreams. I liked the way they showed the chemistry developing between Mike and Sully. You can actually feel it, and even though its animation, it feels real .The combination of college and monster word is also really hilarious. Animation is amazing as expected from Pixar and voice actors do a great job. There are lots of references to Monster Inc. that will make you smile. I think The Monsters University is a film that makes both adults and kids laugh. If you liked the first one you will totally love this one too.