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Ring(u) * Hideo Nakata * 1998

What do you get when you mix The Blair Witch Project, Tesis, Videodrome, Odisjon/Audition and a bit of David Lynch? Indeed, a Japanese cult-horror. I had never heard of this film until last november when the boyfriend of my youngest sister told me about it. In the meantime it seems that “Ringu 2” and “Ringu 0” (which chronologically is supposed to be seen before this one) and on top of all, “Ringu” (just “Ring” on international dvds by the way) has been remade in America as “The Ring” and this US-version will have its cinema-premiere in the Netherlands coming Thursday (13/2/03). According to the critics, the American version is as good as the original and the word says that this is the most frightening film since the first Blair Witch. Well then.

“Ringu” is about a videotape-curse. People who see a certain video get a phonecall immediately after and they hear that they have only one week to live. This becomes a story to scare friends at school, but a tv-reporter is going to check out this story when two youngsters die with a horrible expression on their faces a week after they are said to have seen the film. Quite rapidly she finds a videotape on a holiday-resort, watches it, gets the call and asks her ex-husband to help her out to solve the mystery. He also sees it, doesn’t receive a call, but does get the weird visions that the watchers of the tape get in their last week. Then the search for the origin leads to a young girl who was daughter of a strange woman with psychic powers. The little girl could wish people dead and when she was murdered by her father, a curse came forth from her death.

The film reminded me of the Spanish “Tesis” because of the hunt for a killer-videotape by experts on the plane of video. Also the cult-film “Videodrome” has a similar idea as “Ringu”, videos take over the lifes of their victims. “Odisjon/Audition” I only added because this is also a film in Japanese as is “Ringu”. Then “Ringu” is supposed to be extremely frightening without gruesome images, like in “The Blair Witch”. This is partly true. There indeed are some quite heavy scenes in this film, but still I have to see my first real scary film. Further the film is quite dark and the video-images are used a bit as in Lynch’s “Lost Highway”. Also the dark drones add to the effect giving “Ringu” a nice atmosphere.

All in all though I didn’t like “Ringu” too much. It is nice, but not overtly original and definately not as scary as people say. Still a film that you want to see if you like horrors without thousands of liters of blood and also if you like a dark atmosphere in a film.

Riget (The Kingdom) II * Lars von Trier * 1997

E 20 for three videos isn’t too much money, right? Too bad that I had to get a horrible dvd-version of the first series in order to get the whole thing (reviewed elsewhere). Three videos exactly the way you get the thing on tv, nothing more, nothing less, PERFECT!. So this time I DID get to see the intros with the swamp, the hilarious song and intro AND Lars’ stories at the end of every episode.

The Kingdom I is still pretty much of a soap-series with some strange elements, but it builds up to an extremely crazy end. No waiting when you have everything at home, so I immediately continued with these second series (of three years later!). These are MUCH darker, crazier and absurd than series I. Again I am not going to tell you too much about this ghost-story-hospital-soap. If you like the bizare kind of tv-making and you haven’t seen The Kingdom, be sure to see it! Also the second series have a very open end, but I don’t believe Von Trier will ever make a third series. <5>

Riget (The Kingdom) * Lars von Trier * 1994

A while ago I bought Kingdom II very cheap on video (see review elsewhere) and the search started for Kingdom I on video. It WILL be repressed some time, but it is currently sold out. After several months waiting I decided not to wait for the double-video (in one box) but buy the rather expensive English dvd-version. A BIG DISAPPOINTMENT for lovers of these brilliant series by Lars von Trier! You get two dvd’s. The first has episodes 1 and 2 and the second 3 to 5. The first dvd also has some documentary which doesn’t add much. Of course the series are brilliant and there is nothing wrong with the quality, but the makers of the dvd made a few horrible mistakes! When putting dvd1 in your player you get some kind of intro, nice but not necessary. Then a menu in which you can choose to play “episode one and two”, “episode one”, “episode two”, “episode three to five” or the documentary. Of course I wasn’t planning on chosing the first option, because then I would miss the stories of the director that come after every episode. To my major disapproval the episodes start immediately. Not the intro with the chloride-swamp and the story of the building of the hospital and no silly song! At the end you jump back to the menu in the last second of the episode, so no story by Lars and even no credits! What on earth have the producers of this dvd been thinking? What is the use of being able to watch the episodes joint together? You are not able to chose subtitles or even watch without them. Why the hell did they leave out the intro and the end? WHAT A SHAME!!

To the series then. Of course this is one of the best tv-series ever. A soap-series about a hospital in the vein of ER, but with a sick twist. Strange ghost-stories, insane characters and unexpected twists. I am not going to say more, you will have to watch it and love it (but preferable another version!). <4 for the series>

Revengers Tragedy * Alex Cox (2002)

This wonderfull film seems to be somehow connected with the also wonderfull film “24 Hour Party People”. Frank Boyce also wrote the screenplay here and Christopher Eccleston plays a part in both films. For the rest, “Revengers Tragedy” mostly reminds of “Romeo + Juliet” (1996 Baz Luhrman). It is based on the play “Revengers Tragedy” by Thomas Middleton (c.1580-1627). Just as “Romeo + Juliet” this film uses old English text, but a very modern setting (the youth looks like Keith of Prodigy) and everything is really overdramatic. “Revengers Tragedy” became a lush and eye- and earcaressing film with magnificent stages, great acting and a wonderfull mix between old and new elements. Not entirely as good as “Romeo + Juliet”, but “Revengers Tragedy” comes rather close and is definately recommendable. -11/7/06-

Resurrection * Russell Mulcahy * 1999

A friends project it seems. Christopher Lambert (Highlander, etc.) writes the story for a film and asks Mulcahy (Highlander, etc.) to direct it. “Ressurection” proves to be a “Se7en” copy.

Prudhomme (Lambert in the main part of his own film) is a police officer investigating a series of gruesome murders. During the investigation he is contacted by the killer and gets too deeply involved in the case of events. The killer proves to have an agenda based on his strict Christian faith. The film is pretty grim, the killings are shown very gruesome and Prudhomme brakes his mind over the symbolism of the killings. Nothing we haven’t seen before. Also “Resurrection” isn’t as cleverly written as “Se7en” (even though I had figured that one out before the end), so there are no real surprises. Overall an amusing film, but with a bit too high pretentions.

La Reine Margot * Patrice Chéreau * 1994

Too long ago I saw this film and wanted to get it on video or dvd. For some reason it took very long before it was available and then it was very expensive. Now the film was on the Belgian public television, so I suppose an affordable dvd version will follow soon.

“La Reine Margot” is an historic film like “Elizabeth” and also the stories of these two films are a bit akin. There is a struggle between the Catholic and Protestant Christian camps and this struggle is bloody. The film plays in France and the young Catholic beauty Margot is forced to marry a Protestant king to bring peace in France. On the day of the marriage the Catholics kill almost every protestant present in Paris in a violent massacre and after this the lives of all the main characters comes under threat. Conspiries of Catholics, Protestants, but even within the camps and families themselves make life a living hell for everyone.

All this results in am impressive and rather grim film which is not only great to watch, but also a descent history lesson.

Red Dragon * Brett Ratner * 2002

“Manhunter” (1986) has been one of my favourite films since long before “Silence Of The Lambs” struck the worldwide audience with it’s geniocity. I haven’t seen “Hannibal” but I was too curious about “Red Dragon” to let it go unseen. As you probably know “Red Dragon” is a new filming of the first book of Thomas Harris about our lovely Hannibal and friends. Also you can say that it is a remake of “Manhunter” which was probably regarded not good enough or didn’t have the best actors in it or something, I don’t know. “Red Dragon” has a whole line of big actors, of course including Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal. “Red Dragon” is quite like “Manhunter” but put more in a popular horror and especially “Silence Of The Lambs”-manner. Far too much! There are a few differences between the two films. The killer wears his ‘head-cloth’ at home in “Red Dragon” and when he kidnaps Freddy Lounds in “Manhunter”. The killer is better-looking and a body-builder in “Red Dragon”. There is much much more stress on the painter/poet William Blake in “Red Dragon”. The killer is even a Blake-expert in the new version. Worst of all, in “Red Dragon” the killer has a gigantic Blake-tattoo on his back and he is controlled by his red dragon, while this is not the case in “Manhunter”. A smaller detail, the scene in which Will Graham’s wife and child are picked up is a lot better in “Manhunter”.

In general, “Manhunter” is a lot better than this popular new version. The atmosphere is better, the music more original (Iron Butterfly instead of classical music), the actors are a lot better (I can’t help finding the FBI agent played by Edward Norton to be quite wimpy, the killer and the blind woman in “Manhunter” are much more convincing, etc., etc.). And what is really the shittiest thing about “Red Dragon” is that the end is the beginning of “Silence Of The Lambs”.

I suggest: watch the original!.

Ravenous * Antonia Bird * 1999

I have seen this film on cheap DVD several times and didn’t know whether or not to buy it. Now the doubting is over, since the BBC showed it last weekend. However my tv-guide says the film is good, I find it rather boring myself. Still, there are some nice sides to “Ravenous”.

The story plays in the 17th century and a group of men is sent out to the snowy Callifornia where they find a half-frozen man in front of their door. He tells a story of cannibalism and a few man go out to find a possible surviving woman. The film begins as an adventure/drama and goes via thriller to a more horror-like film. The story is unconvincing and the film is not very scary. Funny is the happy music when there should actually be scary music. The strange choices for music is actually the best part of the film.

Raising Arizona * Joel + Ethan Coen * 1987

Apparently there are still Coen-films that I haven’t seen. “Raising Arizona” was on tv a while ago. A real Coen film; nostalgic way of filming, weird sense of humour, John Goodman and Nicholas Cage as actors and overall the better kind of comedy.

Cage and his barren wife decide to steal a baby from a rich man who just got a quins (that is five) who “have more than they can handle”. Cage has a history of crime and met his wife (who used to be police-officer) in jail. Two old cell-mates of Cage escape and visit the bourgeois-couple and Cage is lured back to his old habbits. In the meantime a bountyhunter from hell is looking for the baby. Overall enough elements for an unusual story and with the brothers Coen’s unusual kind of humour you get a very amusing film.

Rabbit-Proof Fence * Phillip Noyce * 2002

I remember when this film played in the local filmhouse, but… Good that good films turn up on tv in the end too! The film is about how in Australia the colonisators try to whipe out the Aboriginal lifestyle and peoples. They found out that when you mix a native with a caucasian person and again, the third generation shows almost no signs of the Aboriginal physical. So, Aboriginal women get pregnant from white males. The special government department puts the halfbloods in a special camp where the children are trained to be good white people (read: servants) and the girls can give birth to more ‘pure’ children.
Three of these children put in a camp get out and walk for 1500 miles to get back to their mothers. Their travel takes them through the varried Australian landscape, from forests to prairies, deserts and even a salt-deserts. They are being traced by the native ‘tracker’ of the camp and the Australian police. Her mother has trained the oldest girl well and she manages to stay out of reach for her purcuers.
A nice film about yet another cruel part in the history of colonisation.