Beyond Our Ken

"Ken" is not some approximation of "kin". Rather, Ken is a man's name. "Our" refers to the current and the previous girlfriends -- who meet and decide to move "Beyond" the guy who is not quite the great catch.

It seems Ken has been posting nude photos of the former girlfriend to an adult web site. Unfortunately, at least some her colleagues at the school where she works visit the site, and have shared it with the rest of the staff.

After learning about this, the current girlfriend decides to help the previous girlfriend -- perhaps with some revenge, but certainly with deleting the photos from Ken's computer.

But it's not quite so simple an action as one might think. And the girlfriends' relationship never seems to really move BEYOND Ken. Rather, he seems to remain somewhere at the center of their world, even as they bond more and more in their apparent desire to seek revenge.

Recommended.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0440445/

Unknown Pleasures

Reminiscent of a hybrid of Italian film styles from the 1950s -- mixing the neo-realism that still prevailed at the start of the decade with the pondering meditations Antonioni was delivering at the end of the decade -- Unknown Pleasures manages to portray a slice of Chinese life in the new millennium.

On the one hand we have an amateur cast caught on video tape in real locations, with very few fantastical events -- even the thugs are too lowly and unromatic to break the "realism" spell. On the other hand, we have long tracking shots of characters riding motorcycles, or long stationary shots of characters watching TV, that provide time and space for the viewer to absorb the milieu and all of its implications.

What don't we have? Some will be disappointed by story arcs that don't really end up anywhere in particular. Motivations are not always spelled out, though it's fair to say they can be inferred. And while it was shot on video for obvious reasons, one can't help but yearn for a bit more clarity to the image -- something a slightly larger budget (for better video gear?) could have enabled.

Recommended? Yes, but with mild reservations -- unless what you want is a slice of mainland life, in which case it's the best available.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318025/

JSA - Joint Security Area

There is something very Korean about this film. It again represents the fascinating combinatoin of the Korean film industry's adoption of Hollywood production values and syntax to a quintisentially Korean theme: the essential brotherhood shared between those in the north of the Korean peninsula and those in the south, especially among those in the opposing militaries.

What do we learn here? That the avergae guy on both sides of the DMZ is genuinely good, decent, caring and has far more in common than at odds with his brother/comrade on the other side. But more than that, we see that the source of conflict are the higher-ups, the institutionalization of the conflict, and the international presence that seems at best interested in helping each side gloss over any subtleties in the situation and, at worst, ready to add fuel to fire (or, at least, the US is accused of such by the Northern soldiers).

Quality, heart, enough intelligence, not too sentimental. Recommended.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0260991/

"Extreme Moment"

The quotes around the title indicate that this is a literal translation of the Chinese characters presented at the start of the film. I cannot see that there is an IMDB listing, and there is no English title anywhere on the film.

The film appears to be made in the mainland. The dialog is Mandarin, and the setting is both Hong Kong and the mainland, during the first SARS episode. SARS is peripheral, however, to the films plot of two underemployed "brothers," one of whom happens into some money and both of whom are (mostly) unluckly in love.

We've got all the Hong Kong film attributes of action, luck, love, snetimentality, and music which occisaltes between spot-on and send-up. But the film is not work of an assured industry, such as Hong Kong's. Many sequences are gestures toward a particular effect (eg, an exciting gun battle) rather than the application of an effective practice.

Overall, a curiosity rather than a recommendation.

(In Mandarin with English and one style of Chinese [not sure which] burned-in subtitles, letterboxed 1.78:1.)

The title in the film: