cult films

after being kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years, oh dae-su is released, only to find that he must find his captor in 5 days.

dir.: chan-wook park
drama / mystery / thriller
2003

min-sik choi as dae-su oh
ji-tae yu as woo-jin lee
hye-jeong kang as mi-do

some facts:

- based on japanese manga “oldboy” by nobuaki minegishi and garon tsuchiya.
- 4 live octopodes were eaten for the scene with dae-su in the sushi bar, a scene which provoked some controversy abroad. eating live octopus in korea is commonplace although it is usually sliced first. when the film won the grand prix at cannes, the director thanked the octopodes along with the cast and crew.
- min-sik choi trained for 6 weeks and lost 20 pounds to get in shape for the role of dae-su, and did most of his own stunt work.
- the telephone number (08-6600330) which is supposed to go to oh dae-su’s daughter’s foster parents home in sweden, actually has been “shut down requested by the owner of the number” (that’s what the voice says when you call the number). but you are referred to another number (08-54589400) which goes to “the embassy of the republic of korea” in stockholm, sweden.
- the anthem of oh dae su’s and lee woo-jin’s school is that of choi min sik’s school.
- the flashback sequence when oh dae su visits his former school was color corrected in post-production to a predominately brown color scheme.
- scenes at the police station with drunken and disorderly dae-su oh were the very last scenes the director scheduled to film. min-sik choi (dae-su oh) ad-libbed most of these “drunken” scenes, including the scene of him playing with toy wings that he bought for his daughter. he also ad-libbed many of his lines during the penthouse scene, including the anthem of his school.
- dae-su oh bangs his head right after stopping mi-do from reading his diary. this “head banging” was not a scripted action. however hye-jeong kang (mi-do) kept her cool and continued on with her lines. the director, in an interview, said that he kept and used this supposedly ng scene for its comical and emotional value.
- the last scenes of the movie (with snow and footsteps) were filmed in new zealand. after the ending credit completely rolls over, audiences can hear sound of the wind. it was actual sound of the wind recorded in nz location. the director revealed in an interview that he was impressed by the scenary of nz so much he saved the sound there for the (korean) audience.
- this is the 2nd one of director chan-wook park’s “revenge trilogy”. the 1st is boksuneun naui geot. the 3rd is chinjeolhan geumjassi. incidentally, the very first speaking character in this film, who commits suicide with his dog and whose story we never hear, is played by kwang-rok oh. in the 1st of the revenge trilogy he played an anarchist who appears at the very end of the film. he is the only credited character who appears in both movies.
- chan-wook park wanted a documentary feel during the police station scene by using jump cutting. as a result, most of min-sik choi’s ad libbed lines were trimmed. the full ad libbed scenes are found on the uk tartan dvd.
- according to the cast commentary, min-sik choi wanted the cameraman to follow his legs when playing with the toy wings. he was trying to do a “moonwalk” originally done by michael jackson.
- the restaurant that mido works in is called “mediterranean”, which is the name of the restaurant in real life, but the director originally intended for it to be called “akira” - not as a reference to the popular manga, but to the japanese director akira kurosawa.
- min-sik choi is a buddhist and had to pray after eating the octopuses.
- during the scene in the cyber cafe, the extras in the background are playing the popular first person shooter half-life: counter-strike. this is apparent when watching screens and when listening to background noise. you can faintly hear the famous awp weapon being fired from time to time. you can also notice sounds from starcraft in the background.
- the line on the painting of dae su’s cell reads “laugh and the world laughs with you. weep and you weep alone.” these are the first lines of ella wheeler wilcox’s famous poem, “solitude”.
- when talking about sleeping gas used by russian special forces, oh dae-su refers to 2002 moscow ‘nord-ost’ theater hostage crisis.

+: imdb

a man struggles with memories of his past, including a wife he cannot remember, in a nightmarish world with no sun and run by beings with telekinetic powers who seek the souls of humans.

dir.: alex proyas
mystery / sci-fi / thriller
1998

rufus sewell as john murdoch
william hurt as inspector frank bumstead
kiefer sutherland as dr. daniel p. schreber
jennifer connelly as emma murdoch / anna 
richard o’brien as mr. hand

some facts:

- new line cinema forced alex proyas to include the opening narration by kiefer sutherland, which proyas objected to, saying it was unnecessary. the narration gives away several key plot twists and consequently many fans of the film prefer to watch it with the sound turned off during the narration until sutherland looks at his pocket watch. unsurprisingly, the director’s cut omits this opening narration.
- there were many deliberate anachronisms to give the viewer a feeling of confusion of the time of the film.
- has one of the shortest average shot lengths (asl) of any modern narrative production at 1.8 seconds. this means there is a cut almost every 2 seconds.
- alex proyas wrote the part of mr. hand especially for richard o’brien.
- an earlier draft of the script had dr. schreber (kiefer sutherland) being skinned alive during the finale.
- inspector bumstead is playing on his accordion in his very first scene in the movie is a soviet wwii era song “siniy platochek” (“blue scarf”).
- the main character, john murdoch, shares the name, and the quest, of a scottish liberal in the 1870s and 1880s. the scottish murdoch led a major campaign for scottish farmers to own their own land.
- the name of kiefer sutherland’s character, daniel schreber, is the same as that of a man who wrote a book titled “memoirs of my nervous illness” during the heights of a period in which he was institutionalized for schizophrenia. the book has become a standard reading for many psychiatrists and psychologists, and many of the theories of both sigmund freud and carl gustav jung were based on it (freud never actually met schreber, though). “dark city” borrows heavily from the concept of “fleetingly-improvised men” which are found within schreber’s “memoirs”.
- roger ebert called this movie the best film of 1998. he recorded a special audio commentary track for the dvd release of the movie.
- alex proyas got the idea for the buildings changing and growing while the crew was moving pieces of the set around during filming of the crow.
- mr. sleep is played by twins, a girl (satya gumbert) and her brother (noah gumbert). both were fond of the rocky horror picture show, and they (and the rest of the cast and crew) were frequently entertained by richard o’brien, who played mr. hand in this film and riff raff in “rocky horror”, with recitations from that film.
melissa george’s movie debut.
- all of the fish in neptune’s kingdom are oscars.
- this film deals with ‘last thursdayism’, a philosophy described in a satiric comment by 20th-century historian bertrand russell, referring to the “omphalos” papers (1857) of philip gosse. last thursdayism says that the world (with us and our own basic memories included) could have been created recently, even last thursday, but we cannot demonstrate such a thing because the world would have been created to look like an older world.

+: imdb

a woman on the run from the mob is reluctantly accepted in a small colorado town. in exchange, she agrees to work for them. as a search visits town, she finds out that their support has a price. yet her dangerous secret is never far away…

drama / mistery / thriller
director: lars von trier
2003

nicole kidman as grace margaret mulligan
paul bettany as tom edison

some facts:

- was a critics’ favorite to win at the 2003 cannes film festival, but received no prizes.
- a 15-minute pilot film was made in the pre-production phase to test whether the concept of chalk lines and spare scenery would work. the pilot starred danish actors sidse babett knudsen and nikolaj lie kaas. dogville: the pilot (2003) is featured on the 2nd disc of the dogville (2003) dvd, released in november of 2003.
- the famed introductory scene of dogville seen from above was in fact generated by a computer from 156 individual shots. the ceiling of the filming studio was actually not tall enough to make one single, wide shot from above possible.
- nicole kidman is said to have communicated very little with the rest of the team, apart from practical issues. however, she did invite the team for champagne and caviar and flew in mexican chefs to cook for everyone.
- the pictures shown in the end credits are from jacob holdt’s book/documentary american pictures (1984)
- when nicole kidman went to sweden to shoot this movie, it was the 1st time in 15 years that she had flown on a public plane.
- jeremy davies originally intended to be von trier’s apprentice, not to act in the film. he wrote a letter to the director stating that he plans on being a filmmaker and wanted to learn from him. von trier invited him to the set, mentored davies, and gave him a small role in the film.
- inscribed on the entrance to the old mineshaft is the latin motto “dictum ac factum”, which can be translated as “no sooner said than done”.
- paul bettany didn’t want to play tom edison because they were shooting it in sweden. then his friend stellan skarsgård said that lars von trier’s shoots are so funny that “you’ll miss something extraordinary if you turn the part down”. after shooting half the movie bettany asked skarsgård when the fun will start, which skarsgård replied: “i lied. i did it because he is amazing to work with, and you wouldn’t be able to see that before you were actually here yourself. i wanted to give you a chance, and you wouldn’t have shown up if i had been frank with you”

+: imdb

the abominable dr. phibes
1971

a drug-dealing teen is killed in japan, after which he reappears as a ghost to watch over his sister.

dir.: gaspar noé
drama / drugs / sex / thriller
2009

nathaniel brown as oscar
paz de la huerta as linda
cyril roy as alex 
olly alexander as victor
masato tanno as mario 

some facts:

- gaspar noé describes his movie as a “psychedelic melodrama”. 
- noé planned enter the void over a period of 15 years - before his short film carne (1991). he was around 23 years old, when he saw robert montgomery’s lady in the lake (1947) on drugs. the film is shot in subjective camera, entirely from the point of view of the main character. for enter the void, noé uses a subjective camera in the same manner. the main character oscar is seen just once while the character is alive (in a mirror.) 
- noé was inspired by the famous “star gate” sequence in stanley kubrick’s 2001: a space odyssey (1968). for creating the special trippy atmosphere, the norwegian vj artist glennwiz (glenn jacobsen) was contacted for use of one of his videos. 
- to develop this first-person perspective, noé also was inspired from the opening sequence in strange days (1995) by kathryn bigelow and the music video for the prodigy’s “smack my bitch up”, directed by jonas åkerlund. 
- noé intended the film to be shown at 25 frames per second, rather than the 24 usually used in cinemas. the original cut is 154 minutes at 25 fps, or 161 minutes at 24 fps. 

director’s trademarks:

- frequently casts philippe nahon.
- likes either very long, intricate shots or totally static ones.
- opening credits are presented as title cards, in a pulsating fashion, with a reverb beat everytime they appear.
- often uses computer-generated images that are hard to detect.
- heavy strobing lights.

+: imdb

1958 alfred hitchcock music to be murdered by
and original soundtrack to the 1960 original thriller circus of horrors.

1997, captain nascimento has to find a substitute for his occupation while trying to take down drug dealers and criminals before the pope comes to rio de janeiro, brazil. 

dir.: jose padilha
crime / drama / thriller
2007

wagner moura as capitão nascimento
andré ramiro as andré matias
caio junqueira as neto

some facts:

- during the shooting of the film, a van with 90 firearms (30 real and 60 prop guns) was robbed in the hill of chapéu mangueira. teams from the local police stormed the favela pavão-pavãozinho, in copacabana, to recover the guns, but the operation was only partially successful.

- this film was already a best-seller almost 3 months before its official release. illegal copies of what the director called the “3rd cut” flooded the streets of all major capitals in brazil, for the equivalent of five dollars a piece. criminal investigation revealed that the original dvd was robbed in the company drei marc, which does the subtitles. according to estimates at least 3 million people watched the bootleg version, which is 6 hundred thousand more than it managed during its theatrical run. however, it was the most seen brazilian film that year in brazilian theaters. 

- the final version was slightly different from the pirated one. one scene was added and the narration was altered. but the director never stated that it was motivated by the piracy issues. 

- the university where part of the film was shot is puc, located at the pleasant neighborhood of gávea, at rio de janeiro, a very traditional elite school and considered the best private university in brazil, and one of the best educational institutions in south america. this is where andré batista, one of the film’s screenwriters, attended law school. he was a member of bope and was the inspiration for the character of andré matias, a honest man who finds himself torn between his life as a bope member and his life long dreams of being a lawyer.

+: imdb (tropa de elite, aka elite squad)

the egyptian vampire lady miriam subsists upon the blood of her lovers. in return the guys or girls don’t age… until miriam has enough of them. unfortunately that’s currently the case with john, so his life expectancy is below 24 hours. desperately he seeks help from the famous dr. sarah roberts. she doesn’t really belive his story, but becomes curious and contacts miriam … and gets caught in her ban, too.

dir.: tony scott
horror / romance / thriller / vampire
1983

catherine deneuve as miriam blaylock
susan sarandon as sarah roberts
david bowie as john

some facts:

- david bowie said that, in order to make his voice suitably hoarse for when he aged so drastically in the movie, he stood on the george washington bridge every night and screamed all the punk rock songs he knew. 

- david bowie actually learned to play the cello for his music scenes. 

- tony scott sighted the photography of irving penn as a major influence on the visual style of the film. 

- one day during filming, costume designer milena canonero, who is famously dedicated to her craft, disappeared and was nowhere to be found. it was discovered eventually that she had flown to rome to purchase fabric for a handkerchief david bowie is supposed to wear. unable to find fabric she liked in london, canonero had flown to rome at her own expense to find the fabric she needed instead.

- makeup artist antony clavet, who was famous within the fashion world for his work in italian vogue, was brought onto the project after he was introduced to the director by milena canonero.  

+: imdb

also known as “a serbian film”

dir.: srdjan spasojevic
adult / horror / thriller 
2010

srdjan rodorovic as milos
sergej trifunovic as vukmir
jelena gavrilovic as marija
katarina zutic as lejla

+: youtube (trailer)
+: imdb