Breathless

DVD of the month hands-down (and one of the most powerful films of the year) is Breathless (Ddongpari): In Yang Ik-joon’s stupefying film, gangsters are only marginally more violent than wife-beaters and equally as contemptible. There is nothing glamorous about the outlaws who inhabit the directorial debut of South Korean actor Yang, or about the astounding ultra-violence that punctuates the film. The main character, the psychotic Sang-hoon, and the boys under his command work in parasitic packs, intimidating and beating up unfortunate people because it is the only life they know. But Breathless is a lot more than a film about domestic violence in South Korea: it is no issue movie, but a profoundly singular, devastatingly powerful, intensely personal vision of both the explicit and hidden violence underlying social and familial relationships. Read more.

South Korean cinema has also produced Chaw, a new contender to most ludicrous Korean monster movie ever made, although it is nowhere near as deliciously bonkers as The Host. This time, a huge human-eating boar attacks a small mountain village, and a crew of assorted misfits goes on the hunt. There’s the seen-it-all detective, the authoritarian, unprincipled chief, the moronic country cops and a comically professional gadget-laden, Finland-trained hunter. It’s silly and not one bit scary but it’s fun while it lasts.

Other March DVD releases include Takeshis’, part of Takeshi Kitano’s ‘auto-destruct’ series of films, Xei Fei’s Black Snow, the politically inflected tale of a former prisoner’s isolation and despair in Beijing, Sinking of Japan, a competent if by-the-numbers big-budget disaster movie that emulates Hollywood’s apocalyptic blockbusters. New horror releases include heavy-handed, exploitative Australian revenge thriller The Horseman, Chris Smith’s derivative but engaging time travel horror movie Triangle, awful low-budget Brit horror Salvage. Michael Haneke’s masterful The White Ribbon and Franti ek Vlácil’s Valley of the Bees, enticingly described as ‘a visionary and haunting medieval epic from the director of Marketa Lazarová‘, are also released this month.

Watch the trailer for Breathless:

Buy from Amazon:
Breathless (2-disc Special Edition) [DVD] [2008]
Chaw [DVD] [2009]
Takeshis’ [DVD] [2005]
Black Snow [DVD] [1990]
Sinking Of Japan [DVD] [2006]
Triangle [DVD] [2009]
The White Ribbon [DVD] [2009]
Valley of the Bees [DVD] [1967]