IT Movie Club: Movie Watch!

C

ChimpPhobiaFilms

OK, so we started a movie club where we assign a film to be watched each week, then by a certain cutoff date, we post our thoughts on this thread. It's preferred that you give a review, a favorite scene, and if you know any secrets behind how they achieved certain techniques, saw small easter-eggs, caught some symbolism, or just found something interesting, then post it!

The first film we will watch is "Man from Nowhere". A new film will be "assigned" every Sunday. It is preferred that you watch the film by March 2, then throw in your thoughts on the film on that day, or within the next 2-3 days. On that day, we will give another movie, which will be "due" by the 9th.

If you have any questions or movie suggestions, go here:

http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=52631
 
This is the thread that we will be discussing "Man from Nowhere" in, correct? If so, you may want to consider naming the threads with the movie name in the future. Once they start to add up each week, that'll make it all easier to navigate.

Looking forward to talking about it this weekend!
 
Every time we watch a film, we post our thoughts here. We will not be creating individual threads for every time we watch a film. So, let's say we watch "The Matrix" (just an example) after Man from Nowhere. We'll speak about The Matrix on this same thread. Anyway...
 
Okay, I guess I'll be the first one to start the discussion.

The Man From Nowhere directed by Lee Jeong-beom
I found it to be a very effective action-thriller that did a lot with its simple common plot. What elevated this film from the typical revenge story starring the typical elusive man is the emotional connection it built up with the characters.

The first thirty minutes of the film were really great in my opinion, they focused a lot on character development which is more than mere characterization. Although we weren't revealed the elusive protagonist's backstory, we were shown his character in the way he treated the little girl (both good and bad). I love the humorous scene when the girl's mom is looking for her, but I like the one where she's caught robbing even more. When the protagonist just leaves her, that shows more complexities to this character rather than a perfect man.

When the film gets its plot moving, it's very entertaining. However, I feel that as the film progresses, the protagonist becomes less relatable and more or less just another brutal killing machine that can be found in just about any action film. I feel that the director/writer tried to move away from this by showing flashback scenes, but they didn't really work for me.

Although the plot is pretty typical, I like some of the twists in the story. I liked how the bad guys in the film actually turn around and betray their own boss, which added some more complexities to the conflict. I also liked the role of the cop who is trying to go after the protagonist. I feel that the film could've used this more strongly though to reveal some ambiguities between what our main character's intentions are and whether his intentions justify his actions. I think the film actually could've been deeper than just an emotionally resonating action-thriller, but maybe I'm wrong.

I can't talk about this film without mentioning its stellar cinematography. This film just has really beautiful compositions in beautiful scenes, and it's not afraid of mixing up shot lengths either. The beginning and the end use longer length shots and warmer colors, while the more action-packed moments are fast-paced and cool.

The action is good, but not great in my opinion. There's not a really memorable fight scene that I would just like to see over and over again as I would a great dance number in a musical. But I can't say that some scenes weren't awesome. I love the scene where the protagonist blows up the guy in the chair, I'm not a violent person, but I felt that what these guys did to the children was awful and I wanted to see him die lol. Same with the end scene where he kills the final remaining antagonist.

I feel that a little more moral ambiguity could've made the film more complex though. I mean there's this one character that's clearly a bad guy, the one who was supposed to take the girl's eyes out, but through the shot selections I can see that he's more complex than the other villains. However, the film never fully addresses this, and I feel they could've done more with that character. I think they could've made him also be a sort of friend to the little girl, only different from our protagonist. In fact, I think he should've been the main antagonist, that would've been one more great twist.

With moral ambiguity, I think the film should also not be afraid to criticize its own protagonist. While watching the film, his brutal violence got me thinking "is this the guy we should be rooting for?"

Overall, I think this film is very good, I mostly like the friendship between the main character and the little girl. The scenes with them together really touched me, especially the ending. I also like how the thriller unfolded too, it was really well-paced. Still, I don't feel it's quite a masterpiece, it is a really well made revenge story, but it could've been an even greater one IMO.

What did you guys think about the film? Did you like it?
 
The scene where he jumps out of the window was amazing. The first time I saw that I had to rewind it and watch it multiple times. Then I watched a 'making of' to figure out how the hell they did that shot!!

I liked how there are multiple threads going through this story, and they don't spoon feed it to you. It's a little tough keeping track of what the cops know, what the protagonist knows, and what the villains know. That it's all different adds a complexity you don't normally see in american films.

I thought that the one gang enforcer who spoke english was an amazing touch. It took me a while to figure out why he only spoke english and everyone else spoke korean. Just imagine you've got an american gang, and one guy hangs out with you that doesn't even speak english.. some chinese dude or something. How does that make sense? It doesn't unless he is so much of a badass that you keep him around anyway. He doesn't need to speak the language. He is wordly and traveled and a beast. Although I thought his introduction was a little too over the top. With the bodies and him putting his knife in that dudes mouth as he waves goodbye. I would have played that differently

I like how the protagonist gives up at the police station, and is ready to accept his fate. Then he see's the playing card the girl gave him, and he decides that saving her is worth more than the health and lives of the cops. He gets so extreme that he hospitalizes 6 police officers, busts their knees and knocks their teeth out. I like how he actually gets in trouble for this at the end of the movie.. it's not some american film where he saves the day and suddenly every law he has ever broken is forgiven

i love how the film escalates it's action. it starts off only showing us a window breaking on the outside of a building. We don't actually see him kicking ass until later on.. and it finally culminates in an awesome scene of him killing like 10 people.

In terms of action I think this movie has the best knife fight i've ever seen on film. I really like the style of the action scenes. The fight in the bathroom was great too. Much better than the bathroom fight scene in Unleashed with Jet Li. That fight scene bothers the hell out of me, every time the dude in white kicks he completely drops his guard. I don't have any such problems with the man from nowhere.

Acting was superb in this film. little girl was great, so was the protagonist. IU didn't care for his look in the flashback though. It was a little too gender neutral for me. He looked more masculine in all the present day stuff, even in the end after he cut his hair.

I like how the little girl doesn't really get her eyes cut out. Some of these korean movies are just too sadistic and gorey for me and I'm glad this wasn't one of them.
 
A quick review of The Man From Nowhere: Overall score 8/10

Pros:
-Action scenes, especially ones towards the end.
-Solid plot.
Cons:
-The first act was kind of slow with some meh dialogue (maybe it lost something in translation?)
-The Disney death in the end.
-Kind of a cookie cutter protagonist.
 
For me, the movie was very good.

The knife fight scene at the end blew my mind...I saw him coming up under the arms with the blade and I was stoked to finally see an authentic knife fight. I won't go into why pro's go up and under the arm but it is certainly what they do. That is genuine knife fight technique.

The fact that the girls eyes were kept in tact was indeed good, some of those movies would have gone there which is a bit to far for me so I was glad they did not.

The relationship between the guy and young girl was awesome. As a dad myself it really touched me how gentle with her he was, and yet so quick to show upset when she messed up. He was being a father even before he realized he wanted to be.

The bad guy throughout the movie didn't over act the badness, he is what he is. Excellent.
And throughout the movie he seemed to be perplexed by the actions of the good guy as if it made him somehow question his own decisions. It was never spoken, just acted in a really well done way. In the end this questioning bought him to the point where he saves the young girl, and then dies for his past sins.

The acting throughout was spot on. Nothing was over or under done. The movie showed a lot, and didn't rely on lines to lead the story.

Camera work was very good as was audio.

I also liked how on multiple occasions the good guy was close to saving the girl and was then foiled. There was no car that he breaks into to go on an impossible car chase scene, no strokes of luck, just him working through the problems to track down the bad guys.

The breakout from the police station was good. I liked how instead of going through a drawn out fight scene, they chose to show cctv footage and some commenting from Police watching the footage to show that part. It was a tidy way to sweep through a scene that did not need to be shown in order to progress the story.

Overall plot progression was very sharp in this way. Nothing was there that did not need to be.

All in all, I would say that this was a very well put together film with good acting and a sweet yet fast paced storyline.

10 out of 10

I can't pick a single thing wrong with it.
 
I'm glad this was so well received by everyone.
Regarding the disney death.. I was happy that they didn't take her eyes out, and i think it's 100% realistic that she lived through it.. having had nothing actually done to her. not sure if that qualifies as a disney death or not but I agree it is very closely related.

FantasyFilmProductions said:
For me, the movie was very good.

The knife fight scene at the end blew my mind...I saw him coming up under the arms with the blade and I was stoked to finally see an authentic knife fight. I won't go into why pro's go up and under the arm but it is certainly what they do. That is genuine knife fight technique.
Click to expand...

I'll go into the pros for you :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uEGVgiOZYw
 
FantasyFilmProductions said:
Whats the name of THAT movie???
Click to expand...

The Hunted. Great commentary track that goes with it about how much of the film was based off a real character. (tommy lee jones character) was a dude trained by indians how to track and kill, and then is hired by the govt to teach it's special forces.

Unfortunately at the end they decided to stretch out the knife fight too long. It works okay with the intercuts, but once you take them out and just with the 1:41 of fighting it starts to look really ridiculous that no one is getting stabbed or cut
 
Glengarry Glen Ross was a great film that was on a subject I initially didn't find interesting but made it really stand out with its brilliant dialogue, incredible performances, and perfect pacing. After watching the speech with Alec Baldwin I was blown away, yet I thought it would be the set-up to an inspirational film that is much lesser than what the film is actually about. Fortunately I was wrong, it was just the start of seeing how this hierarchy at work drives people crazy, and it feels very oppressive. While watching the film I imagined myself in that work situation, how it would be like an endless hell with occasional periods of happiness.

I didn't particularly 'like' any of the characters except maybe Al Pacino's character because they are all selfish bastards but I found them to be extremely interesting! I also didn't think that a script with so much profanity could actually be quite beautiful in its way, the rhythm and pace of the dialogue is incredible, and although there is a lot of profanity it never seems out of place or unnecessary as in some films.

I just love the hellish, claustrophobic feeling of the film, and although I think this is largely due to the story, dialogue, characters, and wonderful acting, I think some credit has to go to the director James Foley. Few films are further away from the hands of the director as auteur, but Foley's workman quality here has to be appreciated. The camera is pointed exactly where it needs to be, and although the cinematography isn't stunning, it is serviceable to the story and oppressive nature of the world in which the characters inhabit.

While watching this film I thought Foley's direction was much like Howard Hawks' direction in His Girl Friday, nothing flashy but great flexible camerawork that helped drive the dialogue. While Foley is nowhere near as talented as Hawks, I feel that Foley handled this material as best as possible simply because there's no reason to get overly artistic or expressive with the directing in this film. The script and the acting alone make for powerful cinema, to add expressive directing would only distract the viewer from the power of the film in its simplicity. I loved this film, but I think that I'll love it even more with subsequent viewings.

So what film are we going to watch next?

EDIT: I forgot to mention that Glengarry Glen Ross shows why I love this movie club idea so much! I had never even heard of that film, and then I saw it for the club and it turned out to be awesome. I hope to discover more films through this club! Hopefully the next film chosen will also be available to me.
 
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Glengarry Glen Ross is a stunning film from director David Mamet... umm... James Foley, capturing the savage nature of the play. The film has an amazing plot, and is assisted by a talented cast, all aggressive characters in a dog-eat-dog environment. Much like There Will Be Blood, there really aren't female characters. While some could view this as a downside, the lack of feminine energy makes for an incredibly competitive alpha-male environment, each character's personality clashing and creating the main conflict of the film. Any character that is sensitive either changes into a brutal salesman, or falls behind and is deemed unsuccessful, which is told to us in the speech by Baldwin. The film uses shallow depth-of-field and close-ups to make an intense, uncomfortable, and claustrophobic atmosphere to highlight the uneasiness of each character. The atmosphere that is created through the writing and camerawork that I'm speaking of is pushed even further by the lack of focus on one particular character. Since not one character is focused on particularly, you are not sure who to be routing for or cheering on, which shows how savage and untrustworthy the environment they are in is. The jazzy Saxophone-laden soundtrack is just amazing, with lyrical content that is just absolutely perfect. The appearance of the song I'm Always Chasing Rainbows when we begin to get to know Lemmon's character is just skillful, seeing the initial optimistic attitude that slowly drifts away and is lost within layered instrumentation in future tracks, and the confined imagery that continuously grows more intense as the film comes to it's bitter ending. The cynicism in the film is an evolving monster, crawling into the characters like an spider infestation, and into the audience, immersing viewers in a world of backstabbing and merciless hatred. The characters progressively take on the personality of Baldwin's character, who delivers one of the finest speeches in cinema, with ferocious black humor and stinging wit. We are swept into the world of the character, and we are taken on a journey of corruption and a world surrounding money, power, and superiority, recurring and often focused on themes in Mamet's work. It's a world that you #@%$ing hate, but you love for some reason... but you don't know why.

THE NEXT FILM WE WILL BE WATCHING IS SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK
 
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