The Stop Button

An appreciation of amusements.

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Entries Tagged as 'Showbox'

The Host (2006, Bong Joon-ho)

January 3rd, 2007 No Comments

If the original Godzilla (the Japanese version, before Raymond Burr) was about the United States as a nuclear power, The Host is a metaphor for the United States as a terrorist state. Or maybe it’s not a metaphor. It’s just about a situation involving Americans and they act with complete disregard for the safety of […]

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Daisy (2006, Andrew Lau), the director’s cut

August 22nd, 2006 No Comments

Here’s a rule: if you’re going to have your three principal characters each narrate parts of a story (the first act, for example), make sure they keep doing it through the rest of the drama. Multi-character, scene-specific narration is a terrible idea, but at least stick with what you set-up. Not surprisingly, Daisy doesn’t stick […]

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Welcome to Dongmakgol (2005, Park Kwang-hyun)

July 24th, 2006 No Comments

Welcome to Dongmakgol is about a idyllic village in the midst of the Korean War. Two soldiers from the South, three from the North, and an American flyer end up there. Obviously, they learn people are just people and wars are a bad idea, but Dongmakgol revels in itself so much, it’s impossible to dismiss […]

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Antarctic Journal (2005, Yim Phil-sung)

November 16th, 2005 No Comments

I guess this film has gotten some bad reviews. Or just excessively mediocre ones. It’s not quite populist enough–it sets itself up as a supernatural thriller set in Antarctica, but it’s all really about internal human conflicts and some creepiness sure. I’m trying to think of a good way to describe it and I suppose […]

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