Fantasia, Part 2

[petronia]

Daytime Drinking: structurally a stoner road comedy, but with soju. Quieter and more naturalistic, too; everything takes place in Korean equivalents of the sort of off-season British seaside town Charmian and I debated at one point, if it were English the protagonist's theme music would be "Everyday Is Like Sunday" on FOREVER REPEAT. The ending is quite funny but takes a long time setting up. ***/5, add 1/2 star if you're settled in comfortably and matching the characters shot for shot.

(The SAQ doesn't carry soju, but I found some shiso-flavoured shochu and took it to Ced's party after the movie - and H's b-day party the next evening. That was a smooth mf of a 20% alcohol beverage.)

Thirst: after Pride and Prejudice with zombies we now have Thérèse Raquin with vampires, GOOD JOB KOREA. Actually, only Koreans seem capable of making a fucked-up Catholic movie these days, as opposed to a fucked-up movie about Catholicism (or lapsarianism). It's excellent, too, and this is speaking as someone who could never get through a Zola novel or a Park Chan-Wook movie. XD; But when the dreary gritty dog's death at the heart of so many Korean thrillers meets the original depressing-as-shit naturalism... It's also very funny, which maybe makes the difference (vampiric powers carry so many practicalities). And sexy, if you like the idea of Song Kang-ho doing his best Richard Chamberlain in Thornbirds, and Kim Ok-bin (whom I've not encountered before) being basically on fire. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: make this your one vampire movie of the year if necessary, let's not have a repeat of the situation with Let The Right One In where no one paid attention to my words OK.

P.S. A thematically relevant mixtape by elfiepike.

Comments

[canis-m.livejournal.com]

Duly noted

[troisroyaumes]

Shiso-flavored shochu sounds intriguing! Though 20% alcohol means that I probably wouldn't be able to take more than a sip.

Huh, I got the sense that Thirst was too campy to watch, but maybe I should give it a chance after all.

[arboretum]

if I see only one vampire movie this year, rest assured it will be that one!

[petronia.livejournal.com]

...Although I have to caution there is no way you will like this as much as Let The Right One In. XD;

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I didn't find it campy at all, actually, although it has a keen sense of when the tropes of classic vampirism tales cross over into the LOLarious presented as-is in a modern adaptation.

[canis-m.livejournal.com]

What, no pedo? They can't all have pedo, somehow one survives.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Naw, just that Satan pretty much gets into everyone, regardless of how righteous they start out. Rather depressing. XD;

[tochira.livejournal.com]

...Shiso-flavored shochu?!

I did not know such a thing existed, but damn does that sound good.

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

Great Expectations = zombies, Les Liaisons Dangereaux = vampires... does this mean that every British masterwork calls for zombies and every French masterwork calls for vampires?

[uminohikari.livejournal.com]

There must be more classics with random supernatural creatures! :D?

[petronia.livejournal.com]

A very good question... I'm going to have to try to think of a counterexample. XD;

[petronia.livejournal.com]

It's funny because people think it tastes like "plum" even though there is no plum in it, in the same way as dill tastes like "pickle". XD

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Well, apparently it's a series (http://jokersama.livejournal.com/518252.html)... XD

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

R says Les Mis - totally a zombie book. XD "All the ones with poverty, grime, and bad weather are zombie books." Personally I think that if it's long and sociopolitical, it's a zombie book, and if it's short and about torrid affairs, it's a vampire book. So a British vampire book would be like... Portrait of Dorian Gray. XD Or maybe one of those British colonialist goes to exotic land and meets hot-blooded natives books. Or the Romantic Poets, that's vampire material...

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Ahaha turning Dorian Gray into a vampire book is like shooting fish in a barrel! XD There ought to be more counterexamples in Dumas, actually, I don't think that dude is vampires all the way.

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

I was just thinking that Dracula itself was not only written by an English person, it was written in the style of British amature anthropologist travel narratives. So those would all be vampire books, unless they went to the Carribbean... all of the French Revolution books are zombie books.

On another note, are you going to be around July 24-31? I'm making plans to visit my brother in Montreal that week. (His flight gets back on the July 26th - a Sunday - but his roommate is okay with me crashing at their place earlier.)

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was one of the awesomer things about Dracula actually - all the pseudo-science. I was thinking Joseph Conrad, too, from yr avg contemporary genre fan perspective Heart of Darkness reads like zombie horror without actual zombies.

I am, definitely! If you have the money you should stay for the weekend and do Osheaga with me, I even entered a sweepstakes for VIP passes (and am waiting to buy on the off-chance I win cos of being broke). XD

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

Can't do Osheaga, I have family obligations then. (My aunt who lives in Phoenix is going to be in Ohio, so my brother and I are taking a bus to Albany where we'll be picked up by car.) But we should definitely hang out the week before! I'll probably take a Sunday morning bus, and be in around 4-5pm on the 26th.

Aha, good luck!