If
somebody told me Kim Ki-Duk’s The Isle was equal parts Takashi
Miike (Audition) and Shohei Imamura (Warm Water Under a Red Bridge), I’d
probably either drop dead from laughter (because it sounds so improbable), or
immediately head down to the Dryden Theatre to be the first in line for the
February 15 screening (because it sounds so cool).
Now that I’ve seen The Isle, the comparison makes sense,
though I’d probably throw Secretary‘s
kink, Suzhou River‘s affinity for
water and silence, and Insomnia‘s
isolated beauty into the mix. If you’re unfamiliar with The Isle, your head is probably swimming now, since those movies
share about as much in common as Trista and any of her finalists on The Bachelorette.
This Korean import is set in an
anonymous fishing resort, where floating, pastel-colored cabins small enough to
pass for dollhouses become temporary homes for people looking to get away from
the craziness of their workaday lives. They’re mostly men, and all of them seem
to lack the slightest hint of grace and/or manners, as evidenced by their
treatment of the whores that Hee-Jin (Suh Jung), the mute resort caretaker,
shuttles to the cabins in her leaky motorboat.
Sometimes Hee-Jin just cuts out the
middleman and sells herself to her guests (What a great vacation package:
fishing and hookers!), and we soon learn she has a bit of a dark streak when,
after one of her johns stiffs her, she stealthily offs him while he’s taking a
dump over the edge of his tiny pier. With a strange tone set (postcard-worthy
images of the mist-kissed lake with a subversive subtext), we’re introduced to
Hyun-Shik (Kim Yoo-Suk), a cop on the run from a mysterious crime of passion.
One night, Hee-Jin intervenes in Hyun-Shik’s suicide attempt, and the two begin
a very abnormal relationship, despite the fact that they talk even less than
they emote (which is never).
You may have heard that The Isle inspired fainting and vomiting
at a couple of film festivals. I came close to doing neither, though my
lifetime moratorium on the consumption of sushi now seems like an even better
idea (warning: There is a lot of animal abuse here). There’s no way a
description of the two truly grisly scenes would make it past my editors. I’ll
just say they both involve fishhooks going places they’re not supposed to go.
The Isle is the kind
of film that makes you wonder whether you should be angry, queasy, or stunned
by its beauty, especially when Kim breaks up his long, mesmerizing, and
meditative shots with such horrific images.
The
latest in what has become a long, excruciating line of Disney sequels that
should never have been pitched, let alone made, The Jungle Book 2 follows
last year’s Return To Neverland as
another ill-conceived theatrical release that was probably intended to be a
direct-to-video project. Who, exactly, was clamoring for sequels to The Lion King and Aladdin? In any format? Whoever you are, you certainly have a lot
of explaining to do.
Book
2, the sequel to 1967’s animated original, opens with protagonist Mowgli
(voiced by Haley Joel Osment) rehashing his tale from the first film, via
shadow puppet, to a group of villagers. They include, in addition to his
adoptive parents, the soon-to-be perky Shanti (Mae Whitman) and her kid
brother, Ranjan (Connor Funk).
After watching him pull a prank on
Shanti, we learn Mowgli pines for the jungle, especially his old pal, Baloo. It
certainly must be frustrating that said jungle is just across an extremely
narrow river, complete with conveniently placed rocks that would make crossing
incredibly easy. Cut to Baloo (John Goodman), who is still singing “The
Bare Necessities,” even though his partner is long gone. Some chaos goes
down, resulting in Mowgli heading back to the jungle and reuniting with Baloo,
while Shanti and Ranjan follow in a helpless kind of We’re Not Used To The
Scary Jungle way.
The same characters and conflicts
from the first film are all back this time, with tiger Shere Khan (Tony Jay)
looking to get revenge against “man cub” Mowgli, while unlucky snake
Kaa (Jim Cummings) catches about as many breaks as Tim Brown did receptions in
the recent Super Bowl. When the dust settles, Mowgli has to decide whether to
stay in the jungle or go back to civilization. It’s Man’s eternal conflict,
really: A bachelor’s life full of fun, zero accountability, and loutish pals;
or one with a job and responsibilities out the wazoo, but the chance to nail a
real honey (once his testicles descend, anyway).
There are about a half-dozen
song-and-dance numbers in Book 2,
though none of the new numbers are catchy enough to be memorable. Then again,
maybe I was too busy imagining how freaky looking Osment must be by now — you
know how kids get at that age. We haven’t seen him in a while, but we’ve heard
him plenty of times, like in Disney direct-to-video sequels to The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Beauty and the Beast. He also provided
voice work in The Country Bears,
making this his second straight Disney affair involving big old bruins.
Interested
in raw, unedited movie ramblings from Jon? Visit his site, Planet Sick-Boy, at
www.sick-boy.com, or listen to him on WBER’s Friday Morning Show.
This article appears in Feb 12-18, 2003.
