Three. . .Extremes

(2004) **

Three Extremes is a mixed bag. A sequel of sorts to “Three”, a 2002 anthology film consisting of short stories from famous Asian directors, Three Extremes offers 3 more stories that have little relationship to one another, except I suppose, the dark side of human nature. Here we get entries from Hong Kong, Korea, and Japan. I picked this up because I love horror anthology and because one of the stories, “Box,” is directed by Takashi (Ichi the Killer) Miike. Overall the stories are visually stunning and thematically disturbing, however, I must admit that they’re all a bit sluggish. Not that I don’t appreciate a slow burn, but these seemed particularly slow and not really scary.

“Box” concerns a young author and former circus performer haunted by memories of her twin sister who died horribly in a circus performance accident years earlier. Nightly she awakens from a nightmare that involves being buried alive by her abusive stepfather, who also perished in the same accident. Adding to the stress of these traumatic memories is the author’s editor, a dead ringer for her stepfather. Although visually arresting, by the time it ends you kind of realize that not a whole lot happened.

In “Dumplings” a thirtysomething actress desperately tries to turn back the aging process in order to win back her philandering husband’s affection. She has heard rumors about a local woman who makes some very expensive dumplings. Apparently her dumplings contain rejuvenating powers. Early on we learn that the secret ingredient is aborted fetuses. Although the dumplings make one more youthful as promised, this expensive delicacy comes with a price. This was a pretty gross, marginally effective short. A longer, feature-length version of this story exists but I can't imagine how anything more would be necessary.

Finally, In “Cut”, directed by Old Boy director, Park Chan-wook, a famous film director comes home to find that an angry, mentally ill extra has tied the director's wife to her piano using a series of ropes - this actually looks amazing visually. The madman has threatened to cut off her fingers one by one every 5 minutes unless the director strangles a little girl that has been tied to the director’s couch.

All of these stories have their moments but I wasn’t particularly taken with any of them. The “Three” series is a great idea in concept. I’d love to see more anthology films but with more goosebumps.