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LITTLE POLAR BEAR: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND

(U) 80min 0

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man i r. n DERAILED (15) 107min COO

Cllltléth based advertising executrve Charles; Schrne (Clive Owen) lives; a pleasant but bored exrstence r:ommutrng between hrs suburban family (drabetrr; (laughter. wholesome wrfe) and his arty office (Ol). One mornrng he misses the 8.30am trarn and gets; on the guarter to Instead. Wlll()ll results rn him meetrng the seductive l urzrnrla Harris; (Jennrfm Artistonl. and hrs; Irfe changes; forever.

Up and (tomrng Swedish filmmaker Mikael [W l lr‘tfstrom's; first English language frlrn rs; a rturrous but efficient affair. Opening up wrth a per'blexrng prison scene. It soon turns into what threatens to be some sort of modern urban lll()l£ll|l\’ fable xxrarnrng against the ewls of Infidelity lUlu Grosbard's terrrble 198-1 frlrn Fa//rng rn l ove unfortunately comes to mrnrl at this bornt). Thankfully. however. things: swrtrth about half an hour Ill and become much more fatal and (llllilCIIVO

By utrlrsmg an unflashy script. drstrat‘ted performances and an economical running trme. Hafstrom has fashioned an rrresrstrbly watchable

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nr vr not man 1 r n. LADY VENGEANCE (18) 112mm 000.

As Columbine, the Jamie Bulger case and a host of other child-on-child murders have taught us, some killings are more difficult to quantify and accept than others. After 13 years Geum-ja (Lee Young-ae) is coming out of prison after having gained notoriety for confessing to the abduction and murder of a six-year- old boy. But all is not as it seems: Geum-ja has an agenda and it’s written in blood.

The third and final part of Park Chan-wook’s ‘Revenge Trilogy‘ (preceded by Sympathy for Mr Vengeance and Oldboy) is a work of exquisitely bleak gore. With its perplexing but remarkably executed flashback montages, recurring themes, bizarre dream sequences and sense of political and communal absurdity, the film has a lot more in common with the first film in the trilogy than the second.

By placing a contradictory beautiful female cipher at

if mildly cheesy vrhrteeollar thriller. By mrxrng a Furobean and Amerrrtan east l\.'.’lll(fll rnrtlurles such well heeled oddities as; Vrnr:ent Cassell, Tom Contr. X.'rl)rt. Oranrtarlo Esposrto and R.7At Hatstrom gives the frlrn the odd arehness of all tllt]llllll£it'(?f3. (Paul Dalet

travelling ‘3lllfjtfl Mart, Sl‘fJEllf) liltrrr-nt lur:as;l begins to aha himself ar:r:rrlentall~, xtranrlerl off the beaten track With a rnnkuerrer Mr Bartel (Jackie Rerroj,err lltr: demented taroorlarnan seems to belrexe that be if‘

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the centre of this offbeat revenge thriller Park knocks everything sideways - moralities and ideals become blurred even when we are asked to question the price of mass vengeance for truly shocking crimes - the sick ridiculousness of the whole Agatha Christie-style conceit tickles in the most perverse way possible.

Park does not, thankfully, try to tie the three films together (although there is mention of kidney transplants). By allowing his obscenely talented DOP Chung Chung-boon (Oldboy, Save the Green Planet) to employ techniques that distance Lady Vengeance from the work of other new wave Korean filmmakers (silent and expressionist film techniques, soft, dour or warmer colours depending on the mindset of the protagonist etc) he has created a memorable hybrid. Revenge, they say, is a dish best served cold and Geum-ji certainly lets the skin grow back before her apocalyptic payback is kicked into action . . and then come the fireworks. Park is back and so is his number one lady. (Paul Dale) I (:rr'ert’or'r." ertfrer. .‘Jf'r-wfl (it/18’,” r.'. :' f. r"

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I General r‘e/ease front FM 3 Feb. See rrtter‘t/ret'u. page .10,

HORROR CALVAIRE (THE ORDEAL) (18) 87min .000

Belgium filmmaker Fabrrce du Wet/s brutal and poetic first feature length frlm puts one rn mind of a lrne from Kingsley Amrs' funny rant of a book The Green Man ‘l haxe rtex'Er understood why anybody agreed to go On being rustic after about HOOK It's certainly a sentiment that cute

hrs; long abseonrlerl ‘.‘.’Il‘: Gloria. and Stevens; hasn't men met the rest of the Village yet

What follows lSé tortuwre. burgatorral trial that IS as tr;r'r'lf‘,rrrr;l‘. aggressive as rt rss unblrnkrng. Rergkrnbah. Bunuel. Rarrnr and KHlNlCF are all clearly influences. here but D ; \“Jel/ blessedly has; (ll‘a o.-.n thing going on rt rs; a partiatrlarl, macabre but comma); orJarrur: ro'earir'rr; of a 1‘18” trodden genre lntagrrnr: Don Sregel's The Begu/‘ed had been cross bred with files Craz'ens TM"? Hl/ré; have

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I Frr’rnr’rouxe. Edrrtourgn ‘rorrt Fr/ ?—Sur7 '3 Feb on/y,

.7 'r', i-er, THE LIST 43