If you wish to perceive how a filmmaker like Bong Joon Ho grew to become a grasp of juggling such wildly disparate tones in the identical film (and sometimes in the identical scene), place to begin can be his list of the 10 greatest films of all time for the British Movie Institute’s Sight & Sound ballot. There, you may discover Kim Ki-young’s 1960 horror movie “The Handmaiden” comfortably rubbing shoulders with Hou Hsiao-hsien’s post-World Battle II tragedy “A Metropolis of Disappointment.” There’s some magic realism in there as nicely (Alice Rohrwacher’s “Completely satisfied as Lazzaro”) and a trio of serial killer-ish movies (David Fincher’s “Zodiac,” Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s “Treatment,” and Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho”), however you’ve got additionally obtained Martin Scorsese’s “Raging Bull” and Luchino Visconti’s epic household drama “Rocco and His Brothers.” That horror is so pronounced right here should not come as a shock for a director who’s made three films that match into that style, however Hou’s movie is an odd alternative given its under-statedness. And for a director who likes to bask in some fairly broad comedy, the place’s the humorous stuff?
So, let’s skip over to Director Bong’s 10 favourite movies of the twenty first century, which he submitted to The New York Instances as a part of the publication’s lately revealed ballot. As soon as once more, there’s not an outright comedy within the combine, although I’d say that Fincher’s “The Social Community,” George Miller’s “Mad Max: Fury Highway,” and the Coen Brothers’ “No Country for Old Men” are fairly humorous at instances. I am afraid this record is simply as enigmatic as his Sight & Sound prime 10, however it’s fascinating to me that he chosen a Steven Spielberg science-fiction flick, and did not go for the one which made the Instances’ personal prime 100.
Bong Joon Ho reveres Steven Spielberg’s Battle of the Worlds
23 years after its theatrical launch, Spielberg’s “Minority Report” is a disconcertingly prescient vision of a future the place crime is prevented by a militaristic police pressure that acts on the premonitions of three “precog” oracles. This was Spielberg’s first film after fulfilling his filmmaking promise to Stanley Kubrick with “A.I. Synthetic Intelligence,” and the commercially minded director made certain that it greater than delivered within the thrills division. This is not to recommend that Spielberg compromised; although I believe it falters a tad within the third act with a shopworn plot twist, it is nonetheless probably the most considerate studio films of the trendy period.
Relating to twenty first century Spielberg sci-fi, nevertheless, make mine “Battle of the Worlds.” That is the director’s response to 9/11, and he explores American paranoia and fear-mongering in a approach that he actually hadn’t touched since the, yes, underrated “1941.” In the meantime, his staging of the alien invasion is a tour de pressure of sheer terror; this was the Spielberg of “Jaws” hurling increased and tighter than ever. Some viewers took problem with the “blissful” ending, however Tom Cruise’s son returning to him bodily unhurt was a well-earned victory as a result of he’d made the proper alternative earlier within the movie (by staying along with his a lot youthful daughter).
So, kudos to Bong Joon Ho for selecting properly along with his Instances ballot. I might love for him to elaborate on this choice sooner or later, however for now, it is sufficient to know he’s an enlightened cinephile.
