Couple of noteworthy films opening in limited release this weekend... First, we've got Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul's perplexing and fantastical feature Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, which won the prestigious Palm d'Or at last year's Cannes Film Festival.
Suffering from acute kidney failure, Uncle Boonmee has chosen to spend his final days with his loved ones in the countryside. In order to understand the reasons for his illness, Boonmee treks through the jungle with his family to a mysterious hilltop cave which he comes to understand is the birthplace of his first life.
There's also apparently ghosts and some guy who looks kind of like a Thai Wookiee. I don't understand what any of that means, but I like it. This movie sounds like a crazy dream, but from everything I've heard, it's pretty amazing. Here's the New York Times review: A Farewell to This Life, and All Its Ghosts.
And now playing in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Minneapolis... Lee Byung-hun and Choi Min-sik star in the Korean revenge thriller I Saw The Devil, directed by Kim Jee Woon. This is not your average police procedural.
A special agent vows vengeance when his pregant wife becomes the latest victim of a brutal serial killer. Not content with just tracking down and killing the guy, he finds himself falling into a dark, twisted spiral of revenge.
This is one astonishing, ultra-violent, crazy-ass movie -- and I could not stop watching it. For more information, including the movie's release schedule, go to Magnolia's I Saw The Devil website here.
If you don't end up watching this movie, let me leave you with one valuable piece of advice: NEVER EVER EVER get into a car with a stranger.
