Introducing Rainbow Eyes:
Objective Rating (How much merit I think it deserves):
7.5/10
Subjective Rating (How much I personally like it):
8/10
I can count the number of Korean movies I've seen on one hand. Not a huge Korean fan because for the longest time, I couldn't place the style of Korean movies. It's stuck somewhere in-between the traditional and the modern. Of course, I mostly watch horror movies and thrillers, so I can't say much about the drama or comedy genres. Korean horrors often suffer from a severe case of Japanese-copying syndrome. Indeed a lot of American or even Japanese horrors suffer from the same disease. The stereotypical Asian horror movie was so successful that so many copycats sprang up, only to exhaust the genre and the horror-watching population. So now the genre has become sad, sad history.
Alas, "Rainbow Eyes" did not redeem the genre because... IT'S NOT A HORROR MOVIE. It's a thriller, it's a drama, it's eye candy. I don't exactly mean the actors. The male protagonist is fine, the two female leads (especially the right one in the poster) are very pretty, though two completely different types. But no, the eye candy is the shots. Everything is so colourful, so drunk on euphoria and melancholy, so saturated and rich. Pure visual pleasure.
I'm gonna give a straight-forward synopsis without spoilers first. The protagonist is a young cop investigating a gruesome murder. A rich gym owner is found dead in his apartment, sitting in a pool of his blood, stabbed over 20 times. Cops find a hair in his nail and some blood at the crime scene that are not his. From this, the police deduces the suspect is a male with blood type AB. Since the murder occurred late at night and the victim's voluptuous jazz singer lover left his apartment an hour before the murder, the police suspects he had a male lover who killed him in the heat of the moment. But none of his friends and certainly not his lover can picture him being gay. One of the trainers at his gym comes under suspicion when pictures surface of them being intimate at a party . The trainer is also the jazz singer's lover and denies being gay. When he is brought into the police station for questioning, it is revealed he served in the army with the victim and a third person (a rich club owner). Together, the three might have done horrible things to a fellow young soldier, who is the protagonist's childhood friend's younger brother.
Meanwhile, the protagonist is having problems with his beautiful nail artist girlfriend, whom he loves sincerely. She wants to break up because he's been saying another person's name in his sleep. He goes to meet the childhood friend whom he hasn't seen in 10 years. She is now a single mother. Long ago, she had asked him to look for her missing younger brother. Now he tells her that he never looked because... I guess you should find out for yourself.
I don't understand exactly why the movie is named "Rainbow Eyes." I have a suspicion that in the original Korean, the movie's name has a meaning that does not translate to "Rainbow Eyes." But I'm not Korean, and I can't read Korean, so I'm just going to let it go.
I'm also not going to burden you with the Korean names of the cast and crew (forgive me if you can read Korean and will not be burdened at all). If you wish to find more about any of them, just google "Rainbow Eyes movie" and you'll know all about them.
The emotions in the movie are very complex. It all boils down to love, but it is also a mystery case, cops trying to solve multiple bloody murders. How the victims are connected to each other and to the protagonist drives the movie. Who committed the murders may not be clear, even at the end. (Maybe I just need a re-watching.) A lot of clues and a lot of internal emotions are ambiguously hinted and different interpretations are possible at multiple points in the story.
The movie has a lot of layers. Perceptions of things -- who is the murderer, what is the motive, the character of the characters, their desires -- constantly change as more information is revealed. At each step, you form rational theories to explain what is going on, theories that are then shattered as contradictory evidence appears and new theories form. Very complex.
Homosexuality and gender identity are surprising themes. I mean, the movie is about murders and love and not about gay rights, but the gender issues add another dimension.
You may also be surprised to learn that the mystery person is one of the characters you meet really early on in the movie.
All in all, very satisfying and intriguing at the same time.
On to The Machinist
Objective Rating (How much merit I think it deserves):
7.5/10
Subjective Rating (How much I personally like it):
8/10
Christian Bale is disgustingly skinny in this film. On purpose. Weighed somewhere in the 120's range. Scarily skeletal. Part of the character description.
This is also a very intriguing thriller. Bale plays Trevor, a blue-collar worker who operates machines in a factory. From conversations and the way people treat him, you learn that the chronic insomnia and the weight loss started about a year ago. He's pretty friendly with the guys at work, he is a good tenant and always pays his rent early, he is a good customer and a regular of Stevie's, a prostitute who develops a genuine love for him. He also spends a lot of nights sitting at an airport diner, with Maria, the kind waitress, keeping his company.
One day, he meets an unfamiliar co-worker named Ivan. During machine operation, he gets distracted by Ivan and causes an accident that costs another co-worker an arm. He gets the blame, and when he brings up Ivan, no one at the factory has heard of him nor does he have any records there. Trevor becomes more and more paranoid and becomes convinced that the whole world is playing a sick joke on him by hiding Ivan's existence. Thus begins a gradual downward spiral that results in Trevor's physical and mental deterioration until he discovers the truth.
The film is full of allusions and symbolisms. The shirts that Trevor wear, the rides at the amusement park, the conversations... like "Rainbow Eyes," this is definitely worthy of a re-watch. But I've got so many movies to get through so the re-watch will probably not happen any time soon.
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